My first ever review (pics included!) Let's talk about this nasty ship...the TRIUMPH

My family (wife, 2 young sons) and I just got off the Carnival Triumph out of New Orleans this last Saturday on a 5 day cruise that stopped at Cozumel and Yucatan. We drove to NOLA from the St. Louis, MO area, and stayed in NOLA for a couple days, and then hopped on the ship.

EMBARKATION: We dropped our luggage and headed to security/check-ins. I was a little worried that it would take a while, because it seemed like there were a LOT of people....but it was EASILY the fastest I've been through check-in (this is my 4th cruise). It was simple and very stress free, and we were continually walking/moving. I think the staggered check in is working great (we were 1:00-1:30, and arrived about 12:50).

ON THE SHIP: Okay....so I'm not going to lie...I was SUPER stressed about this ship, based on the reviews I'd read. For the most part, it seemed like I should just expect this to be a really old and smelly ship. It felt like every other review was just bashing it. BUT I LOVED IT. Out of the 4 cruises I've been on, this was the BEST ship, and we had the most fun cruise ever. We loved everything about it. My kids had an absolute blast. We could always find an opening in the hot tub (since there were FIVE OF THEM!!). There are 3 pools, so you could always find a spot to swim. There were loungers/chairs EVERYWHERE (especially on the top deck along the rails). We LOVED the Dive-In movies. My boys thought this was SO fun.

Here are a few pics of what I've discussed already (also, I HIGHLY recommend the Cajun Encounters tour in NOLA if you have a day or two to waste! We saw gators and wild boar!)

Here we are enjoying the lovely hot tub under the slide (also a blast, by the way)

And here's a shot of the Dive-In movie. We would cuddle up with some blankets (you can rent these from the towel station, using just your S&S card) and mugs of hot chocolate!! (also free)

Sorry, having issues posting pics...working on it

Looking forward to your review. Was on the Triumph a few years ago and will be sailing on her again next Saturday.

So glad you has a positive experience. We are seasoned cruisers (about 15, I think), and usually do the longer cruises on the newer ships.

But, we decided to try the Triumph a few months ago, and I was very pleasantly suprised! We had a lido balcony. The room decor was dated, but no worries about that. The room was spacious and very clean. In fact , that was our experience over the entire ship.

FOOD/DINING- Again, it was FANTASTIC. I'm pretty sure I consumed 19+ Guy's burgers. It was always FAST, and delicious. The pizza would sometimes have a decent wait (waited one time for 15 minutes, but then got an entire Pepp pizza! It was great). For our evening dining, we had booked our cruise late and ended up with LATE dining, which wasn't good for us because my boys go to bed around 8:30 or 9:00....so I had gotten on the wait list to hopefully get moved to early dining, but nothing ever opened up (before the cruise). SO, I took the advice of a few posters on this site, and immediately went to the dining room when we got on the ship and requested we get moved to early dining. They were VERY nice, and said they'd try to move us, and voila, by day 2, we got a card slipped under our door that we were moved to early dining. It was FANTASTIC. Our Carnival waiters have always been great, but this time was the best. Our head waiter was named Genesis, and he was very special. My youngest son, Brady, ended up forming a special bond with Genesis. The first meal we had, Brady had requested a bowl of fruit for his appetizer, and then told Genesis how YUMMY it was. From that night forward, everytime my son sat down, Genesis appeared with a bowl of fruit just minutes later! He also showed us a few magic tricks every night. By the final night, when Genesis was thanking us for sailing Carnival, and saying our goodbyes, Brady asked for a hug and almost started crying! It was the sweetest thing. Here's a pic of Brady and Genesis. I can't speak highly enough of this man! He was amazing.

Later, we checked out the Punchliner Comedy Club. I enjoyed the PG shows much better than the R rated shows. This particular show I snapped a pic of was one of the R rated shows, and the comedian was going back and forth with a heckler. That always makes me feel so awkward when they do that, haha. It was pretty uncomfortable, and the language got REALLY bad at one point. I know they warn you that it's 18+, but I was seeing it with my wife and my dad, and it was just a BIT much for me. The PG shows were very worth checking out though. I was impressed with the SIZE of this show room. It was a lot of fun, and the energy in the room was great.

If I had to have any complaint about any shows....I'd throw 2 things out. The magician was a LITTLE hokey for me? My 9 year old loved it, but in my opinion, the magician didn't have much charisma, and it was just a little goofy. Also, I like singing karaoke, but if you weren't in the room in the first 3 minutes of karaoke starting, you may as well not put your name down because the list filled up THAT quick. I put my name down one particular night and waited an hour and 20 minutes, and it still never got to me. I still had a great time 'people watching' and hanging out though, the room the karaoke was in is another fantastic venue. The last cruise I was on (Sensation, I think) was in a very small room...

So glad you has a positive experience. We are seasoned cruisers (about 15, I think), and usually do the longer cruises on the newer ships.

But, we decided to try the Triumph a few months ago, and I was very pleasantly suprised! We had a lido balcony. The room decor was dated, but no worries about that. The room was spacious and very clean. In fact , that was our experience over the entire ship.

We had a balcony on Deck 8, and I'll agree with you there...it was a bit dated. I didn't mind it a bit though, we didn't spend a whole lot of time in our room anyway. The bathrooms were pink, and dated, but again, they were just fine.

And yes, the rooms were surprisingly spacious! Manny kept our room clean, and room service was QUICK!

EXCURSIONS- Cozumel was unbelievably beautiful. The water, the weather, etc were PERFECT. Again, based on recommendations from this very forum, we did NOT book an official excursion, and just planned on catching a taxi to Paradise Beach. The taxi ride was $21 (total, for 5 of us. Very reasonable), and it was a short 10 minute ride to Paradise Beach. I cannot say enough about this private beach! It was PHENOMINAL. The water was gorgeous, the activities were awesome, the floating slides and trampolines had my sons laughing for hours. There were plenty of chairs for everyone, and the pool and bar were GORGEOUS! I wished we could have stayed longer!!!

I have ONE complaint...when we got there, we were greeted by a super friendly waiter, Omar. He gave us a rundown of everything they had and everything fun we could do, and then said it was $21 for the entire day. I swore I remembered reading that it was only $18....but it was close enough, and the kids were excited to go play, so whatever, I paid it. A few minutes later, another waiter was giving the same rundown to a small group and seating them near us, and he told them it WAS $18 for the entire day! I asked him about it, and said Omar told us it was $21 (and that we PAID $21, AND I tipped him, ugh), and he said he would send Omar to our seats....he never showed, and I never cared enough to track him down. I found that mildly annoying though...especially since I tipped him. BUT anyway, here are some pics.

TWO TIPS!!!!!!!!!!! You NEED water shoes for this beach. There are thousands of tiny shells in the sand, and after a bit, they DO start to hurt your feet a bit. Also, there are some rocks/shells in the water. Plus, it just makes it easier to climb on the equipment. SECOND, if you're going to snorkel (snorkeling gear is included in your $18, as is stand up paddle boards, kayaks, life vests, etc), snorkel near the pier!! We saw some beautiful colorful fish and a small STING RAY!! It was really neat).

My wife and oldest son snorkeling---

The pier at Paradise Beach. GORGEOUS! Picturesque!

The pool at Paradise Beach. AMAZING

A view from behind the lounger chairs

Pic of the family on our way back to the ship in Cozumel. I mean....can a day get any more perfect...? If so, it would be hard for me to imagine.

So...Progresso....

Okay, so I think it helped that I didn't have HUGE expectations for Progresso, based on what I had read and whatnot. But yeah...it's nothing terribly special. We didn't feel like doing any tours of the ruins, because I thought my youngest would get bored, so we just took the free shuttle into town, and walked to the public beach. It was a neat experience, just seeing the town. Be prepared to get hit up by people selling things....literally, every 5 steps. haha. On the way to the public beach (6-8 min walk), we saw this Mexican police/military guy. He didn't speak much English, but greeted us with a smile and happily took a photo. My boys thought he was pretty cool. At the beach, we rented 3 loungers and an umbrella for the day for $25. The sand was nicer here than Paradise Beach (very soft), but the views/beach itself weren't quite as nice. We still loved it though, and we found some REALLY nice shells. You will get hit up every 30 seconds by vendors walking the beach, but we didn't so much mind. We actually got a handful of our souvenir shopping done this way!

Beach at Progresso

Loving your review! Triumph has been one of my two favorite ships so far. Looking forward to sailing on her again soon.

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In the water at Progresso

Snapped a pic with these guys while walking the pier at Progresso.

Pulling into the pier at Progresso, the ship was SWARMED with these birds. EVERYBODY was throwing food over the sides of the ship, which I'm sure is not encouraged (haha), but may have been my boys' favorite part of the cruise!! lol The birds would catch everything you threw, even if you tried to throw it straight down at the water, they'd nose dive and snatch it right out of the air. Again, I'm sure you're not really SUPPOSED to throw food to these birds, but EVERYONE was at their balcony doing so, and my mom used to say something like "If all of your friends jumped off a bridge, you should do it too" (or something like that, maybe I'm remembering that saying wrong). :-)

We also did a little shopping in Progresso. It wasn't a bad little town, just nothing special.

Simon London was our cruise director. It was his first cruise as a director, and I loved him. He was great.

Oh, and if I had one regret, it's that I didn't stop and listen to the musician's enough! We were always in such a hurry to make 'this' or 'that' event/show, we would always walk right by them, but on our final night, we just sat and listened to two of the groups. I can't remember the names, but wow...they were so good...it's always amazing to me the talent you can find on a cruise ship!!!

I guess that's the end of my review. Long story short, it was simply incredible. All of the Carnival staff was amazing. Everyone was so pleasant. I can't recommend this ship enough. It was the best vacation/cruise my young family has had!

Feel free to ask any questions you might have about the ship or destinations! I did a ton of research before our cruise...

thanks for the review and photo's.enjoyed.

Happy Triumph turned out to be a GREAT cruise for you and your family! :D

Thx for such a fun to read review. Glad y’all had a great time.

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Thanks for the review, looks like you and your family had a great time!

I was on that cruise, too. I have to admit, you had me with your headline. I found the ship to be anything BUT nasty! I didn't get a Guy's burger until the last day, and I have to admit, I'm glad for that. I would have been in that line way, way more often!

I'm laughing that you took a picture of Al Katz yelling at "cooter".

His show the last night was better than that one.

I was on that cruise, too. I have to admit, you had me with your headline. I found the ship to be anything BUT nasty! I didn't get a Guy's burger until the last day, and I have to admit, I'm glad for that. I would have been in that line way, way more often!

 

I'm laughing that you took a picture of Al Katz yelling at "cooter".

His show the last night was better than that one.

Was it?? Maybe I should have given it another chance! I can't recall the name of the other comedian, but we saw his PG show and loved it.

Great review. The Carnival bashing can be over-the-top but if you appreciate what is important (not always biggest, best and newest) the quality time you spent with your family in an environment that enhanced that experience is all that matters.

Great review. The Carnival bashing can be over-the-top but if you appreciate what is important (not always biggest, best and newest) the quality time you spent with your family in an environment that enhanced that experience is all that matters.

I agree with this a thousand percent! We LOVE Carnival and I don't even drink! We do enjoy watching others though!! The staff are so friendly :)

Glad you enjoyed the ship...we've always loved the Triumph, right from the first time we sailed on her shortly after The Poop Cruise From Hell.

And I guess it's all in what you're used to as far as check in, etc. We typically sail from Galveston (it's only a few hours from us. New Orleans is about an 8-10 hr drive) and I really disliked sailing from New Orleans because it seemed chaotic (esp the Fulton St. parking garage...whatta nightmare!) to me.

Great review. The Carnival bashing can be over-the-top but if you appreciate what is important (not always biggest, best and newest) the quality time you spent with your family in an environment that enhanced that experience is all that matters.

What you get for the price with Carnival is just incredible. I just shake my head at the detractors and those who don't think it's worth it

Thank you for the review, your title grabbed me in, and now I am about to go check out the triumph, and see what we have been missing. We love the smaller ships, and the Triumph might be just the right size.

I have done a couple of the ruins from Progresso, and Uxmal would fascinate your kids, all that snake history built into the ruins If you go again, I think you should try it. But my friends stayed in town, and enjoyed some of the shopping. Glad you had a great cruise!

Glad to see a positive review on this ship , We are going on it April 5th also We are from St. Louis and driving to NO the day before We believe that everyone has there opinions and don't let that steer us away .....but we are taking Mother-in -Law and a friend and they will be on first cruise so this is positive report do you have copy of any fun times ?

Great review! Thanks for taking the time to post it!

Great review! I sailed the Triumph years ago and really enjoyed all it had to offer.

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