Conquest 7/25

[jeffg8]

Just back from the Conquest. What a wonderful trip. We flew in to NO the day before which made for a very leisure boarding on Sunday. Got to take in the world class aquarium in NO. Well worth making time to take this in.

The ship is in great shape. The public areas as well as the cabins all appear to be in really good shape. After experiencing the skippers club I'm not sure I want to go any other way. We bypassed a really long line at check in for a very nice check in experience.

This was my 8 year old daughter's first cruise. She loved everything about it. From dressing for dinner to having family pictures made each night her enthusiasm really made for an neat trip. Camp Carnival was as good as advertised. You had no misgivings leaving your child with them. We used it sparingly, maybe 2 hours each of the first 2 sea days and none on port days. She went mostly for arts and crafts, her favorite.

The food was good,,,,not great to me. There was tremendous quantity you could eat constantly it seemed. I just thought it had a somewhat "institutional" taste to it. Good but not over the top.

Our dining room server Saskia and our room steward Hose were first rate. Saskia really connected with our daughter and was neat to talk with. Our table mates were great, only had one other family with a 10 year old.

Entertainment was good, the effort of the 2 big shows was apparent. The comedians were very funny.

We ate breakfast in the dining room 3 times...that was about all we could take. Then we preferred to eat upstairs by ourselves. I'm only 37 but the art of conversation appears lost on people younger than 30 on the boat. One breakfast table and a lunch table would speak only when spoken too. Otherwise all were more than happy to sit stone faced.

Debarkation was easy...we had a 12:05 flight so we were off the boat and at the NO airport by 9:30 am.

On the last night I noted no one appeared to be tipping the Camp Carnival Staff. Perhaps they had done it earlier., I doubt it,. If you use the service you should leave a tip. And finally there were loads of unsupervised "tweens" running loose on the boat. I don't agree with Carnival's decision to allow the 9-12 age to sign themselves out. I guess many parent's feel they can't go to far...but I think at some point there will be a serious mishap.

At any rate it really was a first class trip and it was made in large part more enjoyable by the information gained here on this board. Thanks to all for the great information you have shared.