My husband (33) and I (32) live in Houston and decided to try the Carnival Conquest for our April 20th cruise. We debated between Carnival and RCI Voyager, but the price for a monster 9A corner aft balcony cabin on the Conquest was only $250 more per person than an inside on the Voyager so we went with Carnival.

This was our second cruise with Carnival. We cruised with them on the 12nt. Freedom in the Mediterranean in Oct. 07. It was a wonderful ship, crew, and the passengers were polite and knew their manners (mostly). We knew the passenger demographics would be different on a 7nt. out of Texas, but we decided to give it a chance. As expected, our fellow cruisers weren't as, I'll say "cultured", as the Med crowd. It was definitely more of the typical rowdy party crowd type with their kiddos in tow. It wasn't horrible, but then again we didn't hang out at the pools. We spent most of our time enjoying our huge balcony. We did end up getting our table moved in the dining room because we were seated next to a large table of 10 who enjoyed speaking loudly and not considering the diners near by. The Maitre D was very accommodating and we ended up with a nice quiet table where we could actually hear one another speak. The wait staff was also excellent. We enjoyed the food, although some of the steaks were tough. The lobster was surprisingly tender and flavorful as were the shrimp and other seafood dishes. Of course, the desserts didn't disappoint either!

Our 9A wrap balcony cabin was the highlight of our vacation. The room only sleeps two, but it was really large and although it had a table and chair instead of a small sofa, there was plenty of room to get around without bumping into one another. The bathroom was standard size. The windows wrapped most of the balcony so the view was beautiful. If you like sleeping late in the morning though, bring some chip clips to pull the curtains together and keep out the light. They worked perfectly for us. The balcony offers views of the wake behind the ship as well as all the way around to the side. We were on the sixth floor cabin 6483 and never heard any noise from the lounge below. The balcony was as private as you can get and so large we could have thrown a nice party if we wished. There were 8 chairs of which 6 reclined and a couple of side tables for drinks. Perfect for sitting out on deck and reading the sea days away. The closet space seemed larger than our standard inside cabin on the previous Carnival cruise. There were two wide hanging closets and one wide shelved closet. Along with the drawers at the desk area, there was more than enough room for these two overpackers. Read more