Just off the Triumph!!

[DreDay]

We had the unfortunate duty of disembarking the Triumph. This was our fourth cruise, all on Carnival, all on different ships. I am going to post a review with as much good information as I can. Some is going to be positive and some will be negative. Please don't flame me for my OPINIONS!!!!!! They are mine and I'm entitled.

 

First, let me start my saying this was a GREAT CRUISE!! IMHO there is nothing dreadful about the ship. I would definatley cruise on the Triumph again, BUT, it was not my favorite ship.

 

Okay, from the beginning... Embarkation was okay. We arrived at the terminal at about 11:45ish. The lines were not long at all, but they had not started to allow anyone on the ship yet. The terminal was packed and so we had to find a little spot to park on the floor. This was not really a big deal. When they did start to call numbers to board, it was really hard to hear them. We just moved a little closer to the esclators and waited there until they called our number. We were on the ship shortly thereafter and eating on the Lido deck.

 

A little more later...

[hockeyluver]

:( what do you mean more later sheeeeeeeesh i want to hear it all now!!! lol what cabin did you have? We will be in one of the L cabins in a few weeks:D (well a month and a half :D ) We loved the Triumph and are looking forward to going on it again. Hopefully you will have some pictures too....

[enjoyinglife]

:( what do you mean more later sheeeeeeeesh i want to hear it all now!!! lol what cabin did you have? We will be in one of the L cabins in a few weeks:D (well a month and a half :D ) We loved the Triumph and are looking forward to going on it again. Hopefully you will have some pictures too....

 

Hey, leaving in 3 weeks! I just wanted to tell you that I had the "L" shaped cabin on my last cruise on the Victory, a sister ship of the Triumph. I loved it, but it was already booked for this cruise. Hope you enjoy it.

[hockeyluver]

Hey, leaving in 3 weeks! I just wanted to tell you that I had the "L" shaped cabin on my last cruise on the Victory, a sister ship of the Triumph. I loved it, but it was already booked for this cruise. Hope you enjoy it.

 

That is great to hear we had booked an balcony gty we were assigned a cabin in the middle of the ship, saw that this cabin was available and our TA called and got it for us. I cant wait to have the extended balcony :D

 

Have a great trip, I will be watching for a review.

[caribbeanchickie]

We had the unfortunate duty of disembarking the Triumph. This was our fourth cruise, all on Carnival, all on different ships. I am going to post a review with as much good information as I can. Some is going to be positive and some will be negative. Please don't flame me for my OPINIONS!!!!!! They are mine and I'm entitled.

 

First, let me start my saying this was a GREAT CRUISE!! IMHO there is nothing dreadful about the ship. I would definatley cruise on the Triumph again, BUT, it was not my favorite ship.

 

Okay, from the beginning... Embarkation was okay. We arrived at the terminal at about 11:45ish. The lines were not long at all, but they had not started to allow anyone on the ship yet. The terminal was packed and so we had to find a little spot to park on the floor. This was not really a big deal. When they did start to call numbers to board, it was really hard to hear them. We just moved a little closer to the esclators and waited there until they called our number. We were on the ship shortly thereafter and eating on the Lido deck.

 

A little more later...

 

I go on the triumph next Saturday.

Looking forward to your review.

If you don't mind my asking, who is hte Cruise Director?

What category room did you have and do you have pics.

 

THANKS

 

Michelle

[bethysms]

I just got off the same cruise and I feel that your opinions were pretty similar to my own at least as far as embarkation. We got to the terminal about 10:30 or so. We knew this was a little early, but we were willing to wait if we had to. The biggest issue we had was HERDS of people wanting a taxi. So we weren't even out of our taxi and they started piling in. This was so rude!!!! I literally had to push them out of the way to get out of the taxi and get to my luggage. Otherwise, we checked in ok and waited for a long time. We found out later there was some problems with clearing the ship that morning, but we all got on. I also agree there were problems hearing the numbers being called, but Carnival said that isn't their normal terminal and they had some issues with that.

 

I'm not sure if you mean disembarkation was bad. We did the luggage tags and we were lucky enough to be the first group called to the lounge and about the 5th group called to exit. I don't feel we waited that long, in fact we were able to call our shuttle to come early and we were on the way to the airport by 10:30. UNFORTUNATELY, we flew American and they lost our luggage and I hate Miami airport, but we have our luggage now and everything went fine.

 

Purr_30,

 

The cruise director was Brad Calabrese (sp?). This was only my 2nd cruise, so I don't have a lot to compare to, but I found Brad very funny and good as a director. I liked Gary (entertainment staff) a lot more....do as many activities on the sea days with him, he is hilarious! I was in cabin 8362 on the verandah deck and I loved it...very close to that yummy pizza. I don't think I'll be writing an entire review...but feel free to ask questions and I'll try and answer.

[caribbeanchickie]

I just got off the same cruise and I feel that your opinions were pretty similar to my own at least as far as embarkation. We got to the terminal about 10:30 or so. We knew this was a little early, but we were willing to wait if we had to. The biggest issue we had was HERDS of people wanting a taxi. So we weren't even out of our taxi and they started piling in. This was so rude!!!! I literally had to push them out of the way to get out of the taxi and get to my luggage. Otherwise, we checked in ok and waited for a long time. We found out later there was some problems with clearing the ship that morning, but we all got on. I also agree there were problems hearing the numbers being called, but Carnival said that isn't their normal terminal and they had some issues with that.

 

I'm not sure if you mean disembarkation was bad. We did the luggage tags and we were lucky enough to be the first group called to the lounge and about the 5th group called to exit. I don't feel we waited that long, in fact we were able to call our shuttle to come early and we were on the way to the airport by 10:30. UNFORTUNATELY, we flew American and they lost our luggage and I hate Miami airport, but we have our luggage now and everything went fine.

 

Purr_30,

 

The cruise director was Brad Calabrese (sp?). This was only my 2nd cruise, so I don't have a lot to compare to, but I found Brad very funny and good as a director. I liked Gary (entertainment staff) a lot more....do as many activities on the sea days with him, he is hilarious! I was in cabin 8362 on the verandah deck and I loved it...very close to that yummy pizza. I don't think I'll be writing an entire review...but feel free to ask questions and I'll try and answer.

 

 

Thanks for the tips regarding Gary. Will have to check him out when we get on board.

 

We are on the Veranda deck as well. The aft area in category 9A. :D

Did you hear anything above you??? My only concern is the noise from the lido deck.....ugh!

 

Do you have any pics to share?

[TrinettRae]

"UNFORTUNATELY, we flew American and they lost our luggage and I hate Miami airport, but we have our luggage now and everything went fine."

 

I'm kinda glad to hear it wasn't just myself, my brother (JoeSmooga) and another couple that American lost their luggage. We flew from Miami to Chicago to Omaha and then most of the group had to drive an hour and a half to Sioux City, while the other couple drove to Des Moines. American did ship our bags via Northwest Airlines to Sioux City, then JoeSmooga drove to the airport to pick up our bags. The Des Moines bag was delivered to their house.

 

I got an overall sense of disorganization on the trip, but I'm chalking that up to computer snafus beginning with embarking. All of the computers were down at the terminal, plus when we were dealing with immigration on the boat going to St. Thomas, the line I was in by the Vienna Cafe, they had to switch out laptops, so we were alternating with the next station. Assistant CD, "Bingo" Bonny, said that they moved the drydocking of Triumph from March to September and said that the boat was really overdue for her updating.

 

That's the negative though...I very much enjoyed this trip. 13 of us, four that were on Triumph in June, six - 2nd time cruisers, and three newbies = 20 Ships on a Stick and eight medals. At least our group photo will be posted on here possibly tomorrow when I get access to a scanner.

 

I loved both of the Vegas style shows. I think the 2nd one edged-out the 1st one because they ran the video of the decades (with trivia questions) while people were walking in. Kept people busy while waiting to get started.

 

I'll get my landlegs back and collect my notes from the trip and I too with be adding comments to the reviews posted here.

[Morgansmommy]

We had the unfortunate duty of disembarking the Triumph. This was our fourth cruise, all on Carnival, all on different ships. I am going to post a review with as much good information as I can. Some is going to be positive and some will be negative. Please don't flame me for my OPINIONS!!!!!! They are mine and I'm entitled.

 

First, let me start my saying this was a GREAT CRUISE!! IMHO there is nothing dreadful about the ship. I would definatley cruise on the Triumph again, BUT, it was not my favorite ship.

 

Okay, from the beginning... Embarkation was okay. We arrived at the terminal at about 11:45ish. The lines were not long at all, but they had not started to allow anyone on the ship yet. The terminal was packed and so we had to find a little spot to park on the floor. This was not really a big deal. When they did start to call numbers to board, it was really hard to hear them. We just moved a little closer to the esclators and waited there until they called our number. We were on the ship shortly thereafter and eating on the Lido deck.

 

A little more later...

 

DreDay,

Looking forward to hearing all about your cruise! We are going on the Triumph the end of next month. I have only been on the Liberty -1st sailing so I am a little nervous about going on an older ship. Hope you had a great time!

Adrienne

[enjoyinglife]

I just got off the same cruise and I feel that your opinions were pretty similar to my own at least as far as embarkation. We got to the terminal about 10:30 or so. We knew this was a little early, but we were willing to wait if we had to. The biggest issue we had was HERDS of people wanting a taxi. So we weren't even out of our taxi and they started piling in. This was so rude!!!! I literally had to push them out of the way to get out of the taxi and get to my luggage. Otherwise, we checked in ok and waited for a long time. We found out later there was some problems with clearing the ship that morning, but we all got on. I also agree there were problems hearing the numbers being called, but Carnival said that isn't their normal terminal and they had some issues with that.

 

I'm not sure if you mean disembarkation was bad. We did the luggage tags and we were lucky enough to be the first group called to the lounge and about the 5th group called to exit. I don't feel we waited that long, in fact we were able to call our shuttle to come early and we were on the way to the airport by 10:30. UNFORTUNATELY, we flew American and they lost our luggage and I hate Miami airport, but we have our luggage now and everything went fine.

 

Purr_30,

 

The cruise director was Brad Calabrese (sp?). This was only my 2nd cruise, so I don't have a lot to compare to, but I found Brad very funny and good as a director. I liked Gary (entertainment staff) a lot more....do as many activities on the sea days with him, he is hilarious! I was in cabin 8362 on the verandah deck and I loved it...very close to that yummy pizza. I don't think I'll be writing an entire review...but feel free to ask questions and I'll try and answer.

 

Glad you had a good cruise. I have a couple of questions. Do they still offer self disembarkation? And if so, do they get off first? Or does the VIP / platinum get off first? We have a flight at 11:50 which is quite scary to me, but last time we had a three o'clock flight and felt stranded at the airport. We were tired and had to just sit with our stuff on the carpet with 100's of other people till we could check our stuff in and then grab a bite to eat. This time, our choice was 11:50 or 5:00 I think, so we chose the early one, but I am worried about that.

[caribbeanchickie]

I meant to ask, does the Triumph have shower gels and shampoo in the shower???? Our last Carnival cruise has Dove shampoo and Dove body wash.

 

What kind of TV's do the rooms have? Old fashioned Tube TV;s? or Flat screen?

 

Thanks

[Balsh]

Our first cruise is this Saturday on the Triumph. We're mostly wondering about the dress code in the dining room. Apparently we have 2 formal nights which I think we under control.

I believe the other 5 evenings are semi-formal, but we've heard varying opinions of what that might mean. A friend tells me that she has worn dresses to dinner every night, some forums say capri pants are acceptable and some say no, others say dress pants are too hot to wear or not appropriate.

Anyone who has sailed the Triumph, can you please provide any guidance for semi-formal dining attire?

Thanks very much!

[ParrotHead79]

Our first cruise is this Saturday on the Triumph. We're mostly wondering about the dress code in the dining room. Apparently we have 2 formal nights which I think we under control.

I believe the other 5 evenings are semi-formal, but we've heard varying opinions of what that might mean. A friend tells me that she has worn dresses to dinner every night, some forums say capri pants are acceptable and some say no, others say dress pants are too hot to wear or not appropriate.

Anyone who has sailed the Triumph, can you please provide any guidance for semi-formal dining attire?

Thanks very much!

 

HEY---come join our roll call for the 1-19 Sailing!!

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=514536

[RAVI360]

I meant to ask, does the Triumph have shower gels and shampoo in the shower???? Our last Carnival cruise has Dove shampoo and Dove body wash.

 

What kind of TV's do the rooms have? Old fashioned Tube TV;s? or Flat screen?

 

Thanks

 

yes they have stationary shower gels and shampoo dispensers in the showers and the tvs are tubes................we sail on her twice east and west Carribean 05/06...........had a great time ....would sail her again

[flynrph]

... . We found out later there was some problems with clearing the ship that morning...

 

Yes, there was! You probably went past me on your way in. What a mess getting off the ship that day. Things were getting real testy in the Rome lounge when they kept holding up the debarkation. People were getting nasty, the staff in the lounge were getting nasty. I only saw 3 lanes manned at the customs station. Perhaps this was the hang up.:eek:

[alohababy]

Hey...

i AM GLAD YOU ENJOYED YOUR CRUISE. We said on her on 2-2-08. I was wondering how was the weather and the seas?

thanks!

[JoeSmooga]

Glad you had a good cruise. I have a couple of questions. Do they still offer self disembarkation? And if so, do they get off first? Or does the VIP / platinum get off first? We have a flight at 11:50 which is quite scary to me, but last time we had a three o'clock flight and felt stranded at the airport. We were tired and had to just sit with our stuff on the carpet with 100's of other people till we could check our stuff in and then grab a bite to eat. This time, our choice was 11:50 or 5:00 I think, so we chose the early one, but I am worried about that.

 

Self debarkation is still available. They do, however, go after the Platinum cruisers. On this voyage there were only about 20 Platinum cruisers, so the self dissembark/VIP/early flight people were all right behind us. In our group of 13, 11 of us had a flight out of Miami at 11:20. Beyond the hassles that are inherent of Miami airport itself, all of us made it with no problems (just make sure you get in the right line for TSA to allow you thru at MIA... if you are supposed to be on Concourse E, make sure you go thru Concourse E TSA... lesson learned by some of our group). DEFINATELY ask for early debarkation from the purser's desk and take a cab to the airport.

 

Joe

[JoeSmooga]

Hey...

i AM GLAD YOU ENJOYED YOUR CRUISE. We said on her on 2-2-08. I was wondering how was the weather and the seas?

thanks!

 

Weather was fine. A bit cool to begin with at Half Moon Cay, but it warmed up as the day went by. Water temp at HMC was suprisingly cold to me, but with clear skies in the afternoon it felt warmer. All other days were clear/partly cloudy. Not too hot, not too cold.

 

Winds, however, seemed to be a bit stronger than cruises we had been on in the past January's. I have a pretty strong tolerance to motion sickness, but did have to take Bonine a couple of days. It wasn't big waves... it was swells that were making the boat rock. Even at night while in bed you would feel it. We were on Deck 10 (Panorama), so it was probably exagerated up there compared to the other decks, but our friends on Deck 3 (Riviera) had some issues with boat movement as well.

 

Joe

[rickcop44]

Hey hockeyluver, what date is your sailing? You and I were on Valor together last year. We're doing Triumph on 2/16/08 and we, too, have one of of the L shaped cabins - 6459 starboard. Can't wait for that longer balcony!

[enjoyinglife]

Self debarkation is still available. They do, however, go after the Platinum cruisers. On this voyage there were only about 20 Platinum cruisers, so the self dissembark/VIP/early flight people were all right behind us. In our group of 13, 11 of us had a flight out of Miami at 11:20. Beyond the hassles that are inherent of Miami airport itself, all of us made it with no problems (just make sure you get in the right line for TSA to allow you thru at MIA... if you are supposed to be on Concourse E, make sure you go thru Concourse E TSA... lesson learned by some of our group). DEFINATELY ask for early debarkation from the purser's desk and take a cab to the airport.

 

Joe

 

 

Thanks, I will have VIP and can also self if it makes it easier. What exactly would be the TSA line?

[patrice1]

Hey hockeyluver, what date is your sailing? You and I were on Valor together last year. We're doing Triumph on 2/16/08 and we, too, have one of of the L shaped cabins - 6459 starboard. Can't wait for that longer balcony!

 

We had that same cabin port-side on our Triumph cruise in 2006. What a fabulous room! We loved it! I posted pics in my review thread here when we returned. You'll have a ball!

[Hammerman417]

Our first cruise is this Saturday on the Triumph. We're mostly wondering about the dress code in the dining room. Apparently we have 2 formal nights which I think we under control.

I believe the other 5 evenings are semi-formal, but we've heard varying opinions of what that might mean. A friend tells me that she has worn dresses to dinner every night, some forums say capri pants are acceptable and some say no, others say dress pants are too hot to wear or not appropriate.

Anyone who has sailed the Triumph, can you please provide any guidance for semi-formal dining attire?

Thanks very much!

 

We just returned from this sailing of the Triumph, too. As far as the dress code in the dining room, capri pants are fine and perfectly acceptable. Many women wore capri pants. It can be cool in the dining room, so dress pants might not be too hot, depending on your comfort level. I usually brought a sweater to wear over my short-sleeved or sleeveless blouses because I am usually cold. My husband was pretty irate because really anything goes as far as the dress code...One table next to us showed up in shorts, tank tops, and grass skirts (these were the men!) one night for dinner and no one stopped them, and for formal night some at this table considered blue jeans as formal wear. Obviously, they were drunk most of the time, too.

 

Overall, it was a wonderful cruise, but we felt the food in the main dining room was hit or miss. There are always good things and bad things on any cruise, and the good outweighed the bad, so we all came home very happy. You will have a fabulous time.

[hockeyluver]

Hey hockeyluver, what date is your sailing? You and I were on Valor together last year. We're doing Triumph on 2/16/08 and we, too, have one of of the L shaped cabins - 6459 starboard. Can't wait for that longer balcony!

 

Hey your going too early :D we dont cruise till march 8, bp traveler is going on the same cruise as us again this year. I really hope you come back with a review and pictures Lots of pictures lol we will be in 6424. I also cant wait for the xtended balconyl. Our first cruise we had a balcony then 3 inside cabins :eek: Have a great trip.

We had that same cabin port-side on our Triumph cruise in 2006. What a fabulous room! We loved it! I posted pics in my review thread here when we returned. You'll have a ball!

 

 

I will have to do a search for you pictures. Not too noisy from the deck below? Thanks for letting us know it is a great cabin. Found the pictures only 2 (LOL) you were in the one down from where we are, how was the motion there? Last couple cruises we were midship and hardly felt any movement :( I love the swaying at night

[hockeyluver]

UGGGG double post sorry

[DreDay]

So Sorry!!!! I started this review at the hotel after we disembarked. The internet there was down after dinner. After a loooong flight home, and loads of laundry later, I am just finding a moment to get some more info posted. Here we go...

 

Afer we boarded I went directly to the purser's desk for a cabana at Half Moon Cay. Actually, we reserved two. You can read my review of that on the Half Moon board. Then we were off to the Lido for lunch. All of the selections looked very familiar to me from previous cruises. At around 2:00pm, we headed to our room on the Riviera Deck 1265. When I saw the room I LOVED IT!!! I booked an inside guarantee as did my DS and Mom. They were upgraded to the Panorama and Lido decks. I was moved from an inside to a ocean view but stayed on the Riviera. We are a family of 5. This room seemed huge compared to all the others I'd been in. It had King bed and a sofa type bed, plus one upper. I was pretty sure the sofa thing pulled out into a double bed, but the purser said he would bring in a roll away for my daugter. This all worked out great!! My daughter was feeling somewhat ill that night so we skipped dinner and ordered room service. It was as I remembered it. Not spectacular but pretty good and definately better than fighting the lines on the Lido.

 

The following day we were in HALF MOON CAY. I've been to many places and to some awesome beaches. I have to say, however, this is a must visit port. This place is phenomonal. You tender at this port, so we headed to the Rome Lounge for priority tendering since we had reserved the cabanas. We were off the ship fairly quickly. The process was quick and painless. There was a buffet lunch here that Carnival provides. It was the usual picnic type fare: burgers, hotdogs, chicken, pasta salads, fruit, cookies, brownies,etc. (I'll have a full review on HMC board). That night we ate in the dining room and the food was excellent. The chocolate melting cake, however, was yucky!! I was waiting a year and two months to savor that again and I was disappointed. Mine was undercooked and was like having hershey syrup with a not so good brownie on top. My dad's was excellent and was cooked just right. (He ate one EVERY night at dinner.)

 

Our first SEAD DAY was very relaxing. I booked a haircut for my daughter at the spa. This was something that I really needed to do before our trip but have the time. I really wish I had. I was told haircuts started at $35 and was extra for long hair. Well, my daughter's hair is very long, as is mine usually, and we only frequent salons so I'm used to paying between $50-70 for a cut. I was appalled that they were charging $80 to cut her hair!!! After gratuities were talking nearly $100 for a haircut. Oh well, it was a vacation and my daughter loved the cut. We pretty much just vegged out by the pool all day and rested. This was also our first formal night. We always like to really take advantage of formal night so we do dress up and enjoyed this evening very much!! Again, the food in the dining room was great. Just for the record, you see every spectrum of the rainbow in the dining room on formal nights. Long beaded gowns and tuxedos to shorts and a bermuda shirt, and everything inbetween.

 

The next day we docked in ST. THOMAS. We watched as we docked and the island is so beautiful. We had a private excursion booked here. Getting off at this was pure HELL!!!! This process was totally disorganized and the people handling it were very rude. Since we went to the HMC (not US territory) and were docking in St. Thomas, you have to go through customs when you get off the ship. They made an announcement that pax with excursions booked could head down to deck 5 and start lining up at 9am. I headed to the pursers desk and let them know that I did have an excursion booked but not through Carnival. The lady at the pursers desk said "No problem" and advised me to go ahead and line up at 9am with the other excursion folk. I specifically asked her if it would be a problem that it was not a carnival excursion and she said no. We proceeded to deck 5 at 9am. There was a guy asking people to form two lines and have their excursion tickets out. I really try to be honest and follow the rules so I brought it to the attention of the guy that I had a private excursion booked. He yelled at the top of his lungs, "this line is only for carnival guests and all others will have to step out of line"... Huh. Several people said "we're all carnival guests." He then clarified it was for guests with excursions booked with carnival. To not cause a scene we stepped out of line. HUGE MISTAKE!!! At 9:30 I stepped back into line which is when all other passengers were allowed and the line snaked through the casino acround the elevators and seemed to go in every which direction. After an hour like this the line finally started to move. We were told that the computer system went down. Even though we docked at 9am, they didn't start letting people off the ship until 10:15. It was horrible. Also, we found out that the ship's time and St. Thomas time were different. So, when we finally made it off the ship at 10:45, it was actually 11:45am. Our excursion was starting almost three hours late. Fortunatley, our tour company was top notch and waited for us to get off the ship and made all the necessary adjustments for us.

 

Okay...it's dinner time so I have to go for now but I promise to finish up soon.