Conquest Review 1/20-27, with baby. LONG!!

[vettecruiser1]

Day 1- Left Dallas at 6:00, was hoping to be on the ship around 11:00. First time driving with the baby so we had to make a few pitstops. Got to the pier round 11:45 and dropped baby and wife off with luggage and went to EZ to park. No problems, except Voyager was making the EZ parking a little more crowded, so had to wait in a line for about 10 minutes. Since I had already dropped the luggage off I just walked the 1 block back to the cruise terminal. Good thing because the people under the tent waiting for the bus, said it was about 30 minute wait. Lots of people waiting to take their luggage to the terminal. Waiting in a short line with wife and baby before going inside, line went really fast. Then up the stairs to secruity. This line was the only long line we experienced. We waited for about 5 minutes when a terminal employee asked for me, wife and baby to come through the VIP check-in line. Perks for having a baby!!! So the long line only took us 5 minutes, but i'm guessing had we stayed in the line we would have taken about 30 minutes. Then on to get the sail and sign cards. Less then 5 minutes to do this. Looked at the sign cards and they changed our seating to late. This will be impossible with a baby, so we entered the ship and found that the Matre-D would not be available until 1:30, so up to the LIDO for lunch. We were having lunch by 12:45, not bad. Back down after lunch to change seating assignments. Everyone in line was complaining about everything. It seems that anytime we were standing in line or waiting for an elevator someone was complaining, I will come back to this in a minute. Well, once it was our turn to talk to the Matre-D, we did not complain or say that they were ruining our cruise with late dinner. Just that we would not be able to attend any formal dinners if we could not be able to change to something earlier. He took one look at our child and said since we talked to him like a rational couple he would have a table for 2 set up with a high chair and that he would have the hostess come and talk to us tonight about special meals for the baby. Problem solved. Time for the room, we booked a balcony on level 8, 8269, 4 rooms down from the elevator. Perfect location. Balcony is a must with a baby!! We entered the room to find a platter of chocolate covered strawberries and other sweets waiting for us and a $15 voucher for a photo, compliments of the Casino. I signed up 2 weeks before the cruise on the Ocean player website, to obtain this(FYI). Went to dinner and hostess asked what vegatables we would like mashed up for the baby and that she would let the chef know to rush our orders through in case the baby got fussy. This was great. It took the baby 1 day to get used to being on the ship and after that everything went smooth. Dinner was at 5:45 and we were alway done eating dessert by 7:00. Time for bed time for the child. I watch him during the day and wife watches him at night since I like to gamble. Up to the casino to shot some craps. I asked to be rated, the pit boss says that you have to play at $25 per bet. I said I usually start slow but will gamble alot. They said no problem, but would like to watch before they starting rating me. I played for about 4 hours and cashed out with $400 starting with $200.

 

Day 2-Everybody up for breakfast by 7:00. Took sometime getting to know the ship. Still a little cool outside. I like the RCCL ships a little better due to more decks to get you from one end to the other. Conquest you either have to use a cabin, Lido or Deck 5. I also like the use of glass on RCCL ships. Conquest felt a little closed in with a few bottleneck areas. Took the baby up to the Camp at 12:00 for babysitting

me and the wife went down to the casino to shot some dice. After 2 hours cashed out with $150 starting with $100. Wife cashed out $105 starting with $100. Went to go pick up the kid ($6 an hour, pretty good price) still a little chilly, so no pool time today. Nap time, glorious nap time. Get ready for formal dinner. Same as before, perfect, except this time, some ladies that were sitting next to us said they were having Grandparent withdrawal and asked to hold the baby. No problem, take him we said. Well, I guess they had lots of friends because baby made his rounds around the dinner room everynight after this because of a lot of grandparents were missing their children. My son got lots of love at dinner time. Time for bed time for mommy and baby and time for me to go shot some dice. Now the casino people now I'm for real when it comes to gambling so that start to call me by name. I have no idea if i'm being rated yet. During one of the rolls a player ask to talk to the pit boss because he says the dealer are being rude, then he goes on to complain about long lines and his lobster being to small. Pit bosses handle him very cordially, but nothing was making him happy and he was cussing a lot. Since I was standing next to him they ask me if I would like anything to drink. Of course not to turn down a free drink, I take them up on this offer, well this offer was good for the rest of the cruise. Anytime I ordered the drink the casino took the charge as long as I was gambling. They extended this offer to about 5 of us regulars at the crap table that were betting either a lot of money or was spending a lot of time at the table. Cashed out with $600 started with $400.

 

Day 3- Another sea day, nice a warm now baby went to the camp and me and the misses went to the shot some dice. I lost $200 and wife lost $105. At 2:00 picked up the kid and grabbed his little pool and off to get some sun. A perfect afternoon. Then time for a little nap and off to the Return guest party. It was a little crowded in here, but when they are offering free booze, people will show up. They were being strict about the invitation. We saw lots of people turned away. Dinner and Gamble time. This was a good night. Cashed out $1100 started with $400.

 

Day-4 Jamaica. The baby went to camp from 8-12:00 and since I had a good night in the casino. Me and the wife spent the whole morning in the Spa. We had all kinds of different treatment in 4 hours and it was wonderful. Then picked up the baby and went to the pool. Not a big Jamaica fan so this was a good day. As we were getting to leave a 13 person (children) band came out to play. They were great. People were showering them with money from their balconies. Dinner again. Another good night in the casino. Cashed out $1500 started with $500. Everyone tonight made money, even the dealers. The table was packed and I think even the small betters were cashing out for at least $500.

 

Day-5 Cayman. Baby to camp in the morning,and we went to Royal Palms for some beach time. Came back picked up baby and back to the pool. Dinner and gambling. Cashed out $600 started with $500. Now I know I'm being rated because they are asking everytime I cash out how much and I see them keeping a chart of me and few other players.

 

Day-6 Cozumel. Baby to camp. Time for some shopping and yard long drinks. Got back everybody including the baby wanted to nap. Then up to the pool again, by this time everyone starting to call my son by his name when they see him. They don't know my name or my wife's name but they know my son. Except in the casino they know all of our names in there.:p Dinner and gamble. Cashed out $200 started with $500.

 

Day-7 Just a sea day and getting ready to pack and go home. Started getting cool and raining so no pool. Watched a show, went and tipped the Camp counselors for a fantastic week. Dinner and gamble. Cashed out $400 started with $700. I asked how the rating worked, because it was not like they were going to comp my dinner or room since you know that is already taken care of. They told I should get something in the mail or on my next cruise I would have some more stuff in my room and some on board credit. So I guess I have to book another cruise now.

 

Day-8 Disembarkation Well, this day started a little slow due to the fog. It was really like pea soup. Ships horns were going off everywhere. They made annoucements every hour and said that the airport were socked in also so not to be worried. We were close enough to land to use cell phones so a lot of people just moved the flights. Well it was getting close to lunch so we gotta another meal out of the cruise. We docked about 12:00 and we were off around 2:00 and through customs by 2:15 . This went very smooth. Galveston or at least the Carnival has this down a lot better the the RCCL terminal. The porter helping us with our luggage said it was because our building was larger and had more customs agents. People for the next cruise were all over the island waiting for the parking lots to empty. I know it was going to be a bad start for them, but hopefully all will be forgotten once they got to go on board.

 

Comparision.

Ship layout-I give this to RCCL. I like the bigger atrium and glass. Also the Decks in which the dinner rooms are located cause you to have to up and around them and then back down. Also I like to be able to walk around on the outside deck under the life boats, Carnival was always keeping this deck closed off.

Food-Carnival. Their food was great, easy to understand menus.

Past guest perks-RCCL, I did have a gold card, and this might change with Ocean players perks that I only get on Carnival.

Embarkation-RCCL. For some reason RCCL knows how to get people on their ships fast. If we did not have the baby It would have been over an hour to get on the Conquest.

Disembarkation-Carnival. For some reason RCCL struggles in Galveston unloading their ships and Carnival is very efficient.

Pool deck- RCCL and Carnival. I like the bigger pools on RCCL but the Conquest pool is plenty big and they always had to roof retracted on the other one which was good.

Dinning rooms- RCCL dinning room is more classy and does not cause to decks to be divided and hard to navigate.

 

Well that is about it, if you have any question I will try to answer, I would like to try and cruise the Spirit class on Carnival, I hear those are wonderful ships. I'm not to picky and I love to cruise, it always what you make. Even with an 8 month old we had a wonderful time and will continue to sail when ever we get a chance on any cruise line.

 

With that being said ""come on Galveston or who ever is in charge and bring us more option back to Gaveston.""

[connergirls]

Thanks for posting your review. Glad you had a good time :)

[billsrobb]

Great review. Honest comparison. Congrats on winning some money at the Casino. Making my second voyage on the Conquest Feb 24th. Looking forward to it.

Robb

[SoonerOne]

Thanks for the great review! Very informative and easy to read. Glad you had a good trip and it was nice to see you handled the fog with a positive attitude.:)

[*Mach*]

Great review... loved it!

 

That must be one cute baby!!

 

Congrats!!

[IndyGirl]

Great review, thanks! We had the same thing happen to us on the Conquest, we had taken our three year old grandson. Everyone knew his name! Getting out of the dining room in the evening was an event, everyone wanted to talk to him guests, and staff/crew.

[Jebiford29]

GREAT review. A couple of quick questions re: babysitting:

Did it make you a little nervous to leave the little one while you were at different ports? Does the pager they give you have enough range for actually leaving the ship?

 

Just curious, as DW and I are considering taking our 6 month old on a quick 3-4 day cruise in the next couple of months.

[Cruisin' Ron VA]

I found the ocean players club website, at least I think it was the right one.

 

You said you signed up two weeks prior but the website says you have to do so online.

 

How do I sign up online?

[suzbcruiser]

Thanks for the great review. Good to know about the Oceans Player Club. I will definitely sign up!

[Perini3]

Thanks for the review, we can't wait to go. Randy and Tami

[vettecruiser1]

Babysitting. No the beepers do not work once you get off the ship. Since it never went off the first 2 days, the staff encouraged us to enjoy some port time. They take really good care of the babies, everytime we went to pick him up there was always 2 or 3 staff playing with or he was asleep on one of their shoulders.

 

Players club. You go online and click on the sailing again tab. Put in your cruise info and for you past number just put in 9 zeros. You will get an email in about 4 days confirming your sailing.

 

Have fun!!!