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Carnival Splendor Baltic (Northern Europe) Cruise |
| Reviewed By: Russell, Tunbridge Wells on 19th Aug 2008 |
| Cruise Line: Carnival Cruises |
Times cruised before: 1-2 |
| Cruise Ship: Carnival Splendor |
Sailed:
August,
2008 |
| Destination: Northern Europe |
Age: 46-55 |
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Carnival Splendor Baltic (Northern Europe) Cruise 6 – 18 August 08.
We have cruised as a family twice before on the Grand Princess and Navigator of the Seas, therefore the newly launched Carnival Splendor fell into a similar class and comparisons were bound to be made. Our children are 16 and 10 years.
Being a brand new ship we anticipated innovations and improvements on the older ships on previous sailings. Although the Splendor is a very impressive vessel we were surprised at the number of basic design errors that had been made. Specifically the theatre design has so many restricted viewing seats that we were forced to arrive at least half an hour before each show to ensure that we could see. This particularly applies to upper areas and the back of the stalls area. The two pearl dining room central areas are reasonably open but the seating areas at the lower level sides are far too oppressive caused by very low ceilings. There are three swimming pools, the main Lido deck with the sliding roof and the forward and aft positions with the usual hot-tubs. On the plus side these were the warmest pools we had experienced but the Lido pool was far too small for the number of guests. Most disappointing was the sauna and steam facilities – Carnival has cynically cut back on these areas to draw you to the 35$ per day Cloud 9 facilities. Unfortunately when you only want 30 minutes use of these each day, 35$ is unreasonable.
In general we found the layout of the ship a muddle, particularly deck 5, although the provision of lifts is very good with waiting times very short.
As with previous cruises the dining room staff and room attendants were first class and as a family of four we were expected to pay 120$ per head in gratuities which were automatically added to our bill. As we expected this we did not have it removed, but we were annoyed that an envelope appeared in our room on the last night to tip the Maitre-de. Needless to say having paid out 480$ and 15% on every drinks purchase we declined this further opportunity. This gratuity regime employed by all cruise lines is becoming a ‘show-stopper’ for us; it is something that only occurs at sea and not at good quality land based hotels. Why?
On Carnival in general compared with Princess and RCL, they do not come out too well. The concept of ‘Fun-Ship’ is too big a title to live up to. We had John Heald (Cruise Director) telling us we had been sprinkled with ‘Fun-dust’ as we entered the ship, but the reality is on a Northern European cruise where sunshine is limited and sea days are long, unless you like endless games of Bingo, the Casino, Art Auctions or being endlessly photographed (all designed to extract more money from the customer) ‘fun’ is in short supply. Walking around the Lido Restaurant in the evening told its own story with many people amusing themselves with their own card and board games. On the subject of extracting money – we were extremely amused towards the end of the cruise when we had a brochure delivered to our cabin suggesting that if we had slept well on the cruise we could buy a similar bed – on this basis we were expecting the ship to be broken up at Dover and the parts sold-off!
The food quality was generally good being better than RCL but not as good as Princess. The layout of the Lido Restaurant could be improved to limit the queuing, but there was never a problem finding a table. Some areas of the Lido restaurant, particularly starboard aft were too cold.
The Entertainment was headed up by John Heald (Cruise Director). John was very competent and related well to the guests combining British style humour with the need to appeal to mainly American guests. By far the best stage shows of the cruise were when John hosted the talent contest and made best use of audience participation. He also hosted a morning TV show which combined with the stage shows and announcements kept us informed although we would like to have a bit less of people being asked to tell each other how much they ‘love them’ (possibly the American influence?). There were four visiting performers – a welsh fiddler, a magician, an Australian soprano and an English comic. Without exception these were all hopeless and must have been cheap – well below the standards set by Princess and RCL. The in-house team served-up the usual menu of singing and dancing with three compilation shows. It would be nice if cruise ships could get away from this standard song and dance formula. These shows were generally saved by the lighting, sound and musicians, but like the visiting performers the dancers and particularly the male and female vocalists were well below the expected standard. JH made a comment about Simon Cowell wrongly referring to substandard performers as working on cruise ships – well sorry John; they all seem to be working on Carnival.
The childrens clubs were their to be used but our daughter (10) only used the club on a couple of occassions and our son (16) did not use the Clib O2 at all. This seemed to be the case with the teenagers who did not seem interested in their own area.
We booked a Penthouse Suite on Deck 7 for our family of four, which was very comfortable, although the balcony was far too narrow. This it seemed gave us the privilege of a VIP check-in at Dover which we were grateful for. The non-VIP check-in queues did not look good. It is unfortunate that this is where the VIP privilege started and ended (see Cloud 9 comment earlier). Both check-in and debarkation were relatively smooth, but Dover has yet to reach the standard of Southampton for both check-in and parking. Both are still a vast improvement on flying anywhere!
We did a number of excursions, only going solo in Estonia. The only enjoyable excursion was the cycling in Germany and indeed this was our favourite stop, particularly with the farewell given by the local community. The Russian excursions were by far the worst with endless queuing and incompetent guides whose sole purpose seemed to be to take you on a route March. Copenhagen and Tivoli gardens were also very disappointing. Overnight in Russia seemed pointless. Clearly the cruise lines hand you over to the local tour companies and you are at their mercy. We assume that the cruise lines are taking a fee from the bookings and it would be nice if they took more responsibility for the quality of the excursions.
Clearly this is a cruise for the ‘Culture Vultures’ who are interested in the history of Northern Europe. If you are looking for long relaxing days on the sun deck, this is not for you. Would I cruise with Carnival again – unlikely when I can choose Princess or Royal Caribbean?
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| Quality of Food |  |
| Lido Resturant - Good food, poor layout, good seating. Black Pearl Restaurant - Good Food, good service but low ceilings spoil the seating. | | Entertainment |  |
| Low standard of visiting and in-house performers | | Shore Excursions | |
| Avoid Russia and Tivoli Gardens (Copenhagen). Cycling in Germany good fun but bikes unsuitable for under 10 years. | | Staff |  |
| All waiting staff and room attendants very good. Captain was a rare site even at the captain's reception! | | Children's Facilities |  |
| All there to be used but not fully utilised | | Onboard Activities | |
| Only there to make money for Carnival. Cannot compare with RCL ice skating rinks, wave riders and climbing walls. | | Cabins | |
| Penthouse suite cabin very good but all balconys are too narrow to enjoy | | Overall Rating | |
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