Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival Conquest Cruise Review
Western Caribbean

Crystal
Age: 23
Occupation: Law Student
Number of Cruises: 2
Sailing Date: January 8th, 2006

Review:

My boyfriend and I just returned from our second Carnival cruise and I wanted to share our experiences. It was a great cruise! The cruise director, Todd Whittmer, is young, funny, and made the experience very enjoyable. The service we received by everyone on board was extremely friendly and efficient. We opted for a room with a balcony because of the great deal we got, and it was definitely worth the extra money!! I will never cruise again without a balcony. It changed the entire experience. We brought along a bungee cord to tie the balcony door open and got the nice breeze off the water. It was really nice sleeping like that, because you could here the waves and smell the ocean; it was just a really great touch. The rooms are small, but I’ve heard that Carnival has notoriously larger staterooms than most other cruise lines. I thought the size was fine. The room was always spotless! The steward cleaned the room twice a day, and was very reliable. Every day we would go out in the afternoon and come back to a clean room. Then after dinner we would come back and the room would be re-cleaned and our bed turned down. It was like clockwork. Carnival upgraded their linens and towels and they are much nicer than before. The sheets were surprisingly very soft. The rest of the ship was also very clean. I thought it was beautiful. The décor is French Impressionism and all the rooms and lounges have a different theme. The ship is huge!! It will take a little bit of getting used to for those guests who have not sailed on a similar ship. We sailed on the Triumph two years ago and this ship was essentially the same setup. Carnival does a really good job with keeping the days at sea busy. We were never bored. There really is something for everyone to do. Carnival also does a great job with the kids. There were apparently around 1,000 children on board. I say “apparently” because I never would have guessed there were that many. The cruise director told us that on the last day. Camp Carnival!
did a great job keeping the kids out of the way and giving them something fun to do.

The Food

I have read other cruise reviews about Carnival and have heard people say the food is mediocre. I thought it was incredible. The buffet food was even really good. We ate dinner every night in the formal dining room, so we never enjoyed the buffet-style dinner but the lunches were delicious every day. They have lots of fresh vegetables and toppings for salads and a variety of hot dishes. They choose a different theme every day. The Gala Buffet on the second formal night was really nice. The food was more gourmet than usual for a buffet-style dinner, but it was an opportunity to see some really neat stuff and to try some different foods. They also had a chocolate buffet on the last sea day during lunch time. They had every chocolate desert you could possibly think of, including milkshakes and pudding. The feed you constantly and there are always lots of choices. The formal dinners were my favorite. You get two waiters assigned to you for the entire trip. We opted for a private table so we could eat just the two of us every night, and I really enjoyed that. The waitress was phenomenal. Her name is Natalie and she is from Russia. Look for her if you go on this ship!! She is just an example of the great crew on this ship. I was completely shocked at the level of service we got from everyone. Back to the food...the meals were delicious. They had lobster one night, filet mignon, prime rib, different pasta dishes, different soups, etc. The deserts were also incredible. Our waitress brought us all the deserts each night so that we could try them all. There really wasn’t anything I did not like. The presentation was also quite attractive considering the food is mass-produced.

We also decided to spend the extra $60 and eat at The Point Supper Club. It was a great experience! The wait staff was very friendly. The food was absolutely delicious and the presentation was beautiful. The chef even came over to us at the end of our meal and asked how everything was. I would guess that a meal like this would be much more expensive than $60 at a fancy New York restaurant. It is worth the extra money!

The Pools

The pools are small but there are three of them. The hot tubs are nice but always filled with people. They have one in the gym, and five others out on the decks. There are lounge chairs everywhere, so there was never a problem finding one.

The Spa

I had never been to a spa before and did not try it on my last cruise so this time I opted for the Spa Taster, which was a 25 minute facial and a 25 minute back massage. It was great! The spa staff is very friendly and helpful. They have a large variety of treatments, so there is something there for everyone. They also have a full service salon and barber right on board. I did not opt to use the salon, but I am really glad I treated myself to a spa session. The gym has all the equipment you would want a gym to have, and it is right at the front of the ship overlooking the water. They even have classes that you can take for $10 each. There was no extra charge to use the gym facilities (sauna, hot tub, equipment). They also have personal trainers on staff that will work with you for the week and give you a workout plan to take home with you.

The Entertainment

I thought the shows were great. I also thought the way they did the show times was great. On the Triumph there was an early show at around 8pm for those guests that opted for early dinner seating and a 10 or 10:30pm show for those who opted for the later seating. The Conquest featured a 7pm show for the late dinner seating and an 8:45 show for the early seating. I think this made a big difference. We would go to the show and then go straight to dinner. Then after dinner you had the whole rest of the night to see other things or do whatever you wanted. There were some nights like the guest talent show night and the first night welcome aboard talk where there was just one show time at 10pm for everyone. The second night was a Vegas style review show, and I really enjoyed it. The next night was a female magician, and she was good. I’d seen other magic shows before and liked this one much better. Then there was a Broadway style show, which was also very good. On three of the nights they also had a late-night R-rated comedian. They were all very funny. On the last night they did an R-rated Improve show which was the best show of the whole trip. It was a great way to say goodbye to the vacation.

Embarkation and Debarkation

Both processes were very efficient. I have nothing bad at all to say about either. It is an annoying process and they try really hard to make it as painless as possible. I think they did a good job.

The Ports of Call

First of all, we didn’t do any Carnival sponsored excursions. They did have a ton of options for excursions, but they are pretty pricey. Last cruise we did two excursions through Carnival. We spent a lot of money and were not impressed. This time we did online research to find our own excursions.

Montego Bay, Jamaica

We did not do any shopping at this port. We did not even venture into City Center at all. This was the day we chose to lay by the beach and relax. We went to the Sunset Beach Resort and Spa located just 5 minutes away from the port terminal. It was a $4 taxi ride for each way for the two of us. It was $40 per person for the whole day. That price gets you unlimited use of all their facilities, all food and alcohol included. It is a really nice place. We are actually considering just going back to stay there for a week. They have two nice pools, one which incorporates a lazy river and castle-like structure with two waterslides. I think it would be a great place to bring kids. The pool floats are also included and can be brought into the ocean water. There were tons of chairs up and down the beach, but no umbrellas. It was very pretty and the water was absolutely gorgeous. The one price also includes use of any water sport equipment. There are two restaurants which require actual clothing to go to, an outdoor walkup grill area serving delicious jerk chicken, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, french fries, pizza, grilled cheese and hot dogs. My advice would be to stay away from the burgers. Everything else looked fine. Overall it was a lot of fun and it was nice to just relax, have a few drinks (that are not $7 a pop) and listen to some reggae music.

Grand Cayman

First of all, the cruise ships have to tender into the island. It takes away you’re your time on the island, but Carnival was extremely efficient with it. We did not have to wait at all for a tender, and we left the ship around 8 a.m. Cayman is an absolutely gorgeous island. We did the Stingray City tour but not through Carnival. We booked a private snorkeling and stingray tour through a company called Captain Marvins. They have a website with all the tour options and pricing. We found them through reading other cruise reviews and definitely recommend them to anyone else going to Cayman. For $40 a person we got transportation to and from Waterfront (about 2 blocks from the cruise terminal), snorkeling for about 25 minutes each at two different locations, and 25 minutes or so at the sand bar with the stingrays. It was an incredible experience. If you are going to Cayman, do it!! Our group was only about 20 people, and they provided all snorkel equipment and ice water and fruit punch on the boat. We did not shop here except for buying some Tortuga rum and rum cakes. The rum cakes are delicious. All four Tortuga Liquor Stores let you sample the different variations of the rum cakes; they are made right on the island. Everything else was extremely expensive on the island so we held off on the shopping.

Cozumel, Mexico

This is also an island where you have to tender in due to the damage from Hurricane Wilma this past summer. Again it was an efficient process. We got off the ship around 10 a.m. only waited about 10 minutes to get on a tender. I was amazed at how much progress the island has made in repairing the damage. The areas closest to the waterfront were beautiful. There is still a lot of visible damage. You will get haggled here. The shop owners shout at you as you walk by to come into the shops. Sometimes they will actually follow you down the street to get you to go in. Carnival does a pretty good job of scaring you into not purchasing items anywhere other then their “recommended stores.” I say to hell with that. I bought two very nice silver bracelets from stores nowhere near the list and they are real and I got very good prices. The shops nearest the waterfront and the ship recommended stores really do not bargain at all for prices. They know someone else will be in right behind you to buy what you will not. Go a few blocks inland and it will be a totally different experience. We ate at Casa Denis, a restaurant in Cozumel since 1945 and it was delicious. A great website I found if you are looking for info on Cozumel is www.cozumelmycozumel.com  . Also, www.wilmacozumel.com  had great information about what is open and what is damaged, etc. after the hurricane. It is constantly updated, so it is a good source.

Overall, we were very sad to get off the ship and get back to reality. I would recommend to anyone going on this cruise. Thanks for listening.
 

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