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Carnival Cruise Lines 7/17



 
 
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Old July 17th, 2008, 03:10 PM posted to rec.travel.marketplace
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Default Carnival Cruise Lines 7/17


Carnival Splendor Staying the Course
Cruise Week correspondent Art Sbarsky attended the christening of
Carnival's
newest ship, Carnival Splendor, and then sailed for three nights.
Here's his
report.

Perhaps the most striking feature about Carnival Splendor is that
there are no
truly groundbreaking features, like we're seeing with new ships coming
from
other lines. Carnival is very much staying the course with its decades-
old
philosophy of "fun." Carnival Splendor is just slightly bigger than
the five
Conquest-class ships, at 113,000 tons and carrying 3,006 guests, and
those
travel agents and past guests familiar with the template of those
ships will have
no problems navigating Splendor.

The ship is filled with a variety of designer touches created by Joe
Farcus and his
team of designers and architects. Most significant may be the use of
pink as an
overall color and the "pearl" look in the main dining rooms. The pink
comes
through heavily in the atrium, with walls decorated with a composite
material of
stainless steel and four-inch circular cutouts of pink-stained woods.
The main
dining rooms, Black Pearl and Gold Pearl, have pearl-encased
chandeliers,
horns of plenty filled with pearls, and ceiling decorations of pearls
in shells.

Other design features around the ship include a line of stylish
mannequins
waiting to get in the nightclub (a "security" mannequin is there to
direct guests to
the red-carpet entryway), and in the main show lounge--which is three
decks high
with good sight lines and superb sound systems reaching the far back
corners--
there are large domed chandeliers draped by long strings of beads.

A very popular and colorful room is El Morocco, the aft lounge on the
main public
deck, with colors and features such as zebra-patterned leather and
palm trees
evoking the famous 1930s NYC club. The Cool jazz bar has Miles Davis-
inspired
artwork featuring photos of the famed trumpeter and his sheet music.

Among the evolved public rooms is the pool area, the children's play
area, and
the spa. The central pool area, two decks high, features "Carnival's
Seaside
Theater," with a large 270-square-foot outdoor screen and two hot tubs
inset into
either side of the deck for unobstructed sea views. The new
retractable roof will
be put to good use when Carnival Splendor undertakes her Northern
Europe
season. Farcus says this pool area is the largest public room on any
Carnival
ship.

The kid's area is 5,500 square feet on two levels with a water spray
park; there's
also a multi-deck water slide. Interestingly, the outside water
facilities on this
newest ship are not as extensive as the spaces being retrofitted on
earlier
Carnival ships.

Significantly expanded is the spa area, now 40,000 square feet.
Included is the
line's first thalassotherapy pool (protected above by Farcus' fun pair
of Foo
Dogs), an extensive thermal suite, indoor and outdoor quiet rooms, and
17
private treatment rooms (including rooms for couples). Another first
for Carnival
are the 68 spa staterooms that have private access to the spa areas
via a glass-
walled elevator. The rooms themselves are essentially the same as
deluxe
balcony rooms.

Not really part of the pool deck but now repositioned over it is the
Pinnacle
Supper Club, with a skylight and glass dance floor suspended over a
mini-atrium.


Carnival continues to raise the bar for quality dining on large ships.
Items on the
dinner menus were extensive and well cooked and presented. In
Splendido, the
casual deck restaurant, there's a custom-made stir-fry area, buffet,
and deli--
quite possibly the best at sea. [Ed. Note: one significant tweak on
another
Carnival Ship--Legend--is the current testing of partial open-seating
dining. If this
is successful, look for it to roll out more extensively in the fleet.]

The ship is now sailing the line's first ever 12-day Northern Europe
season
roundtrip from Dover. It's to be followed by a schedule of 12-day
Mediterranean
cruises round trip from Civitavecchia/Rome through October 17. The
ship then
repositions to the Caribbean for seven-night sailings before a three-
part South
American cruise repositioning to Long Beach, Cal., for year-round
Mexican
Riviera cruises.

Carnival calls Splendor the first in a new class of ships for the
line. But next up in
2009 and 2011 are the Carnival Dream and Carnival Magic, both 130,000
tons
and carrying 3,652. It will be interesting to see what changes will
come with the
larger size ships.

www.1cheapcruise.com
 




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