This was our second cruise, both times were on the Conquest out of Galveston. We were afraid that it could not possibly live up to he wonderful memories we had of our first voyage. We were wrong. The ship, the food and the crew managed to meet or exceed all of our expectations. Our room steward, Rondo, kept our cabin immaculate, and yet we never once came back to find him in the cabin. It was almost like he cleaned by telepathy.
Our dining room staff were a well orchestrated team who had the likes and dislikes of a ten top, three four tops and two booths the first night. The food was always spectacular. We ate at the special steakhouse one evening, and it was like an evening at a five star restaurant, but we would only do this once a cruise. The food in the Renoir ws at least as good and we loved our staff that much. Two of our team also worked the deck in the evenings, and they both would come up, address by name and ask if we wanted something we asked for in main dining.
The adults only area, especially the upper deck area became our favorite place to spend an afternoon.
Even though our cruise was delayed exiting port because of intense fog, the ships crew made sure that we experienced no loss of enjoyment. However, there was one small issue with both cruises. The procedures used to board passengers at the Galveston hub need to be examined by the company. Even allowing for the unplanned for factor of the fog delay, the six hours spent waiting in he customs neutral area to board was unacceptable. Even with no delays, the first cruise involved an hour and a half wait, after which we were not allowed to go to our cabins for another hour and a half. If you plan to cruise out of Galveston, wait unil about one hour before sailing to check in. Our fellow cruisers who did this said they went right through from security to cabin in less than an hour.
