Poor Experience due to Cruise Passengers

Carnival Conquest Cruise Review to Caribbean - Bahamas

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Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 29

Overall rating:

2.8 out of 5

Verified Review

3 Night Bahamas (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: December 02, 2022

Ship: Carnival Conquest

Cabin number: 8323

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 2 years ago

Review summary

I've never been in contact with so many classless, rude people in my life. While we did meet a few nice people on board, the vast majority of the crowd that came were trashy and rude, both to fellow passengers and to staff. I have no idea how and why so much pot could get on board, but you could smell weed everywhere for the duration of the cruise. We could not dock in Bimini due to the current being unsafe to get the ship in, and had to go to Freeport instead. Just as a heads up, this dock is not pretty, it is a commercial shipping dock with conex containers and scrub trees as your scenery and you will need to take transportation to get to a viable beach, this "excursion" will set you back about $80 per person. I chose this cruise as a quick getaway with a friend that would allow us to have a fun vacation and get back to our kids in a reasonable amount of time, but the price point of this cruise seemed to draw out the worst of travel society. Never again.

Embarkation

4 out of 5

Embarkation was organized and the waiting area was modern and clean.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Food and drinks were all palatable, nothing over the top, but nothing horrible either. There is something for everyone and mostly the cruise sticks to crowd pleasers like tacos, burgers, and comfort food fare to appeal to a broad palate. There is always an option at the restaurant for more daring diners such as frog legs, or escargot. We typically dined in the dining room, opting for full service rather than buffet, but always made it a point to look at what was being served at the buffet for curiosity's sake.

Onboard Activities

2 out of 5

There were 4 pools (one being adults only on the Serenity deck) to choose from. There are signs that clearly state you cannot reserve deck chairs. My friend and I went to 2 vacant deck chairs near the main pool (no towels or any other personal items) and were chatting for about 5 minutes, when a fellow passenger, completely unprovoked, started yelling at me that "That's Sam's seat!". I'm not sure when common decency of having a polite interaction with people just went out the door, but this kind of hostility and energy was rampant during the entire cruise, not just to me, but just overall. People were rude, entitled, loud, and smoking pot everywhere! While the itinerary had many scheduled activities, it seemed like the crew was inexperienced with running the events although they were all very kind and cheerful even though they had really really challenging guests on board.

Entertainment

3 out of 5

The steel drum player was great and the DJ did a great job responding to the crowd, but did need to change the music because in his words "woah, woah, this is a family cruise, y'all can't do that" in response to the dancing on the deck. The Christmas show was a little painful to watch but incorporated the kids on the cruise which was cute. The rock show allowed the performers to really redeem themselves and they did a great job, the graphics on the screen behind them and other effects were sharp and on cue and made the performance engaging and fun.

Children's Programs

no kiddos with us

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

Per usual, the staff and service were friendly and prompt. It definitely seems like a lot of the staff are newer, but with the turnover in the hospitality industry being even higher than normal, that was not a shock. Overall the staff made the cruise enjoyable despite the clientele being less than desirable sailing companions.

Ship Quality

2 out of 5

The ship seems to show its age despite being refurbished in 2019. We were unable to have our balcony door open for most of the cruise because despite no smoking signs posted, passengers continuously smoked (or vaped, who knows) marijuana on their balconies, on the main deck, and in the other common areas.

Cabin / Stateroom

2 out of 5

The use of space in the cabin was really good, as this was a 3 days cruise, we packed pretty light, although even if this has been a 6 day cruise, we would have had plenty of space to store our belongings. As previously stated, we couldn't enjoy the balcony due to the pot smoke, and the balcony area looked a little sad and worn. The bathroom smelled like pee despite being cleaned and we even wiped it down with additional cleaning wipes which didn't remove the odor.