Triumph Review, 3/18/06

[Smithgirl2]

Triumph 3/18/06 Review

 

I went on this cruise for spring break with two friends. We are all 21-year-old girls who go to school together. I used these boards a lot before I left and got tons of great information. I haven’t been seeing too much stuff about the Triumph, so I thought I’d write a brief review about some of the things people seem to be most interested in.

 

Miami: We stayed at the Wyndham Airport Hotel, which wasn’t great. The room was fine, but we paid way too much. If you can, I would use Priceline, as it seemed that many people got much better deals that way.

 

Embarkation:

…was so easy. We took a taxi from the hotel to the pier for about $25. We got to the pier at 11 and only waited in a few very short lines. We were on the boat by 12.

 

Room: We went straight to our cabin, which was 6361 on the Upper Deck. We had an inside stateroom with one upper bunk. The beds were firm and small (twin size, obviously) but the feather duvets were wonderful, and I found the pillows very comfy. Even the upper bunk had a reading light, although there was no down comforter on the upper bunk. In retrospect, we probably could have asked for one. There was a large air vent in the center of the room that blew cold air and could be opened to varying degrees. There were three drawers, a cabinet with two shelves, and three little locker-type closets for storage. The bathroom was small, but had a cabinet behind a mirror, and a shelf under the counter. The showerhead was decent and adjustable. Our room was over the casino where an amazing woman named Sheila played guitar every night. You could hear every one of her songs if you were up in our room, but her set ended around 12:30 each night, so this really wasn’t a problem for us. If you go to bed at 9 or 10, you would definitely be kept awake. Bring ear plugs, just in case.

 

Service: I think we were somewhat ignored as spring breakers. I never met the steward or the Maitre d’, although I had anticipated meeting and speaking with them. This was really not a problem though, and all of the staff was very friendly towards us.

 

Food: We ordered room service for breakfast most days, which was simple and continental, but always arrived on time. For lunch we had the lido buffet, which was fine. They always had lots of dessert options. We ate dinner every night in the dining room. Our seating was at 8pm in the Paris dining room, and our servers, Lesya and Anna, were amazing. They were so nice and fun. We were at a table for 8, and the Maitre d’ put us with 5 boys our age from CT, so we had a lot of fun. The food was mostly delicious, and the only bad dish I had was a lobster that really could have been made out of rubber. Oh, and the pumpkin pie was very mousse-y, which I do not prefer. But otherwise every night was fun and interesting. The boys quickly realized that they could order as many dishes as they wanted, and every night our table was covered in entrees. We looked forward to dinner every night.

 

Ship: The Triumph was clean, the decks were clean, and there were always staff members cleaning things up. I also want to mention that every day I saw security personnel walking the decks and checking everything out. I felt very safe the whole time. The only complaint that my friends and I had was the limited gift shop options. As my friend said “If you’re on a ship for an entire week, you want a few more stores to go to.” But as I said, we’re young girls who love to shop, so there you go. I did need to buy a pair of sunglasses and never did because the selection was so limited (and was too busy exploring in the ports). The decks were crowded on sea days, but there were always extra chairs stacked up on the decks up and away from the pools, which were available. It took a little bit of searching for a good spot, but not really a problem at all.

 

Cruise Director: was Stuart from Australia, and while he was pretty annoying with the announcements and his jokes aren’t funny. Nonetheless, we were still fond of his Aussie accent. We saw that Captain a few times as well, and wondered why all the captains seem to be from Italy. Anyone? We enjoyed his announcements about the ship’s status.

 

Ports:

 

Cozumel: I have to admit that in grand Spring Break fashion, we were hungover, missed our shore excursion and ended up not getting off the boat. Are we a stereotype or what?

 

Grand Cayman: We did the Reef and Wreck Snorkeling Tour, which was fun, but not amazing. We saw some very pretty fish and a cool shipwreck that is right off the shore. Tendering was not a problem, and we walked right down at 9am and got right on a tender. We ate lunch at Breezes, which was good and then shopped around a bit. Don’t forget to taste the rum cakes, although you can buy the actual cakes everywhere, including the gift shop on board and in the Miami airport.

 

Jamaica: Jamaica was my favorite stop, and I wish we had been there for longer that day. We went on the Chukka Cove ATV excursion, which was really a life experience. We walked off the pier where they lined us up for our excursion and put us in a taxi. The taxi took us to Chukka Cover, where they do horseback riding and ATV tours. There were about 10 people in our ATV group with one guide in front. I don’t really know a lot about the ship tours, but this one seemed DANGEROUS! We were riding ATVs hard and fast up and down the hillsides, and over small bridges. I really though I was going to die numerous times. It was hot and dirty. But also very beautiful and exciting. We stopped at a house near the top of the hills and took pictures. We also went by an open-air school and were able to meet the teacher and take some pictures with the kids while they ate their lunch. Real Jamaica. The final stop was a little rock cove on the property where some people took a 15-foot jump into the ocean. It was a great experience.

 

Nightlife: As spring breakers, we of course spent every night (when we didn’t have shore excursions, after our Cozumel mishap) in the bars and club. The bars were lovely, the service was usually great. The club went until about 3am, and then everyone went up to the pizza deck. Several night my friends or I stayed up till 4 or 5am and there were always kids our age wandering around. I made sure that my girls used their “quiet voice” in the hallways, but most people were not so considerate. The first night we turned on our ipod and were playing some music in our room around 10pm, and quickly got a knock on the door from a security officer who said they had a noise complaint about our room. I realize I’m probably in the minority on these boards, but we are nice girls from nice families, even if we were on spring break. We turned down the music and made sure to keep it down the rest of the week. Even so, I think the polite thing would have been for the complainers to knock on our door and ask us first, rather than reporting us. It’s just basic kindness and respect that we would have been happy to return.

 

Casino: The casino was very small, but seemed to be able to accommodate the number of people who wanted to play.

 

Shows: We didn’t go to any shows other than the adult comedian show. It was raunchy, but funny.

 

I’m trying to think what I may have left out, but feel free to ask questions! We had an amazing trip, and I wish everyone a vacation just as lovely.

[revkev]

Thank so much for your review. You're right I haven't seen that much about the Triumph either. You really covered alot of material, thank you.

 

What did you think of the lunch buffets? Selection? And quality?

 

How were the seas?

 

What kind of weather did you have? Was it warm pretty much everyday? How warm was it at night.

 

Thanks again,

 

Kevin

[NDK100]

I sail on this ship next week. It is nice to see a current review.... Any MUST See or DO things while out to sea?

[big_duck]

Nice review.

 

For those looking, here are some other recent Triumph reviews:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=3039696

[Smithgirl2]

revkev: the weather was amazing. It was beautiful and warm every day, except the last day at sea, when it got a bit rainy and windy in the late afternoon. Otherwise, the weather was perfect.

 

The lunch buffet quality was ok imho, and had different things every day, depending on the theme. We had quite a few sandwiches at the sandwich bar that were very nice. Not fabulous, but good enough for me.

 

The seas were pretty calm I think. I'm very sensitive to the boat rocking, but many people didn't notice until the last day when we were hightailing it back to Miami.

 

It was warm at night but windy, so I usually wore a light sweater. The A/C is on high all over the boat, so I was usually in a sweatshirt. A lot of people had their "liquid sweaters" on though, and didn't seem to mind the temp.

 

NDK: The only thing I would say is a must-see (since I mostly just laid on the deck all day) is the slide. It is huge and fun and if you lie down you go really fast. I had excellent instructions from an 8 year old pro! Try it at least once!

[kitchencarol]

Thanks for the review. We sail 4/15 and are glad to hear about the safety of the ship. Thanks for the update. Keep them coming you "past Triumpheteers"!!:)

[cheekie]

Great Review Smithgirl!

 

One question... did you book your own excursions, or use the ship?

 

Thanks!

[tcsmithh]

Do you have any pictures anywhere yet? would love to see the ship :)

[Smithgirl2]

cheekie: We booked our excursions through the ship.

 

tcs: I only have a few pictures, but I'll try to post some.

[Smithgirl2]

Okay, here are a few pics--not a lot of the boat, but some!

 

http://community.webshots.com/album/548970856FuRlyL

[westernmom]

Thanks for taking the time to write your review. I loved that you covered some small details that others haven't - security, a/c blower, etc.

 

I think with your "complainers" that sometimes it is easier to call the purser or whoever rather than risk offending your fellow passengers that you will be with all week. And, sometimes you never know how someone will react to being asked (no matter how politely) to quiet down. I think it is safer to just call on an official person to handle it rather than do it yourself.

 

Thanks again for a great review! We leave on the Triumph in 54 days!

[tcsmithh]

SG, THAT LOOKS LIKE A BLAST, we leave the 15th and I am even more excited looking at your photos! Thanks a bunch! :)

[sdwrdt]

Smithgirl,

 

My family (12 yo & 10 yo DD's and hubby) were on the cruise with you.

 

One thing I was REALLY impressed with was how nice the college girls were! If you were one of those who asked how our crusie was going or apologized for swearing during the "Follow the Leader" song during the Mexican party - thank you for your politeness.

 

We were also on the Upper Deck - 6222. But we weren't the complainers. Our only noise problem were the people coming home from their partying and forgetting that people might be asleep. Actually, it was my nephews who were on the other end of it - running and yelling in the hallways during the mornings. I tried to get them to realize that that wasn't allowed.

 

Glad to hear you had a great time. I will be posting my review - SOMETIME.

[Smithgirl2]

No, that wasn't us, but I'm glad you met some nice people! How great was the weather?? Can't wait to see your review.

[Catrin]

Do you have any pictures anywhere yet? would love to see the ship :)

 

From a VERY different perspective... here are our Triumph Pics.. Two Cruises with our kids... some good pics of the ship here, but most are of my kids.

 

>>> Sounds like you had a BLAST on the Cruise! AHHH>>> to be 21 again and on Spring Break!! ;) :)

Thanks for the review...

Catrin

[jaywi]

We are going on the above cruise April 29, 06. Could you all share a brief experience about the good or bad things, as well as how was the western cruise area. I quess I should be excited, however I do have some reservations...

 

 

Thank you...

[jemingway]

Thanks for the review. It made an old man wish he was 21 again.:D