Carnival Conquest Cruise: 6-day Eastern Caribbean from Port Everglades

February - March 2019, balcony cabin 7405 

Carnival Conquest from Half Moon Cay beach.
Click on photo to enlarge and see tender boat on left

More photos from this cruise and ports of call can be found in the Carnival Conquest Facebook album.

Pre-cruise

We booked this cruise last minute, because we initially thought we would stay in Florida on the beach for a week. After I discovered that all of the lodging choices we liked were well over $200 a night, we decided it made more sense to book this cruise instead. The cruise cost was about the same per night, and food and entertainment is included on the cruise. We initially booked interior cabin 1011, and received a call from Carnival offering an upgrade to the balcony cabin for $350 more. The online pricing between these two cabins was about $500 difference, so this was a bit of a savings. We try to book balcony cabins on 7-day or longer cruises, and decided to take this offer!

This was our first time on Carnival Conquest; however, we have previously sailed on the following same class ships: Glory aft extended balcony cabin 7442, Liberty large balcony cabin 7439, and Freedom inside cabin 1021. I imagine cabin 1011 would have been similar to cabin 1021 on Carnival Freedom. You can find reviews for Carnival Glory and Carnival Freedom in previous posts in this blog from 2010 and 2011.

Arrival and check-in ~ Port Everglades

We had not departed from Port Everglades since 2012, and our VIP check-in experience that time did not flow as it should have, so I paid closer attention when we arrived this time. I am glad I did, because our experience this time was similar. We arrived around 11 AM, and were though security very quickly. We were then directed to the waiting area for Faster to the Fun guests (ahead on the left, across from the check-in counters). Since I did not see a VIP sign, I looked around for another representative, and asked again. The VIP waiting area is around to the right, beyond the check-in counter and Faster to the Fun, and then upstairs. The VIP sign is visible after walking past the Faster to the Fun seating area. Other than a wedding party, not many guests were in the VIP waiting area. There had been many more guests waiting in the Faster to the Fun area. There is a bathroom in the VIP room, and water and cookies were provided while we waited.

The wedding party boarded first, then less than five diamond guests, and then platinum guests. We were on board before noon.

Carnival Conquest balcony cabin 7405.

Balcony cabin 7405, category 8C

This is a basic balcony stateroom near the center of the ship. If we had initially booked a balcony cabin, we would have chosen one of the larger balcony cabins, like 7434 or 7439. For the reduced cost, however, we felt the upgrade/upsell was worth it.

Carnival Conquest balcony cabin 7405.

This cabin has plenty of storage. It contained three closets, several drawers and shelves, a safe, small fridge, sofa, sitting stool, table, flatscreen TV, and nightstands next to the bed. There were two chairs on the balcony. The only thing we did not like about this room, is that the safe was the old style, so we needed a magnetic strip card to lock it instead of a 4-digit code.

Apparently, bathrobes are no longer provided in cabins, because this is the second cruise we have been on when there were not any in the room. I requested one from our steward the first day. When it had not been delivered more than 24 hours later, I requested one at guest services (I did not see our steward again before this, or I would have requested it from him again). It was then delivered that evening. 

Food & Beverages

Please visit my Facebook album for pictures of Happy Hours and menus. The casino had excellent Happy Hour specials on day 1 and a couple of other days. My favorite was Domaine Chandon Brut for half price! My husband liked the High Seas Tea, and we both liked the craft beer discounts. This was not posted in the Fun Times; we happened to walk by and see the menu. The drinks at Alchemy Bar were great, if you do not mind the wait. My favorite is the Moscow Mule; I did not purchase the mule tasting this cruise. The service in all of the bars and showrooms was fabulous during our visits.

I observed the following dining options, which I have listed by deck. I am providing information about locations we visited, and you can find more details about some locations in previous posts in this blog.

• Renoir Restaurant, decks 3 & 4 (anytime dining). We did not have any meals in this restaurant.

  
  

  Dinner cheese plate is the only photo I took in Monet Restaurant.

• Monet Restaurant, decks 3 & 4 (assigned dining). This restaurant was open for breakfast most days, and Sea Day brunch was also in this restaurant. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I love the dining room breakfast menu. I like it even better than the brunch menu. I think the brunch menu is excellent for lunch, with foods like mac 'n cheese and grilled salmon. We had dinner in this restaurant every evening at table 568 (I think). Our table number is not on our card, because we had been assigned to table 566; however, two of the guests at that table moved us. When we arrived the first night, two people were seated, one on each side of this table for four, in the middle of the bench seat, so there was no room for another person. They told us we needed to move down a table because their friends were going to sit with them. I do not know if their friends happened to have been assigned to the table next to them, or if they had just met, or what. This change ended up being a good thing, although I thought they did not handle it well. If we had wanted to change seating arrangements, we would have had the Maitre d' take care of it. It was kind of like being told you need to move to a different seat on an airplane so passengers can sit together, rather than being asked. Our server in the dining room never introduced himself or his staff, and he did not ask our name. I am pretty sure he had no idea who we were. Not that we are anybody important; however, I am used to the head server doing introductions, and then using our names. Both of these tables are in the middle of the dining room on the top floor overlooking the area below. Dinner menu items were pretty much the same as previous cruises. One difference this cruise, is that the dining time on our card was 5:45 PM, rather than 6:00 PM. 
• Cafe Fans, deck 5 (extra charge). There is also a coffee bar on deck 9.
• Pizza Pirate, deck 9 aft. Open 24-hours, and delicious, as usual. You can also order pizza for delivery on the Carnival Hub app. Apparently, some guests did this, because we sometimes observed pizza boxes in the halls.
• Seafood Shack, deck 9 aft (extra charge). 
• Lido Buffet, deck 9. Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

  
  

  Lido sushi menu on Carnival Conquest.

• Sushi at Sea, deck 9 port side (extra charge). I had planned to try the Spicy Tuna; however, with so many port days on this cruise, it just did not work out with our schedule. 
• Deli, deck 9 starboard side. Opens at 11 AM. My favorite is the turkey and arugula on pretzel bun.
• Blue Iguana Cantina, deck 9. Open for breakfast and lunch. I liked the breakfast burrito, and the fish tacos are delicious.
• Guys Burger Joint, deck 9. My husband loved the burgers and fries.
• Old Fashioned BBQ, deck 10. Located up the stairs where the old Fish 'n Chips was located. We had lunch here right after we boarded, and it was very good.

I did not see a Taste Bar on this ship, although I looked for information in the Fun Times, and when we walked around.

Carnival Conquest serenity sun deck 12.

Pool & outside areas

We like that this ship has two whirlpool tubs on serenity deck. We never had a problem finding a place in the shade on serenity deck, or finding room in the whirlpool tub. Some of the cushions in this area looked like they needed to be replaced. The area around the main pool also did not look crowded any time that we passed through.

Spa

I received a spa coupon for $50, which my husband insisted I needed to use. I always enjoy attending the Ladies Pamper Party, so I went to that to see what kind of specials were being offered. I was not interested in a $100+ facial or massage, so I asked about deep conditioning for my long hair. The person I spoke with said he could do a keratin treatment with wash and style for $69, so I made a reservation. When I got to my appointment, a different person took care of me. He starting asking me all kinds of questions about what I wanted and talked about different treatments. I am a minimalist, who spends next to nothing on pampering myself, and I did not understand most of the treatments he talked about. Some of the processes the first stylist had talked about were well over $100, so I told the stylist I thought we were going to do some deep conditioning. I kind of left it up to him, other than saying I did not want to go over the $69. I pretty much got a wash and style, which I did not think was worth the price; $69 + tip, if I had not had the $50 coupon. I paid that at a high-end salon in Chicago once with better results than this spa experience. I had a great spa experience on Carnival Spirit many years ago, so this visit did not totally deter me from trying again, although I will probably be more cautious and vocal next time.

Beautiful paintings on the lobby ceiling.

Entertainment and activities

My favorite entertainment was comedian Chad Thornsberry. I even thought his adult show was great, and I am sometimes offended at these performances. My husband liked Tim Young, who I thought was merely okay. We did not attend his adult show. We left during Randii Andii's explicit show, as did several guests before us. It was not so much that it was offensive; I did not think the show was humorous at all before we left.

The marriage show was quite entertaining on this ship (our cruise director was Mat). The music shows in the showroom were good, although we have been on some cruises where the performances have been spectacular. 

The guitar player (James from NZ) in the casino was good, if you can stand the cigarette smoke. The poor guy had a fan on the floor blowing away from him, which made me wonder if he was trying to blow the smoke away. The Smooth Operators played some excellent rock songs in the lobby bar one evening. Alfred's lounge was only used for entertainment one night; Latin Fiesta our last evening. We missed the Captain's Celebration because it was on the first elegant evening in the lobby bar at 6:30 PM, when early dining guests were at dinner.

Platinum gifts and party invitations.

Platinum perks and past guest party

Our room key was ready for our stateroom when we boarded. Two waters were delivered later that day with our welcome letter. This ship had run out of the blue blanket gifts, and the new gift had not been announced yet, so we received drink cups. I do not care for the chocolate delight perk, and I had read that you can get something different by requesting it. I asked if we could get something non-sweet, like cheeses, and I was told no. We received a plate with about 5 or 6 plain strawberries, which looked pretty dismal. If they did not want to give us cheese, you would have thought they could have spruced this up a bit with a couple grapes, or garnishes, or something.

Love the Carnival Conquest VIP ship pin!

We had one tender port this cruise, and had not received any information about where to meet, so I called guest services before we went to bed the night before. The person who answered told me they did not have anything set up for VIP guests. She said that if we wanted, we could meet in Renoir Restaurant with the tour groups at 7:45 AM and board with them. We had breakfast quickly the following morning, and then went to Renoir Restaurant. The representative there told us that VIP boarding was in the showroom, so we then went to the showroom. The showroom was not open, and there was no sign, so I went to guest services to inquire. I was told that VIP guests were meeting in the showroom at 8:15 AM. We sat down in the lobby bar to wait, and someone opened the showroom a few minutes later. After we entered and sat down, this person returned and requested our Sail & Sign cards. When I showed them to him, I casually mentioned that we were so early because we had been told to meet with the shore excursions group at 7:45. We learned that apparently, late the night before, the decision had been made for VIP and FTTF guests to meet in the showroom, and papers had been delivered under the cabin doors. We had not received one. This person requested our cabin number and said he would check into this. No one followed up with us after this conversation.

We each received our own invitation to the past guest party. The past guest party was poorly timed for early dining guests. Our dinner started at 5:45 PM and the party was from 5:15 PM to 6:00 PM on the second elegant night. The appetizers at the party were amazing, and we would have preferred it on a non-elegant evening. There were ample servers serving cocktails and appetizers, although the cocktails were all the sweet variety. I was happy that I was able to get one glass of Chandon.

One of our beautiful sunsets at sea!

Debarkation

We did not have a flight out the day we returned, so we enjoyed breakfast in the dining room, rather than going to the VIP waiting area first thing. After breakfast, we walked to our meeting location in Renoir Restaurant. Cruise director Mat told us he had just released our group, and that we could disembark. Getting off this ship was one of the smoothest debarkation processes we have ever experienced. We pretty much walked right out, easily found our luggage without any crowds, and then quickly passed through customs.

One note, if you keep your phone in airplane mode while on the cruise: when you get to port and turn your cellular service back on, turn the wireless off and disconnect from the Carnival app (at least to begin with). After having my phone in "sleep" mode for almost a week, I had trouble getting it connected and contacting Uber. The pickup area was not busy when we first disembarked; however, it became chaotic before we were able to get a driver and were picked up.

Misc. and overall 

A couple of odd things happened the first two days of our cruise. When we returned from the muster drill, there was a clean washcloth on our door handle on the outside. What made this even more strange, is that after we entered our cabin, we realized it was from our bathroom. I have absolutely no explanation for why for how that happened. The next odd occurrence was that we found a paper in our mailbox when we returned to our cabin the first or second evening. It was a breakfast room service menu for cabin 7318. I am not sure if a prankster took it off their doorknob, and then just dropped it in a mailbox down the way, or why it was there. I took it to the room it belonged to, and hung it on their doorknob - I do hope it was their intent to receive room service the next morning!

Although we encountered a few minor imperfections, this was a great cruise for the price. We like the Conquest class ships with two whirlpool tubs on serenity deck. We enjoyed the cruise a lot more with a balcony stateroom. Our room was comfortable, and we liked the ports of call. This was our first visit to Half Moon Cay, which was amazing.

Let me know if you have any questions! I will have a separate post soon with information about our ports of call: Nassau, Half Moon Cay, Grand Turk, and Amber Cove.