We began the trip on Thursday, the day before embarkation. The plan was to leave by dinnertime but Marlene had developed an infection in her hand. She went to see her doctor Thursday afternoon and he prescribed two medications. Walgreens took their sweet time filling those prescriptions so we didn’t get on the road until after 9pm and didn’t get to Marlene’s brother’s house in Coral Springs until nearly midnight. We said a quick hello to him then went to bed.
In the morning we had coffee then left, leaving Becky behind. We tried to stop at Marlene’s jeweler friend’s shop to get some repairs done on some earrings, but he wasn’t available. I mentioned to Marlene that I had forgotten to pack a hat for the trip just as we were passing American Thrift so we took a quick right into the parking lot there. An hour later I had two baseball caps and Marlene had two new pairs of shoes, raising the total number of shoes she was bringing on the cruise to 15 (12 heels and 3 sandals). She won’t have to go barefoot unless she chooses to do so.
We drove to her son’s house in Davie, picked him up and drove to the port. There was very little traffic – a rarity in the Miami port – as the Carnival Conquest was the only ship in port on Friday. We unloaded our luggage, I gave her son my keys, got the GPS running on his phone and he left with the car (he will bring it back to us when we return). We got through the check-in and security promptly and were on board before 1pm. We got to our cabin – on Deck 1, a first for us – by 1:30 and were pleasantly surprised by the large size and the window. We had expected an interior cabin and instead got an ocean view.
We unpacked then went up to the buffet for lunch. Though we had been on the ship before it didn’t seem familiar. It must have been redecorated in the interim. It has a French impressionist theme – the two dining rooms are Renoir and Monet and the stairs are decorated with plaster copies of Degas’ The Ballerina, Jett’s favorite sculpture. She would have loved this ship.
We were pleasantly surprised to run into Juan and Laurie, a couple that we had met on the Carnival Luminosa on our first transpacific cruise (TP1) back in 2023. They are a lively, fun couple and their presence on the Conquest will enhance this cruise.
The casino was cruel and we both lost more money than we should have, given that it was the first night of a 14-day cruise. But hopefully things will get better.
We had dinner in the buffet and met Britt and Vern, a couple from Kansas City and had a lengthy and lively conversation with them. We always meet fun people on these cruises.
We played some knock rummy and had a small snack at the late night buffet. Marlene won two games to my one.