The Carnival Splendor is the newest ship in the Carnival Cruise Lines fleet (and the newest cruise ship on the seas, for that matter). But it's a ship with few of the frills I'm used to seeing, or hearing about, in a brand-new vessel: no gigantic, 5,000-square-foot suites; no private terraces with dining for 14; no multiple, themed specialty restaurants; not a lot of extra onboard gadgets and toys. (View our Carnival Splendor slideshow to see what the ship has to offer.)
In short, if you look past the glitzy decor by Joe Farcus ("splendid things" was his inspiration for the Splendor), you'll see a fairly simple cruise ship design -- tweaked over time, to be sure, but one that hasn't changed radically over the past few years.
Carnival's competitor Royal Caribbean International has this year been touting the innovative features of its mega-megaship, the Oasis of the Seas, which debuts next year, making it more obvious that Carnival is presenting a comparatively pared-down cruise experience.
But if Carnival's holding back, it's part of a conscious decision.
"The flashy stuff is great, but when the person, the guest, actually gets on the ship, do you know what's important? Not the flashy stuff," said Carnival CEO Gerry Cahill. "It's, did you have a great vacation? And what makes a great vacation at the end of the day: Did you have fun? Was the food great? Was the entertainment great?"
The Splendor is a variation of Carnival's Conquest-class series, which is itself a variation of Carnival's landmark Destiny-class series. The Carnival Destiny was the biggest ship on the seas when it was introduced 10 years ago, and it was the first cruise ship to break the 100,000-gross-ton mark.
Once other cruise lines started introducing bigger and bigger ships, Carnival lost the largest-ship title and continued to build ships based on the Destiny and Conquest designs. The Splendor is Carnival's biggest, and it's plenty big, at 113,300 gross tons and 3,006 passengers.
And it has new features onboard, all of them nods to current cruise trends: a 21,000-square-foot spa and adjacent "spa cabins"; a big playplace for kids; and a sliding glass dome that covers the midship pool and the giant TV screen, which changes the vibe on this portion of the deck from idle sunning spot to media room.
But the overall design is familiar, not groundbreaking. Carnival, for example, hasn't rushed to provide multiple specialty restaurants. Dinner is in one of two main restaurants (with mid-dinner dancing provided by the dining room crew); or in the lido buffet; or in the ship's specialty restaurant, the Supper Club, which offers a steakhouse-style menu.
Royal Caribbean is going all out this year to promote dramatic changes to the Oasis of the Seas, which can carry 5,400 passengers. So far, it has revealed onboard features like inside cabins that open up onto a park with real plants; an amphitheater with a water show; a boardwalk with restaurants and games; a zip line; a levitating bar; and two FlowRiders.
But the "flashy stuff," as Cahill calls it, costs money.
"Our target market is middle America," he said. "If I'm going to offer prices in the market that are affordable to middle America, I need to have capital costs that are in line with that, as well as operating costs that are in line with the ticket price.
"So we want to provide a great product, a great service and a great vacation at an affordable price. You have to keep everything in line."
That's not to say Carnival's ships haven't changed with the times.
The line has expanded its Camp Carnival facilities for kids and teens over the years. A cute section on the Splendor, for example, is a small waterpark for kids at the base of the vessel's funnel.
The Carnival Splendor's spa has one of those must-book thermal suites, a set of rooms that make up the do-it-yourself spa experience. And it's really nice on the Splendor, with lots of windows that afford gorgeous views of the sea while you're relaxing in your tiled, heated lounger.
You can get WiFi in your cabin, instead of dragging your laptop to a hotspot on the ship -- that is, if you're the type to bring a laptop on vacation.
You can get complimentary coffee in the lido buffet, or you can hand over your charge card for a skim latte (for those of us, myself included, who can't truly start the day without coffee in a to-go cup with a band of corrugated cardboard around the middle).
Carnival's Fantasy-class ships are getting makeovers and will, in some cases, have newer features than the Splendor, with the Waterworks waterpark zone and a Serenity section for adults that has been redesigned from the Splendor's version. New features are also expected on the Carnival Dream in 2009.
However, aside from the expected charges, such as at the Supper Club, the WiFi, the specialty coffee, the Splendor seemed fairly free of onboard charges. For example, guests can hang out in Serenity for free.
"We thought about charging," Cahill said. And then Carnival decided against it, he said, "given our customers and given the fact that we don't want to start charging for everything we provide onboard.
"It's always attractive to charge for more, just like it's more attractive to go upmarket. You have to understand, when you do that, you're cutting out a certain part of the population."
One change for Carnival doesn't have anything to do with onboard design: it's the relaxation of dress codes. There used to be three: Formal, informal and casual. Now it's only two. Casual means khakis or sundresses; even jeans are allowed in the dining rooms on these nights. Elegant, on the other hand, is more along the lines of cocktail dresses or slacks and a sports jacket.