Wanted to thank the cruise line and staff for a great vacation. I will definitely cruise with Carnival again. The ship was clean and the room was ready when we got on board. The cabin was enough space for my wife and I and was equipped with everything that we needed. The lunch options and the dinner options were both very good. For the entertainment we took advantage of a lot of the entertainment options on the ship. The service was very good. Before me got on the check in when very smoothly. That bags were in the room and it seemed like there were plenty of staff to assist with everything. The itinerary was good. We've been to the Bahamas a few times, but I think this time of year was the best time to go with the best weather. Docking in the ports and shore excursions were all on time and we had a good time. Read Less

First off to give some perspective, we have sailed maybe 25 times. We're obviously not first timers but we also have some relative experience with different lines. We have sailed Celebrity, Princess, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and Carnival lines. We have stayed in Suites, Balconies, Oceanviews and Inside Cabins. We chose the Carnival Conquest primarily for the ports but also the holidays and past experience with Carnival. Although there were definite bright spots along the way, we ended our 6 night cruise with a definite decision not to come back to Carnival for the foreseeable future if ever. We were a family of five and booked two suites on the Empress deck; my husband, son 22, daughter 16 and our stepdaughter 36. Embarkation at Port Everglades was fine. We had taken a red eye flight from PDX to FLL and arrived around 8am. A cruise staff person at the port was extremely helpful and assisted us in getting a porter to take our luggage early so that we could walk out and find some breakfast nearby. Great customer service. Suites allow for priority boarding and we were on the ship by around 11:30. Champagne offered poolside on the Lido deck was a nice touch and something we hadn't experienced before that was complimentary. Had a bite to eat - pretty standard fare and very predictable if you've sailed Carnival before. Rooms were available by 1ish and we unpacked and explored the ship. Dining: Even though we booked 6 months before and had suite status we were unable to reserve a dining time which put us in the Your Time Dining category. Not initially a bad thing because there is some flexibility for eating when you are ready and not assigned a certain time. Your Time Dining was only available on the lower level of one of the two main dining rooms. Something we didn't know ahead of time. Also not a deal breaker but would have been nice to have some alternatives. First dinner was fine. Livia our waitress was very good. No complaints - just getting settled in. The next night was New Year's Eve and it was a total disaster. Wait times were over an hour and when we finally got a table we were stuck in a booth with a chair on the end of it. Still not a dealbreaker but we literally had NO staff ever. Everything we got was because we had to literally flag a person down and ask for it. Very much an afterthought. Finally after waiting the hour to be seated plus another 45 minutes to have anyone come to our table I went to the hostess station to let them know. Shortly after that someone came and took our order but there was nothing nice about it. Disappointing for what we hoped would be a really nice elegant New Year's Eve dinner with our family. Food was so marginal. Because of the time dinner took, we missed the evening show. And our experience was consistent with many other diners who left before the meal was completed. After that experience we stumbled upon I Wayan in the Renoir Dining Room and never went anywhere else. We opted to wait for his section than to take an earlier seat. Very professional and reminded us of what cruises and dining used to be like. He was excellent for the four remaining nights we were seated in his section. Food in the formal dining room was fine; some things better than others but you won't get a lot of perks that you may still get on other lines; pulling your seat out, putting your napkin on your lap, offering coffee at the end of the meal. They used to have more fanfare with Baked Alaska, Cherries Jubilee table side etc. That didn't exist on this cruise or maybe just with Carnival. Casual Dining: The first day we tried the Lido deck for breakfast. Long wait lines for what was institutional type food with no variations throughout the cruise. We had breakfast every remaining day at the Blue Iguana Cantina poolside. It was amazing and the staff were excellent. Made to order burritos, tacos, huevos rancheros - definitely a plus. Deli was fine, pizza was good and Guys Burgers were good but greasy. We ate dinner every night in the formal dining room so no input on the Lido dinner fare. Desserts were adequate. Pastries in the morning were horribly dry, tired and not worth putting on your plate. Soft serve ice cream stations were nice if they had cones and were operating properly - hit and miss. Staterooms: Our suites were very nice. Bedding was wonderful, very comfortable. A lot of storage and very generous bathroom size. Anita our steward was wonderful. You can opt for once or twice a day service. We opted for just one in the morning to get fresh towels and bedding done. Anita was very attentive, learned our names the first day and always had a smile and a kind word. No complaints with the cabin or service. Ship: This is a nice sized ship. Not a mega ship but big enough to feel like you had some options. Activities were lacking which didn't really bother us. We're not big poolside contest people but again, just not impressed with the offerings or even the delivery. Carnival has gotten away from a lot of the paper information they used to provide. But they will still paper you to death with 'offerings' and attempts to get you to buy something I miss the newsletter that we used to get talking about the next day activities, port information, dress for dinner, weather, etc. They still gave you a small brochure but just not the same. They expect you to utilize their Hub app instead which brings me to another negative - wi fi. Cleanliness of ship was lacking. The windows were filthy. They washed them on the last day. Paying for a suite and not being able to see out of your balcony is a definite negative. Wi-Fi: Short and simple, don't purchase it. Not worth it and is really just a money maker for Carnival and a source of frustration for the consumer. My family all purchased wi-fi; our oldest daughter purchased the premium for work reasons, our 22 year old the middle option and our 16 year old the basic. None of them worked adequately. Save yourself the frustration and cost and don't bother. Ports: We booked in large part because of a couple of ports that we hadn't visited before but also for some diving options that my oldest daughter and husband wanted to repeat. Bahamas was fun - walked to Junkanoo Beach and spent the day there. Half Moon Cay was fine. It's the cruise line's private island. Drink prices are high and they served the drinks the first time in $16 carnival funship glasses that we didn't ask for and didn't want. Turks and Caicos is beautiful. Lots of shopping and drinking if you like that. Amber Cove was fine - again not really authentic but just an artificial cruise port. A taxi to Puerta Plata was $70 roundtrip. The pool area was very nice. Diving: My husband and stepdaughter dove twice on the trip. Staff was great but organization was very poor. Debarkation: Smoothest debarkation so far. Our flight was leaving late so although we had priority debarking we opted to stay up on the Lido and get off near the end. No lines, no issues. Read Less

We went on this cruise for our 25th wedding anniversary and thought it would be great for new years eve also. Overall it was a good cruise it's an older ship but kept up nice for the most part. Some bad sewer smells in some halls but not in our room. Now for the bad the crew was the worst i have ever seen in fact it was the first time i did not tip anyone over our prepaid gratuity. no one went out of their way to be friendly or do any more then they had to. The fun crew was good Nono is a good cruise director. The inteertament was very average at best not much to do between dinner and 11 o'clock. The food was good but the portion size has gotten very small. The 2ed night in the MDR the chocolate melting cake was so under cooked you had to drink it our waiter said that's the way it's supposed to be. The first night we did the steak house the food was great but our waiter spoke such bad English we had no idea what we're where eaten. Read Less

In a word....FANTASTIC! I would like to thank the Captain and the Crew for taking us safely from home port to home port....Thank You A special thanks to the Cruise Director, NONO, she was amazing.....Thank You The staff was amazing, from the Chefs to the wait staff to the clean up crews, all were very accommodating and courteous at ALL TIMES. The food was good and plentiful. Was it excellent, no, but you could always find something to your liking. Except the Sea Food Shack...don't waste your money, food is terrible. So just relax and have a good time. Thank You Carnival for a wonderful and memorable NEW YEAR. Constructive criticism. Easier boarding for Handicapped/ disabled passengers. Easier de-boarding for handicapped/disabled passengers. Better Signage on board the ship and at the Florida Port for handicapped/ disabled passengers. Better luggage handling for the handicapped/ disabled. More compliance with the ADA. NO SMOKING in the Casino. Read Less

Our last cruise was back in 2012; a lot of Carnival procedures and policies have changed since then (FTTF, Sail & Sign Cards at room, Sea Day Brunch), so we weren't really sure what to expect this cruise. We chose this particular cruise because we were able to celebrate Christmas at home with the family, but allowed us to do a cruise while the kids were still out on break. This cruise, I was traveling with my DH, DD (16), and my DS (14). We live about 3 1/2 hours away from New Orleans, so we decided to drive to port the morning of the cruise. Since the Saints had a 12 pm game, we got on the road around 3:40 am, hoping to get into the port area before the tailgaters arrived. We were engulfed in fog thick as pea soup as we drove. We arrived in the Crescent City by 8 am. After driving around a couple of side streets, we found some parking and ate breakfast at Mother's. There were some Saints fans out and walking about, festooned in fan garb. We exchanged some compulsary "Who Dat"s. Then, headed to the parking garage at the terminal. The cost is $140, but was worth the price for us. The garage opened around 9:30. We learned from one of the Carnival staff to wait until 10:30 am to go downstairs and get in line. Around 10:45 am, they started calling Priority boarding, wedding parties, and FTTF. Our boarding pass listed a boarding time of 12 pm - 12:30 pm, but we were on the ship before 11:30 am. The hubs and I had 1:30 pm Couples Massages scheduled. There is no better way to kick off a vacation than spending 75 minutes de-stressing. Our cabin was located on the Spa Deck (12202), and we took advantage of the multiple times throughout the cruise. We'd head to the Thalassotherapy Pool after a long day of walking around in port or on the ship. We took advantage of the Thermal Suites. Between my DH and I, we had 5 massages, a pedicure, and a facial. We love the Spa!! Our embarkation massage completed just in time to run to the room to grab our S&S cards, see our luggage had arrived, grab the kids (who were eating and scouting the ship while we were in the spa) and then head to our Muster Station. They scan our cards now (also a new procedure since our last cruise), so they know if you aren't there (and call you out). Our cabin was clean and was easily able to accomodate 4 people. The beds were a little hard for our liking. We really enjoyed sitting out on the balcony each day. The balcony was not covered, so during sail aways, we got to enjoy conversations with people up on deck 14. Deck 12 is nice and quiet. There were no loud neighbors. The foot traffic was minimal. The seas were rocking our entire cruise, and we could really feel it from our room. We were prepared with chewable Bonnie, so seasickness was kept at bey. We had an early dining time in the Scarlett Dining Room. My biggest complaint on the ship is that our room was located on the most forward part of the ship and we had to travel to the furthest point in the back of the ship to access the dining room. The dining room's location wasn't easy for us to access, and I felt like I was in the Maze Runner each time we went to the dining room -- down 8 flights in the elevator closest to our room. Walk all the way to the back of the ships and then go down the last set of stairs you can find. Everyday for 7 days. I'd pass the windows for the Crimson Dining room and give my pouty face. Why couldn't we have eaten here? We had no issues with our wait staff. Our table was tucked in the back, far away from the entertainment. I felt like all the waiters who didn't know the routine were stuck in front of us. Of the 5 near us, not a single one had the same dance moves. Entertainment on the ship was consistent. Our Cruise Director, Ryan Rose, was full of energy and really tried to engage the guests. He was very personable, friendly, and funny. The performers were good at dancing, but all but one was really pitchy. Despite this, we watched all of the performances. America Rocks was our favorite. The least favorite was the Motown revue. The singers lacked the soulfulness needed to execute these songs. The deck parties were fun. As always, the Hairy Chest Competition was entertaining. We never made it to a Dive-In Movie, since the times for the movies we were interested in conflicted with our dining time. For this reason, we also missed out on the family friendly Punchliner shows. The family oriented ones conflicted with the main shows based on our dinner time. I might be willing to try YTD for this reason alone (we've always had Early Dining). All of our wait staff and cabin stewards were friendly and worked hard to ensure my family had a great vacation. Our favorite place was the Alchemy Bar. Maria, Manol, and Suri made the best drinks on the ship. I really liked the Cucumber Sunrise. The least friendly staff were the ladies working in the specialty coffee shop. My husband and I both had the Cheers package. He is an early riser, but I am not. His biggest complaint about the specialty coffee bar was he could not get a coffee for both of us at the same. He had to wait 5 minutes. This made no sense to him. Our ports of call were to Roatan, Honduras; Belize; and Cozumel. In Roatan, we used a highly recommended private tour operator, Victor Bodden, and created a customizable tour for our family. We visited his sloth and monkey farm (all of us REALLY loved this). My daughter zip lined at the adjacent Mayan Jungle Canopy. Her smiles on the zip line are priceless. There was a guide on the line in front of her, taking pictures along the way. They were available for purchase for a very reasonable price and were waiting in my inbox when we arrived home. After this, we headed to the chocolate factory (it was nothing special); the rum factory, where you could taste samples of the rum and rum cake -- the banana cake was quite tasty; and a stop to the Stone Cameo Factory. OMG! I loved this place. The work was amazing and the prices are reasonable. In Belize, we did Carnival's Lamani excursion. This involved an hour bus ride in an air-conditioned charter bus and a 1/2 hour speed boat ride to the ruins site. The guides were entertaining and the trip went by quickly. We stopped for lunch on the way back and were returned to port 30 minutes prior to the last ferry departure. We had been to Cozumel several times previously, so we had no plans in this port. We walked off the ship, stopped at Pancho's for lunch (good food!), did a little shopping, and then enjoyed the rest of the day on the ship. The kids never went to the planned activities for their ages, so I cannot review either of the teen clubs. My kids did spend copious amounts of time in the arcade, playing putt-putt, eating ice cream, and ordering pizza.What else does a teenager need? Would we do this cruise again? Absolutely. Read Less

We had a great week on the carnival Dream. There was always something for everyone to do. The boat was very clean and staff were always smiling. Our server at dinner, Walter, was outstanding. Always had a great attitude and was the hardest worker I saw all week. He went out of his way to make our dinners great. We will miss his smiling face. There’s plenty for children to do as well as adults. My only complaint would have to be the quality of dinner some nights. I felt the meals were very hit or miss. Most fish was overcooked and a lot of the food was very bland. I’ve only cruised twice previously and it was on royal Caribbean and I have to say that their food in the dining room is better. I will say you can’t beat carnival’s chocolate melting cake though. Also, I can not recommend Guy’s Burger Bar enough. Absolutely delicious. The quick pizza was pretty good as well. Overall I recommend this cruise to any family. It was a great experience. Read Less

Overcrowded ship, not enough employees, long waits for food at dinner (6:00 seating), food quality in dining room noticeably lower than all my past cruises. Our cruise director made too many loud and annoying announcements. He interrupted the poolside movie twice and it took over 20 minutes for anyone to turn it back on (and it did not start in the right place). No one seemed to notice it had turned off until guests went and told someone. Room dusty and no robes in cabin anymore. Room service (sandwiches, etc.) no longer free. Evening stage shows noticeably worse than in years past. No lobster on elegant night (unless we paid $20 per person). Lobster has been a part of all the other cruise elegant nights we have attended. I couldn't believe how far downhill Carnival had gone since my last cruise 2 years ago. This was our 6th cruise together (16 people), and it was unanimously and by far the worst with many disappointments each and every day. There were never enough lounge chairs (fights and yelling broke out on board on the pool deck on the day that we couldn't stop at Amber Cove and had an unexpected "fun" day at sea). Once the announcement that we wouldn't visit Amber Cove was made, people were running and grabbing chairs out of the chair stacks, fighting over them ,and even bringing the chairs off their balconies just to have a place to sit. In the stateroom, the sofa "bed" for the third person was an absolute joke. A mattress, longer than the small sofa, was placed on top of the loveseat size sofa, and the overhang of the mattress was supported by a pillow on the floor. The bed was not suitable for an adult and we were not warned that it would be this short. Carnival, please provide better service and stop cutting amenities. Your longtime customers notice every cut. If you continue to cut corners and cut costs by serving low quality food and reducing amenities, I believe you will see a downturn in the type of clientele you attract. Read Less

Let me start by saying we had an awesome time On the cruise. Our ports and the weather were amazing. We chose this cruise because the dates were what we needed and the leaving port. This was our second cruise, we first sailed on Royal Caribbean. FOOD Cons: food was a joke in the dining room. Example: chicken and side of broccoli. You literally get two small PIECES of broccoli. It was almost funny. Shrimp cocktail, you get 3 small shrimps. The lido deck was edible but would not say good. Comparing to Royals, Royal was 10times better. No one is helpful like they were in Royal Caribbean in the dining room filling your drinks, etc. which doesn’t really bother me, just a nice touch I noticed was missing. They do not encourage any hand washing as they do at Royal which I appreciated Royal doing to avoid sickness. FOOD pro: Guys burger joint was excellent as well as the burritos and pizza. Thank goodness for those!! All food areas were kept clean. ACTIVITIES: The sky ride, ropes course and slides were hardly ever open and when it was the line was so long you didn’t get to ride before it closed again. Without these there is not mich to do for older (12-15) kids. The outside deck with pool tables and shuffle board was a mess, shuffle board didn’t have all the pieces, most of mini golf was torn up and holes didn’t work. You can do the movies but they all cost extra. SHIP: the ship was crowded. There was always a fight for chairs and lines. Only two small hot tubs, On the last day, if you wanted to sit by the pool you had to listen to football on the big screen the entire day. Great if like football but not what I wanted to hear all day especially when they could have put them on in one of the bars. Just wanted to relax and hear some music on the last day. One of my biggest problem with the ship was with the waiters trying to serve my child alcohol. Multiple times. My son clearly looks like a child and I watched as he asked for a virgin drink and they went to pour alcohol and he said no no! The lady was like, “you can have it!” I stepped up and told her a very stern no. This was at the bar deck on 3. They walked around with champagne and kept trying to give him one also with me standing right there?! Not cool. This is really the deal breaker for me as far and positive reviews. I can deal with most of the others small issues but this one made me feel untrusting. Our ports were awesome and we enjoyed all three of them. The ports and the weather made the trip very enjoyable. There are more rants I could go on about but overall, it just does not give the same feel as our Royal Trip and we paid a lot more for this one. If I had to choose I probably would not pick Carnival again unless it was a good deal and for sure not the Vista. Read Less

We chose this ship as it was another NYE trip. We had the most fun on one last year. This was my 5th cruise with Carnival. I will go to other ones as I love the experience. We had the best room service, steward, and dining service on this boat. Unfortunately, we had two really bad experiences with shore excursions. They were a nightmare. If it had been our first excursions, we may have opted to never go on any again. There seemed to be a lack of communication on this ship. Our excursion at the Cayman Islands left without us even though we followed the exact debaracation rules by their excursion person. They had to refund or switch half of that excursion and by the time we asked to switch there were no beach excursions left. We were told to go to Guest Services to have it refunded. That was from the lady who was taking our tickets after we missed our excursion. She had a stack from our group. We went to the Guest Services and then were told we had to go to the Excusion Desk that would be 3 hours later. The man at the Excursion Desk knew that many people missed the excusion, but continued to act as if it was our fault. He kept asking us questions such as the exact time we got off the ship and then told us it was easy to get to the beach in other ways besides using Carnival. We walked as soon as they called our excusion and did not stop. Those that were able to make it we think left before it was called. The excursion person we talked to was condescending and didn’t seem to care we missed our beach excursion. Our Cozumel excursion ended in riding a ferry in which they were blowing carbon monoxide on us as we waited to reboard the ship. People not only were throwing up but a lady passed completely out from the carbon monoxide. She was okay almost immediately after she fainted as she was out of the carbon monoxide area. She seemed to be ok, but that could have been very bad. She could have fainted on her head. Getting off the ship was an issue as well. My roommate had a flight to catch so we asked for early departure. We have issues with carrying luggage so we have to leave them outside the night before. We understood that would stall us a little. We were given tags and told to wait in a lounge until someone came in to dismiss us. No one came in to dismiss us and we couldn’t hear the announcements being made. We were number 3. By the time we started walking to debark, they had called 1-7. We actually never heard them call 1-4. She could have missed her flight during the confusion. As soon as we started moving, Galveston was great to debark from and it was quick through all lined. This wasn’t our first trip and we will go on others, but we are going to be more careful with the excursions we book. The cabin and dining were excellent. We had the best steward we have ever had on a ship. Overall, we had a good experience minus the two excursion issues and embarking the ship. Read Less

We decided to choose this cruise because of the western itinerary, Grand Cayman, Honduras, Belize and Cozumel. We have never been to Honduras or Belize and figured this would be a good opportunity to see those places . Two of the ports you had to take the water shuttle to the island, that was Grand Cayman and Belize. In Belize it was a 20 minute ride. The water taxi is ok but you spend time waiting to get on and off. The food in the main dining room was terrible. Food was over cooked. We ended up eating at the Emerald Steakhouse. That was an additional cost for us but at least we got a good meal. The pizza station and deli stations were good. I had a facial, massage and keratin hair treatment at the Spa. My husband had a facial, massage and acupuncture. Do not recommend. The fitness center is next to the spa. It was very noisy. Not relaxing at all!!! There were kids running all over the ship. Even while in our room... all you heard was kids running the hallways!! Read Less