11-17 to 11 -24 Review Triumph Thanksgiving

[nothomeonacruise]

Hi all,

We just returned from our Eastern Caribbean Thanksgiving cruise on the Triumph. It was a fantastic trip with only a few glitches or events along the way. There were 4 of us in our group, including our teenage daughter.

First, we had a driver take us to the port, as we're from Florida. Thanks to CC, we knew it was ok to arrive early (around 11:15 am). We went through the whole process very quickly. We were told to wait to board, as it wouldn't be until after 12:00. We must have waited about 15 minutes, when we were told to board.

As we were boarding, several people told us to take our carry-ons to our cabins, as it would be fine to leave our things there while the cabins were being cleaned. So, we went immediately to the Lido deck (our rooms were located there) and proceeded down the hall to our cabins. We were stopped by a room steward (not ours) and sternly told to go wait outside, because they weren't finished yet. We apologized and left quickly wih our carry-ons.

We quickly went to he Lido restaurant and settled in with our stuff. My husband stayed with our things, while we went to take care of few things. During this time, I booked our cabana for Half Moon Cay. (I waited for the excursion/tour desk to open) I had my choice! Thanks to CC, I knew to pick a cabana further up the beach and away from the very crowded bar area. (I'll talk about that in a bit) We (my mother and I) then went to the London Dining room and spoke to the Maitre' d, about our table location and time of eating. He moved us to a private booth in the main area of the lower London dining room. We had the best table at the later seating time.

We finally made it to our rooms (two cabins) and had our balcony dividers opened. We had confirm we were family in order to open them. A simple call to the purser's desk solved it. Our rooms were on the Lido about mid way down the hall. We did have a few noisy families around us, with teenagers that liked to make noise into the late hours. Our cabins were very nice, though. We all agreed that the Lido was the most convenient deck, as it wasn't far from anything. The only problem we had with our cabin the whole trip was that the toilet didn't flush part of the time. It was inconvenient at times, but it didn't spoil our trip.

Our cruise director, Brad, and his assitants were great. We enjoyed every event with them. Brad was present at several things, but we usually saw his assistants. One deck party at night was a riot, as we all did the cupid shuffle, and other line dances. There were two super long conga lines with the red team and blue teams. They then had dance contests with the two teams. The piano bar entertainer, James, was good, but I noticed there weren't many people in the piano bar at night.

Half Moon Cay = This is the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. Our cabana was located away from the crowds and close to the bathrooms. We had a quiet area for almost the entire time. The cabanas were divided by color and number. For example, the cabana closest to the bathroom was number 9. I think it was an egg shell color. That cabana was very close to ours the yellow number 12. When they served barbeque, we walked behind the cabanas up the road to the main pavillion area. It was a quick walk. When it was time to leave, we took the shuttle back. The cabanas were stocked with vegetable and fruit platters, with salsa, creme, and bleu cheese dip. We also had chips and salsa. One hint, we figured out that you can take your food and sodas back with you on the ship. We had several canned sodas left, and a half of a very large back of Tostito chips, so we stuffed them in our duffle bags and enjoyed them later on the ship. We figured since we paid for them,why not take them! The lower number cabanas were down by the more crowded area of the beach. By far, we all agreed HMC was wonderful. We're used to beaches, and this one really impressed us! My husband and daughter went horseback riding in the water. They were thrilled with the excursion and said it was well worth the money!

St. Thomas= It rained part of the day, but we still did a lot of things. We took a taxi into the main shopping area. We have a favorite cafe, Gladys Cafe, which we found again. This was our second trip there. Gladys' Cafe is located in the Royal Dane Mall, which is a very old area. There are cobbled streets and lots of pretty planters, etc.. There's a chocolate shop right down the street from the cafe. We spent the rest of our time shopping.

San Juan = The day was nice there. A friend told us a little trick to finding the right tour guide from the taxi drivers. He said to walk past the aggressive loud mouth taxi drivers in the beginning of the line and look for the quiet guy at the end. We found the perfect taxi drive, Marco, who took us around for two hours and waited for us outside of the fort and other areas. We even saw the capital building. He took us inside and gave us a tour of it, too. We were shown a small beach area where there's a small fort and lots of rocks jutting out. We also saw a bit of the modern side of San Juan, too. At the end, he dropped us off at a place that was highly recommended called, El Jibarito. It's a local restaurant, with delicious food!

Grand Turk = We didn't book an excursion here, but wanted to try to get a tour of the town. The taxi drivers were not cooperative about private tours, but did provide a ride into town. The one driver said it would cost 35.00 per person to be toured. The island was so small, and we all felt that 35.00 was too much for what was there. Finally, we found a driver who gave us a brief talk as he took us into "town". It's really a series of shacks built along the water. There are very nice older homes along there, but there aren't many. I did see a lot of banks in the town, and was told that Grand Turk shelters money similar to Grand Cayman. We did walk past the Grand Turk Inn, and asked if they served lunch. The woman curtly told us that HAD WE read Cruisecritic we would have known they only took reservations. She then directed us to a seedy place down the road that served food. We started walking back to find the seedy restaurant (not Margaritaville) and found the Turks Head Mansion. The woman at the other place did not even mention that lunch was served at the other place. (her competition). We had a delicious turkey dinner there, as we were in Grand Turk on Thanksgiving. After lunch, we caught a taxi back into the Margaritaville area.

Our cruise was wonderful with excellent service in the dining room. We also ate in the Paris dining room for breakfast. We asked for our waiter from the London, as he also worked in the Paris in the morning.

The one glitch might have been the room service. We did tip them each time, so it wasn't a lack of tipping that caused he problem. However, one morning they forgot our silverware, and another morning they only brought one coffee cup. They delivered our things to the wrong cabin, too. I finally quit filling out the card for the next day, and called them each morning with my order. I did write that into the comment card for the ship. I did compliment our dining room waiter and his assistant on the comment card.

The ship is beautiful, and I saw the staff constantly cleaning. At one point, they changed the carpeting in the Lido deck hallway (even numbers for cabins).

I love the Triumph!

 

Any questions I'll try to answer them!

[SunnyinMA]

Thanks so much for writing a review. I'm at less than a month and hungry for any information :)

[enjoyinglife]

Thanks for your review. I am planning on trying for a cabana also. Which ones would you recommend for being not too much in a crowed area? Any trouble with people trying to go in your cabana? We are going about a group of 10 people. I know that there is a limit to how many people can go in, but, I am hoping they can at least leave their stuff in the cabana.

[hockeyluver]

Thanks for your review. Cant wait for my turn again :D

[pacerzfan]

Thanks for your review, nothomeonacruise.

[KenMo]

What time did the Excursion Desk open to book a cabana?

 

Great review!!!

[teanbean16]

Thanks for the review. :) :)

[nothomeonacruise]

The cabanas toward the quieter part of the beach are in the higher numbers. We did have a few people ask us questions, but no one bothered our things. Number 9 cabana is egg shell colored and is in front of the bathroom. Our cabana was yellow and just a few doors down. (number 12) There were several large families using the cabanas even though Carnval states there can be only 4. No one questioned the famiies, though. I guess the price only includes food and sodas for 4. The cabanas come with float mats, food, sodas, and snorkel equipment. (Just saying what I saw)

 

I didn't pay attention when the tour desk opened, but it was around 1:00. I didn't have to wait long for the desk to open. I did notice there were a lot of people in line later in the day.

 

We went immediately to the maitre'd afterwards and changed our table and time for seating.

[nothomeonacruise]

duplicate post

[hockeyluver]

What was the charge for the cabana?

[nothomeonacruise]

The charge for the cabana is $220.00. They are air conditioned and have misting fans, too. They also had cushioned lounge chairs and an additional chairs with a table. We felt they were well worth it. My mother can't take too much sun, but she wanted to enjoy the time there. We were able to stay the entire day. I ended up with a burn anyways, because I went out and floated for a long time..LOL We were away from the larger crowd, so it was nice and quiet on our end of the beach.

:)

[outerbks]

We sailed the week before you and had similar great experiences. Thank you for the review!

:cool:

[nothomeonacruise]

One thing I forgot to add is that at least 2 or 3 times after we boarded the ship (in each location) they kept announcing the same family. I guess they were looking for them before departing. At one point, we heard shouting from the pier and people were running to the gangway. It amazes me how people don't pay attention to the time! :rolleyes: