A "Loyal Royal" Floats the Triumph 7/16-7/20

Hello everyone,

My family recently completed a 5-day cruise on the Carnival Triumph (7/16-7/20). I have enjoyed the reviews I have found on Cruise Critic and I felt I should contribute to the forum with my own review. I wanted to do my review a little differently than most as I think I have somewhat of unique perspective to provide. You see, the last time I sailed on Carnival was 18 years ago when the Ecstasy was based in Florida and was one of the newest ships in the fleet. Since that time, my wife and I (and now our son) have sailed exclusively on Royal Caribbean and are now Emerald status, just a few sea days away from Diamond.

Why did we stay exclusively with RCCL all of these years after sailing on the Ecstasy? At first there was no real reason. Our cruise on the Ecstasy was a quick 3-nighter to the Bahamas and my wife and I had a great time. We blended right in with the party crowd on the boat and did our share of bar hopping. Our next cruise was on the Voyager of the Seas many years later (after our son was born) when the VOS was the newest and largest cruise ship in the world. We liked the RCCL product and just stayed with it. Over time, my wife and I succumbed to the perception propagated by others about how Carnival was a "party barge" and a lower class of passenger. I hate to admit it but we became somewhat snobbish about being loyal to Royal and jumped on the bandwagon of avoiding the Carnival product.

So why did we try Carnival again? Simple - Galveston. Since we live in Dallas it was just too easy to cruise out of Galveston and drive to the port. Flying a family of 3 to the east coast at a cost of $1200 or more was a hard pill to swallow. I saw it as a very expensive "port fee". We sailed the Rhapsody of the Seas several times when she was in Galveston year round. After RCCL moved her away, we could catch a RCCL boat during the winter and spring months, but with a school-age child you were limited to the spring break week. We did sail on two different spring break trips on the Voyager and very much enjoyed them, but the prices for those weeks are higher than others and the ship would sail packed to the brim. With Carnival sailing two ships year round out of Galveston we had to give Carnival another try. I am glad that we did.

The goal of my review will be to educate passengers loyal to other lines as to what they can truly expect with the Carnival product. I will address many of my preconceived notions of the Carnival product and whether or not those notions were true or a product of propaganda from other cruise lines and other passengers. I understand that some of you may argue that my 5 day trip on the Triumph is not a fair comparison to the many 7 day trips I have taken on RCCL on newer vessels. That may be true but I think my experience on the Triumph is an accurate enough sample of the Carnival product for comparison.

Lastly, I will break my review up into different posts on different topics, trying to group together the topics by subject and not by time line of the cruise. I will then "score" each topic in favor of one line or the other based on my experiences. I hope that this review will help others like me that might have a tad of snobbery in the blood against the Carnival product gain a clearer perspective of what you can expect. I will add a few pictures here and there but not too many. The posts will be many days apart as I will write this in segments and I welcome your comments and questions between posts.

In order to set the stage for my review and scoring, let me share with you some of the preconceived notions I had prior to sailing again with Carnival:

1. Carnival's focus is on the "party passenger" and I can expect to see a lot of excess drinking and the repercussions of that.
   
2. The ships are not well maintained and dirty in many respects.
   
3. The food on-board is a fast food focus with a few exceptions.
   
4. The dining room atmosphere is loud and crazy. The waiters are more focused on dancing on the tables in the middle of your meal than providing service.
   
5. Overwhelming pushiness when it comes to on-board sales of anything.
   

I will work to address all of these as we move along in the review. I hope that you enjoy my review and some of you find it helpful.

Off we go!

TxBubba (Jeff)

Note: A little background on my family. My wife and I are in our lower 40's and this trip was our 10th cruise overall. My son just turned 14 and this was his 5th cruise. I will interject the 14-year old opinions in some areas.

Looking forward to your candid review!:)

Look forward to your review!

Interested in your comments but think you should have changed your CC name.

True Loyal Royals don't like reading anything that is not negative about Carnival.

They may take your Loyal Royal status away.;)

Interested in your comments but think you should have changed your CC name.

True Loyal Royals don't like reading anything that is not negative about Carnival.

They may take your Loyal Royal status away.;)

How do you know it is not negative.:confused:

How do you know it is not negative.:confused:

That alone will get you kicked out of the Loyal Royals.;)

Interested in your comments but think you should have changed your CC name.

True Loyal Royals don't like reading anything that is not negative about Carnival.

They may take your Loyal Royal status away.;)

LOL...... Methinks thou doth protests too much. Why not let the OP give their review and you try not to start trouble.

What about people that doesn't like to read anything negative said about Carnival? You know the type that goes over to the Royal board and claims bashing. Why not let the OP give their review and you try not to start trouble.

What an odd post. OK , why don't you "let the OP give their review" before you start Carnival bashing.

Oh also, don't come over to the Carnival board "to start trouble".

I loved my Royal cruise and hope to go on many more. Just the haters I despise. Need to get a life.

As a couple that is Platinum on RCI and CCL, really looking forward to your review from a "Loyal Royal" perspective. We sailed on Triumph when based in Miami and really enjoyed the ship. Only issue we had was it was cold everywhere on the ship, and this was in May.

I also believe that based on the OP's tone his cruise was not a disaster. However as we are Diamond Plus on RCCL we are well aware of snobbery , and distain for Carnival exhibited by many loyal RCCL cruisers. The Triumph is not one of Carnival's most desirable ships and I encourage The OP to sail on a few ships to form a more complete opinion of Carnival.

Looking forward to the review :)

Hello everyone,

Today we will talk about getting on and off the ship. My family had booked an Oceanview Suite (7250) so we were part of the VIP process at check-in and disembarkation.

Embarkation

As I have mentioned before, we have sailed out of Galveston on numerous occasions but only out of cruise terminal 2 where the RCCL ships were docked. This would be our first experience in terminal 1. We arrived at the terminal around 11:00AM and dropped our bags with the porter. Everything was pretty much the same experience we had in terminal 2 until we reached the check in desk.

Several Carnival representatives were at the front of the line and looking at your paperwork. I asked for the VIP check-in line and a very friendly lady escorted my family into a different line than where the other passengers were headed. Another friendly lady welcomed us, looked over our paperwork, and then pointed us to another gentleman at the bottom of an escalator. We went through a specific security line for VIP guests but in all honesty the other lines were moving just as fast as the VIP line. Our bags were accosted by the security officer to make sure our bottled water was indeed water and that we did not have any contraband in our bags. It was clear to me that Carnival pays a whole lot more attention to this than I have experienced on RCCL. We did have to make a trip to the naughty room at the end of the trip but more on that later.

After passing inspection we headed to the bottom of the escalator as directed. The gentleman gave us instructions on where to go after riding up the escalator which was to make a couple of turns and enter the "VIP lounge". Ok, so far so good. We rode up the escalator, followed instructions, and before you knew it we were in the VIP lounge. Another Carnival employee greeted us and escorted us to a check-in desk. She checked our documents, grabbed our pre-printed paperwork off of the desk next to her, and then we were off to boarding and our welcome aboard picture. I think the entire process took about 10 minutes.

After check in we waited in a very short line to get the welcome aboard photo taken. At that time I was able to survey the check-in process for the folks not paying for the VIP option. The lines were all short and moving very rapidly. I thought at that time that perhaps the ship was not sailing anywhere near capacity. I later learned there were over 3100 passengers on board.

Once walking up the gangway and entering the ship, we were greeted by very friendly folks who checked our ship card, handed us a small map of the ship, and the Fun Times for that day. They also gave us directions to the Lido deck so we could get something to eat.

All in all, this process was as smooth as I had ever experienced boarding a ship. I have used priority check-in with RCCL on several occasions in Galveston and it had never been as smooth as this one was. Sure, there was iced tea and cookies but your VIP line was simply the far left line of the general boarding with no real special attention given to the VIP paying guests. Carnival's staff at the pier was probably the friendliest to date.

Disembarkation

We are frequent floaters and we have mastered packing for self-assist departure. We have learned that this is the way to go on any trip as it is very easy and a huge time saver. As most of you, we absolutely hate departure day and we were dreading what might be waiting for us with Carnival. RCCL did a fair job of it and we were hoping for at least something similar as we left the Triumph.

On the next to last day on board, I went to guest relations and asked when I could sign up for early departure. The very polite guest services employee smiled and said I did not need to sign up but only report to the lounge at 7:45AM to walk off the ship. Ok, I am thinking, great, it's going to be a mob scene. Better get up early so we can get a jump on the crowds. I was pleasantly surprised that evening when our cabin steward left a note in the cabin about priority departure. As a VIP guest I could meet in the lounge at 7:45 and be escorted off the ship first by a crew member. Great!

That morning we got up, watched us sail into Galveston, grabbed a bite to eat, and headed down to the lounge at 7:30. I was surprised to get an elevator quickly and all of us emerged on deck 3 and were directed by a staff member into the lounge. What happened next I could not believe and never would have guessed. Several passengers had their luggage all over the lounge area near the exit obviously expecting to jump in the front of the line and walk off the ship. Crew members were politely visiting with each group and making them leave the area! Groups of people were grumbling as staff escorted them out of the way to the elevators or stairs telling them they had to wait for the announcements for their group to leave. Almost immediately, the Assistant Cruise Director came on the public address system and reminded passengers that they were not allowed to congregate in the lounge areas of level 3 and if they did they would be asked to leave immediately.

We wandered into the lounge and took a seat, and in about 10 minutes (right at 7:45) a crew member came in and lead us all into 2 different lines in the lounge area. Our cards were quickly scanned and we were out the door walking down the gangplank. This is when the real surprise hit us. In terminal 2 there is always a bottleneck where you have the choice of taking the escalator down to the customs area or ride the elevator. If both of your hands had luggage in them and you could not hold the handrail on the escalator, then you were forced by a terminal employee to wait for the elevator. This created huge bottlenecks trying to get off the ship as families were separated by one member riding the elevator with luggage while the others rode down the escalator to wait for them. The Carnival terminal had a RAMP! What a novel idea! Everyone rolled their luggage down this ramp and into the customs line. I don't know if it's fair to give Carnival credit for this concept but I will.

Customs was a breeze since we had passports (the passport lines ALWAYS move faster!) and we were out the door in no time and on to the Lighthouse parking bus. A few minutes later we were in our car and on the road to Dallas.... at 8:05AM! A new record for our family.

Bottom line: Carnival got the loading and unloading process right. It was well organized, smooth, and a lot of helpful people along the way. Bonus points for keeping the lounges clear during disembarkation.

Points:

Embarkation: Carnival

Disembarkation: Carnival

Score: CCL 2 -- RCCL 0

Jeff

Fine point. It could be mostly negative but given the preamble, I'm assuming it won't be completely negative .

That alone will get you kicked out of the Loyal Royals.;)

Really, does that apply here also if a Carnival Cruiser says something good about a Royal cruise?

I loved my Royal cruise and hope to go on many more.

Really, does that apply here also if a Carnival Cruiser says something good about a Royal cruise?

I like your detail. On our first Carnival cruise we were VIP. On our upcoming cruise we will be in a standard balcony. If we arrive at 2:00PM will we have much of a line?

I am enjoying your well written and open approach, I look forward to reading more.

Thanks.

We haven't been on RCCL in about 10 years although we've been thinking about cruising with them again. Looking forward to reading the rest of your review.

Really, does that apply here also if a Carnival Cruiser says something good about a Royal cruise?

Yes. I am a loyal Disney Cruiser, and have gotten savaged on these boards for openly stating so.

OP, I am very much enjoying your review. I am a long time Disney Cruiser, doing my first trip with Carnival, and I expect to write a similar review after my cruise in December.

As far as seeing Carnival as a drunk party barge full of trailer trash, that view is very pervasive on Disney boards as well, but even more so on CC. And like the Carnival boards, if you say something even remotely negative about Disney on those boards, you are savaged by groupies.

OP, You have an excellent writing style, almost like a college thesis...may I ask what you do for a living?

Thanks for the review. It's nice to get something balanced, especially from someone who usually cruises on a different line.

I like your detail. On our first Carnival cruise we were VIP. On our upcoming cruise we will be in a standard balcony. If we arrive at 2:00PM will we have much of a line?

yes you will have a line up at that time. This is when those flying in through carnival show up by the busloads. If you can try and get there early!!

OP Thanks for your honest opinion review, looking forward to reading the rest. I am the opposite of you lol, I am loyal to Carnival. My brother and sister and their families cruise other lines and are always bugging us to do so, i politley decline and tell them for the price i am paying Carnival delivers. I am not interested in ships bigger than the town i live in, nor the wave thing, rock climbing walls, pay as you go restaurants. All I want is to relax, visit a couple of ports and have someone else cook, clean and do my laundry :D :D Some day we will try another line but for now Carnival fits.

As far as seeing Carnival as a drunk party barge full of trailer trash, that view is very pervasive on Disney boards as well, but even more so on CC.

This is very sad...my opinion of most Carnival cruisers is we are just families like you see on DCL or RCI or any of the other lines, who want a vacation. It's especially sad if someone is saying this and has never even sailed the line they are "trashing". I've been on RCI and would go again. I haven't been on NCL, HAL or DCL but would sail any of them...I certainly would never give an opinion of them having not personally experienced them myself.

This is very sad...my opinion of most Carnival cruisers is we are just families like you see on DCL or RCI or any of the other lines, who want a vacation. It's especially sad if someone is saying this and has never even sailed the line they are "trashing". I've been on RCI and would go again. I haven't been on NCL, HAL or DCL but would sail any of them...I certainly would never give an opinion of them having not personally experienced them myself.

Like!!

OP Im sorry you have preconceived ideas about Carnival.. very odd as I dont see much of that on the RCL threads .. wonder how you got that opinion.

Im diamond on RCL so I do both lines quite a bit.

Im doing Conquest out of NOLA >>> because I can drive. I much prefer Galveston, but Magic prices are still a bit steep.

I bet if you try Magic you will love it.. Its much nicer than Triumph.

This is very sad...my opinion of most Carnival cruisers is we are just families like you see on DCL or RCI or any of the other lines, who want a vacation. It's especially sad if someone is saying this and has never even sailed the line they are "trashing". I've been on RCI and would go again. I haven't been on NCL, HAL or DCL but would sail any of them...I certainly would never give an opinion of them having not personally experienced them myself.

Agreed, I will admit I drank the cool aid for a while, but figured why judge something without trying it, which is why I am here!

You also have the view that Disney ships are overun with kids, which I can assure you is NOT true, very pervasive on these boards and others.

Once my girls grow up a bit, and they are tweens, we are thinking of giving RCCL a try, I read a long review of the Oasis of the Seas and it seemed they had a ton of tween activites, more than DCL or Carnival.

Agreed, I will admit I drank the cool aid for a while, but figured why judge something without trying it, which is why I am here!

 

You also have the view that Disney ships are overun with kids, which I can assure you is NOT true, very pervasive on these boards and others.

 

Once my girls grow up a bit, and they are tweens, we are thinking of giving RCCL a try, I read a long review of the Oasis of the Seas and it seemed they had a ton of tween activites, more than DCL or Carnival.

My only preconceived notion about Disney is that we cannot afford it LOL Seriously, I've looked into 7 days during off times (I don't mind taking my kids out of school for a week) with military discount and every other discount. We can literally take 3 carnival cruises for the same price as a Disney cruise. The tube slides alone make it look worth the price though. Those things are cool!