Mountainbreeze's B2B Destiny review - long w/ pics

[oncruisecontrol]

Patiently (not!) waiting for the next installment. I'm really enjoying your review. Congrats on your marriage. Great photos too.

[hannibal54]

Great story, great pics. Thanks for sharing it.

[alreadypacked]

Thanks EVERYONE for your sweet comments! I'll be back later tonight with more of the review......I'm writing, resizing pics, and trying to do real life at the same time.......I sure am having fun reliving this though!!!:)

 

Coming up next......our first sea day and GRAND TURK!!!!

 

I know how tough it is when real life hits you like a ton of bricks after a cruise--just want to say again how much I have enjoyed your review and can't wait to read the rest! Congrats again!!:):)

[mountainbreeze]

Congratulations on your marriage! I can't wait to hear more about your trip!

 

Thanks Cruiser/teacher! I'm coming back with more of the review......I promise! :)

[mountainbreeze]

YAY.....we are going on the same cruise in Nov for our honeymoon.....Congrats and im glad you had a wonderful time cant wait to read the rest of the review... :)

 

Hotrocker2011, which cruise are you taking for your honeymoon in November? The Eastern or the Western? Either way, you will LOVE it! :)

[mountainbreeze]

Ahhh, nice story! Waiting for more! :)

 

 

Thanks Raylene! I'm coming back with more, I'm writing it as fast as I can! :)

[mountainbreeze]

First..congrats on your nuptials!! Second, my story story is IDENTICAL to yours!!! DH and I went together when we were 18 (first true love, etc.), separated after a year and a half (we were just too young), married other people, had kids, etc. Then 25 years later, I looked him up online. He was living in Washington state..I was living in Massachusetts. We spoke on the phone for a few months and he moved back here in MA..we were married in 2008 and will be on the Destiny celebrating our 3 year anniversary in August. Believe it or not there's so many other people who have reunited after numerous years like us and got married. Another woman on these boards posted the same thing. I think it's becoming a trend. Anyways..looking forward to your review.

 

HI Abisha! Thanks! Congrats on your awsome story too! I just love a good love story! I think stories like ours are surely becoming a trend......thats OK with me! Have fun on the Destiny in August, I miss that ship sooo much! You will have a blast! :)

[mountainbreeze]

on the wedding!

 

THANKS, SteelerCruiser! :)

[mountainbreeze]

First of all.. Congratualtions on your wedding. Beautiful story and scene....

 

I am 44 too and my best friend married her HS boyfriend last year... similar story to yours... finding each other after 20 years apart. Stories such as yours certainly warms my heart!

 

Looking forward to your Destiny adventure!

 

Catrin

 

Thanks for your kind comments Catrin! I'll be back in the next few hours with the next part of the story. :) It's been so much fun to write this out!

[mountainbreeze]

Mountainbreeze,

 

Loving this review. Your wedding was just beautiful. Beautiful dress and his crisp white shirt was just the perfect choice. Can't wait to read about the cruise. Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

Thanks LSEA, I appreciate the sweet comments! :)

[mountainbreeze]

Great start !! Thanks for sharing!

 

 

Thanks BettyPC! :)

[ManyMore]

Still waiting... :rolleyes:

[mountainbreeze]

Great review. Looking forward to more.

 

Thanks Abisha! :)

[mountainbreeze]

Mountainbreeze - CONGRATS!! I love your story.

 

I'm really enjoying your review and photos too. Thanks for bringing us along:D

 

Thank you Kerrytens! I'm glad you are enjoying it, I'm going to get more of the review posted within the hour. :)

[mountainbreeze]

I Love the Destiny! Have sailed her twice...once for the milenium (new Years Eve 1999...and that was unbelievable...Carnival pulled out all the stops) and in April this year.

Did you have a chance to catch Tony in the evenings in the lobby bar??? He kept me mellow...April was full of spring breakers:eek: with alot of people feeling a great need to be LOUD!!!!

Your love story is very neat too, especially for me right now. I am just re-acquanting with my first "love" after not being in touch for 36 years (Facebook makes you a detective...lol)

It was surreal talking to him for hours last week...like it had only been days since we last spoke. We are both divorced but live on opposite ends of the country But long distance is a nice start....

Congratulations and I wish you much love and many more cruises

Great review can't wait for the rest :cool:

Congratulations

 

Librabythesae, I love the DESTINY too! They took such good care of us 100% of the time, and we had a blast!

Congratulations on reaquainting with your first love! Let me know how it goes! :)

[mountainbreeze]

Heyyyyyyy strangers!

 

That wedding picture is absolutely stunning! You guys looks as beautiful as you turned out to be on our cruise. You really made our time more enjoyable. Just checking in as, I had to hit- the- floor- running when we returned from the cruise. I am going to check in w/Kealoha quickly and will be back to read your review later today. WELCOME BACK and glad you had a good time. We miss you guys already -gotta do Colorado sometime! You are always welcome -seriously!

 

Hey my friends!!!!

Good to hear from you!! We had so much fun with you guys!! :)

I know what you mean by hitting the floor running, as I am going CRAZY trying to catch up with real life. I just want to go back to Half Moon Cay!

Thanks for your sweet comments, I'll be sure to stay in touch with you guys, and we also need to trade some pictures!

Take care :) We miss you guys!!

[mountainbreeze]

I am so enjoying your story and review. Your wedding was perfect! Congratulations and best wishes for a happy and healthy marriage. :)

 

Cruisingagaininnov2008, Thanks! I'm so glad you are enjoying our story! :)

[mountainbreeze]

Hi again Tim and Andrea!!!

 

We are loving the review! Can't wait for more.... It was a pleasure meeting you both and being a part of your "date with Destiny" honeymoon cruise.

 

Hi there!! Gosh we sure do miss you guys!! We had so much fun, and we really loved meeting and hanging out with you guys!

 

And we have SO MUCH to thank you guys for: Norma, I will forever remember that you taught me to snorkle in the beautiful caribbean! :) Its my new favorite thing to do!!

 

And Brian, I would give ANYTHING to see you do the lawnmower dance again! That was TOO FUNNY! :p and Tim won't do it for me now that we are home :(

 

We will be in touch, we have some pictures to share!!

WE MISS YOU GUYS!!! :)

[mountainbreeze]

Wow!! Beautiful! Congratulations! You both look so relaxed and happy. I love the simplicity and casualness. DH and I had a simple wedding too. Fancy formal with tons of people just wasn't our thing. Best of wishes to you! As I think others have mentioned, there are several on this board who have rediscovered each other after a number of years. Member pcrum comes to mind--check it out. Loving the review!:):)

 

Alreadypacked, THANKS!! Yes, simple was much better for us, and we are happy we did it the way we did. It was perfect!! :)

Glad you are enjoying the review!

[mountainbreeze]

mountainbreeze....congratualtions on your wedding! Best of the best to you and Tim. Thanks for sharing with all of us. Enjoying your B2B review so far. BTW those trees in KW are royal poinciana trees sometimes called flame trees.

 

Crewsweeper, Thanks for your kind words, and THANKS for telling me the name of that tree! I'm glad to know that!! :)

[cruisinskier]

Congrats your your wedding and looking forward to reading more of your review!!!!

[mountainbreeze]

BACK TO THE REVIEW!!

 

 

MAY 3 - SEA DAY

I was up at 4:30 AM, and for some reason I could not get back to sleep. This was WAY too early to be up, so I layed in bed and waited until a more reasonable time to actually start my day. The sun came up about 6:30 and I sat out on the balcony with my camera and took a few pics. Tim woke up and joined me on the balcony. This was sooooo nice!!

We showered and dressed, and decided to go to the Lido deck and check out the breakfast buffet. It was around 8:30 and it was pretty empty, no lines! Nice!

After our breakfast, we walked back to the Adults Only Serenity deck and we found Mary and Cassandra there. They were mother and daughter, and we had met them yesterday at our little meet-n-greet. We sat with them for a little while and chatted.

Tim and I wanted to see more of the ship, so we made our way back to the busy part of the Lido deck where the big screen is and all of the action is. It was about 10:00 by then, and it was packed with people. There were no lounge chairs near the pool, so we walked around and people-watched. We ran into Norma and Brian and chatted with them for a few minutes. There was a reggae band playing on the outdoor stage, so we listened to the music for awhile.

At 10:30 Tim and I went to the Palladium Theatre to hear the Fun Ashore/Fun Aboard talk. I wanted to hear more about the activities on and off the ship. It was very informative and only lasted about 30-40 minutes. Later we realized we didn't really need to go to the theatre for this, as it was shown over and over again throughout the week on the TV.

After the Fun Ashore/Fun Aboard talk, we went to the deli (again) for corned beef sandwiches, and took them back to our room to eat. These wew very good, and we loved eating at the deli.

We relaxed, watched TV, and I took a short nap. We went out on our balcony to watch the ocean, and we met our neighbors, who happened to be out on their balcony too. Nice people.

Here is the view from the bed looking out at the ocean:

 

 

 

Around 2:30, Brian and Norma called and invited us to their cabin for drinks. We went up to the 8th floor and spent some time in their room with them, and also Sandra and Hameed were there. We had a good time! We liked their 8th floor cabin, which was a lot like our cabin, but their balcony view was a lot different from ours. They were towards the front of the ship on the 8th floor. Tim and I were in the middle of the ship on the 6th floor. It was neat seeing things from Norma and Brian's higher balcony.

Around 4:00, Tim and I went back to our cabin because I needed plenty of time to get myself ready for our first formal dinner in the main dining room. I knew there would be professional photographers taking pictures, and I wanted a few formal pictures of Tim and I.

By 5:30, Tim and I were both ready. I wore a black skirt, and a beaded black top. Tim wore black dockers type pants, and a black and grey striped bottondown. We had a silk tie for Tim, but when he put it on, it was WAY too small. It was too short no matter how many times he re-did it. Wardrobe malfunction. I told him to skip the tie, and he was more than happy to toss it aside.

We walked down the hallway and got in the elevator to go downstairs get our pictures taken. We were a little confused at first as to where the photographers were located, but after asking around, we found them. We picked several backgrounds, and we had several pics taken at each background. The pictures were free to take, then later they would be printed and we could choose to buy any that we wanted.

After picture taking, we headed towards the Universe dining room to find our table and our server, Achmed.

Tim sitting at our table in the dining room (formal/elegant night):

 

 

 

 

The menu on the formal night is really good, and I had a hard time deciding what to order. Tim and I both had a Greek salad (very good!), and Tim ate lobster and shrimp for his meal. I ordered the prime rib and a baked potato, and it was WONDERFUL!! It was one of my favorite meals in the MDR.

 

My view from our table in the dining room:

 

 

 

Instead of ordering dessert, Achmed and a few other waiters brought our wedding cake to us, and sang LOUDLY "Happy Honeymoon to you" to the tune of "Happy Birthday". It was cute and fun!

We blew out the candles, and Achmed cut us a piece of cake to share. (We wanted to share, we were already stuffed!) We took the rest of the cake back to our room with us.

Our wedding cake:

 

 

 

We wanted to go to the 7:30 Comedy club show, so we hurried back to our room after dinner, and changed our clothes. We found our room turned down for the night, our FUN TIMES newsletter, our chocolates, and a cute towel animal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found seats in the comedy lounge, and I ordered a drink from the bar server. The show was about 30 minutes long, and it was OK. He was funny but it was the kid friendly show, and I had a feeling the later "adult-only" show would be funnier. He seemed to struggle with subjects to talk/joke about and much of his 30 minutes was about food. Too bad we were again exausted, we would have to try to catch one of the later adult comedy shows sometime during our cruise.

Back to the room, we saw the sunset from our balcony, and then we caught a few minutes of Dancing With the Stars, one of our shows we watch at home.

Sunset on our first sea day:

 

 

Tim and I had packed big thermal cups in our suitcases, and we were glad we did . After watching DWTS, we went up to the Lido deck to refill our cups. We kept our cups full throughout the whole cruise with ice water, lemonaid and iced tea.

We stopped in the internet cafe on the way back to our room for the night. I found out I could access the Carnival website for free while we were at sea. My best friend and I used their free message boards to keep in touch while we were gone, and I wanted to check to see if she had written me a message. Yes, she had, and I was happy to hear all was well at home. This turned out to be a great way to be able to keep in touch while we were gone.

Tim and I were back in our room and ready for bed by 10:30. We packed our tote bag for Grand Turk the next day, and I downloaded our pictures from the day into my laptop.

We filled out our little breakfast card for the morning and put it on the outside door handle of our cabin. We had ordered coffee, cereal, toast and bagels to be delivered to our room between 5:00 and 5:30 AM. We needed to be up early for our day in Grand Turk. OUR FIRST ISLAND!!

Again, the gental swaying of the ship put us to sleep easily.

[mountainbreeze]

MAY 4 - GRAND TURK

 

 

Tim and I were both up at 5:00 AM......our room service breakfast showed up at 5:30. WOW! I like this!! We ate, showered, dressed, and made sure we had everything we needed for the day packed in our tote bag. Sunglasses, sunscreen, towels, baggies to collect sand, money, drivers licenses, chapstick, maps.......

 

I want to stop and mention here that on this morning I took a very cold shower! I assumed the hot water was being used up by other passengers, and I really needed my morning shower. I can't start my day without a shower so I braved the cold and suffered through it.

 

After my COLD shower, I put on the nice white robe that carnival had in the room for us. (one for each of us!) I loved this robe! I found it very convenient to wear while I was digging for clothes to wear, and I wore it every day after I took a shower.

 

I got dressed and we watched the sunrise from our balcony, and we also watched our approach to Grand Turk. Our first island!!

 

 

 

By 7:00, when they began to let us off the ship, Tim and I were waiting on Deck 0.

The island of Grand Turk is only 7 miles long and 1.5 miles wide. It's located just below the bahamas. Tim and I planned to rent a golf cart and check out the island, then we wanted to find a beach.

 

As we got off the ship, we saw Brian on his balcony taking pics of Grand Turk:

 

 

 

We walked down the long dock, and into the Port area.

 

 

 

 

We walked through the port shops and stores, and out towards the main road. We saw the golf carts parked ahead, and we walked over to them. After filling out some paperwork (name, address, etc..) we were given our golf cart and a map. Now we were on our own!!

We headed down the street, and I was really nervous since we not only had to navagate a strange place, but the steering wheel was on the wrong side of the golf cart, AND we had to drive on the WRONG side of the road!

Very strange indeed, but Tim did just fine, and before long we were heading toward the lighthouse at the far end of the island. Along the way, since it was still early in the morning, we saw schoolchildren wearing uniforms and walking to school. Most of them waved to us, and we waved back.

 

Grand Turk looked like this at 7:15 in the morning:

 

 

 

We also saw animals walking along the road. We saw goats, chickens, dogs, and horses.

 

 

 

When we got to the lighthouse area, we parked the golf cart in the little parking lot, and walked into the little park. We took pics of the lighthouse and the displays.

 

[mountainbreeze]

GRAND TURK CONTINUED:

 

Tim and I were on a mission at the lighthouse, we wanted to find a geocache on Grand Turk!

In case you don't know, a geocache is a small treasure that is hidden (usually in a park) for people to find. Tim and I look for geocaches near our house, and we thought it would be fun to try to find one or two while we were on the islands.

You can go to geocaching.com to find our more about it, and to find geocaches near your house. Its a cheezy game, but Tim and I have a lot of fun looking for these all over.

We had printed our paper with clues so we could look for the geocache near the lighthouse, and we had a good idea where it was going to be, because we had looked at the map earlier. We walked over to the area where we thought it would be, and using the clues, we found the geocache hanging inside of some bushes.

Here I am looking for the geocache:

 

 

 

And this is what the geocache looked like:

 

 

 

This was a small geocache, with only a rolled up logbook inside for us to sign. Many times, the geocache is a larger container with trade items inside. The items you will find inside are small toys, keychains, coins, and other odds and ends that people leave in there. The rule is that you can take an item from the cache, but you have to replace it with another item (small toy, coin, etc...). Since there were no trade items, Tim signed the logbook with our names and the date we were there.

After we signed the logbook and replaced the cache, Tim and I walked back through the lighthouse park, and I took the opportunity to pose with this pirate:

 

 

 

I just LOVE pirates!!

 

We got back in our golf cart and drove off to explore more of the island.

We drove past the replica of the John Glenn space capsule, THE FRIENDSHIP 7, which landed in the waters near Grand Turk:

 

 

 

and we found a place called Conch World Pronounced "Conk"). This was a series of colored buildings, and a little museum, where they raised baby conch shells into bigger conch shells.

 

 

 

Very interesting, and after spending a little time there, we set out in our golf cart again.

Now we wanted to find a beach!!! Tim and I both wanted to wade in the water.

[mountainbreeze]

GRAND TURK CONTINUED:

 

We decided to stop at a public beach called Governor's beach, and wade in the water for a few minutes. After reading the signs to make sure this was a free beach, Tim and I walked toward the water.

We dropped our tote bag and our towels down on a couple of lounge chairs near the water. Soon, a man came up to us and wanted $10.00 each for the use of the chairs. Since Tim and I were only planning to stay for a few minutes, we took our stuff off the chairs and put them on the sand a few feet away from the chairs.

Governor's beach turned out to be a good idea. As I waded in the water, I found quite a few seashells and a lot of sea glass.

 

We were always in view of our ship, since the island is so small.

 

There I am, wading in the water looking for seashells.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had heard about seaglass, but had never seen it before. I noticed little colored pieces of glass, and as I began to collect them I realized they were very smooth and didn't have any sharp edges.

 

Later, after we got home, we googled "seaglass" and found these are broken bottles, plates, cups, and even old medicine bottles that have been tumbling in the sea for 40-50 years until it becomes smooth. At some point, it washes toward the shore.

I spent about 20 minutes collecting seaglass and seashells, and little pieces of coral that came rolling in with the waves.

Here is some of the coral and seashells I found on Governors Beach:

 

 

 

 

And here is some of the seaglass I found:

 

 

 

We collected sand in a baggie, and stashed our seashells, seaglass and coral in another baggie. (Yes, I brought plenty of baggies)

We dried off, and got back into our golf cart. Now we were headed to Jack's Shack. This is a restaurant/bar type place on the beach, and we had plans to meet some of our new friends there around lunchtime.

When we got to Jack's Shack, we realized this was a wonderful little place! Gift shop, clean restrooms, bar, food, beach, music.......And we were on a tiny little island in the middle of nowhere, without a care in the world. What more could we ask for??

Tim and I decided to rent chairs, and we found 2 chairs and an umbrella in a perfect spot on the beach. The chairs were $5.00 each, and the umbrella was $10.00. We decided Tim needed the umbrella, as he was going to burn if he sat in the sun too long. He was still pretty white from our long Kansas winter. I had spent some time fake-baking before we left, but Tim refused.

AHHH.......what a nice day this is!

 

 

 

 

While we were on the beach, Tim decided he wanted to return the golf cart so we wouldnt have to do it later. I stayed with our chairs and our stuff, while Tim went off to return the cart. It was a short drive, maybe a half mile. Remember, Grand Turk is only 7 miles long, so everything is close!

Soon I saw my husband walking down the beach toward me, and I went to meet him and walk the rest of the way back with him.