We started our day on Friday May 11,2007 in Philly. Four (4) of us drove to my son's house in New Jersey where ten ( 10 ) of us took a van service to the port of New York. The driver of the van was very professional & nice which made the drive a pleasure. He also was contracted to return on the 19th of May to pick us up & return us to my son's house which he did at the requested time. He explained on the trip in how we were to let him know our location when we disembarked. All went very well & I would highly recommend this company.

When we arrived at the dock there were plenty of porters to take our luggage & to direct us as where to go. When we entered the terminal the lines were long but the wait was not excessively long about 30 to 45 minutes until we were walking onto the ship. I found the organization better than what I encountered in Miami but not as efficient as New Orleans. All the staff I encountered was very nice & polite. I must say at this time if one of your ports is Tortola you need to make sure before you get to the counter that you have the immigration form completed the Carnival staff on the floor have them to give out. Once on the ship we went to our rooms as they were ready, 3 of us were on the promenade Deck & 1 of us was on the Upper Deck, we all had balcony rooms & they were or appeared a little larger than the one I had on the Triumph but maybe it was just the layout. My room was nicely decorated with the Bon Voyage package from the Ocean Players Club which was a lovely surprise. At this time I met my room steward Yovany & his assistant Ruwanto I requested that they open the barrier between my sister's & my balcony as we were in rooms side by side. He advised we had to go to the Purser's desk to put in the request & that then he could open it. Let me just say that they only open a limited number of these so if you want this done get to the Purser's desk the 1st day. The Purser told me that it would be opened the next morning & it was which made the balcony so much nicer being that open. The steward & his assistant were extremely friendly & kept our room in tiptop condition, every time we left they came in cleaned & straightened up, how wonderful. After dropping off our things we all went to the Lido deck to get a little lunch. It was a bit crowded but not so much we could not find a seat in a short period of time & the food was very good. Our 1st night at dinner we met our waiter Winnie, his assist.Ida & our bar server Kurniawan who all made our dinning experience each night a delight. Kurniawan was especially nice to my 8 yr.old granddaughter making her special little thinks with the straws & the umbrellas. I can not say enough about the service or the food which I thought was excellent considering the amount of meals they need to get out of the kitchen hot & they way they are requested. One night we went to Nick & Nora's which was good but not what I expected & I would not go again on any of the ships that offer this alternate dinning. I did not think it was worth the extra money of $30 plus cost of drinks & tip. Also the sommelier was annoying trying to get us to buy wine or drinks even after we had ordered. I only went to 2 shows the one was O.K. but the other one "Ticket to Ride" was very good. My group usually hung out in Frankie & Johnnies at night because of the band called "Music Boardwalk" the are excellent I would not hesitate to tell people to go & listen to them. I did not go to the talks as I have been to them on my last 2 cruises & they are pretty much the same just different ports. I did go to the Captain's party & it was very nice, Brett the CD was a hoot & I enjoyed him everytime I heard his little talks which I caught on the TV at night or when I was getting dressed. On the Lido deck one night there was a party &waiter Francisco was wonderful with my granddaughter, making her napkin bunnies & a napkin hat. The party was a lot of fun with music & dancing.

I was a little disappointed in San Juan because of the time we docked there was not much to do with kids, I think this is an O.K. port for adults that want to go out to party but not for kids. In St.Thomas we went to Coral World & Corki Beach on our own & had a great time. The beach was small but the kids wanted to stay there because it was next to Coral World which once you pay your fee they can go in & out all day. Also the place we ate had the best Jerk Chicken I ever tasted. It was called the "Mailman" & it was just in front of the beach. In Tortola we went to the dolphin swim on our own & had a great time. All in all the ports were great fun, on our way back to the ship in San Juan we did stop in the duty free shops for liquor & that was very interesting. They had little cups that you could taste different liquors out of & they did not care how many you drank as they said it was "an open bar"..LOL.. Made the stop worth it for us adults... Read more