Review: Carnival Cruise Lines - Triumph - [-- -- , 2005]

[Net Reviews]

Review By:

Reviewer Comments:

CARNIVAL TRIUMPH

NEW YORK - ST. JOHN, N.B. - HALIFAX, N.S.

9:00am NYPST

10:00am Pre-check-in

11:00am Check-in

At check-in we noticed our seating arrangement for dinner was incorrect.
Cabin A was assigned to a table with Cabin C at early seating. Cabin B was
assigned to a different table at early seating. Note: Cabin A & B are
connector rooms with husband, wife & child, but not eating together. Cabin D
was assigned to late seating. Reservations were made in advance requesting
early seating & cross-booking of reservations to be seated at the same
table.

12:00pm

I questioned the staff at the check-in counter where we received the room
key/id cards. They stated they could do nothing & directed us to the Pursers
Office of the ship.

Once on board the ship I immediately went to the Pursers Office as directed.
While standing in line with several others with the same problem, the
Pursers Office staff became agitated & stated, "WE ARE NOT CHANGING ANYONES
DINNER RESERVATIONS..." I still waited in line to find out what to do. The
Pursers Office stated the Maitre D' would be at the Dining Hall at 1pm to
address any problems.

1:00pm

After an hour the Maitre D' arrived, I was first in line to speak with him.
Maitre D' Germinardo stated the reservations were made for 35 people, No
special requests were made to seat any persons together & Cabin D was listed
as requesting late seating.

I explained to the Maitre D', that our immediate traveling party was only
nine total. We had booked through a travel agency that apparently had a
total of 35 persons booked as a group for group rate. We were not
cross-booked with any of those persons & should not have been seated with
strangers. The Maitre D' stated nothing could be done at this time as the
cruise was full and the dining room was booked solid. He did allow Cabin D
to attend the early seating with the rest of our group but did not guarantee
we would be seated together.

We requested early seating for our traveling party Cabins A, B, C & D.
Apparently, Carnival did not take in to consideration any requests or
comments from our travel agent. And what is even more confusing, prior to
our cruise, we received confirmation of room assignments & seating
preference. Faxed confirmation was received from Carnival saying everything
was ok.

After the conversation with the Maitre D' I did not feel satisfied with his
reply. I contacted our travel agency to inform them of the situation &
request any possible assistance. I explained how the cruise ship did not
acknowledge any request or notes from the travel agency. I also briefed our
agent on the conversation with the Maitre D', and his negative attitude
towards making any changes to the dinning arrangements. The Maitre D'
appeared disgusted that I would be requesting changes to our dinning
assignments when no prior requests were listed in his computer. It appears
that Carnival Reservations & the TRIUMPH has a lack of communication.
Approximately fifty people were standing in line to talk to the Maitre D'
after me. While waiting for the Maitre D', one guest stated "...I asked for
late & they gave me early. I've never had Carnival get it right".

6:00pm

We arrived at the dinning hall early to again speak with the Maitre D'.
Maitre D' Drasko immediately reassigned us to a new table assignment for all
nine in our party at the same table. Our dinning room staff, Head Waiter
Tekin & Asst. Waitress Ramona were awesome.

The connector rooms worked very well until formal night. The connector rooms
had two doors with a single handle & deadbolt lock on each room. We propped
open the doors with rubber doorstops. My brother & I walked through the
connector door to wake my wife & daughter. Somehow the door closed & locked
automatically. Our keys were inside. First we paged our room steward
Joesella several times. Then we called the Pursers desk, they stated they
could make us a new key to enter the door. We would just need to come up and
get it. I told them that would be a problem as our clothes were in the
locked room, they said no problem we'll send someone down. Nearly an hour
passed, with no key. By this time my wife was dressed. We called and said she
would come get the key. The Pursers Desk seemed surprised, that the room
steward did not resolve the situation. They apologized & stated they could
not get in touch with him either. When my wife returned with the key, it did
not work.

Apparently, I locked the deadbolt. We called the Pursers Desk, they said
that someone from Security would need to come with the master key to unlock
the deadbolt. After they unlocked the deadbolt the key worked. We sent the
rest of our party to the formal dining night. We then were able to get
dressed & meet our party in the dining hall.

We tried to page our room steward Josella on another occasion as well. He
did not respond at that time either.

St. John, N.B. was a very small old town. When we exited the ship they
greeted guys with a Canadian flag pin, girls with a rose & children with a
small Canadian flag. At the cruise pier they set-up two large white tents
with tourist trap souvenirs. They had some major construction near the pier.
We walked downtown and enjoyed some of the local shops. I've never been in a
town where the people are so polite.

Halifax, N.S. is a city with lots to do. Again at the pier they had tourist
trap souvenirs. We walked down the boardwalk to the Maritime Museum, which
we all really enjoyed. Our party enjoyed several activities: the Alexander
Keith Brewery tour, the Harbour Hopper Tour (Amphibious Vehicle) of the
city, the Citadel & The Public Gardens. Everyone really enjoyed the Mall
area of the city near the University. It was very strenuous walking the city
as it is almost all uphill and very steep. Again, the people of the city
were very polite. As we departed the port a single bagpiper played.

St. John, N.B. had some major construction near the pier. Carnival should
have considered staying in port at Halifax, N.S. for two days until the
construction is complete.

We learned the TRIUMPH will be dry-docked in Oct/Nov of this year for major
repairs. The elevators on the ship took forever, would announce the wrong
floors & floor indicator lights didn't always work. In our rooms the bed
reading lights didn't work & when we tried to turn them on, they fell apart.

The air-conditioning system did not work properly in Cabins A & B, Cabins C&
D at 50% setting were colder. A ship staff member check the setting & said
they were at full open, but the average temperature was very uncomfortable.

In Cabin A, several places on the floor were so sunken & spongy they didn't
feel safe.

The pools were beautiful, but freezing & we could not use them. The hot tubs
were full of children trying to swim. Carnival should consider heating their
pools, if they're going to make northern runs.

The food was awesome.

The entertainment was quite an improvement from our last Carnival cruise.
Although, the music selection for the shows could have been better. I
mentioned to staff after the Magic Show that certain seats in the Rome
Lounge look backstage. They should consider blocking them off. The reply was
"you didn't have to look to hard did you?!?".

All children were required to wear a huge white one-inch plastic band with
the letter of his/her muster station. Our daughter said it was very
uncomfortable, it should be made out of something soft on the inside & made
smaller.

Our Dining room staff was awesome. Maitre D' Drasko, Head Waiter Tekin &
Asst. Waitress Ramona clearly went out of their way to make our vacation
exceptional.

Our vacation was dependent on spending our dining together, had we not been
able to do that, it would have ruined our vacation. We had family from
several state cruise together.
We were able to see some distant fireworks on July 2nd offshore. On the 4th
the Dining room staff performed a patriotic song & dance that was out of
this world. I was surprised that no on-board activities or shows were
holiday related.

Overall we had an enjoyable cruise, but it could have been much less
stressful.