Late, but I'm going to give this review thing a try..

[My6Dogs]

Excellent! Sounds like you guys had a wonderful time!

 

Mike

[nowendy]

Three minutes later, we were giving our check-in bags to a porter, whose only inquiry about our luggage was, "Do you have any liquids or alcohol in your bags?", to which our honest answer was "No".

He took our bags and pointed us to the door.

 

did you see anyone having to take their liquor out of the check in luggage? I read somewhere that they had to and to repack the allowed liquids in a carry on. We usually bring on a bottle of rum, but if you can't check it and you can't carry it on, i'd hate to loose it.

[kew1031]

Three minutes later, we were giving our check-in bags to a porter, whose only inquiry about our luggage was, "Do you have any liquids or alcohol in your bags?", to which our honest answer was "No".

He took our bags and pointed us to the door.

 

did you see anyone having to take their liquor out of the check in luggage? I read somewhere that they had to and to repack the allowed liquids in a carry on. We usually bring on a bottle of rum, but if you can't check it and you can't carry it on, i'd hate to loose it.

 

I didn't see any bags being opened or anything being confiscated at the check-in point. When we went through the bag scanning area, we had to undo the bungee on our rolling cart and put everything on the conveyor separately. during the time we were in line, I didn't see or hear anyone being pulled aside or having anything taken.

Doesn't mean it didn't happen somewhere along the line, but there were a LOT of people. I don't know how Carnival or the security people could possibly catch everyone who had something on the "not allowed" list.

We don't drink enough to make it worth the trouble to try to smuggle. Our bar bill was so small, it probably made the accountants cry a little!

[kew1031]

One of the ladies at our table, Ellie, had mentioned on Sunday night that Monday was her birthday.

Denise immediately said, "Oh,they are going to sing Happy birthday to you".

To which Ellie protested, saying she didn't want to be the center of attention, didn't like being in the spotlight, please don't tell anyone, etc.

We all kind of figured she and her husband would try to avoid the birthday thing Monday night.

Sure enough, they were not at the table when we arrived for dinner, and they never showed up.

After the dancing waiters, we were served our dessert, which was all delicious. I think I had the melting cake that night, one of the other choices was the fig cake.

We were just about done, and Rex came back to the table and asked for Kay W*****. I, looking quite puzzled, said, I'm Kay, but what is the occasion?:confused:

He presented a fig cake with a flourish, and a candle, and said "It's your birthday, correct?"

Umm, no, my birthday is in October, Halloween, to be exact. But today is *her* birthday, we say, pointing at Ellie's empty chair.

She skipped dinner to avoid the birthday presentation, and they got something mixed up!

So Rex says, well it can be your early birthday, set the cake down in front of me, and they all sang Happy Birthday to me anyway.

 

 

So, here is a picture of my "non-birthday" birthday cake that really belonged to Ellie.

We ran into them later in the evening and told them the story and I showed her the picture of *her* cake!

 

I tasted the fig cake, and it was warm and cinnamon-y, but I was too full to eat it.

[kew1031]

since we had not planned an excursion for Belize, we waited till later in the morning to take the tender boat to shore.

By that time, there were only 8-10 people on the tender, no crowds, nice smooth ride in.

 

 

 

note the razor wire atop the wrought iron fence. Who is being kept out? or in?

shopping! Dreadlocks are not a good look for Bruce!!

 

I did find some very cute tote bags for an excellent price. First shop they were $10.00 marked down to $8.00.

Went down the way a little bit, and found some that were a little smaller and different styles; the girl told me they were $7.00.

We hadn't seen everything yet, so I said I would come back in a while.

After we'd looked around some more, I went back to the shop where the $7.00 bags were and picked out 3 of them for my daughters. How much? five bucks each. I was willing to pay $7.00, but she said $5.00. I'm not gonna argue!

 

Going back to the ship on the tender boat. It was full this time, and one of the crew took my camera to the front of the boat to get a good shot of the Triumph.

 

Tuesday night's show in the main lounge was "New Wave Magic" with Kevin and Caruso.

I've never been to Vegas or seen a Vegas style show up close and personal, but these guys and this show were phenomenal.

Pyrotechnics, costume changes, lots of real surprises. great production, very cool music. Excellent show. If you get the chance to see it, I highly recommend it.

[catzcrazy]

Midshp, great location, and I actually have pictures!

 

Note the location of the bed and the black box sitting on the night stand

 

now note the vanity, which is across the room from the bed, along with the electrical outlets on the wall.(there is another one to the left, not in the picture)

 

We were very compliant little cruisers. We did not bring anything that was on the "VERBOTEN" list. Not one thing. No fans, no extension cords, no likker, etc.

There are NO outlets on the wall by the bed. They are across the room. That little black box known as a C-Pap machine is vital to sleep, both his and MINE! If he doesn't have it, neither one of us get any sleep.

A 7 night cruise without it???:eek: No way, not happenin', somebody will die before it's over because I will either put a pillow over his head and suffocate him or I will jump overboard.

So, the first order of business is to find our cabin steward to rectify the situation.

I stick my head out the door and find Putu, who turned out to be a gem. We showed him our dilemma and he was ON it. Said he would get us the hook-up, literally, as soon as he could.

 

The cabin was a nice size, considerably bigger than the one we had on the Ecstasy last year. Having a sofa to lounge on instead of the bed, or a little desk chair made us feel like we'd really moved up in the world of cruising. :D can't imagine how we'll act if we ever get a balcony or a suite!!

Mu husband uses a C-Pap machine and you are right - it is vital to both of us getting any sleep. I contacted Carnival about this and they said to bring an extension cord packed with the C-Pap machine and to carry it on and there would be no problem. We sail 12/5/2010 and we will see.

[kjunea]

Umm, no, my birthday is in October, Halloween, to be exact.

 

I tasted the fig cake, and it was warm and cinnamon-y, but I was too full to eat it.

 

Halloween is my birthday too! When we cruise in a couple of weeks, it's to celebrate my big 5-0, even though it will be a couple of weeks early. They can bring me the cake if they want!

 

Loving the review! We stayed at the Drury Inn when we sailed out of New Orleans on the Fantasy. My DH was skeptical about it when we drove up, but changed his mind once we checked in, relaxed, etc. Great price, great location!

 

Looking forward to more.

[kew1031]

Mu husband uses a C-Pap machine and you are right - it is vital to both of us getting any sleep. I contacted Carnival about this and they said to bring an extension cord packed with the C-Pap machine and to carry it on and there would be no problem. We sail 12/5/2010 and we will see.

 

I forgot to add that our steward did bring us the biggest extension cord I've ever seen!

It was very heavy duty cord and an actual electrical outlet with a cover plate, just like would be installed for a wall outlet. The cord was probably 30 feet long. We stuck it all under the bed and unplugged it in the morning so we wouldn't trip over it.

Next time, we'll pack a reasonably sized extension cord in the C-Pap bag.

[kew1031]

Wednesday, 9/15

We had booked the Mahogany Bay Beach Break, so we could spend yet some more time lying around being lazy. The difference was, this time we had beach chairs with a sun shade, sand, and ocean.

We waited a bit to get off the ship, since we were on Deck 1 and just a short walk to the stairs down to Deck 0. The hall and stairwells were pretty crowded and it was easier to wait in our cabin till the crowds thinned out.

Earlier, right after breakfast, I walked around the upper deck and took pictures of the harbor where we were docked.

 

 

 

 

 

Mahogany Bay Tourist village from the ship

[kew1031]

 

the Valor joining us in port. They didn't arrive till 11:30 am

 

 

view from the chair lift

 

glad we took the lift instead of walking

 

 

Carnival photographer passing us- How do you like having a camera pointed at YOU?!:D

[kew1031]

 

Mahogany Bay Beach was beautiful

 

 

sign looks better when I'm not in the picture, but had to have proof that I was really there!

 

 

Beach bar right behind us. had some very good nachos for lunch.

 

We had lounge chairs with shade, but spent almost all our time in the water on our floats. the water was pretty clear and green, but not quite as clear as at Punta Sur, Cozumel was last fall.

 

Bruce refused the sunscreen, and now, two weeks later, he is STILL peeling.

We were well roasted by the time we left the beach to head back to the ship. We looked around through the shops, but I didn't find anything I wanted to spend my money on.

 

Back on the ship, we showered, cleaned up and I think we took a little nap before dinner.

The "big show" that night was an audience participation game based, I think, on the recent TV show , "Minute to Win It".

We skipped it. Roamed around the ship awhile, then went to bed.

[JeanieTheMom]

Scenery= highway and trees. Lots of trees. Central Louisiana=trees and swamp and water. Not the most interesting drive.

 

 

I grew up in central LA before they put in that interstate. Trees, trees and more trees! I had trouble in elementary school with the concept of "broaden your horizons." :D

 

I'm leaving on Triump on Oct 30. So I'll be on it for your birthday. I love your review!

[kew1031]

We left Roatan at 6:00 pm on Wednesday, just as we were sitting down for dinner. As I mentioned in my last post, we didn't do much that night after dinner, from being toasted from the beach day and having an excursion to Nachi Cocum the next day.

We had noticed after dinner, while Bruce was out on the smoking deck, that it seemed the ship wasn't moving as the speed it had been the past two days, and the ride seemed a little rougher. The seas did look more choppy than they had been, so we didn't think about it any further. Just went to bed and crashed.

I always wake up at least once during the night and, on the ship, I always have to look out at the water just to see the ocean and the ship's wake.

We were supposed to dock in Cozumel at 9:00. I woke up around 6:30 or 7:00, looked out the window, no land in sight anywhere, and we were going very, very slow. The slow speed they use when coming into a port, so as not to create any wake.

Since we had an excursion booked, we had planned to go have breakfast at the South Beach buffet. Bruce got up and we got ready to run upstairs to eat, when the captain came on the PA system and said, in his lovely Italian accent, "Good Morning, I have some bad news. Due to some propulsion problems we have been experiencing since we left Roatan last night, we are several hours behind schedule and will not be stopping in Cozumel. The engineers have been working on the problem all night long, but we will not have time to stop."

Well, that was a bummer. No major problem for us, but we were really looking forward to Nachi, even after the roasting we got the day before.

So, we decide to go to the MDR for breakfast instead, since we were not going to be pressed for time.

We shared a table with 2 other couples at breakfast, folks we hadn't met before, so we had a nice time visiting with new people and discussing the propulsion problems.

About 2/3 of the way through breakfast, we heard the engine kick in and Noonan came on the PA system to tell us it's fixed, and we will be stopping in Cozumel after all, but we won't get there till 1:30 pm and would stay in port till 7:30 pm, instead of leaving at 6.

There was much scrambling from people whose excursions had already been cancelled and credited to their accounts, trying to rebook if they could; Guest Services was in contact with all of the tour guides for the Carnival booked excursions trying to find out what they could do in a short afternoon.

We had booked Nachi through Island Marketing and paid a $12.00 per person deposit with AMEX card, the $74.00 balance was to be paid in cash when we arrived.

It was completely overcast and raining intermittently, and we wouldn't be able to even get off the ship till at least 2:00pm, so we decided to skip nachi and hope for a refund of the deposit when we got back home. If they didn't refund, we were ok with losing the deposit.

The ship was speeding along at a nice clip and we docked at Puerta Maya pier in Cozumel right at 1:30, as promised.

The next trick was getting off the ship. Approximately 2700 people trying to get down one set of stairs and out two exits, single file.:eek:

Again, we opted to wait in our cabin till the lines dwindled down.

[kew1031]

 

 

Bruce trying to get some free Wi-fi on his iPhone...

 

 

I shopped, Bruce spent most of the time in a little coffee shop where they had free wi-fi. There were several guys sitting there with their netbooks, laptops, Skype hookups, just going to town. Bruce had his netbook on the ship, but didn't bring it with him we went got off.

Checking emails, sending messages to clients, dude, we're on VACATION. No working, remember?

He won't spend the money to use the ship's internet service, but give him some free connections and hes' right back on line.:rolleyes:

I spent all the money that was earmarked for Nachi Cocum, plus some more, so the Cozumel econmy still got a little something from us.

T-shirts for his kids and grandson, hand painted glassware for my daughters, got a good deal on some El Jimador tequila and Captain Morgan spiced rum, $11.00 a bottle, little souvenier trinkets like shot glasses and such. Had to buy an extra tote bag at Piranha Joe's to carry it all back to the ship.

Time to head back to get ready for dinner. God forbid we should miss a meal.:rolleyes: We might starve!!

[My6Dogs]

Too bad you missed Nachi... We had a wonderful time there!

 

Have you been there before? If not, catch it next time out!!! :D

 

Mike

[kew1031]

We didn't get all that dressed up, but neither did anyone else that I could tell.

The whole day's schedule was thrown off by the engine problems and the late arrival and departure at Cozumel.

At this point, all the food has sort of run together, and I'm not sure what I had for dinner that night. Whatever it was, it didn't suck.

I did take a bottle of wine with us to both elegant nights, already opened.

Our assistant waiter, Made, quietly brought me a bucket for the chilled wine each time, saying that they usually charged a corkage fee. But we were not charged and Made got an extra-nice tip on Friday night instead;)

The show in the main lounge was "The Big Easy", which I'd heard on CC was very good. so, after dinner, we headed for the main lounge to see it.

Excellent production, great costumes, and I still haven't figured out how those dancers can change their costumes so fast!

The featured performers are Tanner(a woman) and Adam.

Tanner has a powerful singing voice, and she ripped through some songs.

At Last, I Put a Spell On You, to name a couple.

Adam is pretty good, but he sometimes was winded before the end of a show. His voice just isn't the powerhouse that Tanner's is.

 

After the show, we were feeling the call of the ice cream machine, so we moseyed up to the Lido in search of an ice cream cone.

We noticed several people coming out from the South Beach restaurant with food on plates. It was nearly 11:00 pm and this food was not pizza or deli sandwiches.

Midnight Mexican buffet, people. How did we not see that in the Fun Times??:confused:

 

 

the fruit buffet- with carved watermelon sculpture

 

and ice sculpture

 

There was no way we could walk in there and see all that and leave with just ice cream. Oh, no.

Fancy desserts with strawberries and cream, rice, fajita steak soft tacos, more stuff than I can remember. Some of it was very spicy, and although it was good and I ate it, I paid the price the next day. No gory details, but I'm sure you all get my drift.

We were eating and I had to go back to the cabin to get my camera to take the pictures, because, as usual, the camera was left sitting on the vanity.

 

 

the Lido deck at midnight.

 

time for bed. really. before I go get more food.

[kew1031]

As I mentioned, The Midnight Mexican Buffet was not kind to my digestive system, and I was not feeling the love for breakfast on Friday morning.

Bruce, with his cast iron stomach, was up and ready for more gastronomical action entirely too early for my delicate condition.

I sent him to breakfast alone, and stayed in bed for another hour, maybe two.

I took some medication designed for my particular malady, and slept until my innards were not rebelling so much. I was actually feeling a bit hungry, but I didn't want to get crazy with the food. I went to the buffet and got french toast and cereal, a little OJ, skipped the coffee.

I really don't remember what we did the rest of the day, maybe because I slept through most of it.

We may have gone out to the pool...

By mid afternoon, Montezuma was gone, and I was feeling somewhat better. Just in time to get ready for DINNER!!!

 

What I remember most about that last evening at dinner. The crab cakes. oh.my.god. The best thing I ate on the ship the whole week. I swear.

I would sell my second grandchild for a plate of those things right now. (trouble is, I don't have a second grandchild. Only one. Took 20 years to get him. Not going to sell him, no matter how bad he behaves)

 

So, now I can only dream about those crab cakes and pray that the next cruise has crab cakes that at least come close to being as wonderful as the crab cakes we had on the Triumph on Friday, September 17, 2010.

 

We had to go back to our cabin and pack our bags. My 3 bottles of likker were delivered and I had to pack them in my carry-off bag, so as not to be concerned about their welfare and whereabouts between pick-up at the door and pickup at the port of New Orleans.

Our collapsible cooler was in bad shape, broken support on the bottom that made it stand up, leaking, so we opted to leave it behind. Besides, almost everything we had in it was gone. the last few drinks went in a smaller cooler. We had less weight from the bottled water, but more than made up for it with the likker and all the damn souveniers.

 

We did go to the "Legends" show. I had never seen it before, but had seen both good and bad reviews of it here.

The quality of the show depends almost entirely on whether there are people on board who are willing to get up on stage and perform those old songs, and just how well those people can actually SING.

Elton John performance- 7 on a scale of 1-10

Aretha Franklin- 4 (nobody can do Aretha. seriously.)

Madonna- 4

Gloria Estefan- 5

these were all done by passengers

Ricky Martin-1 one of the entertainment staffers, but clearly his forte was NOT singing. the guy didn't get a note right. Dreadful, painful, and embarrassing.

Dolly Parton- 0 stupid- cruise director in a Dolly outfit. From what I've read here, it's the same on every ship that does the Legends show.

Frank Sinatra- 6-7 -a passenger. he had a great voice, strong baritone, but he couldn't remember all the words to "My Way" and had little notes in his hand he was trying to read while singing.

Elvis Presley and Garth Brooks- RINGERS. I don't know who they were, but they had to be professionals. No way it could have been just random passengers. Their performances were WAAY too good.

 

The show is very dated, and needs some revamping if they continue it.

If they do it on multiple ships and multiple cruises, I wouldn't want to hear the same music over and over, even if it's different performers.

 

Went to the late comedy club to see a guy named Todd Lynn. We laughed so hard, it hurt!

 

Hit the river before midnight. back in New Orleans around 7 am.

Next stop: Debarkation.....

[kew1031]

well, all good things must come to an end, and our cruise was no exception.

We had a great time doing a lot of nothing, eating too much, getting too much sun, and just relaxing.

Since we were on Deck 1, Riviera, and we did not do self-assist debarkation, we didn't get called up for a while.

We had breakfast in the South Beach, piddled around on the Lobby deck until they wouldn't let us be there, went back to our cabin and watched TV until after 10:00 am. they still had not called our area, but we felt like we needed to vacate the room so it could be prepped for the next passengers.

We went up to the Lobby and found a comfy sofa and relaxed till our zone was called.

I don't know what the hold up was, but they seemed to get a late start and were having a hard time getting everyone off the ship in a timely manner.

The line to get to the luggage pickup area was creeping slower than molasses.

On our last cruise, I was told by a veteran cruiser that if you get a porter for your luggage as soon as you get in there, you will get through customs faster.

It worked. After we finally got to the luggage area, we snagged a porter immediately. He loaded all our stuff on his cart, zipped us to the customs line, and we were through customs in seconds. literally. We handed our docs to the agent, he perused them quickly, asked us if we had tobacco products or alcohol. answer, yes, a half carton of cigarettes and three bottle of liquor.

reply, you're good to go. Welcome to New Orleans.

Our porter again zipped us out of the building, took us to the next cab in the line, and got us loaded to go back to the hotel.

The wait to get off the ship was long, but once we got to our bags, we were done in less than 5 minutes.

Back to the Drury in 10 minutes, loaded the car, set the GPS to get us out of downtown. Found a place to get gas, then we were headed back home.

10 hour drive. Traffic at a standstill just outside of Shreveport because of a bad accident added about 45 minutes to our drive.

 

we bingo'd

 

we window shopped

 

 

we hung around the casino, even if we didn't gamble

 

we got dizzy from the heights and the lights

 

spent a lot of time in here eating!

 

great ship! ready to do it again!

[boaterette]

Great review. Thank you.

[Willie T]

Yep, just how I remember it! I did "lazy" too. We did'nt cruise with our usual lively group this time, so we spent a lot of time doing NOTHING.

 

(wishing we had another booked )

[catzcrazy]

We went down for breakfast around 7:45 am, had the usual hotel breakfast buffet fare. Pretty decent overall, Belgian waffles were very good, strong coffee. They had biscuits, gravy, sausage, eggs, muffins, cereal, fruit. Good variety of things, you're bound to find something you will eat.

Back to the room to get ready to leave. Desk clerk had told us they would call a cab for us when we came down to check out.

We only had our overnight essentials with us; the rest of the bags were still in the car. It was already getting quite steamy outside when we retrieved the rest of our luggage, and we waited for the cab inside.

 

One of these days, I will learn how to travel light, but this trip was not all that light. Two large suitcases to check. Carry-ons were a 24 pk. case of bottled water on a luggage cart, topped with my tote bag with the makeup, hair dryer, change of clothes, meds, etc, all the stuff you don't want to leave in your checked bag, topped with a canvas tote that held my purse, travel documents, camera, and some snacks, all neatly tied down with a bungee cord. Bruce pulled the small rolling suitcase, which had our allotted two bottles of wine packed securely within miscellaneous clothing and shoes, and his C-Pap machine.

Minivan cab arrived, driver loaded all our stuff in the back, along with the little bitty bags of another couple who shared the cab with us and who had obviously already learned how to travel light.

 

It was about a 10 minute ride to the pier; the cab driver took a "shortcut" around the back of the terminal and stopped on the corner across the driveway from the entrance.

He pointed to a long line of cars queued up across the way and said, "I can get at the end of that line and let you out right at the curb, which will take 20 minutes or more, or I can let you off here and you can roll your bags across the driveway and be inside in 10 minutes."

The vote was 4-0 in favor of getting out there and taking our bags 20 yards to the porters and the entrance.

Cab fare is set at $7.00 a person when there is more than one person in the cab. We gave him a twenty and called it a good deal.

Three minutes later, we were giving our check-in bags to a porter, whose only inquiry about our luggage was, "Do you have any liquids or alcohol in your bags?", to which our honest answer was "No".

He took our bags and pointed us to the door.

It was a little crowded, but they had two lines going to check passports and cruise docs, so we were inside the building in just a few minutes.

Up the elevator with our (too much) carry-ons, and to another line to get our S&S cards.

They had different queue lines divided by decks/cabin numbers. We found our line and snaked around for about 15 minutes to get our S&S cards, then to the waiting area to get a zone number for boarding.

We were zone 25, which didn't sound too good, but when they started calling zones, they called 4-5 at a time, so it wasn't as long a wait as we thought it might be.

From the time we left the hotel till the time we walked onto the ship was about an hour and a half. At least half of that time was waiting for our zone to be called.

All in all, it was pretty easy, except for the extreme(to us) heat and humidity that morning. I hadn't been to New Orleans in years, and had sort of forgotten how bad the humidity can be. Bruce had never been there, and is a guy who needs to be kept in a cool, dry place at all times! He was pretty miserable by the time we got on the ship.

 

When they were taking our pictures and scanning our S&S cards to let us on the ship, my card wouldn't scan. They tried it several times, and had to reset it before it would scan. Not sure what the problem was, but they got it fixed. Whatever it was, it happened again a couple of days later, wouldn't open the cabin door and had to be reset again.

 

What kind of luggage cart. I have one that folds flat and is small, but with my DH's C-Pap machine and the supplies we are bringing for the orphanage I was thinking it might be good to take it - but was concerned about not being allowed to bring it on - could you elaborate a little here - no problem with getting it through security?

 

Thanks.

[flynnsport]

excellent job! Curious if Nachi refunded your deposit? We too are going to Nachi but nervous about booking a paid beach day when we don't know what the weather will be like.

Again great job on the review!

[Ronn452]

Kew1031,

My wife and I were also on this cruise; along with her sister, a friend and the friend's mother. This was not a bad cruise; not our best but then none have been total washouts.

This was the first,however, that we have had to stop for medical emergencies, have two deaths, propulsion problems, and rain on the last sea day, all in one cruise. Your review is spot on! Our cabin steward, Supra, was exceptional. Our wait staff in the dining room was quite good. We skipped several shows, and the "welcome back" party because we've seen them or attended them in the past. Thank you for such an in-depth review. It was a nice way to remember the week. By the way, we stayed at the Drury after the cruise and were pleasantly surprised with the hotel. We'll most likely stay there next time pre-cruise.

 

Captain Ronn

[americanmama]

great review! I really enjoyed it :) thanks for taking the time to post it!

[Falls Cruiser]

On the same cruise and we did get our refund for Nachi. They were very nice about it.

Can't wait for our next cruise so we can experience Nachi. I had read so many good reviews about the place.