BoozeNCruise

I have an upcoming  4 night MSC Seaside cruise that just goes to Ocean Cay Marine Reserve. I would like to know what, if any, are the theme nights and/or Gala night. 

Thanks in advance 

So, there is no cash winnings on these tourneys?

I have a RCL cruise coming up (FOS) and want to know the policy on bringing onboard bottled water/drinks. I read on the RCL website that you are not allowed to do so, but later in the paragraph they contradict themselves by saying checking water bottles, etc.

I know for carnival, the rule is 12 non alcoholic drinks per person and you must carry on.

Please advise, thanks

What does the casino on Freedom offer for poker? Are there any PokerPro tables or live dealers? I like playing Texas Holdem and tournaments that other cruise lines offer. Thanks

I like to try them all

Thanks, Charles that is nice to know. I did not see anywhere on the Paradise Beach website where they mentioned lockers.

My concern is leaving my wallet with ID, ship card, credit card and money in it at my lounge chair unsupervised when my wife and I go in the water.

I see Mr Sanchos has lockers, does Nochi Cocum or Paradise Beach?

If not, what do you do when you wanna swim and have to leave your personal possessions at the lounger?

I didn't see a deal for Park n Go. Online, I was quoted $12 a day for drive up and $10.50 for prepay, which was around $57 for my 5 day cruise. I would just spend the $20 extra and park at the port for these prices.

I was on the same cruise, How did you like the Embarkation? It was a disaster!

Sunday morning brought on all kinds of crazy stuff. I had set my cell phone alarm to go off at 6:15, we wanted to get off the ship asap due to a long drive home. I woke up with no alarm to use the bathroom and looked at my cell phone and it read 11:26 am! I went crazy, I pulled the covers of the DW and told her we were extremely late and needed to get off the ship, it was nearly lunchtime. I then found my watch to verify the time, it read 7:36 am. I don't know what happened to the cell phone time, I had kept it on airplane mode the entire cruise. We were still a little late so we opted to not grab breakfast on the ship but just hit a drive thru on the drive home. We had the FTTF pass and we were going to self assist, so we could be one of the earliest ones to leave. We left the cabin just a few minutes after 8 am, went to the forward elevator to go to deck 3 to depart. It was already chaotic trying to catch the elevator, but when we did and we arrived at deck 3, we could barley get off the elevator, the hallways were totally packed with people and luggage. This is THE WORST disembarkation I have ever been a part of. There were few if any of the Carnival staff helping or giving directions. CD Gary, whom I blame, was making anouncements to make sure that if you were not priority or zone 1 and self assisting do not leave your cabin. I think his announcements came too late, there was no way that many people qualified for the early exits. It was very unorganized trying to leave the ship.

Once off the ship, customs was very fast and easy. A quick look at your declarations card and your drivers license and you are off the street. At the street and wearing our green stickers on, we look for our shuttle. One came and loaded up but I noticed everyone else was wearing yellow stickers. The last thing I wanted was to get on the wrong shuttle so I told the DW let's get into the taxi line. We jumped on a taxi in an instant and he took us right to the Port of Miami Parking. It was a $9 fare, I gave him $15. Our car was there, in one piece with nothing wrong.

It was right at 9 am at this point and according to google maps, we had a 9 hour and 50 minute drive ahead of us. Going a little faster than the speed limit and making 5 stops before we got home, I made it in 8 hours and 40 minutes.

I am already looking to book the next cruise. I will end this review with the original pic I posted, maybe next cruise I will go down that slide!!

I thank you for reading and I really appreciate all the nice comments especially the ones about my tent, lol.

Happy cruising to you,

Bruce

So here we are, the last full day, day at sea enroute to Miami.

If you have never eaten Brunch in the MDR, you really need to try it. I find the Carnival Brunch at sea day to be very relaxing. The DW will always order a breakfast item as I always go for the lunch menu. On this last sea day we got a table to ourselves, the first sea day brunch we sat with about 6 other cruisers. The menu seems to be much better than the ordinary lunch menus.

Later in the afternoon I went to the casino, which was actually quite busy. Both of the PokerPro tables were in use. The nonsmoking table had 5 guys playing with money from $80-$300 while the smoking table had 4 people playing with no one having more than $25. Ironically, no one was smoking at the smoking table but someone was smoking at the non smoking table. I went to the cheap table and started with $30, this actually made me the chip leader at the table. In just a few hands I knocked out one player, wasn't much less than $10. A few hands after that I knocked out another player, another $10 or so victory. That left me and two others, one being a woman. I ended up knocking out both of those players as well, now I am up over $60 in about 30 minutes.

With no one left at my table, and me wanting more action, I turned to the other table. Knowing these were better players and gamblers, I started my bank roll at $80. Unlike the table I just left, I played a non aggressive role and let the other players do the raising. After about an hour of this table and only catching about 2 good hands, I had more than doubled up. I left the table with $ 165. Not bad and feeling good.

I wanted to stay at the Poker table some more but the DW had other plans. We went to our YTD early so we could catch the last show, Latin Nights. Honestly I don't remember much about this show, I was kinda bored with it. I guess I expected more out of it being about sexy latino stars like J Lo, Shakira, and the likes. The main thing that I do remember and was cool, was on the final number, the cast dance out into the atrium and asked to be joined. The music kept playing and they kept dancing all the while other cruisers snapped photos.

After the show we went back and packed up to be ready for our early morning disembarkation. All packed up, I went back to the Poker table. There was a different group of guys playing and I jumped in for $80 again. One guy had over $500 on the table. I had not seen him play before. He was playing really reckless but catching cards like you would not believe. I didn't want to play in a pot with him, not that I feared him but rather he was getting so lucky with his cards. He finally left, with almost $800!!! I played with the remaining 4 players up to about 2 am, I had gotten up to $180 but after a couple of bad losses, cashed out around $ 100.

We continued our normal routine of taking a short nap after our port excursions. This is the time of the cruise that I started feeling a little depressed. It seemed like the vacation was over, we had visited all four of the ports and headed home. Back to reality and work on Monday which was fast approaching.

Not much to do on this evening. There was no feature show, not much of sports going on in the EA bar and the movie on the Lida deck was The Vow...Hit me with a monkeyhead drink and throw me overboard will ya.

We did end up going to Hasbro, The Game Show. There were a lot of people that could and did win prizes. Prize was a mini Hasbro game, like a deck of Uno or something. There was one big winner, a big bruiser looking guy that beat out a 12 year old asian girl. I hope he slept good that night.

I did attend 2 of the 3 adult comedy nights with Comediens Mark Simmons and Kim Harrison. They both did a really good job.

I wanted to play PokerPro but again no one was playing. I don't usually play the slots, but I saw 2 ladies (sisters) that I had met and they were playing the $1 slot machine. Two women playing one machine. That machine was lighting up. She hit like $40, then $60, told me she hit $100 earlier. I told myself, self, if they can do it, you can do it. I put $20 in the same type of machine right beside them. Two minutes later I had won nothing. Then self said, well, you didn't put enough money in and give yourself a chance, so I put in $40. Well, five minutes later I had won nothing again. I wish self would have left me alone.

I stayed up late again, finished off what little bit of smuggled liquor I had left. I went to the lido deck to get my late night ice cream fix before I retired for the evening. Let me stop right here a minute. The Conquest has 3 ice cream machines, thats right 3. On the first day, I spotted the first machine, fixed me a cone and walked around a bit and right when I was about to finish off that cone, I found a second ice cream machine. I know what you are thinking, and yes I fixed me another cone. I am glad I didn't find the third one right away. I tore all three of those ice cream machines up. I was making friendly bets with kids on who could have the tallest cone.

Off to bed and await for the last sea day.

You should cruise more often. You're reviews are entertaining.

 

 

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stop it, you're making me blush

Where did you rent the golf cart? Does the business have a name? Going to grand turk on glory end of july and was looking for an excursion like that but couldn't find one through carnival. :)

I had no reservations and do not know the business name. You will need to walk through the main port area and keep walking toward the parking lot. Just as you exit the road into the cruise port area, they will be there on the side of the road. You will not be able to ride the cart or scooters into the cruise port area. While I was paying for the cart on the side of the road, a policeman came over and asked us to hurry it up and move. There were only about 2-4 golf carts, about 6 scooters and a jeep. The carts looked to be in good shape, unlike what I read on these boards. The scooters too looked to be in good shape. I saw only one other couple rent a cart. I never saw a scooter or the jeep being rented. If I do it again, I would smuggle a small box or two of cheerios or something to feed the donkeys.

Enjoy your cruise

We walked around the cruise port for a few minutes, including Margaritaville which is right there when you exit the ship.

The have a large free pool that looked very inviting but I didn't have my speedo. The timing was good at Margaritaville for me, when we entered they were playing The Wobble and a lot of the hotties were dancing.

We got back to the ship around 4 pm and I went up to deck 11 to snap a few shots as we departed Grand Turk.

This is part of the cruise port area and the beach where the Conquest docks. There are loads of lounge chairs and it looks like a nice beach, but I did not actually go there or enter the water.

Next up the beach you will find Jacks Shack, this is what to look for

Here is the abandoned boat that is at Governor's Beach

You will clearly see all these as you dock.

A further shot out as we depart GT

I thought GT was a nice little island. The beaches seemed to be very nice, the water beautiful shades of blue. The horses/donkeys that travel the island is a bit crazy for me. I tell you, they are very respectful. As I was driving the golf cart back to the cruise port, a donkey was walking in my direction. He was already walking off the road, but as I approached, he started to walk up a side walk just to give me more room. I told my DW, look at that, I don't think a person would have done that. The terrain is flat and the town is nonexistant IMO. Next trip, I will probably go and stay at Jacks and play with Topher.

Thanks! We do have Aldi, so I'll definitely check there this week.

 

Did you feel like the golf cart was worth the money? I think this would be fun, just not sure I could justify the price. GT will mostly be a beach day for us.

Was it worth the money? Probably about as much as all the other inflated purchases on the cruise. I offered him $60 for just 4 hours, he wouldn't accept. I justified the $80 because I hadn't spent much money in the other ports and this was our last port. The four seater golf carts are $100. Also, you start with 1/2 tank of gas (gas carts not electric) and you are to return the cart with 1/2 tank or pay $20. My first stop was to put gas in it. Gas was almost $7 per gallon. I filled it up, which I shouldn't have, cost me $18 and I gave her a $20. I probably only needed $5-8 if that. When I returned, it had nearly a full tank, so I did not leave a tip, I justified the extra gas in the tank would be fair enough whether it was or not. We did have fun, you drive on the left side of the road, that was different for me. If you don't want to do a beach thing there, then yes I would do the golf carts. I saw a group of ATV's but they had to follow a guide and I think that was as much or more than a golf cart. Horse back riding is available, but those creatures scare me. Had a great time with it, wouldn't do it again next time but would do it again.

BoozeNCruise, Believe it or not, this is a private residence. :eek: We had a Buck Island turtle snorkeling excursion with Fury the winter before last. We had to pick up additional guests at the Marriott in your first photo, as Fury is also their snorkeling provider. There was a delay, so to fill the time, the captain told us a little about the home's owner.

 

He is a wealthy grandpa. See the two cannons? Those are water cannons. We were lucky enough to see him and his wife out on their terrace. We all waved to them, and he got up and shot his water cannons toward us. It was fun. I don't know if you noticed, but to the left of your pic of his home there is a small bay with a replica of an old pirate ship. He built it for his grandkids to play on when they come visit. Our captain told us it cost over a million, because he made it authentic just mini, but don't by any means think playground size. It is still a good size ship!

 

I would love to know what he is constructing to the left at the end of his driveway. It has been in the building phase for a loooooong while. I guess construction runs on island time! :D

 

Enjoying your review and pics!

Wow, thanks for giving me info on this house. I wasn't sure if it was a house, a resort, or a restaurant. Out of the three, a residence house would have been my last guess. I didn't even notice the cannons until you told me about them. I was fascinated about this property and now that I know more I am even more fascinated. It really is an awesome place.

After petting an ass or two at the lighthouse, we carted back toward the cruise port side of the island. I drove the golf cart to the big town of Cockburn, boy was that a disappointment. We never got off the cart. There were some mini huts that were selling various souvenirs and a small straw market but not like what you would expect. We passed the old Her Majesty Prison and then off to see a nearby school, as my DW is a teacher and that interested her.

We saw about a dozen students in school uniform about a block away and my DW asked if she could take a photo of them to show her class. Most obliged so my DW snapped away. I quickly told her, Honey, you need to stop, stop now. She asked, why and I replied, some of them are giving gang gestures with their hands. Sorry, no photobucket pics to share on that.

After leaving the GT Elementary Gang, we headed toward Governor's Beach.

We didn't enter the ocean but did check out the beach and amenities

It was much smaller than what I had expected, which is probably the main attraction, less people. The sand was soft and there is an old boat right there check out. I felt safe here and no one trying to sell you anything or ask to braid your hair. The restrooms were not the best. The DW said the ladies room was disgusting. I found the mens room to be unclean and no seats where on the toilets, so good luck with that. Also, the doors were propped wide open on both restrooms so that impaired some privacy.

In this pic, you can see the Conquest in the distance. It is not that far away from the cruise port but I do not think you can walk the beach the entire way to get there due to a public service facility fencing off some of the beach.

We left the Gov's beach and headed to Jacks Shack. We got seated at the front, near the grill/barbque. We ordered a jerk chicken plate, burger, fries, and 2 waters. It was very good food, the jerk chicken had a nice flavor. The bill was around $ 25.

Jacks dog, Surfer aka Topher was entertaining us. He was in the water and standing on his hind legs looking for some fish/minnows. He later got out and would catch some sand as some beach goers tossed it with their feet. One of the funniest things he did was dig a deep hole and stick his entire head in it. I don't know what he was looking for. Being a dog owner of 3 dogs, we really started missing ours and wish they were with us. Never missed the kids,lol.

After a nice lunch at Jacks shack, we headed back to the cruise port area.

As others have said, I really appreciate this review since there are relatively few of the Conquest. We will be on this same itinerary on Conquest in December, except we will do Grand Turk instead of HMC. I am really appreciating your thoughts and perspective. I had been a little concerned about whether we would find Conquest out of date, since our last cruise was just the second US itinerary for the Breeze. I think we will be happy, and your review is reassuring.

 

May I asked where you found your tent/shade thingey? We are all fair, and love the beach, but need shade. That would be perfect, and not too pricey.

I am loving the fact that people like my beach tent due to the grief I got from my kids and DW. I bought it from bargain outfitters dot com. I paid about $ 20 plus $5 to ship. It was on clearance. I just looked at their site and I could not find that exact tent. I did however find 2 others that look to be better quality but they are $35 and $45 or thereabouts in price. Go to that web site and click on their tents, look for the beach cabanas.

If you have an Aldi's food store nearby, I see that they will have on sale starting July 2, a small beach cabana much like mine, maybe a little smaller, it is on sale for $ 14.99. You may even be able to order it off their web site.

Thanks again, Happy Cruising

Friday is Grand Turk day, from 10 am - 5 pm. Like the other ports, I had never been to GT and did not know what to expect. I didn't really have a plan for the day, I knew all the options available but the DW and I never decided what to do.

After a quick bite of breakfast we walked off the ship onto Grand Turk. I wanted to check out some kind of rentals outside the gated cruise port area. There were mopeds, jeeps, and golf carts. I opted to rent a golf cart for $80. On many occasions we would camp at Myrtle Beach and rent a golf cart and would have a blast, that's why I went with the cart. The vendor gives us a barely legible map of the island. You will not get lost, the island is like 2 miles wide and just 7 miles long. Well, we got lost. Not really lost just took a wrong turn on the way to the lighthouse which is at the opposite end of the island.

There are lots of horses/donkeys that walk the island like stray dogs. There are several at the lighthouse that are probably more friendly due to the extra interaction with people. Here is a pic of me and a friendly ass posing.

Um, that is me on the right, BTW

The views around the lighthouse are nice. It sits up on a cliff, here is a pic or two.

We drove this golf cart all over the island and had a great time doing it. Only thing is, I didn't realize how desolate this island was. Like I said earlier on the wrong turn issue, I didn't realize I had passed the town of Cockburn, cause there is nothing there.

It is a beautiful island and the surrounding waters are stunning, here is a pic

Notice the multi colors of blue waters.

More of GT in a few...

We got back to the ship around 2:30 or so and went in for a shower and a nap. The naps were really nice, but I do regret not getting pictures leaving Puerto Rico.

Thursday evening was a very pleasant evening. It was elegant night and with our anytime dining, we arrived at the MDR just before 6 pm. The dining room staff is really awesome. Dewi will meet and greet you as you enter and she knew our names after just one meeting. She is also cute as she can be. We had the team of Bernadette and Johnathan for several of the nights. They were both wonderful and we got to talking with them on several occasions. Johnathon is a very "sweet" guy if you know what I mean. He was a trip to talk to, we had the best time talking with him. I just wish he didn't touch me as much as he did, lol.

After Elegant dining, we attended the show, The Brits!. This was a much better performance in my opinion, although I thought it was kinda short. It featured British band music like The Beatles, The Who, Rolling Stones, etc. Most of the music was sung by the same singer, I can't remember her name but she was the only black one and she is some kind of cute. She has the biggest and cutest dimples when she smiles. I thought it was a good entertaining show.

No one was to be found playing PokerPro, didn't see anyone at the tables all day long. We did attend the comedy shows again. There were two new comediens that came onboard. Mark Simmons and Kim Harrison. Kim was very funny and she was from Columbia SC, lives less than 10 miles from me.

Kim did one show tonight as Mark did two. Only went to the first of Marks show since he said there would be a lot of repeat on his late night show.

I wanted to stay up real late tonight since Friday was going to be a sleep late day. My stash of smuggled liqour was running out as well also. Since I couldn't find anything to hold my attention, I went in for the night just after midnight.

next up, Grand Turk

We were on this same cruise and I did a review as well. We loved loved the Conquest. I don't think I had a single complaint and the ports were great as well!

 

 

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I agree with you, I found your review not too long after I started mine. It sounds like we did the same or similiar excursions. Like I stated there are not many reviews on the Conquest

I felt very safe walking around Old San Juan. There seems to be a strong Police presence and I was pleasantly surprised to see their vehicle of choice is a Suzuki Boulevard C 90, one of my favorite motorcycles. I am an ex owner of a Suzuki Boulevard C 50.

Here is the police cruiser:

This cruiser was parked at the park where we were dropped off. We continue on our self excursion walking aimlessly around OSJ.

To me, it was a pleasant walk, soaking in the sights and different colors of buildings and some of the streets were cobblestone. Here is a pic of a guy selling ice cream off the streets.

We ended up at a corner CVS where we bought some drinks and incidentals. My DW spotted a Marshalls and so we spent some time in there as well. Now we are probably about half a mile from the ship and we are walking casually back to the ship all while I am looking for an authentic small restaurant for a break. I find one that was in a small alley way, kinda sketchy but we went for it. The waitress spoke no English, and we spoke no Spanish so this was going to be interesting. The menu came and guess what? it is in Spanish. Not being very hungry and not being able to read the menu I decided to play it safe and order two appetizers. One of the appetizers had 'pollo" so, I assumed that was chicken and ordered that. The other appetizer, had buffalo, so I assumed and was hoping that was buffalo chicken so I ordered that. The waitress did understand coke, so that was no problem. We now waited to see what kind of food was going to be delivered to our table. Our mystery appetizers turned out to be some chicken tenders, or something like, they actually didn't look like normal chicken tenders to me. The buffalo dish was small fried fish that laid into a small coating of buffalo sauce. I tell ya, it was all good and the presentation was as good or better than anything the MDR had. Our total bill was about $16.

As we left the small restaurant, we ended right back at that small park. My DW bought one of the knock off purses. He asked for $50, I gave him $30, not sure if I did good or not but it is a good looking purse.

After a quick sit down break and making cellular phone calls for the first time in about 4 days, we headed straight back to the ship

I really liked OSJ and would explore more of it on our return. I would practice my Spanish, I assumed they were a little more bi-lingual there but it is not like that at all.

El Morro looked to be a much bigger fortress with a huge grass front yard filled with kids playing, flying kites and picnickers. The DW did not care to enter, so we continued on the free trolley ride and returned on the loop trail back to that quaint little park.

Another pic taken from the trolley

Thursday is the cruise day I was most anticipating, docking in Puerto Rico from 7 am to 3 pm. My plan was to just walk, walk and walk some more checking out the sights, sounds, and scenery of Old San Juan. I had warned my DW, because she doesn't like walking as much as I do. She said she would be a trooper, so we exited the ship around 8 am and off on our self excursion.

We came across a quaint little park just a block or so from the cruise ship, just a place to stop and check our surroundings. While at the park I saw that Castillo San Cristobal was just a block away. We made the short but semi steep walk up to the top entrance of the fortress. Here is a pic of how close the ship is from this fortress.

before you actually enter San Cristobal, there is a nice area for photo ops. Check this pic out of an old soldiers lookout.

As we were walking to enter the fortress, another cruising couple was leaving and asked if we plan on entering. I said yes and he handed me a receipt to enter. I took it and not sure what to expect I handed it to the Park Ranger as I entered and she said, welcome, enjoy your visit and waved us in. So, I saved $10 on an entry fee from the other couple.

We looked around for about 10-15 minutes if that long. I could tell the DW wasn't excited about seeing some 500 year old concrete, but I did. Here are a few pics:

These large round things are where they stored fresh water.

I saw a long narrow tunnel that interested me, so we took the trek down it. It actually went to the bottom of the fort, where the main entrance was at. Boy was my wife pleased with me knowing she had to climb the hill to go into another entrance. She went to the restroom and I strolled around in the gift shop and then I saw the Rangers Station and it had a donation box. My conscience got the best of me, so I put $10 (the entry fee I should have paid) into the box. We left and waited just outside the ground level entrance for the free trolley.

The trolley was really refreshing. It was free, we got to sit, and the breeze from the open trolley really felt good on this hot day. We were going to take the trolley for a full loop ride, from San Cristobal to El Morro and back. I took some snap shots while on the trolley.

Here is a pic with El Morro in the distance.

here are a couple of other shots while on the trolley

more on Old San Juan in a few...