I cruised aboard the Triumph on September 1, 2007 with my husband. We also travelled with another couple who also had a great time. We arrived at Miami Airport and after we collected our luggage it was easy to locate a Carnival rep. and ask where we could sign up to pay for the transportation to the pier. We were directed to the correct person and the $56 round trip charge for the 2 of us went onto our sail and sign card. We took a taxi from the pier on a previous cruise and that cost us $45 one way, so we saved a little money. We did hit a glitch when we got off the bus at the pier. For some reason we didn't get any stateroom tags to put on our luggage and when we contacted Carnival they told us that tags would be available on the pier. There are porters on the pier that move your luggage from the pier to a little cage for transport onto the ship. These porters make it very clear that a tip is required. I asked the porter for the tags and he requested that I wait a minute. He was so busy telling everyone, and I mean right down to the last person coming off another bus in a wheelchair, that tips are required, that he left us standing in the heat for about 15 minutes before telling me he had no tags! I was not happy and told him that I realized that his tips are important to him but he could have told me to go to another porter and ask for a couple of tags while he was soliciting tips. It took another 10 minutes for him to get the tags and get back to us. The line up for embarkation looked really long but moved very fast, taking about 10 minutes until we got to the check in clerk. All in all we were on board in about 25 minutes. We went up to the Lido deck for lunch and headed on down to our stateroom around 1:30 to find that it was ready. The luggage arrived soon afterward, followed by the lifeboat drill. Our cabin steward introduced himself to us and made sure we had everything we needed. We did have some problems with the hair dryer in the cabin. The hair dryers on this ship are the old type that are stuck on the wall. The newer Carnival ships have hair dryers in a drawer in the cabin. Anyway, this hair dryer had the hose broken in 2 places therefore no air reached the end to dry your hair. For pete's sake people, if you notice something, or you break something, tell them so they can fix it for the next person! The hair dryer was removed from the wall and went to the shop, but a substitute wasn't let behind. Luckily our friends had a hair dryer that I could borrow. On the way back to the stateroom the steward saw me and asked the problem. He said that if I didn't have the dryer back by the morning to call him and he would bring me a portable one he had in his cabin. That is going the extra mile if you ask me! We enjoyed our 6:15 dinner seating, and our waiters Ida and Art from Indonesia were great. They called us by name, had our preferred beverages waiting for us on the table and were concerned when we didn't clean our plates! This is the first cruise (out of 12) that I have seen the maitre'd working along side and bussing the tables in the Lido at breakfast. His name is Constantine and he was enthusiastic and helpful. As for shore excursions..Half Moon Cay is a small island for cruise ships. You need to tender here but it isn't done by the lifeboats, you tender in on rather large boats that stay at the island. In my opinion this is the nicest beach and the best water (except maybe for Honduras, which is another cruise). The beach loungers are free and if you want to rent a clam shell sun shade they cost $19 per day. Here is a tip: one person go to the clam shell and stay with it. The other person should get in the line up at the sports rental building located as soon as you come down the path from the ship. It is a beige building. The person in line watch where the other is going so you can locate them once you have your receipt. The cost for the clam shell goes on your sail and sign card. Once you have the receipt head down to the lifeguard and ask where the clam shell person is. The clam shell will not stay up without a piece of tubing that is located at the lifeguard station. A person will get the tubing and voila, you have your shade for the day. St Thomas was our next stop. This is great for shopping but after a few stores everything started to look the same to me. Take an open air taxi or a cab to town, it is too far and too hot to walk. It will cost $4 per person each way. In the afternoon we took the ship tour to Meagens Beach and Paradise Point. We paid $39 per person. I checked the price for a taxi listed on the board at Meagans Beach. The cost is $10 each way per person (minimum 2 people) to get back to the downtown core. It costs $3 per person entry fee to the beach. A chair will cost you $6. We did not rent a chair as there were many picnic tables available, and the time at the beach is limited to 2 hours while on this tour. Paradise Point can be reached from a cable car located outside the pier area. You get to the top and have 1/2 hour for a drink and photo shoot. The next stop was Puerto Rico. Our friends did not book a ship tour and were pleased to find there were a lot of guides offering tours for $15. Their tour took 2 hours and seemed to cover a lot of the sights in San Juan. We didn't take the tour as we have visited San Juan previously. There is a lot of construction in the waterfront area, but if you go about 2 - 3 blocks north of the water you will be in the shopping area. The fort will be on the right, up the hill if you are into that kind of thing. Grand Turk was okay, but not what I expected. The pier leads one into a small shopping area and MargaritaVille. There is a huge pool and booming music, not my cup of tea. There are a lot of free beach loungers but only a few clam shell shades. If you walk to the end of the beach there are some trees, if you need shade and the clam shells are all taken you might find some relief from the sun there. Beware, the water here is nice but the bottom is all bumpy so you can fall or twist your ankle getting into the water. I did not take in too much of the shipboard activities, but I did go to the comedienne, both the family show and the x-rated show. I found him very funny. Hubby and friends went to the show on the last night that had some of the ships guests in it and hubby said it was really very good. I also saw the magician as well as a performance of dance over the ages. We got back into Miami and had to wait for clearance, so we were able to get off the ship around 9:45 a.m. Our flight was for 1:35 p.m. so we had lots of time. Carnival had changed its disembarkation procedures since we cruised with them in January of 2007. Now you clear Customs in the hall after you get off the escalator and then go and get your luggage. Much better than getting the luggage first and then getting in another line to clear Customs. I found this crew to be the most friendly and upbeat of any Carnival ship that I have sailed on. I only hope that my next cruise on Carnival in January 2008 is as good as this one!