Review of Carnival Conquest Not so Conquested

[tiffy0428]

My journey of this cruise began August 18th with 34 other amazing family and friends

 

Me I am a 29 year old wife of 3 DW (32) DD (12) DD (6) DS (7) then there was

 

DM (49)

DB (33) his DS (8) DS (5) DG (27)

DSIL (30) DD (8)

DSIL (11)

DSIL (19)

DSIL (3)

DBIL (15)

DSIL (23)

DFIL (51) his wife (32)

Friend (29) her wife (28) their DD (11)

Friend (32) her GF (32)

Friend (31) her DH (32) their DD (8)

Friend (31)

Friend (23) his BF (30)

Friend ((31)

Friend (31)

Friend of DFIL (51) his DW (49)

 

We all headed to LGA airport to take our flight to New Orleans. The flight was uneventful not much happened

 

 

Before heading to New Orleans I did a lot of research and found that cabs were very expensive. Since it was so many of us we paid a shuttle company $625 to take us from the airport to the hotel, hotel to port, and port back to the hotel. It costed everyone about $20 pp which is way cheaper than cabbing it. All 32 didn't take the shuttle just about 25 of us.

We stayed at the Marriott Springhill Suites, very nice and spacious hotel. We walked around went to the Rivewalk. I dont have any pictures because it was pooring down raining.

The next morning we all got up showered had breakfast ( which came with the room) and waited for our shuttle.

 

Our Cruise shirts

[meggie711]

Great shirt!

[cruzinlisa]

Interested to hear the rest of your review. :cool:

[Tapi]

I can already tell that it's going to be an entertaining review! :D

 

Thanks in advance!

[tiffy0428]

We woke up to so much rain it was quite depressing, then to top it off the van company we hired had called and said they weren't picking us up until 1:30 because the ship was going through a complete customs inspection. I quickly said hell to the no , I don't care what they are doing i want to get to the ship right now. They arrived to me around 10:30 I believe and we were off to the port. :D:D:D

 

When we got there it was complete madness. There were people everywhere, those leaving the ship and those returning. We found a porter to take our bags, gave a 15 tip and kept moving. We got in line carnival had some of our rooms crossed, more on that later. We got zone 11 and the countdown is on it took about 10 minutes from dropping off the bags to getting on the ship. When it was my turn to put my sail & sign card in the slot it was like beep beep please go to guest services, I almost $%^& my pants. Well turns out my onboard account wasnt set up right.

 

So I fixed that and went to the Vincent Lounge to set up my open bar party. After doing all of that the rooms were ready, I ran down stairs to see my home for the week. I had Ocean View 2284 and all the others had 2280 2282 2306 2310 2324 2342 2356 2354 2360 2362 2376 2404 and another on deck one.

 

Heres my room

 

 

 

 

After beginning to unpack I went to check out my other friends rooms and we headed up to the Lido which was all rained out ( oh well wont stop our vacation) we grabbed a drink and danced to the music of the DJ, there wasn't any calypso band and for once I didn't feel like I was on a cruise. Due to low waters and other water problems sail away was delayed and so was muster drill. We got an $8.91 credit and I used at the bar for a drink . The Muster Drill was around 4pm and it was hot and annoying because people just dragged themselves in there but when it was over I was happy.

 

I went around and collected money for the open bar and then went to the sail away party. The rain was coming down hard but that didn't stop us from being on deck, the entertainment crew came out to do the sign up for the mixologist contest and guess what, 5 of the people including myself that cruised got picked.

[tiffy0428]

I went around and collected money for the open bar and then went to the sail away party. The rain was coming down hard but that didn't stop us from being on deck, the entertainment crew came out to do the sign up for the mixologist contest and guess what, 5 of the people including myself that cruised got picked. Sail away was not as usual the music wasn't the best and the rain had a lot of people inside. Due to everything we ate at the buffet tonight then went to the Vincent Lounge for our open bar party

 

[tiffy0428]

My journey of this cruise began August 18th with 34 other amazing family and friends

 

Me I am a 29 year old wife of 3 DW (32) DD (12) DD (6) DS (7) then there was

 

DM (49)

DB (33) his DS (8) DS (5) DG (27)

DSIL (30) DD (8)

DSIL (11)

DSIL (19)

DSIL (3)

DBIL (15)

DSIL (23)

DFIL (51) his wife (32)

Friend (29) her wife (28) their DD (11)

Friend (32) her GF (32)

Friend (31) her DH (32) their DD (8)

Friend (31)

Friend (23) his BF (30)

Friend ((31)

Friend (31)

Friend of DFIL (51) his DW (49)

 

We all headed to LGA airport to take our flight to New Orleans. The flight was uneventful not much happened

 

 

Before heading to New Orleans I did a lot of research and found that cabs were very expensive. Since it was so many of us we paid a shuttle company $625 to take us from the airport to the hotel, hotel to port, and port back to the hotel. It costed everyone about $20 pp which is way cheaper than cabbing it. All 32 didn't take the shuttle just about 25 of us.

We stayed at the Marriott Springhill Suites, very nice and spacious hotel. We walked around went to the Rivewalk. I dont have any pictures because it was pooring down raining.

The next morning we all got up showered had breakfast ( which came with the room) and waited for our shuttle.

 

 

 

 

Our Cruise shirts

 

 

 

More pictures above from New Orleans

[cathyoo]

Can't wait to read more of your review. Thanks for sharing

[MrPete]

Enjoying the review

[susie8862]

xxx

[theporterhouse]

We were getting off just as you were getting on....it was complete craziness that day with the rain and the inspection. Can't wait for the rest of your review!

[tiffy0428]

xxx

 

what's that xxx?

[tiffy0428]

There wasn't really much going on during the sea days. We just hung around drank and talked since we were such a large group. They had Bing Bag toss everyday and the other activities were just limited.

 

The guy that did Karaoke was very dead and dry he was no fun at all and the song choice was limited. The casino always seemed to be crowded but I am not much of a gambler. I must say that Conquest need to get either a better Cruise Director or hype up their entertainment staff. There were a lot of older people on the ship. I was talking to Phil (entertainment staff) and he told me that they had to cut down on a lot of the fun things they did because guest were complaining, a lot of the southern guest were complaining.

 

There were a lot of kids in the "adult only" places and the staff had to pg13 a lot of things because of the kids being there. I felt like they should have just kicked the kids out.

 

I did the mixologist contest and that was fun, I didn't win my friend did and her drink was named Teke Teke. By the end of the day of day 2 sea day I was more then ready to see Jamaica

[tiffy0428]

We were up bright and early ready to get off this ship. We had reservations at Sunset Beach Resort. We all got in a van which cost $3 pp and headed over there, when we got there we were directed to the desk where we pay for the services and was given a wrist band and beach towels and was told to enjoy are stay. My first place was the bar, I ordered a rum punch and it was so good good good. The staff there was very nice and had never given us any problems.

 

We went and sat out on the beach and the children went to the water slide. Out on the beach I went Kayaking and laid out. I didn't get in the water because there was a lot of rocks and shells and I had forgot my water shoes, but while kayaking i got to see a lot of coral and beautiful water. After being on the beach we decided to go over to the water slide what a great choice. The walk up to the top was so dam long but the way down was amazing .

 

After the water slide we decided to have lunch. I am a vegetarian so there were a lot of things I didn't eat. No complaints here I know a lot of people don't always have food for us. From what everyone else was saying the food was amazing, it was served buffet style and they had so many choices, after eating we headed to the pool to be closer to the swim up bar.

 

At the swim up bar we had drink after drink after drink. They were not stingy at all and they were so nice and respectful. They put music on for us and we just drank and had lots of fun until it was time to go. Sunset was only about 4 minutes from the ship so we left there with 30 minutes to spare. The resort had a gulf course, play ground, basketball course, and other things that were all for use. The only thing we could not use was the spa unless we paid for it.

 

The castle for the slide

 

The lazy river

 

The slide

 

Kayaking

 

Sunset Beach

 

[tiffy0428]

 

After a long day we all headed back to the ship nice and tipsy knowing that it was well worth the money.

 

Tonight was our first elegant night and the group decided to do a touch of purple

 

After dinner we went to sit at the bar and waited for the comedy show. You literally have to be outside of the door before a show is ending or you will not I repeat WILL NOT get a seat. I can't tell you how the show was because every time I went I fell to sleep.

 

next up Cayman Island

[alreadypacked]

Great start--keep it coming!:)

[tiffy0428]

As far as beach, this is my favorite one of all. The beach here was so beautiful, this was my first time ever tendering and boy i felt so sick

 

 

We decided to go head over to the free space of 7 mile beach. We took a cab and it cost about $5 per person. If you didn't go to this area of the beach then you had to pay for beach entrance.

 

 

 

 

 

When we got to the beach we went to rent our chairs. The chair was $5 to rent and the umbrella was $10 I also rented my kids boogie boards which were $5 a piece. After drinking all day in Jamaica the day before I thought I wasn't going to drink but I said screw that and walked too the bar. I ordered a pina colada with an extra shot and a red strip beer and that was only $20 I thought that was pretty good because they put the extra shot in a separate cup :-)

 

I stayed in the water the whole time we were here. The water was beautiful and warm and clear however deep. I really enjoyed my time here and got a very nice tan

[Amy Giard]

 

I can't tell you how the show was because every time I went I fell to sleep.

 

I guess that tells us how they were! :)

[tiffy0428]

 

This was my least favorite port. First when we got there we went to check in and they lost our reservation pooweeee, so the $5 deposit we put down was lost so instead of paying $40 for us and $20 for our children, we had to pay $50 for us and well we left the kids on the non all inclusive side with my father who don't drink.

 

After spending 40 minutes checking in I needed a drink. I went and got right into the pool and ordered my drink. The drinks weren't that good and the staff weren't either. They had two bartenders for all those people and you can only order one drink at a time. They don't tell you that there are food menus that you can order your food from , instead they have you thinking that the buffet is all they had. When I found the menu i ordered fish tacos and they were really good.

 

You have to fight all the flies off you when you're sitting out there. I don't know what the beach was like because I never got in it. Before we left the staff asked us for tips, I thought that was tacky because i was going to leave a tip anyway so there was no need to ask for one.

 

Mr Sanchos was like a 15 minute drive from the port and the cab cost us 40 for 8 people. The more you have in the van the cheaper the cost because if it only one or 2 you're paying $15 pp. Overall it was cool but not what I expected.

 

 

 

[tiffy0428]

 

 

 

The remainder of the trip was just quiet. Like I mentioned before the activities were limited. I truly believe if it werent for all the people i traveled with I would have been bored.

 

 

For any questions please ask.

[Silent Penguin]

I love reviews with pictures! It looks like your group was having a lot of fun. I really enjoyed reading your report.

[Georgiagolfer]

Thanks for the review. Love your pictures.

[TerReuv]

I was talking to Phil (entertainment staff) and he told me that they had to cut down on a lot of the fun things they did because guest were complaining, a lot of the southern guest were complaining.

 

I am confused as to what you mean by this? What "fun things" were guests complaining about that they cut down? Why? How do you know it was Southern guests complaining? I am really confused as to your explanation of why there were not things to do.

[NCTribeFan]

Yeah, that sort of confused me, too. :confused:

 

And I'm still trying to figure out what "not so Conquested" in the thread title means! :D

 

Looks like you went to some nice beaches, but I would've wanted to see more of the islands/ports. I always do some sort of tour the first time or two I visit a port. After that, I tend to go to the places I've seen that I know I like.

 

But we all cruise for different reasons!

 

Thanks for the review and photos. She looks like a nice ship. I'm going to have a hard time waiting 14 months!!

[dave_k63]

I am confused as to what you mean by this? What "fun things" were guests complaining about that they cut down? Why? How do you know it was Southern guests complaining? I am really confused as to your explanation of why there were not things to do.

She is probably referring to maybe some older (southern?) guests don't care much for "party" ( aka) rap music.