This cruise was a family trip for me, my 2 sons, my oldest son's SO, and my parents. We made the 11 hour drive in two days, stopping in Orlando for the night. I had reserved three rooms at the Wyndham near Disney, but they somehow lost my reservation. They were able to set us up in a suite at a nearby property. It wasn't the most comfortable trying to cram 5 adults and an 8 year old in one room, but we made it work since it was only one night.
The experience at the port wasn't as bad as my previous experience in Fort Lauderdale. The new terminal building made things seem a lot less crowded. I like how carnival boards in zones now so that everyone doesn't show up at the same time. It worked really well even though we showed up about twenty minutes late for our assigned time after putting the wrong address for our offsite parking into the GPS. The only slowdown during the boarding process was getting checked in and the sail and sign cards.
The Conquest was actually a lot nicer than I expected. A lot of Carnival's ships look like 1970's Las Vegas. The decor is not super attractive, but better than some of the others in the Carnival fleet. The ship was very clean although some wear and tear was evident in a few areas. The activities on board were pretty standard. I didn't participate in any, so I can't comment on their quality.
The cabin was nice. We noticed a few areas of wear such as chips in the sink or shower. We didn't notice any noise from the public areas below.
Typical cruise port. We just walked to Great Bay beach. It's within walking distance but is farther than it looks. Lots of chairs and umbrellas for rent. Expect to be harassed for hair braiding and massages....
Beautiful place and not too crowded.
Beautiful but pretty crowded. There was another huge ship in port at the same time with people going everywhere.
The beaches were just ok, not great. Expect to constantly harassed for hair braiding, souvenirs, etc. It got so annoying after a while that we went back to the ship early.