Carnival Triumph Review
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The trouble began before we boarded. We were three individuals traveling together. Every time one of us logged into our cruise record to add information Carnival's system defaulted the payment information for all of us to the first person to log in. When we checked in for the cruise we had to go through the process of re-validating our credit card information. The second evening I attempted to buy wine for our table and was told my credit was declined. That was rather embarrassing. So, off to the Front Office to be told the same thing had happened again and that I needed to go get the credit card and again fill out the proper documentation. I couldn't simply go back to the cabin and get it as it was locked in the safe and on the Triumph the safes are coded to one cabin key which wasn't mine. This took another hour to resolve.
It was in the 40s in Galveston when we boarded and the ship wasn't much warmer. In our cabin we had a choice of no air or cold air. When I first board a ship I haven't been on I usually walk the ship starting aft on the Lido deck and work my way forward and down. I walked onto the Lido deck and was hit with the stench of rancid grease and cigarette smoke. Moving forward and down I was curious about the design of the ship. It has two MDRs with the London Dining Room amidships taking up decks 3 & 4. To go between the public spaces fore and aft you have to go through the dining room which may or may not be open or up one or two decks walk through the casino and then back down. The dining room itself was rather drab and the curtains were drawn over the windows not that there was anything to see as the windows looked directly at the lifeboats blocking any view or light.
The next disappointment was Carnival's "My Time Dining". Unlike most other cruise lines including several of Carnival's sister companies which take reservations this simply an opportunity to stand in line for up to 45 minutes waiting for a table. There are no reservations. The food, after waiting that long, was the worst I've ever been subjected to on a cruise. It was just short of being inedible. I've gotten better food and better service in a Denny's.
Cabin Review
Balcony
The cabins were quite dated. Ours was a balcony cabin on Deck 7 forward. It was slightly larger than many other cruise lines with adequate storage and a slightly bigger bathroom. You got hot cold and warm water at the same time making taking a shower a challenge. The fixtures and furniture were all dinged and showing their age. You had a choice of no air or cold air. There was more than once when we stepped out of the cabin we were confronted with the strong stench of sewage. We never did learn where that was coming from. We experienced the sewage smell one night at the entrance to the Rome Theater.