Conquest Thanksgiving Review

[sealgs2000]

We drove down to Galveston on Saturday and stayed at the San Luis Resort. This hotel sits between the Holiday Inn on the Beach and the Hilton. This hotel is great if you have kids they have a very nice outdoor heated pool with a slide and waterfall. The hotel also offers free parking and free transportation to the port. We ate dinner on Saturday night at Caseys Seafood Dinner. I had read about it on the internet and it was about 8 to 10 blocks down from the hotel so we gave it a try. The food was wonderful I had the fish tacos and they were great! The rest of my family had seafood platters and said they were very good. For desert 3 of us shared a huge piece of chocolate cake that was to die for.

 

Embarkation: We signed up for the 11:40 shuttle to the port and the shuttle was on time. The shuttle does stop at the Hilton next door to pick up other passengers going to the port. We arrived at the port about 12:00 and we were onboard the ship by 12:30. We were then told that our rooms would not be ready untill 2:00 and to please not try to get into them untill then. Not a problem we just went up to the Lido and ate some lunch walked around the ship a bit till we could get to our room.

 

Cabin: We had cabin number 1110 on the Spa Deck it was awesome. We have had inside cabins, oceanviews and a balcony but we LOVED this cabin. It has floor to ceiling windows and when you woke up in the morning you could just lay in bed and look out at the view.

 

Jamaica: We had planned to spend the day at Sunset Beach but my son got the Norwalk Virus on Tuesday night so we did not leave the ship.

 

Grand Cayman: We booked a tour with Native Way for the Rays, Reef and Rum Point. We were not able to tender in George Town because the waves were high so I believe we were on the south side of the island. There were four ships tendering to one small doc so it was a long process. When we finally tendered Native Way was on the doc waiting for us. There were plenty of cabs for people who wanted to go into George Town and they were charging $5 per person each way to town. We had a great time with Native Way there was only about 20 of us on the tour. When we got to the snorkling spot the guides got in the water with us and dove down to this cave with food and were able to coax out about a 6ft eel and a nurse shark. After about 40 minutes of snorkling we went to Sting Ray City. This was a amazing experience, this is something everyone should do if you have kids they will love it. My son got to hold one of the rays for about 5 minutes before it swam away. After about 40 minutes with the Rays we were off the Rum Point for lunch. This would have been a great beach to spend the next 1.5 hours but it started to rain so we ate lunch in the bar then my kids just played on the beach in the rain untill it was time to go. One point I will make is that Native Way cut our time back to the ship very close. The last tender was suppose to be at 3:00. The traffic was really bad and we did not get back to the dock untill 3:05 I was freaking out!!!! I could see the ships funnel in the distance and see the smoke comming out of it and I was just sure the ship was leaving without us. Thank god when we pulled up there was a couple thousand people standing in line to get a tender back to the ship. After standing in line for 45 minutes we were safely back on board. The ship was suppose to sail at 4:00 but we never left untill about 5:30.

 

Cozumel: We were the first Conquest sailing back to Cozumel since the Hurricane. The sailing prior to ours did not stop due to weather. We tendered downtown so there is no need to get a cab if you just plan on shopping while there. I would say that about 80 percent of the stores in the downtown area are up and running. The Conquest and The Rhapsody of the Seas were the only ships in Cozumel that day. Cozumel does not have alot of tenders since they had piers in the past so they use the ferries that usually go back and forth to Cancun. I think there were four ferries to unload the 2 ships. These ferries are really nice and they hold about 500 people each so they take a long time to load and unload so this really cuts into your time on the island. We got a $14 taxi to Paradise Beach. It is one of the few beachs other than Playa Mia that is open. Paradise is free to get in and if you want to use the non-motorized water sports you pay $8 per person. This price includes floats, water trampoline, Ice Burg , kayaks and snorkling equipment. The chairs and umbrellas are free as long as you are ordering food or drinks. We had drinks and lunch here and the food was very good and reasonably priced. We even had the pleasure of meeting Tom who runs the place and frequents the Cruise Critic board. It was a great day and would recommend Paradise beach to everyone.

 

Disembarkation: Very Slooooow!!! We did the self assist and headed down to deck 3 and 6:25am only to find when the elevator doors opened the area was so packed with people there was not room for us to get off the elevator unless we wanted to get off at deck 5 stand in line there then drag all our lugguage down the stairs. We opted to stay on the elevator and wait for the line to start moving. After 1.5 hours of standing in the elevator with another very nice family we were finally allowed to get off the ship. This was of no fault of Carnivals, we can thank the people who thought they could get drugs off the ship and people not reporting to Immigration.

 

The ship was great. We did not do alot of the activities this time around other than the shows they were all pretty good except for the Point and Click. I could not stay awake during that one. We spent one evening with Damain in the Piano Bar, he is a hoot! Mauna, who does the Karoke was alot of fun. I know I am leaving alot out so if you have any question just ask and I will try to answer them for you. I hope I did not bore you too much!

[sealgs2000]

Ooops some how this posted twice. Sorry!!!

[CordovaMom]

Great review!! Thanks!!

[LABecca]

Great review Mary! Thanks!

 

Our family had a great time also!

 

It sounds like we should have gone to Paradise Beach with you guys. Playa Mia was nice but it seems like we could have saved alot of money by going to Paradise Beach. I'll listen to you next time!

 

You were lucky to have gotten off the ship before 8:00. They were still doing self assist at 10:00. Some people did not get off the ship untill 12:30, and did not leave the parking lot untill 2:00.

[b8tzm]

We drove down to Galveston on Saturday and stayed at the San Luis Resort. This hotel sits between the Holiday Inn on the Beach and the Hilton. This hotel is great if you have kids they have a very nice outdoor heated pool with a slide and waterfall. The hotel also offers free parking and free transportation to the port. We ate dinner on Saturday night at Caseys Seafood Dinner. I had read about it on the internet and it was about 8 to 10 blocks down from the hotel so we gave it a try. The food was wonderful I had the fish tacos and they were great! The rest of my family had seafood platters and said they were very good. For desert 3 of us shared a huge piece of chocolate cake that was to die for.

 

Embarkation: We signed up for the 11:40 shuttle to the port and the shuttle was on time. The shuttle does stop at the Hilton next door to pick up other passengers going to the port. We arrived at the port about 12:00 and we were onboard the ship by 12:30. We were then told that our rooms would not be ready untill 2:00 and to please not try to get into them untill then. Not a problem we just went up to the Lido and ate some lunch walked around the ship a bit till we could get to our room.

 

Cabin: We had cabin number 1110 on the Spa Deck it was awesome. We have had inside cabins, oceanviews and a balcony but we LOVED this cabin. It has floor to ceiling windows and when you woke up in the morning you could just lay in bed and look out at the view.

 

Jamaica: We had planned to spend the day at Sunset Beach but my son got the Norwalk Virus on Tuesday night so we did not leave the ship.

 

Grand Cayman: We booked a tour with Native Way for the Rays, Reef and Rum Point. We were not able to tender in George Town because the waves were high so I believe we were on the south side of the island. There were four ships tendering to one small doc so it was a long process. When we finally tendered Native Way was on the doc waiting for us. There were plenty of cabs for people who wanted to go into George Town and they were charging $5 per person each way to town. We had a great time with Native Way there was only about 20 of us on the tour. When we got to the snorkling spot the guides got in the water with us and dove down to this cave with food and were able to coax out about a 6ft eel and a nurse shark. After about 40 minutes of snorkling we went to Sting Ray City. This was a amazing experience, this is something everyone should do if you have kids they will love it. My son got to hold one of the rays for about 5 minutes before it swam away. After about 40 minutes with the Rays we were off the Rum Point for lunch. This would have been a great beach to spend the next 1.5 hours but it started to rain so we ate lunch in the bar then my kids just played on the beach in the rain untill it was time to go. One point I will make is that Native Way cut our time back to the ship very close. The last tender was suppose to be at 3:00. The traffic was really bad and we did not get back to the dock untill 3:05 I was freaking out!!!! I could see the ships funnel in the distance and see the smoke comming out of it and I was just sure the ship was leaving without us. Thank god when we pulled up there was a couple thousand people standing in line to get a tender back to the ship. After standing in line for 45 minutes we were safely back on board. The ship was suppose to sail at 4:00 but we never left untill about 5:30.

 

Cozumel: We were the first Conquest sailing back to Cozumel since the Hurricane. The sailing prior to ours did not stop due to weather. We tendered downtown so there is no need to get a cab if you just plan on shopping while there. I would say that about 80 percent of the stores in the downtown area are up and running. The Conquest and The Rhapsody of the Seas were the only ships in Cozumel that day. Cozumel does not have alot of tenders since they had piers in the past so they use the ferries that usually go back and forth to Cancun. I think there were four ferries to unload the 2 ships. These ferries are really nice and they hold about 500 people each so they take a long time to load and unload so this really cuts into your time on the island. We got a $14 taxi to Paradise Beach. It is one of the few beachs other than Playa Mia that is open. Paradise is free to get in and if you want to use the non-motorized water sports you pay $8 per person. This price includes floats, water trampoline, Ice Burg , kayaks and snorkling equipment. The chairs and umbrellas are free as long as you are ordering food or drinks. We had drinks and lunch here and the food was very good and reasonably priced. We even had the pleasure of meeting Tom who runs the place and frequents the Cruise Critic board. It was a great day and would recommend Paradise beach to everyone.

 

Disembarkation: Very Slooooow!!! We did the self assist and headed down to deck 3 and 6:25am only to find when the elevator doors opened the area was so packed with people there was not room for us to get off the elevator unless we wanted to get off at deck 5 stand in line there then drag all our lugguage down the stairs. We opted to stay on the elevator and wait for the line to start moving. After 1.5 hours of standing in the elevator with another very nice family we were finally allowed to get off the ship. This was of no fault of Carnivals, we can thank the people who thought they could get drugs off the ship and people not reporting to Immigration.

 

The ship was great. We did not do alot of the activities this time around other than the shows they were all pretty good except for the Point and Click. I could not stay awake during that one. We spent one evening with Damain in the Piano Bar, he is a hoot! Mauna, who does the Karoke was alot of fun. I know I am leaving alot out so if you have any question just ask and I will try to answer them for you. I hope I did not bore you too much!

 

Curious what time people were off that didn't do self assist, thanks for a nice review

[Jabee]

We spent one evening with Damain in the Piano Bar, he is a hoot! Mauna, who does the Karoke was alot of fun. I!

 

Hey....I understand they have moved Mauna and Karaoke from the Degas lounge. Where have they moved it to now?? Did she have a lot of people in there?? She was one of my favorities as I did karaoke every night.

 

Also....an evening with Damian is worth the price of admission!!

 

Glad yo had a great trip.

[JiminyCricket]

Nice review. We will be staying at the San Luis late Dec prior to our 1/1 cruise. Glad to hear you liked it. Thanks for the tip on Casey's Seafood.:D

[mondo7419]

Have to agree with sealgs2000 about all the long lines, but it wasn't just in Grand Cayman... Conquest was packed and the crew did not seem to be able to deal with it. We've been on Carnival before and loved it, the "fun ship" line usually tries to make sure everyone has fun, but this time the crew seemd tired and overwhelmed by the huge crowds. We had kids with us, so I can't complain about people cruising with kids, however, my kids never once rode the elevators for fun (we got on once and there were 4-5 pre-teens sitting on the elevator floor playing gameboys ... at least they were quiet, usually they were running and yelling and pushing adults out of their way). The line to get back on board in Cozumel was almost as bad as on Grand Cayman. Lines for buffets were horrible. There were even lines to do things like look at pictures. There definitely weren't enough bathrooms for the number of people on board and debarkation was a nightmare. I understand there there was some sort of customs problem, but it would have been nice if Carnival had done something for the passengers stranded on the ship. All food and beverage service (including glasses of water) shut down at about 9:00 and we were one of the last to get off at about 1230. We learned a couple of lessons on this cruise: Never sail with more than 1200 other people and stay away from carnival.

[Kittybork]

After 1.5 hours of standing in the elevator with another very nice family we were finally allowed to get off the ship. This was of no fault of Carnivals, we can thank the people who thought they could get drugs off the ship and people not reporting to Immigration.

 

You stood in an elevator for 1.5 hours?

[texas greeneyes]

All food and beverage service (including glasses of water) shut down at about 9:00 and we were one of the last to get off at about 1230. We learned a couple of lessons on this cruise: Never sail with more than 1200 other people and stay away from carnival.

 

:confused: Not our experience...We were among the last colors called to debark, and we were serving ourselves hot breakfast Sunday 11/27 from the Lido buffet at 10:30! Grits, bacon, even the omelet station was open.