Carnival Conquest Cruise Review 8/15/04- Part 1

[firemed892]

I was on the Carnival Conquest on August 15th- August 22nd. I went with my mother and fiancée. This was all of ours first cruise to go on. We arrived in New Orleans on Friday about 4pm so we could explore New Orleans since 2 of us had never been there before. We stayed at the Hilton Riverside for the cruise special for $99 a night. We had 3 people in one room so they added an extra $20. I do not know what kind of people have been leaving bad reviews about the Hilton Riverside, but they are crazy, it was one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed at.

 

On Sunday morning, we took a taxi to the cruise terminal about 3 minutes from the Hilton. Boy was she huge, the Conquest that is. We arrived at 10:30 and was able to get a skycap immediately. Off went are luggage that he said would be at our room by 4:00pm. We had nine bags and I made it easy and just gave him a $10 tip. We walked into the cruise terminal to discover all the beautiful yellow chairs. You will know what I mean when you get there. We walked right up to the counter for our sail and sign cards without any waiting. I had already done the fun pass online which sped up the process. This is where you present your passports, birth certificates, and photo ID and credit cards if you are going to use one. Then they take you to sit in the awesome yellow chairs. It was now about 10:45 or 11:00 and we waited for about 30 minutes. Then we were called to board the ship. We took our security/welcome aboard photo. This is just like an airport security, only one difference the medal detector is turned way down and you can get through with almost anything it seemed like. After that more security checks of Ids and Sail & Sign cards. We were on the ship at 12:00 exactly. Embarkation was no problem at all but I do suggest getting there before 11:00 since the crowds did get quite large.

 

 

Up to the Lido deck for the buffet via the atrium elevators. There is a lady you will get quite familiar with. I do not know what country she was from though but she kinda had a sexy accent. You will know what I mean when you get into any elevator on board. After we ate lunch, we went to see if our room was ready about 1:30 and it was. It was my fiancée’s birthday so I had Carnival decorate the room for her and it was great and just how I ordered it. For the rest of the day we got familiar with the ship and all of our bags arrived before 4:00 just like they said it would. At 5:15 we did the muster drill, that was chaos. At 6:00, yes I know I missed the sail away; I was getting a 50 minute massage. If I booked it the day of embarkation I saved $15. On to the 1st night of dining in the Monet Restaurant, which is in the rear of the ship, this is the only time when we really felt the ship moving. We had a very nice table. It was at table 334 and it was a window seat at the rear of the ship directly in the middle. Talk about some wonderful presentation of the table and food. We had to awesome wait staff. Our head waitress was named Saskia. She was from Slovakia. She made the trip that much better since we never had to worry about a thing. She was very informative about the ship and the food and she never once made a mistake. She knew what everyone liked to drink by the second or third night and the food was brought to the table in prefect order. After dinner, it was on to the Welcome Aboard speech in the Toulouse Lounge, which was at the front of the boat. Steve, the cruise director was a hoot. He would do something stupid just to make you laugh.

 

After

 

Day 2 & 3… Both of these were sea days. I loved the sea days because you were able to relax and enjoy the vacation. They had various things to do for entertainment: game shows, bingo (always had bingo), hairy chest competition, casino, pools were open and of course the bars and food. Loved eating in the dining room during the morning, day, and night. Monday was the 1st formal day. It seemed like the dining rooms were pretty full still on these nights. Took more pictures than I ever thought I would in my life. If you do not think you are going to buy any photos from the ship, think again. We went on thinking that we would not buy any but bought almost $200 in pictures. They are $20 for a 8X10 which is pretty expensive when you think about it at first, but when you think how much it would be to do on your own, it is not that bad. Just because you took the photo does not mean you have to buy it. I am more of a steak person so I ate steak every night, but there was lobster the first formal night. Also the first formal night they had the first Vegas style show, which was awesome. These dancers did not miss a beat. What else can I say about these days but wake up early and do everything you can. After the Vegas Show, a comedian named Phat Cat performed and he was hilarious. If you get a chance to see him, do it but a little note, he is pretty graphic and that’s why it was a rated R comedy show. On Tuesday, we tried the supper club, “The Point Restaurant.” It was a wonderful presentation of food, even better than that of the dining room. However, after you eat in the main dining rooms, if you think that this pretty fine dining already than I would recommend not going to “The Point.” If not have at it and enjoy, it is $25 a head and they leave tipping up to you. Wait staff was awesome and I tipped our waitress $20 for all three of us.

 

 

Day 4…. MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA… I have two words for you…BE CAREFUL!!! We arrived about 7:30 that morning but I was up about 5:00 and saw that we were close to the island. Once we ported, there was a Jamaica band playing for the cruise ship outside. Also there were Rasta guys outside taking pictures with everyone getting off the ship. We were not really trilled getting off the boat and going to far, so we went to the duty free shops and got some pretty go deals. After spending our money, we went back on the boat and enjoyed the day on the boat. Do not know if we missed anything good in Jamaica, but there were some mixed emotions later when people started returning to the boat. Whatever you do please take a cruise through the ship here. It will be worth the extra money since you do not know the people.

 

 

 

[CruiseSlacker]

Thanks for your review!

[willybegolfer]

Thanks for the review. I assume the Conquest staff GOT to you regarding Jamaica. I'm not sure if they are using fear to sell ship sponsered tours or if they are genuinely concerned. As it was, they had me worried sick, but all the good shore excursions were booked. As it turns out, we took a cab to Drs Cave Beach then walked to Margaritaville and caught a cab back. No hassles, no problems, no dope offers. All it took was being a little careful.

 

Glad you had fun.