Fun for All. All for Fun.

The Carnival Cruise Line slogan could not be more true! Our third cruise was fun from the very first minute we stepped on the ship.

Cruise details~
Ship: Carnival Conquest
Date: 8/2/2009
Length: 7 Days
Destination: Western Caribbean- Montego Bay, Jamaica/Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands/Cozumel, Mexico
(Click on a destination above to go to a detailed review for that stop!)


Embarkation~
Just like the first time we sailed out of Galveston everything went smoothly. My parents dropped us off at the pier and we were on the ship by noon. I wish I had more details to give, but it was long ago enough that I just don't remember. The Carnival employees that do the check in have always been incredibly nice. Sometimes I feel like they are just as excited for us as we are for ourselves.
We really like getting on the ship so early so we have a lot of time to explore the ship. The Carnival Conquest is 953 feet long... That's longer than three football fields! We definitely needed the extra time to explore. :) After the muster drill we went out on deck for sail away. We were led out into the Gulf of Mexico by dolphins! That was a pretty awesome experience.



The Itinerary~
This cruise was especially exciting because it was our first seven day cruise. We were scheduled to have two sea days, then our three port days, and finally a sea day to get back to Galveston. I still, to this day, can't decide which I prefer more, sea days or port days. I love them both, and was ecstatic that I had three of each on this cruise.

Our first two days at sea were full of relaxing. We did very little and it was lovely. The evenings actually had more activity for us than the day times. The first night was the captain's cocktail party/first formal night. We had hor d'oeuvres and then went to a show in the main lounge. The second evening we took advantage of the pool deck being mostly empty and went for a swim. We also watched the deck party from a higher deck. That's people watching at it's best! :) We also went to the midnight Mexican buffet.

When we woke up the morning of our third day we had a gorgeous view of the Jamaican mountains AND the teal blue ocean. My first thought was, "Wow! This is my kind of place to live!!". It didn't take long to realize it's not as extravagant as it appears from a cruise ship. I wrote more about our day in This Blog Post.
That night after we sailed away from Jamaica we went to one of my favorite shows on any cruise ship. It was an illusionist who told stories with her magic. The finale had the whole lounge giving her a standing ovation and I'm pretty sure there were tears all over the room. Myself included. We went to bed "early" that night with great anticipation for the next day.

I could not wait for our stop in Grand Cayman. Everything I had seen and read just made it sound amazing. We had a plan for the day, but the beauty of the island distracted me. :) Here's a bit more about our day...
That night was the second formal night. We had a blast dressing up, taking pictures, seeing a show with the Carnival dancers, and topping off the night at a midnight comedy show. It was a full and exciting day!

Our day in Cozumel didn't begin until 10am, so we were able to get a little extra sleep after one exciting day and before another. This day quickly became referred to as our Best. Day. Ever. It is still at the top of our favorite port days. We had originally booked an excursion to do something I can't even remember. After we sailed away from Galveston, on one of our sea days, we got a notice saying it had been cancelled. I guess there weren't enough people or something. We were disappointed at first. We couldn't decide if we should just use the refunded money (in the form of onboard credit- to use anywhere we wanted on the ship) or if we wanted to go ahead and book a different excursion. Obviously we chose another excursion. :) To hear more about our day on Passion Island see THIS post. :)
Back on the ship we got cleaned up for dinner and then after that went to a comedy show called The Liar's Club. The entertainment crew were the stars of this hilarious game. The host gave a word and the others had to give the real or made up definition. It reminded me of a board game called Balderdash. It doesn't sound so funny, but it really was.

There was one more day at sea after we left Cozumel. I have decided they do this so that the let down of getting back home isn't so bad. We get a day to realize we have had this amazing vacation and now we're done. :) We spent this sea day doing pretty much nothing. We went to the past guest party and Carnival Legends show that night. That was the most exciting thing we had done all day. :)



Debarkation~
I don't remember much about debarkation on this cruise. I think we chose to do the relaxed option. Which means we put our bags out the night before we arrived back in Galveston. Housekeeping takes our bags to a holding area, and then in the morning after all the self assist guests are off the ship the rest of the guests are called off by zone numbers and we pick up our luggage in the terminal before going through customs. Things went smoothly, but it did take a while. They call it relaxed for a reason. At least while you wait, you can sit on deck and eat breakfast, or watch the hustle and bustle of what's going on off the ship.



This and That :) ~
The Ship
The Conquest was our favorite ship to date. I loved the decor. There was an impressionism theme through out, mixed with a little funk. :-D It's a beautiful ship and was always sparkling clean. It was a little hard to get around, and not because of the size. There are times when we couldn't just walk from one end of a deck to the other. So we need to go up or down a level go across and then back down or up. This didn't happen a lot, but enough that, especially the first couple days, we were kind of confused. It in no way impacted our enjoyment of the ship though. It just has a learning curve. :)



Our Cabin
When we first booked our cruise we reserved cabin 1262 (An ocean view cabin towards the front of the ship) on the Riviera Deck. A couple months out from sailing we got a call from Carnival asking if we wanted to upgrade to a balcony cabin for a small fee. We figured out that our total with the upgrade fee was still less than if we had booked a balcony cabin initially. We felt it was a good deal and snatched it up. We went from being on deck 1 to being on deck 9- The Lido Deck, cabin #9281. It was pretty awesome. We could leave our room, make two turns and we were at the lido pool, cross the pool area and we were at the Restaurant Cezanne, which is where the buffet meals happen. Most mornings we would get breakfast from the buffet and take it back to our cabin to eat on the balcony. One morning we watched flying fish while we ate!
If you ever have a chance to cruise with a balcony I highly recommend it. It is not something we have to have, they will be a splurge for us, but we will plan on getting them once in a while because it's definitely worth the extra money if you can make it happen.



The Food
As with our first two cruises, we ate dinner in the main dining room every night. It doesn't matter how busy our day has been, we will make time to get dressed up for dinner. It's worth it to us. We also will almost always get the later dining time option so that we don't feel rushed on a port day. The buffet food was delicious also. We have never had complaints about it.
One of my favorite meals we discovered on this cruise was the Mongolian Wok at the Restaurant Cezanne. We could load up our bowls with an array of veggies and then hand it to the chef. He would then ask what kind of meat (chicken, pork, or shrimp) and sauce (I don't remember the names, one was nutty, one was spicy, and there was another option) we wanted and he fried it all up in a wok. It was amazing.
The midnight buffet was very good, but I wouldn't necessarily make a point to go each time a cruise has it.



This was definitely the best of our three cruises so far. Even though we didn't have a clue when our next cruise would be, we were already anticipating how it could possibly top our seven days aboard the Carnival Conquest.