Amber and Matty P's Conquest Adventures!

[llski]

Boiler up, Tapi!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapataylk

looking forward to your review. We sail on February 14th.

. From Mishawaka here.

[Jenny in TX]

Looking forward to your review! We just booked the 8 day Conquest going to St. Kitts, St. Maarten, San Juan & Grand Turk for November 2016. We have been on the Conquest twice before when she was in Galveston.

 

Looking forward to what you thought about the Embassy Suites. We will be flying in the day before and would like a hotel that we can just get a taxi to and then walk to restaurants and shops for lunch & dinner.

[LaCal]

Hi Amber. Hope your having a Awesome Cruise......Did you do the Alchemy Class?? And if so how'd you like it?

 

How's the casino?? If you gamble at all I hope you and your husband are winning

 

🍹🍹😜🍀🍀🍀💰💰💰🍀🍀🍀

[Frank12]

Man that pizza looked good! :D

[SBNDers]

Hello cruise critic! First, I want to thank everyone for the wonderful trip reviews! I love reading them!

 

I am Amber, I am 30 and from South Bend, Indiana! My husband is Matt and is 33. We love to cruise and this our first cruise since having our two kids, they are 3.5 and 2!

 

 

We fly into Miami on Friday and sail out of Port Everglades on the Conquest on Sunday. We are staying at the Embassy Suites in FLL. I will try to be very timely with my trip review and start it sometime during the week of January 11!

 

Hello fellow South Bender's - I hope you made it back to town before this nasty weather we're having (at least they downgraded our storm from the 8" of snow they predicted yesterday).

 

My wife and I will be on the Conquest in June, and are looking forward to anything you have to share. We will also be staying at the Embassy Suites (our hotel of choice in FLL) before our cruise.

[jamscckmc]

Looking forward to hearing all about the a Conquest. I will be on the 8 day cruise April 16 th before your next one.

[PurdueChefAmber]

Looking forward to your review! We just booked the 8 day Conquest going to St. Kitts, St. Maarten, San Juan & Grand Turk for November 2016. We have been on the Conquest twice before when she was in Galveston.

 

Looking forward to what you thought about the Embassy Suites. We will be flying in the day before and would like a hotel that we can just get a taxi to and then walk to restaurants and shops for lunch & dinner.

 

Hi Jenny! I will be putting up my Embassy Review this afternoon!

 

Hi Amber. Hope your having a Awesome Cruise......Did you do the Alchemy Class?? And if so how'd you like it?

 

How's the casino?? If you gamble at all I hope you and your husband are winning

 

🍹🍹😜🍀🍀🍀💰💰💰🍀🍀🍀

 

Hi LaCal! Alchemy class was AWESOME! I would highly recommend it! The casino was so-so. We are not big gamblers and broke about even at the slots!

[PurdueChefAmber]

Hello fellow South Bender's - I hope you made it back to town before this nasty weather we're having (at least they downgraded our storm from the 8" of snow they predicted yesterday).

 

My wife and I will be on the Conquest in June, and are looking forward to anything you have to share. We will also be staying at the Embassy Suites (our hotel of choice in FLL) before our cruise.

 

Thank you! Our flight was delayed into Chicago Saturday night but we made it!! I will be putting up the Embassy Suites review this afternoon!

 

Looking forward to hearing all about the a Conquest. I will be on the 8 day cruise April 16 th before your next one.

 

Thank you! You will have a blast!

[PurdueChefAmber]

Man that pizza looked good! :D

 

It sure was! Nice and light! ;):D

[PurdueChefAmber]

Hello again! We are back and had a GREAT cruise with very few bumps. I will get done with what I can as quickly as I can! First off, the day before the cruise, Saturday the 2nd of January.

 

The flight was easy from ORD to MIA. It took just over 3 hours and it was a smooth flight. We touched down around 12 pm.

 

Yay! We are here!!

 

We requested an UBER after getting our bags and UBER told you where the driver would pick you up. We were in a car in under 5 minutes and had an easy drive to Ft Lauderdale! (45 minute ride and with discount, it only cost us $15!!!) A note on UBER.... many drivers do not like driving into the ports so it might take a little longer for someone to pick you up but someone will. Also, you do not have to tip the driver but they REALLY appreciate it and some will rate you less than a 5 if you do not tip, especially on short trips.

 

Moving on...

 

We get to the Embassy suites a little after 1 and went to the front desk. I will warn you, I love Embassy Suites but had a lack luster experience at this one... We figure we cannot check in since check in starts at 4 but we go to get our name on the list to check in and the front desk employee had quite the sassy attitude. I said something to the effect of, "Hi, I know we are early but do you have any idea when we might be able to check in?" She responds "Check in is at 4, so....4." No smile, nothing. Jeez, sorry. We headed over to the luggage room to drop the suitcases and head to lunch. They tagged our bags and gave us tags.

 

We headed directly behind the hotel where there was a shopping center with what looked to be a lot of dining options. We were right and decided to try Gilbert's 17th St Grill which proudly stated that they had the Best Hamburger in Southern Florida! Nice!

 

 

It was a "Panera" style restaurant where you ordered at the front counter and then went to sit down. There are food runners that get your condiments and drinks for you (we tipped him a few dollars). Along with pop, they also had beer and wine for purchase. DH got the Chipotle Mayo Burger well done and I got the original. Both were perfectly cooked and DELICIOUS! You get to chose a side, we both got regular fries.

 

[SBNDers]

Amber - You're pictures are great. We stayed at Embassy Suites last July and we probably had the same front desk person you had. Didn't seem to care about anything. Anytime she was there, we waiting to talk to someone else and never had an issue.

 

By the way - have you lived in SB all your life? My sons and nieces are in your same age group, so I wonder if your paths have ever crossed - high school, maybe?

 

Keep the review going - I can tell you are very detail oriented and it will be thorough and informative.

 

Steve

[SBNDers]

Amber - You're pictures are great. We stayed at Embassy Suites last July and we probably had the same front desk person you had. Didn't seem to care about anything. Anytime she was there, we waiting to talk to someone else and never had an issue.

 

By the way - have you lived in SB all your life? My sons and nieces are in your same age group, so I wonder if your paths have ever crossed - high school, maybe?

 

Keep the review going - I can tell you are very detail oriented and it will be thorough and informative.

 

Steve

 

Oh Amber - excuse the typos - I guess I shouldn't be eating my lunch and typing at the same time!

[PurdueChefAmber]

After lunch, we stopped into the Publix next door to get a few snacks and some wine. There are lots of little shops in this shopping center. Funny enough, though, there is no where to get swimsuits, water shoes, or anything of the like. You would need to go across 17th to ROSS if you need any reasonable priced clothing.

 

It was about 3:30, so, we decided to head back to the hotel. We checked with the front desk if there was an update on check in. Nope. "Did you receive a call? No? We will call you when a room is ready." So, we decided to head out and sit by the pool! It was a gorgeous day and pretty pool!

 

 

4:30 rolls around and we still haven't heard anything so we went to the lobby. YIKES! There were at least 75 people standing around, looking angry, with A LOT of luggage. The check in line was out the door. At this point, people are starting to get an angry crowd mentality and speak very loudly with others about their frustrations. I stepped outside and called the hotel and asked to speak with the manager. I explained the situation in the lobby and asked that he come out and just communicate what was happening and let everyone know realistic check in times. He refused to do that but he told me to come to his office and he would check us in. He said that they were having a rough time turning the hotel over and gave us a $50 dining/drink voucher. He retreated back into his office. We dropped our luggage off and headed down for some free drinks!

 

The room was VERY nice and we had a great view of the port. We were on the top floor. There is an observation deck on the top floor that has a great view of all the ships!

 

[PurdueChefAmber]

After the managers reception (Domestic Beers, House Wines, well liquor mixed drinks, pop, punch, chips & salsa, vegetables with ranch, pretzels, and popcorn) we requested an UBER and headed The Pirate Republic Seafood & Grill. This place was SO cool. It was right on the water and had boat parking. It is a dog friendly restaurant, which I loved, too! http://www.piraterepublicbar.com/

 

 

CAPRESE SALAD

 

 

OYSTERS

 

 

YUMMY KEY LIME PIE

 

 

 

We enjoyed our food. My husband wasn't super hungry. He got the steak bites which are across from the Oysters in the Oyster picture. He said they were ok but a little tough. The atmosphere is what makes this restaurant. We had a great waiter. Along with being dog friendly, on the water, and having good food, they had a swimming pool, too!

 

 

We were tired after dinner so decided to call it a night and go to bed. The next morning we would be boarding the Conquest! Hooray!!!

[PurdueChefAmber]

Amber - You're pictures are great. We stayed at Embassy Suites last July and we probably had the same front desk person you had. Didn't seem to care about anything. Anytime she was there, we waiting to talk to someone else and never had an issue.

 

By the way - have you lived in SB all your life? My sons and nieces are in your same age group, so I wonder if your paths have ever crossed - high school, maybe?

 

Keep the review going - I can tell you are very detail oriented and it will be thorough and informative.

 

Steve

 

Yeah, the front desk woman was horrible! haha Yes, I have lived here my whole life. I went to Penn!

[SBNDers]

Yeah, the front desk woman was horrible! haha Yes, I have lived here my whole life. I went to Penn!

 

My cousins daughter-in-law is Kristi Kaniewski-Ulrich the Penn girls bb coach. The big question - are you a "chef" and if so where at?

[momdaughterondestiny]

Thank you so much for the hotel review. So I am guessing that the hotel

was a good choice other than Miss Attitude. Maybe she will be off

for a vacation in June. ;) I'll tell the rest of the group

what you said and the pics and then maybe we can decide. I do

have a few more questions but will wait to see if you cover them.

Again thanks

Gina

[PurdueChefAmber]

I could not sleep because I was so excited! I tossed and turned and chatted with some of my roll call that could not sleep either! I checked my email and had an exciting email!

 

 

As soon as the sun came out, I had to check out if I could see the Conquest out of the window. I couldn't see her but saw a lot of other ships! There were 10 plus ships in port.

 

We headed down to the hot breakfast and it was PACKED. The elevators are very slow so if you can take the stairs, do it. (THEY NEED MORE ELEVATORS!!!!!) The breakfast was great. They had powdered eggs (blech), cruise bacon, sausage, hash brown potatoes, cereals, breads, pastries, pops, juices and coffee! The food was ugly, so, no food porn! :)

 

We took the stairs back up to the room and packed up! I was anxious and wanted to head to the port. I requested an UBER at 10:15 and we were off! The port traffic was not bad at all. The UBER driver had to show his pick up request, ID and paperwork and we had to show our boarding passes and IDs. We were through the line in 10 minutes. We were at Terminal 9 which was somewhat chaotic. We were told to drop our luggage in a cluster of luggage. The porters were all busy so we prayed the luggage would get to us. It did, don't worry! :)

 

We went into the port and walked straight through and up to check in. Being platinum, it is AWESOME being able to bypass the line but AWFUL walking by everyone waiting. We got heckled and it made my stomach hurt. We walked into the VIP lounge where they had lemonade but no cookies :confused: We chatted with people and were able to board right after 11:30. We walked up the gangway and ding, we were in!! Woooooohoooooo!!!

 

We walked up to 8454 and were immediately able to drop off our bags and we saw a surprise! Thanks John Heald!

 

 

 

We had an aft extended balcony and that ended up being not the best on this cruise but more on this later!

[PurdueChefAmber]

My cousins daughter-in-law is Kristi Kaniewski-Ulrich the Penn girls bb coach. The big question - are you a "chef" and if so where at?

 

How neat! No, but I was thinking about going back to culinary school when I registered! haha! I manage a bank!

[PurdueChefAmber]

My cousins daughter-in-law is Kristi Kaniewski-Ulrich the Penn girls bb coach. The big question - are you a "chef" and if so where at?

 

Thank you so much for the hotel review. So I am guessing that the hotel

was a good choice other than Miss Attitude. Maybe she will be off

for a vacation in June. ;) I'll tell the rest of the group

what you said and the pics and then maybe we can decide. I do

have a few more questions but will wait to see if you cover them.

Again thanks

Gina

 

You are welcome!

[unqimg]

Hey Amber, would you mind telling us who the Alchemy Bartenders are right now? If you recall.... its our favorite bar and we get on the 17th. 6 day....... :)

 

thx,

 

Mark and Gwyne

[RiotAct]

Awesome review so far, Amber! Will be reading it as you roll it out.

 

Few questions:

 

1.) That's awesome what they did for you with the rose petals / swan towel animals! (Okay that's a comment, not a question)

 

2.) How did you like the desserts overall on the ship, excluding the Melting Chocolate Cake?

 

3.) What happened to your toes? :(

[LaCal]

We want more.....We want more 😜😜

 

Been anxiously waiting for your review.....Loving it and your photos so far, Thx

 

We can't wait to be on the Conquest March 19th

[momdaughterondestiny]

We walked up to 8454 and were immediately able to drop off our bags and we saw a surprise!

 

My sister has the aft wrap on 8 and I have the bowling alley right behind her pretty excited. Another gal has an inside same deck and

the kids have the cabin across from us.

I had an aft on the glory 2 day and found it hard to find

a cool spot without the sun bearing down but the views

in the evening were amazing. Great review so far.

 

Gina

[singbluesilver1]

Hey how did you contact John heald? I posted in the ask John section on his blog but other people have said other ways are more efficient

 

Thanks

 

Enjoying the review