WOW....where to begin! This was a FANTASTIC cruise!

I sailed with my Husband, Joe, my mother-in-law, Marisa and my two sons, Frankie, age 7 and Nicholas, age 4.

I have sailed with Carnival on the Jubilee in 1988 and with Sunquest on the Vasco Di Gamas in 1994.

I read several reviews after booking and was really afraid of what I would find, but all my worry was for nothing! The ship was brilliant. She is huge, clean and very “user-friendly”.

Flight:

We flew from Toronto to Miami at 6:30 am with American Airlines. The flight was good, although there was no breakfast served, so we were HUNGRY! Miami Airport is a MESS! There were so many people and it is HUGE! We found our luggage OK and the Carnival people were sure to find us and lead us to where we needed to be to catch our bus to the Port. We landed at 9:50 am and our bus was scheduled to leave for the Port at 11:00. Our bus ended up leaving just after 11:00 and we arrived at the Port at approximately 11:30. We had to tip the driver $1.00 per bag of luggage to have him take it off the bus and take two steps to put it into a holding container. We were then off to the Carnival building.

Embarkation:

Very, very efficient, quick and easy. We filled out our Funpasses ahead of time…this is a MUST to save time. We spent about 10 minutes in line until we got up to the attendant. She took our passports and said she would keep them until the end of the cruise because we were not US citizens. No problem, she gave us a receipt for them.

We walked through and received our Sail N’ Sign cards, which are your onboard spending cards (no cash is accepted anywhere on the ship) and also act as your cabin keys. We had our photo taken very quickly and then made our way up the stairs to the ship. We went right up to our cabin, number 9265 on the Lido deck. It was very clean and quite spacious as far as ship cabins go. We had a little balcony, which was very nice as well.

Our luggage had not arrived, so we went for a buffet lunch at the South Beach restaurant. We then decided to tour the ship. Our luggage arrived in our room by about 4:30.

The Triumph:

This is a spectacular ship. We purposely went looking for water-stained carpets and found that the Riviera deck hallways needed to have the carpet replaced, but it was not THAT bad. There was also no smell anywhere on the ship. It was beautiful.

The water slide was a BLAST! The decks were always clean and there was always someone working on something (ie: touching up paint, washing windows, etc.)

Our cabin steward was very attentive and did a great job. The towel animals were very cute and the chocolates on the pillow were my 4 year old’s favourite treat!

We had a beautiful table on the lower level of the London Dining Room (table #110) which had a gorgeous view of the ocean. We lucked out in that it was a table for 12, but we were the only family at the table!

The food was quite good, with quite a bit of variety. Always served hot and fresh. Our waiter, Jaco, was incredible, as was his associate, William. By the second night, they both knew the boys’ names and had chocolate milk waiting for them each night. Each night, the waiters did a little show before dessert, which was fun. They work extremely hard to keep the guests happy.

We tried all of the different food options for lunch….Chinese, deli, pizza and the grill for hot dogs and hamburgers. There was something there for everyone.

The pools were clean and just the right temperature. The hot tubs were nice…a little crowded at times, but that’s to be expected with over 2,000 passengers on board.

Camp Carnival:

The children’s’ program was INDESCRIBABLE! My kids never wanted to leave when it was time to pick them up and BEGGED to go back! They did arts and crafts, Playstation, movies, games, dancing, and much, much more. There were times set aside where parents attended and played with the kids. There is not enough room to tell you how wonderful this program was. Very secure and the staff is excellent with children.

Entertainment:

The shows were very good. The Magic Show was by far the best…how the heck did they do all that stuff?!! The dancers were very good too.

John, our cruise director was funny and made us feel like family. The bedtime story, which involved the guests was absolutely hilarious and with guests on board with names like “Willy Banger” and “Dick Wooden”, how could the comedy not be good?!

Weeeeeeeee Jimmy was priceless. He kept everyone laughing all the time.

There were bars for everyone….quiet, karioke, jazz, piano, dance and much much more.

Bingo was fun, the Casino was fun and the shopping was great.

Excursions:

We chose not to purchase any of the excursions through the ship as they were WAAAAY too expensive.

In Cozumel, we took a taxi to Chankunaab National Park. It cost $10.00 to get there and $10.00 for the adults to get in. It was beautiful and if you want to, you can swim with the dolphins. There was a little lagoon-like place on the beach for the kids and we had a lot of fun there.

In Grand Cayman, we took a taxi to Seven Mile Beach. We chose the beach in front of the Holiday Inn, as per Jaco, our waiter’s recommendation. We had fun there too, but, in my opinion, the beach is nothing compared to Cuba or even Punta Cana.

In Ocho Rios, we chose to just stay on the ship. Our kids were too little to enjoy climbing Dunns River Falls and it was nice to have the ship to ourselves for the day.

Disembarkation:

Quick, easy and efficient. No problems whatsoever.

Our flight home was not until 7:30 pm, so we decided to do a tour in Miami. We picked “Parrot Jungle” and were so glad that we did. The kids got to feed the birds, we saw a serpent show, a bird show, humungous tortoises and monkeys and alligators too. The tour guide got us to the airport by 1:30 and the waiting began. I highly recommend doing anything in your power not to get a late flight. Sitting at the Miami Airport for 6 hours was pure hell. Not the way to end such a perfect vacation.

Overall:

I wish there was something negative that I could say so that it doesn’t look like I’m lying. This was truly the trip of a lifetime and I would recommend it to singles, families, couples young and old. It was simply perfect.

If you have any questions or concerns about this ship, please email me and I will answer whatever I can. Dawnbelmonte@hotmail.com