Live From Carnival Conquest New Years 2019 Bash!

[Steelers0854]

DW and I have sailed all the major holidays except New Years so we are really excited to be headed out over New Years this year, even if it is on a 6 night cruise 😔.  Family has brought us back to Carnival again this year, they prefer the line due to the cost difference, and for us a cruise is really just a cruise.  While we may prefer one line over another we have yet to sail any cruise line that we would never go back on.

 

This is our first time on the Conquest and we are excited to try places like Guy’s and the Blue Iguana, although DW just found out that she cannot eat gluten, dairy or eggs, so this is going to be very interesting and I will report how we progress throughout the trip.  While she is not allergic, she does become ill when she eats those things in quantity, so thankfully we don’t have to worry about cross-contamination or life threatening consequences.  We did have our TA contact Carnival and let then know about it ahead of time and we have read that carnival has things like almond milk generally on hand.  I did notice that on the site under my wife’s medical conditions it does now say “other” instead of none like mine so they clearly did mark her reservation with my TA’s phone call. 

 

We leave on Sunday the 30th and are flying in the day before as we always do, especially in the winter you just never know with the weather so we don’t take any chances.  We also bought Faster to the Fun for this cruise, luckily we got it before they increased the rates, I am not sure we will get it again with the current pricing structure. 

 

On tap for this cruise is Nassau, Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk, and finally Amber cove.  We only have 1 sea day (the last day) since its just a 6 night cruise.  We have a Cabana on HMC with some of our family members, there will be 4 adults and 2 teenagers, which hits the capacity on paper for the cabana, we will see how well we all fit!  Grand Turk is one of our favorite places, mainly because the beach is right next to where we dock.  In Amber Cove we booked the waterfall excursion through the cruise line. DW and I are pretty risk adverse on cruises and stick to cruise line offered excursions.  I know we can get better deals with more expansive offerings by going private, but for us I don’t want to risk the headache should something unforeseen happen.  But, we did take advantage of Carnival’s price guarantee and saved over half the cost of the excursion by finding a similar private excursion and sending int he form.  We will get back a little over $110 in OBC for the both of us.

 

I am not planning on buying a Wi-Fi package on this cruise.  I just picked up a Google Fi SIM card and plan to rely on that to be able to post while in port.  It’s a great deal, the main line is only $20 a month which, domestically, includes unlimited talk and text and data is only $10 a GB. You can only pay $60 a month in max data fees, but they never shut off your data if you go over.  When abroad you get unlimited texts and phone calls are $0.20 a minute. They have coverage in 170 countries around the world. You can also get data only SIMs that do not have any monthly fee and you only pay for the data you use.  So DW and the iPad will get data only SIMs and it will allow us to stay in touch while in each port.  I used to use AT&T’s passport feature and pay $10 for a rolling 24 hour period, but this is a way better deal.  So good in fact I am tempted to switch our primary service to it.  

 

So why have I started this Live From so early you ask?  Because Mother Nature strikes again!  We always fly in a day early (Saturday in this case) because you just never know about anything these days.  I had a work trip that was unavoidable before the cruise and was planning on getting home today (Friday) and then leaving with DW tomorrow.  Unfortunately weather has struck again and my flight home was cancelled.  So I am headed directly to FLL today on an unexpected detour.  Luckily we planned for this in advance.  I had pre-packed my bag for this trip for precisely this type of emergency. So DW is all set and ready to leave (provided weather doesn’t cancel her flight!) tomorrow and I will meet her here in FLL.

 

Nothing like a little pre-cruise excitement

[bury me at sea]

Thanks to good planning it looks as though you're ready to ring in the New Year.

 

I hope it's a great cruise.

[Saint Greg]

follow

 

[Steelers0854]

1 hour ago, Saint Greg said:

follow

 

Haha I cant tell if your post is sarcastic or not, I believe that gif is from when he thought he had the first down but was short a yard in the last game.  🙂 

[Saint Greg]

1 minute ago, Steelers0854 said:

Haha I cant tell if your post is sarcastic or not, I believe that gif is from when he thought he had the first down but was short a yard in the last game.  🙂 

 

yep

[Steelers0854]

3 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

 

yep

 

I’m going out on a limb and guessing you’re a Baltimore fan?  You’re gonna have to post here what happens with the game, it starts at sail away and I’m not sure that Ill be able to watch it on board, or if I even want to watch it!

[Steelers0854]

The trip to FLL was uneventful for me, that is until after I landed.  Before that story, I can report there are definitely no weather issues here, as the current conditions are 81 degrees and wonderful.

 

I write to you with a word of warning.  I have never had an issue with Uber or Lyft until i got to the FLL airport.  Before I start, let me remind everyone that at FLL you have a clearly marked specific pickup area that you cannot miss. I requested a Lyft and the driver ran a pickup scam on me and claimed I never showed, when in fact he was the one that didn’t show.  I tried to text him and call him, he made it seem like there was a bad connection on the phone which was totally fabricated.  So I called their global assistance line and reported the fraud and they promptly waived the cancellation fee.  So I ordered a second Lyft and the exact same thing happened but with a different driver!  Wash rinse and repeat.  So my second fee was again waived and I switched to Uber and just when I lost my faith in humanity I got a delightful driver to take me to the hotel. Total wait time was about 40 minutes since drivers queue at the airport about 10 min out.  Not sure if others have run into issues here before or not, but if you are counting on Lyft or Uber on the day of the cruise and are cutting your times close beware of this scam going around.  

 

Here is a link to a recent article about this, and other variations of this type of scam, that is apparently becoming more and more prevalent

 

https://thepointsguy.com/news/uber-drivers-cancellation-fee-scam/

[Saint Greg]

11 minutes ago, Steelers0854 said:

 

I’m going out on a limb and guessing you’re a Baltimore fan?  You’re gonna have to post here what happens with the game, it starts at sail away and I’m not sure that Ill be able to watch it on board, or if I even want to watch it!

 

Seriously? My name is Saint Greg......

[Steelers0854]

19 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

 

Seriously? My name is Saint Greg......

 

Gave you the benefit of the doubt that it was more of a biblical association. Read the post it’s been a long day lol. 

[Saint Greg]

3 minutes ago, Steelers0854 said:

 

Gave you the benefit of the doubt that it was more of a biblical association. Read the post it’s been a long day lol. 

 

The play happened against my team five days ago and I thought it was funny that he celebrated a first down he didn't get. That's about it. I don't have hate for any AFC teams. Now that we've established where everyone's allegiance lies, we can get back to your review.

Edited December 28, 2018 by Saint Greg

[Steelers0854]

1 hour ago, Saint Greg said:

 

The play happened against my team five days ago and I thought it was funny that he celebrated a first down he didn't get. That's about it. I don't have hate for any AFC teams. Now that we've established where everyone's allegiance lies, we can get back to your review.

 

I agree, I thought it was hilarious!

[Steelers0854]

It’s a beautiful morning in Fort Lauderdale. Looks like DW hopefully won’t run into any weather issues and can get in ok today, we are still keeping our fingers crossed as they cancelled a boat load (pun intended) of flights yesterday. 

[Steelers0854]

Well the good news is that DW made it here safe and sound. The bad news, neither of our bags made it. Word of warning, Southwest has the worst baggage tracking system in the industry. They said they do not scan your bags at any point in the process. They couldn’t tell us if the bags even left our city of origin. So they will deliver them to the hotel if they arrive tonight or to the ship if they arrive tomorrow. If they miss the ship tomorrow they will send them to Nassau and deliver them to the ship in port. So here’s hoping the bags make it before we leave, otherwise we are going to be “those people” at dinner wearing the same shorts and T-shirts!

 

[crazyboutdisney]

Following. Sailed twice on the Conquest and going for a third in March

[MzShae]

WOW! That's crazy about Southwest's baggage system. Hope your bags show up!

[Steelers0854]

 

 

Well it’s another beautiful day in FLL!  And it’s a packed house this morning. I counted 6 ships in port today. No update on our bags. Don’t think I’m going to fly southwest for a cruise any more which is a shame because we love the airline. But their baggage system is so antiquated they can literally tell us nothing about where our bags are or when they may show up. 

 

 

[bury me at sea]

Bummer about your luggage.  I sure hope it catches up with you.

 

Happy New Year.

[Steelers0854]

Thank you all for your prayers, they were answered!  We got a call as we were shopping at Target that our luggage was at the airport!  So we high tailed it and sure enough they were sitting at baggage claim. 

 

Just a short wait and we will head out to the port. 

[Steelers0854]

Thank you all for your prayers, they were answered!  We got a call as we were shopping at Target that our luggage was at the airport!  So we high tailed it and sure enough they were sitting at baggage claim. 

 

Just a short wait and we will head out to the port. 

[blarko]

How many bags are missing? I could see one bag being lost, but more than one for the same ticket, somebody screwed up big time (Southwest). I hope your bags show up before you get on the ship. Good Luck.

 

Edit: ok....I see your bags were located. What a relief! Enjoy your cruise.

Edited December 30, 2018 by blarko

[bury me at sea]

Glad you're being reunited with your luggage!

[Steelers0854]

We got to the port about 10:35, we got to security and they scanned our passports and used a handheld device to read the RFID chip and automatically pull over our photos. It was pretty cool and fairly quick. Security was not an issue at all. We sat in the FTTF waiting area for them to begin boarding. All in all it was the easiest checkin and birding process ever. They came around and said they are waiting on USCG clearance and we should start boarding around 11:20. At 11:15 sharp we were able to board and literally just walked straight on. 

 

 

[Steelers0854]

Fun times for today. And the dinner menus tonight. 

[Steelers0854]

Here is the workout schedule for the week. 

 

[shellindc]

We just returned from our 8 day on Conquest! It's a great ship--enjoy! The cruise director Leigh is engaging and doesn't take himself too seriously--which in CDs is a blessing. 🙂  Dwayne at the Red Frog is a great bartender. Sounds like your trip to the PE port was quite the adventure--alas, all is well now; have a great trip.