I was on the Carnival Conquest on August 15th- August 22nd. I went with my mother and fiancEe. This was all of ours first cruise to go on. We arrived in New Orleans on Friday about 4pm so we could explore New Orleans since 2 of us had never been there before. We stayed at the Hilton Riverside for the cruise special for $99 a night. We had 3 people in one room so they added an extra $20. I do not know what kind of people have been leaving bad reviews about the Hilton Riverside, but they are crazy, it was one of the nicest hotels I have ever stayed at.

On Sunday morning, we took a taxi to the cruise terminal about 3 minutes from the Hilton. Boy was she huge, the Conquest that is. We arrived at 10:30 and was able to get a skycap immediately. Off went are luggage that he said would be at our room by 4:00pm. We had nine bags and I made it easy and just gave him a $10 tip. We walked into the cruise terminal to discover all the beautiful yellow chairs. You will know what I mean when you get there. We walked right up to the counter for our sail and sign cards without any waiting. I had already done the fun pass online which sped up the process. This is where you present your passports, birth certificates, and photo ID and credit cards if you are going to use one. Then they take you to sit in the awesome yellow chairs. It was now about 10:45 or 11:00 and we waited for about 30 minutes. Then we were called to board the ship. We took our security/welcome aboard photo. This is just like an airport security, only one difference the medal detector is turned way down and you can get through with almost anything it seemed like. After that more security checks of IDs and Sail & Sign cards. We were on the ship at 12:00 exactly. Embarkation was no problem at all but I do suggest getting there before 11:00 since the crowds did get quite large.

Up to the Lido deck for the buffet via the atrium elevators. There is a lady you will get quite familiar with. I do not know what country she was from  but she kinda had a sexy accent. You will know what I mean when you get into any elevator on board. After we ate lunch, we went to see if our room was ready about 1:30 and it was. It was my fiancEe's birthday so I had Carnival decorate the room for her and it was great and just how I ordered it. For the rest of the day we got familiar with the ship and all of our bags arrived before 4:00 just like they said it would. At 5:15 we did the muster drill, that was chaos. At 6:00, yes I know I missed the sail away; I was getting a 50 minute massage. If I booked it the day of embarkation I saved $15. On to the 1st night of dining in the Monet Restaurant, which is in the rear of the ship, this is the only time when we really felt the ship moving. We had a very nice table. It was at table 334 and it was a window seat at the rear of the ship directly in the middle. Talk about some wonderful presentation of the table and food. We had to awesome wait staff. Our head waitress was named Saskia. She was from Slovakia. She made the trip that much better since we never had to worry about a thing. She was very informative about the ship and the food and she never once made a mistake. She knew what everyone liked to drink by the second or third night and the food was brought to the table in prefect order. After dinner, it was on to the Welcome Aboard speech in the Toulouse Lounge, which was at the front of the boat. Steve, the cruise director was a hoot. He would do something stupid just to make you laugh. Read more