Conquest 7/9-7/16 Review

Hi all, well the wife and I just got unpacked and have the laundry going :( We only live an hour or so from port so we were at home by 10:15. On to the review.

Embarkation:

As smooth as can be expected. I guess it took us around an hour from parking the car to boarding the ship. The first thing we said was, holy crap this thing is HUGE. Honestly, until you board one of these class of ships it's hard to imagine. We immediatly found our room steward and chatted with him and had him remove the alcohol from the fridge when we sailed.

Room:

The room was clean and stayed that way the whole trip. No complaints at ALL about the room. It was a balcony stateroom aft empress (7418). We had a few kiddos around us that kept us up, but hey it's the middle of July so it was expected. We actually called security one night on the little sons of guns, security was promptly to our hall and followed up with a phone call to let us know they had taken care of it. That IMO was really going the extra step which we appreciated.

Bar & Casino:

Friendly staff greeted us and we had no complaints. The casino was very large and had ample tables and slots.

Food and Dinner: Reniour (sp?) late sitting

Overall the food was very good. I enjoyed the varied menu in the evenings and we always ate a cheeseburger from lido. No complaints about the food either. The dinner team was excellent, very freindly and took very good care of us.

Days at Sea:

There was plenty to do if you choose to. We played bingo and tooled around the ship just taking it all in and enjoying not doing anything!!!!!

Montego Bay:

We docked and headed to Dunns' river falls. We had great guides and the whole thing ran like a well oiled machine. Honeslty, we found the people to be very friendly and we weren't offered substances even once! Ha.

Grand Cayman:

We had to tender in as usual here. We took the island tour, turtle farm, and stingray city. We got on the island a bit early and had to hang out for almost an hour. Then we had the pleasure of walking what seemed half way around the island to get to the buses, or rather in our case a cab as they ran out of buses. The tour was fine enough, but we were less than impressed about the operations. I would like to go back and stay a while to fully explore the island.

Cozumel:

Hands down the best tender boats on the 7 seas, wow these things are yachts, literally. Again, very effeciently done. We did the snorkel and beach party. We didn't see many fish, the guides claimed b/c of the hurricane. But having been there a few times, we knew we didn't even go to a reef. None the less, we had a blast and the staff on the cattamaran (sp) were just great.

Overall: 9/10

I hadn't been on a cruise in probably 10 years, we can't wait to go again and would have no quams with going carnival again.

Thanks for the great review. My family and I are trying to decide whether to cruise the Conquest or the Rhapsody during the summer of '07. We have already been on the Rhapsody (we loved it!!!) and would like to try the newer ship. I have heard some grumblings about the ship being crowded at times. Did you and your wife feel like the ship was crowded? How were the shows? My DH will love to hear that the casino was big and had lots of tables and slots. :D I know what ever ship we decide to take we will have a wonderful time. We always have!!!

We can't really speak to the shows, we only attended the magic one. It was so-so, entertaining though.

Our ship was full at just over 3500 guests I believe. It was crowded around the photo deck and the shops. Overall, I will have to say no we didn't feel crowded at all. There were always plently of chairs on the decks and we never really had to wait for food on the lido more than 10 minutes at the longest. It's a very big ship with lots of people, but the staff is very very good at what they do and keep it all moving.

Not sure how old your kids are but there is a hidden jewel at the back of the boat on the ninth deck. It's an adults only pool that always had plenty of chairs, pool and spa space, it's own bar and right next to the hotdog/burger station. We spent the bulk of our outdoor time there.

Nice review-Thanks:)

Amazing to see Conquest docked and already have a review.

Are they still doing Rocky Horror? I haven't heard anything about it in a while.

Thank you for the review. Did they say why they docked backwards from the way they usually do?

We didn't hear why they docked opposite from how they usually do. Everything seemed to be humming along with getting the bags off / new supplies off when we left. I kept waiting for Capt. Carlo to swing her around but it didn't happen.

I also didn't hear anything about the rocky horror you mentioned, was it a show I am assuming?

....and yes I was still jazzed when I got home so thought I would take a few moments to capture my thoughts on the cruise while it was still very fresh.

Great Review! We only have a few more Sundays until it is our turn. Was watching you come in this morning. Was a little scary from here -- looked like y'all might clip the pier of the Elissa. Glad you had fun. Did you spend any time in the Piano Bar?

By piano bar, I assume you mean Alfreds...or atleast I think that is what is was called. I might be wrong :) I spent a few hours in Alfreds as they sell some pretty good cigars and managed to have a cuban there the last night as well.

We had late sitting, which I recommend, so our nightly activites were farily limited as we turned in around midnight each day.....honeymoon and all :p

By piano bar, I assume you mean Alfreds...

Alfred's is the cigar bar. The Blues bar is the piano bar. :)

Hi thanks for the review so fast.We are leaving next week also was going to do the island and sting ray tour did u do this thru carnival and if so can u exsplain all the walking was it normal are something wrong?:confused:

Ahh yes, that would make sense it was the cigar bar ;) Then no, we didn't make it to the piano bar!

As for Cayman, it probably wasn't all that far of a walk but it was blazing hot and you literally walk through the shopping district and down a few blocks. What was the kicker for us was they ran out of buses and we were left with a rinky dink cab van with some unfriendly folks. The tour was ehhh, ok. You stop at Hell and see the rock formation, then head over to the turtle farm which was pretty cool actually then finish up on the sandbar with the stingrays which were already full and in no mood to be played with when we got there. I'm glad we did it, just won't be doing it again. Honestly, this was my only petty complaint for the entire week. They exceeded every expectation we had for the trip, you will have an absolute blast.

I'm not sure why the ship doesn't tender folks the same way they do at Cozumel...by excursion. That made the tender trip to Cozumel seemless and there was no waiting around in a very hot holding area on the pier if you will.

Thanks for the quick review!