Review of Conquest and booking guarantee room, the good, bad & ugly

[Mary Louise]

Hi,

 

I booked the Conquest less than 60 days out, and got a real good deal. I booked a guarantee inside cabin. I have booked guarantees before, so I knew what to expect. Sometimes i have been upgraded and other times i have not.

 

I booked the Conquest as I wanted to surprise a friend who was celebrating a life changing event. I also was celebrating a milestone anniversary with my husband.

I have not cruised Carnival in a couple of years so I started to do my research here on CC.

 

In addition to getting a deal on the cruise, I also got a good deal on airfare from Jet blue. Thanks to the CC members I also found a great rate for the Hilton Marina by hopping over to the Florida Port forums. In addition I found out about the giftcards here on CC from Verizon Wireless. i was able to score $500 worth for $450.

 

In my following posts will be my experiences/observations regarding the Conquest and room assignment.

[Mary Louise]

Surprising my friend was going to be difficult. i had contacted the main office in Miami and the customer service that I received exceeded my expectations. Someone from dining services called me to inform me that they arranged for my husband and I to be seated with our friends without linking the reservations together. sneaky :D:D:D. The location of the table was great.

 

I requested that a letter be given to my friend when checking in with special instructions to be in the cabin at a specified time for a special delivery. That delivery was my husband and I. Again the main office was great and said that they would do this and no problem at all. The customer service and the great communication was fabulous.

[Mary Louise]

Every day I checked on the Carnival website to see if my room had been assigned. I had read on CC that if you were either diamond or platinum the chances of an upgrade were good, also the longer it took to assign your room the chances for an upgrade were good as well.

 

Finally 2 days prior to sailing my room was assigned. Cat. 4A aft. I got what I paid for. i did read about my room on CC and members did say that it was noisy and that it vibrated. Hey no extra charge for the vibration.

[Mary Louise]

We left the evening before the cruise. I always go to the port the day before. Our flight was scheduled to leave around 4:30 PM, but it ended up being delayed close to four hours. I was concerned that we would not be able to get out due to weather, but we finally left and arrived in Fort Lauderdale around 11:30 PM.

 

Getting a taxi at 11:30 to our hotel was not an easy task. There was a long line and it seems that all the other terminals had long lines as well. Empty taxis would pass by our terminal as they were going to the next terminal. I thought about going to departures to see if any taxis were dropping people off and snag a taxi up there, but was not sure if it would be busy at that time.

 

Please be aware that getting a taxi is not all that easy. i was not expecting long lines especially at that time of night.

[Mary Louise]

The Hilton Marina allows you to check in online. This was the first time I have ever done that. I selected a room on the 6th floor with a wrap around balcony. The room was great. When I got up the next morning and looked out my window there was the Conquest.

[Mary Louise]

Before we left for the port, we walked to Total Wine to purchase out two bottles of wine. It was an easy walk. If you decide to do this, make sure you bring a sturdy bag or backpack so you can carry your wine back to the hotel. The bags they give you are not sturdy.

 

As we were in the priority checkin line, we saw our friend that we were surprising. Luckily they did not see us. They do not read CC and later we found out that they had brought bottles of soda with them, and had to turn them in. They did not know that bottles are no longer acceptable only cans.

 

The gentleman who was checking us in told us that he had to go make our keys as our room had just recently been assigned and the keys were not there. In addition he was adding our gift certificates. The GC were more of a lengthy process then I expected. We told him we were surprising our friends and did not want them to see us, he said no problem. He escorted us to the Captain's lounge and finished checking us in while we waited there. Again great customer service.

 

He later came to get us and showed us where to board the ship. I wish I looked at his name badge as he really exceeded our expectations.

[Mary Louise]

As platinum members our room is suppose to be ready when we board the ship. After boarding we went immediately to our room and it was not ready. :mad:

The cabin steward informed us that our room was not listed as a platinum room. We showed him our cards and said that we would have to call Guest Services to have him make up the room. My husband suggested that perhaps our room could be made up first after he did all of the other priority rooms. NO GO. We tried calling Guest Services but could not get through.

 

Any other time this would not be an issue, but because we wanted to surprise our friend, we want to drop our belongings off and prepare our surprise.

 

The cabin steward later on came back to show us that we were originally in an outside cabin. Our welcome letters had the original room that was a category 6A, but we were switched to a 4A. So yes you can be downgraded without knowing.

 

Had our room been ready and our welcome letter had the correct stateroom number on it, we would have never known. I did not complain to Guest Services about being down graded as we did get what we paid for. I was disappointed to say the very least. :(

[Mary Louise]

As previously mentioned we were assigned deck 1 aft, almost the very last cabin. The good thing about the location is that there is not much hallway traffic so it is quiet in that respect.

 

The room is dated. The chair was tattered. The sheets were thread bare. The piece of material tha covers the foot of the bed was tattered as well.

 

The room does vibrate and there is noise from the ship, not sure if it is the engines or not.

 

Our shower was clogged. I removed a bunch of hair from the drain. Really not acceptable!!!! I was not impressed with the cabin steward. i asked for extra towels and on some days did not even get hand towels. Twice we found someone else's flip flops under the bed and threw them away, and the basket was not emptied. We had to call him to empty it.

 

My husband and I keep our room neat so really there should not be that much to cleaning our room. This is the first time since we cruised that we did not give any extra cash to our cabin steward. The service was just not there.

 

We never had a problem with our air conditioning like some other members had reported.

 

We did get towel animals every night but quite honestly I really do not know what they were. Maybe some of you can tell me.

[JaneAustenite]

We're going on the Conquest in June so, I'm looking forward to your review.

[RjayB]

To me, cabin choice is way too important to leave to chance. It is just not worth the savings to lose the option of choosing a specific location.

 

Sorry your cruise got off to a rough start...hopefully it got a lot better! :)

[cruzgal11]

Will be on the Conquest in January in an interior on deck 7. Looking forward to reading the rest of your review!!

[spicycrab]

As previously mentioned we were assigned deck 1 aft, almost the very last cabin. The good thing about the location is that there is not much hallway traffic so it is quiet in that respect.

 

The room is dated. The chair was tattered. The sheets were thread bare. The piece of material tha covers the foot of the bed was tattered as well.

 

The room does vibrate and there is noise from the ship, not sure if it is the engines or not.

 

Our shower was clogged. I removed a bunch of hair from the drain. Really not acceptable!!!! I was not impressed with the cabin steward. i asked for extra towels and on some days did not even get hand towels. Twice we found someone else's flip flops under the bed and threw them away, and the basket was not emptied. We had to call him to empty it.

 

My husband and I keep our room neat so really there should not be that much to cleaning our room. This is the first time since we cruised that we did not give any extra cash to our cabin steward. The service was just not there.

 

We never had a problem with our air conditioning like some other members had reported.

 

We did get towel animals every night but quite honestly I really do not know what they were. Maybe some of you can tell me.

 

Those towel animals are a work of art! Bahahahahahahahahahaha!!! (I apologize if this is not the response you were looking for but they really made me LOL)

[Mary Louise]

My husband and I are not big drinkers. We would have a drink before dinner and wine with our meal. Love the Alchemy Bar. Great martinis and comfortable bar stools. Servers were very friendly. If you order the martini flight you get two glass charms. We did go to the lobby bar a couple of times, service was ok, stools were not comfortable, drinks were fine.

 

We ordered the wine package. I liked the fact that now they give you coupons for ordering your wine.

 

It does amaze me that the cheers program would have cost us $100 per day. That would be $800 and a whole lot of drinking. Needless to say we did not order it.

 

We did order our free drink for being platinum. All we did was go down to the dining room before 1:00 and ordered our drink and took it to the pool. I did order the twilight zone and it was very tasty.

 

Remember if you are in a U.S. Port you are taxed on your drinks, including San Juan.

[moesyk4]

i honestly think those lower category rooms are like the training grounds for room stewards. We took a last minute budget cruise and chose an upper/lower, we had a great time except our room steward really stunk, the one and only time on 7 cruises I had a bad experience with any staff member.

[silvercrikhix]

Those are QUITE the Towel Animals! :p

Sorry you were downgraded from the OV they originally had you in, that would really stink!

Looking forward to more of your review as we are sailing her soon!

[rlindholm]

My guess on towel animals are :moth or fairy, momma seal and baby seal, pig, mouse, and bull dog.

[cruiseclues]

Thank you for your review and photos. :):):):)

[momof3cruisers]

Oh my goodness...those towel animals! I don't know, one of them looked like a road kill rabbit and the others are like alien creatures.

 

Very interesting review. Thanks for doing it.

[Mary Louise]

To me, cabin choice is way too important to leave to chance. It is just not worth the savings to lose the option of choosing a specific location.

 

Sorry your cruise got off to a rough start...hopefully it got a lot better! :)

 

 

Typically we have picked our rooms, but have never really had a problem with a guarantee. This was not a planned cruise, so we were trying to keep the costs to a minimum. It really was not a bad cruise, but certainly not our best.

[Mary Louise]

i honestly think those lower category rooms are like the training grounds for room stewards. We took a last minute budget cruise and chose an upper/lower, we had a great time except our room steward really stunk, the one and only time on 7 cruises I had a bad experience with any staff member.

 

I have been in steerage before and never had s problem with the staff. This time it was just fair.

[HaliMakai]

Following, I am enjoying reading your review.

[Mary Louise]

Oh my goodness...those towel animals! I don't know, one of them looked like a road kill rabbit and the others are like alien creatures.

 

Very interesting review. Thanks for doing it.

 

 

Your comments regarding those animals made me laugh.

[Mary Louise]

All but one day, we had breakfast at the Lido buffet. Good variety of food. I did notice more omelet stations, and did not have to wait very long for my eggs over easy. Loved the banana bread. Coffee was quite strong so I did not have it.

 

Breakfast in the dining room was good. The OJ seemed to be better than the lido deck. Service was just ok.

 

Lunch. The only food I had at the lido buffet was the salad bar. Loved the salad bar, had a good variety of veggies to put in the salad.

 

Loved Guys burgers. I could have had one everyday, but only ate there twice. Loved their fries.

 

I am glad they kept the deli, had a Reuben and again here very good. Blue Laguana was also very good.

 

My husband did miss the Mongolian station. It was always a hit with him.

 

Pizza was good and loved the fresh Cesar salad that they offer there. From 11:00 PM - 1:00 AM they offer lasagna and meatball subs. I did not try any of it, but did see guests order it and it did look good. It is too bad that they did not offer that during lunch time.

 

I did not go to the Fish and Chips place, but my friends did and enjoyed the food.

 

I never really had to stand in line for a long time to wait for food. Only once did I wait at Guys but it was a port day, and everyone had the same idea when they came back to the ship was to go to Guys.

[Mary Louise]

Following, I am enjoying reading your review.

 

Thank you

[riffatsea]

Hard to picture eating a meatball sub or lasagna in the middle of the night!! Maybe those people don't sleep??

I can just hear my stomach yelling at me if I tried to lie down after that "snack".

It would be great to have that choice at lunchtime!