A Week in paradise with 3000 of your closest Friends
By John Cushman
Not necessarily wanting to make the drive to Galveston at 5:00 AM the day of the cruise and getting there potentially late, we took off early the day before for a leisurely drive down. We had never been to Galveston before and wanted to take a look around, see the sights and check out the beautiful beach and ocean. I must admit it is a delightful town/city/island. Beautiful mansions from a previous era and a number of non-mansions that when restored reminded me of the “painted Ladies” of San Francisco. Even unrestored these houses had the potential to become beautiful places to live or summer with a little love and energy and not a small sum of money. I now know, however, why it never really caught on as a beach destination.
We spent the night at the Harbor House hotel right on the waterfront at Pier 21; a seemingly up scale area, if that is possible at a port. It was an ok hotel for the money, rooms were large and clean, newly up dated, and pretty much everything in the room worked including the free wifi. The free Continental breakfast, I thought, left a lot to be desired so if that is a draw for you look elsewhere.
It was a good thing though as that way we knew the frog legs were fresh. It was, I think, a little more difficult for the slightly older and infirm and the small children to wait for a period of time in the cold with no seating. There were, thankfully, vending machines bearing large signs that said “NO REFUNDS” which waited silently to dispense overpriced junk food for those who couldn’t wait until they got on board or felt that they might expire from extreme hunger in the next 30 minutes.
About ten minutes before 1:00PM they started lining up the 1:00PM reservations outside so everyone would be ready at the stroke of the hour to rush forward and plunk down their credit card for all the major purchases they would need to make on board. It is not a terribly difficult process since they already had everyone’s money for the cruise and personal information. At the stroke of 1:00 PM they opened the doors and we all surged forward either excited to get on the ship or out of the cold. Really didn’t matter much.
Carnival is rivaled only by Disney in crowd control, the queue, and the swiftness with which they processed the passengers and got them on board. The boarding process as the easiest of any large ship cruise line which we have been on. Our boarding time was 1:00PM and we were on board at 1:10PM and every single employee we came in contact was pleasant, polite, and helpful. Even the ground staff operating the queue and doing crowd control were very pleasant and polite. The 85 ear old security guard was the only one without a smile. I think he needed the cruise more than any of us. I was surprised when TSA took our water away and let my carry on booze through. At other ports we have never had an issue with water in sealed bottles. OK, so now I am just whining.
First impression of the Carnival Triumph was very positive. The decor was pleasant, it was clean, employees were friendly and helpful. The directions were pretty straight forward and as soon as we figured out which direction was forward and which was aft it took no time to find our cabin. Elevators were readily available and were not swamped with people so the wait was like a minute to ride to the deck where our cabin was. There were signs to let you know which side was odd numbered rooms and which was even so finding your cabin was pretty easy. Unlike many of their competitors Carnival was very easy to find your way around. There were not multiple stairs cases so when you got to your deck you always turn the same way. I became like home very quickly.
Our cabin was very roomy, clean, reasonably decorated in 1968 harvest orange, but, without the shag carpet. It was 4 person capable so there was plenty of room and lots of storage. The ceiling looked sort of like it had been restored after some sort of serious problem. All the outlets and lights (except one) worked. All the interior lights were on one switch so it was all on or all off. No over 50 lighting or partial lighting possible. If the reading light for her couch had worked it might have been different since they were individually switched. I would have thought someone would have noticed the parts missing from the light that were on top of the couch, but, it didn’t happen. There were three single outlets near the desk, but, that was it. Not unusual and we always carry multi plug adapters so it was adequate. The TV was maybe a 20” and had a tube (not a flat screen for you youngsters) and the dust behind it was so deep it was starting to drift on top of what I presume were the voltage converters. There was good reception and adequate channel selection for both kids and adults. There was no refrigerator and/or mini-bar in the room which was a first for us on a cruise.
Not that we have ever used the mini-bar, but, the refrigerator (for ice tea of course) is always nice. There is a wall mounted bottle opener in the bathroom which I do like and I’m sure is much less expensive than continually replacing the strike plate on the bathroom door. One look at the strike plate on the bathroom door will tell you where you open bottles on pretty much any cruise line. Interestingly all the horizontal surfaces (counter tops) were about 3 feet off the ground. I’m guessing designed for kids, but, a little odd for adults. The bathroom was shower only which was fine, was clean, had plenty of light, built in hair dryer, and didn’t smell like mildew (a bit plus). Surprisingly, there was a medicine cabinet that was more than large enough. I didn’t notice, but, my wife pointed out there are only the most basic amenities; a bar of soap and bulk generic shampoo and cream rinse (probably White Rain because it didn’t smell good enough to be Prell) and shower gel attached to the shower wall. Our cabin steward Dann came in and introduced himself within minutes of our entering the room. A very pleasant young man who did a very good job and had our names down since the introduction. Our cabin was always spotless even though a little worn. He left us a little animal made from towels every night which I’m sure the kids enjoyed. We kept them for the week and had our own little petting zoo by the end of the cruise.
We did a tour of the ship, front to back and top to bottom. Not much of an effort since this is a pretty small ship. As with any cruise you always want to have clear directions and personal knowledge of the most direct paths to the various dessert bars in case you are not yet diabetic. As you tour around these ships, whether the largest or the smallest in the fleet, you have to marvel at the Italian or Japanese engineering and construction. To create something this large out of steel which not only will float but will convey you to marvelous destinations world wide while relieving every passenger on board of all their cash and savings, and at the same time. Increasing their girth is something amazing. Sometimes as you travel around you come across things that make you scratch your head. We are on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean. We are being propelled toward Cozumel and the blazing speed of 24 knots, which is, I don’t know how fast, by several giant diesel engines burning fossil fuel and belching huge clouds of diesel exhaust and there is a card in the bathroom asking us to turn off the lights when leaving our cabin to save electricity; like Carnival is going to get an electric bill. Also they want us to adjust the thermostat so as not to waste energy, but, there isn’t a thermostat and the air conditioner seemed to run at the temperature of a blue norther. Probably would have been perfect in the summer, but, most of the days on this particular trip were cool. It was also posted to be sure and keep the door closed to save air conditioning. Ok, again makes sense in the summer, but, sometimes we had to go outside to thaw out. We pretty much always had to wear a jacket when indoors. The reason your dad always yells about closing the door because he isn’t air conditioning the entire neighborhood is because he pays the electric bill. I don’t know for sure, but I seriously doubt that running the air-conditioning increases the cost of operating a cruise ship, but, I certainly could be wrong.
Some how we managed to end up on the late seating for dinner. We attempted to change to “Your Time” dining, but, our request was denied. There was not enough space. It would seem to me if you have more people that want “Your Time” dining and less people who was the late seating (8:30PM) you would adjust your dining room spaces and accommodate your guests. By the second night about 50% of the late seating had found someplace else to dine as the dining room was about half full and decreased nightly. The dinning room staff was excellent, the service great, and they were able to personalize it some what. It was pretty evident these employees were very well trained and actually cared about their job. There was a lot of teamwork evident and everything flowed well. A couple of evenings the waiters entertained us with dancing, some in costumes up on the serving stations, to music like Gangnam Style. It was funny, well done, and went a long way toward showing why Carnival is the Fun Ship. Additionally, we went to brunch in the dining room at about 11:30 one morning. At the desk we gave them our cabin number and the young lady told us we would need to join a multi person table in process since she didn’t have any tables. It took us a minute to answer since there were at least 100 unoccupied tables that we could see. She did offer to let us wait for a private table if we wished. Might have been a staffing problem, but, there were several standing around visiting.
Dinner the first night, yes, that was the late seating at 8:15PM, was delightful. We were at a 4 top and our dinner companions were a lovely couple from Houston. The food was good, perhaps not 5 star, but, tasted good, was well presented, and was properly cooked and seasoned. Fortunately I had ordered two appetizers because the entree portions were a little small. The menus was a little short on soups and salads and about 1/2 the menu was dedicated to extra charge items. (Wines, cocktails, and better steaks and seafood) The dessert menu was adequate and the molten chocolate cake delicious. There were a couple of missteps, however. The Tiramisu was made of ice cream and was very marginal and the date and fig pudding was a piece of cake; tasted ok, but, just not what the menu had said it was. Maybe the chef is a Brit.
The sandwich bar served up probably the most pathetic excuse for a Ruben I have ever seen or tasted. Barely warm, no dressing, soggy to the point of being wet. I saw it go in a panini press, but, maybe it wasn’t turned on; no wait, there were stripes in the bread, but, the heat didn’t penetrate to the cheese or meat. The ham and cheese was also cold even after the panini press. In the food court the design is a little surprising. The traffic flow is impossible, the maximum number of tables have been crammed in and at odd angles and the drink stations are placed in the middle of the isles. There are numerous choke points and passing through to different parts of the food court can be difficult to get to. It was positively absolutely almost impossible for two morbidly obese camo wearing passengers to pass each other getting from the deep fried food on the buffet to the dessert bar.
For lunch I ate at Guy Fieri’s burger bar and loved it. The burgers were a good size, hand pattied, perfectly cooked and delicious. The fries were good and well seasoned for me. The burger and fries reminded me of when I was a kid and went to a diner and the burger was served in a red plastic basket with a paper lining. The condiment bar had everything on it that one could want on a burger. Very well done and it will be a staple on board. After lunch I got dessert from the food court dessert bar. I got a piece of chocolate cake, and almond Napoleon, and black cherry and mango custard something or other. All three were awful. The chocolate cake was as dense and dry as concrete; I actually wondered if I had gotten a diet health bar by mistake. The Napoleon was soggy and I have no idea what the layers were made of. I did taste an almond sliver though. The custard stuff was breathtakingly un-appetizing in appearance and the taste was reminiscent of the paste I used to eat occasionally in elementary school. I loved having soft serve everywhere and also frozen yogurt available everywhere. The desserts were not a total loss, just very hit and miss. You never knew is something would be pretty good or really bad. It created a lot of waste.
For a cruise ship Carnival’s coffee is exceptional. Not Starbucks, but, certainly drinkable as was the cold beverages. I actually saw an employee putting real ground coffee in a coffee machine. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but, some cruise lines(I won’t mention any names Princess) make coffee from syrup which I believe is mixed with kerosene making it only slightly better than American Airlines coffee.
The second evening of the cruise our dinner companions no showed, like many of the diners, so we had the table to ourselves. I am still convinced that they must have been on their death bed or they would never have considered missing an evening of our wit and having dinner in the middle of the night. In light of the really small dinner entrees in the dinning room we both ordered 2 appetizers again and an entree. My wife’ shrimp cocktail had 5 very nice medium size shrimp, I had the scallops (yep, all three of them about the size of a quarter) served on a small bed, think 1 inch, of risotto which was the consistency of paste with under cooked rice. How do you do that anyway? For an entree I had the grilled jumbo shrimp; all four of them, and they must have been the children of the jumbo shrimp. Anne had the Prime rib which she said was very good and a pretty generous cut. I did get a second entree of sea bass which was very good, perfectly cooked and beautifully presented. Still, it took 2 entrees and 2 appetizers to make a meal. I decided to go for the trifecta and had 2 desserts, both of which were delicious.
The evening entertainment, the Triumph song and dance group was cancelled because the choppy seas apparently made it too dangerous. They moved the comedians from one of the lounges to the main stage where they put on several shows each, both G and R rated (after 10PM) The R rating seemed to indicate the F word would be used excessively whether appropriate to the joke or not. It was the same comedians every night and some of the nights had a little better material. One of the comedians I really didn’t get his sense of humor, but, that’s ok, not everyone gets mine either.
Day 3 was in Cozumel. We found a little breakfast omelet station totally away from the buffet dining room where the same as the day before you had to stand in one line for fried eggs or omelets then another line for everything else. Since port arrival was set for 8:00 AM, the lines at 7:00 AM were out the door and around the block. Our new best little hidden breakfast spot had no line, perhaps a smaller selection, but, everything I wanted (and it is all about me, you know) and there were maybe a half a dozen people eating there. My eggs were perfectly cooked, the bacon medium crispy and not swimming in grease like the buffet, grits and some delicious looking sweet rolls. I really hope no one else discovers this little gem. Getting off the ship to go ashore was as painless as I have seen. Again Carnival was masterful in managing people. The disembarkation directions were clear, the location easy to find, and the process smooth as silk.
While off the ship it had started raining, and I mean raining. It was coming down in buckets and of course it was about 1/4 mile from the ship to the nearest cover, the duty free shop. Also another ship, the Carnival Ecstasy, had just arrived so there were at least a million Carnival passengers milling around in the Duty Free shop with really heavy rain on either end. At least 50% of the people were soaking wet, literally dripping on the floor, trying to figure out how to get all the free tequila tastings without having to buy anything. Fortunately most had showered this week. Keep in mind the showers are about 12 square feet and some of the passengers considerably more than 12 square feet. Having seen Caribbean storms go on for hours I sucked it up and ventured forth into the rain. Like everyone else, by the time I got back to the boat I was soaked to the bone. To Carnivals credit they had opened a second entry door so no one had to stand it the rain to get in the door. Someone was thinking about the passengers which I really appreciated.
For lunch I went to the Blue Iguana, the onboard taco and burrito bar. I apparently surprised them with a request for corn tortillas and was told there would be a wait. OK, no problem. About 5 minutes later the taco maker guy from Indonesia came out with 3 corn tortillas and put the meat on them. I headed to the salsa bar to dress them and found pretty much anything you could want for a taco except jalapeños. Everything on the bar was fresh and looked good and I found a sauce that I would buy and take home if they had it bottled.
What I found most interesting was that the wait for the corn tortillas was apparently for someone to run to the nearest 7-11 to get them. Apparently no one has told the taco maker guy from Indonesia that you are supposed to lightly fry/heat the corn tortilla before serving it. Cold, raw, and torn is not really a good starting place for a taco. I think the same issue was the problem at the sandwich bar a couple of days before when the Ruben and the ham and cheese were miserable failures. If you have never had a good taco, burrito, Ruben, ham & cheese or anything like that before the subtleties of making one might escape you, if the training and supervision is inadequate. I’m guessing no one is tasting the food, who knows what it is supposed to taste like. This obviously is not the fault of the taco maker guy or the sandwich maker guy. This is a huge management error.
In order to fairly report on this cruise I firmly believe with all my heart and soul that I need to pass by the rum bar and see how the quality and service was before dinner. So, the results are in, at the rum bar the first three brands of rum I ask for they didn’t have. In fact they don’t stock any dark rum at all and the bartender told us if they don’t have it it wasn’t on the ship. The rum bar did have a fair selection of whisky and vodka and about 6 or7 different light rums. Whoo Hoo $9.25 for a measured shot of my 17th choice at the specialty bar. I didn’t check the tequila bar to see what they didn’t carry.
The next stop on the trip was Progresso, Mexico, a little farther down the road from Cancun, still on the Yucatan. For the life of me I have no idea why Carnival has chosen to stop there and I don’t know if any other cruise lines stop there or not. There must be a huge financial incentive for them to go there.The pier is (I’m guessing) is about 2 miles long with the ship at one end and the town at the other. The town offers a free bus service into town that runs every 20 minutes in packed un-air conditioned busses. There were two security check points, one at each end of the pier, I guess to make sure no unsavory characters from the US were entering Mexico by cruise ship. At the bus terminal you had to run the gauntlet of souvenir dealers, all offering the same goods, one after another for what seemed like miles. Shot glasses, carved coconut heads that are supposed to look like pirates, hammocks, and “fine” jewelry. To their credit a few of the vendors had a really good sense of humor which almost made it tolerable. The town is poverty stricken, even by Mexico’s standards, dirty, trashy, run down, and dilapidated. The entire town was the inner city.
The beach area was a street about 1/2 mile long, four or five blocks from the bus station, and was somewhat cleaner with restaurants, vendors, hawkers, a few drunks and massage therapists, a lot of massage therapists. It seems the majority of the population of Progresso is a trained professional massage therapist. $10 for 20 minutes $20 for a hour and believe me you get exactly what you pay for. Later in the afternoon it went to $15 for an hour. Tables on the beach everywhere. A tent type cabana cover without sides that would cover 4 to 6 tables. The girl/lady who hawked the service on the street took you over, you strip down to your swimsuit or underwear and she gave you a massage, with oil, on the beach. Then you got to get up afterward and walk around the rest of the day with oil and sand EVERYWHERE. No one seemed to mind the public venue and since I didn’t know anyone there I didn’t care either, and comparably, I was positively svelte. The massage is the only truly positive aspect I could find to stopping in Progresso.
The last full day of the cruise was at sea. The weather deteriorated as we went North, but, that’s to be expected. it was a very pleasant day of relaxing. Our dinner companions joined us again for the 8:15PM seating. The dining room was down to probably 40% by then. The food was good, the company great, the service great, just had to have 2 appetizers and 2 enters again to make the meal. On the last morning the ship arrived back in Galveston just about 2 hours early. Not much to report except that disembarkation was unusually slow. I really don’t know if Carnival, Customs and Immigration, or the passengers were at fault, if there was fault. We were supposed to arrive at 8:30m and our assigned walk off time was 9:15. We docked at 6:30 AM and walked off at 8:50. It seems that a lot of the passengers elected to carry their own luggage off after warnings there could be stairs and escalators. There were stairs and escalators and some of the people had apparently pack for a trans-atlantic voyage yet insisted on dragging their Volkswagen bus sized luggage down a couple of flights of stairs; thump, thump, thump, every stair. then the two lines had to merge into one line while the people who didn’t want to follow the directions crowded into the lines. There were tow lines, 2 doors, and 2 security people scanning cruise cards, but, here was only one bridge and it was one person wide. It was made somewhat slower by the number of people who tried to walk, drag their multiple gigantic pieces of luggage, text on their phone, and manage the giant black or red sombrero with the gold or silver trim and little mirrors that they purchased in Mexico. Customs and immigration was a breeze in spite of the stories we had heard on board.
A couple of thoughts about Carnival. This was absolutely the noisiest environment I may have ever been in. It is pretty obvious the person controlling the volume of the onboard music is completely deaf. Music would start playing and rooms would clear. People of all ages were using fingers/hands to block their ears, children were crying and glasses were shattering somewhere. You had to get outside sometimes because it was so loud. Annoying is when the car two lanes over has their music so loud it vibrates you car, this was so far beyond that it was painful. Other times it wasn’t painful just impossible.
On the last morning the ship arrived back in Galveston just about 2 hours early. Not much to report except that disembarkation was unusually slow. I really don’t know if Carnival, Customs and Immigration, or the passengers were at fault, if there was fault. We were supposed to arrive at 8:30m and our assigned walk off time was 9:15. We docked at 6:30 AM and walked off at 8:50. It seems that a lot of the passengers elected to carry their own luggage off after warnings there could be stairs and escalators. There were stairs and escalators and some of the people had apparently pack for a trans-atlantic voyage yet insisted on dragging their Volkswagen bus sized luggage down a couple of flights of stairs; thump, thump, thump, every stair. then the two lines had to merge into one line while the people who didn’t want to follow the directions crowded into the lines. There were tow lines, 2 doors, and 2 security people scanning cruise cards, but, here was only one bridge and it was one person wide. It was made somewhat slower by the number of people who tried to walk, drag their multiple gigantic pieces of luggage, text on their phone, and manage the giant black or red sombrero with the gold or silver trim and little mirrors that they purchased in Mexico. Customs and immigration was a breeze in spite of the stories we had heard on board.
The cabins are spotlessly clean. The cabin stewards are worth every penny of the wages they are paid. The dining room cleanliness was a little ho hum. Tables not bussed/wiped down, it got done eventually, but, often you had to move someone else’s dirty dishes to have a place to sit. I saw food service managers propping their butt on the salad bar to visit with another employee when it was slow in the evening and reaching inside containers with their bare hands, instead of using serving utensils, to get almond slivers or raisers to snack on, repeatedly. I saw cooks on the line coughing into their hands, coughing over the food without covering their mouth, scratching their head, and picking their nose and going back to serving food without washing their hands. While hand sanitizer is available at various locations near the food it is nondescript not well identified, and certainly not encouraged. Not a single word was mentioned anywhere or at anytime about hand cleanliness and spread of disease on ships. Passengers are allowed to refill water bottles from the dispensers (the neck of the bottle where you put your mouth touches the dispenser spigot) in fact, if you couldn’t figure out how to do it an employee would do it for you. Public bathrooms were almost always dirty and were in disrepair, in fact much of the ship was in some state of disrepair.
The crew that generally dealt with the public was very very good. Friendly, accommodating, well mannered, there customer service training was very good. The entertainment was ok, the food was decent, nothing to write home about, but, OK even though the portions were extremely small. The salad bar was remarkably fresh. I think for most Carnival is the fun ship and generally the passengers had a really good time. If you don’t drink and gamble your options on board are somewhat limited though. In spite of a few issues (mostly with food service cleanliness & noise) the cruise line does there best to make it a fun and enjoyable vacation for all on board. In some ways, especially directed toward younger families they were very inventive and I saw very few unhappy children until it was time to get off. There were a lot of unsupervised children, but, they never seemed to be a problem. In many respects they were more well mannered than many of the adults.
Carnival is very family oriented and and a reasonable value for the money. For many I think it is a perfect vacation. As an adult couple with kids grown and out of the house and hence not on vacation with us, it was not perhaps the best choice choice, but, it was great to get away and enjoy some time off. There are a lot of different cruise lines in the world, each with a different personality. That is the best reason I can think of for using a travel agent.