Conquest Review: Eastern Itinerary, July 24 - 31

[azurewater]

Great job on the review. I know these must take a long time to do....I have not tried one yet. We will be on the Conquest in January out of New Orleans. After reading your review, I am looking so forward to it!

 

Thanks again.

[Border Granny]

Thanks everyone for the kind words. It does take a while to do this, and after one whole day just disappeared when I was writing in the reply box, I got smart and redid it in Word and am now cutting and pasting. I don't know what happened, but wasn't happy about it. Mine is not a real picture rich one, but I really didn't take a whole lot of pictures (not sure why really) but the ones I did take, I've seen on here before, I guess we all take pics of the same things :p. So, I have tried to add pictures of things I haven't seen much before on here or that were kind of different.

 

Keep reading, I'm almost done!

[Border Granny]

We were excited about Key West….I had been there when I was 17 and remembered thinking it was a cool place, and was looking forward to going back. We were disappointed that we would not have a very long day there, but decided to make the best of it. We were to dock at 7 and leave at 3.

 

We were up early, as usual, and enjoyed watching the whole docking procedure as the sun came up. It’s very pretty around the dock, here's a pic as we were coming in.

 

 

 

 

 

We had decided to do the Old Towne Trolley Tour. We could get off and on at any of the 12 stops, and it went around the entire island versus the City View Trolley Tour which did not cover the whole island. It took us just a few minutes to walk to the ticket stand…I had ordered the tickets online but you still have to get it exchanged for a ticket to show the driver. When they handed us the tickets, they also handed us a cardboard fan. I took that as maybe not a good sign, but throughout the day was very happy to have it. We boarded the trolley and waited about 5-10 minutes. The rest of our group was already onboard, all except our grandson and his other grandfather. They were doing a snorkeling excursion. It was very early and it was already hot….the trolleys are not air conditioned, thus the fans, which everyone was using at this point while we were stopped. It was ok once we started moving.

 

Our driver was very good about explaining everything we were seeing. We had decided to all get off at the Hemingway house. We were told by the driver that there would be a trolley along every 30 minutes at the stop that was about a block from the Hemingway house. The tour of the house was excellent, very informative and we had the best docent. Here’s a picture of him, he was quite the character and fit right in at Hemingway’s house.

 

 

 

 

I am a cat person, so I was thrilled to see the six-toed cats and learn the history of them. I was really excited when one of them jumped up in my lap while I was sitting in the garden.

 

 

We finished the tour, it was really, really hot by this point, and we walked back to the trolley stop. We had just seen a trolley go by as we were leaving the house, so we missed that one, but knew there would be one in 30 minutes, or so we thought. Well, one did come by, but didn’t stop, even though it was not full. By this time there were quite a few people at the stop waiting for it, and getting uncomfortable with no real shade to speak of and no place to sit down. One of the women waiting called the trolley company when the trolley just passed us by. The company’s answer was, there will be another one in 30 minutes. So, we had about decided to just walk over a few blocks and catch the trolley going back to Mallory Square, and about that time another finally came along. That was the only glitch in the trolley, but the problem was that we had such a short time at Key West, that now we were afraid to risk getting off again, so we just got on and finished out the tour, which was very interesting. We had wanted to go to Kermit’s for the key lime pie, but again were afraid to chance it, so we got back to Mallory Square and did a real quick tour of a couple of the souvenir shops, and headed back to the ship. Fortunately we saw a sign for Kermit’s West in the middle of the big while building full of shops right on the dock, so we got our pie after all…..I opted for the frozen chocolate covered pie and it was excellent!

 

Kermit’s West is in this building.

 

 

 

 

My husband and I decided a real visit to Key West was in order someday, so we’ll return when we can spend a few days there, it is a very cool place.

 

 

Sailaway

 

 

It was an early sailaway, three pm, so we hung out in the cabin for a bit, and then went to dinner. Of course we hung out at the casino some, and I think the heat sapped all our energy (or we’re just too old to party anymore) and called it an early night again.

 

Tomorrow, our last sea day

[Border Granny]

I love any review I can find :) Your situation with the small boat reminds me of my first cruise in 2001 where we came upon a small boat with 5 men who had set off from the Caymans to fish three weeks prior, they said two other ships had passed them by. Needless to say they weren't in good shape, one had passed away and the other four were in dire need of medical care. We took them on the ship and transported them back to the Caymans where they were greeted with news and ecstatic family members, it was a very interesting experience to say the least.

 

That must have been an exciting rescue. I felt very bad knowing that the guys that we came across would be sent back, but I'll bet you all felt really good about your situation and really those fishermen.

[Border Granny]

The last sea day was pretty much the same as our first two, except they had another slot tournament and this time my husband qualified for the finals. He was leading literally right up to the last second, and the lady playing next to him hit a big score on her very last spin and beat him! He ended up with a cap (we kidded him about winning a $500 cap....he was not amused). Seriously, he took it pretty well, but said he wished he didn't know he lost it on the very last spin

 

We had our last Ruben sandwich that day that I had become addicted to, and just hung out and enjoyed the day. We had a surprise when we returned to the cabin, the casino had sent us another plate of strawberries. I had been sent a bottle of champagne from the Player's Club, and I had taken it to the dining room and given it to our wonderful head server Divina so that it could be chilled and we were going to have it for dinner tonight.

 

We decided to pack during the day so we wouldn't be rushed or dread doing it that night, and it wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be. We left for our last dinner with our group, we toasted a wonderful cruise, and then headed off for the casino for the last time. The slots had not been super wonderful to us during the week, but then I started hitting a little bit and was able to play a while, and finally cashed out $300 and called it a night.

 

We were in group 12 for debarkation, and we were supposed to debark between 9:15 and 9:45. We met our kids down on the Lido and had breakfast (the only time we ate breakfast there), and since we were down there pretty early, there was no line at the omelet station and that's what I had, and it was very good.

 

After breakfast we decided to go down to the Toulouse to wait for our numbers to be called, we were 12 and our kids were 14. It wasn't as crowded as we thought it would be, and they started calling numbers pretty quickly. Around 9 they called 12-14, so we were able to leave together. It was a pretty quick, steadily moving line down to the gangway, and my husband got in the porter line and I went to identify our luggage. Very quickly my husband came up with the porter, and he was going to take ours and our kids luggage together. One of the carnival staff said "follow your porter, all you will need is your customs form", and we couldn't believe it, have never not had to show a birth certificate or passport, so we still had our passports handy, but she was right. We went straight up to a customs agent that just took our forms and we kept on moving. The porter took us to a place to unload the luggage, showed us which colored flag to look for so we could find my husband again, and off my son-in-law and I went to get our cars. We got across the street and at the end of the alley where you turn into the parking area (remember we parked right across the street at Park and Cruise), the guy in the golf cart picked me up and took me to the car. When the other attendant saw me coming he came into the warehouse , helped me back out (I was parked in a corner) and off I went back to pick up luggage and my husband. My son-in-law was right in front of me when we pulled back into the terminal, we all loaded up and said our good-byes, and by 9:45 or so we were on I 45 headed home. We have never had such an easy debarkation. The people that didn't get a porter? They were in the long line to show their passports or birth certificates, and having to drag their luggage with them to boot.

 

Just a few general impressions:

 

We feel we had a great cruise and got good value for our money. The food was good (the only not so great thing was the flat iron steak one night, good flavor but a little tough). The steakhouse was outstanding and worth every penny.

 

We did not do a lot of "organized" stuff this cruise, and don't feel cheated in any way because of it. We did everything we wanted to do, rested a lot, and enjoyed each other's company. I have a really stressful job, and most of the time work fairly long hours and bring work home, and am always available on call, so it was very nice to be unplugged from the rest of the world.

 

I wish the Blue Lagoon excursion had been handled differently, or been a little more forthcoming in the description, so that we knew there was going to be so much walking. I commented about this when I got the online survey after the cruise, I hope Carnival pays attention to it. But, it was a great place for our grandson.

 

We saw a lot of things we would like to go back to Key West for, and hope to make that trip someday. Nassau and Freeport, not so much, but you sure can't beat the experience of the crystal clear waters of the Bahamas.

 

The staff were all top notch, could not have asked for better service. Always smiled and called us by name. We could not have asked for more.

 

I hope you might have found some information you were looking for if you are preparing for a cruise.....I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have. Thanks for letting me share my cruise with you.

[cruisinskier]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. I really enjoyed reading about your trip and seeing your photos!! I know these reviews take a fair bit of time to put together so thanks for sharing!!