Conquest 5/9-5/16

[layditx1]

Got back yesterday from a fun cruise on the Conquest! We decided that "fun" is what you make it!

 

Embarkation was easy, the only part we didn't like was waiting for our "zone" to be called...probably didn't wait more than 30 minutes or so, but we wanted to be on the ship!We arrived at the port and parked at EZ cruise sometime between 10:30 and 11 and were on board on the Lido with DOD in hand by 12! One funny thing at security-we had our 2 bottles of wine and some soft drinks in one carry-on; the lady at the xray machine told us "there are BOTTLES in there!! You have to take it to THAT table NOW!!" We told here there were "bottles in there, that's why we were being VERY careful not to drop the bag or anything. She acted like we were SMUGGLING or something! We people watched, called and sent texts/picture mail to our family back home "ha-ha we are here and you aren't"! Had some lunch-went to Sur Mer that everyone raved about and had fish and chips...I didn't think it was a whole lot better than Long John Silver except I was eating it on a CRUISE ship!!!

 

We got to our cabin at 1:30 and our bags were there!! Untouched and unopened...the Capt. Morgans and Crown were intact!!!:D (tell THAT to the lady at the xray machine!) We were in 7389. Of course, the very first thing we did was to go stand on our balcony! This is the 1st balcony room we have had, and I can say I will NEVER want to go back! At first, I was surprised at how small the room seemed-it had been 6 years since my last cruise! (and the last one was 4 peeps in an INSIDE :eek:) Anyway, after unpacking, the room got bigger!

 

We had never been on the Conquest, so we kinda felt like Cruise Virgins...didn't know our way around, kinda open-mouthed at everything. They didn't give us a "map", so I went searching for one and found it at one of the bars. I wish they had something besides the little "deck plan" booklet...it took us the whole cruise to figure out what elevators to go down to get to our dining room!!

 

Sail away was from our balcony, we were on starboard which happens to face the port of Galveston. It was so nice to just watch the port fade away.....

 

Out on the Gulf, heading for the Caribbean, we noticed some movement of the ship....well, a LOT of movement. I thought on a ship the size of the Conquest we shouldn't feel ANYTHING, so I was surprised. And our cabin was just to the aft of middle of the ship. I ended up having to take the "just-in-case" dramamine a couple of times! No nausea, just a really bad dizzy feeling! And I'm the one who tells everyone "You don't even know you're on a ship" when they are worried about getting seasick!

 

Dinner the first night (and every night) was in the MDR. We were in the Renoir for late seating. I had the sweet and sour shrimp, DH had the ribs. And of course, WCMC for dessert! The food was outstanding, the service just so-so. More about that later.....

 

 

I am going to post this and see if the pic comes through, then continue on.....

[WestTxCruiser]

I can't wait for more, I LOVE Conquest reviews. I am waiting very impatiently for 40 days to pass!!

Keep it coming!:D

[douglinc@msn.com]

Sounds good, watining for more. I love reviews with pictures.

 

Doug

[layditx1]

OK, I see the pic came through...REALLY came through! If I can figure out how to make them a little smaller, I will...

 

Ok, to continue...Sea days 1 and 2...we didn't do much of anything! Room service for "pre-breakfast" on the balcony. Gotta have that 1st cup of coffee! Ok, maybe I will post the pics in a seperate post.....

 

We had our "cruise critic" meet and greet....TWICE! We had originally agreed to meet by the pizza place at 1, then I saw in the "Fun Times" that there was a Cruise Critic meet and greet at 1:30 at Vincents....hmmm, none of us knew how that happened! But it was fun to meet face-to-face with our roll call buds....

 

We went to the Super Trivia and joined a team-"the Mentalists"....this was a 3 day contest between the 3 teams....had a ball! But I don't know who writes the questions and where they get their answers from, but some of them are just plain WRONG!!! Did you know that Belize is in SOUTH America?????

 

Dinner...1st "elegant" night....we had the most awful service I have ever encountered, either on a ship OR on land....There were only us and 1 other couple at our table...2 appetizers brought out, then about 5 min later, another one, then finally about 10 min later the last one! Entrees were brought slowly, and were not hot...but the lobster was still good! About 20 min after we finished our entrees, we were finally offered the dessert menu....by the time we finished, they were dimming the lights!

I tried to get ahold of the the maitre'd the next day and never could, so I went to guest services and put in a complaint (and I never complain about anything!) I was assured that the maitre'd would be in touch with us, but he NEVER did. When we went that evening, I asked the hostess if we had been moved to another table, but she knew nothing about it. BUT she was VERY nice and moved us to another table. From then on the service was EXCELLENT...almost too much! They were constantly at our sides, making sure we had EVERYTHING we desired!!!LOL

 

 

To be continued......

[dasey]

Waiting for more!!! We were also on this sailing and it was alot of Movement, especially Thursday night heading to Cozumel. The best show was watching the people in the buffet area trying to walk and carry their trays. Left-right-juggle-left-right-juggle oooh, aaahh, -- hold on!!!

 

I've never posted a review but may try to later. It was a fun trip!!

[layditx1]

Let's continue...

1st 2 sea days....we mainly hung out on our balcony, took naps (LOTS of naps-I am a night nurse and was still trying to turn myself into a "day" person!), ordered room service....we did go to the "welcome aboard" show the first night and had a good time! That is the only show we went to! DH isn't much for shows and we have seen a couple on previous cruises...we watched the "marriage show" on our cabin TV and LOVED it...watched it several times!!

 

We got in the "adult only" hot tub ONCE! And never got in any of the pools...there were no kids in the adult only spaces which was nice, but there were not a lot of kids on the ship anyway.

 

I never noticed "chair hogs", but again, we didn't spend much time on the deck. Every time I turned to the live camera channel on TV, there seemed to be plenty of chairs on the Lido....

One thing that surprised me was how SMALL the pools are! My pool in our back yard is bigger than any of the pools on this ship!

 

We are not big party people, but I have all the Fun Times if anyone has any questions...don't have a scanner, but will look up stuff on them if you want me too!!!

 

Day 3-Jamaica....we didn't have any plans here. Looking back, I wish we had! The best part was staying late on the ship and exploring without tons of people aboard! We found Camp Carnival and got a copy of their Fun Times for the kids....I wanna be a kid!!! It looked like they had TONS of fun stuff to do!

We got off the ship around 11:30 and finally decided to take the "Hot Spots" tour bus. This is where you buy a wristband for $15 and they take you to several different shopping spots and up where Margaritaville and Doctor's Cave Beach is....you can get on and off as much as you like. We wandered a bit, did some shopping....WARNING! You can buy stuff as cheap or cheaper at the pier!!! All I wanted was some Blue Mountain Coffee, bought a small bag for $10 and found the EXACT same size at the pier for $5!!!!!:eek:

 

Evenings, we spent most of our time at "Camp Casino"....there was usually a band playing and most of them were pretty good....

Now, at "Camp Casino"....this cruise EVERY table was $10 minimum, which is OK for Blackjack, but not so good for 3 card poker. (Oh, Caribbean Stud and Let it Ride had $5 mins, but I personally don't like to play either of them) I ended up playing BJ most of the time, did well overall...one night I turned $100 into $500! Too bad it wasn't the last night so I could have brought some home!!! LOL But I did manage to put $200 toward the S&S acct.....

 

More in a bit....

[layditx1]

Day 3-Grand Cayman....oh NO!!! Our Reef and Rays excursion was cancelled due to high winds...hmmm, we could tender in but not go on that excursion:( And when did we find out??? When we went to the Degas lounge to meet like our tickets told us to!! There were TONS of people there, and no one really knew what was going on....DH finally just went to the front of the crowd to listen and came back and told everyone around us. So we went back to our cabin for a while, then I went back down there to make sure we would get OBC for our pre-paid excursion-no prob there!

We made our way to the Toulouse Theater for tender tickets around 9:30-10, and waited....and waited.....finally got on shore around 11. BUT, waiting in the theater really beats waiting on the stairs! They should have some kind of show in there while you're waiting though....they could play the same thing that shows on the Lido big screen or something! It was kinda boring.....

 

We wandered around Georgetown a little bit, then took a cab to 7 Mile Beach. It was OK, but something in me just won't let me PAY for a lounge chair!!! We walked the beach, stuck our toes in the water, had a snack and went back to the ship. I don't think we bought anything there....a little too expensive for souvenir stuff!!!

 

Cozumel-much to our surprise, this ended up being our favorite port! We have been here a couple of times, so we thought..."been there, done that". Not so! We took a cab to Mr. Sancho's...no charge to get on the beach and NO CHARGE for the lounge chairs!!! We did pay $10 for an umbrella...you can sit at tables under palapas also, but I wanted to have the lounge to stretch out! We rented snorkle stuff for $10...saw a few fish and found a really pretty conch shell! Took the shell back to the ship with us wrapped in a towel so it wouldn't break....put it on the vanity, and out comes a LEG or something....!!! At first, I thought it was a hermit crab, but then we didn't see any claws, so we figured it was a conch...hmmmm, imagine, a conch in a conch shell...duh...so we threw it over the balcony back to it's home...

Souvenir shopping-we bought most of our stuff right at the pier. DH bought some new boots, he has been looking for some for a while. $160 for what we were told is alligator tail...don't know if it is or not, but they apppear to be well made and that's really not too much for a pair of boots! He's happy:D I told him that was his Camp Casino allowance!!! LOL

 

Last sea day....:(

Hung out around the ship...went to the last day of Super Trivia. Our team came in 2nd...WTG Mentalists!!! LOL

 

All in all, we had a good time...."met our expectations" was mostly on the comment card. The ship movement was NOT what we expected, as someone else has said, walking at times was a challenge! We TOTALLY enjoyed the balcony, sitting out there reading, dozing, watching the water...oh, yeah, there ARE flying fish! I never could get a pic of one though...

In review:

Embarkation-great, mostly painless!

Cabin-wonderful! BTW, there were no robes in our cabin, but I asked for one, they delivered 2. Kinda needed it on the balcony early morning and late evening! We took a soft sided cooler, the stewards kept it full of ice for us...it leaked some, need to keep it in the shower!

Food-Great! Much better than Applebees or Chilis, probably not 5 star, but we don't do 5 star anyway! We had breakfast in the MDR 3 or 4 times, and it was GREAT! Did the buffet for breakfast a couple of times, and for lunch and snacks. We REALLY liked the Deli, it was the best! And I tried sushi for the first time and found out it was pretty good! We missed the midnight Mexican buffet, but we probably would have been too full to enjoy it anyway! The chocolate buffet on the last sea day was just OK, too crowded! And I wanted to see the selections presented and not behind the buffet glass!

Room service-AWESOME! The couple of times I forgot to put out my breakfast request, I called and the coffee was there within 10 minutes!!

Entertainment-like I said, we didn't do the shows, some people we talked to said they ranged from good to so-so. If you want to do a lot of stuff, they have it, if you want to be like us and do nothing, they have that too!

Debarkation-MUCH better than I expected! The only YUCK part is standing in line for customs...ALWAYS slow...but at least it was in an air conditioned cavern! We were in our car and on the way home by 11, and made it back to see the grandson's end of year pre-school program at 4!

 

We will definately sail Carnival again! We cruise out of Galveston so we don't have the added expense of airfare. We would like to see different itineraries..the last time we went to Belize and enjoyed that. We don't have any desire to go to Key West and the Bahamas.....we are tentatively planning the 5 day Ecstasy for next year so we can take a couple of our grand-darlings! (thinking a 7 day with them would be too much for grandma and Boppy!) Waiting on the Magic to come to Galveston!!!!

 

OK, now I will try to get some pics on here.....

[cruisekwazee]

Yes bring on the Magic!!!!

[layditx1]

Trying for pics....

fish and chips

Easy to find the Cabin with these decorations!

1st time on the balcony!

Toes on vacation.....

Pre-breakfast on the balcony

Sunrise somewhere in the Caribbean

[*Mach*]

OK, I see the pic came through...REALLY came through! If I can figure out how to make them a little smaller, I will...

 

Ok, to continue...Sea days 1 and 2...we didn't do much of anything! Room service for "pre-breakfast" on the balcony. Gotta have that 1st cup of coffee! Ok, maybe I will post the pics in a seperate post.....

 

We had our "cruise critic" meet and greet....TWICE! We had originally agreed to meet by the pizza place at 1, then I saw in the "Fun Times" that there was a Cruise Critic meet and greet at 1:30 at Vincents....hmmm, none of us knew how that happened! But it was fun to meet face-to-face with our roll call buds....

 

We went to the Super Trivia and joined a team-"the Mentalists"....this was a 3 day contest between the 3 teams....had a ball! But I don't know who writes the questions and where they get their answers from, but some of them are just plain WRONG!!! Did you know that Belize is in SOUTH America?????

 

Dinner...1st "elegant" night....we had the most awful service I have ever encountered, either on a ship OR on land....There were only us and 1 other couple at our table...2 appetizers brought out, then about 5 min later, another one, then finally about 10 min later the last one! Entrees were brought slowly, and were not hot...but the lobster was still good! About 20 min after we finished our entrees, we were finally offered the dessert menu....by the time we finished, they were dimming the lights!

I tried to get ahold of the the maitre'd the next day and never could, so I went to guest services and put in a complaint (and I never complain about anything!) I was assured that the maitre'd would be in touch with us, but he NEVER did. When we went that evening, I asked the hostess if we had been moved to another table, but she knew nothing about it. BUT she was VERY nice and moved us to another table. From then on the service was EXCELLENT...almost too much! They were constantly at our sides, making sure we had EVERYTHING we desired!!!LOL

 

 

To be continued......

 

 

I can tell you how that happened... One of the members of your roll call emailed me and asked for a Meet & Mingle. I contacted Chris Jefferson and he set it up. Perhaps the information didn't make it to your roll call.

Glad you had a good time regardless.

:)

[layditx1]

This is my favorite pic...the essence of our vacation!

This should be the first pic...1st DOD!!!

Camp Casino

The Conch...he's back home now

The bike taxi on the pier at Cozumel...too pooped to walk back...and the only charge is a tip!!!!

 

More to come later....

[layditx1]

Thanks Mach!!!!!

[kwbound]

Enjoyed your report. Luv your door decorations! How did you affix them to the door?

[dasey]

Great Review, thanks for sharing!!! and the pictures are great!!!

 

I would have freaked out if that conch thingy was in my cabin!!!

 

Glad you had a great time!!!!

[layditx1]

I used magnets for the door decorations, they need to be kinda strong, cuz if the door slams, the others will fall off...I tried the sticky tack stuff, but it didn't stick too well. I also used a couple of pieces of plain scotch tape.

[sbnuggie]

Howdy,

 

I was part of the roll call group but alas didn't make it too the meet, I knew we wouldn't be able too with my kids and the family we were travelling with so I was low key.

 

I do have to be honest though, out of my 3 cruises with Carnival, this one was by far the most disappointing, in fact if this was my first cruise I would be turned off of cruises. I guess it just shows how each group/person perceives experiences. It wasn't "bad", just not as good as our other cruises. Would I cruise on Carnival again, absolutely, would I cruise out of Galveston again, no way. Given a choice between Conquest Class vs. Spirit Class, Spirit Class wins hands down, no if's and's or but's about it (IMHO). I intend on writing a full review but I just saw yours and thought I would give a quick comparison of experiences, I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise though.

[layditx1]

sbnuggie-I was kinda feeling the same way....maybe because it was our 3rd cruise, you know-been there done that! Not "bad" by any means, but not the outstanding experience we were expecting! We were kinda bored some of the time, but still managed to have a good time. One thing I did NOT like was trying to navigate the ship!!! The only public deck that goes straight across is the promenade, so you can pass everything they try to sell you!!

Also, the internet cafe is way in the back of Alfred's-the cigar bar-so if you are sensitive to smoke, you're out of luck. Didn't bother me but I know it would affect a lot of people!

[douglinc@msn.com]

I see you're from Cleburne, my wife's nephew is a deputy sheriff there.

 

Doug

[layditx1]

Cool, Doug...hope I don't run into him in any OFFICIAL capacity!! LOL

[ecpc1302]

I enjoyed your review. Thanks for taking the time to write it. We are sailing the Conquest with family in July. We'll have two (4 & 6) for Camp Carnival, glad to know there is a lot of fun stuff for them.

 

BTW, we took 2 teenage grandchildren on a 5 day cruise out of Florida last year and had a wonderful time. I think it's a great idea to cruise with them.

 

Elsie:cool:

[cruisetexas]

Thanks for the review! I haven't been disappointed on a cruise, yet, and hope the thrill will never be gone! We're booked on our 7th in February.

 

Being from TX, we did all the itineraries from Galveston at least once or twice. Our new favorite is out of Fort Lauderdale. There are non stop flights from Houston for under $300, the trip to the port is about $15, the port and airport are easy, and the ships/itinieraries are incredible. Next time it's just the two of you, I would consider saving up a few extra dollars and giving it a try. (The cruises also tend to be a little less expensive.)

 

Sounds like you enjoy your vacations....being a nurse is stressful enough! I laughed out loud when the 'something' came out of your conch shell! We did a snorkel trip in Grand Cayman and the boat crew dove down and gathered conch, pulled out the 'things', chopped 'em into pieces, threw them in lime juice and we all chowed down on the 'stew' after the trip. Interesting!

 

Enjoy your next cruise with the little ones!

[luvscruising2007]

The DOD looked yummy. What was it and what is in it?

Loving your review and pics. Thanks for sharing.

[layditx1]

The DOD was the "Funship Special" and I have no idea what is in it!! But it was TASTY!!!

[layditx1]

I'm gonna add a couple of things...

You don't need a bungee cord to keep the balcony door open on the Conquest-just open it all the way and it stays open!

 

I took the over the door shoe holder for the bathroom but didn't need it. I should have used it for it's intended purpose-shoes! The closets aren't very tall, so long dresses kinda pooled on the floor of the closet and hid some shoes. There is a shelf under the closet floor, but stuff could get shoved to the back and you may never find it!

 

Kids-like I said, not too many kids on this sailing, and the ones we saw were pretty well behaved. One funny thing though-the last night, about 1am, I was leaving guest services (after putting $200 of casino "winnings" on the S&S:D), I encountered a group of 4-5 young teen boys who were just kinda wandering, some running...I asked them what they were doing up so late, they said they were "pulling and all-nighter" and asked if I wanted to join them!!! I declined, and they told me to "have a good night, ma'am"...I told them to have fun and be careful! They were in a public area, not near cabins and not causing any problem. I also saw a group of teen girls about the same age sitting on stairs:eek:LOL...I thought about tomato juice, but again, they weren't blocking anything...I think they were waiting on those boys to come by!!!