Just returned from the Triumph...Western Caribbean

[pcvtmom]

Our group of 5 just returned from the Triumph, Western Caribbean itinerary. This is our 9th Carnival cruise, the 2nd aboard the Triumph. Contrary to some of the pre-cruise postings I read, the Triumph was in excellent shape...clean, well-maintained, well-staffed. We had a great cruise!

 

Day 1: Flew into Ft. Lauderdale on JetBlue and took the Tri-County Express transportation ($18 pp) as recommended by several Cruise Critic members. Good service, but they would not pre-book our return trip for some reason???!! Oh well...this was by far the smoothest embarkation we have ever experienced. Kudos to the staff in Miami! We arrived around 11:30 and were on the Lido deck stuffing our faces by noon. Let the eatings begin! Went to our rooms around 2:00 and found luggage had already arrived. Dinner was late seating in the Paris Dining room, where we met the BEST dining wait team...Carlos and Monika. They were absolutely outstanding! We skipped the Welcome Aboard show in order to get settled in. Watched it the next day on TV.

 

Day 2: At sea. I was up early and saw the sunrise from the back deck. Wow!!! This was a relaxing day to unwind and let our minds clear. The Lido deck band, Total Eclipse, was terrific. In fact, we all agreed that we'd never heard a better one on a ship. The captain's cocktail party and first formal night was held tonight, so we got all gussied up and attended it at 6:00. Our dinner was at 8:00, and the food was superb! We went to the show, Wonderful World, which was quite entertaining. I was surprised by the small crowd!

 

Day 3: Cozumel. This was our 5th time in Cozumel, and we've finally realized that what we want in this port of call is a nice, relaxing, beach day. (Sit right here and have another beer in Mexico...) We headed to our favorite spot for this, Paradise Beach. We were not disappointed! The guacamole is to die for. The girls had "beachy drinks" and the fellows had a couple of buckets of SOL. Great service, clean facilities, and blue water. What more could we ask for? After heading back to port we decided to do a little shopping. Being Parrotheads, we headed to the fairly new Margaritaville. On this itinerary, all three ports of call have Margaritavilles (and yes, we visited each one!). We then headed back to the ship for showers and naps after being thoroughly drained by the heat and humidity. Since we were in port late, they had open seating for dinner. We missed Carlos and Monika!! We went to the show, featuring the vocals of Cecil Parker. He was very entertaining, and we enjoyed the performance immensely. Again...a very small crowd.

 

Day 4: Again, a sea day. Eat, read a book, relax, tan, repeat...Later on we spent some time in the shops on board, checking out the bargains. Another wonderful meal in the Paris dining room. Tonight we skipped the show...magic. I like music and dancing better. We sat along the Promenade and enjoyed some tunes

 

Day 5: Grand Caymans. We've done the stingray thing twice before, so we just got a cab to the beach. We went to Sea Grapes, which is near the Marriott. A word to the wise...everything in the Caymans is MUCH more expensive than the other two ports of call. We didn't buy much here, as a result. There is a bar at the beach, but prices were pretty hefty, so we waited until later to have drinks. We went back to the port and visited our second Margaritaville of the week. I had a "Banana Wind", which was a yummy milkshake with alcohol. Heaven! The placemats had coupons for free 9 ounce margaritas at your next Margaritaville (which we knew would be the next day in Ocho Rios!!) Needless to say, we took them with us. We went back to ship early, since this is a tendered port and the last tender (3:45) tends to have a LOONNGG line! Relaxed and napped to get ready for the evening. We skipped the show again tonight, since it was juggling and comedy.

 

Day 6: Jamaica. It has been 9 years since we've visited Ocho Rios. What a remarkable change! They've built a safe, secure shopping center at the port called Island Village. We strolled around and did some shopping while waiting for our excursion we booked through Carnival. We did Cool Runnings trimaran to Dunn's River Falls. It was a blast!! My husband and I, as well as the couple we travel with, are all 50ish. It was strenuous, but we had no problem with the climb. It was, according to my 19 year old daughter, the "best shore excursion we've ever done". The guides and video team were so entertaining (but careful) that we absolutely loved this experience. Afterwards, we went back to Island Village for our pilgrimage to our final Margaritaville of the week (it is in Island Village), where we downed our free margaritas and the boys had some Red Stripes.

Back to the ship to clean up and relax. Tonight was the past guest party and they really were generous with the alcohol. In fact, they put down 2 drinks at a time for each of us! (Not so at the Captain's Cocktail Party earlier in the week!) We had a great time. Showtime tonight was my absolute favorite...Century Cafe. What a super show!

 

Day 7: At sea again...and trying not to think about it being the last day. We did everything we could to put off packing until the last minute. We got in as much tanning, eating, and relaxing as we could. We gave our wonderful wait staff and our room steward a little something extra tonight. They deserved every penny and MORE! Our steward, Igusti, was so efficient and friendly. Carlos and Monika were the most outstanding wait team we've ever had...and that's saying something!

 

Food highlights...lobster, chateaubriand, prime rib, filet minon (exceptional beef this week), any of the fruit soups, escargots, stuffed mushrooms, farmer's market salad, portobello and spinach salad, chocolate melting cake, and my new favorite dessert, bitter and blanc.

 

We chose to self-debark, and it went smoothly for the most part. We took a yellow cab (van) back to Ft. Lauderdale airport. Surprisingly, it was even cheaper that the Tri-County Express. It was metered, but came in under $70 for the trip back. Not bad at all.

 

I'm now in cruise withdrawal, and am looking forward to another Carnival cruise next summer!!

[nothomeonacruise]

Thank you for your excellent review! I also had a great cruise with the Triumph.:) I'm excited to go on again!

[Hedocple]

Great review! Glad you had a wonderful time. We did as well on the same cruise this past June. Also good to hear you enjoyed Jamaica and weren't intimidated by the negative posts on this board.

We missed Ocho Rios Margaritaville but did visit the others. We have been to the ones in MoBay and Negril many times. In October we'll be making our annual pilgrimage to the Las Vegas Margaritaville :)

Irie!

[Ellanora]

Loved your review, sounds like a great time! Glad to hear it, as I am on the Triumph in less than 8 weeks, and am really looking forward to it!

[travmagic]

pcvtmom, it sounds like we were bumping into one another quite a bit on this cruise.

We, too, had Paris, second seating. We also did Paradise Beach and the Dunnes River/ Cool Runnings cruise. We were with a group of 7, 4 adults and 3 older girls. We may have been on a different Cool Runnings though. I believe there were 2.

[Patneeds2cruise]

Thanks for your review. Glad you had a good time. We are counting the days till it's our turn.

 

Please tell me about the yellow cab (van) to Ft. Lauderdale. Did you reserve it ahead of time or just grab one when you got off the ship? We will be on the Triumph in September and will also need transportation to FLL when we disembark - there are 3 of us. What do you think would be our best option?

[pcvtmom]

We just grabbed a cab when we got off the ship. We asked for an estimated price, and he said the meter usually puts it at between $60 and $70. Since Tri-County Express operates from Ft. Lauderdale airport and NOT the port of Miami, I guess they wouldn't pre-book us to be picked up in a week. It worked out great with the yellow cab!

[pcvtmom]

travmagic, what a coincidence! yes, there were 2 Cool Runnings, I think. our falls guides were Price and Wallace...the couple with us bought the DVD, but we haven't had a chance to watch it yet

[JerseyHorseLover]

I was on the same cruise as you Christmas week and had a blast. I just got back from the Fascination last week, and was at Paradise Beach also. I just LOVE Paradise Beach.

[teanbean16]

We can't wait to cruise in March on the Triumph. Thanks for the review.:) :)

[ShelleyQT]

We took this same cruise. We, too, ended up at Paradise Beach in Cozumel and Margaritaville in Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios. What a great time!

[travmagic]

travmagic, what a coincidence! yes, there were 2 Cool Runnings, I think. our falls guides were Price and Wallace...the couple with us bought the DVD, but we haven't had a chance to watch it yet

Yeah, you must have been on the bigger Cool Runnings boat. We had a smaller one with only about 20 people.

I can't remember our guides names.:( They were good though.

I loved all the ports.

[travmagic]

We took this same cruise. We, too, ended up at Paradise Beach in Cozumel and Margaritaville in Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios. What a great time!

We were also at Margaritaville in GC after we got off of the Pirate Encounter.

[HookedOnCruisin'2]

We'll be on the Triumph in 3 weeks but with an Eastern itinerary. Thanks for the review..... I really look forward to the Triumph...

[jodipayne]

... We chose to self-debark, and it went smoothly for the most part...

Please tell me more about your self-debark. What time were you ready to leave the ship and what was the process? Also, what time did you actually get off of the ship? We have an 11:40AM flight out of Miami and are worried about being able to make it in time. Thanks ...

[CarribbeanTina271]

Thanks for the review, Will be on the Triumph Oct 6 and so looking forward to it. I am finally graduating from the Fantasy class ship...:p

Can't wait!

Addicted to Cruising

Tina

[funcpl30]

we were on same itinerary in June with hedocouple.(saw them everywhere and didnt realize it was them till they posted their pics). we also loved the ship and had one of our best vacations ever. Did you have the pleasure of meeting Tony the lido bartender/ pool server? He was great. Is Phat cat still one of the adult comedy shows or was he a limited appearance. If he is on when those of you go in the future dont miss him, he is hysterical!!

Did you go to the piano bar? If so is it still Garth? He was our only disappointment of the week.

 

Glad you had a great time, and i am jealous of those of you going in the near future!!!!

[racyguy14619]

Thanks for a great review. It's great to keep hearing from people who've been pleased with the ship. Looking forward to the Eastern itinerary in a couple of months !

[travmagic]

Please tell me more about your self-debark. What time were you ready to leave the ship and what was the process? Also, what time did you actually get off of the ship? We have an 11:40AM flight out of Miami and are worried about being able to make it in time. Thanks ...

We did it mainly because we didn't want to have to give up our suitcases the last night.

The order is determined by the deck you were on. Unfortunately for us, we were on deck 7 and that is where they started at 7:15am. So we were standing on the curb before 8:00am. Our transportation was scheduled for 10:00am. :rolleyes:

But it was still much easier doing that. I would recommend doing that with an early flight.

[jodipayne]

Thank you so much! That is what we will do to debark. Also, thanks for your review! I'm excited and can hardly wait ...

[pcvtmom]

Please tell me more about your self-debark. What time were you ready to leave the ship and what was the process? Also, what time did you actually get off of the ship? We have an 11:40AM flight out of Miami and are worried about being able to make it in time. Thanks ...

 

You'll have no problem making an 11:40 flight out of Miami. We got to Ft. Lauderdale too early to check in for our 1:15 flight. We were there by about 9:00, and were told we couldn't check in until 9:45, so it was "hurry up and wait"!:rolleyes:

[travmagic]

You'll have no problem making an 11:40 flight out of Miami. We got to Ft. Lauderdale too early to check in for our 1:15 flight. We were there by about 9:00, and were told we couldn't check in until 9:45, so it was "hurry up and wait"!:rolleyes:

American let us check in 4 hours early at MIA. That was lot's of fun!:rolleyes:

[danabobbyt]

Hooked on Crusin'2. Please post your review when you return. We are also on the Eastern itenarary in Nov. Can't wait!