Review of Conquest 8/7/11 - Montego Bay, Grand Cayman, Cozumel

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This was my second cruise on the Conquest and this itinerary, first was in 2006 in an aft wrap, and that was my first cruise ever. This cruise takes me, my wife, Carol, and our three sons, Jackson, Dusten and Travis, ages 18, 16 and 14 on our annual summer vacation. The wife and I had cabin 8449, an extended balcony, and the boys had 8435, a 3 berth interior a few doors down the hall. We booked this cruise through a local Austin, TX radio show annual cruise that always changes something on their annual cruise. Last Thanksgiving it ended up as the “20 people from Austin on the Miracle Cruise” as they backed out for low participation but was a blast, it turned out to be a wonderful family cruise. So this time it changed from the morning show cruise to the “Charlie Hodge Halftime Show Conquest Comedy Cruise” which was probably for the better anyways. Charlie and Matt are really funny guys. The only extra perk we got was a private 1 hour cocktail party the first night and two private comedy shows during the week with local Austin comedians JR Brow and Jimmie Roulette. They were a hoot, check them out if you’re into stand up and in Austin someday. So onto the review…

 

Sunday - Embarkation

We arrived at the Port of Galveston around 11:30 and dropped off the bags then took the vehicles to BOI Valet parking which is right across the street from the new passenger entrance at the port. It is $65/car paid in advance online for indoor parking, no shuttle needed, literally less than 100 yards to the door. We got through check in rather quickly and effortlessly and were on the ship by 12:30 if not sooner, I wasn’t really tracking it but the line moved swiftly. They were checking all soda boxes brought on for hidden beers inside the 12 packs, so beware. We had Arizona Iced Tea Watermelon drink cans in a clear carry bag so they let us through without having to go to “the table” for inspection.

We hit the Lido deck to find a table for 5 then scattered to find food. I did the Mongolian Wok, it was good but don’t expect to get the options/veggies/sauces on board that you get on land in a restaurant. I made the mistake of using the thin rice noodles for my noodle option, it turned out as a big glob of stringy rice paste with sauce trapped inside. Meh, the DODs were talking by now, I was on board the Conquest and I ate once already! After the cabins were available for access around 1:30PM we checked out the extended balcony and watched them load provisions as we cursed the TABC for their Draconian liquor laws that don’t permit us to have our Bon Voyage booze prior to sail away.

 

We set sail on time and posted the sail away photo to the Roll Call thread and facebook and said buh-bye for 7 days! Ahhh yes not email or phone calls or calendar alerts for a week!!! Our Roll Call never arranged any get together that I was aware of and I never met anyone I know of on there, so nothing further to report on that. Our bags arrived sporadically but all were received before dinner, even though we were on Your Time Dining. We went to dinner around 6:00PM and were seated immediately. The menu seemed different this time, and when I got home I realized it was the new menu that has half of CC was in an uproar over. It was hit or miss throughout the week, one night I didn’t care for anything on the menu, but it won’t stop me from cruising. I started with the Tom Ka Gai, which was pretty good, but I really only have Texas Thai food to compare it to. I had the duck for the main course and the crème brulee for dessert. Both were very good. Service was great and prompt all week. When we ordered multiple starters they would wait until you were done with one to put the next one down. I forget what everyone else had but they all enjoyed it. Our Bon Voyage order was in the cabin after dinner. Yay!

 

Monday – Day at Sea

Carol and I had room service deliver some breakfast food and coffee at 6AM then we headed to the dining room at 8AM for some Eggs Benedict. Breakfast twice, yeah! Afterwards we hit the adult pool area on the aft Lido deck. No kids in the pool, when one did get in she was told it was adult only and very quickly got out. Lots of adults were there escaping the children of summer. This is where my recollection gets cloudy. The BV liquor was flowing, some type of blowfish drink was purchased and I didn’t have a care in the world…

Carol gave Kenny the Newlywed form Austin plenty of advice. I stayed out of that... After getting a lot of sun I went inside and got a Reuben from Paul’s Deli. I have to ask “How is it a Rueben when there is no sauerkraut?” They were still very delicious and there was a type of cole slaw that worked in place of the sauerkraut, I ate many over the course of the week. I then proceeded to the casino and played some Texas Hold ’Em and continued to enjoy the BV purchases. Enjoyed to the point I realized that I don’t like to get this drunk when the sun is up. The wife stopped by and asked about making purchase in the jewelry store. “Sure, whatever you want.” Followed by, “Doh! Did I just say that?” She got some beautiful earrings that cost more than I lost at the table so I spent less overall all week, so it’s all good. After good amount of $ were given to others peoples Poker Pro accounts at the table and loaning the 18 year son some money, I headed back to the cabin. I remember having my favorite camping/fishing hat (in the picture above) and saying to myself “No pocket to hold my hat.” That is the last I recall of ever having that hat… It never showed up at lost and found all week either. Dinner was a tough one for me to get ready for, a hangover had begun and it was Elegant Night. I managed to get up and we arrived at around 6:30PM for YTD and were seated immediately. I had the Prime Rib, it was delicious! I forget what I had for a starter and I skipped dessert. The boys reported what they did all day, Dusten (16 yo) went to Club O2 and made a lot of friends immediately. Travis (14 yo) went to the arcade which must have been all day, and as I found out later in the week that didn’t care to track how much money he spent in the arcade. I should have checked the S&S account sooner than Wednesday! DOH!

 

More to come...

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Tuesday – Day at Sea

Feeling much better this morning after sleeping until 7AM, I usually wake up at 5AM everyday so this was nice. The wife and I dined with Jackson in the dining room where we met Joe-Joe and his wife, some good folks from somewhere in Texas. I forgot his wife’s name but Carol talked with her a lot during the cruise. Then we headed to the cabin to see where the other two boys were and we collected our stuff and headed to the adult aft pool again. The same folks and the same scene so headed to the casino for a bit, wandered the ship and had fish and chips for lunch. They were pretty tasty but I’m not a big fan of fried fish. I like seared tuna and sushi, which reminds me, the sushi bar was ok. I liked it better on the Miracle but of course neither is even close to a real sushi bar. We had one of our private comedy shows in the afternoon at Vincent’s Lounge. That was fun the comedians had a hard time keeping it “Family Friendly” but there were maybe 3 kids under 13 there. For dinner we had reservations at the Point Steakhouse. We dined at Nick and Nora’s on the Miracle and fell in love with the Carnival steakhouses.

As usual the service was top notch as was the food. I forget what the name of the bread pictured is but it is so tasty! I ordered the Ahi Tuna Tartare for a starter and the Filet Mignon cooked medium rare. For dessert I had the New York Cheesecake. Everyone else had either the Filet Mignon or Porterhouse. Someone had just the Tiramisu from the chocolate sampler dessert. We rolled out of the steakhouse and ran into the staff setting up the Mexican Buffet on the Lido deck buffet as we came down the stairs. No thanks, stuffed with steak…

After dinner we got ready for our first port, Montego Bay, Jamaica. We decided we were going to go to Sunset Beach All-inclusive Resort for the day to hang out. Everything is included so nothing to get ready for the most part.

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Wednesday – Montego Bay

I think this is the day there was a problem with the water and power on the ship early in the morning. When I used the restroom at 5AM there was low water pressure in the sink and later there was a letter about it. Breakfast was pretty crowded but I didn’t realize it was delayed due to the issue, which explains why everyone was so grumpy. The lines were so long at every station. We were sitting by the pizza bar eating and witnessed a woman tell the pizza man, “No just give me the whole thing.” Then the next guy in line was told it was 20 minutes to get a slice. We ended up sitting next to him on Thursday at dinner when he told us about it. He was a first time cruiser and he was not having a good time that morning he said but things got better as the week went.

We got off the ship and I bought a hat for my bald head then we caught a taxi to Sunset Beach Resort. It’s the other direction from town and they keep tight security so you don’t get the locals pushing stuff on you. Check in took about 45 minutes though, pretty inefficient and we even paid our deposit online ahead of time. Cost was $60 for adults, $40 for kids 3-15 through JamaicaForADay dot com. Don’t get the transfer package there are plenty of taxis going to and from for $3 per person. There’s a waterpark, lazy river, several pools and lots of beach activities, chairs tables, DJ with music, etc etc. Alcohol is included and Jackson, our 18 year old, took responsible advantage of the drinking age outside the US. I did some snorkeling and waterpark sliding with the boys. The food was OK, but we never got the jerk chicken from the grill. I read that that was hit or miss. We stood in line for 15 minutes with about 20 other people, but I never saw anyone in the grill! We went to the buffet where they had things like curried goat and spiced fish and chicken and side dishes but no jerk dishes. Back at the cruise terminal we bought some overpriced souvenirs and some Blue Mountain coffee. Snorkeling there was poor, too much sand and the tide was going out. I almost walked into a huge jellyfish when I first went in the water.

Diner that night was in the MDR.YTD, no waiting around 7PM if I recall correctly. I had Delice of the Ocean as my starter (Ahi Tuna Tartare!) and the Escargot as well. For my entrée I had the Chateaubriand with Sauce Béarnaise cooked medium rare. For dessert it was Chocolate Ice cream. Again all of it was delicious and we had different wait staff each night but it was always great. I forget what everyone else had, but no one ever complained.

Tomorrow we are in Grand Cayman, a tender port, and we arrive at 7:30AM. Our tour, Cayman in a Nutshell wasn’t booked through Carnival and it says to meet at 8:30AM so we have to be ready to go first thing in the morning. We need to get tender tickets in the lounge at 7:20AM. This is probably the most stressful part of my trip not knowing how well the tendering is going to go, having three teens that sleep too much and the threat of not meeting at 8:30 means they still charge for the tour.

 

Stay tuned...

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Thursday – Grand Cayman

We woke the boys at 6:30AM and surprisingly they got up rather easily, despite staying up till 4AM for one of them! We got breakfast at the buffet and then gathered our stuff and headed to the Toulouse Show Lounge for tendering. We booked the Cayman in a Nutshell tour online for $79 per person if booked 7 days or more in advance. They do the Captain Marvin’s Stingray City and snorkel, Trip to Hell, Turtle Farm and great lunch at a small restaurant on Seven Mile Beach. The stingrays were very cool, one of the boys said it wasn’t for him and didn’t spend much time in the water. He’s usually the brave one… Snorkeling was OK, the crew was great on the boat. Dennis was our tour guide after we finished the Capt. Marvin’s part of the tour. He took us on a tour of Hell (nice place, really) and the Turtle Farm. Hell is a small town with a post office, gift shop and rock formation that gave it its name. We sent post cards to the house but haven’t received them yet. A man with a cart was selling coconuts so Jackson and I split one. Good stuff. After spending about 30 minutes in Hell, Dennis took us to the Grand Cayman Turtle Center and Farm. Instead of just dropping us off at the Turtle Farm and saying “Be back up here at 3” he took our group through the turtle farm and explained everything like he worked there. It was an excellent tour and he worked hard to make it worth it. I highly recommend this tour. On the way back Dennis dropped us off at a small restaurant and took the rest of the group back to their ship. Apparently they were on a tour that didn't get food. The jerk chicken was excellent and Jackson once again enjoyed being 18 and having a Caybrew. Carol was worried Dennis wasn’t coming back but I had no doubts. About an hour later he came back and took us to the ship. Jackson and I purchased some Cuban cigars and we tendered back to the ship watching the building storm. By the time we were on our balcony, the storm was rolling into the port. Awesome lightning show and it poured on the folks waiting to board the last 5 or so tender runs.

Dinner was in the MDR, Elegant Night two, I think it was. This is the night I couldn’t find an entrée I liked. I ended up having Linguini with Italian sausage, bell peppers and mushrooms. I had two small slices of sausage in my entrée, disappointed with that but what was there tasted great. The new menus posted here don’t quite match the menu on this night since I had the study in sushi this night but it isn’t on the menu with these entrees. If Jerk Pork Loin was on the menu I would have had that for sure since I didn’t like the entrée selection and almost got the Gourmet Burger from the everyday menu. Dessert was probably Warm Chocolate Melting Cake.

When we got back to our cabin our card for our steakhouse reservation for Friday was in our mailbox. It said for 6PM, but we were leaving port at 6PM so I wondered why I would have booked that. I called the steakhouse and the manager said I booked and was confirmed for 6PM because there was a party of 5 that wanted a 7PM reservation. After I hung up and thought I was sure I made it for 8PM so we could be on the balcony at sail away. I found my email confirmation I had printed out and surely it said 8PM so I called back and told her. I told her I had a copy of the 8PM confirmation and she said at first that was looking at it and it was sent as 6PM. I said “I have the print out if you’d like to see it.” Then she said she can put me down for 8PM and I should come down but may have to wait 15 or 20 minutes. Hmmm…

After that I enjoyed a Cuban cigar on deck 10 aft starboard side only, with Jackson then Carol and I went to bed. Dusten went and hung out with his friends again until whatever hour in the morning and Travis was in the cabin playing iPad games because I found out how much he spent on the S&S account in the arcade when we got back on board. His spending privileges were revoked and now he gets to do work for me to pay off what he spent beyond the cash he gave me for his spending.

Tomorrow is Cozumel where we snorkel with Roswitha again from Mystic Snorkeling. Looking forward to that and our usual visit to La Choza for lunch!

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Friday – Cozumel

We ate breakfast in the dining room with all the boys and the hung out on the balcony and waiting to dock at the Puerta Maya pier. We headed down to the gangway and out onto the pier. I immediately noticed it was hotter than Hell here! No breeze at all! Thank God we will be snorkeling in less than an hour! We took the long walk down the pier through the shop and plaza and out to the taxi stand where we caught a taxi to Caleta Marina for $11 for all five of us. We met Rosi who runs Mystic Snorkeling. She charges $70 for a guided trip to three different spots. We have gone with her in the past and she is great. Carol isn’t real fond of snorkeling so Rosi worked with her while the rest of us are very comfortable with snorkeling so the divemaster lead us along. We saw tons of fish and coral and even saw a nurse shark on our last stop and spent about 3 hours in the water on our trip. I have a facebook album with over 150 photos here

When we got back to the marina we paid Rosi the balance exchanged email with the others in our tour and caught cab downtown to La Choza restaurant for $16. We love La Choza and were bummed to hear the old building burned down and they moved a short distance away. The food is still good and the margaritas still pack a punch. The boys enjoyed it for their first, but not to be last, visit. We did a little bit of shopping as we headed back towards the taxis nearer to the piers. Jackson bought a couple of wrestling masks, which he later scared Carol with on board. I bought some more Cuban cigars to smoke on our Day at Sea tomorrow.

We got back on board Travis and I rode the slide and hung out in the pool for a bit and then got ready for our steakhouse reservation at 8PM, not 6PM… As she had told us, we were told about 20 minutes and were seated at the bar to wait. The restaurant was pretty empty and lots of tables seemed to be able to accommodate 5, but we sat and waited for 30 minutes before we were seated. I don’t know maybe it was a staffing issue, but we enjoyed the conversation with the bartender about the $95 a glass cognac in the nice wooden case behind the bar. After we were finally seated I ordered the usual NY Steak medium rare, Dusten ordered his medium, Jackson ordered the Lobster Ravioli and the Travis and Carol order the Filet Mignon. Carol tried the Lobster Bisque as a starter and didn’t like it at all. When they brought our steaks Dusten tore right into his and I thought it was pretty bloody for medium. When I got mine it was barley pink. That boy doesn’t know what medium rare is! We just switched plates but the server felt really bad that she messed it up. I was just happy to get Dusten to stop long enough to tell him it’s my steak! Pictured below is the Lobster Ravioli.

Tomorrow is the last Day at Sea on our return to Galveston.

 

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Saturday – Day at Sea

I woke early and had some Raisin Bran and coffee before anyone else woke up and walked around the ship. I won some $20 on the slots then I think Jackson and Travis joined us in the dining room for breakfast just before 10AM. Since I got a little sunburned yesterday I decided to stay indoors and after the casino tables opened I proceeded to recover my losses some from the earlier poker games. The slot machine eventually took its $20 offering back and the initial $20 investment too. I never liked slots. I had Rueben sandwiches for lunch a of couple times while Carol hung out in the smoking section of the casino talking with her new friends.

For the last dinner we dined in the MDR. We went around 6PM and this is the only time we had to wait for a table using YTD. The wait was about 20 minutes, long enough for drink in the lobby bar. I had the Baked Sweet Potato Soup as a starter and the Prime Rib with au jus for the entrée. For dessert I think I had ice cream again. All of it was excellent, Jackson and Travis tried the frog legs, neither one finished them. I didn’t try them myself.

We had our second private comedy show so after we packed our bags to put out in the hallway we headed to Vincent’s Lounge for the show. It was a really funny show and I enjoyed another Cuban cigar since Vincent’s is the cigar bar you can actually smoke one indoors there. After the show we sat in the adult aft pool area and had two separate incidents where one drunk teen in the group of kids was either acting very drunk or very drunk. The first one was in the group of kids Dusten was hanging out with and said she was always the attention hound and was mostly acting but had been drinking. They left before security arrived, but not after Carol gave them a talking to! The second one was girl whose friends all claimed she was 18 but that isn’t legal drinking age for the ship. They could not get her to go to her cabin and eventually security intercepted them as I was following them up and down the stairs all over aft decks. It was crazy.

 

Sunday - Debarkation

We had debarkation group 9 and it went smoothly. We hung out in the room till around 9AM and I tipped our room steward extra on our way out. We were off the ship, bags claimed and through customs and at our cars by 10:15AM. Things were going so smooth, we were on US 290 headed towards home when the phone rang at 11:21AM… “Mr. Clark? This is Carnival Cruise Lines. You left a bag unclaimed in the Galveston Port this morning.” DOH!!!! Don’t ever do that, ever. I forgot the garment bag that a bunch of dress clothes for me and the boys in it. To ship it to me would have meant that it eventually gets to Miami then to me or I go get it before 3:30PM. I can’t get it after that because the ship sails at 4:00PM and there is no place to store it. I got back to the port at 12:45PM and I took me until 2:00PM to get the bag. Don’t ever leave a bag behind…

[hogwildcruzers]

Awesome review and I read every word......fun y'all had and the good food, can't wait til our cruise over Halloween on the Conquest......sorry about the forgotten bag!......great pictures by the way!

[blueangel74]

Ty for your review. Going on this cruise on 10/16.