Conquest 8 Night Eastern Caribbean April 2017

[mufc99]

We did the 8 night Eastern Caribbean, sailing on April 1st 2017 from Fort Lauderdale.

First time we have been to the Caribbean, so just wanted to see the place and not do activities.

We live near some of the best beaches, so even snorkelling etc wasn’t on the to do list.

We arrived at 1:20pm expecting to walk straight on, however the queues were out of the building and along the walls!

Even so, 1 hour 15 minutes later we were having lunch in the Lido dining room.

That took about half an hour and we then went to our room.

Almost straight away our suitcases arrived.

We spoke to another passenger during the cruise – he said he arrived at 11:30 and didn’t get on board till 1:30.

On signing up for the S & S card, Cheers package included, the staff said they were no longer taking cash and we had to do it once on board.

This became a pain, because whilst trying to use it, as the sail away was about to start, I found out it couldn’t be used, because we were still in the US and tax was trying to be taken out of it, (still zero balance).

Off I went to guest services, and was told I could deposit any amount I wanted!

I said ok, just put $100 cash on each card.

By the time I got back to the main deck, after getting lost several times, the party and the sail away was pretty much over!

With the Cheers package, the first day or so was a bit of apain with plenty of rude people, pushing in before you to get served first.This got quite annoying and I basically just had beers the first couple of days– didn’t want to waste even more time waiting for cocktails to be made.

Must say some of the bar staff seem to have an attitude problem, and shouldn’t be in the cruise industry – not mentioning anynames…Blue Iguana!

In our opinion the ship & the majority of the staff were great!

The performers doing the shows were excellent, especially the first half of the cruise – I think they changed after that.

The food was excellent and could not see any reason to pay for any of the speciality offerings!

We just did any time dining, most nights and never had any dramas getting a table for 2.

On just one occasion we were given a buzzer and we just waited at the bar for 30 minutes.

With elegant night, it seems everybody makes a big effort for the first one, but the second one, not many do!

I wouldn’t miss it if they didn’t have one!

Back to the Cheers package, you could say me & the wife are ‘drinkers’, yet we went one day without a single drink! 30 Drinks lost!

I think it was because we had been at Maho beach all day getting too much sun, and had a couple of beers there. I tried getting a credit at guest services, but they said it was non - refundable – party-poopers!

We hit our limit on 3 other occasions.

Kept getting bottles of water , every 2nd or 3rd drink at the bars.

Didn’t see a single person tip the bar staff during the cruise, though I did tip one lady who delivered the drinks to where I wasseated.

Maybe people on here who say they always tip are actually cruise bar staff :-)

I got into a routine of having a spiked coffee for breakfast everyday just to make sure I got my monies worth!

We had a few drinks at the Alchemy Bar – you get your value there, though some drinks are potent!

St Marten was the first stop and even though there were 6 ships in dock, we were on a minibus to Maho Beach in a matter of minutes after getting to the end of the pier.

We were able to stay right back for the KLM landing at about 3:30 and got back to the ship with plenty of time to spare.

At St Kitts we did and open bus tour of the Island.

It was interesting, but if you don’t like breathing in diesel fumes, you might want to get a normal mini bus for the tour. The brakeswere also squealing and I think a piece of the exhaust fell off near the end!:-)

At San Juan, we just did a quick 1 hour tour – bit of a pity really because a lot of the shops etc didn’t open till later in the morning andwe didn’t do much else.

Grand Turk is a nice spot.

Got ripped off at Margaritaville – ordered 2 Margaritas, she said do you want large ones, I said ok, ‘ching’, she put them in 2 $10 fancy plastic glasses, so they cost me about 43 bucks!

She said the refills would only be 12.50 – too late, they weren’t getting another dollar off me! :-)

After that we went down the beach to Franks Bar.

A bit over rated, just a crumby, little, home made, bar!

Just had 1 drink there and went back to the ship.

Getting off the ship was no big drama. They called our floor 7, several times, but we just went down when we felt like it and there wasn’t too much of a wait to get through customs.

We were unable to get any Uber taxis from the port for our trip to South Beach Miami.

I don’t know if they are allowed through security if they are empty?

We ended up just getting a taxi – came to 80 bucks – gave him 100 and said keep the change!

I reckon Uber would have been half that!

We would certainly go on the Conquest again, and probably get the Cheers package again.

 

At least my wife’s ambition of seen the planes at Maho Beach was achieved! :-)

[sk8rmomof3]

Good to know. 14 more days for us til we are on the Conquest. We prepaid for our drink package already......do you think our cards will already have the sticker on it when we get there?

[mufc99]

They put it on at the bar - just make sure you have put money on your S&S account otherwise at the US ports they will not be able to process it for drinks because they need to charge you the tax.

[evandbob]

I was on the same cruise. The delay in boarding the ship was due to getting everyone off the previous cruise. The last person to walk off the ship did so around 12:30, and as a Diamond, we were among the 1st to board at 12:45PM.

 

The Carnival staff told us they were having a difficult time locating the stragglers, but there could have been a delay with luggage or at Customs as well that caused the back up.

[rflan22]

Hi all! For recent Conquest cruisers, did anyone go to the piano bar? If so, was it fun? Was there specific late night places to hangout that were fun?

[mufc99]

We only put our head around the corner one night the piano bari was coming to a close, but it looked like the small crowd had been having a good time.

The comedy club was open late and was packed both times we went.

Didn't come across any late bars where people were hanging out though the night club was going off into the night!