Carnival Destiny 3/11/07 Review

[TennisLover]

[quote name='croozlady']I was on the Destiny the week of 2/18/07 and there was no Funvision for us either.. we did get an interim S&S bill mid week.

We also did not have to activate our S&S card... it was activated at check-in...

Great cruise... you are all going to love it!!!!!!!!!![/quote]

Were there a lot of kids the week you were on? We are planning to book for the same week (Presidents Week) with our kids (will be 15 and 12).

Also -- how was the night life? I love Carnival because it is the FUN SHIP!

[Bru92]

[quote name='Ashleezmom']Mr. Duck...Not to be a pain...but i was still wondering about the S & S card having to be activated in the Dining Room. I thought maybe it was a specific problem or issue regarding the Cards/equipment on that day. Did all passengers have to do this? I agree with you that this is the last thing we want to do when we are ready to party!![/QUOTE]

I was also on this cruise and did not have to go through the extra step. The credit card was used at check-in and the cards were immediately active. We also had two cabins (under two different names and reservations) on one credit card. Perhaps it has to do with the length of the check-in line.

The carpets were being replaced a couple of cabins per day. They called us to ask permission and my wife asked them to call back later. They never did and never replaced the carpet either.

The Funvision thing and carpet had nothing to do with each other as they had a conventional remote control in the cabin so there were no buttons to perform any special functions.

One other thing different than our prior Destiny cruise.... first night dinner. On the last cruise, they handed us a seating time card at check-in. This time, they just told us to show up at 5:45. Well, we wanted a later seating so we asked when the second seating was and showed up at 7:30. In the Capers, it just listed dinner as open seating from 5:30 to 8:30.

As you may or may not know, your dining room, table number, and time are pre-printed on your sign and sail card at check-in. You may wish to look that over early upon embarkation and see the Maitre 'd Hotel if you didn't get the seating you wanted. His station is open for about 2 hours on the first afternoon.

Muster drill is at 9:35.

Mike in Ohio

[marygal]

Thanks for the great review. We will be going in October and I am glad to hear you had a great time!!

[Bru92]

[quote name='TennisLover']Were there a lot of kids the week you were on? We are planning to book for the same week (Presidents Week) with our kids (will be 15 and 12).

Also -- how was the night life? I love Carnival because it is the FUN SHIP![/QUOTE]

Yes, quite a few young people because of spring break in many areas. The Camp Carnival activities were pretty busy.

Night life was pretty hopping with a lot of 20 somethings aboard. Learned some new beer songs!

Mike.

[Hawaii697]

[quote name='MzOhioLady']Don, thanks so much for the review. I can't wait until its my turn in September. I have one question for you. Something that I noticed today to be exact. I had been looking forward to doing a shore excursion in Barbados. Its called the Jolly Roger Pirate Party Boat, its operated thru Carnival and was $39. I had been telling some of my travel partners about this tour because I did it back in 2001. It was listed under Barbados Shore Excursions all last week and previous weeks. Now today all of a sudden its not listed there anymore. Do you happen to know what happened to it? Or if they have replaced it with something else? Does it show up in the Carnival Capers for Barbados? Just curious and need to know if I should be looking at other excursions now in Barbados. Thanks![/quote]

Ms. Ohio Lady, I just double check and Jolly Roger is listed. [URL]http://www.carnivalcruiselines.com/ShoreExcursionDetails.aspx?portcode=BDS&excursionname=The+Original+Jolly+Roger+Party+Cruise&excursioncode=413014[/URL]

The Jolly Roger was the absolute best time when we sailed on the Destiny in 2005. :D Smooth sailin'

[big_duck]

After boarding, I went into to automated cruise admin mode and bought my 2 DDs coke cards without thinking. :o

In retrospect, we spent so little time on board, and with free alternatives, it ended up being a waste of money for this cruise.

[jellyfish]

Great review, Thanks! Just wondering were you able to see the Pitons in St. Lucia on arriving to St. Lucia or leaving? Need to know if I need to get up early that day! Thanks.

[big_duck]

[quote name='jellyfish']Great review, Thanks! Just wondering were you able to see the Pitons in St. Lucia on arriving to St. Lucia or leaving? Need to know if I need to get up early that day! Thanks.[/quote]

I took this early in the morning on our way into port from the funnel deck. If we had a starboard cabin I may have been able to get a closer shot earlier.

[URL="http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2513890720071024607dKkAom"][IMG]http://inlinethumb07.webshots.com/838/2513890720071024607S500x500Q85.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[CorbinCatFan]

[quote name='big_duck']No sorry, no supper club on the Destiny.[/quote]

Thanks for the reply. I didn't think so but was hoping:cool: .

Also, thanks for the review, great job.

[cdncruisers3]

[quote name='JXR']Thanks Big Duck,

I will be doing the Destiny in November, and I was wondering who you flew with. Right now, I've got 2 options: either through Toronto (Air Canada) or through Newark (Continental). I would prefer Continental, but AC is cheaper. If you flew A/C, how was your flights?

Thanks,

joanne[/quote]

I was on the same cruise as Big Duck and flew direct via Air Canada from Toronto. No delays. Our flight out of San Juan was at 3:50 p.m. on Sunday - when we got to the airport and saw the long lineups we thought we were going to miss our flight. But that was for US air. As we entered further into the airport we saw the counter for Air Canada and there was nobody in line - it took us about 10 minutes from counter to gate.

[big_duck]

[quote name='cdncruisers3']I was on the same cruise as Big Duck and flew direct via Air Canada from Toronto. No delays. Our flight out of San Juan was at 3:50 p.m. on Sunday - when we got to the airport and saw the long lineups we thought we were going to miss our flight. But that was for US air. As we entered further into the airport we saw the counter for Air Canada and there was nobody in line - it took us about 10 minutes from counter to gate.[/quote]

I found out today that apparently USAir was having issues with their systems all over the place, explains the long lines for USAir.

[gribb]

[quote name='big_duck']Lenny Halliday (from Great Britain) is the CD. He was a lot of fun and seemed to really care that everyone was having a good time.[/QUOTE]

I have to disagree and some others have too on the destiny march 11 roll call page. After 5 cruise I think he was by far the worse CD I have had. he laughed more at himself than the crowd did.I do agree the ports were outstanding. 6 id checks was way to much too.

[Ashleezmom]

[quote name='Bru92']I was also on this cruise and did not have to go through the extra step. The credit card was used at check-in and the cards were immediately active. We also had two cabins (under two different names and reservations) on one credit card. Perhaps it has to do with the length of the check-in line.

The carpets were being replaced a couple of cabins per day. They called us to ask permission and my wife asked them to call back later. They never did and never replaced the carpet either.

The Funvision thing and carpet had nothing to do with each other as they had a conventional remote control in the cabin so there were no buttons to perform any special functions.

One other thing different than our prior Destiny cruise.... first night dinner. On the last cruise, they handed us a seating time card at check-in. This time, they just told us to show up at 5:45. Well, we wanted a later seating so we asked when the second seating was and showed up at 7:30. In the Capers, it just listed dinner as open seating from 5:30 to 8:30.

As you may or may not know, your dining room, table number, and time are pre-printed on your sign and sail card at check-in. You may wish to look that over early upon embarkation and see the Maitre 'd Hotel if you didn't get the seating you wanted. His station is open for about 2 hours on the first afternoon.

Muster drill is at 9:35.

Mike in Ohio[/quote]

Thanks for the info Mike especially about the dining room.

[Rigger]

[quote name='gribb']I have to disagree and some others have too on the destiny march 11 roll call page. After 5 cruise I think he was by far the worse CD I have had. he laughed more at himself than the crowd did.I do agree the ports were outstanding. 6 id checks was way to much too.[/quote]

I would have to agree. Lenny's heart may have been in the right place but I would rank him as the most annoying thing on the trip. His debarkation talk was about two times longer than it needed to be.

The ID checks did get a little tedious!

Rigger (Mike)

[Rigger]

[quote name='big_duck']Your welcome.

That may well be the case, but this is a brand new procedure they are trying and may not have been in affect for your cruise. When I was being "activiated", the person doing it needed supervisor help to figure out how to put 2 cabins on 1 account, so this may have been the first week of this procedure.

Did any of your fellow pax comment on having to go through this?[/quote]

We experienced a little glitch in trying to get everything billed to one cabin. It did appear as though some people were being trained. No real biggie though; the supervisor and worker were in great spirits and were very helpful.

Rigger (Mike)

[Rigger]

[quote name='Bru92']I was also on this cruise and did not have to go through the extra step. The credit card was used at check-in and the cards were immediately active. We also had two cabins (under two different names and reservations) on one credit card. Perhaps it has to do with the length of the check-in line.

The carpets were being replaced a couple of cabins per day. They called us to ask permission and my wife asked them to call back later. They never did and never replaced the carpet either.

The Funvision thing and carpet had nothing to do with each other as they had a conventional remote control in the cabin so there were no buttons to perform any special functions.

One other thing different than our prior Destiny cruise.... first night dinner. On the last cruise, they handed us a seating time card at check-in. This time, they just told us to show up at 5:45. Well, we wanted a later seating so we asked when the second seating was and showed up at 7:30. In the Capers, it just listed dinner as open seating from 5:30 to 8:30.

As you may or may not know, your dining room, table number, and time are pre-printed on your sign and sail card at check-in. You may wish to look that over early upon embarkation and see the Maitre 'd Hotel if you didn't get the seating you wanted. His station is open for about 2 hours on the first afternoon.

Muster drill is at 9:35.

Mike in Ohio[/quote]

We got the call to have the carpet done one day and told them no problem. We were going to be off the ship for the day so they came in and replaced it while we were gone. No real difficulty; maybe a little extra carpet fuzz floating around.

Rigger (Mike)

[Rigger]

I agree with Big Duck; this was a good cruise and the islands were great. Our Island experiences were:

St.Thomas - went with Godfrey tours for 2 hours of shopping and then off to Sapphire Beach for 3 hours. I have done Megans Bay twice and Coki beach once before and Sapphire beats them hands down. It is a beautiful beach that is less touristy than the others. The snorkeling was great - lots of live coral and we even encountered two Green Sea Turtles and a stingray.

Dominica - we did the tour with Beno like Big Duck. This was great but no for the faint of heart when it comes to heights and twisty roads.

Barbados - we went with Jason O'Neal and his Shasa catamaran tour ([URL="http://www.shasacatamarancruises.com"]www.shasacatamarancruises.com[/URL]). This was incredable. We were picked up at the ship driven to the beach and picked up by Jason. We spent from 10:00 to 3:00 on the catamaran - this included swimming with the turtles, snorkeling at a wreck and reef and it included lunch and drinks. The real highlite of the trip. Jason made it a very personal experience and we had some opportunity to swim and snorkel in a private little area.

St. Lucia - Cosol's tour on this island. We ended up with his brother Yellowbird and the day was great. We packed in a lot of sites, eating, picture taking and snorkeling at the Jalousie Spa & resort between the Pitons. A fantastic day with some great interaction with the locals - Big Momma's fish cakes, hot sauce and johhny cakes were fabulous!

Antigua - the island is known for it's beaches so we caught a taxi and went to Darkwood Beach. We just lounged around, did some swimming and had a few drinks at the small beach side restaurant. Very relaxing. We did a little shopping when we got back to town in the afternoon.

The final day was on the ship. And as it was mentioned earlier, I got out there early and staked out a claim on some chairs for the family. It was a beautiful hot day and after about 8 hours of lounging I was baked.

You really can't beat the itinerary of this cruise!

Rigger (Mike)

[CruisinMama27]

This question is for anyone who can answer it.:D What time would you say is a good time to get out to claim you chair on Sat.(at sea day). Would 10am be too later? Thanks:D

[CruisinMama27]

oops....Two misspelled word:p Your and late. Sorry;)

[CruisinMama27]

OH FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!!! I did it again, words not word. PROOFREED!! DAWN,PROOFREAD.HAHAHAHA I know it's not that big a deal but some people can be mean about others misspelling simple words. So, I just wanted to correct myself:D

[big_duck]

[quote name='Rigger'] His debarkation talk was about two times longer than it needed to be.
[/quote]

Standard issue debarkation talk as per other ships I've been on. Even the same jokes. ;)

[coronawomen]

First of all, GREAT review, thanks so much.

A friend of ours just got off Carnival ship out of Florida. He heard that the JOLLY ROGER fun ships/tours - Carnival is getting rid of these. They have had lots of problems with the passengers having to much fun "Rhum fun", that when they get back on board the ship, there is trouble. I guess just a few weeks ago they had to kick a group of 10 passengers off the Destiny who came back from the jolly roger in Barbados and tore up the ship, trashing the pool chairs, then into the bar knocking over stools, and finially back to their rooms where they starting taking the beds apart and throwing them in the hallway.:(
The officers packed up their belongings, and left them at the pier in Barbados.
Could this be why the Jolly roger pirate ship was taken off Barbados?:eek:
Just what I heard. Hope not, cause we do this every cruise we have ever taken, and this time the kids are old enough to join in the fun of the rhum punch.
Anyone hear of this also?:(

[Rigger]

[quote name='big_duck']Standard issue debarkation talk as per other ships I've been on. Even the same jokes. ;)[/quote]

No Kidding, it never really changes. You'd think they would come up with something original. Obviously they all receive the same training.

[Rigger]

[quote name='CruisinMama27']This question is for anyone who can answer it.:D What time would you say is a good time to get out to claim you chair on Sat.(at sea day). Would 10am be too later? Thanks:D[/quote]

Believe it or not, people start early. I was on deck most mornings at around 6:00 am for coffee and there were people out and about. On the Saturday morning there were considerably more people out claiming space. I would say that by 10:00 most of the prime space would be gone but it depends on what you are looking for. If you want a quiet more remote spot then you will be okay. If you want to be right in the face of the action on the Lido deck then you may consider getting there a little earlier so you are not disappointed.

Rigger (Mike)

[croozlady]

[quote name='TennisLover']Were there a lot of kids the week you were on? We are planning to book for the same week (Presidents Week) with our kids (will be 15 and 12).

Also -- how was the night life? I love Carnival because it is the FUN SHIP![/quote]

Tennislover,

There were a lot of kids, but it was not overwhelming to the adults. Most of them, I assume, are involved in Camp Carnival and Club02, as we didn't notice a huge amount of kids running free... we did see them in groups doing activities. Also we were off the ship more than we were on with all the fabulous ports!!

Enjoy it, wish I were going back soon!!