Cruise Review Triumph 6/15-6/20

[TonyinFla]

DD and DW are getting ready to go out and play in the city so I thought I would get a start. No picutres on the first part as we didn't take any upon embarkation.....

 

 

Cruisers: DD Bailey, 16, 5th cruise: DW, Laurie, 39, 11th cruise: Me! Tony, 39, 21st cruise

Ship: Triumph

New York City, St John New Brunswick, Halifax Nova Scotia, New York City

5 days

June 15th: Emarkation.

We stayed in the LaGuardia Marriot. It was a very clean and freshly redone hotel. The staff was friendly and very helpful. It is just minutes from LaGuardia airport, but miles from anything else. It seems they just stuck this up in a residential neighborhood. The dinner the night before was excellent, but a little pricey for what we wanted. We decided to skip the breakfast buffet, and got a car to the cruise port. The town car was nice and very comfortable. We were a little nervous because we found there are two cruise terminals in New York, and we were headed to the one in Manhattan. DD and I both let out a little sigh of relief as we turned the corner on 42nd street and saw the Triumph. The ride from the hotel took about thirty minutes and cost $60.00 including a $10.00 tip.

We arrived at the port at about 10:45 am. Generally when we cruise out of Tampa we are on the ship before 11:30 am so we thought our timing was great. We quickly had our luggage on a cart and with the help of a porter had it tagged, said goodbye, and wished it a safe trip to our cabin. We then were guided to a counter with no line, had our passports checked and was issued our gold (we have to work on getting our platinum cards) sail n sign cards. We then were directed to a sitting area and told we could board at 12:30 or so…….. it was 10:55…….. time to wait. L….. I hate waiting and have NO patience. We were told we could leave the port and come back later, but Laurie and Bailey decided I would survive a short wait. We were given a boarding number and asked to sit down. There was a lone guy with a hot dog stand in the port so we decided a hot dog breakfast might help my lack of ability to wait. The hot dog guy, who I decided was a master entrepreneur because of his monopoly on three thousand people, got us three hot dogs and two pops for ten bucks. My wife and I had a quick discussion about how cheap that was and that we’d charge five bucks per hot dog and three dollars per pop since no one had another choice. Ironically a lady walked up to us and asked how much our gourmet breakfast costs, and was appalled when I uttered the words 10 bucks. She then mumbled at us that there was free food on deck and why would anyone pay such an outrageous price. I gave her my patented “you are annoying me so go away look”, and thought to myself it’s my gourmet breakfast why would she care what I paid for it. Besides I thought it was good. It’s now 11:05 and I STILL have an hour and a half to wait so I decided to call people and brag about the fact I was getting on a cruise and they are not. After calling my Mom, Dad, and best friends I realized they didn’t think I was funny so I called my assistant and secretary and MADE them listen to me. Something to note: there is an announcement in the port that says you cannot use cameras, camcorders, cell phones, or any video recording device. I, of course, shrugged this off because I was not using my phone for a recording device. WELL! This lady in a uniform with patches all over it informed me that if I didn’t get off my phone and again SIT DOWN; she would take my phone. I informed my assistant that she was just saved and hung up and shrank down in my chair like a scolded puppy.

An amazing thing happened at 11:45…. They started to let us on the ship. Platinum club first (darn it I need to work on that) then mobility impaired, then zone 1 (we were zone 2)!!!!!!!!, then a wedding party, then some random group of people who were not zone two, then more waiting and some confusion, then a lady yelled in the middle of the port EVERYONE CAN NOW GET ON! What happened to zone two, or three, or ten? Why have zones? No big deal I guess because we were sitting close to the roped area to get on and we were headed up!

We were, of course, told that we should go to the Lido deck for lunch, and our cabin would be ready at 1:30. We went straight to closest bar, and I got a Skyy on the rocks with a splash of Grapefruit and Laurie had a Bloody Mary. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah cruising at last.

[cruise_pirate]

Love your writing style keep it up cannot wait to hear more!

[jimbri]

Thanks so much. Will be looking for updates.

[co2stay]

I am anxiously awaiting more of this. We leave in 26 days on the same itinerary. Can't wait for your pictures too.

 

Thank you for posting.

[LisaT12]

Can't wait to hear more.....................:D

[TonyinFla]

Ok.. an hour and a half until True Blood, and after a great day running around the village I guess I’ll reveal a little more..................

After sitting at the Lido bar for a few moments and enjoying the pure pleasure of sitting on a Lido deck we decided to find some food. Bailey had waited a full 1.5 minutes and ditched us to find her Cruise Critics friends from her online world.

We found our way to the South Beach Club which is a very nice buffet area on the Lido deck. I found this area far superior to the old lido deck Dog and Burger buffets, actually comfortable. The line was short, and I grabbed some cheese ( J ) some potato things, and had some roast beef carved for me. Something to note: The gravy or au jus comes before the person slicing the meat… sooo hold your ground have the meat sliced on to your plate then add you au jus from behind. I noticed some professional buffet types did not like my reaching back for au jus, but I couldn’t imagine splatting a ladle of the meat nectar on my plate and risk getting it on my cheese (J ). Laurie filled her plate with some green stuff, rabbit food, and nuts and berries. We surveyed the room, headed towards the back and discovered our favorite area on the ship… The New World Pool area. It has a convertible roof, pool, and adult’s only hot tubs. We guessed it was the new adult area, but no signs to that effect were visible. The best part of this deck was the tables at the back next to full length windows that looked out on the world. We found the entire trip we were able to sit and watch the world go by from these observation windows. The view that day was of some land across from Manhattan. Brooklyn? Bronx? Queens? Boston? England? Who knows, but it was fun to look at. We watched the New York Duck (google it if you don’t know) run around and had people taking pictures of us. We watched the Statue of Liberty, we watched the world.

<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~bluenail/cruise09/DSCN2425.JPG">

Bailey Showed up and was hungry so we looked for more food. We found the New York Deli, which is just a window on the side of the South Beach Club. I ordered a Turkey and Swiss cheese ( J ) , Laurie and Bailey had some stuff with green stuff on it. I must say the pressed turkey and swiss cheese (J) was my favorite sandwich I had had all day. After a quick sandwich Bailey said, “its 1:10, maybe our room is ready”. We headed alllllllllllll the way down to the Riviera deck. Where we were greeted with steel doors, so back up we went.

We then found our way to the new world bar and ordered another Skyy on the rocks with a splash of Grapefuit. The bartender offered me a double, and I asked, “ is there a special on doubles?”. I discovered they have a wonderful special on doubles… you get two shots in one glass for twice the price. Me one to never pass up a GREAT drink deal was happy to have a double. After a few drinks Laurie and I thought…. PICTURES!

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More Later..

[TonyinFla]

hhhmmm ok, I can't find how to make my photo's work. I used html, and got nothing.

[LisaT12]

Looking forward to hearing more..........

[TonyinFla]

Ok Maybe these will help/

[Valley Twin]

Enjoying your review, Tony. I leave on the same cruise a week from today!

[njdgs]

Thanks for the review. I'm looking forward to more.

 

Do you happen to have any of the Carnival Capers from this trip? If so could you scan in a typical day at sea?

[JaniceB]

I am really enjoying your review this morning. I leave on the Triumph on Thursday for the condensed version of your trip.

 

Janice

[TonyinFla]

Ok I worked on this on the air ride home. I do have all the capers and will scan in the next couple of days. I will also be glad to answer questions as I ramble on.......... HERE WE GO>>>>>>>>

 

After shooting some pictures and running around it was 1:45 and time to see if our room was ready. We went aaaaaalllllll the way down to deck one the Riviera deck and entered our little interior cabin directly on top of the motors….side note: We have booked suites, large balconies, small balconies, window, and port hole rooms. This is our first interior, and we were a little worried. We booked because it was a Carnival discounted cruise, and we were trying to go as cheap as possible in this economy yet still have a great vacation. It was a success…… The room was very small with the bunk for Bailey hanging out of the ceiling. See the room picture in my next group of thumbs for an idea. There was about a 3x3 place to stand and an exit past the closet and the bathroom. The bathroom was surprisingly large, and aside from the suites the largest bathroom we’ve ever had. It has a large medicine cabinet, and plenty of counter space. We didn’t even need the over the door shoe holder we brought. We ended up using it for shoes of all things?

Next the muster drill… quick and easy

Then off for some more exploring. We quickly discovered everything is accessible via the promenade deck 5. ……..A rule of navigating the ship: go to deck 5 and walk to which ever stair case is nearest your destination, and go up or down to find your end. We found our Paris dining room at the back of the ship under the South Beach Grill, we looked around the casino, and decided to head up and watch the departure and statue of Liberty. We grabbed our camera and headed up. raining and windy and cold oh my! Most people were under cover on the decks as we sailed, but not us we stood in the un-Florida like wind and watched as we passed the Statue of Liberty. Again we have some thumbnail pictures below. A nice lady offered to take our picture as we passed the Statue, but the picture has Laurie’s hair straight up in the wind and stuck to her forehead, so I am not allowed to publish that one.

Leaving the harbor was a bit rocky, but nothing that bothered us much. We found Bailey and told her Dinner was at 8:15, so please be dressed and in the dining room by 8:25… We always wait ten minutes and avoid the cattle call line at the dining room. We arrived at dinner and found we had a booth to ourselves. I guessed that is because of the years of people having to put up with me at the tables and the complaints on their comment cards. Laurie adamantly agreed. The first night we met our wait staff…. kinda… He was friendly and fast. We never got his name or a conversation; just “hello Mr. Tony what can we get you tonight”. They were accommodating, prompt, accurate, but we got no personality.

After a dinner of shrimp cocktail, salad, bbq ribs, and lava cake; we found the piano bar where there were a couple of groups of people. They were already singing and dancing and laughing and a guy was on the piano it was GREAT. Then the real Piano bar guy came out and we were more than amused at the fact we were singing along with some dude from Miami who was simply a passenger with many of the daily specials inside of him. The piano bar, though never busy turned out to be our favorite night spot… more on that later…. With many drinks in us, and a busy day of hot dog vendors, drink specials, dinner, and imposter piano dudes We decided to go aaaaallllllllll the way down to deck one and turn in to our itty bitty interior on top of the motor room. Good Night. (Oh yeah Bailey made it in at her appointed time of 1:30 am J )

 

 

[lisaannm]

:DThank you for your review! Looking forward to more - we are leaving on the same cruise on 8/1

[JaniceB]

Nice to hear that the muster drill was painless.

 

Janice

[we3k9]

"imposter piano dude" soo so funny, I am really loving your review:)

[Vitamin_Sea]

Oh man...Thats a funny review so far. We sail the same boat next month. Im eagerly awaiting to read your next chapter!:p Being on top of the motors must have been a joy at sleep time..LOL

[OrlandoD]

Did I read correctly that this ship has no supper club?!:(

[urbanhawk]

I am enjoying your review-will be going on same itinerary on Labor Day. Will be interested in knowing about the excursions you did.

(OrlandoD-I am 99% sure the Triumph does not have a supper club :().....

[cathalane]

Did I read correctly that this ship has no supper club?!:(

 

 

Nope, no supper club on this ship...

[SkippyFN]

Thank you for your excellent review, my family and I will be taking this cruise July 13th, and since this will be our first cruise, we are trying to get as much info as possible.

 

Frank

[WAcruisers]

Love the humor!

[TonyinFla]

My first day back at work has been rough. I think I’ll finish the day by reliving our first day at sea.

Because of some decision made 17 years ago on a late night/ early morning at Laurie’s apartment I now always sleep on the left side of the bed. This has always been fine with me, until I realized the left side of the bed in this smallest cabin aaaaaallllll the way down on top of the motors is against the wall and has the carnival tv block at the end of the bed. Once in; there is no way out without climbing over Laurie, which is one of my favorite pastimes unless it is followed by ducking under Bailey. At the ripe age of 39 I don’t seem to have the going to the bathroom all night issues, but we did just drink all day. We brought a night light, but it was too bright of a night light, so we navigated the little room by the light of the bathroom with the door shut. That doesn’t seem like much light until you realize the room is 100% pitch black dark 24/7. A mole would run into the damn ladder in this room. Anyways……. I slept very well on the left side wall. The bedding is very comfortable, and Bailey reports her bunk in the sky was nice as well. We awoke at sometime between 4 am, and 4 pm. It was so dark who could tell? After tripping over Laurie, stubbing my toe on the damn ladder to Bailey’s bunk in the sky, and fumbling around I found my cell phone and discovered it was 10 a.m. Laurie ad I quietly as we could got around and headed up 9 floors to the lido deck for some BACON! I was ready for the bacon police! I practiced my lines… “can I have a couple of more please; or Can I have some more please; or please kind sir might I have another piece of bacon on this fine day?” As it was later in the morning some of the many food lines on the lido deck were shutting down for lunch. I found the line by the pool was empty though, so I headed out to fight for my BACON! I first noticed why that line was empty; it was 8 degrees with gale force winds, and rain coming straight sideways by the pool. But I’m determined to never stand in a line so I grabbed the rail and pushed my way to the BACON!. I held out my plate and prepared my lines. I looked the bacon policeman in the eye and started to shiver out….cccccaan I I I h h have ……. He didn’t bat an eye and gave me a mountain of BACON!. I didn’t even get my recite my lines? He just gave me lots of BACON! Where is the drama in that. I quickly grabbed some milk and some cheese ( J) and shivered my way back inside and to our favorite spot on the back on the boat. That’s when I realized I was cold sitting by the pool. There were girls laying out in bikini’s ( J), and people sitting at the bar not shivering. I then discovered another amazing thing about the Triumph…… The New world spa area has a retractable dome, just like a football stadium on a ship! Now I’m not easily impressed, but when its 8 degrees with gail force winds, and raining straight sideways on my cruise, and 40 feet away its 84 degrees and there are bikini’s I’M IMPRESSED!! see thumb nails below.

After some BACON, and other stuff we gave up our view on the back of the ship and went off in search of a Capers to find our next activity. We used my super secret of going down to deck 5 and found our way to the casino bar where there was a trivia game under way and a stack of capers. We had our cruise critic meet and greet at two and found the wine tasting was at 2 as well. We also had the art auction at one, and the slot tourney at 1, with the slot tourney finals at three which of course I was going to be in. All of this started in about an hour so Laurie wanted to read by the magic pool, and I needed to check email.

I ran aaaaaalllllll the way down to our room and discovered Bailey had made her way up and out. I grabbed my lap top and looked and looked for a wireless network in the room. I was surprised even aaaaallllll the way down in the back of the ship on top of the motors I had a wireless signal. The charge for internet was .75 per minute, 16.00 for half an hour, and 24.95 for an hour with a free ten minutes if you signed up for an hour. Since my job is never ending I signed up for an hour and had a little work stress for ten minutes. I then went back up to deck 9 and found Laurie and Bailey sitting at our favorite spot watching the world go by. Bailey had to meet some friends at one, and we were going to head to the art auction. We went back down to level five and there was a huge line waiting for the art auction, which of course I wasn’t going to do, so I suggested we go to the lobby bar buy a glass of Champaign (the only reason to go the art auction anyway), and discuss the joy of not standing in that line. After about a half an hour I decided the line at the slot tourney was probably down so we headed to the casino……. Note to Newbies: You have to buy a ticket to play the slot tourney so go straight to the money window in the casino and say “I vant to do zee slots toornmtski veese”. They will smile and take your 20 bucks or in my case 40, and hand you the tickets. You then take the tickets to the guy with the microphone who is trying to make something exciting, hand him the tickets and again say, “I vant to do zee slots toornmtski veese”. He will then write your name down and tell you when and which slot machine to go too. He called me to slot machine 6 and Laurie to 7. They started playing music and we were off…. Spin, spin faster faster, 7,7, 7YEA 7,7,7 WOOOHOOOO!!!!! Yes I have 900…. 7,7,7 NOW 1200, 7,7,7 YES! 1500, I’m going to win… I grinned and glanced at Laurie hoping she could hear my quiet and under spoken WOOOHOOOO! And she had 3,600? What the? Then she had 4,500, then 5,600.. I was spinning more and got more sevens now I had 1600, and Laurie had 5900???? How could this be? I must spin more now I have 1700, spin more! Times up I had 1750, and Laurie had 6,450? Surely that must be some kind of freak of nature and my 1750 was a second and her score was just un-natural. After all I had a lot of sevens, and my machine was smiling at me and dancing with me. We got up and watched the updating of the board and Laurie was third? Third? If she was third how was my spectacular 1750 going to get me in the finals. Uh oh its about 2…..

Now we had a tough decision wine tasting or meet and greet. Hhhhhhmmmmmmmm Wine Tasting! …Note to wine snobs: The wine flight consisted of Woodbridge cab and white zin, Penfields chard, and a German sweet wine, and a Bordeaux. None of which are wine a tasters dream. For ten bucks it was fun though. We met Bob and Kathy at our little round table. The wine glass placers and wine pourers were a bit behind, and Kathy did not have any glasses when we started, and Laurie did not have cabernet… but we were laughing, and talking. The wine guy was funny and actually very knowledgeable, I am glad we did, we had fun, but might not do it again. We’ve been to Napa, Sonoma, and I even worked for Gallo so the wine selection was a tad disappointing. OOOPS its 5 till three and Laurie is off to the slot finals... we hope.

We worked our way past a bean bag toss game, a trivia game, and some singers at the casino (obviously nothing going on) to the slot tourney. The last group was spinning and Laurie was safely one of the 7 finalist. J She was already spending her 500 dollar first prize when they called her name. She got a t-shirt, a bracelet thing, spoke on the microphone, and then they brought it ….. the golden prize… who cares about 500.00 (me but anyways) it was the “ship on a stick”! The golden trophy, a piece of ship, triumph gold, plastic… that is. Well the first thing ya know Laurie was spinning a way. The crowd folks say Laurie spin real fast. She spun and spun and finished second runner up, third that is. No ship, no money.

About 4 now it must be happy hour!

[TonyinFla]

I can't find the edit button on this one. Sorry about the odd english usage. ie gale winds and gail winds. :)

[Jules123]

Loving this review!