Cruise Review Triumph 6/15-6/20

[TonyinFla]

Land is real time one hour earlier, but we stay on ship time. So its always the same.

[TonyinFla]

We returned to the ship with no issue. We dropped of our stuff in the room, and went up in search of food. We found the Asian food window was open ( as I mentioned before the deli, and Asian food area are windows in the side of the south beach grill. They are hard to find as they blend in with the line to the grill) Laurie got some green things, and sprout things, I went to the Deli and got a pressed turkey and swiss cheese (J). I was still a little hungry so I went to the pizza place and got a piece of pepperoni. The pizza place seemed to never run out of slices. They did a good job of keeping fresh pizza moving, and the line moved rapidly. After some lunch we were off to have a cocktail, and wait for the boat to leave. We found our way into the sports bar, a smoking bar, and watched sports center. Laurie wanted to get some pics of the port as we left so we went to the super secret deck 9 front door, to the super secret front deck. See pics below on how to find this deck. The boat started moving and the temperature went from 75 to 2 in a minute. We got some pics I attached below. The blurriness was from us shivering while we tried to shoot the pics.

We decided to find something different so we found the Oxford bar. This bar is on deck four across from the Paris Dining room; it is also the way to the internet café. It’s decorated like a library, and is known as cigar bar. We met the best bar server on the ship. I didn’t get her name, I am terrible with names, but if you’re on the ship go to this bar and watch for the very energetic blond. She has a huge smile and is always selling. She sold me from a Skyy on the rocks to a double Grey Goose, and sold Laurie a top shelf Cosmo. As I took my first sip of my drink she walked by and asked if I would like to try a cigar. The combination of straight Grey Goose hitting the back of my throat, the smoke of other people’s cigars, and me trying to say no thank you made me let out a huge cough, and I SHOT GREY GOOSE THROUGH MY NOSE! I thought she was going to fall on the floor laughing, and said she is sooo sorry she’ll never offer me a cigar again. I tried to explain that it was not the offer, but she wouldn’t hear of it. Every time we saw her for the rest of the boat she made a point to walk over and NOT offer me a cigar.

Dinner was pork chops and something else. Again; decent but not great food. We decided to go up to the piano bar after dinner. The piano player looks and acts just like the singing Lawyer from scrubs. He was offering a Carnival key chain for answering some trivia questions and being able to name that tune. I saw that key chain and had to have it. After all I have keys, he has a key chain; it seemed a necessity to me. While he was playing a Billy Joel tune a string broke on the piano (see pic below). He opened up the piano and counted 22 broken strings. He said carnival has not repaired, or tuned the piano in a year. I was amazed he and the imposter piano player could play tunes. Of course I have no piano ability and for all I know you don’t even need strings they could just be used to amuse the kittens inside the piano.

The adult comedian was starting at 12, so we left the piano bar (with no key chain L) and made our way to the comedian. The Rio lounge was not full, and we had no trouble finding our own table. The comedian started out a little slow, then got slower. He made an occasional genital reference and threw out the “f” word here or there and thought that made him funny. I actually dosed off. So we went aaaaallll the way down to our little bitty tiniest back of the boat, on the motor cabin and turned in for our day in Halifax.

We awoke again at some unknown time to the quiet massage and rattle of the boat parking. This really the only time we felt the motors. It reminded me of a massage bed in a cheap hotel….. not that I’ve ever been in one of those hourly cheap hotels that you have to carry your sheets to the room…. After some breakfast at our favorite spot on the back of the boat we headed for the port.

The port in Halifax is a large, and opens to a nice shopping area. We decided to do the on and off tour. This is a group double decker buses that circles the city with a tour guide telling about spots. You can get on and off at stops and wonder around until the next bus comes by. We have done this in New York many times so were ready for. We booked it in the port thinking we could save some money, but they took our sail and sign card and charged 50.00 each. I thought it was 35 on the ship, not sure though. We headed out and hopped on a bus. The tour guide on this and the other buses was a 60’ish retired lady with white hair, and has the same jokes about the same spots. I don’t know where they found so many of the exact same person, but they did. I thought they must have had auditions. It was 76 sunny, and this is when we discovered they don’t have air-conditioning on these buses. The upstairs was like a microwave with no way to open the windows. We saw some cool buildings gained knowledge of Halifax, went to a fort watched the changing of the guard, and went to the maritime museum. As it turns out Halifax is where they brought the dead from the Titanic. I was excited to see some Titanic artifacts, after all I liked the movie. We paid 12 bucks each to get in the museum, and were disappointed to see they only had a fork, and a deck chair from the Titanic. It did have some interesting model ships, and a history of an explosion that flattened the city in world war one.

We headed back for the ship and stopped at a small brew pub at the port. They only sell samples so we bought 1 sample of each of the six beers on tap. This was the best part of the trip. The small shots of beer were a buck each, and fun to taste. I involved some other people milling around the place, and ended up with a small group enjoying the tasting. When we were done, we found they make a Jalapeño beer, which we had to try. It was in a bottle and they got us a few cups to pass to some to the people who were tasting the beer with us. I must say jalapeno beer is interesting. It has a hot pepper bight, and has a beer flavor. I Decided I’ll just stay with beer and poppers when I want jalapeno and beer. After some shopping and a few souvenirs’ we were back on the ship looking for some food.

The first pics are of deck nine's (lido deck) super secret door and deck.

[TonyinFla]

Here are a couple of pictures of Halifax, the Oxford bar, and Laurie saying goodbye to Halifax.

[TonyinFla]

A picture of Peter Brenner the Piano man holding a broken piano string, a picture of me admiring the towel creature, the lobby bar and entrance to the oxford bar.

[urbanhawk]

Really enjoying your review, and zaney/zesty style of writing,Tony.

The first pics are of deck nine's (lido deck) super secret door and deck.

I'll be in one of the 3 8G cabins on the Lido deck in Sept. These 3 cabins are at the very front of the ship-by using the secret door, is this how passengers access the Lido deck for the front of the ship? Thanks. Urbanhawk

[BBigfoot613]

Really enjoying your review, and zaney/zesty style of writing,Tony.

The first pics are of deck nine's (lido deck) super secret door and deck.

I'll be in one of the 3 8G cabins on the Lido deck in Sept. These 3 cabins are at the very front of the ship-by using the secret door, is this how passengers access the Lido deck for the front of the ship? Thanks. Urbanhawk

 

Ok I had to look... you are in 4g's at the front of the lido. these are the rooms with the big windows. The pic of the door with the cart sitting next to it is the first door. The one that's just a door is the outside door. I reccomend letting door #1 close before opening door #2 (especially while sailing). The "secret deck" is that deck at the front of the ship. I know it's on the triumph and the victory in the same place.

[urbanhawk]

Thanks for the info, Brian-it was helpful....(and, yes, 4 G, not 8G:o)

[TonyinFla]

The super secret deck also has a stair case that leads to another secret deck. Both are accessable with adoor at the front of the ship past the cabins. Most ships have these, they just aren't easily found.

[daisitroy]

:pThanks for the very entertaining and enjoyable review of the Triumph. Will be sailing in July on this trip and have enjoyed reading about your trip.

Dot

[4nlalaland]

Hey Tony...

We too were on the June 15th cruise... wow didn't we get really lucky with the weather at both ports? it was so nice.... in Halifax we did so much walking that I actually came back with a tan:)

We too missed the meet and greet... I was on pacific coast time and lost track of time. I thought my daughter had located your daughter on the ship(because she was hanging around with some girls the first day) but I guess they never connected. We sat with some really great table mates... which included a nice girl her age... well glad to hear you and your family had a good time... I'm really enjoying your review.

[TonyinFla]

Hi there. Yes the weather was incredible in the ports. The Halagainians were saying that its never that nice that time of year.

 

Bailey ran around with Brittany, Jennifer and Jennifer's brother from the role call board, and thought she spotted your daughter but was never sure. She had a great time as well.

[we3k9]

Were there people out on the pool deck watching movies at night? How foggy /rainy/ cold / were the sea days? did you have rough seas at all? :confused:

[TonyinFla]

They ran music all day on the big screen. It was decnt music like Mariah, Beyonce', etc. It was quite cold with rain. Some people sat in the hot tubs during the day. I didn't go out at night because of the high winds, huge waives, and cold temps; and I doubt anyone was out there watching TV. I was on the outside deck on deck three on the last day at sea and the waives were actually coming over the rails. I'll get into that with my last day review later today.

[candigirl41]

Great review.

 

Candi

[Maraprince]

They ran music all day on the big screen. It was decnt music like Mariah, Beyonce', etc. It was quite cold with rain. Some people sat in the hot tubs during the day. I didn't go out at night because of the high winds, huge waives, and cold temps; and I doubt anyone was out there watching TV. I was on the outside deck on deck three on the last day at sea and the waives were actually coming over the rails. I'll get into that with my last day review later today.

Hate to tell you this, but here goes. In Halifax the town provides a free shuttle bus called "HAL" that goes all around the downtown area stopping at all the main points -- hop on, hop off. You pick it up at the extreme left of the ship near the main road.

 

The double decker bus you paid for in Halifax probably was from the ship if they allowed you to use your cruise card.

 

 

MARAPRINCE

[4nlalaland]

I think the free bus does not start running until July????

[TonyinFla]

The end is near……

We got on the ship and back to the super secret deck hoping to get some more pictures of Canada as we left. The mighty Triumph tooted twice and away we went. The ship actually backed up for nearly a half of mile before doing a 5 point turn. It reminded me of teaching Bailey how to drive for her License test. We shot a few pics and headed down to get a drink to fend off our after beer tasting sleepiness. We went to the lobby bar. We listened to our new favorite guy on a guitar: D.B. Rouse. He has a great variety of his own music and gave us a CD he recorded. He also gave his card with his Myspace so we could listen to more of his music. www.myspace.com/dbrouse. I haven’t had time to visit his Myspace yet, but I do think he is good.

We kind of floated through the evening and dinner. We decided to make the Toga party at midnight in the disco, so we had to take it easy on the drinks as the night went. We tried the casino, 2 cents slots, and black jack make a bad combo. Then our favorite piano bar where I still couldn’t win the key chain, and finally the disco. I was disappointed to find people had clothes on under their sheets. The disco didn’t get very busy at all. We stayed until about 2 am. We danced a little with some small groups, but I guess everyone was tired from their day in Halifax.

The final day at sea was a rough one. I tried to take some pics of the waves coming over the rail on deck three; see below. We really took it easy that day. We played cards, listened to some music, and watched the ocean go by. Normally we are sad on this last day, but we had two more full days in NYC ahead of us, so it was just a lazy day.

When we went to dinner I took some cash to extra tip our nameless waiter and second waiter. Dinner was normal and we ordered desert, and he disappeared. I mean gone! Twenty minutes went by with no final drink, no cappuccino, no melted lava cake… nothing. So I took my twenty dollar bills I had for him and the second waiter and went to the casino. His loss I guess, mine 15 minutes later.

We said our goodbyes to our favorite piano bar guy, our favorite guy on a guitar, and our favorite photo guy who was still blogging about my girth. On our last several cruises we self disembarked, but since we had nowhere to go and plenty of time we thought we’d wait it out and enjoy breakfast. This turned out to be a bad choice. Being aaaaallllll the way down in the smallest back of the boat on top of the motor room made us the last people to leave the boat. We didn’t leave until 11:15 a.m. By 9 am they had picked up all the breakfast and we were left with water and our cell phones to play with. This was by far the worst wait on the ship, and I will always self disembark from now on.

Tony’s ratings 1 to 5

Food … 2.5

Entertainment .. 5

Room… 5 ( I know! but we slept well and it was cheap)

Bailey’s fun.. 5

Drink Quality.. 3

Activities.. 4

Laurie’s fun.. 5

Ship.. 4

And most importantly.. Tony’s fun.. 5 ( I always have fun though)

Until our next Cruise…….. C Ya!

[we3k9]

 

We kind of floated through the evening and dinner.

The final day at sea was a rough one. I tried to take some pics of the waves coming over the rail on deck three; see below

I didnt see any photos in this chapter. With waves that big were there alot of people sick? How high were these waves, this makes me nervous:(

[TonyinFla]

So sorry I guess the pictures didn't post. I will re-load when I get home. I'm on my I-phone now. For me and Laurie and Bailey it did not seem too rough. We did see 13 martinis fall over at the martini bar. It was rocking, but I heard they didn't put out the stabilizers. When I was young and on NCL's Starward, Southward, and Sunward I felt rocking. I remember one night our entire dinner table and many's around us crashing into the dinning room wall. I also remember falling down while shooting basketball. This was nothing like that, but it did spill a few drinks. :)

[SkippyFN]

Can you give me a ballpark of the drink prices?

 

Great review!!

 

Frank

[TonyinFla]

A call drink was 5.13 with tip. A double was 10.26 with tip. A grey goose double on the rocks served by the best bar maid in the Oxford bar was 18.00. My complaint was the little amount they poured. It was a measured shot glass and didn't come to the line. Cash tips, asking, and my pretty blue eyes couldn't get a better pour. I never complain to them though. I just order more and pay for it. The double worked; I guess. Its actually the worste drinks I've evr had on a ship, but again no worries just order more.

[co2stay]

Tony,

Thank you so much for the very fun review. I await more pictures!

 

We also are doing a couple of days in NY after the cruise. What did you do there? We have tickets to go see The 39 Steps, are staying at the Fairfield Inn Times Square and the younger folk hope we have an opportunity to hit one of the comedy clubs. We will see if that gets fit in.

 

Thanks again!

[A.S.]

Thanks so much for your review and the added info, but I have to ask.

 

Did you experience any of the complaints from others on this cruise such as, horendous lines at the buffets, large rude groups, broken beverage stations, and elevators not running?

[TonyinFla]

We like to go to the city about once a year, so its not new to us. We took a cab to SOHO and shopped, then hung out in the village. We ddin't see a show this time but normally do. We did take the subway and tried to figuere it which was a first.

 

A.S. I was actually surprised at how nice everyone on this cruise was. We are very sensitive to rude, annoying people but didn't notice anything of the sort. The only complaints I heard were over the food. I didn't think the food was bad, just not great. I noticed some very long lines like at lunch in the dinning room, the art auction, and the south beach grill.... I just didn't stand in them.

[Calker]

Your review was a hoot -