Carnival Conquest Review 1/12/-1/19/14

[bragstarr]

Being that it’s a snowy, cold and miserable day in NY (I need a cruise!) I’m finding time finally to post this review.

 

Background on us, we're New Yorkers, DH is 61 and I'm 57. Cruise #12 for me and 11 for DH, I went with the gals one time so I'm one up on him. Our third Carnival Cruise, also done NCL, Royal Caribbean (Oasis was best cruise ship ever!), and one Princess in Alaska. I like Carnival, food is good, they don't push and oversell you, although there were times they could have been a but MORE informative about things....the muster drill was a joke (people still talking loudly and crew already demonstrating how to put on life vests), barely heard from the captain, hard time finding weather info, only tender info I found was in Fun Times. Good network TV stations, though! The big sell on this cruise for us were the ports, we hadn't been to Grand Cayman and Cozumel since our first cruise in 2002 and never to Belize and Roatan. I figured if I kept up doing this cruise review on my iPad notes during the cruise I'd get a review done, I always intend to and never quite get to it.....I worked on it a lot during Karaoke and lounging in the cabin!

 

Our cabin was great, we were in an inside (8322) ... roomy with plenty of storage although they should give more hangars for clothing, yes I know I could have asked the steward but I worked it out. We had a problem with the toilet and they fixed it promptly. Not so prompt with fixing the broken hinge on the bathroom door. Nice steward, good service, did his job, nothing special. One of these days I'd like to come back and find a unique or unusual towel person or animal! We had a great location near the center staircase and walked the stairs to burn calories. We didn't book this trip long before we left and this one cabin was open dead center while others were way down low or near the back of the ship so we grabbed it. Normally I would not book under an open deck and a few times we heard noise of scraping chairs or music from Deck 9 Blue Iguana above us. The same cabin on deck 7 would have been perfect. I do wish they would get rid of those dumb shower curtains in the bathrooms…..

 

The dining room food in general was good. Dinners were excellent. Stop making those poor waiters dance and sing already! The brunch was awesome both times. Strongly recommend the blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes. Hubby strongly recommends the small filet Mignon and eggs. That filet did show up one night at dinner which I had and it was excellent. If you like lox aka smoked salmon, not available on buffet but brunch gave a HUGE portion. We both had two lobster tails at dinner. Good chateaubriand the second night. We were able to switch from late assigned to open time dining without much trouble. Kudos to Monet dining room hostess Simona for helping us with that. Desserts in dining room were good too, although the chocolate melting cake was overdone once. Of course, any dinner review is not long for this world with the upcoming menu changes.

 

The buffet in general was good although lines long after port days. Guy's Burgers met all expectations and more. Yum and double yum. Fish and chips are great along with the boullibaise there, it's hidden up on deck 10 from center of buffet so be sure to look. Offerings in front of buffet and mid buffet are different...look in both places. Front one is comfort food and the other a daily change. Combo hot pastrami and corned beef sandwich at Deli was yummy. Hubby liked the Reuben. Got over easy eggs from buffet omelet station one am and they were nicely done. Carnival also does a good French toast which was a breakfast staple for me. Didn't eat at Blue Cantina so cannot remark (except for the slices of watermelon we kept swiping from their fixings bar). Had pizza late one night and also quite good, that's open 24 hours. Also late night from 11:30 to 1 am they put out some snacks across from the pizza by the aft pool but we never had those. DH nearly wore out the soft serve ice cream machines!

 

The buffet desserts were awful. Except for acceptable chocolate chip cookies, the baked goods look good and tastes horrible. OK, I had one good chocolate layer cake once. Lots of foamy mousse looking things that tasted like packing peanuts. I seriously think they're trying to steer you towards paying cash for a tasty treat at the coffee bar, Cafe Fans. Very disappointing. Good hot chocolate to satisfy a sweet tooth, and we brought root beer on board (thanks to the CC boards for that hint!) and made our own floats with the soft serve! Some tasty treats also showed up at the chocolate buffet which was at noon in the last sea day. I guess leaving you with good memories.

 

Taste Bar was open four nights, Had tastings from Steakhouse, Blue Iguana , Red Frog appetizers and Cucina del Capitano (not on board as a dining option). Yummy stuff, we went there for our appetizers for dinner! The guys behind the counter were really nice and friendly, too.

 

Had some good drinks, not a big drinker, I'm a fan of the BBC so stuck with that. Did try a Chocolate Mocha Getaway and liked it, tasted like candy until I took a two hour nap after drinking it.....I was going to have a chocolate martini the last evening and my third Guy's burger of the cruise wasn't sitting well, so I avoided alcohol at that point.

 

Staff of the ship is very friendly. Didn't have any personal dealing with officers or CD Gary so I cannot remark on them. Gary was very funny at the talent show the last night. CD staff did their job well enough. Nothing stood out one way or another.

 

The ship decor for the most part is nice. I liked the whole impressionist theme. I was on Glory and barely recognized it as the same ship, although it gave me a leg up on figuring out the layout. DH was continually lost. I did see a few areas that could have used some repair or sprucing up. Ship is showing her age a bit in spots. We did see people in the buffet area late one night painting table bases and replacing tiles. Everything upgraded for 2.0 was really nice. Also wish the ship had a promenade that wrapped around for walking......the running track, ten times around for a mile, didn't do it for me.

 

The Headliner comedy club as far as I am concerned is a new strength for Carnival. Saw two shows with comedian Jason Blanchard, one family friendly and one adult. Both were hilarious. Saw adult comedy with Jim Brick later in the week, who insulted people left and right and was funny, funny, funny. Don’t sit in the front! Last show we saw was adult comedy with Steve White, who I'm pretty sure I saw on Glory a number of years ago and cracked me up then and now.

 

Shipboard music was pleasant, there were groups playing in many places and all of it good. Government Shutdown was quite popular. DJs seemed to do a good job too, although a bit loud and funky for my taste at poolside a couple of times. Stopped in piano bar once, found it dark and unpleasant.

 

Finding a deck chair on a nice sea day, especially if you want to be near the action/music, is tough. Go early. I hate to promote chair hogging but it happens...we ended up in either very blowy or shady areas until we learned our lesson. I don’t think anyone ever collected chairs from towels that had been there too long. Cracked up the Roatan morning when we went out into deck after breakfast before we disembarked and found different towel animals lounging on a bunch of the chairs. Hot tubs were crowded, too many kids using them as pools, but unless I missed it there is no kids pool. Also a bunch of young folks over 21 on their booze cruise who amused us with their antics took possession of one of the hot tubs, but were willing to share and they were a riot!

 

Stage shows we just OK. No story lines, just singing and dancing around the theme of the songs (Divas, the Brits and Latin Nights). They sing well and dance well but a far cry from a longer show with at least a pretense of a story, music is all canned, no live band. Sad. Half an hour flat on each show. I did enjoy The Brits the best, loved all the 60s tunes and psychedelic costumes. Good use of the video screens behind the players in that one. There was one night literally nothing much was going on show wise. Carnival slipping on this one, especially with ships that are showing Broadway shows out there!

 

Can't comment on Hasbro show as I only watched on stateroom TV, it seemed ok. Hypnotist one night was adequate...Seen similar before, although I did run into one woman he had hypnotized on a shore ex and she said it was for real. We thoroughly enjoyed all of the well attended karaoke sessions we made it to.

 

There is usually a lot going on. It IS a fun ship! Trivia, games, hairy chest, ice sculpture, etc. and they don't try to constantly sell you things. Red Frog deck party was enjoyable...especially under a full moon. Didn't go to the subsequent Blue Iguana one, although we did hear it in our cabin! Note: daily crossword puzzles and Sudoku found after 9am sitting on the Cafe Fans counter, mid deck 5...we did them daily.

 

Excursions: we booked our own in three ports, not through the ship. Stingray Sailing in Grand Cayman was awesome, snorkeling and swimming with Stingrays was a blast. We just shopped in Cozumel, which was a cool cloudy day, and took care of the souvenir obligations...I was glad we had nothing planned. Hung out on ship after late lunch, got a decent chair, played cards (new deck obtained from guest services!) and read. Our cave tubing expedition in Belize got cancelled but we stuck with the company, cave-tubing.com and did their ATV course, which ended up being a blast. Was disappointed caves were closed but water levels were way too high, which stunk as it was a magnificent day weather wise. In Roatan I booked with South Shore zipline and did that and their Eco walk across suspension bridges. Considering I was a bit scared of the zipline to say the least I loved it! All three companies were well run and worth it....I have posted individual reviews on the port of call boards if you want to read more.

One more thing….we stayed in Florida three days pre cruise and a week post cruise since we have lots of friends and family there. Both times we rented cars, once from Alamo and once from National, which for all intents and purposes is the same company. Dropping off and picking up cars from their Miami terminal was seamless, and their free shuttle buses to and from the cruise port invaluable. The way to get to and from the port!

 

Don't know what else I can say but if you have specific questions.....let me know and I'll attempt to help!

[LHP]

Great review...

 

sorry you did not get to do the cave tubing...but at least the ATV reminded you of your "southern friends" ( us ) who love the mud!!

 

:)

[Elmo31]

Thanks for the review. Sounds like you had fun. After reading your review the days cant come fast enough until I board the ship. Hurry up march. How was the weather this time of year in the different ports?

[bragstarr]

Grand Cayman was warm and went back and forth from sun to clouds. Cozumel was a dreary day, breezy but warm. Belize was about as good as it gets....Roatan was cloudy but warm, we got back on ship just as it started to rain, about 1:30 . Sea days were nice and warm for the most part.

[Engineerstar]

Thank you for the review Robin. Is the "noise" issue enough that you would not stay in that cabin again?

[bragstarr]

Not really. Some chair scraping and music noise during deck parties....I was at one and the other time, we went to bed very early because we were so pooped....and nothing ever keeps me awake on a cruise! The location was wonderful for getting to places, being by the center stairs is the place to be.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[BayAreaCruisers4]

Thanks for the we'll written review. Looking forward to our Eastern cruise.