spa balcony cabin 1114
Our cabin on Carnival Splendor was spa balcony cabin number 1114 on deck 11 where there was just a small row of cabins on each side. This was the highest cabin deck on the ship and the hallway it was in had a door right out to the splash park and waterslides. It was also right next to the spa and gym so quite handy for a spa cabin. The majority of Splendor’s spa cabins are on deck 10. You can tell when you get to the spa cabins in the hallway on deck 10 because the carpet changes. On deck 11 they are all spa cabins.
thermal suite dry ceramic chairs
Spa cabins come with unlimited use of the spa’s thermal suite throughout the cruise for the first two people booked into the cabin. You have to buy the same thermal suite package anyone not in a spa would have to buy to use it for any extra people in that cabin. You also get discounts at the spa, but they often have sales that are better than those discounts and you can only use one or the other, not both. The first two people in the cabin also get 2 free fitness classes. Spa cabins are also supposed to have upgraded amenities. We booked it because we got an upgrade offer that was cheaper to upgrade to the spa cabin than it would have been to buy the thermal suite package separately. The Splendor’s thermal suite has a pool, heated ceramic chairs, a steam room, and relaxation area.
balcony door and window
Unlike previous balcony cabins that we have had, this one had a window by the door instead floor to ceiling glass on the entire outside wall. Being the top level of cabins it also did not have a balcony above to provide shade or shelter over the top of our balcony which was mostly open to the sky. The balcony had 2 chairs and a small table. The room sleeps 4 and we had 3 people in it,
balcony with a view of the Sydney Opera House at Circular Quay in Australia
The mattress on the bed was much better than what the Luminosa had. This one actually felt like a bed and was quite comfortable, whereas the bed on the Luminosa felt a lot like sleeping on the floor. We had just disembarked from the Luminosa a day before embarking on the Splendor.
drop down bunk
The cabin had a drop-down bunk that folds down from the ceiling and also a couch bed so either was an option for our adult daughter who came on this cruise with us. She chose the bunk. Cruise ship bunks are pretty comfortable, I have slept in those before on a few ships. The bad thing about the bunk is there is never a shelf or anything to put things like a phone on. It did have a little light though. Carnival only cleans once daily so there is no putting the bunk up for the day and down at night. Once it’s down it stays that way. It’s not really in the way of anything, but it is above the couch so people have to watch their heads when getting up from the couch so as not to bump them on the underside of the bunk. The ladder to the bunk is removable and it was in the way when attached to the bunk so we hung it from a picture on the wall during the day and put it back on the bunk at night.
cabin 1114
The room was pretty standard size for a cruise ship balcony cabin, though it had more storage space than the average cruise ship cabin. It had 3 closets, a desk, 4 small drawers in the desk, and 2 large drawers under the couch. One closet started out all shelves, but there was an extra bar and the shelves drop down so it was easy enough to reconfigure it so we each had a closet with some hanging space. Life jackets took up the top shelf of two of the closets. The safe in this room was in a cupboard under the desk rather than in one of the closets as they usually are on cruise ships. There was also a small refrigerator in a cupboard under the desk. The desk also had a bit of shelf space underneath. There was space enough under the bed for all of our suitcases even though there was some extra bedding stored there.
the bathroom has 2 sets of 3 shelves by the mirror
The bathroom had 3 shelves on either side of the mirror, one large and two small on each side. The shower had combo shampoo and conditioner and separate body wash. Spa cabins are supposed to have upgraded amenities so you would think we would at least get separate shampoo and conditioner. but we did not. The sink just had a bar of soap, no liquid soap or hand lotion. It’s nice having the extra set of 3 shelves in the bathroom. A lot of ships just have them on one side of the mirror, but both the Splendor and Luminosa had 3 on each side, though some of them were smaller than the average bathroom shelf.
with 3 people it doesn’t take long for a cruise ship cabin to look lived-in
Each of the 2 nightstands by the bed have a small cupboard for storage and a lamp with a couple USB ports. The desk has one American and one Australian outlet, which are not next to each other making it easy to use both if you have an adaptor to whichever is not yours or if (like us on that trip) you have people in the room from both countries. Our daughter got the Australian outlet to herself and I put an extender with 3 outlets into the one American one so we could at least plug in 2 things at a time. Most plugs are too wide to plug 3 things into it at once, but two is better than one.
magnets are very useful on cruise ships
There are 2 built-in hooks on the wall. Magnetic hooks allow a whole lot more things to hang there. We also have small magnets for keeping the paperwork organized. Magnets are very useful on cruise ships. Most have magnetic walls. The doors are usually magnetic as well, and sometimes even the shower structure. Magnetic shower walls make it really easy to add extra clothesline if you need it. Like most ships, this one had a small clothesline you can pull across the shower.
cabin artwork
Artwork in this room was several Japanese style paintings in the main cabin and a black and white tile in the bathroom that pictures 2 men in front of a house.
art tile in the bathroom
The scene on the tile sort of looked like maybe something shady going down.
homemade duck exchange mailbox
Our door was probably the most popular one on the ship. We had 3 duck exchange mailboxes on the door since there were 3 of us in the room. Being so close to the waterslides we had a lot of kids coming to trade ducks in the afternoons. Unfortunately there was one small boy who just kept taking them without putting any new ones in so other kids would come to trade and find nothing there. We had to put the boxes up high out of his reach when he started taking all of the ducks as soon as we put any out, which also made it hard for some of the other kids to reach. That one boy took more than 20 ducks without ever leaving a single one. It just takes one person to ruin things for everybody. In spite of that, we still managed to get more ducks in the mailboxes than we found around the ship.
the steward’s towel turtle was pretty similar to the ones I make
Our steward left a new towel animal each day. At the end of the cruise we left her one along with a tip and a duck. We also hid a couple ducks in the room in places a steward isn’t that likely to look so a future guest in the room can find them. We try to leave a couple for future guests in our cabin on each ship, though we have never found any left in a cabin by prior guests. Some people say they leave one in the safe, but I would imagine the steward checks there to see if anything was left behind so those would not still be there for the next guest.
Carnival Splendor at Mystery Island, Vanuatu
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