This was our 2nd cruise on the Triumph out of New Orleans. They have made good upgrades since our first cruise onboard in February, 2010. We wanted a cruise to celebrate our 47th anniversary and chose this one. Our cabin steward Armon was great and kept our cabin clean and the ice bucket full. It seems that Carnival has has cut back on cabin stewards as all cruisers had to choose from morning or evening cabin make up. We chose morning and when we returned after breakfast out cabin was ready for us. I made a larger makeshift ice bucket, one which held more than one item and it was always full of ice for the beer, wine and soft drinks. Our dining room crew, Rocky, George and Ramon did a wonderful job of looking after us. We did enjoy talking to Ramesh, the maitre'd each time we were in the dining room. He took time to chat with us. Most of the meals were what we have become accustomed to on Carnival ships. The first time I ordered the prime rib it was 1/2 inch thick, cool and tough. I checked with Rocky on the last night to see if I could get a hot and tender prime rib dinner and he assured me I would. It came on a heated plate and was hot and tender. I was disappointed that it was only about 1/4 inch thick.

We did have 2 other disappointments. Carnival gave us 2 'gifts' for our anniversary. A $50 spa 'gift' and a voucher for a free 4 X 6 picture. My wife went to use the spa certificate and she was told she had to buy the $149 spa package to get $50 off. In other words the gift would have cost $99 or $127 Canadian. We opted to have our picture taken on elegant night and when we went to choose a proof we were told that those pictures did not qualify for the free picture. We mentioned both of these 'gifts' at breakfast and other cruisers could not believe Carnival would do that type of 'gift' to past guests. I have phoned Carnival and I might be able to get a bon voyage gift on our next sailing to placate us. To end on a positive note our balcony cabin and the crew were great. As usual we spent the majority of the time on our balcony enjoying listening to the ocean, reading and doing crosswords.