Carnival Splendor Journeys Review: Day 1 – Embarkationfeatured

Another cruise.

We were on another cruise.

It felt like I never left the last cruise, but here we were again. Do any of you feel that way on embarkation day? That familiar sense of déjà vu, that no matter how much (or how little) time has passed, it feels like you’ve never left?

For me, it was because the three months that passed since my last cruise on the Paradise flew by in this hazy blur that had no beginning or middle, but ended when I stepped foot on the plane to Florida. My work (merchandising for an online retailer) peaks in the fourth quarter, and from the beginning of October through the week before Christmas, everything moves at hyper speed, an indistinguishable whirlwind of long meetings, aggressive deadlines and daily conference calls. I didn’t have a free day, let alone a free weekend, since I got back from New York at the beginning of October.

Needless to say, I needed a break.

My guiding light through the craziness was the fact that at the end of it all, I was going to walk onto an airplane headed to Florida and disappear for two weeks. That’s the beauty of cruises, you know? Work can’t really follow you (unless you have an international data plan on your cell phone, but what fun is that when there are umbrella drinks and beaches?!).

So on a snowy Wednesday night, I left work, hailed the coolest ride to the airport I could find (read: the El) and met Mom and Stephanie at O’Hare for a late flight bound for Miami. I was convinced our flight wouldn’t get out – the forecast called for flurries and high winds, and of the 30 or so flights I’d taken on American in 2017, at least a quarter of them had been cancelled, and of the ones that weren’t cancelled, more of them were delayed than on time. I had terrible luck with on time flights last year. But luck was on my side this time – our flight was right on time.

We spent three days traipsing around South Florida. We shopped our way through our old haunts in Boca Raton (where, by the way, I got over $300 worth of clothes for less than $35 and Mom got a $250 winter coat for $37 at Nordstrom Rack – you know I love me a good deal). We went to the brand new Museum of Ice Cream in Miami (which you can read all about here!). We snapped pictures at the Wynwood Walls. We hit the beach in Fort Lauderdale. We stayed in our favorite South Florida hotel (the Marriott Renaissance in Plantation, where we’ve stayed for most of our visits over the past ten years). I told one of my coworkers before I left that I was so keyed up and exhausted that I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to exhale the breath I’d been holding since October. But when we left the hotel on our way to our favorite brunch spot in Boca that first morning, palm trees lining the way to our car and the most wonderful balmy air warming my skin, I felt myself let it go. Vacation mode? Firmly on.

Three days of pre-cruise relaxation felt like just enough of something that will never be totally enough. Does that make sense outside of my head? I can never get enough time in South Florida. It feels like home. It is, in a way, my second home. It has been since I was little, when we’d live here in the winters. But by the third day, I was ready to get cruising!

There aren’t many itineraries we haven’t cruised over the past 13 years (at least, not many under 14 days). We’ve done the Caribbean (eastern, western and southern), we’ve done Mexico, we’ve done Central America, we’ve done the Mediterranean and the Baltics (and I’ve done Cuba). Alaska didn’t seem like a good idea in the winter, airfare to Hawaii was more expensive than to Europe and we were already booked on another Mediterranean cruise in the spring.

But you know what we hadn’t done? A Carnival Journeys cruise. Retro anything is totally my jam and I haven’t had a taste of Vegetables Princess since…2006? 2007? It’d been too long. The timing was perfect for all three of us and, even better, an extended aft balcony room was available. Nine days, docking in San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, St. Kitts and Grand Turk. And then Irma happened. Days before I went to Cuba, actually. Some of our ports didn’t fare as well, and our itinerary was changed weeks before our departure, with Nassau replacing St. Thomas and Antigua replacing St. Maarten.

So after three days of roaming around SoFlo, we (re)packed our bags, checked out of the Renaissance and headed off towards Miami to board the Splendor. But first, we had to return the car at Miami International. We rented through Dollar (via a Hotwire Hot Rate deal) and though Dollar and Budget offer a complimentary shared shuttle service to the port, there were five ships in port and a long line waiting for the shuttle. We contemplated for two minutes and waved over the first taxi van we saw. The shuttle would have been complimentary and a cab to the port from the airport is a flat rate $35. But the shuttle was only running once every 45 minutes and with the large group of people already waiting, there was no assurance we’d get on the next one. Time is money (or so…someone…says) and we wanted to get our vacation started!

A porter quickly greeted our taxi at the cruise terminal to take care of our luggage and our taxi driver, Fritz, gave Mom his cell phone number for our return back to the airport. There were three lines for embarkation: one for those who arrived on time for their arrival appointment, one for those who arrived early for their arrival appointment and one for Priority/Faster to the Fun/Special Needs. We arrived just after 11:00 AM, but even though our designated appointment wasn’t until 1:30 PM, our Platinum status granted us priority access through embarkation and we quickly made our way to the third line.

Check in was a much different experience than it had been on any of our previous Carnival cruises: at the entrance of the line, someone checked our documents for the priority badge before allowing us into the line, then we were assigned to the next available agent, who checked our passports and scanned us in (and printed us a receipt, of sorts, with barcodes since they were missing from our documents). From there, we went through security and just as we did that, Platinum boarding was called and we walked right on the boat. That’s right. No waiting for someone to check us in, grab our keys and gather our health forms. We were directed right onto the ship. Our keys would be waiting for us outside our stateroom in the mailbox (which seems kind of unsafe because just about anyone could walk by and grab them, but I’m sure Carnival has experts far more versed in this kind of stuff than I am). From the time we got out of the cab to the time we were in our stateroom was less than 20 minutes. Crazy, huh?

Our aforementioned Platinum status also means that our stateroom is ready when we step onboard, so once we stepped onto the ship, we found our way to deck six, snuck past the closed doors and made the long walk from the forward elevators we boarded from all the way aft. And if I forget to mention it later, holy Farcus — I’ve seen many wacky design schemes on Carnival ships, but the Splendor may take the award for the most out-there aesthetic.

We had booked cabin 6489 – an aft extended balcony cabin. Our room seemed more spacious than some of the others we’ve sailed in (but that is entirely perception), and our balcony was much deeper than a standard balcony, with two chairs and a table, and room for at least two more.

I find having the room ready when we board one of the more valuable Platinum perks. Not monetarily, of course, but the ability to ditch our carry on bags as soon as we board to free ourselves up to explore the ship without having to mind them is really nice. So, now freed of our bags, we headed up to the Lido deck to grab lunch. The Splendor is one of the few remaining ships built in the last ten years that have not yet undergone the 2.0 upgrades. This means no Guy’s Burgers, no Red Frog Pub and no Blue Iguana Cantina. The Lido fare onboard the Splendor is much like it was ten years ago: a grill, a burrito bar, a deli (still with the old menu), the pizza stand (with the newer Pizza Pirate menu), Taste of Nations and the rotisserie. It does have one unique feature though: a barbecue station on deck 10, where the pasta bar usually is. And since it was new and different and because we like barbecue, it was an easy choice for lunch. It was fantastic. I don’t usually care for pork, but the pulled pork sandwich was aces.

After lunch, we started our traditional getting-to-know-you walk around the ship. We lingered in the outdoor areas because the weather was so absolutely perfect, in the upper 70s with very little humidity. I love the view from the Port of Miami, too, with the palm trees lining the highway and the skyscrapers stretching majestically towards the sky.

When we ventured inside to explore the indoor areas, I couldn’t help but draw comparisons to the Paradise, which was the last Carnival ship I had sailed on. I think the Splendor reminds me more of the Paradise and the older ships than it does some of the newer ships it was built closer to. But either way, the Carnival layout is familiar enough that you could drop me on the promenade of any of its ships and I’d find my way easily enough.

After a couple of rounds around the ship, we decided to head back to the room to relax and recharge a little bit. Embarkation, for whatever reason, is always stressful and draining. Maybe it’s the anticipation. I don’t know. But it always puts us in the mood for a nap. And when we got back to the room, three of our four checked bags were waiting for us. The staterooms had just been opened up non-Priority guests and our luggage was already ready. This was perfect for us because it gave us the chance to fully unpack and settle into the room before we had to worry about muster drills or dinner. So that’s what we did: we had a ton of unpacking to do — this family has never been accused of packing light — but the room had plenty of closets and storage space for us to use. And when we were done, we sat out on the balcony, reminiscing on our time onboard the ship situated directly in front of us — the Norwegian Getaway.

In an odd happenstance (or, more likely, because it would only take a few hours to sail to our port of call in Nassau), our departure from Miami didn’t fall until 8:00 PM, with the safety briefing at 7:30 PM. The timing worked well for us, because we had a 5:30 PM reservation at the Pinnacle Steakhouse. We took a few minutes to watch dusk settle over Miami (about an hour later than it does at home at this time of year!) before checking in with the hostess.

I had been hoping the Splendor would have the new steakhouse menu because I’m really eager to try some of the new offerings, but the Splendor was still offering the old menu. Totally fine, though – I’ll get the chance to try the new ones in April onboard the Horizon. Service was attentive (though slightly cold), but instead of offering us the complimentary wine that is usually offered to diners on both embarkation day and the first formal night, we were only offered 50% off bottles of wine. The complimentary bottle was printed in the Fun Times, but I think we would have needed to ask for it to get it. It’s free wine, not great wine, so we opted for a bottle of our own choosing anyways (a delicious Malbec), but it seemed odd that none of the four servers minding our table mentioned the complimentary option. And even though the menus were the ones we’ve dined off of dozens of times, good food prepared well never gets old and everything we ordered was cooked and presented masterfully. It was the perfect meal to kick off the next phase of our vacation adventure.

Dining at the steakhouse is a long and leisurely experience that spans five courses (plus bread, if you count that as a course, which I suppose you could, given the bread and spread choices), and we finished our meal just in time for muster drill. At that point, I’d drank more than three glasses of wine and was beyond full and standing in line for the safety briefing was just about the last thing I wanted to do, but by now, we know the tips and tricks of muster: always be the last one in. Never leave before the bell sounds, always take your time. The later you arrive, the closer you are to the front, which means instead of being packed in like sardines in a can, you’re the sardine sitting on top. At the end of the day, you’re still a sardine, but at the very least, you’re a sardine that can breathe.

We went back to our cabin to enjoy sailaway on that big, beautiful balcony of ours, only to find that our room still hadn’t been serviced and the Fun Times for the next day shoved in the mailbox. It was nearing 8:30 PM (and to be fair, our steward stopped by to drop off our drink vouchers, bottled water and pins and said he’d be back to make up the sofa bed while we were at the Welcome Aboard show), but it felt late to not have the room serviced. We sat out on the balcony for just under an hour, taking in the city lights as we sailed through the Biscayne Channel and out towards the open waters that would land us in the Bahamas.

Once South Beach was relegated to small, dim lights in the distance, we left the room to be serviced and headed up to the Lido deck to have a quick caffeine jolt, since coffee hadn’t been offered with our dessert at the steakhouse. After we were caffeinated, we made a stop at the casino to get lanyards for our Sail and Sign Cards and headed off to the theatre, where we took in a few entertaining rounds of bingo before the Welcome Aboard Show.

Carnival updated the Welcome Aboard show this year and while the new production is nice, the star of this show was really our Cruise Director, MarQ, who put on his own show before the Playlist performers took the stage. Stephanie quickly recognized MarQ from our Vista cruise the year before and with his dry Midwest sense of humor (and with Fun Times filled to the brim with activities for the week), we knew we were in good hands.

After the show, we tiptoed around the crowded atrium, where there was an after party with the Fun Squad and the Playlist Performers, to head up to the Lido Grill for some late night snacks. We mulled through our options for Nassau over a plate of fries, trying to figure out what we wanted to do with a full day in port. When we returned to our room, the couch had been turned down, but the rest of the room had not been serviced. I wasn’t sure if this was intentional or an oversight, but we were too tired to care. We were reserving all of our energy for a day of DIY touring fun in Nassau.