My Cruise Adventures

Triumph - The Ship

The Triumph is the largest Carnival ship we've sailed on. It is about ten years old, which is forever in Cruise Ship Years. I believe it has had one refurbishment but is in need of another. While the ship still looked good, there were problems. In our cabin, for instance, the shampoo dispenser didn't work, the cabin lights occasionally turned themselves off, and there was a dripping noise from the level above that we never did diagnose. I found out after this cruise that the ship is scheduled for dry dock in the fall of 2008, so it should be in much better shape after that.

The main problem I had with this ship was the layout. There were many bottlenecks in the walkways - especially on formal nights when the photographers were busy or when the shops were having sales outside the shops. Hopefully this has been rectified in their newer ships.

There was one thing on this cruise that stood out above all others we have had, and that was the art auction staff. We went to all the auctions (and bought quite a bit of art) and got to know the staff very well. They were incredibly competent, very friendly, and certainly a credit to both Park West Galleries and Carnival. There was one one-of-a-kind Peter Max painting, from his private collection, that we were interested in. The starting price was $9,500, but by the last auction we could have bought it for $8,000. Unfortunately, there was no way we could afford this. Someday maybe, but certainly not on this cruise.