This was my first cruise and I wasn't expecting very much out of it. I've never particularly wanted to go on cruise, believing it would be boring to be stuck on a ship for days on end. I've heard good things from families and friends about the food and activities, but I'm the type of person who normally likes to fly to a new place and explore it for several days or weeks. However, 6 days on the Carnival Triumph has me hooked on cruises now. I did not want to leave ship life by the end! I probably could have even skipped the two port excursions we did (which were really enjoyable in themselves) and been completely happy. It's not the newest ship and I hear it will be getting an overhaul next spring, but it was quite a good outfit and experience for the money spent.

There is a lot to do on board, but I only chose to do two or three things a day and ate the rest of the time and looked out at my ocean view! The activity that my friend, child and I enjoyed the most was the New Wave Magic show with Mark Bennick. His show was fantastic! The meals were probably my overall favorite aspect of the cruise. Maybe I liked the food a little too much-- my shorts were getting a little tight there at the end. The choices were delicious, from seated dining, to buffet, to Guy's Burgers. Not having to cook or clean were incredible.

I can't believe how hard the Carnival Triumph crew worked every day. Our room steward, Junaedi from Indonesia, seemed to always be working and smiling (in truth, I hope he had enough of a break during or in between sailings) and making sweet little towel animals for the rooms. Paris Dining Room waiters Anthony from the Philippines and Joy from India, made the effort to remember the names of everyone at our table and always put their best faces forward even while having the Herculean task of having to serve so many patrons in a set amount of time. I found out they had been working for Carnival 9 and 15 years, respectively! I hope Carnival marks the anniversaries of such dedicated employees and appreciates them as much as we did. I'm sure a big part of Carnival's success stems from the knowledge, professionalism and work ethics of people such as Junaedi, Anthony, Joy, cruise director Simon and the 900+ employees (crew, staff and officers) whose names I did not get a chance to know.