I think we've created a monster! - Conquest Review Feb (Pic Heavy)

[idreaminpink]

You're taking me back to cruises we took with our DGD. She does not like us going on cruises without her now that she is in school. She was the darling of the ship one cruise. I dressed her up big time on elegant night and men were asking to have their picture taken with her. The crew gave her lots of attention and many knew her by name. I think they really miss their own children when they are gone from home. She even got chosen by the magician to go up on stage and watch her make a hat out of tissue paper. She still has the hat and it's been a few years. I'm looking forward to the rest of this review. Thanks.

 

That is a great thought, and one I hadn't considered. They are on those ships for 6 months and I can't imagine how much they must miss their kids. It's funny that you mention the magician, I'm getting to that in my review :) The up close magician came to visit her every night at dinner and made her part of one of his acts. I had no idea if it was "cooth" to tip the magician but he got a big one! lol

 

Your daughter is adorable! Btw, whoever took the pics is a good photographer.

 

Thank you so much! DH and I are dabbling at trying to take better pics. Those were with our pocket cam, unfortunately the DSLR got ruined during the trip lol. I'll get to that too! I hope we can recover the pics off that one :\

 

She is very special and so are the 2 of you, I was adopted and my parents were the best, and to me they were my mom and dad. I hope the 3 of you have many happy cruises.

 

Thank you so much for sharing that :) Adoption is a wonderful thing isn't it? She was a foster/adopt and we got her at 18 months old. I hope she feels the same way about us when she's grown :)

 

What time did the Conquest arrive that morning? I can wait to see it for myself!

 

She came in at 7:30am, I have no idea if that's normal or not but the timing worked perfectly cause I don't get up much earlier than that lol.

 

Love it. We were on the Ecstasy at this time with our daughter on her first cruise...though she is MUCH older than your daughter. Imagine our surprise when we were pulling into Coz and saw the conquest pulling OUT of Coz at the same time???? How weird was that.

 

Hey there! We were originally booked on your cruise actually, changed to the Conquest when I found out it was leaving Galveston in the fall. We've already sailed the Ecstasy so we decided to bite the bullet and pull her out of school the 2 extra days lol. Anyways I noticed ya'll pulling in and was wondering what you must have been thinking!! I don't know exactly what happened, we were told sick passenger. But the "word on the deck" was that a 44 year old male passenger had a stroke the first night :( I have no idea if he is ok or not, but we really hauled butt to get to Coz and let him and his family off.

[idreaminpink]

Boarding/Sailing Away:

After watching the ship come into port (at about 7:30am) we ate some breakfast and packed up. It was all we could do to wait until the "late hour" of 11am to go to the terminal to board but we managed somehow lol. DH dropped DD and I off at the Galveston terminal with the luggage where a porter promptly checked it for us. He dropped the car back at the hotel (where you can park it all week for $20) and walked back to the terminal. In the 10-15 minutes it took him to do that the line got pretty long, but it went quickly. I had figured it would take about an hour from arrival at the terminal to boarding and I was just about spot on. Everything went smoothly, no problems from where we were standing. Obligatory pictures were taken, more lines, and we were on board by noon. We were instructed to wait up on the open decks, or we could each lunch, until our rooms were ready at 1:30, which we already knew (thanks guys!). So we went up to Lido and dove into lunch. This was the best meal I had on the buffet all week. I don't know if it's because the food was just extra fresh or I was so happy to be on board but everything tasted delicious. I can't say as much for the rest of the week but more on that later. Then we grabbed some deck chairs and hung out until 1:30 when voila, we were able to get into our rooms. I was quite pleased with the size of the cabin compared to our little oceanview on the Ecstasy a few years ago. I knew it would be larger of course and there was more than enough room for the three of us. DD went and sat on the balcony with her iPod full of KidzBop music while DH and I unpacked and put things away. We then took a small tour of the ship, met our Cruise Critic buds at Sur Mer (I'm pretty sure they are officially changing the name of this place to Fish 'n Chips) and our luggage was delivered at 3. (We were happy to find that the 12 pack of soda and bottle of wine made it in DH's checked baggage. It was not on purpose, he just misunderstood me when I told him which bag to put it in lol.) Muster drill at 3:30 went very quickly and we sailed away sometime between 4 and 4:30 (when the signal for the Super Bowl was promptly lost on deck and a collective "aww man!" was heard lol)

 

 

 

 

The Ship:

I know there is always a debate between Spirit class lovers and Conquest class lovers. I don't have any experience on Spirit class ships to compare, but I sure did like the feel of the Conquest. The decor is pretty and colorful. The french painter theme is maybe a bit over done at times but overall it has a fun and comfortable feel. The ship was large but not "over populated" if you know what I mean. Double decker seating in the Lido buffet assures no hunting and/or waiting for a table, an experience I had many times on the Mariner at breakfast and lunch. We never had to wait more than a minute or two for an elevator either. I was pleasantly surprised to find 2 different buffet areas (stretching port to starboard), each with separate offerings. One side was the international offerings and the other side was "regular" fare. The center of each area had the main dish, like carved meats, and then stretching out left and right of that were the other entrees, sides and salads for that area. Whether you started to the left or right you could get the same things, which helped keep the lines under control. There was a large table of desserts on each side and 3-4 drink stations which were always stocked with plenty of colorful cups. The drink stations had unsweet tea and lemonade "on tap" and you could usually find milk cartons on the buffet. Separating the 2 main buffet areas was the sandwich deli. The food here was good but we thought the deli on the Ecstasy was a little better. They often got the order wrong and skimped on the meats but no biggie. For lunch in the same area you could do the Mongolian Grill or the Fish n' Chips, both of which were very good. There is also the grill area by the main pool serving chicken strips, burgers and dogs, and the pizzeria by the smaller pool in the back. And you can't forget the 24/7 ice cream/yogurt stations in this area as well. It was clear right away we wouldn't be starving this trip lol.

 

I must apologize for the pics around the ship. We took most of them on our DSLR which got ruined on the trip, more on that later. We don't know if we can salvage them from the card yet or not.

 

 

 

[idreaminpink]

(The ship continued...)

 

We were just as pleased with the Lounge/Theater (Toulouse Latrec), plenty of comfortable seating available. We always found a seat easily, even when we arrived late for a show. We found most everything else we needed either right on the Promenade deck 5 or in the atrium area. Shopping, casino, the coffee bar, sushi, and several other lounges and bars were all right there. I kept hearing people say that they got lost but I found it easy to navigate.

 

No matter where we went it always seemed like there was music coming from somewhere. In the atrium there was a small band on the Lobby level almost all the time with people dancing, in the evenings live music in the casino. Even when these two played at the same time they didn't blend in to each other. We found a great pianist in the evenings in the Blues bar as well, James I believe. And party music by the pool of course, live and otherwise. I always felt like I was on vacation for sure!

 

The one thing I found hard to find was the internet cafe. I found it tucked away in the cigar bar, which seemed like an odd choice. I was hoping they would have good ventilation but I couldn't stay in there more than a few minutes when I went to send an email. The old cigar smell turned my stomach (sorry smokers, no offense). They also did some of the trivia games in that cigar bar, again I thought it was odd because some of the other lounge areas were open during that time. I went to super duper trivia the first day, not realizing it was the cigar bar, but had to skip the second 2 days.

 

The main dining rooms were properly appointed as well. Large, elegant, and draped in soothing colors. I do agree that the placement of the 2 dining rooms and galley on deck 3 was an interesting choice and did make navigating slightly challenging, but we got used to it quickly.

 

The deck and pool areas were spacious, and again we never had to fight for a deck chair as on other boats. I should mention that the ship only had 3-4 rooms left on it as of the day before sailing so I am assuming it was at or very close to full capacity. The stacked decks allowed for plenty of chairs, and those chairs didn't block the walkways as they did on some ships we've been on. The pools, hot tubs and water slides kept the kids and adults happy. Our daughter, who is not a strong swimmer, LOVED the slide. I wish we'd had a chance to do it one more time before the weather got cold the last day.

 

There was plenty of seating around the ship as well, not just inside the lounges and bars but just places to hang out. LOTS of chairs and couches on the lobby level and down the promenade. There were always groups gathering to talk or people reading there. Then on deck 5 there were some nice tables and chairs near the shops for people to gather at as well. Again even though the ship was full we never felt CROWDED on it.

 

 

 

Deck 5 looking across the atrium

 

(Coffee bar, where they still have the specialty drink punch card for $11, at least for now!!)

 

Renior dining room (again sorry for these crappy pocket cam pics)

 

[nytraveller53]

I'm loving your review! Keep it up!:D

[Cruisin Christi]

Great review. I am hoping to take my kids in Dec. *fingers crossed*. They love KizBop and their Ipods are full of it as well. You daughter is too cute.

[Perfect Stranger]

Great review! I haven't seen many reviews/photos of the Conquest.

 

Your little girl is adorable!

[spideyfam]

Keep it coming! Thanks for posting your review!

[2tall]

I appreciate the level of detail in your review and all of the pictures. We're booked on the Conquest out of NOLA next March and I'm really looking forward to that cruise as we've never tried Carnival.

 

Your daughter is a doll and you can tell from the pictures that she's having a BLAST!

[cruiserNC]

This a wonderful review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lovermonkey]

Oh, no! Ran out of photos. Great Review! Your little girl is so cute!

[Coolcruise02]

Great review and photos! :)

[silkhair1]

I love the pictures!!!!!

[douglinc@msn.com]

Great review, really enjoying your pictures.

 

Doug

[Susie51]

Thank you for continuing to post and include your pics. I hope you can salvage your other pics. You were smart to take along two cameras.

[vfb2girls]

Your daughters expressions even at the beginning pull on my heart---she's so excited. Can't wait to read more about your adventure!

I so agree! Just the excitment on her face tells it all! And in my opinion she is the perfect age to take on a cruise. Looking forward to reading the rest of your review.

[idreaminpink]

Thanks guys! Wish I had the time to get it all up at once. But I want to do it while it's all still fresh lol.

 

Let's see, I guess I'll start next with a Camp Carnival/Cruising with kids part.

 

We visited Camp Carnival on our first day, and because of the Superbowl they actually skipped the normal family night and let you sign in the kids. It was a little more day-care-esque than I had anticipated but this was mostly because she was a 5 and a half year old in the 2-5 room. So most of the toys were made for younger kids, like weebles, little people, I was a bit worried. But they had plenty of art projects for the older kids. There were only 3 other kids her age that came regularly and the videos they watched I thought were a little too young for her, as well as a lot of the toys. However all that being said, she always loved and it and begged to go. She spent about 2-4 hours a day there and I always knew she was safe. I think once she is 6, and can read, she'll like the 6-8 group even more. They wouldn't move her up because she wasn't a fluent reader yet and they said there were lots of reading activities. During the day they did a lot of coloring and free play, stories and videos. One day they colored t-shirts, another they made paper hats. The counselors were all very nice and I never saw any of them speaking harshly to the kids or doing/saying anything inappropriate. In the evenings after dinner there was always a theme night and the kids would get their faces painted and have an activity based on the theme. One night they did pirates, for instance, and she came home with a jolly roger on her face and they had hunted for treasure. After 10pm they put the age groups together and advertised a "party" most nights from 10pm-1am (after 10pm is billed at your S&S at $6/hr in 15 minute increments). She occasionally stayed till 10:30, I think once till 11pm, but I never saw any kind of partying going on when I picked her up lol, those kids were pooped! They were usually all just watching a movie. But still that is a small price to pay for good babysitting in my opinion, DH and I really liked the late night comedy! lol She doesn't normally stay up past 8-9 so I was a bit worried about the change in her schedule, but we all slept until 8-9 in the morning most days so that made up for it. And she's right back on her schedule now with no issues. She made 2 friends that she hung out with even when they weren't in camp together and we made friends with their parents. My only complaint about the camp was that in the 2-5 room they don't allow the children to shut the door when they go potty. I didn't realize this until about the 4th day. Every time we'd get back to the cabin she'd be jumping up and down on foot to go potty. Then on the 4th day I think she actually had a #1 accident on the way down the stairs to our cabin. Seeing as how our daughter has been potty trained for over 3 years now this was quite alarming lol. She started crying and saying she was too embarrassed to potty with the door open and they wouldn't let her shut it, so she was just trying to hold it. Bless her heart! I could hardly blame her. I asked them and was told this was their policy, so I just made sure in the future that she went potty right before I took her and that I took her to the bathroom right outside the camp as soon as I picked her up. I also didn't pump her full of juice before I sent her anymore lol. Again this shouldn't be an issue in the 6-8 room. She never had dinner with the camp kids, she always wanted to eat with us in the dining room, so I have no experience with that. She actually didn't go to camp as much as I was anticipating, I didn't know what to expect. Would she be staying all day and not want to come back? lol Well between the on board activities and the times they were closed for lunch and dinner, she mainly just went in the evenings, and like twice before lunch time. We had lots of great family bonding time during the day and it was a great experience cruising with her. I didn't take a lot of pics AT camp, I have a thing about sharing pics of other people's kids if I can help it. But here she is with her face painted and with DH after they did the scavenger hunt. Oh yeah and one day she got to paint MY face! lol

 

 

 

 

Which kind of leads into the next part, cruising with kids. A hot button topic as we all know. Bring them and put them in camp or leave them at home with the grandparents? Will the parents be able to do stuff alone or are they being selfish to want to do stuff alone? lol Having now cruised both ways I can honestly say that I had more fun WITH my daughter, but at the same time am glad we waited till she was 5 because she is more easy going now and adapts to change easier if you know what I mean lol. But anyways it was fun to do stuff with her and watch her have fun. We did a family scavenger hunt one day, watched movies, swam, did excursions, trivia, shows, I never felt like she was "cramping our style" hah. She did camp in the evenings and we got our mommy/daddy time. We got to see some great adult shows and imbibe a bit, then pick her up and go to bed! It was really much better than I had anticipated, she only had 2 minor melt downs all week lol. And on the ship she was treated like a friggin rock star princess. Everyone knew her name, talked to her about what she did that day, she felt so important. The maitre d always took time to come talk to her and fawn over her, as did out wait staff and cabin stewards. Some kissed her hand, others hugged her, it was a wonderful experience. The best experience was with Barman, the on board magician. He found her in the MDR the first night, it was a really slow night because of the super bowl. He learned her name and came looking for our table in the computer system every night and found us. He also gave us his cabin number and said if we didn't see him before the end of the cruise to call him so he could do a final thing for her, so sweet! We didn't end up using it but it was a nice gesture. When he did his small shows he always included her and let her help, along with other kids he had befriended during the week. He is also an AMAZING slight of hand magician, I think DD really believes in magic now. She keeps trying to make things duplicate in her hands. When it doesn't work she says, "Oh yeah, Barman isn't hear to make my hands magic!" lol

 

 

 

(DD with Chris the CD)

[idreaminpink]

I had not thought we would be eating in the dining room with her so much either, I figured she'd want to eat in camp, but she was extremely well behaved and enjoyed it so much that she came every night. Unfortunately I had only packed one elegant dress and 2 other dresses so there was a lot of recycling going on! lol I know you don't HAVE to dress super nice in the dining room anymore but what can I say, I like to. And all she had was tanks and shorts. She ordered her entrees from the kids menu, but they let her order starters and desserts from the adult menu. She typically got whatever chilled soup they were offering and some kind of fancy dessert like creme brulee or baked alaska. Oh if the kids in kindergarten could see her now right? lol

 

 

 

Bing Cherry Soup FTW!

 

 

So the bottom line is, if you are on the fence about bringing your child(ren), I highly recommend doing so if they're over like 4, and depending on your child. Plenty of people do it with younger kids too so I'm not knocking it, it just depends on what you're looking for. I saw many moms chasing young toddlers through the common areas, and that's just not something I'd want to do on vacation. But hey that's just me. It seems to me that if your child is in school, gets along with other kids and can behave themselves for medium periods of time in group or public settings then you'll probably all have a great time. If they don't accept changes to their schedules well or are still a little "high strung" or clingy, you may want to wait. Every kid is different. And don't feel guilty about utilizing camp, they will love it. It's THEIR vacation too and I think they have a lot more fun there then doing some of the more "boring stuff" with their parents in the evening lol.

 

DD and her "Beary Cuddly" in a Carnival cheerleading outfit of course

 

Did I mention she liked the free ice cream??

[Meyer2]

Great review so far!! Your DD is so cute!

 

We loved the Conquest! :)

[Jifner]

Thanks for the great review, and I love the pictures (especially your precious little girl!) We have sailed the Conquest before, and are looking at sailing on her one more time before she moves. I'm looking forward to the rest of your review!

[AshlynnsMommy]

I love your review so far! My DH and I are going on the Conquest March 20. I'm so excited, but nervous at the same time. We went on the Legend last year for our honeymoon during the same week and the water was so rough that I was sick almost the whole time. Keep up the great review!

[navybaby1113]

Great review! Looking forward to more!

[WestTxCruiser]

I'm loving your review, it brings back lots of memories of our first cruise when our youngest daughter was 5. It was an AWESOME experience.

I agree with you, bring the kids, it's so much fun and what great family memories!!!:)

[Christina M.]

Thank you so much for sharing that :) Adoption is a wonderful thing isn't it? She was a foster/adopt and we got her at 18 months old. I hope she feels the same way about us when she's grown :)

 

I am sure she will you look like a very happy family. One thing my parents did that help me was if I had a question they would answer the best they could. :)

Happy sailing on your future cruise.

I love you review, we hope to sail out of Texas soon.

[idreaminpink]

The Food: (no food porn. I kept forgetting! lol)

 

The Grille: Good quality fast food fare. We thought the chicken tenders were particularly good, the breading was great, and the nachos were made from yummy flour tortilla chips. DH and DD said fries were "awesome" lol.

 

The Pizzeria: Decent pizza as long as it was fresh. Turned to cardboard when it sat out too long. My favorite one had black olives and feta on it, yum!

 

Paul's Deli: Average deli sandwiches and wraps. They often got the order wrong and skimped on the meat. There was a similar place on the Ecstasy that we thought was superb so we were a bit disappointed. But still it's nice to have options.

 

Fish 'n Chips: There is still a sign above the counter that says Sur Mer but all the other signs, Fun Times, and the menu just say "Fish 'n Chips" so I'm thinking they are changing their name? Anyways they had several seafood offerings but I just tried the namesake and thought it was great! I love tempura battered fish.

 

Mongolian Grill: A make your own stir fry place for lunch that did not disappoint. We wished they were open for dinner! The only drawback is that the line got so long for this, DH waited over half an hour for lunch once. He thought it was the best non-MDR food on the ship, though he says not his all time favorite mongolian grill ever lol.

 

Sushi: This was a decent sushi place, unfortunately we visited there late in the cruise and the fish wasn't as fresh as it could have been but it wasn't bad. I bet it would have been outstanding during one of the first few days. They do only give you like 3 pieces if you order one choice and 2 pieces of each if you order two choices. You can go back as much as you want but don't be alarmed lol.

 

Room Service: We ordered breakfast once. It was continental BUT you could order smoked salmon, which was only available in the MDR and not the buffet, so hubby got to get his bagels and lox fix on an early port day :) It came on time and was great!

 

Lido Buffet: I thought the buffet food was just average, except on the first day it was really good. Well I take that back, they did have this chocolate buffet thing on the last sea day at lunch that was pretty friggin good lol. But anyway, DH thought the buffet food was a little better than I did, and DD loved everything lol. The international side had different cuisines on it, DH liked Indian day the best. I thought the chicken dishes and the carved meats were the best choices, and I love their recipe for potato salad. Oh and the panko breaded green beans were quite yummy, but they only served those once. The desserts I tried were great. But most of the other entrees and sides I tried I thought were dried out and bland. Now I will tell you that the only cruise buffet food I ever really LOVED was on the Grand Princess for some reason. Nothing I tried here was bad or anything, it was was fine and perfectly acceptable for buffet food. But I preferred dinners in the MDR personally.

 

Now for my biggest complaint about the cruise. I don't have many but this was a biggie, I apologize in advance for the rant I'm about to go on lol. I was extremely put off at how dusty the tops of the food serving areas were on the Lido buffets. I noticed the first day that there was a thick layer of dust on all the glass food coverings that were at eye level, and all the floral arrangements were broken and dusty too. Believe me when I say it was the only part of the ship I ever saw dirty or dusty, but it was really bad in my opinion. I brought it to the attention of someone in the crew but nothing was done. And the arrangements were moved every night (in case the ship listed I assume) so there is no excuse, someone had to have noticed that either the arrangements or the glass under them was so filthy. And the floral arrangements, I guess you would call them, were supposed to have these gold leaves glued to branches. But most of the leaves had fallen off and there were just glue dots on the branches lol. At the base were red rocks but again, a lot of these had broken and just left glue. They all had cobwebs and dust and some of the wax bases were either moldy or really dirty. I took these pics at night when the arrangements were all grouped together. I guess it upsets me so much because it's so easily fixable. I don't require carved fruit and ice sculptures at every meal but a ship shouldn't have to go into dry dock to have the food service area dusted and replaced broken decor IMO.

 

This is the glass that covers the food on the buffet, just at night. They all looked like that.

 

 

 

 

 

Up next, the MDR...

[idreaminpink]

Oops double post