Put me on Conquest for a week and if I complain I'm pretty hard to please. The thing is, I could say that about almost any ship. You'll have a great time. The food is good, deserts great, staff excellent, ship better than most, not as good as some. Compared to a week at work... priceless!
Welcome lakeside. A year older and a little smaller, otherwise everything I said about Conquest is true of Spirit. It's hard to have a bad time on a cruise with any of the mainstream lines. Carnival is no exception and they provide among the best values in the cruise industry. Add to that family friendly and how can you miss.
Conquest is humongous. My only displeasure with the ship was the dead ends encountered in hallways and staircases. By the end of the cruise, we were still getting lost on board. In my opinion, not a user friendly layout.
GREAT SHIP! IT WILL TAKE A COULPLE OF WEEK TO LEARN. SO, RESERVE YOUR NEXT CONQUEST SHIP NOW. BOOK VALAR NEXT. IF YOU LIKE CONQUEST YOU WELL LOVE THE VALAR. YOU'LL ENJOY MORE BECAUSE YOU'LL KNOW YOUR WAY AROUND. AFTER 7 DAYS ON THE CONQUEST AND 5 ON THE VALAR WE FOUND A SPORTS TYPE BAR THAT WE DID NOT KNOW EXISTED. EVERY DAY THERE IS SOMETHING NEW TO FIND.
Both Conquest and Spirit are great cruises. Conquest can be difficult to figure out for a new cruiser. (Conquest and Victory have similar layouts) But the trick is knowing that on Conquest you can only get to the dinning rooms in the aft of the ship by going via the pool deck (lido) deck 9 or promenade (deck 5) and going to the aft elevators and down or on the main or rivera decks and going aft and then going up. There is a large service section in the middle of the ship that blocks you (dead end) from getting there on the other decks. But once you know that, it is not a big deal.
The Spirti class ships have a better layout in my opinion, Deck 2 is where EVERYTHING is, so for most things you just head to deck 2 and go aft or forward and you can get there. The rest is on the pool deck ot the spa deck. And I do not remember there being any decks were you could walk down the cabin corridors the full length of the ship if you wanted to go that way. So, its a little friendlier in that respent.
BUT, having said all of that, I would not let the ship layout alone influence the choice of cruises between the two. Both have excellent staff, are about the same size and offer the same services and shows... So it you are trying to choose, base it on the cruise and ports more than on the ship.
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================================================== ========== Carnival Cruise Lines:
Fantasy 90, Celebration 95, Victory 05, Conquest 05, Spirit 6/06, Freedom 6/08, Holiday 7/08, Victory 6/09, Valor 9/09, Dream 6/10, Splendor 8/10,Conquest 8/11,Magic 11/11,Triumph 4/12,Spirit 7/12,Freedom 11/12, Triumph 2/13 - The fire cruise
NCL Dream October 2006, RCCL Mariner OTS June 2007
Linear Mode
