MsJersey84

In your stay at the Fairfield do you feel that there was enough close by ie) restaurants/stores las Olas blvd/17th Street or brightline station that someone could go without renting a car & use either Uber, train or walk to area stuff?Also did I miss it, What deck was your stateroom cabin on?

Hi Mecruisin,

I might have forgot to put my cabin number but I was cabin 2343 the main deck. As far as the hotel I do feel there are plenty of restaurants, shops and other things to do within walking distance of the hotel. You would just need to Uber to the port.

By 3pm we were saying our see you laters to Carley and Matt and finally heading down to our room. For those of you wondering you can actually start entering your room at 1:30pm, but I was having way too much fun with Carly at 1:30!! Anywho back to the room.. In my 4 cruises this is my first time that I was very disappointed in our room steward upon arrival.Our room steward for the week would be Sudi. When we first got to our room there were 3 or 4 dirty used cups in front of our door so we couldn't even get in the room. Once inside I was dying to use the restroom so I use the laboratory to only find out there is no soap anywhere in the restroom to wash your hands.. Umm so gross.. The only thing I could find since our luggage had not yet arrive was shampoo.. That's right even the body wash they provide was empty. We started taking pictures of the room for the review and that is when we noticed the 3 drawers they provide you in the little desk\ dresser was full of hair and trash like it hadn't been cleaned in months good thing I brought bleach wipes but too bad they were in our luggage. But believe you and me the room was fully cleaned later once the bags arrived.

The Redfrog Rum Bar Menu

After we finished our food we decided we wanted another round of drinks after all they are paid for..

** Real quick side note about the cheers package when in port there is a small tax on each individual drink which is not included in your original drink package price. Also please be aware of the tip line on your receipt print out after each drink this line for cruisers with cheers is understood to be the additional tip line because your regular gratuities is included when you purchased your cheer package.**

This time around we both went to the Rum bar. I got a Kiss on the Lips which was not one of my favorite cocktails. It was just way way too sweet and that is weird coming from me because I love drinks that are sweet. I want to taste the fruit\ sweetness and not the alcohol in the drink but I want to feel the alcohol. Nick got a Carnival Paloma which he said was really like a breakfast cocktail because all you can taste is the taste of grapefruit.

Kiss on the Lips

.

Paloma.

After walking the Lido and taking in some of the sight, Nick noticed that it was 12:50pm and his Bengals game was about to start at 1pm and he wanted to go to the SkyBox Bar on deck 5 to see if his game had made it on one of the big screens in the sports bar. So off we went. The Sports Bar was full we were able to find two seats by a couple we befriended and looked for through out the cruise to see how their day was going. Their names are Carley and Matt. This was their first cruise ever. Nick's Bengals game was not on the screen so he put his headphones on and started to watch the game on his phone and Matt's golf game was not on the big screen either so he put his earphones on and started to watch his game on his phone. So Carley and began to talk. I informed her of all the do's and don'ts of cruising and all the secrets of cruising. I talked to Carley until about 3pm, by the end of the conversation she was telling Nick you are married to a Cruise Encyclopedia. She was not the only person to call me that by the end of the cruise. LOL. I wear that title proudly!! I am a big cruise critic reader and google researcher.. My only complaint about the SkyBox and this was Carley Compliant too was they literally only had two cocktails on the menu. So I just ordered a traditional Margarita. Sorry I don't have a picture of the menu and I forgot to ask permission from Carley and Matt to post their picture.

We are no newbies to this game. Once on board we headed straight for the elevators and right to deck 9. THE LIDO! (All in all we were on the Lido by 12:15 pm) As soon as we enter the elevators I notice a face I knew.. Her name is Gina and she has been apart of my Carnival Conquest Facebook group. When she saw my face she knew who I was right away! We had reached our floor so we said our see you laters and departed. Nick and I once on the lido deck walked up to deck 10 and took a picture of us with the port in the background.

After that we ran right back down to the Lido and got in line for our first of many Guy's Burger with all the timings.

Nick was so happy to have his guy burger I didn't get a pic of his. Once we had our burgers and fries we found a seat right by Guy's Burger and The Thirsty Frog Rum Bar. We put our plates down covered them with a towel, along with our shades. Since you don't get your sail card until you get to your mailbox we had to use our passport and boarding passes to use our cheers program. So Nick handed me my boarding pass and passport and he ran over to the Rum Bar to get a Thirsty Frog Beer but it was not finish brewing so he had to settle for a Blue Moon instead. I ran over to the BlueIguana Tequila Bar for my favorite Carnival cocktail, a Red Caribbean Colada. This will be the first of many Red Caribbeans'. We met back up at the table to eat our food and our newly fix cocktails.

BlueIguana Tequila Bar Menu

Embark Day is Finally Here: Sept 23

The alarm went off at 8:15am I turned to Nick and yelled what day is it?? and he says quietly cruise day and I replied no and yelled happily in my best Jenny voice "Its' Cruise Daaay" while throwing my hand and arms and in the air and waving like I just don't care!!! We are big fans of the La Lido Loco YouTube channel. Jenny and Toni are always yelling it's cruise day!! We quickly showered and get dress and we were off to the 1st floor for the hotel's included breakfast. The breakfast line consist of sausage, bacon, eggs, waffles, biscuits and gravy, some other little pastries, fruit, oatmeal, yogurt, juice, milk, tea and coffee. After our light breakfast because we were saving room for our first Guy Burger we went upstairs packed our things and we were off to our offsite parking place. As we were driving Nick and I turned up our two favorite lets get hype songs! Mine is "Best Day of My Life" by American Authors and his is "We made it" by Linkin Park and Busta Rimes. We are well diverse music listeners.

We found a great deal online with Park by Port Fort Lauderdale. We pre-paid $46 for our 6 day parking which included transportation to and from the port. The vans run every 15mins to and from the port. This company uses the back couple of rows of a near by casino. The parking lot is gated and well lit. I had no problems leaving our truck here. Check-in was fast and easy. About 15 mins after arriving we were loaded on a full van and on the way to the port.

CARNIVAL CONQUEST WE ARE ON OUR WAAAAAAY!!!!

We arrived at the port just in time for our 11:30am check-in time.. We tipped our van driver, handed our bags and tip to the port bag handler, took a picture or two of the conquest. And into the port building we went..

Oh Yeah!!

Once inside the building there was an older gentleman that pointed you to one of two lines to go through the detectors and to get checked-in. One line was for on-time check-in cruisers and the other line was for early or late check-in cruisers. We were escorted to the line on the left for the on-time cruisers. We went through the short line for the detector and in no time at all we were in the zig, zag lines to check in. We went up and down the lines for awhile and when we finally got to the front of the line there was a gentlemen that told you what counter to go to, to check-in, but instead of him telling us what counter to go to to check-in he looked at our passports and boarding pass and told us to head up stairs to the final security point before entering the gangway. A small panic set in and I told Nick why did he by-pass our check-in they didn't take our picture for our sail cards and what about loading money on to our card.. Nick just kissed me and told me don't worry about it because we are going on the ship and who cares if they have our picture or not and if we have money loaded on the card because we have the drink package and don't need money anyway.

Shortly after his please just breathe talk we arrived at the next security point where the woman asked for our boarding pass and passport again she picked up her tablet thing and said smile. Within two seconds our pictures were taken and she said you can add cash once aboard the ship, please proceed to the gangway.. Thank God panic averted.. LOL..

The excitement is building in our bodies we can see the gangway right down the hall we start to pull each others arms in excitement.. We begin to walk faster and faster.. There is no line so we go full speed ahead. We reach the end of the hallway and onto the gangway.. We begin to start the incline to the ship's deck there is still no one in front of us so we keep high tailing it.. Right before we reach the top of the gangway there is a short stop.. And all of sudden we are moving again.. I raise my foot and place it over the threshold of the Conquest deck!!!

We finally Made it!!!

My wait is over!!! Then we step over the threshold of the ships door into the Atrium of the Carnival Conquest our home on the sea for the next 6 days!!! This really is the happiest moment for every cruiser in my book!!!

For our appetizer we had the Hollywood Sushi because we love crab!! For our Entrees I ordered two appetizer for my meal the Lolipop Lamb Chops and the Jumbo Lump Crab Cake. Nick had the Orange Honey Glazed Salmon.

Hollywood Sushi

Crab Cake

Lamb Chops

Orange Honey Glazed Salmon.

Nick thought the salmon was a good flow of flavors and said it was good. He also said he wished he did like me and got two appetizers: the Hollywood Sushi and the Calamari. By far his favorite dish was the Hollywood Sushi! We both loved my Crab Cake which was fresh and seasoned well and the Lolipop Lamb Chops were also good. While we were eating I ordered one more drink a Bellini.

After placing my Bellini order Nick and I noticed that just to the right of our table one of the big parties were leaving but they weren't just walking out of the restaurant they were boarding one of the party member's personal mini yacht.. We looked at each other and said at the same time" show offs" and broke out laughing.. Honestly that was a cool sight to see we enjoyed the moment. Right as my Bellini arrived a water-taxi pulled up letting off some more party goers ready to dine. Overall we had a lovely evening out at Shooters we would recommended them and revisit them again.

We woke up from our nap around 7:15pm because we had an 8:30pm reservation at The Shooters Waterfront Restaurant which according to google maps is about 15mins from our hotel. We were showered and dress and out the door by 8:10pm. We arrived at Shooters around 8:25 and paid $5 for valet parking. Shooter is a very popular waterfront restaurant with outside and inside sitting.

Upon check-in at shooters we found out that even though we have a 8:30 reservation for outside sitting on the waterfront there will still be a 20-30 min wait and that they would text the number our reservation was under. After 25-30 mins of me impatiently waiting I told DH we have waited long enough and what is the point of a reservation if you still have to wait a while for table. So he went back to the hostess stand about 10 feet away, where we found out that they actually forget we were even there.. REALLY LADY!!!! You are so lucky that DH walked up to the hostess stand and not ME! I am not one for yelling but she would have definitely heard a mouthful.. But I just closed my mouth let DH do the talking and reminded myself, you are on vacation do not let anyone take your joy.

We finally got our table on the waterfront.

Once finally at out table we were greeted right a way, by our young male server. As soon as he was done with his greeting and tell us the specials of the day and the new beers they had on draft I quickly took him I would like a mango mojito to help remind me we are on vacation. Nick decided that he would try the new draft LaRubia Beer. Once the server walked away Nick and I realized why the wait was so long. There were at least 3 tables with parties of 10 or more people in addition to the normal follow of business..

Also a question I would like answered, as I’m looking for a hotel for a family cruise, and our usual hotels on 17st May be too pricey for some of my family.

Hi Grandmarnnurse,

This hotel is great for families!! We saw many families with children all ages during our stay.. Many of those same families come to find out were cruising as well.. As far as pricing for this hotel I am not sure how affordable it is because I have a family member that works for Marriott so he took care of everything for us.

If you have any other questions you know where to find me.

MsJersey84...I have been waiting to ask someone who has stayed at the Fairfield/Las Olas. How was your stay, was the hotel in an area that we could take a walk, and what was the area like? I have it booked for our over night stay next May. We will be arriving at 6:30pm on Saturday night and not boarding the ship until at earliest 3pm on Sunday(ship doesn't leave until 9pm Sunday night). I am trying to find out if the Fairfield would be a nice place to spend the evening on Saturday and have something to walk to on Sunday until we can get on our ship. What do you think?

Hi Lasvegascruising,

Thank you for following along, I have made a post all about the hotel and its area below if you have any other questions please just let me know

Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriot Las Olas check in:

We arrived at Fairfield Inn around 4:30pm.

To find where to park to do check in was a bit tricky because they are doing construction near by so the actual street that you must turn down to get to the hotel stated street closed.. Just ignore that and all the workers. lol. Check-in was simple and easy.. You also have to pay $20 if you want to park in there secure parking garage.. I am so sorry for some reason I dont have any pictures of the room because we were so sleepy and just wanted to take a nap before going out to dinner.. But I will try to be as detailed as possible.. Parking is on levels 1, 2, 3. Rooms are on levels 4-8. We stayed on the 4th floor right next to the roof top pool area. This hotel has only been open for about 3 mos so everything in the room with perfect.. The bathroom was spacious with granite counter tops. My only compliant about the bathroom is the water doesnt get very hot.. Hot enough for hubby but not me. The room has a coffee bar area which is complete with a Keurig, microwave, and mini fridge. There is a full length mirror along with a large writing desk and chair. A large dresser with a flat screen tv sitting on top. The room has a small closet which houses an iron board and iron. The beds where all white (sheets and comforter) and comfortable.. To me your regular hotel room nothing fancy.. But nice nevertheless.

Lets talk about the area around the hotel: The hotel itself is about 3 miles from the port but in Ft. Lauderdale traffic it took about 10 -15 mins to drive there. There is plenty of things to do within walking distance. There is a street called Las Olas Boulevard which is the next parallel street over.. It has all kinds of restaurants, coffee shops, bars, taverns, shopping. Its like a long New York City block just full or things to do.. All within a 5 to 6 min walk from the hotel. Everything stays open to atleast midnight. The area to me seem very safe everyone was out just enjoying an evening with friends.

If you need to know anything else about the hotel just let me know!!

Next: Our last event of the evening before Embark morning!!!

Thank you everyone for all the great support!!

How did you like the jet ski, did you drive, too?

Love the jet ski, but too afraid to drive just sat back and let hubby do the driving the views were great.. Maybe be next time I will drive.

We arrived at the Surf & Ski Water Sport around 11am that is when I decided that I need a nap before the Jetski's when I woke this is how I found DH. I hope he was in deep thought about planning our next cruise. Maybe a birthday cruise for next year!! Oh how I wonder!!

After my short nap we paid our fee for our one jet runner which was $65 for 30 mins. This was my first time doing Jetski's and I was too afraid to drive. Since our phones are not waterproof we didnt bring them but be sure I was holing on for dear life. I found a way to hook my big finger into Nick's life vest so if I went overboard he was coming with me.. Thankfully that never happened.. In certain areas the water was very very choppy so we stayed inland a little bit to be safe.. Nevertheless we had a great time.

Next Our Fairfield stay (Not much to say)

Panoramic view of the Boardwalk Bar

Cheers!!!

"Our rainy Sunrise"

We did a driver change around 4:30am and then another drive change because I hate driving in heavy rain around 7am. Just in time for DH to be like its not raining yet at New Smyrna Beach which is 15 mins away lets go watch the sunrise at the beach. He was right it wasn't raining once we arrived for all about 2 mins.. But a raining sunrise at the beach is better then a rainy day of work any day in my book. And we were off!! Along our way we past Port Canaveral where there was a Disney ship and a Carnival ship in port. We arrived at our first fun stop which was the Coco Beach Pier for breakfast around 8:30am. My husband found The Boardwalk Bar online a couple of weeks prior and thought it would be a nice place to stop and have breakfast along the way.. A little piece of advice if anyone wants to stop here, the pier parking charges you $15 but if you do hourly parking that is located on both sides of the pier you only pay $2.50 per hour so we paid for 2 hours. It was partly cloudy at the pier and windy but it was still a great morning view. The Boardwalk Bar is open air sitting, our server was Destiny. Nothing bad to say just your average friendly server. When we arrived at the Bar there were only 2 other couples there. By the time we left 2 hours later the place was packed and fully booming for Saturday breakfast.

Nick ordered a traditional Mimosa, Crab-cake Benedict with roasted red potatoes. I ordered a pineapple mimosa, with chicken and waffles. Nick loved his meal he said the crab was moist and tasted fresh. My chicken and waffles were bitter sweet.. LOL.. The chicken well seasoned hot and crispy. My waffles cold and tasteless.. All and all breakfast was good. The sun was coming out, tomorrow was cruise day and I was with my husband no complaints.

After breakfast we decided to take a long walk on the beach down the coast picking up shells and walking hand in hand. After about an hour we were off again.

Next stop Merritt Island

We sail on the Conquest in six weeks, so I will be following and look forward to everything you post. Thanks for sharing your Conquest experience. I hope you'll be sharing about the steakhouse or seafood shack because I am tired of MDR Carnival food!!

I am sorry we did not try either of those, the steakhouse house we googled the menu before hand and it just didn't seem worth it. The seafood shack never had a line but people were eating the buckets of shrimps. But if you are looking for something different last year on the Triumph my husband and I did the Chef's Table and it was worth every penny. It's a 13- course meal, wine is included. You go on a tour of the gallery and meets all the big chef's. We wanted to do it again this year but we found out they only change the exclusive menu every 2 years making it the same as last year. It will cost you $75 per person plus gratuities. But definitely worth it.

If you have any other questions I will be more then happy to answer them.

Ok I think I got it sorry for the delay.. Here is my half awake picture.

ok sorry everyone thanks for coming aboard.. I am going to figure this out and cont my review

Following along.

 

Also, it looks like you're trying to share your pictures from your Google Drive? You need to make them public so they will show up here. Otherwise, none of us will be able to see them.

Sorry this is only my second review can you please remind me how to make them public thank you for your help. I am using my google backup photos

A little Background:

This is my 4th cruise. I have sailed the Fantasy 2008, Fascination 2014, Triumph 2017 and now the Conquest 2018! We have a blended family that includes three children a 5 year old boy, an 8 year old girl, and 14 year old boy. We try once a year for us to take an adult only vacation, which has been a cruise for the 2 years we have been married. Thanks to me because I have cruise fever and can't get enough.. Oh well he know who he was marrying.. LOL.

My husband Nick is a production line worker for a bread company called Flowers Bakery. He works the bun line they make buns for fast food restaurants. I am a Manager at Steak N Shake. We both work 50+ hours a week. So you can imagine why we desperately needed this cruise.

Day 1: Travel Day; Sept 22

Our day started at 12:00am.. Well not really my day actually started at 5:30am the day before (friday) because the kids had their last day of school before their fall break and going to G-mommy house for the week. But any who.. We started loading the car at midnight, locked all the doors and windows and we were off by 12;15am.. As you can see in the picture below I can barely keep my eyes open good thing DH was taking first shift of the driving because I didn't even make it 5mins down the road before I was asleep. I had my pillow and my nice fleece blanket and it was lights out.. The last thing I remember was we need to get gas!!

I have waited a long 455 days and finally my long awaited cruise is finally here..

Hi Everyone my name is LaToya (33) and I will be traveling with DH Nick(36). The Carnival Conquest will be a cruise of many first for us. 1. This is our first time on the Conquest. 2. This is our first time sailing out of Port Lauderdale\ Everglades. 3. This is our first cruise having the cheers package. We spent way too much money on drinks our last sailing. 4. This our first time to Turks and Caicos and my Husband's first time to Dominican Republic. I have been with family since my family originated from there.. I am super excited to finally cruise and to be writing my 2nd review. So sit back, relax and enjoy the Carnival Conquest, Our day before drive from Atlanta, GA with stops at Coco Beach, Jet Ski fun at Merritt Island , our stay at the Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott Fort Lauderdale Downtown Las Olas the night before, and lots more fun with me. I promise to be detailed, add lots of pictures( food and drinks included) and try not to bore you to death. Lol. If you have any questions please ask away.

All I ask is for you to please be patient, stay positive and friendly!!

ALL ABOARD!!!!!

Garbage entertainment tonight. I don’t know why they have the comedians and dancers off the same night. Have the comedians off a night when the dancers have a big show and give the dancers off a night when the comedians have a full slate of shows. Let them have comedy in the main lounge that night.

 

 

 

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You are so right!! I don't understand why its so hard for Carnival to understand that concept!! Loving the review!! :rolleyes::rolleyes: