CJDepew

Not too picky. Would like something where food and beverages are available as well as chair rental. Some shady areas would be a plus.

Our cruise isn't until next February but I like to do my homework ahead of time. On the NCL Epic and it looks like our port hours are 7a-2p. Would love to hit a beach rather than do a tour. A resort day-pass is useless since they don't open until 10 or later (already checked). Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Loved the burgers and fries at Guy's Burgers. If Cee Jay Jones is one of the comedians on your cruise make sure to check out his shows. Also, breakfast in the MDR was head and shoulders better than the buffet and service is very quick.

Enjoy your cruise!

I think some of the spring break disruptions depended on which deck was your cabin location. One of our group was looking for a bargain and was in an interior on deck 1. Security had to be called several mornings in the wee hours and eventually the worst of the bunch was relocated somewhere else.

Do you seriously believe what you told us??? Your common sense should tell you the other couple bar hopped, and yet every server or bartender singled this couple out??? Why would they bother price check when each drink ordered fell under the 15 drink limit in the first place. How did they know more drinks were ordered? Who was in charge of their S&S card? What did you mean when you said they left a one dollar tip on each drink? Was it a dollar cash? Was it a dollar on each slip?

There is a time stamp when charges are entered. They had multiple drinks ordered within a 5 minute time period in some cases. They wrote 1.00 on their slips for a tip and the 1 was changed into a 4. This is easy enough to do. Husband is in law enforcement and has seen it time and time again.

Not here to get into a pissing contest with anyone, I just thought it served as a good reminder to check onboard accounts.

I am not saying it could not happen because it would be very easy to change a 1 to a 3, but I do not believe this story.

 

A group of people but apparently only one had a problem and multiple times.

 

I also do not believe this person was told they would terminate the person's contract. That is what should and probably would happen but you never give that information out.

 

However, the general message is a good one, check your bill before you get off the boat.

 

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You are making assumptions. I did not mention that another person in this group also had an extra charge, but that also happened. $172 to be exact. It was for an excursion that was booked to an incorrect stateroom. She, however, checked her charges before she left.

The person with the problem bar bill had multiple drinks rung up to her room in the span of 5 minutes. She drank the first one. The subsequent orders were not hers.

Ultimately, I couldn't care less if folks don't believe my report. I thought it was a good reminder of being on top of one's onboard account in order to avoid problems.

We were on the AI side on March 17. Tables with umbrellas are plentiful and there are some cabanas as well. Enjoy your trip there. There's a reason they say it's "the best day ever".

There were 3 when we were there two weeks ago and we arrived last. Breezed through customs and the shops and we were in a taxi on our way to Mr. Sancho's in about 15 minutes. I can't say enough good about Mr. Sancho's and if you happen to go there try to get a table in Edwin's section. He's pretty awesome.

Did not find the casino very smoky, but I also spent very limited time there.

Loving your review! It sounds like we will be having very similar vacations. We are also flying out of Latrobe to Ft. Lauderdale for a cruise on the Conquest, with similar ports (Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, Grand Cayman).

Flying out of Latrobe is so easy for cruises. No parking fees and non-stop flights. I hope you folks have a fantastic cruise!

Here are a few shots of the Atrium and an example of the artwork that can be found on each floor in all the stairways.

I take a bunch of singles for this reason...waitstaff, barstaff and room service get cash tips...none go on my sail and sign card...a big fat zero goes on the gratuity line with a line through it.

That's what we do. Hubby is law enforcement and he's seen it happen enough that the cash tips have become habit.

Did this person has the same waiter and bartender each time or was their a conspiracy among numerous waiters and bartenders to inflate her tips?

Most of her drinks were poured at the Red Frog.

So I was part of a group on the March 13th sailing on the Conquest. Many of us in the group purchased the Cheers drink package. One of them thought it was odd that the price for the same drink fluctuated by a dollar depending on which bar she went to. She left a one dollar tip on each drink.

When she got her itemized purchases her tip amounts had been changed from one dollar to four dollars, and they had more drinks on their daily slips than they actually ordered. After calling Carnival she had her charges reversed but will never step foot on a Carnival ship again. Carnival claims they are going to track down the bartenders responsible and terminate their contracts.

Hopefully this is an isolated incident, but I thought it was worth mentioning because some folks don't look at their charges as carefully as others.

I don't wear much jewelry so I didn't shop, but a friend of mine bought an amazing set (fine jewelry, not fashion) of ring/earrings/necklace/bracelet for less than 50% of the asking price. She was very happy and I'm sure they still made a profit too.

We had a similar experience with Daylight Savings Time this past fall on the Dream. They decided to set the clocks back a day early, but there was little communication to that effect. No announcements, just a tiny little line printed in the Funtimes for the next day. Which wouldn't help my husband and I because we were always too tired to read the Funtimes at night. So we ended up showing up to our Behind the Fun tour an hour early. Not as bad as being an hour late, of course, but an inconvenience nonetheless.

 

 

Anyway, CJDepew: thank you for taking the time to write this review! I'll be on the Conquest in July, so I appreciate it. Also, the more pictures, the better! :)

It looks like I have a few more ship photos at home that need to be uploaded to shutterfly in order to share. I'll try to get to that this weekend, but will for sure by next week.

Our last day at sea was fairly uneventful. The spring break crowd was still partying hard and leaving a mess everywhere they went. Our group still had fun, in spite of the shenanigans. Included in the group were three USA Today and NYT bestselling romance authors and they used their time wisely. One of them took the "behind the scenes" ship tour and as a result of that, and their on-board experiences, they will be writing books with a cruise ship theme, due for release in July.

Debarkation was a snap with self service. We were out of the parking garage by 8:15 am.

Some observations and then my last few photos...

I've seen complaints that the Conquest is shabby and the a/c is lacking. I didn't experience any of that. Our balcony stateroom on deck 6 was pleasantly cool, and the ship appeared to be in very good condition.

The comedy shows by Cee Jay Jones were downright hilarious. Don't miss him if you've got the chance to attend one of his shows.

We had some strange time zone changes with EST and EDST and I have no idea why it happened but it was pretty darn confusing. We were never given any explanation.

As you can see by my signature, I've only been on two cruises. But I have to say the RCCL service was delivered with a smile and much more promptly than experienced on the Carnival ship. There was a significant difference in food quality as well, with Carnival coming out on the bottom.

While many seem to like him, I was not a fan of cruise director Josh. His commentary seemed more caustic than good-natured ribbing to me and I didn't enjoy it.

Most likely we won't return to Carnival again, but that doesn't mean we didn't enjoy our vacation with a group really wonderful folks. If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer what I can.

Our group plus the awesome crew member who was in charge of keeping the smoking side of Deck 10 clean. If he needed someone to move he'd go to the railing and point and holler "dolphin" or "shark" and people would run over to look, leaving him free to tidy up the area.

vabeachlady...I'll be ending my review with some general observations, and some of what you've mentioned will be included.

dna529...they never said what it was that was keeping us from optimum cruising speed but it was repaired while we were in port in Jamaica and no further problems were encountered.

Mr. Sancho's Beach Club. There's a reason they call it the best day ever. Reservations are strongly recommended and they can be easily made online for $5/person. All inclusive is $55/adult and well worth the price. The food is delicious, the drinks tasty and generous. Edwin was our waiter for the day and provided excellent service. We had a table for 16 under some shade right on the beach.

This is my crazy husband getting a temporary tattoo. The wait staff kept saying he looked like Brock Lesnar (+15 years and more than that amount of pounds) so he got Brock's tattoo.

That's me with the green drink, which made me smile all day long. I think it was called a Green Monster. It was very delicious. That purple stuff? That's their "special Long Island Iced Tea". That stuff will peel the paint right off a wall, but there was plenty of food being served to soak it all up. My friend next to me? He's always smiling!

The Terrible Towel had to come along with us. The husband loves his Steelers. These musicians strolled the beach, performing for each table.

There are shops at Sancho's as well, and haggling is all part of the experience. The items they carry are varied and very nice.

And finally, the walk back to the Conquest along the pier. We met up with some of our group there, who had left Mr. Sancho's a bit earlier than we did. From the sound of things you can get a great deal on some fine jewelry in those shops by the pier.

On to Cozumel. I'll probably break this one down into multiple posts because of photos. Getting off the ship at the port was very orderly and easy. A quick walk through customs had us in the shopping area at the port. Another place there is something for everyone, from jewelry to, um, well, er, boner pills.

Customs and duty free:

Near the entrance to the shops:

From here we took a taxi to Mr. Sancho's Beach Club. The nice thing about taxi rides here is that it's a flat fee divided by the number of passengers in the van. Our cost was $25 for our group of five. Mr. Sancho's gets it's own post, which will be next.

Our next stop was Grand Cayman. It was fantastic, and a place I'd love to spend more time in.

The tender process was very efficient and orderly. There were some shops at the port, but we were mostly concerned with finding our tour guide for the day. We booked the distillery/brewery/beach tour through Viator and the local guide was Leo from Clark's Tours. I'd highly recommend him. He was very prompt, professional and entertaining.

Our first stop was Cayman Distillery, where we sample all the rum we could drink and took a tour of the operation. Moses was our host and we spent a very enjoyable hour with him.

Moses setting us up at the bar

Next stop was the Tortuga Rum shop for some rum cake. That stuff is yummy!

On to the only brewery on the island. Free samples and a tour of the operation, which was obliterated by Hurricane Ivan and rebuilt.

And finally to 7 Mile Beach via the Royal Palms resort. We had less than an hour there, which was really disappointing, but we chose the tour. The sand is powder soft. One day we will return there.

We finished up that day by doing some shopping in town, near the port. There's something for everyone there, from jewelry to Harley Davidson apparel.

Our first port was Montego Bay, Jamaica. Unfortunately we arrived nearly four hours late, due to a mechanical problem. I'm not sure if that added to the chaos when disembarking at the port, but that was chaos on an epic level. There were no marked lines for passengers to wait for the shuttle buses and the buses just drove into mobs of people. Spring breakers were already drunk and adding to the lunacy. There was one passenger screaming about getting in line and he reminded me of the Kevin Bacon character in Animal House when he's about to get mowed over by the parade crowd.

Because we were in port so late we missed our tour for a day and took a cab to Margaritaville instead. My hair has finally settled back on my head from those cab rides. Crazy drivers, but I didn't see any accidents. What we did see was plenty of weed and other questionable substances being sold in traffic and at intersections.

The beauty of the arrival in port was kind of ruined by the aggressive nature of the rest of our experience in town, and I don't see our group having a return visit there.

This is actually a shot of the back of Margaritaville from our stateroom deck.

Swimming area at Margaritaville

Yay! Got my photo mojo back! Anyway, here was the pic I was trying to post in my breakfast discussion:

The other thing I ate a lot of was Guy's Burgers. Some of the best I've ever had. And the fries are pretty darn good too. In case you are wondering, that's Ranch dressing on the fries.

As far as I was concerned the MDR dinners were okay, but just. My prime rib could have been mistaken for ham if I'd have closed my eyes. The glazed pork loin was okay, but somewhat dry. I do give them props for bringing as much food as one can possibly order though. And the chocolate melting cake...mmmmmmm!

My experience in the buffet for dinner wasn't what I had hoped for. While food was plentiful there seemed to be no cohesive menu. For example, vegetable spring rolls next to an Italian chicken offering, next to something made of fish that didn't match either of those selections. The cold salads seemed to be the same each night and anything made with orzo or cous cous was mushy.

The pizza shop did have very good pizza and was open 24 hours, in case anyone had late night cravings. I am still kicking myself for not getting a taco or burrito at the Blue Iguana, but it was only open until 2:30 pm each day and it just didn't fit into our schedule.

The adult beverage menu offered many delicious choices, some of which were more alcoholic than others. I did love my Lemonade daiquiris. The downside was that sometimes it was very difficult to get served at the aft adult pool bar, and waiter service on the upper decks was sketchy and slow at best.

Monday was a day at sea, and my first real disappointment. I'm not a food snob. Honestly. I'll belly up to the counter at Golden Corral and fill my plate with the best of them, but I was disappointed in the breakfast buffet offerings. The good news, however, was that I found out the next day that the breakfast in the MDR was excellent, and the servers we encountered there during breakfast each day were some of the most fun staff we interacted with all week.

Not normally a breakfast eater, but with everything we had planned it was important to start the day with some fuel. These pancakes were the best I've ever had, and if you're going to eat bacon, don't kind yourself. Make it a double order.

ETA: ARGH!!!!! Having problems posting photos from the daytime computer. Will resume this tonight from my trusty old laptop.