A little background first. This was our first cruise. Dh is 37 and I am 35. We have 3 kids, but did not bring them along. We were celebrating our anniversary. Our vacation began by boarding a Southwest Airlines jet from Dallas Love Field to Houston Hobby. Since how there was no transportation available through Carnival for HOU to Galveston, we opted to rent a car one way. I found a fabulous deal by calling Enterprise rentals 1-800 #. There I received a fabulous rate and was very satisfied with our car. We boarded our plane for an early flight of 50 minutes gate to gate. We arrived and picked up our rental, and on our way we went. We stopped off at McDonalds for breakfast and DH was asked to participate in a quick survey and he did. He received a gift certificate for $5.00. Woo Hoo! We were already ahead! We arrived in Galveston at about 10:45 am. We drove around a few minutes, and then found our way to the cruise terminal. We were instructed to take our bags to the terminal, and leave them with a porter, and then return the rental as we did. We had a lot of luggage. And I'm glad I took every piece I did. The porter took care of our luggage, we tipped the usual $1.00 per bag, and off we went to return the rental. The Enterprise shuttle took us back to the terminal (about 5 minutes away) and we were on our way in the long anticipated embarkation line. We were in line about 11:45 and it took a little less than an hour before we were on the ship. We were instructed to head to the Lido Deck 9 for lunch as we did. Lunch was nice. But the anticipation of seeing our beautiful ship was killing us! So the two of us wandered around and checked out the ship. Around 2:00 we made our way to our cabin and it was ready. We dropped off our 2 carry ons we had, took a few pictures inside the cabin before it became a mess with all our luggage, and I jumped on the bed. This is a silly ritual I have done at every hotel I have ever stayed at in my life. Dh and I both work for airlines, and have traveled a lot....so there has been a lot of bed jumping. We went back to the Lido deck to meet up with fellow CCers and what a group we had! It was awesome meeting all of them. We had planned a sail off get together. This was a lot of fun, and the Carnival punch was cold, and flowing! The weather was icky. It was cool and cloudy so we were all ready to set sail for warmer air. And promptly we did. DH saw a few dolphins as we left Galveston. I must have been getting refills on the punch because I never saw any. The ship was gorgeous. It was huge! This was our first cruise so we had nothing to compare it to however the other ship in port was dwarfed by the Conquest. The murals, the flooring, the lights, the bars, etc. it was all beautiful. We spent most of our time in the Tahiti Casino. We never set one foot in a pool, hot tub, or club. We did play a few games of bingo, which, in my opinion, was a waste of money. Most of the games were only 4 squares. For $20 a game card, I was hoping to stretch out my time a little more. But we learned, and did not play any other sessions. We watched the Newlywed, not so Newlywed game. This was really cute. We got a good laugh at of this. This was the only show we saw. We did not allow any clocks/watches to set our schedule. We did a lot of nothing which is exactly what we wanted to do. Of course, other than the casino...which leads me to this...I lost! I lost everything I touched just about! But DH won everything he touched! So it worked out ok. DH played Texas Hold 'Em and bought in for $60.00, and walked away with over a thousand by the end of the cruise. So he did great. I did play a nickel slot, and turned 15cents in to $6.00 woo hoo! Lol. We both entered the slot tournament, I lost at that. I was the leader for the biggest loser for a while, but yet, I still could not win at losing. We also entered the Black Jack tournament. Of course, I lost that too. But we had a blast any way.

Our cabin was 6450 on the Upper deck. We were on the left side of the ship, last one on the side with the extended balcony. (thanks CC for the heads up on this) What a treat! We spent a lot of our time on the balcony. It was very relaxing. This particular balcony is double the size of the standard balcony. We had 3 chairs, 2 tables, and there was still room for more. Our cabin was configured a little different from the other cabins because the crew stairwell in front of our cabin. We also had the club below. I had no problems with crew noise or music. I slept like a baby. The bed was fabulous! Most comfortable I have ever slept on. Our cabin did not have a sofa, instead, a regular chair. This was not a problem for when we were in our cabin; we were either in bed, in the shower, or on the balcony. It was very spacious, and all 6 of my suitcases and 2 totes were stowed neatly out of the way. They fit under the bed nicely. The closet space and drawers were just right. We took an over the door shoe organizer and hung on the outside of the bathroom door to stow away all the little things...mp3 players, cell phones, sun block, sunglasses etc. What a great idea! Thanks CC! Also, DH soon realized that we did not need a bungee cord as some had mentioned...at least not on the Conquest. While in port, the door stayed open, but while cruising, we used the door stop wedge that was provided for the cabin door. This worked great. Our steward kept our cabin tidy. I could not even tell you his name. We saw him a couple of times. He seemed to come while we were trying to get ready for dinner. Bad timing on his part I thought. We did not build a "friendship" or any kind of rapport that I heard so much about on the boards. He was not bad; he just was not great either. We left our gratuities in place, no adjustments either way.

Dining Well, I'm not sure where to start, so I'll just dive right in. We had requested the 2nd early seating at 6:15 but we received the 8:00 seating. At first I thought I was a little upset at this but it worked out for our benefit. We went for dinner and I was a little disappointed when I found out we had a table for 2. I really had hoped to meet some other people on the cruise. We were in the Monet dining room, second level. I did not care for this location at all! I never once saw the Maitre D, I could only hear him talk on the microphone. Our table was right in front of the server's station, so they were constantly bumping into my chair squeezing in between my chair, and the table behind us. Dinner was good, service was ok at best. My glass was empty on a couple of occasions. I had to request my drink every night. I was never offered or asked if I would like something other than water. Our bread was always cold when served. Our waitress and her assistant (don't even know their names) were always extremely busy and seemed to be running around constantly. Our entrees were delicious. I am a basic meat and taters kind of gal, so I don't care too much for the "foo foo" kind of food. I did have the chicken quesadillas and they were FABULOUS!!! We ate in our dining room Sunday night, Monday night, missed the first formal dinner on Tuesday night. We met up with some of our friends on Tuesday for our private CC cocktail party (thanks Breanne$5) $11.44 all you can drink cocktails and dry snacks. I had mentioned my displeasure with our dining experiences thus far, and fellow CCer Moeve invited Dh & I to join their table as they had a large table and no one else with them but another couple. They were in the Renoir Dining room, lower level 8:30 seating. WOW! What a difference. We spoke to the Maitre D' had everything changed, and this became our new dining time and table. Our waiter was fabulous and his assistant. They knew DH and I by name, I never had to ask for iced tea again after the first night. Every night I had the chocolate melting cake (ask for 2 scoops of ice cream) this was to die for!!! IT WAS GREAT! The only disadvantage of dining last is that if you order something, and don't care for it, you better speak up early to have it replaced because the kitchen shuts down and you will be out of luck. I found out the hard way. I had ordered chicken and pasta, and it was good, just more mushrooms than I care to pick out. (I'm picky) I tried to order something else, but it was too late. So I filled up on chocolate melting cake…yuuuuummmmyyyy! Dijohn(sp?) and Adam, our new wait staff, saved our cruise because we had been disappointed in our dining room experience thus far. Breakfast was good. Nothing too special. You can have an omelet made. There usually is a bit of a wait, but it's worth it. No biscuits and gravy however for you fellow southerners or anyone who enjoys this. But typical faire pancakes, french toast, bacon sausage links, scrambled eggs, potatoes, toast and grits…yes grits but no biscuits and gravy. Hmmm. Go figure that one. We took our big mugs with lids with us so we would not be running back and forth to the drink station for refills, which always seemed to be out of ice. DH's favorite was the pizza. He said it was the best he's had. I loved the chili dogs from the grill. The chicken sandwich was a little bland to me but not bad. DH had the steak sandwich as well, and really enjoyed it. All sandwiches were served with fries and lots of them. We ate from the pizza bar or the grille most of the time for a late lunch in between my sessions of giving money to the Casino. Oh, and in case you are wondering, the first formal night, is lobster night. We missed it. And DH was really looking forward to that but the ship was really rocking that night, and I was sick. Took some bonine, and I was better afterwards. Room service…well, I only had one experience with it and it was not good. That first formal night, around 2:00 a.m. I was finally ready to eat something and ordered room service-open 24 hrs. The menu is very very very limited. I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich no mayo, with mustard. Pretty simple right? Well, an hour and 45 minutes (no exaggeration) later, my sandwich and ice tea shows up, and with mayo. I called room service back to get if corrected, and 40 minutes later, I finally received my order. That was the only time I ordered from them. I wish I got my tip back. I did not tip on the 2nd order. Other people ordered room service and stated it only took about 15 minutes. So I'm not sure why my ham and cheese sandwich was so special. All in all, the food was good, and switching to a new time and dining room saved our dining experience with a wonderful table full of people and a great wait staff. We did not visit The Point, the supper club. Read more