Carnival
Destiny
Southern Caribbean

Darin Golden
Age: 35
Occupation: Estate Planner
Number of Cruises: 3
Date of Cruise: September 2nd, 2007



This was a great vacation! I highly recommend this trip, especially if you’ve cruised before and felt a little bored with being on the ship the whole time.  Our 7 day cruise began and ended in San Juan.  It went to five islands and had a “day at sea” at the end. The travelers were my wife and I, and another couple we know.

We’ll start with the Embarkation process.  As David A. said in the review from Feb ’07, get to the ship early. We got there at 1-1:30 and were on the ship in less than an hour.  We would have been on in less than 45 minutes, but we also stopped at the duty-free liquor shop.  If you are a liquor drinker this is a must.  As long as you can fit it in your carry-on, you can carry on as much liquor as you want.  As far as mixers, they only have coke, ginger ale, and sprite, so buy other mixers as well as any soft drinks at a store before you get on board.  My wife and I each brought a 12 pack of our favorite soft drinks and no one cared.  By the way, the “unlimited fountain drink pass” on the boat is about $40 and it’s only for one person.

I will agree with David A. that the ship is definitely ‘90s décor.  You will certainly notice the pink metallic walls everywhere, but the ship is kept clean and well maintained.  The staterooms are just like any other ship, but my wife and I did not like the toilet part of the bathroom.  The toilet is angled 45 degrees towards the shower and is very close to it; you had to sit at an angle on the seat.

The food was fantastic, as Carnival always has been.  Juice and iced tea are always free. The alcohol prices were on par with what you’d expect.  I like beer and found that the best value was to either get a bucket of four 16oz Bud Light/Miller Lite bottles for $17.50 or, better yet, Foster’s 25oz cans were $5.95 each.  If only I could figure out a way to get a case of beer on board.

Little tidbits: 
We had a room on the 8th floor, room 8173.  This was great as we were never more than 3 floors from the casino, top deck, or pools.  The few times we took an elevator were to get off the ship or sometimes to go to dinner (4th floor). 

The ship usually docked on the right side when in port. This means that if you want to see the islands from your room while in port, get an odd-numbered room.

The cigarette smoke was much better than I expected, even in the casino. I applaud Carnival for whatever they did to help this.

The AC unit in the stateroom keeps you as cold as you want.  Unfortunately, it shoots out VERY dry air, and it causes you to wake up every morning with a sore throat for an hour or so. My wife and I tended to freeze the room up until we went to bed and then kill the AC until morning to help with the sore throat issue. 

As far as the amount of Spanish speaking passengers---it’s what you’d expect.  I read some reviews where people complained about the excessive bilingual instructions, and I never noticed it as a problem.  In fact, Carnival did a great job making everyone feel welcome.

We didn’t go to any shows so I can’t offer any advice on them.  Because of all the excursions we had planned, we went to bed before any of the clubs/bars were really happening.
Here are the islands:

St. Thomas---We did not book any excursion.  We just wanted to lie at the beach.  We took a cab to Magen’s Bay Beach.  This is the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen.  The beach is about a mile long, but very narrow.  This means that you can sit in the shade under a tree yet only be 50 feet from the water.  We rented chairs and a raft ($7 each).  My only complaint is that the cab ride was $8 per person each way, and you also paid $4 each to get in to the beach. Don’t plan on doing any snorkeling, as there really isn’t anything to see.  The food and drinks were reasonably priced.

Dominica---As other reviews have said, don’t even get off the boat unless you have an excursion planned.  The island has no beaches or shopping.  It’s volcanic and has rainforests.  For this day, as well as in Barbados and Antigua, we booked excursions through ShoreTrips.com one week ahead of time.  This was a great move, as the prices were $10-15 less per person, the excursions left at a little different time (read: not as crowded), and we didn’t have to think about what to do each day while already on vacation.  We did a Canopy Adventure.  There is also one in St Lucia, but it’s easier and we wanted a challenge.  Basically we took a minivan 20 minutes to the rainforest and went through the trees at about 30 feet up.  Sometimes you rode a zip line down the hill; sometimes you crossed a 50 foot long obstacle (like a swinging bridge) to the next tree.  You were always harnessed for safety.  It was great!!!

Barbados---We did a Sail and Snorkel Catamaran trip through ShoreTrips. This was great and reasonably priced!!  It was only a 10 minute ride from the port. The hosts were serving frozen drinks and bottled Barbados beer from the moment we got on the boat.  The boat held 50 people but we only had about 35.  We snorkeled, had BBQ lunch on the boat, and then parked along an island to swim or just relax.  We saw a small wreck and several two feet wide turtles. You could easily talk on the boat as the engine was pretty quiet, plus they used the sails most of the time.

St. Lucia---This was the most disappointing island.  We had enough sun the day before, so we just wanted to take a cab to see some sights and get back on the ship.  Well, what we didn’t realize is that the sights are limited, not that impressive, and an hour away from the port along some pretty twisty and primitive roads. The island’s claims to fame are the two pitons (two 2000 foot tall peaks you can see from the water), a 30 foot tall (30 feet---wow!!) waterfall you can swim in, and a working volcano (which really was just a sandy hill with sulfur smelling smoke).   

Antigua---This island seemed to be the most similar to the US, at least as far as the shops, cars, and streets. We took a Snorkel Eco Tour through ShoreTrips.  We got on a 55 foot powerboat only a block from the ship, stopped to pick up some more people from the Sandals resort, and toured the area.  My only real complaint was that the engine was rather loud, but then again, we sat in the back because we wanted the shade from the boat’s top.  We went to a very beautiful island and climbed to the top and took pictures of the gorgeous water.  Then we had a great lunch with homemade dessert.  Then we went by an island where they only let you build $10 million or more mansions. We also walked some beautiful rock formations and snorkeled around a reef.  We shopped and found a relaxing bar before getting back on the ship.

The sixth day was a day at sea.  It was a great way to end the vacation.  We had some beers and just relaxed, except for winning the scavenger hunt!!  There were many activities on the boat if you wanted something to do. 

Finally, I’ll talk about debarkation.  Unfortunately, several hundred crew members had to debark, perhaps just temporarily to update their visas someone said, and they did this before any passengers could get off.  This delayed everyone at least an hour, and I’m sure a hundred or more passengers missed their flight.  We had an 11:15 flight and only made it because we jumped through a barrier and joined some of the first passengers to get off the boat.  I would think twice though about booking a flight as early as we did.

All in all it was a wonderful trip.  I enjoyed only having one day at sea, and the variety of the islands was fun.  I will book Carnival again.


Oh, and when you’re going 18 knots, outdoor ping-pong is quite unpredictable!










 

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