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Brad

Age: 24
Occupation: Automotive
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Triumph
Sailing Date: May 21st, 2005
Itinerary: Eastern Caribbean

VACATION TIME
Our cruise date was on May, 21 2005. I went with my fiancée Emily and our two friends Jason and Ania. We left Michigan from Metro Airport on a 9:05 flight and flew into Ft. Lauderdale around midnight. The flight started off badly when there was about 10 more carry on bags then there was room for. THANKS RIVIERA!!! Our flight stewardess was very lazy and didn’t help the bag problem much. We had a shuttle guy waiting for us at the luggage pickup n Ft. Lauderdale with our name on a sign. He took the four of us to The Port of Miami which ended up being about an hour drive because of an accident on the freeway. We arrived at our hotel around 1:30 AM and went to bed. I woke up the next morning around 7:30AM and looked out the window. Ah! Beautiful palm trees and two cruise ships in the far distance one had the large red wing and I knew it was ours. I called Jason and we walked around the port as the girls got ready. The Port was nice and looked very clean but we were quickly distracted by the amount of homeless people y the harbor. As soon as we crossed the street from the hotel we were approached by a scary guy who said and I quote “I’m not a scum bag of anything but I need 84 cents more to get on the bus”. We did a quick lap and decided to return to the safety of our hotel. On a side note I am 6’3” and weigh over 300Lbs and was still was happy to get back to the safety of our hotel. We picked up the girls and after a wet breakfast (Emily spilled her water twice) we decided to look for some last minute supplies for the cruise. We found a convenient store and purchased some 2 liters of pop and some water for the trip.

GETTING ON THE SHIP / OUR ROOM
Time to go! We checked out of the hotel and took two taxis to the boat. When we pulled up the carnival workers were quick to open our door and help us with our luggage they put them on metal skids and told us where to go. We were part of the Skippers Club which was very cool for getting on the ship. We walked in the building and a greeter escorted us into a nice room with where we sat down with another carnival worker and got all of our custom stuff done(sign 2 papers and that’s about all). We were then allowed to wait in there for customs to clear Carnival to start boarding. After about 15 minutes we were escorted threw the security checkpoint and past the long line of people and upstairs so we could wait to get on the boat. It only took us about a half hour before we were allowed to board the ship. The only bad thing about the nice Skippers Club was that the camera person was not set up to take our picture as we got on the boat. We walked across the ramp and walked into the main lobby located on the 3rd floor of the ship. We were greeted by a worker at the door. He took our sail and sign card that we were given in the Skippers Club room. He took a quick picture of us for the security checkpoints and handed the cards back. The sail and sign cards are used every time you get on of off the ship and are also the only thing you need to buy anything on the ship. We took the elevator up to the 7th floor (Empress Deck) where our balcony suites were located so we were told we could drop off our carry on and explore the ship. Our room doors were open and they were just about finished being cleaned up. The rooms were wonderful. They have marble tile as you walk in and nice marble tops on every surface. Our balcony was very nice it had 3 chairs and a small table. We also had a nice setting area with a couch and a table. Before you enter into the bathroom you go into the make up area which has a large counter top, plenty of drawers, a chair, and several mirrors. Emily loved it as she had lots of room to put all her makeup stuff. The bathroom was also very nice. It had a shower with a Jacuzzi tub and plenty of room to move around. The bathroom also has shampoo and body wash in a nice dispenser on the shower wall.

LUNCH
After putting our bags the room we did a little exploring and decided to get lunch. We went into the buffet located on the Lido Deck, and I went to the Coney Island. The Hamburgers and hotdogs were great. The girls got pizza for the 24 hour pizzeria and it was pretty good as well. Now for anyone reading this who is a Seinfeld fan will understand what I’m about to say. During our cruise we had came up with names for the guy who worked at the pizzeria and the guy who worked at the Coney Island. It was like the Soup Nazi Episode of Seinfeld the guys who worked there were just like the soup Nazi (burger Nazi and Pizza Nazi). We felt like we had to stay in a single file line and when it was our turn we had to be like. “One burger and fries please”, and then move down the line without laughing or saying anything or he would say no burger for you. The burger Nazi gave me a burger and I said “can I have some fries”? He reached in hands in the fry tray and tossed them on my plate. Then one time we were waiting for pizza and a young kid in front of us who could barely see over the counter asked for 2 slices of mushroom pizza and the guy in a mean voice (like the soup Nazi) said “Only Pepperoni and cheese, special order, come back in 10 minutes” the kid looked like he was going cry and said “ok I’ll have Pepperoni”. Both of them were very rude most of the time and we never knew what to expect when we went to lunch. If they were in a good mood we would go tell our friends in a joking manor that they should go get something because he’s in a good mood today.

SAFETY
After exploring the ship after lunch and sitting on our balcony for a while it was announced over the loud that we would do the life jacket thing around 3:45 and the ship would said about 4:30. The life jacket thing was stupid they call the letter on the life jacket located in our room end table drawer and tell you to go to the 4th floor and stand in a line shoulder to shoulder in front you designated life boat with your life jacket on. They have a person show you how it should be fastened. It was hot wearing the life jacket and basically a waste of time. It would be like if every time you flew you had to meet next to the airplane and put on the mask and hold you seat cushion in you hands while the stewardess showed you how it should be held.

FORMAL DINNERS
At dinner time we decided to go to the formal dining room located in the upper level of the Paris Dining room. Everyone was wearing shorts because most of the luggage had not been delivered to the rooms yet. (Note, it is on the forth floor in the back of the ship, but the get there from the fourth floor you have to go up to five and them back down). The dinning room was very nice and our waiter was pretty good. I had the New York Strip Steak and Baked Potato. The waiter and his assistant were very close and always filled up my water and made sure everything was ok. Jason was more into trying new foods and enjoyed the menu more then us but we were happy with the food as well, but we just kept to basic foods. The nights we ate there except for the first one we had to ask if they had any steak as it was not on the menu. They always had some kind of steak available. I just wonder why they don’t put it on the menu if they have it. The deserts were good but very small so order more then one if you’re not a health nut. The waiters put on a show every night and it was so funny to watch. (THE KETCHUP SONG RULES!!) We enjoyed the formal nights it was nice to get all dressed up for a change. I was upset about the whole dressing up thing before we went as I thought who dresses up on vacation I wanted to wear shorts and sandals but I soon realized it was a nice change to get dressed up. I had lots of fun. If you don’t want to dress up or change out of your bathing suit there is lots of other options. There were 2 formal nights the first one was Sunday night for the captain’s party we had early seating so we were to meet in Club Rio located on the 5th floor. On the way to the party they have several professional photo areas set up where with carnival ship backgrounds, beach backgrounds, a piano you could pose on, and a few basic backgrounds. They have professional photographers who take your pictures. At each background we went to the photographer took about 3 shots. The pictures were all displayed the next day where you can buy them if you like the way they turned out. Ours were great! They cost about the same as they would normally cost if you got them professionally done. The Captain Party was nothing special. All that happens is the captain goes on the stage and announces he head staff who run the boat. Even though it’s boring I would highly suggest you go as the drinks were free. Jason and I had at least 6 drinks each. They were strong and they had everything from screwdrivers to martinis. Needless to say the party was a little better with free drinks.

RELAXING BY THE POOLS
It was so relaxing just laying around on a chair and soaking up the sun. Use lots of sun block as the first day we laid out for around 4 hours and got badly burned. The pools were nice and cool and the hot tubs felt nice. The only thing I didn’t like was the fact that they closed them so early. We were hoping we could relax in the hot tubs at 1:00 AM if we wanted to, but every night they were closed off. The chairs were not too hard to get even thought everyone saves a seat. I don’t blame them, I wanted the best seat I could find, Emily and I switched 3 times until we were happy. We were able to find shade everyday since we got burned so badly the first day.

THE SHOWS / CASINO
The theater on the ship was very nice. We loved the shows a lot it was like being on Broadway. The magic show was very cool and we ended up going to the second adult show at midnight. (The adult show was short and really had no reason to be for adults except they swore a little bit and the girl’s outfits were a little more revealing.). The comedy show was excellent I loved how the comedian made fun of the audience but only because I was hidden I the back. We spend a little time each day in the casino. I played the slots and loss, and Jason and Ania played the tables and broke even. (A.k.a. lost what they planned on loosing). Emily stuck to the 2 cent slots.

SAN JUAN / ST. THOMAS / ST. MAARTEN
We arrived at San Juan earlier then we expected. The captain had the ship at full steam! It was rainy when we arrived. Getting off the boat was easy and there were more free drinks in the port. We didn’t get to see the best parts of San Juan as we ended up walking around the dirty streets full of trash. I swear every 5 feet was a pile of trash. We went into a few souvenir stores but they were all packed and smell very musty. We ended up going to Senor Frogs and luckily walked right in before the crowds got bad. I loved Senor Frogs but some advice is to drink before you go. I spent $50 on myself. Jason was smart as he snuck his Jack Daniels on the ship and got drunk before we went to Senor Frogs. Gotta love Jack! That’s weird I lost my money and never even got drunk that seams like it’s reversed. Usually you loose your money because when drunk.

St. Thomas was beautiful we went to Coki Beach and did some snorkeling. Then we spent the rest of the day at Megan’s Bay. We loved both beaches, if your looking for a big private beach then Megan’s Bay is best for you, and if you don’t mind a smaller beach but love to snorkel go to Coki Beach for the best snorkeling I have ever seen. Another thing we forgot to think about was taxi cost. It was $7 per person no matter where we went. It added up after a while, but what can you do?

St. Maarten was just as nice as St. Thomas. We went to Dawn Beach and Orient Beach. Dawn Beach was very nice it had some nice areas to snorkel and had a beautiful beach. Orient beach, what can I say. Jason and I were looking forward to going here to see the sights (if you know what I mean). Let me just say we saw some sights, unfortunately a lot of the sights were older people, but there were a few younger sights that made it worth it. It was a cool beach and we had fun listening to the people selling chairs and umbrellas. They were almost fighting with each other to get our business. We got our guy down to around $7 per chair and it came with 2 free drinks and bathroom use. It seamed like the day wasn’t long enough we wanted to see so much more but the taxi fees and the sunburn was killing us.

Debarkation
We had a late flight out of Ft. Lauderdale at 5:00 PM so we were in no hurry to get off the boat we were able to say in are rooms until almost 10:00 AM. This is when it would be nice if they let the Skippers Club people get off as easy as we got on. We stood in a long snaking line for about an hour and it would be nice if the AIR was on. At the end of our line we found out it was all so that some guy with a gun could stamp a piece of paper and say have a nice day. My biggest regret about the trip is that it’s over. We had a lot of fun and can’t wait to go back!