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Triumph Jan 19-26- Review

caribbeanchickie

By caribbeanchickie,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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caribbeanchickie

caribbeanchickie

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This review is MY OPINION only. Please no flaming or rude comments.

Despite the "Issues" we had, we still had a fabulous time.

 

- Jan 19th- Arrival to Miami Port 11:00am.

Check in was pretty smooth. We were given group "5" for boarding. ( I had no idea what this was for as our past cruises were out of FLL) Although the agent was in "training", it only took about 5 minutes to have our sail and sign cards in hand. ( we filled out all our info on the web site for speedy check in) 11:30 they started the boarding process by calling the group numbers in order, 1,2,3,4,5,etc. By 11:45 we were sitting on the lido deck eating lunch and having my first Miami Vice...Yummy!!

 

- 1:30 arrived and I was excited to go see our 9A Balcony, cabin 8427. ( I have tons of pics too) Off to the veranda deck we go. WOW! It's HUGE. The balcony is about the size of 2 1/2 regular balconies and the room is about 225 Sq. Ft. We were quite impressed with the free Upgrade ( Thanks, Carnival). Would we pay for the extra space? DH says NO but I would...Shhhhh....lol

I ordered the "Happy Anniversary" decorations and the high seas anniversary gift pkg. The decorations were a nice touch and I would purchase them again.

The high seas Anniversary pkg was well worth the money. Wine, towels, glasses, key chains, t-shirts, sun visors, photo coupon & bar coupon.

The only issue I had with this was one of the wine glasses were cracked. After being given the run around from 5 different people including the Pursers Desk, DH got a little tiffed and on the evening of day 4, the glass was finally replaced.

 

Wigi was our room steward. He introduced himself the first day and was quite friendly.

As the week went on the service gradually got worse. Only 3 towel animals, no shower cleaning, no toiletries top up, no ice for our wine…..Needless to say his extra tip was getting lower and lower with the end result of NO EXTRA TIP! This was the laziest housekeeping staff we ever had.

 

- Half Moon Cay- A perfect way to start a vacation! This was our second time to visit this breathtaking island. I "Wish I could stay here forever". The water was a little on the cool side but that didn't stop me from spending the day in the water and getting a nasty sunburn........My own fault for not putting on sunscreen as DH keeps saying....lol The worse part of this day was having to leave the island.:(

 

- St Thomas - We booked Sunny Liston for 9am. The ship arrived at 10am Island time (9am ship time) Whether you are getting off the boat or not, everyone has to go through Immigration. This was pure HELL. Even though the Capers said for those with excursions to proceed at 9:15 and all others at 9:45. Everyone decided to show up anyways. By the time we got through immigration it was 10:45. Luckily I spoke with Sunny a couple of days earlier after I read here about the Island time/ship time mess up. He assured me not to worry that he would wait for us. We finally got off the ship to see Sunny waiting....YIPPIE.

If you've never had the opportunity to do one his tours, I highly recommend you go. We had a fabulous time and saw a huge part of the island. Gi Gi had us all singing "I love you every day of the week"...Ok, ok, ok, I hope to god I never hear this song again.....HAHAHAHA

The one thing you can't miss on this tour is the Mountain Top banana Daiquiri. For $7.50 you get a pretty good buzz ....lol. I had 2 and was a tad bit hammered for the rest of the tour....lol

St Thomas is not an island I would visit again. The immigration process is not worth the hassle. The shopping is amazing though.

 

-San Juan- We didn't book any excursion and decided to just walk Old San Juan. We did a little shopping and that's about it. Nothing too exciting. This city is very pretty and I regret not taking a history tour. I'm sure we missed out on a lot of beautiful sites. Oh well, next time.

 

- Nassau- No excursions booked. We were going to visit the beach but the weather was a tad bit chilly for that. We decided to just walk the town and visit the Straw Market. After 1 aisle, I pretty much ran out of there. It scared the *&%$ out of me. The sales people are very pushy and several were very demanding to buy their items....

We hopped a cab and went to Atlantis for the afternoon. WOW, this place is HUGE. Took us an hour to find the aquarium but well worth it. Carnival offers a tour for this place and I would definitely purchase it if we were to go back. In order to have full access to the resort, you have to pay a fee. I have no idea what this is but I remember Carnival charging ALOT.

 

On to the rest of the stuff:

 

 

We booked 6:15 dining time. Our sail and sign cards showed 8:30.

The Maître'd changed it to a table of 8 for 5:45. Not what we wanted but it was much better than 8:30. Our table mates were wonderful and we all enjoyed one another’s company.

 

Entertainment- Comedian, hypnotist, magician and the Carnival legend shows were great! Eddie Capone is HILARIOUS. If he is doing a show while you are on board, DON’T MISS IT. I laughed so hard I almost wet my pants….lol

Not that I can sing or anything but, the lead female singer is god awful. She was off tune with the male singer for every song. Hopefully her contract is up soon for your sake.

 

The Ent. Staff were very good. I especially loved Gary. He is hilarious. I’m certain

We will see him as a CD sometime in the future. He interacts with the passengers where as Brad (CD) did not. This surprised me as he is from the east coast of Canada. Usually They are overly friendly type people.

 

Past guest party- This was our first and we quite enjoyed it until the lead female singer

Got up on stage…….Ohhhh I could feel the headache coming on……

Drinks and Hor`Derves were plentiful, strong :p and tasty.

 

2 Formal nights were on Sea days. I personally think this is when the Formal nights should be held. No rushing to get back on board to get all dolled up. IMHO, I don’t know why Carnival says the dress is “Formal”. My DH wore a suit and I a gown. We were way over dressed. I witnessed several wearing jeans, mini skirts, tank tops, t-shirts and SHORTS. However, there were a few men looking dapper wearing Tuxedo’s. My next Carnival cruise- the formal wear stays home.

 

Spa- I had an updo and bronzing for $85. I was expecting Jacqueline to take at least an hour to do the updo. I was SHOCKED to be out within 30 minutes and loved how she did my hair. I highly recommend her.

 

 

Food- Dining room- Our waiters were not the friendliest. We had to ask for everything. More water, rolls, butter, silverware. When we did ask for anything we felt that it was a bother to them. The food was either undercooked or overcooked and luke warm.

The warm melting chocolate cake was never consistent. Almost every night our table would send it back to be cooked more. It had a thin crust of cake on the top and the rest was syrup. This cake is to die for when cooked properly. The ladies at our table had this EVERY night…lol

 

-Sewage smell was noticed in certain areas on Deck 8. I don’t recall smelling it anywhere else. One morning the funky smell was in our bathroom. Once the toilet was flushed, the smell disappeared.

 

We had no power in our room one evening. DH called maintenance but they never showed up. I unplugged the TV and Voila, power was restored. The next morning maintenance did call to see if power was restored and we informed them what I did.

 

 

 

Several days our Sail and sign card would not work. DH had to visit the Purser's desk for a replacement. Kinda frustrating after the 3rd or 4th time.

 

 

 

Brad the CD announced we had over 600 kids on board. Camp Carnival did an amazing job keeping them busy. :D THANK YOU

 

 

Disembark was very smooth. We opted for the self assist as we had an 11:15 am flight back to reality. Our floor was called at 8:35. We were through customs and in a cab on our way by 8:55. Arrived at MIA by 9:15.

 

Despite the “issues” we had, they did not ruin our cruise. We had a fabulous time and would sail Carnival again. Just not on the Triumph.

 

I have all the capers, excursions, drink menu/price lists from our week. I will have them posted on my webshots page by the end of the day today.

 

 

 

Michelle

 

 

 

 

 

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Coolcruise02

Coolcruise02

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Glad you had a good time. We had a blast in December!

 

I'm going to pull out my papers to double check but our immigration in St Thomas did not have the excursion people getting in line any earlier than others. Is this something new? Ours was a mess also!

 

We did Sunny Liston's tour a year ago and loved it!!!!! Everyone should take his tour at least once. :)

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caribbeanchickie

caribbeanchickie

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Glad you had a good time. We had a blast in December!

 

I'm going to pull out my papers to double check but our immigration in St Thomas did not have the excursion people getting in line any earlier than others. Is this something new? Ours was a mess also!

 

We did Sunny Liston's tour a year ago and loved it!!!!! Everyone should take his tour at least once. :)

 

I'm not sure if this is something new but it happened during ours. This was our first visit to St. Thomas.

 

I don't recall it being in the Caper but it did come in writing on a separate sheet. I am in the process of scanning everything now.

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MICHSUNLOVER

MICHSUNLOVER

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Hey Purr -- nice review -- thanks for taking the time to write it.

Looking forward to seeing your pics!

BTW don't hold it against St. Thomas for the immigration fiasco. It's not because you stopped there, it's because you stopped in the Bahama's first at the beautiful Half Moon Cay! The US requires everyone to go thru immigration when they have stopped at a foreign port and then are stopping at an American port - at least that's what I've been told.

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caribbeanchickie

caribbeanchickie

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Hey Purr -- nice review -- thanks for taking the time to write it.

Looking forward to seeing your pics!

 

BTW don't hold it against St. Thomas for the immigration fiasco. It's not because you stopped there, it's because you stopped in the Bahama's first at the beautiful Half Moon Cay! The US requires everyone to go thru immigration when they have stopped at a foreign port and then are stopping at an American port - at least that's what I've been told.

 

THANK YOU for clearing up the St Thomas mess. It all makes sense now. I would LOVE to visit St Thomas again but it would have to be the first port. :rolleyes:

 

I should have the pics posted later this evening.

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shawnandlea

shawnandlea

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we were on the triumph the week before you were(i posted a review a few days ago) .as i was reading your review i was trying to figure out why you had to go thru immigration but i now understand, we went to san juan first then st. thomas,i guess thats why we didnt have to go thru it . we loved st thomas and are now looking for a cruis next year that goes there so now i know not to book one that goes anywhere else first. we had a great waitstaff in the dineing room and a great room stewart so i guess we were just lucky. we loved the triumph and might sail her again sometime if it ever leaves from somewhere besides miami. but i agree with you for sure that if you leave looking to have a good time you will have one and if you leave planning for everything to be perfect you'll be very disapointed and i dont think it matters what ship your on for that to be true... thanks for the review

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caribbeanchickie

caribbeanchickie

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we were on the triumph the week before you were(i posted a review a few days ago) .as i was reading your review i was trying to figure out why you had to go thru immigration but i now understand, we went to san juan first then st. thomas,i guess thats why we didnt have to go thru it . we loved st thomas and are now looking for a cruis next year that goes there so now i know not to book one that goes anywhere else first. we had a great waitstaff in the dineing room and a great room stewart so i guess we were just lucky. we loved the triumph and might sail her again sometime if it ever leaves from somewhere besides miami. but i agree with you for sure that if you leave looking to have a good time you will have one and if you leave planning for everything to be perfect you'll be very disapointed and i dont think it matters what ship your on for that to be true... thanks for the review

 

I would love to go back to St Thomas but will make sure it is the first port of call. Hmmm, i've looked at several today and can't seem to find many with it being the first port of call.....:(

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caribbeanchickie

caribbeanchickie

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The anniversary decorations looked great. I'm trying to decide to do this or not as a surprise for my hubby. We'll be sailing on Triumph in May for our 16th wedding anniversary. Still thinking....

 

IMHO: I would purchase them again. I loved them and they do add a nice touch to the room. There are more of the decorations that need to be posted. I will try and have them done tonight for you.

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caribbeanchickie

caribbeanchickie

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Thanks for posting the pictures --- loved seeing the cabin pictures. The pink bathrooms always make me laugh :p

 

The decorations you had looked really cool too!

 

Nice formal picture of you and your sweetie.

 

 

The "Pink" bathrooms are not my DH favorite...lol

 

I LOVED our formal pic this time. :D

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