Carnival Splendor Cruise Reviews - Reviews

My husband & I enjoyed a lot of the on board activities. We are empty nesters so the amount of kids on ship was a little bothersome. For the most part their was plenty to do everyday.We booked a spa cabin very clean & spacious, which included access to the spa's elemental hot tub & members only sauna, heated therapuetic chairs & chaise lounges that were so soothing and relaxing! The spa treatments are $$$$ & they offered specials but it ain't cheap! I liked the space and equipment in the gym.

Good food was in abundance, I enjoyed dinner everynight! I would recommend the open dining between 5:30-9:30 for flexibility.The entertainment was great. Singers, dancers, magicians, comedians, great!! The Cruise Director Malcom Burns is the consumate entertainer, really good at his job!! We arrived 2 days prior to spend time with family in Puerto Rico and received a tour of the Island & El Yunque rain forest! St. Kitts was full of retail but the people were very unfriendly, Antigua was also full of retail shops but the beaches were pretty and lush! St. Thomas was by far the most friendly and the views are heavenly. Tour guides were friendly personable & knowlegdeable. Grand Turks was the most fun. Margaritaville is the coolest spot & the wave pool is the most fun ever. the beach is huge & has ample lounge chairs. The swim pool is tiny but the D.J. made it seem large! We did the ATV excursion which was the most fun. Toured the Island & learned of the wildlife beaches,historical POI, not much to see as the Island is still rebuilding from hurricane "Ike" (2008)watch out for the wild horses and the donkees!

Carnival Guest services desk employees need retraining in customer service, they were by far the most unfriendly, discourteous people we encountered on the ship.Our wait staff & stewards and the absolute best!! 

Would recommend taking this cruise again with a few adjustments! Book thru Carnival directly or you may get screwed on the price like we did with Cheap Cruises. Everyone on that ship got a better deal than we did. I'm talking big savings like 80% what we paid with over $200 in credits! Book your excursions online, do not listen to people who say wait until you're on the ship. Book online & don't miss out on what you want to do!!

 The cruise in itself was beautiful. All of the islands were gorgeous and the trip was relaxing. What made this particular cruise so amazing was the service and the people involved. Our servers, Nonilon, Alejandro, and Patrick were as good as it gets. They were fast and entertaining and made us sad to miss dinner on the night we had a reservation at the Pinnacle Steakhouse. The workers at the Spa were all incredibly welcoming and helpful. My husband and I spent a good amount of time in the casino playing table games during our cruise. I don't think we would have continued to come back to the Casino if it had not been for the dealers. Their varying personalities kept the games fun and different as each came and went. If I had to mention one it would be Cozmin, he had a great sense of humor and was a able to hold a conversation while still being completely accurate and dedicated to the task at hand. It was a great cruise and I highly recommend it. 

the sea was fantastic but for a Carnival Cruise it bored  my daughter and me they should have had more activities in the day by the pool and have an activity everyday at night by the pool not short activities, we are on a carnival not relaxing all the time. The night show should be more broadway everyday not only twice in 8 nights.  Honestly I would think it twice before going on a Carnival Cruise  especially Carnival Splendor.

The trip was just as promised!!!  Cabin was great, people we met were very nice.The food was good and seconds were given if requested.  There was just one problem ,it took more than an hour to get our bag and then    wait in line to leave the port after the bag arrived.

This was our 5th Carnival cruise.  8 sleepless nights, food that wasn't fresh and not much to do.  Not sure why things are going south for Carnival.  2 highlights were Malcolm Burn our Cruise Director and our excursion in Antigua.  Other than that, this was a boring cruise.  Hard to relax and get a good nights sleep when every night at 2am there were very loud passengers passing by our cabin as well as hearing cups and plates clank on a tray passing our cabin around 10pm.  We are early risers and go to sleep around 9pm.  We had drinks on our tab that weren't ours.  I was able to get that removed at guest services but they questioned me as if I was lying.  Will be trying another cruise line for our next cruise.

Great time good service and great room.Food was good lots to do all day and night. Crew was very friendly and efficient . Only thing 3 days at sea a stretch but lots of time to relax

We had a great time on the Splendor! Our wait staff in the fine dining were excellent and our stewards were great.

If I had to do it all over again I would do it in a heart beat!

One thing I would have like to see was more activities on the lido deck (around the pool area) during our 3 days at sea. I would like more games, and activities all day long while we were baking in the sun. There were a few things but when there wasn't anything happening they had loud music playing. Also, we were heading to the Caribbean, play some Caribbean music on the lido deck and leave the hip hop songs back on land in NYC or in the night club on board. 

One night, the cruise director, Malcolm had a Caribbean dance party and all they did was play hip hop music and teach us the different dance moves. It would have been nice to have Caribbean music with the steel drums and let people dance to that music instead of having it all be instructional hip hop moves. I love hip hop but I wanted Caribbean music.

If the photos that were taken were less expensive, we would have definitely would have purchased them.

It was fantastic to go out of Norfolk, VA.  The parking at Cedar Grove was great. The complementary buses were there to take our luggage to the ship and also bring us there.  It was well organized.  Since we were VIPs we didn't have as long to wait to get on board.  Malcolm our Cruise Director was fantastic with announcing all information on activities daily.  He was a great host for Carnival.  We enjoyed him.  The shows were also fantastic.  The music, costumes, singers and performers dancers, musicians, etc were also fantastic.  We enjoyed singing some of the tunes we knew.  We also enjoyed Anna for the shopping at Nassau and Freeport.   She told us everything to know before we got there and had wonderful maps to use to find the stores.  I was able to get my free stuff too from the shopping stores and she was even at one while we were there.  We appreciated everything she told us.  I was able to get great buy at the Tanzanite store on a complete set of Tanzanite earrings, ring, bracelet, and necklace.  What a great birthday present my husband gave me.  The excursions were fantastic.  The one to Discover Atlantis was just enough for us to see the area and explore it for us.  We loved seeing all the different kinds of fishes.  We had a excellent tour guide.  We also loved at Freeport the tour of the perfume factory, brewery and shopping.  Tiny was a excellent funny guide.  We laughed and enjoyed the whole trip.  We did get to try many of the beers they make there.  I myself liked the Light beer.  It was a lot of fun.  The food was also great on the ship.  We just love Carnival for their 24 hour yogurt ice cream and pizza.  Just wish they would get some better folks to make the crust as it is a little too thin.  Our cabins were always nice cleaned, prepared and the different towels that they made into different animals, etc.    We did miss the chocolates we used to get every night.  

We always qualify for priority boarding based on the cabin we book.  There should also be a corresponding disembarkation to get off the ship.  Other than that, all logistics excellent,  Great staff everywhere on the ship.  Food delivery to cabin ALWAYS prompt and polite.  Food in main dining was excellent quality.  The open seating breakfast could be improved from our viewpoint if they took your order when you sat down.  However, they wait until a table of 10 or 12 is all seated.  Therefore, breakfast takes too long.  

The shows were amazing. 'Vroom' was more than what I expected and very entertaining. The food in the main dining room was delicious and the steak was the most tender cut of meat which I'd gladly compare to any 5 star restaurant. Sadly, on the second night it wasn't listed as a 'choice' so I paid an additional $20 for the surf & turf which was overcooked and less flavor than the 'included' steak from the night before. Room service was quick and efficient for those late night cravings and lots of choices to choose from. Our balcony stateroom was perfect and very quiet with the most comfortable beds. The negatives- breakfast in the buffet was terrible and the bacon was inedible. Our server in the main dining room was rude and only spoke to the men at the table. I understand in some cultures to look down upon the females but he needs to realize that he is serving all nationalities and in the USA we are treated equally. Overall this ship was fun with lots to do onboard and the Casino was paying out with a lot of happy winners onboard.

I liked the cruise but some of the bar servers were a little rude if you don"t buy alcoholic beverages, we asked for a soft drink and a bottle of water and the bar server told us to get ourselves at the bar.

In the past we have booked on Royal Caribbean but decided to book with Carnival since the Port was so close to home. We were disappointed from the start of our 5 day cruise. Boarding consisted of over 2 hours of standing in long lines. When we went inside to have lunch, we found the selection to be lacking flavor & variety. This was also a problem throughout the cruise with the exception of the dining room. We were an hour or more late leaving port Norfolk. The pools were extremely salty & the temperature in the whirlpools were more like bath water. The entire ship lacked the sparkle that we had experienced on other ships. Upon returning it took just over 4 hours to finally get off the ship. Port Norfolk was pure chaos. They had a festival going on in the Park next to it & were attempting to board the next cruise. Traffic was a nightmare.

I rated my cruise on a scale of 1 to 10. 10 being spectacular .no! i didnt rate it a 10; however i did rate it an overall 6, I lowerd my rating for a few reasons and they are: First, the elevators were wacked out always skipping floors which was quite annoying when you are in a hurry to get somewhere on the ship. Second i really didnt like it when my nephew and I were denied access along with about 6 other passengers  to the punchline comedy club due to room capacity was full. I told them they should hold the function in a bigger room which would have accommadated all the passengers they were expecting to show up based on prior sailings.As a result i missed the comedian and his show was one of the best of the different comedians they had on board..instead i got to see the italian guy on the last eve before disembarkation & he was terrible. No i saw the pg show for the teacher/comedian & he was very funny..just wish i got to see his really funny 18+ show we were denied. heard it was very very funny. Finally our bus broke down in Belize for the Altun ha excursion..BEWARE it took them about half an hour to get another bus to us . With no a/c and the temp' was excruciatingly hot! The Altun ha excursion was otherwise fabulous-must do it and the Roatan pirates, monkeys and birds park excursion was best trip for us. The crystal tubing cave excursion also was rated among the best by others on board.Also i adjusted our tipping fee due to the lack of proper service with the elevators, comedy room thing & of course the tendering & excursion procedure they use is annoying!They gather everyone whos leaving the ship into one room at the same time and give you stickers then call those stickers according to your excursion time for departure. All of us at three ports especially the tender ports were late getting off the ship. One group had an 11:00am departure they didnt leave the room till almost 11:45 or so.. we were late for the Belize river wallace excursion by at least 45 minutes our selves, then our guide dilly dallied on pier for another half hour making timing a HUGE issue in the end since the ship had to wait for us..so embarrassing.As for the food and fun it was very good. They seemed to try much harder to give a variety of things to do while on ship. One tip if you want alcohol bring LOTS of money. If you want to go to the casino bring lots of money..lots of fun to have.Finally i found the dining room experience a little off. Our main waiter was over burdened and flustered most of the time. Half the time we ate at the lido deck "help yourself" dining option and preferred that most of the time. Ate frog legs first time..nothing to them really. Beware lido food options always same. Main dining room offered more variety..which was nice . Do both like we did you'll be happier!Overall really was fun & i didn't want to leave..got used to being served. Gilbert our room attendant was fabulous & so was Jocelyn a bartender. The crew changes up on all theyre ships which i thought was odd but if you get either one you'll be happy! By the way Cozumel was disappointing for shopping choose a water excursion. Finally be aware that 99% of crew is from somewhere else in the world. On one hand it was interresting to see where the person was from but it also was strange since i suspect many of them was just cheap labor either way they all were nice especially hearing Kevin wake you up every morning..oh and don't get a room in the front of ship below 4th deck or your going to be awakened by the boat first then kevin. And not in a good way.Otherwise i reccomend the cruise and defianately the itinerary. Just heed my warnings.

We went for our 25th anniversary and had a great time. The staff was very friendly. The ship was very clean and a lot to offer. Food was great. We really enjoyed Serenity. Didn't care for the smoking in the Casino, but that was expected.

Excellent experience for my wife who was a first time cruiser. The service, food, and staff were exquisite and only enhanced the experience. Ten thumbs up!!!

We enjoyed this cruise, we especially liked Roatan and Xuantanich in Belize Food was good, though, to us, the buffets closed a little early Unfortunately, the cabin next to us had kids and they made noise and were hitting the walls into the late night If you have not been to the Caribbean, this would be a great first cruise

Overall this cruise is awesome. 4 days of fun activities preceded and followed by a day of rest and relaxation. I highly recommend it.  The excursions we went on (all through Carnival) we very good except for Scuba diving in Cozumel. Cozumel has some of the best diving in the world and Sand Dollar Sports (who Carnival operates this excursion through) takes us to 2 absolutely disappointing reefs. Our dive master even took us over sand for most of our second dive. What a total waste of time and money. Book it outside of Carnival to get a great experience. 

tHIS SHIP IS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL AND JUST THE RIGHT SIZE-NOT TOO BIG OR TOO SMALL. IT IS THE ONLY CARNIVAL SHIP THAT HAS THE ROOF THAT COVERS OR RETRACTS  OVER THE POOL AREA, THUS IFIT RAINS, THE POOL, DECK AREA, & THEATER SCREEN  AREA ARE STILL VERY USEABLE. BUT BEST OF ALL, THE FOOD IS VERRRRRY GOOD (ONE OF THE BEST DINING EXPERIENCES OF OUR OVER 20 CRUISES.) SERVICE IS ALSO TOP NOTCH.

food was just ok, service was lacking, I will not go on another Carnival cruise but will chose another line. Staff seem happy when we got off the boat in ports and pissed when we got back on the boat.

This was my first time on any cruise and I absolutely loved it. We went to Jamaica, the Grand Cayman Islands, and Cozumel. The crew was friendly and there was always something exciting to do. Our cruise excursions were great, though I would hope that if booked with a cruise, the pictures wouldn't be so expensive. The excursions were fantastic, but buying pictures at $30+ a piece is outrageous. There should be some sort of discount for those wanting to buy pictures. To put things in perspective, a cd of pictures + a video of the dolphin swim was $365. My ticket for the windowless cabin cost that much... 

The food was excellent and there were always plenty of options for picky eaters. The quality of the food was far better than I expected, and I was always full. 

The ship is showing slight signs of age in various places (no lightbulbs, stains on the ceilings of the lobby, etc.) The rooms were great and looked like new. They were well taken care of. 

My wife said the general atmosphere was much more of a party than other cruises (this was a plus for us).

I have to complain a little bit about the gym because it is so tiny. When running on the treadmills, I often felt like I was going to brush the ceiling (just a perception). I am 5'9'' and there was a few inches extra, but it didn't feel like much. The free weights area seemed rather cramped.