4/2/06 Just back from the Conquest

[TXRed]

Just got off the Conquest today. Will write a full review within the next day or so. A few highlights:

 

Carnival does a FANTASTIC job dealing with special diets for Celiac sufferers. Kudos to the entire staff working with and under Chef Biju Jacobs.

 

Carnival does a terrific job with the smaller children.

 

Carnival suffers greatly dealing with teens and teen drinking/teen behaviour.

Due to one young lady (who I pray will recover from a combination of alcohol, sun and prescription drugs - this told to me by several crew members) thousands of people were not only inconvenienced, but many missed flights, had to pay for limos extra hours, we had to pay a full day's extra kennel fees for 4 dogs... pet resort's are not cheap, we had to drop friends and family at the airport 4 hours ahead of time :-( other cruisers had to wait for hours to get on the Conquest for their cruise......the list goes on. Cars lined the streets waiting to get into parking lots that were still FULL of cruisers not yet able to get off the ship.......one person's bad judgment affected thousands of people. Most cruisers handled it well.....some were getting down right cranky after 4 hours of sitting around.

 

Carnival does an OK job on food....but it's hit and miss. Buffets were mediocre. Sur Mer was good. Sushi was very good. Grill for burgers and hotdogs...good, but slow. Pizza is OK. Rooms Service is good....and fast. Room Service coffee....ugh!

 

Ship was clean and as well kept as possible... with 900 kids of all ages.

 

Room Stewards were great. Cabins were roomy, with ample storage and the bedding was very, very nice.

 

Shows were OK...not great....just OK.

 

The POINT restaurant is OUTSTANDING...how they produce this meal for $30.00 is nothing less than a miracle. It is a DO NOT MISS.

 

Embarking was a breeze...

Disembarking was chaos due to the late arrival.

 

All in all it was a good experience...some parts better than others.

[Longin2cruise]

Ditto to everything you said, in so far as we were involved in those activities or restaurants. Will add my review once I've had a chance to settle in. Double, triple ditto to the problems with debarkation. I too, wish for the girl's recovery, but her poor judgement did cause hell for all passengers,crew, parking lots, new passengers, etc. The ripple effect was totally horrible. There were a lot of kids on board, but I never saw any giving any trouble..........matter of fact, they acted better than a lot of the adults I saw, especially in the debarking process & in deck chair saving.

[aggieastrosfan]

Wow! What happened?

[cardinalfan]

I am so curious what happened. I was on the Conquest 3 weeks ago. We had several things happened including a medical emergency requiring the Mexican Navy to pick someone up in the middle of the night but a story was also circulating about a passenger dying from alcohol poisoning. Several people claimed to have seen this person at a bar in Mexico drinking and drinking. He was supposedly unconscious prior to the ship leaving Cozumel and never got back on board. Please let us know what happened on your cruise.

 

I also saw underage kids drinking. It is curious to me as they card so many people in the casino.

[Chexmix]

I also DITTO Txred for the most part. On Friday night about 1 or 2 am we had to stop for a young girl 20 to get medical attention. This plus the TIME CHANGE (springing forward) made us about 3 hours late getting back into port.

 

Our disembarkation process was a great one. However, I am a member of CVC (Carnival Vacation Club). CVC gave us a choice of self assist or regular disembarkation. We chose the self assist due to flights for part of our group of 9. CUDOS to the CVC staff for getting us off ASAP. We were the FIRST nine off the ship and through customs. Everyone made there flight at 1:20 with ease. They even had extra time at the airport. I know that the problem that others faced was not good though. This was just my experience with disembarkation.

 

As we went through the cruise terminal I knew there would be some MAD people. The place they put the luggage was still empty as customs was still clearing all the luggage places outside the cabins the night before. With the self assist customs cleared us as we showed them our passports and turned in our immagration forms.

 

I will post a full review in the next couple of days. As TxRed metioned, The Point Restrant was AWESOME. The two of us actually met (in the hall) after our dinner at The Point on Saturday night. TxRed, wish I would have met you sooner.

[Illinoisgal]

Hi Txred, My sister has celiac's and is cruising with us this November, What kind of food/accomadations did they make? Did you call Carnival a few weeks ahread of time, or did you talk with them the first night directly? Please let me know what you can,I would really appreciate it

[KWV001]

I also was on the Conquest last week, and finally returned home late last night. I'll post more details later in the week, but I'll just say now the disembarkation process yesterday was an absolute disaster. I witnessed a near fistfight between two adult women. Things would have been much smoother if people had been patient and listened to and followed the instructions that were given. When the ship was finally cleared, they called for those on decks 10 and 11 using the self assist program to proceed to the gangway -- and at that time the entire ship tried to leave, causing problems in the stairwells, people getting stuck in elevators, families getting separated, etc. The worst part, was during this chaos (which is really the only word to describe it), there was not Carnival employee to be found! Wait, I take that back -- one person from the purser's desk did walk by, but conveniently claimed to speak no English! Given the late arrival, Carnival should have modified the process to call people by flight times, and then stationed an employee on each floor near the elevator's and stairwells to verify a passenger's flight time before letting them downstairs.

[TXRed]

Ditto to everything you said, in so far as we were involved in those activities or restaurants. Will add my review once I've had a chance to settle in. Double, triple ditto to the problems with debarkation. I too, wish for the girl's recovery, but her poor judgement did cause hell for all passengers,crew, parking lots, new passengers, etc. The ripple effect was totally horrible. There were a lot of kids on board, but I never saw any giving any trouble..........matter of fact, they acted better than a lot of the adults I saw, especially in the debarking process & in deck chair saving.

 

Hi Longin! Sorry we didn't get to meet. I think Carnival did a great job with the smaller children...however many young teens were a BIG problem not only to other guests but to the staff (per the staff). Drinking was IMO the biggest problem in that age group...as for the older young 'adults' and I use that with tongue in cheek.....there was a problem with drugs AND excessive drinking.....several mornings we had marijuana butts on our balcony. One evening the people above us...in that young 'adult' group....were smoking, drinking, and using very FOUL language ..... one of the young ladies decided to sit on the railing of the balcony...the ship WAS sailing at approximately 19 knots ...after my heart started beating again I implored that one of them please remove her from the balcony railing...she said oh I am OK..if I fall, I'll just land on the balcony below....after explain that the trajectory would take her and then down....to the ocean...one of the young men decided to remover her from the balcony. We were in aft cabins so fortunately we didn't get a lot of hall traffic....a blessing I am sure.

[TXRed]

I also DITTO Txred for the most part. On Friday night about 1 or 2 am we had to stop for a young girl 20 to get medical attention. This plus the TIME CHANGE (springing forward) made us about 3 hours late getting back into port.

 

Our disembarkation process was a great one. However, I am a member of CVC (Carnival Vacation Club). CVC gave us a choice of self assist or regular disembarkation. We chose the self assist due to flights for part of our group of 9. CUDOS to the CVC staff for getting us off ASAP. We were the FIRST nine off the ship and through customs. Everyone made there flight at 1:20 with ease. They even had extra time at the airport. I know that the problem that others faced was not good though. This was just my experience with disembarkation.

 

As we went through the cruise terminal I knew there would be some MAD people. The place they put the luggage was still empty as customs was still clearing all the luggage places outside the cabins the night before. With the self assist customs cleared us as we showed them our passports and turned in our immagration forms.

 

I will post a full review in the next couple of days. As TxRed metioned, The Point Restrant was AWESOME. The two of us actually met (in the hall) after our dinner at The Point on Saturday night. TxRed, wish I would have met you sooner.

 

Hi Chex...I too wish we had met much earlier! I am glad you decided to self assist and that your kids made their flights. We had 2 persons in our group with medical problems...one using a wheelchair and/or cane for shorter distances. The other recovering from knee cap replacement. We had hoped to do the self assist but it was not possible. So we waited, and waited, and waited......We were on the 7th deck and fortunately after they finally started calling the tag colors it went quickly.....we found our luggage quickly...but had to wait nearly 25 minutes for a porter. Then wait in a long line to get through customs......however Customs personnel were fast and we didnt' see them checking any bags.

 

We used EZ cruise parkingng....highly recommend it......the EZ bus took us and ALL of our luggage and a wheel chair to the parking lot.....the line of people witing to get into the parking area was several blocks long...they couldn't get in til we got out. Just another effect of one person's lack of good judgement.

 

We had to drop 4 members of out group off at Hobby Airport on the way home instead of what our plans had been....to bring them to our home....have a late lunch and drive them back to Hobby...an hours drive each way.......we also had 5 dogs to pick up at the Pet Resort as well as paying an extra day's stay for each dog,,,...just another example of the rippling effect.

 

If we sail on Carnival again we will certainly dine at the speciality restaurant MORE than once....it was Awesome!!!

[TXRed]

Hi Txred, My sister has celiac's and is cruising with us this November, What kind of food/accomadations did they make? Did you call Carnival a few weeks ahread of time, or did you talk with them the first night directly? Please let me know what you can,I would really appreciate it

 

Hi Illinoisgal. It was a very involved process.....but the end result was FANTASTIC!!!!

 

First of all our crusie agent called Carnival and was told they didn't cater to that kind of special diet.....he was told to tell our party to avoid the buffet line.....OH BOY..that was NOT satisfactory at all. If you have an email contact I will be more than happy to send you ALL the details..who to contact etc...however let me make EVERYONE AWARE that Carnival DOES CATER TO SPECIAL NEEDS DIET...and they do a fantastic job!!!...I don't care what someone at Carnival tells you to the contrary! A Celiac sufferer is at the mercy of the the kitchen and kitchen staff UNLESS they are in the know about the disease and the food preparation needs...The Chef on the Conquest KNOWS!!! Even to the point of providing our member with individually wrapped butter at EVERY MEAL and special breads prepared daily. He and his staff were educated as to these needs. As were the maitre 'D and the wait staff at our table..... The Head Chef told me he and his staff prepare special diets for many different needs not only Celiac sufferers!!.....from low sodium, kosher, low fat, low carb....even meals catering to ethnic groups.....

[TXRed]

I also was on the Conquest last week, and finally returned home late last night. I'll post more details later in the week, but I'll just say now the disembarkation process yesterday was an absolute disaster. I witnessed a near fistfight between two adult women. Things would have been much smoother if people had been patient and listened to and followed the instructions that were given. When the ship was finally cleared, they called for those on decks 10 and 11 using the self assist program to proceed to the gangway -- and at that time the entire ship tried to leave, causing problems in the stairwells, people getting stuck in elevators, families getting separated, etc. The worst part, was during this chaos (which is really the only word to describe it), there was not Carnival employee to be found! Wait, I take that back -- one person from the purser's desk did walk by, but conveniently claimed to speak no English! Given the late arrival, Carnival should have modified the process to call people by flight times, and then stationed an employee on each floor near the elevator's and stairwells to verify a passenger's flight time before letting them downstairs.

 

I agree...there has to be a better way to facilitate the disembarking process....it seemed to us that nearly 1/2 of the ship used the self assist process due to our predicted late arriival....I am sure much of the choas was due to our late arrival...or I sure hope so anyway,

[LABecca]

The rumor going around was that the girl tried to commit suicide. Is this true?

 

I'm wondering how they got drugs on the ship, esp mj? They have the dogs at the port in Montego Bay. Some people on our cruise got busted for trying to bring drugs on the ship, I guess they can't catch everyone.

 

How old do you have to be in Mexico to drink alcohol? I saw quite a few teens drinking on my trip while in port. I did not see teens drinking on the ship, I did not see any teens in the bars, ok maybe in the dance club, but they were not drinking alcohol to my knowledge. This was a Thanksgiving cruise, so there were a lot of families on board. The cruise that just finished probably had some spring breakers on board. That may be the difference.

[Illinoisgal]

Hi Illinoisgal. It was a very involved process.....but the end result was FANTASTIC!!!!

 

First of all our crusie agent called Carnival and was told they didn't cater to that kind of special diet.....he was told to tell our party to avoid the buffet line.....OH BOY..that was NOT satisfactory at all. If you have an email contact I will be more than happy to send you ALL the details..who to contact etc...however let me make EVERYONE AWARE that Carnival DOES CATER TO SPECIAL NEEDS DIET...and they do a fantastic job!!!...I don't care what someone at Carnival tells you to the contrary! A Celiac sufferer is at the mercy of the the kitchen and kitchen staff UNLESS they are in the know about the disease and the food preparation needs...The Chef on the Conquest KNOWS!!! Even to the point of providing our member with individually wrapped butter at EVERY MEAL and special breads prepared daily. He and his staff were educated as to these needs. As were the maitre 'D and the wait staff at our table..... The Head Chef told me he and his staff prepare special diets for many different needs not only Celiac sufferers!!.....from low sodium, kosher, low fat, low carb....even meals catering to ethnic groups.....

 

 

Thanks so much TXREd. My direct email is etheralmassage@yahoo.com. O look very forward to your reply. It is her first cruise, so I am trying to make sure she will be taken care of.

[albean99]

I am so curious what happened. I was on the Conquest 3 weeks ago. We had several things happened including a medical emergency requiring the Mexican Navy to pick someone up in the middle of the night but a story was also circulating about a passenger dying from alcohol poisoning. Several people claimed to have seen this person at a bar in Mexico drinking and drinking. He was supposedly unconscious prior to the ship leaving Cozumel and never got back on board. Please let us know what happened on your cruise.

 

I also saw underage kids drinking. It is curious to me as they card so many people in the casino.

 

I was also on that cruise, Cardinalfan. I read here that the teenage boy did get back on the ship but had to be brought onto the tender in a wheelchair. I heard a few versions of your rumor but none said anyone died. As far as I know, the person taken off the ship in Mexico was a woman.

 

Our cruise was delayed but not nearly as long as this last one, TXRed.

[Alliezona]

her cabin by her mother at 10pm. She was the one that was taken back to Cozumel (or somewhere close to Cozumel). From what I heard about that she was partying with some guys she'd met on the Conquest and had to much to drink and drugs of some sort where involved, and the young man took her back to the ship over his shoulder (Saw that on the dock) and left her in her cabin, where her mom found her.

 

I heard that they young man that was on the tender was drunk and had to have the wheelchair to get on the tender and then fell and hit his head. He was laying on the tender for quite awhile before they carried him off.

[TXRed]

The rumor going around was that the girl tried to commit suicide. Is this true?

 

I'm wondering how they got drugs on the ship, esp mj? They have the dogs at the port in Montego Bay. Some people on our cruise got busted for trying to bring drugs on the ship, I guess they can't catch everyone.

 

How old do you have to be in Mexico to drink alcohol? I saw quite a few teens drinking on my trip while in port. I did not see teens drinking on the ship, I did not see any teens in the bars, ok maybe in the dance club, but they were not drinking alcohol to my knowledge. This was a Thanksgiving cruise, so there were a lot of families on board. The cruise that just finished probably had some spring breakers on board. That may be the difference.

 

I heard that rumor as well...however several crew members...one being an officer, told me it was a combination of excessive drinking/prescribed drugs and sun.....so I don't know for sure....I am only going on what I was told...and the story remained the same. We had spring breakers.....MANY behaved extremely well.....others.....not so good...we overheard several young men talking about how they brought their booze aboard in water bottles....they even went on the described how they resealed the bottle with super glue.....we did witness one one man getting into a screaming matchwith one of the waiters who refused to bring them drinks because they didn't have proper I.D.

[DPILGRIM]

When does Spring Break end? We are sailing this Sunday 4/9/06 on Conquest, would be nice to not have to deal with the Spring Break Crowd - dont get me wrong having a few drinks and relaxing is fun, but not when it goes to that extreme.

[moonvine]

How old do you have to be in Mexico to drink alcohol?

 

The drinking age in Mexico is 18, thus making it a popular spring break destination.

 

The U.S. has the highest drinking age in the world.

 

http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/LegalDrinkingAge.html

[Longin2cruise]

Earlier this morning I wrote a review & when I went to post it, it just went "poof." Am much too tired to start all over again, so I think for now, I'll just add a few comments to this post.

 

TxRed & KWV001 have described the disasterous debarkation perfectly!! If I should happen to die & go to hell, it'll be nothing but a rerun of this debarkation. I've done the self assist debarkation in Miami a couple of times & it's the only way to go...........when it goes right. Chemix says he/she is a Carnival Vacation Club member & their debarkation went well. Believe me, I might consider that after the way this debarkation went.

 

As for the teen-agers/young adults having drinking/drug problems...........I'm beginning to wonder if there wasn't more than one incident with that which took place on this cruise. We heard that it was a young woman (24 years old) that we took back to Mexico for medical attention, but I hadn't heard anything until today about a boy passing out on the tender. On the way back to EZ Cruise parking lot, a woman was telling about an 18 year old girl on their tender in Cozumel who passed out. Also, an elderly couple on the parking lot bus said that they had been confined in their cabin since Wednesday with stomach problems they couldn't get rid of. They had seen the doctor 4 times. As I was exiting the ship, I made a comment about the chaotic debarkation to a Carnival employee. Her reply to me was, "Not only this situation, but this has been a very difficult cruise in several respects".

 

Some good things did happen. For one, I went to the spa for a seaweed wrap & massage. Geanina from Romania did the treatment & she was great!!!! Not only that, but she didn't give the usual hard sale pitch! That is totally unbelievable & wonderful. I highly recommend her to any of you considering spa treatments on the Conquest. Our cabin (1014 on Panomara deck with balcony) was great! Perfect location. Also, I found a user friendly .25 slot in the casino. Didn't come home rich, but I didn't expect to. I did win enough to keep on playing & a woman next to be won $375.00 two times in a row. One time I won $75.00 the second spin on a $ machine. I "re-invested" that back in the quarter machines. In addition to food mentioned by TxRed, I'd like to say that the deli sandwiches were great & I highly recommend them.

[LABecca]

When does Spring Break end? We are sailing this Sunday 4/9/06 on Conquest

 

You'll def have some spring breakers aboard!

 

Gluing the water bottles? That's creative.

[KWV001]

As for the teen-agers/young adults having drinking/drug problems...........I'm beginning to wonder if there wasn't more than one incident with that which took place on this cruise.

In the chaos on Sunday morning, someone told me of an incident on Thursday in Grand Cayman where a family had gone ashore and then at some point during the day decided to split up and do separate things. Apparently part of the family returned to the ship and part didn't. The family members that did return supposedly packed their things and got off the ship to stay behind and wait/search for the missing family members.

 

but I hadn't heard anything until today about a boy passing out on the tender.

Although I didn't see it, my wife and daughter both witnessed someone being helped onto the tender in Cozumel too drunk to stand on their own, and eventually put into a wheelchair.

 

As I was exiting the ship, I made a comment about the chaotic debarkation to a Carnival employee. Her reply to me was, "Not only this situation, but this has been a very difficult cruise in several respects".

I went to the debarkation talk that Malcom did on Saturday morning. He made reference to the fact that he was leaving the Conquest when we got back to the States, or at least he hoped to. He said something to the effect of there have been so many obstacles on this trip you wouldn't even believe them if he told us about them. Was anyone else there and hear this comment?

[LouisianaCruiser]

Is it still spring break for the 4/16/06 cruise? Hope not, but we will make it work out no matter what. We have several teenagers with us. Thanks for any info....

[bensmom1]

KWV001: Yes, I heard Malcolm's comment as well. And your comment about GC reminded me, when we were reboarding from the tender, we overheard an employee's radio chatter--something about a woman who had disappeared and her family had packed up to go . . .

 

To the poster who said everyone should have followed the debarkation instructions . . . a big part of the problem was that Carnival staff gave many conflicting instructions! Malcom said, in order to self-assist, just go to Deck 0 and you'll get right off. I then asked at the purser's desk, and was told no, it's Deck 3, and while self-assists would be called by deck, since we had an earlier flight we should go down when the first deck was called. We later asked again at the purser's desk and were told by another employee that self-assists would NOT be called by deck--we should be waiting in the lobby by 9 AM. I told him of the other employee's contrary info, and he assured us, just be in the lobby by 9. Then we heard the announcement that people should NOT wait in the lobby but wait to be called by deck.

 

So we went down about 9:30 (at the first call) to find the lobby full and the elevators and stairways completely blocked w/people and luggage in all directions. The previous post was right, there were NO employees anywhere. If there had been a fire or other emergency it would have been ugly. Judging by the (small) amount of luggage left outside staterooms the night before and the number of people we saw that morning, I would estimate about 2/3 of the passengers self-assisted thanks to the late arrival. We waited a good hour just to get off the boat, and another hour to get through customs (which also had some confused people on its staff).

 

As for the girl that caused all this trouble, we were traveling w/a family who saw her puking and passed out (at the same time, yes) on the pier at 4 pm. A guy slung her over his shoulder and took her on the tender to reboard. Another person in our group then saw her being taken off the ship in Cancun at about 1 AM (since we left Cozumel at 6 pm, I can only assume they had to turn the ship around to get her to Cancun--which means they did manage to make up a lot of time). What we heard through the grapevine of young people was that she was traveling w/her brother and some friends (no parent) who left her in a room to "sleep it off" then found her later that night barely breathing. How idiotic. If only they had told the ship doctor right away . . .

 

So here's my tip for Cozumel. It's very hot and humid. The stores all serve free tequila shots with no regard to age (a 13-year-old in our group was offered shots). Use some common sense.

[Chexmix]

I was told by two different room stewards that they had over 1600 kids last week and only 900 the week we were on the Conquest. They only expected 300 for THIS week. Most spring breaks are over but there will still be some.

 

Our waiter Churanda told us on Friday night that they had several teens that were getting drunk and causing problems. That they were also having lots of medical issuses as well.

 

I hope the young girl they did have to take off the ship is doing well. She did cause several problems for everyone.

 

They (Carnival) does need to come up with a system when the ship docks late. This is not the first time nor will it be the last time it will happen and there needs to be a solution in place to make it easier on everyone.

[ala-kat]

Forget the alcohol and drugs, if you are not used to the heat and humidity down here, it can be brutal - even to those used to it. Add alcohol (and I do!), then drugs and you could very well get into trouble. You must stay hydrated and eat (like this needed to be added on cruise board). Take your sun in small doses. Did I say 'brutal'?

 

We are only in Spring - Summer is worse. It only gets hotter. Be prepared.

 

I hope I don't come across in the wrong way, but I live in central AL. Inside of a month, I will be wanting (needing) a shower once I walk out my front door on my way to work. It gets HOT here, and cruises go further south.

 

STAY HYDRATED!!