4/24 Conquest Review with FunTimes and other Doc Links

[holmes96]

We did the 4/24/16 6 day cruise aboard the Carnival Conquest, traveling to Grand Turk, Amber Cove, and Half Moon Cay. In summary, we had a great time and I included a link to the FunTimes, plus a separate link to other misc. documentation.

 

FunTimes Link:

 

http://s1042.photobucket.com/user/janetcole72/library/Carnival%20Conquest%20Funtimes

 

Misc Documentation Link: (Express Luggage Program, Bingo costs, Internet costs, Club O2 Schedule, Weekly Entertainment Schedule, Arcade info, Laundry costs, Seaday Brunch menu)

 

http://s1042.photobucket.com/user/janetcole72/library/Conquest%20Misc%20Docs

 

Background:

This was a Girls cruise so I traveled with my twin sister (mid 40s) and mother (mid 70s). We have cruised with Carnival before on the Victory, plus 10+ cruises on other cruise lines with our family members. The timeframe, itinerary and cost were just right so we went with Carnival for this vacation. I was pleasantly surprised with everything.  Our families will be on the Pride in late July so I was interested in the teen activities, too.

 

Cabin:

We were in Grand Suite 7315, which was mid ship and a great, quiet location. We had twin beds, plus the sofa bed was made into a comfy single also. Our room steward offered to pull the sofa double out, but we elected to keep it collapsed and made up as a single to save room. It worked out very well. I thought the cabin showed some wear and tear, mainly on the balcony and in the bathroom.

 

Our room steward Ritchell was the best. She introduced herself early on the 1st day, asked us when we would be having dinner and proactively told us the cabin would be made up twice/day. She was very pleasant and efficient. Great towel animals.  We tipped her extra at the end of the cruise.

 

Ship:

Overall I thought the Conquest general areas were in great shape and very clean. I did notice the extensive decorating as every surface, i.e. floors, walls, ceilings, are covered with detailed art of some form. I liked it as there was always something to see.

 

There were some decks where you could not walk from Aft to Forward, which was confusing for the first few days, but we got the hang of it eventually.

 

Pools/Loungers:

We didn’t use the pools. There were plenty of loungers to use, but there was a serious lack of loungers in the shade, maybe less than 10 total. I think this happened when the 2.0 renovations occurred and restaurant seating was installed by the pool. This was a bummer as you couldn’t even pull the loungers into a shaded area.

 

Entertainment:

1. Our cruise director was Josh (Big Sexy) and we thought he was great, very funny. I thought his announcements were informative and timely. He was very active around the ship.

2. Bingo was offered 1 or 2 times daily, except for the last day. I loved the Bingo sessions. They were hosted by ‘Curly’ who I thought had a great personality. They did some interesting twists, i.e. Balloon Bingo where the last bingo winner chose a balloon to pop and inside was her monetary amount. The other twist during a session was a single card lasted for two games. You played the 1st game and then the 2nd game built on the #s you already had. I also liked that they gave out green order forms to everyone and when you turned them in at the next session you received an extra 3 bingo cards to be used in the jackpot game.

3. Curly also hosted Quest, the adults-only game show, which I thought was funny, too. This was the first time I attended Quest on any of the cruise lines. Don’t go if you’re easily offended. I enjoyed it. 

4. Comedy club – I enjoyed the comedy shows immensely. There were 2 comedians onboard: Mark Sweeney and Al Romero. Both did PG and 18+ shows in the evening. The shows were offered daily, except maybe 1 night, and I laughed out loud at all of them. Note: regarding the PG shows, I noticed kids/teens at some of the shows and none of them were laughing. While the content was definitely PG (i.e. no cursing), the material was geared towards adults in their late 30s+. I don’t think the kids ‘got’ the material.

5. Casino – my mother went to the casino every night for hours. She LOVED it and played the penny slots. The casino was even open during the Grand Turk port day. My sister and I also played the slots. There was A LOT of smoke and you could smell it in all the general areas around the casino.

6. Hasbro show – my sister and I attended this show and enjoyed it. I was on the red team that won the Connect 4 game. 

 

Ports:

My sister and I got off the ship at all 3 ports and liked them all. We only did one excursion, which was to reserve an Ocean Cabana in Amber Cove. It was heavenly. I wrote a detailed review with 25 pics. Here’s the link:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=49879508#post49879508

 

Food:

Overall, the food was good. The buffet was hit or miss…in other words if we found food we wanted it was good. I found it odd that they didn’t serve fries every day. Sure, you could get them at the burger place, but rarely in the buffet.

 

Guy’s Burger Joint and the Point Steakhouse were awesome. We also did AnyTime Dining. The food was good, but could be lengthy at times.

 

Faster to the Fun:

Definitely worth it just for the dedicated Guest Services line! The first time I went in the FTTF line, they didn’t want to help me because I didn’t have a FTTF sticker on the back of my sail card. It was supposed to have been placed on the card at embarkation. Anyway, they fixed that. Loved the fact that our cabin was ready and our luggage did come quickly.

Embarkation/Disembarkation:

Check-in was quick, but we didn’t board until 12 or 12:30 due to an every 6 month coast guard drill. The crowd was getting a little restless. Disembarkation didn’t start until after 8:30 AM due to terminal congestion and it was still congested when we got off. Customs took a while, but I was feeling pretty mellow from vacation so all was good. 

[golfb4cruzing]

You did a great job putting lipstick on a pig. We must have been on different ships or dimensions.

[jedi bobs]

I enjoyed the cruise. You could get fries every day either at Guys or at fish and chips

[RjayB]

Thanks for the great review, we are doing this itinerary later this year, cant wait! :D