My wife and I took the 7 day cruise from Venice aboard the Splendour of the Seas in September, 2008. We are in our early 50s and have been on over 25 ocean cruises and 2 river cruises. We are from the NYC metropolitan area and have visited and dined in major cities throughout the USA and Europe. I write about our background so that what I say here can have the proper validity, in comparison to other reviews of this voyage by neophytes. Just days prior to embarking on the ship, I read the review on this website entitled "Do Not Go On Splendour of the Seas" and was therefore understandably anxious. It turns out that any trepidation was unfounded as the trip - and ship - were wonderful, even with less than perfect weather.

We arrived in Venice after a nonstop flight from NYC and took the water taxi [95€] to our pre-cruise hotel, the Jolanda and Savoia. The hotel is expensive (as are all hotels near St Marks Square), but quite worth the splurge as our balcony overlooked the mouth of the Grand Canal and the staff and accommodations were a treat replete with old world charm. It was a five minute walk along the waterfront to St Marks from the hotel. There was included in the price a breakfast buffet which is minimal and rather substandard given the cost, but gets you going quickly.

After our two days in Venice, we took another water taxi (€90) to the pier to catch the ship. This is quite convenient as they unload your luggage and transport it to the ship for you. The walk from the taxi stop to the terminal is a bit lengthy but check-in took less than ten minutes (it was 3pm) and our luggage was in the cabin by the time we returned from getting a quick lunch at the Windjammer Buffet. The buffet included a salad, a carving station, several hot entrees, desserts and sandwiches. I found the food to be tasty, hot and well prepared and at least as good as the buffets on Celebrity and Princess. Read more