My Picture Laden Conquest Cruise Review 8/2-8/9

[KGF]

Ok...before I start a few things.

1) I have everything (including links to pictures) typed up in a word document so all I have to do is copy and paste. Please let me post my full review (this will take several posts to there are *a LOT* of pictures). The last post will be my RCI vs. CCL comparisons....feel free to comment after that post.

2) Background: This was our (mine and DH's) second cruise, first with Carnival. Our last one was with RCCL Voyager, March/April 2008. Our group included me (24), my DH (26), my DS (7 months), my Mom (48), my dad (almost 51), and my brother (19).This was our second time on this itinerary. Last year it was just my DH and I on our honeymoon and we did Dunn’s Falls in Jamaica, Stingrays in Cayman, and Power Snorkel in Cozumel.

Again...please be patient with me I'll try to have this up as fast as possible....and with that.....AWAY WE GO!

[KGF]

Sunday:
We drove to Texas City on Saturday and stayed the night at the La Quinta there (blah) so that we could just do a short drive into Galveston on Sunday morning. We ended up having to make one last pit stop at a store in Galveston to pick up some last minute things and arrived at the port around 10:45 a.m. We [my mom and I] dropped off the boys [my DH, dad, and brother] and our luggage and then drove to EZ Cruise to drop off the cars. I had used EZ Cruise parking in the past and will continue to do so.





View of Conquest as we pulled into the Cruise Terminal

By 11 a.m. we were making our way through the Embarkation process….showing our passports and Fun Passes here, there, and everywhere. By 11:45 we had made it on the ship. I noticed that our S&S cards stated that we had late seating, but I checked our reservation before we left and it showed we had been confirmed for “Your Time” dining so I made a mental note to check with the Maitre D’.

We had quite a few carry-ons so mom and I took my DS up to Lido to grab a bite to eat while they stayed with the luggage on Empress Deck (Deck 7) waiting for the doors to open to our cabins. When we finished lunch we went to relieve the guys so they could eat. By then I realized I had been on the boat for almost and hour and had no DOD! Shameful! Went down to atrium bar, bought the DOD card and happily sucked that thing down!

Around 1:30 the doors were opened and we headed down to our cabin to drop off all of our stuff. My brother was surprised to find his room decorated with “Congratulations” stuff everywhere (this was our tri-fecta celebration cruise….Bro’s HS graduation, Parent’s 25th anniversary and our 1st wedding anniversary). My parent’s cabin however was not decorated so I made another note to check with Guest Services.




Bro’s Cabin with the Congratulations Decorations

[KGF]

We met our steward Astika and he was very friendly. He went on and on about DS and was doing all kinds of things to make him laugh and small. We unpacked for about an hour and then decided to walk around the ship for a bit. We were back in our cabins at 3:15 to get ready for muster drill. We brought our own lifejacket for DS to use in the Grand Cayman but Astika brought us one to use for Muster Drill.



Sitting on one of the sofa’s during Muster Drill.



Me & DS during Muster



“Ummm, Mom….I dunno about this whole life jacket thing”

We finally headed down and mom and I opted to wait in the lounge with DS instead of standing outside during Muster. Been there, done that. After Muster we went down to the internet café to buy some minutes and then headed over to the “secret door” on deck 6 and made were on the front deck for sailaway! It was very peaceful and practically had the area to ourselves!



Happy family at Sailaway!



DH & DS

We started getting hungry and I realized I had forgotten to talk to the Maitre D’ about our dining times. We decided to just go to late seating and talk to him at that time. DS was a little restless but ended up falling asleep in his stroller, thank goodness! I knew late dining was definitely not going to work so I met with the Maitre D’ and he kindly switched us to Your Time. That night I had the Tiger Shrimp Cocktail, Pan Seared Tilapia, and shared the Crème Brulee and, of course, the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake we had heard so much about. While it was very tasty, I had to agree that it is nothing more than an undercooked brownie….that said, it didn’t keep me from eating it almost every night! We were pretty exhausted after dinner so we decided to call it a night.

[KGF]

What DS wore to Sailaway….we had waaaaaay too many “nautical” themed outfits for him to wear!



Yeah…I’d like to see how people would photo caption this!





Picture of our Cabin Door

[KGF]

Monday:





Hey, PaPa! It’s time to wake up! I’m ready to play!

Woke up and headed to breakfast on Lido Deck. After breakfast we got ready and headed to our Meet & Mingle with our Roll Call. We had a pretty good turnout…around 20 people or so! After the Meet and Greet we started Kaptain Kandis’ Kabin Krawl. I’m so sorry but I’m drawing a blank on who had the first cabin…I think it was Mystery56 but I’m not certain. Anywho…we had some wonderful tequila shots (mind you this is around 11:30 a.m. and then headed two Vodkamartini’s cabin for, you guessed it, martini’s! Finally, the grand finale….ADDBoy was kind enough to share his aft wrap cabin with us. Wow…totally jealous! Lots of space in the cabin and I think was 8 chairs out on the balcony! Made sure to let DH know that the next cruise, I wanted and Aft Wrap!

(So Sad…I don’t have any pictures of the M&G or Kabin Krawl!!!!)





Pictures of Pool area on Lido Deck


After the Kabin Krawl, we grabbed a quick bite of lunch at the buffet and played Name That Kiss….we got second place…oh well! DS was getting a little restless so we decided to nap for a little bit. After the nap, we wandered around the ship a bit and then my brother and signed up for the Bean Bag Toss competition. First round….a big fat ZERO! We didn’t get a single point! And thus we were named (and often referred to) as Team Goose Egg for the rest of the cruise! We decided to stick around for round 2 and managed to get six points. We were too humiliated to stay for round three.

After Bean Bag Toss we went upstairs and got dress for our first elegant night. DH were a black suit and I wore a long, royal blue formal gown. I somehow packed tons of outfits for DS but forgot his black dress pants! So he wore a vest and black shorts! Ooops! We went down to dinner and met our new waiter Wincy. He was such a delight and we made sure to tell the Maitre’ D on our way out that we wanted to sit in his section for the remainder of the cruise.



Our new waiter, Wincy!

[KGF]

Wincy dancing during the dinner entertainment…man, he could do some serious high kicks!

I had baked stuffed mushrooms and the starter portion of Spaghetti Carbonara both very good. For my entrée I had the Lobster and split the prime rib with DH. Lobster was excellent, prime rib not so much (I guess I’m just spoiled by Texas Roadhouse…love their prime rib)! Nothing really appealed to me on the dessert specials for that night so another round of WCMC!





Warm…..Chocolate….Melting….CAKE!

Can’t find the pictures of me & DH from this formal night but here’s DS…

[KGF]

One too many DOD’s and you get this….



Outdoor Theatre at night…




I wasn’t feeling very well after dinner (had a bit of a headache) so I decided to call it a night and DH caught the comedy show.

[KGF]

Tuesday:

Our last Sea Day before our first Port of Call! Woke up and had breakfast at the Lido Buffet. After breakfast my mom was feeling a little tired so she took DS up to her cabin so they could both rest for a little while, DH went off to the golf seminar, and my dad, brother, and myself headed to the sports deck for the volleyball tournament. There we ran into Matt who remembered us from the day before at the Bean Bag Toss competition. We chatted a bit about volleyball, college life, etc and he ended up being the 4th member to our team.



View of Whale Tail from Lido Deck by Sports Courts

We made it past the first round but were eliminated in the second round. Note to those of you wanting to do this in the future….do NOT play barefoot! I forgot to pack tennis shoes so all I had were flip flops and dress shoes so I thought it would be better to play barefoot….my feet hurt so bad after the first game and thus couldn’t play at 100% for the second game. Definitely wear flip flops!

When our tournament was over we met up with DH, Mom, and DS in the atrium lounge. Brother and I wanted to do the digital scavenger hunt and it just so happened we ended up running into Dawn and Greg from the Meet & Greet the day before! We decided to team up and ended up finding almost all of the items on the list….we even did a human pyramid in the middle of the dining room! We raced back to the atrium lounge to make sure we made it by the deadline (we had a total of 20 minutes to do the hunt). We made it back with about a minute to spare and soon noticed there were teams still trickling in behind us….one even showed up 10 minutes late and then they started taking pictures of each other’s pictures to try to get more items! We were a little peeved (sorry I’m super competitive!) but ended up victorious in the end with 38 points!

Mom, Dad, Bro and I decided to enter the Blackjack Tournament. I was doing really well and had about $6,000 (we started with $500) and I knew that if I wanted to get into the finals I would need to bet everything. So of course, I went all in. I ended up getting 15 and I can’t for the life of me remember what the dealer had. It took me a moment but decided not to take another card. My father was next and decided to take a hit. Wanna guess what came up? Yup, a 6! A freaking 6! Oh well.

After that, we ran up to Lido for Lunch at the buffet and then DH, DS, and I went to the marriage show and Mom, Dad, and Bro went back to the casino. The marriage show was pretty cute…reminded us of our honeymoon last year. After the show we played Name that Tune and decided to redeem ourselves at the Bean Bag Toss. We ended up getting 16 points this time! It wasn’t enough to win, but at least it wasn’t a goose egg!

DS was getting a little cranky so we took him up the cabin and we both ended up falling asleep. We got up around 5:45 and were headed to dinner with Wincy around 6:30. That night I had the Penne Mariscos as the starter and the Jerked Pork Loin. Both very tasty! For dessert, I had strawberry cheesecake.

[KGF]

After dinner, my parents just wanted to relax in their cabin so we put DS down for the night and set up the monitor so that my parents could hear him if he woke up or was crying. DH, my brother, and I headed to the White Team Fun Hop & Deck party. We learned Charlie’s fun little dance at Henri’s Disco and then were off to the Casino for our next activities. We learned another dance and then we formed “the eighth grade dance circle” for our next game. Naturally I was one of the first to jump in and did my best Kevin Bacon Footloose dance (really…I’m pretty awesome) and then busted out the air guitar. It’s at that moment (air guitar) that I make my first appearance on the Fun Ship video. (Yes, that was me….white shirt, white sun glasses, jamming out). We then made our way to the Degas Lounge all the way chanting “Go White Team, Go White Team, Go!” (think Ninja Rap from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Vanilla Ice). There we had a boys vs. girls “Love Shack” sing off. After that we headed to the Deck Party. We did a huge conga line (white team came in 2nd….I dunno how, we should have been first!) You’ll find me a few more times on the video in the conga line, doing the dances at the deck party, and playing with my mardi gras beads. When YMCA came on we took that as our signal to go to bed. Tomorrow we’re in Jamaica, mon!

We interrupt this review to bring you….”How to Bathe a Baby on a Boat”

[KGF]

Wednesday:



A view from the balcony….pulling into Montego Bay.

Woke up around 7 am, ate breakfast at the Lido buffet, got our stuff together and then made our way to the gangway. We were in the terminal by 10 a.m. and waited for our Highlights and Shopping Tour to begin. Bridget, our tour guide was very funny and told us a lot about things in Jamaica. We went by some houses by the golf course, made a stop in Margaritaville, stopped at a few markets and stores and were back at the terminal by 1 p.m. Did a little more shopping in the terminal and then were back on the boat by 3 p.m.



View of MoBay from Lido Buffet



View of terminal from Lido Deck



Bridget, our tour guide. Very sweet and funny….bonus…she’s a Spurs fan!



My attempt to take a picture of the “Welcome to Montego Bay” sign….we were moving a little fast.

[KGF]

Me & DS, riding on the bus





DS having a grand ol’ time!







Some of the houses we saw behind the golf course. One house was used in the filming of “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”. We were told these houses would set you back 4-6 million (1 million for the land alone).

[douglinc@msn.com]

Enjoying your review and pictures, we will be back on the Conquest 8-30, can hardly wait.

Doug

[KGF]

Wastin’ away again…..we could now say we’ve been to a Margaritville in Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel (did Cayman and Cozumel last time)



One too many Margaritas? Nah…just a sleepy baby!


The many pictures that follow were all taken on Lido Deck before and during sailaway. You may notice the dark clouds in the background…we were chased by storms all week but thankfully never had any problems!

[KGF]

DOD in hand!



I just loved his little sailor outfit!

[yogimax]

Wow - your pictures were awesome! Thanks!

[KGF]

One DOD down….time to start another one!



Jamaica was exhausting!





DS thought so too!

[KGF]

We decided to take a little nap and then headed to the Lido for send off. While we were waiting I decided I really wanted that Coconut Monkey drink thing so ended up buying one. It started getting really cloudy while were on deck and we could see storms off in the distance. Eventually we headed down to our cabin to get ready for dinner. That night I had the fried mozzarella, and Seafood Newburg Style. For dessert I had the bitter and blanc, yummy! Early to bed for Grand Cayman tomorrow!










If you look very closely you can see Freedom of the Seas near the center of the picture.

[KGF]

Thursday:



Pulling away from the Conquest in one of the tenders





“Hey! I know you!”



Freedom of the Seas


My favorite port of call, Grand Cayman! We opted for room service since we knew we’d have to be off the boat early. We were down by the gangway at 8:30 and made it on to the first boat! We were on shore and in line for our tour (Discover Cayman: Stingrays, Turtle Farm, and Hell) by 9:30 a.m. At 10 a.m. we started loading up into our busses. The driver informed us that we would be going to Stingrays first which I thought was a little odd. We (DH and I) did stingrays last year and absolutely loved it! I was so excited to be going back and more excited for my parents and bro to experience it. We ended up having to take our stroller onto the boat which was kinda lame but oh well. We enjoyed our ride out to the sandbar and DS ended up falling asleep.



One of the shopping “malls” when you first walk into the port area.




Governor’s House

[KGF]

View of Carnival Conquest and RCI Freedom of the Seas from our bus


DH stayed with him while I went out with my family. My mom was freaking out and kept telling me things like “The stingray’s tail just touched me! I think my leg is going numb!” I couldn’t help but laugh and told her that no such thing was happening. Eventually, she got used to it and even held and kissed one! I relieved DH of his baby watching duties after about 10 minutes so he could have some time in the water. When it was time for us to go, everyone came back saying how fun it was!

[KGF]

Isn't that attactive?!