Fresh off the Conquest- My review

[*Mach*]

wow I love ceasar salad I didnt know you could get it every day. I will have to look for it.

 

I also read that something really good at the fish place sur mer is gone soon after they open. Wonder what it is that runs out fast.

 

I've not known Sur Mer to run out of anything... other than time... As was mentioned, the shop closes down at 3:30...

Here'e the menu... I defy you to find anything on it that's not delicious:

[dprg644]

Looks like you guys had a great time. That is why we booked our 2nd cruise within a month of getting off of the Conquest....can't wait.

[juniorcop]

The children's pool was closed during our cruise. Looks like they were doing work to it. They regrouted the other adult pools during the week. We brought a blow-up bath tub and we used it by the mid-ship pool, filling it up with the pool shower. It also worked in the cabin shower for baths using the detachable shower head.

 

Bring an over-the-door shoe organizer. This was great for organizing snacks, small toys, and other baby items. It was also great to keep small items like batteries off the floor to avoid choking hazards. We hung it on the bathroom door facing the interior of the room.

 

I only brought a few toys: small rubber ball, stuffed animal, 2 finger puppets, handful of reading books, bottle of bubbles and a couple teether toys and it was TOO much!! I could have gotten by with half of that. It is easy to buy toys in port and in gift shop so next time I plan on just bringing a couple of things. There is also a lot going on around the ship and she was stimulated by all that was going on around us. Most of the toys I did bring came from dollar store which is great if you have to leave some things behind or lose them.

 

A wind jacket with hood is a must. We had a lot of wind first couple of days. I went up on top and the hood kept the wind out of my DD ears. I used sun hats at the beach and on deck during the time I caught some sun. She hated them but got used to them. The dining room and theater can be cool as well as other parts of ship so a sweater or light jacket is good for that. We also got by with a light thermal blanket.

 

We used a Peg Perego Aria OH stroller which was a good size. We saw regular umbrella strollers without canopies and a few mid-sized Graco strollers on board the ship, also. We had no difficulties using the stroller in the hallways or getting it into our room. If we had brought our mid-sized GRACO stroller, however, we probably would have had to collapse it to get it in and out of the room. We are thankful we brought the Peg rather than the Graco. The Peg zipped around and in between most spaces on the ship. It would have been difficult to manuever anything bigger around the pool areas. We took our stroller all over the ship and if you bring one, you'll need to memorize which elevators will take you to deck 10. Remember decks 5 and 9 will get you from bow to aft on the ship. the mid-ship elevator will take you from deck 0-10. Bring a stroller you can collapse and carry easily if you go into Georgetown on the tender or if you take any shore excursions for that matter.

 

There wasn't a lot of food my daughter could eat on board the ship. They did have Vitamin D milk in the breakfast buffet. We brought baby food jars with us and packed them in the suitcase in a shoe box. We carried that on board with us. We packed diapers in the interior lining of our suitcases to also save room. We packed swim diapers for our beach days and to use in her bathtub pool on deck.

 

My last piece of advice: if the baby is on a schedule, it's probably best to stick to it as much as possible. My daughter has never been on a schedule as far as eating and sleeping goes. We packed her with us wherever we went and had her out as late as 11pm one night. We took her to the shows with us. She usually fell asleep shortly after the shows began. We tried to sit in the back next to an exit but the shows fill up quickly and it can be hard to find those seats. She fell asleep many times in the high chair in the dining room and we placed a blanket under her head to keep her comfortable until we were done eating and got up to leave. She did very well on the cruise. She was not any more of a burden to take with us then if we were at home. We didn't use Camp Carnival. We just understood that there would be some things we wouldn't be able to do (such as get drunk or go on certain shore excursions). We did the Negril beach excursion in Jamaica which is the Margaritaville beach. They have a playground area for younger kids which we found at the end of our stay. It was a great place to take our baby and we brought a baby pool float which was the best thing we took on cruise. Very handy for keeping a hold of your baby in the ocean. We had people come up to us and ask where we had bought it as they had young children with them. Got it at a Toys R Us for $4 at end of summer. You can get them online. We did the semi-submarine in Grand Cayman and then used the stroller for shopping around town. She liked seeing the fish in the windows. We did Discover Mexico and Chankanaab in Cozumel. The last one we only got 2.5 hrs of Chankanaab. Chankanaab was nice but I'm glad I brought aquasocks for the rocky baby lagoon area. I think maybe Paradise Beach or another beach would have been nicer for the baby. We didn't get enough time at Chankanaab to enjoy it. The food was great at Laguma Beach there and we did see a small iguana. Didn't have time to walk to a better iguana location. I didn't have time to try the snorkeling but saw lots of other people in the water doing it.

 

The crew will go out of their way to touch and interact with the baby. DH and I got to know a few of the crew and learned that a lot of the men on the ship have left their own babies for work permits. They miss their wives and children very much and are counting the days til they can return home usually after several months. Try not to be alarmed when you get swarmed by them which happened alot to us.

 

Jennie

[SoonerOne]

Great review!!! Makes me want to go on a cruise soon. Do you have any pictures that you can share with us? Glad you had such a good time.

 

Annakay: We took over 1100 pictures!! I know that's bad, :o but my husband loves photography. What in particular would you like to see?

[SoonerOne]

Awesome! We sail away for Spring Break and can't wait to introduce the rest of the family to the Conquest on this trip.

 

One question???Can you check your capers for the name of the live band?

 

Thanks!

 

I believe they were called "Music Motion".

[firefly333]

I've not known Sur Mer to run out of anything... other than time... As was mentioned, the shop closes down at 3:30...

 

Here'e the menu... I defy you to find anything on it that's not delicious:

 

 

Tiger shrimp, I want to try those, my friend wants to try the fried oysters. Someone told me that the oysters had too much breading, what did you think?

[SoonerOne]

Tiger shrimp, I want to try those, my friend wants to try the fried oysters. Someone told me that the oysters had too much breading, what did you think?

 

I tried the oysters, nothing to write home about. They were kind of strange, completely flat and yes too much breading.....

[firefly333]

I tried the oysters, nothing to write home about. They were kind of strange, completely flat and yes too much breading.....

 

 

hmmmm, maybe we wouldnt go out of our way for those, how was the shrimp appetiser did you try that one? .. called ceviche...but says it had tiger shrimps. what was it exactly.?

[SoonerOne]

hmmmm, maybe we wouldnt go out of our way for those, how was the shrimp appetiser did you try that one? .. called ceviche...but says it had tiger shrimps. what was it exactly.?

 

Didn't try the ceviche....had the tiger shrimp though, they sound like they would be GIANT, but they are not. You get these as an appetizer in the formal dining rooms (I belive it's around 4 shrimp). But later in the week, I did have lobster with large shrimp in the Monet dining room. It was out of this world!!!:D

[westernmom]

Jennie,

 

Thank you so much for the great info on taking a baby! I just copied it all and emailed it to my daughter in law.

 

Ryder is a pretty adaptable little guy as well as we take him everywhere.

 

It's funny that you mention the shoe hanger because I told my kids that one thing they HAVE to take! I hate clutter and it sure makes it easy to keep things organized.

[pacerzfan]

Thanks for the review!

[MO Cruzin]

We also have the dunns falls tour booked and we were wondering aboutt the ride on the roads over there and was it packed on the bus

[coprgeorge]

I have read alot about Sur Mer and plan on visiting as soon as I boerd the ship. How do I get there? I ahve looked at some deck plans and saw Pauls and PC Wok listed, but no reference to Sur Mer. Please walk me through a first timers journey to Sur Mer.

[SoonerOne]

We also have the dunns falls tour booked and we were wondering aboutt the ride on the roads over there and was it packed on the bus

 

 

I just wrote a detailed description of our journey to the falls and the boards kicked me off so I lost it all:( Short answer, roads are great and the bus was full, but not crowded.....

[SoonerOne]

I have read alot about Sur Mer and plan on visiting as soon as I boerd the ship. How do I get there? I ahve looked at some deck plans and saw Pauls and PC Wok listed, but no reference to Sur Mer. Please walk me through a first timers journey to Sur Mer.

 

Ok, just remember, it's NOT on that deck, it is above the buffet lines in the back. You will have to go to deck 9 (Lido) work yourself to the buffet lines and you will see a double staircase going up. Take those stairs to the top, turn around and you will see a single food station behind you and that will be Sur Mer. We had a hard time too the first day, but I was determined to find it and many people didn't discover it until late in the trip. Enjoy!

[annakay]

Annakay: We took over 1100 pictures!! I know that's bad, :o but my husband loves photography. What in particular would you like to see?

 

 

I say y'all did take a few pictures. I like looking at any pictures. When we went on the Ecstasy Feb. 4th I took alot of pictures of the sunrise and sunsets. So any thing you want to share would be great. Thanks

[SoonerOne]

I say y'all did take a few pictures. I like looking at any pictures. When we went on the Ecstasy Feb. 4th I took alot of pictures of the sunrise and sunsets. So any thing you want to share would be great. Thanks

 

Ok, how about this one of a rainbow! I coudn't resist when I saw it. That's another Carnival ship sitting along side the Mariner of the Seas. If you look closely, there's another ship on the other side of the Carnival ship. I can't remember which Carnival ship it was.

My first time to post a picture, so hope it works:)

[Perini3]

Thank you for your review, looking forward to June 22

[Perini3]

Thank you for your review, looking forward to June 22