Conquest November 20 Sailing...Day Three

[texas greeneyes]

I awoke before dawn on day three. I showered and dressed as quietly as possible, so as not to disturb my cabin mates. Then I slipped out of the cabin and went to have my chat with the purser’s desk :rolleyes: regarding the mistakes Carnival made on three of my five cake orders. I explained that one lacked the custom message I requested, and that two had been delivered to the dining room rather than to my stateroom, thereby spoiling the surprise about my sister’s baby shower planned for the following day. The purser explained that they would have to first conduct an investigation before deciding whether or not to credit my account, and that they would let me know the results by the next day. Fair enough.

I did receive a phone call in my cabin later that day; “After investigating, it has been determined that all five cakes were delivered as ordered,” was Carnival’s official response. Now, this comment surely ruffled my feathers! Basically, Carnival was claiming that I was not telling the truth! :eek: I can assure you that the cakes were certainly not delivered as ordered: one was inscribed incorrectly, and two others were delivered to the dining room where our party already had a dessert menu from which to order, :confused: leaving no cakes for the baby shower the next day. It is completely unreasonable for Carnival to refuse to credit the charges for those cakes! I said that I would be contacting Guest Relations upon returning home, which I have now done. If or when I receive a response to my letter, I will share it with you here.

After leaving the purser’s desk, I resolved that I was not going to let the “cake matter” ruin my cruise, and put the whole thing out of my head for the rest of the trip. I headed up to the Lido deck, grabbed three coffees, and returned to the cabin in time to wake my sisters so we could enjoy the sunrise with coffee on the balcony.

After showering and dressing, we went up to the buffet for breakfast. Tummies full, we returned to the cabin to wrap the gifts for the baby shower. With that out of the way, we were free until 2:00, when the shower was scheduled to begin.

Sisters two, three, and five, as well as nephew and nephew’s buddy, decided to try our hands at Bingo. Sister two, generous that she is, bought each of us three cards. Nephew’s buddy bingo’d in the $100 game, splitting the jackpot with one other lucky winner. Then I bingo’d in the $150 game, and was the sole winner! :D Needless to say, a round of drinks for everyone on me!

After Bingo, we grabbed lunch, then headed over to the casino for a bit. No one won or lost spectacularly this visit. Soon enough, it was time to meet our extended group up on the Lido deck for the baby shower, which was a lot of fun. I bet I’ll likely never attend another baby shower at sea again!

Returning to our room around 4:30, we decided to ready the orphanage donations, to get that out of the way and allow for an early departure from the ship the next morning. We transferred all the items to be donated from our suitcases to those new giant Ziploc bags they came out with recently. This would prevent us having to either lug the empty suitcases around the rest of the day in Jamaica, or return to the ship to drop them off before heading to our second destination, Sunset Beach.

That chore done, we had some time to kill before dinner, and we used the time to go check out the photo gallery. Found our formal night photos; the one of all seven sisters plus niece came out beautifully! I don’t have a scanner, but I’ll try to coerce my DD into using hers so I can post a couple of photos from the cruise here soon.

By now it was time to dress for dinner, so back up to the room we went. As I said in day one, I will provide details about the dining options and menu selections in a separate review when I finish the “dailies.”

After dinner, sisters one through seven met (again!) in the casino. ;)

I decided to take some of my unexpected bingo winnings and give roulette a try for the first time. The dealer and other players were very helpful, patient and friendly as I learned the guidelines of the game. I must have had a bit of beginner’s luck, because I started out with $20 and ended up with $104; $84 up! Between that and the bingo jackpot I won, this day was definitely my luckiest on the cruise, gambling-wise.

I decided to quit while I was ahead, and walked around a bit until I spotted the other sisters feeding the slots at various machines. Except sister four, whose budget for the cruise was probably the tightest; she was just watching the others. I told her it was time to learn how to play roulette, and slipped her a twenty. I returned to the roulette table, sister four in tow, and we spent the next hour or so there. I ended up another $22 up, but sister four turned that twenty into $108, which absolutely thrilled her! Winning is so much more fun than losing…go figure!

Several of the sisters then decided that enough donations had been given to the casino for the evening, and off we went, seeking music, dancing, and frou-frou drinks. We found the same band my sister had performed with the night before, and they smiled and waved to us as we filed in one after the other to our chosen table.

The song the band was playing ended just as we finished taking our seats. The lead singer stepped back up to the microphone, not missing a beat, and said, “I would like to introduce to you a very special guest singer…” as the band struck up the opening chords to “Blue Bayou” and he waved sister five up onstage. Once again she wowed the crowd. People sitting a few rows behind us even started chanting, “More, more, more!” when she finished the song. Such a great memory, I only wish we had taped it!

Following sister five’s performance, we danced and drank until after midnight. Knowing we needed to get an early start on day four if we wanted to have enough time at Sunset Beach, we all headed back to our cabins to call it a night. We ordered what was becoming a nightly tradition of BLT’s, munched them down, then bungeed the door again to drift off to those soothing ocean sounds.

 

Next: day four…Jamaica, here we come!

[CGBanks]

Greeneyes ~

 

I'm absolutely loving your review! We leave in the morning for Houston, then to Galveston and then Sunday on the Conquest.

 

Just a couple questions, please.

 

I see your next installment will be about Jamaica and Sunset Beach. That is where we plan to go. How as the weather? Water warm, cool, etc? How much was the taxi to the resort? We are counting down the hours!

 

We are on the Empress Deck in a category 12 cabin (due to the upgrade fairy). Did you balcony have lounge chairs, as well as regular chairs? We are hoping to be able to watch sunrises and sunsets while just lounging.

 

Thanks for such a wonderfully thorough review. Even though I may have to wait until we return from our cruise, I look forward to reading more.

 

Thanks!

 

Cindy

[GoinCruisin]

Any chance of increasing that font just a tad??? :p I'd love to read it!!

[astros fan]

Great review, we leave in 30 days and your review is making me even more excited...if that is possible.

[Rowan555]

Greeneyes ~

 

 

I see your next installment will be about Jamaica and Sunset Beach. That is where we plan to go. How as the weather? Water warm, cool, etc? How much was the taxi to the resort? We are counting down the hours!

 

 

We went to Sunset Beach last week - it was $8 for the 4 of us to get there, and $6 to get back to the ship. I think it varies based on what driver you get! We found the water very cold when we got there, then cool, but not uncomfortably so, later in the day. We would LOVE to return to Sunset Beach for a full week sometime!

[texas greeneyes]

Greeneyes ~

 

I'm absolutely loving your review! We leave in the morning for Houston, then to Galveston and then Sunday on the Conquest.

 

Just a couple questions, please.

 

I see your next installment will be about Jamaica and Sunset Beach. That is where we plan to go. Good Choice! How as the weather? Wonderful...warm with blue skies and a few drifting clouds. Water warm, cool, etc? Water was a bit cool, as Rowan555 stated How much was the taxi to the resort? Can't really answer that, because we negotiated an all day rate with our driver that included taking us to drop off orphanage donations, trips to and from Sunset Beach, a brief tour and a quick shopping stop in town. There were eight of us and we paid him $10 per person. We are counting down the hours!

 

We are on the Empress Deck in a category 12 cabin (due to the upgrade fairy). Did you balcony have lounge chairs, as well as regular chairs? We were also Empress Deck, but in a Cat 11. I have heard that the Cat 12 balconeys are a bit larger than Cat 11's but I do not know this to be a fact. On our balconey, there were two chairs that could convert to semi-reclining lounges, plus one regular chair and a small table. We are hoping to be able to watch sunrises and sunsets while just lounging. That balcony spoiled us, I must say! I'm sure you'll enjoy yours greatly as well!

 

Thanks for such a wonderfully thorough review. Even though I may have to wait until we return from our cruise, I look forward to reading more.

 

Thanks!

 

Cindy

 

You are most welcome! I hope you have a fabulous cruise! And congrats on the upgrade too!

Patty in Texas

[suzy1212]

Any chance of increasing that font just a tad??? :p I'd love to read it!!

For most browsers just hold down your control key and use the scroll button on the mouse to increase/decrease the size of the font.

[GoinCruisin]

For most browsers just hold down your control key and use the scroll button on the mouse to increase/decrease the size of the font.

 

Normally that would work, but I can't figure out how to do it from a dang PDA yet!!! No big deal... I'm completely lost as I just realized this was day three :rolleyes: My brain doesn't function enough for where's waldo on Friday's :p :D