Just back from an 8 day cruise on the Carnival Conquest. What a disappointment! I’ll start with some not so happy reports. This is the oldest ship in the Conquest Class and was just refurbished in 2012. I heard it was suppose to go back in dry dock for another refurb, but I can find no evidence that it will. In the Lido Deck cafeteria you could not take two steps without stepping on a cracked, broken or loose tile. Whatever the material is between the “boards” on deck was coming out, missing or appeared that the boards were sagging or rotted. There were stacks of lounge chairs that were broken. There were maintenance people leaning on them with wrenches in their pockets. They were just missing a bolt or two where the back of the chair hinged. Really, a 25 cent repair. Needless to say with all of these lounge chairs out of service it was difficult to secure a chair for the day. The water was shut off one night from 2 to 6 while they made some repair(s). A few days later up to 10 men walked back and forth between two doors working on more pipe issues. It was so bad that they had private contractors on the ship. They would come out and wash their hands and hair in the shower on deck. At one point, I was told by my friend, they were using a jack hammer and tearing up part of a deck.

I get it that some people don’t seem to care about anything more than eating and drinking while on their cruise. I look at the overall picture and wonder what Carnival does to make you want to come back. Every time you get on their ships there is some type of a cut back. This cruise you had to ask for everything. No ice in your room unless you ask. Calling guest services on the phone took over 10 minutes. The bed time chocolates are gone. Even the pens are the lowest bidder. I used several of them and when you clicked the top of the pen the top flew across the room. Want to have laundry done, no bags you had to ask for them and while as Platinum Cruisers we were entitled to 3 bags each we were given a total of two bags.

While leaving the port of Grand Turk, the Carnival Sunshine was pulling out. That ship was rockin out the tunes and the whole ship of several thousand were on deck having a blast. Our ship was also getting ready to leave and we had 4 people engaged in an exciting game of corn hole. BORING! BTW, the people on the Sunshine were complaining about how Carnival had added all of these extra rooms,but of course did not expand the public space. They said it was very crowded and took a long time to do things on the ship. When we looked over to the serenity deck it was very disappointing as compared to the photos on the web site. At least they had a serenity deck as the Conquest has none. I am still wondering where the 2 forward hot tubs were. Maybe they are there, but I could not find them. Water Works play area was the most basic I have seen in the Carnival fleet. Read more