Conquest & Voyager Fogged-In in Galveston!

[summergal]

Such a spirit you are Bob!!!

[iceshots]

Hay Bob...

 

Pick up a couple of bottle of Nassau Royal...that is the smmmoooothest

Rum you will ever taste!! and only available in Nassau.

 

JB

 

I agree with the recommendation that it is very smooth, but, I will correct it to say it is available in other places in the Bahamas as well. We have always brought back a couple of bottles every time we visited Freeport.

 

It is fantastic on ice. A perfect sipper for sitting on the balcony at night.

[Texas_firefighter]

Jay is on the Ecstasy now.... "Absolutely Brilliant!":rolleyes:

 

 

Jay is the best at what he does. We sailed with him on the Conquest and had a ball, but smart move by Carnival to move him over to the "party" crowd on Ecstasy where he is in his element. Packed lounge every night!

[bobstack]

Fellow cruisers:

 

Just finished late breakfast/early lunch, and are on the balcony, looking at the progress we're making. The service that Carnival has provided has been just the best, and we know it does not happen without a lot of effort from the whole CCL team. You will not be disappointed when you take your turn on the ship, and let the four winds (and the itinerary) carry you to your ports of call.

 

Oh yeah, we're still on vacation! The Gulf is beautiful and the sun just warm enough. Soon, it will be karaoke time, for the last time, with Miss Megan. And she'll set the right tone, just like your other performes, like Jay "Absolutely Brilliant!" has done for us.

 

Now it's off to watch the afternoon wake we're making! More from Conquest,

 

Bob and Donna from Dallas / Ft. Worth

Heading W, making 19 knots, less than 400 miles from Galveston

[sjn911]

Dear Bobstack,

 

This has been an absolute blast.

 

I really look forward to your post-trip synopsis.

 

I wanted to ask more about The King of Pop and didn't have to, thanks so much!!!

 

You asked about our trips...only once in 1992 to Nassau, Costa Riviera, Costa cruises.

 

That day was overcast, but the color of the water so interesting at a kind of empty Merv Griffen resort of some kind...this one aqua piece of water with no sun so visible.

 

I would love to watch a Man in the Mirror kareoke contest.

 

See Siedah Garrett's tribute on Youtube....she wrote the song...awesome performance.

 

Merry Merry Christmas...Happy New Year!!!!

 

sjn911...Sarah

[sjn911]

Perhaps the resort I was at is now Atlantis...loved all the details...Sarah

[cjkbleonard]

Is Chris still the cruise director?

[Texas Teen]

Did something happen overnight? The Conquest is just now docking! :eek:

[futaba951]

Did something happen overnight? The Conquest is just now docking! :eek:

 

Fantasy was late getting into Mobile yesterday, too. Maybe just something in the water. :)

[aprilivy]

I see you've been on Conquest and the Voyager - in your opinion, how do they stack up in comparison???

We've sailed Conquest many times - this ill-fated trip on Voyager was to be our first on RCCL.

[bobstack]

Fellow Cruise Lovers:

 

We are tied to the pier back in the Port of Galveston. The Captain told us yesterday afternoon that we would be at least 2 hours late arriving into Galveston. The reason: strong currents and head winds cutting down our speed. Also, it appears the Captain wanted to give us as long a visit in Key West as possible (more on that later).

 

We did not enter the Galveston Ship Channel until may 9:50 am or 10 am. That's when we passed Seawolf Park. The day here in Galveston is very clear. I see that the temperature is 46 degrees on the island, and the wind is light.

 

We are out of our cabin, but on the Lido Deck, watching from the Starboard aft of the ship. Conquest Cruisers are now on the sidewalks and in cars, making their way from the ship. We are about 3 hours behind where we normally would be, but we are still on Vacation, so no problem.

 

We have watched Voyager OTS drop all 10 port lifeboats for their drill. One of them slightly cut in front of the fuel barge, that was heading east to bunker fuel into Conquest. But the lifeboat cleared the way, and we are now taking on fuel for the next week's travels (but sadly, without us!).

 

The Captain told us yesterday that we were at the minimums for entering Key West (30 knot winds), and that he otherwise would not have made port at KW. However, in consideration of our delay and his desire to give us all a good and safe vacation, he entered the port. We had fog on the outer reaches of KW, but it cleared within the last few miles before the pier. I wanted to personally thank the Captain for making some important decisions during this week. Perhaps a lot was on his mind, because some of his family were sailing with him this week. What a determined group of men and women on the bridge, who brought us safely on vacation and back, so we could have these vivid memories.

 

We are listening for the normal debarkation announcements, but alas, there are so few! Chris Jefferson, our CD, announced debarkation for the self assist people and the early flight people. But that's been almost 20 minutes ago. Soon, those of us with luggage will get the word to start moving toward the forward staircase, so we can be land-lubbers again.

 

The last night on the ship included a Carnival special event. They call is the Legends of Carnival. What they do is recruit singers from karaoke to try-out for a 2 minute rendition of popular songs of such singers as: Sir Elton John, Madonna, Gloria Estefan, Garth Brooks, Britney Speers, Ricky Martin, and Frank Sinatra. All volunteer singers were well dressed in the garb of the singer, while vocalizing with the live ship's band a memorible song of that entertainer. I was so pleased with how Carnival offered them their few minutes of fame in the spotlight. I looked around in the large Toulouse-Lautrec Lounge, and all seats were taken, and people standing at the rear. I guest it was exciting to see what would happen with these adventuresome new signers. Again, we all enjoyed their performances, which took lots of preparation.

 

Oh, there were no volunteers for Gloria Estefan, so our karaoke hostess, Megan, had to do the honors. And of course, she was MARVELOUS! Everyone performed well, and some were gifted with strong, well pitched voices.

 

After the show, we listened to music in the Deck 3 lobby (Music and Magic, a couple), the Casino Bar Band on Deck 5 (a group from Manilla, AWESOME!), and the Henri's Disco for some lovers of music. Then we went to the Blues Bar wher Rudd, our new friend on the cruise, 'spelled the regular pianist for his rendition of The House of the Rising Sun, and, then sang his own words to the tune of The Piano Man. How some peopled are gifted! We enjoyed meeting him and his wife, Shari.

 

We are now looking out West along Harborside Drive, and see that the cars are lining up about 3 blocks, to enter the passenger terminal area. Yes, it's time for the next cruisers to have their dreams come true. And we hope you will have your dreams come true on blue waters, with warm clear skies soon.

 

We've enjoyed reporting life from Conquest, and hope you can share your stories with us on the boards. Looking forward to meeting you all soon!

 

Bon Voyage, y'all,

 

Bob and Donna from Dallas / Ft. Worth

On Conquest, at Galveston Pier, and sadly, preparing to disembark...

[Luluwa]

Bob

Thanks for all the awesome reports throughout the week. :D

[ItsAllAboutTheSass]

Bob - Thanks for the great review of your interesting week on the Conquest. I really enjoyed it as I sat on my recliner looking out onto the deck as the snow fell.

[sjn911]

Dear Bobstack,

 

Thanks once again...now I know all about the Mardi Gras stuff, the Legends Show, the longer cruise bigger ship music from your fun trip synopsis....it was so nice of you... so many details...superb.

 

sjn911

[Shewuf]

We finally sailed out of Galveston Monday afternoon. The fog was thicker than ever, and the captain honked the horn a lot. We couldn't see 10 feet off of our balcony. The Voyager didn't leave until Tuesday, and they had lost several hundred passengers, by then. We went to Nassau first, skipped Freeport, and then to Key West on Friday. About two hours into our Key West adventure, the torrential rains came - flash floods. All of the shops had sand bags in their doorways. We had to wade back to our shuttle in knee deep water, but we had just spent a couple of hours in Sloppy Joe's getting "fortified". We laughed our heads off the whole time. What else could we do? Even the captain later said that our cruise had turned his hair white. We got into Galveston around 10 this morning, so the Christmas cruise is already running late. Luckily, there wasn't a cloud in the sky for them, today. :o

[Radio Dude]

Hi All,

 

Rud here and wife is Shari. We met Bob & Donna aboard the Conquest and hung out a few times, including a couple karaoke sessions. But Shari and I mainly hit the piano bar where I was dubbed "Wilford Brimley". But maybe more on that later.

 

We were in the Renoir having lunch at a window seat at this time Monday afternoon. We watched the fog lighten and even saw a couple small vessels moving - including a barge. Then the mist started rising from the water. I wondered if that meant the fog was coming right back in after the rain had cleared it a bit.

 

As we were sitting, there came a rumbling and the wait staff all cheered. I guess it was the thrusters kicking in. Looking carefully I could see we were moving out into the channel. Nothing was happening with Voyager. Little did we know they wouldn't make it out until the next morning.

 

Shari and I hit the top fore decks - right under the fog horn. We heard what I guess was the Bolivar ferry a few times as we went around the east end of Galveston.

 

The fog was dense with little visibility but the Conquest just kept on moving.

[billsrobb]

Thanks again for all your reports this week

Enjoyed reading them very much

[Radio Dude]

Hey there!

 

Bob mentions my wife and I up thread and me (Rud) in Piano Bar comments below. I'm going to try to add our experience on the Conquest this last week to his messages. We, like Bob, just had a fun time and let the CCL crew mess with the details.

 

We had a starboard, forward cabin on deck 9 so in Galveston could see the debarcation proceedures. We hung in the cabin until 10:30 am or so after a light room-service breakfast. Then went astern to sit awhile mid-deck. We grabbed some bacon, eggs, and pastries to tied us over. (I still haven't eaten anything more from filling up all week on the cruise. You cannot go hungry on a cruise.)

 

 

We have watched Voyager OTS drop all 10 port lifeboats for their drill. One of them slightly cut in front of the fuel barge, that was heading east to bunker fuel into Conquest. But the lifeboat cleared the way, and we are now taking on fuel for the next week's travels (but sadly, without us!).

Ah, I wondered what was going on. I heard the Voyager horn go off but couldn't see from our balcony.

We are listening for the normal debarkation announcements, but alas, there are so few! Chris Jefferson, our CD, announced debarkation for the self assist people and the early flight people. But that's been almost 20 minutes ago. Soon, those of us with luggage will get the word to start moving toward the forward staircase, so we can be land-lubbers again.

We also "self-assisted" taking our luggage ourselves. We got frustrated, as did a lot of others, with the lack of announcements. It can be annoying to some but it would have been nice for Chris to have announced what was going on every 15-20 minutes. But with the delay maybe they were busy determing how to handle the arriving new passengers.

They call is the Legends of Carnival.

We were down front at the show with Donna and Bob. Good folks.

Then we went to the Blues Bar wher Rudd, our new friend on the cruise, 'spelled the regular pianist for his rendition of The House of the Rising Sun, and, then sang his own words to the tune of The Piano Man. How some peopled are gifted! We enjoyed meeting him and his wife, Shari.

Same back to you, Bob and Donna. Made the cruise just a little nicer spending time with you. First time we've hit it off with someone on a cruise.

We've enjoyed reporting life from Conquest, and hope you can share your stories with us on the boards. Looking forward to meeting you all soon!

 

Bon Voyage, y'all,

 

[Radio Dude]

Okay, this message board is frustrating me when I try to respond to Bob's messages to report our experience. I'll just put it all in a set of day tagged messages. We met Bob and Donna onboard and did a few things with them. We're Rud and Shari.

 

We're just north of Houston so it was only a couple hour drive to Galveston. I wish Galveston would figure out if the parking shuttles handle luggage or not. I dropped Shari off with the bags, then dropped off the car and shutteled back. But the shuttles going home all hauled luggage. Why not do it both directions?

 

Foggy Weather - Yup, fogged in until Monday afternoon. We didn't care. We had exactly one excursion planned - the Conch Train to get an overwview of Key West. I expect there is a lot of debate about scheduling through the cruise and paying the extra bucks. For the few extra on this excursion it was worth it since I didn't worry a second about having to change my purchase. Your knotage :) may vary.

 

Our fun is mainly the ship on these cruises. So Sunday night we just wandered the Conquest looking for fun. We'd done the Western Carib two years ago - the New Year's Eve trip which was a blast - on Conquest so only the Jumbo above the Lido deck was new to us.

 

I play piano so love to sit in the piano bar for the sing along. If I can I sit where I can watch the keyboard and the pianists hands. King of kinky, eh?

 

Jason in Blues, the pianist is quite an event. He is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. He's a friendly tease most of the time but if you get chattering to loudly or start making teasing or unkind comments he will come back at you. I made a few comments Sunday but escaped serious comment by Jason.

 

Monday night I walked in and got greeted with, "Hey! Its Wilford Brimley." So for the rest of the week I was Wilford. We also had the Blonde Mute (who didn't talk for the first couple days) who was Hair Guys' (he had a big head of hair) wife. And their son who got dubbed Sir Elton John's wife. Also, Marlboro Man, Bald Guy, Sparkly Woman, and Edger. There were a few others.

 

We hit every show and enjoyed all the performances. Food was good either in Renoir or on the Lido deck. We had the Anytime seating since the early seating was closed when we booked and didn't want late seating. I would say the service was a little slower than it could have been. It was slower than our 2006/7 (New Year's remember?) in Monet with fixed seating. I think they had two few waitstaff for the passengers doing Anytime. Cost cutting, perhaps? :confused:

 

Sunday night we also hit Degas for Karaoke. Saw Bob do his song but he left before he saw Shari and I - Crazy and Pretty Woman, respectively. Megan was good but it kind of bugged me that she would perform. I hadn't seen that previosly on the Conquest or the NCL cruises.

 

Sunday since we were still docked the stores were closed and most of the bars. Jason said that some of the bars are state licensed but not all of them. The Blues bar is not licensed so the waitresses were having to run to a licensed bar for our drinks.

 

Monday was an Elegance night so we dressed up a bit and had our photos taken a 5-6 locations. Bought two pictures the next day. I think Monday afternoon we met Bob and Donna at karaoke in the Casino area.

 

Later in Blues, when I got dubbed Wilford, I was hassling Jason. He made the mistake of saying, "I bet you could do better?" When I said "Yes" he offered me the piano bench. He turned up his nose at my doing "House of the Rising Sun" but let me do it. I got a round of applause. :D I played it every night, from then on. Even got in "St. Jame Infirmary" once. Jason tended not to take breaks but just kept on going through his many-hour shift. So he used my playing to walk around and chat a bit.

[bobstack]

Fellow Cruisers:

 

We are back home in Dallas / Ft. Worth and still brimming with energy from a unique and fun 7 day Conquest cruise. I have attached for your enjoyment the start of today's sunrise from Conquest, about 30 miles ESE of Galveston, in the Gulf of Mexico. Even though winds and currents delayed our arrival in Galveston until around 10:30 am or so, we still enjoyed all of our time on the ship. In fact, we stayed on our aft cabin until almost 12 noon, when we finally went up one deck to the Lido Deck. There we could see Galveston, and all of the cruisers getting ready to enjoy their day on either Voyager or Conquest.

 

Rud and Shari, thank you for all of your energy! You prove that you cannot anticipate what will happen on your cruise. Meeting new friends surely made for a fun week for us!

 

Thank you, all our fellow posting cruisers. We will have time later this week to respond with the thoughtfulness you have.

 

Keep planning for your days on the blue waters!

 

Bob and Donna from Dallas / Ft. Worth

In Dallas / Ft. Worth (but planning our next cruise!)

 

PS: I'll try to remember to tell you about the unexpected party Carnival through for us on the last day. Drinks and great music, and not just for repeat cruisers!

[jayhawk okie]

I too was on the Conquest 12/13 to 20. The weather problems were disappointing, but that's just one of those things......

 

But I am REALLY upset with the disembarkation process. Was this one normal for Carnival? We waited in the Toulouse Lautrec lounge - we were carrying our own luggage off. Heard the one announcement that they were "about to begin" releasing the people with early flights. That was it. After about 30 minutes, and just about everybody gone from T-L, we went out to the lobby (a madhouse!) to find apparently everybody was leaving at once.

[Mxlady]

Loved the Piano bar and Jason. Colorful at times but funny. Wilford really enjoyed your singing, playing and watching those people get their much needed hugs. Fog, rain, everything late arriving and departing well none of that was within CCL's control. Made for an interesting vaction, we will be back next year and bringing a bunch of Abilene with us this time. Hope all goes maybe a little more sunny and smoother but if it doesn't oh well I still didn't have to do the cooking, cleaning, and still was pampered for a week. Its all good. Enjoyed talking to all of you that I reconized and hope to meet more of you soon. :D

[Texas Teen]

Thanks for your reports... we were wondering why ya'll were late yesterday!

[bobstack]

Fellow cruisers:

 

My wife and I appreciated sharing with you our cruise on Conquest, that started with heavy fog on Sunday, December 13, 2009, in Galveston. I have summarized in a cruise review most of the 28 live posts that I provided you during our cruise. I just posted it, so it will take CC a few days to get it posted under Member Reviews. Please let me know what you think of it.

 

If you had a different cruise experience during our week on Conquest, I believe it. Ours, however, was great. We hope your future cruises will also be great.

 

Blue waters and warm, clears skies to you all,

 

Bob and Donna from Dallas / Ft. Worth

[firefly333]

PS: I'll try to remember to tell you about the unexpected party Carnival through for us on the last day. Drinks and great music, and not just for repeat cruisers!

 

Was this the farewell party?? We had one on Triumph, pretty fun.