What a trip! From the beginning to the end, it was great with just one problem. It seems Carnival has adjusted the "corkage fee" policy. In years past, I have brought champagne with me, opened it prior to going to the MDR, and there was no problem. This time, they charged me a $10 corkage fee even though I had already popped the cork. Because of this, I decided not to book a $150 fishing excursion. Your loss Carnival, this is a perfect example of "penny wise, dollar foolish" on Carnival's part.

Now onto everything else. This was my 6th cruise, and the first for my aunt, whom I convinced to travel in her semi-retirement. We stayed at the Ramada in Milwaukee as we had an early morning flight. 24 hour shuttle service, and you can leave your vehicle in the parking lot for $6 per day, not bad at all and the neighborhood appeared safe. The flights on Southwest went fine, although at our connection in Tampa (where we had a landing so gentle we did not even feel it,) a lady getting on for Puerto Rico freaked out because she and her husband were last to get on the plane and there were no seats together left. She did not fly with us.

In Puerto Rico, they have a tourist taxi service that will take you where you need to go for a reasonable rate. They have a stand right out the doors by the baggage claim. We stayed at the Hotel Miramar. Good price for hotels in San Juan. Room was nice, bathroom was huge. Only downside was that therew as no coffee or continental breakfast and the resturant was being remodled. Staff was polite and friendly as well. Good resturants nearby. Also, a grocery store and pharmacy are nearby if you need to get anything. We did a little sight-seeing before going to the terminal to get onboard. There was a long line after check-in, but it kept moving. In about 15 minutes, we were onboard and our room was ready immediately. As I am familiar with the conquest class, but not the Conquest itself, I showed my aunt around and discovered the Funship 2.0 changes. The tequila and rum bars are very nice. My aunt particularly liked Guy's Burger Joint. I was very surprised that the Conquest does not have an adult serenity area...the part of the ship it should be on was practically empty the entire trip, and the area near the pool was more crowded than I've seen on any of my cruises, especially on deck 10 where there was barely room to walk around the people in the chairs. Read more