First time cruise
Carnival Triumph Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Deck Hand
Cruises: 1 cruise (first)
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 43
5 Night Western Caribbean (New Orleans Roundtrip)
Sail date: July 03, 2017
Ship: Carnival Triumph
Cabin type: Oceanview
Cabin number: 2251
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 7 years ago
Review summary
overall this was a good vacation. Though this was my first cruise, I was traveling with others who said that this ship was not up to the level of previous carnival cruises they had taken.Embarkation
Our group arrived about an hour early for our embarkation. The port security/check-in agents were fast and well organized. We breezed through with no issues whatsoever.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Just meh. The first night was particularly bad. All of our food was over cooked and underseasoned. The only highlights to the food were the desserts offered through the main dining room and the burger joint on the lido deck. The service was very inconsistent where some nights dinner would take an hour and a half, and not seeing our waitstaff for drink refills for 10-15 minutes at a time and other nights we were finished in 45 minutes and everything ran really smoothly.
Onboard Activities
There is truly something for everyone. There are a variety of musical acts, comedy sets, kids activities, dive in movies, trivia and games, as well as stage shows. There are also additional activities that you can join for additional $ like bingo, poker and blackjack tournaments, etc. The fitness center is well equipped and never busy. The pools were very small, extremely salty, and always filled with way too many kids. This ship did not have an adults only pool, which was disappointing.
Entertainment
The ship had 2 comedians. One was amazing, and the other was just ok. The magic show was also just ok. The illusions were good, but there was little set-up from the magician and most of the trick were performed back to back set to music. The dancers/singers were good and the sets & costumes for the stage shows were awesome. Liz and Lucas were an amazing musical act and performed in different areas and times throughout the cruise.
Children's Programs
Did not bring my kids
Service and Staff
Just ok. They were not extremely friendly or particularly fast.
Ship Quality
It was kept clean, but was definitely outdated.
Cabin / Stateroom
Bigger than I expected. We had 4 adults staying in an ocean view room on the 2nd deck. There was plenty of to and storage space for all of our belongings and the beds were large enough to accommodate all of us comfortably. There were a few options for sleeping arrangements. There was one king sized bed and then you could use the sofa to pull out a queen size bed or pull down an additional twin from the ceiling (bunk bed style).
Ports of call
We stayed a day in New Orleans prior to our cruise. Bourbon street was underwhelming and smelled of sewage and hot garbage. I would recommend Black Rose tours for the haunted history tour of the French quarter. There are numerous tour companies and you pass at least a dozen other tour groups throughout the night. Our tour group was much smaller (at 14) than some of the other groups we saw with more than 20 people. Our guides were also very knowledgeable and we're dressed in full out cosplay for our tour, which I didn't see any other guides go to that level of dedication.
Thumbs Up
3
This stop was amazing, though I didn't set foot on Cozumel. We took a tinder across the sea to playa del carmen (not a bad boat ride- only 45 min and the water was spectacularly blue near the shore) . We went on the underground river/cave excursion with shopping. Our guide Marcelo was amazing (and pretty easy on the eyes 😉) and he took us through a few different caverns at the cenote. You can tell he enjoys what he does. Following the cenote, we were fed a wonderful authentic Mexican lunch and tequila tasting. Shopping was short, but gave me time to find a few souvenirs for my kids.
This is a much less touristy part of Mexico. We did the Dzibilchaltun ruins. While the site was amazing, we didn't have much time there. The bus ride to the site was 45 minutes where the guide provided good information about the Mayan and Spanish history of the Yucatán peninsula, but by the time we got to the ruins we only had 2 hours to see everything. We didn't even have time to eat lunch, so we were starving by the time we got back to the ship.
Disembarkation
If you can, carry off you luggage in the morning. The lines to have your luggage checked and picked up before customs was enormous. If you have a plane to catch be aware that checking luggage will take about an hour and a half to debark.