Disney Wonder Vs Carnival Triumph

[narsibvl]

Index

Introductions and the beginning
Pre cruise preparation, registration and booking

A confession to make...

After two blissful years I finally strayed..yes, I jumped the boat…literally…I did a cruise on Carnival. To be more specific, the Triumph, out of Galveston. I figured I would do a comparison between the Triumph and my personal favorite, The Wonder. First the statistics.

Name: Disney Wonder

Capacity: 1754
Number of Crew, Nationality: 945, International
Gross Tonnage: 83000
Stabilized: Yes
Average Speed: 21.5 knots
Maximum Speed: 24 knots
Length: 964 feet
Beam: 106 feet
Space Ratio: 35.4
Number of Passenger Decks: 11
Number of Inside Rooms: 256
Number of Outside Rooms: 621
Number of Restaurants: 4
Number of Pools: 3
Number of Elevators: 9

Name: Carnival Triumph

Capacity: 3470
Number of Crew, Nationality: 1090, International
Gross Tonnage: 101509
Stabilized: Yes
Average Speed: 21 knots
Maximum Speed: 22.5 knots
Length: 893 feet
Beam: 125 feet
Space Ratio: 37:1
Number of Passenger Decks: 13
Number of Inside Rooms: 530
Number of Outside Rooms: 849
Number of Restaurants: 4
Number of Pools: 4
Number of Elevators: 18

To be continued....

 

[tinkerbellerina]

We were on the December MR sailing with your family. I look forward to reading your comparison. I hope you write about how kid appropriate the entertainment on Carnival is compared to the shows on the Wonder. That is the main reason we hesitate to try another cruise line.

 

[narsibvl]

Pre cruise preparation, registration and booking

I had done a four day cruise out of port Canaveral to Bahamas and the weeklong Mexican Rivera out of LA. The Carnival itinerary was out of Galveston to the western Carribean(Cozumel and Progresso). Our Carnival venture was born out of the fact that the kids were not going with me this time. Also, I felt it was high time I get a feel for the other cruise lines.

Itinerary selection

Carnival has 25 ships while Disney has 4. This meant I could select the port that I want to sail out of and the chances of getting the itinerary that I wanted was more. This also helps in keeping your vacation cost to a minimum.

Sailing Cost

Let begin at the beginning, Disney occupies a niche segment in the cruise industry while Carnival strives to reach the masses. So it was a no brainer that the Carnival cost was way better than that of Disney. We didn’t have to book pretty early and still manage to get a balcony cabin for 3 on a full ship at slightly more than half the price of a Disney cost. Carnival wins hands down in this department.

Pre Cruise Documents

There is something really romantic about getting the cruise documents in the mail. For us it has been one more stage of our vacation and a chance to get even more excited. I badly missed that experience this time around. Disney does that and Carnival does not. Of course, this is one of the ways I guess Carnival keeps the price down. You have to print your documents and your luggage tag. Do not expect anything by mail.

The luggage printed out meant, I had to laminate it and attach zip tags to it so that they would survive the handling by the porters. I did notice quite a few people who had stapled the paper directly on to the luggage, not sure how safe it is and I also did notice a few luggage tags lying around on the floor. Disney saves you all these troubles.

Online registration and on-shore excursions

There is not a whole lot of difference between the online registration for Disney and Carnival. Both were equally painless. The excursions too were very similar. They had excursions of varying difficulties and there were quite a few to choose from in all the ports. This factor, I would say, is a tie.

 

[narsibvl]

We were on the December MR sailing with your family. I look forward to reading your comparison. I hope you write about how kid appropriate the entertainment on Carnival is compared to the shows on the Wonder. That is the main reason we hesitate to try another cruise line.

Yes, I will get to that soon...

 

[Quagmire]

Having sailed on the Wonder and the Triumph I can say without hesitation, I would NEVER sail on the Triumph or Carnival again. There is nothing I can write that is positive about the Triumph and Carnival cruise line or as I like to call them, "the Wal-mart of cruise lines" Just my opinion as well as my families opinion.

 

[narsibvl]

Having sailed on the Wonder and the Triumph I can say without hesitation, I would NEVER sail on the Triumph or Carnival again. There is nothing I can write that is positive about the Triumph and Carnival cruise line or as I like to call them, "the Wal-mart of cruise lines" Just my opinion as well as my families opinion.

I would have to disagree with you. Yes the "Wonder" would always be special to us, but the Triumph has its moments.

Which reminds me I need to get on with the report.....

 

[narsibvl]

The Cruise

Embarkation

The Carnival check-in/embarkation has been the most painless of all. I do understand that this feature depends a lot on the facilities of the port that ship sails out of and so not a whole lot of this should be attributed to the cruise line itself, but while it took us a minimum of 1 hour to board when it came to Port Canaveral or San Pedro, the time it took us from check-in to the buffet line in Carnival was max 40 minutes, considering the fact that we had Non-US citizens with us for the carnival trip this was quite a breeze.

The Welcome

I have to mention this. What makes Disney a niche service is their ability to make you feel important and special and that starts the minute you step foot in their ship. The first time I heard our names announced as a part of their welcome address, I felt special. On our second trip when I heard it, I felt like I was back on my ship. This is what Disney is good at, helping you make memories. I missed that badly in the Triumph.

The Décor

The Wonder is majestic, stately and sober, the triumph is glitzy, loud and drunk. You step into the wonder and you feel like you have stepped into the Queen palace, you feel royal. The Triumph feel more like Las Vegas, you feel high. It is your pick. Personally, I feel both has its place in a vacation.

Lunch Buffet

The buffet in general in both the Wonder and Triumph was much the same. They were for the most part like any other buffets. Nothing to write home about. Would have to though mention, the Carnival had many more stations open then I ever remember ‘Wonder’ having. The Lido buffet in Triumph mirrors that of the beach blanket buffet. The one part that was sorely missing was the outdoor sitting in the Triumph. That was the highlight of the Wonder. Apart from the Lido buffet, they had sit down facilities in their dining rooms(Paris) since we never tried that option, I wouldn’t be able to comment on it. Wonder too does have their sit down options so I guess it should be the same. Apart from the Lido buffet, they have a separate station for Asian food. They also had the “On the grill” station that served, burgers and hot dogs. The highlight of this station was it was open from 6:00 AM to 3:00 PM.

One of the biggest issue we have had on the ‘Wonder’ was there were times when food was not available, like around 6:00 pm. The stations on the top deck close by then and your only option then is to wait for the BBB to open for dinner or go to your designated dinner restaurant. This was never the case with the Triumph. At any point of time food was available at one of the restaurants.

The Staterooms

The Disney ships were built ground up with families in mind. The size of a Disney stateroom was bigger than the average size of the other cruise lines. The Triumph stateroom dwarfs in comparison to the Wonder. The split bath in the wonder is a boon and one doesn’t really understand its importance till one doesn’t have it anymore

What the triumph has going for it is the design. They have managed to include quite a bit of storage space and cram all the necessary amenities in the limited space of their cabins. I thought they had more storage place than the wonder.

The complimentary toiletries on the Wonder were far better in quality when compared to the Triumph. I guess another area where the extra money you pay gets put to use.

Sail Away Party

The sail away part on the Wonder was one of the first chances for the kids and those who are still kids to greet the rat pack of characters. The Sail away part on the Triumph was nothing to write about.

Housekeeping

The Disney ships are known for the service, and been used to those standards; I thought there was a clear difference between the kind of service you receive on the Wonder when compared to the service you receive on the Triumph. Mind you, I am not suggesting that the service on the Triumph is bad, all I am saying is that it doesn’t measure up to that of the Wonder.

Dinner

The Rotation of restaurants for the Disney ships is one of a kind and does really lend itself to the uniqueness of the trip. I wish the other cruise line adopt this process. Sitting at the same table in the same restaurant gets old soon. I noticed the attendance at dinner on the Triumph falling off as days went by. The biggest reason was the fact that dinner was about food and only about food. Dinner in the Disney ships was more.

Before I start talking about the food itself, I would like to warn, my feedback on the food would be highly biased and here is why, I am big on rice (like any other South Indian) and going three days without a rice diet gets me cranky. Now on the Disney trips, after three days, I let the serving team know that I would like Indian food for dinner for the rest of the trip. They usually would comply, but…the variety you get is far cry from the kind of options we got on the Triumph. So strictly on the Indian Vegetarian options, the Triumph wins hands down.

Stage Shows

The Disney productions travel with the Disney ships and these productions are of the highest quality possible. So to expect those standards to be met on the Triumph is a bit foolhardy. I would have to say The stage shows on the Wonder blows the Triumph out of the water.

Again, the shows on the Disney ships are tuned to family. They are far less Risqué when compared to the shows on the Triumph. Even those shows that are deemed family friendly would have made me very uncomfortable if I had my kids with me and then there are shows where people are advised not to bring their kids.

Theatre

The Indoor 3D theatre on the Wonder was missed big time on the Triumph. The only theatre that the triumph has is the outdoor big screen by the pool.

The Pools

The Disney ships for all their facilities lags big time when it comes to the pools. Yes, there is the Mickey pool and the Goofys but the size of these dwarfs when compared to the pools on the Triumph. The triumph also has twice the number of whirlpools compared to that of the Wonder.

The number of Chairs and the space allotted for them needs a special mention. It was summer and the average temperature was around 80 degrees, so as you can imagine, almost the entire ship was on the top deck or on the pools. Even with the usual chair hogging, I got to say, there was never a moment when we couldn’t find ourselves chairs at any point of time in the day. The triumph wins hands down when it comes to this.

The Triumph does have an adult only pool like the Wonder but I was a bit disappointed that it was not as strictly followed as was the case on the Wonder.

The Triumphs policy on beach towels was a bit vague. They left three beach towels in your room for use in the pools and the house keeping staff, picked up them from your room for laundry as and when it they felt like doing it. I thought, Disney did this better, I much rather prefer to pick up towel near the pool and leave it there after I am done.