Disclosure: Carnival Cruise Lines invited my husband and I to this event as no cost to us. All opinions are 100% my own.
Image Source: Carnival Cruise Line
Earlier this month, my husband and I had the opportunity to check out the Carnival Triumph and watch the traditional maritime plaque exchange in New Orleans. The Carnival Triumph replaced the Carnival Elation, and offers 4-5 day cruises to Cozumel and Progreso, Mexico. The Triumph has great restaurants/bars like Guy’s Burger Joint, Blue Iguana Cantina, and the Alchemy Bar (to name a handful). In the past, we’ve gone on 7 day cruises, but after visiting this ship, we’re tempted to go on a shorter cruise!
When we were walking on the platform to get on the ship, I couldn’t help but think of our last cruise. We had such a wonderful time, and while we didn’t go on a cruise last year (since we were in the house-building process), we absolutely can’t wait for our next one! In fact, we totally booked one to take later this year. 🙂 Time to dust off the luggage!
Now, as you may know, Carnival is known for being a fun ship. It was pretty awesome to have drinks in hand once we took our seats for the plaque exchange. We immediately asked each other if we really had to leave the ship after this haha!
Before the traditional maritime plaque exchange, it was really neat to listen to the CEO and Board of Directors from the Port of New Orleans talk about how much cruise tourism is growing in the area, which is why Carnival brought the Triumph here. In fact, the Triumph is a 34% increase in capacity vs. the Elation. New Orleans is booming, y’all!
Image Source: Carnival Cruise Line
I couldn’t get a really good picture of this, but here’s the Port of New Orleans’s CEO and Board of Directors participating in the traditional maritime plaque exchange with the captain of the Carnival Triumph.
After the plaque exchange, Carnival invited four representatives from different local music charities to play a few funny games for a total of $35,000 in donations to their charities. I love that Carnival is all about helping out local organizations, especially music-related ones (being New Orleans).
After the games were over, we were invited to a fantastic lunch in the London dining room.
Dear Carnival, please give me that bacon vinaigrette recipe?
Actually, I’ll take all of the recipes…everything was delicious! (Well, I don’t need the flourless chocolate cake…I already have that recipe. :-P)
Side note: While I didn’t have any of this, check out this tray. I just had to take a picture of it! So much attention to detail here.
One of the things that I love the most about cruising is the restaurant experience. We always feel spoiled after having a meal on a cruise ship…the wait staff are the friendliest and the food is just SO good. I could end every meal with warm chocolate melting cake…no joke.
We seriously didn’t want to leave the ship after this lovely event.
Until next time, Carnival (we can’t wait)! 🙂