Just returned from Conquest

[ancryan]

I just got back from the Conquest this morning. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them. I might even write a review if I get that ambitious.

[jw4jg1mg2eg1]

I can't wait to read your review. I hope you had a good time. Did you by chance save your capers? I would really like to read those if you could email them to me.:)

[Bill2121]

Hope you had a great time!

 

Sailing on the CQ in a few weeks. Have several questions if you don't mind?

 

1. Who was the Cruise Director?

2. How was embarkation and debarkation, what time did they let you off?

3. What was the Cozumel tender situation like (if you got off)?

 

Thanks

[curt1313]

Hey! I hope you had a great vacation! I'll be honeymooning on the Conquest in April. What category cabin were you in? We've sailed twice with Carnival before, in oceanview, but this time were going with a balcony!

What do you reccommend that we MUST do while on the ship or in a certain port?

Is the Conquest the same ol' (super fun & exciting) carnival cruise or was it super special? What makes it different? Sorry if I am asking too many questions.... I'm just crazy excited about our honeymoon cruise.

Thanks in advance! Have a wonderful day!

[barbarian75]

What do you recommend for Jamaica and Cozumel? Also, any suggestions on what might be the best time to arrive to the boat and parking?

 

Thanks.

[HockeyTown]

I have been trying to locate a recent Conquest Capers (2006). i would be interested in seeing that also. we sail in 3 weeks. Thanks....hope you had a wonderful cruise!!

[scperk]

Barbarian75...we've been on the conquest twice...The beach at Docs Caves is pretty good and its a short walk from there to Margaritaville..then a cab back downtown...I've heard Sunset beach is nice..its a all inclusive for $40 PP, but its also a nude beach(just so you would know)...Cozumel is prob a lot different now and the tenders are going to be awful slow...There were several nice beachs there, I usually just ask a crew member that has a good tan which one is the best.. Carlos and Charlies is a great time if you are a drinker and partier...have fun.....P.S...Don't forget to buy Mexican blankets and silver jewelry................Dennis

[ancryan]

Hope you had a great time!

 

Sailing on the CQ in a few weeks. Have several questions if you don't mind?

 

1. Who was the Cruise Director?

2. How was embarkation and debarkation, what time did they let you off?

3. What was the Cozumel tender situation like (if you got off)?

 

Thanks

1. The cruise director was a guy named Malcolm. He was the best I have ever had after 7 cruises. Problem is that he was only the director for a week. I believe he is supposed to be the director again for 6 weeks beginning in about a month.

2. Embarkation: We didn't show up until about 1:30pm so it was a breeze. Debarkation: We were some of the last off of the ship and it was around 11:30am.

3. Tendering in Cozumel was OK getting there, but we waited in line to get back on the ship for over an hour. The last tender was to leave at 4pm and I think half of the ship decided to wait until the last tender. It ended up taking 3 tenders to get us back.

[ancryan]

Hey! I hope you had a great vacation! I'll be honeymooning on the Conquest in April. What category cabin were you in? We've sailed twice with Carnival before, in oceanview, but this time were going with a balcony!

What do you reccommend that we MUST do while on the ship or in a certain port?

Is the Conquest the same ol' (super fun & exciting) carnival cruise or was it super special? What makes it different? Sorry if I am asking too many questions.... I'm just crazy excited about our honeymoon cruise.

Thanks in advance! Have a wonderful day!

 

We were in an inside cabin on deck 1 - Riviera. We don't spend much time in the cabin so it was fine, but it was a bit tight. OV rooms are much bigger.

This was a terrific cruise. The food and entertainment were exceptional. You will definitely have a great time - especially on a honeymoon!

Have fun!!

[ancryan]

What do you recommend for Jamaica and Cozumel? Also, any suggestions on what might be the best time to arrive to the boat and parking?

 

Thanks.

 

Barbarian75 - We did a very different excursion than any we had ever done before and I highly recommend it. It is the Mountain Valley Rafting. It is actually a bamboo rafting trip, much like the Martha Brae. It is only $49 taken as a ship excursion and I'm not sure it was available any other way. If you decide to take this excursion, let me know and I'll give you a few pointers - tips, etc.

Cozumel - we shopped for awhile then took a cab to Paradise Beach. Awesome day and a great place - until it started raining. Oh well... There are plenty of threads on this board for Paradise beach - I won't try to add to it.

We arrived at the pier at 1:30 and had pre-paid for parking at EZ Cruise - $50. We were onboard in about 15 minutes from arrival.

Good luck - let me know if you have more questions.

[cheshyrkat]

We were in an inside cabin on deck 1 - Riviera. We don't spend much time in the cabin so it was fine, but it was a bit tight. OV rooms are much bigger.

This was a terrific cruise. The food and entertainment were exceptional. You will definitely have a great time - especially on a honeymoon!

Have fun!!

 

Actually on Conquest (and other Carnival ships) the inside, oceanview and balcony cabins have the same square footage. It may seem larger perceptually, but actually it's the same.

[ancryan]

CheshyRCat,

I know that is what they say, but i'm telling you, there is a difference. I walked into their rooms and there was a sofa and chair set up in addition to the two beds in the room right across the hall. The only place where you could put a sofa in our room would have been on the bed.

[Cajun lady and company]

We were also on the cruise this past week. We arrived at the dock at 9:45 in the morning and started getting in line at 10:15 and were some of the first on the boat. One tip once you get out of customs there will be a row of chairs, when facing the chairs sit on your left towards the back. These people are the first ones to get on the boat. I was disappointed at several incidents onboard. Several of the wait staff were very rude. When you asked cruise ship personnel onboard the ship for directions or information several did not know anything or sent you on a wild goose chase. Several times we went to get something to eat and the snack bar was closed and you had to go all over the ship to check each snack bar, only to find they were closed or just one would be open. The announcements are not loud enough for all to hear and several times I cruise buddies missed out on events due to not being able to hear over the loud speaker.

 

We had a balcony room on Lido Deck which I would highly recommend. The view was beautiful.

 

Mobay was nice but not half as nice as Cozumel. I never felt safe while shopping in Mobay. TIP If you are going to shop do so in the afternoon as they drop their prices drastically....... We hired a driver to take a bus load of 16 of us all over Mobay Island and this was great. Much better than an excursion booked on the ship that others took and complained about.

 

Grand Cayman was the place I really wanted to see but due to tendering problems we did not stop there.

 

Cozumel was really nice and much cleaner. Do not get suckered into all their so called deals though and if you are buying jewelry please check the stones out at home before buying elsewhere to make sure you are not getting taken.......Several friends bought jewelry and then took them today to get them checked out and found out they were had......

 

Other than that, the company was great. Malcolm was great as was most of the nightly entertainment.

 

On leaving, we did self disembark and were off the ship by 8:15 and in our vehicle at about 8:35. Did get to meet two people on the cruise critic board which surely made my trip more pleasurable.

[HockeyTown]

hey Cajun, sorry to hear about Grand Cayman; we're going in 3 wks, can you explain what happened and why you did not stop in Grand Cayman? Was it just bad weather?? GC is what I am looking forward to the most. What did you do that extra day if you did not stop at GC? Thanks in advance.

[WestKYCruiser]

We had rough seas in the Caymans and the port authories (or whoever makes port decisions on the island) didn't think it was safe enough to tender in. There were 6 ships that were supposed to be there that day. The captain hung around until 9:00 to see if anything changed, but they still didn't think it was safe enough so we left and went on to Cozumel.

[Mgetta]

Barbarian75 - We did a very different excursion than any we had ever done before and I highly recommend it. It is the Mountain Valley Rafting. It is actually a bamboo rafting trip, much like the Martha Brae. It is only $49 taken as a ship excursion and I'm not sure it was available any other way. If you decide to take this excursion, let me know and I'll give you a few pointers - tips, etc.

 

We are taking this excursion in a couple of weeks with Carolyn Barrett tours. Tips/pointers?

[crsinmo]

Would like to know more about not going to Grand Caymen. Did they take two days to get to Cozumel.....another sea day? Just wondering. Also the comment about SunSet Beach being a nude beach.... Only one part of it is nude, sepearted bt a surf break. You won't know its there unless you go over the surf break. One of our favorite places :) The rest of it is a family type atmosphere.

[Kittybork]

hey Cajun, sorry to hear about Grand Cayman; we're going in 3 wks, can you explain what happened and why you did not stop in Grand Cayman? Was it just bad weather?? GC is what I am looking forward to the most. What did you do that extra day if you did not stop at GC? Thanks in advance.

 

We couldn't go to GC in December either. We had another "fun day" at sea. It was probably the weather (that was the case in December).

[Kittybork]

Would like to know more about not going to Grand Caymen. Did they take two days to get to Cozumel.....another sea day? Just wondering. Also the comment about SunSet Beach being a nude beach.... Only one part of it is nude, sepearted bt a surf break. You won't know its there unless you go over the surf break. One of our favorite places :) The rest of it is a family type atmosphere.

 

I think the fact that the nude beach is so open for everyone to see is funny. It's separated, but it's very obvious.

[mommas2tired]

re the mountain rafting.... we did the Martha Brea rafting trip I loved it. It was very peaceful and the scenery was beautiful. Ask lots of questions of the person guiding you down the river, it's not really deep. There are people along the way that try to sell you things and when you almost reach the end they pull out the backpack and show you what they have carved from the calabash it looks like a gourd anyway we got one but when you get off the raft you have to go thru the gift shop to get out I thought this was a little tricky but thats how they make a living I guess I don't fault them for that. The bamboo thickets were awesome and he showed us an African Tulip tree really beautiful. All in all it was a great adventure for us (we don't get out much like we used to) :)

[ancryan]

Mgetta, I don't want to take away any of the surprise of the rafting, but I'll give you 2 things to think about - 1. Just sit back and relax and enjoy the foot massage and the cool eco lessons. 2. Don't listen to the private sob stories of the raft drivers. They will use lots of personal stories to get more of a tip out of you. I don't know what their agreement with the booking company is, but I know they love to guilt money out of you.

As for GRAND CAYMAN, the swells were 9 feet. The weather looked fine, but the waves were bad. They didn't particularly look bad, but they were 9 feet they say. We spent the day at sea going about 3 knots per hour best I could tell.

[GerriJS]

We are doing the conquest 4/30/06. First cruise...Monteigo Bay. Do they have a buffet? or do you have to go to dining room all the time? I heard they even charge for bottled water. Any suggestions for off shore excursions? Thanks, sorry that's a lot of questions!

[ancryan]

We are doing the conquest 4/30/06. First cruise...Monteigo Bay. Do they have a buffet? or do you have to go to dining room all the time? I heard they even charge for bottled water. Any suggestions for off shore excursions? Thanks, sorry that's a lot of questions!

 

Sure, there's a buffet. Breakfast is served until noon everyday. Lunch is served probably noon-4pm or so and then a couple of hours for dinner. The pizza is 24 hours. Room service is 24 hours. The grill with hamburgers, hotdogs, steak sandwiches, chicken sandwiches and fries is open all afternoon and sometimes at night. There is also a sandwich shop, a sushi bar, a chinese place, and a fish and chips restaurant that are all open for several hours each day. Trust me, you won't have a hard time eating. Tap water, coffee, tea, hot chocolate and juice are free all day long. Milk and OJ are free in the morning, but if you get a bottle of water from your room or somewhere else on the ship, it does cost.

Read a few things above for my suggestion of shore excursions for Montego Bay. I suggest snorkeling with stingrays if you haven't done that in Cayman. Cozumel - Mayan ruins, a day at the beach or shopping - your choice.

[GerriJS]

Do they charge extra for the buffet, and the little snack places? This really sounds great, thanks for answering.

[melissamorris]

we are on the Conquest on may 21----This will be our 3rd cruise (2nd with Carnival), so far we were booked to go to Grand Cayman all times, haven't seen it yet. Maybe the 3rd time is the charm!! 1st Cruise was with Celebrity, 2nd on Conquest, loved it so much we're going back! Hope we get to swim w/stingrays this time tho!