First cruise over - Triumph

[7x57]

My wife and I just finished our first cruise. While everything didn't go perfect we had a fantastic vacation. We are already shopping our next trip...hopefully on the Magic...with more family.

 

PROS

Anytime dinning - loved being able to sit with others or a table for two. Also beat the crowd on formal night with the 5:45 opening time with ATD.

 

Elegant Night Photos - How often do you get a professional photo for 22 bucks? Only needed one, well worth shlepping the suit and gown.

 

2 Wine / 2 packs drinks carry on board - figure this saved us at least 100.00.

 

BonVoyage - Bottle of vodka and the daily juice kept our bar tab at zero.

 

FOOD - I cant figure out why people complain about this. Yes, I've had better meals, but the MDR food was good to excellent. I tried things that I would never pay to try on land. I loved the experience. Chateaubriand was phenomenal. Minor complain - one can not order a rare steak, even medium rare is more like medium.

 

Room steward - Jhoe was the best (pronounced Joe). Kept the cooler iced at least twice a day (I didn't even ask or wave cash under his nose). He had our names, and his other 20 or so guests names down pat when we walked on board. Super nice guy, but not even the slightest bit nosey. Had planned on just doing auto tips, but I had to do better at the end with such great service. Every Carnival employee smiled and greeted us at every encounter. Our MDR Hostest even had our names AND room number memorized buy day 4. Props to Carnival for their customer service training.

 

Size and Layout of Ship - The Triumph was easy to navigate. We loved our cabin location on deck 7. Easy up an down on the stairs, quiet except for the late night drunks stumbling down the hallways.

 

Cozumel, Mexico - BEAUTIFUL! We felt very safe everywhere we walked. The people were kind if we said "no thankyou" and respectful of or space when we walked their shops. We bought some antibiotics from a pharmacy only to find half were missing one we were back on the boat, other than that we loved the place. Paradise Beach was a wonderful R & R place and a good bargain. Couple drinks, an appitizer and chair rentals were very reasonable. We will go back.

 

CONS

Elevators - not worth the wait. I had to laugh when people could not climb stairs for ONE deck. That kind of laziness bogged it down for those who really needed it due to disability, age or moving 4 or more decks. One a side note...I watched an elderly woman fall while waiting for an elevator. A Carnival employee had a wheelchair there in 5 minutes. She was uninjured so all that ends well....

 

LIDO (LARDO) Deck - The layout forces bottlenecks at several locations. I feel like it unfair to complain about 24 hour food, but I will despite the difficultly of providing the service. The food was fair at best (with a few shinning stars). The ice sculpture event was super "cool", but the rest of the entertainment was a little too "clublike"-loud.

 

Progeso, Mexico - Should have done an excursion. Walking the town was a exercise in patience. I bet I said, "no thank you" 200 times. There were times we felt made fun of for not buying from or entertaining a vendor. We did buy a few items, each time getting swamped as soon as we moved on. If we go back (and we may not) I will leave town to see ruins or the capital city. I will not walk that town again.

 

GAMBLING - BINGO is such a rip off. The casino machines are TIGHT. We will save our gambling trips for land based operations.

 

CONCLUSION

We feel like we received amazing value for or hard earned vacation dollars. We planned our expenses carefully but never felt like we were going without. We had a wonderful time, meet really nice people and were treated exceptionally well. We are planning a trip on the Magic next.

 

Thanks for taking the time to read.

[MrFunInTheSun]

Great overview. Thank you for sharing your cruise adventure with us.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Please excuse typographical errors.

[092306]

Thanks for the review. Loved the Triumph and would love to go to those ports one day. Glad you enjoyed your cruise!

[bruisin4cruisin]

Glad you had a good time. We have sailed on the Triumph twice and liked her. Progreso was a good town, I think. When we did it, we walked it and had fun with the locals. Got a $10 massage(4 years ago) and hung at a bar near the beach.

Cozumel has some good excursions, so sailing from Galveston you will get plenty of chances to do them all...lol.

Thanks for the review.

[Barsnikel]

We've been on the Progeso/Cozumel route a number of times, and several of those were on the Triumph.. in fact, we're doing it again this December..

 

I'd agree with everything you said, except the excursion in Progeso. There just really isn't much to say about this port. Unless you are a "party animal" and into the "all-you-can-drink" category, it's not worth getting off the ship.

 

Certainly if you've never been there you should see it, but once you've spent an hour there, that's really about it.

 

We always stay on the ship and lay out by the pool, have a leisure lunch, then take the bus in for a 1 hour massage. The prices fall rapidly as it gets closer to the ship leaving, and you can get a pretty good 1 hour massage for about $20.

 

But as for shore excursions, you didn't miss anything.