Silverspringcruiser

You have time to renew your passports. It's an extra $60 to expedite (2-3 weeks, but from personal experience it's less) plus the cost for priority mail in both directions.

Get a Passport in a Hurry.

Price really isn't the concern for me, it's the distance. Anytime spent traveling to the beach is time spent away from the beach.

I've been on several Caribbean cruises, but they've all been to the usual places when you go for a week on Carnival out of Florida. So I know that the beaches aren't nearby. I liked the convenience of the beach at Grand Turk and wondered how unique that was.

I know that. I was curious about where you can go to the beach and not have to spend any money to do it, whether it be transportation or admission fees.

Besides the obvious answer of any of the private islands at which Caribbean ports can you walk from the ship to the beach? I know with Carnival you can at Grand Turk and Mahogany Beach looks to be close by in Roatan. Any others?

1 hour ago, ldubs said:

 

I don't know.  Asking someone to skip their ideal vacation to appease someone else's preferences does not seem like a request a friend should push very hard.  

 

 

By "ideal" I don't mean "perfect" or "once in a lifetime". I just mean one that meets all their criteria for a vacation. If this well-traveled couple's friend with limited traveling options wants to take this one cruise with them they can be more accommodating.

Unless you know your friends are the type of people who would be miserable on a cruise I don't think you're being unreasonable. They've traveled extensively and have done so they way they prefer. You're not asking them to squander their rare vacation opportunity on something they might not like. Since they've never cruised they can't say they hate it. And even if they have no false preconceptions about what cruising is like and can reasonably say they would prefer to do something else you are just asking them to do something a wide variety of people enjoy. And yes, it is possible that if they do go they will have a bad time, but that can happen on any vacation. This one time they should be willing this time to forgo their ideal vacation for a pretty good one with a dear friend. 

Thanks for all the tips. I'm an experienced cruiser, but it's been with Carnival, and they list the additional sides on their menus.

So are there always available "secret" sides, like baked potatoes or broccoli?

I don't see a section for side dishes on the new or old menus. Are there any, other than what comes with the individual entrees?

OK, one point for not serving tilapia.

On the old menus there was an entree salad every day. They're all gone. There was also at least one dish with shellfish as well. I saw complementary lobster tail one night and a shrimp dish another. No crab at all. There also used to be two hot soups and one cold. Now it's just french onion and another hot soup (yes day 2 has watermelon gazpacho, but that's it for fruit soups).

We'll be on the Grandeur this Saturday, and I really hope we don't have these menus. It's so boring and repetitive. All the entrees I was looking forward to from the old menus are gone.:(

Is it now more the pub experience and food instead of upscale dining?

No. The food hasn't changed. Just the ambience.

What's available? Is it just cookies and pastries, or sandwiches as well? We'll be on the Grandeur if that matters.

We were in 6424 for Triumph's New Year's cruise. Didn't hear a thing.

That's not really sangria, though, is it? For actual Sangria, you have to let the fruit and win marinate together for a while. Otherwise, you're just putting fruit in a glass of wine.

And you still need brandy and/or orange liqueur. And possibly fruit juice. And maybe club or lemon lime soda as well. So if you don't care about the fruit, and you can find a good bartender you should be able to get something that's almost sangria.

Huh? One is a sit down Italian rest. for dinner with a complete menu and the pizza pirate is for take out slices of pizza. one is a restaurant and the other is a take out window.

You're talking about Cucina del Capitano, not Pizzeria del Capitano.

What's the difference? Looking at the menus it looks like they have the same pizzas.

AHOY SHIPMATES

 

 

AT SEA DAY FOR BREAKFAST IT IS THE HUEVOS RANCHEROS IN THE DINING ROOM(extra over easy egg on top)

 

Is the Sea Day Brunch Huevos Rancheros better than Blue Iguana's?

Thanks for the info! We're not planning ahead on where we eat each night, but I just want to be sure that I know the options before -- I initially told my kids there was a Guy's Burger joint on board, but then I checked and realized it was another reship. So I just wanted to verify the options with those in the know. Trying to get them excited....

There's still burgers on the ship, just not Guy's. They're not as amazing, but they're still pretty good. The burger grill also has hot dogs, chicken tenders, fries, and tortilla chips and cheese sauce.

Room service is mostly sandwiches, both hot and cold, with some additional items for a small fee.

Comedy Shows.

Seaday Brunch. And without the "comedy" break it's even better.

I'm not much of a tea drinker, but I liked using the mint tea to flavor my hot chocolate.

I'd love to see the negative reviews you posted about. The Triumph does not have a Chops. You can see the deck plans by Google search and Cruise Critic has them deck by deck.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/carnival-triumph-deck-plans/dp/

 

We sailed the Triumph three times in 2015, the most recent for NYE and it was a super cruise!

 

.

We were on that cruise too, and except for the bad weather on the last sea day, I agree. And the bad weather meant we got to see both comedians, who I'm positive were much more entertaining than what was regularly scheduled.

We were on the Triumph last week, the best kept secret was during breakfast there was an omelet bar and small buffet set up in the Aft swimming pool area. Just opposite of the Pizza place. While the lines were very long in the main lido buffets, there were only a few people using the aft omelet and buffet area. We felt kind of guilty using it because we got our food right away and was sitting down enjoying our meal within minutes of arriving. Plus there are great tables along the aft window to look out over the water.

 

We found this area too, but we were too busy enjoying the lack of crowds to feel any guilt.