Carnival Conquest Cruise 2/14 to 2/20/16

[bigdog1958]

We stayed in Kissimmee the week before the cruise. We drove from Kissimmee to Ft Lauderdale on Sunday Morning Feb 14th. We arrived at the parking garage about 10am. We gave our bags to the porters and walked in the building. No line at all, we went through security and then check in. We were in the waiting area by 10:30am.

 

They Started boarding a wedding group at approx 11:50am and we were in zone 1 right after the Diamond, Platinum and suite passengers. We boarded and went right to the lido deck and found a table and put our carryon down under the table and proceeded to get a guys burger. No line there yet, and we were eating our lunch by 12:15pm. By 12:30pm the line was quite long getting lunch. I suspect the early people who boarded were done dropping off their luggage and now were ready for lunch along with the zone 2 and later passengers.

 

We went to our room about 2pm and our luggage was already there, so we unpacked and headed up to the lobby bar a for a drink or two before Muster. The drill was about 4pm and took about 30min, not to bad.

 

We ate at the steakhouse the first night. The meal was fantastic. We were very pleased with the service and dinner, as well as a free bottle of wine. This is the first time we tried the steakhouse and it was very good.

 

The Second, third and fourth nights we ate in the MDR and had Your Time Dining. We never had to wait and we ate at 6:15 one night, 6:30 another and 7pm on the third. Dinner was fine, good service and food what was what we expected, nothing great, but decent meals as usual. Other nights we had guys burgers for a late lunch and then either had pizza or room service later.

 

As for the ship itself, not a big fan of the conquest ship. Have been on the Glory as well, and do not really care for the way the ship is set up. I am a fan of the spirit class ships. Less people, seems much less crowed and the layout is better.

 

The Conquest layout is strange and the decks 3 and 4 not being able to walk through is a pain for the first few days until you get used to it. I am not a fan of the adult pool in the back of the ship for a couple of reasons. One, the roof closes and they closed it each evening, so the area always smelled like you were in an indoor pool, even during the day when the roof was open. Also, the pizza is there, so even though its adults only pool, there are always plenty of kids around there.

 

As far as the sun areas on decks 9, 10, 11 and 12, the majority of the people want to be on decks 9, 10 and 11 in the tiered seating as you could see the big screen, pools and entertainment. This seemed to bring out the chair hogs in force. We are early risers so we were out by 8am and could get chairs on deck 10 or 11 on the two sea days. However, by 8:30am all the chairs were gone. Of course no one was sitting in about half of them. By 9am people were going row to row and could not find a chair expect for deck 12 above. I did not see any carnival staff enforcing the no chair hog policy of 40min. In fact we had a group of 6 people in our row one day, that had their seats saved when we got there at 8am, they showed up about 9am, then left for bingo at 10:30am and did not come back until after noon.

 

Our ports of call were Key West, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. For Key West and Grand Cayman, we did not have any plans and just walked around the ports and did some shopping and drinking. We had just been to grand Cayman a year ago and did 7 mile beach so we skipped that this time. For Cozumel, we did a All Inclusive excursion with Carnival to a Melia Resort. The excursion was okay, but no beach chairs were available at the resort as they were all taken, so we just hung out at the pool that did have a swim up bar. It was a nice clean pool and once we tipped the bar tender, the service was good.

I am not a big fan of the Cozumel pier we were at. I believe its called Dunfry ? I think there is another pier downtown that might be better. When you get off the ship you need to go through this building which is about a football field in length to get into Cozumel. This building is two aisles that have nothing but liquor, cigs, cigars, jewelry or souvenirs to purchase. So, if you are not interested in that stuff, you still have to make your way through all of these shops with pushy sales people. If someone stops to shop or look at something, you are stuck as there is not room to go around. It took us over 15min just to walk through the building to get outside.

 

We did some gambling on the ship, casino was okay, smelled quite a bit of smoke, but we expected that. We went to one show called the Britt's and the special effects and animation was very good, but the show itself and the performers, not so good. We went to the art auction one day, it was okay, did not buy anything, but they did have a few sales. Of course, the people bought the art before the actual auction, then they went through the motions like they were really bidding on the artwork to put on a little show, but that was fine. If you do sail this ship, there is a bar Alfred's that is on deck 4 outside the MDR that is really a nice bar and no one goes in there. We were there twice and we were the only ones in the place. Really a big bar, but out of the way, so no one ever goes there.

 

Overall, we enjoyed the cruise very much, the weather was good, and we had a very relaxing cruise. Not sure I would do a cruise on a conquest class ship again, but if I get a really good deal, then maybe. We found the crew to be very friendly and did a great job.

 

We stayed in an ocean view room 1359 on the Riviera Deck (deck 1) and the room was fine, and our cabin steward was very good.

[firefighter4u]

We sailed the same time and I concur with most of your review. The ship's decor is quite dated but it seemed clean everywhere we went. This my first balcony and I spent a lot of time on it!

[bankofdad]

Thanks for the review! Very much appreciate your comments.

 

I agree regarding the terminal setup at the dock. Very frustrating trying to get through there, and so very unnecessary There are walkways with railings that would allow you to go around the structure on the dock, but security makes sure you do not use these paths and have to go through the sales gauntlet that makes rush hour traffic look tame. I am somewhat surprised this isn't mentioned much in reviews.

 

Good point on the lower deck layouts and the method of getting around the dining rooms. This is the same for the Fantasy Class vessels and is a good reason to really look at deck plans prior to embarkation for places you want to spend time at on the ship, especially if you are new to cruising. I learned that lesson on my first cruise on Paradise, and then again on Triumph!!

 

We are looking forward to our cruise and as with all reviews we appreciate the time that you have taken to give us your thoughts and tips:D!

[golfb4cruzing]

Thanks for the quick notes. We are on her for the first time in April and heading to the DR. Do they close the aft pool overhead every night? Or only at pool closing time?

[bigdog1958]

Thanks for the quick notes. We are on her for the first time in April and heading to the DR. Do they close the aft pool overhead every night? Or only at pool closing time?

 

I was back there twice in the evening and both times it was closed and one time it was only about 9pm. I was there twice during the day, and I found that both times it still smelled somewhat like an indoor pool area. Others may not mind it, but I did not care for it myself.

[golfb4cruzing]

I agree. Part of the cruise allure is to be in an open air pool surrounded by the smells of the ocean.

[13cheermom]

We have also sailed on the conquest, and must agree one of our least favorite ships to date. The lack of a serenity area was also very disappointing, since it seems like they have plenty of open deck space on top that could be converted over. Also prefer the aft pool at the back to be open like on the dream class ships. Just on the Breeze in December and it was beautiful back there at the pool. We enjoy trying new ships though to find out what we really enjoy the most. Glad you still enjoyed your cruise, as we did also!

[bluecruisin]

Do they still have the big blue plastic rocking chairs on the bottom tier deck on the pool floor? Thanks

[GMRPHRN]

Thanks for the honest review. Sailing Conquest in June.

[bigdog1958]

Do they still have the big blue plastic rocking chairs on the bottom tier deck on the pool floor? Thanks

 

They have a circle platform that looks like their should be a hot tub there, that contains 6 blue rocking chairs. I think this is considered deck 10 of the tier. They also have a few more rocking chairs in the front of the ship on deck 12