Conquest 10/29 review

[goofygrin]

On this cruise we me (29M), DW (29F) and DS (10moM). This was a first time cruise for all of us.

 

I had been excited about cruising for a while and when I got a special that worked out well for work and the pocket book, I jumped on it.

 

Onto the narrative:

Friday 10/27

Something doesn't feel right. We're packed, we're ready to go, my brother in law is in town already to watch the dogs and the house, but something is NOT right in my stomach. I'm up all night on the throne in one manner or another. Our neighbor has had the stomach flu, and I might have gotten it from him.

 

Saturday 10/28

I'd hoped to be on the way to Galveston around 10am (it's a 5 hour drive from my house), but I was in the Primacare lobby at 9am when they opened instead. An hour and one blood test later and they told me I had food poisoning. I've only eaten at home for the last couple days, so I gave it to myself! By this time, DW is feeling ill and she comes in. An hour and a vial of blood later and she's not got food poisoning, but a MAJOR sinus infection. Two scripts later and we're both drugged up. We finally hit the road around 3pm. We make it to Conroe just north of Houston and my son starts to scream, he wants out of the car seat NOW. We stop at Denny's (he likes pancakes and I wanted something simple so I could keep it down, I've not had anything to eat since a 1/2 a grilled cheese and a couple spoons of tomato soup the night before). My wife got the sliders and they looked really good! She took forever to eat them though, so we wasted an hour at Denny's. We finally made it to the Hilton in Galveston around 9pm. Checkin was a breeze and a crib and a fridge (my wife still pumps breastmilk for DS) was free, which was nice. Only issue with the room is it was at the VERY end of the hall near the ice machine. Actually wasn't bad because when my son cried, it affected less people. Of course, since we got there late, we could only get on the 1:30 shuttle to get to the boat. It was another tense night with my son in a new place and me still battling the effects of whatever I ate.

 

Sunday 10/29

We called down and got a late checkout (1pm). I made my way over to Shrimp and Stuff for some poboys and fries. Bad idea. Grease + sick stomach = bad juju. It gets worse. We check out right at 1pm (no problems, very simple) and wait for the 1:30 shuttle. Get loaded up just fine, go drop the car off at the long term parking (free with the hotel stay). Get to the terminal and got our bags to a porter and get in line. A long line that's outside. We snake through and after an hour or so, we're near where we get xrayed. Then the line stops. It seems that the checkin side is too backed up to take anyone else, so they stopped us in line. Remember that I've still got the "you put the food in, the food runs out" going on, but there's no way I'm dropping trou at the terminal, so I sweat it out. I'm surprised they didn't pull me aside for a cavity search as pale and sweaty as I was! (man would that have made their day if they tried to "test my cavities" LOL!). Anyway, the line finally starts up and we get to go wait in another line. This seems to be the theme for the week actually. When we finally make it up to the lady to check in, all the computers go dead, again. It seems that their bubble gum and string cheese network really is bad and goes down all the time. She finally says forget it and checks us in manually. With S&S cards in hand we go wait in the line to have our embarkation photos taken. Why even bother? We're sweaty and tired from sitting in a 2 hour cattle line? Who would ever buy those pictures? Across the gangway and get our S&S pictures taken. Now we wait in a line to get to the elevator to make it up to the 7th floor. We then maneuver (well in my case half run!) all the way to the back, room 7393 (on the starboard side). Our luggage beat us there :D.

 

By now, I just need to find a throne and lead my people for a while. I get that taken care of and then we unpack. We flag down our steward Marion (I think that's how you spell it) and he comes in and vacuums the room so that the floor is clean for DS to crawl around. Then it's time for the muster drill. Let me tell you, muster drill with a baby is no fun event!

 

Right after muster drill, DW goes up to the spa to enter some embarkation day contest. I'm feeling horrible, so I just stay in the room and watch tv and half doze. I think she brought me a slice of pizza (horrible, I never ate the pizza again) and a chicken caesar salad (ok, but again, bad idea on a "loose" stomach). I spent the rest of the day/night in the room, running to the bathroom. I'll spare the gory details, but let's just say I got to use the hanging line in the shower!

 

On the upside, DW won me a free shave at the spa (something that I've always wanted to do) and a couple 20% offs for herself. She used the foot rub that night. Said it was good (although for $40, even after the 20% off, I would have rubbed her feet!).

 

Monday 10/30

"Fun day at sea". We started out by going down to the dining room to eat breakfast. It was fair food, my son was a tyrant though, so we tried to leave as quickly as possible. We did lido breakfast from there on out =, except on debarkation day.

 

DW scheduled my shave for 3pm. She went to the art auction and got our free art. I went to the library and got a book to read (since I was spending so much time in the room!). We just kind of hung out until 12pm when Camp Carnival opened up for 2yo and below. We went and played for a couple hours. I then signed up for the blackjack tournament. I played in the 2:40pm slot (remember that my shave was at 3!). I actually did really well and qualified #1, so I had to be back at 4pm for the finals.

 

I went to the shave. Let's just say that I'll never do that again. For the next 5-6 days, I had the WORST razor burn I've EVER had on my neck. My cheeks were very smooth, but I really felt like complaining the whole time afterwards because my neck was so red and broken out. They didn't want to take their free service card, but wanted me to use it on the last sea day to get the "package." After telling them that I'd never be back, they finally gave it to me. I left a tip and looking back, I wish I hadn't.

 

I went back to the blackjack finals and bowed out quickly (I did get a t shirt from the casino that I'll never wear). When I got back to the room, I did a little math and figured out that I'd not play in one of those tourney's again! They paid out $500 to the winner. It was $20 to enter. They did qualifying rounds of 7 people each, every 10 minutes for three hours. Let's say that only 5 people were in each round (which is low), that's 5 people * 6 rounds an hour * 3 hours * $20 each = $1800 - the $500 prize and $1300 profit! I wish I could make that much money in 3 hours!

 

Tonight was formal night and we'd switched to the 5:45 dinner, so I had to go and get ready. We got all dressed up in our suits (DS was in a vest with a tie!) and went down to find our table. Our waiters were I Made (head) and Pande (assistant), both from Thailand. I don't think I Made really cared to be there, but Pande really was good. We had someone else at our table the first night, but they never came back (they were supposed to be at the 8pm seating), so we had our table alone the other nights we ate at sit down dinner. Dinner was ok (remember, I'm still pontificating frequently)... The picture was awful. I wish they'd taken the time to get a good one.

 

Back to the room, I'm asleep by 8 or 9pm. I think my wife had a facial today, she liked it, but they did the hard sell for some expensive crap for her face (she declined, but more on this later).

[rvalent2]

Goofygrin! - It sounds like you had a rocky start!!! Hopefully the rest of the cruise was better!:)

[Cruisetex]

"By now, I just need to find a throne and lead my people for a while.."

 

OMG, too funny:D ... Hope you get to feeling better. Please continue.

[goofygrin]

Tuesday 10/31

We got up and went to the lido for breakfast. This was the one morning where I didn't eat grits. I don't get them a lot at home, but I really like them. We ate a lot of bacon this trip :D. Seriously though, in the dining room, you get two pieces. On the Lido you get as much as you want. This appealed to DW a lot LOL.

 

We walked around and then took DS to play again up at Camp Carnival. He had been alone yesterday, but there were a couple other kids playing today. I talked to someone there (either today or the day before, I don't remember) and we added up the kids. There were only 150 on the ship, not the 350 that was mentioned by the CD. Maybe he was including all the morons as kids.

 

I took off early to go to the art auction and get our free stuff. They had some stuff I liked, but really this is no auction. It's a sale with an extra 15% tacked on after the fact.

 

Dinner was so so.

 

For the kids costume party, it was a mad rush after dinner to get DS in his costume (he was a giraffe). There were only 4-5 kids in DS's age group, so they all got prizes. He had fun though dancing and crawling around the stage. My wife was bummed that she didn't get any snickers (this was one of the reasons she got excited to come, snickers are her favorite).

 

The rest of the other days tend to run together now in my memory, so some of this stuff might have taken place on any day, so I won't try and categorize it.

 

I went to the sauna and spent a good hour or two in there, the showers and the steam room. It really made me feel more human.

 

My first stop to the casino was on Monday (forgot to put it above). Lost $50 way too fast ($25 at Roulette, $25 at BJ).

 

I went to the casino (I think this was monday night) really late [closed it down] since I couldn't sleep. I played for a couple hours on $20. Played VP, got to $25 and quit, then played craps, was up around $100 until a couple bad rolls killed me. Got to $22 and quit. Should have stayed in since the guy rolling next rolled for about 20 minutes and would have made me a TON of money.

 

Wednesday 11/1 - Jamaica

I woke up early and watched us pull into Jamaica. It's a very pretty island from the boat. We went and had breakfast (lido again). We played around on the upper decks a little bit and finally got off the boat. We just went over to the terminal mall and were glad we didn't go anywhere else. Those people we SOOO pushy that I'll never go back. I mean, the lady that was "helping" us pick out our t shirts had the GALL to say "$20 and if you'd like to give me a tip, that too." I'm not going to tip someone for just standing around. Ugh. We took our obligatory picture to prove we got off the boat and then headed back up. Forgot to mention, the free earrings that they advertise on the boat are hardly earrings at all. You'd need a lupe just to know that there's a stone in there at all (big surprise right?). For those who like to know, we were docked starboard side up to the dock. We had really good views while pulling away from our balcony.

 

I think tonight was the magic show. Very entertaining and my son slept through the first half so that was good. The TL lounge was HOT. Only place on the ship where the ac wasn't set to Alaska.

 

Thursday 11/2 - Grand Cayman

We'd booked a 2 hour snorkeling tour through Captain Marvin's online. It was to leave around 10:45am. We got to their office early (tendering was easier than we'd anticipated, and they stopped doing tender tickets at 8:30, rather than 9) and they moved us up to the 3 hour tour for free (shh...). We went snorkeling at the coral gardens (got a conch that they pulled the animal out of, very heavy and smelly). My wife burned through one of the camer'as we'd brought here. There were a lot of fish to see! Then we went to the reef. There were more fish and I wish we'd had more cameras! By now, DS was asleep, so I mostly stayed on the boat and held him. It's ok, I was beat after treading water with him for 5-10 minutes at the last stop. We headed over to the sandbar. The stingrays are just like big slimy puppy dogs. Kind of clumsy, friendly and somewhat agressive for treats. I thouroughly enjoyed it, although my son was a little afraid of the water (some waves were hitting him in the face) and my wife was freaked out by the sting rays bumping into her. We headed back to land. Since we'd gotten free time and the guys helped us out a bit, we left them (what I hope was) a nice tip. After a couple stops to drop people off at their hotels, we were back at the office. We walked around the shops on the water. Very expensive. My wife did get three shirts at the hard rock for $US45, which is fair for a hard rock. She got her free loose gemstones as well. We were anchored with the port side to the port, so we got very little view of the island from our balcony. It was kind of nice though. Water was very clear and smooth.

 

I think tonight is the night we looked at the tv to see what the food was and we decided to lido it. Bad idea, I think we ended up with burgers since the food at the lido was horrible too. At least we would have had someone to bring us the food in the dining room.

 

Friday 11/3 - Cozumel

We got to dock in Cozumel. Port side was to the port. Also sharing the dock was a NCL boat. Word has it that people on the NCL boat were flashing people on ours :D. We jsut walked around the main area off the dock. I speak spanish, so I was able to get us a little off the beaten path to a more locals oriented restaurant. Very good. Bad exchange rate, but the beer was cold, the food hot and good and my wife was happy (she LOVES mexican food, and going the 5 days so far without it was starting to make her feel less than human). My son must have been feeling a little homesick because he ate a TON while we were at the restaurant. Tortillas (both corn and flour), chicken, beef, rice, black beans, guaco, tortilla chips. You name it and he ate it. He slept really good that afternoon :). We then had to go to hard rock for t shirts. I found 12 pesos [about $1] outside that I converted into a maraca for my son (he still likes to play with it!). We got some more t shirts and some gum (more on this later). We then headed back to the boat.

 

Dinner that night was the best. The filet mignon was just about the best I've ever had. Excellent. The hill billies at the table next to us had complained EVERY NIGHT about the food and they chose this night to not eat in the dining room. I was sure to tell them the next night what they missed!

 

My wife had an 8pm appointment with the "ladies night" at the spa. It was just a shill to sell products and she fell for it. $140 later and they let her go. I lost more than that at the casino, so I guess it's ok :D.

 

Saturday 11/4

Another "fun day at sea." We went and played at Camp Carnival. I returned my book. I wasted 3 hours at the art auction (more on this later). The seas were VERY rough last night and today and both my wife and I had to take one of my phenergen to not toss our cookies, so we were a little zombie like today.

 

My wife went to the debarcation talk (I watched DS). Waste of time. They tape it and then show it on the tv all day long. Don't take the time out of your day to watch it, watch it when you want to on the tv.

 

After dinner (at which I felt sick and barely ate), we went to the art room to get a closer look at some stuff. I'd done some research last year on some pieces I like, so I had an idea on pricing. I couldn't get my wife to commit to anything, so we went upstairs to put my son to bed. I went back downstairs and the lady there said "I got an email from corporate and here's what we can offer you on these pieces." She showed me her calculator and the figure was VERY good (basically, the piece I really wanted was only $1k more than the pieces my wife liked (so for all of them it was $wife + $1k). I got get the wife (she was actually coming down to find out what was going on) and we head down to do the paperwork. The numbers were wrong. Like $2.3k wrong. She'd made a math error in her calculator and was WAY off. I got up and walked out. She called me like 10 minutes later and asked if there was anything she could do to get me "into art collecting." I asked her if she would honor her deal and she said no, so I hung up. I now realize that those art auctions are like used car lots and I recommend that EVERYONE AVOID THEM AS THERE ARE NO GOOD DEALS TO BE FOUND THERE. My wife has since found a couple of the pieces that she liked online for less (even 40-50%) than what they were offering on the boat.

 

We packed our bags and put them outside to be picked up for debarkcation. Just about then the whole "Bravo Bravo" thing happened. We got a nice show from our balcony, but really there was no way they were going to find the guy. I lost more money at the casino tonight :D WAY cheaper than the art I was going to buy anyway!

 

Sunday 11/5

Everyone knows we got into port late. We actually ate breakfast in the dining room. The special of the day was leftovers from the night before! (the chicken quesadilla). It was still good LOL. We stayed in our room and even had lunch from the grill upstairs (we were docked by then). We finally left our room when they made the announcement that everyone had to leave their rooms so they could be cleaned. I think we were the last ones left on deck 7 starboard side LOL. Right then they called our floor/color, so we just walked right off the ship, 100 feet to then go hunt our bags. This was a nightmare. For the walk the length of the ship and the 100 feet off the boat, I would have self disembarked. All our bags strap together, so it's simple for me to haul them around myself. Customs was simple other than the moron in front of us had to hunt her paperwork out of her sack she called a purse. We caught the shuttle back to the Hilton (we got lucky as it was just pulling up a couple minutes after we got out of the terminal [which was a mad house with the people leaving and those in line to get in]). Other people had been the first to get off and had been waiting outside in the humidity for the shuttle (whereas we were just sitting in our room waiting!). We got to our car, packed up up, gassed up (snickers here were $0.99, they were $0.75 in cozumel!) and were on our way. Was a pretty uneventful drive until about an hour from home my son started screaming! He didn't stop until we were about 2 minutes from our house. We were home right at 8:15 (5 hour drive, so we were leaving Galveston right at 3:15, so figure 30-45 minutes to get on the shuttle/get to our car and it took us 3.5 hours to get off the boat from the time it docked).

[Vanessa L]

Thanks Goofy!! And I did LOL at your adventures!! We will be on the Conquest in February so I await the "rest of the story".

[TiShay]

Saturday 10/28

We finally made it to the Hilton in Galveston around 9pm. . Only issue with the room is it was at the VERY end of the hall near the ice machine.

Hey Goofygrin,

We also had a room near the ice machine (3rd floor). Add the bachelorette party down the hall (& in the hall) and we had a pretty long night.:( (But the price was good! And parking & shuttle were free!)

 

Sorry you had such a rough start to your trip. We missed y'all @ the meet & greet. There's a couple of pics from it on DH's review. (I still haven't written mine.)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=439222

 

I think we sat next to you on the shuttle. Is your DS the little cutey in the stroller w/ the yellow maraca?

 

Thanks for the review. It's always interesting to see the same cruise from someone elses perspective.

[goofygrin]

Final Thoughts

 

I'm not sure if we'll cruise again. We DEFINITELY won't if we're taking kids and they can't go to camp carnival. The boat is very nice. The people really work their tails off and I heard the same sad story a lot ("I've got kid at home and I'm working now to provide for their future."). Makes me glad that I'm lucky/blessed to have what I do have.

 

I think the food is overrated. I was sick (and still feel some of the after affects), but a lot of the food is not what I would normally eat (who the heck eats octopus ceviche off a buffet?). I know why sur mer is upstairs. It smelled awful most of the time. The deli is bad (we ate there twice, the roast beef was really bad and the veggie sandwich had some sort of soft feet cheese on it). The pizza is nothing special, the one piece I had was bad [i am a pizza-afficionado though... I walked across the Brooklyn bridge to get to Grimaldi's when I went to NYC, so you know I'm hard core!]. The burgers are pretty good, the fries at the burger station in the sky pool were really good (thin and crispy most of the time). The steak sandwich at this place was gristly and fatty. Breakfast was consistent (and boring after 3-4 days). The bacon was always crisp and plentiful. The grits were good, the french toast really good, the pancakes tended to be dry, the fresh omelets were good (according to DW). The food in the dining room was usually good to very good. The prime rib was fatty and not good flavor (as was the strip steak). The filet was excellent. The seafood basket (on the last sea day) was good according to DW (she had two!). The fish I had one night was VERY good. The desserts were underwhelming (but the presentation was very good). The soups were all very good [including the strawberry bisque my wife ate due to a suggestion on here].

 

The dining room meals (all of them, breakfast and dinner) were very good for portion control. Sure you ate appetizer, soup, salad, dinner and a dessert. You didn't get a Chili's sized portion anywhere. I wish more restaurants would follow this trend. I never once left the dining room feeling like I'd over indulged (and other than when I felt sick, never feeling like I needed to eat more). I can't say that for the buffets.

 

If you're travelling with a baby, Carnival does not put the $10 a day tip on your S&S account for them. Our son made most of the mess, so I made sure to go to the pursers and have them add it for him.

 

The art "auction" should really be avoided. You really don't know what you're buying! A serio-lithograph is a fancy word for a poster (edit to add, I know that lithographs and seriographs are valuable, but a "seriolithograph" is not a real printing term, except that it's just an offset lithograph, aka, a poster). The Kinkaides are all serio or lithographs. While nice, they are not paintings and they were still going for $300+ (unframed!). The "Rembrants" they were selling (save for one) were all pressings from another persons redo of Rembrants original plates. This was NEVER mentioned once. The Dali "Destino" series is only a couple years old, and basically only sold through Park West, so they determine the value. Why spend $14k on something that you aren't sure will appreciate? Very high pressure sales tactics, mediocre art, dubious pricing, dubious values [why get something appraised by the person you're buying from!].

 

Pros:

- Not having to drive around to find a place to eat every night (we normally take a week in Destin around this time of year)

- Steward to clean the room!

- Servers were very good

- Casino for me (not that I did very well...)

- Most meals were good

- Grand Cayman was very nice and a fun place to visit

- Cozumel is a fun place to visit too!

 

Cons:

- few activities for kids under 2 (we knew this going in)

- non-dinner food became very boring after a while

- CRAZY embarkation lines

- Jamaica is a place I'd never want to go to again (and I know I didn't give it a chance)

- getting to port 5 hours late ticks me off (and it's not Carnival's fault)

- nickel and diming for everything. Putting contest, $5. Slot/BJ tourney, $20 with 25-30% payout (which is REALLY bad). Drinks, sodas, etc.

- pushiness in the spa to buy product/more services.

- Art "auction" which was more like a used car sale where you can't research the vehicle.

- The "super shopper" seems to be a shill for certain shops and you can't help but sense the dishonesty.

- The SUPER LARGE people. I don't normally comment on this. I'm "husky" but there were a lot of "fluffy" people on board. Not just fat, but "DAAAYYYUUUMM, the boat is leaning" fat. Sir, you are not handcapped, you're huge. When we first got to our room, DW commented that they could have rearranged the bathroom to have a little tub in it. A couple days later she figured out why the couldn't because the tubbies would have gotten stuck on the throne. It reinvigorated me to get back on my diet after seeing these people (so I guess it's a pro in some ways).

[goofygrin]

Hey Goofygrin,

We also had a room near the ice machine (3rd floor). Add the bachelorette party down the hall (& in the hall) and we had a pretty long night.:( (But the price was good! And parking & shuttle were free!)

 

Sorry you had such a rough start to your trip. We missed y'all @ the meet & greet. There's a couple of pics from it on DH's review. (I still haven't written mine.)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=439222

 

I think we sat next to you on the shuttle. Is your DS the little cutey in the stroller w/ the yellow maraca?

 

Thanks for the review. It's always interesting to see the same cruise from someone elses perspective.

 

I agree with your DH. There was NO, repeat NO real salsa on the boat.

 

I forgot that we went to karaoke one night with DS. He loved it and was dancing most of the time. It was awesome to see the guy try and pull off prince (he didn't but the crowd loved him anyway). The one guy that did the bette middler (I think) ditty about the tit sling... I'm not sure why he knew most of the words, but I think that his boyfriend probably appreciated his enthusiasm ;)

[goofygrin]

I said above "got some gum (more on this later)".

 

When the boat was really rocking on friday night/saturday, chewing the gum really helped to settle our stomachs. Since my wife breastfeeds, she can't really take anything medicinal for seasickness.

[Luanne21]

Loved your review. Thanks for sharing. We are also 5 hours away. We must be neighbors. Fort Hood

[GoinCruisin]

LOL.... TMI :p

 

Thank you for the review!! Sorry you were ill most of the trip... that really stinks (literally huh :p), but sounds like you managed to still have a good time!!

 

I'll say, I've walked to Grimaldi's many times... YUM... but I don't think I'd expect the pizza on the ship to be the same quality :p LOL! If you want bad ship pizza, try RCL... BLECH!! The pizza on Carnival is hit or miss... I have found it is FABULOUS at 4am :D

[adaleyldaley]

Sounds like it should be your last.

[nmcrzer]

Great review! I had stomach flu for a few of the days, and it sucked.

 

I agree with you about the food, too. And the pushy spa people. Why on earth I paid $61 for massage oil I will never use is beyond me.

 

Anyway, thanks for the insight.

[okiemom]

Thanks for your review!!!! I had food poisoning while on my way to Alabama for the Taladega race. We were driving from Oklahoma!:eek: Thankfully I had the upwardly moving sickness not the stinky type.:rolleyes: Be sure to try and take another cruise without being sick or having a little one that you can't send to Camp for a few hours. We are taking our boys for the first time in December and I really hope that everything goes well. Again thanks for the review it was very informative and funny!:)

[tkportersat]

Final Thoughts

 

I'm not sure if we'll cruise again. We DEFINITELY won't if we're taking kids and they can't go to camp carnival. The boat is very nice. The people really work their tails off and I heard the same sad story a lot ("I've got kid at home and I'm working now to provide for their future."). Makes me glad that I'm lucky/blessed to have what I do have.

 

I think the food is overrated. I was sick (and still feel some of the after affects), but a lot of the food is not what I would normally eat (who the heck eats octopus ceviche off a buffet?). I know why sur mer is upstairs. It smelled awful most of the time. The deli is bad (we ate there twice, the roast beef was really bad and the veggie sandwich had some sort of soft feet cheese on it). The pizza is nothing special, the one piece I had was bad [i am a pizza-afficionado though... I walked across the Brooklyn bridge to get to Grimaldi's when I went to NYC, so you know I'm hard core!]. The burgers are pretty good, the fries at the burger station in the sky pool were really good (thin and crispy most of the time). The steak sandwich at this place was gristly and fatty. Breakfast was consistent (and boring after 3-4 days). The bacon was always crisp and plentiful. The grits were good, the french toast really good, the pancakes tended to be dry, the fresh omelets were good (according to DW). The food in the dining room was usually good to very good. The prime rib was fatty and not good flavor (as was the strip steak). The filet was excellent. The seafood basket (on the last sea day) was good according to DW (she had two!). The fish I had one night was VERY good. The desserts were underwhelming (but the presentation was very good). The soups were all very good [including the strawberry bisque my wife ate due to a suggestion on here].

 

The dining room meals (all of them, breakfast and dinner) were very good for portion control. Sure you ate appetizer, soup, salad, dinner and a dessert. You didn't get a Chili's sized portion anywhere. I wish more restaurants would follow this trend. I never once left the dining room feeling like I'd over indulged (and other than when I felt sick, never feeling like I needed to eat more). I can't say that for the buffets.

 

If you're travelling with a baby, Carnival does not put the $10 a day tip on your S&S account for them. Our son made most of the mess, so I made sure to go to the pursers and have them add it for him.

 

The art "auction" should really be avoided. You really don't know what you're buying! A serio-lithograph is a fancy word for a poster (edit to add, I know that lithographs and seriographs are valuable, but a "seriolithograph" is not a real printing term, except that it's just an offset lithograph, aka, a poster). The Kinkaides are all serio or lithographs. While nice, they are not paintings and they were still going for $300+ (unframed!). The "Rembrants" they were selling (save for one) were all pressings from another persons redo of Rembrants original plates. This was NEVER mentioned once. The Dali "Destino" series is only a couple years old, and basically only sold through Park West, so they determine the value. Why spend $14k on something that you aren't sure will appreciate? Very high pressure sales tactics, mediocre art, dubious pricing, dubious values [why get something appraised by the person you're buying from!].

 

Pros:

- Not having to drive around to find a place to eat every night (we normally take a week in Destin around this time of year)

- Steward to clean the room!

- Servers were very good

- Casino for me (not that I did very well...)

- Most meals were good

- Grand Cayman was very nice and a fun place to visit

- Cozumel is a fun place to visit too!

 

Cons:

- few activities for kids under 2 (we knew this going in)

- non-dinner food became very boring after a while

- CRAZY embarkation lines

- Jamaica is a place I'd never want to go to again (and I know I didn't give it a chance)

- getting to port 5 hours late ticks me off (and it's not Carnival's fault)

- nickel and diming for everything. Putting contest, $5. Slot/BJ tourney, $20 with 25-30% payout (which is REALLY bad). Drinks, sodas, etc.

- pushiness in the spa to buy product/more services.

- Art "auction" which was more like a used car sale where you can't research the vehicle.

- The "super shopper" seems to be a shill for certain shops and you can't help but sense the dishonesty.

- The SUPER LARGE people. I don't normally comment on this. I'm "husky" but there were a lot of "fluffy" people on board. Not just fat, but "DAAAYYYUUUMM, the boat is leaning" fat. Sir, you are not handcapped, you're huge. When we first got to our room, DW commented that they could have rearranged the bathroom to have a little tub in it. A couple days later she figured out why the couldn't because the tubbies would have gotten stuck on the throne. It reinvigorated me to get back on my diet after seeing these people (so I guess it's a pro in some ways).

You are right, you didn't give Jamaica a chance. Sunset Beach is awesome and has a waterpark, lazy river, all inclusive, snorkeling, paddle boats, kayaks and shallow pool for kids. It was my favorite stop ever and I was never hassled by anyone there. Give cruising a chance again, but wait until your child is older. Hope you are feeling better!

[GoinCruisin]

You are right, you didn't give Jamaica a chance. Sunset Beach is awesome and has a waterpark, lazy river, all inclusive, snorkeling, paddle boats, kayaks and shallow pool for kids. It was my favorite stop ever and I was never hassled by anyone there. Give cruising a chance again, but wait until your child is older. Hope you are feeling better!

 

Kerry, I agree with you! I'm not a fan of Jamaica, but we had a BLAST at Sunset Beach!!! Would not hesitate to go back and spend the day there!!

[colette5479]

LMAO!!!:p I'm sorry you were feeling ill for most of the cruise but it looks like you made the best of it. I was on the Conquest a few weeks ago and I didn't think the food was too bad....but then again, I'm easily pleased with a sandwich!:p We only ate in the dining room 3-4 times because we were always busy but everything was pretty good. Even the lido food was better than I anticipated!

 

I will agree, the crew works VERY hard! All that I encountered were friendly and helpful. The Camp Carnival staff were wonderful and my kids never wanted to leave.

 

As someone else mentioned, try another cruise without the kids. It does make a difference!

 

And thanks so much for a well balanced review!:)

[jleq]

Tuesday 10/31

so they all got prizes. He had fun though dancing and crawling around the stage. My wife was bummed that she didn't get any snickers (this was one of the reasons she got excited to come, snickers are her favorite).

 

As Linda/TiShay pointed out, we missed you at the meet/greet. We had dozens of Snickers bars. Although I doubt your wife would've appreciated them on Sunday/Monday...

[tkportersat]

Kerry, I agree with you! I'm not a fan of Jamaica, but we had a BLAST at Sunset Beach!!! Would not hesitate to go back and spend the day there!!

I might just take my kids there for a week sometime, we loved it. Hearing the horror stories about Jamaica and the fact that I am a single parent that travels alone I made sure to research on here. Sunset Beach was the best tip I have ever gotten!! I also got the best massage on the beach. Glad you had fun there as well :)

[GoinCruisin]

I might just take my kids there for a week sometime, we loved it. Hearing the horror stories about Jamaica and the fact that I am a single parent that travels alone I made sure to research on here. Sunset Beach was the best tip I have ever gotten!! I also got the best massage on the beach. Glad you had fun there as well :)

 

We met someone that goes there once a year for a week... he said it's a great place to stay and the rooms are quite nice. He was from England... said it was listed as a 3 star but that he believed it should be higher, said the price was quite good as well. It would be a great place to stay for a week!

[goofygrin]

We *really* thought about going to sunset beach. We probably should have honestly, but we were a little freaked out by the taxi ride with the kiddo in our arms (but we did the bus ride on Grand Cayman).

 

I'm feeling about 90% better, just still feel kind of wiped out (some of that might be work). I'm amazed when pro athletes play after getting the flu or food poisoning. There'd be no way that I'd be able to play basketball even a week after (although I'm sure they get IVs and stuff to clear it up faster).

 

I'll be sure to tell my wife that there were snickers at the M&G, she'll be real happy LOL!