Blaine McClure

Age: 57
Occupation: President, Consulting Group
Number of Cruises: 8
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Destiny
Sailing Date: August 15th, 2004
Itinerary: Southern Caribbean

The Carnival Destiny (cruise date 8/15/04) was the "floating ship from hell." We are a couple in our 50's traveling with our son, son's friend and teen-aged son. We have been on 4 other Carnival cruises and have never had an experience like this. We will no longer sail Carnival as we are sure that the competitors would never allow conditions that existed on the Destiny.

To start with, the embarkation process was disorganized, hot and needlessly long. We had pre-registered on-line but there was no advantage to doing so. It still took over 2 hours to get through the lines.

We had balcony suites on the Veranda deck that would have been very nice but for a problem with the airconditioning that took 2 days to correct. It was good that the rooms were nice because we spend most of our time in the rooms on the balcony because of the other guests - which for a lack of another term were "zoo animals."

Carnival booked many huge groups of first time cruisers who had neither the funds (most had to post cash and were constantly being cut off for lack of funds) nor the manners to be on a ship. During the week, we were appauled to have viewed the following:

1. A child standing along the edge of the jacuzzi urinating into it while crewmembers looked on. His parents may or may not have been in the jacuzzi but no one stopped him.
2. Filthy, dirty water in one of the jacuzzis
3. Our teen-aged son got solicited for "drugs" in the teen disco
4. Tons of young men in gang colors pushing people on the stairs and otherwise intimidating white guests.
5. Children standing under the soft custard machine having their friends shoot custard into their mouths and faces
6. Filthy, dirty muddy water in the washers
7. 2 naked men and a woman having sex in the laundry room once late at night
8. People playing with food in disgusting ways
and I can go on and on

The elevators were slow, un-reliable and constantly in use. My wife, who has had back surgery recently was forced to walk down 4 and 5 flights of stairs because of overweight women using elevators to go one floor down or up.

We complained to Carnival after waiting over an hour in the pursers line (most people were on the line to deposit more cash) to complain and were told that there was security on the boat and there was nothing that they could do.

The next day, we were sent a letter stating that they were sorry and send a half dozen chocolate covered strawberries to the room. Finally, other guests must have complained as bitterly as we did and we got a phone call from the purser acknowledging that Carnival had sold the cruise to many people who were "minorities" and that these people were not typical Carnival guests and had abused the ship and other guests. They apologized. My wife told them that we -- along with our kids - had spent most of the time either off the boat or on our balconies- to get away from this.

The ports, for the most part, were fabulous. We quite enjoyed St Thomas and St Johns, Barbados and Aruba. The poverty of Dominica clouded part of the trip but the island itself is beautiful and different.

The food on Destiny did not meet the standards of other cruises that we have been on. The beef was all prepared well done no matter how it was ordered, the fish was undercooked on night- (still cold) and there were other items that did not meet our expectations. We cannot comment too much on the food on Lido deck. The lines at the New York deli often were more than 25 people and it was nearly impossible to get pizza because these large groups of people dominiated both areas. The cafeteria style food also had long lines and the food waste (half eaten trays of food all over the tables) was almost a crime, considering how poverty of the people on the islands we visited. Again, we never encountered this on any other Carnival ship.

The entertainment was very mediocre and after being the only white people in several of the lounges and made to feel uncomfortable, we did not even try to go to the Onyx bar (cigar bar) even though I enjoy a cigar after dinner or the main Criterian lounge.

The debarkation was horrible. What usually is a very organized process took over 3 1/2 hours since most people did not go to the debarkation talk the day before. Even going to the talk would not have made it smoother because there were no set places for the various decks to meet. Everyone tried to crowd into the auditorium at once and the line just was endless. It took us from 7:30 to 10:45 to exit the ship. No excuse for that whatsoever.

It was the worst experience of our vacation lives and we will never, ever book with Carnival again but we will take other cruises with more reputable cruise lines.

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