Our Splendid Splendor cruise (with pics) 8/13/13 Part 2

Jamman

Carnival Specialist
Community Sponsor
After checking out our cabin, it was time to head upstairs for our embarkation lunch. Patti wanted to do the Mongolian Wok today, knowing that the rest of the cruise the lines would be long. For those that don’t know how the Mongolian Wok works, you select your noodles, protein, veggies, and sauce, put them in a bowl, and give them to the stir fry chef to cook in the wok. We have a few Round Grills in our area which are much better, but for being on a cruise ship, it’s not too bad. Since Ryan was wanting the chicken at the Rotisserie, I asked Patti to make me up a bowl at the wok, then meet us there. Now, most of the buffet venues are on Lido Deck 9, but the Rotisserie is located on deck 10 aft. There are stairs by the Burrito Bar that lead up there. There never was a line, as most people don’t even know it’s there, and there is always plenty of seating, even during the peak breakfast and lunch rushes. Lunch time hours for each venue are as follows: Lido Lunch Buffet, Burrito Bar, Mongolian Wok, Rotisserie, and Tandoor are open from Noon to 3:30pm on port days, Noon to 2:30pm on sea days. The Grill is open from 11:30 am to 6pm daily, and the Deli is open from 11am to 11pm daily. The Pizza, of course is open 24 hours. Mongolian Wok, Deck 9 Mid….

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The Rotisserie, Deck 10 Aft…..

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Typical Rotisserie lunch…

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The Sweet Spot, Deck 9 Aft…

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The Deli, Deck 9 Aft Port side…

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Tandoor, Deck 9 Aft Starboard side…

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To be continued....
 
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Jamman

Carnival Specialist
Community Sponsor
After finishing our lunch, we decided to go down to the Gold Pearl Restaurant and check out our table location. If you want to change your dining preferences, they begin handling that at 1:30pm at the Black Pearl Restaurant, Deck 4 Fwd. I had emailed the Maitre’d about a month prior, requesting a 4 top in The Gold Pearl Restaurant, and that is exactly what we got!! The Gold Pearl Restaurant:

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Our booth, second from the left…

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Table # 411……

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Gold Pearl Restaurant….

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Gold Pearl Chandelier….

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Patti then wanted to go unpack our luggage, which was now waiting for us, and I was going to head up to the Liner Bar, for our informal roll call meet and greet. It was a fairly small group, but it was a pleasure to be able to meet the people I had been “talking” to the past 3 or 4 months. A good time was had by all. That’s me having another beer at the Liner Bar…

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To be continued….
 
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Jamman

Carnival Specialist
Community Sponsor
Patti quickly finished unpacking, and since she had some time before we met back at the cabin at 3:30 for the muster drill, she decided to walk around the ship and take some pictures. Also, the rain had stopped, and the skies were clearing up! Looks like we will be fine for sail away! The following couple of pages are some of the pictures Patti took during her explorations.
The Royal Flush Casino – Deck 5 Mid…

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Oceanview Bar – Deck 5 Mid…

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The Coffee Shop – Deck 5 Mid…

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Club O2 (15-17 year olds) – Deck 5 Mid…

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Top Score Arcade – Deck 5 Aft…

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To be continued…
 
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Jamman

Carnival Specialist
Community Sponsor
Oceanview Promenade – Deck 5…

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Sushi Bar – Deck 5 Aft…

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El Mojito Wine Bar – Deck 5 Aft…

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Splendido Lido Pool – Deck 9 Mid (Our version of the Carnival webcam!)…

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Splendido Lido Pool – Deck 9 Mid…

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Splendido Lido Pool DJ…

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To be continued….
 
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Jamman

Carnival Specialist
Community Sponsor
Splendido Lido Pool – Deck 9 Mid…

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Splendido Pool Bar – Deck 9 Mid. Starboard side…

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Liner Lido Pool – Deck 9 Aft It’s stopped raining!!!...

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Deck 11 Chairs – Starboard side Aft…

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Splash Park – Deck 11 Aft…

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Water Slide – Top (Deck 14) Bottom (Deck 11) Fwd…

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To be continued…
 
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Jamman

Carnival Specialist
Community Sponsor

Jamman

Carnival Specialist
Community Sponsor
Shortly after 3pm, Patti, Ryan, and I made our ways back to the cabin to relax a bit before the muster drill. Shortly after 3:30 the alarm was sounded and the drill began. Our muster station was “H”, located on Deck 4 Port side Aft. We were allowed to use the crew stairs to go down the two flights to Deck 4, which was really handy since they were right outside our door! The drill took about 20 minutes, even though they had to kick a few butts to get everybody down there. Soon it was over, and now to get ready for sail away!!! Darn, they wouldn’t let us use the crew staircase to go back up!

This would be the 15th time sailing from New York for me, mostly because it is close to home, but even after so many times, it doesn’t get old. There is so much history here, and so much to see! We joke that every time we cruise from here we take the same pictures of the same things, but guess what? We’re going to do it again! Patti and Ryan decided that they were going to hang out on the balcony and take pictures from there. My job was to shoot some video, so I headed out to the open decks. Right around 4:30, the Splendor backed out into the Hudson River, to begin our 8 day journey. The next few pages will document the beginning of our journey. Enjoy!!

Backed out into the Hudson River, that’s Pier 92 & Pier 90, which is where we left from…

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Looking north towards the George Washington Bridge…

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Tugboat escort….

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The Intrepid Museum…

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The Concorde at the Intrepid Mueseum…

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The Empire State Building…

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To be continued…
 
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Jamman

Carnival Specialist
Community Sponsor
Chelsea Piers golf driving range…..

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Looking towards Lower Manhattan…..

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Erie Lackawanna Terminal on the New Jersey side….

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Freedom Tower and the Financial District….

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Freedom Tower. I always get a tear in my eye when I remember what was standing here only 12 years ago…

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Another of the Freedom Tower, note the reflection in the water…

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To be continued…
 
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Jamman

Carnival Specialist
Community Sponsor
Once we passed under the bridge, we just hung out on the balcony until it was time to get ready for dinner…

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It was amazing how nice the weather had become, given the POURING rain we had earlier in the day. It made for a beautiful first sunset at sea…

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Once at dinner at the Gold Pearl Restaurant, we met the BEST wait team that I have seen in many years on Carnival, led by Bertram…

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He had the three person wait team down to a science. Drinks were served quickly and remembered after the first night, and refilled without asking. The bread basket came around several times without asking. All meals were served HOT right out of the kitchen. Bertram and his two assistants were completely in sync, smiling, and engaging, all week long!!! It was quite a turnaround from my last few cruises.
For my first meal I had the shrimp cocktail, spring rolls, sweet & sour shrimp, and the linguini with sausage & mushrooms. Topped off with two scoops of chocolate ice cream! Forgot to write down what Patti had, but I do know that Ryan had the roast chicken. It’s what he always has!!
Afterwards, Ryan went to Club O2 to hang out with newly made friends. Patti and I just elected to walk around the ship for a while, then call it a night. Upon arriving back at the cabin, we found our first towel animal waiting for us!

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Ah!!! It was GREAT to be cruising again!! Good Night!!
 
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gram

Environmental Compliance Officer
:sunny::sunny::sunny:


Great photos Jeff. New York is one cruise port that I haven't been. Maybe some time in the future. I love reading your report of your travels.
 

Jamman

Carnival Specialist
Community Sponsor
Hello Everybody!!! Time to begin Day 2.....

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I awoke at about 6:15, and I could see a little light sneaking in past the side of the curtains. I could also feel that the ship was rocking a little bit. I figured I would get up and take a few sunrise pictures from the balcony, so I pulled back the curtain that covers the balcony door and what do I see?......

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Crap!!! What I see is HEAVY raindrops and whitecaps!!!....

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So back to bed I go. Patti and Ryan never even stirred. I fell back to sleep for another hour or so, but then I heard a drip. And then there was another drip. Then I thought I felt a splash. So I got up, and sure enough the top of the window was leaking. Not a constant drip, but every 20 seconds or so it would drop down on the window sill creating a little splash. At least it wasn't dripping right on the bed. I put a towel on the window sill to absorb the drips....

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I went out into the hallway to find our stewards, and brought them into the room to show them the leak. Anak was on the phone immediately to maintenance, and they promised to be there right away. Being that it was now after 8am, we decided to go up to the Lido for breakfast....

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We love omelettes, I think we had them just about every day. There are four omelette stations. Two at what is the Burrito Bar for lunch, pictured above, and two at what becomes the Mongolian Wok at lunchtime. Right next to each omelette station is the breakfast meat station which also serves each nearby Breakfast Grill, so you do not have to go to separate lines to get your omelette and breakfast meat. Here you will meet the Bacon Police. These are the men and women who serve the bacon, ham, & sausage to you. If you want more than what they give you initially, they will be glad to give you more. In clumps!!! I swear that they get paid by the pan the way they dole it out!! You almost feel guilty if you don't take more!!!

To be continued....
 
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Jamman

Carnival Specialist
Community Sponsor
There are also four Breakfast Grill stations where you can get all those other breakfast items, including those infamous scrambled eggs that almost everybody hates. Stick to the Omelette Station. They will fry or scramble REAL eggs for you, in addition to the omelettes…

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There is a Continental Breakfast Station…

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Of course, many beverage stations, including the one upstairs by the Rotisserie on Deck 10…

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Patti and I enjoying our first breakfast at sea. (On this cruise)…

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To be continued…
 
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Jamman

Carnival Specialist
Community Sponsor
After breakfast we walked around a bit and snapped a few pictures. Here’s the Splendido Pool, surprisingly fairly empty, considering it was the only pool open due to the weather….

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Same thing for the Splendido Pool hot tubs on deck 10…

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Entrance to Camp Carnival – Deck10 Mid….

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At this point we decided to go back to the cabin and see how the maintenance guys were making out. What a mess! Our bed was covered in protective covers, the ceiling tiles against the whole outside wall were down, along with our A/C vent. Wish I had thought to snap a few pictures. They told me that they had found the “problem” and they would be out of there in a couple of hours. Fair enough.

I decided to go down to the internet cafe, “The Web” Deck 4 Aft, inside the Robusto Cigar Bar to set up an account so we could check our emails. Patti and Ryan headed out to the Spectacular Lounge to play bingo. Patti won $400.00!!

Back to the cabin again to see how they were doing and they were just finishing up, saying it was all “fixed”. I don’t know if it was really “fixed” or not because by now it had stopped raining, and it did not rain for the remainder of the cruise. So if you are in cabin 6450 and it’s raining hard outside…..BEWARE!!

Today was the first of two slot tournaments, so I went to the casino cashier to get my free entry. This Platinum benefit has been changed from one free entry per person to BOGO. (Buy One Get One). This has many Platinum cruisers up in arms, but since I like to play in both slot and blackjack tournaments, and Patti likes to play in both slot tournaments, we have to buy entries anyway! They have also raised the entry fee from $20.00 to $25.00. Much to Patti’s chagrin, (she’s the slot player), I was the top qualifier, earning me a seat in the final round. I must have picked a “broken” machine in the final, because I wasn’t even close to winning, so all I got was a t-shirt that doesn’t fit me!! Lol.

Afterwards, I played blackjack, (my game),for a few hours, and won a little bit. Patti and Ryan headed to the afternoon bingo session, and she won another $200.00!! Way to go Babe!! Patti’s two winners….

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By now it was almost 5pm and in need of a snack, so we went back to the Deli for some grilled ham, cheese, & tomato sandwiches. Yummy!! Seeing that the Liner Pool and hot tubs were open and barely being used, I went back to get my bathing suit. Patti wasn’t interested, but I spent the next couple of hours in the nearly deserted pool and hot tubs. Pure bliss!! I got back to the cabin in time to catch this evening’s sunset, and to get ready for the first Elegant Night dinner.

The ship’s wake…

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Tonight’s sunset….

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To be continued….
 
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Jamman

Carnival Specialist
Community Sponsor
Here are a couple more of tonight’s sunset pictures….

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Patti and Ryan went to see the first family comedy show before dinner and said it was great.

Tonight’s Elegant Night dinner was FANTABULOUS!!! Bertram and his assistants were at the top of their game. I had the shrimp cocktail, alligator fritters, 2 orders of lobster & shrimp, topped off with cherries jubilee. Patti also had the lobster. Everything was simply delicious. Tonight the waiters sang “That’s Amore”.

Afterwards, Patti and I wandered the ship for a bit, went to check emails, then wandered back to the cabin. We must be getting older, as we can’t seem to make it past midnight anymore! When we got back to our cabin, our bed was loaded with “stuff”. Along with the towel animal, were our invitations to the VIFP party, Steakhouse reservation, and our Platinum gifts, the Tervis Tumblers!!

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Later, Ryan made an appearance and was hungry, so he ordered room service. I have one more photo spot left for this post, so here’s the room service menu….

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Another beautiful, (well, mostly), day at sea has ended. Good Night!!

Coming up next on Day3, “Another beautiful day at sea” or “Where the heck did all these people come from?"
 
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