Carnival Triumph: Embarkation

Wednesday morning dawned and we were up early excited to be boarding the Carnival Triumph  for an 10 day Carnival Journeys cruise. After in-room coffee and showers, we were off.

We went up to the rooftop pool to see if the ship had docked and was happy to see it in port.  Sister T. had learned about Siglo XX restaurant for breakfast and we walked around exploring San Juan for half an hour waiting for the published opening time of 8 a.m.

After waiting 5 or so minutes in front someone in the restaurant came to the door and told us they didn’t open until 9.  Neither of us wanted to wait another hour for breakfast after our early dinner (and for medical reasons Sister T shouldn’t) so we headed off to our next selection.

We ended up at Cafeteria Mallorca which is located on Calle San Francisco.  It looks like an old fashioned diner from the outside AND inside.  This restaurant also had the great food and prices to match.

I ordered a savory mallorca with egg, ham and cheese with a side of cafe con leche.

The topping of powdered sugar seemed strange but it worked!  I ate the whole thing with two cups of coffee with milk. They charge by the cup but it was only $1.25 each.

My sister got a traditional bacon and eggs plate that came with warm french bread.  The prices were low, the food was great and the front window was full of great looking pastries!

The only negative thing here was the bathroom.  I had to leave without doing my business due to stench of unflushed toilet paper sitting in little garbage cans.

We walked around a little after breakfast to see the sights before it got too steamy.

Plaza de’ Colon has a status of Christopher Columbus.  Apparently he also discovered Puerto Rico!

Some of the streets are still brick with a blue color.  The story is that these were made from furnace slag and brought over on Spanish ships hundreds of years ago as ballast.

We stopped by the Starbucks where I participated in a coffee tasting.  They didn’t have the roast my sister was looking for so we next headed back to the hotel’s coffee shop.

The coffee shop in the Sheraton uses a blend of coffee grown on the island and pours boiling water over the fresh grounds.  Sister T said it was pretty good.  By now the hotel was very busy with people off the ship trying to check in and another large number checking out.

Boarding the Triumph

We decided to head over to the cruise terminal about 10:30 am.  I found a porter in front of the hotel and he helped us wheel our luggage to where he could take possession.  We showed our documents and went up to check in.

There were separate lines for platinum/diamond, faster to the fun and the rest of the passengers.  We had faster to the fun (FTTF) and just had to wait for the agent to finish checking in one family before it was our turn.

Once we got checked in, we waited in a seating area which was pretty small but didn’t run out of seats before we boarded.  They started boarding at 11:45 and we were called right after diamond and platinum guests.

This was the first time I went through the airport type security screening right before getting on board and it seemed a little strange.  When we got onboard our first stop was our cabin to drop off our hand luggage.

We had an interior cabin on the Lido deck.  The water I had ordered online was in our room as well as our VIFP gift of a liter of water each along with a drink coupon.

The only disappointment about our cabin was the size of the television.  It made it hard for the two of us to enjoy a program from our respective beds.

Next it was time for lunch.  I’d been planning on having my first Guy’s Burger for months and headed straight to Guy’s Burger Joint.  There was no line and I ordered my burger Straight Up and added a few toppings at the bar.

I gotta say the burger was very good as were the fries.  It is as good if not better than the Dive-In burgers on Holland America.

We spent the rest of the after exploring the ship…

Signing up for the Dr. Seuss breakfast…

Unpacking and having a pre-dinner snack.

The pork tacos at the Blue Iguana Cantina were my favorite Lido deck food all week!

I ate here several times between breakfast and lunch and also loved the well stocked salsa bar.

We also went to see the Maitre’d during his hours about changing our assigned table.  We were assigned to a booth seating four people and thought that would be awkward sitting with just two other people.  My husband and I had that arrangement on our 15 night cruise to Hawaii and were lucky we got along well with the other couple.

Elvis (who I know I’ve sailed with previously) said he’d do his best and we would get a card with the results the next day.

Before heading to the dining room for dinner, I had a pre-dinner drink at the Alchemy Bar.  After this drink, I was hooked and was at this bar just about every night.  This is the drink of the day, Cucumber Sunrise.

It was open seating tonight since sailaway isn’t until 10 pm.  We went to the London dining room around 6 pm and were seated with four other couples.

For appetizers, I had the cream of ripened tomatoes soup….

and the Port of Call selection which was Masitas de Puerco Fritas (fried pork).  Both appetizers were very good.

For my entree I ordered the fried shrimp.

This was disappointing as the shrimp was greasy and it was primarily breading.

For dessert I ordered the warm fig and date pudding with a side of chocolate ice cream.

The pudding was good but my ice cream was nearly all melted.  This happened a couple of times during the cruise, so I just stopped ordering it. 🙁

There was one awkward moment during dinner when an older gentleman decided to bring up politics by bashing the party he doesn’t belong to.  I mentioned that not everyone agrees with him and maybe we should talk about something else and all the women chimed in yes.  He was just a jerk about it but did finally stop.

Before the muster drill, I took a photo of a ship that pulled in during the afternoon.

The Liberty of the Seas was staying later than us.  Hopefully, the town was hopping more than it was Tuesday night.  The muster drill was long but finally over and we headed off to bed as we’ll be in St. Thomas tomorrow.

We had our towel animal upon embarkation as you can see in the cabin pictures earlier.  Here’s a close-up!

Click on the image above to see today’s Fun Times program.  If you missed the other parts of this cruise the links are below.

November 2nd: Pre Cruise Travel
November 3rd: San Juan