Conquest Review 6/25/06-

[dsd787]

Pre-cruise hotel, Parking, and Embarkation

 

We stayed at the Best Western La Porte. The rate was $59.00

The drove to Galveston Sunday morning. It was around 35 minutes.

We used EZ cruise parking, and found the lot easily. We had prepaid online. We arrived around 10:45. The lot was almost empty at that time. There were still some van loads of cruisers debarking. They loaded our luggage up, and drove us to the terminal. The porters immediately took the luggage. By 11:00 we were Inside. There were around 100 cruisers in line already. We waited about 10 minutes, and they began the security check . After that it was on to the next line.

We got our sign and sail cards, and sat in a group of chairs waiting to get the pre-board pictures taken. Those groups of chairs

are the first to board, and the back section goes first.

We were onboard by 12:30.

We quickly made Point reservations, and headed up to our room.

 

Room

 

We had 6442. A balcony room. This is an L shaped room with a double long balcony. We really liked the room. There is no couch, but that wasn’t an issue. The bed is 2 double beds together with a mattress pad, and queen sheets/duvet. Very comfortable. The bed faces the 2 large windows, and the balcony.

The one negative to this room is the Degas lounge below. On 2 nights the music from below was so loud it literally rattled in our room.

One night until 1:30AM.

We brought a bungee cord, and did not need it. There is a door stop the steward keeps along the floor, and closet. It works perfectly.

Also brought the trusty over the door shoe organizer....didn't need it at all.

Plenty of shelves easy to reach in the bathroom.

We did need the extra power strip.

Our cabin steward was Marvin. He was excellent. He even changed all the bed linen after I accidentally got a small amount of blood from an elbow on it.

 

Dinner

 

We asked for a 6:15 dining time, and were given the 8:00 Monet seating.

We met the Maitre D in the Renoir dining room at 1:00 PM and requested the change. It was changed the following afternoon.

We got a table for 2 at the 5:45 seating again in the Monet. Francisco, and Jose were our waiters, and they were great! I usually had 2 entrees every meal. We also would get cappuccino after every meal.

The food was great. The meat dishes were a bit bland, but not worth being picky about.

 

The ship

 

This was our 4th cruise. The first on a mega ship. I never felt like 3000+ people were on board. We found our way around easily. I was impressed with the wood paneling etc. We had no issues finding lounge chairs outside to sun in. We spent a good bit of time on deck 3 in the padded lounge chairs. It is low to the water, and is never crowded. Also, I used the Spa hot tub several times based on the tips I got here. The Men enter from the Men’s locker room, and Women from their locker room. I was the only one using the hot tub each trip there.

I only had one meal in the buffet. A breakfast, and I liked everything I got. Most of my lunch meals were from the grill, or the Deli, or fish and chips above.

We never went to a midnight buffet, or the chocolate buffet.

We hit about every bar on the ship. I ended up liking Alfred’s, and Vincent’s. We liked the rock band Blood power, and they played the lido deck party.

We went to the late night comedy shows. I really liked Phat Kat.

The casino was jumping every night. There was always room on the craps table to play, and it was good all week. The horn bet was hitting big time! We did OK on the video poker, and didn’t do great on the slots. I did hit 300 quarters once.

 

Ports

 

Jamaica

We went to Sunset Beach Resort. It is $5 cab ride there, and back. $40 PP to use all facilities, and food/drinks. We really liked this place. We walked to the far end, and found 2 lounge chairs. The snorkeling is clear water, but not much to see. We ate at the grill. The burgers are not %100 beef. The jerk chicken is spicy, and good. After lunch we hit the main pool. We hung out at the swim up bar, and chatted it up with some people staying there. They seemed very interested in the cruising thing, and we were interested in the all inclusive thing. Conclusion was the prices are close, but 2 different animals.

We left, and the cab drove us into town for coffee. We wanted at least a small taste of Mo Bay. We got the coffee, and drove back to the dock. Customs line is long, and slow. At least it was indoors.

Jamaica is a beautiful place. We enjoyed that port very much.

 

Grand Cayman.

 

We weren’t in a hurry to tender, so we slept in. Around 9:30 we got right on a tender with no wait, or ticket needed.

We took a $10 for both van to Sea grape Beach. The chairs are $10 each and another $5 for the umbrella. Beautiful white sand, and crystal blue water here. Snorkeled here, and super clear water, but really no reef, or sea life to look at.

We each had a Pina Colada at $9 each.

The temperature was 95 this day. You literally melted as soon as you got out of the shade. I work outdoors in Texas, and this was too hot for me.

We did not shop, and caught a tender back to the ship.

 

Cozumel

 

We grabbed a cab to Chankanaab Park. It partially opened the week before. The entrance fee is cut to 2 for $16. They now load you onto a flatbed truck, and drive you back around to the opened area of the park. Basically the old entrance walkway in is still closed, so you end up at the same place. This place got hit very hard. All the vegetation is gone. They have replanted, and the beach area is actually nicer. There are many palapas, and new wood chairs and recliners everywhere. Also there is a new hammock area. On this day the park was empty. There were maybe 12 people total here. We got great service from Victor in our lounge chairs under the palapa. Sol $3

nachos $4, burger $6.

I snorkeled here. Having been here 3 times before I was shocked at the damage underwater. There is still awesome coral/rock formations near to shore, and fish. I would say 80% of the underwater life is gone. Maybe I didn’t hit the right spots, but I’m pretty sure I was in the same area from years past.

Anyway we stayed there until past 2:30. We took a cab back into town. We hit the square area for shopping. The tender is straight across from the square, and we headed back.

 

Debarking

 

We slept in to 8:30, and stayed in our cabin until our steward needed to clean around 9:30. We went to the promenade deck and waited about 30 minuted more for our color to be called. From there it was about an hour to process out. Painful, but necessary.

I do have some advice here. There was a mess of people trying to find their stuff, and then head against the grain to go to customs lines.

At the bottom of the escalator there is a line to get a porter. Have one member of your party round a porter up while the other gathers the luggage. That is much faster, and less congestion. We exited outside, and the porter took our stuff to the far end of the building where EZ cruise was waiting. We loaded up, and drove to the lot ending out great trip!

[MAC7]

Great review dsd787!

Sounds like you had a very relaxing cruise.

We are heading out soon (just not soon enough) on the 16th!:rolleyes:

Thanks for bringing the rain with you! We are getting soaked in RR as I type this reply:)

[robtx100]

Thank you for the great review. I only have 215 days to go. I hate booking this early, but was able to grab a great cabin.

[joepeka]

I do have some advice here. There was a mess of people trying to find their stuff, and then head against the grain to go to customs lines.

At the bottom of the escalator there is a line to get a porter. Have one member of your party round a porter up while the other gathers the luggage. That is much faster, and less congestion.

Nice write up... thanks for sharing! Brings back some cool memories from May.

 

I definitely agree on your debarkation advice. I did not realize there was a special place to line up and be assigned a porter until after we had found our luggage - I then had to fight the crowd ('against grain' as you said) to get back to that line then waited about 10 minutes for an available porter to be assigned. Had I just gone to that line initially while DW and DD's found the luggage, I would have returned to them with a porter about the time they found our last bag.

[Cruise Cat]

Thanks for the review!!! Though, I am a little confused about the padded lounge chairs on "Deck 3":D . I think you mean starting at the pool deck level (deck 9 - Lido) and going up the different levels around the pool - right?:D

[dsd787]

Cruise cat

Outside the lobby on deck 3 there are lounge chairs with thick padding. They are very comfortable. Not the chairs all around the pools on 9.

[okiemom]

Thanks for the review! Can't wait until our turn!:D

[morriscats]

Uh oh, we have stateroom 6442 for our upcoming cruise. Would you book it again? How many chairs did you have for the balcony? Any pics? Thanks.

[mom2cruise]

SIGH.... I felt like I was there! I am glad you had a good time. we went in May and I miss it! Glad you posted your review so I can live a little longer... lol got my fix I guess you can say!

[dsd787]

morriscats,

I would stay in 6442 again. I really liked the layout. The bed faces 2 large windows. When you open the door to the cabin there is a hallway, and the bed is barely visible. Also the balcony is around 25 feet long.

 

There were 3 chairs, 1 recliner, and 1 table on the balcony.

 

I have tried to post a link to our pictures, but when previewing it won't load. I'll post the link anyway in hopes it will work once posted. Here it is:

 

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=45884709/a=56255728_56255728/t_=56255728

[morriscats]

No I could not view your photos - we did decide to go up 1 deck to 7434. Still an extended balcony. Am so looking forward to sitting on the balcony - can't wait.