TRIUMPH Detailed photo review 1/10/13

[deedle7544]

Good to know, I have never dived, SO wanted to, but he has done it before, so we didn't. I'll suck it up and try it on the next one

[luckybecky]

Good to know, I have never dived, SO wanted to, but he has done it before, so we didn't. I'll suck it up and try it on the next one

 

In our group of 10, there was a dad who was an experienced diver, with his two sons who were newbies. And, there was a husband who was a certified diver, with his wife who was working on her certification. So don't worry, you and your SO would fit right into a group like this.

[gelo7]

Loved your review and pics.

[Coolcruise02]

Great review and pictures! Just an idea on the sound from the hall coming through the door. We take a towel and roll it length ways and lay it on the floor against the door. This really does help!! :)

[sailawaybellaluna]

luckybecky,

 

I feel like we are travel mates, even though we haven't met! :p

 

I LOVED your Breeze review! We traveled on the Breeze not long after you did (and your review inspired me to write mine)! And we're heading out on the Triumph in just a few weeks! You write great reviews, and I especially love the pics of the ship and your drinks from your dive site - beautiful!

[hott_michelle2001]

Did you notice if there was a splash or water play area for toddlers? I know they have the slides and pols but children with diapers are not allowed in, understandable, but was there a place to splash for my little guy?

[re-re]

Nice review, Loving all your pictures, it looks like you had a blast.:)

[Granny'sdream9857]

Sorry you are having to pay so much. I'm afraid I don't have any secret. Just be sure you are paying the lowest possible rate: go to the choicehotels.com website and check the rates if you qualify for a AAA or AARP discount, for example, or try doing the pre-pay rate if you are certain of your dates. But it still is high for that weekend. Doug must be right that it has something to do with Mardi Gras.

 

Good luck and have a great cruise!

 

Thanks!! Well I pay the same type rate at The Colony. TX when we visit the kids and grandkids.. I have the Choice hotels app on my phone.. I guess that's just how it is.. All of the hotels in the are we're pretty high.. Not going to ruin my trip though!! It's our first family cruise and I Can't wait!!

[douglinc@msn.com]

Thanks!! Well I pay the same type rate at The Colony. TX when we visit the kids and grandkids.. I have the Choice hotels app on my phone.. I guess that's just how it is.. All of the hotels in the are we're pretty high.. Not going to ruin my trip though!! It's our first family cruise and I Can't wait!!

 

We've run into this before during Mardi Gras, you can probably stay around Texas City for quite a bit less and it's not far to drive.

 

Doug

[wrigley80]

Nice Review......Cozumel is my favorite port in the Caribbean

[luckybecky]

luckybecky,

 

I feel like we are travel mates, even though we haven't met! :p

 

I LOVED your Breeze review! We traveled on the Breeze not long after you did (and your review inspired me to write mine)! And we're heading out on the Triumph in just a few weeks! You write great reviews, and I especially love the pics of the ship and your drinks from your dive site - beautiful!

 

 

 

Aw, that's so nice of you! :) Thank you for the compliment. I remember your review -- you have absolutely stunning photos. I can't wait to see your take on the Triumph!

[luckybecky]

Thanks to everyone for the nice comments about my review. :) I'll try to finish it when I get home from work in the morning.

 

Did you notice if there was a splash or water play area for toddlers? I know they have the slides and pols but children with diapers are not allowed in, understandable, but was there a place to splash for my little guy?

 

We did notice a shallow splash pool on an upper deck somewhere, but I didn't take a picture of it. It was on an open, empty deck with nothing else around, not even any deck chairs. We guessed that it must be used for Camp Carnival. Other than this, I didn't notice anything suitable for very young tots. :( Maybe someone reading this who has young children will have a better answer for you.

[Granny'sdream9857]

We've run into this before during Mardi Gras, you can probably stay around Texas City for quite a bit less and it's not far to drive.

 

Doug

Thanks for the info Doug!! I was just shocked to see our same room for half the cost. But, like I said, it's all good.. Aren't you sailing tomorrow DOUG?? I'm highly jealous :p

[douglinc@msn.com]

Thanks for the info Doug!! I was just shocked to see our same room for half the cost. But' date=' like I said, it's all good.. Aren't you sailing tomorrow DOUG?? I'm highly jealous :p[/quote']

 

We sail on Monday (1-28) We will be leaving tomorow for Ft. Worth, spend the night with daughter and son-in-law then on to Galveston on Sunday.

 

Doug

[luckybecky]

OK, so when I left off, we had finished our dive excursion and had a margarita near the pier.

 

We got back on the ship around 1 or so. We got some lunch on the lido deck. I tried the Chinese food. It was quite good. I miss the Mongolian wok, where your food is made to order, but this was a pretty good alternative. The food is freshly made. I had a chicken and corn soup, vegetable fried rice, wontons, a noodle dish that was supposed to have chicken in it but I had a hard time finding any chicken in it, and a chicken stir fry. All were delicious.

Back on board time was supposed to be 3:30, sailing at 4pm. This next photo was taken at 3:31pm. And people just kept coming at this pace, for at good half an hour more. I couldn’t believe how many were coming back AFTER back on board time, without a care in the world. I would have been freaking out. I guess that’s just me, but I’m paranoid about being left behind.

 

Cozumel is a party port, and a lot of people were having trouble making it back down the pier. One guy fell off the pier and had to be fished out by his buddies, according to reports before I got out on deck. This young lady seems to have lost her shoes and most of her clothes.

 

The gal in the green dress and her friend had a lot of difficulty figuring out which way to go. At one point they got in a rickshaw heading back to town. She eventually made it on board, sporting some fancy new headwear.

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

Finally, the pier emptied. The horn sounded. Yet we waited and waited. Then Jen, the cruise director, paged Mr. and Mrs. Aragon. Ah, so now we knew who we were waiting for. Incredibly, they showed up at the end of the pier at 4:30 pm, a full hour late. After rummaging through their bags for several minutes, presumably to find their ID, they were allowed to proceed down the pier, which they did at a most leisurely rate. They actually just ambled down the pier, not even picking up their pace when the captain sounded the horn again. I don’t know what sort of adventure they had been on, but they did not look like happy campers. Just a thought, if you are going to be an hour late getting back, at least TRY to look like you are hurrying!

 

 

 

The captain did kindly wait for them, however. We pulled away from the pier immediately after they boarded.

 

 

By the way, the duty free shop on the pier had closed by 3:30 (back on board time), so if you are planning to make any purchases on your way back to the ship, allow plenty of time for that.

If you aren't lucky enough to have a balcony to watch pier runners, go to the very front of the ship on deck 6 and walk outside. There were several people there, but it wasn't at all crowded and affords a good view.

[luckybecky]

After we sailed we went to dinner. I think I had the flat iron steak again because it was so good the first time. I also like the baked potato because they bring sour cream, cheese, and bacon bits and will dress it at the table with as much or little as you want. Later, we went back to our favorite place, the casino. I liked playing at the bank of video poker machines and penny slots right by the casino bar, because it was near the band (named Music Society) and they really were very good. This shot was taken about 10:30pm.

 

Then we went up to the Deck Party at 11pm. It was lots of fun. We even joined the conga line when it made its way upstairs where we were watching, and we conga’d back down to the lido and joined in some line dancing.

 

 

 

Then it was on to the Mexican Buffet which was open from 11:30pm to 1am. It was actually pretty good! As I said earlier, I am not really a fan of buffet food. Usually it just seems to be poor quality. But on this ship, it wasn’t bad! We just had a light meal, because we’ve been eating so much on this cruise, but we wanted to at least try it and were glad we did.

[luckybecky]

I don’t know when we finally made it back to our cabin and went to bed. I know we slept through breakfast the next morning. In fact, our steward gave up on us ever getting out of bed, because our cabin never got made up til turn down service that night. :o

I think we finally got out of our room around 12:30 and went to find something to eat at the buffet. (After our unhappy experience in the dining room earlier in the cruise, I wasn’t about to go back there again!)

We went to the marriage show (listed as the “Game of Love” in the Fun Times) at 2:30pm. We have seen this on every cruise and it is always funny. Don’t miss it! Our cruise director Jen hosted the show and did a great job. We saw Jen a lot on this cruise. She was into everything, such as the deck party last night and all the shows. She’s very energetic and fun.

Later in the afternoon, we spent some time lounging on the lido deck and watching the NFL playoff game on the big screen. Sadly, our Houston Texans did not prevail in this game, but this being a cruise out of Galveston, you can believe that there were lots of very enthusiastic fans on board.

 

At 7pm we went to see the Big Easy show. It was fantastic! As I mentioned before, we really were impressed with the quality of the shows on this ship. I was surprised. We were on the Breeze when she was brand new; I would have expected her to have the latest, greatest shows, but the truth is that the Triumph blew her out of the water when it came to the shows. The sets, costumes, choreography, show band and performers, everything was really more than we expected on a ship. It was a very high energy show, lots of fun.

After the show, we went to dinner. There was a bit of a line, since we went at the same time as a number of other people who had been at the show, but the line moved fairly quickly. However, the service at this meal dropped off just a bit. We asked for a table for 2, and the hostess led us to a table that had not been cleaned. So we had to stand awkwardly and wait for several minutes while she hustled around trying to find a clean tablecloth and setting. We were in a location to one side and I commented to Paul that I felt as if we were in no man’s land. Service actually was not too slow, but our wait staff kept changing. One person took our order, someone else brought water, another person served our salads, a different person brought entrees, and so it went throughout the meal.

I had the grilled chicken breast from the everyday menu. I wanted something healthier since we had been overeating so much. It was just ok, plain and rather dry. I do think the chef could come up with some sort of light sauce or something to keep it from being quite so plain. It was not bad, but was the least impressive of all the things I tried in the dining room. And then, after being good and eating my salad and grilled chicken, I had to have one last fix of WCMC! It was as good as ever.

[luckybecky]

After dinner, we hustled over to the comedy club. It was already quite crowded even though we were 20 or 30 minutes early. We found a couple who offered to share their table with us. The comedians were both excellent! We have loved the comedy club on all three of our cruises. It is a highlight of the cruise for us and we highly recommend it. But you do have to go early to get a seat!

After the comedy club, we went – you know where – the casino! Overall, we did OK. I broke even on the first two days, and then lost on the next 2 days. But since I don’t gamble large amounts, I don’t lose too much either. Paul of course did fabulously with his two royal flushes, but he lost a little over the last couple of days. Still, we definitely came out ahead!

We made our way back to the cabin after 1am. And we still had to pack!! We set out our clothes for the morning, got pretty well packed and organized by 2am, and then fell fast asleep.

[luckybecky]

Sorry, I don't have any pictures for you of our last morning and the debarkation process.

 

I set our alarm for 8:15. It just so happened that this was exactly the time that Jen came on the loudspeaker and started making preliminary debarkation announcements. It took us only a few minutes to splash some water on our faces and throw on some clothes. We were soon out the door to get a quick breakfast on the lido deck. It took us only minutes to fill our plates with food and we enjoyed a filling breakfast.

 

The buffet and lido seemed very busy, but actually, the lines where the shortest we had ever seen them. Every station was up and running with eggs, bacon and all the fixings. Even the omelet station did not have a line (I noticed this too late, alas! I loved the omelets on previous cruises but never got one this time.)

 

We left our “Snoozin’” sign on the door so our cabin steward would know that we had not yet vacated the cabin. (No one was debarking yet, and our “self assist” debarkation time was not for another hour.) And our open suitcases and my purse were all over the cabin and bed. Nevertheless, the staff entered our room and started cleaning, and left the door wide open while we were gone. This bothered me, since we had all our things out in plain view, including my iPad and purse. I had diligently kept these locked up in the safe throughout the cruise, but as we were quickly finishing packing on the last morning we emptied the safe. We briefly left the cabin for a a quick breakfast, and the staff apparently immediately barged in. I know the stewards are under a lot of pressure to get the rooms clean and turned around fast, but I wish they had not started cleaning before we vacated the room. They had even absurdly turned the corners to make a little triangle on the toilet paper. Of course, when we returned to the room after breakfast to finish closing up our suitcases, we brushed our teeth and used the toilet, so the bathroom would have to be straightened up again.

 

At any rate, we returned from breakfast and got ourselves organized and zipped our suitcases. Soon, our deck was called for self-assist debarkation and we left our cabin. Self-assist goes first in debarking. We went down to deck 5 and had to wait in line for just a little while to get off the ship.

 

Customs: there were two lines. The line for those who had US passports (which we did) was much shorter. Other forms of ID had a longer line. The customs review was almost non-existent. The lady took our form, looked briefly at our passports, and waved us on through. It took a grand total of about 20-30 minutes from the time we left our cabin until we had completed customs and walked out of the terminal.

 

As mentioned early in this review, our parking area was right across the street so we were able to go straight to our car without waiting for a shuttle. We had awakened at 8:15. By 9:50, we had eaten breakfast, finished last minute packing, debarked and cleared customs, and were in our car on our way home. This was SOOOOO much better than when our CD John Heald starting shouting announcements at us at 5:30am on the Breeze!

[luckybecky]

Alas our cruise was over but it was so much fun and we can’t wait for the next one!! So far, we have only cruised on Carnival and we have loved it! Each cruise has had its strong points, and occasionally something that was not so great, but hey, we are on vacation and we aren’t going to sweat the small stuff! We would like to try another cruise line at some point just to see how they compare, but so far, we are great fans of Carnival and can’t wait for our next adventure!

 

 

[tdh8359]

Thanks for the review Becky, I enjoyed it. We leave Monday on the same one.

[luckybecky]

I'm not sure how well you'll be able to see this, as the print on the form is very small, but here's the price list for the duty free liquor. Unfortunately, it does not list the sizes for most items.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here's the list of Sea Day spa specials

 

 

 

 

 

 

One other little thing: on our other cruises, I was not aware of any ice machine being accessible. So I sort of assumed that none would be available on the Triumph. On our first day, we asked our steward to keep us supplied with ice, which he did. But occasionally it would be melted and we wanted more. In that case, we would have to make a trip up to the lido deck. Then, late on the last night of the cruise, I was walking down the hall and saw this:

 

 

 

 

 

What?! That was there all along? Yes, it was, right across from cabin 6360

[luckybecky]

Thanks for the review Becky, I enjoyed it. We leave Monday on the same one.

 

 

I wish I could tag along with you. :) I'd be happy do this cruise all over again!

 

Have a great time!

[douglinc@msn.com]

Thanks for the review Becky, I enjoyed it. We leave Monday on the same one.

 

We are on this one too, 1st. leg of a back to back.

 

Doug