carnival triumph 2011
Carnival Triumph Cruise, March 24-27, 2011
For my aunt Kari’s 50th birthday, we were invited on a 4 day cruise from New Orleans, LA to Cozumel, Mexico. Neither of us had ever been on a cruise and decided to give it a shot!
Day 1
We decided to fly into New Orleans a day early since I hadn’t been there since 1999 (on the Green Tortoise) and Pili had never been there. We flew down on Delta and connected through -where else?- Atlanta. When we arrived at the airport, we were instantly in vacation mode as the air was warmer and just smells different in the south. We took a taxi over to the beautiful Holiday Inn Chateau Lemoyne, which looked like anything but a Holiday Inn.
About half of our group of 15 were there already and we headed out for some food as soon as we checked in and changed into summer clothes. We found a place a few blocks away that had a great menu – including Alligator meat Po Boys! After lunch we took a walk down the world-famous Bourbon St. and then to the bank of the Mississippi river. I got a frozen White Russian, which wasn’t really as good as it sounds. We returned to the hotel and the rest of our group had arrived and were as hungry as we were so we went out to eat – again. This time, we hit up a place called Olde Nawlins Cookery. The food looked just as good as the other place, but we were too full to eat anything besides desert. From there, our entire group walked almost the full length of Bourbon St., which was coming to life by now. We stopped in a lot of the shops and went into a few bars here and there.
By the time it got dark, about half of our group headed back to the hotel and the other half of us went bar hopping on Bourbon St., which was now closed to cars and was packed. We just kind of tried to stay together as a group and went into whichever bar had some music someone wanted to hear. We strayed towards the bars with blues and jazz bands and avoided the ones with crappy cover bands. All the drinks come in plastic cups so you can take them from bar to bar, which helps. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name of a single bar we visited!
Day 2
Kari had booked us all on a tour of New Orleans for 9 AM the day of the cruise. Before that, a bunch of us wanted a big breakfast. We all met up at Cafe Le Monde, which while famous for their café au laits, doesn’t have a single breakfast item on their menu, so a group of us headed out for something a little more hardy. Turns out that finding a good breakfast place in the French Quarter was about as easy as finding an internet cafe in Kowloon. Eventually, we stumbled onto Johnny’s Po Boy, which seemed to fall out of heaven. It had just opened, was practically empty and had a HUGE breakfast menu. We all stuffed ourselves full of omelets, pancakes and breakfast sandwiches, then headed over to the tour bus, which was just a few blocks away.
The tour bus driver was a native of New Orleans and definitely loved his hometown – he talked the entire tour! I’ve been on a lot of tours and don’t ever remember someone talking non-stop for the entire tour. In any event, we certainly learned a lot about New Orleans. The one stop on the tour was a fifteen minute stop at a cemetery so that we could walk around and check out the above-ground graves. The rest of the tour went through about four different neighborhoods of New Orleans and the driver pointed out in many places how high the flood waters from Hurricane Katrina were. Even six years later, there are still lots of houses that have not been repaired. The tour wrapped up at 11 and we all headed back to the hotel to re-pack and check out.
We all took three huge Chevy Suburban taxis over to the cruise terminal, which was just five minutes away. The boarding process took a while, but was pretty well-planned. As soon as you arrived, they take your big suitcases and you keep your carry-ons. There was a huge line, but we were directed to get into line right near the door, which probably saved us about an hour. After going through the metal detectors, we waited in another line to check in. You give them your credit card in exchange for their “Sail & Sign” card, which is the on-board cashless system that all cruise lines use, as it makes it easier for you to spend. After that, we got a group picture then waited to board. Our boarding group was called about 15 minutes later.
Once aboard, we all headed right to the food. The buffet was open, but the lines were pretty long already. We had a quick lunch, then headed to our room where our suitcase was already waiting for us. We all met up on the Sun deck of our home for the next four days, the Carnival Triumph. We stood on the deck and watched as the Triumph made easy work of the Mississippi and did a 180 degree turn with its six bow thrusters. Soon, we were heading down the river and watching the city get further away…then closer…then further. Because the river snakes so much, you can still see the city hours after we left port. At one point, it looks like we were only five miles from the city, though we’d probably traveled 30 miles on the river or so.
After a while, we went and explored the ship, which is beautiful inside. It’s amazing to stand in the Triumph’s main atrium and see the four 10-story glass elevators knowing that it’s all floating down the Mississippi river. For this trip, we were assigned to the late seating in the Paris dining room. I got the lasagna, which is some of the best I’ve ever had. After dinner, a few of us went to the “Welcome Aboard” show in the main theater. I thought it was a kind of introduction to the ship and what to do, but it was just some cheesy dancing and singing so Pili and I left and explored the ship some more. Pili and I walked around deck 5, which has several bars and the casino, where I donated some money to Carnival.
Day 3
Our first full day at sea was spent exploring the ship and sun tanning up on the Lido deck. We also did a few things like Trivia and ping pong and watched some of the contests on the pool deck. We ate breakfast and lunch at the buffets on the Lido deck and back to Paris for dinner. We went to the gender competition in the Rome lounge, which was actually very funny. They split the room into men and women, and then men were asked questions for women and vice-versa, with some competitions on stage after that. Late night, we tried to go see a comedian, but the room was full, so we just killed some time in one of the bars, then went to see a magic show before bed.
Day 4
Saturday was our only port of call on the trip. We woke up, packed for the day and had an early breakfast on the Lido deck. For our only day in Cozumel, we booked a “dolphin experience” through Carnival. As soon as we got off the ship, we were driven about 10 minutes to Dolphinaris, a place built just for these types of excursions. Dolphinaris was a very nice place and very well-run. Our group was given some instructions, then suited up with a life vest and mask. Pretty soon, we were in the pools with the dolphins the instructor explained a little about what they do there and about the two dolphins that were in our pool. He showed us the commands to use with them and how to touch them. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it, but it was actually very cool! We got to hug, kiss and ride the dolphins, all while being photographed and filmed by the staff. After we had lunch there, we were welcomed into the photo shop to see our pictures and video. The prices were crazy! They wanted $70 for three -three!- pictures on a disc. They could see that we liked some of the pictures and started offering us a little more. Eventually we agreed to 10 pictures and the DVD for $100. I just think of it as a donation to the dolphins (who they claim are rescued) and hope that they see a little of our money. They did seem to be quite well cared for.
We swung back to the port and pick up my parents and grandmother who had been snorkeling and grabbed a taxi to go to Paradise Beach. The beach was one of about 10 similar mini-resorts along the coast, but seemed to be the nicest and newest. We swam in the ocean, drank, ate and walked. We met up with some other people in our group, then headed back to do some gift shopping before we got back on the ship. There is a small city of gift shops built up around the port, Puerto Maya. Our taxi driver told us that in the high season, Cozumel receives 25-30 cruise ships a week and their economy is almost 100% based on tourism. We were back on the ship at about 4:30, we we were now joined by the Carnival ‘Ecstasy’, Royal Caribbean’s ‘Radiance of the Seas’ and Celebrity’s ‘Century’ cruise ships.
That night, we were all too hungry to wait for the late seating at the Paris dining room, so we met up and had dinner on the Lido deck, which was not bad at all. Some people complain about the food on the cruise ship buffets, but every meal we had on the ship was good. That night, dad and I signed up for the blackjack tournament ($20 to enter, $500 prize) which we had to be in the casino at 9 PM. Before that, we went to the “gender competition” in the Rome lounge, which was actually very funny. They split the room into men and women, and then men were asked questions for women and vice-versa, with some competitions on stage after that. We went up to the casino and sat at a blackjack table right away with two other players. We were given $1,000 worth of chips to play with and one of the other players went “all in” right away. The lowest score to beat to be invited to the final table was $4,200, so I guess you needed to be a little more aggressive with the seven hands we were allowed to play to qualify. I did well enough, but only ended up with several hundred dollars in chips, dad did better, but neither of us hit $4,200. The guy that went all in ended up with something like $5,500 and qualified for the final table.
We went back to the regular blackjack tables for the rest of the night, only stopping to watch the final round of the blackjack tournament, where some player won $500 in chips. I made back most of the money I lost on the roulette table on Thursday and we went to bed.
Day 5
Heading home! We met up with my parents for breakfast in the Paris dining room at about 8:30. I left a little early because I’d signed up for Carnival’s “Behind the Fun” tour that started at 9. The “Behind the Fun” tour is a pretty thorough behind the scenes tour of the ship. We met up in the library where they told us about the tour and that we weren’t allowed to bring cameras, which two people tried to sneak in, anyway before they had a security guard frisk us with a wand at the start of the tour. The tour is limited to only 16 people per cruise, is always done on the last full day at sea and, according to Carnival, only about 1% of passengers get to do this tour.
The Behind the Fun Tour:
We started off walking out on the outside deck of level 4, where we had the muster drill on the first day. Shawn, our guide, explained a little more about the life boats and that there aren’t actually enough for everyone, but that there are also life rafts which can be launched and inflate automatically. The boats are tested every three months and the rafts every year. This walkway is also used by a lot of the crew to move about the ship in a non-guest area.
Next up, we went to the bow of deck 4, where guests used to be allowed to go and do silly things like stand on the railing and shout “I’m the king of the world!”. Shawn explained that this area is now off-limits to guests on most cruise ships and is now used as the crew deck, for when they are off hours. There were a few lounge chairs and two hot tubs and it felt very private. This is also the area where most of the crew would gather during an emergency.
Directly behind that is the crew lounge/bar. There were windows in the bar looking out onto the deck, but they were all closed from the outside with the storm plates, so it’s always pretty dark in there. There was also a small internet cafe in there for crew only; they also need to pay for internet access, but at a much lower rate than the guests. The bar was quite big and could probably hold 50 people or so. Being 9:30 AM, it wasn’t open yet, but I think Shawn said it is usually open from about 6 PM till 2 or 3 AM. Directly behind the crew bar is the back stage area of the Rome Lounge. We heard a woman talk about how they do their outfit changes during a show and how different it is to work on a ship when doing shows. Next, we walked up on stage and heard from the head sound and lighting guy who explained some of the complexities of doing lighting on a ship that is constantly moving.
From there, we descended all the way down to “Zero deck” and saw the crew gym and crew laundry room. “Zero deck” is also where most of the crew quarters are. From there, we descended even further to Deck B, (below deck A, which is below Zero deck). At this point, we were about 7 meters underwater. We could hears the waves splashing just like they were on the other side of the wall, but it was just the echoes we were hearing. Down here is where the guest laundry room is. The machines were the biggest laundry machines I’ve seen – four huge washers and seven huge dryers that you could easily climb into. The laundry room runs 24 hours a day. From there, we saw the folding room (all towels, pool towels, sheets, pillow cases and napkins are folded by machines), the pressing room (they can press a men’s jacket in about 10 seconds with a machine) and the laundry storage room.
Next, we walked up to deck A and saw the carpentry room where they have a machine shop and full set of tools to fix pretty much anything that needs fixing while at sea, the brig/jail (not used as often as one would think on a boat full of drunk people) and the morgue (used more often than one would think). From there, it was back up to Zero deck, which is the main deck of the ship for the crew. We went into another crew bar that was attached to the main crew dining room (there are five) and had a break. We all asked Shawn some questions, then went across the hall to another crew dining room that has food 24 hours a day in case a crew member needs to eat outside of normal meal hours. Off of this room was the training room and Shawn’s office. In the training room, the crew has access to several computers for their use that also have Rosetta Stone installed for the English-speaking crew to learn another language or the non-native English speakers to improve their English.
We went back across the hall and toured the crew galley, which is completely separate from the guest galleys. On the ship, there is a head chef with a team of about 20 who cook only for the crew. The head chef spoke with us for about five minutes. They are on a 27 day rotation for meals, so the crew usually goes about a month without repeating a meal, and they try to cater to all of the nationalities and tastes of the crew. From the galley, we walked through the officers dining room, which had menus and tablecloths and, I assume, waiters…
The main hallway of Zero deck runs almost the entire length of the ship and is called “I-95″ by the crew after the highway on the east coast of the US. We walked down I-95 to the medical center and talked to the nurse for a bit after walking a ways to the main loading dock. This is the area of the ship where all the guest’s luggage is loaded as well as all of the food, beverages and anything else brought on the ship. From here, we went into the engine control room. We weren’t allowed into the engine room due to safety restrictions, but the head engineer spoke to us for about 10 minutes and answered our questions. From this room, everything mechanical on the ship is controlled from the engines to the six diesel generators that power the ship to the tanks. The main water tank on the ship holds about 1,000,000 gallons and they can even make fresh water from sea water on longer cruises.
After this, we headed further back down I-95 to the meat room where the meat is thawed and organized for deliveries to the ship’s two galleys. Behind that was the walk in freezer, where we just spent a minute or so. The freezer was literally the size of about five or six staterooms! Here was stored every kind of meat, poultry and fish that is used on the ship. The Triumph has a full time butcher who job it is to purchase, cut, label, store and prepare the delivery of the meat for the various chefs who order it just like the would from a butcher at home. They sail with enough food for the cruise plus 30% additional extra for any emergencies in itinerary that may arise. Across the hallway was another refrigerated room which held equally obscene amounts of bottled beer and canned soda. There are beverage runners who constantly make trips from this room to Triumph’s 20 or so bars.
Next, we went up to Deck3 and entered the main galley, which sits in between the Paris and London dining rooms and is the reason that you can not walk from on end of the ship to the other on Deck 3, as the galley spans the entire width of the ship. We talked to the head chef and a few others about working in the kitchen. As you would guess, the proportions they cook are huge, but the chef claimed that every meat or chicken dish is cooked to order after the person orders it. All of the pastries are cooked aboard the ship, but the dinner breads are bought pre-made & frozen and are baked on board. They also shared with us that Carnivals’ signature desert, the warm chocolate melting cake has a whopping 1,400 calories per serving! 
From the galley, we took the elevators up to Deck 8 and walked all the way to the bow, where we entered the bridge (wheel house). We were greeted by Captain Angelo Los, who has been with Carnival for 24 years and only on the Triumph for 4 weeks. Captains have a typical contract of 4 months on/2 months off. We were allowed to explore anywhere on the bridge that we wanted to and talk to any of the officers. There are four officers in the bridge at all times. The most impressive thing we saw is that the ship is on auto pilot for about 80% of the cruise and that the ship can be steered from a small wheel about six inches in diameter or a little joystick.
We also noticed one of the best kept secrets on the Triumph and many other cruise ships and that is the open decks directly in front of and below the bridge on Decks 6 and 7. They are easily accessible from the hallways on those decks and were quite spacious, with lounge chairs. If you are looking for a quite spot on the ship to get some sun, this would be the place. Also, you can go out there during the cruise and get a completely unobstructed view of the ocean ahead of you, which you cant see from anywhere else on the ship. The fact that you’re about 80 feet above the water really gives an odd perspective to the movement of the ship as well. I asked Shawn if there was another way to visit the bridge besides this tour and he said they usually offer it to people on their 25th cruise with Carnival – not sure if he was joking or not!
After the bridge, we headed down to the Piano Bar for our “debriefing” where we got gift bags, mimosas and got to ask any other questions we had. The price for the 3 1/2 hour tour was $95, which I felt was worth it, but will probably keep most guests curious about the workings of the ship.
While I was on the tour, Pili and a few others went to the animal towel folding class, which they said was pretty fun. We met up at about 1 and went to lunch on the Lido deck. After lunch, we went to the pool and relaxed and saw the ice carving. On the last day of the cruise, I discovered the best “bang for your buck” drink on the Triumph – the Long Island Iced Tea. It was about $6 and was far stronger than anything else in that price range (some of the $14 drinks only had a shot of rum in them). We also took in the Newlywed game in the Rome lounge. For the sunset, our entire group of 15 met on the Lido deck, but it was too cloudy to see the sun, so I took everyone up to the bow on Deck 7, which they loved. We stopped by the Olympic bar for some drinks and sushi on our way to the Paris dining room for our last dinner. The meal was great, as usual, and at the end the waiters sang to us, which I guess is a well-known Carnival thing, but was a surprise to me. It was fun and didn’t have nearly the same feeling of the awkwardness from the waiters that are forced to sing “Happy Birthday” at Fridays or the Olive Garden.
After dinner, we headed back to pack and put our suitcase in the hallway for pickup. We noticed that our normal view of the ocean was replaced by…nothingness. We were in the middle of a huge cloud, well into the Mississippi river by now. We packed, then made our way up to the bow on Deck 7. Wow! This may have been one of the coolest moments of the cruise! We were just standing there on the bow, looking out at the ship’s bow surrounded by very dense fog. The ship’s fog horn was sounding every three minutes, but we couldn’t see another ship anywhere else – just the occasional channel markers on either side. We stood there for about 20 minutes, just taking in the very surreal scene, being this high above the water, moving at about 10 knots in a cloud. After that, we headed back to the room for bed. On the way back down to our deck, I stopped in the duty free shop and briefly considered buying the giant 18″ tall, three liter bottle of Bacardi that they were selling in the Duty Free shop. As our suitcase was 4 lbs overweight on the way down, I decided it probably wasn’t worth it this time around…
Day 6
In the morning, our suitcase was gone from the door and we went for breakfast on the Lido deck. We were in group #20 to leave the ship, which was just about at the tail end of the groups. We had a nice breakfast then just sat and talked as we waited to be called. The weather wasn’t as nice as the day we left and the rear pool was now covered by a glass roof. Immigration and customs took about an hour to get through. We decided to take the bus to the airport ($10 each) with my parents, while the rest of the group checked their luggage to be taken to the airport so they could tour the city while they waited for their flights.
Our flights home were good, we had to run in ATL to make the connection, which is always exciting. We made it, our suitcase – not so much. I talked to an Army medic, Rob, who was returning from Afghanistan after being there for 10 months. I felt kind of bad telling him that we were on a cruise while he was in the desert being shot at, but he said that it didn’t bother him and he likes what he does. He showed me some of the pictures on his laptop of life in Afghanistan and I got a whole different perspective of what’s going on over there right now.
We had a great time with Carnival and would probably do it again someday. Our first cruise was exactly what we expected and we really enjoyed ourselves!