My husband and I took this cruise to celebrate my birthday this year. We do enjoy cruising in the fall, due to good fare discounts and low volume of children onboard. This year, we invited my brother and my sister in law to join us. We had ocean view cabins on the main deck (2456 and 2458), aft.

This is the first time we have sailed from Fort Lauderdale and it is a very busy port. Homeland Security is at the entrance to the port as you are driving in, so the lines to drive in are quite long. They check your ID and boarding pass before allowing you to proceed. We arrived early to the port, so there were as many people debarking from the previous week's cruise as there were folks arriving for the new week's cruise. We did park, pass along our luggage to a porter, and make it through security in about 30 minutes. We were in Zone 6. We waited an additional 30 minutes before our Zone was called and the vacation began!

Entering the Conquest, I am reminded of all the other Carnival ships I have sailed on. It is beautiful and "over the top" with colors and décor, clean and shiny. The four of us made our way to Lido for a leisurely lunch at the buffet. The food, as usual, was plentiful and good. There is enough of a selection that everyone can get just what they want. I had a tuna sandwich from the deli, the others chose from the main buffet. We relaxed for about an hour, then we were able to get into our cabins! Read more