Just off Triumph....a review

Hubby and I just got off the Triumph yesterday. We had a great time...

We arrived in New Orleans a couple of nights early, and stayed out in Metairie. Drove into NOLA Sunday morning, in a downpour, and ate breakfast in the French Quarter. Eventually the rain left us, and it was a great day. We walked through the Quarter, took the street car out to Tulane and back, stopping at the WWII museum--a fantastic museum! Back to the Quarter for dinner, listened to some music, had some beignets, and back to hotel.

Monday was embarkation day, so we arrived at the Fulton Garage early--9am, and walked down to Mardi Gras World, where we saw how they built the Mardi Gras floats and many of the props. Walked back to the car, gathered our luggage, and took the shuttle to the pier.

We arrived at the pier at 1:10pm, our embarkation time slot was 1-1:30. Checked the luggage, zipped through the check in process, had our photo taken in front of the big fake ship photo, and we were on deck 3 in less than 20 minutes. It has never been that fast and easy, even when I had FTTF!

Rooms were ready, balcony on Verandah, dropped our carry ons, and headed to Lido for some lunch. Then we explored the ship, had a drink, maybe another, and then our luggage was there. It really was a great embarkation day! Dinner was late seating, table for 10, which only the two of us and one other couple ever came to. There were many empty tables around us, too.

Sea day was sea day....sun, read, eat, drink, repeat.

Cozumel we did the Catamaran snorkel and private beach. GREAT excursion. Best of everything!

Progreso was fun. we walked into town, stopped and had a beer and some guacamole, bought a few bottles of vanilla, then back on board to enjoy the ship while it was less crowded

Second sea day was rainy. we sat by the covered pool and people-watched, ate, drank, read, etc.

Disembarkation went pretty much the same as embarkation. They called our number, and 15 minutes later we were in the shuttle on the way back to the car!

Here are my impressions:

The ship was clean, looked in good shape, and the crew was fantastic. Smiles all around all the time.

The comedy was excellent, and SRO all shows

They had a magician...he was okay. Nothing to write home about.

The guy in the piano bar...Tony something....was excellent!

Our cabin (stateroom) was roomy, clean, and our steward was wonderful.

The food was...well, here's my honest assessment of the MDR dinners: It was tasty. It was well prepared. It was served at the proper temperature. It was very pedestrian. Have I had better? yes. Have I had worse? also yes. We didn't eat at the Lido Buffet except on the very first day. We enjoyed the Blue Iguana tacos. The pizza is always good. Had my first Guy's burger, and it lived up to its hype. We had breakfast in the dining room every day, be it breakfast or brunch.

The drinks were good, maybe a little pricey, but it's vacation pricing, so not horrible.

The age of the passengers was, to my surprise, on the high end. Not a ton of kids, a few college age young adults, but mostly people I'd say 40-ish or older.

I had read reviews of worn carpets, odors, dirtiness...I saw none of this. Zero. And I didn't hear others complaining about such a thing, either.

Sadly, we are back to reality now............................

:cool:

Terrific review/report.

Welcome home.

Keith

Nice, informative review. Glad you enjoyed your cruise and thanks for posting.

Great review. We've sailed on the Triumph quite a few times and it's one of my favorites, to be honest.

Funny you mentioned you stayed in Metairie...we always do too when we sail out of NOLA. LOL In fact, the first time we were going to sail out of there, my FIL (who used to travel a lot for work) suggested it to us, since it's not in the thickness and craziness of NOLA proper. We asked the lady at check in (we'd checked in during the late afternoon/evening) about when morning rush hour was and she looked at us like we were crazy.

"You know..the morning drive time? When everybody's going to work? How bad is it?"

She still didn't get it. Maybe it was a Texan slash Cajun translation problem. LOL

Thanks for the review! We'll be sailing on the Triumph from New Orleans next week. We're also staying in Metairie and plan on driving to the French Quarter. Any suggestions for parking? I've heard it can be quite difficult. Also our cruise shows we'll be in Cozumel at 8:00 AM. Do you know if that is Cozumel time or New Orleans time?

Glad you had a great time!

Great review. I'm glad to hear you had a great time and the ship was in great shape. We are sailing on her the in a few weeks for the first time. 21 days...I NEED this vacation. can not wait...

enjoyed the review.thanks

Thanks for the review! We'll be sailing on the Triumph from New Orleans next week. We're also staying in Metairie and plan on driving to the French Quarter. Any suggestions for parking? I've heard it can be quite difficult. Also our cruise shows we'll be in Cozumel at 8:00 AM. Do you know if that is Cozumel time or New Orleans time?

Don't drive to the Quarter. Grab an Uber or Lyft. It's actually cheaper than paying for parking. And it's what the locals do! :D

Who was the Band by the casino? Thanks for info.

DO you have any fun times or the menus?

Don't drive to the Quarter. Grab an Uber or Lyft. It's actually cheaper than paying for parking. And it's what the locals do! :D

Thanks for the advice!

Did they have any decent steel-drum Caribbean bands playing on your cruise?

Also - were the MDR lines ridiculous by 5:15PM like they were on the Freedom last week?

Okay, I'll try to answer the questions, in no particular order.

Yes, there was a steel drum band (person?) on Lido at least twice.

I didn't catch the name of the band by the casino, sorry, but I did hear a few songs and they were decent.

We were in NOLA proper on a Sunday, and we parked at the French Market. We were there for about 10 hours, and it cost us $25. When we checked Uber, it would be about $15-20 into town, so maybe it was a wash.

I didn't take screen shots of the menus from the HUB app, but most days they didn't include the entrees on the app. There was no lobster night, there was prime rib two nights, the desserts were just meh. (Saved me from gaining weight!)

We had late dining, so usually at 5:15 I was sitting on a bar stool somewhere. (I don't even drink that much, but I did have a cocktail every afternoon!)

Cozumel is 1 hour ahead of "ship time", which is also New Orleans time. When they say they are in Cozumel at 8am, they mean ship time.

One other thing...In Metairie, we ate at "Chef Ron's Gumbo Stop" the evening we arrived. It was fabulous. Gumbo several ways, and I had a fried oyster po' boy that was really good.

Welcome home!

Excellent report/review.

Thank you so much for posting! We sail Triumph for the first time on March 17 and have been a bit concerned about all of the negative reviews/comments, so you post is really reassuring!

Thanks for this review! We sail on March 17th. It will be my daughter's first cruise and some of the reviews I have seen are making me a bit nervous!

Thanks for this review! We sail on March 17th. It will be my daughter's first cruise and some of the reviews I have seen are making me a bit nervous!

I am a firm believer in you get out what you put in. I had read the reviews, and yet I didn't notice any of these 'awful' things others complained about. So either they have been fixed, or I am old with poor eyesight.

Seriously, go, have fun. You will enjoy it as much as you want to enjoy it. I went expecting to have a relaxing 5 night cruise, and that's what I had. We didn't pressure ourselves to have as much fun as we could, and didn't feel like we needed to rush off to this or that. We just went with the flow, and had a great time.

sister and i will be on triumph april 14, count down has begun! glad you had a good voyage!

I am a firm believer in you get out what you put in. I had read the reviews, and yet I didn't notice any of these 'awful' things others complained about. So either they have been fixed, or I am old with poor eyesight.

 

Seriously, go, have fun. You will enjoy it as much as you want to enjoy it. I went expecting to have a relaxing 5 night cruise, and that's what I had. We didn't pressure ourselves to have as much fun as we could, and didn't feel like we needed to rush off to this or that. We just went with the flow, and had a great time.

So, so true!! I figure no matter what, we are still on vacation and any day on vacation is better than a day in the office!! We are very excited for this trip!

Very nice informative review, thanks for sharing your experience.

Glad you had a good time; thanks for the review! We enjoyed this ship as well!