Embarkation: since we had arrived to Galveston the day
before, we were very well rested so on
Sunday morning we took time to walk on the Galveston beach, and we even
drove around Galveston Island, killing some time. We parked in Lighthouse
Parking at 10am, by the way, amazing service these guys gave us, I highly
recommend them. By 10:30, we were in
the Port, and immediately found a guy to take care of our bags, as we stood in
line. The line was not moving at first, but then moved fast. We were in line
just like half hour, by 12 noon, we were inside the ship eating in the Lido
deck, very easy process.
We were on Cabin 9252 on the Lido deck, very nice location,
no noise from anywhere and you cant hardly feel the ship movement, except for
the last two days that we encountered a cold front and the sea was really
choppy, then we could really feel the rocking. Our cabin steward Reinze and his
assistants Yoman and Agus did a wonderful job taking care of us. We never lacked
on fresh towel, ice in our ice chest, and they kept our cabin *** and span. We
requested maintenance service fro our a/c and was promptly done. I was
impressed. The bed was hard as a rock, I asked Reinze for a pad and he did put
it on, but didn’t helped much. I was expecting more cushiony beds. Lets say I
was glad to sleep on my bed when I came back
We were seating in table 173 at the Renoir Restaurant. Let
me tell you, we had the best service
anyone can have. Our waiter Wilton and his assistant Ever made our dining an
Experience, instead of a simple dining. I wish I could had brought them home
back with me.
Now, our cruise director Chris.. ~sigh~ what can I say? It
was wrong in so many aspects. He hardly mingled with the passengers, the
activities planned had a lot of idle moments, for example, there were times
that there was nothing interesting to do and there were other times that all
the good stuff was scheduled at the same time, making you have to choose
between what to do and what not to do. And his whiney voice! I wanted to jump
overboard everytime he decided to come on on the PA. It was like nail on the
chalkboard. I was NOT impressed with him. All others from the crew did a
wonderful job.
We were cruising with the Gayribbean group, let me tell you,
these people are amazing! They did our cruise wayyy much more fun, we had paid
to go to their shows and activities and we made very good friends with them.
They had the drag queens show… simple the best! And we also had lots of fun in
their Halloween party. I will cruise with them again because they are a lot of
fun and have very much respect to other passengers.
Shows:
Point and Click … it was just OK.. nothing to rave about. Comedian
John Wesley Austin, in charge of the R-rated comedy show.. AMAZING.. hilarious, very funny and entertaining. The
magic and Illusion of Lady Hellevi.. she is awesome.. enjoyed her show
very, very much. Marc Rubben and his puppets.. again, just so-so..
nothing to brag about. And last but not least.. Legends.. it was nice to
see some guests imitating their favorite singers.
Ports:
Jamaica: We decided to go to the Sunset Beach
Resort.. well worth the money, free drinks and free food, excellent food. We did some snorkeling, we used the
pool and after lunch, we enjoyed a couple’s massage.. worth every penny. For 45
minutes we had these girls giving us the best massage on earth, from head to
toe. So relaxing! After we finished the massage, we headed back to the ship,
did some shopping at the post and we were on the ship by 4pm, enough time to
spare. The weather was very nice, except almost getting on the ship it rained.
Not much.
Grand Cayman: We had booked the stingray swim,
snorkeling and Rum Point Beach with Native Way. Highly recommend them! We took our tender from the ship and we were
on shore by 8am, so we did a bit of shopping in the port. By 8:30 we were on
the bus that would take us to the private boat from Nativeways. The group was
not big, so we were not like sardines in a can. We went to the sandbar and the
stingrays were ready for us.. I love these creatures.. they are soft and
huge! Like kitty cats rubbing against
you. One of them gave me a hickey on my arm after one of the guys pour some
calamari juice on my arm. Lol.. after that we went to snorkel in open sea, in a
coral bed.. it was cool but I could not hadle it, got a panic attack as soon as
I felt I was drifting away, so immediately I went back to the boat. Then we
were taken to the gorgeous Rum Point Beach for lunch and a relaxing swim for
about an hour and a half. They took us back to the dock promptly with time to
spare and do some shopping. Our last tender was at 3pm, but we were back on the
ship before 3pm. Grand Cayman waters are crystal clear. I loved it.
Cozumel: We had decided to go to Chankanaab park to
swim with the dophins. The dolphin company is Dolphin Discovery. Again, if you
want to have a great time and fun, book with these people. I did online booking
and prepaid my picture package and was wayyy cheaper than to book with Carnival. The package I took
even had taxi fare included. Swimming with the dolphins was the highlight of
our trip. These amazing creatures are so intelligent and adorable at the same
time. We did the royal swim and that experience is etched on my brain forever.
They kiss you, shake your hand, you can cradle them as a baby, and also they
push you by your feet and lift you in the air like superman. Also you can hold
the fins of top of their bodies and they will bring you back to the base.
We bought the picts and the video. After swimming with the
dolphins, Andy did some snorkeling, again, I was overwhelmed by the the rough
currents so I decided not to go for it.
So I sat outside and got myself a nice tan. We were back on time, but of course
there were others running at the last
moment, not to miss the ship. We were on the 9th floor
clapping and screaming at them. They
were lucky that we had two emergencies on board and the ship had to wait for
the ambulance to take two passengers off the ship.
That night was our Halloween party, we were super exhausted,
but we did the Halloween party. That night we went to bed around 2am.
Saturday morning we had booked the Behind the Fun tour in
the ship.. basically is a very cool tour around the ship and they take you to
places that noone else can go, like the crew living quarters, their dining
room, the captain dining table, the laundry, the three galleys (main, crew and
Supper Club), the engine control room and the bridge, among other places. It is
a very thorough, 3.5 hours walking tour. Very interesting too. We really enjoyed it a
lot. It’s a little pricey but they give you a lot of goodies and even give you
3- 8x10 picts. So is well worth it. If you decide to do this, please bring
comfy shoes..closed toes, or you will pay dearly with pain in your feet.
That day we
encountered a cold front and the water was very rough.. I was walking like a
drunk woman, even though I had not drank a drop that day, I looked like a pin
ball from side to side.. very rocky ride that morning. In the afternoon, we had
another emergency on board, our brilliant cruise director came on the PA and announced that he needed the
cooperation of everybody, not to go to deck 9 and 10 cause they were going to
do an air lift with the coast guard helicopter, also said not to take picts…
Well guess where everybody went? (including me of course) to the 9th,
10th and 11th deck to watch the airlift. It was very
impressive how these people maneuver this helicopter in such high winds. After
about 1.5 hours, the passenger was successfully air lifted to a New Orleans
Hospital.
Debarkation a.k.a Chaos! We were going to be delayed due to
the air lift on Saturday, We arrived to
Galveston around 8am, and I think everybody had decided to do self debarkation…
arghhhh!! We decided to put our bags out the night before, we got out of the
ship around 11:30am, grabbed our bags and a got a porter, he took us out in a
jiffy.. versus all the people that decided not to take the porter and had to do
the long line. We were in our car about noon.
Other comments: food was good in the main dining room, in
the buffet on the Lido deck it was just so-so.. kind of like Furrs Cafeteria.
Pizza, burgers and Hot dogs, chicken nuggets and fries were very good. Sur
Mer: over rated, soggy, greasy fish,
nothing to brag about. The sandwich place.. had decent sandwiches. Chocolate
buffet on the last day, everything looked yummy but when you tried it, again,
so-so.. tasted bland. I tried to order room service but when the girl told me
that I had to wait 45 mins to an hour, I cancelled the order. The coffee shop
sells a very good cheesecake, carrot cake and cookies. Also good coffee for
those of you coffee addicts. Cakes and cookies were very good price, coffees
were pricey though.
To resume we had a wonderful time, the Conquest is a
beautiful ship. Will do again to the eastern Caribbean. And Will stay again in
the Lido deck. Service was amazing.. cruise director could do much better.