Triumph 4/22/06 review

[NewOrleanstoBaieRouge]

Just got home from my Triumph vacation yesterday. Took a little time to recover, long day yesterday:( . Me and my wife were on our first cruise.

 

We flew into Miami from New Orleans the day prior to leaving, thought we'd enjoy a little bit of South Beach and Miami. I upgraded on the way there to first class, it was only 100 per person, and I thought what the hell. It was very nice, needed the relaxation time. Turned out to be well worth it because we were stuck on the runway in Miami for about an hour after we touched down because all the computers were down and they could not clear our gate. So while we sat there I continued to drink free crown and cokes relaxing in my leather chair. Because of the delay didn't have time to do much on South Beach on Friday night. Saturday we woke early walked on the beach, checked out South Beach, back to our hotel for some pool time. Checked out at noon, went to the port. We arrived at the port and exited the taxi at 12:25. We were on the boat for about 12:55, 30 minutes, little hassle.

 

ROOM: Room was ready about 2, we had a balcony on Empress. Very nice room. The balcony was great. My parents did Conquest last year and claim they didn't need the balcony, but I don't see how we could have enjoyed our trip nearly as much without it. It was nice to watch us pull into port from the balcony. We would sleep at night with the door open, it all just added to our enjoyment. The bedding was AS ADVERTISED, it was so comfortable, down comforter and pillows, and nice mattress, made for nice nights of sleep. Room stewards were very good, only one time my ice bucked wasn't filled when I returned to the room.

 

FOOD: I thoight the food was good, not great. I also have no idea what to expect on a cruise ship. We live in New Orleans and do fine dining quite often, and the food here is pretty tough to beat. My expectations were met I guess. NY Deli was great, really good sandwiches. Pizza was good. Rest of buffet lines in the South Beach club were just OK. Breakfast omelettes were good, rest of it got old by the end of the week. Wish there was a better variety of fruit. My wife wanted a better salad bar. She was disappointed by the chicken and fish on the boat ( She doesn't eat red meat), but thought the shrimp were very good. All in all the food was good, but I was ready to get home for a good home cooked meal. OUr waitstaff was good and attentive, but did not speak the best English and did not really get into it much. Our table mates never showed up all week and we had a table for two.

 

BARS: We didn't do much barhopping, more of a relaxing time for us. I did thing Hollywood dance club was nice, pretty good music to dance to, just not enough people dancing, lots of sitting and standing around watching people dance. Big easy piano bar disappointed me, he wasn't too good. Oxford bar and wine bar were great, very nice. We didn't gamble much, we never do, made our obligatory deposits, but the casino seemed nice. If you're going to gamble make sure to do it on the first day. Slots paid out 35,000 the first day of cruise.

 

Shows: Didn't do too many shows, but enjoyed the ones we went to. I enjoyed the Kevin and Caruso magic show. I thought the late night comedian was hilarious, little crude, definitely not appropriate for kids.

 

SAN Juan: Pulled in early about 4:30. Went to Senior Frogs and ate dinner, partied for a while. Walked around Old San Juan, popped into a cool little Jazz bar for a drink. Went back to Senior Frogs for a while and danced, drank a little too much. It was a fun stop but by far our least favorite.

 

ST THOMAS/ST JOHN: Were off the ship early. Arranged our own trip to Coki beach for the morning, she picked me up early at 7:30. The island has way too much traffic and is very crowded. Coki beach was very nice. I did a shore dive and put my wife on the beach in a chair to sunbathe because she doesn't dive. So it worked out nicely. Dive plus the ride there was 50 dollars total. Chair rental was 5 dollars. Good dive, was only 40 feet, so plenty of bottom time and lots of stuff to look at.

Went back to the ship for lunch and took the St. John Trunk Bay beach and snorkel excursion. St. John is an unbeliveably pretty island. Most of it is national park, and it is so green. Trunk Bay was great, so pretty. Glad we did it through Carnival because our excursion got back a little late and we werer the last people back on the boat.

 

ST MAARTEN/ST MARTIN: What can I say, I was home. I love this place. We actually lived here for a couple years which is where we met, and it is one of our favorite paces to be, so our time here was too short of course. It was an absolutely beautiful day on the island! We rented a car at the port and did our own thing. WEnt to Baie Rouge on the French side, which is our favorite beach on the island, went to Sunset beach bar for lunch, and went to Mullet bay on the dutch side in the afternoon. It was just a really fun day, drank our favorite little Heineken pilsner beers all day, we love those things! They don't distribute those in the states, all we have is lagers here. Returned the car, realized liquors in the new cruise dock area are way more expensive than on Front Street, so I hiked it back to front street and bought my duty free liqors there, it saved me about 50 bucks. I was one of the last people back on ship, wife was worried.

 

OVERALL: We had a great time. Cruising is probably not our number thing we want to do again soon. Probably a couple reasons. We enjoy being on the island and having our freedom a little bit more. We went alone, and it would be a different experience we realize with other couple/couples. Also Triumph is a little older ship. I thought it was maintained very well, looked nice and clean. But comparing it with the RCL and Princess boats in port with us it looked maybe not quite as nice, but who can tell for sure. My parents absolutely loved their cruise on the Conquest, and that's the only boat I can compare to. We liked it and plan to go on a cruise in a few years again, but our next trip will be back to St. Maarten and Anguilla, but our heart is there and we are definitely biased. Hope the review helped.

 

Please ask any questions, I'd be glad to answer if I can.

[gymbrat33]

Thanks for the review. You should try their newer ships: the Liberty and the Valor.

 

I'll be sailing on the Triumph in July.

 

Who was the cruise director?

[NewOrleanstoBaieRouge]

Cruise director was Stuart "g'day" Dunn.

[itec]

I am just wondering how much this that excursion with Carnival will cost.

 

Thanks