Triumph June7th to Canada... The good, bad and Ugly!!

[malittlefoot971]

After pulling away from the pier the captain spun the ship on axis 180 degrees and got us pointed in the right direction. We did this on sailaway from norfolk and I found it really fascinating. I was again truely amazed at the abilities of the crew as there wasn't much room to work with and he didn't hit anything.

 

after a few minute on topside DW and I opted for our balcony and went there to relax until dinner time. I got my much anticipated pic of the pilot boat flying the nations colors...

 

every time the ships motors were on close to land there were a ton of seagulls in the wake. I'd assume that they churn up food for them. I took a few pics of lighthouses and seagulls but I don't need to post those pics as I don't have them uploaded and I want to finish this review tonight.

 

After a little while we got oursleves ready for dinner and started to head there. We were crashed at dinner again this evening!! The crashers didn't even wait until we were seated which didn't bother us one bit. Our waiter even went as far as to ask them if they wanted something to drink/eat! Having already eaten they declined and we sat talking about how much fun we had had on land that day. After dinner we all left and headed for our own destinations. I had made arrangements to meet up with sam from our roll call to play some blackjack. he didn't show but that was probably a good thing as the table was tight. I can't complain though as I was only down about $60 after 4 hours and a few buds later. When I finished playing I ran into him and we had a drink in the disco before I retired for the night. I didn't care much for the disco as that's not my thing. There were people dancing and having a good time. I drank my beer and excused myself and headed to bed.

[malittlefoot971]

Great review. Hope the staff learned a little these past two cruises and are a little more on the ball next week.

 

Question?? what side of the ship should we be on to view Miss Liberty as we leave NY

 

I'm not huge on nautical terms so bear with me. as you stand facing front it's the right side on sailaway. I want to say that's starboard side. If I remember correctly it's the odd #'d cabins

[Middleager]

The pics have a date/time stamp on them. However that doesn't help you much.. the tide table changes every day. If you email me I'll be happy to send you a link I found for the tide tables and maybe help you make a little sense of it. bnc13@hotmail.com

Now that you mentioned, I took a closer look at your pics for the time. Are those EDT, which would have been one hour behind the ADT? That is, if it says 10:31 on your pic, would that be 11:31 local time?

 

I know of the site for tide. For June 9 the low tide was 7:46am and high tide is 13:55. So that seem to mean at 10:46am it'd still be alright to walk on the ocean floor of the caves, but not much longer after.

 

In our case when the low tide is 14:03, it looks like we probably will get there around 11. We may just miss seeing water in the caves (too bad) and then will have several hours of low tide where we can walk on the ocean floor.

[Middleager]

I'm not huge on nautical terms so bear with me. as you stand facing front it's the right side on sailaway. I want to say that's starboard side. If I remember correctly it's the odd #'d cabins

I should've said the review is great. I enjoyed reading.

 

You're right, the right side is starboard. I remember reading on this CC board someone said to remember left and port both are short and 4-letters. Right and starboard are longer words.;)

[malittlefoot971]

Final sea day

 

I didn't get to bed until late so I planned on sleep in a little. I was awoken at 6am with the sun and couldn't go back to sleep. thankfully I wasn't hung over or sick from the ship moving. this was the worse day for waves the whole trip. they weren't bad just worse then the other days. I'd never been drunk at sea so I wasn't sure how my body would handle it. We awoke to a misty rain and a heavy fog. We headed for breakfast hoping the fog/rain would let up and have a nice day to the end of this trip. After breakfast I noticed thatthe fog was here to stay! I took a pic of the funnel and a few of the ship in the fog as I found it fascinating to see it that thick. The fog horn sounded often and for quite awhile this day. I'd have to say it was the coldest day of the trip probably in the mid 50's. that didn't stop some from dipping in the pool and hot tub though. I noticed some atthe sea side theater wrapped in towels and bathrobes watching a movie. It was the first time the whole trip I saw anything other then a cruise video or advertisements. I was beginning to wonder if that was their new way of getting more sales until I saw the movie.

 

we packed early and loafed most of this day. I believe this was the day we played cartoon trivia and charades. I got a medal in charades and only had 15/20 in the trivia but had a blast playing. I hit the casino again for revenge this evening and only won back $10 before I gave up knowing debarkation would be a long process.

 

 

Debarkation

 

We awoke to a little bit of shuttering as the captain was applying the brakes. LOL I have to say from reading all the reports of swaying and vibration in the aft I was suprised that this was the first such shutter we had felt. Well not exactly true, we felt a jolt or 2 one day that felt like we hit a whale but that was it...bump bump done. Anyways we awoke before the alarmclock and decided to watch us pull into the hudson. I snapped a few nice pics of the statue and the veranzano(sp) bridge. I then noticed that there's a submarine next to the intrepid in NYC for touring. I wish I had known this before we left as I have always wanted to tour a sub. Our nice neighbors allowed me to check out their 9a wrap before we headed off for breakfast. Impressive.

 

We had originally planned on flying but Michele offered to give us a ride home. Our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until later that evening and we were ready to get out of dodge. That and she liked having company with her since she only had her girls. we graciously accepted and went for breakfast together. They brought their luggage to our room and we piled it all on the couch. I had made prior arrangements with our stewards to leave it all on the couch while at breakfast so they could ready the room for the next cruise. He had no roblem with this and I made sure to thank him a few times for the hospitality. After breakfast we headed back, grabbed our bags, waited in one of the shortest lines the whole cruise and walked off the ship. A short line threw customs and we were off searching for her vehicle. We had left from pier 90 but returned to pier 88 so we had a nice little hike to find it. It was a light rain so that made for even more fun but we were happy the ship didn't sink.

[malittlefoot971]

Now that you mentioned, I took a closer look at your pics for the time. Are those EDT, which would have been one hour behind the ADT? That is, if it says 10:31 on your pic, would that be 11:31 local time?

 

I know of the site for tide. For June 9 the low tide was 7:46am and high tide is 13:55. So that seem to mean at 10:46am it'd still be alright to walk on the ocean floor of the caves, but not much longer after.

 

In our case when the low tide is 14:03, it looks like we probably will get there around 11. We may just miss seeing water in the caves (too bad) and then will have several hours of low tide where we can walk on the ocean floor.

 

Yes the pics time are EST so the 1031 is 1131 their time. it sounds like you'll have time to explore if the times you stated are correct. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that does their homework before a cruise :D

[crusinmama06]

We were crashed at dinner again this evening!! The crashers didn't even wait until we were seated which didn't bother us one bit.

 

The nerve of some people! :eek: How dare they? ;):p

 

So did you post a picture of Ekko? I loved that guy! He was a riot.

 

Middleager - just remember, those tide schedule times are probably in local time (one hour ahead). It takes an hour to get to Saint Martin. And make sure you have a private tour. The private tours will rework the schedule to make sure you get to things on time - like the sea caves and reversing falls. Our guids reversed the order that they usually do the tour. They usually go to the falls first, but because of the tide schedule, they drove straight to the sea caves. :)

[malittlefoot971]

Final thoughts

 

I found a few interesting tidbits I felt could be used on here for anyone wanting the info. First thing was they added a basketball area on the triumph. It's forward on the deck above the mini-golf. I want to say deck 11 or 12. here's a pic of what is offered

 

Also if you have a handicap that requires a wheelchair, they have them available. I noticed a few of these outside rooms in different places on the ship.

i saw this one day while exploring on the secret deck. the girl in the pic said there were 5 dividers open and when they asked to have them opened they were informed that the max in a ro that could be opened was 7. Something I didn't know but may be helpful for a large group wanting a really long balcony!!

More Final thoughts

 

While I had a blast on my excursion, loved seeing the sights in NY and sailing from NYC with the skyline I doubt my next cruise will be carnival. We were going to try a different line and then stuck with carnival since we THOUGHT we knew what to expect. I'm a fairly laid back person with not alot of expectations. I have said and will say this trip was better then being at work. However I can't bring myself to spend my hard earned money when I get bad service and additudes from crew members. The whole no cups additude and the "line closed" additude sent even laid back me over the edge. that compounded with some of the problems a fellow cruiser had with camp carnival has me thinking I won't be back next year. I may return one day but I want to try other options first I believe. I know I wouldn't have handled things nearly as calm as Michele did with camp. DW and I have a 6 and 3 year old so camp is an important aspect of the cruise. while I don't plan on having them 24/7 it's nice knowing they can go somewhere and play with "friends" for a little while so we can have some alone time. If I didn't touch on anything that those that were waiting on the review needed feel free to ask as I'll be happy to answer if I can.

[malittlefoot971]

The nerve of some people! :eek: How dare they? ;):p

 

So did you post a picture of Ekko? I loved that guy! He was a riot.

 

Middleager - just remember, those tide schedule times are probably in local time (one hour ahead). It takes an hour to get to Saint Martin. And make sure you have a private tour. The private tours will rework the schedule to make sure you get to things on time - like the sea caves and reversing falls. Our guids reversed the order that they usually do the tour. They usually go to the falls first, but because of the tide schedule, they drove straight to the sea caves. :)

 

I think I did but incase I didn't here another pic of them :D

 

 

 

Also to comment again on the tours. I'd reccomend shoretrips to ANYONE wanting a good tour. the extensiveness of the tour for the price we paid was astonishing. These people know there stuff and we felt as if we were given royalty type treatment from the second we met them. they pushed to get to the caves before the tide came in and then allowed us to do whatever we wanted with different suggestions along the way. If I ever go back I might take the same tour again. Yes it was THAT good!

[patseacruiser]

brian is very laid back but allow me to expand upon the cup incident. he was very upset by being told he could not eat from buffet and then the cup incident just sent him over the edge. he took a full blown hissy fit. yes i had to put that in since he called us dinner crashers.

[A.S.]

Sorry for posting this all over the place, but does anyone have any pictures of the dinner menus, or any recollection of what they served?

 

Thanks for any info.

[PeggyMc]

Hmmm i find it interesting how MY REVIEW has become a thread about tipping and if it's acceptable practice or not. May I continue or do you all want to talk about tipping and just guess the ending??

 

The review section allows for posting a complete review, but lacks the ability for those reading to pose questions and comments on what the reviewer is writing.

 

I thought that is why many choose to post their reviews on the discussion board section.

 

I love the reviews posted in segments as they do generate the most responses and my guess that is the very reason many choose to post that way rather than just creating a review in one large document and waiting to post it until it is done.

 

I think your review is interesting and has a lot of good information, but I also am interested in the responses from others too.

[dlhamlten]

Port Day Saint John

 

This morning we set the alarm to get up at 6 and meet up with 5 others from our roll call that were going on an excursion with us. We booked the fundy coast to fundy bay. Quote ]

 

 

Sounds like you went with Freedom Travel and liked them a lot. Can you tell me the seating arrangement in the Mini-van for 6 people. We are considering this same Tour in October and want to make sure nobody would get stuck in a middle seat. Did you have to pay in advance with a Credit Card ? Did you set the pick-up time or did they ?

 

Thanks for your fair & balanced review and don't let the flamers discourage you from passing on your opinions and observations :)

[MsTabbyKats]

Oh and I better mention now before anyone thinks the lack of cups was the big issue. it wasn't! The issue was the non caring un able to please people additude that seamed prevelent from the staff

 

Thanks for the review....I might take this cruise and your information has been very helpful......

 

As far as the "cup...attitude" issue....Did you ever think that the crew may have had this attitude because they knew about the "tipping attitude" of many of the passengers. People "try to please" to earn tips...and if they know tips won't be coming...it wouldn't encourage a worker to put in that "extra effort" we all enjoy.

 

I don't think your cruise was "the norm"....as the roster of passengers was not "the norm".

[malittlefoot971]

Thanks for the review....I might take this cruise and your information has been very helpful......

 

As far as the "cup...attitude" issue....Did you ever think that the crew may have had this attitude because they knew about the "tipping attitude" of many of the passengers. People "try to please" to earn tips...and if they know tips won't be coming...it wouldn't encourage a worker to put in that "extra effort" we all enjoy.

 

I don't think your cruise was "the norm"....as the roster of passengers was not "the norm".

 

I agree that had they been aware of people removing tips it could have a huge effect on the workers additudes. However this happened on the port day and all the tip removing I saw happened on the last sea day (next day). If this was the type of additude my room steward OR waiters had given me I surely would have removed the tips as well and then took the time to tip the others that would have been effected. I also agree that this cruise didn't have the "norm" as a roster of passengers but to me the "norm" for an employee shouldn't be effected by this. I don't expect much but I can't tollerate additude over minor things. Now had I recieved additude over something major (like the couple that showed up an hour late for dinner every night) then I'd expect it.

[crischickie]

A little tip about Carnival's pizza. Usually it is pretty decent if it is fresh. If it doesn't look fresh order a calzone (like a pizza folded over) and they will make it for you. Takes about 20 minutes +/- but well worth the wait. Ask for extra sauce for dipping.

 

Princess is the only cruise line that makes pizza comparable to anything you would get on shore.

[malittlefoot971]

Port Day Saint John

 

This morning we set the alarm to get up at 6 and meet up with 5 others from our roll call that were going on an excursion with us. We booked the fundy coast to fundy bay. Quote ]

 

 

Sounds like you went with Freedom Travel and liked them a lot. Can you tell me the seating arrangement in the Mini-van for 6 people. We are considering this same Tour in October and want to make sure nobody would get stuck in a middle seat. Did you have to pay in advance with a Credit Card ? Did you set the pick-up time or did they ?

 

Thanks for your fair & balanced review and don't let the flamers discourage you from passing on your opinions and observations :)

 

This has to be the understatement of the thread! I loved the extra attention and all of the little details they had during the WHOLE excursion. Yes it was freedom tours from the shoretrips.com site. We paid when we booked online in advance. Ofcourse the tip is extra at the end and we were "warned" on our voucher that there'd be a stop for lunch and needed monies for that. As far as the van it was just a standard van. I would assume that with 6 they would seperate you into 2 vans. All I have is speculation. You could contact them and ask if you'd like. The # for them is 506.632.1012 or 506.639.4563 ask for heather at freedom tours. Those are the #'s from the voucher. The pickup time I believe there was only 1 option. the other 5 from our group had already booked and we were looking for their time so I don't recall if there were any other options.

[malittlefoot971]

A little tip about Carnival's pizza. Usually it is pretty decent if it is fresh. If it doesn't look fresh order a calzone (like a pizza folded over) and they will make it for you. Takes about 20 minutes +/- but well worth the wait. Ask for extra sauce for dipping.

 

Princess is the only cruise line that makes pizza comparable to anything you would get on shore.

 

I found this out the hard way LOL. On our first cruise I liked the pizza and the variety so that helped multiply things when this wasn't anywhere close to the same as before.

[malittlefoot971]

I think your review is interesting and has a lot of good information, but I also am interested in the responses from others too.

 

Thankyou. I take the time and effort to post namely because it's something good for a newbie to see a review in full and the pics add a nice touch. While I like the feedback I was starting to get frustrated over the racist/tipping arguements that were coming from what I typed. I won't make the same mistake after my next cruise as I won't mention what decent they are I'll just say "a group from brooklyn" so a bunch of newyorkers are mad at me instead LOL. As far as the tipping I have seen some threads go nuts with if it is/isn't acceptable. I won't weigh in on that as there's a thread for that. I just wish those weighing in on the review would have done so on said thread and not argue over it in here. I'm speculating that most don't realize just how much time AND effort go into a review like this.

[malittlefoot971]

Sorry for posting this all over the place, but does anyone have any pictures of the dinner menus, or any recollection of what they served?

 

Thanks for any info.

 

We were a 4 day cruise. I'm not sure if this goes for all cruises or not as I'm still relatively new (2nd cruise) to cruising. We had formal night with the prime rib and lobster offered and a second day with only prime rib offered. I remember seeing corn fed chicken atleast twice (dw had that) and flat iron steak twice. They had 3-4 starters, main and desert options that appeared daily as "carnival favorites". Chocolate melting cake was one of them. Tiger shrimp was another. I want to say the cornfed chicken and some form of steak were on the favorites menu but I'm not possitive.

[caribbeanboy]

I don't know if it has anything to do but can it be that shorter cruises most of the time attract another crowd?

 

Why I ask? one of my cruismates is platinum with Carnival and she went on three different 4-5 nighter last year and after the last she told me that from now on she will only take 7 nights or longer b/c she has noticed a difference in almost everything..

 

Another lady who I met on another cruise board went on a 4 night(Carnival) cruise out of Tampa and she basically told me exactly the same as my cruisemate did.

[crusinmama06]

Sounds like you went with Freedom Travel and liked them a lot. Can you tell me the seating arrangement in the Mini-van for 6 people. We are considering this same Tour in October and want to make sure nobody would get stuck in a middle seat. Did you have to pay in advance with a Credit Card ? Did you set the pick-up time or did they ?

 

Yes, you can do 6 in one van. They told me that they have vans that hold 6, but once we reached 7, they divided us into 2 vans.

 

Brian - why don't you post the pictures of the food you ate every night? If you are still having problems with the pic hosting site, then send me the pics, I will upload them to PB and post them here in your thread. You have pictures of everything you ate. :D

[crusinmama06]

I don't know if it has anything to do but can it be that shorter cruises most of the time attract another crowd?

 

Yes this is true. A 3-4 dayer does usually have a different crowd. But you do get what you pay for. We were on a cheap cruise, why should we expect the people to be anything but cheap?

[kyrisong1]

Oh and I better mention now before anyone thinks the lack of cups was the big issue. it wasn't! The issue was the non caring un able to please people additude that seamed prevelent from the staff

I think the lack of cups is a big issue, and the way that they acted when you ask a HUGE issue.

I guess at that point I'd ask for names to write on the survey of how your cruise was.

Also wasn't sure what you meant by crashers at your dinner table, are these people you know? Did you mean crashers as a joke? Or did these people seriously just mosey in and sit at your table??

Also I wanted to mention I've enjoyed the review and LOVED the pictures, you got amazing cave pictures given the scenario you were in. WTG

Carole

[kyrisong1]

Ok should have read all before I posted, got the crashers part, lol.

Carole