Halloween on the Conquest! - Review with Pictures (10/26-11/2/14)

[toesinthesand7]

Hello all!

 

This is my first review, so I am going to do my best to make it as helpful as possible. I love reading reviews and I am always so grateful for the information they provide. I hope that I can do the same for others. Please feel free to ask any questions and I will do my absolute best to answer them. Unfortunately, this won’t be as food porn-heavy as I would have liked, but between the four of us, we ate almost everything on the ship so we can definitely vouch for the quality of the food and attempt to answer food-related questions :) I don’t think any of us had ever eaten so much food. From the second we stepped onboard, we were full…yet we kept eating. It was the strangest thing ;) I apologize in advance for the lack of quality pictures, but hopefully they will suffice!

 

My fiancé and I booked this cruise a few months back to celebrate his birthday and our 8th anniversary. I am a third year veterinary student and he is an accounting Master’s student. This was a longer trip than what we were used to and we were thrilled to be able to experience a ship with the 2.0 upgrades! Unbeknownst to us, my DS and her boyfriend had booked the same cruise as a surprise! More on that later :D

Just a heads up, I am on clinics so it may take longer than I would like to post, but I plan on trying my best! Given that this is my first review, I welcome any constructive criticism or advice. I hope you all enjoy it, here it goes!

 

Embarkation:

Our families are from Ft. Lauderdale, so transportation to the port was easy. My father dropped us off at the Port of Miami around 11:30am. I was grandfathered into Platinum when Carnival upgraded their loyalty program, so my fiancé and I were able to get checked in pretty quickly. At the check-in desk, they had us fill out a questionnaire that asked about any recent clinical signs of illness (vomiting, fever, aches, chills, coughing, etc.). If you showed any of these symptoms, the doctor onboard would evaluate you free of charge. I think Carnival handled the disease control aspect extremely well. Check-in was quick and easy! After check-in, we were sent to wait in the main area because they weren’t boarding yet. We waited for about 15-20 minutes and then they called Priority and FTTF to board. I spoke with AT&T while we were waiting to see if I could use my phone in San Juan, PR to check on our fur babies back home. They told me that I would incur roaming charges in St. Thomas and Puerto Rico, so my phone stayed on airplane mode for the duration of the trip! All in all, embarkation was quick and easy and everyone was very friendly and helpful.

[kelson21167]

good beginning looking forward to following

[sistersfirstcruise]

Sailing on Conquest Jan 18, thanks in advance for the review, cannot wait to hear and see all about it!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[cruiseelady]

Looking forward to reading the rest of your review. Cruising on Conquest in 7 days.

[mrpayroll]

Will be following as we have conquest booked for next year.

Edited November 3, 2014 by mrpayroll

[pusywillow]

I will be anxious to hear about your cruise since I will be on the Conquest in April.

[sjb.illinois]

Following as we are booked on the Conquest in 34 days!

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Forums mobile app

[Cruise-Crazy]

Sailing on Conquest in less than two weeks!! :D

[oneboysmom]

Following! Hoping to see lots of pics of the ship. Am on her in March!!!! Hope you had a great time.

[cruisexlife]

I'm following! :D

[toesinthesand7]

I apologize for the cliffhanger! I am still trying to sort out how to add pictures and my internet connection is working against me. Let's see how this goes!

Embarkation:

Our families are from Ft. Lauderdale, so transportation to the port was easy. My father dropped us off at the Port of Miami around 11:30am. I was grandfathered into Platinum when Carnival upgraded their loyalty program, so my fiancé and I were able to get checked in pretty quickly. At the check-in desk, they had us fill out a questionnaire that asked about any recent clinical signs of illness (vomiting, fever, aches, chills, coughing, etc.). If you showed any of these symptoms, the doctor onboard would evaluate you free of charge. I think Carnival handled the disease control aspect extremely well. Check-in was quick and easy! After check-in, we were sent to wait in the main area because they weren’t boarding yet. We waited for about 15-20 minutes and then they called Priority and FTTF to board. I spoke with AT&T while we were waiting to see if I could use my phone in San Juan, PR to check on our fur babies back home. They told me that I would incur roaming charges in St. Thomas and Puerto Rico, so my phone stayed on airplane mode for the duration of the trip! All in all, embarkation was quick and easy and everyone was very friendly and helpful.

Day 1: Finally on board!

One of my favorite parts about cruising is seeing the atrium on the first day, even if I have been on that ship before. The Conquest atrium was gorgeous! There were paintings everywhere, including a large mural. The theme of the Conquest is Impressionist art. I am not much of an art buff, but my DS is and she was able to appreciate their attention to detail.

 

 

 

There were paintings everywhere, including a variety in the cabins and cabin bathrooms. We had an oceanview cabin located starboard-side forward (2-273). We usually stay in interior cabins, so this room felt huge! There was a couch, a table, and two bedside tables. We even had a refrigerator with a fully stocked mini-bar.

 

 

 

Our cabin steward was Tri. He was like a ninja! I swear he knew every move we made. One time we left the room for two minutes before we realized we had forgotten something. By the time we got back to our room to get it, Tri had already stopped in and made the bed and refilled our ice bucket! Our room was ready when we boarded just after noon, so we dropped off our bags and headed straight for the lido deck to eat and explore the ship. Our first stop was Guy’s Burger joint. It was so much fun! The décor and uniforms were fantastic. Unfortunately, I do not eat meat, but my DF says it was one of the best burgers he has ever had! He ordered the “Straight Up” and loved it so much that it was the only type he ate for the rest of the trip. For other vegetarians, they are able to make veggie burgers at Guy’s which are delicious. They take 10-15 minutes to prepare, but they are worth it so you can still get the Guy’s burger experience! I had a veggie burrito at the Blue Iguana Cantina today. They also had tacos (chicken, pork, and fish) available with a variety of toppings and salsas. After lunch, we walked around the ship and explored a bit. She was so much bigger than the Fantasy class ships we usually travel on and I liked all of the floral light fixtures along the promenade. The Muster Drill was quick and painless. There is a row of high tables behind the Blue Iguana Tequila Bar and Red Frog Rum Bar that are perfect for enjoying the ocean view. We watched us leave Miami from here and enjoyed a DOD! We unpacked a little bit and then went to early seating dinner in the Renoir dining room. We sat down for dinner the first evening at a table for 4 and all I could think was “I hope we get along with this other couple or else we are in for an awkward 7 days!” By 6:15, our tablemates still hadn’t shown up and I was watching the door thinking we had been stood up. Next thing I knew, I see my DS and her boyfriend in the doorway! It was quite the shock, but a very pleasant surprise! Apparently my entire family knew about it and were able to keep it a secret. They are so sneaky! Suyatno, Joko, and Biju were our waiters. They were very attentive and always called us by name. My sister loves lemons and puts them on everything. Joko had a plate of lemons waiting for her every night! On the “Everyday” Menu, they have a Steakhouse option available where you can order a “steakhouse-quality” entree (filet mignon, lobster, etc.) for $20. After dinner, we spent some time in the casino and called it an early night. The shows tonight were the Welcome Aboard Show and Latin Nights.

 

 

It is only letting me post 6 photos per post, so I will add some more separately :)

[toesinthesand7]

Here are some more pictures from around the ship:

The Alchemy Bar:

 

The Piano Bar:

 

The EA Sports Bar:

 

Cherry On Top:

[toesinthesand7]

Guy's Burger Joint!

 

The Beautiful Promenade :)

[toesinthesand7]

My favorite: the Blue Iguana Cantina!

 

The Lido Deck

 

My first DOD!

[SweetpeaOne]

Awesome review so far. Love the pictures also. Looking forward to the rest.

[mommom1]

My dh and I are on Conquest Jan. 24th. this is making me so happy looks great keep it up! Thank you!

[martinhughes1]

Hello all!

 

This is my first review, so I am going to do my best to make it as helpful as possible. I love reading reviews and I am always so grateful for the information they provide. I hope that I can do the same for others. Please feel free to ask any questions and I will do my absolute best to answer them. Unfortunately, this won’t be as food porn-heavy as I would have liked, but between the four of us, we ate almost everything on the ship so we can definitely vouch for the quality of the food and attempt to answer food-related questions :) I don’t think any of us had ever eaten so much food. From the second we stepped onboard, we were full…yet we kept eating. It was the strangest thing ;) I apologize in advance for the lack of quality pictures, but hopefully they will suffice!

 

My fiancé and I booked this cruise a few months back to celebrate his birthday and our 8th anniversary. I am a third year veterinary student and he is an accounting Master’s student. This was a longer trip than what we were used to and we were thrilled to be able to experience a ship with the 2.0 upgrades! Unbeknownst to us, my DS and her boyfriend had booked the same cruise as a surprise! More on that later :D

Just a heads up, I am on clinics so it may take longer than I would like to post, but I plan on trying my best! Given that this is my first review, I welcome any constructive criticism or advice. I hope you all enjoy it, here it goes!

 

Embarkation:

Our families are from Ft. Lauderdale, so transportation to the port was easy. My father dropped us off at the Port of Miami around 11:30am. I was grandfathered into Platinum when Carnival upgraded their loyalty program, so my fiancé and I were able to get checked in pretty quickly. At the check-in desk, they had us fill out a questionnaire that asked about any recent clinical signs of illness (vomiting, fever, aches, chills, coughing, etc.). If you showed any of these symptoms, the doctor onboard would evaluate you free of charge. I think Carnival handled the disease control aspect extremely well. Check-in was quick and easy! After check-in, we were sent to wait in the main area because they weren’t boarding yet. We waited for about 15-20 minutes and then they called Priority and FTTF to board. I spoke with AT&T while we were waiting to see if I could use my phone in San Juan, PR to check on our fur babies back home. They told me that I would incur roaming charges in St. Thomas and Puerto Rico, so my phone stayed on airplane mode for the duration of the trip! All in all, embarkation was quick and easy and everyone was very friendly and helpful.

 

Whomever you spoke to at AT&T is wrong. Both PR and St Thomas are US territories and are considered regular coverage areas on any AT&T plan. We have cruised to both locations twice this year alone and have not received any roaming charges. On the ship you would incur roaming charges of about $1.50 a minute since it is Cellular at Sea service.

[wrigley80]

Enjoying your review thus far....Keep up the good work

[latitude918]

Excellent review. Keep the pictures coming. Cruising Conquest for my honeymoon. The more info the better :)

[toesinthesand7]

Thank you everyone for the positive feedback!!

 

Martinhughes1: Thank you for that information! I spoke with two different people and they both told me it would be roaming. Oh well...at least now I know for next time!

 

Day 2: Nassau

Blue Iguana Cantina has breakfast burritos and arepas and huevos rancheros for breakfast. The breakfast burritos are made-to-order and you can choose Mexican or regular scrambled eggs, ham, chicken sausage, and hashbrowns. These were by far my favorite breakfast! We were in Nassau from 7am-2pm and had to be back onboard by 1:30pm. DF and I slept in and walked down to Junkanoo Beach and enjoyed the beautiful weather and view. Junkanoo beach is a public beach about 15-20 minutes walking distance from the port. They have a small bar with 3 beers and 3 “shots” for $10. The shots taste like cough syrup, but the beer is a perfect addition to a beautiful beach day! They also have a Fat Tuesdays right nextdoor if that is more your style. They have Wifi here so I was able to check up on our fur babies.

 

We headed back to the ship in time for more Guy’s burgers, of course! I think the Hasbro Game Show and Latin Nights played again tonight, but we didn’t make it to those shows. We were able to see Will Marfori tonight in the comedy club. We have seen him before and we absolutely love him. He is very, very funny! I think the other comedian’s name was Azeem (spelling?). They clear out the entire Degas Lounge in between shows to make sure everyone has an opportunity to attend, so we didn’t end up returning to see the second performer. The comedy shows were extremely popular and always seemed to fill up very quickly. After the show let out, we ordered room service and hit the hay.

[toesinthesand7]

Day 3: First Day at Sea

We had brunch in the MDR this morning and used our past guest free drink ticket for mimosas. I had the Eggs Benedict which are always delicious! There was a lot to do today, especially for trivia-lovers. Our CD was Mike Pack and ACD was Roly. They had great chemistry together and were a lot of fun to watch. They did a lot of music trivia (Disney, 70s, 80s, 90s) at the casino bar, which was always hilarious. I definitely recommend it for any music lovers! We participated in Harry Potter, Friends, and Disney trivia today. We didn’t win, but it was a lot of fun! The first slot tournament and blackjack tournament were also today. I had fish tacos today from Blue Iguana which were absolutely fantastic! Everyone else, of course, had a Guy’s burger and loved them :D We attended Tea Time at 3:30pm in the MDR and it was delicious. I am pretty sure we spent 90% of this trip eating. Tonight was our first elegant evening, so DS and I went to our cabin to get ready while the boys went to play volleyball. The Captain’s Celebration was held tonight. Since we were all dressed up, we decided to try out the Alchemy Bar. The drinks had great flavor, but every single cocktail on the menu was made with simple syrup. It gave them a very interesting texture, but it ended up being way too sweet. We still enjoyed the atmosphere of the Alchemy Bar, we just wished they had some more syrup-free options. We enjoyed dinner in the MDR and I got to have my favorite Bitter and Blanc for dessert! The show tonight was Epic Rock. This was the first playlist productions show I had seen and it was absolutely fantastic! I found out later that the cast was short one female lead singer and a female dancer, but they didn’t miss a beat. They have a $1.7 million interactive screen on stage that provides beautiful backdrops for the show. There were pyrotechnics and great lighting and the cast was extremely talented! I really enjoyed this show. Mike said this was the number 1 show in the fleet and the show that guests are most likely to watch twice. I wasn’t surprised to hear this at all! Next up, St. Thomas :D

 

 

Other pictures from around the ship:

In front of the Degas Lounge and Monet Dining Room

Coffee Bar

 

 

Tahiti Casino

 

 

More pictures from around the ship coming up on Halloween!

[toesinthesand7]

Day 4: St. Thomas

We docked in St. Thomas around 10am this morning. DF and I got to watch us arrive into port from deck 14. It was absolutely breathtaking and we took way too many pictures! We had our favorite daily breakfast at Blue Iguana and waited for Mike to let us know we could get off the ship.

 

We booked a snorkeling excursion (Turtle Cove Sail and Snorkel) through Carnival. We had about an hour before we had to meet for our excursion, so the four of us walked over to the St. Thomas welcome center and picked up a map. DS and her BF didn’t have an excursion planned for today so they walked downtown and took the ski-lift up. She said it was $20 per person. I don’t think she was too impressed with St. Thomas, but the pictures she took were amazing! I will see if she might let me borrow a few to share with you. Our snorkeling excursion was a blast. We rode on the catamaran called Castaway Girl with Ben, Karl, and Mark. We took a 35-minute ride out to the snorkeling site called Turtle Cove. The weather was perfect today and the water felt great. I think we were in the water for about an hour (at least that’s how long it felt like to me). Ben was offering a guided tour for those who wanted to join, but you could also snorkel on your own as long as your stayed within the designated area. We saw 4 sea turtles! They were absolutely beautiful. Turtle Cove is a marine sanctuary and we were not allowed within 15 feet of the turtles, so we tried to give them as much room as we could when they came up for air. I think seeing the sea turtles was my favorite part of the trip! Ben was a lot of fun and very informative. He even found a sea urchin that he let us hold. There were a lot of different species of fish and coral that Ben pointed out to us. DF took lots of pictures with my sister’s GoPro, and hopefully they will turn out okay if I can get them uploaded! After we finished snorkeling, they opened the bar for rum punch. I think it took us about an hour to get back. Mark even let me steer the catamaran for a minute! We met some wonderful people and really enjoyed St. Thomas because of this excursion. I would highly recommend this excursion to anyone, especially if you are lucky enough to sail with Ben, Karl, and Mark!

We had arranged to meet DS and her BF at the Butterfly Garden after our excursion, but it was closed so we stopped by Senor Frog’s for a quick drink and Wifi to check up on the animals and were on our way back to the ship. We had dinner at the steakhouse tonight. For $35 per person, it was absolutely 100% worth it! Everything from the bread to the dessert was absolutely fantastic! We all agreed it was one of the best meals we had ever had. The chef came out after our meal and introduced himself. Everything about dinner at the steakhouse was top notch. After dinner, we attended part 1 of the gender showdown which was hilarious. I think they may have had new comedians tonight, but I don’t remember for certain.

[toesinthesand7]

Our Catamaran for the Turtle Cove Sail and Snorkel

 

Turtle Cove

 

 

[toesinthesand7]

View from the ski lift (Courtesy of my sister)

They stopped for Bushwackers at the bar at the top!

[toesinthesand7]

Day 5: San Juan, Puerto Rico

We had originally booked the Taste of San Juan tour outside of Carnival for today. We arrived at the designated meeting point and waited for about 20 minutes. Finally, someone walked up to us and let us know that it was cancelled because they had scheduled a training session for that time. She said she had been trying to get a hold of me since Monday, but obviously my phone had been off. When we returned to Miami, I had two missed calls from them and zero voicemails. She said she had emailed me as well, but I did not have a single email from her. She offered me a future tour credit, which I declined because I had no idea when my next trip to Puerto Rico would be. I asked for a refund instead and she agreed. She also sent us an email with some other recommendations for things to do in San Juan. We ended up taking a bus tour that was heavily advertised by men in blue polo shirts at the port entrance (I’m sorry I cannot remember the name of the company). It was $10 per person and lasted about an hour and a half. I was a little hesitant at first, but ended up loving this tour! My DS and BF took the same tour with a different guide and it was one of the highlights of the trip for them. We were taken to the forts, through the streets of Old San Juan, the capital building, and beautiful scenic beaches. Our guide even stopped at each of the places so that we could get out and take pictures for ten minutes. I was worried when our first excursion fell through, but this tour was an excellent backup plan!

 

I think the second elegant evening is usually on the Friday (Grand Turk day) of this sailing, but since Friday was Halloween, they moved the second elegant evening to Thursday. We got all dressed up and had dinner in the MDR. Tonight they were showing Divas in the Lautrec Toulouse Lounge. This was a very energetic show and you could tell the performers really enjoyed putting on this show. They even did a full makeover on someone from the audience! It was great!