Carnival Triumph 7/19/2010 Review with Pictures!

Hey everyone! We just got off of our 5 day cruise aboard the Carnival Triumph. We were sad to end our vacation, but ready to get home.

We started the trip off by picking my DF up from his house, where we then let him drive us 45 minutes to New Orleans. Upon arrival at the terminal, we paid $80 to park and dropped our luggage off with a porter.

After check-in, we were told to sit in the waiting area and wait for Zone 4 to be called.

This was a new experience for us, as we are used to staying in a suite... so we automatically get VIP boarding. The wait time however, was not to long though and soon enough we were walking to get on the FUN ship!

We proceeded to deck 3, where the line to scan our sail and sign card was pretty long. So, we waited as patiently as we could before finally we were on!

There was a piano player named Eva playing music when we entered the lobby. Oh, and let me just say... She was AMAZING! We then went up to the Lido deck to get some lunch before it was time to explore the ship.

More of Day 1 coming up!

Your review is going great so far! The pictures are great too, can't wait for more!

Britbie,

I enjoyed reading the review of your previous cruise, so I am very looking forward to the rest of this review. Nice photos so far. Thanks for posting.

Here is a view of the glass elevators:

Once at the buffet, we got our food and sat down only to discover that our napkins had remnants of food on them and that the glasses where dirty... We didn't let this ruin our day, so we got new silverware and sat back down.

For lunch this day, I had some cheesy potatoes, chicken marsala, potato salad, and roast beef.

And my DF's plates... haha.

Here is a view of the South Beach Club Restaurant:

After we ate, we decided to walk around the ship and take some pictures:

More of Day 1 up next!

Here is a view of the Lido deck with the Mississippi River Bridge in the background!

And the Pool:

We headed back to the glass elevators and went down to the Promenade deck. Usually, we go into all of the clubs/lounges and take pictures of the decor... but were unable to this time because there were lots of weddings taking place! :D

So, we went and window shopped at the Fun Shops:

The Fun Shops were advertising a liquor sale going on (sorry it's blurry, it was taken through a window):

After browsing for a few minutes, we decided to see what the casino looked like. Before we moved on I took some lobby pictures...

Lobby Shots:

The casino (Club Monaco) was fairly large, and had TONS of slot machines:

On the first day, the casino had Coin Free Slot lessons... which after loosing as much money as I did... I probably should have gone. :rolleyes:

The Promenade deck also housed the sushi "cart," and the coffee shop.

The coffee shop on this ship was much larger than the ones I've seen on past ships. It was always busy, and also had ice cream for sale.

Like I stated earlier, all of the clubs/lounges were closed due to weddings so we could only go in the Big Easy Piano Bar. There were oyster shells all over the walls, and the piano was front and center.

After we completed our tour of Deck 5, I wanted to check out the Rome lounge so we headed down to Deck 3...

The chandelier was pretty cool:

We stopped at the Lobby bar and got a Drink of the Day, and some soda cards.

It was around 1:30 pm, so we went up to the Lido Deck to check our room out. The doors were shut, but we went in anyways.

View of the Hallway:

For this cruise, we booked a Balcony room because there were no more suites available. The room was nice, it was just not what we were expecting. According to Carnival, this room had 2 twin beds and a convertible sofa (typical). Instead of this, we had a room with an Upper... :eek:

I know this wouldn't bother most people, but for 3 adults it was a big problem. We didn't make a big fuss about it, and checked the room out.

Great review so far!! Can't wait for more!!:D

At this point, we unpacked and enjoyed the view of New Orleans from our balcony.

We went down to deck 3 and sat down and drank some cokes before the safety briefing.

After the briefing, we went to deck 3 and sat in a lounge chair to watch the sail away...

Here are some pictures:

(The Mississippi River Bridge)

can't wait to see more photos! we are taking this cruise in September!

What room did you have on the Lido? How convenient was it? Was it noisy?

I'm considering a Lido balcony room for a December cruise on the Triumph.

After watching the sail away for a while, we headed back up to the room to start getting ready for dinner.

When everyone was ready, we went down to the fun shops and browsed for a while. We went down to the Paris Dining room for the 8:15 pm dinner.

Our waiters were great guys, and always got everything we needed.

I ordered 2 shrimp cocktails for an appetizer:

Sweet and Sour Shrimp for entree:

and Warm Chocolate Melting Cake:

After dinner, we went down to the Rome lounge for Jackpot Bingo. I have never had luck with bingo, so I did not choose to play.

My DF decided to play however:

The show had the typical dance/introduction, and then our cruise director Kevin Noonan (aka Noonan) came out. He introduced the comedian Lance Montalto who was from New Orleans, and did an awesome job at telling Cajun jokes.

After the show, we went back to the room to go to bed where we saw:

Our 1st Towel Animal!:

Up next: DAY 2- Sea Day

What room did you have on the Lido? How convenient was it? Was it noisy?

 

I'm considering a Lido balcony room for a December cruise on the Triumph.

We had 9289, which was VERY convenient. It was not noisy at all, and was right there by the main pool/midship elevators.

Great review! I can't wait to walk in your footsteps and swim in your wake.

Nice job. Thanks for posting.:)

It was our first day at Sea, and we were exhausted from the night before so we slept pretty late! By the time we got ready, it was time for lunch in the MDR. We headed down there, and were seated at a table for 4 very quickly.

For a starter I had a salad with Thousand Island dressing:

My DF had a sushi sampler:

For Entree, I had vegetable fajitas which had bell peppers, onions and cheese. Surprisingly, they were AMAZING.

My mom and I had the Black Forest Gateau for dessert:

And my DF had, Creme' de Caramel (which was like flan):

Picture of the Paris Dining Room:

After our filling lunch, we went to the World's Bar (casino) for Karaoke. The Karaoke host, was very energetic and kept trying to persuade women to dance... it was a fun time.

After sitting there for a while, they started to set up the martini bar and made us move. I didn't mind moving, it was just that they were very rude about it. I didn't choose to have karaoke in such a busy place... but anyhow.

After karaoke, we played some slot machines and donated some money to Carnival. The comedian from the previous night was playing a Beatles set in the lobby, so we went and saw him for a few minutes. He was actually pretty good!

The Martini Bar:

Walking back to the room, we discovered the wall of awards that the Triumph had won:

My DF was really tired, so he decided to take a nap while my Mom and I explored the ship.

We went down to the Oxford Lounge on deck 4 where the Internet Cafe was housed. The Cigar bar was still up and running (Carnival hasn't pulled the plug on this one)... so the smell was very pungent for those of us not used to it. I didn't mind though, let them smoke as much as they want...

Some pictures:

The internet Cafe prices vary by Length of Cruise so here were the Triumph's 5 day prices:

After checking some email, and drinking a coke or two... we went up to the lido deck to get a sandwich. My mom didn't really like her lunch, so she got a turkey sandwich.

And a strawberry Pina Colada: haha

After her dinner, we went out to deck 3 to sit and enjoy the ocean.

It was such a nice day outside that we didn't want to have to leave to get ready for elegant night...

My mom was still pretty full from her sandwich, so she decided to hang out in the room while my DF and I went to dinner. We got dressed and went to take some pictures.

Here is one that my mom took:

At dinner, we ordered some cokes and shrimp cocktails of course.

For Entree, we both had Prime Rib:

My DF also had the lobster tail:

It was time for dessert, so our waiter got me a cappuccino.

For dessert I had the Apple dessert:

While DF got a Fruit Plate:

After dinner, we went to Club Rio for the Adult comedy shows. The lounge was very packed, and luckily a couple from Alabama let us sit next to them! We had a great time at the comedy show, that we stayed around for the 12 o'clock showing. The comedian wasn't as funny as his first show, but we still had fun.

We went back to the room and got ready for bed. There was a towel animal for tonight, but the picture didn't come out right...

Up Next: Progreso, Day 3!

After the show, we went into the Hollywood club to see what it looked like...

Nice review.

We arrived in Progreso around 7 am, and at a quick room service breakfast. We had placed the order the night before for delivery b/t 7:00-7:30 am, but the guy arrived around 6:45 am.

My alarm hadn't gone off yet, and I was out... so the poor guy had to wait until 6:55 am! I felt so bad, so we tipped him well. After breakfast, we proceeded to the gangway to meet up for our Shore Excursion.

We had pre-booked the Progreso Resort Beach Break, which took you to the Reef Club Beach Resort in Merida. We met up with our guide and were walked to the very nice buses.

During the 40 minute bus ride, our guide Andres gave us a brief introduction to Progreso. There was basically a poor side of town, and a rich side. The poor side basically lived in the swamp water, and had very dilapidated houses.

When we arrived at the resort, we were given wrist bands and told to come back at 1:45 pm to go back to the ship.

At the resort, we had unlimited access to the beach, pool, snack line, and 3 bars. We walked down to the beach, and were unable to find a chair so we went to the pool area and grabbed a table.

Some more pictures of the resort:

The snacks were okay, they had chips, queso, tortillas, shredded pork, sliders, hot dogs, gorditas, and all of the toppings. After eating, we spent our time in the pool and had a great time!

It was time to go back to the ship, so we boarded the bus. Along the way, a boy was discovered to be passed out in the bathroom. When he finally came out, he laid down in the middle of the bus aisle and got sick everywhere. Needless to say, he didn't look old enough to be drinking...

When we arrived back at the port, it started raining VERY hard! We had to stand in line for 30 minutes in the pouring down rain. Once back on board we went and took showers and headed to the lido buffet for lunch.

This was the only picture I took of my food this day! I was too hungry to think about taking pictures. haha.