R
Richsap
Guest
Recently sailed on the Conquest out of Galveston. Here is some free advice...
Spending the night in Galveston? We ate at the Rainforest Cafe, and it is a great experience if not just a tad on the expensive side. Dinner for two with dessert will run about $80, but the atmosphere and service are worth it. Great gift shop also.
The beach is a yawner, not very clean, but makes for a nice walk nontheless.
Don't even try boarding the ship any earlier than 2 pm. Everyone and their brother gets dumped at the dock from their flights and hotel shuttles before 1 pm, and they don't open the check in process until 1:30, and they mean it. We arrived at 12:30 and waited behind a thousand other people in line waiting for them to start processing passengers. If you show up after 2 pm, at least the line will be moving. 3 pm would be even better. Anything after 4 pm you are a 'straggler'.
Ditto for leaving the ship. Everybody wants to be first one off. If you have an afternoon flight or your own vehicle, stay on board as late as possible. The crowd thins out considerably around 11 am.
Don't buy your pictures until the last sea day. Then you can gather them all up and compare. They are just as expensive as they always have been... $20 a pop. We limited ourselves to the 8 best ones. Get your picture taken at every opportunity, whether it be formal or informal. You aren't obligated to buy any of them, and the more you have to choose from the better.
Some items sold on board are cheaper than in Cozumel, but mostly just the liquor. Jewelry, perfume and t-shirts are all cheaper in Cozumel. Liquor was a tad less, but not by much. And of course if you buy it on board they 'save' it for you until the last night.
They will warn you of this also on board: DON'T leave your liquor purchases outside with your bags the night before debarkation! Apparently some guests or maybe crewmembers roam the halls looking for boxes of liquor to relieve the owners of. We packed our small stash in our carry-on and suit cases. We didn't give ours up when we boarded - very easy to accidentally bypass that process.
Only going one floor up/down? Skip the elevators. The elevators themselves are fast, but running several thousand people through them an hour, many of whom are just going up or down one or two decks, leaves their capacity strained most any time. You'll save yourself about an hour and a half of time over the course of 7 days.
The fastest way to navigate the ship is to walk the passageways along the cabins on the lower or upper decks, then use the stairs/elevators near the location you are traveling to. Sounds simple enough, but the number of people that would go up to the lobby (deck 3) or lido (deck 9) level and then try to walk from the back to the front of the ship makes for a lot of congestion. And if you try to walk from one end to the other on decks 3 or 4, you'll either have to cut through the dining rooms (which are closed much of the time) or traverse the stairs twice... once to get up to a passable deck, and once to get down to your location.
Handheld radios to keep in touch? Not very effective. They only work for half the lengh of the ship if you are only one or maybe two decks apart. And I'm talking the higher-power models that boast a 9 mile range! We could never find a 'clear' channel, and lost contact quickly. Save the suitcase space.
Internet Cafe is open 24 hours a day, but only manned sporadically. Wireless service only works in the immediate vicinity of the cafe. We actually got a sigal from a nearby RCCL cruise ship in our cabin... of course, we couldn't use it! Carnival's internet services still leave a lot be be desired, and are very expensive. They run a couple of 'specials' during the course of the cruise, whereby people that are already signed up with a plan get 50% off their rate for time used. But... these specials were during times when dinner was being served or there was a show going on. They don't run specials late at night or early in the a.m. when you could actually take advantage of them.
If you have any health issues, get them taken care of before you board. The ship's medical team charges $60 to consult with the ship's doctor (even if for only 5 minutes), and once you leave port you are a captive audience! Their prices for medicine are just as outrageous as any hospital, so don't forget your meds.
Want to see yourself on the video of the cruise? You'll have to participate in all of the ship sponsored activities on the Lido deck or chase the camera crew down and make yourself available. They won't come knocking at your cabin door for an interview (thank goodness!). It's fun to watch the excerpts on the ship's closed circuit television broadcast, but I wouldn't buy the video just to see myself for 15 seconds.
For gosh sakes, take advantage of eating in the sit-down dining rooms (Monet, Renior). The buffets are time savers for sure in respect to the fact that you don't have to go to your cabin and get dressed, but sometimes the line is 20 mintues long. So it kind of cancels the time savings out. Besides, the food in the resturants is much better and you get to meet new people during breakfast and lunch.
(As an aside, I've heard people rave about the 24 hour pizza, but I didn't find it any better than the average Pizza Hut or Dominoe's pizza. And maybe it was just me, but they were always out of most types of pizza. It seems they never planned ahead for the closure of the casual (buffet) dining room and the crowd that always developed shortly afterwards. Also, the hamburgers and chicken were always dried and over-cooked. When asked for a hamburger cooked 'medium' instead of well-done, I was told 'it was against company policy'.)
If you are hot natured or just like to feel a breeze when you sleep, bring along a portable fan. I wish I had. The A/C in the room was adequate but not very forceful. We couldn't sleep with the balcony door open, as this would have made the room too hot for us. Best packing advice I got was the multi-outlet extension cord (there is only one 115v outlet in the cabin).
Like your new luggage set? It won't be new much longer. Ours was a brand new set when we left home and still was in new condition when we left the airport. When it was delivered to our cabin, each piece had large grease stains and one bag had been slit about 6 inches with a knife or razor knife. Another bag had a smaller incision on the side that had been made with a knife. Seems at least one of the unionized baggage handlers at the port has a thing for red nylon luggage. Don't bother to tip the thugs... we did and now we see what you get for it. Other passengers had similar issues. Bring your old luggage.
Plan on doing your own laundry on board? Bring lots of money. $2 per load to wash, $2 per load to dry. The washers and dryers are, to their credit, a good size and the dryers worked very well. Better equipment than most laundry mats. Cheaper to pack your own detergent if you plan on doing more than three loads. We did two and just left the $4 box of detergent with two scoops missing for our room steward. College dorm rules apply when using the ship's laundry rooms. There are only 4 dryers and 4 washers per floor. If you aren't there to take your stuff out... someone else will.
Pack one of those small, foldable nylon coolers and bring your own cold water bottles with you on excursions. Bottled water sells from $1.50 to $2.50 on shore, and you can (and should) easily go through several bottles in one afternoon.
We packed a couple of twelve packs of 1 litre sodas in plastic bottles, and cost issues aside it was just more convenient to be able to enjoy a soda in our room rather than have room service deliver it or have to trudge a half mile to the nearest bar. Caution! The bottles will get shaken up quite a bit on their journey, and depending upon your cabin location and ship vibrations will stay shaken up. The first one opened caught me by surprise, but right up until the last day they were still under quite a bit of pressure.
Learn how to say "Please" and "Thank You" in the native tongue of your cabin steward and wait staff. They will enjoy this very much and it is a true gesture of friendship and respect. We gave a small gift to each of our service folks, in addition to a moderate cash tip a few days after setting sail. They appreciated the thoughfulness of the gifts (bags of chocolates in our case) and the cash (along with the standard tips that were deducted from our account) though I don't know which they liked better.
We got to know our servers and room stewards well by asking them personal but non-intrusive questions about their homes and their lives at sea. We didn't ask for any special consideration or services, but if nothing else we learned a great deal about other cultures and people. If we had special needs, I'm sure they would not have hesitated to help.
Order a 'special occassion' cake, even if you don't have a special occassion to celebrate (do this at least a week before you sail). A large cake is inexpensive and will easily feed 12 people. They deliver it to your table on the night you specify, is really delicious (better than some of the desserts that are served) and your tablemates will love it.
They advise you not to use your sail and sign card to lock/unlock your safe, but I don't see why not. Otherwise you have to carry a credit card around with you onboard and it, just like cash, is practically useless on the ship. I carried my S&S card, my DL and some cash in a lanyard around my neck with me wherever I went. The rest (my wallet with CCs and cash, G/Fs jewelry) stayed in the safe.
We had this brilliant idea to bring our very own HUGE beach towels with us on shore excursions. Good idea, except that when they get wet they weigh a ton! LOL. Best advice... bring your own, but use the thin, smallish and cheap kind. The ones you can get a WalMart for $8. You won't feel as bad if they get lost/stolen (as opposed to the $22 Carnival pool towels you are issued), and they won't weigh you down much.
If you drink much at all, purchase the 'drink of the day' in the tall plastic souvenier cup the first day, then have them refill it with the drink of the day (or your other personal favorite) at the non-souvenier cup price. All the drinks we tried were great, which goes to prove if you put enough sugar in it anything is potable. Be advised that bar service can take 10 minutes or more on the Lido deck, so plan your drinks well in advance of being thirsty.
Last but not least... the Conquest is a beautiful ship and a smooth ride... enjoy!
Spending the night in Galveston? We ate at the Rainforest Cafe, and it is a great experience if not just a tad on the expensive side. Dinner for two with dessert will run about $80, but the atmosphere and service are worth it. Great gift shop also.
The beach is a yawner, not very clean, but makes for a nice walk nontheless.
Don't even try boarding the ship any earlier than 2 pm. Everyone and their brother gets dumped at the dock from their flights and hotel shuttles before 1 pm, and they don't open the check in process until 1:30, and they mean it. We arrived at 12:30 and waited behind a thousand other people in line waiting for them to start processing passengers. If you show up after 2 pm, at least the line will be moving. 3 pm would be even better. Anything after 4 pm you are a 'straggler'.
Ditto for leaving the ship. Everybody wants to be first one off. If you have an afternoon flight or your own vehicle, stay on board as late as possible. The crowd thins out considerably around 11 am.
Don't buy your pictures until the last sea day. Then you can gather them all up and compare. They are just as expensive as they always have been... $20 a pop. We limited ourselves to the 8 best ones. Get your picture taken at every opportunity, whether it be formal or informal. You aren't obligated to buy any of them, and the more you have to choose from the better.
Some items sold on board are cheaper than in Cozumel, but mostly just the liquor. Jewelry, perfume and t-shirts are all cheaper in Cozumel. Liquor was a tad less, but not by much. And of course if you buy it on board they 'save' it for you until the last night.
They will warn you of this also on board: DON'T leave your liquor purchases outside with your bags the night before debarkation! Apparently some guests or maybe crewmembers roam the halls looking for boxes of liquor to relieve the owners of. We packed our small stash in our carry-on and suit cases. We didn't give ours up when we boarded - very easy to accidentally bypass that process.
Only going one floor up/down? Skip the elevators. The elevators themselves are fast, but running several thousand people through them an hour, many of whom are just going up or down one or two decks, leaves their capacity strained most any time. You'll save yourself about an hour and a half of time over the course of 7 days.
The fastest way to navigate the ship is to walk the passageways along the cabins on the lower or upper decks, then use the stairs/elevators near the location you are traveling to. Sounds simple enough, but the number of people that would go up to the lobby (deck 3) or lido (deck 9) level and then try to walk from the back to the front of the ship makes for a lot of congestion. And if you try to walk from one end to the other on decks 3 or 4, you'll either have to cut through the dining rooms (which are closed much of the time) or traverse the stairs twice... once to get up to a passable deck, and once to get down to your location.
Handheld radios to keep in touch? Not very effective. They only work for half the lengh of the ship if you are only one or maybe two decks apart. And I'm talking the higher-power models that boast a 9 mile range! We could never find a 'clear' channel, and lost contact quickly. Save the suitcase space.
Internet Cafe is open 24 hours a day, but only manned sporadically. Wireless service only works in the immediate vicinity of the cafe. We actually got a sigal from a nearby RCCL cruise ship in our cabin... of course, we couldn't use it! Carnival's internet services still leave a lot be be desired, and are very expensive. They run a couple of 'specials' during the course of the cruise, whereby people that are already signed up with a plan get 50% off their rate for time used. But... these specials were during times when dinner was being served or there was a show going on. They don't run specials late at night or early in the a.m. when you could actually take advantage of them.
If you have any health issues, get them taken care of before you board. The ship's medical team charges $60 to consult with the ship's doctor (even if for only 5 minutes), and once you leave port you are a captive audience! Their prices for medicine are just as outrageous as any hospital, so don't forget your meds.
Want to see yourself on the video of the cruise? You'll have to participate in all of the ship sponsored activities on the Lido deck or chase the camera crew down and make yourself available. They won't come knocking at your cabin door for an interview (thank goodness!). It's fun to watch the excerpts on the ship's closed circuit television broadcast, but I wouldn't buy the video just to see myself for 15 seconds.
For gosh sakes, take advantage of eating in the sit-down dining rooms (Monet, Renior). The buffets are time savers for sure in respect to the fact that you don't have to go to your cabin and get dressed, but sometimes the line is 20 mintues long. So it kind of cancels the time savings out. Besides, the food in the resturants is much better and you get to meet new people during breakfast and lunch.
(As an aside, I've heard people rave about the 24 hour pizza, but I didn't find it any better than the average Pizza Hut or Dominoe's pizza. And maybe it was just me, but they were always out of most types of pizza. It seems they never planned ahead for the closure of the casual (buffet) dining room and the crowd that always developed shortly afterwards. Also, the hamburgers and chicken were always dried and over-cooked. When asked for a hamburger cooked 'medium' instead of well-done, I was told 'it was against company policy'.)
If you are hot natured or just like to feel a breeze when you sleep, bring along a portable fan. I wish I had. The A/C in the room was adequate but not very forceful. We couldn't sleep with the balcony door open, as this would have made the room too hot for us. Best packing advice I got was the multi-outlet extension cord (there is only one 115v outlet in the cabin).
Like your new luggage set? It won't be new much longer. Ours was a brand new set when we left home and still was in new condition when we left the airport. When it was delivered to our cabin, each piece had large grease stains and one bag had been slit about 6 inches with a knife or razor knife. Another bag had a smaller incision on the side that had been made with a knife. Seems at least one of the unionized baggage handlers at the port has a thing for red nylon luggage. Don't bother to tip the thugs... we did and now we see what you get for it. Other passengers had similar issues. Bring your old luggage.
Plan on doing your own laundry on board? Bring lots of money. $2 per load to wash, $2 per load to dry. The washers and dryers are, to their credit, a good size and the dryers worked very well. Better equipment than most laundry mats. Cheaper to pack your own detergent if you plan on doing more than three loads. We did two and just left the $4 box of detergent with two scoops missing for our room steward. College dorm rules apply when using the ship's laundry rooms. There are only 4 dryers and 4 washers per floor. If you aren't there to take your stuff out... someone else will.
Pack one of those small, foldable nylon coolers and bring your own cold water bottles with you on excursions. Bottled water sells from $1.50 to $2.50 on shore, and you can (and should) easily go through several bottles in one afternoon.
We packed a couple of twelve packs of 1 litre sodas in plastic bottles, and cost issues aside it was just more convenient to be able to enjoy a soda in our room rather than have room service deliver it or have to trudge a half mile to the nearest bar. Caution! The bottles will get shaken up quite a bit on their journey, and depending upon your cabin location and ship vibrations will stay shaken up. The first one opened caught me by surprise, but right up until the last day they were still under quite a bit of pressure.
Learn how to say "Please" and "Thank You" in the native tongue of your cabin steward and wait staff. They will enjoy this very much and it is a true gesture of friendship and respect. We gave a small gift to each of our service folks, in addition to a moderate cash tip a few days after setting sail. They appreciated the thoughfulness of the gifts (bags of chocolates in our case) and the cash (along with the standard tips that were deducted from our account) though I don't know which they liked better.
We got to know our servers and room stewards well by asking them personal but non-intrusive questions about their homes and their lives at sea. We didn't ask for any special consideration or services, but if nothing else we learned a great deal about other cultures and people. If we had special needs, I'm sure they would not have hesitated to help.
Order a 'special occassion' cake, even if you don't have a special occassion to celebrate (do this at least a week before you sail). A large cake is inexpensive and will easily feed 12 people. They deliver it to your table on the night you specify, is really delicious (better than some of the desserts that are served) and your tablemates will love it.
They advise you not to use your sail and sign card to lock/unlock your safe, but I don't see why not. Otherwise you have to carry a credit card around with you onboard and it, just like cash, is practically useless on the ship. I carried my S&S card, my DL and some cash in a lanyard around my neck with me wherever I went. The rest (my wallet with CCs and cash, G/Fs jewelry) stayed in the safe.
We had this brilliant idea to bring our very own HUGE beach towels with us on shore excursions. Good idea, except that when they get wet they weigh a ton! LOL. Best advice... bring your own, but use the thin, smallish and cheap kind. The ones you can get a WalMart for $8. You won't feel as bad if they get lost/stolen (as opposed to the $22 Carnival pool towels you are issued), and they won't weigh you down much.
If you drink much at all, purchase the 'drink of the day' in the tall plastic souvenier cup the first day, then have them refill it with the drink of the day (or your other personal favorite) at the non-souvenier cup price. All the drinks we tried were great, which goes to prove if you put enough sugar in it anything is potable. Be advised that bar service can take 10 minutes or more on the Lido deck, so plan your drinks well in advance of being thirsty.
Last but not least... the Conquest is a beautiful ship and a smooth ride... enjoy!
