Notes from Carnival Triumph Eastern 3/10/2007

[ParrotRob]

Not really a trip "Review" per se, but just some notes and observations from the Carnival Triumph cruise last week.

 

Transportation (Miami): If you get in to town a day or two early and have a car rental, when you return it, Alamo has a free shuttle to the port. We rented from National and asked National to call us a cab when we got back. Instead, the National shuttle driver took us down the street to the Alamo facility and the Alamo shuttle took us to the port for free.

 

Porters: I read a lot on these boards about how gruff and rude the porters on the pier are and how they all but demand tips and threaten to throw your luggage in the ocean, etc etc etc, so I was a little apprehensive about this. Quite to the contrary, the man who took our bags in Miami was probably the MOST pleasant porter I have ever met in my life. He was extremely friendly, cordial, welcomed us to Miami, Carnival and the Triumph, went onto the shuttle and retrieved the bags himself, double checked our bag tags for cabin information, and even carried my carry on to the door of the terminal itself. Worth every bit of the $10 tip for three checked bags.

 

Check In: Have your FunPass in hand, along with your ID and doc folder. Yes, I know you don't NEED your FunPass hard copy, but in the terminal, the people who had physical, hard copies of their fun passes in hand got sent right to the head of the security line. Up the stairs to get S&S cards, then back down to the walkway for the ship. Don't try to take pictures of your ship from inside the terminal, security had a fit about that. No pictures in the terminal. Total time from porter to walking on the ship - under 10 minutes. Walked onto the ship at 12:30, although we were asked to not enter our stateroom until 1:30.

 

On Board: The usual hoarde of waiters pushing Fun Ship Specials in souvenir plastic "glasses". LOTS of spring breaker college kids on board.

 

Oops, more later, mailman's here with 10 days worth of mail...

[Froufie]

Thanks for the info - sounds like everything is going smoothly so far!

 

What is the condition of the ship like? I know it's 6-7 years old and wondering if it is showing any wear and tear?

 

is there a supper club and if so are you planning to go?

 

Where is your cabin and how do you like it?

 

Thanks,

 

Froufie

[MamaParrotHead]

I do know that there isn't any supper club.

[djo631]

Which Alamo location did they take you to? The one by the airport or the one by the port of Miami?

 

Thanks

 

Mark

[RD64]

Parrot Rob

 

Did you find the number of Spring Breakers to be excessive - especially in the mosh pit arounf the Lido Pool?

[ParrotRob]

OK, back. I'll answer the questions first.

 

The Alamo location they took us to was the one right at the airport. From there, Alamo took us (for free) to the port, even though we were National customers, not Alamo.

 

There is no supper club on Destiny class ships liked Triumph.

 

Yes, the number of spring breakers was excessive. For the most part, they were well behaved. BUT - there were a lot of them and they pretty much monopolized the hot tubs and the deck for most of the trip. It seemed like most of them had the early dinner seating, so from 5:30-7:30 was pretty much the only time you could walk the length of the deck without tripping over kids.

 

The ship, overall, appeared to be in rather good shape. She was starting to show her age in a couple of spots, a little rust on and around the rails in some places, but these were the exception, not the rule.

 

Cabin - 1047 - Panorama deck, forward, starboard, balcony. The cabin was fine. It was clean and exactly as I expected. One of the two mattresses (pushed together into a King) was very soft, one was a good bit firmer. I had purchased the stateroom decorations for birthday ahead of time and they were in place when we checked into our room at 1:30, along with the wine and beer we had ordered from the Bon Voyage department. The decorations were very nice and reasonably priced at around 30 bucks. Our cabin steward was Nestor, and the assistant was Karma - both were very nice. Nestor called me by name the entire trip after asking it only once.

 

Dining Room - Had the London DR, late seating. London is the midships dining room. Would have preferred the aft dining room, but that would have required dining at 8:00 instead of 8:30 and we prefer the latest seating possible. Carnival once again did a great job with the seating - we were seated at a large table that had nine seats at it, although only six ever showed up. It was my wife and I, a couple from Michigan around the same age as us and a newlywed couple on their honeymoon from Monterrey, Mexico. We all hit it off right away and got along well all week. When I informed the Maitre d' that Friday was Mrs. Parrot's birthday, he arranged to have a cake sent to us on Friday and a large number of the wait staff to sing for her.

 

The food in the dining room was pretty good. Better, in my opinion, then the Victory in July. We never really went to the South Beach buffet, so we really can't comment on that. The poolside buffet lines were as they usually are - good, but unremarkable. Never got to try the deli, the line was always outrageous and never got to try the Hong Kong Noodle Company either, because it never seemed to be open for more than an hour or two a day :confused:

 

The casino was big fun - Sebastien, Aleks and Wyatt were great craps dealers. Slots were hot and cold. Broke even overall in the casino.

 

All that being said, there were some things that really annoyed me:

 

- The midships pool (the main and largest one) was closed MOST of the time. I expected that when we went to Canada on Victory, as it was cold and damp, but this was the Caribbean. It was hot and sunny. When asked why the pool was closed more often than not, we were told it was because the seas were too high (4-8 feet) and the ship was rocking too much to open it. That didn't stop them from opening the Aft pool or the forward pool, though, so go figure.

 

- MANY of the outside areas of the ship were off limits due to, supposedly, "high winds". This included the outside areas of deck 3, all of deck 14 for almost the entire trip, and frequently deck 12 and the outside areas of 11. This, even when there was no wind at all.

 

- Two of the hot tubs (one in the spa and one of the aft ones) were out of service for the ENTIRE trip. When there are only 7 to begin with and 1000 kids on board, that makes for 5 VERY crowded hot tubs. And of those five, oftentimes one or two of those were being "serviced" as well.

 

- On Thursday night, the entire aft end of the Lido deck (behind the restaurant) was closed off for a private affair. Turns out that it was a crew party. Now I know the crew works hard and deserves some R&R, but it should not come at denying expected amenities to the 2000+ paying customers.

 

More later...

[Sprocket]

I wonder if there were so many closed off areas due to the high number of spring breakers on board... Less chance of an "accident" if there are barriers. If that is the case I understand their reasoning, but it is unfortunate it affected so many others.

 

I will be on the Triumph in October, and am very interested in your observations. Did you do any ship sponsored excursions? Have some ideas for Grand Turk and St Thomas but Puerto Rico will be a new port for me.

[ParrotRob]

I wonder if there were so many closed off areas due to the high number of spring breakers on board... Less chance of an "accident" if there are barriers. If that is the case I understand their reasoning, but it is unfortunate it affected so many others.

 

I will be on the Triumph in October, and am very interested in your observations. Did you do any ship sponsored excursions? Have some ideas for Grand Turk and St Thomas but Puerto Rico will be a new port for me.

 

Let's see - we didn't go to Grand Turk at all, so maybe the itinerary is changing. We got to San Juan at night, so we went on the ship's tour to the Rum factory - the tour itself was so-so, but the ferry ride was a blast and the bus trip back to town was as well. Plus there was plenty of time left over for us to just kind of wander around San Juan. Ended up in Senor Frog's.

 

In St. Thomas, we took a brief (2.5 hour) ship-sponsored island tour. Yes, we could have gotten the same tour for half the price from a private operator, but it's only like 35 bucks, who really cares? We did all the "touristy" things like going to a bunch of overlooks, Mountain Top, and the Great House. Returned back to the shopping district in Charlotte Amalie, went on our own back to Havensight, rode the Paradise Point skyride up to the top and had some lunch, then did our own shopping in Havensight.

 

In Sint Maarten, we did not use a ship tour. We rented a car directly on the pier from Budget ($59 + 9.50 insurance +12.50 pier service charge). We had spent a week in Sint Maarten in 1998, and we went back and revisited some of our favorite places from back then, and also toured almost the entire island too. Recommend Mr. Busby's for breakfast (on Dawn Beach) and the Greenhouse in Phillipsburg for late afternoon lunch/drinks. In between we went to Cupecoy, Maho and Orient beaches, Lucas Bay, Marigot, Grand Case and the zoo. Beware, though, traffic in Marigot and on Vorsteeg in Phillipsburg is a nightmare.

[gypsyrose]

The itinerary changes w/ our cruise....Half Moon Cay, St. Thomas, San Juan and Grand Turk. Did Mark in the piano bar say when his last day is? I know it is sometime in April, just hoping he will still be there when we go. What was your favorite bar to hang out at?

[ParrotRob]

The itinerary changes w/ our cruise....Half Moon Cay, St. Thomas, San Juan and Grand Turk. Did Mark in the piano bar say when his last day is? I know it is sometime in April, just hoping he will still be there when we go. What was your favorite bar to hang out at?

 

I didn't hear Mark say anything about when he was leaving.

 

Not really sure I had a "Favorite" bar to hang out in, I kind of split my time between the Casino Bar, the Piano Bar, the Cigar Bar, and the poolside bars on the Lido deck. Actually, I would probably say the poolside bars are my favorite, but only because I like to sit outside and there always seems to be something going on poolside.

 

Besides, not EVERYTHING about the Spring Break crowd was bad - there WAS some nice scenery :cool:

[ASONGULOVE]

at present, i will be on triumph til 4/21, then on vacation...

[gypsyrose]

NOOOOOOO:eek: You can't take vacation that week, unless of course you want to go on a cruise with us. Mark, I was really hoping to join you in the piano bar. Our last cruise was a dud in the piano bar. Do you know who is replacing you? Can't you stay an extra week? Get to go to Grand Turk;)