Background: My wife and I (both 40's), my 17 year old son and 15 year old daughter took a 7 day Western Caribbean cruise, out of Galveston, on the Carnival Conquest. This is the 6th cruise for my wife and I, while it was the third cruise for both the kids. We have cruised with Carnival (4 times), Royal Caribbean (once), and Celebrity (once). We got a tremendous deal, from one of Carnival's weekly sales, plus this was a drive to cruise. We live in Fort Worth, TX, so this allowed us to avoid the added expense of flying to the port city.

Embarkation: We drove down to Houston, on Saturday, and stayed at the Best Western  Galleria hotel. We had a nice dinner, at Pappadeaux's, and used the hotel's indoor pool. Sunday, we left Houston, around 10:25 A.M, and drove the 50 miles to Galveston. I had booked (and paid online for) parking with EZ Cruise Parking. They are $50 for the seven days, versus $70 for the Port Authority parking. They took us, and our luggage, directly to the cruise terminal where a porter took it away. I would definitely recommend their service. We got in line, one of many, at approximately 11:45 A.M.. There are four lines, so don't be surprised after exiting one, to have to get into another. First, you get into the security line, where they put you through the standard metal detector test. Next, you enter a long line to check in and collect your Sail and Sign card. Then, you get into line to have your embarkation photo taken. Thinking that you're done, you get into one last line to have your photo taken, which is tied to your Sail and Sign card. This allows you to be visually checked by the Carnival security staff, when leaving and returning to the ship, while in port. We stepped into the beautiful 9-story high atrium on the 3rd deck, awash with waiters selling the $8 drink of the day (DOTD), at around 1:30 P.M. There was a lot of standing and shuffling, but the process went as smooth as expected, due to the amount of passengers sailing (~3200).

Ship: The ship is extremely large (110,000 tons) and it can be quite confusing initially. The most important thing to remember is that decks 2 (Main), 5 (Promenade), and 9 (Lido) go from one end of the ship to another. The others have a roadblock somewhere that may force you to go up or down to go around them. The ship, while slightly worn in a few areas, was in great shape. I won't go into the specifics of ship, since they can be seen in the brochure, and are spelled out in so many other reviews.. Read more