Carnival Conquest
8 Day Eastern Caribbean Cruise
May 31, 2015
Ship happens!
To celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary, we had booked a Scenic Grand Ocean View stateroom on the Carnival Valor out of San Juan, Puerto Rico to the Southern Caribbean. We were very excited for this stateroom, plus it would be all new ports for us! In August 2014 we received notification from Carnival that they were switching out the Carnival Valor with the Carnival Liberty. Unfortunately, the Carnival Liberty did not have the Scenic Grand Ocean View rooms, so we contacted our Carnival PVP and she found us a new cruise with that stateroom. So instead of the Southern Caribbean on the Carnival Valor, we’ll be exploring the Eastern Caribbean back on the Carnival Conquest out of our homeport of Port Everglades!
Itinerary
Sunday - May 31 - Fort Lauderdale, FL
Monday - April 1 - Sea Day
Tuesday - April 2 - Sea Day
Wednesday - April 3 - St. Maarten
Thursday - April 4 - St. Kitts
Friday - April 5 - San Juan, Puerto Rico
Saturday - April 6 - Grand Turk
Sunday - April 7 - Sea Day
Monday - April 8 - Fort Lauderdale, FL
These were all new ports for us, so we were very excited to start making plans!
Scenic Grand Ocean View Stateroom
The reason we’re on this cruise! The Scenic Grand Ocean View staterooms are 320 square feet with floor to ceiling windows. These staterooms are currently available on the following Carnival cruise ships: Carnival Conquest, Carnival Freedom, Carnival Glory, Carnival Valor, Carnival Radiance, Carnival Splendor, Carnival Sunrise, Carnival Sunshine, and Carnival Valor. They fill up far in advance since there are only two on each of those ships.
Do keep in mind if you decide to stay in one of these staterooms that you can’t have your lights on at night with the window shades up due to the proximity of the bridge. That wasn’t a problem for us, since the window shades come down at the push of a button. If we wanted to see the stars while we were cruising at night, we just turned the lights off before bringing the window shades up.
First 2 Sea Days
On our first sea day, we went up to The Point Steakhouse for a cooking demonstration. They gave us a copy of the recipes so we could recreate the dishes at home after our cruise. After that, we went to Camp Carnival (the kids club on Carnival Cruise Line) to make a bear at the Beary Cuddly Workshop (I worked at a Build-A-Bear Workshop in high school and college, so this brought back memories). We may not have children, but we can still be kids-at-heart! That evening was our first elegant night, so after getting dressed up, we went to Alchemy Bar for some craft cocktails before dinner.
Our second sea day was spent relaxing and soaking up the rays on the Lido Deck. When it got too hot, we came in and freshened up before going to Tea Time, which is something we try to attend at least once every cruise.
St. Maarten
In St. Maarten we took a taxi to Marigot, the capital city of the French side of the island, St. Martin. We spent some time at Sarafina's French Bakery and the market. Then we took a taxi over to Maho Beach and had some drinks at Sunset Bar & Grill while we watched the airplanes come in. When we were done with that, we headed back to Philipsburg for some port shopping before getting back on the Carnival Conquest.
St. Kitts
In St. Kitts we didn’t have anything pre-scheduled. We got off the ship and booked one of the tour guides waiting in the port area. He drove us around and gave us a tour of Basseterre, the capital city. We stopped at The National Museum and spent some time learning the history of this island nation before heading back to the ship.
San Juan
In San Juan we took the ferry across the bay to do the Casa Bacardi Distillery Tour. We had pre-booked our tickets through Bacardi.com. Then we ferried back and spent some time exploring Old San Juan. We stopped by the Catedral de San Juan Bautista which is the oldest church on U.S. soil. We also spent some time at Barrachina enjoying a Pina Colada, they're the birthplace of the Pina Colada after all. Then it was time to get back on the Carnival Conquest and sail on to Grand Turk.
Grand Turk
We decided ahead of time that Grand Turk was just going to be a beach day for us. We spent some time at Jack’s Shack, then when we were all sunned out, we headed to the port area to look around. We got back on the ship early and soon we were heading back home.
Last Sea Day
Since we had already been on the Carnival Conquest (just a year prior) we wanted to do something new this cruise. We decided to book the Behind the Fun Tour. On embarkation day, right after boarding the ship, we went to the Shore Excursion desk and purchased the tour for each of us. It’s a very limited tour that is usually on the last sea day of a cruise for only 16 guests.
On the day of the tour you must wear closed toed shoes. You will get to visit the ship's bridge, engine control room, main galley, staff dining areas, storeroom, laundry and other spaces for a rare insider's view of many areas typically seen only by the ship's crew.
We paid $95 each for the Behind the Fun Tour and thought it was extremely worth it. Jay especially enjoyed it, his favorite part was the engine control room. We would absolutely do it again in the future on a different class ship.
As we said goodbye to the wonderful crew of the Carnival Conquest and headed back home, it was time to start dreaming about our next cruise. Until then, happy cruising!
