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First cruise - will we have a horrible time? :(

Arcanlaw

By Arcanlaw,
in First Time Cruisers

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Arcanlaw

Arcanlaw

Posted
Posted

My wife and I saved up forever to go on our first cruise on the Carnival Triumph, leaving from Miami this Saturday the 14th for the Carribean. I just checked the weather report in ocho rios:

 

http://www.weather.com/activities/travel/businesstraveler/weather/tenday.html?locid=JMXX0005&from=36hr_fcst_business

 

I think I'm going to be sick. :( :(

 

Rain

Rain

Rain

Rain

Rain

Rain

Rain

Rain

 

Someone please give me a word of encouragement. :(

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wrp96

wrp96

Posted
Posted

It won't rain all the time. And even when it is raining the sun will probably still be shining. At least that is what happened on my May cruise to Ocho Rios. The rain didn't stop my best friend and I from having a great time in Ocho Rios.

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catmand

catmand

Posted
Posted

Rain and 80 degrees, I'll take it. We spent a week on Maui and it rained every day. After the second day you could tell who the new arrivals were, they were the ones covering themselves and running away from the pool, everyone else just kept on drinking!

Don't worry about it, not a thing you can do now so just relax and "go with the flow" (pun intended).

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bayofbiscay

bayofbiscay

Posted
Posted
Rain and 80 degrees, I'll take it. We spent a week on Maui and it rained every day. After the second day you could tell who the new arrivals were, they were the ones covering themselves and running away from the pool, everyone else just kept on drinking!

 

Don't worry about it, not a thing you can do now so just relax and "go with the flow" (pun intended).

 

Best advice to be given,well done

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Arcanlaw

Arcanlaw

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Thanks everyone. Seeing as how this will probably be our first and last (for a long time) cruise I was hoping for a little more sun in the forecast. We're coming from Buffalo after all, so we're all too familiar with gloomy weather. Hopefully the storm will dissipate a little before we get there. At least Miami is sunny and warm!

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Cotton

Cotton

Posted
Posted

"Will we have a horrible time?"

 

Heavens, NO! You'll adjust to whatever the weather happens to be, and continue having fun, fun, fun. Don't let the weather deter you from having a wonderful vacation. In my experience, the rains in the Caribbean are short-lived. Rain, sun, rain, sun. Of course, if would be ideal if there were no rain, but.........? So - go with a good attitude, and make the best of the situation.:)

 

I might suggest that you take the little fold-up ponchos with you. Those little items can cost a lot on the islands, and only about $1 here.

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CaptData

CaptData

Posted
Posted

We had a storm in amica too. It rained for about 10 mins and cooled things down for a little bit but then the sun came out and it was HOT, HOT HOT. Enjoy, the rain will be very warm. You will dry fast.

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megr1125

megr1125

Posted
Posted

when did you ever see a forecast that was right! rain, warm....that's why bars are inside!

 

Maybe it will be like florida....little quick rainstorms for 5 minutes then blazing sun!

 

 

(you are from buffalo so maybe the winter forecasts are always right..>SNOW)

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celbercrz333

celbercrz333

Posted
Posted

Arc,

I see you are on your cruise now. I doubt that you are in the internet cafe reading this, but if you are..............make the most of your trip. I am an optimist. Attitude is more than half of life. How you react to what you are given is the determining factor in being happy or not. If it rains, get a rainjacket and get out there. Dashing in between the raindrops as you run from shop to shop is more fun than sitting in your room brooding. No one can predict the weather perfectly, although they can come close.

Let us know how you enjoyed your trip once you are back. 8-)

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mommao

mommao

Posted
Posted

I was in jamaica last may on voyager, it was a little overcast then it drizzled a little rained for 10 minutes then the sun was shinning and it was HOT. we did everything we planned. don't worry.

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Arcanlaw

Arcanlaw

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Phew! We got back today and I'm happy to report that weather forecast was about as accurate as a WMD report. We had, for the most part, beautiful weather all week with the exception of a little storm on the last day.

 

That said, there was a little problem - my wife got a cold on day 2 and was under the weather the whole trip. :( She was a trooper though and it only slowed us down first thing in the morning and late at night when she felt particularly crappy. The infirmary gave us some cough drops (which I found out ended up costing us about $1 each. Ouch!) that helped when her throat flared up. She had good days on all of our excursions and we were able to do everything we wanted.

 

Some thoughts from a newbie:

 

We flew in the night before and spent the night in the Sofitel hotel (4 * for $79, Priceline). Pretty decent hotel especially after they upgraded our room. I highly recommend flying in the night before if possible! Breakfast was slow and leisurely and we made our way to the ship on a lazy vacation timetable.

 

I remember my first thought when we approached the Triumph. "Holy ****" ... I couldn't believe how big it is. I don't get awestruck often and man, I just had no idea they were that massive.

 

Embarkation was all about lines. Go to this line, go to that line ... boring and tiring, but we were in no hurry so no big deal. Went to our room on the first floor (Riviera) and my wife was pleasantly surprised - she had cruised once before with her family on Royal C and apparently her room then was about 1/2 the size of the one on Carnival and the window was 1/8 the size. Personally I felt like the room and bathroom were comically tiny; I'm 6'2 so I like my space - but wifey and I are still in the newlywed stage (2 yrs this July) so I didn't mind *too* much being so cozy. Everything else was ok - room style seemed a little dated but it was clean with the exception of a couple faded stains on the comforter that didn't really bother us.

 

We were fairly nervous all day as our luggage wasn't delivered to our room until moments before dinner. Speaking of dinner, we requested the late sitting and were given early. Called the Purser's desk and the attendant advised us to go early the first day and request a switch, which is what we did. Dinner was great - we had a private table for 2 in a quiet spot, *very* nice waiters (the staff is unreal!) and the food was great - too exotic for wifey but I love trying new things so I was in 7th heaven.

 

The next day we got our new table - seated at a table of eight, which we initially were a little sad about; we missed our romantic table at the early sitting. After about 20 minutes we forgot all about that - we bonded with two other couples right away and looked forward to chatting with our new friends every night thereafter.

 

The days at sea were spent laying around sunning ourselves and enjoying cocktails.

 

Cozumel - had a pretty good time shopping and exploring the island a little. No planned excursions since wifey had just discovered she was sick. I did get her to have a corona with me on a pier close to port, and we had the most amazing corona commercial moment - you know, the "miles away from ordinary" ones? Sun setting, lime fizzing, it was great fun. I haggled like a bastard that day and got some pieces of jewelry, blankets, and t-shirts for next to nuthin'. :)

 

Grand Cayman - My favorite excursion. We did an island tour by bus that went to the Turtle farm, Hell, some of the nicer homes, and finally Stingray City. The latter I'll never forget - my only regret is only having a few pictures left in our waterproof camera! Those animals are just amazing - we went through Carnival and at $59/person I felt the value was just great.

 

Jamaica - The climb up Dunns River Falls was a rush - my wife's favorite activity of the week. I held hands with a large elderly woman and my right shoulder is, as I type this, still throbbing with soreness from lugging her up basically the entire waterfall. That just added to the experience though, we were all smiles for that whole hour. Then we did the dolphin touch, which I thought was a letdown. My wife went to touch & kiss a dolphin and when I went to snap a picture I was told this wasn't allowed - that irritated me as I knew I'd be forced to buy an overpriced pic from them instead. The entire "encounter" lasted less than 10 minutes and left us feeling as though we just didn't get enough out of that excursion to warrant the $119x2 (especially when compared to the Stingray City experience for half the price!). As expected, they tried to get us to buy their 5x7 picture for $16 a pop. I really wanted it but couldn't bring myself to pay for pseudo-extortion on principle so we passed. Did some shopping and picked up a few trinkets. At the end of the day we had a good time thanks to the waterfall climb, but felt a little ripped off due to the price. If we could have done it again we would've just skipped the dolphin thing and done the climb through the locals.

 

I think it was day 6 before we knew how to get to most parts of the ship without getting lost. :) Triumph is truly huge and the layout is a little ... artistic? I had a little bit of a problem with another guest on the ship - around 1am I was headed down from Lido with a little pizza and some guy in the elevator turned to his young son and said something like "can you tell this guy we feel sorry for him having to go all the way to the first floor to go to his room?" before stumbling off on the 6th floor, laughing. I was so caught off guard by that, and I let it bother me for the rest of the night. :T

 

Oh, I loved the pizza. I must've had 20 pies last week .. haven't weighed myself yet, I'm technically still on vacation until 8am Monday. :D

 

Hmmm, what else - our cruise director was funny in a ryan seacrest fruity kind of way. All the shows except for the last one were great, and we caught every one. That last one was guest talent show which was basically a karaoke night gone bad. Oh well. The comic (Percy Crews) was so funny my wife and I thought we were going to hurt ourselves from laughing too hard. We tried to go to the Rio Lounge on the other end of the ship to catch his midnight adult show, but when we got there every seat was taken and there was literally not enough floor space left to stand comfortably. That's the second time we couldn't go to a midnight show due to lack of space and I have to admit that was pretty upsetting as we were really looking forward seeing more of his act. That's the one complaint we left on our comment cards - hopefully they can do something about it in the future.

 

What else, what else - our cruise ended with lots of group hugs from our dinner mates. : ) Debarkation was fast and painless, surprising after I read a couple horror stories on here. We stayed at Sofitel again (got an upgrade again) and flew back to gloomy Buffalo early today.

 

Conclusion - we had fun! I wish wifey was healthier but that only slowed us down a little bit. Carnival Triumph was astounding, but I don't have a reference for comparison. Would we cruise again? Probably - but we would definitely experiment with another line. I've got my eye on Princess.: )

 

Thanks again to everyone for the advice - you were all right! :)

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MyImagination

MyImagination

Posted
Posted
Phew! We got back today and I'm happy to report that weather forecast was about as accurate as a WMD report. We had, for the most part, beautiful weather all week with the exception of a little storm on the last day.

 

That said, there was a little problem - my wife got a cold on day 2 and was under the weather the whole trip. :( She was a trooper though and it only slowed us down first thing in the morning and late at night when she felt particularly crappy. The infirmary gave us some cough drops (which I found out ended up costing us about $1 each. Ouch!) that helped when her throat flared up. She had good days on all of our excursions and we were able to do everything we wanted.

 

Some thoughts from a newbie:

 

We flew in the night before and spent the night in the Sofitel hotel (4 * for $79, Priceline). Pretty decent hotel especially after they upgraded our room. I highly recommend flying in the night before if possible! Breakfast was slow and leisurely and we made our way to the ship on a lazy vacation timetable.

 

I remember my first thought when we approached the Triumph. "Holy ****" ... I couldn't believe how big it is. I don't get awestruck often and man, I just had no idea they were that massive.

 

Embarkation was all about lines. Go to this line, go to that line ... boring and tiring, but we were in no hurry so no big deal. Went to our room on the first floor (Riviera) and my wife was pleasantly surprised - she had cruised once before with her family on Royal C and apparently her room then was about 1/2 the size of the one on Carnival and the window was 1/8 the size. Personally I felt like the room and bathroom were comically tiny; I'm 6'2 so I like my space - but wifey and I are still in the newlywed stage (2 yrs this July) so I didn't mind *too* much being so cozy. Everything else was ok - room style seemed a little dated but it was clean with the exception of a couple faded stains on the comforter that didn't really bother us.

 

We were fairly nervous all day as our luggage wasn't delivered to our room until moments before dinner. Speaking of dinner, we requested the late sitting and were given early. Called the Purser's desk and the attendant advised us to go early the first day and request a switch, which is what we did. Dinner was great - we had a private table for 2 in a quiet spot, *very* nice waiters (the staff is unreal!) and the food was great - too exotic for wifey but I love trying new things so I was in 7th heaven.

 

The next day we got our new table - seated at a table of eight, which we initially were a little sad about; we missed our romantic table at the early sitting. After about 20 minutes we forgot all about that - we bonded with two other couples right away and looked forward to chatting with our new friends every night thereafter.

 

The days at sea were spent laying around sunning ourselves and enjoying cocktails.

 

Cozumel - had a pretty good time shopping and exploring the island a little. No planned excursions since wifey had just discovered she was sick. I did get her to have a corona with me on a pier close to port, and we had the most amazing corona commercial moment - you know, the "miles away from ordinary" ones? Sun setting, lime fizzing, it was great fun. I haggled like a bastard that day and got some pieces of jewelry, blankets, and t-shirts for next to nuthin'. :)

 

Grand Cayman - My favorite excursion. We did an island tour by bus that went to the Turtle farm, Hell, some of the nicer homes, and finally Stingray City. The latter I'll never forget - my only regret is only having a few pictures left in our waterproof camera! Those animals are just amazing - we went through Carnival and at $59/person I felt the value was just great.

 

Jamaica - The climb up Dunns River Falls was a rush - my wife's favorite activity of the week. I held hands with a large elderly woman and my right shoulder is, as I type this, still throbbing with soreness from lugging her up basically the entire waterfall. That just added to the experience though, we were all smiles for that whole hour. Then we did the dolphin touch, which I thought was a letdown. My wife went to touch & kiss a dolphin and when I went to snap a picture I was told this wasn't allowed - that irritated me as I knew I'd be forced to buy an overpriced pic from them instead. The entire "encounter" lasted less than 10 minutes and left us feeling as though we just didn't get enough out of that excursion to warrant the $119x2 (especially when compared to the Stingray City experience for half the price!). As expected, they tried to get us to buy their 5x7 picture for $16 a pop. I really wanted it but couldn't bring myself to pay for pseudo-extortion on principle so we passed. Did some shopping and picked up a few trinkets. At the end of the day we had a good time thanks to the waterfall climb, but felt a little ripped off due to the price. If we could have done it again we would've just skipped the dolphin thing and done the climb through the locals.

 

I think it was day 6 before we knew how to get to most parts of the ship without getting lost. :) Triumph is truly huge and the layout is a little ... artistic? I had a little bit of a problem with another guest on the ship - around 1am I was headed down from Lido with a little pizza and some guy in the elevator turned to his young son and said something like "can you tell this guy we feel sorry for him having to go all the way to the first floor to go to his room?" before stumbling off on the 6th floor, laughing. I was so caught off guard by that, and I let it bother me for the rest of the night. :T

 

Oh, I loved the pizza. I must've had 20 pies last week .. haven't weighed myself yet, I'm technically still on vacation until 8am Monday. :D

 

Hmmm, what else - our cruise director was funny in a ryan seacrest fruity kind of way. All the shows except for the last one were great, and we caught every one. That last one was guest talent show which was basically a karaoke night gone bad. Oh well. The comic (Percy Crews) was so funny my wife and I thought we were going to hurt ourselves from laughing too hard. We tried to go to the Rio Lounge on the other end of the ship to catch his midnight adult show, but when we got there every seat was taken and there was literally not enough floor space left to stand comfortably. That's the second time we couldn't go to a midnight show due to lack of space and I have to admit that was pretty upsetting as we were really looking forward seeing more of his act. That's the one complaint we left on our comment cards - hopefully they can do something about it in the future.

 

What else, what else - our cruise ended with lots of group hugs from our dinner mates. : ) Debarkation was fast and painless, surprising after I read a couple horror stories on here. We stayed at Sofitel again (got an upgrade again) and flew back to gloomy Buffalo early today.

 

Conclusion - we had fun! I wish wifey was healthier but that only slowed us down a little bit. Carnival Triumph was astounding, but I don't have a reference for comparison. Would we cruise again? Probably - but we would definitely experiment with another line. I've got my eye on Princess.: )

 

Thanks again to everyone for the advice - you were all right! :)

Glad you have a wonderful time.. You should also place your review on the main Carnival board.

Here is the link

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=215

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Arcanlaw

Arcanlaw

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Posted
Its great to hear you had a good time.Hope your wife is feeling better.:)

 

Thank you very much! She's still recovering, getting a little better each day. Since she was sick I think we may need to go on another cruise this year as last week didn't count! :)

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