Conquest Review - Thanksgiving cruise

[treinke]

I'll try and keep this short and write the more detailed one for the review section.

 

Family of 3 (one 14year old) and we went with another couple friend who were already members of the Carnival Vacation Club (this comes into play many times).

 

Thanks to our friends in the vacation club, we were able to basically skip all the lines. We couldn't check in at the VIP room, but Carnival did send us to the non-US citizen line and we just walked up to it. We even finished checkin before our friends. Then when they let people on the ship, we just got to cut in line and get our picture taken, then straight on.

 

This was a full cruise and they said 1/3 of the people on it were kids. I believe it. Most of them were well behaved, but a few were running all over the places and lots of spilled ice cream.

 

First night for dinner we were seated at a table for 4 (not the 5 that we were). Off to the Vacation club people and the next night we are moved to a table for 8 in the aft section of the ship with a window view. Awesome waiter there too (Oscer). He did magic tricks for us and was just super.

 

Rough waters the first day out, my daughter got seasick. Our cruise before out of Galveston was so smooth, we just weren't prepared to be knocked around some. But started taking our pills and we were fine the rest of the trip.

 

I thought there was a lack of activities during the day. The weather was cloudy so being outside wasn't the best thing with the wind blowing. The inside public rooms were freezing.

 

We went to some of the shows. The production numbers seemed a little long. They could have used a small break since everything seemed to run together. We didn't see any of the comedians or the magician. We did watch the juggler, he was excellent.

 

Because of bad weather, we ended up just hiring a driver in Jamaica to show us around. We couldn't tender in the Cayman Islands because of rough seas. Three ships were allowed to tender at the alternate port, but the Conquest wasn't lucky. We were allowed to tender off a medical case there though. The comedian also couldn't board the ship there so they had to scramble for activities. They added an improv show in the afternoon which was humorous. The sun finally came out in Cozumel where we had only planned on shopping. We tendered there also. We got there early (7:30) but they didn't start calling tender sticker numbers until 9:15. We were told 30-45 minutes and it ended up being 1 1/2 hours before ours was called. I wish they could estimate better.

 

Our overall impression is we aren't Carnival people. We enjoyed our Royal Caribbean cruise so much more than this one. The Conquest is a beautiful ship but the lack of activities and many other reasons will mean we won't be using Carnival again. We'll still cruise, just not with them.

[cruisinbuddy]

but Carnival did send us to the non-US citizen line and we just walked up to it. We even finished checkin before our friends. Then when they let people on the ship, we just got to cut in line and get our picture taken, then straight on.

 

Non US citizen line, I've never heard of this. I'm on the Liberty in Jan. and from Canada, does that mean we will be boarding with a different line than the rest?

[BrendaB1]

but Carnival did send us to the non-US citizen line and we just walked up to it. We even finished checkin before our friends. Then when they let people on the ship, we just got to cut in line and get our picture taken, then straight on.

 

Non US citizen line, I've never heard of this. I'm on the Liberty in Jan. and from Canada, does that mean we will be boarding with a different line than the rest?

 

Yes. We had Canadians with us on recent Conquest cruise & they were sent to a different (Non US Citizen) line & were onboard before us.

 

To the OP....sorry you didn't like Carnival. I just sailed Conquest, for the second time & loved it. Our weather was great so that does make alot of difference.

[TexasAlexus]

Sorry to hear that your cruise wasn't as good as you had hoped it would be. I do think that bad weather can really "dampen" the mood of a cruise and effect your whole perception. I hope your next cruise will be much better. I look forward to reading your review. We are sailing on the Conquest in 3 weeks. By the way, how does one become a member of the Carnival Vacation Club?

[DqALEX]

Thank You for your review. IMO tendering is a necessary evil in cruising. I would rather tie up at a dock any day of the week. Im going on the legend over New Years every port is a dock.

[treinke]

You can't miss the sales pitch for the vacation club on the cruise. I don't know if you can join beforehand.

[zeke11]

Cozumel is still a tendered port?