Background: This was my 4th cruise and my wife's 8th cruise but first for our kids.  We both love cruising as a vacation and plan on many more.  Hotel and Embark:  Stayed at Marriott hotel downtown Charleston.  Outside of hotel looked quite old but was very nice inside.  Rooms were large and had a good view.  Would recommend.  I booked it through priceline for a very cheap price being that it was memorial day wkd.  Ship was to leave at 10pm on memorial day with earliest boarding at 7pm.  I knew the ship was coming empty from Miami and had read that it gets to Charleston very early every time.  It arrived just after 12pm and you could board by 130pm which allowed people to trickle onboard throughout the whole afternoon.  This was good because of the size of terminal.Embarkation was not great and did not go well.  This was our first cruise out of the Charleston port.  The port terminal is very small compared to the Florida ones and cannot handle the amount of people for a ship.  I planned to keep car at hotel and use transport to port terminal.  Well, that didnt happen as the port authority closes down the streets near the terminal when a cruise ship is in port. Had to go get car and do the following:  You are directed down the street away from the port terminal where you go into a parking lot to pay for your weekly parking (80.00 dollars for 5 day cruise).  After that you leave the parking lot, make your way back up toward the terminal where you are to drop your luggage off with a porter.  Then you are to drive your vehical back down away from the termnal and into a large, enclosed storage building to park your car.  At that point, you are to board a charter bus that takes you about 100 yards up the road back toward the terminal.  ( I skipped this as I could walk that distance before the first person boarded).  The charter bus drops you off in a parking gravel area that is in front of the terminal where you are checked by port security.  After that, you board yet another, small bus that drives you to the terminal dock itself.  I asked why I couldnt just walk in and they said after 9/11 that they would not let anyone walk to the terminal or park near it.  You had to be checked outside, board a small bus, and be transported up to the dock.  I planned on carrying  luggage on but that was difficult due to this.  You are pretty much forced to check all luggage or you hold your suitcase in your lap on a bus.  Once at the dock, you were to go inside the terminal through the whole usual process.  I do appreciate the security but thought this was a bit much.  Took about 2 hours to get inside the small terminal and 15 minutes to check in and board ship.  Usually its the other way around.Ship:  I was excited about what this ship looked like after going through a refurb back in late 2008.  Outside of ship was very pretty.  I have cruised the Carnival Inspiration, which is a lot older ship, but had just gone through an extensive refurb. It looked brand new and very nice. The refurb done on the Triumph was NOT near what is being done on the older ships.  The carpet was the only noticeble change.  The rooms were never touched, no added serinty adult area or kids area, and no major changes to view.  The design was from the late 80's.  My wife asked me over and over what year the ship was built.  I kept telling her it was 1999 but she didnt believe me. The pool area had a couple of pools that were small squares.  I asked where the big pool was and was told the little one was it.  The older Carnival ships had a bigger pool area.  I came to the conclusion that this ship was caught in the middle.  Older ships getting massive refurbs done that look great and newer ships coming out with the new designs of the refurbs. There is a big movie screen that was added on the pool deck that was nice.Stateroom:  Upgraded to a balcony room.  Room was nice and roomy for two adults and two kids.  Beds were nice and comfortable.  The room did have a old 80's look to it and hadnt been refurb.  Bathroom was big but had old pink color to it.  Room steward was fantastic and best we have had on all our cruises.  Dining/Service:  Dining room service was not good unfortunately.  First night we were just ordering desert when the second seating was starting to come in.  It was taking them a lot of time and there seemed to be a lot of confusion.  We ate in dining room for breakfast and lunch on occassion and found similar service.  There seemed to be a lot of training going one and some arguements among the staff.  Pool deck and buffet food was pretty good, no real surprises.  The only problem was very long lines due to all of buffet food in one place instead of different stations which was a first for me also. One odd thing I noticed was that this had to be the dryest cruise in regards to alcohol served I have ever seen. Very few waiters on pool deck pushing you to buy drinks and even noticed one pool bar closed for a while.  Looking around dining room I noticed the same thing. Camp Carnival:  Kids club was run very well.  My kids really enjoyed the activites and we felt comfortable as time went on leaving them there.  They provide ship cell phones for you to carry where you could call them to check up or they can call you if they need you. Very nice.Enterntainment:  Good shows and a very good magic show in theather.  Music on pool deck was very loud, too loud.  Movies at night at pool deck was neat.  There was putt putt and a small basketball area that was cool.  Activities on the capers was limited also.  Even went to one activity and no one from carnival showed up.Shore Excursions:  Didnt do any and dont like doing them.  Always cheaper to do your own thing.  Shopped at Freeport in the new shopping area there.  Went to Free Cabbage Beach next to Atlantis in Nassau and did shopping there.Disembark:  Decided as usual to carry all our luggage off.  Well, that went about the same as Embark.  Down to 1st level where you waited in long line, then you had to carry your luggage down a flight of stairs to the 0 level to get off ship.  The problem was that the terminal is so small that it was causing a major backup on the stairs all at the front of ship. They were not allowing elevators to go to 0 either.  You could tell the carnival staff was not happy with the terminal size and was complaining about it verbally. Since you were exiting via the 0 level, you had to go to front of ship and down since the rest of that level is storage for the ship.Overall:  A cruise vacation is still the best way to go.  I will still sail with Carnival, but will probably stay away from the mid ships that were built around 10 years ago. Carnival is great for family and kids.  If just me and wife, I will go with Voyager size or bigger Royal Caribbean ships.   It was an odd cruise that felt like Carnival didn't put a lot into this sailing like the other sailings.  I think sailing out of Charleston is a great way to go though.  I have read that Charleston is planning on making a bigger terminal to attract more cruise lines which would be great.