Quick Triumph Review/Feedback. Cruised with a 20 month old baby.

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We just got back from a 5 day cruise on the Triumph out of Galveston.

Last time we were on the Triumph was back in July, just a few weeks after dry dock. That time we left the baby at home. This time we took him with us. He will be 21 months old next week.

 

Cruising with the baby is different but still fun.

Out of all the cruise lines that we have been on, Carnival is probably the worst if you have kids younger than 2.

 

They hardly offer anything for babies.

About the only thing they provided was a crib.

Their under 2 daycare is useless. You can only go there from 8 AM - 10 AM on sea days but you must stay with your child. On port days you can drop off your baby from 8 AM - 12 PM for a fee but again, unless you just plan to get off the ship, walk around, and come back that option is pretty useless. Their last offering is from 10PM to ?? AM. Again, useless since most kids are already in bed by then.

 

Other than this, there was a small playground with little cars and slides on deck 12 and our baby enjoyed that.

 

We don't really like the buffet and we were able to go to the main dining room every night. We had anytime dining which is a must if you have a baby. We also brought a portable DVD player and some snacks like goldfish and squeeze pouches with us. That was a life saver. It kept the baby occupied throughout the whole dinner. The baby liked the mashed potatoes and we told the servers that he may not last long so they rushed our orders every night.

 

Overall, everything was fine.

We are not big complainers. If I had to point some things out that we did not like it would have to be:

 

1. Crib - it was not in the room right away as promised. In fact, we did not get it until about 8 PM so we had a hard time putting the baby down for a nap when we first got on board at 1:30. For some reason he does not want to go to sleep on our bed. We asked the steward several times but he said that the crib was located in a locker that he did not have access to due to some maintenance.

 

2. Our AC vent was blowing cold air like crazy and there was something wrong with the regulator because even when you moved it to the off / lowest position it was still blowing very hard. We went to customer service and they called maintenance and told us that someone would be there in 15-20 min. Overall, we waited for over an hour and nobody showed up. We called customer service again and also our room steward called maintenance twice to check where they were. Eventually we just told him to cancel the call and have them look at it next day when we are at port.

 

The AC issue would not be a big deal for us but the crib was right under the vent and it was freezing.

 

The next day someone did come and fix it while we were out. After the fix we could completely shut the air off. We know that someone worked on the vent because the tech left his flashlight in there and it was still turned on. We told the steward but nobody came back to fetch it out so the flashlight is still probably in the vent :)

 

3. It is difficult to find a high chair or a booster seat in the buffet area. They don't have them readily available so you have to ask for it if you can't find one that someone already used and left behind. Problem is that some workers don't even know where they are. A few times we asked, the workers found them quickly other times they ran around for nearly 5 minutes each time looking for one...

 

So pretty much all of our complaints are because of the baby :D

Other than that, everything was great except for buffet breakfast on the day when the ship was in Cozumel. The buffet was packed! People were literally fighting over things because several lines ran out of various items and plates. Some guests were even snapping at the poor workers and being very rude. This is my 9th cruise and 2nd on this ship and I have never seen anything like that before.