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Just back from the Triumph on Sunday

chukeee

By chukeee,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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chukeee

chukeee

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Hi all. I am just back from the Triumph on Sunday, Feb. 1. All in all, it was a great cruise. There were some awesome things, some good things, some not so good things and a few bad things. I will, in the next few days, write a complete review including the ports and shore excursions. but for now, anyone sailing on the Triumph, I found the ship beautiful and in good condition. Saw no peeling paint, dirt, stinky smells, or any of the other things people seem to complain about. I would not hesitate to book another cruise on her. There were some things I will discuss in my review, but they are minor things and did not in anyway turn me off on cruising on the Triumph or with Carnival. Watch for my review.

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chukeee

chukeee

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Oh wow, I see several of you are on the Triumph this Sunday!!! I will really try to hurry and get the main part of the review done by tomorrow night or Fri. morning. I just went back to work the day after the cruise after being off for 15 months so needless to say this week is a nightmare! I will try to hurry.

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chukeee

chukeee

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Well folks, here it comes. I will apologize in advance for the length of this review, but when I was planning this trip I loved all the details (good and bad) on many of the fine reviews I read on Cruise Critics. First of all, this is our third cruise (07 Pride and 08 Miracle) so when I make comparisons to other ships, these are all I know about.

I traveled with DH, DS, DIL, GD1 and GD2. We were with a group of friends and coworkers totaling 57.

On Sat. morning, Jan. 24th my family, our friends Gary, Amy and thier family and Gary's Mom and Dad met at our house in North Central PA (at a cold 2 degrees!). We had a light breakfast and headed to Phila. where we were leaving on our flight to Miami. I had booked on line a parking spot for 2 vehicles at Central Air Park which is an off airport parking site. With a coupon we got off the internet the parking ran about 7.25 a day plus tax. I really would recommend this parking facility to anyone. It was very well lit, was surrounded by a 6 ft. fence, and the shuttles were right there to take us to the airport. We flew on United and while some of our group left from our local Williamsport airport, we saved about $90 a seat by driving the 3 1/2 hrs to Phila. By splitting the gas and the parking, it was a good savings.

The flight to Miami with one stop at D.C. was right on schedule and we arrived in Miami a few minutes earlier than scheduled. Our hotel shuttle picked us up within a half hour of landing and we were at the hotel a little past 9 p.m. When we reserved our hotel back in the summer, there were not many choices for a group of 57 and we kind of wanted to all stay together. We booked the Days Inn Miami International Airport hotel for a total of $135 per room (2 queen beds) . I will warn you that the reviews you will read online are not very good. We figured we weren't getting ther until late at night and really just needed a place to lay our heads. However, when we arrived, we were pleased to see that the rooms were pretty good. They certainly far exceeded my expectations after reading the bad reviews. The restaurant there is pretty expensive and there in not much in the surrounding area to walk to for other dining options. We had a snack in the restaurant that night and in the morning walked to a nearby gas station/ mini mart and purchased pasteries and coffee. (Our friend Gary tried to order a pizza that night and the guy hung up on him.) You will hear more about Gary and his food issues throughout the review. Oh, I forgot to mention one more issue with the hotel. Several of the people were kept awake by the plane noise as we were very close to the airport. I( slept like a rock and heard nothing.

The next morning we paid a $6 per room fee to be shuttled to the Port of Miami. More to come...... I have to go to work.:)

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malittlefoot971

malittlefoot971

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LOL talk about small world...Myself and My Boyfriend (BBigfoot613) and our 2 children live in williamsport. We are going on the triumph in june for a cruise to canada w/o the kiddos. :D So I cant wait to see the rest of the review.This is our 2nd cruise the first one we took last yr outta norfolk. Which I must say was really nice there. I really loved the timed cross walk thingie. that was a trip. ya got 15 secs to cross the road and counting LOL. Bad part about that was they was some big roads. But anyways I cant wait to hear more keep it coming ;)

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chukeee

chukeee

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Here's a few lines until I have to start supper.

We were told to meet in the hotel lobby at 9:30 and the shuttle would load about 10a.m. to take us to the port. We went to the lobby around 9:15 and began loading on the shuttles. My family and some friends left in the first shuttle and arrived at the port before 10! A baggage handler appeared with a cart, loaded up our luggage and off we went. After tipping him ,of course. It is a beautiful port I might add. We were allowed to enter the building right away and were ushered right up to the desk to check in. Now is where the fun starts. DS, DIL, GDs and US had three rooms that we booked together and did our fun passes together, so we went to the desk together. Son gets the nice woman, I get the crab. This woman apparently did not have breakfast or something. :mad: After reading on these boards that you could change rooms (we wanted to put the grandaughters together directly across the hall from us), I simply asked the woman if this was possible. A simple no would have been sufficient! No she became irate stating that NO ONE would be allowed to change rooms and that certainly no 2 under the age of 21 would ever be allowed in the same room without an adult. I thanked her and said that I knew they couldn't book that way but I thought it could be changed since the room was right across the hall from us. She got even more p---ed off and said that never happened. Now a lady beside her was helping my DS and DIL and she tried to intervene but the crab was having none of it. I decided to let it go and deal with the purser's desk. Now when I did the fun pass I put down that it would be cash put on the account. I asked crab to change it to a credit card and she begrudgingly did it. Nice lady who was helping DS and DDIL would not change theirs. Again, we decided to take it up at the purser's desk. Jeesh, why aren't they all on the same page? Anyhow with that being said, we were told to have a seat and wait until our number was called. (We totally forgot that they put a tag under one of the seats and if you find it, you board with the VIPs.) Well, someone found it and their group of 8 or 9 was allowed to board but no matter, we were about 5 people behind them and one of the first on the ship. When we were called, we went up the steps, got our picture taken, and headed for the ship. We went straight to the purser's desk thinking there would already be a line but there was only 2 or 3 couples ahead of us. We walked up to the desk, my son had his account switched from cash to credit card, no problem, we added the DGDs to our account and gave them charging privileges, no problem. Then we asked if we could put the two of them together in a room (one is 12 and one is 16) again no problem. The girl was very nice and says this is done all the time. I loved her!!! We left there and was on the lido deck before 11:30.

More to follow:)

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chukeee

chukeee

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To back up just a little, I wanted to say something about my first impression of the ship. When we entered the atrium, I though it was beautiful! I read so many bad things...that the ship was old, and in need of repair. I truly do not know what these people are talking about and thought the ship was beautiful. It was a little toned down from the Pride (which, again was my fisrt cruise and that ship will probably ALWAYS be my favorite), but very pretty. Our first time friends were impressed. After our trip to the purser's desk, we headed to the lido deck to get a bite to eat. The food lines were just opening up. GDs, and DIL headed to the regular buffet line, DS to the NY Deli, and DH and I for burgers. The burger was very good! We also got fries and a few other things, DS had his first rueben and the girls a variety. I found some salsa and was really happy about that. I love the salsa, especialy in the morning with those little hash brown potatoe thingys. On the last two cruises I had them every morning for breakfast. I was disapointed to find out that this ship did not have the salsa out at breakfast the entire week and the hashbrowns only a few days. This was a very minor item as we found plenty of good food to eat. Please keep in mind, when I write things like this, it it not to complain but to inform. These are my observations and opinions. Also, there still is no fruit punch. I see alot of discussion on these boards about that and, for now it seems to be gone. I like the iced tea with splenda and the lemonade was also good. Well after eating, we looked around on the lido deck. The layout with the stadium seating was different for us. The last too ships didn't have that. I thought it was a great idea especially with the big screen (it was really big!) making it very easy to see. There was already alot of personal items on the lounge chairs which seemed to be the theme for the week. (More on this later.)

Music was already playing and people wer already getting into cruise mood. The port of Miami was absolutely gorgeous! We spent some time on the lido deck and above taking pictures of the port. The signs were up stating that we couldn't get into our rooms until 1:30. This left some time for exploring the ship. We met up with DFGary and DFAmy and he needed to go to the purser's desk to have their kid's put together in one room also. I walked down with him to show him where the desk was and he had the same great experience as me with no problems changing the rooms. I was so happy about this because it was their first cruise and after the issue at check in, I could just visualize the two of them being seperated all week because one had to stay in a room with each kid! It all worked out great and we were basically kid free:D!

Back to the review!!!!!!!!

We again went back to the lido deck and some of us did some more exploring until it was time to go to our rooms. They were available promptly at 1:30. We had booked a guaranteed balcony almost a year ago and most of our group had been upgraged to the lido deck, front of the ship! It turned out to be a great spot! I loved where our room was and the rest of the group took up the front of deck nine on both sides of the ship. We were all really close and could just jaunt around the corner to the rest of the group on the other side. Two girls had booked last minute and one couple had booked an ocean view, so they were on deck 2 but very centrally located and basically had to just walk around the corner, get on the elevator and go anywhere. DFChris and DFJen were alittle apprehensive about being down on the second floor, but they liked havking the ocean view.

Our room number was 9225 and was a great room. DH and I were pleasantly surprised upon entering as DS and family had our room decorated witht the Carnival Bon Voyage decorations! It was really cool and a nice surprise. We both had just celebrated our birthdays and a 35 wedding anniversary. I had made door signs for most of the group. One friend had made us a door sign for the anniversary with pens attached and during the cruise alot of people stopped by to drop us a note and congratulate us! It was cool. The door signs are a great idea for a group and make it very easy to find everyone. Alot of people commented on them. Expecially my granddaughters' who were right across the hall from us. I made them a picture of a pretty pink pirate's ship. It read: Amanda and Brooke, Pirate Princesses of the Caribbean. Underneath was a mean looking parrot saying "Don't even think about it, my Grandpa is across the hall!!!" The 16 yr. old didn't see the humor in this at first but others thought it was great.:p

Back to the room.... It looked like the other two ships balcony room but I noticed that it was smaller. The space between the bottom of the bed and the cupboards was narrower and on the side on the bed next to the balcony, there was no little stand (I always used this for my book and book light at night). It was a very narrow space probably no more than a foot right next to the window sill. There was no refrigerator, which I had found out on cruise critic before we left, no big deal to us. And the sofa was shorter! This was an issue with friends that I will explain later. Right now I'm off to work.:(

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Evil Scotsman

Evil Scotsman

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Chukee, Thank You very much for your review, I haven't even finsihed reading your third installment when I read "I like the iced tea with splenda", I have been trying to find out for WEEKS if not MONTHS, is the Iced Tea Fresh Brewed/Homemade or is it a mix, concentrate, or ????

 

I LIVE on homemade (tea bags and an iced tea maker)Tea at home, I can't stand mix and am diabetic (sp?) so I have to use sweet and low or splenda?

 

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

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UpstateCruizer

UpstateCruizer

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Chukee, Thank You very much for your review, I haven't even finsihed reading your third installment when I read "I like the iced tea with splenda", I have been trying to find out for WEEKS if not MONTHS, is the Iced Tea Fresh Brewed/Homemade or is it a mix, concentrate, or ????

 

I LIVE on homemade (tea bags and an iced tea maker)Tea at home, I can't stand mix and am diabetic (sp?) so I have to use sweet and low or splenda?

 

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

 

The ice tea is a concentrate mix! Some say the ice tea in the dining room tastes better but I really didn't notice much of a difference. That is made from concentrate as well. If you want fresh brewed tea you can get the tea bags up on the Lido deck with hot water and make it that way. Lipton has cold brew tea bags in stores but I've only purchased the large pitcher sized bags so I'm not sure if they make single serving bags in the cold brew. Hope this helps and sorry I didn't realize you were struggling to get an answer or I'd have helped you sooner :)

 

BTW I use Splenda as well and you will find plenty of it on the ship.

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