Carnival Splendor Cruise Reviews - Reviews

This cruise was the most relaxing and fun. The weather was great but extremely windy. We almost didn't make the dock in Cozumel but when we finally did, the Captain let us stay longer on land than originally scheduled. We took excursions in Roatan, laying on the beach at the Mayan Princess and in Grand Cayman, swam with the Stingrays and snorkeled. We could have bypassed Belize, but it might have been better if we'd taken a tour there, too Maybe next time!  I'd do this cruise again!

Took my son and his girl friend on their 1st cruise. They could not believe  how great the service was and how clean and well kept the ship was. This is our 5th cruise and 3 on Carnival, our next cruise will be Carnival too.

We had a great time. Our first time on the Splendor and we enjoy everything. we did have a bad room our first couple of days. But the staff moved us quickly and refunded us a little money back. Everyone was friendly and respectful. The weather was not the best, but the top closed on deck and so the pool could be accessed.

The cruise, the food, and the people were great. The ship was fantastic. The only problem I had was that the sea was too rough to dock with the tender to take us to Grand Cayman. While I realize that safety is to most concern, I thought that by just returning my port fees ($19.00) and sailing around for an extra day, was pretty shabby.

The ship's photographer left something to be desired. While we had 2 elegant dinners, the photos were so bad that we didn't take any of them. The photos I took with my small camera were better than theirs.

Other than that I had a great time and am looking forward to another cruise.

Overall the cruise was good.  There is always room for improvement.  Very pleased with the service and food plus everything was very clean all the time.

Didn't care much about Kevin, the cruise director.  He needed to identify himself at show time.  Acted as if everyone knew who he was.  He gave me the impression of a "fake" person.  The day that we could not visit Grand Cayman island, the one game he came up with in the 3rd floor lobby was to shoot people.   We have plenty of gun violence at home, there was no need to experience this while we are supposed to be having fun in a cruise ship.

Highly recommend that in the event of a change of itinerary due to weather, etc. that the captain be the one to speak to his guests and not the cruise director. 

Would appreciate it if Carnival would give some thought to offering cabins at a better rate for people travelling alone.  This one was very expensive for one person.

This was a first cruise for us and we could not have been more delighted with our experience. The way we were treated from the moment we got on board until we had to sadly leave. We were amazed at how many activities there were to choose from on the ship. We were impressed with the  level of excellent customer service every crew member gave from the moment we got on board until  we had to leave. Everyone was always so very happy and knew our names from the first meeting. From there on out they just aimed to please any way they could. Carnival will be our choice for our next cruise!

When we told folks we would be on the Splendor, they said,"OH! the pink ship.  So of course I started calling it MY ship. I was expecting neon pink and other bright shades of pink. Well, it has a lot of pink but an equal amount of oranges.  After the fist day, one hardly notices.  So you will not be overwhelmed by the colors.

We had a group of 18 people and many first timers. this was a good itinerary for so many people: history, beach and shopping in equal amounts. 

We chose assigned seating in the dining room and two adjacent tables one for 8 and one for 10.  Our wait staff was very understanding as we switched places almost every night.  The service was excellent. The food was good both in the MDR and on the Lido deck.  Be sure to check out the upstairs dining areas for the Lido dining.

Our room steward was one of the best we have had. The other experienced travelers said the same about their room stewards.

The ship was originally built to be a Costa ship and has the same deck plan as the Costa Concordia.  I rather liked it.

The big theater production were still the main entertainment.  We were very happy about this as we are slightly disappointed in the newer shows.  The comedy club was packed every night and there was a good rotation of comedians.

The newbies had such a good time and are bitten by the cruising bug.  The experienced cruisers want to go again as soon as possible. (Note: we are on the Dream this coming Jan.)

We would repeat this cruise with no problem, either with a large group or just the two of us.

First time on a 7 night cruise. Didn't know what to expect. Googled the stats on the ship and read the reviews. Must say I was pleasantly surprised. The customer service was exceptional!!!! Will travel on Carnival again.....

Nice ship with lots of activities, Food wasn't my favorite but the rest of the ship made up for it! The pools and hot tubs were a good size and easy to find! Entertainment was awesome too! 

food and shows very disappointing! back to royal Caribbean next time! my last cruise was on freedom of the seas. this did not compare! had a prime rib and could only take 2 bites! I love prime rib didn't think I could ever get a bad one!

We had a great time, as usual on a Carnival cruise. This was probably our 7th time with them. But we did notice some minor cut backs. No chocolates on the pillow at night. No specialty teas at night on the lido deck. ( I looked forward to this every night and really missed it). They now charge you for it. 

The food was good, but seemed like there was not as much selections as before. 

The entertainment was very good, as always. 

This was our very first cruise and it exceeded our expectations. The staff was amazing! The food was incredible. The ship was spotless! We were pampered the entire time. We will definitely be cruising again!

Worse cruise we've been on. Our 3rd with Carnival. Our cabin 6402 was directly above the Red Carpet Disco or dance club bar. Our room was vibrating from music below until closing nightly!! Ship was poorly designed to say the least!  Totally unacceptable. Should have received deep discount for room!!! Dining room was such that you nearly touched seated guests in booths if you walked in their side of pillar. We were seated at back of dining room. Servers were unable to visit as they were understaffed. Food was ok but never compares to Royal Carribean. All service onboard were nice friendly people. That's only good thing about cruise. 

We we are on Carnival Sunshine on April 8-16 out of Port Canaveral. Already paid for as we are cruising with our children (Vierig family of 4). We are currently booked in Inside Cabin. I believe we should be upgraded at no charge due to the unacceptable room we spent 7 days in on Splendor!  If not, this will definitely be our last cruise with Carnival. The Fun Ship wasn't fun last week when we laid down to sleep every night.  I hope someone does something to make this right for us.  

Very unique ship, shows were good and the 9 piece band was fantastic. But on the down side. eating at the same table, same restraint and basically the same food fetus very boring. They close most of the buffet restaurants so your stuck eating the same food over and over again. They don't seem to care about cleanliness in the restaurants and buffets. They don't have anyone at the entrances promoting the use of hand sanitizer like the other cruises I've been and the sanitizer stations are not easily accessible. The tables don't get cleared promptly and dirty dishes sit on the tables for a while. They employ more people to sell alcohol than they do to clean the reading area. The customer service is none existent. None of the rules area enforced which leads to people being able to smoke pretty much where ever they want. And that's with the huge smoking area they provide. Three floors on the starbour side are dedicated smoking Ares which should be enough but isn't. You complain about it to customer service and they tell you to stop complaining about it.  I won't ever cruise with carnival again nor would I recommend it.

We had a great time on our cruise.  The buffet food could have been better, but we had a great time.  Mahogony Bay and Grand Cayman were my favorite ports.  Would do it again!

There were three couples in or group. We al stayed on the Spa deck. The ship is beautiful. Entertainment was good for us but not so much for other  two couples. The four ports we went to were worth the money. The food was okay.

Now the cons: staff was very slow in clearing off tables on the lido deck. The dine at your time staff was slow, long lines to get in, staff messed up our orders or just didn't bring us what we ordered, no personality  except the last two nights we were seated at another area of the dining room in the  Black Pearl and had a waiter named Leslie, and his crew were wonderful. We enjoyed their personality and kidding around with all their tables. This is a good example of someone enjoying their job.

Two ports we had to tender, all in all that went well.

Getting on and off went well.

  We were a group of 6 people and flew into Miami a day early which I would highly recommend if you are traveling from the Northern States when weather could be an issue.

  We arrived at the cruise port at approx. 11:15 AM and after handing our baggage to the porters who have no problem trying to shame you into a tip we walked in and were able to check in after about a 15 minute wait. We then waited approx. 30 minutes or so until we were able to board the ship.

  Upon entering the ship we made our way around the ship to do a little exploring. Expect lots of pink which was not obnoxious at all. We really enjoyed the decor of the ship.

  We were in a spa balcony cabin in room 1114. Had no complaints at all with this and really l;liked being up on the top deck. There is hardly any people traffic in this area even though the spa and fitness center are on this level. Gylena from the Ukraine was our cabin steward. She did a fantastic job all week long and I cannot say enough good about her and the job she did. Sadly after 11 years with Carnival she is moving on to another Company across the sea.

  A benefit of the spa cabin is the access to the VIP section of the spa. This includes a large thermo pool and a steam room, an aroma steam room and two other rooms with heated loungers and seats. We used this almost every day we were there and never really seemed crowded.

  We used anytime dining and were usually there at 5:45 and were seated promptly with the exception of the last night when it took about 15 minutes. The dining room is the area that IMHO that could really use some improvements. I'm not sure if Carnival is short handed or have just cut back on the staff but the service was always slow. Never could we get out of there without being there for at least 90 minutes. 

  Food is subjective so it is hard to really say much about this. We all found some things we liked and disliked but never went away hungry. The buffet at times had cold food at breakfast and lunch. We went to the dining room for breakfast a couple of times and enjoyed the meals there.

  It was hard to navigate the ship at times and being we are not smokers could not get to areas of interest without going through there. We usually would either go up a level or down a few and walk thru the cabin areas to avoid this.

  There are a few pools on the ship but they were not very big along with a few hot tubs. We never used these and seemed like the lounge chair hogs were out in full force.

  The comedians were pretty good on the ship and I would give the entertainment options a B grade overall.

  Cozumel was our first stop and we did a tour of the island and visited a Mayan Ruins site. Had a nice time on this trip but was a little longer than we anticipated.

  Belize was the next stop where we stopped at Mahogany Bay and ht up the beach at the port. Plenty of lounge chairs along with a nice beach where only cruise guests could go so no petty locals trying to sell you a bunch of stuff you don't want anyway. Bring along your snorkel gear as there is a small reef to do this at.

  Isla Roatan we had to tender which took approx. 25 minutes to shore. There we took a two hour ride around the island. Nothing special here as far as I'm concerned. Also some shopping once back in the port.

  Grand Cayman is another port that you must tender but was less than 10 minutes to shore. There we took a taxi to a local beach and had a nice time there. Than some shopping once back in the port area downtown.

  I did not enjoy the tendering process as you had to get a number from Carnival each time there was a tender off the ship. We probably won't cruise again somewhere we have to tender.

  All in all a good week with very few complaints.

Four senior ladies in two rooms had the time of our lives. We booked through Cheap Cruises not only the cruise, but also our excursions and had the best time with great guides at every port!! Now we want to do the Eastern Caribbean!!

 I HAD A GREAT FUN AND REALLY ENJOIED THE CRUISE AND THE STAFF ARE FRIENDLY,KEEP SMILING ALL THE TIME AND HELPFUL.I HAD ALSO GREAT FUN IN BELIZE I SAW BEST NATURAL VIEWS IN THE WORLD , I ENJOIED WITH CAVE TUBING,ZIP LINES AND SNORKLING ALSO ROTANA WAS GREAT I ENJOIED THE BEACH AND ALSO THE ZIP LINE

THANK YOU CARNIVAL FOR MAKING ME HAPPY 

We had a wonderful time on the Carnival Splendor cruise we returned from last week.  All the staff on the Splendor were very friendly and courteous and went out of their way to be sure we were well cared for. 

The nightly shows in the main theater were excellent.  The costume changes by the singers and dancers were gorgeous and amazingly many, and the choreography was outstanding.

The comedy shows were also very good.  Unfortunately the venue for the comedy acts is too small. Long waiting lines and jam packed shows were uncomfortable.

We had 4 ports on this 7 day cruise.  Each and every one was a lot of fun.  I think on future cruises we will try to stick to 3 ports as we also enjoy the ship itself and it got to be quite exhausting with the day and nightlife!

Although this was a very large ship, I never felt like there were too many people there (except at muster and the comedy show).  All public areas were very well maintained as was our cabin.