Mountainbreeze's B2B Destiny review - long w/ pics

[mountainbreeze]

Just want to tell you that this is an AWESOME review, very well done!

 

Most of all congrats on your marriage & finding your brothers!!

 

Your pics are great to see, the Destiny holds a special place in my heart. I met my hubby when I was a single mom of 2 & we were married in jan of 2000. The Destiny was our family honeymoon & the kids first cruise, very special times....:)

 

 

Cruisenanny! How sweet of you, I appreciate your kind words! I'm glad you like the review!

 

Yes, the Destiny will always be special to me now. She was my first!!! :D

She was a great ship to have a honeymoon on, wasn't she? We will both always have great memories of her, and luckily, we can cruise on her again anytime to relive it if we want to!! :)

[mountainbreeze]

Thank you so much for the wonderful review & your pics are great! I have enjoyed every moment of the review & I wish you & your husband much happiness in the coming years to come.

 

Thank you Tradewinds traveler! How sweet of you, and I'm glad you are enjoying the review!

 

More is on the way!

[cruisenanny]

Cruisenanny! How sweet of you, I appreciate your kind words! I'm glad you like the review!

 

Yes, the Destiny will always be special to me now. She was my first!!! :D

She was a great ship to have a honeymoon on, wasn't she? We will both always have great memories of her, and luckily, we can cruise on her again anytime to relive it if we want to!! :)

Yes!! I would love to sail on her again, maybe someday! I can't wait to see what you guys choose next, are you both hooked??:D

[Lipz]

Thanks Lipz! I'm so glad you like my review! I promised you I would write one!

 

Yours will be coming up soon!!! :) I'm so happy for you! How is the planning going??

 

 

You MORE than lived up to your promise of a review. This is excellent!

Even more exciting of a read is your sharing of meeting your brothers after 45 years. That is awesome and I wish you wonderful time of getting to know them and your extended family.

As for things on our end we are almost at the 2 months to be exact mark. Major things done, we are now just pulling together all the little odds and ends.

[mountainbreeze]

dh and i did a b2b on the freedom in october........we were told we did not have to go to the muster drill..........we just had to be in our cabin and not walking around the ship until the drill was over.............

cheryl

 

 

cherjoe5, nice that you didn't have to go to the 2nd muster drill! We had heard that we may be able to get permission to skip ours, but we couldn't get anyone to grant permission. (really, we didn't try very hard either) :)

[mountainbreeze]

You are doing a great job with this review. Destiny was also our first ship so we have an emotional attachment to her as well.

To return the favor of the Liberty pic in an earlier post, here is one of the Destiny embarking last Jan while we waited aboard Liberty for our turn:

 

 

 

 

dodger501, Yes, I think Tim and I will always feel the same kind of attachment to her as you do! :) We had such a good time!!!

 

Thank you for posting the picture! She sure is pretty!!!

[mountainbreeze]

I love it here too. :) That's why I'd never move anywhere else.

 

How did it go meeting your brothers???

 

 

mrsgomez2011 - You sure are lucky to get to live in Miami! :) I wish!!!

 

My meeting went great with my brothers! See my earlier post to you about it, and a post from before that where I posted pics! Thanks for asking!

[mountainbreeze]

I just have to tell you that this review is just AMAZING! Congrats on your wedding! The Destiny was my first cruise and I actually met my husband on her. We were assigned to the same dinner table! We married on the Sensation and in just a week and a half we are cruising the Jamacia/Grand Cayman trip on the Destiny again!! I can't wait for the rest of your review! It's been 7 years since we've been on the Destiny and that time it was to st.thomas, Aruba, Barbados and Dominica... so a totally different experience!

 

Congrats again! and Thanks for such a great review and great pics!

 

Thanks Mrs_JS! I'm glad you like my review! I'm having fun writing and reliving it!

 

You met your husband at the dinner table on the Destiny? How very cool!! Now THAT is a good story!!

 

And you are leaving in a week and a half for Jamaica and Grand Cayman??!! OH, I"M SO JEALOUS!!!! :) Are you going to come back and post a review? What are you planning to do at each of the ports?

[mountainbreeze]

Congrats on your marriage!!!

This is such a fabulous picture... I will be doing this in 32 days!!! I can't wait.

Grand Turks is an island I want to cruise to one day....

It looks so beautiful, I put in my favorites that bar that you guys ate and sat by with water... One day, I will be sailing to it...

Thanks..

 

 

Texnewbie, Thank You! Yes, this is sure a great picture! It will be hanging on our livingroom wall very soon!! It's one of our favorites. :)

 

And yes, If you ever go to Grand Turk, please keep Jack's Shack in mind. It was a fabulous place to hang out. It was one of my favorite parts of the entire B2B cruise!

 

Have fun on your upcoming cruise! What ports will you visit, and what ship are you going on?

[mountainbreeze]

Without a doubt one of the best reviews I have ever read on CC!!!:D I am waiting for you to finish so I can continue my first B2B LOL I am so happy for you and your new found brothers, you have many wonderful years to enjoy eachother and I hope you do!!!! Also, congratulations on your wedding, my DH are celebrating our 20th, June 23rd on the Glory and are counting down the days.:p Happy Cruising

 

 

julescruisin, Thank you for the sweet compliment and your kind words! I'm so glad you are enjoying my review!

 

I think your post was the last one I was planning to comment on tonight and now I am going to continue on with the review.

 

Have a great time on your 20th aniversary cruise! WOW! It's coming soon! What ports are you visiting?

[mountainbreeze]

Yes!! I would love to sail on her again, maybe someday! I can't wait to see what you guys choose next, are you both hooked??:D

 

Cruisenanny, I just asked Tim if he is hooked. He paused and said he would definitely cruise again! :) OK, maybe it will take another cruise or two before he is hooked, but I'll have fun convincing him!

 

As for me?? Oh yes, I'm hooked!!!:)

[mountainbreeze]

You MORE than lived up to your promise of a review. This is excellent!

 

Even more exciting of a read is your sharing of meeting your brothers after 45 years. That is awesome and I wish you wonderful time of getting to know them and your extended family.

 

As for things on our end we are almost at the 2 months to be exact mark. Major things done, we are now just pulling together all the little odds and ends.

 

Lipz, Yeah, my B-2-B review is more like a book than a review! LOL!

 

Yes, meeting my brothers after searching all these years is a dream come true for me! Keep your eye on my wedding planning blog if you want to see updates on how things are going with them. I have a feeling I will be writing more about them. We are all meeting in St Louis for a huge reunion with our birthfamily.

 

Only 2 months left for you??? That's great! It will all be perfect, and I can't wait to read YOUR review!! :)

 

I'm glad to hear you have all of the major stuff taken care of! Thats a sigh of relief, huh??!! Keep us posted on your progress! I do check your blog, you know!!:)

[mountainbreeze]

MAY 8 - MOTHER'S DAY - SEA DAY

 

 

Tim and I woke up at 7:00. Well, we were getting a little better at sleeping in! At least it wasn't 5:30!! It was a beautiful morning out on the ocean. The sun was bright, the sky was blue, and there were white puffy clouds!

 

 

Tim and I lazed around, and eventually took showers and got dressed. This was a nice start to our day, we had nothing planned except for formal night in the MDR at 6:00 and we were happy about that.

 

 

On this lazy morning, we decided to go to the MDR, and order our breakfast from a menu.

 

We decided to bring along our FUN TIMES for that day and also our little newspaper that listed and explained all of the excursions we could choose from for the upcoming ports. Tim and I thought we could talk about excursions over breakfast, and then go sign up for something after we ate.

 

When we got to the MDR, we asked the hostess if Achmed was there that morning. He was, and we were quickly seated in his section. He was so happy to see us at breakfast for the first time! Plenty of high-fives and smiles going around.

 

 

Soon after we were seated, 3 other couples were also seated at our table. Oh! I forgot that we would be seated with others. Looks like Tim and I wouldn't be going over the excursion newspaper at breakfast. No big deal, we're friendly! I had heard a lot of people meet some really nice people when they share a table with strangers. It might be fun to have breakfast with others, we could meet some nice people.

 

 

I said "Good Morning!" to each couple as they sat down. (some of them looked surprised when I greeted them) I also said "Happy Mother's Day!" to each of the ladies ( a little more surprised looks). After we all ordered, there was absolutely no conversation at the table. Awkward. I started conversation by asking each couple where they were from? and sometimes I asked other questions like: had they cruised before? excited about Jamaica tomorrow!? And soon enough there was awkward strained conversation at the table. It was a little weird.

 

 

The couple across from Tim and I were from Ireland. I loved their accents, but they NEVER smiled. Not once during the whole breakfast. The couple to our right were from Florida. They were closer in age to Tim and I and conversation with them went OK. Much better than with the other two couples.

 

 

The third couple, on our right, was from Canada. Again, strained conversation. At one point, I had said that Tim and I were on our honeymoon, and the Canada lady asked me "Oh! Is that why you are so bubbly and happy??" I answered "Yes!" But I thought, NO, this is pretty much how I always am!

 

 

Maybe I was too happy for these people?? And really, I wasn’t being over-the-top annoyingly happy. I was just being my normal self.

 

 

Hmmm.... This was the strangest breakfast I had ever had. Achmed was our savior each time he came to refill water or juice galsses.

 

 

Breakfast was finally served, and it was good. Everyone was quiet while we ate. Tim and I were done eating first, because Achmed had served us first. We both looked at each other and we knew we were both thinking the same thing. LETS GET OUT OF HERE!!!

 

 

We said goodbye to the 3 somber couples as they were still finishing their breakfast, and we said goodbye to Achmed. We would see him at dinner tonight at 6:00. We practically ran out of the dining room and we both heaved a sigh of relief as soon as we were out of the doors! Man, that was ROUGH!!

 

 

We appreciated our perfect little booth for two so much more after that strained breakfast. Tim and I are sooooo easygoing, we feel we are friendly.......we have always made friends easily (example: Norma, Brian, Sandra, Hameed) and we have NO IDEA what the deal was with the 3 couples at our breakfast table.

 

 

OK, nevermind the 3 couples...........they can have a somber cruise if they want to, but I'm having fun!

 

 

Tim and I spent a few minutes talking about excursions as we walked around the ship. We finally decided we wanted to book the TRANOPY ADVENTURE on MYSTIC MOUNTAIN for Jamaica for the next day. We went to the Excursion kiosk on deck 3, and we had two tickets printed. The cost was $120.00 each, and it was charged to our S & S account.

 

 

We wanted to spend the rest of our morning on the lido deck, with all of the people and the noise, and the music. We went up there, and it was in full swing! People everywhere, and we grabbed the first open table we found. As the morning went on, we hopped over a few tables when a better one opened up. I wanted to be in the sun, but I had no luck. We had a table in the shade, but at least we had a table!

 

 

We sat at our table and people watched, and listened to the band play reggae music. Achmed (our awesome MDR server) was there, helping to get the lunch buffet opened, and he spotted us and came over and talked with us for awhile. We also saw Norma and Brian a few times, they had scored to lounge chairs in the sun on the upper deck overlooking all of the action.

 

 

The highlight of people watching that morning was this family, who all came to the pool that morning with their white bathrobes on. It was a HUGE family and every single one of them had a white Carnival robe on. Very noticeable, and this family was all over the lido deck with the robes on. They were a very happy family, and they were having a great time!

One of the men with the robe family liked to wear his long black dress socks pulled up to his knees while he was in the hot tub. Then he wore them soaking wet all over the lido deck. It was great to watch all this unfold. Great people-watching material.

 

I took many pictures of the goings on and activity on the Lido deck. Unfortunately, almost all of my pictures from that morning were lost because when I added more photos to that days file on my laptop, I deleted the ones already there, including all of my morning pictures from Mother's Day. Yes, It was my fault! I even deleted pics of the family in robes and the man in the socks. Too bad!

 

I did manage to save this picture I took of Noonan, our cruise director. He was out on the Lido deck having that drink making contest.

 

I really liked Noonan!

 

 

 

At noon, the lunch buffet opened up. Tim stayed at our table while I got in line. I ate a cheeseburger and french fries. I was pretty hungry and I actually thought my meal was quite good.

 

 

When I got back with my food, Tim went to the deli and got a sandwich.

After we ate, we went back up to our cabin and we both took a 2 hour nap. It sure was a nice lazy day!

 

 

We woke up in the late afternoon, and walked up to deck 10, then went to the other side of the ship to take pictures of Cuba. We were 13 miles away from the island. Yep, those pics were deleted too!

 

 

Soon it was time to get ready for the second formal night we would have on our cruise.

 

 

At 5:20, we went down to deck 3 for picture taking. We stopped at all of the backgrounds and posed for 2-3 pictures at each background. I was hoping for ONE good picture, and we wouldn’t be able to see any of them until tomorrow night.

 

***NOTE: Since tomorrow's post about our Jamaica day is very long and picture intensive, I am going to include our formal night pictures with this post. But really, we didn't get to see these pics or purchase them until the folowing night.

 

From all of pictures we took that night, we narrowed them down to 3 that we wanted to purchase. They are all 8X10's and they were about $22.00 each.

 

Yes, they are cheezy! I love them! We had great fun playing dress-up and taking formal pictures on the ship.

 

Keep in mind, I took a picture of these photos with my cell phone. They aren't blurry in the real photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mountainbreeze]

MAY 8 - SEA DAY - MOTHER'S DAY CONTINUED:

 

 

After picture taking, we walked up to the MDR at 6:00, and had a wonderful dinner. For dessert, the waiters brought out little cakes for all of the ladies. These were SO CUTE! I thought it was a nice thing for them to do for us for Mother's Day.

 

 

 

Then the waiters also brought us each a pink carnation!! I was so impressed! This was a nice touch! Way to go Carnival!!!

 

Here I am with my carnation and my cake:

 

 

 

 

 

The above picture is probably the best picture we have of our little booth by the wall in the MDR.

 

 

Here is Tim:

 

 

 

 

 

Tim and I shared my little cake, and I took my carnation back to our cabin with us.

 

 

Our cabin had been freshened up and the bed turned down while we were at dinner. Another towel animal!

 

We decided to call this a frog-dog:

 

 

 

 

　

　

I put the carnation in a tall glass full of water, and it stayed perfect and in full bloom for the rest of the cruise!

 

 

At 9:45, Tim and I went down to the Comedy club to see Steve White’s adult only show. We found seats, and I ordered a coke with ice. I noticed some young children in the club, and I wondered why their parents had brought them to an adults only show. I was a little worried about what these children would hear. It turned out, I didn’t need to worry. The assistant cruise director, Brandon, made sure all of the children were out of the club before the show started.

 

 

Norma and Brian came in and sat down by us. It was so nice to have made friends on the ship, and we seemed to run into them often!

 

I think the show started at 10:15

 

The show was hilarious!! Tim and I laughed through the whole thing. Steve White is a very funny man!

 

After the show we said goodnight to Norma and Brian, and went back to our cabin.

 

It was the second late night in a row for Tim and I, and we were both very excited to be going to Jamaica tomorrow! Jamaica is one of the places I have ALWAYS wanted to go to. It has been at the top of my list for more than 20 years. I was SO happy I was going tomorrow!

 

We filled out our room service breakfast card and hung it outside on the door, and we were both asleep by 11:30.

[cruisinsly]

Great review! Congrats on your marriage and finding your family! This is a very exciting time for you!!

[mrsgomez2011]

mrsgomez2011, Hi Again! My weekend with my brothers went very well! We talked a lot and spent quality time together. We were amazed at how much alike we all are. Our DNA runs strong!

Their families are wonderful! They all welcomed me with open arms!

When I hugged my brothers goodbye at the airport, I got a little sad. I didn't want to leave them!

After I looked for them for so long, it was really a dream come true to actually meet them. Really, It was huge for me!

 

I'll see them in July when we all take our families to St Louis for a huge family reunion with our birthfamily.

 

I just got caught up on your review!! :D How are you???

 

I'm so happy it went so well. I definitely want to hear about the reunion. My dad had 8 brothers and sisters, 3 of which he knew all given up for adoption. It wasn't until a few years ago that he started meeting the rest and talking to his father for the first time (he's now passed but his dad did clear up a lot of things for him) It's an incredible experience.

 

Loving the cruise review!!! This is an amazing read!!

[texnewbie]

Texnewbie, Thank You! Yes, this is sure a great picture! It will be hanging on our livingroom wall very soon!! It's one of our favorites. :)

 

And yes, If you ever go to Grand Turk, please keep Jack's Shack in mind. It was a fabulous place to hang out. It was one of my favorite parts of the entire B2B cruise!

 

Have fun on your upcoming cruise! What ports will you visit, and what ship are you going on?

 

I'm getting really excited about my cruise, we are going on Carnival Conquest, 2nd time for me and I'm surprising my 17 year old daughter with the trip!!!!! She's never cruised before.... It's going to be so much fun. We are sailing to Nassau Bahamas, Freeport Bahamas, and your favorite place Key West....

 

I can't wait...

Texnewbie

[abisha]

I love the pics of you and Tim..I dont' think they are cheezy at all...I love the one where you have your arms stretched apart on the "railing"..very lovely. :)

[mountainbreeze]

Great review! Congrats on your marriage and finding your family! This is a very exciting time for you!!

 

 

Thanks cruisinsly! YES! You sure are correct that this is an exciting time for me! :)

[mama_2_boys]

You weren't kidding about the "interesting" breakfast! We have had a couple of experiences like that also. It's pretty painful. That's why we always try to ask for a table for 2 (or 4 on our last cruise with our kids). We like meeting new people but just don't like chancing it...we like to eat too much. Haha!

 

Great formal pics! I especially loved the 1st one...really good! Can't wait for the rest of the review :)

[pacarolinagirl]

Great review & pics. CONGRATS on your wedding & finding your brothers. Yes, you & the one brother look like you should be the set of twins. :) So exciting. Thanks for sharing all of your awesome news with us as well as taking time for the review.

[mountainbreeze]

I just got caught up on your review!! :D How are you???

 

I'm so happy it went so well. I definitely want to hear about the reunion. My dad had 8 brothers and sisters, 3 of which he knew all given up for adoption. It wasn't until a few years ago that he started meeting the rest and talking to his father for the first time (he's now passed but his dad did clear up a lot of things for him) It's an incredible experience.

 

Loving the cruise review!!! This is an amazing read!!

 

 

mrsgomez2011 ~ If you want to keep up with all of the reunion news, keep an eye on my wedding planning blog, I will post news there or (even better) I may start a new blog for the reunion news. Either way, I'll post where to go find the news on the wedding planning blog. You can also friend me on FB if you want to!!:)

 

I'll be back soon with more review. The Jamaica pics are taking awhile to sort through and resize. I think the next part of the review will be more pictures than words!

[Mrs_JS]

Thanks Mrs_JS! I'm glad you like my review! I'm having fun writing and reliving it!

 

You met your husband at the dinner table on the Destiny? How very cool!! Now THAT is a good story!!

 

And you are leaving in a week and a half for Jamaica and Grand Cayman??!! OH, I"M SO JEALOUS!!!! :) Are you going to come back and post a review? What are you planning to do at each of the ports?

 

 

We have not booked any excursions yet. We actually just booked the cruise a few days ago! We've heard good things about the sting rays in Grand Cayman and the falls in Jamaica.

 

And yes, we braved sitting at a table with other couples. My sister and I were sat with 2 other pairs of girls in their 20s on spring break and the 7th & 8th at our table was my now husband and his dad.... with 6 20-something gals! Lucky them! ;)

 

Love your review. Can't wait for more!

[mountainbreeze]

I'm getting really excited about my cruise, we are going on Carnival Conquest, 2nd time for me and I'm surprising my 17 year old daughter with the trip!!!!! She's never cruised before.... It's going to be so much fun. We are sailing to Nassau Bahamas, Freeport Bahamas, and your favorite place Key West....

 

I can't wait...

Texnewbie

 

Those ports sound great! Your daughter is lucky to get such a surprise! When are you planning on telling her about the cruise??

[mountainbreeze]

I love the pics of you and Tim..I dont' think they are cheezy at all...I love the one where you have your arms stretched apart on the "railing"..very lovely. :)

 

 

Thanks Abisha! We had a lot of fun taking the formal pics. I like the one with the fake ship railing too! :)