Carnival Triumph 1/7/17

[cortneyward]

Hey guys! I'm going to make my first attempt at a review. If anyone can tell me how to post photos, I'll attempt to post those at the end.

 

A little backstory...my hubby gave me this cruise as our late honeymoon in 2015, and we originally booked the Fascination out of Jacksonville. He had never cruised, I have been on 2 previously. We had to cancel and lost the $50/person but our travel insurance reimbursed us for that. I now strongly suggest everyone get insurance. It was worth it for us! We ended up rebooking the Triumph room 9232, our first Lido room and our first interior. I did receive an upsell call the day before to take a deck 10 balcony for $150 total, but we didn't take it. I know it was a good deal but previously I just didn't use the balcony so it just wasnt for us.

 

We left the day before and drove through icy roads for about half of the 6 hour drive. We stayed at the Country Inn and Suites in Metarie. It was a pretty nice hotel with breakfast included at a decent price. We ate dinner at Copelands in Kenner and it was delicious! Next up, day 1...

Edited January 14, 2017 by cortneyward

[riclop]

Nice start.

[Saint Greg]

Hey guys! I'm going to make my first attempt at a review. If anyone can tell me how to post photos, I'll attempt to post those at the end.

 

A little backstory...my hubby gave me this cruise as our late honeymoon in 2015, and we originally booked the Fascination out of Jacksonville. He had never cruised, I have been on 2 previously. We had to cancel and lost the $50/person but our travel insurance reimbursed us for that. I now strongly suggest everyone get insurance. It was worth it for us! We ended up rebooking the Triumph room 9232, our first Lido room and our first interior. I did receive an upsell call the day before to take a deck 10 balcony for $150 total, but we didn't take it. I know it was a good deal but previously I just didn't use the balcony so it just wasnt for us.

 

We left the day before and drove through icy roads for about half of the 6 hour drive. We stayed at the Country Inn and Suites in Metarie. It was a pretty nice hotel with breakfast included at a decent price. We ate dinner at Copelands in Kenner and it was delicious! Next up, day 1...

 

Love that inside Lido. I was 9204 last time...9256 next time.

 

I find the easiest way to post pictures is on your phone with either the tapatalk app or the cruise critic app. From there you just click the little picture icon and select the picture from your album....assuming the pictures are on your phone.

[easyboy]

Will be following along.

[tycro]

I have a lido balcony next month. Following

 

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[Clarea]

Hey guys! I'm going to make my first attempt at a review. If anyone can tell me how to post photos, I'll attempt to post those at the end. ...

If you don't use a phone app to post photos, then another way is to uload the photos to a photo sharing site such as Photobucket, and then put links to those photos in your posts here on CC.

[CruisinMama2003]

Following along.......

[cortneyward]

Day 1/All aboard!

 

We had planned to explore the French Quarter pre cruise but it was still FREEZING so we picked up some pralines and went to Cafe du Monde and just went on to the terminal. We had chosen a 10:30 check in time. We were about 10 minutes early but they let us on through with no problem. Check in was super quick and simple. The staggered check in seems to be working well. We were given boarding zone 4. We waited about 45 minutes and were onboard by 11:45. For those looking at FTTF, they boarded about 15 minutes ahead of us. For us, it really wouldn't have been worth it just to go straight to the room, but I can see where it may be worth it if you have little ones or can't get an early check in. We went straight to Guys and got a burger. It was good, but not great. Maybe this was because it was so cold and they had premade a lot of the burgers to keep up with demand on this day. DH went back during the week, I did not. We explored a bit and our rooms were ready. We were in 9232 and our steward, I Wayan, was great. Let me say I was a bit anxious after reading many reviews of stewards on the Triumph refusing the twice a day service. We don't really require twice a day, but I wouldn't like being told they can't when they are still supposed to. Turns out I worried for nothing! I Wayan brought over the card, introduced himself and showed us the card while he filled it out for us. It definitely still gives the option of both and he did tell us this. We chose evening only and he refilled our ice bucket each night. We saw him several times each day and really liked him. Then, of course, was the safety briefing. It actually went fairly quick, and would've been even quicker had one "gentleman" not loudly complained the entire time (there's always one I guess). We saw him multiple times through the week and he was ALWAYS complaining. I guess it's really what you make it

 

We got our luggage around 5:45, unpacked, and headed to anytime dining. We were sat quickly at a table for 2 with Jonathan (also Anthony and Ed). We ended up requesting them each night. We always went between 6-6:30 and never waited at all. We will definitely do anytime dining from now on. We had Jess from the US as a cruise director and really liked her as well. I've only been on 2 cruises previously but I never saw or remembered our cruise directors. Jess was very visible, we saw her all over the ship, and always smiling and energetic. That was pretty much it for day 1. Next up...day 2 Sea Day

[munchcruiser]

We are leaving next Saturday...looking forward to the rest of your review :)

[cortneyward]

We are leaving next Saturday...looking forward to the rest of your review :)

 

I will do my best to get pics and fun times posted by then!

[ksromack]

I will do my best to get pics and fun times posted by then!

We sail out on the 26th so I'm very excited to read your report. This is hubby's first cruise but my 4th...it's been 35 years for me, though, so it feels like my first 😎

Hey guys! I'm going to make my first attempt at a review. If anyone can tell me how to post photos, I'll attempt to post those at the end.

 

A little backstory...my hubby gave me this cruise as our late honeymoon in 2015, and we originally booked the Fascination out of Jacksonville. He had never cruised, I have been on 2 previously. We had to cancel and lost the $50/person but our travel insurance reimbursed us for that. I now strongly suggest everyone get insurance. It was worth it for us! We ended up rebooking the Triumph room 9232, our first Lido room and our first interior. I did receive an upsell call the day before to take a deck 10 balcony for $150 total, but we didn't take it. I know it was a good deal but previously I just didn't use the balcony so it just wasnt for us.

 

We left the day before and drove through icy roads for about half of the 6 hour drive. We stayed at the Country Inn and Suites in Metarie. It was a pretty nice hotel with breakfast included at a decent price. We ate dinner at Copelands in Kenner and it was delicious! Next up, day 1...

 

Day 1/All aboard!

 

We had planned to explore the French Quarter pre cruise but it was still FREEZING so we picked up some pralines and went to Cafe du Monde and just went on to the terminal. We had chosen a 10:30 check in time. We were about 10 minutes early but they let us on through with no problem. Check in was super quick and simple. The staggered check in seems to be working well. We were given boarding zone 4. We waited about 45 minutes and were onboard by 11:45. For those looking at FTTF, they boarded about 15 minutes ahead of us. For us, it really wouldn't have been worth it just to go straight to the room, but I can see where it may be worth it if you have little ones or can't get an early check in. We went straight to Guys and got a burger. It was good, but not great. Maybe this was because it was so cold and they had premade a lot of the burgers to keep up with demand on this day. DH went back during the week, I did not. We explored a bit and our rooms were ready. We were in 9232 and our steward, I Wayan, was great. Let me say I was a bit anxious after reading many reviews of stewards on the Triumph refusing the twice a day service. We don't really require twice a day, but I wouldn't like being told they can't when they are still supposed to. Turns out I worried for nothing! I Wayan brought over the card, introduced himself and showed us the card while he filled it out for us. It definitely still gives the option of both and he did tell us this. We chose evening only and he refilled our ice bucket each night. We saw him several times each day and really liked him. Then, of course, was the safety briefing. It actually went fairly quick, and would've been even quicker had one "gentleman" not loudly complained the entire time (there's always one I guess). We saw him multiple times through the week and he was ALWAYS complaining. I guess it's really what you make it

 

We got our luggage around 5:45, unpacked, and headed to anytime dining. We were sat quickly at a table for 2 with Jonathan (also Anthony and Ed). We ended up requesting them each night. We always went between 6-6:30 and never waited at all. We will definitely do anytime dining from now on. We had Jess from the US as a cruise director and really liked her as well. I've only been on 2 cruises previously but I never saw or remembered our cruise directors. Jess was very visible, we saw her all over the ship, and always smiling and energetic. That was pretty much it for day 1. Next up...day 2 Sea Day

 

 

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[cortneyward]

Day 2/ Sea Day

 

It was still pretty cool this day so there were plenty of chairs available. I wanted to try the sea day brunch as I'd never been before but since we were up early and it didn't start until 8:30, I tried the Arepas from the Blue Iguana and they were fantastic. We had the steak and eggs and the eggs Benedict for brunch. Both were amazing. This was the first time I'd tried eggs Benedict and it was just fabulous. I'm craving it now! We went to the fun abroad show. They were finishing up Bingo when we arrived, with Ian and a lady whose name I didn't get, but we encountered them several times and they were always hilarious! There really wasn't a lot going on this day, but we went to the Hairy Chest Contest, played a little putt putt, explored, and just relaxed. Let me just say here that I loved the Hub App. It was great to see my sail and sign, what all was open, etc, but my favorite part was being able to "save" certain events that you didn't want to miss. I carry my phone for some photos anyway so it was great!

 

This was our elegant night. I was pretty happy with the new 5 day elegant night menus. After dinner we went to the dive in movies to see The Magnificent Seven, which was a pretty good movie. One thing I really loved about the anytime dining was the ability to get in and out much quicker. We were always there at the early dining time, but had the ability to schedule around whatever we wanted to do and have dinner in about an hour. DH stayed and watched Jason Bourne but I went to bed. It's true what they say about sleeping so good in those interior rooms! Next up, Cozumel!

[cortneyward]

Day 3/Cozumel

 

Unfortunately I have to start this day with our only disappointment of the trip. We had booked the Beginner's Scuba excursion through Carnival. When it came time to leave (we met in the Rome Lounge), they let us know our excursion was cancelled. Now let me clarify that I'm glad they cancelled if conditions weren't good, but at that late time, most other excursions had already left so we were very limited as to what we could do. That also left over 20 passengers flooding guest services with only one person to assist. We ended up choosing the ATV jungle and beach break excursion. We were also sad to see the independent contractor going ahead with our original excursion once we got to the pier (too late, we already rebooked).

 

Anyway, the atv excursion was fine, we did have fun, but we just really didn't want to do something we could do at home. However, we had people from the Sensation on our excursion. They had originally booked for Grand Cayman and Jamaica but instead got Freeport and Cozumel, so we were happy we just lost an excursion not an entire port. The beach was nice and the food there was pretty good. We did a little shopping and then got back on the ship around 3:30. We were pretty tired so we decided to not go to the dining room (a first for me!) and checked out the Seafood Shack instead. Now there is a fee for this, but nowhere close to the prices you'd pay on land. We ordered crab legs, fish and chips, and the peel and eat shrimp. It was delicious! If anything, the fish was a bit under seasoned, but we were very pleased. We ended up calling it a night pretty early this night after people watching for a little while

[PNGfan]

I really enjoyed this cruise and as much as I loved the balcony upgrade you passed up and I did the upgrade. The first 2 days were way to cold to use it. I froze my butt off out there.

[easyboy]

Day 3/Cozumel

 

Unfortunately I have to start this day with our only disappointment of the trip. We had booked the Beginner's Scuba excursion through Carnival. When it came time to leave (we met in the Rome Lounge), they let us know our excursion was cancelled. Now let me clarify that I'm glad they cancelled if conditions weren't good, but at that late time, most other excursions had already left so we were very limited as to what we could do. That also left over 20 passengers flooding guest services with only one person to assist. We ended up choosing the ATV jungle and beach break excursion. We were also sad to see the independent contractor going ahead with our original excursion once we got to the pier (too late, we already rebooked).

I do understand your frustration. True, port visits and/or excursion can be changed or cancelled. But being advised at the last minute of a shore excursion being cancelled really turns you off-balanced on what alternate activities to take, if you can decide wisely.

[cortneyward]

I really enjoyed this cruise and as much as I loved the balcony upgrade you passed up and I did the upgrade. The first 2 days were way to cold to use it. I froze my butt off out there.

 

I kicked myself for a couple of days for not taking it, but we really just didn't sit still long enough to use it. It was still a great deal for y'all though! We had a blast too!

[cortneyward]

I do understand your frustration. True, port visits and/or excursion can be changed or cancelled. But being advised at the last minute of a shore excursion being cancelled really turns you off-balanced on what alternate activities to take, if you can decide wisely.

 

Exactly. It didn't "ruin" our cruise as some would say. They were very accomodating, I just wish it were set up a little better so that once cancelled half of the other options wouldn't be already gone. 30 minutes would've made a huge difference in our case.

[cortneyward]

Day 4/Progreso

 

I failed to mentioned that I discovered the Blue Iguana on day 2 (don't eat here, the burritos and Arepas are fully responsible for my weight gain, they are fabulous!) This is where I had breakfast again, then we headed out for our Dzibilchaltun Ruins and Cenote Swim tour. I had forgotten how overly aggressive the people are here to sell things. On our excursion, however, our guide pointed out that while Cozumel sees at least one ship almost every day, and frequently multiples, Progreso only sees 2-3 ships a week. We considered staying on the ship here, but it makes sense that if we spend a little more here, this port can hopefully grow! I sure hope so. The tour was exactly what we expected. We essentially booked it to do SOMETHING here. It was a decent tour and the cenote was beautiful. I do wished I had worn my water shoes though because the area around the cenote, as well as the bottom of the cenote was very rocky. We took several pictures and then headed back to the restaurant on site. We ordered "chicken fajitas", "authentic tamales", and a chicken burrito. It was terrible. We had a good laugh at the tamales, which were a bone in chicken leg and thigh, with a slice of tomato and onion wrapped in some type of leaf. I LOVE tamales but I have no idea what this was. We were supposed to be gone from 9:30-1:30 but somehow got changed to 10:30 and weren't back until around 3. We decided to just get back onboard.

 

We ended up watching the end of Captain America:Civil War after dinner, then went to the Love and Marriage Show, which was hilarious! We really enjoyed Jess as our cruise director! We had planned to attend the late comedy show but hubby got a little nauseous so we headed to the lido for some fresh air and then headed on to bed. I've never felt this much motion on a ship, pretty much in all locations. It was quite interesting at times.

[ksromack]

Day 4/Progreso

 

I failed to mentioned that I discovered the Blue Iguana on day 2 (don't eat here, the burritos and Arepas are fully responsible for my weight gain, they are fabulous!)

Duly noted! I guess it was a blessing in disguise that I had a nasty 3 week cold virus....I lost about 5 pounds with that virus....and I'm saving the bounce-back for the Blue Iguana!

We had planned to attend the late comedy show but hubby got a little nauseous so we headed to the lido for some fresh air and then headed on to bed. I've never felt this much motion on a ship, pretty much in all locations. It was quite interesting at times.

Ugh! I'm very concerned about this motion for my hubby! Of course, I will be bringing Dramamine, it's his first cruise!

 

How was the weather in Cozumel? It looks like the whole hemisphere had a cool down while you were on your trip.....right now it looks to be rebounding so I hope it isn't as cold while we are there, esp in NOLA. And I desperately want to enjoy our balcony on the ship!

[cortneyward]

Duly noted! I guess it was a blessing in disguise that I had a nasty 3 week cold virus....I lost about 5 pounds with that virus....and I'm saving the bounce-back for the Blue Iguana!

 

Ugh! I'm very concerned about this motion for my hubby! Of course, I will be bringing Dramamine, it's his first cruise!

 

How was the weather in Cozumel? It looks like the whole hemisphere had a cool down while you were on your trip.....right now it looks to be rebounding so I hope it isn't as cold while we are there, esp in NOLA. And I desperately want to enjoy our balcony on the ship!

 

Start the Dramamine a day or two ahead of time and he should be fine. My hubby gets car sick in the front seat typically and although this one night he got a little queasy, he was okay.

 

We were very cold in New Orleans the day we left and a little cool the first sea day but the rest of the trip was great! Cozumel was in the 80's and beautiful!

 

Have a burrito or 2 for me!

[cortneyward]

Day 5 at sea

 

So this day was perfect, no motion felt at all and sun shining. We started out our day with the Dr Seuss breakfast. I booked this even though my step son wasn't with us but in hind sight I wouldn't do that again. Don't get me wrong, it was a neat experience BUT the characters rushed through and we weren't able to get photos except what the photographer took, the food that we actually ordered was the steak and eggs which are free on the brunch menu, and there were only 2 characters whereas the night before there were several photo props set up with many characters. I'd definitely recommend it with kids as they'd be excited but it really wasn't that great without. We kind of just relaxed today. This was the only day we saw deck chairs full, although we still had no problem finding one. I guess I also failed to mention that we only encountered chair hogs once, and that was when the Alabama/somebody game was on the big screen. I think we were in Progreso? I overheard a lady state that she had been saving "good seats" since she saw the deck filling up around noon. The game was at 7pm! No big deal to us as we don't really care for sports, but that's kinda crazy!

 

We went to the debarkation talk, wandered around a bit, then headed up to Lido for the ice carving. I grabbed a shrimp burrito that was fantastic. Then I realized that would be my last "lunch" burrito so I got another (I can't imagine why I gained 5 lbs). We had planned to make it to trivia but afternoon naps in those interior rooms will just get away from you! We had our final dinner with Jonathan and Anthony, then headed to the comedy club. We watched both family shows and both were great! We headed up to Lido to watch the Secret Life of Pets. I went to the Red Frog and ordered 2 non alcoholic pins coladas. We don't drink so this was what we always ordered. At the Blue Iguana, aft bar, and lobby bar this was no problem, but when I saw the bill I realized he charged us for the alcoholic version. I quickly stopped him before he wasted liquor and was pretty rudely told "You should have asked for SMOOTHIE". Whatever, it was fixed and we enjoyed our drinks. Then we retired for the night.

 

I'll go ahead and cover disembarkation here. We were given Zone 7. Since we had a low number we chose to do this instead of self debarkation. We had a leisurely breakfast (Arepas and a burrito of course!), then grabbed our carry on from the room and went to wait in the Rome Lounge. It was a madhouse! I'm thinking Carnival wasn't to blame, but several people were going out of turn (heard them say "let's just go ahead, everyone else is). I'm not sure if they were allowed to proceed out of turn or not, but them jumping in line obviously made it a longer wait for the rest of us.

 

We had a fantastic trip and are already planning the next! I loved the Triumph for our second time on her and would love to go on her again some day! I never could figure out why so many people stated they wouldn't cruise without certain upgrades but now I get it! I NEED the Blue Iguana. I sure wish I had a burrito right now

[cortneyward]

Also, I do apologize for the pics. They are on the computer but unfortunately don't get wifi at home and I've gotten this sinus crud since returning. I do plan to post some tomorrow

[cortneyward]

 

 

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[cortneyward]

 

 

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[cortneyward]

 

 

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