Cruise Ship: Carnival Conquest
Cruise Destination: Caribbean from Galveston, TX
Cruise Dates: June 13 to June 20, 2010
Guest Contributor: Jack Simpson
We just completed our seven day cruise on the Carnival Conquest both leaving and returning to the port of Galveston TX. My wife Sue and I average maybe one cruise per year, including an occasional river cruise. We have been at it for almost fifteen years, like it and will definitely continue for probably another 10 years or more. I believe we have been on Carnival before, but that was about ten years ago. The major feature for us was the port of Galveston. I reserved a covered parking place right across the street from the cruise terminal on the internet. We drove 3 ½ hours from Austin, parked the car, rolled our luggage across the street, and got on the ship. It doesn’t get better than that. In our conversations we found the majority of the passengers were Texans (the only ones I met that were not were from Oklahoma) and drove also. Some of the northerners drove more than six hours but all agreed avoiding airports was a good thing. We requested and got a no smoking room. In contrast to a 2005 Conquest review, we smelled no smoke at all in the room. Smoking appears to be under control on this ship as well as everywhere else in the world these days.
Most of the largest ships seem to cruise the Caribbean, where we had not cruised much for some years, so I have been curious to see how they compare to the smaller (500 – 1200 passenger) ships we are familiar with. The Conquest carried a bit less than 3000. In its case size seemed a disadvantage in most ways. It did have enough elevators distributed in at least three areas along the ship. We waited no longer for elevators on this ship than the best of any other ships I remember. Our room was on the second to lowest deck (deck two) at the very back of the ship. We were right under the third floor Monet dining room. A very short walk and we were there. Someone clear in the front would be walking a bit to get to the Renoir dining room a bit back of mid ship.
I assume they don't compensate for the curvature of the earth when building these large ships, but if they do I'm convinced it would be noticeable sighting down that long 280 meter hallway on deck two. I think I could see the other end when I used my binoculars. Spaces often seemed cramped for a large ship. Ceilings could have been just a little higher, or was it the darker colors they used there? The main atrium a bit front of mid ship which goes from deck 3 up to a glass roof above deck 9 or 10 seemed unusually cramped front to back in the upper levels, like they were trying to squeeze the last bit of area out of the ship for more inside cabins in the upper decks. Here big ship does not mean wide open interior spaces. Big ship meant lines.
The four lines were long in the topside self service Cezanne restaurant. Sometimes that was our choice for breakfast, but we went to the dining room even though they could not come to you immediately there either. The overall service was faster. They have four specialty food service areas that we used: pizza, deli sandwich, hamburger and Mongolian noodles. The last of these was new to me on a ship and was popular. I waited more than 40 minutes in line. I really liked it, however (other cruise lines take note). The lines at the pizza, deli and hamburger places were not significant when we were there. There were long lines to get back on the ship from our ports. I heard the rain drenched the lines getting back on in Freeport. We came back early that day. Have I been in lines on other ships? I think so, but can't remember. It's easy to remember the lines on this ship.
The word "luxury" is often used cruising. Here I felt "efficiency" more appropriate. Some of our best cruise entertainment has been talking with our waiters. We still remember the legendary Erik from the nineties on Royal Caribbean. I don't remember another one's name from a different Royal Caribbean cruise, but he was from Portugal and far more entertaining than any of the performers in the ship's theater, although they also were fine. On the Conquest the waiters were friendly and very busy. It was clear they were trying to please us the best they could. They just had too many tables to handle. We did get adequately served, with no time for chit chat. Dining room food was warm, but not hot.
