Carnival Splendour - Cruise Liner

The Carnival Splendor is the latest Carnival Corporation luxury cruise liner, which will operate from the UK in its first summer season. Costing $750m, the Splendor will be the largest vessel in the Carnival fleet until the 130,000t Dream-class ships, Carnival Dream and Carnival Magic, are launched in 2009 and 2011 respectively. The ship’s design is a one off and has been dubbed the Splendor-class, although there are similarities with recent Costa Cruise vessels such as the Cost Concordia (the ship was initially designed for Costa but was finally passed to parent company Carnival).

The 113,300t passenger vessel can carry 3,006 passengers in 1,503 staterooms (including 52 suites, 577 inside cabins, 337 outside cabins and 589 balconied cabins). It was launched on 2 July 2008 from Dover and christened on 10 July 2008. The ship, which is registered in Panama, will carry 1,150 crew, giving a passenger to crew ratio of 2.61:1. The ship was constructed by Fincantieri Navali SPA at the Sestri Ponente ship yards in Genoa, Italy and was designed by Joe Farcus.

Technical

The vessel has an overall length of 290m, a beam of 35.5m and a draft of 8.2m. The 14-deck ship is diesel-electric powered using six Wartsila diesel engines and has a power output of 63,400kW allowing it to make 22kt.

Facilities

The Splendor has the Carnival fleet’s largest spa and has introduced 68 spa staterooms that are situated around the ship's 21,000ft² health and fitness facility. Passengers booking these staterooms will have special access to the spa (priority appointments and free fitness classes) and unlimited access to the thermal suite and the thalassotherapy pool.

The Splendor has extensive children’s facilities, including a 5,500ft² playroom (the largest in the Carnival fleet) located mid-ships, above which is a children’s water play area. The mid-ships pool area (there are four pools on the ship) is surrounded by two decks of glass walls and are covered by a retractable Sky Dome. There are also 270ft² LED screens (12ft × 22ft) in the poolside areas along with a 70,000W sound system.

Passengers will have a choice of restaurants onboard including a sushi restaurant, a Mongolian barbecue, an Indian Tandoori, the Lido restaurant, the two main restaurants (the black pearl and the white pearl), a New York steakhouse, the reservation-only Pinnacle supper club and a 24-hour pizza restaurant. Other ship facilities include the Royal Flush casino, the Splendor Spectacular main show lounge, the Red Carpet dance club, the El mojito promenade bar (Cuban style cafe/bar), the Cool Jazz bar, the El Morroco lounge and the house sports bar. There are 22 bars and five Jacuzzis on the ship.

Itinerary

The Carnival Splendor’s first season started with its inaugural cruise from Genoa, Italy to Dover, England. This was followed by a three-day preview cruise to Amsterdam. The ship will then operate Carnival’s first-ever northern Europe programme, which will consist of a series of five 12-day cruises during July and August 2008 with ports of call including Copenhagen, Warnemunde (Berlin), Helsinki, St Petersburg (two days), Tallin and Amsterdam.

The Splendor will then sail a 12-night Mediterranean and Greek Isles cruise before relocating after a 16-day trans-Atlantic cruise to Fort Lauderdale for seven-day eastern Caribbean cruises, calling at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic, St Thomas and St John, San Juan, and Nassau.