Carnival Splendor Cruise Reviews - Reviews

this was our first cruise and also our honeymoon. We had the best time! everything was great. I work for a Marriott property so We heard so many great things about the Splendor from guests who had cruised on it. We were told that we picked a great first time ship and they were absolutley right! My husband who didn't really want to cruise because he is literally not a water person (but I am) was sold! He even said we will definitely cruise again. Every one on ship including other cruisers were very nice and helpful. Our dinner companions were great .we really enjoyed their company. They were celebrating their anniversary and birthdays. jamaica was beautiful. The buffet food options available were great .if you thought you wanted to eat something they had it! We did the Bob Marley tour. (very interesting ). It rained a little in cozumel but we still did a little shopping and cayman islands was nice as well. We can honestly say we did not want to come home. The casino was fun we played this penny machine that actually paid out. I can't remember the name of it but you can roll dice and get paid until you roll a 7 . So as along as you don't roll 7 it will keep going. Its next to one of those" claw "machines . We really had a lot of fun. And the. Best honeymoon

Natalie Carboni at the piano bar was AMAZING.  We saw her almost every night.  Very well organized, food was very very good.  Ship could use some updating  in terms of décor....seemed pretty 70's style...can it be updated to modern?  Comedy club was enjoyable.  Drinks were SOOO expensive - can you offer a drink plan that would accommodate 2 people and not just one?

it was a good cruise, it could have been great. They missed on some key points that they should really work on. We were promised 4 ports or calls, but they skipped one due to weather. Didnt even try to make it up in a different way. Basically... sorry we cant dock due to windy conditions, have a great day!!! on the second day our excursion was canceled due to not reaching the minimum numbers... again, not a single person tried to help us find another one.

food quality - so so... we have had better on previous cruises. service in buffet style restaurant, horrible. sit down dinner was awesome.

not much to do for kids and no one even tries to make an effort to help.

Crowd on the ship - simply rude...

For the most part it was ok. The food was my biggest complaint. It all tasted the same, no flavor. We met a couple who had taken several carnival cruises. And this was their first time on splendor. They stated they had no problems with the other ships. But that the food on this one was pretty bad. when multiple people at the dinner table are ordering more than one dinner a night or sending food back, there has got to be a problem.

We had a great time on the splendor. Fun ship, good entertainment. Natalie in the piano bar was awesome. A couple issues we had. Room svc. Is spotty at best. They forgot our food/coffee 3 of the times we ordered. We had to call back a few times after waiting over an hour for a pot of coffee. I also ordered a birthday decor in the room for my wife. Since our breakfast was an hour late we were still in the room and all we got was a card. After an argument with the desk I did get a refund. Other than that the service staff in the dining hall was incredible, cruise director was funny and always available. Bartenders around pool area were available but not pushy as Ive experienced in the past. Great Great trip. Going back in February.

Excellent atention on board. Wonderful organization until the last day

Room was cleaning and confortable

Natalie  is goog singer.

You may think about dancer's hours  , maybe they group should star one hour late and finish one hour late too.

Hispaniola trio music  , the best option for to dancers.

Thanks for everything.

hing

This cruise was absolutely the best!  The staff was kind and attentive and there were plenty of things to do all day,  The ship, while a bit tacky was clean and in good repair.  The food was good and there was plenty of it.  Drinks were over priced but it is a real moneymaker for them and it is their business so it is understandable.  Expect to spend extra money along the way.  It is almost impossible to not have any extra money spent even without drinking.  Overall it was a wonderful trip and you felt very comfortable anywhere you went.

We had a great time and really enjoyed the variety of food choices.  Also enjoyed the ports we visited and thought the route worked well.  It was really nice to have the last day at sea to relax.

Bottled water and Internet should be free to all passengers.   You should not feel nickel and dimed constantly.  The room was great, the food was good and most of the crew were friendly, but I have had much better experiences on other cruises.  Carnival will not be my first choice in the future.

Best cruise ever !!  Everybody from the room steward to the waiters in the dining room made us feel special. We participated in Bingo and won an excursion to swim with the Dolphins in Cozumel. We played trivia and had a lot of fun. We lounged on the deck and swam in the pool. Played games on  the deck and had a great time.

I am a first time cruiser and really enjoyed it. We have received exceptional services on the boat from the time we entered the ship. The staff was amazing, food choices abundant.

I can recommend it  

Cabin on rear of ship.  two mile walk to get anywhere on ship.  Instead of one large matress, we got two twins put side by side that kept sliding apart.  And one of us every night kept falling in the gap.  Food was not that good.  Main dinning room was grossly understaffed.  No matridee.  No bread server on some nights. Waiter so overworked, he had no time to give anyone special treatment like sprinkling fresh pepper, clearing crumbs from your table. He was insanely overassigned to too many tables. Cabin room located right over heavy machinery that became unbearably loud whenever we arrived in any port. No enough shows. Excursions were grossly overpriced. Alcohol beverages were overpriced also. Very poor room service. You could only order cold cereal or a bagle, with watered down orange juice. And each time we ordered, they took over an hour to deliver it. Everyone we spoke to was unwilling to help us in arranging an early departure due to an early flight from an airport that was an hour and twenty minutes away from Miami.  They kept saying there nothing they can do. But on the day of departure we saw guest that were classified "priority" get the same consideration that we were told did not exist. He had to "sneak" into the group with them like we were stowaways or something. We had something stolen from us right under the watchful eye of one of the ships camera. He reported it to security (a man named John). He called us on the phone more than twentyfour hours later and informed me that the ships security camera is pointed directly at the cheeseburger grill. And had no view of something that occured within two feet of it. With over thirty years in law enforcement, I was flabergased. 

Crowds and lines everywhere.  We stood in line for dinner for 45 minutes two different nights. On one of them, they still didn't seat us at the same table.  The food was mediocre, at best.  As listed ON THE MENU,  you  get better food for only $20 more.   The pools were masses of humanity. Getting on board was worse than going through customs in Los Angeles.  You couldn't hear the announcements unless you ran into the hall, and then only about 50% of the time, depending who was mumbling.  Internet was expensive and extremely slow.  Camp Carnival was so poor, the kids traveling with us refused to go. they had loved Princess' camp.  No sense going on at this point. You get the picture. 

Overall, the trip was really fun.  The nightly meals were consistently good with an occasional very good meal.  The primary buffets were OK but very very busy in the morning for breakfast.  The pizza and deli food were better choices for lunch. Entertainment shows were above average though the Comedy Club was pretty raunchy after 9:00pm.  Excursions were pricey and sometimes the descriptions were not that accurate.  We had a particularly bad one in Grand Turks.  Our dinner and cabin staff were excellent while the guest services desk was not terribly accommodating.  We had two teenagers who enjoyed themselves.

Fantastic cruise..entertainment at its best!!! The crew was great. .. excellent customer services. .. The activities were interesting and fun.. I would recommend to all!!! Can't wait until I go back. ..

Our cruise was great from beginning to end.  The service was amazing, food was great, numerous activities to do on the ship.

I do with there were more dining options, but that wouldn't stop my from sailing with them again!

Musical Entertainment in night club and on deck was horrible.  Only Hip-Hop at a extreme volume that I had to wear ear plugs and still was too loud.  Dancing music, only Hip-Hop and a little Salsa although the majority of the passengers did not fit these profiles.  At the theater only 2 musical shows in 7 nights. there were other shows which were the same crap I have seen on my 3 previous cruises in the last 10 years.

Unruly guests took over the 4 hot tubs for the whole day leaving the other 3,000 guests without a chance to enjoy them.  No regulations.  At the end of the afternoons, little kids disturbing the 21+ areas and no one said nothing.  Unruly teens also in the 21+ areas destroying and vandalizing equipment, trowing supplies and garbage overboard and in the pools right after they were cleaned by the crew.  I guess because they could not use those areas, revenge I suppose.

Non-smokers taking over the smokers sections or removing all the chairs and taking them someplace else.  When they sat in the smokers areas, the bitched about the smoke but would not move away.  Ash trays were constantly been hidden away.  If the smokers respectfully stayed in their areas, why the Non-Smokers kept invading these same areas.

Too many hours at sea, cutting down the hours at each port of call.  Excursions were not designed to enjoy the facilities of each port, too long to get to buses, to locations and always the push to go shopping.  Maximum of one excursion per port due to delays and short time in port. If the cruise gave us 4 more hours per port, guests would book more excursions and enjoy themselves more.

In San Juan, Puerto Rico, my tour took too long because of the getting in and out of the bus which only went 6 blocks away.  The guide promoted herself other than the city itself.  In Turks & Caicos the ATV tour description included time to be spent on the beach, not so, the time was cut short from the description and we were only taken to local drinking hole where we spent lots of time.  Also the speed they moved us was so slow that people walking were moving faster than the ATVs.  No exitiment at all.  Apparently it was designed for the very elderly when 90% of the touring people were in their 20 and 30s.  I really only enjoyed myself in Nassau (Sub diving) and St. Thomas (Zip-lining) which the promise of the tour really came true.

I love the Splendor, that is why I took this second cruise on it.  My stateroom and bar crews were excellent.  Some of them remembered me from the last cruise, it felt like family.

We had a relaxing time on the cruise. The only thing myself and family commented on was that we felt rushed on the ports we visited and there were times we were early arriving to them but didn't have enough time at certain ports to explore. We actually arrived back to Miami early as well cutting the last port time, where we might have been able to stay somewhat longer!

Since this was my 4th and my husband's first cruise I wanted it to be a good experience for him so he will do it again.  He loved it so we have will have more fun cruises together.  It was not all perfect.  Everything did not go as planned but we made the best of each situation and had a wonderful trip.  Life is full of imperfections so I would never let a little this or that ruin my fun.  The ship experience itself was wonderful.  The ship is beautiful, big and clean and with something for all ages.  We did not realize that so many kids were still out of school for spring break and the ship was full of kids.  At first I was afraid it would be a disaster.  I have to admit as an adult, I prefer adult cruising to having huge numbers of kids of all ages.  I can say that having the ship full of kids did not in any way impair our trip.  Our first disappointment was dining.  We could not get booked in advance for early dining and were told to ask for it when we boarded the ship.  We did and we three adults were seated at the end of a table of 6 small kids separated from their parents by us.  We refused the table as we did not want to have all our meals with 6 unknown kids.  So...we ended up being given anytime dining.  That would have been just fine except all thee of us having walking issues and we had purchased our cabin to be close to our dining room.  The anytime dining was at the far end of the ship so we had a major long walk for each meal we had in the dining room.  We also missed having an assigned table so you can develop a relationship with the wait staff and other diners near you.  It was not the end of the world however.  We still enjoyed the food.  It was good, not gourmet but good and well presented.  The filet mingnon over ribs was excellent.  So tender I only needed a fork to cut it and the beef bourguignon was tender and so yummy.  The casual dining deck had a huge variety of foods and only the pickiest of picky could possibly complain.  A surprise was how delicious the pizza was.  I never expected to eat pizza on a cruise but I did.  The ports we visited were all beautiful and a joy to be able to see and experience.  We had booked shore excursions online well in advance of the cruise.  Two ended up leaving us behind though not because we were not in the designated place.  The first  was a St Thomas overview from Cruises only.  We arrived at the place and time we were supposed to be there and the man had already left.  We were very upset about it and disappointed. Cruises Only expects you to call the local emergency number right then and there to tell them your problem and then you have to call a special number again when you finish your cruise to get a refund.  We found a local taxis driver who got us on an island tour with a friend in the business and it was great.  It cost 1/2 what the Cruises Only tour cost and we visited more areas so we were not disappointed.  In Nassau we went to the Blue Lagoon to swim with the dolphins.  It was so much fun.  Do it.  You will love it.  Again in Gran Turk a Carnival shore excursion for a submarine viewing of the fish and coral reefs got messed up.  Our ship was late getting in because the port authorities started our disembarkation process and then in the middle stopped us and let a Norwegain cruise liner tie up at port and disembark the whole ship and made us wait.  I am sure there is a reason for it but it seemed a little strange to us. When you got off board and started looking for your tour group honestly it is a little confusing.  The Norwegain guides had signs and were right in front where you could see them.  The Carnival guide was in a kiosk in the middle of the court and you had to find them.  We did, got signed up as 3  of the first people and got our wrist bands showing we were on that tour.  The guide told us to go sit on bench and he would come get us.  Well he never did and so we were left behind.  We were getting nervous so we checked and were told they captain had left and he was called to come get us.  You could see him just barely out of port and he refused to come back even though he had us on his list and had only picked up 10 of the 13 assigned people.  Needlesstosay we were upset.  The Carnival rep they could not offer an alternate event.  The beach was right off the cruise ship so we went back on board and put on our swimming suits and stayed on the beach.  The water is so clear you can see your feet at all times, fish swam by and we had a great time.  So, we didn't get what we planned but we still had a great day.  We were there to have fun and that is what we did.  Onboard the Splendor it was great sailing.  There are activities for everyone and we picked ones we enjoyed.  The photographers are super fun guys.  We took loads of pictures and came home with some really good ones.   Everyone on the ship was super nice.  The wait staff, the cabin people, all the service people, just everyone was nice.  Getting off after the tour was not super easy to understand.  Announcements were made on the intercom and if you did not exactly understand you could get conflicting info from staff.  We had an early flight out and should have been off the ship early but due to confusion were on hours longer than we should have been.  We used a Carnival bus to take us to the airport in Miami.  I would use a taxi next time. It cost less and you don't have to wait for the whole bus to fill up.  So, not everything was smoothly done but it didn't matter.  We had a wonderful time and would do the whole thing again in a heartbeat.  We are still on a happy high and we got home Easter.  I would highly recommend this cruise.

I brought my 2 daughters and their friend  11-15 years old on the cruise and they had a very good time they met a lot of kids it was spring break

The service and the food was very good. loved the islands

Overall the cruise was vey nice had a very good time I would go back in a heart beat and very highly reccomand it.