rs12065

If you need any more information on this tour or on Curaçao, you can email me at bsilver28@gmail.com. You will love Curaçao

Under the Lido deck? that is why you always look at the deck plans before selecting your cabin, no one to blame but ones self.

Does it appear from my reply to the OP that I just posted on Cruise Critic to trash the Conquest? I was just replying to the OP to warn of issues we had with our cabin. I was being helpful in pointing out the noise we experienced in 8400, and I wasn't posting in order to make a snide comment on how we should all "look at deck plans" before a cabin is chosen. That is a given even with first time cruisers or cruisers who consider them selves all knowing because of the number of cruises they have tken.

Point is, the reply to my post regarding cabin 8400 was unwarranted and does not help the OP, Would I sail on the Conquest again? Yes

We have been on the Glory, Valor and Conquest, all Conquest class ships, as is the Liberty, so all 3 ships have similar layout although interior decor differs on all of these ships.

Last January we did the exact same southern itinerary on the Valor with my wife and extended family. It was port intensive, but it was incredible.

WE just love leaving out of San Juan, and in fact this was the second time we left from there. Love Old San Juan and getting around is easy, especially with the free shuttle buses going to the historical forts. Also like the fact that the ship leaves at 10:00 pm or so and we can get an extra whole day on the ship.

In order to make this a relaxing cruise, we spent most days in port at beaches, except in St. Lucia, where we took an incredible excursion to the Pitons which included a tour of this beautiful island, with stops at a banana plantation and an active volcano with nearby mud baths.

given a choice, we would opt for leaving out of San Juan

It was found in this forum by one of our cruising companions. We were looking for an excursion that would be different, and we did not want to spend the day at the beach since we were going to a beach at the 3 other ports on this cruise.

The cost was $60 per person paid at the conclusion of the tour. We gave Gigi an additional $10 per couple and the driver of the van $5 per couple, which was purely voluntary on our part. There were 8 people all together, the 6 in our party and 2 women who joined us.

Gigi's email address is: gigischeper@hotmail.com

Thanks for all replies. Very helpful.

We are thinking of booking the Breakaway for an October cruise. I find the deck plans shown on NCLs website to be confusing since we don't know the name of the buffet area and on which deck it is on We would like to be 2 decks below the buffet area and any pool area. On our recent cruise on the Carnival Conquest, we were right below the uffet on the Lido deck and it was very noisy all night long as they cleaned and preparred the area for the next day..

Any info we can get in advance would be much appreciated.

We visited Curacao on our recent Carnival Conquest voyage. We decided to do the Jewish Heritage Tour, which was led by our friendly and learned guide, Gigi Schlepper.

The tour lasted about 3 hours and visited Mikve-Israel-Emanuel synagogue, the longest active synagogue in the western hemisphere. We learned much about the history of Jewish settlement in the Netherlands Antilles and marveled at the simple beauty of the synagogue, with its floor of sand, cobalt blue glass windows and beautiful woodwork. In addition we visited the adjacent museum and saw artificacts that dated back 800 years or more.

The tour also visited the Jewish cemetery with its tombstones damaged by the nearby oil refinery. We then went to visit the Curacao liqueur factory where we had tastings of this wonderful liqueur.

Gigi was an incredibly knowledgeable guide and was very friendly. She was waiting for our group at the pier when we docked. She also gave us the option of returning directly to the ship at the end of the tour or being dropped off at the shopping/restaurant area which was only a short walk back to the ship. She was bar far the best guide we have ever had on an excursion. We would rate this tour with 5 Stars

We just completed an 8 night cruise on the Conquest. Most of the interior of the ship (public spaces, main dining rooms,pool areas, spa, etc.) were in excellent shape.

However, our cabin had issues with lighting, which was corrected after we brought it to the attention of the cabin steward. Also, the toilet in the bathroom had a horrible, funky, urine odor all the time. We brought that to the attention of the cabin steward and a visit from the ships plumber did not rectify the problem.

The mattress and pillows very terribly hard, not like on the Valor when we sailed here a year ago. And our cabin 8400 on the Verandah Deck, was right below the Lido buffett, and so we heard food carts rolling over the tiled floor all night long every night.

OP..appreciate your sane review of everything...sorry for the goof-ups..and glad you still had a good time!!

Thank you. Yes, there were some goof-ups, but a wonderful time all in all. Great friends, good food, laid back atmosphere, good weather. I was just mentioning the "Bad" to show all aspects of the cruise.

As for the "Ugly" I posted originally, it was because of the cold and snow here in upstate NY. And it is Deja-Vu all over again...snowing as I type with a foot or more forecasted and temps below zero later in the week. So, a week on the Conquest was bliss compared to this ;-)

Thank you for your review! As others may have mentioned before, if you still have the Fun Times, I, too, would be interested in seeing them! ;)

 

I have read several conflicting posts regarding Jack's Shack. You mentioned it was a "short" walk. Some people say it took them 15-20 minutes. Your thoughts? Is it worth the walk or just easier to stay at Margaritaville right off the pier?!? (I hear the drinks are pricey!)

I thought it was worth the walk. Definitly not 15-20 minutes, and easy to walk along the hard packed sand along the shoreline

Thanks for the review. We are on the same cruise in 6 weeks. How were the ports of call?

We really enjoyed the ports of call on this cruise. There were two ports we have never been to before, Grand Turk and Curacao, and that was one of the reasons we booked this cruise.

First port was Grand Turk. We went to Jack's Shack which is a short walk from the ship. I had heard from others that Grand Turk is kind of boring, so we planned on just hanging out at the beach. Jack's Shack was great. Nice beach and great jerk chicken and cold local beer.

At La Romana in the Dominican Republic we took a taxi to Bayahibe Beach ( $28 RT per person. Taxis are expensive in the DR). Bayahibe is a beautiful beach. The beach attendants are polite and accommodating, and tables were set up for us right at the waters edge for lunch. On caveat, though. The restroom facilities are awful for even a third world country.

In Curacao we took the Jewish Heritage Tour which brought us to the oldest active synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. There was also a stop at the Curacao liquor factory, were free samples were provided ;-). We ended up at a cafe near the floating, pontoon bridge is and had some drinks and then walked to a restaurant for dinner. This was the first time we have ever eaten diner off the ship, and it was a wonderful experience. Willemstaat is a great Caribbean town, with many reminders of the Dutch heritage.

Our last port was Aruba. Again we spent another beach day, this time at Palm Beach. There is a pier on the beach with a very good beach bar, Bugaloe Beach Bar. Ate unch there and just relaxed on the beach.

IMHO, the only downside was the 2 sea days at the end of the cruise. Although we love sea days, 2 in a row at the end of a cruise turned out to be somewhat boring for us.

Even with the hiccups I mentioned in my original post, all in all it was wonderful cruise.

It happened a few times, we went to our table to find other people assigned the same table, we just waited for the maitre'd to sit us at a table no biggie...about moving you and the napkins being touched, I would of simply asked for a different set of utensils/napkins. Regarding the FTTF, its nice having the room ready but sometimes the passenger before us doesn't leave as they should and it takes the cabin steward more time to preparing the cabin...I personally would rather wait and know its cleaned properly...this happened once to us we were in a Junior Suite went to our cabin it was not all made up yet and our cabin steward apologized, we simply dropped off our carry on and said no problem, at least we got our carry on bags in the room and got on the ship first...but we did get our luggage very quickly...I do know when you have FTTF they must put special tags on them, then we tip nicely and assure ourselves it will arrive quickly which so far it always has.

Apparently you didn't read my original post thoroughly or did not understand it. Our complaint was that we were moved after water was poured and napkins used by us at the original table. There was nobody else at this table when our party of 6 arrived at the table. We were then moved to another table with a bogus explanation that service would be slower at the original table, which turned out to be just the opposite. And on the Conquest, there are no assigned/reserved/requested tables at Anytime Dining, so the party that was given the table which we had been asked to leave had not been assigned that table or reserved it.

As for the FTTF issue, ALL cabins were ready because of the delay in boarding. Our complaint was not so much that we could not board early than general boarding, but that our luggage was delayed and in fact came later than most luggage on our deck, and Guest Services was not very accommodating in dealing with the issue. This had nothing to do with the cabin steward getting the cabin ready for us. And with FTTF, we didn't think it necessary to have any carry on luggage because one of the perks is getting your luggage early.

Just returned from the 8 night cruise on the Carnival Conquest. I am writing this review after snow blowing 15 inches of snow from my driveway and dealing with temperatures as low as -11 degrees yesterday morning. That is just plain Ugly. So it goes in upstate NY.

We traveled with 2 other couples who we frequently cruise with. This was our third cruise on Conquest class ships, with their irritating layout which makes going from one end of the ship to the other like walking through an English Garden maze.

The Good...Meals in the main dining room were very good, with menus arranged with choices for just about everyone. The one exception was the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake, which recently has turned into Warm Chocolate Melting Pudding. Needs a few more moments of baking. Notable main courses were the Lamb Shank and Chateaubriand. Excellent!

The cabin was adequate size (Balcony, Verandah Deck 8) and the air conditioner worked fine. Cabin steward Carlos was attentive but not doting.

We really liked the faux Impressionism theme of the ship, with references to Paris and the French countryside. Colors were not garish as on the other two Conquest class ships we've sailed on, the Glory and the Valor.

There was no observable chair hogging and lounge chairs were always available, although not necessarily in the main pool area. The large Jumbotron screen in the main pool area was less obtrusive and deafening as the one on the Valor last January. The Cruise Director was involved but not obnoxious, like the one on the Valor last year, who ended every announcement(and he had a million of them) with an irritating shout of "Woo Hoo".

The Bad (unfortunately too much of them)...All 3 cabins purchased Faster To The Fun as we all like to board as early as possible. However, boarding was delayed because of "tests being done" on the ship (Carnival's explanation). So we boarded later than usual and all cabins were ready for all boarding passengers immediately so that perk of FTTF was diluted, but no big deal. At least with FTTF we would get have our luggage waiting for us when we arrived at our cabin. Nope. Didn't happen. When we finally saw most cabins on deck 8 receiving their luggage but not ours, we asked the cabin steward if he could find out what was going on. He made a call but got no explanation. Finally, after most cabins received their luggage ours finally turned up at around 4:30 pm.

My friend went down to Guest Services to talk about the matter. However, all Guest Services representatives were assisting guests in the regular Guest Services line and there was absolutely no one attending to the shorter line for passengers who are Platinum or who have FTTF. So, now we have no perks of FTTF. My friend left Guest Services and we decided we would all go back later to talk with them.

When we went as a group after dinner, the stonewalling and buck passing began. Everybody we spoke with had to speak with their boss. On and on it went like this. They told us to come back the next day. When we went back the next day we were told that that luggage handlers had put luggage with FTTF stickers on them into the same bins with all the other luggage and that was why we did not have priority handling of the bags. We asked for a refund of our FTTF but were told someone else would get back to us.

It took 2 additional days. All 3 cabins were told explicity that the $49.95 would be refunded to our credit cards. However, 2 days after that we all discovered that instead of a $49.95 credit to our credit cards, we all received that amount as on board credit. Now we were forced to use that amount or lose it. (my wife had no difficulty using it up plus a lot more very quickly), but that is not the point. We had paid that amount upfront months ago and should have received a credit to our charge cards.

One evening, as were seated at a table (Anytime Dining), we were asked to move to a different nearby table. This after napkins had been placed on laps and water poured in glasses. The explanation we got after questioning the move was that the service at the first table would be slow (HUH?). We moved to a different table where the service was the S L O W E S T we have ever experienced on a cruise ship and we were forced to miss a comedy show we were planning on attending. My wife doesn't like to complain, but on the way out of the dining room, which was almost empty at that time, the Maitre D' happened to pass by and asked how everything was that evening. We explained what occurred and told us he would look into it.

The next evening the Maitre D' sought us out after we were seated, apologized for the previous evening and sent the table a complimentary bottle of wine. Handled well by him, but it never should have happened. We never did get an explanation for the move to a different table.

As for our cabin, 2 issues. First, the fluorescent lights over the closet area were not working. A quick mention to our cabin steward and the problem was fixed, although not until the next day.

Also, the toilet in the cabin had very little water in the bowl and constantly had a funky smell(insert your own joke or snide comment here). A visit by the ships plumber made no improvement.

We had cabins 8400,8408,8412. Since these cabins are right below the Lido deck buffet area, we heard food carts, probably loaded with dishes or tryas, rolling over the tiled floor all night long. Sounded like low, rumbling thunder all night.

Although there were several hiccups, we had a wonderful cruise, mostly because of our travelling companions and the ports of call. As for the ship, Meh.

Which ship? Which port?

Was on Conquest in Jan and it is definitely a magnetic strip.

Thanks for responding, but that does not answer my question. I would like to know if anyone was in a cabin which had the code type safe.

Recently I posted a question in the forum regarding the types of safes found in the cabins on Conquest; specifically are they controlled by a code or by a magnetic strip such as can be found on the back of a credit card or similar card. The responses I received indicated that the safes are the magnetic strip kind.

This morning I read a reply to a different post which stated that a cruiser had the code type safe in their cabin.

Has anyone sailed on the Conquest recently and had a code type safe? Is it possible both types of safes can be currently found on the Conquest?

Thanks in advance

I know

Several weeks ago I posted a question regarding the type of safes that were in the cabins on Conquest. Specifically I asked if the safes were activated by a code or by a magnetic strip such as on the back of a credit card, The responses I got all said that the safes were the magnetic strip type.

This morning I read a post on this board that someone mentioned that the safe in their cabin was the code type. I was wondering if anyone has sailed the Conquest recently and had a safe controlled by a code, and is it possible that both types of safes can be found on the Conquest?

Thanks in advance

The liquor store is still open It is situated after you check in and get your cabin key but before you pass through security. The security is manned by agents of the Port of San Juan, not Carnival employees.

We purchased several bottles of wine and others in our party purchased vodka and gin. The bottles are put in a plastic bag which you then put on the conveyor belt to pass through the x-ray machines. The security agents DO NOT confiscate any liquor. Right after the the liquor passes through the machine you pick up your belongings including the liquor and as you enter the gangway to board the ship you simply put the bags containing the liquor and put them into a backback or other carry on and simply walk onboard the ship with it.

Some of the younger people in our group had a full bar set up in their cabins

I also found the Fun Shops to be less than helpful. I am considering whether to purchase a wine package before boarding or waiting until I am onboard

Sent from my BNTV400 using Forums mobile app

Shore excursion place holder.

Huh?

I was looking at excursions for my upcoming (January 24th, 2015) cruise on the Valor. I noticed that under excursions from Fort Lauderdale was an "excursion" titled "Home Port Advisory". The cost was $0.01 and minimum age was 99. What's that all about? Anyone have any idea why and what this is?

U.S. Immigration and Nationalization Service does not care about the how or why you had to come home from Mexico. You would still need a passport. Is it possible that Carnival might be able to contact the State Department on a passenger(s) behalf, but I wouldn't expect that to be handled in a very timely manner.

Just make sure that the person in your party who is resisting obtaining a passport knows they are taking a risk, albeit very minor. You don't want to play the "I told you so" game

See ya!!

Very mature reply. Thanks for adding nothing to the conversation.

We did this cruise last January with 15 people. Incredible vacation and cruise. Your video is one of the best I have ever seen on Cruise Critic and brings back great memories. Thanks