luvmy2boyzz

The Alchemist Sidecar! Fav bar The Alchemy bar :D

Great review luvny2boyzz -- My wife & I along with twin grandkids (11 year old twins) that have never been on a vacation much less a cruise or leaving on the Triumph Feb. 12th on a 5 day cruise. The kids are excited and counting down the days (the cruise is during Mardi-Gras break -- they are off school for the week. We have a balcony on Deck 10 & I was curious of how the room (beds) are arranged. I would appreciate & would share any pictures of the room with me to be prepared for what to expect.

Thanks

Here you go!

We just got off the Triumph on Monday. We had a blast. I found nothing wrong with the ship. My room steward was not as attentive as I'd like, ( no tp stocked 2 days in a row!) and the food in the dining room was hit or miss, best meal was the night we ordered fillet from the steakhouse menu but otherwise it was clean and the crew was very friendly. I would sail her again.

much better, some ships are getting Starbucks

Ick... No Starbucks :eek: The drinks at the Vienna Cafe on the Triumph were a thousand times better than Starbucks.

This is my first Carnival cruise and my first ever cruise review! For reference, I have cruised Costa, Holland America, Norwegian and Disney.

My group included, Myself, DS 21, DS 19 and DS's girlfriend 19.

Our flight arrived from Milwaukee at 9:40 am Thursday morning. Because I am not familiar with New Orleans I elected to grab a cab at the airport because that seemed the easiest route. In the future I will use Uber, then cab fare for 4 was $60.00! Expensive in my opinion. We arrived at the port around 11 am, our check in time was 11:30-12. We were met by a porter who took our luggage and told me we should be able to head right into the terminal. I wasn't sure about this since it was not technically our check in time yet but we headed over to the terminal and handed out boarding passes over. The lady said "Oh you are faster to the fun" " Head right in" I did not pay for faster to the fun and did not think anything of the little faster to the fun logo on my boarding pass... I thought they all looked like that. Anyway, we walked right in and everywhere we showed our passes they said the same... you are faster to the fun. Hmm...? The final lady we checked in with must have seen somewhere that we did not pay for faster to the fun because she crossed it out. No problem here.. I was fine with that. She took our pictures and gave us our sail and sign cards and we were sent to group 3 to wait for boarding.

We boarded around 11:45-12 pm and headed to the Lido deck for lunch. We opted for burgers from Guys, the line was short and the burgers were pretty good. I am not a fan of seasoned fries but the seasoning was not overwhelming and they were pretty tasty. The only thing I had some reservations about were the cloth napkins. I understand the need to keep paper waste to a minimum but they were quite dingy.

After lunch we explored the ship some, while waiting for our cabin to be ready. At 1:30 we headed to our cabin on deck 7 . The cabin was ready and our luggage was waiting outside our door. We had a Balcony cabin with 2 twin beds one sofa bed and a pull down. We had plenty of storage with the 3 closets, ample shelving and drawers. We stored our suitcases under the bed. There was plenty of space for 4 adults. Our cabin steward was not around and we did not meet him until I had to call for towels since there were 4 of us in the cabin but only 3 towels. I have not cruised since 2004 but in all 5 of my prior cruises the cabin steward has always been very visible at all times. This was one of only two times I ever came in contact with my cabin steward. We chose evening service for our room since I knew my boys would want to sleep in and the steward said since we had late dining he would come at that time to take care of the room. The only other time I saw him was on day 3 when he came by early 3 times to try to clean the room. He was a nice enough fellow, but I really didn't get the opportunity to get know him and truthfully I was disappointed in his service. Two nights in a row he did not stock the toilet paper and left us with a half roll. :o The first night I called down and they told me he was off duty but they would send someone up. The second time no one answered the phone :loudcry: Good thing there was an extra box of kleenex! Seriously, I am pretty easy to please but needless to say I had an envelope for extra tips and unfortunatly he did not recieve any.

As far as the ship, I found it clean with an easy to manage deck plan. The food was hit or miss. We enjoyed Guys, I tried the Blue Iguana Cantina and while the meat was tasty I found the tortillas to be a little doughy. Not awful but not as tender as I like. The kids had the pizza and it was just okay. We did not eat at the buffet. My kids had fun trying lots of different foods in the dining room. Lobster, rabbit, escargo... some they liked and some not. I found the food to be hit or miss... the best meal we had was the night we ordered from the steakhouse menu. The filet was excellent. The service in the dining room was adequate, the wait staff were constantly moving and service was decent if not as personable as I am used to. But they were very busy so it is understandable.

DS21 and I had the Cheers beverage package. While I did not come anywhere near the 15 drink limit DS maxed out 2 of the 4 days. My advice to future cruisers... don't buy your 21 year old child the cheers package unless you can tolerate them "stupid drunk" :'):') Even though I did not "max" out I do feel like I got my monies worth. All of my drinks except for a cpl beers were purchased at the Alchemy bar. This was the place to get drinks! Top shelf liquer and great bartenders!! The guys were always super busy but always acknowleged me, knew my name and made small talk. Needless to say they got my room stewards extra tips. They were great!!

Because we had late dining we did not see any of the shows in the main theater but we did see the comedians each night. I will warn you if you go to the late show and you are somewhat sensitive, I don't recommend it, they can be pretty crude. They do warn you and give you the opportunity to leave but just so you know it ain't Leave it to Beaver. I enjoyed the lady comedian a lot but the guy was just so so.

We spent our fair share of time at the craps table in the casino. It was pretty much full every evening and we had a lot of fun! The dealers were very friendly and got to know our names but I will say they seemed like they were fairly new. They made a few mistakes here and there.

Debarkation was uneventful, we were in the later group so it gave us time to enjoy breakfast and then we hung out near the Vienna Cafe to wait for our group to be called.

In summary we had a great time and my kids are already planning their next cruise! If you have any questions I will be happy to answer if I can!

I had issues with the site last night but it is fine this morning.

I am cruising with my 21 year old son so I felt purchasing the Cheers package would keep me from counting how many drinks he was having and make my cruise more relaxed and carefree. :') We are only doing a four day with one port day so that helped solidify my decision. Were we on a longer cruise with a port intensive itinerary I may have opted not to purchase.

I will probably go the taxi route now that I know it is a flat per person fee and not per person plus meter. It's stressful when you are traveling to an unfamiliar city for the first time, thanks for taking time to help me out! :)

Tracy

"not sure I have enough time to wait around for Uber either, sometimes they come in 5 minutes and sometimes they get lost and don't come at all!"

 

 

 

 

I have taken over 100 Uber rides and never heard of one not showing up. New Orleans airport did have a ban on Ubers a few years ago which has been lifted. Although it is price controlled, as not to undercut taxi rates.

Uber in Vegas showed up at the hotel across the street and ended up canceling on us. Uber in New York showed up one street over and canceled on me. :(

I planned to just grab a cab from the airport to cruise terminal but I saw on a fb group post that taxi's charge a per person fee plus metered fare? I have never seen a per person fee for a taxi? Carnival transfers are $23.50 per person I have 4 people, do you think this would be cheaper and easier than catching a cab? I have used Uber in the past but some airports don't allow pick up and my flight gets in at 9:40 am on Thursday. I have an arrival appointment of 11:30-12 not sure I have enough time to wait around for Uber either, sometimes they come in 5 minutes and sometimes they get lost and don't come at all!

Suggestions?

Good to hear! We sail her in 2 1/2 weeks :) Can't wait!!

25 days until my first Carnival cruise! :D

Casino gets charged to the boat

What do you mean? The last time I gambled on a ship I used cash. Of course that was in the '90's so I expect a lot has changed since then.