Brutally Honest on the Conquest 1/31-2/6

[howdyharley]

My husband and I sailed together. We stayed at the Hyatt Place 17th street the night before. Very pricy but good location. Great shuttle service from airport to hotel and cruise port in the morning. Hotel across street from grocery and surrounded by restaurants in a fairly safe neighborhood. Really cheap and blah included morning breakfast for the rate paid for the room-almost $300.00. We purchased Faster to the Fun, and this cruise was the first time I felt it was a complete waste of money. It is not Carnival's fault that customs was late clearing the ship at embarkation. Based upon previous cruise reviews going back several months this is a trend for Carnival at Port Everglades. The utter and complete chaos caused by Carnival not taking control of this situation is their fault. What a horrible way to start a cruise. Thousands of people jammed into a small space in the terminal over an hour from 11am until 1230pm. Sitting on the dirty floor or standing. The PA system was broken-a Carnival associate attempted to update the masses and the system quit midway through the announcement. When boarding was called there was no ability to separate out priority boarding. When we finally got on the ship our cabin was ready-but it was close to 1pm anyway. The muster drill was awful. The crew was terribly slow and the entire thing seemed to take 45 minutes or a bit longer. We were out in the ocean by the time we were released no port side sail away party. I also have read about very poor service on this ship. We did get encounter this on a few occasions. There were not enough chairs by the aft lido pool the first day. I asked if more could be provided and was told to sit upstairs. We ate at 730pm in the dinning room our first night. The wait staff was awful. I ordered a flank steak with chimichurri. Right after we ordered our food the waiter brought out the bread box and plunked a dish of something that looked like pesto next to it (I tried to get him to take our drink order then but he ran off). He walked away-no explanation. Waited 20 minutes after our order was taken, the waiter kept wandering off while I tried to signal him. He finally wandered back over, and I asked if they were still serving drinks-FINALLY he took our drink order.There was no butter on the table so we thought the dish of "pesto" was meant to be used on bread. Well it was the chimichurri. And we didn't get butter until way after our entrees were served. The next night we scored a wonderful table near the hostess station. We sat at that same table the remainder of the cruise and had superb service in the MDR. In fact the Maitre'd and his waiters served us. Carnival spent a few coins on really good red wine glasses, but still have cheap white wine glasses. The Maitre'd actually hunted down white wine glasses for us one night because the dinning room only had the red ones in stock. All that "American Table" wine appears to be reds-really? Anyone actually buy a bottle of this stuff? The food in the mdr and lido was acceptable to delicious. I am not thrilled with American cheese in the lido eggs, but there were plenty of other choices. No you dolts the scrambled eggs are not "powdered" they are premixed in a carton like eggbeaters only with whole eggs. Entertainment was so-so. Our last cruise was in 2013 on our favorite ship Carnival Liberty, and the entertainment was spectacular. It was just ok on this cruise. We don't gamble but love to play the coin dozers. The casino was atrociously smoky and there was only one machine so we didn't spend much time there. Chair hogs were out in force. We only got to sit poolside a few times. As we were directed on the first day most days we sat one level up. One really creative act of "choggery" we witnessed-one gentleman and his wife were sitting on chairs. They reserved the chairs in back of the ones they were sitting in with sandals. Probably so when the sun changed they had better seats. We didn't know it was their sandals on the chairs next to us. The sun changed, and we waited two hours. We switched their belongings over to get us out of the sun. The aft lido pool and pool area, has noticeable rust and wear including fading. The fountain does not work-small thing but details ya know. Could use a touch up. Ship for the most part appeared clean and tidy. Does anyone know how tacky it is to leave your room service tray on the floor in the hall? Art for sale which is usually dubious was unusually trippy on this cruise. The weather got really rough the last day and the pools were closed(duh of course it's not Carnivals fault, just an observation). It was a rather boring last day. Debarking was orderly but slow and long. The Fort Lauderdale airport was a madhouse-7 massive ships came in at the same time on Saturday morning. To really top things off 6 or 7 people on our flight decided they "did not feel comfortable" after we started to taxi and we had to return to the gate. A word of warning-the airline will allow you to do this. But expect you will talk to officials for a very long time after so they can determine what mad e you "feel uncomfortable". Your checked bags will also continue to your original destination. And hopefully be stolen off the carousel; while you are in your city of origin talking to the feds. My husband and I also returned home with sinus infections and norovirus. We usually sail in hurricane season on the Liberty. I think we will go back to our usual on the next cruise.

[jerseyjjs]

Well, my eyesight was 20/20 before attempting to read this.....

[cincicruisers]

Thanks for taking time to post your thoughts.

[clhayes]

I live in Hiltons and put my room service tray in the hallway all the time. In fact, I'm usually requested to do so by the person who delivered my food. Besides, why would I want my room to smell until housekeeping comes? Tacky, I think not. I do the same while on a cruise. Sorry you had some bad moments, hope the next cruise is perfect!

[howdyharley]

fur shur?

[LaCal]

Wow sounds like you had a terrible trip from start to finish including your flights and ending with norovirus 🙈🙈....black cloud over your head for sure

 

Knocking on wood that I won't have 5% of the problems you had when I sail the Conquest March 19th. I've read LOTS of GREAT reviews about the Conquest recently so tend to go with the majority of the good reviews. Seems like your in about the 10% of the bad to worse trips

 

Hope your next cruise n flight are better Maybe try NCL OR Princess. We cruise them and haven't had a bad cruise in all our 17 cruises on all diff lines including 8 on Carnival

[Velvetwater]

I was amused at the complaining about wine glass quality.

 

I am pretty sure very few cruise ships have all the glass shapes for all the different types of wine and also if the wine is good then it can be served in a roman wine cup and be fine.

 

If that takes up a sentence or 2 of a review I am pretty sure the cruise was a hoot.

[riffatsea]

Sorry but I could barely read your review because there were no spaces/paragraphs anything that would make it easier to see!

We were on the Conquest in October. We also stayed at Hyatt Place but the price was waaaay lower than what you paid for your room! It was Under $200 so not sure what made prices go sky high for you?

We also had a very long wait to embark and we had a suite + FTTF but once on board we were VERY happy with the ship, the service we received, the wait staff etc! We had lots of fun on the ship and no complaints at all! Well, our only complaint was that a lot of the fun activities were way late at night and we are early birds but I wouldn't make a big deal over that.

[clhayes]

Knocking on wood that I won't have 5% of the problems you had when I sail the Conquest March 19th.

 

 

Hi LaCal - Sailing on Conquest April 16th. It will be our 4th time on Conquest, just a different itinerary. Looking forward to visiting Aruba. Hope you have a great trip!

[sppunk]

I live in Hiltons and put my room service tray in the hallway all the time. In fact, I'm usually requested to do so by the person who delivered my food. Besides, why would I want my room to smell until housekeeping comes? Tacky, I think not. I do the same while on a cruise. Sorry you had some bad moments, hope the next cruise is perfect!

 

Trays in hallway is a significant safety issue for those in wheelchairs or using walkers. Please do not leave your dirty dishes outside for someone to trip and fall because of them. Call room service and they'll come pick up.

[ShakyBeef]

Howdyharley, I tried to read your post, I really did. But I just couldn't get through it. When writing a large block of text, you really should break it into paragraphs. I'm not flaming; I mean no offense. Just trying to offer a suggestion for next time.:o I gather your cruise was not what you hoped for. I hope your next is everything you could wish for.:)

[cccer]

Howdyharley, I tried to read your post, I really did. But I just couldn't get through it. When writing a large block of text, you really should break it into paragraphs. I'm not flaming; I mean no offense. Just trying to offer a suggestion for next time.:o I gather your cruise was not what you hoped for. I hope your next is everything you could wish for.:)

 

I agree, paragraphs are everyone's best friend.

[mzloolue]

Trays in hallway is a significant safety issue for those in wheelchairs or using walkers. Please do not leave your dirty dishes outside for someone to trip and fall because of them. Call room service and they'll come pick up.

 

 

Oh no, leave them in the hall as I enjoy looking at chewed on food and garbage all day long!

 

OP, thank you for your comments.

Some of them are quite helpful.

[ShakyBeef]

I agree, paragraphs are everyone's best friend.

 

Speak for yourself. Commas and smileys are my best friends.:cool::p

[clhayes]

Trays in hallway is a significant safety issue for those in wheelchairs or using walkers. Please do not leave your dirty dishes outside for someone to trip and fall because of them. Call room service and they'll come pick up.

 

 

Glad you mentioned that. I always call and let them know my tray is outside, as I am requested to do both. Place the tray outside the door and let us know. As for the hallway, the trey is placed along side my door, not in the middle of the hallway. Unfortunately, room service is not always available to come immediately when I am finished and ready to go to sleep. But thinking about your post, going forward I will attempt to make a change. A safety issue possibly, tacky as the OP mentioned, no.

[BallFour4]

Thanks for taking time to post your thoughts.

 

LooksLikeTheyPostedAllOfThem.

Edited February 16, 2016 by BallFour4

[Bob46]

I was on the same sailing, in fact, we got married as we boarded. The delay in boarding stressed us out since we boarded about 12:15 and had a 12:45 wedding. We were a little late getting started, but the wedding and reception was amazing. The whole trip was fantastic, in spite of a little rough weather the last day. There were 17 of us sailing and we usually had 5 or 6 chairs a level or two up from the pool that we shared. The crew was always friendly and helpful. One tip is to go to the trivia games in the main lobby. Even if you don't play, Josh "Big Sexy" makes them great fun to watch. The ONLY minor negative of the whole cruise is the smoke in the casino. But I figure the smoke kept me out, so I saved money!

[mrneil001]

Broke it up for easier reading. You're welcome :)

 

 

My husband and I sailed together. We stayed at the Hyatt Place 17th street the night before. Very pricy but good location. Great shuttle service from airport to hotel and cruise port in the morning. Hotel across street from grocery and surrounded by restaurants in a fairly safe neighborhood. Really cheap and blah included morning breakfast for the rate paid for the room-almost $300.00.

 

We purchased Faster to the Fun, and this cruise was the first time I felt it was a complete waste of money. It is not Carnival's fault that customs was late clearing the ship at embarkation. Based upon previous cruise reviews going back several months this is a trend for Carnival at Port Everglades. The utter and complete chaos caused by Carnival not taking control of this situation is their fault. What a horrible way to start a cruise. Thousands of people jammed into a small space in the terminal over an hour from 11am until 1230pm. Sitting on the dirty floor or standing.

 

The PA system was broken-a Carnival associate attempted to update the masses and the system quit midway through the announcement. When boarding was called there was no ability to separate out priority boarding. When we finally got on the ship our cabin was ready-but it was close to 1pm anyway.

 

The muster drill was awful. The crew was terribly slow and the entire thing seemed to take 45 minutes or a bit longer. We were out in the ocean by the time we were released no port side sail away party. I also have read about very poor service on this ship. We did get encounter this on a few occasions.

 

There were not enough chairs by the aft lido pool the first day. I asked if more could be provided and was told to sit upstairs.

 

We ate at 730pm in the dinning room our first night. The wait staff was awful. I ordered a flank steak with chimichurri. Right after we ordered our food the waiter brought out the bread box and plunked a dish of something that looked like pesto next to it (I tried to get him to take our drink order then but he ran off). He walked away-no explanation. Waited 20 minutes after our order was taken, the waiter kept wandering off while I tried to signal him. He finally wandered back over, and I asked if they were still serving drinks-FINALLY he took our drink order.There was no butter on the table so we thought the dish of "pesto" was meant to be used on bread. Well it was the chimichurri. And we didn't get butter until way after our entrees were served.

 

The next night we scored a wonderful table near the hostess station. We sat at that same table the remainder of the cruise and had superb service in the MDR. In fact the Maitre'd and his waiters served us. Carnival spent a few coins on really good red wine glasses, but still have cheap white wine glasses. The Maitre'd actually hunted down white wine glasses for us one night because the dinning room only had the red ones in stock. All that "American Table" wine appears to be reds-really? Anyone actually buy a bottle of this stuff?

 

The food in the mdr and lido was acceptable to delicious. I am not thrilled with American cheese in the lido eggs, but there were plenty of other choices. No you dolts the scrambled eggs are not "powdered" they are premixed in a carton like eggbeaters only with whole eggs.

 

Entertainment was so-so. Our last cruise was in 2013 on our favorite ship Carnival Liberty, and the entertainment was spectacular. It was just ok on this cruise. We don't gamble but love to play the coin dozers. The casino was atrociously smoky and there was only one machine so we didn't spend much time there.

 

Chair hogs were out in force. We only got to sit poolside a few times. As we were directed on the first day most days we sat one level up. One really creative act of "choggery" we witnessed-one gentleman and his wife were sitting on chairs. They reserved the chairs in back of the ones they were sitting in with sandals. Probably so when the sun changed they had better seats. We didn't know it was their sandals on the chairs next to us. The sun changed, and we waited two hours. We switched their belongings over to get us out of the sun.

 

The aft lido pool and pool area, has noticeable rust and wear including fading. The fountain does not work-small thing but details ya know. Could use a touch up. Ship for the most part appeared clean and tidy. Does anyone know how tacky it is to leave your room service tray on the floor in the hall?

 

Art for sale which is usually dubious was unusually trippy on this cruise. The weather got really rough the last day and the pools were closed(duh of course it's not Carnivals fault, just an observation). It was a rather boring last day. Debarking was orderly but slow and long.

 

The Fort Lauderdale airport was a madhouse-7 massive ships came in at the same time on Saturday morning. To really top things off 6 or 7 people on our flight decided they "did not feel comfortable" after we started to taxi and we had to return to the gate. A word of warning-the airline will allow you to do this. But expect you will talk to officials for a very long time after so they can determine what mad e you "feel uncomfortable". Your checked bags will also continue to your original destination. And hopefully be stolen off the carousel; while you are in your city of origin talking to the feds.

 

My husband and I also returned home with sinus infections and norovirus. We usually sail in hurricane season on the Liberty. I think we will go back to our usual on the next cruise.

Edited February 16, 2016 by mrneil001

[nednrom]

WOW, what a nasty trip..from the time you landed in Florida to the time you left, you seem to have had a lot go wrong to ruin your vacation. I hope the next cruise is much better.

 

We were on the Conquest in Dec/Jan and knock on wood we didn't encounter any of the problems that faced you. We expected the entertainment to be just OK but the Comedy shows were great. Service was awesome in MDR and for the cabin -- but yes, the casino is very smoky which was my only complaint. WE enjoyed the trivia, string music, Bluelypso by the pool-- wish I was there now since we have 4 inches of snow on the ground.

 

Some of what you mention would have certainly ruined my cruise too -- Happy Sailing next time.

Edited February 16, 2016 by nednrom

[beachbum53]

It took a few minutes for my eyeballs to recuperate from reading the review. We're sailing on the Conquest in May, and hoping Embarkation will be a lot smoother for us, and that we have a great cruise with nothing to complain about.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for your thoughts.

Keith

[campdaan]

Howdyharley, I tried to read your post, I really did. But I just couldn't get through it. When writing a large block of text, you really should break it into paragraphs. I'm not flaming; I mean no offense. Just trying to offer a suggestion for next time.:o I gather your cruise was not what you hoped for. I hope your next is everything you could wish for.:)

 

What she said.

 

Paragraphs.

[StolidCruiser]

I too tried to get through the run-on review to appreciate the perspective but I gave up when they called the audience "dolts".

[ShakyBeef]

Broke it up for easier reading. You're welcome :)

 

 

Thank you, that helped.:)

 

 

OP, now that I was able to read your whole post, I see you did have a lot of factors adding up to make your cruise less than wonderful. I am sorry.:( I hope your next cruise is at least 10 times better. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences.:)

[Tapi]

Does anyone know how tacky it is to leave your room service tray on the floor in the hall?.

 

This topic is a recurring one here on Cruise Critic as well as other travel sites. Whether on a cruise or at a hotel, here's the consensus according to travel and etiquette experts:

 

- When you have finished, place a call to room service for them to retrieve the tray.

- DO cover the leftovers, either with the metal or plastic cover that normally come with the plates. If not available, cover leftovers with a linen napkin.

- YES, it's acceptable to leave the tray out in the hallway, but only if a call has first been placed to have it retrieved. In most cases, the wait staff will ask you to leave the tray out in the hallway anyway.

- If you've followed these basic rules of etiquette, its NOT tacky or rude to leave your tray in the hallway. It's the wait staff's responsibility to retrieve the tray as promptly as possible once the call has been placed. If a tray is left out in the hallway for hours after placing a call, it's not your fellow cruisers the ones that are being rude, tacky or inconsiderate. It's the cruise line.

Edited February 16, 2016 by Tapi