We just returned from the July 10th sailing about the Carnival Conquest. This was our 6th cruise with Carnival.

We arrived at the Galveston ship terminal about 10:30 a.m. We dropped off our luggage with the porters and then we went to drop the car off at Galveston Park & Cruise, who I highly recommend. I love that our car was inside and secured during our sailing. After walking back across the street, we proceeded through the first security check point very quickly and were then put in an area to wait to screening and processing. We waited there about 30 minutes and then we were off to go through the metal detectors, x-ray machines. Since we had brought water with us, the security guard had to check every bottle (which was fine) and once it was cleared, we moved on to process. All of this took under 10 minutes. We were then taken into the terminal waiting area. We sat and talked with fellow passengers and then after the two wedding parties boarded, we boarded the ship at 11:30ish. Galveston really has the boarding process down!

Once on board, we went straight to the Guest Services desk to place our cash on our Sign and Sail account and then headed straight to the Sky Pool & Bar. There was no one else there so we found our chairs and then enjoyed the atmosphere of being back on board! It was quite awhile before anyone else ventured into this area, so we enjoyed having the pool and deck to ourselves. After a few hours, we got some lunch and then returned to our spots by the pool. On that note, I will tell you that this pool/spa area is for ADULTS only. I say this because no where in any reading I had done about this ship did it advertise this. I had heard that it was, but couldn't find reference to it on the Carnival site. We watched as family after family was ejected from the pool by the VERY attentive pool staff. Yes, some people acted upset but others took it in stride. The staff was always very nice even when the children were alone, but they were on top of this the WHOLE week. Honestly, I've been on "Serenity" decks where this was not enforced as well as it was on the Conquest. I applaud the staff at this pool for staying on top of this because I can honestly say that if we hadn't of had this "kid free" zone, the cruise would have been miserable. (More on that later). Read more