This was our first time on the Splendor and overall, our eight night Eastern Caribbean cruise was decent.

Priority embarkation from Manhattan was not well organized and left much to be desired. For whatever reason, the ship sailed over an hour late. We had purchased FTTF since we were a few nights short of becoming platinum with Carnival but wanted immediate access to our cabin to avoid the usual lido deck mob scene and, we wanted timely delivery of our luggage. It took almost five hours for our luggage to be delivered and the FTTF fee was refunded after we complained at guest services. We were in spa suite 10029 and the suite was well appointed and comfortable. Cabin service was excellent and as usual,we can't say enough about the cabin staff's service. In addition, service in the main dining room during dinner was excellent. Strangely enough, service in the main dining room during breakfast and sea day brunch was the complete opposite. One morning our wait staff disappeared and never returned to the table. After 45 minutes waiting on food with absolutely no service, we got up and left. We experienced poor service during the sea day brunch as well with wrong menu items being delivered to the table. Food on the lido deck was average but the selection was not the best. Splendors steakhouse was excellent and we highly recommend it.

We skipped going ashore in St. Thomas in favor of having the spa and the serenity deck to ourselves. The spa on board was the best we have encountered on any Carnival ship. We tend to avoid crowds and for that reason, we spent minimal time on the lido deck and did not use the ships pools or hot tubs since they were full of people. Our overall take on the Carnival Splendor is that it is a decent ship with minor service inconsistencies. We would re book the Splendor for a future cruise simply to enjoy the ships spa.