First cruise ever; Carnival Conquest Review

Quick Background:

My wife and I turn 30 this year, I finished my Masters, and we have a 10 month old. We decided it was time for a fun trip. This was the first cruise for both of us, and the first time we left our baby overnight, so we decided to do it for 6 days!

We were on the Carnival Conquest from 7/15-7/20: Nassau, Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk, and Sea Day.

Faster to the Fun:

We purchased our cruise about 2-3 months out, and we had no idea what all the cruise lingo was. After some research, I'm typically frugal, I grabbed the FTTF that was still available. I have to say, thank god that we did. For $70, I can't see why you wouldnt purchase it if it's available. We flew from Pennsylvania to FLL airport the morning of, got there around 10:40. We took a Lyft to Port Everglades and walked into Terminal 19 about 11:45? Well we had a drink in our hands in the lobby by 12:07! The terminal was packed, and we literally went to the front of every line. I made the comment to my wife that it was worth the $70 just for the terminal line, which had to be at least an hour or more wait.

We used FTTF for tender to Half Moon Cay - went to the lobby, waiting for a group of people, and we were immediately taken down and loaded right on the tender.

Guest Services:

Man, this would be another reason to purchase. Of course there were times that the line was pretty empty, but we saw lines throughout the cruise 25+ people deep. We did stop there about 3 times to ask a question or two, but there was only ever one or two people in line for the FTTF/Diamond line.

Room:

We has stateroom 2255 with an ocean view. Going into our first cruise, we were happy with the size. Happy we had a view compared to inside, but inside would be fine to save money as well. We might do a balcony next time, but I also like to save money! Room steward/housekeeping did a great job, and no complaints.

Food:

Guys Burgers:

Burgers were pretty good, loved the toppings bar. The fries were awesome! I think we ate there twice.

Blue Iguana:

This was by far our favorite food spot on the ship. The tacos were amazing (fish, chicken, pork). The tortillas were so fresh. There was also a burrito and burrito bowl side, along with breakfast burritos in the morning. We ate here just about everyday in some form.

Pizza Pirate:

We kept saying we were going to eat here, but were so full from food and drinks. One night after a few too many drinks, we did make it up for 2 slices. It was very good, thin pizza.

We didnt test our the Seafood Shack or BBQ place.

Main dining room:

We had anytime dining. We typically eat dinner by 5pm at home, plus we liked the flexibility to come and go whenever. We typically ate between 6 and 7, and ended up really liking one of the waiting teams on day 2, so we requested them every other day. We are fairly simple people, but also like nice "fine dining" food one in awhile. The food was quite food, and I don't know who would complain about it. Every night had a wide variety of foods to try. Our waiter always recommended us food, and brought an extra appetizer every night for us to try that we didnt ask for. Favorite foods were probably the prime rib and pork chop. We also tried frog legs, escargot, beef carpaccio, etc.

Drinks:

We purchased the Cheers package after tons of research. It was about $250/ea for us. Drinks were basically $9 if you didnt get a beer, which was $6, and Alchemy Bar was $12. I didnt add up our statement yet, but I would say we at least broke even. We used the perks for specialty coffees, Vitamin Water, bottles water, etc. Even if we didnt reach it, it was so nice knowing that we didnt need to look at the prices to keep track of spending, we didnt drink a few drinks that we didnt like and didnt feel bad, and even "bought" a few drinks for people that we ran into that didnt have the drink package. No way could we drink 15 drinks, but met a few nice people along the way.

We like all of the bars. The bartenders did a pretty good job; granted it got pretty busy, so there were times we had to wait 5-10 minutes to get 2 drinks, but others where we just walked right up and got them. There was a pretty good amount of pool service walking around if you were around the pool area for a drink, so that was nice. One thing that we didnt do, but should have, was brought a landyard with plastic case for our sail and sign cards. I wasnt sure if we wanted it, people said you would look like a noobie, others said who cares, but we didnt really think of it. It would have been nice to keep them with us for drinks, but it wasnt a huge deal.

When it came to drinks, we drank a lot of frozen drinks because they were easy drinking by the pool in the heat! We didnt drink at all on the islands. We did realize that our stomachs felt funny after awhile, but likely was because of all the sugar in the drinks. We sprinkled in some Michelob Ultras, Greygoose and club because a nice clean favorite, and the Alchemy Bar was amazing! We went there a few nights, but we definitely got in some trouble one night that we had 3 before dinner. The drinks are strong, and made with very fresh ingredients! This is the place to go for good drinks.

Hub App:

The app is awesome. We used it so much, just to check what was going on. Turn on airplane mode, connect to carnivals wifi, and you could see everything that was happening on the ship, locations, food, drink, etc. If we were in a group, the chat feature seems great if needed.

Cell Phone:

Since this was the first time leaving our baby at home, we wanted to keep in touch. The plans were pretty expensive, but we have AT&T. They have an International Day Pass for $10 - when you use your phone, you are charged and can use it for 24hrs. We couldnt use it at sea, but were able to use it while in port or on the islands. For $20, we

were able to video chat multiple times a day to check in and see her.

Mobile Passport:

Again, similar to FTTF, this was a huge time saver until people figure it out. We had an 11:40 flight out of FLL, and was worried about getting hung up. Well we were at the port at 6, and able to get off the ship about 6:30 if we wanted. We grabbed a quick snack on the Lido deck, and walked off the ship about 645 with no line. In the terminal - wow, what a line already for customs. I showed the mobile passport app, and we must have saved another 1hr+. Straight to the front, 1 person in front of us, and outside we went! We grabbed another lyft and were waiting in FLL airport for a few hours, but we were happy just to be settled. For those that needs transportation, FLL to Port Everglades was about $6 with Lyft. I'm sure Uber was about the same, but I heard taxis are closer to $20.

Ports:

Nassau was just OK - we found a nice tour on Trip Advisor for $30/ea. It was about 3 hours, and took us to 6 or 7 stops. Atlantis, rum cake factory, distillery, queens steps, etc. We did that, and then just went back to the ship to enjoy it.

HMC was the most beautiful beach that we've ever been to. The sand was like powdered sugar, and the water was crystal clear. We bought $30 snorkel gear at Costco, and had a blast just swimming around for hours. The food here was pretty good as well, music paying, free beach chairs. After going to Nassau and Grand Turk, we wish we could have just stayed here for 3 days!

Grand Turk was very pretty in port, but we didnt care for the port too much. We tried to snorkel a bit, but there was so much coral and rocks that you needed to navigate around on for certain parts. Some of the other portions were a bit crowded. One thing I wanted to do, but we decided against it, was walk up to the shipwreck on Governors beach. We probably only stayed at this port for about 2 hours, and then enjoyed the food and drinks on the boat again!

Overall, we had such a great time. We will definitely be cruising in the future, and were very happy with the price and experience. We overheard some cruise snobs, complaining about everything. It is what you make it, and the CC forums here were also very helpful in making our first experience worthwhile.

Feel free to ask any questions!

Sounds like you had a Great time. :)

Glad you had a good time. You do have to pace yourself on the food and drinks. Stay thirsty, stay hungry. Thank you for the review.

So glad to read a positive review, especially from a newbie :)

Glad you had a great time, and now plan to take more in the future. It's called Cruise Addiction. lol

Thank you for posting your entire review at one time. So many poster's write a bit, stop, write a bit, stop. I know people are busy, but breaking up a review so much, drives me crazy. I can't keep up with posts written that way, so I miss the ending to a lot of reviews.

Yours was enjoyable to read. Come back soon.

So glad to read a positive review, especially from a newbie :)

 

Glad you had a great time, and now plan to take more in the future. It's called Cruise Addiction. lol

 

Thank you for posting your entire review at one time. So many poster's write a bit, stop, write a bit, stop. I know people are busy, but breaking up a review so much, drives me crazy. I can't keep up with posts written that way, so I miss the ending to a lot of reviews.

Yours was enjoyable to read. Come back soon.

Thanks. Well I had all these thoughts in my head, and wanted to get them out. I really want to be helpful to other new cruisers or people that have questions on FTTF, Cheers, Mobile Passport, etc. Its quite overwhelming, so I hope I can help at least 1 person out!

Nice review, glad to hear you both enjoyed the vacation. I'd love to hear more about this mobile passport. What exactly is it? How do you get it? How much is it? Thanks.

Nice review, glad to hear you both enjoyed the vacation. I'd love to hear more about this mobile passport. What exactly is it? How do you get it? How much is it? Thanks.

Its a free app to download. You scan your passport, verify all of the information, and then use it at customs coming back (I believe only Port Everglades is using it right now, but I'm not 100%). We got to the front of the line, and were directed to another agent, and their scanner wasnt working anyway. Luckily we had filled out a paper form just in case.

To be honest, I wish I took a picture of the terminals coming in and leaving for people to see the FTTF perk and mobile passport. We saved hours just from those two things.

Its a free app to download. You scan your passport, verify all of the information, and then use it at customs coming back (I believe only Port Everglades is using it right now, but I'm not 100%). We got to the front of the line, and were directed to another agent, and their scanner wasnt working anyway. Luckily we had filled out a paper form just in case.

 

 

 

To be honest, I wish I took a picture of the terminals coming in and leaving for people to see the FTTF perk and mobile passport. We saved hours just from those two things.

Good thing you didn't take a picture. It is illegal for security reasons. :)

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Nice review. Welcome to your new addiction. There's no cure, but booking the next one soon will help alleviate the symptoms.

The Conquest was my first Carnival ship. I loved the Impressionist art work.

Blue Iguana is my favorite too! Glad you had a great trip!

Its a free app to download. You scan your passport, verify all of the information, and then use it at customs coming back (I believe only Port Everglades is using it right now, but I'm not 100%). ...

From what I've read elsewhere on these boards, you have to scan/setup Mobile Passport within 4 hours of going through Customs. So (as I understand) it won't do any good to do it the night before.

Yep, AFAIK, Port Everglades is the only port so far that uses Mobile Passport. But this is one port where it is definitely needed -- until too many people get wind of it, maybe, but at Port Everglades almost any sort of improvement is a welcome one.

We sailed Conquest two years ago and thought the ship was "okay" to very nice. For one thing, we both agreed that the rock band in the Atrium was the best ever. But that might've been just a one-time or short-term thing, and as I said it was two years ago.

Congrats on your first cruise. My wife and I did that same itinerary in 2015 for our honeymoon. We have cruised on the conquest twice, and must say of all the ships we've been on, it is our favorite. Glad you had a great time.

Thanks for the concise review! We did the same itinerary on Conquest two years ago and our thoughts basically mirror yours...although we DID find surprisingly good snorkeling at Grand Turk out by the line, close to the ship and the pier.

Enjoy your newfound cruise addiction! When you can get a decent cruise for $100/night -- or a really good cruise for not much more -- why would you stay in a hotel that doesn't feed you well for free and doesn't move around and take you places? :)

What tour did you go on in Nassau can you tell me the name or give me a link. I would like to check it out.

What tour did you go on in Nassau can you tell me the name or give me a link. I would like to check it out.

Here is the link. For $30/ea, we were happy. You get to see a bunch of things, the tour guide was great, free water, and it doesnt break the bank for some other excursions. Nassau doesnt seem to be the best of ports from my findings, but it was enough for us.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147416-d8685939-Reviews-Tyrone_Wilson_s_V_I_P_Taxi_Tour_Services-Nassau_New_Providence_Island_Bahamas.html

From what I've read elsewhere on these boards, you have to scan/setup Mobile Passport within 4 hours of going through Customs. So (as I understand) it won't do any good to do it the night before.

 

Yep, AFAIK, Port Everglades is the only port so far that uses Mobile Passport. But this is one port where it is definitely needed -- until too many people get wind of it, maybe, but at Port Everglades almost any sort of improvement is a welcome one.

 

We sailed Conquest two years ago and thought the ship was "okay" to very nice. For one thing, we both agreed that the rock band in the Atrium was the best ever. But that might've been just a one-time or short-term thing, and as I said it was two years ago.

Yes, once we completed the mobile passport, you only have 4 hours. We filled out a paper card, but then completed the app when we docked at 6am. It takes 1 minute to fill everything out.

Here is the link. For $30/ea, we were happy. You get to see a bunch of things, the tour guide was great, free water, and it doesnt break the bank for some other excursions. Nassau doesnt seem to be the best of ports from my findings, but it was enough for us.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147416-d8685939-Reviews-Tyrone_Wilson_s_V_I_P_Taxi_Tour_Services-Nassau_New_Providence_Island_Bahamas.html

 

Yes, once we completed the mobile passport, you only have 4 hours. We filled out a paper card, but then completed the app when we docked at 6am. It takes 1 minute to fill everything out.

Thanks for the info. It's always nice to get it firsthand.

And I forgot to say before, congrats on completing your Master's and also on being a dad.

Thanks for the review.

Glad you had a great time on your first cruise!

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Very nice review. Thanks :)

And as others have said, "Welcome to the Addiction!" :D

Sounds like you had a good first cruise. Congratulations on your Masters degree!

Sounds like you had a good first cruise. Congratulations on your Masters degree!

We really did have such a great time, and keep talking about wanting to be back on it. We understand the addiction everyone talks about. We would love to go with other people, or we might bring our soon to be 1 year old with us. We're already looking into holiday time or spring 2018!

New to cruise, just booked this one! So I'm grateful for your review. I have no clue what FT is? And my next big question, do either or you get sea sick? This is a big concern of mine... how the cruise ports/journey "felt". Any help appreciated! Thanks

New to cruise, just booked this one! So I'm grateful for your review. I have no clue what FT is? And my next big question, do either or you get sea sick? This is a big concern of mine... how the cruise ports/journey "felt". Any help appreciated! Thanks

Great! I'm not sure whether I reference FT, unless you meant FTTF faster to the fun.

We bright Dramamine, but didn't need it. From my understanding, if you are susceptible to car sickness, you may get sea sick. There were definitely times that if you focused on the boat, you could feel it rocking a bit. If not, you really don't feel anything. Don't stress, enjoy your cruise!