A Live Solo "Conquest" of the Western Caribbean

[carolinaviking71208]

Greetings from the always amazing Intercontinental Hotel on beautiful Biscayne Bay in Miami, FL, and welcome to the second of my live solo reviews. My only prior cruise was aboard the Carnival Valor. This time tomorrow I'll hopefully be aboard the Carnival Conquest. I'll make a daily post each night before i go to bed and will do my best to answer any questions y'all may post.

 

Just for a bit of background on me, I'm a 39 year old professional truck driver. I've had the opportunity to drive in 49 states and 5 provinces of Canada, and over the past 14 years have tallied nearly two million miles. Until last years cruise, I very rarely took any extended time off the road. My typical time off has always been about three or four days off every month to month and a half. Last year's cruise convinced me to take at least one true vacation a year.

 

My adventure began yesterday with an AirTran flight from Indianapolis to Fort Lauderdale. It was a great flight. I was able to upgrade to business class and had a gin & tonic in my hand before we pushed away from the gate. We departed about 10 minutes early and landed 20 minutes early. All in all...a great start to my vacation.

 

Upon arrival at FLL and getting my luggage, I called SAS Transportation and was quickly met by Carlos, who happened to be my driver last year and remembered me. After making a couple pick ups and one drop off, Carlos dropped me off at the Intercontinental. I was quickly checked in and on my way to my room.

 

I took the free Metromover over to the Brickell Village Plaza to go to Publix for my sodas and a bottle of Graham's Six Grape Port for on the cruise. With that taken care of, I was free to enjoy my first of two nights in Miami. I made my way over to Bayside for dinner deciding to eat at Mambo Cafe. It's a Latin cafe with a wide range of dishes from Cuban, Mexican, and Puerto Rican. I decided to try the Mofongo de Camorones. It's a Puerto Rican dish made with fried green plantains mashed and served with some great fresh jumbo shrimp. My drink of choice was the caipirinha which is the national drink of Brazil made from cachaca (a Brazilian rum distilled from sugar cane rather than molasses), sugar and lime. It's a refreshing drink with a great kick. After dinner and a couple of caipirinhas, I stopped be Bayside Cigars to grab a couple cigars. I picked the Gurkha Cellar Reserve 15yr Double Robusto. It's a great medium bodied smoke that was rated 97 by Cigar Aficionado Magazine. I enjoyed my cigar sitting on a bench looking out on Biscayne Bay. Life is grand my friends.

 

I stopped by the bar a Toro Toro inside the Intercontinental before retiring for the night to enjoy a nice single malt. I had Macallen Fine Oak 15 Year. It was a great way to cap off day one. Incidentally, for lovers of great single malts, Toro Toro has a great selection.

 

That's it for day one. I'll tell y'all all about my Saturday in Miami later tonight.

[JohnSpo]

Great start to your review. Enjoy your cruise. I look forward to your solo perspective since I will be going solo on Splendor out of NYC this Jan 2014.

 

Have fun!:cool:

[crusinpsychRN]

Looking forwad to your live review!! Thank you in advance for all the hard work. Your writing style is superlative!

 

I'm interested in your dining experience. I travel solo too, so it's fun to get another's perpective.

[INCHARGE]

I love the Intercontinental Hotel. The walk to Bayside from there is really a nice stroll down by the water. Did you notice the wall at night between the elevators? It is so cool. I can't wait to hear more. I have enjoyed my past solo cruises so much, being able to do whatever you want to do, when you want to do it. :) Have a great cruise.

[celticd1]

Looking forward to more! :)

[MrFunInTheSun]

Have a great cruise! Thanks for bringing us along "Live" with you. "Live" froms, are fun to do and fun to follow along with. :D:D

 

Looking forward to your cruise adventures!

[billfish]

Looking forward to more! :)

 

Hi Debbie

 

Hope we get some good info for our turn on the Conquest

[SMSACE6]

Great start and I am looking forward to more!:)

[@homeinok]

Greetings from the always amazing Intercontinental Hotel on beautiful Biscayne Bay in Miami, FL, and welcome to the second of my live solo reviews. My only prior cruise was aboard the Carnival Valor. This time tomorrow I'll hopefully be aboard the Carnival Conquest. I'll make a daily post each night before i go to bed and will do my best to answer any questions y'all may post.

 

Just for a bit of background on me, I'm a 39 year old professional truck driver. I've had the opportunity to drive in 49 states and 5 provinces of Canada, and over the past 14 years have tallied nearly two million miles. Until last years cruise, I very rarely took any extended time off the road. My typical time off has always been about three or four days off every month to month and a half. Last year's cruise convinced me to take at least one true vacation a year.

 

 

My adventure began yesterday with an AirTran flight from Indianapolis to Fort Lauderdale. It was a great flight. I was able to upgrade to business class and had a gin & tonic in my hand before we pushed away from the gate. We departed about 10 minutes early and landed 20 minutes early. All in all...a great start to my vacation.

 

Upon arrival at FLL and getting my luggage, I called SAS Transportation and was quickly met by Carlos, who happened to be my driver last year and remembered me. After making a couple pick ups and one drop off, Carlos dropped me off at the Intercontinental. I was quickly checked in and on my way to my room.

 

I took the free Metromover over to the Brickell Village Plaza to go to Publix for my sodas and a bottle of Graham's Six Grape Port for on the cruise. With that taken care of, I was free to enjoy my first of two nights in Miami. I made my way over to Bayside for dinner deciding to eat at Mambo Cafe. It's a Latin cafe with a wide range of dishes from Cuban, Mexican, and Puerto Rican. I decided to try the Mofongo de Camorones. It's a Puerto Rican dish made with fried green plantains mashed and served with some great fresh jumbo shrimp. My drink of choice was the caipirinha which is the national drink of Brazil made from cachaca (a Brazilian rum distilled from sugar cane rather than molasses), sugar and lime. It's a refreshing drink with a great kick. After dinner and a couple of caipirinhas, I stopped be Bayside Cigars to grab a couple cigars. I picked the Gurkha Cellar Reserve 15yr Double Robusto. It's a great medium bodied smoke that was rated 97 by Cigar Aficionado Magazine. I enjoyed my cigar sitting on a bench looking out on Biscayne Bay. Life is grand my friends.

 

I stopped by the bar a Toro Toro inside the Intercontinental before retiring for the night to enjoy a nice single malt. I had Macallen Fine Oak 15 Year. It was a great way to cap off day one. Incidentally, for lovers of great single malts, Toro Toro has a great selection.

 

That's it for day one. I'll tell y'all all about my Saturday in Miami later tonight.

 

 

Well said!!! That's away to enjoy the finer things in life!!! Can't wait to read your updates. Enjoy.

[cruse2loose]

Glad you decided to start taking a vacation each year. Thanks for bringing us along on your adventure :)

[Beachlover1964]

Great start! Looking forward to your live review. Enjoy!

[carolinaviking71208]

November 30, 2013: Day 2

My day got started off the right way. Before breakfast I took a short walk along the sea wall in Bayfront park where there was a pod of dolphins playing in the bay. I even had the luck to see a couple babies surface. A few of them were no more than 10 yards off the sea wall. I headed back into the hotel an went to Ole for their breakfast buffet. Just my personal perspective here, but I personally found the selection to be a bit sparse considering the buffet with coffee cost me $32 (by the way, they add a 15% gratuity automatically). The food itself was very good though.

 

After eating I decided to explore the 5 or 6 block area around the hotel. It was a nice walk. I really didn't check out many of the shops, but I did find a few restaurants and cafes that I'd like to try on future visits to Miami. Of course, you can see from my avatar, I'm a Florida State fan, so before noon, it was time to head back for a noon kickoff versus our arch rival Florida Gators.

 

Later on in the afternoon, I realized it was just about sail away time for the 5 ships at POM. I headed up to the Bluewater Poolside Bar on the fifth floor overlooking the bay. Of course, the buildings at POM block some of the view. The two Carnival ships in port today, the Victory and Liberty, were both facing the turning basin, so it gave me a great view of each as they reached the basin to turn and head out to sea. It always amazes me to see a 950+/- foot ship make the tight turn in a 1200 foot basin. I also had my first opportunity to get a look at the MSC Davina, and its a beautiful ship.

 

I headed over to Bayside to have dinner at Largo Bar & Grill. I had a great table dockside. I started off with a classic mojito, and elected to have the grilled mahi mahi. I lived in Florida for 28 years before moving to several other states, and have cooked & eaten fresh fish practically all my life. Getting any particular type of fish to that perfect temperature can be difficult. This piece of mahi was perfectly seasoned and perfectly cooked. a second mojito with dinner, a third for dessert, and a fourth just for good measure, and I was set. I planned on getting back to my room at a reasonable time since tomorrow is embarkation, so with that in mind, I made my way back along the sea wall through Bayside park stopping half way to sit on a bench and enjoy a cigar. Tonight's cigar was the Alec Bradley Black Market Torpedo. I've never smoked this cigar before. It was a decent medium flavored smoke, that burned nice and even leaving about a 2 inch ash before dropping. With that being said, I really don't think I'll smoke this cigar again. For the cost (generally about $9-10), there are far better sticks available.

 

So, here I sit at my laptop at about 11:30 PM. I'm signing off for now. Tomorrow is embarkation day. I have Faster to the Fun (FTTF), a balcony cabin, and reservations for the steakhouse tomorrow night, so stay tuned for tomorrow nights installment. I will be taking plenty of pictures, but won't be posting them until I get back.

Edited December 1, 2013 by carolinaviking71208

[sharonax3]

So looking forward to this review as I will be sailing on Conquest next Sunday !

[celticd1]

Hi Debbie

 

Hope we get some good info for our turn on the Conquest

 

Great minds think alike! :D

 

Enjoying the review so far carolinaviking71208! Bon voyage!

[FlaGrl4Evr]

Hello neighbor. We're over in Anderson, just a few miles from you. It's 37` right now and I'm sure you wont be missing the cold temps for the next week or so.

 

 

Looking forward the the rest of your review.

 

 

 

Wishing you a great cruise with sunny-warm weather.

 

 

 

:)

 

 

.

[Sarahsmomi]

Looking forward to reading more, I sail on Conquest in 28 days and am looking forward to hearing all about it :)

[carolinaviking71208]

Day 3: December 1 (Embarkation Day)

 

Good evening from the beautiful Carnival Conquest where as I type this we are sailing through the Florida Straits due East of Key West, FL.

 

So today was embarkation day. No doubt, the one day many of us look forward to for the many months of counting down days, planning, and day dreaming of blue water, white sand, sunshine, and the always sought after drink of the day. My alarm sounded at seven o'clock this morning signaling to me that the day I've waited for the past 358 day had arrived. After a quick cup of coffee in my room, I headed out of the hotel to the CVS Pharmacy just up the road to pick up a few last minute items I had neglected to buy on my treks through downtown Miami the last couple of days (someday I'm gonna learn from most of the ladies I know and bring a list). Upon returning to the hotel, I got all my luggage packed up and ready to go, then realized it was only 8:15 AM and way too early to head over to the port. So, I decided to go for a walk through Bayside Park and spotted the Conquest sitting at terminal G.

 

After killing time eyeballing the ship and watching the dolphins playing in the bay, I headed back to the room and called for a bell hop to come get my luggage. I checked out, grabbed a cab, and made my way to the port. In case anyone is interested, the cab ride to the port from the Intercontinental was $8.80 plus tip. Last year, the same cab ride was somewhere around $12 since there was more traffic (December 2nd, 2012), so your results may vary. I arrived at the terminal about 10:15.

After handing my two checked bags to the porter, I made my way to the priority entrance (I purchased Faster To The Fun). The line, at that time, was just outside the door. Check-in had not started, but did start about 10:30. I quickly made it through security and to the check-in counter to get my Sail & Sign card and that's where we hit a bit of a snag. They were apparently having to check passengers in manually since they were having "technical difficulties" with their computers (go figure, Carnival having IT problems). Once I got checked in the clerk had me follow him down to the VIP (platinum/diamond) lounge where he said my S&S card was located. Well, no one could find it. I was told to have a seat in the lounge and wait. After about 15 minutes, my S&S card was found and I was told to make my way to the area where the other FTTF guest were waiting. So, myself and my fellow cruisers sat and waited. We were finally called to board about 11:55. I headed immediately to my cabin and was greeted warmly by my cabin steward whose name slips my mind at this very moment.

With my carry on bags dropped in the cabin it was time to get something to eat. Just a hint to those who have never been on a Conquest class ship, the buffet, Guy's Burgers, and Blue Iguana are swamped on embarkation day, but no one seems to head upstairs in the buffet to the fish and chips area. I think there was probably 10-15 people up there, so I enjoyed a lunch of ceviche and ahi tartar with watermelon. Upon returning from lunch, my luggage was waiting at my door (1:15).

 

I made my way to the casino bar where I met Prakish the bartender and purchased the Cheers program. I will likely not ever reach the 15 drink limit, but between drinks at the Alchemy Bar and scotches at Vincent's, it will only take 6-7 drinks to come out ahead. I started off with a Long Island Iced Tea before making my way to the Sky Bar (Lido deck aft pool bar) for our informal Cruise Critic meet & greet. Of the 20-25 that said they come, about 15 of us showed up. We had a great tome together. I headed back to my cabin around 3 to unpack and get ready for muster drill, then the announcement came, "welcome aboard the Carnival Conquest, we will be delaying the safety briefing until approximately 5 PM with sailaway coming shortly after." Oh well, I'm on vacation. Muster drill actually took place about 4:30 and we pushed away from the dock at 5:05 in a grey misty Miami afternoon. We hit a quick rain shower shortly after exiting the channel into the Atlantic.

 

I had reservations at The Point Steakhouse for 8 PM so after grabbing a quick shower, a wandered down to the Alchemy Bar where I met Violeta the bartender. I had a mojito martini, then asked here to work her magic and make me whatever refreshing concoction she wanted to make for me. It was a drink with no name that had cucumber, mint, vodka, sour apple pucker, and midori. It was absolutely amazing and I wanted more, but I stopped there knowing a free bottle of wine was waiting for me at the steakhouse. After being seated at my table at The Point, I was greeted by the sommelier and my server. For my free bottle, I selected the Santa Carolina 2012 Merlot. I didn't take note of the white wine selection. My appetizer was the lobster bisque, which is, to put it bluntly, incredible. My salad course was the baby leaf spinach and wild mushroom salad withe warm bacon pieces and blue cheese crumbles. This salad became my favorite during my Valor cruise a year ago and didn't disappoint. My main course was the 18oz 5 spice ribeye, medium rare with sauteed wild mushrooms and yukon gold mash with wassabee horseradish. The steak was cooked to perfection and was tender and juicy with very little fat.

 

After an amazing dinner, it was time to adjourn to Vincent's Lounge (deck 5 aft) for a cigar and some fine single malt scotch. My cigar choice tonight was a Hoyo de Monterey Excalibur Limited Edition. For those who enjoy a nice long smoke medium bodied cigar, it's a nice choice. It was about an hour and a half smoke with consistent flavors of coffee and spice from start to finish. I selected three different scotches to try over the course of my smoke. Macallen Select Oak, a very smooth 12 year. Ardberg, a very complex yet enjoyable 10 year, and Glenlivett Masters Reserve, a truly outstanding and memorable 12 year. The hard work of Gusti, the bartender, and Bradley, an excellent guitar soloist, made for a great night.

 

After finishing my cigar, I made a quick donation to the casino, and made my way to my cabin for a much needed sleep. I apologize for not getting this posted last night. I got half way through typing it and was just too tired. By the way, just a hint for those who may choose to write a live review: To save minutes of internet time, I type the body of each post on Word Pad then copy and paste it to Cruise Critic.

[Chooch72]

Awesome! Love the live review. Keep it coming, but enjoy yourself!!!! ;)

[JohnSpo]

Glad to see you enjoyed the steakhouse. I will be going to the steakhouse on Splendor for the first time in January. The steakhouse meal sounded great.

 

Did you have room for dessert? If you did, what did you have? How was the Santa Carolina Merlot?

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[R6bbie]

Looks like your having fun...

As your getting off, I'll be getting on :)

[NCTribeFan]

I think I'm the only person who had a problem with the service in The Point (embarkation night in San Juan on 11/16). The food was fantastic, but the service was very lacking. People were very nice, but really didn't do their jobs very well.

 

I think you made a good choice with the merlot. I wish I'd chosen that as I ended up pouring 1/2 the bottle of Chardonnay down the sink a couple of nights later (I had the ahi tuna, surf & turf (nice, rare filet), the cheeses, and they brought me a little sweet something as a birthday gift (no singing!)).

 

Hope you get to know the lovely casino hostesses (Elina from Bulgaria and the South African girl whose name I neglected to write down).

[boaterette]

I am very much enjoying your review. Helps to pass the time before my next cruise.

[pcrum]

You had me at the Noles avatar. My DD is a FSU freshman so we've been following the Noles all season! Can't wait for the game against Duke on Saturday!!

 

I'm also greatly enjoying your review. My DH is a scotch drinker, so I'm enjoying all of the single malts you are trying vicariously!! We just returned from a 5 day cruise on the Ecstasy, where we purchased a bottle of 12 year old Glenfiddich in Nassau. Surprisingly a local Nassau liquor store was a few dollars cheaper than the ship's duty free store.

 

Hope you have a lovely cruise. Will check back for more details later! Enjoy!! Go Noles!:)

[carolinaviking71208]

Glad to see you enjoyed the steakhouse. I will be going to the steakhouse on Splendor for the first time in January. The steakhouse meal sounded great.

 

Did you have room for dessert? If you did, what did you have? How was the Santa Carolina Merlot?

 

Enjoy your cruise.

 

The Santa Carolina Merlot is not an expensive wine, but I still enjoyed it. It's dry with hints of raspberry and blackberry and a pleasant slightly spicy finish.

 

Yes, I ate everything. The dessert I had was the chocolate sampler. It's amazing.

[carolinaviking71208]

Day 4: December 2nd

Greetings, once again, from the Carnival Conquest where we continue to sail towards our 8 AM arrival in Cozumel tomorrow. With today being a sea day, I intended to keep today's post relatively short. However, there was a potentially troubling issue earlier I'll tell you about, and a couple great things that happened to me this evening.

 

So, I'll start with the troubling issue. I failed to mention this in yesterdays post, as I had no way to confirm it other than one passengers word, and I don't like to spread rumors. But, given today's event, I think he may have told the truth. I was at the casino bar yesterday afternoon speaking with a guy who is now on the second leg of a back to back. He told me that the Conquest didn't dock in Miami until 8 AM Sunday and had skipped their port call in Nassau due to an engine issue. Fast forward to today about 9:30 AM. The Captain came on the PA to announce that we were going to come to a stop and perform a couple 360 degree spins for "the annual calibration of the compass". When they started the spin, I noticed that they were only using the starboard aft thrusters and not the port forward thrusters. To me, it looked like they were testing them. Fast forward again to around 1 this afternoon. I was in my cabin sending off an email that I needed to take care of. I had the curtains open and none of the lights on. I had the navigation channel on the TV when suddenly the TV shut off and wouldn't turn back on. Gary the cruise director came on to announce that there was some kind of issue that had caused all of the lights to go out, but safety and propulsion were not affected. It was then that I looked out of my balcony and realized we were slowing down and ultimately stopped. The explanation we received was that they slowed dramatically so that engineers could track down the issue and resolve it. The lights did come back on in about a half hour and we resumed forward motion after about another half hour. It may be nothing, but it just strikes me as odd. Everything is up and running and we seem to be running up to speed. I say "we seem to be running up to speed" because, since the power outage, the navigation channel hasn't updated, so I can't say what speed we're running.

 

Well, now on to the great stuff. First off, the crew of this ship are outstanding. My cruise on the Valor one year ago set a high standard of expectation for me as far as the crew is concerned. The crew of the Conquest, thus far, has managed to exceed those expectations. So much so, that I felt compelled to post a message to John Heald's Facebook page and let him know. So, I ate in the steakhouse tonight, and once seated I was greeted by the ship's executive chef, sous chef and the steakhouse's somalier and was told to enjoy a specially selected bottle of wine, complements of the Captain. It was a 2011 California Merlot and at this point, I cant remember the name, but it was an outstanding wine.

I made my way back to Vincent's Lounge after dinner for a couple single malts with a cigar. By the way, my cigar tonight was the Gurkha Cellar Reserve 15 Year that I mentioned in my post from day one. So having enjoyed my cigar and scotch, I headed back to the cabin to call it an early night. Entering my cabin, I find a plate of chocolate covered strawberries with a thank you note from Gary the cruise director.

 

So all in all, it was a nice relaxing day filled with a bit of drama, several mojitos, Long Island iced teas, scotch, and wine...oh yeah, and a Pig Patty from Guy's Burger Joint that was off the hook. I'm gonna head off to dream land now so I can be up to enjoy breakfast on the balcony while we sail into Cozumel, where I'll be on the world famous Cozumel Bar Hop.