Destiny 4-day (12/6/12) with 3 Fs: FTTF, Friends and…

[BooBooMonkey]

Hi fellow cruisers! Back late yesterday from the 4-day Destiny cruise from Miami to KW and Cozumel. I’ll do the short version (executive summary…lol) of my review first for those who don’t care to see the details and pictures. Then, will go on with some details later. Will be from memory, as this time I didn’t journal it all during the cruise, like I usually do. That is mostly because the 3rd "F" from my subject line happened.

I’ll get to the 3rd “F” later on, so as not to put a damper on a review of what was a really good cruise, all in all!

Background:

I am a mid-40’s wife, mom (new granny too) who usually travels with DH and/or family. This was my 13th cruise, this time with a group of gals who were mostly newbies. Knew a couple of them, but the others were friends of friends, etc., ages 18-60!!!

Usually cruise Carnival, but have done NCL 4 times and Costa once. Have done cruises 3-7 days in length—usually 4-5 days. See signature line for details and links to past reviews.

Flew Delta with a quick stop in ATL and arrived early afternoon into FLL. Fares are less than to MIA and the airport is less intimidating/crowded than MIA. Well worth the $15/pp shuttle with SAS Transport to Miami—about 35 minutes away. They offer a great service, which I’ve used before.

Stayed at the Holiday Inn Port of Miami. Our room on the 8th floor, facing Bayside and the port, was ready when we arrived around 2:30pm. Nice beds, excellent view, and great location. staff were very friendly and helpful. Renovations still going on there, but we did not care much about that (some would). Bayside across the street was a great place to hang out, eat, shop, etc. Room $153 online.

Thursday morning, woke up to a sunrise over the bay and our ship in dock looking at us! $10 taxi ride plus tip to port, which took about 10 minutes. We arrived at 10:40 or so, and were through security and up to the check-in within minutes. FTTF on our boarding passes was instantly recognized downstairs. Once we got upstairs, they put us in the regular line with a "Zone 2" boarding card, but I quickly realized that was a mistake and walked over to the FTTF line to get checked in. Our boarding card said "Priority Boarding" instead of the Zone 2 they had originally given us.

Ship seemed to be late about an hour with everything that day. People were still getting OFF after 11:00. That was a theme that day—everything was delayed by an hour—muster drill, sail-away, etc. Anyway, we boarded at 11:44 am, right after the weddings and Platinum/suite guests. I know it was 11:44 because when the service desk called me the next day to ask about our FTTF experience, they said that was what time we boarded. Almost everything about the FTTF was very nice to have. Just a couple of small errors that didn't detract from overall value. More on that later.

Trying hard to keep this short! Service was excellent all cruise. We did any time dining, but requested the same wait team each time (lunch and dinner) after they were great the first night. Only had to wait for a table with them the last night (20 minutes). Food was excellent, but I know what to stay away from. Didn’t do the buffet, but my friend liked it a lot. Room service was good and fast the two times I used it. Stewards were friendly, remembered our names, and efficient in that special "magic" way they are. Casino staff were friendly and helpful, although the bar service got a bit slow later on when two of my group had a drinks-on-us card the last 2 days. I didn’t even know they had those on this ship/or on 4-day cruises.

Ship: It is already being renovated, as others have mentioned. Our room/floor had the cosmetic changes already done. Cabin 2995 on Main deck (not by choice--more on that later) was fine. Flat screen TV, new carpet, more subdued color scheme. Went to Riviera deck once and noticed the difference as it still had the old carpet, etc. Public areas seemed clean and well-maintained. Most everything seemed to be in working order (except the laundry room dryers on deck 2—more on that later).

Itinerary leaves a lot to be desired with a 7a-2p stop in Key West and 2p-10p in Cozumel. I didn’t pick this, but went because others were going. Love KW and Coz, but the times on this trip were strange and too short. Booked City View Trolley online for KW ($19), but ended up walking most of the time anyway to shop and sight see (been there before 3x). Did the Carnival-sponsored Ruins and Beach tour in Cozumel—mostly because I was with new cruisers and the time was late in the day (normally would have got a taxi to an all-inclusive, or something else on my own). That tour was actually pretty good for $60/pp. The beach you end up at had good food, but at steep prices.

Casino was good to my new cruiser friends, but not me :rolleyes:. That’s OK, I had fun anyway. Met lots of friends! More later, and photos to come. Let me know if you have specific questions and I will try to answer.

 

[alymb03]

Glad to hear the main deck is part of the group already renovated. We are trying our first 1a with portholes in January! Cant wait to hear more!

[Cruzin_Susan]

Can't wait to read your detailed review and see pictures. :D

[kerrytens]

I'm looking forward to the rest of your review too, BooBoo. I always enjoy the ones you write.

[sunraiser]

booboo,

 

We plan to book Sunshine in summer. How was the bedding? CCL changed new beds and mattress, or kept the old one?

 

Thanks,

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for the shorten review, but looking forward to a full one later.

[Chef P]

Sailing her next Monday and cannot wait or the rest of your review..

[BooBooMonkey]

Hello again cruisers! My sincerest apologies for leaving you hanging for the complete review! Have been extremely busy after the cruise, plus the 4th “F” I mentioned kicked my behind for over a week after we got back! Finally got the pictures uploaded to the photobucket and have some time today, so here goes!

 

 

We flew in the day before, which I always try to do in case there’s bad weather or something. I have done the flight into FLL instead of MIA for cruises out of POM a couple times. Fares are less and if you’ve ever been to MIA airport, you know what a cluster it is! We had plenty of time to explore the area around the Holiday Inn, POM and Bayside. I highly recommend you stay there or nearby if you have an afternoon/evening to kill before your cruise. Last time, DH and I stayed in FLL and drove down to the port in the morning. I liked it much better staying right there in Miami. Bayside is an open-air mall with lots of shops and restaurants, right across from the Holiday Inn. The Intercontinental hotel was also nearby, as is American Airlines arena where the Miami Heat play ball.

 

View of the Holiday Inn from entrance to Bayside, across the street:

 

View from our 8th floor room. There is a Celebrity (X) ship docked there:

 

Interesting building nearby:

 

Another view out the window:

 

Intercontinental Hotel is also nearby:

 

American Airlines Arena, also right there:

 

After we checked in and admired the view, we decided to walk over to Bayside and find something to eat. Bit of advice—walk to the right side, not the left to find many local restaurants. We made the mistake of going to the left first, and ended up at Hooters, of all places, for lunch (we were starving)! The food was really good, but pricey with 2 (weak) drinks, two side salads, boneless chicken wings, buffalo fried shrimp, loaded tots, and fries for around $60 including tip.

[BooBooMonkey]

These are from around Bayside the afternoon before the cruise.

Vanessa and me each sitting on the seawall behind Bayside:

 

Inlet where boats are docked behind Bayside. You can see this area from some of the restaurants that have both indoor and patio seating.

 

Looking up at me towards the restaurants from the vantage point of the above picture by the water.

[BooBooMonkey]

After lunch, we needed to make a store stop to buy our two bottles of wine to bring aboard the ship. CVS is about 2 blocks from the hotel right there on Biscayne blvd. They sell beer, wine, pop, groceries, etc. We then went back and walked the rest of Bayside where we discovered all the restaurants we could have eaten at instead of a chain that we ended up at! Oh well, maybe next time!

 

We made our way back to the room before heading down to the pool area to relax for a while. Due to the ongoing construction at the hotel, you have to walk down a long service corridor, out into the small parking lot and then in a back door to the pool. They did have security at night out back in the lot. I can see where some complain about the parking situation. It is a very small lot. We found the pool area nice, and we had it all to ourselves that evening and the next morning. I apologize for not taking any pictures of the hotel. Just forgot!

 

A side note about how this girl’s cruise came about—my sister-in-law, Heidi, (new cruiser—lives in another state) told me on Facebook she was planning a cruise with her friend Brenda, and the friend’s daughters a few months ago. I decided I wanted to go, so I recruited a new cruiser from my office, Vanessa, to join me. In the meantime, several friends of my sister-in-law’s friend also booked—friends and friends of friends, etc. We ended up with quite a varied group of 15 or so ladies. Part of the fun was getting to know each other on Facebook for a couple months before hand! Some of our new friends arrived that evening and we all headed to a bar outside at Bayside near the amphitheater, where they were playing live music.

 

Me and a couple of our new friends at the Bayside bar:

 

New friend Marsha and my co-worker Vanessa.

 

Now, I have to tell you, my friend Vanessa had never even been to Florida before this trip. The woman was like a kid in a candy store about EVERYTHING! It was kind of interesting after having been on so many cruises myself, to see the wonder and amazement in her eyes every day! She is also the most outgoing person I have ever met! I am Vanassa’s boss’ boss at work. I told her as soon as we stepped off the plane, “What happens on vacation, stays on vacation!” Let me tell you, she took that to heart—she had WAY more fun than did I, LOL! My SIL Heidi was a newbie too. Having them there definitely made for a very different cruise experience for me (which I will share some of later), in a good way.

After the bar, I was ready for bed and asleep by 11:30. Before that, we took some pics out the window at night. What a view!

 

Night view out our window (sorry this didn't turn out better):

Vanessa taking a pic out the window.

[BooBooMonkey]

Here's the stuff most of you are waiting for...actual cruise info! Well, after a final note about our morning at the hotel:

I was up at the crack of dawn to see our ship already in port outside our window!

 

 

Since there was no free breakfast at the hotel, we walked across to Bayside and bought breakfast at Subway and coffee at Starbucks and brought it back to eat at the pool at the hotel. We had plenty of time to kill, since we planned to grab a cab to port around 10:15. There are cabs across the street waiting.

 

We arrived at port at 10:30-ish where lots of people were still waiting to be picked up from the prior cruise. Cab ride was only $10 and took about 10 minutes. The porters immediately recognized our “Faster to the Fun” luggage tags, so I felt assured our bags would be handled quickly.

 

The first couple steps of the boarding process went quickly, and those working with us also noted we were FTTF and told us to "tell the next person you are FTTF when you get there." No problems with the carry-on wine through security, but Vanessa’s big hoop earrings set off the metal detector! First time I’d ever seen that happen…LOL.

 

Once upstairs to the main check in area, they gave us Zone 2 and told us to get in the line on the right. I thought, hmmm…this can’t be right. I saw a line for Platinum, VIP, FTTF with one family in it. I asked someone and they then sent us over there. So, when they tell you to keep telling the next person that you are FTTF, remember to do it!

 

We were able to add cash to our OBC accounts right there. In the past, I’ve had to wait and do that at the service desk on board. We were in chairs with our “Priority Boarding” cards by 11:00.

 

 

Waiting to board:

 

Now, something was up with the offloading of pax that day, I think. We kept seeing people strolling off even after 11:00! They disembarked and re-embarked the back-to-back people as a group around 11:20. They finally started boarding the weddings and platinum/suite guests around 11:35. We boarded at 11:44. I know it was 11:44 because when the service desk called me the next day to ask about our FTTF experience, they said that was what time we boarded. Anyway, it seemed like everything kept getting later and later as the day went on.

 

A couple notes about FTTF. I purchased it, mostly just to see how it was and to give my friend the “VIP” experience, as well as for the benefit of dropping off the luggage right away. I don’t think anyone else had taken advantage of it this trip (didn’t wee anyone boarding with us)…although there could have been others who came later. Having the dedicated line at the service desk was a very nice touch. I usually go there every day for something or other, so it was nice not to ever have to wait in line. That said, our room was NOT ready when we arrived. In fact, it had white plastic sheeting on the carpet still, probably from the renovations that were ongoing. Ww did leave our carry-ons in the room, but our luggage had NOT arrived. This must have been right around noon. The steward assured us he would get the room ready, but seemed unprepared for FTTF guests—I don’t really think it was his fault though.

 

Anyway, we headed up to the Lido to wait for friends to arrive and meet new friends, while enjoying our first DOD of the trip!

Vanessa:

 

Vanessa and me:

 

A bunch of the "Destinistas":

[BooBooMonkey]

We met some new friends, Sandy and her husband from Orlando. We would run into them several times every day on the Lido, in the casino, and elsewhere. Just the first of many nice folks we encountered along the way! Due to Vanessa’s outgoing nature, we have several homes across the country we’re "welcome to stay at if we’re ever in the neighborhood" …LOL!

 

 

 

 

We went back to our cabin around 2:00, which was (of course) ready by then and our luggage had arrived and had been placed INSIDE our cabin. Not sure if that is part of the FTTF, or maybe the steward was doing us a favor since the room wasn’t ready the first time we were down there. We got ourselves unpacked before heading back up top for more socializing. Muster drill ended up being about an hour late, and then sailaway was maybe 30 minutes after that. It was getting dark by the time we finally got out to sea. Muster was outside by the lifeboats this time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to try and eat at 6:30 with Brenda, her 3 girls, my SIL Heidi, friend Vanessa, and Me. Vanessa and I were waiting outside the Galaxy dining room for dinner until 6:45 but then gave up and decided to be seated. We had anytime dining. That was the first time I’ve done it on Carnival (although NCL has had it for years). I usually schedule dinner on Carnival. This night, Vanessa and I were seated at a two-top between two other two-tops. On one side was a couple from Kansas who were not overly friendly, and on the other was a lovely couple from Orlando (Wanda and her hubby, whose name I can’t remember—we would end up spending quality time with them later too—on Lido and in casino mostly!).

 

Anyway, Vanessa and I were happy to have met them!

 

Our head waiter Goran and his assistants were excellent, so we decided to request them every time we came back to the MDR! That helped keep me from missing having the same wait team like you would with scheduled dining. "Food porn" coming up!

[BooBooMonkey]

My pictures are not in order, and I didn't keep track of which nights were which, so I'm just going to post them all together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BooBooMonkey]

Sister-in-law Heidi on elegant night

 

Friend Vanessa on elegant night

Our waiter, Goran, me, Vanessa on the last night:

 

Wait staff dancing on tables below to the "Apple Bottom Jeans" song...HILARIOUS! Of course, the pic does not do it justice...