Conquest June 25th Review

[JaneAustenite]

Hello Everyone!

 

My husband, in-laws, and brother and sister in-law just got back from a trip on the Carnival Conquest and had a great time. We stayed a day before and a day after in Ft. Lauderdale and I will be posting a semi-detailed review.

 

Myself, along with my husband and in-laws flew from Latrobe, PA to Fort Lauderdale. All of us are originally from the Latrobe/Ligonier area, but my husband and I now live in Maryland and my brother and sister-in law live in Miami.

 

We left Latrobe on the 24th and it was a very easy flight. If you live in the Pittsburgh area you might want to consider driving to Latrobe, even though Pittsburgh has a much larger airport. The only airline available is Spirit, but, with only one flight leaving at a time, security couldn't be easier.

 

Our flight left Latrobe at 11:30 and we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale at around 2:30 in the afternoon. We quickly picked up our checked bags and waited for the free shuttle to our hotel. We stayed at the Hyatt House Dania Beach. I would highly recommend this hotel. It was luxurious with a kitchenette and living room area, a separate bedroom, and an enormous bathroom with a large walk in shower with bench. Monday-Thursday the hotel has a free happy hour with wine, beer, a rotating soup, salad, and snack. We were there on a Friday, so, we couldn't partake, but, I thought that was a nice feature. The pool also looked nice, and several people were using it, but, we did not. If I were going on vacation to Ft. Lauderdale, I would definitely consider this place.

 

After getting freshened up, we took the free hotel shuttle to a little shopping area for dinner. There are several restaurants in the area but, we chose Miller's Hollywood Ale House. I had a pineapple mango mojito which was excellent, and the ice cream cake was extremely delicious. Everything else was just OK. One caution about this shuttle, it runs every two hours. So, be prepared to spend some time over dinner, or, call an uber.

 

 

 

[JaneAustenite]

Also, I tried to upload photos using photo bucket, but it didn't exactly work. I clicked the insert image button, copied and pasted the URL into the box, but, it didn't come up for me. I am using a Mac, but, it shouldn't matter for photo bucket.

[originalgeek]

Thanks for the review. Although I'm prejudiced against macs you can still take pride in your photos. I imagine you are copying and pasting the link to the html page at photobucket rather than the actual image link. I also don't use photobucket so I'm not sure how to tell you to get the right link but the whole thing should end with .jpg

 

Looking forward to more!

[JaneAustenite]

IMG_0011.jpg

[JaneAustenite]

Oops, ignore the previous post, still not getting the hang of the pictures.

[originalgeek]

Lol, you're getting closer...still need the entire url but it should end in something like the above. Filename.jpg

 

If you can do whatever is the Mac equivalent of right click on the image and open it in a new window or tab, that should give you the url to copy and paste into the cruise critic insert image dialog box..

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[JaneAustenite]

I've totally given up on uploading pictures. I tried copying them right from my desktop as well as using shutterfly and photo bucket and neither one worked. I really didn't take that many anyway.

 

We woke up fairly early for embarkation. I had read tons of reviews with horror stories about how bad the embarkation experience was at Port Everglades so, I wanted to get there really early and, we also purchased FTTF.

 

The hotel had a complimentary breakfast and a shuttle that was $10 per person. We could have taken a taxi or an uber for cheaper, but, the shuttle was convenient and my brother and sister in law drove up and met us at the hotel, so, we had six people and six suitcases.

 

We arrived at the port at around 10:30 and check in was easy, no lines. We were quickly checked in and waiting in the Captain's Lounge area. We were able to get on the ship by noon, which was great. Maybe an hour and a half seems like a long time to wait, but, we chatted with the people around us and it went by quickly. As we waited the lines got much longer and people were running out of chairs, so, I would get there early. My brother and sister in law did not have FTTF and were on the ship maybe 15 minutes after us, so, if you like to get on the boat early, if you get to the port early, it shouldn't be a problem.

 

Our room and luggage were both available early, so, we dropped our stuff off, grabbed loungers and got some cold drinks. Several of us had the drink of the day, the fun ship special, it was strong and tasty, which I would say was the theme of the drinks on the ship.

 

After lounging by the pool we got ready and went to dinner. We had Anytime Dining, and went around 6:00, there was no wait. Most of our table had the roasted chicken. I had the sweet n sour shrimp and it was good. We ordered a variety of appetizers - calamari, shrimp cocktail, different salads, and all were good. I will say that myself and my husband consistently found dessert disappointing, with a few exceptions (more on that later). Three at the table ordered the nutella tiramisu, my husband had the apple pie, and I had the fruit plate. I have a big sweet tooth, but, I wasn't feeling the dessert choices. Those who ordered the nutella tiramisu liked it, my husband hated the apple pie, and the fruit plate was OK.

 

After dinner, we checked out the comedian, Billy Dee Washington. He was very funny, I highly recommend checking out his show if he happens to be aboard your ship.

 

After the comedian it was time for bed to get ready for our fun day at sea tomorrow.

[originalgeek]

Hi again - the links you provided in the first post actually take you to the photobucket page where your pictures are and in the upper right corner of the page there is a list of image links to the picture on that page. You can simply copy the "Direct" link and paste it into the cruise critic "Insert Image" dialog box as-is. No other manipulation needed.

 

Anyway, hoping to hear more of your trip so thought I'd bump your post with a little helping hand on the images.

 

Images or not, please tell us all the fun stuff! lol thanks. :)