My husband (42), daughter (3), and I (31) sailed on the 10-10-10 departure of Carnival Conquest for our 6-year wedding anniversary. There were good things, bad things and some so-so things. Here is a breakdown of my opinion of our cruise, just an opinion, nothing more:

Cabin: We live in Central Texas so drove down to Galveston the day of the cruise departure. We got to the terminal around 1:30, waited in line for about an hour and were able to get onto the ship and go straight to our cabin. Although we had to wait in line it went by fast and it was organized. We were in cabin 6271 - obviously an older ship - issues w/AC not cooling very much & toilet taking forever to flush but the room was clean and balcony was a nice size. Our cabin steward cleaned it twice a day and this was such a nice treat. We were very happy with cabin steward service. The only real cabin complaint I have is that my husband wanted to be able to sit on the balcony at night and read but the outside light didn't work - when we asked about it we were told the Captain controls outside lights and only turns them on in port. I can only assume there is a good reason for this so no harm done.

Food: Had early dining in Monet Room - we had a PRIVATE table! I was so happy as one of the things I dislike about cruising is having to make small talk with strangers over dinner. I know a lot of people like this aspect of cruising but just not my cup of tea so very happy with the private table with just the 3 of us - I don't know how we managed this, good luck I guess. We had dinner in the main dining about half of the time, the other times, especially Port Days when we were tired we did room service or the buffet. The buffet was not good - always really long lines and not very much variety. Breakfast buffet was the same everyday and not a lot of choices. I was disappointed in the deserts - I have a big sweet tooth that I try not to indulge very much so I was looking forward to cakes, cookies, etc. They were all HORRIBLE - just gross. I did have 3 really good deserts on board the Conquest - a piece of cake, a milkshake and a cookie from the coffee shop. I paid around $3 for each plus 15% gratuity. All of the food that was included in your cruise fare was not good. We used Room Service quite a bit - all sandwich type stuff but basic enough for them to not totally screw it up and it really came in handy for continental breakfast the mornings we had Port days so we could eat while getting ready to get off the boat. Ship food is a lot like cafeteria food - bland...after 7 days all of the food starts to taste the same. To give you an idea - we stopped at a roadside DENNY'S on the way home after the cruise and it was awesome - felt like hadn't had food with flavor for days and scarfed down the entire plate. Read more