Carnival Conquest review 6/21-29

[bell777]

Grand Turks

 

We arrived and finally a beach of my dreams. We first stopped and did the wifi at Margaritavilla on the cell phone. We walked down to Jacks Shack and let me tell you the walk is long and walking on the sand made it longer. We purchased a coconot for a whopping $5 and kept walking. Once we arrived it was around 10nish and we ordered the jerk chicken which was very good. This required a corona and drinks for the teens total with tip about 40.00. We then headed for the water it was quit cold to my amazement but after a while your body got use to it and i must of been in there for almost 1.5 hours cause my husband was like time to go we have a 20 minute slow walk and need to be at the port by 130. We walked back and the walk was even longer then i remember, but made it in time to stop n jump in the pool at Margaritaville and get a pina collada which was amazing.

[bell777]

chicken

[bell777]

Island beach drink

[bell777]

For whatever reason I am unable to post any of the beach pictures maybe administration can help me.

[SusieCruises]

Thanks for posting. We will be on the Conquest for the first time in December. I like this class of ship. :)

[bell777]

So we are now back on board and the lines to get something to eat are just so very long that it is just a mess. Waited about 30 minutes for the shortest line the Deli and had a tuna sandwich which was really good. Went back to the room showered and was getting ready for dinner but we had some time so we went to the casino. My husband found out that the guy playing next to us had won 15,000 playing video poker and so he played keno and he won 200 on a quarter bet. I lost about 100 playing the slots and we left to dinner.

 

Dinner was as usual very nice and the food was good and the service was good. We started around 615 and we had finished by 730 which in my opinion is not bad.

[sc4125]

I will be on the ship in 10 days and am excited to see a recent review. I plan to be at the port around 9:30 and I'm Platinum so hopefully we will get in & seated quickly. I know this means we may have to sit & wait for a couple of hours, but I have my kindle & I just like knowing I've made it!

 

Thanks for taking the time to do the review.

[bell777]

Good idea just go early and sit and play on your phone or read until they call you and it will not be too bad.

 

I was very worried going on the Conquest since i was use to the Breeze and Dream which are newer but honestly the ship although smaller and older made up for it in nice staff other then casino bartenders and the best ports. THe food was better and the wear and tear on the ship was fine. My only complain was that the glass to look out throughout the ship was so dirty outside so you can not see out clearly or take pictures unless you were on the outside deck. Would i go on it again maybe if the price was low enough and i could get a balcony.

 

But out of 10 I would give it an 8 which is better then i expected. I enjoyed the art thru out ship very interesting and entertaining. I took some picture and will be posting them.

[Coopdog08]

So we are now back on board and the lines to get something to eat are just so very long that it is just a mess. Waited about 30 minutes for the shortest line the Deli and had a tuna sandwich which was really good. Went back to the room showered and was getting ready for dinner but we had some time so we went to the casino. My husband found out that the guy playing next to us had won 15,000 playing video poker and so he played keno and he won 200 on a quarter bet. I lost about 100 playing the slots and we left to dinner.

 

Dinner was as usual very nice and the food was good and the service was good. We started around 615 and we had finished by 730 which in my opinion is not bad.

 

I also heard about the guy who won 15k... Another lady won 7500 on slots. Saw a lady sit down at bj table by herself and won 1k on $1 bet and got queen hearts and dealer bj. I played with a guy that won $375 on $3 bet as he hit queens of heart but no bj... I won 6 bets in row in bj with $50 down each time, best I did. Heard craps table was horrible all week.

[tawaik]

Looking forward to rest of your review. Thanks for sharing.

[B'lini]

Hi Bell and Coop, my fellow cruisers. I love hearing your experiences on our cruise.

 

Bell, I'm going to agree with you on the hard beds (mine was awful), the cabin temps (mostly okay but not cold enough for this postmenopausal chick, and yes, that one night it got really warm), the food lines in the afternoons (really, Carnival????) and the muster drill.

 

We had a great cruise - overall. We had FTTF so we were on board very quickly, but my bag didn't show until 7:30 (and we had reservations at the Steak House at 8!) We never ate at the buffet (I'd MUCH rather have someone wait on me than wait in a line), we loved the casino bar (but my whole family smokes) and especially John - he was GREAT. Guy's burgers were TASTY but the lines were always long and it wasn't open often. I didn't like the pizza - too much crust and very few toppings - waste of time in my opinion. My son, a pizza freak, agreed. Loved the taco bar - I could have eaten lunch there every day. The lines for that were really long just one day. We tried room service a couple of times, and it averaged over an hour each time, and one time our order never arrived. We gave up after that.

 

Most of the things about this cruise that weren't great have been mentioned on CC before - crazy crowded at the Lido pool and no chairs (chair hogs in full effect) - and WAYYYYY too loud for my taste. I couldn't hear the person sitting next to me most of the time. We preferred the adult pool area, much quieter and no wait at the bar. I didn't like having to try to squeeze through the crowds on the 5th floor on elegant nights - man, that was like trying to block in football. People were very rude. Getting off the ship on port days (especially that first day) was NUTS.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review, Bell.

[bell777]

Went back to the casino to deposit some more money in the slot machine and my husband won another 200 on the keno quarter machine. At this time i was losing and decided to play next to him and about 10 minutes later won 200 on the keno as well on a quarter machine. The smoke was getting too intense so decided to go get ready for dinner.

 

Once again dinner was nice i will post some more food picture but they may not be in the order with the date placed but still some nice pictuires.

[bell777]

dinner food

[bell777]

LaRoma next

 

We woke up and decided to take our time and had breakfast at the lido deck 9 buffet. We sat on deck 3 outside and just took in the fresh air and woke up the kids at 930 to go and see if we found anything to do at LaRoma port.

 

We did not make any plans since the excursions were very expensive for a family of 4 and so we just decided to get off just to say we were there. We were off and on in about 40 minutes, there is nothing at all to do or see so we decided to make a sea day of it. When we boarded the crew was having a safety drill and some of the areas had been roped off and off limit.

 

We walked the ship some more and went and watched some tv in the room and then it was time to eat again. We went and had a cheeseburger at the Guy Burger it was great but like any good burger bit greasy but good.

 

We decided to go around and take some pictures since the ship was now not so full and i will post those shortly. Like i mentioned you must really enjoy a big variation of art to enjoy all the art and i did.

 

We had walked enough and decided to go back to the room for a shower and a nap. We must have been really tired cause we woke up about 2.5 hours later which is really alot for me. I woke up with a sour throat and was worried that i might be getting sick from the cold waters in the Grand Turks.

 

Dressed and went to the Renoir Restaurant for dinner which was again was great.

[bell777]

art

[bell777]

After dinner decided to go back to the casino and play some more since we had won some money earlier and there was not show that i wanted to see. I had played enough by the fourth day to earn free casino drinks but the bartenders were so hard to get their attention and when you finally ordered a drink it took forever to have it delivered. This was the only place on the ship that getting a drink was nearly impossible unless you went to them and ask them to bring you a drink. The smoke was so very terrible and my throat was burning so around 1130 we went back to the room so that we could get up early for Curacoa.

[bell777]

Just a reminder before I forget next to the deserts on the lido buffet deck 9 there are some stairs that go to deck 10 were we always took our food since it is much cooler and less crowded. This is also were the fish and chip place is which is terrbile the fish is so very greasy and fritters are terrible what a shame it has so much potential.

[bell777]

Day 5 Curacao island

 

We went and had breakfast real quick and went to our Erie Tour for a three hour tour. The provide free beer and soft drinks but the beer is a local beer and not that good. The tour was very informative and they were funny and very nice. First we went throughout the island and looked at all the Dutch houses and construction being done thru out the island. Most of the area had bars on the window which leads be to believe that it has its issues.

 

We also made a stop by the liquour factory which was very short and not very interesting just another push to spend money the native liquour in my opinion taste like Rubattusin which i hate. Next was a 1.5 hour stay at the beach but the weather was very windy and somewhat cool and i was already feeling myself getting sick so we decided to go shopping instead. As we are headed back right at the port was a casino so we decided to play and i won couple hundred and we left winners and with some presents.

 

It was now very late at night so we went back to the room took shower and picked up a pizza and went to bed.

[bell777]

Curacao

[undercat]

Enjoying your review! We have our sights set on the Carnival Conquest in 2016.

[bell777]

curacao

[bell777]

shops curacao

[bell777]

Aruba at last

 

Woke up and did the breakfast lido deck buffet which was now getting a little bit old so we did cereal.

 

OMG what a beautiful place, by now i was sick with a cold and my asthma had kicked in and i was feeling pretty bad but was not going to let this ruin my aruba island adventure. We went to Aruba Marriot Resort and hung out by the beach but i could not go in since i was sick so we walked around and wet our feet and then went to the casino. THe casino was great I manage to leave there from the slots up over 500.00 which kind of made up for all the cruise loses. I took my winning and then panic struck in as i could not find the boys on the beach and it was not planned where we would meet. Finally after looking and walking for an hour we found the boys and decided to leave while we were ahead. Since i was up so much we treated the boys to a taxi tour for about one hour, it only cost for the four of us 45 plus a 20 tip since he was so good and such a nice guy.

 

He took us thru the island and showed us the beautiful houses and it looked and felt safe and he confirmed that all the island was like this and that is was a very safe place day or night. He also said that the island is now about 70,000 natives and 50,000 investor. He said houses run between 250M and few million based on the closeness to the sea. He also showed us some places you could rent for a week some townhouses and condos. He drove us to a church which was so cute and felt warm and very charming. He insisted we go to the fort and that he would get us to the port by 330 in time for boarding and i was getting nervous about the time and all of a sudden we took off and at 80 on a 50 around corners. He said dont worry i like your family and love my car and sure enough we were on the ship enterance by 225 but not until he went the opposite direction because the traffic to the port was unbelievable.

 

He told us the school kids are required to speak 4 languages dutch, pomponus(or something like that) english , french or portugues. He said that insurance was required by employers and everyone is insured and gas was over 5 a gallon. The island is mainly dry like a desert and almost never rains nor does it get hurricanes.

 

When we were at the fort there were some hundreds of pile of rocks and he said visitors did that in hopes of returning and adding to the pile at every return visit. The island was owed by the Spanish and then Danish.

 

It was a great trip and he was a great guide. I will have to return one day and spend at least a week.

[travel_gal123]

Did they have any deals if you sign up for your next cruise? I just got off an NCL cruise and if you paid $250 for a cruise anytime in the next 4 years, you got an immediate $100 onboard credit.

Just curious because Carnival has some pretty good sales right now (or until Monday) and I am going on Conquest in 2 weeks.

Thanks for any info you might remember.

Karla

[bell777]

Did they have any deals if you sign up for your next cruise? I just got off an NCL cruise and if you paid $250 for a cruise anytime in the next 4 years, you got an immediate $100 onboard credit.

Just curious because Carnival has some pretty good sales right now (or until Monday) and I am going on Conquest in 2 weeks.

Thanks for any info you might remember.

Karla

 

 

I never went to check on how much it would cost for another carnival trip since I have seen so many good deals online with my member number. But it sure does sound like the one you got with NCL is great.