Just Back From Conquest

[cruzalot]

We just returned from our cruise today. We had a suite on the Empress Deck and one couple travelling with us had an inside guaranteed cabin and upon arrival to the dock found out they were located on the Empress Deck also. This was our 9th cruise - 1 on Celebrity Mercury - 7 on various Royal Caribbean ships (Mariner being the most recent) and 1 previous Carnival.

 

We enjoyed our cruise, but were a little disappointed in some things.

 

First off, we loved our cabin. I'm afraid now that we will never be able to go back to a smaller cabin. I loved having the separate dressing area. The jacuzzi tub/shower was also nice. The mattresses were a little worn down, but I did like the comforter rather than the previous 'bedspreads'. We asked for an egg crate for the mattress but our cabin steward acted like she had never heard of them, so in a drawer under our sofa were 2 extra comforters, we spread them out under the mattress pad and it actually helped some. Also, loved the robes in the room. Ended up buying one of them.

 

Meals - We ate a late breakfast every morning up on the Lido deck at the buffet. We then ate dinner every evening in the Monet dining room. Here is where we saw the biggest difference. For no apparent reason, after the first night, we were moved to a different table. The people we sat with on the first night were very nice and one of the couples was in the cabin next door to ours. The asked if they offended us on the first night and we told them no, we just got a note left in our room that we had been assigned to a new table. We liked the second tablemates also, but we had an 'oceanview' table the first night and from then on we were smack dab in the middle of the dining room. Also, we felt 'rushed' from the time we sat down until we left (which on average was 45 minutes). I don't think we have ever been that hurried to order, eat and leave. Our orders were given to wrong tables or tablemates, we had entrees put in front of us while we were still eating appetizers, dessert menus handed to us while we were still eating entrees. We have never had this happen before. At first I thought - maybe we have a new waiter and he is just nervous, then my husband told me that the waiter told him he had been doing this for 11 years. Also, the menu didn't change a lot from night to night. Especially the dessert menu. I realize it is hard to feed that many people at one time, BUT, RCCL Mariner is bigger and doesn't seem to have a problem doing it. On every other cruise we have been on, even the previous Carnival, we always enjoyed our waiter and assistant waiter. We knew their names and they knew ours, took pictures on the last night, etc. I could not tell you our head waiters name. I remember our assistant waiter's name because we has the same name as our landscape contractor. I will say that our assistant waiter did try every night to remember our names, head waiter never attempted. If you had never sailed before, you might not notice it, but I did.

 

Shows - The shows that we saw, we enjoyed. There were 2 separate comedians. They each had an early show and then an adult show. While we normally enjoy the adult shows, this trip we actually thought they were funnier during their early shows. Sometimes swearing just for the sake of doing it really doesn't make the show any better.

 

Casino - Believe it or not, we actually came home with more money than we left with. We gambled every night (table games) and won money on 6 of the 7 nights. Even the ones in our group that play slots won. I don't think they won over the entire trip but every few nights they would hit $200-$300 jackpots - there again, I don't know how much they were feeding those machines.

 

Ports of Call - we have been to them all several times before so we really didn't do any excursions. I had wanted to go to the Sandals resort in Jamaica but it was sold out by the time we tried to book it. We met another couple who did go and they were extremely disappointed. They told us that the staff at the resort were almost rude to them. It seems like they said they ended up taking a taxi back to the ship before their time was up but I could have misunderstood them.

 

I do like Carnival's disembark process. They had the Lido deck buffet open for breakfast and you could stay up there until your number was called or you could eat in the Monet dining room. Also, you didn't have to be out of your cabin until 8:30 versus RCCL 8:00. Don't know about anyone else, but 30 minutes extra sleep on the last morning was a welcomed 30 minutes.

 

Spa - My husband had 2 separate massages during the cruise. At Jamaica they offered a spa package for $129 that was a massage, facial and something else; then on Saturday they offered a 50 minute massage, hot stone massage and a foot massage for $99. During his first massage on Wednesday the girl told him he needed a hot stone massage and to stop her sales pitch he booked it for Saturday afternoon at the price of $239. He cancelled it after he got back to the cabin and then on Friday night he read were he could get the same thing she offered, plus a foot massage for $99. SO, read the Capers and look for the specials.

 

If you have any questions, I'll be happy to try and answer them.

 

Looking forward to our Alaska cruise coming up in August on Holland America's Oosterdam.

 

Also, Carnival had NBC, CBS and ABC all through the cruise. It was a Denver broadcast but at least I could catch up on some news during the evening.

[robtx100]

Thanks so much for your review. It is odd that you were moved to a different table without requesting to be moved. Wait staff can be hit or miss on all cruise lines, sounds like you got a "miss" this time. Earlier this year on Voyager of the Seas, I believe we had the misfortune to receive the worst waiter and assistant waiter on the high seas. We asked to be moved, but were told we would need to move to late seating. We decided to suffer through it for the rest of the week. We actually were glad we didn't change after getting to know our tablemates better. They were fantastic and more than made up for the poor wait performance. Thanks again for the review.

[SoonerOne]

I am sorry about your dinner dining experience. It's just the opposite of ours on the Conquest. We were assigned the wrong dining time so we changed that and moved to the Monet dining room at our own private table. We had the most wonderful waitress and assistant. They knew our names and we knew theirs. They spoiled us rotten! If we tried something and didn't like it, they swooped it away and brought something else. We never, ever felt rushed. I loved the warm chocolate melting cake and they brought it out every night and added extra ice cream, 2 scoops! I had booked the Point Supper Club for the last night, but ended up cancelling them because we didn't want to have our last meal without our special wait staff.:D And, yes, we got pictures with them too. I can't say enough about Maya (head waitress) from Indonesia!!!

[firefly333]

Could you have changed your dining table back to the original table? That doesnt seem fair to move you FROM a ocean view table. I enjoyed looking out the window when I had one during dinner.

[linniewalston]

Thanks for the review..we leave June 1 and can't wait..do you by chance have any of the capers you could email me? If so glwalston@aol.com and I'm glad ya'll had a great time..Linda

[poptart]

Glad you had a good cruise.

 

Sorry about the lousy service in the dining room. I would have complained about being moved from the ocean view table.

Bad waiters are the luck of the draw on any ship or cruiseline.

 

We had our worst ever dinner service on the Glory. Horrible waiter and the assistant was worse. We should have complained but we didn't. Some of our group removed 50% of their tips. We didn't--but should have since it was so bad. We did put our experience on our comment card. We ate at the lido buffet several times for dinner on that cruise. We normally never do that.

[cruzalot]

Linnie - Sorry, I didn't save any of the Capers. If you have questions about specific days or things to do I might be able to help you though.

 

Poptart - We didn't reduce our tips. We still enjoyed the trip - just a little different experience this go around. I did fill out the comment card, but after sleeping on it, decided that once in a while everyone has an off week. The experience will make me think twice about using Carnival.

 

One thing I forgot to mention - when we boarded we had VIP boarding. We gave them passports, credit card and they in return gave us our 'sail' card. First night everything worked fine. Next morning I tried to buy a coffee and they said that the card wasn't activated. Off we go to the Purser's desk and they 'reactivate' our cards (getting into our cabin was never an issue). That same evening we order drinks at dinner and we are told again that card doesn't work. They had to hand write the receipt. We told the server that they had to reactivate the card that morning and he said maybe it wasn't in the system yet. That night when we got to our room there was a note in our mail slot that said our credit card did not have enough funds to cover the charges that we had incurred. Okay - this note upset me. We have a credit card that is paid off completely every month. It has a credit limit that is NEVER met. So off we go again to the Purser's desk - with worries that someone had gotten ahold of our credit info and gone on a shopping spree, only to be told that nothing is wrong with our credit card - they just forgot to run it through. I had given them all the information when I registered on-line, gave them the credit card at the Pier, gave it again that morning. In my mind it just could have been handled differently instead of a form letter that was completely misguiding.

 

Sooner - The warm chocolate cake was good. But on our previous cruises on different cruise line - the menus were completely different every night, which we enjoy.

 

Robtx - They had already moved our original table back to a table for 4; we enjoyed the second group of tablemates just as much as the first group. It just really didn't seem worth the trouble, just a little odd that they would move us.

 

Again, we are blessed that we have the opportunity to take vacations. This trip just had several hiccups that we had never experienced before.

[sabandmom]

Did you happen to notice if there were 4 dining times or just 2. Carnival is changing this. just wondering if the conquest has already changed.

Thanks for the review!

[CanTex]

I am sorry about your dinner dining experience. It's just the opposite of ours on the Conquest. We were assigned the wrong dining time so we changed that and moved to the Monet dining room at our own private table. We had the most wonderful waitress and assistant. They knew our names and we knew theirs. They spoiled us rotten! If we tried something and didn't like it, they swooped it away and brought something else. We never, ever felt rushed. I loved the warm chocolate melting cake and they brought it out every night and added extra ice cream, 2 scoops! I had booked the Point Supper Club for the last night, but ended up cancelling them because we didn't want to have our last meal without our special wait staff.:D And, yes, we got pictures with them too. I can't say enough about Maya (head waitress) from Indonesia!!!

Maya was our waitress too, during our cruise in March -- and I agree she was excellent!!! We never felt rushed, and she was great at suggesting items to try and anticipating our every need.

 

Wait staff WILL perform variably even on the same ship. You certainly can't generalize a single experience across all ships in the same cruise line, otherwise I would have left RCI behind long ago (I've never really had an issue with Carnival though). Rather than let an experience fester and ruin your overall cruise experience, take it up with the maitre'd as soon as possible. It's their job to deal with these issues!

[Grits53]

We had the very best wait team ever on the Conquest in Nov. 2006! We enjoyed Marius and Mehai so much that we requested to be seated at their table for every breakfast and lunch. When we board the Conquest next month, we will ask the Maitre'D if they are still on the Conquest, and if so, if it's possible to have their table. We would LOVE to see them again! However, I know it's doubtful that they are still on the same ship now. In fact, I think I caught a glimpse of Marius as he got on an elevator on the Ecstasy last Feb.

 

I don't recall the names of our waiters on the Conquest in Sept. 2006, but they also did a great job. It's probably "luck of the draw" as to how well you click with your wait team. After all, they are just people, and they are sure to have ups and downs in their individual lives, which affect their service from one week to the next. I wouldn't think Carnival would keep them, if there were several complaints about their service. I do hate that they moved you with no apparent reason. I think I would have approached the Maitre'D to find out what the reason was.

[Nuttycruisegirl]

Did you happen to notice if there were 4 dining times or just 2. Carnival is changing this. just wondering if the conquest has already changed.

Thanks for the review!

They are doing the four seatings now. I think it went very smoothly when I was aboard in April.

[douglinc@msn.com]

We were on the Conquest the week of 3-2-08 & had a great time, some of the best food we have ever had, enjoyed it so much we are going again on 8-24-08. Glad you had a good cruise.

 

Doug

[douglinc@msn.com]

Forgot to ask who is the cruise director now? Mark Price was on when we went in March but it was his last sailing.

 

Doug