Rob C.

Age: 25
Occupation: AutoCAD Drafter/ Soil Technician
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Triumph
Sailing Date: April 2nd, 2005
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

Ok!! This was the best experience I've ever had....ever. And Im Going through major cruise withdrawal. I'm ready to go on another. This was my first cruise along with my buddies first time and we weren't sure if there'd be a lot of a younger crowd on the ship, so we decided to go around late end of spring break. There was a nice mixture of younger kids...I didn't see all the younger kids (babies and elementary kids) like SOO many people post on here...but they're were quite a few 15 yrd olds. First off I read a lot of review on this board and i mean people, get your pants out of your butt and enjoy everything.

Service---We started out with telling our room steward to not even worry about cleaning our room for the first 3 days. He was very happy and we often just stood in hallway talking.
Dining room steward was also realllly nice...one night i only got a starter cause i was feeling sick, then next night he wanted me to try about 3 main meals and deserts and made sure i was full to the brim.

Also.....the guys that do the free wine tasting and the girl that gives out the credit cards near the casino...They are awesome!!! We saw them at the club one night and man they can party!
Ok, Ship experience. Everything was great. Our room was upgraded. We made friends with a bunch of people down our hall. Bartenders don't mind sparking up a conversation. Ship was clean. What else can you ask for. Since i was on vacation my friend and i made sure we drank a lot...sometimes too much because i didn't always remember the next day who i danced with or if I had break danced (past tense i guess) the night before. But then people would call out your name down the hall so i guess i met them. The clubs were nice, Hollywood is good area for meeting younger girls 18-30. Sometimes you wondered why 13 year olds were still dancing on the floor at 1 am. The piano bar is a very chill bar and good place to hang out.

One thing i stress is to go out and make friends with other people, couples whatever. We met sooo many people. I have to say though our main dining room table guests were the best! We sat at an 8 person table and everyone was cool. 4 guys and 4 girls total. We hung out with them all throughout the cruise having the time of our lives. It was everyone's first cruise by the way. We will definitely be keeping in touch with them for a long time.

Excursions- Ok i'm doing this with college kids in mind since all the reviews ive read are...."ewww the taxi driver was scary" and "I ordered an AppleTini and he gave me a BananaTwist". So here goes.

Cozumel: Awesome place. We went to Playa Mia Beach Resort and it is well worth the money if you actually plan on drinking. They have little contests there but we were focused on the open bar. If you go...say hey to Samuel for me. They were all nice and lets just say I had at least 8 tequila shots and 3 mixed drinks...my buddy swears its past the 10 mark on shots...don't remember. Ok, not soo good....I don't remember half the day.. just bits and pieces...jumping off pier (not allowed) taking home a big huge sea shell (not allowed, falling face first into sand several times (funny), Getting Samuel the bartender to take a shot with me (his was actually filled with water that tricky guy), Going back to ship trying to talk to a girl until she finally tells me i have sand all on my face (Made friends with her next day after she reminded me who she was). Well, we went back to ship to get more money, came out to pier and my friend who speaks Spanish asked a guy where we could go to get away from the tourists...he then got off work and took us in his beetle bug and took us waaaaaaaaaaaay out....we were driving through neighborhoods and stuff and we stopped by 2 bars looked like hole in the walls. Awesome time and i actually remember all of it. After Mexico...go up to the Lido deck cause they have a huge party there at night...congo lines....dancing till laaaaaaaaaaaaaate at night. This was a really fun day.

Grand Cayman- I'll start off with saying i did not drink one bit that day.. since it was the day after Mexico and tequila shots. So we just went snorkeling at 7 mile beach. Bus was i belive 4 bucks each way and the part of 7 mile we went to was free to get in. We did not book this or any of the other excursions through Carnival cause we were lazy. Snorkeling was about the same as down in south Florida....some tropical fish but not crazy. The water was nice though. Not much went on that day except recovering from the night before.

Ocho Rios Jamaica--we decided to go to Bob Marleys house and where he's buried with our dining room table guests. I've always like reggae and Bob Marley and this was just beyond words. 10X better than i thought it was going to be. You really learn a lot. We did this on our own and it cost us somewhere around 65-75 dollars for cab drive and excursion....cab guy sat and waited on us. Let me say that the drive was amazing!!! Really beautiful scenery. But Man!!! They drive crazy as heck!!!! I'm talking skidding around corners, in total we almost got in 3 wrecks. Very nuts, but man, the scenery!!

Just so everyone knows, I don't drink THAT much usually, but it was my 25th B-day and B-days last like 3 days I say. I think everyone knew that it was my b-day...getting it announced at 2 different clubs, dancing with everyone i could...people buying me drinks. Sorry for the older people reading this but i'm trying to put it in to a young guys perspective. If i had read something like this I would of signed up along time ago. Ohh and this is going to be a tradition for al the next cruises we go on. Myself, my buddy and the 2 guys at our dinner table, on the last night of the cruise we all got our bathrobes and walked around in them. Kind of crazy at times but chug down some drinks and you really don't care. People thought it was funny and a good idea and we tried recruiting some people...but we just did it for laughs. I'm telling you Bathrobe Parties Last night should be on itinerary.

All in all this experience is overwhelming and will be doing it again soon. We most likely will be doing it with our dinner table partners again. When you finally get off the boat and have to spread back out to different corners of US its really hard. Everybody was pretty much in tears and ill never forget how the big dude at our table from Rhode Island said he cried the night before because he was soo happy he met such cool, down to earth people. (I'm leaving names out for a reason folks) Now that's when you know you have had a good time, when you form tight bonds with people and hate leaving. Feel free to email me with questions or if you remember me and want to say hey.

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