I think we've created a monster! - Conquest Review Feb (Pic Heavy)

[iggy's mom]

Enjoying your review! Looking forward to more.

[sewut]

I'm still loving this review. Your DD is so cute and having such a good time. I agree with you that she is at a good age to take on a cruise. Our DGD was 5 on her first cruise and 6 on her second one. We took one of our grandsons on a cruise for his birthday. He turned 10 on the cruise. He didn't spend much time at camp and could sign himself out. He liked to hang out with other kids that he met. It was hard to keep track of him, even with walkie talkies. We have also cruised with our DD and her family. Her kids were younger and fell asleep at dinner on formal night and one crashed on the bed after my daughter had dressed her for dinner. lol DD turned her back to do her makeup and she was asleep. We had all spent a week at WDW prior to the cruise and they were just worn out. DGD5 weathered it just fine though.

Keep up the good work on this review.

[Susie51]

It looks like the arrangements belong in the trash. Yuck! How hard would it be to dust the glass each night?

 

Thank you for sharing your wonderful cruise with us.

[hlb76]

Can't wait for more... I'm hooked!

 

I also agree 5 is a great age to start cruising. Thats how old my youngest was! I have never cruised alone but we do very much enjoy cruising as a family. My kids both have loved camp too!

[babyher]

What a great review and beautiful pics :)

 

Brought back a lot of memories from when we were on the Conquest. She is a beautiful ship.

 

You have a wonderful family and your liittle girl is adorable . God Bless her:)

 

Thank you for sharing your trip with us

[luvmysox1]

The dust would both me too, especially in the food areas. I might not want to eat there if it were on land. That is a turn off to me.

 

Hope that gets taken care of before I cruise her next year.

[idreaminpink]

Food in the MDR (Main dining room):

 

Our 7 day cruise followed the "standard" 7 day menu that we found on the net, and almost everything we tried was very good to excellent. Our dinners on the Conquest came second only to our dinners on the Grand, I was very pleased and we ended up eating there every evening even though we had planned to buffet it a few nights lol.

 

Link to the menus: http://www.zydecocruiser.com/menus/Menus_D_1-7.htm

 

The first night I had the tomato soup and tilapia, DH had the cured salmon and the flat iron steak, which was cooked to a perfect medium as requested. I had the melting cake for dinner every night except the last night, can't remember all of hubby's desserts but he raved about all of them.

 

The second night I had the pumpkin soup (which I was unsure I'd like but was omg good) and the lobster tail. Yes, I got 2 lol. I let the waiter know up front that I wanted two, but that if it would hold up the table not to worry about it. He asked if it was ok if he put in both orders up front and just hold one and I said of course no problem! He did the same for DH which was nice. :) Like usual they were on the small side but very good and perfectly cooked.

 

Third night I got the black bean soup, again better than expected, and the salmon. The eggplant was a nice compliment to the salmon which was a surprise. DH got the sushi to start (which was much different than what you'd find at the sushi bar on deck 5 but DH liked it) and the pork loin. He said it was spiced just right.

 

The fourth night was my favorite meal! We decided to "splurge" and get 2 starters lol, neither of us could decide! So I had the potato soup and the wilted spinach, both of which were EXCELLENT. Then I had the seafood newburg which was hands down the best entree I had on the boat. The sauce was omg delicious and the seafood was tender and juicy. DH got the Tom Ka Gai and the sliced beef & noodle salad to start. He said the Tom Ka Gai was very good and he wanted more of the noodles so he must have liked it lol. For dinner he had the pork chop, the portion size was good and it was juicy, butt he thought it was a bit bland.

 

The fifth night was my least favorite meal, it wasn't terrible but it was just ok. I had the tomatoes/mozzarella to start. The tomatoes were extremely firm and the mozzerella was too chewy for my tastes. The dressing (basically a light pesto) was good though, the only reason I got through as much as I did lol. I had the snapper for my entree. I didn't really like it but I've never had snapper before so I'm not sure if it's just not my kind of fish or what. The green beans were good but they were tempura battered and not panko battered as stated on the menu. Not a big deal but instead of crispy they were more soggy/oily. They had panko breaded ones on the buffet at lunch that were excellent and that was what I was expecting. There was also some kind of tempura battered fried spinach (?) thing on the side. Again didn't care for it but DH liked it. There was another surprise side, a scoop of sweet potatoes with green onions in it I believe. I found it bland and didn't care for it. I don't remember what DH started with but he had the filet mignon duet for his entree and really liked it, again cooked to perfection.

 

The sixth night I had the baked eggplant and the jumbo shrimp. Both were good, could have been better but the only real complaint I had is that I kept finding random pieces of shell on the shrimp and had to spit them out. I know it's hard to keep that much food fresh for that long so I try to cut them some slack towards the end of the cruise lol. DH had the delice and the basa fillet and thought they were great. If I had that menu again I would order the basa.

 

The last night we splurged again and got 2 starters and they did not disappoint. I had the crab cake and lobster bisque to start. I could have had a gallon of the bisque it was so good. I had the prime rib for my entree, it was HUGE, juicy and cooked to a perfect medium well (as requested). I couldn't finish it all there was so much! This was also the night I strayed from my melting cake (much to DH's surprise) and ordered the cappuccino pie, and it was yummy! This was a great "final meal" lol. Honestly I can't remember what DH ordered that night but I remembered he felt the same, full and extremely satisfied!

 

Again my apologies for the lack of food pics. I brought my camera to dinner every night but started chatting and totally forgot! :o

[nytraveller53]

Val - I am loving all your food reports! Same on Valor, the panko green beans from the buffet were really fabulous! Yum! Keep it comin'!;)

[Susie51]

Thank you for the food review. The melting cake is awesome. I only indulged one night. Now I wish I had it every night, but I was usually too full.

[GayleR]

 

 

Just had to mention I really like your DH's shirt. We are from Austin now in Houston and we love Chuy's!

 

Your daughter is just precious!

[Justsyd]

Love your review! Your daughter is absolutely precious, and this picture is wonderful! LOL!

 

 

Bing Cherry Soup FTW!

[idreaminpink]

Thank you for the food review. The melting cake is awesome. I only indulged one night. Now I wish I had it every night, but I was usually too full.

 

I hear ya! Most nights I literally only ate half my entree so I'd have room for the melting cake! Except for lobster and seafood newburg night.... don't judge me haha. Actually on lobster night I hardly touched my sides so I'd still have room for the cake lol.

 

Just had to mention I really like your DH's shirt. We are from Austin now in Houston and we love Chuy's!

 

Your daughter is just precious!

 

Isn't Chuy's the best?? The one near us gives out free appetizers if you bring in a picture of you on vacation wearing a Chuy's shirt. So he brought like 4 of them and figured we'd have good odds of getting a pic of him in one of them! lol (and thanks for the compliment about my daughter! :))

 

I came to write more on the review but I'm exhausted, will have to wait until tomorrow. Still need to talk about the shows/entertainment and the ports. Night all!

[idreaminpink]

Love your review! Your daughter is absolutely precious, and this picture is wonderful! LOL!

 

 

Bing Cherry Soup FTW!

 

LOL That's my total fave too! She just couldn't believe all the "fruit soups" she got to eat and thinks they are far superior than those yucky hot soups I normally serve her ;)

[nytraveller53]

Let's go!!! MORE MORE MORE

[cruisinsly]

What a great review! Loved the pictures and your little angel is just precious. She has a beautiful, contagious smile!

[campdaan]

Love the review ! Your Daughter is so cute !

 

Is that James on the far right ?

 

[idreaminpink]

Love the review ! Your Daughter is so cute !

 

Is that James on the far right ?

 

 

Yep that's him!!

[Andrea72]

I'm loving your review! My two girls (3 and 4) are going on our next cruise (their first). Your information on Camp Carnival and how your daughter enjoyed the MDR was much appreciated. If my girls didn't have each other, I would be more nervous with them being younger than 5. So glad that your daughter had a great time.

[idreaminpink]

I'm loving your review! My two girls (3 and 4) are going on our next cruise (their first). Your information on Camp Carnival and how your daughter enjoyed the MDR was much appreciated. If my girls didn't have each other, I would be more nervous with them being younger than 5. So glad that your daughter had a great time.

 

That is so true, it will definitely help for them to have each other! They'll be in the same age grouping and it will probably be great bonding for them too :)

[douglinc@msn.com]

Is Popeye still on board?

 

Doug

[idreaminpink]

Ok on with the review!

 

Entertainment

 

 

• Games on board - Everything we did or went to was fun but the all the trivia got a little repetitive. There were at least 6 different trivia type games that were each ran in a similar way and sometimes they even had the same questions, so by the end of the week it was a little old. The Super Duper Trivia was really fun and occurred over 3 days, however it was in the cigar bar and I couldn't handle it past the first day. I wish they'd move it to one of the non-smoking lounges (like the one next to Degas). They were open during that time. The game was totally fun though a little complicated. They split up the room into 3 teams and then we drew for category questions, rolled dice, stole questions, it was exciting and competitive. The Battle of the Sexes in the theater on the last day was funny, even though it shared some of the same questions. They split the theater up with men on one side and women on the other, and then asked questions to one team that were better suites to the other team. Like they asked them men who made Madonna's favorite pointy bra lol. There was another trivia we found in the cigar bar right before the super duper trivia, I forget what it's called, but the questions were all trick questions and jokes you've heard as a kid (like what color was George Washington's white horse?), not my fave activity, especially since it was in the cigar bar. They had some name that tune sort of games but we never made it to those. They sounded fun when we walked by though. We did the kids digital scavenger hunt and that was really fun, going through the ship and taking pictures of stuff. Lots of families started but only 3 returned to finish lol. The Mixology contest was fun, that's where passengers make up their own drink recipes. The winner's drink got to be a featured drink all week long. The winner of ours was blue and called the Caribbean Smurf lol. If you happened to be on our cruise and know the recipe please PM me! The hairy chest contest on the Lido was pretty funny. I hand it to all the guys brave enough to go up there and let the whole boat tease them lol. There was another game called like 60 Seconds or something that was just like Minute to Win It. Passengers would go up and have 60 seconds to complete tasks with normal household items. Someone had to keep a feather in the air without using their hands. Another had to unroll an entire roll of toilet paper with only one hand, stuff like that. I wouldn't have wanted to go up there but it was fun to watch! Then on the last sea day they did kind of a call in show with good prizes (not just the champagne and ship on a stick). They gave away photo albums, picture frames, bingo cards, a towel folding book, stuff like that. You could go to it in the theater or watch it from the Lido deck or your cabin and call in. First person to answer the questions correctly got to pick their prize. Some of the questions were trick questions but funny, I won't give them away though ;)
  
• Shows - We didn't see too many of the stage productions I'm afraid, we were so "busy" in the evenings lol. But we saw the welcome show, the magic show and the "Legends" so I'll talk about those. The welcome show is a great way to start the cruise, there are some short dance scenes, musical numbers, bits from the comedians and the CD will talk. The magic stage production was good but a bit over the top imo. If you've ever been to a magic show in vegas or seen any of those magic tv specials in the 80's and 90's then you've probably seen a show like this before. Dance numbers between each magic act, sometimes she did aerobatics instead, it was ok (my daughter loved it) but I've seen most of the tricks a million times. It was very "produced." Glad we went, wouldn't go again. The Legends show on the last night was so funny. I guess earlier in the week people had auditioned to be one of the "celebrities" in the show and then practiced a few times. So there were people playing James Brown, Britney Spears, Elvis, etc. And the entertainment staff backed them up with dancing while the on board band played all the music. I would have never been that brave but it was fun to watch those that were! More than just your average karaoke lol.
  
• Other shows/activities - Speaking of karaoke, the one they did in the evening was very popular! Sometimes you couldn't even get a seat in there. The lady who ran it would get up and sing with you if you wanted/needed her to, she ran a fun show. The on board comedians that played in the Degas at night were HILARIOUS and I highly recommend going to all the shows. There were 4 comedians on board (2 at the beginning of the week and 2 at the end) and they each did 2-3 different shows (some PG and some R). They called the PG ones the "family" shows but I don't think it would have been much fun for kids that weren't at least pre-teen. But there was no cursing or anything so if you needed to bring them they wouldn't hear anything like that. I didn't attend the dance classes but sometimes bingo started right after them so I got to watch. They actually looked like fun! They were up on stage in the main theater and done as a group. You get an audience of people waiting to play bingo so keep that in mind lol. Speaking of bingo, I was a bit disappointed in the bingo on the ship. Most of the time they just played one game. Twice they did 5 games that were just worth less. For $20 a pop I much preferred doing it that way lol. You got a triple card for $20 basically (or a single card for $10). Once they had half price cards, it was towards the end of the cruise. Then the last day they had a coverall jackpot, it was PACKED in there. Then you could buy raffle tickets to win a free cruise as well. The lady who cut in line in front my husband to buy her raffle tickets ended up winning the cruise of course lol, ahh well what can you do? The Past Guest party was fun, our first one. I enjoyed the video. Camp Carnival was closed during that time so we had to bring DD, she was a little bored. And the free drink tray only came by once lol. The evening deck party with the mexican buffet was worth going to, especially with kids. Lots of fun and dancing, everyone had fun. We hit the sack before the food though, everyone said it was yummy. The Fun Farewell show in the Degas on the last day was the place to be. They didn't advertise it too much and it wasn't that crowded, but it was a free booze party, woohoo! It was much easier to get a free drink here than at the past guest party I'll tell you that lol. The band played and people danced on stage, it was fun! We were there for an hour and I think we got 4-5 drinks each in that time. Don't worry they were small lol.
  

We were never bored but honestly I kind of expected there to be more going on at once. On past cruises we've always had a choice between things to do, but on this cruise it seemed like there was only one "big" thing going on at any given time. There was also nothing going on during port days which surprised me. I don't know if it was just my perception or maybe a new cost saving measure? Maybe a Carnival thing? We didn't want to get off in Cozumel but ended up doing so just cause there was nothing going on unless you wanted to lay out on deck or go to the spa. But overall we had a great time and would take this cruise again in a minute :)

 

Hairy Chest Contest

 

Past Guest Party

 

Fun Farewell Party (hers were virgin lol)

 

Dancing at the fun farewell

[idreaminpink]

Is Popeye still on board?

 

Doug

 

Hrm doesn't ring a bell, what did he do?

[idreaminpink]

OH I almost forgot, wanted to give shout outs to two other great performers on the ship. I talked about Barman the magician earlier and I can't sing his praises highly enough! He is a wonderful slight of hand magician, one of the best I've seen. He wanders around the dining rooms during dinner to perform for people, and he also has a few late night shows by the wine bar, check for the "Up Close Magic" entry on the Fun Times around 11pm to see some great magic. I enjoyed his style of magic more than the stage show personally :)

 

The other performer I want to mention is James the pianist. He played in the Blues piano lounge and he was great! He had a gravelly voice and could play almost anything. If he didn't know it he would download the sheet music the next day and play it for you :)

 

Other than that, the other live musicians on board were also very good. They always got people dancing in the casino and the lobby. I'd much rather have the live music than canned, great job Carnival!

 

We had intended to do the MUTS (movies on board) at least once but the movies we wanted to see never jived with our "busy schedule" lol. I was a bit bummed, it was one of our fave things on our Princess cruise. But we'll have more chances I'm sure! ;)

[KaylaRenee17]

Your DD is so cute! When I go on my first cruise in August I too will be going "gaga" over fruit soup! I'm looking forward to them! :cool:

 

What ports did you go to?

[Naomi John]

Do you have them for the 2-5 age group? If so can you email them, sburleigh@lusfiber.net.

 

Thanks