I had higher expectations

Item: Carnival Splendor
Rating: 2
Author: tarynrivera

Carnival Splendor Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern

tarynrivera

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 20

Overall rating:

2 out of 5

Verified Review

8 Night Southern Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: November 19, 2016

Ship: Carnival Splendor

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 1289

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 7 years ago

Review summary

I had been looking forward to this cruise for 9 months. When we finally set sail I realized this cruise was not what I had expected. There were so many people on this cruise, and I know that it had a lot to do with traveling during Thanksgiving. However, I have been on large cruises before but have not experienced what we did on the Carnival Splendor. I think the staff on the cruise could do a better job at monitoring the lines formed for food. The guests were all over the place and people would crowd the hallway in the dining area, making it difficult to cross. We chose anytime dining this time around. There was one night when the line went as far as the elevators in the middle of the lobby. We also had a night when they gave out pagers to wait for a table. The quality of the food and the staff was hit or miss. A couple nights we had a very unfriendly waiter and the food was not very good (undercooked desserts, overcooked meats, etc.). A few of the nights we had fantastic service and food. Our stateroom was not very clean. We did receive fresh towels and our bathroom was cleaned everyday, beds were turned down every night. However, the room hasn't been deeply cleaned in a long time. The headboard had dust on it. The fridge hidden inside the cabinet had a thick layer of dust at the top. The carpet felt dirty and needs to be steam cleaned. The first day we were in our stateroom, I saw a glob of used toothpaste still in our sink from the previous guest. We loved the ports that we visited and will definitely be going again in the future. However, with the bad experience we had on the Carnival Splendor we don't think that the Carnival cruise line will be a top pick the next time we choose a vacation.