WHAT WE LIKED: Fantastic itinerary. All three great ports, lots to do. We also like the days at sea, and this itinerary had 3 full days at sea. Loved it. WHAT WE LIKED: Food. We had read a bit of back and forth here on the newsgroup about Carnival's cuisine. While we're certainly not gourmands, there was plenty to like about the Triumph's food and food service. Although I did hear some complaining about the relatively small size of the portions in the main dining rooms, it's doubtful that anyone went hungry on the Triumph. We took almost all breakfasts and dinners in the main dining room (Paris), and thought the food, presentation, and service were excellent. And the singing waiters kept it to one song per night - a good thing - we recall that the RCCL's singing waiters seemed to run a bit long.

WHAT WE LIKED: Entertainment. Great shows, great dance troupe, nice venue (Rome Lounge). And, of course, all the other entertainment on the ship from casino to piano bar to Lido deck reggae bands.
WHAT WE LIKED: Cabin with a balcony. Not sure what cabin grade we had .. my wife worked all that with the travel agent (mytravelco). But we were on 6, outside. What a difference the balcony makes!! While we had pre-cruise plans to order room service and eat breakfast on the balcony, we never did. But it was fantastic being able to walk out there whenever we wanted to. An unexpected benefit: the ability to leave the door open at night to the sound of the ocean - provided some sound masking for the late night doings in the Rome Lounge (directly below us). Also, my wife and daughter stayed up late one night watching the Margarita-sodden drunks stagger back up the pier at Cozumel - great fun apparently - prior to our midnight departure from Cozumel.

WHAT WE GOT USED TO: Colors. Wow. We had read about Carnival's decor, but were still frequently "floored." Who picked those colors? An avid stair climber, I'll never forget what was on the walls of the main stairwells, top to bottom: a smooth tan basketweave print paneling on the top, then a dark varnished wooden rail, then dark greenish/black marble tiles, then a brass "chair rail" sort of thing low on the wall, then a black and white carpet fabric hound's-tooth print along the bottom of the wall ... all leading down to the yellow/orange carpet in a pattern that I couldn't describe to the newsgroup in a hundred years. The Lido deck had an eyeball thing on the walls throughout, sort of the CBS eye everywhere. In the Rome Lounge, they had these small tables for drinks that were an incongruously bright brown and white marble design that we dubbed "faux-bovine." Oh well, we got used to it.

WHAT WE GOT USED TO: Photographers. Okay, we all know that the cruise ticket is just to get you aboard the ship so that the cruise lines (all of them) can upsell you a ton of other things. But, in most cases, if you don't throw money at the casino, or buy $10 bingo cards, or buy the aggressively-hawked "Video diary," or drop bucks for drinks in any of the (10?) bars on the ship ... then the cruise line's efforts to up the ante are relatively innocuous. BUT, the Carnival's photographers are EVERYWHERE. You can't get off the ship without them trying to corral you for a photo on the dock with the ship in the background. What, the ship looks different than it did in the last 2 ports? Carnival's photographers come real close to being obnoxious - almost like the taxi drivers in Jamaica. But, we got used to it.

WHAT WE DIDN'T LIKE: Smokers. Geez, Louise! We knew about the non-smoking Carnival Paradise and almost booked a cruise there ... so we have no one to blame but ourselves. But, we could get a better cabin on the Triumph and so we reasoned, "we live and work around smokers all the time, shouldn't be a big deal." Wrong. The Carnival seems to attract a higher percentage of smokers than exists in the general population, or so it seemed to us. And the rules that polite society seems to have adopted (either due to local laws or common courtesy), seem to be forgotten outside the 12 mile limit. So we had smokers standing and smoking (and gabbing) in the passageways outside staterooms, congregating en masse outside the dining rooms after meals, etc. We recall smoke so thick early one morning in the Rio Lounge waiting to debark in Cayman that we thought we we'd all die from instant second hand inhalation. I'm sure Carnival markets their cruise product broadly ... but smokers seem to be disproportionately represented in the number who hear the marketing message. Enough said ... our own fault. (For readers who are similarly put off by smokers, we will note that there was NO smoking in the formal dining rooms or in the evening entertainment - with the above caveat that leaving any of those locations after a meal or performance was a choking experience.)
WHAT WE DIDN'T LIKE: Room safes. Sounds like a small thing, but I think Carnival needs to go back to the vendor who sold them those room safes on the Triumph. You lock them by swiping your credit card through a slot on the door and unlock them the same way. (I should have been concerned by a note on the safe on embark day that said use a credit card - with a magnetic strip - instead of the Carnival's Sail and Sign card - also with a magnetic strip - to lock the safe. Using the Sail and Sign card would demagnetize the Sail and Sign card. Yes ... and it won't demagnetize my credit card?) All I know is that those things were extremely hard to get working. And after about the 3rd open/close sequence, I couldn't get the thing open. I waited THREE HOURS on two occasions for someone from the purser's desk to have "security" come and open my room safe for me. When that individual arrived (looking more like a deck hand than the uniformed security folks regularly visible in a couple places on the ship), he had a clipboard with a LONG list of other cabins he had to visit to unlock the safes. When the safes fail to open, they make a French-police-siren kind of tweedle. I heard LOTS of those sirens as I walked up and down the passageways that week. I certainly wasn't the only one with problems with the room safes. No fool I ... after the second 3 hour wait for someone to open my safe, I tried to shift to a safe deposit box at the Purser's desk instead. Guess what? None available ... all signed out by other passengers.

MISCELLANEOUS: Internet cafe was coming! We counted 11 workstations in a wing of the Oxford Bar when we boarded on 4/8. When we debarked on 4/15, there were notes affixed saying that the Internet Cafe was opening on 4/15. Someone at the Purser's desk speculated that they would rent for $.75 - $1.00 / minute - but I'll defer to last week's cruisers to report how the Internet Cafe workstations are priced.
MISCELLANEOUS: We bought a couple of the bar credit coupon books, (4 drinks for $15), in advance - based on threads here on the newsgroup. They were a good deal. My wife had a couple drinks from the bar and they save money. (No automatic 15 percent gratuity, if nothing else.)
MISCELLANEOUS: Passenger demographics. Part of the entertainment on the first day at sea was a "Game Show Trivia Contest" in the Rome Lounge, which featured a "Jeopardy-style buzz-when-you-know-the-answer" format. Most of the questions required the contestants to identify theme songs and sound effects from television shows and movies. The first two were from Bart Simpson and Wayne's World - and it was apparent that the audience (and contestants) were Bart aficionados. If that helps peg Carnival's target market .... I'm sure there were members of the Masterpiece Theater crowd aboard, but in significantly lesser numbers ... or else they were napping!
EXCURSIONS: We booked one excursion in one port through the ship (Cozumel), but managed the rest of our shore activities on our own (Cayman and Jamaica). The Carnival's "Cozumel horseback riding through the Mayan Frontier" excursion was lots of fun for my kids - although a bit pricey at $71 a person. We bought a Stingray City tour right off the dock at Cayman and had a great time for $25/person (significantly less than when booked through the ship). We arranged a private tour in advance in Ocho Rios, Jamaica with a gentlemen who was recommended here on the newsgroup and it was a DEAL. We were driven around Ocho Rios in a very clean and modern taxi by a gentleman whose hobby was natural medicine. Along with the customary running dialog on things about the island, he'd pull over to the side of the road to point out this or that plant and what Jamaican's used it for. Although we can't claim to know much about natural medicine, it was a great day. (A bit of learning about Cayman ... Most of the Stingray city tours depart at about 9:30AM local time. If you get off the ship at 8:30AM ship's time, that means you have about 2 hours to kill, given the one hour time difference. We walked about a half mile to the right along the coast line to Eden Rock - which had been mentioned by the Cruise Director in his pre-port briefing - and spent an hour snorkeling and getting used to the water and seeing LOTS of fish right off the shore in a very nice, free, area. Then strolled back to the pier in time for the 9:30 tour group departure.)

Final thoughts? Overall, Carnival was a great experience. We may try another line next, only to see how the different lines compare. Oh, and I wish the cruise lines didn't feel a need to grovel for our cruise evaluations. It's degrading. Both Carnival and RCCL strongly coach you on how to fill out the cruise evaluation sheets they ask you to complete prior to debarking. The Triumph's Cruise Director informed us that "Met my expectations" on the Carnival's cruise evaluation sheet really means "Just average," and of course nothing was "Just average" on the Triumph!! We were strongly encouraged to give everything on the ship the highest rating. Not a big deal, but if I was a Cruise Director I wouldn't want my cruisers leaving the ship remembering how I groveled the last time I spoke to them. Cruise lines, trust us to honestly evaluate your product.

PS, the above obviously represents the OPINIONS of one cruising family. I intend it to be a balanced review of our experiences and is offered as repayment for the many thoughtful reviews we read on this newsgroup while conducting pre-cruise research. If you happen to disagree with any of our opinions, your thoughts will certainly add to the body of experiences this newsgroup represents. I have a day job, however, and it is not my intent to initiate or participate in any debate my opinions may kick off. If for example, you find the Carnival's motif to die for, I'm happy for you. If any serious cruise researchers have questions that I might be able to answer, please address them directly to my Hotmail address. Thanks.