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Conquest 9/29/18-10/7/18

Mntbiker2008

By Mntbiker2008,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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Mntbiker2008

Mntbiker2008

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Hello everyone! I just got off of our 8 day adventure on the Conquest! I am starting this thread while I wait in the airport and will add to it after I get settled back in at home.

 

First off, a little about myself. I was accompanied by my wife and 5 yr old daughter on the trip. It was my 3rd cruise, wife's 2nd, and daughter's 1st!

 

The itinerary was:

Day 1- Embarkation

Day 2 and 3- day at sea

Day 4- St. Maarten

Day 5- St Kitts

Day 6- San Juan, PR

Day 7- Grand Turk

Day 8- Day at sea

 

We started the whole trip on Friday by arriving at CVG for our 6:00 pm flight to DTW and then to FLL. DTW was a very long terminal! Was had about an hour long layover but of course our connection was at the opposite end. After a brief bathroom break and to grab a snack, we got there just as they were bordering!

 

The flight to FLL was uneventful. We landed in FLL around 10:45pm and we got our bags and headed out to get a ride to our hotel. We got the first taxi we found and went to the Hyatt Place at Dania Beach. Fare for the 10 minute ride from airport to hotel was a ridiculous $30. Never again!

 

The hotel was very nice. Our room was clean and had a nice, comfy, king size bed with a pullout in the sofa. We basically went straight to bed after settling in.

 

Day 1: Embarkation day!

 

The next morning, we woke up and went down to get breakfast. They had a very nice selection of hot food! This was going to be the start to eating like a king!

 

After eating we went up to our room and started getting ready. I ordered our Uber. We got Hansel who arrived about 2 mins after putting in my trip. He got out and loaded our bags, opened all our doors, and allowed us to stop at Publix on the way for Coke (we don't drink much to begin with and my wife is pregnant so the cheers package wasn't for us. I also didn't think the bottomless bubbles was worth the extra $150, especially when you get a half flat can of pop).

 

Hansel dropped us off at terminal 4 in front of our ship and unloaded our bags again and wished us a fun trip. Remember how I said the taxi to the hotel was $30? The uber for this trip was only $12! The time was now 10:30 and people were still disembarking. Our check in time was 11:30. We were told to go stand in line with the other early arrivers. Once they let us in to the building to start the bordering process, it all went quick and painlessly. We made our way up the VERY steep boardwalk to the ship. We walked around and get a feel for the layout of the ship then made our way to the buffet to eat lunch until we could drop all our stuff off at the room. We were in 1327.

 

After the room opened, we went down amd dropped stuff off and went to explore the ship some more until it was time to do muster.

 

Muster was painless and quick, though hot standing down on that deck with absolutely no breeze.

 

After muster, we went up to the top deck to wave at the PTZ TV camera for our parents watching back home. The rest of the day, we just relaxed and walked around the ship. We went and checked out the kids club (Daughter was in the Penguins). They weren't open on embarkation day but she seemed interested so we said we would let her check it out tomorow.

 

After strolling around, it was time for dinner so we went to the MDR and had a good dinner.

 

They had a few activities around the ship after dinner so we checked them out, then went to the room and fell asleep fast!

 

That is all for now. I will come back and post some pictures as well as soon as I am able to! Stay tuned for more!

Edited by Mntbiker2008
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Mntbiker2008

Mntbiker2008

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Can’t wait to read the rest! I’ve been on the Conquest before, and our next cruise is on this ship. Reading about her will help pass the long 100+ days until we are on her again. [emoji4]

 

 

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Definitely a nice ship and Mat (CD) and Marty were so much fun!

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wtwien

wtwien

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Day 1: Embarkation day!

 

The

I ordered our Uber.

 

Hansel dropped us off at terminal 4 in front of our ship and unloaded our bags again and wished us a fun trip. Remember how I said the taxi to the hotel was $30? The uber for this trip was only $12!

 

When ordering Uber for the Conquest, what address did you input?

 

 

 

 

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Mntbiker2008

Mntbiker2008

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When ordering Uber for the Conquest, what address did you input?

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

I just put in "port everglades". I looked a few days prior on the port everglades schedule to see what terminal the ship will be at. It seems Conquest most often docms at terminal 4. I just told the uber driver what port we needed to go to when he picked us up.

 

How was the Fort Lauderdale airport when you were going home. We flew out of there in January and could not get into the Delta terminal until an hour prior to our flight.

 

 

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It wasn't bad at all! We had an 11am flight today so we chose to disembark with our luggage that way we didn't have to wait for them. We docked at around 6:30 and we were off and through customs by 7:15. Our Uber driver this time around got lost somehow on the way but we still got to the airport and through security by 8:30.

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Mntbiker2008

Mntbiker2008

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Finally back! I didn't think it would take this long to do the website update!

 

Day 2: Sea Day

We didn’t do a whole lot this day other than checking out some of the on board activities and a few shows. We tried the Guy’s burgers and have to say they were amazing! The seas were very choppy and took a bit of effort to walk down the hallways. Definitely liked being horizontal! Our daughter went to Camp Ocean this morning so my wife and I had some free time.  We went and checked in on her after a few hours to see how she was doing.  She wanted to stay because she had made a few friends so we said we would come back and get her for lunch.  We went back to enjoying some peace and quiet!

After lunch, our daughter wanted to go back to Camp Ocean so we asked her if she wanted to stay until dinner or have us come get her sooner.  She chose to stay the whole time. PERFECT!

Tonight was Elegant night so we got our daughter, got dressed up and headed to the MDR for dinner. 

Later that evening,we went and saw Tim Cavanagh at the Punchliner.  This was the PG show.  I have to say, he was the most boring, dry, comedian I have seen.  He mostly relied on talking to the audience and making awkward jokes off their responses.  After the show was over, we went to the main theater because they had to switch the shows around due to the choppy seas.  It was supposed to be Heart of Soul, but instead, they did Epic Rock.  This was a fun show but they had a guy playing an electric guitar for a good 20 minutes prior to the show starting.  It was neat but got kind of boring listening to him play for so long with no music or anything else to go along with it. 

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Mntbiker2008

Mntbiker2008

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Day 3: Sea Day

After waking up and enjoying a nice big breakfast, our daughter asked to go to Camp Ocean so we took her there and set out to check out some activities.  There wasn’t a whole lot going on so we grabbed a lounge chair and people watched.  They started an Octoberfest stein hoisting competition today where up to 12 passengers could pay $10 and would compete against each other to see who could hold a stein full of beer up the longest. This was pretty fun to watch. After each person dropped out, they were allowed to drink their stein of beer but had to return the stein afterwards and they would be given their SS cards back. The winner got to keep their stein and would move on to the final competition on the last day of the cruise.

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Mntbiker2008

Mntbiker2008

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Day 4: St. Maarten

We have already been to this island last year on our honeymoon in June so we were very excited to come back and see how it was doing after the hurricane.  It was quite humbling and a little eerie seeing all of the dilapidated boats (some pulled out of the water looking like a can of sardines, some, still out in the water half submerged and twisted up).  We took a taxi out to Maho Beach (we went last year as well and loved it.  We knew our daughter would get a kick out of the planes flying over).  Of course, we got this old minivan (I think it was a Chrysler Town and Country) that had obviously been wrecked and was burning oil worse than I’d ever seen.  There was no suspension on it so every little bump felt like I was going to be Flinstoning it the rest of the way.  Also, my seat didn’t like in place so it was rather interesting when the driver would slam on his breaks and my seat would fly forward! The drive was quick but looking at all the wreckage was crazy… so crazy I forgot to take pictures! A lot of buildings were fine.  There were a few that had roofs missing still but for the most part, the structures had been repaired.  The damaged materials, however, were still piled up on the street corners and front yards.

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Maho Beach was another one that was hit hard.  There wasn’t a ton of beach when we went last year but there really isn’t any beach left this time. Last year, the lounge chairs lined the beach almost all the way to just where the wind from the planes taking off wouldn’t bother sun bathers, this year, there were only maybe 10 chairs at the most.  We chose to just lay our towels out on the sand.  We got in the water and immediately realized the surge from the waves was EXTREMELY strong.  I am a strong swimmer and still got a pretty good work out trying to keep myself in one place.  Our 5 year old had a life jacket on but I certainly didn’t let her go.  We stayed for about 3 hours here, then went and got back in the taxi to head back to port. On the way back I remembered to grab a few more pictures. Our taxi driver said after the hurricane, there were a ton of boats that had been pushed up on the airport’s runway. 20181010_124654.jpg

After we got back to the port, we went in to a few shops.  I got a hat (I like to get hats from everywhere I go on vacation). We then got back on the ship, went and got some food and waited for the stein hoisting competition.  They would get 12 passengers each day to do this activity and the same details applied. As the day before.  It was fun to watch as the contestants got tired (Each contestant had to hold the stein out at shoulder height, thumb on top of the handle, and pinky on the bottom, with a slight bend in their elbow).  As their arm grew more tired, all of them would begin to lean backwards Matrix style and the glass would start to shake around. Some of their face muscles would even bulge out.  It was quite the sight! If they lost any alcohol or their glass dropped below shoulder height, the contestant was eliminated.

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Below is the police station, still boarded up.

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Mntbiker2008

Mntbiker2008

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Day 5: St. Kitts

We absolutely loved St. Kitts when we went last year the same would hold true to this trip as well! My wife even ventured to say she would like to move their when we retire (and I had no argument with that!). This was the only island we booked a shore excursion on because it was cheap! We paid less than $150 for the 3 of us to go to Cockleshell Beach.  We woke up this morning to note stating they would be changing our carpet in our room and would need to be there from 9am until 3. Kind of annoying because we had to move our luggage and everything into the bathroom. While we were eating breakfast, the Sunshine was coming in to port. 

We were watching it come in when Mat, our CD came over and said that if anyone wanted/ needed to be off the boat in the next 2-3 hours, they needed to get off now.  This was a bit frustrating because it was only 7:30 and we didn’t have to be at the end of the pier until 11:45. We also planned on snorkeling at the beach so I had all of our snorkeling gear to haul around.  We finished up breakfast and began to make our way down to the gangway to get off.  After getting off, we went and strolled around the shops looking for something to keep our impatient 5 yr. old daughter entertained.  We soon realized why they wanted us off for a few hours.  The amount of congestion on the pier from the sunshine docked right next to us was crazy!20181003_153245.jpg

Once it was finally time to meet with our group for the shore excursion, we got in line and got on our bus to go over.  Our driver’s name was Agatha.  She was extremely nice and informative.  We stopped at the Timothy Hill Overlook.  We had been here on the last trip so we jumped out and grabbed a couple quick pictures then jumped back on the bus.  It was a beautiful drive out to the beach.  It is amazing how well kept this island is and how well their roads are maintained.20181003_111630.jpg

After arriving at Spice Mill, we were greeted with nonalcoholic fruit punch which was very good and told to be back at the bus by 3.  We went to the beach and grabbed 2 lounge chairs under an umbrella, set our stuff down and went straight for the beautiful water.  It was so calm and relaxing! We could see Nevis just across the Narrows.  We stayed in the water for a little bit and relaxed, then got our snorkeling gear and cruised around the area.  Our daughter did amazing for her first time snorkeling and was pointing all over the place when she would see different fish.  The unfortunate part about snorkeling here was there was a lot of trash at the bottom.  I saw at least 20 sunken cans of beer, solo cups, plastic wrappers, etc. Another thing to be aware of is the sea urchins! There were TONS of them!20181003_114854.jpg

Once we got tired of snorkeling, we got out of the water and hung out on the lounge chairs, ate some lunch, and relaxed….that is…. Until our daughter got bored and wanted to go back in the water…in reality… we relaxed for maybe 10 minutes. LOL! My wife took her down to the water and swam with her again while I did some more people watching and took a short nap.

2:30 came around and it was almost time to get back on the bus.  Most of the people had already started clearing the area so we packed up headed for the bus.  Surprisingly, we were almost the last people to get on! Agatha took us back to port and wished us farewell.  We headed for the ship and got on as our board time was 4:30. 

We got to our room and opened the door to find the new carpet.  It was quite different as we had the old orange kind of carpet.20181003_154200.jpg

Since we didn’t eat a huge lunch and all of the swimming and snorkeling took a lot of energy, we got a quick snack, took our daughter to Camp Ocean again, and waited for the stein hoisting competition.  This time, it took about 5 minutes for the last person to drop!

 

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Mntbiker2008

Mntbiker2008

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14 minutes ago, Beav1279 said:

Thanks for coming back to continue your review! I'm enjoying it 🙂 

Glad to hear! I will try to post some more tomorrow! 

43 minutes ago, NHNEV2003 said:

Avidly following--we will be on this same cruise in a few short weeks!

You will have a blast! 

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