Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival Destiny Cruise Review
Southern Caribbean

Cheryl Moloney
Age: 51
Occupation: self-employed
Number of Cruises: 3
Sailing Date: January 15th, 2006

Embarkation – This was a long, tedious process. There was a glitch in their computer system which slowed things to a standstill. It took 2 hours to get onboard. They didn’t keep us informed as to what was going on.

The Ship – I had expected a rundown ship from the reviews I had read. Not so! I found it to be in very good shape. The cabins were good sized with the shower area much bigger than other cruises I’ve been on. There were two pools which were ridiculously small, but they had 3 whirlpools on the Lido deck as well as one in the fitness room. I was really impressed with the fitness area. Very modern equipment but I only went and worked out twice. Too much to do to work out. The buffet was what was to be expected and I thought the dining room had great food and service. My cabin steward was very good and the staff for the most part was very friendly. The casino was fine, but I’m not lucky so I didn’t go there too much. The entertainment was good. The karaoke was really fun. There were good singers and bad singers but it was fun. My daughter was one of the 4 to be picked to do an American Idol type contest. However, she had laryngitis and was unable to sing the night of the event.

Excursions – I booked an excursion on every island with my 22-year-old daughter. First was St. Thomas where we did the Kayak, Hike and Snorkel. This was a great excursion with great guides. We kayaked 2 miles and did a little bit of a walk and then snorkeled. This was my first time snorkeling and I enjoyed it tremendously. In Dominica we did the Rasta Man’s Rainforest Hike & Falls. This was a very challenging excursion. You climb up these steep inclines with roots and rocks to walk on with ropes to help pull yourself up. We did this to see two waterfalls. It rained a few times on us – we were in a rainforest so it was to be expected. We then got back in the bus and went to another place to climb which was much more challenging without ropes. Make sure you wear good gripping shoes. My daughter and I wore old sneakers. We were a muddy mess after this excursion. The third excursion was in Barbados. It was the Five Star Catamaran Turtle Encounter. This was a fun time on a catamaran. However, we could not visit with the turtles as the waves were too rough and the turtles left the area where we were going. They did refund us 20% of our money back. We had a great time on the catamaran. The buffet was very good food and of course free drinks. They brought us to a place to snorkel and then close to a beach so you could get off and enjoy the beach for a while. Our last excursion was in Aruba. We went to De Palm Island for snorkeling. This was the best snorkeling we did on the cruise. The fish were beautiful. I squealed with delight with the big Parrot fish. They suggest you buy the fish food which comes in a tube and you feed to the fish. The cost was $8 but the fish came in droves to us for this food. We had a dozen large Parrot fish with us. It was amazing. The food and drinks was very disappointing at De Palm Island, but the snorkeling made it worthwhile for the price.

Debarkation – This was very smooth and we got off the ship pretty quickly. We took a van to the airport. The airport in Puerto Rico was pretty small and not very organized. We had to get off our plane as there was smoke in the cargo area. We had to make other arrangements for flights to get back home, but the personnel from US Airways helped us tremendously. We were supposed to get home at 5:13 p.m. on a direct flight, but we got in at 11:30 p.m. instead. A very tiring day to say the least.

I would definitely do Carnival again, but I don’t think I’d go out of Puerto Rico again. Enjoy your cruise! I did!
 

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