Carnival Triumph - First Time Cruise

[Sandyrella]

Thanks Tef!

 

Now to any Canadian Carnival Cruisers. Do any of the ships serve Bloody Caesars with Mott's Clamato juice or will I be forced to bring my own on board ;) or just live with Bloody Mary's instead?

[JimHam4]

MLAntigua,

My family (me, wife, 3 girls 6-11y.o.) will be on the Triumph 4/23. In St. Maarten we have booked the Lord Sheffield Pirate Cruise (www.lordsheffield.com). LOTS of positive reviews on this board as fun for the whole family, with good food, a beautiful sail around the island and some time anchored for a little swim.

 

When I called them direct they were quick to respond and sound very laid back.

[mlantigua]

MLAntigua,

My family (me, wife, 3 girls 6-11y.o.) will be on the Triumph 4/23. In St. Maarten we have booked the Lord Sheffield Pirate Cruise (www.lordsheffield.com). LOTS of positive reviews on this board as fun for the whole family, with good food, a beautiful sail around the island and some time anchored for a little swim.

 

When I called them direct they were quick to respond and sound very laid back.

Thx, I'll look at the hyperlink. See you on board

[optional]

Hi optional . . . are you as excited as I? Our cruise is only forty-one days away!

 

Oh am I excited! Everyone around me must so tired of hearing me talk about the cruise. That's all I think about. :cool: It's been my dream for a long time

[tinna2000]

i love to read these little hints about the secret spots on the ships, i will be going on the triumph in june, 05

[BettyB2]

We are booking the Triumph for our second Carnival cruise this Dec 3 for the Eastern Itinerary. I also have questions about this ship and want to know what past Triumph cruisers think about their cabins etc. My Carnival rep has given me a choice of an upgrade to midship Verandah (from Upper deck) or to an aft extended balcony...not sure what to do. Also, what type of cooler to keep in room? we order extra milk and juice for drinks and like to keep them on ice. and another one? what about sushi? I see there is no sushi bar :mad: (which we enjoyed every night on the Conquest)..any hints suggestions would be great. Also, we were able to see arrival in all the ports abord the Conquest (room 6343) and that is a definite requirement again this time. which side of the ship do we need to be on to view ports from our balcony early morn etc? thanks for all the help. I love this site:D

[shabcruzn]

This is great guys and gals, keep up the info for us that will be going soon. I'm scheduled on 04/23/05 on Triumph cat. 8C (balcony) and can't wait. For you folks that have been on give us details, include things to do in ports (E. Caribbean-San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Maarten). I'm sure there are plenty of us that would love to hear some of your experiences...

 

As a many will tell you, you can't go wrong with Godfrey tours in St. Thomas. Did Carnival's Divi Bay exursion--had a really good time!

 

Here is my review of the Triumph:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=60810

[Douglase]

we sailed the Trumiph in June 03 and was very disappointed in the service we received. Many unfriendly staff and purser desk was very slow to resolve a $900 mistakely bar charge from our account. The food was alot to be desired, it was the same exact menu we was served on the Inspiration a year prior. We recently sailed Norweign cruise lines and could not believe the difference (night and day)

[trishaholmes]

We had an aft balcony and it was WONDERFUL!!!! Very private, great for sunning, and no fighting over deck chairs.

[Cruisin' Patty]

Waiting for your review.

[palmtre2]

We really enjoyed our holiday cruise. We being 3 couples with mucho kids.

 

The ports were interesting, but I think San Juan is a waste of time - it's such a beautiful harbor to come into but you spend so little time there and if there are alot of ships in port the Old City is over-crowded.

St Thomas was our families favorite port we went to Coral World and did the Snuba dive. It's a great value if you order the excursion thru http://www.visnuba.com - you get admission to Coral World included (we used their lockers, showers and cafe) plus you are next door to a great snorkeling beach - Coki.

St. Maarten we stayed on Great Bay and shopped - we should have done more at this port. It was verrrryyyy hot the day we were there and no one wanted to get farther than the umbrellas right there off the pier.

[mlantigua]

As a many will tell you, you can't go wrong with Godfrey tours in St. Thomas. Did Carnival's Divi Bay exursion--had a really good time!

 

Here is my review of the Triumph:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=60810

I've actually already spoken to Godfrey, unfortunetly he does the whole tour shabang, all we want to do is go to a beach that has clean water, maybe do some snorkling and rent jet ski's. He does sound like a charming fellow and the board has highly recommended him...Thx

 

:confused: Question: What did the Divi Bay excursion consist of? Were there water sports, like jet ski's? Let me know...:)

[bbcake2000]

We are scheduled to cruise on the Carnival Triumph on April 30,2005. Since this is our first cruise, any help on what to do when we first get there would be great. ie, boarding, etc. We have also been told to make sure that we don't put tips on our credit card and take care of them directly at the end of the cruise. Is this the case? What are the procedures for doing this? I am also planning to set up massage for my husband and I on the last full day at sea. Should I plan to schedule it as soon as I get on board the ship? Also, any excursion ideas would be helpful. We will be going to Cosumel, Grand Caymen and Jamicia. :rolleyes:

 

Thanks for any help that you can give.

Susan:D

[xgdgirl]

We sailed three weeks ago and I'm another one who was less than impressed with this cruise. It was my third Carnival cruise, the others on the Destiny and Legend and my seventh cruise overall. Our cabin was a cat. 11 midship on deck 7. To put this in perspective, we were on a spring break cruise which was unavoidable since we also sailed with two children. There were over 1100 children on this cruise however it wasn't them but the college crowd that caused us grief. I'll list both the positives and negatives from my point of view. Remember that you may feel differently.

 

Positives

• food in all locations was very good.
  
• cabin was large and well appointed
  
• very large bathroom complete with large basket of amenities as well as shampoo and body wash dispensers
  
• this ship appeared to be in very good shape and clean
  

Negatives (remember this is my opinion only)

• unruly college crowd that partied at night in the hallways
  
• decor of ship was gaudy IMO
  
• atmosphere far too casual for me
  
• problems with cabin steward, nothing serious but many minor problems that went unresolved for too long
  
• awful stench in the internet lounge
  
• chair hogs out in force both on the Lido deck and the Rome lounge making it almost impossible for a family of 4 to sit together
  

[ladycaveat]

We are scheduled to cruise on the Carnival Triumph on April 30,2005. Since this is our first cruise, any help on what to do when we first get there would be great. ie, boarding, etc. We have also been told to make sure that we don't put tips on our credit card and take care of them directly at the end of the cruise. Is this the case? What are the procedures for doing this? I am also planning to set up massage for my husband and I on the last full day at sea. Should I plan to schedule it as soon as I get on board the ship? Also, any excursion ideas would be helpful. We will be going to Cosumel, Grand Caymen and Jamicia. :rolleyes:

 

Thanks for any help that you can give.

Susan:D

 

Susan, come join us on the Roll Call board for our April 30th cruise on Triumph. We'd love to have you join us and I promise . . . all your questions will be answered (as best we can) . . .

[conwakr]

xgdgirl

I'm just back from the Triumph and your positives are virtually identical to mine. We were in a Category 12 with 5 people. Beautiful room and good location on the Empress Deck. The kids, teens, and college kids didn't bother us too much as we avoided the Lido Deck mid-ship pool because it was too crowded and too loud. There were kids running the halls and pushing all the floors in the elevator at night. My negatives were the odd pool/whirlpool hours, a muster that took waaaay too long with a staff that seemed disorganized, and the debark was the worse I'd ever experienced. That ship didn't empty until well after 10 AM and the first people were going off at 7:30. We could never seem to get clean beach towels anytime other than first thing in the morning from our room steward which was disconcerting if you had wet sandy towels from the afternoon beach and you wanted to take a whirlpool at night. The ship is not to my taste, decor and design wise, but I didn't think it was too over the top...just alittle more flashy than I would choose if I were cruising with my husband only, but the ship decor and the dancing waiters fit this cruise and the demos of the ship I guess. The chair saving in the Rome has got to stop, I was thoroughly disgusted by people saying "i'm saving 7 seats to my right and 8 seats to my left". Our family of 5 never got to sit together at any of the shows. I'm going suggest to Carnival that they have ushers seat people which would solve the problem immediately. The atmosphere was very casual...I expected that on a Carnival cruise, because they attempt to be all things to all people, again why it made a good family cruise, but I probably would look at a different line for my husband and myself alone. My husband and kids were overdressed in the dining room in sportcoats compared to how people showed up for dinner....to me that's pretty casual. I would recommend Carnival to any family. But is the Triumph a romantic, elegant, get-away...not really. Spring on the Triumph is more of a beach party on a crowded beach in the middle of summer -- and if my husband and I didn't have romance or elegance, we did have fun and that's what the line promotes.

[xgdgirl]

Thanks for the validation Conwakr. I got beaten up pretty badly in another thread for posting my negative impressions.

[Rob C]

I just got back from Triumph on the western carribean and maaan!! it was soo much fun. First time cruise and it ended up being 10x better than I thought it would be. We brought on a bottle of Canadian whiskey and half a bottle of cheap Lord Calvert whiskey on my check in. Then brought 6 bottles of Propel water filler with rum and everclear:cool: But somehow we still managed to spend a whole lot on drinks. By the way...if anyof you were on the cruise and you know who i am....i dont usually get that bad. I was the guy who was stumbling around the halls getting lost, or breakdancing in the clubs, or dancing with people and not remembering them the next day....sucks. But it was fun!!! If i did dance with you....drop me a message....let me know how the rest of your cruise went. Hehe Piano bar is real cool....kind of college to older age range in there. Very chill. The Hollywood club is fun too but sometimes you wonder why there are 13 year olds still dancing on the floor at 1 AM. Cozumel was a blast...went to a beach escursion with an open bar (also a swim up bar but never got in the pool). Waaay too many tequila shots and mixed drinks. I had at least 7 tequila shots and about the same mixed drinks. Lets just say i dont remember part of that day. But my buddy got good pictures of me falling face first into the sand. After that we talked to a real cool mexican guy at the pier...(since we know fluent spanish) and he took us waaay out of town through neighborhoods and then to a stripbar. Good times. Cayman island we just went snorkeling. Ocho Rios we went on the Bob Marley tour and that was amazing. Beyond words. You learn alot too.

One peice of advice: try to get a big table like 8. and try to make friends with them or at least another group on the ship. Don't just sit around on the deck frying or in the room watching movies. We made friends with quite a few people there and are def keeping in touch with our table guests. Forming tight friendships with them made the trip that much better. And when debarking, when you have 6 people hugging, saying goodbye, and everybody just about in tears.....thats a good bond, and a memory that i will have for the rest of my life.

 

 

......man i almost cried again writing that.........