Carnival Triumph (long) review Aug 7-14

Let me begin by giving you a little background. I am 42 years old and this was my 11th cruise (6th with Carnival). I traveled with DW (40) and some friends who were on a family reunion cruise. Since this is my review, most of the observations will be from my perspective, so you will find me bouncing between we and I in the details that follow. We had early seating (5:45) in the Paris dining room at a table for 4. I am one of the few who choose to fly in on the day the cruise sails. Out of 11 cruises, I have only gone in early twice (New Orleans & Hawaii) for pre cruise tours and activities.

My cruise began on Friday August 6 at 6:30 AM. I woke to begin the final cruise preparations. After running around most of the day, I returned home at 6:30 PM. I had a contactor over to discuss home improvements, and he didn’t leave until 9 PM. Now, it’s time to finish packing. That was done by midnight. I had a few business items to complete, and then I jumped in the shower at 2 AM. DW and I shared a ride to the airport with friends who had a 6:05 AM flight. We arrived at Washington-National airport at 4 AM. We checked in for our 8:30 AM flight at 5:30. Because of our promptness, we were rewarded with exit row seats. I did arrange my own air, and I chose DCA over BWI for non-stop flights to FLL.

We arrived at FLL ground transportation at about 11:30 AM and were on our way (via private sedan) by 11:40 AM. We arrived at the Port of Miami around 12:15 (it started to rain too). A porter quickly got us out of the rain and put our luggage in a bin that was about to be moved to the ship. The check-in line was long but we moved through it, and were on the ship in less than one hour.

I chose a cat. 9A cabin (8433) with the wrap-around balcony. The room has an odd shape, but is slightly larger than a cat. 8A. The balcony is huge, but narrow, so a lounger would only fit along the side. The balcony is nice because you have the back of the ship, or could move to the side for the breeze. I will be posting pictures on webshots, so check later in the week (balcony pictures are posted now http://community.webshots.com/scripts/editPhotos.fcgi?action=viewall&albumID=175085627). If you are prone to motion/sea sickness, avoid the aft cabins. Because we were trying to out-run hurricane Charley, the captain was moving the ship in excess of 21 knots. There was a nice shimmy as the ship moved at that speed (it rocked me to sleep).

This was the western route with stops in Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Ocho Rios. Hurricane Charley quickly altered our itinerary: on Tuesday (sea day) at noon, we were informed that we would skip Jamaica on Thursday and call in Nassau on Friday. I’m happy that we still had 3 ports (I heard one of the Princess ships missed Princess Cays because of rough seas).

Overall the cruise was great but there are some things I didn’t like. The cruise director must like to hear himself talk because it to him 5 minutes to make a 30 second announcement. The other thing was smoking, smoking everywhere. I could not enjoy the bars, or lounges because they were filled with smoke. I was able to escape smoke in the Rome lounge (for shows) and the dining venues. Of course people smoked on the non-smoking side of the ship, but that didn’t happen that much.

The shows

The welcome aboard show brought back memories as I had the opportunity to be the entertainment in the spoon game on Inspiration several years ago. The spoon game is only as funny as the guest participants, and they weren’t that funny. One female guest did not enjoy being on stage and I felt bad for her. I went to the first production and it was OK. The lead female singer had pitch problems every time I hear her sing (as a musician I know this happens to all of us).

The first comedian was not real funny either. The second one, Marvin Bell, was hilarious!! The magic show featuring Kevin & Caruso was good on the first night. They also had an adult magic review, which was not as good as the regular show. Finally, the guest talent show was interesting. There were a couple of good singers; the others should have stayed in the audience.

The Food

The food was good. I did not see any more variety on Carnival than I’ve seen on Royal Caribbean, so for comparative purposes, they are pretty much the same. The service was good. Our headwaiter was Shaun, and his assistant was Ramona. I asked for lemonade after dinner on the first night, and we had it the rest of the cruise w/o having to ask. The formal nights were Sunday and Thursday. I only had dinner in the dining room, preferring to have breakfast & lunch at the buffet. The buffet food was good. My only complaint about the food was the SAD gala buffet. This was the least festive gala buffet I have ever seen.

The Ports

Since I have done the western Caribbean 3 previous times, my goal was to relax and enjoy the beaches. In Cozumel, we went to Paradise beach and spent the day there. It was not crowded, the water was nice and the food wasn’t bad either. Before I could get to the beach, I ended up spending $300 on some nice alligator boots (so much for not spending any money).

In Grand Cayman, we just walked around the town and made sure to get Tortuga Rum & Rum cakes. I also purchased another hat from the Hard Rock Café.

In Nassau we took a taxi to Atlantis before going to the public beach. The beach was nice, and the water was surprisingly warm. The only bad part about the beach in Nassau versus Cozumel, is the chairs and umbrellas in Nassau were not free. 2 lounge chairs and a small umbrella set me back $35 for the day.

Debarkation

What a mess!! I did not choose self-debarkation as I expected to be off the ship by 9:30 AM. Our return flight was scheduled to leave FLL at 11:55 AM. The ship cleared customs at 9:35 AM, and they released everyone who had a flight before 11 AM at that time. It took 30 minutes to find our luggage as one piece was with the verandah deck luggage and the rest was in the VIP luggage section. As I write this review, I still don’t have all my luggage as one piece did not make it on the plane.

We left the port of Miami at 10:15 AM and arrived at FLL by 10:50. The bags were checked outside and we proceeded to the security lines. We cleared security and were at our gate by 11:20.

In conclusion

This was a very enjoyable cruise. For those who worry about cruising in the summer, I did not see a lot of unruly children. I ran into two boys approximately 10 years old playing the push all the buttons in the elevator game. Boy were they surprised when I followed them around the corner (where they where hiding) and chastised them for playing such a childish game!!

The all-important questions are:

• Will I cruise in the summer again? Absolutely!
  
• Will I cruise Carnival again? The answer is yes, but Carnival will not be my first choice. I will still look to Royal Caribbean first, and then I’d like to give Princess a try too. I went to see the future cruise counselor and can confirm that you do get $100 on-board credit for booking while on a cruise. The bad part is Carnival wants a $500 deposit on the spot, while I had at least 7 days to make my deposit when I booked with RCI. I also inquired about other Carnival products (Princess) only to find out you can only book Carnival.
  
• Remember; take this review with a grain of salt. Your cruise is what YOU make of it. What you have read are my personal views and opinions, which will help you when you cruise.
  

Was Carlo the cd and did he say how long he was staying?

Also do you remember name of casino host/? ty

atonal1--I cruised the Triumph the week of 7/24-31 and am getting ready to post my review also. I agree with you on some of your observations, especially about the CD, Carlo. Did you get to the Big Easy Piano Bar anytime during your cruise? That was the most fun we had while we were there. Sorry you missed Jamaica, but thankfully the captain made a wise choice to re-route. Were the seas very rough?

Carlos is the cd. Don't know how long he's staying though.

I did make it to the Big Easy, but couldn't stay long due to all the smoke.

We never had rough seas. We stayed ahead of Charlie, as the captain back-tracked towards Mexico and beat Charlie to FLA. The reason I noticed the ship shimmy was we were traveling in excess of 21 knots (almost full speed) and my cabin was on the very back of the ship. You could not feel the movement in the front of the ship.

Try this link to Triumph pictures. There are only 5 pictures now, but will post more as the weel progresses.

atonal1, enjoyed your review but can't pull up your pix of your 9A balcony. Hoping to switch my 8A to a 9A within the next couple of weeks.

I have a group of 60+ from the DC metro area, New York, Boston and LA sailing on the Destiny next August, with a $100 per cabin credit. Email me if you're interested.

Hawaii 697,

Thanks for the invite but I don't think I want to cruise in August again. If I do another summer cruise, it will be in late June or early July.

I posted a new link to the pictures in the message above.

I know this has been asked on the boards before, but we are sailing the Triumph on December 11th and flying into Ft. Lauderdale. There are six of us. How expensive is ground transportation to the Miami hotel/port area? Thanks.

Great review and pictures Tony.:)

Hey Tony,

Great review!!!!! ;)

Thanks for the pix Tony. Definitely helps with my decision.

I "followed" you over here. Really great review. Your occupation came out loud and clear when you "chatised" the boys for their prank! I know, you just couldn't help yourself!

Let's get together again and talk about the cruise maybe your wife and the rest of the Maryland crew can join us!

EB