My husband and I are frequent cruisers but had never been on a Carnival Cruise. We had planned to visit NOLA for 4 day stay and the Triumph just happened to fit in as an addition to our NOLA visit. We were a little skeptical because of some of the reviews but felt that we would be open minded and try it. OMG! We had the best time! Yes, the ship needs some upgrading which they will be getting. Our stateroom was on Empress and had a balcony. While the bathroom REALLY needed an overhaul, and the balcony showed signs of rust, the positives outweighed the negatives. Our room steward ( T) introduced himself to us, wrote down some info to make our stay better and after getting our names, called us by our names each and every time he saw us. Our stateroom was certainly bigger than anything I had on prior cruises. So much closet and drawer space...especially compared to NCL Breakaway and Getaway. Personally I loved the dining room decor and the general decor of the ship. The other area I saw a need to upgrade was the pool and walking around the decks there were definite signs of age.

We had late seating in the dining room. Our wait staff, Jorge, Mark and Wayan were attentive and easy to deal with. They also took note of our names and used them whenever they saw us. We loved the seaday brunch. My husband loved the steak and eggs! I was a fan of their yogurt parfait with granola. Both were delicious. There had been many posts about the quality of the MDR food. We had no complaints about anything we ate. At one point, when we stopped by the buffet my husband asked if they had any chocolate chip cookies because he didn't see any. Within minutes, the server brought him a plate of cookies. He was in heaven! Have to give a shout out to the deli and Guys hamburgers! They were both delicious.

The entertainment was incredible. This was not the fancy show of NCL, but a show made up of singing and dancing and on one night a magician. The Mardi Gras show on the last night was amazing! Simon London, the cruise director, was probably the most involved CD I had ever seen. He was involved in everything that was going on from making announcements, running games and even folding shirts and taking money for the Groove for St. Jude charity dance. He was approachable and always took the time to talk to people that came up to him. We didn't go into the casino due to the smoke, but we did enjoy the piano bar with Patrick...It was a lot of fun and we will probably never think of certain songs in the same way! Read more