Conquest 9/5/04-9/12/04 review

[touche]

Short Version - Carnival Conquest 9/5/04

 

About us: Mid-late 30's with a 2 yr old that we left with relatives.

 

Summary: This was my first cruise, my wife's 3rd but 1st to the

Caribbean. It was a nice vacation, but I think I'll have

to be one that prefers land vacations. Why? Well. We don't

drink, don't smoke, don't gamble. That's what most of the

cruise seemed to be. We did lounge about. There just

wasn't enough time in the ports. Next year, we hope to

fly down to Cancun or Cozumel for 4-5 days of ruins, food,

and snorkelling (this was our first time snorkelling and we

just loved it). Here are some quick observations I made

about our cruise. If you have any specific questions, I'll

check the boards for a week or so.

 

Embarkation: Quick, yellow chairs need more spacing between them.

Had a very large man next to me and was uncomfortable.

 

Ship: They need to fix the side-to-side rolling. 4-8 ft seas shouldn't

roll a large ship that much. I don't know if it's common but I did

meet a crew member of 10 months who had his first seasickness

on the second day out.

 

Ship Layout: Decks 3 and 4 horrible, use Deck 5 to go front-back.

Took 2 days to know which elevator/stairs to use.

 

Cabin 6485: Aft-Upper deck, noise from bars on sea day/karioke

sometimes until 4am! Some vibration, great private views.

 

People: Like everywhere, some classy, some class-less. Saw some

trays left outside door, someone threw a half-eaten pizza

on our balcony one morning. Some loud, some nice, some drunk.

 

Smokers: Most were considerate, some were not. Had 4 butts tossed

on our balcony during the trip. Cigar smoker 2 decks up

made the entire aft balcony section smell horrible one day.

Our two immediate neighbors were very considerate smokers.

 

Kids: We didn't see many. A few times we saw them running on stairs.

 

Room Stewards: Ours was efficient, only saw him twice. Friend had one

who answered everything with 2 word sentences, he tried

to talk to her about where she was from, etc. No go.

 

Cruise Director: Friendly, the word goofy comes to mind. Otherwise, nice.

 

Crew: 90% were friendly and helpful, most said hello in hallway.

 

Food: Dining room was very good, portion sizes were mostly small. Just

order extras. Pizza excellent. Chinese good. Lido buffet average.

Room service fast and usually good.

 

Dining Staff: 8pm seating. Some were friendly, some were more professional.

Dinner, some days slower than others. Met lots of people

during open seating lunch and got to know our dinner-mates well.

 

Shows: Not quite Vegas is the way I see it. A rocking ship doesn't help

and they tried hard, but I notice it when someone's out of step.

I enjoyed it anyway.

 

Disembarkation: Quick, easy.

 

 

Ports of Call-

 

Montego Bay: Trevor Hudlin for a private tour. Was nice and informative.

Price was about the same as a 4 hour ship's tour. People are

poor and hagglers a little too agressive. Items not very high

quality. We felt very safe with Trevor and did enjoy everything

but shopping in the City Center. Trevor is flexible and friendly!

 

Grand Caymen: Sotos tour was "wal-mart", no frills, as advertised. Capt

Marvin's boat looked nicer as did their equipment, would

pick them if there was a next time. Esther, the photographer

was excellent. The photos cost twice as much as the trip.

Make sure you bring extra cash for the pictures. She does

a great job at capturing the stingray moments.

 

Cozumel: Taxi to Chankanaab, nice snorkeling and Mayan ruin replicas.

Shopping in town was next. Hagglers stop when you say no unlike

some in Jamaica. Bargaining was fun and quality is better than

Jamaica. Food at Las Palmeros was good. Used the Spanish I learned

from a 3 CD course and it was enough to not get laughed at by the

locals. We loved it so much, next year's vacation may be Cozumel.

 

 

Hope your cruise is great!

Duane

[DollyCruise]

If you're thinking Coz for your next vacation.......consider Melia Paradisus....book them.......great place........they sell timeshares too, but do NOT BUY. :mad: .hard to exchange........noone wants to pay their all inclusive fees.....cheaper to rent than buy there!

 

BUt COZ is a great vacation! :) Uh huh!

 

Dolly