A very brief Triumph review

[EnTnSA]

We were on the 5 night cruise which left on 9 November. Overall we had a great time, but would probably not cruise the Triumph again for a few reasons.

 

Food:

The food venues were great. Guy's was a nice treat and had above average (not great) burgers. They were leagues above the old grill burgers, but not out of this world good. The pizza was awesome as always. Buffet was subpar, I rarely ate anything from it aside from salads. The MDR was also subpar. Was never really interested in any of the offerings. We skipped elegant night this time, none of us felt like packing dress clothes. The wait staff was awesome as always. They are one of the big reasons we are so hooked on cruising, and they did not disappoint this time. They always go out of their way to make the trip special for us, especially my son.

 

state rooms and interior:

We went cheap on this cruise and had an interior room on deck 2. The hallways smelled terrible. Like mold and mildew. Wasnt ruining our cruise, but it was pretty bad. We made jokes about it daily. The carpet looked stained, perhaps from the "poop cruise". The bathroom in our stateroom smelled like dirty laundry, or mold, or both, the entire time. When we got there our safe wasnt working, and the phone wasnt working. A trip down to guest services got that resolved, although they programmed our phone wrong, so the buttons would call random places. Our TV would randomly turn off and back on which was kind of annoying when you were watching something interesting at night. Called to fix that, but if they came, the fix didnt work. Our room steward, patrick, was great. For some reason we had 3 people in our room but the room was only configured for 2. We only had 2 beach towels, and the way the king size bed was laid out, we couldnt use the bunk bed if we wanted to. luckily my MIL had the room right next to us, so my son just slept with her each night. May have been an issue if we didnt have that option.

 

Overall I give the cruise a 7 out of 10. We definitely prefer the Magic if cruising out of Galveston.

[postalgrrl]

We were on the Triumph right before you, we got off the ship on the 9th. We also went cheap and were on deck 2 but had an oceanview cabin. We did notice some odd smells throughout the ship but they were not constant.

I agree with you about the Guy's burgers, they are pretty good....not as good as Smashburger.....but good.

I thought the carpet looked new in our cabin. Our biggest complaint and dissappointment was in the little things that were not updated when the ship received the 2.0 upgrades. We noticed several things that we thought should have been updated but were not like the tv, the picture frames in our cabin were all tarnished & the upholstry on the seats across from the casino. Also didn't like that there was not a thermostat in the cabin, just a vent that you could open & close. We thought the cabin got very hot at night and we could not make it colder.

 

None of these things ruined our cruise. I just think that Carnival could have done a little better when the ship was upgraded, they fixed the big things but missed the mark on the little things.

 

I will continue to cruise Carnival (booked the Magic for 1/19/14). But we were not impressed with the Triumph and will probably not book the ship again.

[Rudyard]

Except for the cabin (deck 7, balcony) which was nice, my cruise was pretty much the same. Guy's burgers were really good, but I don't get it when people rave over them like they've never had a good burger before. Just about any decent size town will have somewhere where you can get a comparable burger.

 

I also felt that the buffet was less than it could have been. Most of the offerings were very "blah" to me, and i'm not a picky eater. I felt that the MDR was good, but also skipped elegant night. Ate there three out of five days and also did the sea day brunch on one day.

 

My complaints were the photographers crowding the promenade, taking up more than half the available seating area. I know Carnival won't stop it as photos are a cash cow. I also saw a few things that I thought would have been fixed while in dry dock. Areas that could have benefited from a coat of paint, the big screen still having black and red spots that distract from what is being shown, etc.

 

Overall a great time, but I also wouldn't consider Triumph again at this point, unless it was to accompany someone who wanted to take that particular cruise.

 

I just think that Carnival could have done a little better when the ship was upgraded, they fixed the big things but missed the mark on the little things.

 

Totally agree with the above statement. With the amount of time that Triumph was laid up for repairs, they could have done so much more.

Edited November 19, 2013 by Rudyard

[postalgrrl]

I just remembered this.....I was also disappointed that they did not show Monday night football on the big screen TV.