Carnival Conquest Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Favorite part - returning to Ft, Lauderdale at end of cruise. Lots of persons apparently quite ill with flu when arriving - sneezing and lots of "wet" coughing - sitting all over the restaurants, and never seemed to even try to cover their mouths, etc.  Medical staff needs to be evaluating persons while collecting the medical sheets at time of arriving at the dock.  These folks seemed to have the idea that "share and share alike".  Terrible food - everywhere. VERY disappointed that Fish & Chips restaurant was GONE, replaced by some lousy barbeque tent on open deck. Entire staff seemed angry/argumentative, esp our room steward. terribly disoriented staff when debarking in FLL.

I loved the entertainment but hated how loud they were.  Fortunately I had taken ear plugs with me.  Embarking was terrible.  We had an 11:30 to 12:00 boarding time and didn't get to board until after 2:00.  

The ship was nice and clean and the food was great.  I would recommend this cruise to others but would tell them to take ear plugs and a sweater to wear inside as it is kept cold inside.

Our favorite part of the cruise are the shows and Comedy club.  We enjoy sailing with Carnival because it is so much fun. The staff is very polite, friendly and attentive to all.  We have been on other cruise line, but Carnival is our favorite.

 I recently spent time on the Carnival Conquest and while the trip was very enjoyable because of the people I was with, the cruise ship itself left much to be desired. Carnival cruise line does not meet my expectations for  luxury in any category from accommodations, dining , decor or entertainment.  The following week, I enjoyed a cruise on Holland American Cruise line. It was a completely different experience.   Exceeding expectations in all categories.  If not for the fact that I was a part of a group, I would not travel with Carnival again. 

First we were to check in at the airport, but the staff there didn't have all the information. I explained to staff, I am a VIP member and my card should be platinum not blue, she couldn't or wouldn't  find my information. I asked why we were signing in at the airport and the questions were very roughly brush off. neat less to said I had to sign in again at the embarkation .

The waiting to get into the ship and the debarkation was a horrible experience.  They destroy one of my mother suitcase and we were told the reason why it was broken was because "it had a lack on it" I have never heard such of thing. The whole Ship need inside and outside work. railing on the front of the ship broken. Balcony railing rusting,  it was just  horrible

my daughter booked this cruise for my b- day it was nice but they told her that they would give me a birthday cake and it was not in my room. they told us to go to guess sever and check but they said they didn't see it on there and I would have to check back with price line where she booked it at but overview all it was nice I'm 70 years old   and lots of fun

The views were pretty great. On board though, the food could have been a a lot better. Also, there were not enough activities to do. The water in the D.R was very dirty but was very clean in Turks where you basically get off the ship right into a great beach. i have no experience with water in the Bahamas because it was col and raining when we arrived. 

I really enjoyed the fact that the ship has an adult only pool in the back.  That made it very nice and the music was tasteful and not too loud.  The bar service staff was very friendly and conscientious.  I also enjoyed the piano bar this week.  It was a blast with the gentleman who was filling in for someone.  Everyone was laughing and smiling and singing unlike the Frank Sinatra group the following week.  The workout room was nice, but often the progressive music was too loud and a bit raunchy for my taste.  It was so loud I couldn't even use my headphones to listen to alternate music.  

I love the Carnival Conquest.  This ship is not huge and it is easy to find your way around.  The ship is very clean and everything on the ship is in excellent condition.  The furniture throughout the ship, the cabins, restaurants, rest rooms are all top notch condition. There are more than enough lounge chairs as well.  We were on a full ship and there were plenty of chairs every day.  My favorite part of the ship is the food options besides the buffet.  I am not a big fan of buffet food.  There is Guy's Burger Joint which was amazing and the food is served fresh and hot every time! There is usually a line for this but it goes very quickly. The Mexican Iguana restaurant was such a great choice.  It was something different and totally FRESH and cooked to order while you wait.  They even serve breakfast burritos during breakfast hours! Then there is the pizza stand located near the adult pool.  The chef will make your pizza to order and it is served hot and fresh right out of the oven. The dining experience every night was so enjoyable.  Our waiters were top notch and we did not have have to ask for a single thing. The meals were excellent  in the main dining room -including Prime Rib, Lobster Tails, Frogs Legs and fresh fish choices and many pasta choices too. Also vegetarian choices nightly... Cruises are not all about food but it is important.  We enjoyed the live music all over the ship.  There was music for everyone's taste.  The casino bartenders were amazing.  We never waited more than a minute for a drink and we were there every evening. The ship arrived in all three ports exactly on time and it was a breeze to get off and back on the ship.  LOVE Amber Cove.  What a great resort and just a 5 minute walk from the boat.  The have zip lining, swim up bars, and lots of good food for purchase.  A bucket of 5 beers packed with ice was $20.00.  The service there was excellent too.  LOVE Nassau as we enjoyed the Atlantis for the day we were in port.  It's a bit pricey but worth it. 

Where should I start, with the empty soda machines in the lobby, the extreme long waits to get on the ship. The entertainment was poor I seen better with my 8 year old Christmas play the singing was terrible so that cut down 80% of the things to do. With the exception of The Fryman, Lester, the steel drum player, Rick and the U-Turns, and the Horner bothers. The service in the room and all around the ship was AMAZING! The announcements were far to frequent and the cruise director and crew seemed very new and unorganized all around. Getting off the ship was a TERRIBLE and so unorganized. The island and food were great and nothing beats being in the sun. Love the hairy chest contest. The DJ was very boring and needs a new playlist if I would I heard the Wobble one more time.  The decor was very dated and the ship needs updates. My room was so loud I could here every single performance and could not sleep each not till they were over. Sleeping next the the theater room is terrible. I will spend the extra money and go on NCL or Royal next time. 

Our room was a good size with lots of storage. The food was really bad and limited ,so much so that I lost weight. On other cruises that Ive been on [Norwegian , Disney ] had great food. The staff was about half it seemed like then any other boat that I have been on. No one on this boat pushed people to wash their hands. which is kind of gross. Our room steward was great. The stops were great. Overall this cruise was kind of like a Walmart kind of cruises where the  cruise was cheap and  you could tell that anybody could afford it.

Ship stunk...It really smelled like poop everywhere.  Staff attentive and friendly.  Food good.  I will never go back to any port on the Dominican.  Dirty and not safe

I will start with the good and end with the bad...

The Conquest is a nice boat.  We have been on several smaller Carnival boats. We were impressed, as always, with our room steward's attention.  We were also pleasantly impressed with the food in general.  We have never really liked the food on prior Carnival cruises but we found the selection much more palatable.  Of particular note was the Blue Iguana, where you can get made to order burritos and tacos, with chicken, shrimp, beef, and pork, as well as almost endless toppings.  The buffet food was still not too much to our liking.  The dining room food was excellent, although there were several nights that they just did not have anything that we wanted so we grazed the buffet.  We were not impressed with the onboard entertainment.  We did like the comedians but the shows were not so good.  We have had better shows on other lines.  Overall, the "cruise" part of the trip, I would give 4 stars, dropping 1 star for the entertainment.

Ports of call:  Amber Cover, Dominican Republic.  We usually book stuff outside the cruise line but we were unable to find anything that looked interesting so we did a shopping and sightseeing tour that was cheap.  It went to a jewelry store, the amber museum, the fort and a rum factory.  I was keen on the rum factory tour only to be disappointed that all we saw was the finishing packing plant.  I wanted to see 200K barrel of rum stored for aging or the mixing process, etc.  We just saw bottles being put in boxes.  Not a great tour.  Weather was bad so most water tours had been cancelled. 

Due to the weather, we were told that we would have to skip the second stop in DR, which did not hurt our feelings much because we had again found nothing we really wanted to do and it meant we would arrive in Bonaire early (more on that below).  However, when we got back on the boat, we were told that we would be making a second stop in DR but at a different port, La Romana. They put out a list of excursions, none of which looked interesting. We caught a bus to town and hired a private taxi for the day who took us to Cueva de las Maravillas, a nice cave tour.  We enjoyed the tour.  The driver also took us to a tourist shopping place where we saw nothing interesting.  I did but a pretty piece of larimar jewelry for my wife.  At my request, the driver took us to a place for lunch and a grocery store, which I always like to do.  Oddly, we found the DR people to be generally rude.  We try to fit in where we go and not act like typical tourists.  I was very surprised that the overall feeling was so rude.

In all, we were not impressed by DR and were disappointed that we made 2 stops there, as opposed to another country.

Bonaire:  We chose this trip to sample Bonaire and Aruba for possible return for a longer stay.  We were not happy that we were not scheduled to arrive in Bonaire until 2:00 since we were going on a private snorkel trip and sunset was around 5:00 so we were happy when we were told we woudl skip the second DR port and arrive in Bonaire early, but that was not to happen.  As we watched the trip from DR to Bonaire, we saw there was no reason we could not have arrived in the AM, except possible to save fuel.  We had arranged a snorkel trip with a company called Woodwind.  I give that trip 10 stars on a 5 star system!  Although I have snorkeled in much better waters, I have never had such an impressive experience with the snorkel trip itself.  It was a catamaran trip with out 25 people, which I usually dont like but they broke us into small groups based on experience.  However, they did a nice safety briefing and they even had masks with corrective lenses!!!!  Our main reason for the trip was to snorkel Bonaire.  The snorkeling was OK, but does not compare to Roatan (Honduras) or Belize.  We had to quit snorkeling when it got dark, thus my complaint about arrival time. Bonaire is small and quiet.  Once it gets dark, almost everything shuts down.  We were in port until 10pm with nothing to do. :(

Aruba: We book a private snorkel trip with just us on the boat.  Another great review for the snorkel trip. Found the guys at privatesnorkeling.com. Our guide was Mike.  We had a nice boat to ourselves and Mike took us to the Antilla shipwreck and several other sites.  He was honest that Aruba is not great for snorkeling as there is really not much coral.  I suppose the water chemistry is wrong.  All the snorkel trips go to the same handful of stops and he tried to take us in an order to avoid other boats, whcih was great.  We were aware that the currents were known to be difficult and found that to be very true.  Not much to see but the Antilla wreck was cool.  Ate lunch on the beach at a place Mike suggested and then went to a grocery store.  Aruba was very Americanized.  Beautiful beaches.

Now, for the BAD:

Some time prior to the cruise, I received an email instructing me to select a boarding time as Carnival had initiated staggered boarding.  I was able to select the earliest time.  When we arrived, we found a cattle call with everyone already in line with no regard to the scheduled time.  It took close to 2 hours to get through the line.

Even worse was getting of the ship at the end of the cruise.  We docked early but they did not start letting people off until the scheduled time.  They let a small group off and then stopped for an hour, then repeated 3x.  They kept apologizing, asserting that there was congestion in the terminal and the authorities had shut down the line - 3 times for an hour each time??  Our group (18 of 36) was finally called around 10:30.  Based on what they had called, there should have been a few hundred people in the terminal.  There appeared to be over a thousand.  IT was clear that (1) Carnival had made no effort to enforce the scheduled disembarcation (2) there was utter chaos in the huge room with all the luggage in not particular group order and (3) Carnival does not pay for sufficient gvt agents to handle the process.  There was a RC boat next to us which had almost 2x the capacity as ours and it was completely emptied and everyone gone by 10:00.  There are many complaints specific to Carnival and Carnival at this terminal that this is a real problem for Carnival over others and this particular port for Carnival.  Everybody complains about the process but Carnival seems to be the worst and this port seem to be the pinnacle of bad.

Final gripe:  The safety drill at the beginning of the cruise.  I have had various experiences with these.  However, this was about the worst. The drill itself was typical but after the drill was over, they made us stand on deck for about 30 minutes before we were allowed to leave.  I am pretty sure Carnival delayed the drill to keep people out of the halls and elevators so luggage could be delivered. 

Overall, we greatly enjoyed the trip.  However, we will consider other lines over Carnival in future.

My wife smokes and the Conquest has a huge area for smokers, very rare to find a ship with this much room for smokers.

the disembarkacation was a joke, waited in line for over one hour to get through customs.

I met different people from different back rounds and enjoyed the food! The only flaw was there were too many people and my card did not allow me to eat at the elegant Monet restaurant. The Russian waiter who works in the front was very rude.This was my 2nd cruise and I don't think I got credit for it. It sailed 11-9-2008. I went with a group of people. Shawn Falls is a elite member if I could remember. It sailed to Porto Rico, Grand Turk and Saint Thomas. I also put 200$ down on a trip 3 years ago to Ocho Rios and Grand Cayman and you guys took my money! There should be a notified hold for tips in the information when you first sign up online! I could not hardly sleep my room on the 2nd floor because of the loud banging noise! Overall I had a great time!

Overall, we enjoyed the entertainment headed by the talented, friendly and wonderful Hayley Mac, the energetic, high powered, great performers of the shows, and our good waiters and housekeepers. Special mention to Angel, Tangkas, Jamil of Monet Dining and Vince who comes to talk to us and dance, Junior our cabin cleaner, DJ and Uturns Band also did a great job providing music in the lobby. Thank you for the good services. We enjoyed the cruise a lot.More power to the behind the success of Conquest Carnival. The ship was memorable to me as it was my first start of cruise sailing ever before my husband passed away. We took the ship in New Orleans that time. It was worth mentioning and feeling sentimental. The last cruise was in celebration of my dtr's birthday, Kristine Miranda, and brought along with us a first time cruiser, my friend, Normita Moore.Once again.. thank you and more power to the Fun Ship Carnival.

I would rate our cruise aboard Carnival Conquest a 3.  The ship is dated and needs some face lifts.  The shows were not to our liking and we tried to attend but ended up walking out on all of them. 

The wait staff in the main dinning room was excellent.  The food was good.  Alexsandar was a top notch waiter.  He took care of our every need.  His attitude and attention to detail was extraordinary.  His assistants did a great job as well.  He is one of the best I have seen and should be commended for his work ethic and efforts to accommodate his guests.  He is personable and pleasant.  He is above average.  He enhanced our eating experience greatly.

Our steward was not around much.  His name was Ali.  He did assist us when we needed pillows and a fan, but he was out of sight most of the time.  Our friends traveling with us could not reach him on the phone.  It was almost like once it attended to the room, he was done for the day.  We asked him for ice in the room each day and he would leave the ice in the morning and it would be melted by the evening.  We had to contact room service for ice. 

The itinerary was great and I would travel back to Bon Aire and Aruba.  Beautiful ports.  The other 2 stops were not much to speak of.  Of course we did not get to stop in Santo Domingo due to winds.  The Captain was able to make the arrangements to port in another location which was good on his part. 

Carnival Conquest would not be a ship of my choice in the future if I could travel aboard another for the itinerary.  Visiting the 4 ports is a nice cruise.

The music on deck 3 was pretty good.  We enjoyed it. 

We played cards in the library and there was a broken chair that needs to be fixed.

dd

Second worst cruise I've been on next to the Glory.  The cabin (8th deck) was unacceptably cold.  The thermostat did nothing.  (Lady on 1st deck said their cabin was too hot -- no air conditioning.)  No quality shows.  Only bright spot was the servers (Alex et.al.) in the Renoir (dinner) and in the Monet (breakfast) restaurants.  Major smoke in the casino. 

For our first time cruising, it was a great experience and we had decided that we will cruise again. The staff on the ship were great, very friendly, approachable and willing to help. The food at the Steakhouse restaurant was awesome. Didn't really care for the food selection at the buffet and the assigned seating dining rooms. We found our food was brought to the table either food or barely warm. 

Due to bad weather, the captain was able to dirvert us to another port instead of having 4 days at sea. This jesture by him was greatly appreciated. We enjoyed the excursions at the 4 ports we visited and can't wait to go back to two of the ports on a future vacation. 

I loved every minute of our trip.  We had NO problems, but then again we are pretty easy people to please.  I believe too many people complain about too many things on these cruises.  If I could change one thing.......Food selection at night.  Only thing available late late is pizza and room service.  I wish there was a small buffet available, even if it was just chix tenders, burgers fries etc.  Thats it, the only thing wrong!  Everything else was great!