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Carnival Cruise Line

MS Carnival Triumph

Your Rating:
Reviewed by:Joseph De Francesco
# previous cruises: 5
Date of Trip: September 12, 1999
Itinerary: Canada/New England

The ship was only 3 months old, but appeared worn of 3 years because of huge passenger consumption: (1) my balcony room, though large, had piled carpet piling, the bed blanket was piled; and the rug in the corridors were gravely stained, dirty and piled; the balcony doors not remain open so you hear bangings all the time (versus sliding doors on Princess). (2) The grace period for dining room entrance is only 30 minutes, which is detestable. After that the doors are closed and you starve, for the buffet food can't sustain a flying fish. Dining room food was adequate for humans with no taste buds; the acoustics is deafening and not enjoyable to stay long; the decor of black, gold and twinkle skylights is uninspiring for a romantic dinner. The buffet food, consisting of hamburgers, cold cuts, yogurt, cheese, pizza, and roast beef became un-apetizing after two rounds; and closed most of the day. The pizzas were hyper-salted, like burying your kidney in a salt mine; the lemonade was a poor imitation of insipid sweet-and-sour water; and the decor of the buffet area--circles, squares and triangle murals in reds, yellows and golds--would hasten the need to go cold-blindness. (3) The ship is oddly laid out, causing many passengers to get lost and unable to find a straight-line way from one area to another even though the floor plan plainly indicates so. Overall, the ship is bizarre in decor and color, confusing to get around, contains a floor plan of a promenade deck, but doesn't really exits, barriers--be them bars, columns, chairs, odd-shape protrusions of areas--that puts to shame any automobile obstacle course. The ship is totally un-romantic, un-inspiring and un-enjoyable. The only excellent thing was the "Broadway" night show in the main theater: acoustic and performance was excellent. But if I wanted a Broadway show, I would go to the proper theatre and show--not to a cruise ship and suffer for 3 days less 1.5 hours because of the show.

Floor plan indicates Promenade Deck and labels it as Promenade deck. Go to deck, and find chairs, lounges, and enjoy back-and-forth walking--no around.

Lousy food, lousy buffet: you get what you pay for--cheap cruise, ergo, cheap food. And bring your own blood pressure measuring equipment !

My balcony cabin was large, but looked worn and had a subdued odor. The decor of copper and brass colors, and metal trimmings was just laughable and stupid. The shower/bathroom was large but empty of toiletries: no shower cap is available on board at all, soap was not readily replenished, and I had to use it as shampoo.

Excellent show by excellent performers with excellent acoustics and lighting. One hour of relief out of 48 daylights hours is not too bad. In-room television did provide cable movies for couch potatoes.

I used the sauna and steam rooms a few times, and they were comfortable and un-crowed. We did not do any ashore activities, other than shopping, since we only had 8 hours of leave before the ship departed. Our fear advised to remain close the ship, so we walked around Halifax. We didn't want to be bused somewhere for 3 hours for fear of losing our ability to walk.

The majority of the passengers would not be invited to my home for dinner. I believe they would prefer to have dinner in a jacuzzi with dirty feet and a can of beer in the left hand, and a can of beer in the right hand. During formal dinner nights, a majority of them were not properly dressed at all, as cordially requested. I'm not expecting a night-at-the-opera, but some attire civility, please.