Just off the Triumph!!

[INdisneyfamily]

What company was your excursion through in St. Thomas? Just wondering in case we are late getting off when we sail on the Triumph. Thanks!

[enjoyinglife]

Does anyone off the triumph have any info on Club O 2. I have a just turned 15 son and I belive this will be his age group. I dont know if he will want to take advantage of it, but, I would like to know something about it to tell him.

 

Thanks, I think I have 17 days left to go. Yahooooo!

[dst]

DreDay: Sorry to hear about all the confusion in St Thomas, can I ask who you used as your private guide. We too have set up a guide and I am hoping they are as wonderful as your was.

 

Also on HMC can you tell me which cabanas you used. We are renting one and thought of doing one further down the beach to be away from the crowds but I think we would like something close to the other activities but not the very first ones that have a lot of traffic. Any advice you can give would really be appreciated

 

Thanks again, loving the review

[hockeyluver]

Sorry to hear about the problems in st.thomas. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

 

We have been to St.Thomas the last 2 years :eek: yep this is our 3rd year in a row going there :D both times we did a tour with Godfrey tours and they were excellent. Last year it took a while to go through customs but sure enough when we were all done they were waiting for us outside. The funny part was my sister and her family were VIP and were told to go wait in a certain lounge *cant remember the name* but it was on the Valor. We are Canadian so we went into the non-U.S. line and my sister in law is American so she had to go in yet another line. We were out first, then my sister in law, then about 20 minutes later my sister the VIP came out. Seems they forgot about the people in the lounge.

 

As for the change in times they will tell you many times to stay on ship time. this is very important when you are on non carnival excursions.

 

Our daughters really had fun with the club 02 when we were on the Triumph. (they were 14 and 16) The first night they will have a meet and greet make sure your son checks it out that night. They will have thier own capers. My girls took part in quite a few activities and made a few friends that they are still chatting with on msn.

 

Off to check out the HMC boards :D

[dst]

Hockey: Thanks we have booked thru Godfrey as well. There is a large group of us so I am glad to hear he'll be waiting for us; I am sure they are more use to this than we are as visitors :)

[waiting4acruise]

We did the Godfrey tour in December. It was great. My 17 year old DD had a great time with Club 02 on our Triumph cruise.

[mamabas]

Hi! We want to book a cabana on HMC too, our ship sails this Sat. I wanted to book one as soon as I board, but I heard that the excursion desk doesn't open until 2. How soon did you book, was there someone at the desk? I really don't want to stand there for hours, it was suggested that we drop our reservation in the box there or over the tv in the room.

your feedback appreciated................

[hockeyluver]

Hockey: Thanks we have booked thru Godfrey as well. There is a large group of us so I am glad to hear he'll be waiting for us; I am sure they are more use to this than we are as visitors :)

 

We had his brother Tony both times and he was great. We had 10 in our first group and then 9 in our last group, this worked out great we had a large van to ourselves and we more or less picked when and where we wanted to go, we didnt have to worry about intruding on other ppl's wishes (just family:D )

[tntworek]

Anyone else have the same issues that DreDay had getting off the ship in St. Thomas? We are on the 2/23 sailing and we are getting married in St. Thomas. Our wedding coordinator is picking us up at the pier at 10 (St. Thomas time)....should I be worried about waiting around in my wedding dress trying to get off the ship??

[ParrotHead79]

I wouldn't worry about it. Last time I was there, we had no problem with computers.

 

Isolated incident I'm sure.

[DreDay]

What company was your excursion through in St. Thomas? Just wondering in case we are late getting off when we sail on the Triumph. Thanks!

 

 

We used Homer with Homer's Scuba and Snorkel Tours and Berry Charters. There website it nightsnorkel.com. There was not a ton of info about them on cruise critic but they have a pretty good reputation elsewhere and I took a chance. This excursion was one of the highlights of our trip, despite the hectic morning. We did the three beach snorkel excursion. It was snorkeling, a Coral World visit and a tour of the entire island with an awesome guide named Hodgey. Plus, a nice picnic lunch was included. I highly recommend him.

[DreDay]

Anyone else have the same issues that DreDay had getting off the ship in St. Thomas? We are on the 2/23 sailing and we are getting married in St. Thomas. Our wedding coordinator is picking us up at the pier at 10 (St. Thomas time)....should I be worried about waiting around in my wedding dress trying to get off the ship??

 

Just make sure that your wedding coordinator is aware that you will be arriving at ship time (probably Eastern Standard time). I was told by our guide that the other carnival ship that docked there came in an hour after us and folks were off that ship before us. I am certain that it was just computer problems and there's nothing anyone could have done about that. I am sure it was just yucky luck on our part, but the handling of it on Carnival's part left a bad tase in lots of people's mouths. You probably won't have anything to worry about on your sailing.

[DreDay]

Hi! We want to book a cabana on HMC too, our ship sails this Sat. I wanted to book one as soon as I board, but I heard that the excursion desk doesn't open until 2. How soon did you book, was there someone at the desk? I really don't want to stand there for hours, it was suggested that we drop our reservation in the box there or over the tv in the room.

your feedback appreciated................

 

Also on HMC can you tell me which cabanas you used. We are renting one and thought of doing one further down the beach to be away from the crowds but I think we would like something close to the other activities but not the very first ones that have a lot of traffic. Any advice you can give would really be appreciated

 

The shore excursion desk was open as soon as we were on board. There were several people around the desk looking at the excursion guide but there was only one person in line ahead of me. I booked one Cabana and my sister booked another. We were told they were assigned in order (1, 2, 3 etc.) I was a little concerned because I'd heard that the first Cabanas weren't the greatest due to people trying to take the mats, use the shower, etc. However, we loved cabana number 1 and 2. They were the Taupe and Blue cabanas. They were so close to the bathrooms and the picnic pavillion. We pulled up some lounge chairs right up to the cabana front and didn't have much trouble with anyone bothering us too much. We really enjoyed the Cabanas.

[DreDay]

Cruise Review Part III:

 

Once we were off the ship in St. Thomas and our tour was underway the day certainly took a different turn. Our tour guide and the driver were amazing. We saw all parts of St. Thomas, and stopped at several points along the way for photos. We then made a visit to Coral World for about an hour. This was a really cool stop since we had six kids in our group. We saw the underwater aquarium and we all got to feed and pet and baby nurse shark. Next door at Coki Beach was really nice snorkeling. The beach was a little crowded for my taste but we were only there to snorkel not lay out. The snorkeling was pretty good there. It was very easy to get to some good snorkeling spots so with kids it was nice. After this beach we headed to Secret Harbor beach. I loved this beach. It is in front of a hotel and it is really seclued. There were only about 30 people on the beach besides our group. The beach part is small, but again the snorkeling here is pretty good. If you do go here there are some rocks to the left and the marine life here is so beautiful!!!! It is rocky so wear water shoes and be careful of your knees. Then we were off to Hull Bay where Homer's shop is. There had been huge swells the week before our visit and the water was a little unsafe to snorkel so we skipped snorkeling and just had lunch. All in all is was a fabulous day in St. Thomas. It is so pretty here.

 

We were back on the ship right about 5pm and made it to dinner at 5:45pm. Again, no complaints about dinner at all. We were more and more impressed with the food in the dining roon each night.

 

Since I was now aware of the time difference between the ship and the ports, I did call my tour guide in San Juan and let him know that we were on Eastern time. Again, he made the adjustments and he was there the next morning waiting for us at the correct time.

 

The next day we docked in SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO. For those that think this port has nothing to offer you are so mistaken. This in an excellent place. It is full of rich history and some truly unique landscape. We visited in the day, so if you port here during the evening hours I can see how there may not be much to do. We booked a private guide to El Yunque in the rainforest. LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!! The drive here was a little long, about 50 minutes, but our guide offered lots of information along the way and even made stop for bathrooms and drinks at convenience store when we were getting near the forest. Once in the rainforest park we stopped at a beautiful waterfall on the side of the road for photos, we also stopped at a tower that we climbed and had a birds eye view of much of the island, and then we were off to Big Bear trail where we were going to hike to La Mina Falls. The hike was a little arduous, especially for my parents. They were able to finish it, however, and when we got to the falls it was well worth it. The water was freezing, but I figured if I came all that way I was getting in!!! I did take a dip in the falls and managed to get behind the waterfall for a photo. There was not a zillion people at the falls when we first arrived, but I saw many busses (probably the cruise ship's) as we were leaving the trail. After the falls we took a scenic drive back to San Cristobal and El Morro forts. We were supposed to go in and walk around but after the hike my parents and the kids were a little tuckered out, so we opted to take some pictures and head back to the ship. This, again, was a very nice day!!!

 

Same for dinner, no complaints whatsoever. Everything was great. I will make a few notes... we had a group of 13. We had asked for 6:15 dining but ended up with 5:45. I was at first a little disappointed at first, but decided not to change it. This time worked out perfect in the end. I did link our three reservations and I expected to get two tables near eachother. I was pleasantly surprised that they got all 13 of us at one table. Our table in the dining room overlooked the ocean and our wait staff was great!!!

 

More to come later...I have to actually get some work done :(

[hockeyluver]

Thanks for another edition of your review, perfect timing I sat down with my breakfast and had something to read lol We heard about the San Juan tour. Who did you book through? It sounds wonderful. Are you going to share some pictures?

 

looking forward to part IV

[dst]

We had his brother Tony both times and he was great. We had 10 in our first group and then 9 in our last group, this worked out great we had a large van to ourselves and we more or less picked when and where we wanted to go, we didnt have to worry about intruding on other ppl's wishes (just family:D )

 

 

That is wonderful to know, we have 25 in our group and have booked him for the day - he will use his large open air safari bus for us :)

 

Thanks for all the helpful information, I really appreciate it

[dst]

Great review, I keep coming back waiting for the next chapter, I'm officially hooked :D

 

Its good to know that Club 02 was nice for the teenagers, we are traveling with two if my nephews (their first cruise) who are 15, I am hoping they have plenty to do and enjoy themselves.

[mamabas]

thanks for the cabana feedback, DreDay! Really appreciate you taking the time to answer!

[Tenn/cruiser]

Thanks for the info. on the cabana. How does it cost to rent a cabana?

[bethysms]

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.

 

I'm so sorry you had problems with this. We had a similar situation. We made our way down to the Hollywood Disco at 9am. We had booked the Sunny Liston tour at 10am (9am ship time). I figured we could get through customs pretty quickly and boy, was I wrong. When we got off the elevators, Bonnie was directing traffic and yelled many times that only people with excursions could get in line right now. Also trying to be honest, I went up and talked to her about it. She told me that yes, this was only for Carnival excursions, and technically, we were supposed to wait until 9:30. I explained that no where in the cruise documents does it say that you can't book outside excursions until 9:30, it just says we got off at 9am. While I was somewhat arguing with her, she told me that even though those were the rules, I should just go past her, but she didn't want to responsible for it either. We ended up waiting right at the entrance to the casino (near the shops) but we still didn't get off til about 10:15. LUCKILY, Sunny Liston is awesome and when we found him and told him what happened, he said "No problem, Sunny make special tour for you!" It turned out to be a great day, but I never wish that waiting in line on anyone.

[JoeSmooga]

Figured I would weigh in on the review as well. DreDay... EXCELLENT SO FAR! You were near the majority of our group... you were in room 1265, and we had people in rooms 1256, 1258, and 1260! We also had a couple guys back in 1460's, while we were in 1002 (best OV room, sizewise, we have EVER had... pays to book the handicap accessible rooms facing forward if they are available!).

 

We too were on this cruise, so I'll put my cliff note version of a review out there.

 

Embarkation was a breeze. Yes, they had computer problems, but not like in St. Thomas.

HMC was beautiful as normal (after the rain and clouds cleared out).

Debarkation in St. Thomas was definately a disaster (yes, even the Platinum folks were held up due to the computer problems... we had a front row seats watching it all unfold... looked like the wireless system onboard was down as after about an hour of waiting we watched the crew hardwire the computers to network jacks and then things started happening). As stated by someone else, isolated incident. I wouldn't imagine it will happen again, and if it does, I bet they will have a better plan of attack to address it.

We booked Godfrey in St. Thomas and he was awesome. Originally we were supposed to meet him at 10AM St. Thomas time. It was more like 11:15 (10:15 ship time) when all of us finally got there. He ended up extending our tour... we were supposed to be back at the ship around 2PM, but he drove us around until 3:30PM, and even took some of our crew up to Paradise Point after all the hassles!

San Juan... we did a walking tour of Old San Juan (completely on our own, based on a map pf places to visit while in Old San Juan my sister brought along). Lots of walking, but a great day. Included a stop at Barrachina for an "original" pina colada (yum... best drink on land).

Nassau... hit the shops around the port area, including the straw market, and headed back to the ship to take ownership of it while everyone else was still on the island. Kids did the waterslide countless times with no line, and I even represented the fat guys on board by going down it a few times myself. Wrapped up the day by watching the sunset, drinking "Miami Vice's" from a funnel glass while standing on deck 14 (there was NO ONE up there even when we sailed away!).

Debarkation: For us, we liked it. We had Zone 1's and were off the ship by 8AM, bags in hand at 8:10, and thru customs by 8:15 (no lines for us at the time... I know they were long later on). To the airport by 8:45 via cab.

 

Other observations:

 

Camp Carnival was, again, simply great. We had kids in both the 2-5 and 6-8 age groups.

We, too, had a lady in our group get a haircut in the spa. Was originally quoted $60, ended up being charged $85. That's ridiculous... what, were they expecting John Edwards on the ship? :) (please, it's a joke, no political debates from this comment!)

Chocolate Melting Cake... hit or miss. Loved it in the past. My problem was that, of the 6 I ordered during the week, 3 were OVERcooked. They were solid, nothing melting at all.

Food was good. Meat dishes in the dining room were particularly good this trip. Chateaubriand was the best of all.

Miami Vice... best drink on the ship. Half pina colada, half strawberry daquiri. I'll be making that one at home.

 

Keep the questions coming folks...

Joe

[hockeyluver]

Thankyou for your input also Joe. Where did your sister find the walking map of San Juan was it online? Not sure what we are planning to do during the ports.

[JoeSmooga]

Thankyou for your input also Joe. Where did your sister find the walking map of San Juan was it online? Not sure what we are planning to do during the ports.

 

I believe it was online, but I have no idea where she got it from. She printed it off and brought it along. It was really handy, as it gave insight into things we had walked by in the past and had no idea of the historical significance.

[dst]

Joe: Thanks for sharing, my sweetie also loves the Miami Vice and we end up having them most of the year - he has become a pro :) Now only 10 more days until we can have them made for us

 

I also know that you can get the walking map of San Juan near the pier there are all sorts of stands that will have them for you

[paleskin]

Any good bands??? We like 80's rock.