My husband and I just completed a 7 day cruise to Mexico (10/04/09 - 10/11/09) and were very unhappy with the ship.  The employees, entertainment, food and casino staff were wonderful.  It was the ship itself.  Here are some examples:

• Restrooms were hard to find and were very small.  One had to step into a stall to let another person walk by.
• No drink stations out by the pool on the Lido deck!  You get a hamburger out there and then have to walk all the way into the Lido Buffett to get an ice tea.  Not good planning.
• Very limited coffee stations on the Lido deck.  Only one on each side and the lines were so long that by the time I got coffee, my breakfast was cold.  The machines also ran out a lot and after standing in line for 5 minutes or so, one had to go find another line.
• Smokers were delegated to a very small area of the ship.  Deck 10 aft was the only place to find table, chairs and ashtray.  (Other ships allowed smokers to go to the starboard side on an open deck.)  This prevented us from enjoying any activities and music.  If the ship is non-smoking, say so.  We will sail with someone else.
• We never did figure out how to get to the bow.  There seemed to be a lot of 'road blocks' on different decks with no way to get around them. 

These are just some of the things that made us unhappy.  We have sailed on quite a few Carnival ships and have never been so unhappy with the ship itself.  I really hope that they contact some others on this cruise because I heard a lot of unhappy people. 

We are planning a family cruise for Nov. 2010 for our 20th anniversary but will go with another line if Splendor is still sailing out of Long Beach.

 

You must be used to sailing on the older ships, they're much easier to navigate.  Unfortunately, the newer ships like the Splendor are built just around a more current model.  You just have to grab a ship map and make the best of it since they're not going to change.  Carnival spends millions to have these ships built to their specifications so the ships are laid out in a way that suits their purpose.  They just take a little getting used to.

Glad you enjoyed the other aspects of your cruise.

Hi Karen, I was on the same cruise.  I do agree about the smoking areas. 

I agree with you Karen...the ship was really choppy and hard to navigate.  After a week, I still wasn't able to figure it all out and we never found the front of the ship either.

I also found that the service wasn't as good as past cruises.  We cruised on The Pride 2 years ago and found the service so much more personal than this time around.  For example, we have 2 young children so we use the bunks in our cabin...on our cruise 2 years ago, our Room Steward put up the couch bed and put away the upper bunk every morning and then brought them back out each evening.  This time around, the beds weren't put away once.  Certainly not a big deal BUT enough to make us notice.  Also, on our last cruise, our drinks were poured before we arrived at dinner because the waiter got to know what we liked.  Not this time...in fact, on two occasions we asked for Iced Tea and it never came.  

Don't get me wrong, we had a fabulous time, but I just didn't get that personal touch we have received on our 2 past cruises. 

 

 

We just sailed on the Splendor Oct 4 - 11. This was our first cruise, and from all the hype I had heard from friends and fellow cruisers, I had anticipated much more than I got. Sorry to say, I too was very dissappointed.

First of all, everytime we would order  continental breakfast in our room, we only recieved maybe half of what we ordered, or not everything we needed for our order.  For instance we  ordered coffee for three and recieve one cup, and one little package of sugar or if we ordered cereal, and milk , we would only get the cereal and bowl, but no milk.They never did manage to get it right.

I agree with the navigation of the ship being frustrating. For the first few days we spent alot of time in the elevators trying to figure out which ones would take us to the decks we were trying to reach.And when we would find crew members to ask how to get there,  their English  was hard to understand. Plus they did not know the ship very well either cause they kept sending us on wild goose chases. Ship Maps? Great idea, but never saw one, where do you get those?

I agree about the smoking areas.

I purchased a fountain card but did not feel it was worth it.Everytime you want a coke, you have to go to bar to get it. I was in a wheel chair, so it was not too easy for me just to go get it.The only time you can have it brought to you is in the dining room with your meal, or if you are on deck and order from the waiter. I like to drink a coke in my room, but that would mean that I would have to go down a few decks in the elevator and then bring it back up in a glass, taking the chance of spilling it. I would think  you should be able to use your fountain drink card with room service but you can't you are charged separately everytime.

Food:  dinner in the dining room was good, but great and wonderful was what I had anticipated.

Breakfast : dining room and buffet French toast  and waffles soft and spongy and  barely warm, as well as the regular toast , you could not get the butter to melt on it. Potatoes McDonald style, only tiny.

I don't know maybe I was expecting too much and that is why I was dissappointed.

 The Positives:

The Mongolian stirfrys were very good as were the custom made omelettes

Our  dining waiter was wonderful, he fullfilled every expection we had regarding service and in fact far exceeded them.

Our cabin steward was wonderful also.

The ship is beautiful , even with all the pink.

We managed to have a wonderful time, just being together as family. (There were 12 of us.)but not because of the service or ship, or food, but in spite of it. I think we would have had a great time even if we were on a raft. That is just us. Have not given up on cruising just would like to try a different ship next time to have something to compare it with.

 

larcamama:

We just sailed on the Splendor Oct 4 - 11. This was our first cruise, and from all the hype I had heard from friends and fellow cruisers, I had anticipated much more than I got. Sorry to say, I too was very dissappointed.

First of all, everytime we would order  continental breakfast in our room, we only recieved maybe half of what we ordered, or not everything we needed for our order.  For instance we  ordered coffee for three and recieve one cup, and one little package of sugar or if we ordered cereal, and milk , we would only get the cereal and bowl, but no milk.They never did manage to get it right.

I agree with the navigation of the ship being frustrating. For the first few days we spent alot of time in the elevators trying to figure out which ones would take us to the decks we were trying to reach.And when we would find crew members to ask how to get there,  their English  was hard to understand. Plus they did not know the ship very well either cause they kept sending us on wild goose chases. Ship Maps? Great idea, but never saw one, where do you get those?

I agree about the smoking areas.

I purchased a fountain card but did not feel it was worth it.Everytime you want a coke, you have to go to bar to get it. I was in a wheel chair, so it was not too easy for me just to go get it.The only time you can have it brought to you is in the dining room with your meal, or if you are on deck and order from the waiter. I like to drink a coke in my room, but that would mean that I would have to go down a few decks in the elevator and then bring it back up in a glass, taking the chance of spilling it. I would think  you should be able to use your fountain drink card with room service but you can't you are charged separately everytime.

Food:  dinner in the dining room was good, but great and wonderful was what I had anticipated.

Breakfast : dining room and buffet French toast  and waffles soft and spongy and  barely warm, as well as the regular toast , you could not get the butter to melt on it. Potatoes McDonald style, only tiny.

 Almost forgot this part:

The most dissappointing  aspect of our cruise were our  seating arrangements and the reaction of the maitre di for dinner, since there were 12 in our party, they gave us 2 small tables next to the windows, which seats six each, however,  we were 7 adults and 4 children( age 2-14), which meant that in order to accomodate, one adult would have to sit  at the children's table. which did not make that adult or any of the children very happy. When we tried to talk with the Maitre di, he actually laughed at us and did not try to remedy the situation. How is that for service? We managed to make to best of it.

I don't know maybe I was expecting too much and that is why I was dissappointed.

 The Positives:

The Mongolian stirfrys were very good as were the custom made omelettes

Our  dining waiter was wonderful, he fullfilled every expection we had regarding service and in fact far exceeded them.

Our cabin steward was wonderful also.

The ship is beautiful , even with all the pink.

We managed to have a wonderful time, just being together as family. (There were 12 of us.)but not because of the service or ship, or food, but in spite of it. I think we would have had a great time even if we were on a raft. That is just us. Have not given up on cruising just would like to try a different ship next time to have something to compare it with.

 

WOW!, I guess if someone can find something to be unhappy about they will.  My experience on the Splendor was wonderful, and heck, I was even without water in my cabin for almost 6  hours. 

There are little cards with the layout of the ship available all over the ship and at the front desk.  There are also deck plans available on line that would have helped with navigation. 

While there may not have been drink stations near the grill, there were numerous portable drink stations set up in that center Lido deck area. And, if you need to take drinks to the room, they had travel glasses available, or you could have brought one.

The bow of the ship is not really accessible to just anyone. The area where the ship's bell is located is the crews area.  So, if you were thinking of doing the "Titanic I am king of the world" thingy, you did not have access to this part of the ship.

There are however, some areas near the front, such as under the bridge you can walk to.  It is just a matter of going through a closed door.

I am not sure which dining room you had, Black or Gold Pearl... but unless you made arrangements for group seating before the sailing, the layout is what it is.  Even the round tables are 8 to 10 per table.

Smoking areas,,,, well I didn't find a lack of them anywhere. And remember, unless  you were in a Spa cabin or suite you can smoke in your stateroom.  I would think that most the shows on the center Lido deck don't last that long, and because it can get crowded there, I wouldn't even smoke there if I was allowed to, just to be courteous.

 I am not sure what changed in the coffee station arrangements from the time I sailed in Sept to the Oct sailing, but, I found more coffee and drink stations on this ship than I have on previous ships. Plus, I found the cups and glasses larger than those on other ships.

 

Thanks to all of you for your input.  To clarify, we did have ship maps ( you can get them from the front desk) and have found them to be very helpful in the past.  I carried mine with me constantly.  In the past, we have been able to navigate without it by the second day.  I was still referring to the map on Saturday.  We have been on many cruises with Carnival and have always found the ship well laid out and easy to navigate. 

Hmmmm, the last time I sailed with Carnival they had servers pushing drink carts throughout the buffet area during breakfast, do they not do this on the Splendor?

Except for the smoking thing I found every thing to be just about perfect.  Living in Calif I have gotten use to not being able to smoke anywhere.    Yes, they have the carts and I once asked for tomato juice which she didn't have so she went to the dinning room and got me tomato juice.  I never had any lines to get coffee.  I also had coffee brough by room service.  They didn't bring enough sugar so I got extra sugar and brought it to my cabin so I always had plenty.  Our orders were always right.  I got lost at times even with the little map but thats because with no windows you can't tell which is the front of the ship or the rear.  That happens on all ships.

marlene:

Except for the smoking thing I found every thing to be just about perfect.  Living in Calif I have gotten use to not being able to smoke anywhere.    Yes, they have the carts and I once asked for tomato juice which she didn't have so she went to the dinning room and got me tomato juice.  I never had any lines to get coffee.  I also had coffee brough by room service.  They didn't bring enough sugar so I got extra sugar and brought it to my cabin so I always had plenty.  Our orders were always right.  I got lost at times even with the little map but thats because with no windows you can't tell which is the front of the ship or the rear.  That happens on all ships.

Marlene... I had no problem with the navigating the ship.. which is unusual for me,, I can get lost going around the block!.. (just kidding).. Julie did have problems trying to decide whether she wanted to go "up" or "down" when she got the elevators... It was pretty funny... she was wrong about 80% of the time!..  I can relate to the California smoking thing... but it is spreading rapidly across the country. I can remember one time when I was travelling I was at a bar, and got up a few times to go "out for a smoke" ... and the bartender asked me... "wouldn't you rather just have an ashtray?"  ... talk about conditioning.. I actually felt guilty smoking inside.

and yes Jenn.. they have drink carts all over the place on the Lido deck...

Sage, When in Reno I still put out my cig.before entering a casino. 

marlene:

Sage, When in Reno I still put out my cig.before entering a casino. 

So you know what I am saying about conditioning... Do you remember when coffee was bad for you.. or eggs.. or any number of a thousand of things... I imagine 2nd hand smoke is no worse than the air quality you breath on a daily basis.......   They have even stated that people that spend 15 minutes....... yep ... just 15 minutes on  a freeway in traffic... inhale more carcinogens then smoking  a pack a day............   My paternal grandparents smoke liked fiends......  and live to be 99 and 100 ............ Odd part is... I didn't start smoking until I was into my 30's........... and I can smoke or not, and be perfectly okay with it............ more a habit to get me out of my office somedays........ cuz I don't and won't (because of hubby's health issues) smoke in my house..

Sage, most of the people who tell me I should quit smoking have pace makers ,diabetes and so many other medical problems.  I have smoked 50+ years and tried to quit so many times over the years and failed.  Last year when my son in law died of cancer at 47 and had never smoked or was in a household with smoking, I decided to just live with it.  I'm in good health so I don't worry about it any more.  I think the thing that bothers me the most is this attitude that people have that it is OK for a stranger to come up to me and tell me I should quit smoking.  Where did this come from?  Can you imagine going up to a total stranger and telling them they need to diet because their fat is going to kill them.  Same thing!

marlene:

I think the thing that bothers me the most is this attitude that people have that it is OK for a stranger to come up to me and tell me I should quit smoking.  Where did this come from?  Can you imagine going up to a total stranger and telling them they need to diet because their fat is going to kill them.  Same thing!

I totally agree with you.... There is only one thing certain about life, and that is that everyone eventually dies.  And like you, I have known quite a few people that have had cancer, and have never smoked.   Actually got a great chuckle out of the "fat" thing.. oh.. lordy.. there are so many people I would love to say that to!