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Carnival Cruise Line

MS Carnival Triumph

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Reviewed by: S. Stoker
# previous cruises: 1
Date of Trip: February 21, 2004
Itinerary: Caribbean - Western

Think lines of 15-20 minutes as the norm, mediocre food and service (Circus Circus buffets, only poorer service). Las Vegas entertainment--think Las Vegas High School. It is clear that for the level of service that one is led to believe exists, you will need to search out a higher level of cruise line. I would insist on a cruise line that has a customer service operation that is readily available and responsive beyond sending form letters of acknowledgement. If you will note, Carnival Cruises does not prominently list their customer service phone number on their literature or web site. When I did track down a phone number, I was on hold for some 15 minutes (surprise).

Pools were crowded, not really set up for adults. Bars by the pools had very poor service, oftentimes waits of 15-20 minutes. We liked the cigar bar. Casino was nice.

Breakfast and lunch food quality was on par of a Circus Circus Casino $1.99 buffet. The service would be better at Circus Circus. At the sit-down offerings, service was slow and indifferent. One day we waited 40 minutes for breakfast. As we had an appointment to make, we finally asked for a cup of coffee to go. The maitre'd merely shrugged at the slow service, and indicated they don't do coffee to go. Food was sometimes cold and dry from too long under heat lamps. A second cup of coffee or juice was the exception, as servers didn't return after delivering food or just didn't return after requests. Orders were in error or forgotten, but again servers didn't return so orders went uncorrected. A local coffee shop on main street would never survive with service like that.

Dinner was also slow and indifferent. Yes, we did arrive timely for our 8:00 pm sitting. And in fairness, others indicated their wait staff and service were excellent. At our table, seldom were drinks refilled, and we poured our own wine as no one bothered to come by. It wasn't unusual for our main course to arrive at about the time others were receiving their desserts and the staff was beginning their entertainment for the evening. Cold prime rib with coagulated au jus-yummy. Why didn't I send it back? One, it was already late, and two, our server wasn't to be found. Our dessert was offered as the staff was resetting surrounding tables for the next day. Only once, all week, did our server return to ask how our meal was, and that was at the end of the meal. When I did make mention to the purser about the service, the maitre.d and our server both acknowledged our concerns by scolding us for complaining.

I will say the ship itself is a marvel. Our room was enjoyable, and steward was excellent.

Cruise staff was indifferent. Entertainment was generally pretty poor. As I said earlier, Las Vegas...High School.

The work out area could be quite nice. Unfortunately, the equipment was dirty, a number of pieces of equipment were broken, and there were no staff available in the work out area. The manager sniffed that the equipment was .checked and cleaned daily. During a subsequent walk through with her, she acknowledged the equipment was getting old, observed several pieces which weren't working, a quick wipe with a towel showed the grim (imagine what you couldn't see), and she acknowledged they were short staffed. But she assured me, that by next week the equipment would be repaired, cleaned, and they planned on having more staff.

Quite a wide variation, many retired, a good number of what someone referred to as "trailer trash". Our cruise had a convention of tattoo artists.