Conquest tips for Thanksgiving week

[shipsasailin]

Just Booked Conquest Thanksgiving 2015 for family of 4 (17,12). This will be our second family cruise and first on the Conquest. I am looking for any ship tips or must experiences that we may not know about being "new" to cruising!

Ports are Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman and Cozumel.

 

Thank you!! ;)

[junglecat]

RESEARCH your ports! Knowledge will give you power! Know exactly what you are doing when you step off of the ship. If not, you will be overwhelmed when you step onto land! My second piece of advise is don't book anything from transports, to airfare, to excursions from the cruise line. They are ALOT more expensive than booking elsewhere and ALOT more crowded. If you do enough of #1 you will find this out. If you are interested in seeing Stingray City I highly recommend Captain Marvins Watersports. They have a web site you can check out, price out and even make your reservations. We have done this numerous times and have never had an issue. An example of what I mentioned above. Our trip to Stingray City had 17 on board our boat. Where the Carnival excursion had over 200! In Cozumel, we've done both Mr. Sancho's & Passion Isle, again on our own. Both are great destinations for a beach/lazy day. In Ochos Rios I'd stay on the ship, unless you are doing the falls, then stay put. We've never done the falls, but heard it's worth the trip. That's my 2 cents worth of information and again just my opinion. Have fun and enjoy every minute of it. You'll be hooked.

[shipsasailin]

Thanks for the advice! I will check out your suggestions and am sure we will have a great time:D

[wgeddings]

We will be on that same cruise! Just booked it and have several friends and family who will be joining us. We did a Thanksgiving cruise before and finally all had to go again. We have been to those ports several times too. The first piece of advice is VERY true and valid - namely don't book excursions (or buy trip insurance) through the cruise line.

 

Grand Cayman - One of our favorite ports although it is one we have not gone too that often. Stingray City is not to be missed. The previous poster was exactly right since we were on a pontoon type boat with about 15-18 of us and we watched the cruise ship tour boats with hundreds it seemed pull up. Our guides made sure we each were safe and held stingrays and fed stingrays. I watched the cattle stampede where the cruise tours stopped and there is no way those people had nearly as good of an experience as we did although they probably paid twice as much. The stingrays are just awesome and despite horror stories will tell you about Steve Irwin, you are very safe. It is incredible to feel like you are in the middle of the ocean, on a sandbar and seeing hundreds of stingrays milling about. We had to miss this port last Thanksgiving cruise due to bad weather and everyone was very disappointed. This should be the highlight of the trip.

 

Ocho Rios - The falls are a lot of fun and very beautiful. Climbing up them is very fun but be warned that the water is COLD. It is all done under watchful eyes (again a private tour rather than the cruise ship) and was a great experience but I am not sure if we will do it again. On the other hand, there is a river tubing tour that we thoroughly loved. We love to cave tube in Belize and this is similar yet different. The sights are cool and at one point there is a high cliff that the guide stops so whoever wants to can jump off. Lots of fun!

 

Cozumel is another fun place. We like to rent golf carts or electric cars or similar things and go to Paradise Beach. Do some research ahead of time and find the beach that is getting the best reviews and has the most active manager. By using cruise critic, I made good connections ahead of time and it really helped us have a better experience rather than just wander around.

 

Hope we will see you onboard!

[shipsasailin]

Thank you for all the great tips!! Hope to see you all onboard

[Drazil65]

Tip: We did the "Amazing Race" excursion in Cozumel this past New Years week (Liberty cruise, awesome!!!). It was a blast and no joke, you had to get the clues and get to the next stop, it was so much fun. We did it as a team the 3 of us (me, DH, DS 12), there were all kinds of teams.

 

It was different, lots of interaction with other teams and locals, clues in museum, stores, market place, out in a boat where someone had to snorkel to get the clue, everyone had so much fun. But its physical and you see a lot of Coz, our son thought it was so cool!!!

[shipsasailin]

That sounds like a blast!! Not your average "excursion", which sounds like a good challenge for all of us! was that through carnival or and independent excursion company?

[momonthego17]

Just Booked Conquest Thanksgiving 2015 for family of 4 (17,12). This will be our second family cruise and first on the Conquest. I am looking for any ship tips or must experiences that we may not know about being "new" to cruising!

Ports are Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman and Cozumel.

 

Thank you!! ;)

 

Hi shipsasailin!

Come join us on our roll call for the Thanksgiving on Conquest cruise! Here is the link:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2138838

 

My DH, me, 2 DDs (13 & 15 at time of sailing) and my mom will be in two cabins in the aft. Looking forward to a great cruise!

[Gunzwife]

HELLO fellow cruisers!! We are booked on this cruise too... and can't wait!! We are a family of 4 (kids are 16 & 17) and traveling with a few family friends!

 

236 more days!! (but who's counting!!):p

[carnsclan3]

We are booked on this cruise too! We are super excited and this is our first cruise!! Looking at all the tips and tricks for newbies. Very interested in what I read about the excursions! I just went on Carnivals site to research what we might want to do! I've heard the Falls are fantastic and stingray city is a must! So you would book your own excursion even if it was your first time??? Hate the thought of spending that much additional money but the thought of getting left behind in the port is horrifying. (I've been told that if you book through cruise line you are guaranteed not to be left) is this true?

[swstaing]

We just did this cruise at the beginning of April. We didn't book any excursions for any of the ports. We hired a cabbie in Ocho rios and he drove us around. We went to a separate area of the falls and it was amazing! Much less crowded than the carnival excursion. We drove through the rain forest and saw so many incredible things.

Grand cayman - we stayed on board. We had priority tender with FTTF but it still looked chaotic so we remained on board and had a blast!

Cozumel- we walked around and ate lunch. We decided to hire another cabbie and he drove us to several places. We thoroughly enjoyed all of it.

Have fun on your cruise. I'm jealous. Lol. I am ready to go back!

[wgeddings]

Carnsclan3, be sure to go to the other roll call thread. There is a lot of specific information there. Especially if this is your first cruise, I strongly encourage that you not stay on the boat and that you book good excursions. We always book through private companies (and that is explained on the other thread) and you are right, Stingray City (Grand Cayman) is a Must! The Falls and the White River tubing in Jamaica were a lot of fun. Happy to try to help or advise if you wish. In that other thread is some information about my booking with Soto's Cruises for Stingray City and you are welcome to join us (information is there).

 

Tommy

[kendracruises]

Be prepared for alot of kids on board. Last year we did the cruise the week before Thanksgiving and there were maybe 5 kids on board and the staff told us there were more than 1000 kids booked on the Thanksgiving week cruise just after ours.

[Nelladj]

I am in the other RC also. Just trying to get as much information as possible. Se you there.

[Gunzwife]

Where is this other roll call I am missing out on!? LOL!!

[Nelladj]

Here is the other one. DJ

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2138838