We selected the Carnival Triumph to sail as we celebrate our 25th. Anniversary this year!

I sailed with my wife Beth and two great friends of ours, Joyce and Phil, who where first time cruisers.

We have previously sailed with Carnival on the Inspiration in 2001 and the Victory in 2002. We enjoyed the “Destiny Class” layout and size and decided to get a stateroom with a balcony for this special cruise.

I have read many cruise reviews prior to sailing to get some tips and ideas of what others found when they sailed previously on board. For those of you reading this review, I will say that what we liked may not be what you would care for as everybody will have their own way of rating their surroundings and some may be more critical than we were. Hopefully, you will find this information helpful in choosing a cruise ship to sail on.

Flight:

We flew from Michigan and arrived in Miami at 8:40 PM on Friday, a day prior to sailing. We booked a room at the Ramada Inn in Hialeah, Florida, which offers a free shuttle from the Miami airport to the motel and also a free shuttle to the Port of Miami on Saturday morning. The rates on Expedia for this motel were very reasonable, $68.00 per night, and I found out why. The management at this location is as poor as I have ever seen. If you have ever heard the saying, “Too many chiefs and not enough Indians”, you will get an idea of what it was like. Except it was one very rude chief (shift manager) and too few people to clean the rooms and attend to guest’s needs. Since we just needed a place to sleep we took the remaining room that was left, a very smoky smelling room with two double beds, while our confirmation stated a King – No Smoking room.

There was much chaos on Saturday morning as to who would be taken to the Port of Miami first. We had our friend’s sign us in the logbook the night before, but many people were told it was ”First come – First Served” on the van. Not so! We were fortunate to leave the Ramada from Hell by 10:15 for the Port of Miami and had a courteous driver, Tito. As there is no charge for this ride, we tipped Tito well as he was doing his best. As we had already booked the following Saturday night there as well to stay in Florida one more day, we would find out later that our first night was to be the best of the two days spent there!

Embarkation:

We arrived at the Port of Miami at 10:30AM and beat the crowds. We had a cabin class guarantee “TBA”, but did not know which stateroom was ours until we arrived at the Port. We were given the manifest and looked up our names and found that we were assigned to Room 8352, on the Veranda Deck, which was a TWO LEVEL UPGRADE from what we were guaranteed. We pre-registered our “Funpasses” ahead of time on Carnival’s web site on the Internet as well as completed the passes in the ticket book. This is a MUST to save time as Carnival then has all of the immigration and return flight information in their computers. We spent about 10 minutes in line until we got up to the security attendant. The carry-on bags were then run through a scanner and we walked through the metal detector and proceeded to the counter.

Our Passports were checked and then we were directed to pick up our “Sail N’ Sign” cards, which are your onboard spending cards (no cash is accepted anywhere on the ship except the casino) and also act as your cabin keys. After receiving our cards and having a security photo taken, we took a seat in the waiting lounge. I would say that it was about 11:15AM and we had completed the Embarkation process. Around 11:45AM groups of 25 people or so were allowed to start boarding the ship with the instructions that staterooms would not be accessible until 1:30PM and that we should proceed to the South Beach Club for lunch! As we proceeded to the gangplank, Carnival photographers will stop you for a photo just prior to boarding. We had Phil and Joyce join us in the picture, and it turned out so nice, that we purchased it the next day. There is a date and clock on the photo’s backdrop, which showed that we boarded the ship at 12:07PM!

The Triumph:

We went for a buffet lunch at the South Beach restaurant. We then decided to tour the ship.

This is a spectacular ship. The view of the Capitol Rotunda atrium is a beautiful sight as we boarded. There was a string trio playing as we walked towards the elevators. We decided to take a chance that we might get into our room so that we could drop off our carry-on bags

Stateroom # 8352

The room was already cleaned and ready for us. My wife Beth was most impressed with the balcony. It measures about 4 feet in depth and had 2 plastic sitting chairs and a small table for drinks. There is a tinted glass panel below the handrail so that you have an unobstructed view out your window and door. Carnival’s staterooms are roomy and well laid out. I believe our room was 180 square feet plus the 40 square foot balcony. Our friends Phil and Joyce had an ocean-view room, which measured the full 220 square feet.

TIP – I read about bringing a bungee cord to keep the door open at night. We used the cord one night and it was very pleasant to hear the waves breaking along side the ship and smell that fresh sea air!

There is ample closet space as well as several drawers. Our entire luggage was kept under our bed. One thing I enjoyed seeing is the two “twin” beds are pushed together to make a king size bed AND the bed is set up with king size sheets and blanket, as opposed to separate beds as was our experience on the Victory two years ago. It was especially nice since we were celebrating our 25th.

Our cabin steward Leo was most attentive and did a great job. The towel animals were very cute and the chocolates on the pillow were a welcome treat each night. There is an amenity basket in the bathroom that contained small sample size packets of tooth paste, skin lotion, Men’s and Women’s disposable BIC razors as well as dental floss. The shower had both shampoo and body wash gel dispensers. A hair dryer is mounted to the wall and has both 115V and 230V electric razor power jacks.

DINING on the Triumph

We had a nice booth on the lower level of the Paris Dining Room (table #425) which had a gorgeous view of the dining room. Carnival had placed the four of us together.

I have found that working with a reputable travel agency that specializes with cruises can make a big difference. We booked our cruise through Cruise Connections of Canada (1.800.661.WAVE) and have dealt with Mark Stortz for our past two cruises. Mark has been most professional and has always delivered on everything we discussed. Thank you Mark for putting it all together for us!


The food was quite good, with quite a bit of variety. Always served hot and fresh. Our waiter, Michael, was incredible, as was his associate, Violetta. By the second night, they both knew who wanted extra rolls and coffee. Each night, the waiters did a little show before dessert, which was fun. Our friend Phil, who rarely would get up and dance, was persuaded by Violetta to dance to “Raise the Roof”. They worked extremely hard to keep the guests happy.

We tried all of the different food options for lunch. Chinese, N.Y. Deli, pizza and the grill for hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled chicken and steak sandwiches with grilled onions. I must say that one of the best Rueben and Turkey & Swiss sandwiches I have ever had were the ones prepared at the N Y Deli. The Deli is open from 11AM to 11PM and two guys work that entire 12-hour shift every day. They do a GREAT JOB!

The South Beach Club had made to order omelets along with fresh fruit, eggs and the typical fare.
There is a charge for soft drinks and Beth and I found that we loved the mixture of 90% Ice Tea and 10% Lemonade, with a slice of lemon added! And the best thing is, it is FREE!

Lastly, the Soft Serve ice cream machines are a hit. There were three operating machines that had ice cream and one that had self-serve Chocolate and Vanilla yogurt. Yum-Yum!

Entertainment:

I must mention here that we encountered some very strong headwind of 50 knots and 12 to 15 foot swells for the first two days. Many people had bouts of seasickness. This was the most motion I have ever experienced on a cruise, but my wife and I were not affected with the pitching of the ship.

John Heald, our cruise director was funny and made us forget about the rough seas. The first night he brought eight passengers up on stage including Wanda and her husband “Beeiillll” from North Carolina. Throughout the entire cruise, overtime “Bill” heard John say “North Carolina”, he would jump three times, do the Mexican Hat Dance and then get down on one knee to propose his love to Wanda. While this may not sound that funny, when you see John play the “straight-man” on stage, you will be hurting from laughing. He is truly one of the legendary cruise directors and if you can sail on a ship he is on, I am sure you will be glad you did! The bedtime story, which also involved the guests, was absolutely hilarious and with guests on board like “Mary”, who tackled John down to the stage and then bounced on him, how could the comedy not be good? There were also four superb talents from the fellow passengers that did some first class singing!

The production shows were great. I really enjoyed “Century Café” with the music from each decade during the past century.

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

All of the shows were very good. The Magic Show with Kevin and Caruso was one of the best I have ever seen! The snowstorm at sea was something to see! The dancers were very good too.

Arrive a half-hour or so before the show starts to get a close seat on the Lobby Deck in the Rome Showroom. It fills up fast!

There was entertainment for everyone, quiet bars, Karioke, jazz, piano, dance and much more.