Live from Conquest 2/6/16-2/14/16

[*Cassie*]

Enjoy your cruise! Looking forward to more of your review.

[jficco]

Doing this itinerary in October and struggling with what to do in St. Kitt. Any info when you return would be great!

 

I'm doing this itinerary in October also and we are thinking about going to Reggae Beach in St. Kitts, I'm hearing good reviews about it. I'd love to hear everything you can share about the ports. Are their any beaches within walking distance at St. Kitts or St. Maarten? I know I'm going to Jack's Shack when in Grand Turk and probably explore San Juan. So I'm looking for beautiful beaches with calm, clear blue water at St. Kitts and St. Maarten.

Edited February 7, 2016 by jficco

[mosaic_mom]

Yup, running late. Was originally scheduled for 3:30 and they moved it to 4. My guess is the port kept having technical problems and boarding was getting delayed. So we likely left very close to on time, but the muster was still going on.

 

We were on the 1/23 cruise on the Conquest. All shops were closed during our cruise. They also had technical problems with boarding as well. We got all the way to where you punch in your S&S card when the computers went down. We were first in line at that point and had to wait about 30 minutes. They had just gotten out the manifest to do boarding by hand. Fortunately the computers came back up.

 

Enjoy your cruise. Hope you like the cruise director Josh as much as we did.

[Yellowbird75]

Enjoy your cruise!

[BeadedGoblets]

How are the seas? Hope they've calmed down.

[NoDayButToday]

Still pretty rocky out here for the most part. You can still see some pretty significant waves on the horizon. They pulled out the sea sickness bags last night, but so far everyone in our group is doing ok, even the ones who are more prone to getting sick. It calmed down a bit for awhile yesterday, but it's back to the same. I'm not surprised, probably some fallout from that crazy storm further north. It hasn't stopped us from anything we wanted to do yet, and it could totally be worse.

 

We are having a blast though, the ship and crew have been amazing so far (except for a rude head waiter for our table, but his assistants are great!).

[Coachbradu]

One quick question, are the outlets in the room three prong? Thanks! Enjoy your cruise. We are boarding her Sun.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[NoDayButToday]

One quick question, are the outlets in the room three prong? Thanks! Enjoy your cruise. We are boarding her Sun.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

Yes, 3 prong outlet. I had no problem bringing both a fan and a power strip (with no surge protector) onboard in my carry on.

[Jenny in TX]

Enjoy your cruise! We will be on the Conquest in November doing this same itinerary.

[FrsttimeCruiser]

Have a great trip! I'm doing the same itinerary in 25 days! Hoping for great weather and calm seas 😁. It's our first cruise. Please keep us posted on how the seas are and the weather. Thanks! Enjoy!

[flips7]

Have a great trip! I'm doing the same itinerary in 25 days! Hoping for great weather and calm seas 😁. It's our first cruise. Please keep us posted on how the seas are and the weather. Thanks! Enjoy!

 

I will be sailing on the same date. You should join the roll call. It has not been real active but another person will help

[Gallivanting Souls]

Hi everyone!

 

We are heading out on the Conquest out of Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale) later today. If anyone has any questions while we are on the ship I would be happy to try and get the answers for you. We are doing the St Martin, St Kitts, San Juan, Grand Turk itinerary.

 

I hope you are having a wonderful time. I have an oddball request. Can you please take a picture of room 7277 door and possible area around it? We will be in that room next Christmas cruise. I plan on decorating the door. I'm trying to get a picture of it in my head and know the size etc. You don't need to waste your time or internet minutes to do this. Enjoy your cruise, but if you could walk by the room with camera in hand, I would be grateful. :D

Thank you!

[Folsom]

Congrats on your trip so far and thanks for using your time and data for us back here in reality.

 

My only real complaint from a cruise was the piano player we had a few years ago on the Freedom, so I am wondering who the piano player is on Conquest as we will be on her in a couple of months. Also am review of the comedy club and frequency of comedians would be appreciated.

 

Enjoy the cruise and have a D.O.D. for me.

 

-F-

[NoDayButToday]

I hope you are having a wonderful time. I have an oddball request. Can you please take a picture of room 7277 door and possible area around it? We will be in that room next Christmas cruise. I plan on decorating the door. I'm trying to get a picture of it in my head and know the size etc. You don't need to waste your time or internet minutes to do this. Enjoy your cruise, but if you could walk by the room with camera in hand, I would be grateful. :D

 

Thank you!

 

 

Got you covered!

[NoDayButToday]

The wifi isn't always amazing at times and some of the pictures are showing up broken. If they are actually broken I will re-upload when I get home.

[NoDayButToday]

Congrats on your trip so far and thanks for using your time and data for us back here in reality.

 

 

 

My only real complaint from a cruise was the piano player we had a few years ago on the Freedom, so I am wondering who the piano player is on Conquest as we will be on her in a couple of months. Also am review of the comedy club and frequency of comedians would be appreciated.

 

 

 

Enjoy the cruise and have a D.O.D. for me.

 

 

 

-F-

 

 

The piano player currently onboard is called Tommy G. He's ok. We went the first night buy weren't overly impressed. He has been playing to about a half full bar every night though. He's a good player and an okay vocalist.

 

The comedian's the first two nights were Geetchie Guy and Steve Burr. Guy was pretty funny, he reminded me a bit of a Mitch Hedburg or Mitch Fatel-dry delivery, one liner type comedy with some pretty good jokes. Almost everyone in our group liked him a lot. Steve Burr was really funny to the 4 or 5 people in the front row that he spent the entire set interacting with. Not as funny for the rest of the crowd though and he didn't do the planned set listed in the fun times, just the audience interaction.

 

The second 2 comedians were Chas Elstner and Louis Johnson Jr. Chas Elstner was awful. He is a sound effect comedian, and he was overly vulgar (and I don't mind vulgarity-but it didn't end in a funny payoff, so just really unnecessary), and he was overtly racist. We actually left after about 10 minutes (but others in our group said it was the same for the entire set). I got the impression that he was maybe generally a cleaner comedian who felt the need to do a dirty set for the 18+ shows, or maybe I'm just hoping that isn't his entire shtick. We haven't been to see Louis. We were sort of soured on the comedy club after Chas (and a disconcerting experience my husband had where he saw the comedy club manager, Curly, in the restroom pre-show and he didn't wash his hands after using the restroom and then immediately went on stage to touch the mike and shake the hand of the comedian, we were all a little grossed out by that).

 

We have had a fantastic time, and definitely enjoyed those drinks of the day though! I don't want it to sound like the entertainment was bad, because the entertainment staff is great. We've spent a lot of time at night in the areas with live musicians dancing and Josh and his staff work very hard to make sure there is something for everyone going on.

[Gallivanting Souls]

Got you covered!

 

Thank you! :D

[NoDayButToday]

Doing this itinerary in October and struggling with what to do in St. Kitt. Any info when you return would be great!

 

 

We had a great time with Dive St Kitts, but their office was a bit disorganized (our reservation was fine, but they had lost someone else's reservation from our ship and had to scramble for alternate arrangements).

 

My parents and sister both went with ship excursions. My parents went on the ATV excursions with a beach stop and loved it, said the island was amazing and it was one of the best excursions they have ever done. Both have bad backs and said it wasn't too bumpy or crazy and they felt fine afterwards. My sister and her boyfriend chose to do the ship excursion to the fort and garden area. It was their favorite part of the entire trip. They said the group wasn't too big, they learned a lot, and the sites were amazing.

 

Hope that helps, we were all sort of stumped at what to do in St Kitts, but we all ended up loving our day there. The island is incredibly beautiful, mountains everywhere and the water is an amazing deep shade of blue I haven't seen elsewhere in the Caribbean.

 

[NoDayButToday]

I can see the Conquest docked on PTZtv. I live in Florida. Today is really nice compared to the other days we have been experiencing. Tomorrow will be rotten. Can you please tell me how the Conquest does in high sea? Thanks, have a wonderful trip.

 

 

It has been probably the rockiest cruise we have ever been on. Not dangerous, I haven't seen anyone or anything fall and no one we have encountered has mentioned being truly seasick, but we are very definitely moving around. No denying we are at sea. I did read somewhere that because of the route we are taking it is typically a more rocky itinerary, and it sure didn't disappoint there (I like active seas).

 

 

Doing the same itinerary in April.

 

Check out the comedy club, status on the shops, and any neat things to do in San Juan.

 

 

 

have a great cruise!!!

 

 

San Juan is a really short day, 7-2. And even shorter when you realize that nothing opened until 9 or 10 San Juan time (1 hour ahead of ship time). We decided to just walk around Old San Juan, find somewhere good to eat, and head back to the ship. Everyone in our group did pretty much exactly that. We covered pretty much all of Old San Juan (plus a stop in the CVS right near the pier for some new insoles for my husband, lol), stopping in shops and local art galleries to take a look, went to Barrachina for lunch and a Pina Colada (they don't start serving food until 11am Puerto Rico time, but the meal was incredible. They also claim to have invented the pina colada and it was good, tastes more like the actual fruit, not as sweet as you are used to, and very heavy on the rum-and it was shockingly only $7 for the drink! We expected way more than that since they pride themselves on it), and walked back to the ship. We also stopped at the Starbucks on the way back to the ship, not for coffee, but because I work for the company and wanted to pick up some stuff that is available in Puerto Rico but not the US (almond syrup!). We ended up having a nice, leisurely day, but be prepared to walk a lot. Old San Juan is very hilly. When my parents came back they complained about it a bit. I'm not in the greatest shape, and I survived, but definitely wear good walking shoes that day.

 

 

I'm doing this itinerary in October also and we are thinking about going to Reggae Beach in St. Kitts, I'm hearing good reviews about it. I'd love to hear everything you can share about the ports. Are their any beaches within walking distance at St. Kitts or St. Maarten? I know I'm going to Jack's Shack when in Grand Turk and probably explore San Juan. So I'm looking for beautiful beaches with calm, clear blue water at St. Kitts and St. Maarten.

 

 

I don't know about beaches at St Kitts, we didn't explore the port area much. However, in St Maarten, if you take the water taxi ($7 per person buys you an all day use wristband), the first stop is to the beach, and the 2nd stop is at the main shopping area, which also has a beach right there. Our beach dwellers were very happy with that beach, and were also able to bargain the chair guy down to $5 for a chair and umbrella from the $15 he was starting at.

 

Have a great trip! I'm doing the same itinerary in 25 days! Hoping for great weather and calm seas [emoji16]. It's our first cruise. Please keep us posted on how the seas are and the weather. Thanks! Enjoy!

 

 

I said it earlier too, but the seas have been somewhat rough, but not too bad. If you are unsure if you will be sick, bring some Dramamine to be safe. I haven't needed mine, others in my group have but felt just fine after they took it.

 

We lucked out on the weather so much. The weather reports the week before we left were predicting rain in every port. We had a few short bursts in St Maarten, but then it was clear and in the mid-80s. St Kitts was clear the entire day and mid-80s. Puerto Rico, clear and high 80s, it was a warm day but still breezy. Grand Turk was supposed to be the mother of all thunderstorms all day based on the weather report the day before. We had a bad burst of rain when we first docked-and that was it. Clear skies, low 80s, never saw another drop of rain. I feel bad for anyone who booked a snorkel excursion though, all snorkeling excursions were canceled when they had the bad rain, and then the day ended up being beautiful.

[golfb4cruzing]

We had a great time with Dive St Kitts, but their office was a bit disorganized (our reservation was fine, but they had lost someone else's reservation from our ship and had to scramble for alternate arrangements).

 

My parents and sister both went with ship excursions. My parents went on the ATV excursions with a beach stop and loved it, said the island was amazing and it was one of the best excursions they have ever done. Both have bad backs and said it wasn't too bumpy or crazy and they felt fine afterwards. My sister and her boyfriend chose to do the ship excursion to the fort and garden area. It was their favorite part of the entire trip. They said the group wasn't too big, they learned a lot, and the sites were amazing.

 

Hope that helps, we were all sort of stumped at what to do in St Kitts, but we all ended up loving our day there. The island is incredibly beautiful, mountains everywhere and the water is an amazing deep shade of blue I haven't seen elsewhere in the Caribbean.

 

 

What is the structure in middle of pic that looks like it's falling over to the right?

[NoDayButToday]

I honestly don't know. I didn't ask. That picture was taken on the dive boat, I was just taking sweeping pictures of my entire surroundings while my husband was diving, and while the dive staff was amazing and friendly, and basically the best ever, the boat captain is nicknamed Captain Crabby for a reason. He didn't talk, at all, to me or anyone else on the boat other than the dive master. I do wish I knew now that I'm looking at the picture though.

[Sun-Sand-Palm-Trees]

I'd love some detail on the disembarkation process. We're doing the same itinerary in April and I have an early flight.

• What time did the ship get back into FLL?
  
• What was the order for getting off the ship? Did the self-assist go off before the suite/FTTF group?
  
• Was there a Global Entry line to clear customs?
  

 

Thanks for much for sharing your experiences with us! :)

[NoDayButToday]

I'd love some detail on the disembarkation process. We're doing the same itinerary in April and I have an early flight.

 

• 
   
  
• What time did the ship get back into FLL?
   
  
• What was the order for getting off the ship? Did the self-assist go off before the suite/FTTF group?
   
  
• Was there a Global Entry line to clear customs?
   
  

 

 

 

Thanks for much for sharing your experiences with us! :)

 

 

The ship was cleared for self assist by 6:30am, and there was a bright shiny announcement to all cabins to let us know, lol.

 

Self assists had at least an hour and a half to get off the ship before group one was called, which was around 8:15am. Self assist was called by their floors in 3-4 floor groups. However, the port was an unbelievable mess for customs. We got into line around 8:30 to get off the ship. They kept having to stop the line in the ship to let the customs line clear a bit. Once we got off the ship and got our luggage we got in the longest customs line I have ever seen. The porter told us it would be about 45 minutes. We got in that line at about 9am, and finally walked out of the building around 10:20. We were in group 1. When we were getting on our shuttle at nearly 11 we heard them calling group 16 of 34 groups. We also noticed quite a few people in line with us that had bags with numbers 20 and above, so lots of people just doing whatever they wanted and ignoring directions. If you have an early flight, I would definitely try and self assist.

 

There was a Global Entry line marked, but I didn't see anyone go through it so I don't know if it wasn't being utilized or if there just wasn't anyone that it applied to when we were there.

Edited February 14, 2016 by NoDayButToday

[Yellowbird75]

San Juan is a really short day, 7-2. And even shorter when you realize that nothing opened until 9 or 10 San Juan time (1 hour ahead of ship time). We decided to just walk around Old San Juan, find somewhere good to eat, and head back to the ship. Everyone in our group did pretty much exactly that. We covered pretty much all of Old San Juan (plus a stop in the CVS right near the pier for some new insoles for my husband, lol), stopping in shops and local art galleries to take a look, went to Barrachina for lunch and a Pina Colada (they don't start serving food until 11am Puerto Rico time, but the meal was incredible. They also claim to have invented the pina colada and it was good, tastes more like the actual fruit, not as sweet as you are used to, and very heavy on the rum-and it was shockingly only $7 for the drink! We expected way more than that since they pride themselves on it), and walked back to the ship. We also stopped at the Starbucks on the way back to the ship, not for coffee, but because I work for the company and wanted to pick up some stuff that is available in Puerto Rico but not the US (almond syrup!). We ended up having a nice, leisurely day, but be prepared to walk a lot. Old San Juan is very hilly. When my parents came back they complained about it a bit. I'm not in the greatest shape, and I survived, but definitely wear good walking shoes that day.

 

San Juan was one of our favorite ports from our cruise last February. Lots of walking through Old Town but you have to try a Mallorca from Cafe Mallorca! They are delicious sweet and salty breakfast sandwiches (something to do that early :D) You can also tour the forts for minimal charges and we did some shopping. In the main square they had ice carts with the most delicious pina and coconut ices. My DH wanted to go back and get more when he realized we were back on the ship too early. Also had lunch at Mojitos, mofongo of course! I would recommend it, it was a tiny local cafe but good food!

 

There was also a CVS right as you come off the boat, we use those to get more water if we run out, so that was convenient.

[drvmywifecrzy]

So why does customs get so backed up?