Carnival Conquest Review
6th Time On Carnival Was One of the Best
Rating by category
Additional details
My wife, daughter (17), son (14), and I really loved our cruise on the Conquest. We had read the bad reviews and were prepared for the worst. What we found was a nice ship with incredible staff, great food, and excellent entertainment. We got a balcony cabin on the mid/fwd Panorama deck, which we have done the past 3 cruises. It allows you to walk directly outside to the pool area. Just grab a lounger right by your room or go down some steps and you're at the lido pool bar & buffet. No elevators needed for the majority of the time. The room was just about identical to previous Carnival rooms we have had, and our family crams into one room pretty well.
Taxi from FLL took 10 minutes, $14 + tip. Embarkation took about an hour to get through the line at Port Everglades, most of that being security.
The drinks may have been a little more expensive than our last Carnival cruise 2 years ago. A XX draft beer was about $7 including gratuity. I remembered it being under $6 last time but maybe I'm wrong. One thing we did was purchase a bottle of wine at dinner. Saves you a little over buying by the glass. You can either have them keep it for you for the next night, or take it with you. I used it to make sangria the next day with fruit punch from the bar. :)
Cabin Review
Balcony
I love the location of this cabin because it's so close to the pool area & buffet with no elevator needed, and the elevators are just steps away for the times when you need to go to the lobby or deck 5. Balcony is nice to have. No public rooms above or below, so nice and quiet.
Port Reviews
San Juan
San Juan: We were only here for the morning, so we walked to the fort, which is really stunning. It's nearly 500 years old and still fully intact. Admission $5pp, kids under 15 free. We found a cute coffee shop called Poet's Passage. A woman who writes poetry sells artwork with her handwritten poems, and has an area for live poetry readings. Very cool!
Grand Turk
We booked a snorkeling & Gibbs Cay stingray trip through GT Diving. We were going to do Papa J Tours, but they were full. Our guide was nice, but didn't really get in the water like the other guides did. We saw lots of colorful fish at 2 snorkel locations, including "The Wall", which drops off 7,000 feet.
Grand Turk
We booked a snorkeling & Gibbs Cay stingray trip through GT Diving. We were going to do Papa J Tours, but they were full. Our guide was nice, but didn't really get in the water like the other guides did. We got to touch a stingray and get a photo (thanks to another tour guide).
St. Maarten
Taxi to Orient Beach. Kakao and other restaurants rent beach chairs.