Carnival Triumph Review
Rating by category
Additional details
This was my 3rd cruise as well as my 3rd with Carnival, and my first time sailing from New Orleans. Embarkation was without incident. We arrived in New Orleans too early to board the ship. So, while we waited for the previous guests to debark the ship, we took the time to take a short spin around Bourbon street and the French Quarter. Once we returned and park our vehicle, we joined a long line of other guests waiting to board the ship. Once in line, we were on board within 45 minutes. As soon as we stepped on the ship we set up our sail and sign accounts and proceeded to the excursion desk. (Yes many will tell you that you can save money by booking on shore, which may in fact be true, but after having a terrible experience with this procedure before, we now choose to book directly with our ship. It gives us a little more piece of mind.) That said, we booked our excursions and proceeded to our room. Though all the rooms were not completely ready, we asked one of the room stewards to see if ours was available, and it was. He let us go ahead and deposit our carry on items in our room. From here we found lunch on the Lido deck and commenced what amounted to an overall good vacation.
Food on this trip was not exactly on par for carnival. The dining room was wonderful, however, the buffets seemed to be substandard. The food at times was cold. Also, there seemed to always be some sort of malfunction with the drink machines and ice cream machines. By the end of the week, this got old.
Our cabins were excellent. In fact they were recommended to us by a carnival booking agent. We had two corner rooms all the way forward on the ship. These rooms do come with an obstructed view, but because of said obstruction, we booked them at interior cabins rates. And not to mention, this "obstruction" was a balcony railing that was immediately in front of our cabin. Granted, it was not a private balcony, and was opened to anyone who wanted to visit, but I rarely saw anyone other than those of us who had rooms close by who would take the effort to walk down the hall. Most people just went to the pool deck. So for us it was just the same. I used it one or twice to relax, but mostly I would stand there and take pictures as we arrived/left our ports of call. In fact, it yielded some of the best pictures I have ever taken.