Conquest Hurricane Dean Review

[waiting4acruise]

Conquest Hurricane Cruise-August 19, 2007.

I went on this cruise with my DW 41 and DD 17.

Itinerary Change:

We received an email from Carnival that due to Hurricane Dean we would be missing the port of Jamaica. Also because the path of Dean could impact the Grand Caymans and Cozumel, the itinerary could be modified to the Bahamas. By looking at a map I pretty much knew there was no way we could port at Jamaica based on Dean’s path. My only question to Carnival why we could not port at Key West. The RCCL ship out of Galveston left on the same day as the Conquest was able to visit Key West before going to Grand Cayman. Carnival never explained why we could not go to Key West.

Hotel: We drove from Dallas to Galveston the day before. We stayed at the Comfort Inn on Seawall Blvd. The hotel was good enough for a one night stay. I was disappointed in that the balconies were not angled so you could see the Gulf of Mexico from the room. The highlight we had at the hotel was feeding the seagulls.

Embarking: There was another family we met through our roll call staying at the hotel. We were able to get a shuttle to take us to the terminal by 10:30am. I highly recommend in getting to the terminal early. We had a short wait before we checked in. We were given notices about the itinerary change. We did not have to wait in any lines. We were having lunch on the Lido deck by 12:10pm. The first thing I noticed from our cruise last year is that they serve you at the buffet instead of you serving yourself.

Sunday: The Muster Drill was at 4:15pm. Unfortunately the Conquest sailed away during the drill. We rushed back to our balcony room to see what was left to see of Galveston. We toured the ship and discovered they had water wars set up on deck 12. Our dining time was 6:15pm in the Renoir Dining Room. Our servers were great the entire week. The food was very good. The only complaint I had was the steak my DW got on Sunday and the one I got on Wednesday was very tough. We went to the Welcome Aboard Show. The CD, Marc Price is very good and funny. They had Mark Rubben perform. He did the same act as last year. He was alright.

Monday: When turned on CNN Dean went south of the Cayman Islands and was heading well south of Cozumel. It was conformed at the excursion talk that we would be going to these ports as planned. I am not a sun person. I was going to try to enter as many trivia contest as possible. My DW jokingly told me that Hell would freeze over if I won any trivia contests. Monday I did lousy. I am glad I was not filmed by the answers I gave. After dinner we went to see Karaoke in the Vegas Lounge. It was fun. However the lounge was too small for this event.

Tuesday: Due to Hurricane Dean hitting Mexico today the Conquest could not sail into the Caribbean. It had to slow down to 6-7 knots. This made the ship rock a lot. After participating in slot tournament, we ate lunch in the Monet Dining Room. My DW’s sea sickness got worse. She went to bed. After checking in on her I went to Turbo Trivia in the Toulouse Lounge. Amazingly I won!!!. Did Hell freeze over? Not exactly. However during the trivia contest a water pipe burst backstage. It flooded backstage causing the Not So Newlywed Game and the main show to be canceled. You all can blame me for this. Because of my wife’s illness I stead in the cabin and did not go to the Mardi Gras party that night.

Wednesday: The seas were much smoother and my DW was feeling much better. I went to trivia in Alfred’s Lounge. I noticed many of the same people play everyday. I lost again. After that I went to a shuffle board tournament on deck 11. It was fun. Afterward I walked around and noticed all of the lounge chairs on the adults only deck was stacked. Also they were putting in a mini golf course of the F deck. The workers said it will be ready for the next cruise. That afternoon I won the Match Game Challenge and Sports Trivia. Overall I won 3 ships on a stick and 4 medallions for the various trivia contest. That night we stayed in the cabin and washed clothes.

Thursday Grand Cayman: Since we did a stingray tour last year we did not have any excursions planned. All we plan to do was a little shopping. While at breakfast it rained. After it finished raining we went ashore. It was cloudy ant not to hot. After a couple of hours we went back to the ship. It was nice to have the Lido deck to my self. I went swimming and used the hot tubs before the crowd arrived. That night my wife went to the casino and I went to the late night R rated comedy show. Ronnie Bullard was very funny.

Friday-Cozumel: We went to Paradise Beach. My DD went parasailing. She had a blast. It was nice to lay in the lounge chairs with a bucket of beers. The nachos were pretty good . The water was murky. We had a good time. Next we did some shopping in town. Then it was onto Carlos and Charlie’s. We had a blast. The dirty monkey drink was great. Do not let pier being right there fool you. It is a long walk especially if you had a few (many) drinks at Carlos and Charlie’s. We heeded back to the ship .We went back to our balcony to watch the stragglers get on the ship. Sure enough the last came running down pier with about 10 minutes to spare. As fate would have it, it starting raining as they made it down the pier. We were very tired and missed dinner. I feel asleep around 10pm and did not wake up until 10am the nest day.

Saturday: We took it easy that day. I went to a few trivia contest. I did not win. That night we took the money we did not spent in Jamaica and went to the casino. Big mistake. LOL.

Debarking; We waited on the Lido deck for our number to be called. We heard all of the early numbers called clearly. However when our number was called we did not hear the announcement clearly. It could be music was playing in the speakers at the same time the announcement was made. Carnival needs to fix this problem. It caused a big back up on deck 3 in trying to get off the ship. Once we got to the terminal I got a porter while my DW and DD rounded up our luggage. The porter led us straight to customs. We passed a long line of people carrying their own luggage. We were in a cab back to the hotel by 10:15am.

My DD enjoyed the Teen O2 club. She said it was better than last year. She met many new friends. My DW loved our balcony. She loved sitting out there watching waves go by. She said we can never cruise without a balcony. She noticed a lot more staff on this cruise. They were very friendly and helpful. Overall we had a great time. We will try to post pictures in a few days.

We will be glad to answer any questions.

[Cruisin Dave]

Thanks for the great review.

[jakesplace]

Thanks for the review.

 

I think the reason you did not go to key west is that all the cruise lines were scrambling for ports.

these ports including key west can only handle so many ships. ( dock space, tenders, transportation)

another thing to keep in mine they would have to make this the first stop. if not and they were able to stop there everyone would have had to make customs, I pretty sure that key west does not have the customs infrastructure to handle this.

Also if they made this stop first and couldn't make grand Cayman or Cozumel they would have been in violation of Federal law.

No one including the weather service could predict this storms effect on the region. I noticed in two days the storms projected path change upward to 200 miles 3 times. This was a very fluid situation for everyone.

[waiting4acruise]

I had a feeling that was the reason we could not go to Key West. I know several people asked about this. I wished Carvnival was more forthcoming in relaying this informartion. I think some people would have been less upset about missing a port if they were given this information.

It did not bother me that we did not go to Key West. With the Dean situation I knew there was no where we could go while they assed the GC and Cozemel situation.

[CrazieNCruisingGypsy2]

Thanks for the review! I was wondering how it went for everybody last week.

[rhuntington3]

Nice review! Glad you had a good cruise. I'll be on Conquest on 9/23. I can't wait!

[turkeytoes75]

Do you know if you could rent jet skis at Paridise Beach? How much was the parisailing(spelling??)?Thanks

[CrazieNCruisingGypsy2]

Do you know if you could rent jet skis at Paridise Beach? How much was the parisailing(spelling??)?Thanks

 

http://paradise-beach-cozumel.com/facilities.php

 

Here's a link to the Paradise Beach Website. (You might already know about it). Under the FAQ there is a question about Jet Skis and the answer is yes. I didn't look very close but it might have prices on there if the OP doesn't know. You might also get the information for the Port of Calls forum. Here's the link to Cozumel: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=210

 

Hope it helps!

[Payd]

Great review. Thanks for posting!!

 

Payd:)

[waiting4acruise]

Do you know if you could rent jet skis at Paridise Beach? How much was the parisailing(spelling??)?Thanks

 

My DD paid $55 for 12 minutes of parasailing.

[wurzcruzin]

Great review and glad you had fun! It's our turn in 4 days.

[waiting4acruise]

Lets us know on how Jamaica looked after Dean.