Destiny review 5/29/-6/5 Part 1

Carnival Destiny 5/29 -6/5/05.

Ok here goes – I have written a million reviews and for some reason this one is just not coming as easily as the others. First a little about our group; there were 12 of us together on the Destiny, ages ranging from 19 – 35. Most of us were all huddled around 29. I had my first annual 29th B-day while in Barbados  The majority of us have cruised before and between us have Carnival, Princess, Royal Caribbean & Norwegian under our belts. We did have 3 newbie cruisers with us as well.

Embarkation:

We arrived at the port around 11:30 Sunday am, we were able to drop off our luggage, and do the majority of our check in. then off we went in to SJ to find more of the yummy pinacoladas I talk about later. We got back around 1pm and then were able to by pass all the lines because we were totally checked in. Then upstairs to get in the line for the sail and sign cards. This went pretty quickly but not 15 minutes after we got there a huge group come up the excalators! And the lines were huge.

Once we got our “drink and Sink” cards we headed for the ship and to have our pictures taken. We also stopped off at the durty free liquor shop and got a few bottles which we put in to our carry ons. We had NO problems taking the bottles on to the ship with us. They were x-rayed so carnival employees knew we had them but it wasn’t a problem. Anyway we got our pictures taken and then right on to the ship with us. in total I think it took us 20 minutes till we were on the ship. …then it was to our rooms which were ready and then out to the buffet for some food.

Rooms:

We all booked guarantees for this cruise, I should say that most of us were on the Tahitian Princess last fall and honestly the carnival destiny was booked due to price. We are all still recovering from tahiti – but wanted to take a vacation. Well the Carnival Destiny was a good fit, and to make it even a bit cheaper most of us booked inside guarantees knowing we could end up in a less desirable spot on the ship. Well we most certainly did not have that happen to us!! we ended up on the Lido Deck Forward (9) with the Spa above us and cabins below us. It was a great Spot on the ship! I would recommend it to anyone, you are right near the main pool and the slide pool, it’s an easy walk to the buffet area, and in general it’s very close to the action! I won’t go in to the actual rooms because they are covered in sooo many reviews. They were your typical insides and nothing more or less than that.

Food:

Dining Room:

We were in the Galaxy Dining room in the late seating (8:15) it worked well for us and always has. We actually got seated at two tables along a banquet and that was a bit nicer than having a few tables next to each other. Thankfully we also got the same waiter ~ as when you are eith a group the seating tend s to be a bit different every night. Our Head waiter Martin was good, I have head better but he was timely and by the end of the week had finally warmed up and became personable. This was his first week on the ship so I attribute his jitters to this. As for our assistant waiter I can’t say the same. I don’t even remember his name, he was never around and many times it was Martin who was running drinks and going to the galley for our food.

The actually food in the dining room was not as good as I remember it , GRANTED I think that I am becoming more critical as I get older. I now have a lot to compare to so it could be that I remember carnivals food as awesome because my first few cruises I didn’t have anything to compare it to. Now, with that said the food was no where near bad! It was decent most nights and the selection was good. For the most part we all agreed that the red meat was on a whole the worst done – Barring the Filet Mignon the night of Aruba. Carnival will not cook the meat to rare, most likely due to possible food illness and this really “killed” red meat for us. There were some fabulous Chicken entrees, and the pasta was good. Also many of the soups are great as well. Seeing as the gallay has to prepare food for thousands of people it was very good.

Now lets talk about the “shows” in the dining room? Honestly I find them irritating!! If it was once or twice during the cruise I think it would be fun, but every night seems to be overkill to me. This is just my opinion, and maybe because we cruise with friends we are a self contained unit and it is a distraction. Also the Maitre’D opened every night by repeating HEEEELLLLLLOOOOOO? People started answering with goodbye. I thought this should have clued him in that it was not the best way to get peoples attention. Oh well didn’t stop us from enjoying our dinners.

Buffet:

The Buffet was good, had a fair amount of selection and always had really good fresh fruit. I am a watermelon lover so I could always get a bowl of water melon so I was happy!! Plus they normally had cottage cheese, and I like Cottage cheese with pineapple so being able to have this all day was good for me. Some of the ethnic food was the best! People seemed to be afraid of the day they served Indian food but their Chicken Tikka Masala was very good – no where near as spicy as I like mine, but good flavor and not so much heat that anyone could eat it. Also the rice on Indian buffet was fabulous and included all the right spices plus raisins. Yum. The sushi was also better than I have had on most ships! I was pleasantly surprised. Granted they didn’t serve Rainbow rolls or anything like that, but it was pretty good. The only other dish that comes to mind were the Ribs Yum!

Also a side note, the destiny is not equipped with Purell dispensers. I thought this was strange as every ship I have been on in the last few years had them. Yes I know the destiny is older but it’s not like these are hard to put up!

The grill:

We ate a lot at the grill, there seemed to never be a line – so we would eat there. Same fare as normal, hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken. Not bad. The trick was to get one of the hamburgers that hadn’t been cooked to death!

Pizza:

Like all carnival ships the Pizza was decent – I seem to remember it being better on the Legend….but I also drank a whole lot more on the legend lol. I did get a ceaser salad on the this cruise and it was decent. The dressing was a little too watery for me but did have good flavor.

Ok I think that covers it for food 

The Ship:

The destiny is in good shape! I sailed on her for my very first cruise in 2001 and she is still looking good. I know she is going in for dry dock this fall so that should take care of the few issues she is having. I did hear reports of air conditioning not working in some cabins. One of which belonged to a couple in our group. They called the pursuers desk and it was taken care of, although it seemed to be warm in their cabin most of the trip. Also another couple in our group had their toilet overflow – I am told it was no fault of theirs! Any way they snagged their room steward and it was taken care of.

I heard no complaints about room stewards – ours was fabulous, we almost never saw her but she did a FABULOUS job. AND when the teenagers ripped our “privacy please” sign off late at night (more on this later) she knew we were sleeping and didn’t knock and wake us up. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case for some of the other in our group – but this is really not the room stewards fault.

I do have one complaint and some of you may find it silly but on the issue of the public bathrooms – there are no hand towels. Ok I know this isn’t a big deal, but I like to open the doors leaving with a towel and throw it away once I am out. I see people allllll the time not washing their hands when leaving a bathroom. Personally I am a little obsessive about it. We got sick once and that was all it took! Especially on a cruise ship it is important to keep your hands clean. So that’s my only grievance. Not bad I think!

Shopping on the ship etc.

Ok so I did some shopping on the ship, actually bought my self a piece of jewelry that was a fabulous price! I found it in the clearance area the very first night the ship store was open! I NEVER like anything in the clearance area so imagine my surprise to find a nice emerald braclet for cheap. Other wise the I would say the ship stores are ok – not bad but you can do better on St. Thomas.

I should also say that there were a lot of raffles and I think our group won more than half of them. I tend to be lucky so I always enter….my husband and I won the most out of the group. Now I want to say make sure you read the signs and what it say you will win. They tend to try and change what it is you are winning. We found this twice – but all it took was for us to produce our capers and they changed that. I know I know – we won something why be picky. Well when it says you win something specific you want that something specific not something much cheaper! Also be aware that they like to mislead you on what they are raffling, AKA the tanzanite raffle, never do they say they are raffling off tanzanite  just a tid bit.

Oh and people really do win the store raffles on the islands, we won two of those in our group. The prize weren’t bad either.

Fellow Passengers:

We met a number of really great people on this cruise. In fact we ended up hanging our with four girl friends cruising together most of the cruise. It was a lot of fun! For the most part I would say our fellow passengers were really courteous people. But (and there is always a but) there was a vocal minority who I could have done with out.

What I found was that many times people have no idea what is going on around them, and with 2600 people around you it can become a problem. Let me tell you a funny story: I was out near the pizza station after a long day on Dominica and was totally spacing out. I walked right in front of this poor woman because I wasn’t paying any attention (stupid me). Anyway I realized what I had done and quickly said “I am sorry! I am such a space cadet today, please excuse me” Anyway this woman looked at me smiled and then after a few steps turned around and thanked me! Lol – she was like, no one ever says excuse me anymore! You are the first person (after many) who has crossed my path and said “I am sorry” Anyway this lead to a mini discussion about how she kept “running” into some of the most rude people and it was hurting her cruise experience. Moral of the story – we all do silly things, but it never hurts to say excuse me!!!!!!!!!!

Teenagers:

As I have alluded to prior there were quite the teenagers on board this sailing. Now honestly we cruised in May figuring that most kids were in school and it wouldn’t be a problem. Normally we cruise in January so don’t deal with many kids. Well what we didn’t know was that Puerto Rico schools had already let out. *sigh* And there were a ton of Girls turning 15 sailing with us. Now for those of you who don’t know, in many Latin cultures the age of 15 is very special, it is when they become of age. There are HUGE parties and fabulous gowns and as a whole it is a lot of fun for the teenagers.

With that said these teenagers ran wild all over the ship. I am sure they had a fabulous time, and had they stayed away from the cabins I think it would have been fine. But they seemed to like running up and down the halls yelling after midnight and stealing anything you might have had on your door. Now Myself and friends are divers and we tend to be the first off the boat to dive in the early am. So as you can imagine there were nights where we retired by midnight. Personally I am not very nice if you wake me up or keep me from sleeping – I think that is putting it nicely! I called the Pursures desk three nights in a row for them to send security. This always fixed the problem for the night at least. Sadly I am sure they went and found other cabin areas of the ship to torture. I also learned how to yell shut up in Spanish so hey I learned something! Really the worst was when they stole your room service card!!!!

here is the link to Part 2 http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=3947505#post3947505

Great Review!!! I love all the details! So when is your next cruise? Oops I see it now..Jan 06 Valor...have a great time.

Hey Daytoncruiser,

Yeah I am already looking forward to the Valor! I really missed the Alternate restaurant that are on so many ships now but not on the Destiny - I know al ot of people don't like them but since we always cruise with a group my husband and I go up there to have dinner by ourselves once during hte week :) AND they cook meat rare lol.

So Hawaii is next for you? are you cruising or staying on land? I can't wat to get to hawaii....I hear it is a lot like tahiti but more built up. I definitely want to get there!

Great review,it's so nice to read a review with such a positive perspective .

Wystiria

Im doing a land trip to Hawaii. Really looking forward to it, I have done just cruises for the past few years, so this should be a nice change. I wont have to worry about getting back to the ship by 5:30 :)

Dayton Cruiser,

that is great - you will have a great time! :) while we were in Tahiti we were xcited becasue our cruis itenerary actually stayed over night in a few ports, so I know what you mean about getting back in time.

We also try to stagger land vacations and cruises....we use the cruises to figure out where we want to go back!

thanks jckvpa0, I was on vacation so even when things aren't perfect I still try and have a good time.