Triumph Report - Eastern Carib. 1/29 -2/5

[BZinn]

Flew AA from Houston to Miami - took cab to port $21.00 plus $5.00 tip - two people. This appears to be a fixed rate as cab never turned on his meter.

Last nite of cruise we purchased Carnival's transit passes to return to the Miami Airport at $11.00 per person. This worked very well and saved time and money. Departure from Miami weather was cool and very windy - needed a light jacket or windbreaker almost every morning at sea. The afternoons warm up but still very windy. If you want a lounge chair that is located in an area that provides sun and less wind - I suggest you get up to the Lido Deck 9 around 7:00am each morning at sea. Rules are posted that lounge chairs cannot be saved, however every lounge chair around the pool on Lido deck will have a beach towel, shoes, or a book holding it until the user wants to claim the chair for lounging. All ports of call had adequate docking so there were no tenders on this cruise for us. The late docking in San Juan Puerto Rico limits the daylight hours of siteseeing and shopping.

Exiting the dock, we hired one of the many taxi shuttles for a 2 1/2 hour tour of Old & New San Juan for $10.00 per person. The tour was good, however the daylight ran out and viewing sites was limited. Most of the shops in San Juan closed at 5:30 - 6:00pm. Save your shopping for St. Thomas!!!

I booked a tour via the internet with Timmy Tours for St. Thomas before leaving home. That morning upon arriving in St. Thomas a man holding a sign with our names directed us to join Godfrey's Tour. They work together same tour and same price $20.00 per person. Tour provided two hours of shopping, a full island tour, and two hours swimming at Megan's Bay, or another beach of your choosing. Godfrey is very knowledgable and his language is clear and easy to understand. Met a couple cruising on the Grand Princess who go to St. Thomas frequently and they always use Godfrey's Tours each time. Driving in St. Thomas can be nerve racking with traffic and Brittish driving on the left side of the road. I rented a car from Hertz at the dock in St. Maarten and drove around the island. We stopped for lunch at Beau Beau's in Oyster Bay Beach. The traffic on St. Maarten was heavy due to 4 cruise ships in harbor, but driving was safe, easy and enjoyable. Did not get to see alot of downtown Phillipsburg due to time restraints. The dock is new and beautiful. Lots of shops, steel drum band playing, and several bars. Well - Time to plan the next cruise!!

[tinna2000]

i loveed the review of the ports, but you did not say anything about the ship itself, i will be going on this ship for the first time in june and want to know how was the food in all area's and the service, etc....

[JoeSmooga]

I, too, was on this cruise. Ship was in really good shape. We were in the Paris dining room/early seating. Never had a problem with dinner or wait staff. Did not care for the lines at breakfast and lunch on lido, but, once you finally did get the food it was of good quality. HIGHLY suggest eating the the NY Deli (if you don't mind waiting upwards of 10 minutes) or the Hong Kong Noodle on the other side of the ship (no lines there ever, and the food was REALLY good).

 

Room steward was very prompt and attentive. Was concerned that we had an interior room for 4 that one of the two bunks were broken for 6 days and could not be retracted into the ceiling. Didn't make a big deal out of it, but came back to the room just before lunch on the day before disembarkation to find the maintenance folks in there fixing it. Also, we had 6 light bulbs burned out in the room... 4 were fixed on day 5 of the cruise (again, not a big deal to us... we didn't spend much time in the room anyways, and when we did it's to sleep).

 

This was my first cruise on anything besides a "Fantasy" class ship. It took me a a couple days to figure out my way around the ship, but it wasn't bad. I guess after this cruise I can honestly say I have a preference for the Fantasy class. Don't have anything specifically bad to say, just a personal preferrence I guess.

 

Any other questions, feel free to ask.

 

Joe

[suev]

Do they have the soap/shampoo dispensers in the shower? Mini refrigerators? I would also assume there was a safe yes?

What did your family do in each port? Just looking for more ideas.

Thanks

[newbiecruiser54]

We are cruising on the Triumph on April 2 (Western Caribbean). How did you like the ship - food, activities, gym and spa if you used them, etc?? Thanks for any info!

[JoeSmooga]

Body Wash/Shampoo dispensers... yes, they were installed in the showers.

Mini-Fridge... I believe those are in a higher category from what we were in (we were 4B)

Safe... yep, there was a safe in the room.

Didn't use the gym or spa, so can't speak to that (sorry!)

The kids LOVED Camp Carnival (again). Had a heck of a time getting them to leave CC and come with us. LOVE that Carnival has finally decided to have CC stay open during dinner times. The kids ate with their new friends every night except for the last night (we took them to the dining room to see how they would act... big mistake, and a big reminder why we appreciate CC feeding the kids while we are in the dining room). You simply can't ask a 2 and 4 year old to sit still for an hour and a half in a dining room. :)

 

Ports...

SAN JUAN - got into San Juan about 5PM. We didn't take a tour here... elected to wander around the area near the port as the sun was going down. Really enjoyed the different shops that were readily available. DO NOT miss going to the "home of the Pina Colada" (can't remember the name of the place, but the folks on the boat will tell you during one of the port talks). Only about a 5 minute walk from the ship. I don't care for Pina Colada's normally, but man, these were good. I was ordering them with Bicardi 151... fabulous. Reasonable priced as well (around $5).

 

ST. THOMAS - Went on the St. Thomas Snokel and Beach excursion (thru Carnival). Spent 3 hours at Coki Beach. Not a whole lot of coral to speak of just off the shore, but a white sandy beach and an excellent view. I strongly suggest going on this early in the morning (we did) as the beach gets rather crowded as the day goes on. After this we returned to the boat to clean up and pick up the kids (yes, the kids stayed at Camp Carnival during our excursion). Took an open air cab ride to downtown Charlotte Amalie ($3 per person each way, kids free). Did more shopping and basically looked like a tourist the rest of the day. Back on the boat by 4:30.

 

ST. MAARTEN - First time on St. Maaren, so didn't know what to expect. Took the America's Cup excursion (again, thru Carnival). If you have not heard of this, a gentleman bought a few of Dennis Connor's America's Cup boats from back in the 80's (Stars and Stripes 1-3 if I remember right), as well as Canada 1 and 2. On this excursion, you are mixed with cruise passengers from the other ships in port (there were 2 Princess boats and one HAL boat on the day we were there) and split into two teams. One team becomes "mates" on Stars and Stripes... the other team on Canada 1 or 2. You then get to "race" each other out in the bay outside of Phillipsburg. Spendy ($89 pp), but WELL WORTH IT. I am not a sailing fan, but it's not like I'm going to get to ever do this up in Iowa. 3 hours of absolute fun. Had the chance to talk with guests on the other ships in port as well on this excursion, and we all shared our likes and dislikes of our individual cruises. Once we were done with the racing, we picked up the kids on the boat (at Camp Carnival) and took the water taxi ($5 pp/RT) over to Phillipsburg. In my opinion, best shopping port of this cruise. Cheapest Bicardi rum I have ever bought ($6 a LITER!), even cheaper than San Juan (go figure). Kahlua cheapest here as well ($7 for .750ml). If you want a cold beer and are sick of spending $3.79 a piece on the boat, hit up a street vendor... I found single can's of domestic (Bud, Miller, Coors) a buck a piece just walking the streets, and from the looks of it a lot of fellow cruisers found them as well! :) There are also a couple shops I found where you could get 2 beers (Carib brand) and a cuban cigar for $2.99. I was all over that. The beer wasn't that good, but it was cold and cigars were pretty good as well.

 

If you have any other questions feel free to ask! Again, I will post as time allows.

 

Joe

[VABeach]

We are cruising on the Triumph on April 2 (Western Caribbean). How did you like the ship - food, activities, gym and spa if you used them, etc?? Thanks for any info!

 

I sailed Triumph Western Carr. in April last year. I thought everything was awsome!! The food was great, the shows were great, the activities were fun. The spa is very expensive and I don't work out on vacation (because I do it all year long) so I can't help you there.:p

 

I thought the ship was much prettier that the other Carnival ships I have been on. Everything is much softer and not so busy. Everything was clean and sparkled like a new ship.

 

Cozumel was awsome. We went horseback riding in the morning, then took a cab to Cancun for the day.

 

Grand Cayman was nice. We did the SNUBA Dive and enjoyed it, next time we would like to try the Sting Ray City.

 

In Jamaica, we snorkled and climbed the Falls.

 

We also went down a day early so we could enjoy South Beach for the day.

 

You'll have a great time!! Enjoy!:D