Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Carnival Conquest Western Caribbean Review with tons of photos

lovestocruise19

By lovestocruise19,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

 Share

Recommended Posts

Freedom2014

Freedom2014

Posted
Posted
That has been a big debate in our household! Do we cruise for the ports or the ship? This Conquest cruise was for the ports since we had never been to the Western Caribbean route. Now that we have been to both the Eastern and Western, we really have some hard decisions to make because at this point, we will be repeating some ports. We have already repeated Grand Cayman (in which case we chose to stay on the ship because we had excursions booked for different ports instead).

 

We both really want to see some Southern Caribbean ports (St. Kitts, St. Lucia, Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten, Antigua), but our struggle is that we'd have to either book the Valor out of San Juan and pay an arm and a leg for flights or book an Aruba cruise and pay an arm and a leg for the cruise (OR book a cruise with just one or two of these ports). Still hashing it out on what our 2015 cruise will be.

 

Yes. They have quite a few ships out of florida going to southern. Living in florida makes it much more affordable for us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...
CityGirl214

CityGirl214

Posted
Posted

I spearheaded an Eastern Caribbean family cruise for December on the Conquest and (after incessantly chatting up how amazing our Carnival cruises have been) a few months ago our aunts, uncles, cousins, and my family of 5 booked rooms. This morning I came onto Cruise Critic and started reading horrible reviews of the Conquest on the Review page including one warning of the exact room I booked; had a stroke, called my travel agent practically in tears to cancel, and was preparing to fall on my sword to the family. I really appreciate your review, especially the pictures of food. I know everyone has different tastes but we have heard so many complaints from "veteran" cruisers that things have declined drastically from what they used to be. I am still mid-stroke but I have decided to wait until the last minute before I cancel. The reviews of the Conquest include everything from urine smell in the hallways to dining room food being almost inedible and mattresses so bad that stewards brought pads to try to help it. I am hoping to get some input and considering starting a thread of my own so I can get some real opinions to weigh. I hate the idea of saving then spending THOUSANDS of dollars for a week long vacation only to end up with regrets that I should have heeded warnings. Thanks for sharing and any input is welcomed!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
lovestocruise19

lovestocruise19

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I spearheaded an Eastern Caribbean family cruise for December on the Conquest and (after incessantly chatting up how amazing our Carnival cruises have been) a few months ago our aunts, uncles, cousins, and my family of 5 booked rooms. This morning I came onto Cruise Critic and started reading horrible reviews of the Conquest on the Review page including one warning of the exact room I booked; had a stroke, called my travel agent practically in tears to cancel, and was preparing to fall on my sword to the family. I really appreciate your review, especially the pictures of food. I know everyone has different tastes but we have heard so many complaints from "veteran" cruisers that things have declined drastically from what they used to be. I am still mid-stroke but I have decided to wait until the last minute before I cancel. The reviews of the Conquest include everything from urine smell in the hallways to dining room food being almost inedible and mattresses so bad that stewards brought pads to try to help it. I am hoping to get some input and considering starting a thread of my own so I can get some real opinions to weigh. I hate the idea of saving then spending THOUSANDS of dollars for a week long vacation only to end up with regrets that I should have heeded warnings. Thanks for sharing and any input is welcomed!

 

Wow! I didn't experience anything like that at all! The only bummer of this particular ship is that she doesn't have a Serenity Deck like all the other Conquest class ships have.

 

DH and I definately didn't go hungry on this cruise and you always have the choice of eating via room service, the Lido deck or in the MDR.

 

DH and I always think that the beds are comfy (especially the duvets!). And I find it hard to believe that the mattresses were horrible because I went on the Behind the Fun tour on the Liberty and they mentioned they had a program of donating old mattresses.

 

I just booked the 12 day repo on the Freedom! I hope you enjoy your Conquest cruise. The mosaic near the entrance of the Lido deck of a Carnival funnel is so beautiful and I thought that the Monet MDR (the one in the aft) was the prettiest MDR I've seen so far on Carnival.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CityGirl214

CityGirl214

Posted
Posted
Wow! I didn't experience anything like that at all! The only bummer of this particular ship is that she doesn't have a Serenity Deck like all the other Conquest class ships have.

 

DH and I definately didn't go hungry on this cruise and you always have the choice of eating via room service, the Lido deck or in the MDR.

 

DH and I always think that the beds are comfy (especially the duvets!). And I find it hard to believe that the mattresses were horrible because I went on the Behind the Fun tour on the Liberty and they mentioned they had a program of donating old mattresses.

 

I just booked the 12 day repo on the Freedom! I hope you enjoy your Conquest cruise. The mosaic near the entrance of the Lido deck of a Carnival funnel is so beautiful and I thought that the Monet MDR (the one in the aft) was the prettiest MDR I've seen so far on Carnival.

I am hoping that the reviews were inaccurate although I can't understand why anyone would want to be so untruthful. I'm just glad to find live people who had GOOD experiences, especially seeing you have returned twice to the same ship. Can I ask what cabin/deck you were in? We had such an amazing experience on the Liberty in a spa deck cabin with the ceiling to floor window that we chose the "Scenic Oceanview" on the Conquest. A bit extra but we're hoping it will be worth the upgrade. The review I read referred to it as a solar panel which heated the room to over 90 degrees and an AC problem but my travel agent says no report of ac maintenance has ever been made in that cabin. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and trying to stay hopeful. Thanks for your response! Oh, and one more question...do they still have the chocolate melting cake? =]

Link to comment
Share on other sites
lovestocruise19

lovestocruise19

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I am hoping that the reviews were inaccurate although I can't understand why anyone would want to be so untruthful. I'm just glad to find live people who had GOOD experiences, especially seeing you have returned twice to the same ship. Can I ask what cabin/deck you were in? We had such an amazing experience on the Liberty in a spa deck cabin with the ceiling to floor window that we chose the "Scenic Oceanview" on the Conquest. A bit extra but we're hoping it will be worth the upgrade. The review I read referred to it as a solar panel which heated the room to over 90 degrees and an AC problem but my travel agent says no report of ac maintenance has ever been made in that cabin. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and trying to stay hopeful. Thanks for your response! Oh, and one more question...do they still have the chocolate melting cake? =]

 

Actually, we've only sailed the Conquest once. We were in room 2465, which was in the aft of the ship. It was an ocean view with two windows. While we liked the windows, we weren't fans of the vibrations in the aft. I'd love to stay in a scenic ocean view someday! I'm sure you'll have a great time!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
lovestocruise19

lovestocruise19

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I am hoping that the reviews were inaccurate although I can't understand why anyone would want to be so untruthful. I'm just glad to find live people who had GOOD experiences, especially seeing you have returned twice to the same ship. Can I ask what cabin/deck you were in? We had such an amazing experience on the Liberty in a spa deck cabin with the ceiling to floor window that we chose the "Scenic Oceanview" on the Conquest. A bit extra but we're hoping it will be worth the upgrade. The review I read referred to it as a solar panel which heated the room to over 90 degrees and an AC problem but my travel agent says no report of ac maintenance has ever been made in that cabin. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and trying to stay hopeful. Thanks for your response! Oh, and one more question...do they still have the chocolate melting cake? =]

 

Oh, and yes, there was definately WCMC on the cruise! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 months later...
Bigun60

Bigun60

Posted
Posted

What a great review. You did a wonderful job. I will be on the Conquest, solo, Dec. 14-21 and can't wait. Also, I booked a room at the Element after reading your review. Excited to stay there. Thanks for such a great review.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...
sharkaymon

sharkaymon

Posted
Posted
We ended up on Deck 7's secret deck for sailaway. We had it mostly to ourselves save for a few people who popped by and then were gone. We watched the Norwegian Sun, Carnival Breeze and Carnival Glory all use the turning basin, which I commented to DH that that was probably cooler to see than your own ship turning since you can't see the entire scope of it when you're the one turning.

 

How do I find this "secret deck" We will be in an inside cabin on the Rivera Deck and would love to find an uncrowded spot for Sail-away:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
lovestocruise19

lovestocruise19

Posted
  • Author
Posted
We ended up on Deck 7's secret deck for sailaway. We had it mostly to ourselves save for a few people who popped by and then were gone. We watched the Norwegian Sun, Carnival Breeze and Carnival Glory all use the turning basin, which I commented to DH that that was probably cooler to see than your own ship turning since you can't see the entire scope of it when you're the one turning.

 

How do I find this "secret deck" We will be in an inside cabin on the Rivera Deck and would love to find an uncrowded spot for Sail-away:)

 

Simply go all the way forward past the rooms on Deck 6 or 7 and then you'll see a door leading to the outside "secret" decks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
funinthesun1964

funinthesun1964

Posted
Posted
We got off the ship a little after 10 a.m. and wandered around the shopping area. I bought a magnet for our collection and proudly told DH that I conducted the whole transaction in Spanish. I went up to the counter and said "Hola!" The lady at the counter said "Tres dolares" and I handed over three bucks and then said "Gracias!" Three years of high school Spanish finally paid off! Lol!

 

 

 

 

 

I am really laughing at this! I had three years of Spanish in high school also and this would be about the extent of my abilities!

 

BTW- I am reading this over again, because I am getting super excited for our Conquest cruise coming up in less than 2 months! I can hardly wait!! Our ports are slightly different though: Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, and Costa Maya.

 

Enjoy your next cruise!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
lovestocruise19

lovestocruise19

Posted
  • Author
Posted
great review! I will be sailing on the New Years cruise, big group, all different ages... is that mocha chocolate getaway part of the cheers program? I believe they don't allow specialty drinks?

 

The mocha chocolate getaway is a frozen alcoholic drink and I'm pretty sure Cheers includes all types of alcoholic drinks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
lovestocruise19

lovestocruise19

Posted
  • Author
Posted
We leave on May 18th on the Conquest out of Ft. Lauderdale. Can't wait! This will be our 2nd cruise. We were on the Fantasy the first time. We hope the Conquest will be better. Great review. Thanks for sharing!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

You're welcome! I love doing reviews!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 months later...

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: Set Sail on Sun Princess®
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...