My (better late than never) Conquest Review! 12/12/15 - Eastern Carib.

[iheartmarshall]

Hi everyone and welcome to my (better late than never) review of the Carnival Conquest! In this section of the internet, I’ll detail my experience aboard the Conquest for her December 12, 2015 cruise to St. Martin, St. Kitts, San Juan, and Grand Turk. I hadn’t planned on doing a review but since there seems to be some negative feedback regarding her recently, I thought I’d throw out some positive vibes. The Conquest has a special place in my heart as she’s the only ship I’ve ever been on – twice, actually. I don’t have anything to compare her to yet but my opinion of her is good and I’d thought it’d be nice to show her some love on the boards.

Before we dive in, here’s some things you might want to know:

My name is Sara (28) and I went on this cruise with my DH Jon (29). We’re both from West Virginia (as in the state, not the western part of Virginia) and have traveled our state extensively, but we are still fairly new to traveling beyond US soil. I work full-time as a coordinator of an afterschool program and Jon is in management at a local grocery store. I’m also a full-time grad student at Marshall (hence my name on here… Go Herd!) and am working on my second master’s degree. Because I’m paying out of pocket for school, we don’t have a ton of disposable income to spend on vacations which is one reason why cruising appeals to us – we book at least a year out and are able to make monthly payments and save for spending money. Hopefully once I’m out of school this situation will change, but we’re happy with where we are and that’s all that matters :)

This was our second time cruising and our second time on the Conquest (we didn’t plan it – it just happened to work out that way when looking at itineraries). As for our cruising style, we’re fairly low key and laid-back so the party scene on Carnival isn't our thing. However we still enjoy cruising Carnival as they offer something for everyone. I love that even though you’re on a ship with nearly 3,000 people, every person is having a completely different experience – it makes it interesting and I love that thought of cruising.

THE PORTS:

We’re quickly realizing that we cruise for the ports, not the ship, so all these ports were new to us. We enjoyed our time in each and tried to make the most of our visit by booking excursions:

St. Martin: “Fun Day” Tour with Jo Junie’s

St. Kitts: Carnival’s St. Kitts Highlights & Brimstone Hill Fortress

San Juan: DIY City Tour & visit to el Morro

Grand Turk: Carnival’s Clear Kayaking & Eco Safari

Other items to note:

 

• I don’t have any food pictures, as there’s plenty floating around. I can say that overall we enjoyed the dining options on the Conquest and never once went hungry. We only ate in the MDR four of our eight nights and ate on Lido the other nights, but every night the food was just fine. The only thing that did make me sad was the iced tea – I had one drink of it during lunch the first day and NOPE. The rest of the time it was water and lemonade, which worked fine.
  
• Similarly, I don’t have many pictures of the ship as, once again, there’s plenty floating around. The first time we were on the Conquest in 2014 I took several pictures but since it was our second time on her, I didn’t go snap happy.
  
• I don’t have the Funtimes but I believe that some of the more recent Conquest reviews on here have them.
  

For those of you who don’t like long reviews and just want the basics, my thoughts are pretty simple: we had a blast and loved our cruise! We had minimal complaints, thought the ship was overall in good condition, and the staff was fantastic. We were two happy cruisers!

Now for those who DO like picture reviews – here we go!

Oh hey, look – there’s us! (And Jon in his camo hat. Totally fits in the Caribbean, amiright?)

[iheartmarshall]

TRAVEL DAY AND PRE-CRUISE HOTEL

I don’t have any pictures of the travel portion, but I will say that we had a mostly uneventful trip down from CRW to FLL, with a layover in Charlotte. We flew American Airlines which was a first and although the flights were fine, in the months leading up to it, dealing with AA was a headache. I won’t go into detail but I’d rather fly Delta or even Allegiant than fly AA again. Will we? Probably, if it’s our only option (and our options are limited here). But they definitely won’t be my first choice!

We landed in FLL around 4:30pm and after getting our luggage, we called for our hotel shuttle to take us to the Rodeway Inn & Suites FLL. We waited nearly 30 minutes for it to arrive but once en route, we arrived at the hotel by 6:00pm and were basically settled for the night. I would never have picked this hotel based on previous horrid experiences at Rodeway Inns, but after reading lovetocruise’s review of it last year I figured it was a safe bet and it was! The hotel was no frills but we enjoyed it. It was clean, had that Floridian charm, and it had a decent (albeit crowded) free breakfast. For dinner, we ate at the attached restaurant (Marina 84, I think?) and it was so-so. Not the best, but it was convenient, the prices were right, and the food was decent.

 

Overall, the hotel was an affordable clean place to spend the night and we had no issues. What blew me away about it though is how organized they were in the morning. This is definitely a hotel that caters to cruisers! There were SO many people heading to Port Everglades and they had at least 4 shuttles running and were organizing us by ships. If my memory serves me correctly, we were on the 10:30am shuttle (it’s free if you do this time; earlier or later costs extra) and were at the port by 11:00am. Easy peasy!

 

 

(Did I just say that?)

[swalton85]

great start! even though i have no plans on sailing this ship anytime soon, i still love looking at other's reviews! :)

[cschwall]

Looking forward to review! I love picture reviews!

[soccersharon]

I was on this sailing as well :). Looking forward to your review

 

 

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[mimxmom]

What was the weather like at that time of year? Bathing suit weather?

 

 

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[iheartmarshall]

What was the weather like at that time of year? Bathing suit weather?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

It was! I think our weather was in the mid to upper 80s in the port and the ocean was fairly warm. It may have been a bit chilly at first, but definitely not cold. More like refreshing :) Aside from San Juan, I don't remember noticing that any other port was overly humid either.

[iheartmarshall]

Thank you to everyone following so far! This is my first review so bear with me haha. I'm typing this on Word as I go so I'll try to post fairly frequently and hopefully will have this done by the weekend.

 

EMBARKATION DAY

As I mentioned previously (I got a bit ahead of myself), the trek from the hotel to Port Everglades was an easy process. However, I will mention that this was a special day for me! Remember how I said I was in grad school working on my second master’s degree? Well, the day of embarkation (December 12) was my graduation ceremony for master’s degree number one. Of course since I was in Florida and not in West Virginia, attending graduation wasn’t going to happen. But I did want to represent and celebrate somehow so I wore a Marshall University shirt for embarkation…. Awwwww!

 

AND LOOK HOW PALE I AM. This is why I went through two bottles of 70 SPF during our cruise.

Okay, fast forwarding. We arrived at Port Everglades around 11:00am, dropped our luggage with the porters (much more organized than POM), and headed inside to the security checkpoint. Everything went pretty fast but we ended up having to wait quite a while in the waiting area – longer than our first cruise at POM. I believe it was almost 1:00pm before we were boarding the ship and while that’s nothing to really complain about, I just wanted to note it. Because we arrived early, we were in Zone 1 so we were the first to go after Diamond, Platinum, FTTF, and other priority guests.

Look at that aft:

Once on the ship, we moseyed around for a bit, attached a credit card to our account at Guest Services, and then made our way to our room close to 2:00pm. We booked cabin 1360, an OV on the Rivera deck. I booked this thinking that the price would drop and we would be able to upgrade to a balcony like we did on our first cruise…. lol, no. The price only went up once we booked. So, we stayed in this room and although I was a bit nervous being so low to the water, we actually loved it! It was midship and I liked hearing the ocean outside. No complaints at all.

 

I don’t have anything super exciting to share about the rest of embarkation day, aside from being squished in like sardines during the muster drill and I do know that we ate in the Lido for dinner. Most of the day consisted of us exploring and getting reacquainted with the ship, unpacking, and enjoying being on vacation and having no responsibilities.

[tootsieroll107]

I'm also looking forward to your review. We'll be on the ship in 2 months and I'm counting down the days. I love West Virginia. My son lived there for a few yrs. He showed us around the state for a few days checking out the different towns.

 

Any food on the ship you won't eat again?

[iheartmarshall]

EMBARKATION DAY #2: RANDOM PICS

An Instagrammy thumbs up for being on a cruise and not back home where it was 20 degrees.

Another Instagram-inspired view of my favorite spot on the ship.

Waiting for sail away at the aft pool with the front of Oasis of the Seas in the background. And look at us, we matched. We didn’t plan this but I guess Jon wanted to celebrate my graduation as well.

Goodbye, Fort Lauderdale! See you in 8 days.

[iheartmarshall]

I'm also looking forward to your review. We'll be on the ship in 2 months and I'm counting down the days. I love West Virginia. My son lived there for a few yrs. He showed us around the state for a few days checking out the different towns.

 

Any food on the ship you won't eat again?

 

Glad to hear that you've been to WV! Many people don't realize how much we have to offer, especially in the mountains. I love it here -- it's truly beautiful!

 

As far as food goes, I will pretty much eat anything and I don't remember anything standing out that I didn't like except the iced tea. And okay, maybe the eggs on the Lido breakfast buffet could've been better but they're your standard buffet eggs you'll find at a Shoney's or Golden Corral. I dressed them up with salt and pepper and they were fine.

 

On another note, my favorite thing to get in the MDR was shrimp cocktail though -- I had it as an appetizer every night we ate in there. The vegetarian dishes were also good. I'm not a vegetarian but the Indian dishes they offered were yummy so I got those a couple of nights.

[exarkkun]

The Conquest is a ship I'd really like to sail so I'll be tagging along. This is shaping up to be a really great review. I can't wait to read the rest of your review!

 

 

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[iheartmarshall]

SHIP PICTURES

 

Okay, so none of what you're about to see was taken on this cruise. Instead, they were taken on our Conquest cruise in 2014. But since there are a couple of people who are newbies, I will share a few ship pictures if you're interested.

 

In Belize:

 

Lido and the main pool area:

 

One of the "secret decks" all the way forward.

 

The "Impressionist Boulevard" along the casino on Deck 5. During the day, we liked to hang out here and people watch. In the evening, there was also live music.

See? I wasn't being dramatic when I said I went through two bottles of 70 SPF. I did the same thing on our last cruise as well. Us pale redheads -- we burn!

[iheartmarshall]

The Conquest is a ship I'd really like to sail so I'll be tagging along. This is shaping up to be a really great review. I can't wait to read the rest of your review!

 

 

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Thank you for following along :)

[iheartmarshall]

SEA DAY ONE

You won’t see much regarding sea days with me as each of our three were mostly the same: get up, eat Sea Day Brunch, and “lay out” on the aft decks with a book while bathing myself in sunscreen every hour, on the hour. Actually we did partake in some cruise activities – the Welcome Aboard Show, Fun Finds Shopping Show (aka: Expensive Jewelry I Don’t Need or Want But Maybe I’ll Win a Free Necklace if I Go?), trivia, and things like that. But really, most of our sea days were spent people watching while either reading or listening to music. It may sound boring to some, but for us it was relaxing which is what we wanted on this cruise. We also had plans to attend the M&G this day and even brought a Christmas ornament from home to trade but let time get away and missed it. Maybe our third cruise will be the time we finally attend a M&G? Maybe. I'm also still waiting to attend tea time one day.

I will add that I tried the Blue Iguana Cantina for lunch the first sea day and I. AM. HOOKED. I ate it for lunch every day after that, when possible. Sometimes I’d mix it up and add some veggies and ranch dressing from the buffet but in general, this was my lunch:

 

 

One pulled pork and one chicken taco, please. I wonder if they deliver to WV?

The first sea day was also our first formal night, which Jon and I did attend (we had YTD, by the way – I don’t think I mentioned that earlier). Before dinner, we went to the lobby and watched the tree lighting ceremony which was really nice. I was actually surprised because they had a whole light show set to “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra which was awesome! I’ll try to include a video of it, as I did record it so fingers crossed it works. This was definitely a highlight of the cruise for me, as I love TSO and have seen them in concert every year since they began coming to WV in the early 2000s. Their shows are fantastic!

VIDEO LINK TO TREE LIGHTING SHOW:

Our formal night selfies weren’t the best, so here’s some classic individual cabin pics of us:

 

 

After the tree festivities and dinner, we watched a Jurassic World on Lido. It was a new movie for both of us and we enjoyed it. It was fairly chilly though so if you plan on doing this, bring a blanket! I brought one of those sweatshirt material blankets (Marshall, of course) and placed it on the bottom of my suitcase before I put any clothes in it. It was a good weight and it also helped in the cabin when it was a bit cold.

 

After the movie, I think we wandered around the ship then went to bed around 11:00pm because we are the worst 20-somethings ever.

 

 

Edited February 24, 2016 by iheartmarshall

[iheartmarshall]

SEA DAY TWO

Our second sea day was similar to the first, so you could honestly just reread the previous post. However, one key difference is that we spent a good amount of time in the arcade and ended up paying about $10 for these two rubber ducks. Pretty sweet deal, right?

There was also a lot of this happening on that day, along with a Blue Iguana taco for me and a Guy's Burger for Jon:

 

And actually, now that I'm thinking about it.... I think the Fun Finds Shopping Show was on the second sea day instead of the first. But, ya know.

Edited February 24, 2016 by iheartmarshall

[iheartmarshall]

I'll leave it here for tonight and then pick back up tomorrow (Thursday at the latest) with the first port: ST. MARTIN!

 

[BenjiRodney]

Hi everyone and welcome to my (better late than never) review of the Carnival Conquest! In this section of the internet, I’ll detail my experience aboard the Conquest for her December 12, 2015 cruise to St. Martin, St. Kitts, San Juan, and Grand Turk. I hadn’t planned on doing a review but since there seems to be some negative feedback regarding her recently, I thought I’d throw out some positive vibes. The Conquest has a special place in my heart as she’s the only ship I’ve ever been on – twice, actually. I don’t have anything to compare her to yet but my opinion of her is good and I’d thought it’d be nice to show her some love on the boards.

Before we dive in, here’s some things you might want to know:

My name is Sara (28) and I went on this cruise with my DH Jon (29). We’re both from West Virginia (as in the state, not the western part of Virginia) and have traveled our state extensively, but we are still fairly new to traveling beyond US soil. I work full-time as a coordinator of an afterschool program and Jon is in management at a local grocery store. I’m also a full-time grad student at Marshall (hence my name on here… Go Herd!) and am working on my second master’s degree. Because I’m paying out of pocket for school, we don’t have a ton of disposable income to spend on vacations which is one reason why cruising appeals to us – we book at least a year out and are able to make monthly payments and save for spending money. Hopefully once I’m out of school this situation will change, but we’re happy with where we are and that’s all that matters :)

This was our second time cruising and our second time on the Conquest (we didn’t plan it – it just happened to work out that way when looking at itineraries). As for our cruising style, we’re fairly low key and laid-back so the party scene on Carnival isn't our thing. However we still enjoy cruising Carnival as they offer something for everyone. I love that even though you’re on a ship with nearly 3,000 people, every person is having a completely different experience – it makes it interesting and I love that thought of cruising.

THE PORTS:

We’re quickly realizing that we cruise for the ports, not the ship, so all these ports were new to us. We enjoyed our time in each and tried to make the most of our visit by booking excursions:

St. Martin: “Fun Day” Tour with Jo Junie’s

St. Kitts: Carnival’s St. Kitts Highlights & Brimstone Hill Fortress

San Juan: DIY City Tour & visit to el Morro

Grand Turk: Carnival’s Clear Kayaking & Eco Safari

Other items to note:

 

• I don’t have any food pictures, as there’s plenty floating around. I can say that overall we enjoyed the dining options on the Conquest and never once went hungry. We only ate in the MDR four of our eight nights and ate on Lido the other nights, but every night the food was just fine. The only thing that did make me sad was the iced tea – I had one drink of it during lunch the first day and NOPE. The rest of the time it was water and lemonade, which worked fine.
  
• Similarly, I don’t have many pictures of the ship as, once again, there’s plenty floating around. The first time we were on the Conquest in 2014 I took several pictures but since it was our second time on her, I didn’t go snap happy.
  
• I don’t have the Funtimes but I believe that some of the more recent Conquest reviews on here have them.
  

For those of you who don’t like long reviews and just want the basics, my thoughts are pretty simple: we had a blast and loved our cruise! We had minimal complaints, thought the ship was overall in good condition, and the staff was fantastic. We were two happy cruisers!

Now for those who DO like picture reviews – here we go!

Oh hey, look – there’s us! (And Jon in his camo hat. Totally fits in the Caribbean, amiright?)

 

 

Always good to read a review from another WV person, just up the road in Kanawha County. Sorry for the trouble with American. We always use them and have only had issues 1 time, due to fog, so guess not their fault.

[LaCal]

Great review and photos so far. Thanks.....We are on the Conquest for the first time on March 19th and can't wait

[momonthego17]

Wow! Thanks for posting the Christmas tree lighting with the music. Loved it!!

[josefina022]

Loving your review! Especially because we are doing the same ship and itinerary soon!

[iheartmarshall]

Always good to read a review from another WV person, just up the road in Kanawha County. Sorry for the trouble with American. We always use them and have only had issues 1 time, due to fog, so guess not their fault.

 

We're in Kanawha too!

 

American wasn't the worst flight wise, but my problem with them was that they kept changing our booking up until the week of. I know that's life and it happens, but at one point they changed our flight time out of CRW to where we only had 10 minutes in CLT before our connection left (not 10 minutes to run across the airport, but rather by the time we even landed, the connection would've already been done boarding and probably on the tarmac in line). There were other things too, but mainly it was frustration due to them constantly changing things. It worked out in the end but I'd rather do Delta or Allegiant out of HTS!

[iheartmarshall]

Loving your review! Especially because we are doing the same ship and itinerary soon!

 

YAY! If you have any questions as I continue, just let me know. I have more pictures than what I'm posting (trying to keep it limited) so just ask and I may have a picture of something you'd like to see.

[RiotAct]

[/color]

Another Instagram-inspired view of my favorite spot on the ship.

 

Love this picture!

 

 

Great review so far.

[GMRPHRN]

Loving your review. How do you get to the secret deck? I tried to find it while on the Glory (same layout) but ended up in some crew area.

 

Thanks