keysjohnson
May 9th, 2004, 09:35 AM
A little background...This was our 6th cruise. 3 on Carnival and 3 on Norwegian. We've done the Ectasy, Paradise, Triumph, NCL Sea, Sun and SS Norway. My husband and I are 50, live in Florida, SCUBA dive, snorkel, love the casino, go casual so don't usually utilize the dining rooms. We are not big show people but do like the comdians and the activities around the pool area. I'm writing this review stricly from my point of view, as it should be. It's not all good, but it's not all bad. As said above, I only have one other cruise line for comparison. Ok, here it goes...
EMBARKATION
We left home about 6am and got to Miami around 10am. We went to Bayside and walked around a little and looked out over the water to see our ship sitting there all beautiful and ready. We'd been planning this cruise since January so we were very excited. Around 11am we left to go to the pier. As stated in other posts, the Port of Miami is a mess. Construction everywhere. We needed to go to Pier 8 and were able to find that easily. My husband dropped me off with the bags and went to park. He finally resurfaced from the bowels of the parking garage about 1/2 hour later. We checked 2 bags and carried 2 on. In one bag we checked was a case of coke and a case of beer. I carried on the clothes, jewelry and prescriptions in 2 small roll on bags. I had all my documents in hand and ready, including the fun pass. Waste of time. There was one line that said "Fun Pass" and they made everyone get in it. People were in line in front of me just then filling out paper work and looking through their mountain of credit cards to fill that paperwork out also. Now I realize it is NOT Carnivals fault that about a million people showed up at one time. However, there should have been a seperate line for us that had our stuff ready as opposed to being in line with the "oh yeah, I fogot" type of folks. So, needless to say, we were in that line for about 45 minutes. Then we walked to another line. This was to receive our Sail and Sign cards. This took about 20 minutes. Then to yet another line for someone to walk us to where we got our pictures taken for the sail and sign cards. Are we done yet? NO, ANOTHER LINE to have our "welcome" pictures taken. Finally, on the ship. Before I go onto that part, I must compare to NCL. Embarkation is 2 steps. Check in and receive sail and sign cards, have "welcome" picture taken, and get on board. Sorry but it's true. Ok, back to the ship. Beautiful! The entire ship is fabulous. I noticed no wear and tear, no stains, just beautifully kept, clean, and wonderful. Our room was on the Lido deck, inside cabin #9259 right by the stairs and elevator. A short walk to the pool area. It was a great location. The room was great. I love the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, something NCL doesn't have. Really saved space. THe counter in the bathroom is very large which makes it comfortable for getting ready. Closets are plentiful and more than adequate. Our room steward was Teddy and he was the best room steward I've ever had. Always smiling and quick with a joke. His towel animals were great, especially the elephant. He put my sunglasses on him. He kept our room spotless and he was well rewarded for that. We gave him some money upfront to keep our cooler iced up. The beer and coke was at our door by 6pm and Teddy, true to his word, kept everything cold for us the entire week. We then ventured out to the Lido deck to look around. We had lunch at the grill. Very good. Hamburgers and hot dogs with fries. The pool area is very nice with tons of chairs. The smoking side was the starboard side (I'm a smoker, my husband is not). I didn't see too many people abuse this, however I didn't go to the port side very often. It seems once you get used to one side of the ship, the other side seems foreign somehow. We had our muster drill, which was on deck 4, and it wasn't too bad. There was a nice breeze and we were lucky enough not to be standing in the hot sun. After that, we really felt like we were on vacation. We dumped the life preservers, changed into our swimsuits, and headed to the Lido deck for the Sail Away Party. Big joke that was. Ok, let me premise this with NCL's sail away party. Everyone that wishes too, gathers on deck and there's island music playing in the back ground and the cruise director (yes, the DIRECTOR) is on stage getting everyone pumped up. He starts a conga line around the pool, or some other catchy little thing, and most everyone gets involved. Here's what they did on the Triumph. nothing. There were no activities personnel around. Free Bird was playing on the loudspeakers. Come on, I can here that playing at ear blasting volume at any stoplight in town. I wanted HOT HOT HOT, or some other Caribbean themed music. We just pulled away from the dock and it was all very anti-climatic. They (whoever THEY are) played nothing but heavy rock music one after the other. Now I have nothing against that music hey, I'm an "old hippie", but not on a cruise ship taking sail for 7 wonderful days! My husand and I just kind of looked at each other and shrugged. Oh well. After sailing we went down to the casino and checked that out and walked around the shops and just got the feel of the boat. Like said previously, the ship is beautiful. ok, this is part I. I will post part II in a little while. I'm trying to get laundry done and ready for work (YUCK) tomorrow.
EMBARKATION
We left home about 6am and got to Miami around 10am. We went to Bayside and walked around a little and looked out over the water to see our ship sitting there all beautiful and ready. We'd been planning this cruise since January so we were very excited. Around 11am we left to go to the pier. As stated in other posts, the Port of Miami is a mess. Construction everywhere. We needed to go to Pier 8 and were able to find that easily. My husband dropped me off with the bags and went to park. He finally resurfaced from the bowels of the parking garage about 1/2 hour later. We checked 2 bags and carried 2 on. In one bag we checked was a case of coke and a case of beer. I carried on the clothes, jewelry and prescriptions in 2 small roll on bags. I had all my documents in hand and ready, including the fun pass. Waste of time. There was one line that said "Fun Pass" and they made everyone get in it. People were in line in front of me just then filling out paper work and looking through their mountain of credit cards to fill that paperwork out also. Now I realize it is NOT Carnivals fault that about a million people showed up at one time. However, there should have been a seperate line for us that had our stuff ready as opposed to being in line with the "oh yeah, I fogot" type of folks. So, needless to say, we were in that line for about 45 minutes. Then we walked to another line. This was to receive our Sail and Sign cards. This took about 20 minutes. Then to yet another line for someone to walk us to where we got our pictures taken for the sail and sign cards. Are we done yet? NO, ANOTHER LINE to have our "welcome" pictures taken. Finally, on the ship. Before I go onto that part, I must compare to NCL. Embarkation is 2 steps. Check in and receive sail and sign cards, have "welcome" picture taken, and get on board. Sorry but it's true. Ok, back to the ship. Beautiful! The entire ship is fabulous. I noticed no wear and tear, no stains, just beautifully kept, clean, and wonderful. Our room was on the Lido deck, inside cabin #9259 right by the stairs and elevator. A short walk to the pool area. It was a great location. The room was great. I love the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, something NCL doesn't have. Really saved space. THe counter in the bathroom is very large which makes it comfortable for getting ready. Closets are plentiful and more than adequate. Our room steward was Teddy and he was the best room steward I've ever had. Always smiling and quick with a joke. His towel animals were great, especially the elephant. He put my sunglasses on him. He kept our room spotless and he was well rewarded for that. We gave him some money upfront to keep our cooler iced up. The beer and coke was at our door by 6pm and Teddy, true to his word, kept everything cold for us the entire week. We then ventured out to the Lido deck to look around. We had lunch at the grill. Very good. Hamburgers and hot dogs with fries. The pool area is very nice with tons of chairs. The smoking side was the starboard side (I'm a smoker, my husband is not). I didn't see too many people abuse this, however I didn't go to the port side very often. It seems once you get used to one side of the ship, the other side seems foreign somehow. We had our muster drill, which was on deck 4, and it wasn't too bad. There was a nice breeze and we were lucky enough not to be standing in the hot sun. After that, we really felt like we were on vacation. We dumped the life preservers, changed into our swimsuits, and headed to the Lido deck for the Sail Away Party. Big joke that was. Ok, let me premise this with NCL's sail away party. Everyone that wishes too, gathers on deck and there's island music playing in the back ground and the cruise director (yes, the DIRECTOR) is on stage getting everyone pumped up. He starts a conga line around the pool, or some other catchy little thing, and most everyone gets involved. Here's what they did on the Triumph. nothing. There were no activities personnel around. Free Bird was playing on the loudspeakers. Come on, I can here that playing at ear blasting volume at any stoplight in town. I wanted HOT HOT HOT, or some other Caribbean themed music. We just pulled away from the dock and it was all very anti-climatic. They (whoever THEY are) played nothing but heavy rock music one after the other. Now I have nothing against that music hey, I'm an "old hippie", but not on a cruise ship taking sail for 7 wonderful days! My husand and I just kind of looked at each other and shrugged. Oh well. After sailing we went down to the casino and checked that out and walked around the shops and just got the feel of the boat. Like said previously, the ship is beautiful. ok, this is part I. I will post part II in a little while. I'm trying to get laundry done and ready for work (YUCK) tomorrow.