Conquest Nov 12-19 Review

[DreDay]

I am recovering from cruise withdrawls and now finding a moment to post our review of our trip. This was our third cruise, but our first on this class of ship. We have been on the Ecstasy and Elation, all out of Galveston.

 

Getting To Galveston: We flew in the day of cruise. Our early a.m. flight was cancelled and we were bumped to a later flight with a stop over, and I was freaking out that we would not make the ship on time. We made it to Houston Hobby at 12:30pm, limo was waiting (Integrity Limousine-see review at Galveston port board), and we made it to port by 1:30. Phew!!! Just a note.... I will NEVER fly in the day of cruising again. It was too stressful. We were lucky this time but there are too many what if's that could have happened.

 

Embarkation: We arrived at the port at 1:30ish. A porter helped us with our luggage right as we pulled up and we were on our way. The lines were very long. I am assuming that this was due to the time we arrived. The last two times we cruised we got to port by 11:30am and the lines were much shorter. I think it took us about 45 minutes to get through the line. We were on the ship in about one hour, and went right to our room - Verandah Deck 8223. We ran into our cabin steward and he asked us how we would like the beds arranged. We asked him to keep the bunk beds down all the time and make the bottom beds a king and it was perfect all week. He saw that we had medicine and unlocked the fridge for us right away. Our room had plenty of closet space and drawers for DH, myself, and the kids. The room was ample for all of us but it seemed a bit smaller than the rooms on the Ecstasy or Elation, and the bathrooms were definately smaller. After settling for a bit, we went up to Lido to eat. There were lots of people there but the lines moved quickly. The food was pretty good this day at the Grand Buffet. I had salad, fish, chicken, and tomatos with mozerella. I had not eaten since 7:00am so I was starving. The kids grabbed some Pizza and ice cream and they raved about it. We wondered and looked at the ship a bit and it is beautiful. I really enjoyed the Sky Pool area. We went back to the room to rest. It was eventful, long day, and we wanted to relax a little. The muster drill began right around 4:15ish. It was not bad and after about 25 minutes or so we were all done and back in our room. Our luggage arrived just before dinner around 5:30pm. Our dinner the first night was great. We had the early seating 5:45pm in the Upper Monet dining room. We were at table 507 and the first night we had a lady head waiter and gentleman assistant waiter. I never got their names but they were great. For the rest of the week we had a different dining team. (More on that later) Dinner was great every night!! This night I know I had shrimp cocktai - YUMMY - but cannot think of what I had for an entree or dessert. Our tablemates were Brian, Carrie, and Briston, from Oregon. Briston was 8, so my kids were glad to have someone else there age at our table. This was the first time we had to share a table with others and I must say it was really nice to share stories with them. They were a nice family. After dinner, we explored a little more, I stopped at the formalities gift shop to order a birthday cake and room decorations for my sons birthday the next day. By 10pm we were back in the room and ready for bed!!

 

More later....

[Bradtez]

Cant wait to hear more of your review, we are sailing on the Conquest in 5 weeks :D

[Luanne21]

Good Review:) looking forward to the next part.

[TxSandMom]

Can't wait to hear more. How old are your kids and did they go to Camp Carnival? Am interested to hear about that part.

 

How much was the b'day cake and decorations, if I may ask?

[scubalisa]

Hi! I am so excited to see your review! My dh, dd11, and dd7 will be in your exact room in 5 weeks!!!!! I am curious to see how your kids did with the bunk beds and how old they are. Did they have any problems? I feel confident that dd11 will sleep well up there, but I'm not sure about my 7 year old. Do you think I need ot take a bed rail? If we had the room steward move the king bed all the way to one side, would there be room for her matress on the floor if she can't sleep up there? Did you feel much motion? Did your kids do Camp Carnival? If so, what did they think? Thie is our 5th cruise, but the first with kids. We can't wait!!!!

[okiemom]

Don't keep me waiting!!! Tell us more! We sail in one week!!!!!:D

[Ship Addict]

Hi! I am so excited to see your review! My dh, dd11, and dd7 will be in your exact room in 5 weeks!!!!! I am curious to see how your kids did with the bunk beds and how old they are. Did they have any problems? I feel confident that dd11 will sleep well up there, but I'm not sure about my 7 year old. Do you think I need ot take a bed rail? If we had the room steward move the king bed all the way to one side, would there be room for her matress on the floor if she can't sleep up there? Did you feel much motion? Did your kids do Camp Carnival? If so, what did they think? Thie is our 5th cruise, but the first with kids. We can't wait!!!!

 

I wouldn't worry about your 7yo sleeping in the top bunk unless she is a very active sleeper. My dd slept up there when she was 3 and everything was fine.

[DreDay]

Sorry to keep everyone waiting. I'm still trying to get everything in order post cruise and post holiday:) :) .

 

Txsandman- The birthday cake was around $8 and the birthday decorations were around $32. Both were well worth it. I ordered the small, round, chocolate cake and it was very yummy. It was big enough to share with our whole table at dinner and there were 9 of us at the table. We had our choice to have it delivered to our room or to the dining table. The birthday decorations were great too.

 

Scubalisa- You will like the room. I thought is was located in a great spot. Just a hop, skip, and jump from the elevator, one deck under lido. No noise at all from upstairs. We felt some slight rocking once or twice but nothing major. The bunkbeds have rails and my kids have done fine on the bunks on all of our cruises. My kids are 11, 8, and 5. I don't know if the mattress would fit on the floor. We didn't use Camp Carnival except for the party the first night. I saw tons of activities though and might utilize next time.

 

Day 2 (At Sea - My Son's Birthday!!!)- We slept in very late today. We were supposed to go to a meet-n-mingle from the roll call boards but we missed it.:( We made our way up to the lido and got some food. It seemed to be exactly the same as the day before. Again, we were at the Grand Buffet in the Cezanne Restaurant. (I learned throughout the cruise that their are several lines in this restaurant and all are usually different. If you don't see what you like in one line try another.) The kids suited up and were in the pool. The entire ship is FREEZING!!!!! We found refuge at the tables by the skypool as it was usually a little warmer out there. We mostly did nothing this day except relax by the pool and explore the ship. It is so gorgeous. The deck above the skypool was not very full but a little windy. We found deck chairs easily here and laid out and watched the ocean...so beautiful. We checked out the shops and were impressed with their selection. Everything is a little pricey but they had more space and variety of stores than the smaller ships, or so it seemed. By 3:30 or so we were back in our room for a little nap. It was formal night and I didn't want the kids to be grump-o's. I put rollers in my girls hair and then they were down for a nap. I organized the room a little more while DH and kids took a nap. Like I mentioned before there was tons of storage space but a few things I found helpful that I almost missed was the storage in the side tables by the bed. This was great for my sons PSP and to store our cell phones and laptop. Later in the cruise I also put some of our souveniers in there for safe keeping. Of course, we used the safe for all of valuables, etc. It worked great and had ample space. I started getting the kids ready at about 5:00pm. I did find that the blow dryer provided in the room was a little weak but fortunately I packed my own. My DH said there was a crowd in the laundry room to iron his shirt, so I would suggest ironing stuff early. We like formal nights alot, plus it was my son's B-Day, so we went all out. We were at dinner right on time. I ordered two main courses tonight, the lobster and the duck. WOW!! The lobster was great. I did not think it was tough. The duck was fabulous. I highly recommend it. Tonight we had different waiters Anil and Samson. I wondered why we did not have the same ones as the night before but I didn't question it. After dinner the waiter came around and asked all of us if we wanted dessert. I was worried that the cake did not get sent down. I was just about to try and quietly ask him if he knew about the cake but before I could he motioned to my son and gave a thumbs up. I was so relieved. We all ordered ice cream for dessert. Just after everyone was served our waiters along with a couple others came over to our table with a cake and candles and sang happy birthday to my son. He was so surprised and smiling from ear to ear!!! It was wonderful. I let Anil know that we wanted to share the cake with the whole table and he cut and served a piece to all of us. There was plenty for the nine of us. The cake was really good. After dinner, we took tons of formal pictures and then went down to the Cezanne for ice cream and hot chocolate. When we made it back to the room I went in first and had the video camera on when my son and the rest of the family came in. Again, he was so shocked to see the room all decorated for his birthday. The decorations were very festive. I was really impressed. We left our formal clothes on and went to the show in the lounge at 8:30pm. It was kind of weird. The singing and dancing were good but I could not catch the story line. I don't remember what it was called but it was just okay. We took a few more pictures before heading back to our cabin.

 

Day 3 to follow soon...