Triumph Halloween Cruise Review

[JeanieTheMom]

I finally got my review and pictures ready. Here goes:

 

Travelers are my sister and brother in their 60s, my 16 year old son, and myself in 2 adjoining OV rooms. DS and I flew in the day before and met DSis and DB who drove down from central LA. We stayed at a Hilton Garden Inn by the airport. It was a nice hotel with a good breakfast buffet.

 

Embarkation: We got to within a half mile of the exit on I-10 when the traffic slowed to a crawl. We thought there may have been a wreck, but then realized that all that traffic was people going with us on the cruise. It took us 30 minutes to get off the interstate and get parked. We got parked at the port at 11 a.m. The embarkation process went fairly smoothly, and we walked onto the ship at noon.

 

We stopped at the Lobby Bar to get soda cards for DS and DB. While there, DSis and I got our first drinks (marguarita and mojito) as well. We joked that we only got 3 steps on the ship before stopping at the bar for a drink. We ate lunch at the buffet, pizza, etc. We all found things that were good. We particularly liked the food from the Hong Kong Noodle Company. Then we had our first (of many) cups of hot chocolate.

[JeanieTheMom]

Cabin: We were in 1375 and 1379, adjoining cabins on the Riviera deck. Since we had only been on Fantasy class ships before this, we noted that the rooms are bigger. We almost forgot to take pictures before we put our stuff all over the place. Here are a couple of 1375.

 

 

The door you can see on the right side is the adjoining door to cabin 1379. We were just aft of mid-ship and had mostly calm seas, so we felt almost no movement at any time. We would take this location again any time.

[JeanieTheMom]

This was my first time on Riviera, so I was surprised at how close the water seemed. In this picture, I’m sitting on my bed.

 

 

 

The only complaint we had about Riviera deck is the time to wait for an elevator. DSis and DB aren’t as spry as DS and I, so they had to rely on the elevators.

 

Our cabin steward was great. He saw that we named our first towel animal, so he left them, and at the end of the week, we had a zoo.

 

[JeanieTheMom]

Safety Drill: This was really different from the Fantasy class ships. Everyone – all passengers – went to stations on either side of Deck 4. Once everyone got there, the drill didn’t take too long. But when it was over, about 3000 people had to exit the sides of deck 4. What a mad house! Shortly after it was over, we were under way. I was not prepared for the ship to do a 180 and go the other way. That’s the only time I felt the ship move!

 

 

 

Dinner in MDR: This was our first time to try Your Time Dining. The first night we arrived about 6:10 and did not have to wait to get seated. But that night, the food took over 2 hours in the dining room. After waiting to park, waiting for embarkation, and waiting for safety drill, we were pretty tired. I spoke to our head waiter and asked if Your Time Dining was always this slow. He said no, and didn’t really explain why it was this night. We decided to give this group another try because they were very nice, and it probably wasn’t their fault it took so long. We’re glad we did. They were super! They were Lucio, Franzia, and Jeremia. Maybe it helped for me to question the slowness, because on all the other nights, dinner took much less time.

We missed some of our old favorites. We didn’t have macaroni and cheese, crab cakes, or bitter and blanc. So I guess we’ll have to go on a different ship to get these goodies. On Halloween, we didn’t have the usual desserts. Instead we had a choice of pumpkin cheesecake covered with a ghost made out of pastry, or chocolate cake with a bat cookie. They were both good.

 

[JeanieTheMom]

(Food continued)

One night we had a dessert we hadn’t had before. It was an apple dessert covered with puff pastry. It was good, but rich.

 

 

 

 

Other food: I don’t care for sushi, but my DS that didn’t get to go requested a picture, so I thought I’d share.

 

 

And here’s the South Beach Club decorations.

 

[JeanieTheMom]

Halloween: Since Halloween was on our normally scheduled elegant night, they changed elegant night to the next night. This was our first sea day, so we took it easy most of the day, just enjoying the ride.

 

 

I read on CC that a lot of people decorated their doors. I did not find this to be the case on this cruise. Maybe 20% of the doors I passed were decorated. (And I did walk past more doors than just on the Riviera.) We did not dress up for Halloween. However, we did go to the World’s Bar and observe all the people in costume. It was a party atmosphere and a lot of fun. Our only problem was that since we weren’t in costume, we felt like we were spectators. We weren’t the only ones not dressed up, but we felt that way nonetheless. If I go on Halloween again, I will dress up for sure!

There were many great costumes, and many not-so-great ones. Here’s a picture of the guys that won the costume contest. (And my sister.)

 

 

I heard that it took 5 hours for them to get into costume. They were awesome!

[JeanieTheMom]

Shows: I went to the Welcome Aboard show. Since I’ve been before on a couple of ships, I sat there wondering why I was there. The singers and dancers were great, but they performed the exact numbers as the last time I saw the Welcome Aboard show on another ship. Then the CD Tex came on. I had heard good things about him on these boards, but I was disappointed. His routine consisted of going into the audience and asking people their names, where they were from, who they were here with, etc. Then he ad-libbed a joke or two. He did this with the entire first 2 rows. I kept waiting for it to get better, but it didn’t. Then he turned it over to the comedian. He was funny, so we went to see him at an R rated show.

 

We went to see 2 R rated shows. JR McCollom and John Wesley Austin. If you like R rated comedy, they were very good. I didn’t find anything offensive, at least not enough to make me leave. And I sure did laugh.

 

Spa and gym: My sister didn’t have a chance to get a pedicure before she left home, so she got one on the ship. The cost was $65, which is more than she or I usually pay for both of us. But it lasted almost an hour, and it looked fantastic! I got up and went to the treadmills every morning. (That way I could eat chocolate melting cake.:D)

 

Progresso and Cozumel: We stayed on board the ship in Progresso and lounged like we were on vacation. At Cozumel, we went shopping. It was pretty hot that day, but we still managed to get off the main drag and get some bargains. We also found a restaurant called Poncho’s Backyard that was excellent.

 

O2: My 16 yo DS spent many hours there. If anyone has any specific questions, I can probably get the answers.

 

 

Seaside Theatre: There was a Saints game on the Seaside Theatre on Halloween. That might have been one more reason why there was such a party atmosphere – they won. I watched a movie on it one night. It was a pleasant experience, except that the movie – the new Alice in Wonderland – was weird. I didn’t like the loud sound of the big screen in the morning. News from Denver that loud early in the morning just didn’t help me digest my hot chocolate.

 

But my big complaint (which I did mention on the survey) was that on our last sea day, they had a Willie Nelson concert scheduled at 9 a.m.

 

 

Then they also had a music trivia game scheduled. So people started listening to Willie, then the sound was turned off and the game began. So some people who were upset shouted out the trivia answers. After the trivia, they I guess they turned the sound back on.

 

Debarkation: The ship got started with debarkation about an hour later than stated on our info. Since my DSis and DB would have had trouble standing for a long time in the lines, we opted to read books in the main lounge until most of the people were off. After we finally got started, we got off pretty fast. As we got on I-10, we saw a long line of cars stopped getting off. Those lucky people were going on a cruise!

[truchattycathy]

Enjoying your review. I was on the Triumph the week before you. We had the crab cake and bitter and blanc. Yum. We also had a "Halloween" night with lots of costumes and the same desserts. :D

[boaterette]

Nice review. Glad you had a good time.

[Shery]

Enjoyed your review. My husband and I will be on it in Feb. I don't think that I am going to like the big TV outside. I get so tired of hearing TV's all the time and look forward to being away from them. I hate to think of having to have that blaring all the time. Is there a serenity deck on the Triumph, and can you hear the TV from there?

[americanmama]

great review! just waiting for my turn in May :)

[JeanieTheMom]

Enjoyed your review. My husband and I will be on it in Feb. I don't think that I am going to like the big TV outside. I get so tired of hearing TV's all the time and look forward to being away from them. I hate to think of having to have that blaring all the time. Is there a serenity deck on the Triumph, and can you hear the TV from there?

There isn't a serenity deck. The sound is directed to the front of the screen, so I enjoyed the deck chairs on the sides of the Panorama deck aft of the screen.

[mavis2222]

The very back of ship at other end of "LIDO" there is a pool with a sliding dome over it. That area is more quiet and the pool is set up for adults only along with the hot tubs. The TV is in the forward mid section of LIDO where most of the activitys are. Dont think you will hear it from the back pool area.

[WISH84]

Good review. My wife and I were on this cruise with you and I was sitting right next to the pool when they started that Music Trivia Game. It's funny that you mentioned it in your review because I was thinking the same thing... why show a music show then interupt the show to do a music quiz.. why not play the game when all they had showing was those random "space" shots... oh well.. those that played looked like they were having fun...

[slybear]

Nice review. We were on this Halloween cruise too. I thought the addition of cross dressers also made the voyage quite festive! And the Saints game on the big screen was a highlight for my Dad who's been on 40+ cruises. This was our first cruise & I had a blast. (Dont tell the hubby, but I just booked a week long cruise on the Triumph leaving April 30, 2011.) I'm going to surprise him Xmas morning! (and I did ask a couple in the hottub if they were from Colorado but it wasn't you)