Carnival Conquest Review
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Took the Carnival Conquest for a family vacation. We stood on a very long line to get onboard the ship. It took our group of 7 over 2 hours to be processed and get onto the ship. The staff told us that the terminal was too small to accommodate the number of passengers needed to be checked in. This is inexcusable and isn’t a good start anyone’s cruise experience. We then headed to the buffet because we were starving (it was after 1pm).
Two of our family members have celiac and we were surprised at the lack of gluten free options for them. Nothing was marked “gluten free”. When we asked staff, they had no idea what was gluten free. They didn’t know if they had gluten free bread. The buffet was crowded and the lines were long. It took over 20 minutes to go through the buffet. The food was bland and not worth the wait. The next day, the buffet lines were just as bad. I waited over 30 minutes for lunch. We decided to avoid the buffet for the rest of the cruise. We ate the remainder of our breakfasts in the dining room, which were so much better than the buffet. We had lunch at Guys Burger (good, but greasy) or the deli. My husband and son had burgers with no bread and the Mexican food in a bowl without the flour tortilla. The regular pizza was good, but the gluten free pizza was gross. We tried the brunch in the dining room which was very good, although portion sizes were small. If you decided to eat there, you need to order a few things.
For dinner we ate in the dining room 6 of the 8 nights. Everyone enjoyed their dinners. The hanger steak was delicious and a large portion. However, some main entrees were on the small side. Our waiter didn’t have a clue about gluten free options. I believe there was a language barrier. Most people we asked about gluten free options (buffet, dining room and specialty restaurant didn’t seem to know much about availability and options). The food and service in the specialty steak house was very good. One night we ate in Curacao. Our excursion got back late (6:30) because the ship arrived in the port an hour late.