Go Sunnyland Tours

Ship: Carnival Splendor (2008)
Sail Date: Jan. 17, 2009
Itinerary: Eastern Caribbean from Port Everglades – Two sea days, San Juan, Puerto Rico; St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands; La Romana, Dominican Republic; Nassau, Bahamas.

PRE-CRUISE
I always recommend arriving at the port city at least one day in advance of the cruise.  Not only does this give you some breathing room in case of travel delays, but it helps prepare you for your cruise by giving you some time to begin relaxing!  I stayed at a Candlewood Suites a few short minutes west of the port entrance and took a complimentary shuttle from the airport.  The location was good for exploring the city a bit or as a home base for checking out Miami on a day trip.  There were several fantastic restaurants nearby, but the Candlewoods come equipped with a kitchenette and basic kitchen accouterments – great for extended stays!  After a restful sleep, I caught the hotel’s cruise port shuttle the next morning.

EMBARKATION
I caught the shuttle at 11:30 AM, and was at the pier by Noon.  I took advantage of Carnival’s luggage drop-off service.  On my last cruise, I took my luggage onboard myself.  I highly prefer dropping it off, especially if the staterooms aren’t entirely ready!  The check-in process was smooth and while I did have to wait in line a bit, it was very minimal.  By 12:30, I was on board the ship and ready to begin the cruise!  The staterooms weren’t ready for occupancy until 1:30 PM, giving me time to grab a quick lunch at the Lido Deck buffet before beginning my exploration of the ship.

DECOR & DESIGN
The Carnival Splendor is a very nice ship laid out in an easy to understand fashion, with a few small quirks thrown in.  It’s not typical of Carnival layouts, as it was originally a build intended for Costa Cruise Lines.  The decor is quite pink with a slight Art Deco flair, but after the first day or so it really begins to look decent and not so outlandish.  Carnival is famous for its use of neon and other “unusual” colors, but everything fit together well and anything that jumped out at me initially didn’t bother me after a short while.  I enjoyed the décor in the lounges and the dining rooms – the stateroom décor was decidedly hotel-room vanilla, which suited me just fine as most of the time I was there, I was either changing clothes or sleeping!

FOOD & DINING
The Carnival Splendor is one of the many ships in the fleet which does not participate in Carnival’s new Anytime Dining service.  As such, guests are assigned to one of two main dining rooms: the Black Pearl and Gold Pearl Dining Rooms.  One is located mid-ship, next to the Lobby, and the other is at the back of the ship.  The aft Dining Room, the Gold Pearl, was used for breakfast and lunch table service on Sea Days, with both Dining Rooms open for dinner service at 6:15 PM and 8:15 PM.

The Lido Deck boasts an extensive buffet area, consisting of two “main course” lines, a Mongolian Station, ice cream stations (cones or sundaes), and a dessert bar.  One deck up was a Rotisserie station serving rotisserie style chicken, corn on the cob, macaroni and cheese, and other down-home favorites.  Next to the Lido Pool was a 24-hour Pizzeria and a hamburger/hot dog station.  The aft pool area had a grill used for Tandoori-style cooking as well as a Deli station.  Last, but not least, The Pinnacle reservations-only supper club on Deck 12 was available for a cover charge.  Along with room service offerings available in the staterooms at no extra charge, all these options made it difficult to go hungry!

Food on this cruise was generally pleasant, filling, and presented well.  I ate every evening meal in the Main Dining Room and each night we had different selections.  Regardless of what I chose, the food was delightful.  The pizza was okay, but it wasn’t the best pizza I’ve had on a cruise ship, contrary to many other reviews I’ve read.  The hot dogs and hamburgers were nothing special, just tasty, filling, and hot.  The Tandoori station was one that I tried a couple times, but it wasn’t a favorite.  I like some Tandoori-style cooking, and what I chose was good and well-prepared.  The Deli station made sandwich wraps, panini-style sandwiches, and other items.  I didn’t use it very much but the chicken wrap I had was fun to eat.  The Lido buffet food was standard buffet fare – each day was a different nation focus: one day was Mexican, the next was Italian, and so on.  Some of the food didn’t look appetizing to me, but the fruit, desserts, and basic standards were always plentiful and tasty.

STATEROOM
I had an interior stateroom on Deck 2 aft (towards the back).  This is not a good location for people who are bothered by engine noise or vibrations, but for me it was not an issue.  I enjoy interior staterooms because the darkness allows me to fall asleep quickly and stay that way.  Yet, it is a slight hassle to wake up and wonder if I’m just waking up in the middle of the night or if it’s really daylight outside.  The stateroom was laid out well, with a mini-bar, in-room safe, bed, two nightstands with lamps, a makeup table with ample lighting, a chair and ottoman, small table, two upright closets for hanging clothes, an upright shelf unit for folded clothing, and three drawers for extra space.  I did not want for storage space for any of my clothing or luggage pieces.  The bathroom was also more spacious than I expected.  Plenty of shelving for my toiletries, and the towel racks were placed well for quick access without being in the way.  The shower was small, again not as small as I had anticipated.  Carnival provides shampoo and body wash in the showers, both of which I sampled.  Although I prefer my own, they were good scents and did the job well.  The bed was comfortable and I was able to move about the stateroom easily while I got ready for the day or evening or when I just wanted to relax before bed.  The stateroom TV was a flat-screen mounted to the wall, and offered CNN news channels, a few on-demand movie channels, TNT, a kid’s channel, Cartoon Network, and a couple of ship channels.  One was used to replay events that occurred, like contests or cruise director talks.  The other was used to replay highlights of the trip and ports of call which would be available on the ship’s DVD.

I managed to sneak a peak at a couple of ocean-view and balcony staterooms, and they were also laid out well.  Most balconies on the port or starboard sides of the ship are rather small, with just enough room for two chairs and a small table.  Yet, balcony guests I spoke to really enjoyed having them.

CREW SERVICE
I enjoyed the service provided by the crew.  My room steward, Arnold, was from the Philippines and was nearly a foot shorter than I.  He always greeted me with a “GOOD MORNING, SIR!” in a happy, chipper voice and a smile on his face.  My stateroom was always cleaned well, and the turn-down service at night was very nice as well.  I always had a towel animal waiting for me, as well as the next day’s schedule and a couple of bed chocolates.

Dining room service was fantastic.  Our headwaiter, Zvonimir, was from Croatia and bent over backwards to take care of our needs.  A couple of times he went above and beyond: during one dinner, I had thoroughly enjoyed a bowl of chilled strawberry bisque, and asked if the chefs planned to serve it again before the end of the cruise.  Although it never appeared on the menu again, Zvonimir made sure I had not one but TWO more bowls of it.  That was really good stuff!  The Maitre’D, Konstatin, was very good and efficient at his job.   He, along with the dining room staff, always gave us a couple of songs and dances each night before dessert was served, and it was always fun and entertaining and always resulted in a new burst of energetic table talk afterwards.

The bar staff was pleasant, social, and very good about cleaning up their areas.  My only service complaint was with the Lido dining room staff – they seemed to be slow in clearing off tables, especially ones next to the windows which were always in high demand.  The buffet servers did well in keeping food on the line and assisting guests with it.

ENTERTAINMENT & ACTIVITIES
During the cruise, there were three revue shows featuring the song and dance crew, one night was a comedian, one night was a hypnotist, and the last night was the Carnival Legends.  The revue shows were excellent – the performers did not miss a single beat in all the dances they did, and the vocalists were fantastic.  The first revue show featured a Latin Fiesta tribute to Latin music and dance.  It was a pleasant show, and my least favorite.  The second revue show featured songs with a beat – a very up-tempo show that closed out with a shower of confetti over the audience.  The last show, called Vrooom, was a tribute to the Top 40 through the decades, with renditions of Y.M.C.A., Madonna’s Like a Virgin, Queen’s We Will Rock You, the Beatles, Elvis, and more.  This one had the most costume changes, the most set changes, theatrical lasers and sparks, and also ended in a shower of confetti over the audience.  This was also my favorite show mostly because I knew the songs better.  The audience really got into Y.M.C.A. and it made it a really good time.  The main shows were scheduled twice each evening, one show for guests who dined at 6:15 PM and the later one for guests dining at 8:15 PM.  This helped to ensure that guests wouldn’t miss a show because of dinner!

The comedian, Tommy Drake, was funny and entertaining.  He had an R-rated show later in the cruise but I wasn’t able to enjoy it because the lounge ran out of seating.  I did not see the hypnotist but reports from fellow cruisers said he was good and put on a very entertaining show.

Daytime activities included games like Bingo, Bean Bag Toss, and Carnival Survivor where guests had to complete challenges a la the TV show, until only one was left.  There were also competitions like Pool Olympics, the Hairy Chest Competition, and of course, BINGO!  The entertainment staff worked very hard to ensure that guests had plenty of options, both on sea days and on port days.  The lounge singers and lobby musicians were all talented and many have been on past cruises so some guests knew of them and were excited to have them again.

OTHER PUBLIC SPACES
The Royal Flush Casino is well outfitted with slot machines and table games, as well as a couple of video poker terminals, and at least one video Texas Hold ‘Em Poker table.  I didn’t play in the Casino myself, but guests I was sailing with did, and reported that the payouts were fair.

The piano bar was small and intimate, and a popular place for many each evening.  The disco nightclub was open in the evenings, and at times was reserved for the teen club patrons.  The Splendor boasts an excellent coffee shop counter where you can get your daily latte or cappuccino and such, along with delectable desserts – I had a slice of Fat Chocolate Cake: four layers of yummy chocolate cake with lots of rich chocolate frosting.  After seeing it in the window for four days I just couldn’t help myself, but it was worth it.  Note: the coffee shop is not free.

The sushi bar was open in the evenings, and was set up like a pre-dinner appetizer style counter.  It wasn’t as busy as I expected it to be, but I heard pleasant things about it.

In addition to all that, the ship boasts a decent-sized library, jazz lounge, cigar lounge, and wine bar.  I didn’t frequent these spaces but my initial peeks into them revealed well-appointed and spacious rooms artfully decorated.

OUTSIDE PUBLIC SPACES
The outside decks were pleasant.  I was disappointed that the Promenade deck was not wrap-around, but that feature is on Carnival’s next ship due out late 2009.  There was a walking/jogging track around the iconic funnel, and on sea days it could get windy up there.  It did not bother me as I did walking each morning – it was actually kind of fun to be buffeted about by the winds but more petite and lightweight guests had an issue with it.

Deck 14 hosted a decent mini-golf course, which was extra challenging on sea days with the wind and ship motions adding a new spin to the game.  Next to the Lido pool was the giant Seaside Theatre, a big screen TV showing movies, news, and more throughout the cruise.  One of the NFL playoff games was televised on it; President Obama’s inauguration was televised there also.  They played many recent movies – one evening, I caught the most recent Indiana Jones movie, which I had seen before, but it was still fun to watch.  During sea days they played one movie early on, and another one later and even threw in some kid’s movies (Kung-Fu Panda, anyone?) here and there.  There was plenty of seating, lounge chairs, and tables throughout the ship.  The lounge chairs weren’t comfortable for long periods of time, unless you were lying down.  Sitting up in them to watch a movie or read a book wasn’t very comfortable.

SPA
Carnival has a good spa – the Cloud 9 Spa.  Located forward on Deck 11, it has a gymnasium with weights, treadmills, and etc., along with treatment rooms, a thalassotherapy pool, thermal suite, and more.  The gymnasium was open to all guests, but most of the spa was reserved for guests in Spa staterooms unless a cover charge for the day was paid.  Guests I spoke to who used the spa facilities reported it to be top-notch and well worth the money.

PORTS OF CALL
San Juan: We arrived in the afternoon, and left at midnight, so there wasn’t a whole lot of time for anything.  Luckily, the ship docked at Old San Juan, so it didn’t take more than a few steps to get to things.  I walked around Old Town with its cobblestone streets, small shops, and old cathedrals and just enjoyed myself.
St. Thomas: I really enjoyed St. Thomas.  I took an aerial tram up to Paradise Point overlooking the harbor, where I got a great vista view.  St. Thomas is a shopping haven, but since I’m not a big shopper, it wasn’t something I was interested in doing.
La Romana: This port was rather basic, as it’s a new one for Carnival.  There is nothing to do at the port itself – once off the ship, it’s necessary to get an excursion or transportation to other areas like Punta Cana or Santo Domingo in order to experience the Dominican Republic.  I took the day as an off day and stayed on board catching up with my reading.  It turned out to be very relaxing for me.  Shore excursion reports from other passengers were mixed – some liked them, others thought they were a waste of time.
Nassau: In lieu of an organized excursion, I took a water taxi to Paradise Island, home of the famous Atlantis Resort.  I purchased a day pass to the resort to look around the grounds and see the renowned aquarium on the property.  It was a rather fun day for me that went by all too quickly.

DEBARKATION
Carnival offers a self-assist or general debarkation.  The self-assist is at 7:00 AM and is great for those who want to get off the ship early and can handle their entire luggage.  That was too early for me, as my flight didn’t leave until after lunch, so I opted for General Debarkation where you set your bag out in the hallway during the night and retrieve the bag again after you get off the ship.  After a leisurely breakfast on the Lido Deck, I was able to depart the ship at about 9:30 or 10:00, and by the time I got my luggage, passed Customs, took the Carnival transfer back to the airport and passed through TSA security, I still had 1.5 hours before my flight time.  I’d say the debarkation process went fairly smooth, although I don’t enjoy the melee of trying to find bags from general debarkation.  The space provided for that at Port Everglades is not very large at all.

OVERALL
Out of a possible 5 stars, I would give this cruise a 4.5.  It certainly exceeded my expectations in many ways, and didn’t meet them in others.  I’m used to staff I encounter frequently remembering my name, or seeing my name on my card and using it which happened only once.  The ports of call were good, but I would have preferred more time in San Juan (certainly more DAYLIGHT hours) and in Nassau.  I’m looking forward to experiencing another Carnival sailing soon!