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Review: Carnival Conquest 10/30/05

Sablerose

By Sablerose,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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jimandbette

jimandbette

Posted
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Hey Rose and Stang!!!! Wow, I've read your reviews so far and feel like we are back on the Conquest.........I'm hanging on to your every word even though I WAS THERE and I know what's coming next, but you are so fantastic at putting it on paper - or 'puter, that I am thoroughly enjoying reliving it!!!

 

I just want to tell everyone on the board that Rose is absolutely exactly as she seems!! We enjoyed every minute of cruising with her and she is the most humble lady........and definitely deserved any special treatment that she and Stang received. She is always thinking of the 'other' person and wanting to make sure that they know how much she appreciates everything and it was such a pleasure to get to know her!! I hope that we'll be able to cruise together again......the "Orange Conquestadores" was an awesome group of cc'ers!!

 

Hey Rose, Senor Whiskers and I are talking about doing an All-inclusive next year too........let's talk - maybe we can plan one together. How cool would that be???? (If we do, I'll bring my steamer to take care of wrinkled clothing - NO IRONS!!!!):D We met a couple at the hotel in Houston after the cruise, that had gone to an all inclusive near Playa del Carmen and it was awesome and the price was unbelievable. I'll tell you more about it by PM tonight!! In the meantime, we are still waiting for the next installment!!!!:D

 

Bette

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Sablerose

Sablerose

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Bette, I just can't even thank you enough for that very kind compliment. We're so proud to have gotten to know you guys, too. Having friends on the ship made all the difference in the world.

 

As for the all-inclusive, yup, thinking about it but we're also thinking of another cruise next year if we're able - at least the deposit's refundable if we end up PG and can't go!

 

Yes, yes, I know, the rest of the review is coming! I promise!

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Astronomer

Astronomer

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SableRose

 

My biggest concern now is that you, one of my favorite people will disappear from these boards.

 

Thank you so much for the great review, you did it up right and I enjoyed every line of it.

 

I would love to give you a sneak peak at the short novel of a review I am planning. :eek:

 

I would appreciate your and Stang's opinion.

dwight.lee@ejgallo.com

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Sablerose

Sablerose

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Dwight, I'll email you when I can take another short work break!

 

Don't worry, we aren't disappearing... we're already thinking about our next cruise, and we've made so many friends here we're going to just live vicariously through everyone else who is cruising until we get a chance to go again!

 

Besides, I still have "more review" to write, the down and dirty nitty gritty of rooms, public areas, the pros and cons, and the like. So.

 

I'd love to see the beginnings of your review too, so I will certainly be in touch about that!!

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Sablerose

Sablerose

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THE NITTY GRITTY

Room 8258 was right at the top of the main stairs, near the glass atrium elevators and the main bank of elevators. It was convenient to everything. Many mornings we just went up one flight of stairs and found ourselves on the Lido Deck. We took the stairs most everywhere except on formal night when I was in heels and we took the elevator.

The bedding was new bedding, and was soft and comfortable. White sheets, a comfortable white down duvet, and some absolutely amazing pillows stuffed with some kind of very soft, fluffy memory foam.

Our room had a couch, a small coffee table, a sitting/vanity area with large lighted mirror, a TV, a safe, a minibar (which we never opened), and multiple drawers and cabinets. There were drawers under our couch, drawers on the vanity, cabinets to the left of the vanity, and our closet. One section of our closet had four tall shelves where we stacked folded clothing and other items. Two sections of our closet had full-length hanger berths with top and lower shelves (one top shelf was used to hold lifejackets).

Our bathroom was larger than I expected but still appropriate for a cruise ship. Commode with Super Hoover Suction, a full-wall vanity mirror above the sink with "floating shelves" that were attached to the mirror wall. The shelves had a small metal railing around the outside to keep your toiletries from flying off. We had a basket of toiletries in the bathroom that included toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner, some Energ-C drink mixes (which we consumed when we needed a little boost), razors, and the like. We had brought so much of our own that we didn't use many of them, but it was nice that they were there. Our bathroom had towels for 4. The shower curtain was cloth and went around the "inside rim" of our shower, but we still had a problem with the shower leaking out into the main bathroom floor every time one of us took a shower. It drained in a matter of minutes and wasn't that big of a deal, but it did cut our shower times short in an effort to stave back the floodwaters.

The shower also had a dispenser with shampoo and shower gel. I used the shower gel a few days but preferred the good quality bar soap they gave us (small size bars) and used my own shampoo.

The shower head was a removable shower head, so when I shaved my legs I just held it in my hand and pointed it at my legs. It was like a "shower massage" without the massage.

Our balcony was big enough for two chairs and a small table, which was plenty big enough for us. We brought along bungee cords to hold the door open but did not sleep with it open, as the humidity would have been a little much for us underneath that nice down comforter. We did however leave the door bungeed open when we were in the room for the first few days. When people talk about the room making a wind tunnel when you open your main cabin door and the balcony door is open, they are NOT KIDDING.

We had no smell of smoke in our room, although when walking the hallways and passing a room that was being smoked in, we could tell.

Our room had a variety of books and promotional materials in it. I understand one of these was a book we were perhaps able to take with us, but we forgot to ask our steward about that and ended up leaving them all behind. We actually tucked them all into a drawer immediately upon getting to the room so we had some more room to spread out.

The common areas of the ship were clean and comfortable, showing no signs of wear and tear after drydock. The only area of the common areas we found to be unusually smoky was the casino area, in that you could smell the smoke into the promenade. Other bars were smoky but that was to be expected. We spent time at the Latour Wine Bar and didn't notice smoke much there. The Degas Lounge is a non-smoking lounge, and that is where the Captain's Cocktail Party was held. We did not go into the disco, as we were always tired and didn't feel like we had that much energy late in the evening to dance the night away, shake our groove thang, get our groove on, boogie-woogie, or Back That Thing Up.

We did however spend time in the piano bar with Damien, and found him to be enjoyable, entertaining, and a lot of fun, as well as very talented. Every night you could find a contingent of mid-20's to early-30's women hanging out in the piano bar with big doe eyes, and at one point I leaned over to my husband and said, "Do you think Damien gets lots of chicks?" He just laughed, apparently amazed at the naïve nature of my question and rolled his eyes. I'm sure Damien has no problem with the ladies, should he ever feel like finding someone to hang out with.

We could hear Karaoke With Mouna in the piano bar from time to time, they had that setup pretty loud for it to carry from the Degas Lounge over to Blue's. But it all worked out fine.

The casino was much larger than we expected. We paid our money and took our chances at one of the tables, plus put some money into slots. Found the slots to be very, very, very, very, VERY VERY TIGHT and didn't pay us back even $0.25. We lost $20 and then won $20 back at a Fun 21 table, though. We kept two casino chips as souvenirs.

We did not eat or drink at Café Fans, though thought about it every time we walked by. We did try the sushi, and being sushi snobs we can say it's "pretty good" and mostly "beginner sushi" but was made well, presented in an appetizing way, and tasted good. We liked the cured Ahi at Sur Mer better than the sushi at the sushi bar, though.

The Lido Deck was always a happenin' hotbed of activity, and we did not hang out around the main pool on any of the days. There always seemed to be chairs available if you wanted to look for them, though. We hung out at the Sky Pool/Sky Bar on lido deck aft. Right there was everything we needed to live happy lives -- 24-hour pizza (goat cheese/mushroom was my fave, "Pan Pizza" was Stang's fave, and I asked for the anchovy pizza twice but was told twice I'd have to wait for it to be made), The Grille (I shook the hand of the guy who made my Minute Steak Sandwich, it was awesome. Stang loved the cheeseburgers. We had more than one plate of "Just French fries." We saw many folks with hot dogs and they looked great), ice cream (chocolate frozen yogurt, yummy), lemonade/fruit punch, etc. That ended up being our standard hanging-out spot… if we had nowhere to go, we'd go visit Jan and Boris, and eventually someone else would wander up there and we'd hook up.

The gift shop had some good deals. We did not shop day to day, preferring to wait until the end of the cruise mainly because we wanted to shop more in ports than on the ship and we didn't wanna blow our souvenir money. But we were so far under budget by the end of the cruise that we shopped on the last day. We didn't buy any alcohol but got some various and sundry souvenirs. Some things were over priced, some things were on sale. In retrospect I'd suggest browsing the ship store on the first day and checking back day to day to see if what you like goes on special.

We didn't shop in any of the other stores on the promenade except for the Formalities shop, where I had to rent a skirt after burning a hole in my pants with the hardwired iron in the launderette. I wouldn't recommend anyone try ironing their clothes onboard ship, as I wasn't the only one who had issues with the irons getting SUPER MOLTEN LAVA HOT. They were hot. Did I say hot? We heard that the washers and dryers did a good job though, except that the dryers ran for 99 minutes time. So that's plenty of time to dry two loads of clothes. Many folks were "sharing" their dryer loads with the next people to come along, to use up all the time. Where was I? Formalities shop, sorry. The Formalities shop had a little bit of everything. The girl in there was so nice, too.

 

I had to pick out a black skirt. She had some in my size, which we'll just say, is "chubby girl size." So first she has me try on a clingy velvet number. Now don't get me wrong, it was gorgeous and would have gone great with what I was wearing (a white beaded top) and it was SUPER comfortable. But it was that stretch velvet. And it stretched right around all of my uhhhhhhh, "assets." The kind gal in the Formalities shop told us that she thought it looked very "sexy." I said I thought it was a little clingy, and uh - well, I'll just say it - it enhanced the size of my big ol' butt! So I asked if she had a regular straight skirt instead of the velvet one. She did, and when I tried it on she said, "I'm sorry, ma'am, I liked the other one better - this one just looks so… wide." I said, "Well, that's because I'm wide!" We all got a laugh out of it, and I did end up with the straight skirt rather than the clingy velvet one. The clingy velvet one would have looked fabbo, though, on someone with less "junk in her trunk" than I have. :D

 

 

Okay, everyone -- what am I leaving out? This IS my first time doing this, you know! Ask away if there's anything I haven't covered, could you?

 

 

 

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DH30

DH30

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Sablerose,

AWESOME REVIEW!!!!!!

 

There is no doubt in my mind that you and your husband deserve the special treatement that you got and I am sure that it took your trip from "Great Vacation", to an "Over the top, once in a lifetime, AWESOME vacation". Thanks for posting such a good reivew. I can hardly wait until me and my wife go on the Conquest to celebrate our now belated 10th anniversary.

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mamiamjo "Live from...." Rare

mamiamjo

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Your review was just fantastic. I know I speak for a lot of people on the boards here that are very happy that you had such a great cruise and that you shared it so well with all of us here.

 

 

Okay, everyone -- what am I leaving out? This IS my first time doing this, you know! Ask away if there's anything I haven't covered, could you?

 

As far as what you left out, well more photos would be good;)

 

Thanks again,

Mike:D

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Sablerose

Sablerose

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As far as what you left out, well more photos would be good;)

 

Thank you so much for your kind wishes and kind words -- I wish we could have shared our special perks with everyone in our CC group! Wine baskets for everyone! ;)

 

As for pictures, Stang is working on getting them all scanned in, downloaded, and then UPloaded to Webshots so we can share them. Fortunately or unfortunately we ourselves don't have tons of great pictures, but the whole Conquest-adores Orange Bandanna Group is uploading all their pictures onto Webshots soon and then you can see pics from all of us!

 

Donna (Mysticks1) has already uploaded some great shots, you can find a link to her pictures on page 2 of her review thread. She got some really beautiful pictures of the ship, the group, and the ports.

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astros fan

astros fan

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Rose-

What an wonderful review. I could almost see myself there. We will be on the Conquest in 58 long days. I have a list of must sees and secrets for her, but just wondering if you had any of your own.;)

I think you did a great job in covering everything....but have no fear I will pick your brain for the next 58 days....yes, I just like saying 58 days:D

Did you have a favorite bartender??? If so, were they at the same bar all week? I know there are some benefits to using one bartender.

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Sablerose

Sablerose

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Rose-

What an wonderful review. I could almost see myself there. We will be on the Conquest in 58 long days. I have a list of must sees and secrets for her, but just wondering if you had any of your own.;)

I think you did a great job in covering everything....but have no fear I will pick your brain for the next 58 days....yes, I just like saying 58 days:D

Did you have a favorite bartender??? If so, were they at the same bar all week? I know there are some benefits to using one bartender.

 

Yes!!

 

Our favorite bartender was Jan (pronounced, "Yahn"), a tall, fair-skinned, shaved-headed bartender at the Sky Bar (lido aft) who had a great pouring arm and was always fun to talk to. Boris, his partner in crime, another tall Czech, is the waiter that was always circulating around that area and he had quite a few of us very spoiled!

 

Stang also swore that the Bloody Marys at the lobby bar were made a little stronger than at other bars, but I think they also came in smaller glasses. :D

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Mysticks1

Mysticks1

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Yes!!

 

Our favorite bartender was Jan (pronounced, "Yahn"), a tall, fair-skinned, shaved-headed bartender at the Sky Bar (lido aft) who had a great pouring arm and was always fun to talk to. Boris, his partner in crime, another tall Czech, is the waiter that was always circulating around that area and he had quite a few of us very spoiled!

 

Stang also swore that the Bloody Marys at the lobby bar were made a little stronger than at other bars, but I think they also came in smaller glasses. :D

 

Rose you forgot to mention that Boris was a little easy on the eyes so to speak....;) I know that Bette had a photo, maybe she will post it soon.

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Sablerose

Sablerose

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Rose you forgot to mention that Boris was a little easy on the eyes so to speak....;) I know that Bette had a photo, maybe she will post it soon.

 

Ooh yeah, he was! Actually I think both of the Czech Boys at the Sky Bar were easy on the eyes! We watched them drink their protein shakes together in the mornings, they were so health-conscious. ;)

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MichelleP

MichelleP

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Rose, thank you so much for your detailed review! You have a real gift for writing. I chuckled through your description of the Crazy Family, and felt like I was right there with you at the Captain's Table. Thanks again for putting in so much detail; it was a joy to read!

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