My partner and I and two of our friends cruised on the Splendor from March 7th-14th. Being from NC, this was our first trip to California, so we spent two nights in Los Angeles before embarking on our cruise, and we took a tour of the area while we were there that was very interesting and showed us the sights of the city. We booked a limo to take us to the port from the hotel, a trip of about 20 minutes from the airport area, and arrived at the port around 12:00. It took about a half hour for us to make our way through the line and get on the Splendor, which was an efficient and painless process. The first thing we did was to get some lunch at the lido buffet, and we all thought the food was very good, as well as the cruise as a whole. If you're looking for gourmet food, you're going to be disappointed unless you spend every night in the restaurant (Pinnacle) that requires a $30 surcharge, but I thought the food on the Splendor was the best of the three cruises that I've experienced. By the time we were finished with lunch, our balcony rooms were ready and we went to check them out. Carnival's rooms are more spacious than most other Cruise Lines, and that's important considering that even theirs are small. That's why we always book a balcony room; it makes it seem larger than it really is, and we really enjoy watching the ship come into ports from that vantage point. Our friends and I had adjoining room which was nice because it made the rooms seem even larger and made it easier to socialize. Our luggage arrived no more than a half hour later, so we unpacked and settled in.

Our first impression of the Splendor was that the decor was very elaborate and interesting. I had read that it has been dubbed the "pink" ship, and agreed with that assessment, but thought that the pink color was not offensive. It isn't a hot pink, but more of a coral color. There are polka-dots EVERYWHERE too, and after a week on the ship, the decor that I first found to be interesting became somewhat garish and overdone. There are patterns everywhere, all over the walls and floor, and although Carnival seems to have abandoned the use of neon lighting (thank God), there are little glittering lights all over the ship, which is going to be a real issue when they all start going out. There was already a problem in the ship's solarium area, where there are strip lights all over the place; look around and you'll see that on almost every strip, there's a big section that has burnt out. If Carnival is going to use this type of lighting, they need to go to the trouble to see that it all works, especially on a ship that's barely a year and a half old. The solarium area is in the middle of the ship, and has a roof that opens and closes with the weather conditions, and there's a big screen in this area that features movies in the evening. The screen is not easy to view during the day when the sun is out, but looks great at night. There are blankets available in the evening to keep you cozy while you watch too. the biggest problem I had with the solarium area is that it was always full of children. As a matter of fact, the whole ship was full of them, and they ran around unrestrained most of the time. I know Carnival appeals to families, and so I expected to see children, but so many in March??? What happened to school? I was sitting in the ship's casino one afternoon, and here came the Camp Carnival Counselor with a screaming, chanting troupe of 25 children, marching through the smoky, ADULT casino. Another night, there were a group of 15 mid-teenagers (with no parents or guardians in sight) in the Spectacular Show Lounge creating a scene in the middle of the show. That's just unacceptable. I won't book with Carnival again because I don't have kids and don't want to be exposed to them 24 hours a day, but for families, Carnival is a great choice. We went to see a few of the shows; the first night a comedian performed in the Spectacular and was really great, but the Broadway style show the next night was really amateurish, and the Mariachi show was just boring. The singer in the Grand Piano Lounge is as bad as everyone says he is, maybe worse even. I don't know why they continue to employ him. There are several large beautiful bars- El Morraco, Robusto, and the Red Carpet Disco, to name a few, but they are all clustered together in one part of the ship. It would be MUCH better if they had been spread out in different areas. The ship's casino is rather small, and the slots are extremely tight, so if you choose to gamble, don't expect to win much. I went up to the ship's gym one morning to exercise and was shocked to see how small it is on such a huge ship. If I hadn't gone at 6:15am, I would've had to wait to use an elliptical or treadmill. The other mornings I went up and used the outside track on the top of the ship, and it was great to walk and jog with such a great view.

Having cruised in the Caribbean twice, I found the west coast of Mexico to be somewhat disappointing. The water doesn't have the beautiful turquoise color, and the Port cites Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas aren't as tourist-friendly as those on the east coast. We booked a whale watching excursion through puertovallartatours.net, and it was a great experience. We sailed on a nice boat with a great crew who kept us entertained and well cared for with beer, margaritas, and rum punch, and served a nice lunch near the end. We saw several humpback whales, even though we were at the tail-end of the season. We didn't book anything in Mazatlan- we just took a taxi into downtown and saw the big cathedral and market. The famous Opera House Theatre was not offering tours that day because there was going to be a performance that night, so we didn't get to see it. We had booked a Resort excursion in Cabo San Lucas, but didn't enjoy it. It was at the Melia Resort, and when we went there by taxi and met up with the appropriate representatives, they didn't speak good English and basically just showed us to the pool and left us unsupervised. We were supposed to receive several drinks and snacks as a part of our tour, but they never came and we had no idea how to get them because our tour reps had left and did not return. Read more