Spring Break (Mar 13-18) Cruise on The Triumph out of N'Awlins review

[IPlayWithString]

Sorry it's taken so long to get a review up...I kinda had a crap week last week.

SO...Carnival Triumph out of New Orleans, LA. This was I think our 4th or maybe 5th time sailing on the Triumph. She used to be out of Galveston, which is why we've sailed her a few times before since that's our home port. The only reason we went out of New Orleans this time was none of the ships leaving Galveston during the week of our spring break matched up with the time my husband was able to take off. Anyway. Buckle up ladies and gents, because aaawwway we go.

Port of New Orleans: I'd give this a D simply for the parking garage madness alone. It's not well suited for this purpose AT ALL. People were parking all over the place, some of them not even in designated parking spots and it made it tricky to navigate at best. There were also people who slowed up progress by pulling their cars right up in front of the elevators and then taking forever to load and arrange their baggage in their vehicles. Once we got inside, it really wasn't much better and trying to just get through the security line was a nightmare. HOWEVER..once we got through security and upstairs to the waiting area, things got better. We were able to find a manager/supervisor fairly quickly and she led us to an area that was somewhat (although not as much as I would've liked) separated from the main body of chairs for us to wait. My son is special needs (high functioning autism) and sometimes crowds, especially if they're LOUD (like these people were) can be overwhelming for him. Separating him as much as we can from the crowd helps as does being able to board as close to first as possible because even though this is something we've done multiple times before (this was cruise #10 for us), it can still be stress-related meltdown inducing for him. Which we try to avoid that at all costs.

Sail Away: A+ as always. The food venues were open fairly soon after we boarded (around 11:30) and we got our Guy's burgers (Straight Up for me, Plain Jane for my son) and our drinks and we were chillin'. Jess from the US (the cruise director) led a fantastic deck party once the safety drill was over and we had a fantastic time.

Embarkation Night Dinner: B+--we usually do Your Time Dining and things were a little chaotic, but I kind of expect that for the first night since the waitstaff is dealing with new passengers, etc. The food was, as always, absolutely fabulous. I honestly don't think I've EVER had a bad meal on a Carnival ship. Dinner that night (for me at least) was fried calimari (appetizer), the fried sweet n sour shrimp (entree') and Nutella tiramisu for dessert. The waitstaff was a little busy, but again..I expected this since it was embarkation night.

First Sea Day--B+ My son is a big fan of trivia, so we spend a lot of time doing that. Also, on that first sea day there was an arts-n-crafts session where we made tied balloons around flip flops. I'd rate this particular craft an F for reasons I'll state later when I get to our excursion in Cozumel. Overall though, everything went fairly smoothly except for the huge lines at Guy's Burger during lunch. I think I waited longer in line that day than I've ever waited in line for Guy's Burger. Part of it was because I chose the wrong line (there are two) and got stuck behind a bunch of college guys that I had to keep poking them to remind them the line was actually moving in front of them.

Breakfast was in the dining room and I had a BBQ porkchop that was a little on the tough side but otherwise really good. Lunch was another Guy's Burger, a Pig Patty this time that I really wish I hadn't gotten because the bacon was positively burned and even when I removed it from the burger after a bite or two, I could still taste the burned bacon. I found it rather weird since I've had a dozen or so Pig Pattys across three different ships (Triumph, Freedom and Magic) and never had this issue. Dinner was a Ceasar salad (bland but otherwise OK), blue crab ravioli (really delicious) and vanilla creme brulee' (easily one of my favorite desserts. Even my son who doesn't like sweets likes this).

We went to see one of the comics, Paul Lyons, and holy crap. If there was a less funny comedian, I've never seen one. My husband and I took my son to his family friendly show. My son really enjoyed him but my husband and I were like, "Seriously?" because it just wasn't funny. I ended up going to one of his adult shows later that evening and holy crap. It was like listening to your grandpa tell the world's unfunniest dirty dad jokes for forty five minutes. I'm not sure why I went, other than I was bored and I was hoping that his adult show would be better than his family friendly show because I know with some of the comedians we've seen on Carnival that's how it works. Their family shows suck because they're no good at telling clean jokes but their adult shows are really good because they can let loose. This was NOT the case with Paul Lyons. His adult show was just a dirtier version of his clean show and just as bad if not worse. It was like listening to your grandpa tell terrible dad jokes that just happened to be a little dirty.

Cozumel--D-. Actually I'm tempted to give this one an F because it turned into such a (bleep) show. We had pre-purchased tickets to go to La Isla Passion via Twister boat, which is something we've done multiple times before and absolutely loved. However, when we headed to the place where all the excursions were gathering, we were told all the water-based excursions (including ours) were cancelled due to high winds or something. We were given several choices of other similarly priced excursions and after talking about it for a few minutes, we decided our best bet was to go to Chankanaab since they also have a beach and I REALLY wanted a relaxing beach day. So we get to Chankanaab and are told their main beach is closed due to the high winds. OK. I didn't know this was going to happen, but OK there it is. We're already there and not much we can do about it but deal. There is, however, a small beachy inlet that is protected by rocks that we can use. Fine. We go to the sea lion show which bored my son to tears and he really didn't like being more or less forced to stand there while the sea lion gave him a quick kiss. We had started to skip that part, but an employee gave me a dirty look so we decided not to. We got an even dirtier look when they tried to direct us towards the front of the park where we could purchase the pictures and we told them "No, not right now." We tried doing the tour of the "Mayan Village" with my son, but he quickly got bored and we left about a third of the way through the tour. He said when we got home the best part was the roasted pumpkin and tomato salsa we were given by a sketchy looking "Mayan villager" in the "Here's what a Mayan Kitchen looked like" part of the tour. I was just hoping I didn't get some weird disease or something because who knows when she washed her hands last or how clean the implements were she used to make and cook the tortillas and salsa.

Then we decided to get lunch.

At Chankanaab, there are two restaurants, both serving essentially the same thing and at both restaurants the lines were crazy long. I probably spent half an hour to forty five minutes in line for food that wasn't even spectacular--nachos, rice, overcooked beans and a hot dog. My son wanted to get the coleslaw but it looked sketchy to me so I said no.

When we finally did get around to going down to the 'beachy inlet', it was super crowded because you couldn't go down to the proper beach (that was closed off because of the high winds which didn't seem that high to ME, but then what do I know?). When we tried to get in the water, we realized that it was nearly impossible because you had to walk over huge, uneven, moss covered rocks and I fell several times (as did pretty much every one else around us who tried to get in the water). Drinks were included in the package, but in order to get a drink you couldn't use the little bar next to the 'beachy inlet', you had to go way around by the pool (which was also crowded that day) and lines were long so I didn't bother except when we first got there which kind of sucked.

When it was time to leave, we had to wait forever for the bus to take us back to the port area, since several members of the excursion group didn't make it back on time and the tour guide who'd been assigned to us (Isis) had to go hunt for them.

We got back in plenty of time to do some shopping, however, which we did do at the Mare Blue shop (one of our favorites) and in the duty free shop.

Progresso-F

I will probably never give Progresso more than an F because honestly, unless you're going to the ruins at Chichen Itza there is NO reason to get off the ship here. Period. All of the vendors (even the ones right where you get off the ship) are super aggressive and I refuse to get on the bus and take the 20 min or so trip down the road to the actual town of Merida because I feel so unsafe there. Not on the bus..the bus is fine. But going into town? No way. In the past, when we didn't know any better and actually went into Merida, we got chased down the street by an angry nun when we didn't toss change into her can (we didn't have any change and politely told her no). Another passenger we spoke to said that she'd been to Merida once on her honeymoon. They were looking around and a guy came up and asked if they wanted to buy some Cuban cigars. She and her husband declined, as they're not smokers. The vendor ripped open the package of cigars and shoved one into her shopping bag and told her she HAD to purchase it since he'd already opened and given it to her. She said she took it out of her bag, flung it at the guy and she and her husband ran down the street towards where the busses were to get away from him.

I get it...I'm probably going to get flamed but I honestly don't care. I just want to have a good time and getting harassed and leered at by sweaty guys shoving questionable merchandise in my face is NOT my idea of a good time on vacation. Call me a spoiled American. I don't care.

Sea Day 2--B Trivia was a little blah this particular day and there wasn't much else going on unless you're into hairy chests (I'm not) or mixed drink competitions (again, I'm not). On the second sea day, which was on St. Patrick's Day, they held a ship wide 'duck hunt' contetst and the winners won giant sparkly green top hats (my husband was a winner and yes, he wore that stupid thing to dinner). Dinner that night was the French Onion soup (one of my personal favorites), the barbecued flatbread (deeelicious), caesar salad and carrot cake (which again...fabulous). I didn't feel too excited about any of the main entrees so that night I made a meal out of appetizers.

Overall the cruise wasn't great but it wasn't terrible. I won't stop cruising with Carnival over the Chankanaab debacle, but I certainly wouldn't choose that excursion again or recommend it to anybody unless they want to do the swim with the dolphins part .

 

 

I just realized I didn't say why the flip flops arts n crafts project sucked. So..we were given pre-packaged flipflops that came with little packages of balloons that you were supposed to tie onto the thong part of the flipflops. It was tricky at first but once I got the hang of it, it didn't take long. I chose (mistakenly) to wear these flipflops off the boat in Cozumel because I believed I wouldn't be wearing them for longer than it took for us to find our excursion check in and then to walk to the short pier where the Twister boats leave from. Instead, I wound up wearing them all day at Chankanaab and by the end of the day, I had small, red sore spots on the bottoms of my feet from where the thong was digging into my foot. Like, not the actual thong part but the..IDK what you call it? Anchor? The bit that anchors the thong into the sole of the flipflop was digging into the bottom of my foot and it really, really hurt. When I took them off later after we got back to our rooms, I was honestly surprised that I didn't have some kind of cut or bruise from the flipflops digging into my feet. It's not because I have fat feet that I had to strain to get into the flip flops. I just believe they were (bleepy) flipflops. I thought at first the weird sensation of pressure I was feeling was because the balloons had slipped down and I was stepping on them. At some point during the day, I stopped and shoved the balloons up closer to the toe of the flip flop, but I kept feeling first a sensation of pressure and then, as the day wore on, the feeling of what felt like sharp plastic digging into my foot.

Honestly, I should've known better.

This is the second Carnival arts n crafts kit I've gotten that turned out to be super crap. Last year on one of our cruises, they offered you a choice of either making a paracord bracelet (which my husband did. Turned out kinda meh) or some kind of beaded coaster which I found to just a total mess.

First off you were dealing with 100s of tiny plastic beads with nowhere to really spread out or cups, etc to keep them in to keep them from going all over. Second, I remember the instructions not being very clear as to how to assemble the coaster (involved a piece of foam-like paper and some fine thread and a needle) as well as the Fun Squad employee not knowing how it was put together either (the paracord bracelet's instructions were MUCH clearer). Eventually, I gave up, threw everything into a plastic ziploc bag (we carry extras with us for emergencies, etc) and took it home. I threw away the needle and thread and gave the beads to my mother (who does beaded jewelry, keychains, etc to sell at craft fairs). I think if Carnival is GOING to offer arts n crafts kits to people, they need to seriously figure out which ones are going to work and which ones aren't. Or at least offer better quality arts n crafts kits.

Edited March 27, 2017 by IPlayWithString

[mykindaparty]

Wow....sorry your cruise wasn't very enjoyable. We love Cozumel and have found that to avoid crowds we go to Nachi Cocum which is an all inclusive for 55.00 per person. They only take 100 people a day and it's very quiet and the food and drinks there are yummy. Your son can either play in the ocean or they have a huge pool that is about 5 ft deep, you get your own personal waiter and a palapa and beach chairs. We have been there over 10 times in the past couple years and have never seen it have over 50 people. It may be something for your family to check out. . As for Progreso that is a sleep in day and lounge around the boat for us too. Been there done that and don't like the pushy rude people at the shops. Hope your next cruise is better.

 

 

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[Clarea]

Thanks for the detailed, informative report.

 

Another vote for Nachi Cocom here.:)

[IPlayWithString]

MYKINDAPARTY--we had an OK time for the most part except for the day in Cozumel that was not what we'd hoped it would've been. I think there were a lot more people at Chankanaab and at some of the other excursions because of all the cancellations. When we've been to Passion Island before, it's always been really great...never too crowded, easy to get drinks (even if they are weak), the food is kinda meh, but I don't go there for the food. I go there to lay on a beach chair with a margarita in hand and watch my husband and son play in the water.

Nachi Cocum is not an excursion offered by the ship and I know a lot of people have said it's great, etc but honestly, there are two things about it that put me off. One is the exclusivity...if they only take 100 people a day and it's a popular place to go, then there's little chance we'll get in. Two, we like doing excursions through Carnival simply for the reason that if something goes wrong, a bus breaks down or whatever, we're not going to be left behind.

[mykindaparty]

Oh ok, but we have never had a problem getting reservations and the taxi drops you off and you just tell your waiter when your ready to go and they call the cab to come get you. It was just a suggestion for maybe something different and not crowded. Happy cruising[emoji3]

 

 

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[Saint Greg]

Got your Fun Times by chance?

[IPlayWithString]

No, I don't. Sorry...we don't keep those things. I don't understand why people do, tbh.:confused:

[Saint Greg]

No, I don't. Sorry...we don't keep those things. I don't understand why people do, tbh.:confused:

 

 

 

Some do it to post them here.

 

 

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[KPfromCT]

Thanks for the review!

Sorry you didn't have the greatest cruise, but you seemed to have a great attitude about it.

 

I am a strong believer that a "not so great" cruise is better than being at work, or home.:')

[Sixtytwo]

Good in depth review. On our last Cozumel trip in January, we took a cab to Paradise Beach and had a totally enjoyable day! Beach, swimming pool, bar, restaurant. What more would you want? [emoji6]

 

 

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[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[sailawaybellaluna]

Oh man, I'm sorry you didn't have the best experience. I'm doing this cruise on Saturday, although we're doing the ports DIY (Paradise Beach and Merida). I'm going to try and do a review as well, since this is my first time on the Triumph. I was supposed to sail her back in 2013, but the week before we were meant to board she had her little "incident" and got stuck out at sea. :p

 

Hope your next cruise all gets A's and B+'s!

[winchesterdog]

Nachi-Cocom was a very cool place to enjoy the day worry free.