Spring break destiny 4/2

Our crew:

Me, DH, DS (15) and DSF (15) friend (spring break). My Sister (SIS), her husband (BIL), their daughter, my niece (DN) and her boyfriend (DNB).

We were originally going on the Fascination, but I convinced my DH to drive the extra 5 hours :eek: for the basketball court and the nicer itinerary (HMC and a port I have never been to before, Grand Turk). The boys lived at the basketball court whenever they weren’t eating or off the ship, so for this reason it was good, but the drive home was just too taxing to think about doing this again without the added expense of flying. We broke up the drive down by stopping after 10 hours in Vero Beach, visiting my dad and brother and his family for dinner, then spent the next day at a friends house in Boca. I really enjoy the Fantasy Class ships, but their elimination of basketball with the evolution of fun upgrades is a disappointment for us.

I was a little apprehensive about all the negative reviews I had read about the Destiny, but a friend of mine sailed her twice recently and had no problems and enjoyed it, so I knew we were good.

Embarkation:

We checked in late because we had trouble finding the off site parking lot. DH and BIL dropped us off at the port then tried to find the lot, the gps had them going in circles, we should have all went directly to the lot using the directions off of their website, then shuttled back, lesson learned, cost us about an hour we could have been on the ship. With the discount we paid only $38 for 5 days and they shuttle you to and from the port, about a 5 minute ride. VIP check in was a breeze, Sister and BIL are not platinum, but were finished quickly as well (they used the Kiosk, but still had to go to an agent to get their S&S cards. We met up and headed on to the ship together.

Ill be back later with more and some pictures!

Miami beach, the water here looks really nice!

DH and I during sailaway

SIS AND BIL

Lido Lunch:

We are used to getting on the ship early and being one of the first ones on, which helps with the mass chaos the buffet area turns into, since we didn’t board until 12:30, we headed right into the feeding frenzy. We sailed on the Triumph last year and knew that I would not like eating at the Buffet on the Destiny any better. The lay out is horrible (IMO compared to the Fantasy class) and the lines extremely long, avoid this location at peak times if at all possible. Either get there early or wait until right before its about to shut down. Now, the oriental and deli lines were very manageable and a nice alternative. I did enjoy a Reuben and get it in record time. We should have gotten the oriental, but I love the fresh fish dishes on the buffet, they are always so tasty. We couldn’t find a seat downstairs, after searching a few minutes and giving up we sat separately, a few minutes later my BIL found a larger table and found us to join them. Another thing I didn’t like about this area is where the coffee cream and sugar is set up, several feet away from the drinks and wedged in between tables. It was very small and you would have to wait in the general flow of traffic until the one person it fit was finished. There’s room at the end of the drink section for a nice long table, I don’t understand why they have it where they do on this class of ship, its just a little thing anyway, rant over.

We also ate breakfast here on the last sea day, I decided to save a table upstairs big enough to accommodate us so we wouldn’t all have to walk around together while our food gets cold. DH ordered an omelet for me when he was getting his, and my SIS brought us some other items and pastries. The other days we ate in the dining room (service and food were all excellent) and I will most likely have lunch there on future cruises, I think I am done with the waiting in lines after this cruise.

Overall the food was very good and served at the correct temp no matter where we ate. A couple of dishes in the main dining room during dinner weren’t up to par, but we would just let the server know and order something different. Some of my favorites are the Eggs Benedict, Bitter and Blanc, Chateaubriand, escargot, alligator fritters, wild mushroom cream soup, fettucini with chicken in mushroom cream and of course the mini lobster tails.

Sorry, I didnt take any food pictures this trip, but theres so many pictures on line anyway. I also didnt take many pictures of the ship

borrowed this from a website I found, some food porn of my favorite dishes enjoyed.

bitter n blanc........yum, it was very good!

Enjoying the review so far, looking forward to more!!

Enjoying the review so far, looking forward to more!!

Thanks! I hope its coming out ok, I have only done one before this, but I enjoy reading others so much and I love to have the review to go back to to relive it as well!

Our crew:

Me, DH, DS (15) and DSF (15) friend (spring break). My Sister (SIS), her husband (BIL), their daughter, my niece (DN) and her boyfriend (DNB).

 

 

We were originally going on the Fascination, but I convinced my DH to drive the extra 5 hours :eek: for the basketball court and the nicer itinerary (HMC and a port I have never been to before, Grand Turk). The boys lived at the basketball court whenever they weren’t eating or off the ship, so for this reason it was good, but the drive home was just too taxing to think about doing this again without the added expense of flying. We broke up the drive down by stopping after 10 hours in Vero Beach, visiting my dad and brother and his family for dinner, then spent the next day at a friends house in Boca. I really enjoy the Fantasy Class ships, but their elimination of basketball with the evolution of fun upgrades is a disappointment for us.

 

I was a little apprehensive about all the negative reviews I had read about the Destiny, but a friend of mine sailed her twice recently and had no problems and enjoyed it, so I knew we were good.

 

 

Embarkation:

We checked in late because we had trouble finding the off site parking lot. DH and BIL dropped us off at the port then tried to find the lot, the gps had them going in circles, we should have all went directly to the lot using the directions off of their website, then shuttled back, lesson learned, cost us about an hour we could have been on the ship. With the discount we paid only $38 for 5 days and they shuttle you to and from the port, about a 5 minute ride. VIP check in was a breeze, Sister and BIL are not platinum, but were finished quickly as well (they used the Kiosk, but still had to go to an agent to get their S&S cards. We met up and headed on to the ship together.

 

 

Ill be back later with more and some pictures!

I didnt get any pictures of the boys playing BB on the ship, but here is one of the boys, my DN and DNB playing at our friends house in Boca, they are so competative! LOL

notice their proper footware! :)

Our rooms were open earlier then 1:30. We dropped some stuff off, explored the ship and then made our way up to the lido for the sail a way party. Miami is really a beautiful port to sail from.

Rooms:

We had 7153, 7155, 7157 & 7161, (not sure why 7159 is skipped, as they were all next to each other) inside but awesome location. The rooms were your average inside room, but it was lacking some shelf space in the closets and in the room. I am used to having a little end table and a corner shelf normally under the TV, so we always had a pile of stuff on the floor in the corner as we had no place to put it. The closet with the safe normally has a lot of shelves, this one only had two, and one of them had the safe on it and it wasn’t in a good location, it was right next to the door coming in the cabin. I don’t remember them being here on our other cruises. Anyway, no biggy, just an observation.

We originally booked an OV, but all the OV are on floors 1&2, all the way on the bottom of the ship, I prefer to be closer to the action so that we can take the stairs quickly rather then having to wait for elevators all the time. I loved loved loved the location of these rooms, very convenient. Our room steward was fantastic as well, no complaints and an extra tip for him at the end of the cruise. He kept our cooler filled with ice twice a day and was always very pleasant and helpful when needed.

Love your review, and can't wait to read more, and see more pictures!

Shows:

Did not attend much, SIS and her family attended the love and marriage show said it was funny, a hit as usual. Did see the comedian after dinner we made the 10:45 show on two nights, the last night I was not very impressed, yet my SIS said this comedian who did the 11:45 show previously was very good that night (we skipped it that night as we were tired and figured we would see him at the next 10:45 show). Funny because I had my hopes set high for this show as he is the comedian who was riding the tender back from HMC and I happen to stand right next to him and he joshed around with another passenger, then would look to me for confirmation that his comments were accurate, it was pretty funny, but not sure the family sitting next to us appreciated the type of humor he was using. I enjoyed it.

We missed the past guest party since we were in Grand Turk late because we docked late, Captain said something about weather conditions. We did attend the farewell party, they had Justin Time (SP?) entertaining us with his acoustic guitar, it was soft rock and enjoyable, not a large turn out at all, the room was 90% empty. That was fine with us, plenty of waiters going around and we had quite a few drinks each.

This is the comedian who was just hamming it up on the tender from HMC.

Love your review, and can't wait to read more, and see more pictures!

Thank you! I have a few more pictures, I didnt take many of the ship, sorry!

Platinum perks:

VIP embarkation rocks. I did get the chocolate covered strawberries, but sadly they went to waste, I should have brought them out the next morning to have with breakfast with the group, I did eat one and one of the chocolates, DH doesn’t care for them so I finally just discarded them. I did get the backpack (in photo above!), I like it much better then the pen and pad I received on my first Platinum sailing. I didn’t use the casino perks this time.

I did get my laundry done twice, my room steward reminded me several times by asking me if I had laundry to do yet, very thoughtful! The first time I used the Platinum line for guest services I had to wait, and they kept taking the next person in line on the regular line. I had to do an “ahem” to get their attention. Other times I walked right up and the next available agent would help me promptly. I did ask for additional debarkation “1” tags and envelopes for extra tips for the steward, maitre de and wait staff.

Dinner:

I discovered that our seating for dinner wasn’t right, while we were both set for 8:15 we were not together and in different dining rooms, even though both my SIS’s travel agent and our Carnival pvp assured us that the bookings were linked. I didn’t make it to the DR to speak to the maitre de in time so guest relations told me to just go to the DR, either one, at 6pm to request a table together. My SIS and I did this and they were able to accommodate us right away.

The table wasn’t the best, as it was right next to the doors to the kitchen and I found myself getting dizzy when looking up at the revolving door, I remedied this by asking everyone else to take turns each night in this seat, LOL. Anyway, our servers were excellent, they learned our preferences by the 2nd day and NEVER had to ask for the refill of ice tea or the extra lemons and cappuccino was served with dessert, not 15 minutes later. They were the best we have ever had and I let the maitre de know at the end of the cruise, we also tipped them extra as well as the drink server, who always had the boys sodas (using their soda card) and refills very promptly.

DSF and DS, see door in background

Our servers were Lesther and Z (short for something I can not remember!) Z was the assistant waiter and I again have to say, he was the best, I am actually regretting not tipping him as much as we did the head waiter, :(. I will have to send a letter to Carnival singing his praises.

Lesther is on the left and Z is on the right:

We had a table near the kitchen on the Legend, at least we got our food fast and hot!

Dinners cont:

1st night: Cream of broccoli soup, needed just a touch of salt, it was good as usual. I also had the escargot. I always get the Tilapia, while it doesn’t have as much flavor as the fish dishes that sit soaking in wonderfully flavored seasoned juices at the buffet, it was cooked perfectly and the carrots and macaroni compliments it nicely. For dessert I had a decaf cappuccino and the black forest gateau.

All dishes are prepared beautifully and were all very tasty.

We had a table near the kitchen on the Legend, at least we got our food fast and hot!

That is true, they didnt have far to go! :D

I cant remember what we did after dinner! :o We may have just walked around, finished unpacking and turned in early, we were not interested in another welcome aboard show this time.

Day two, Nassau:

Decided to use this day as a sea day since we have been here before and really picked this cruise for the next two ports. I love being on the ship when it is empty. We snagged chairs on the lido with no problem while the boys played basketball.

After a few hours of hanging out DSF wanted to do some souvenier shopping for his family, so DH and I took the boys out spent about an hour accomplishing this task. While DN, BIL and DNB headed out to Senor Frogs and had a great time partying. SIS decided to take advantage of the peace and quiet and just stayed put.

The straw market looks great, its in a building now, which is shaped like the huge tent it used to be under. But I did notice no more knock off Coach bags, I wonder why, just a lot of the same, touristy stuff stall after stall. DSF did find a beautiful bracelet for his sister there. It was a pleasant hour of shopping then we headed back to the ship and had lunch, no problems this day with lines. Then again hung out on the lido some more.

back from Senior Frogs, happy happy!

Tonight was formal dinner: Shrimp cocktail, very small and too little cocktail sauce, I knew this, not sure why I bothered. Alligator fritters I enjoyed and would order again. I ordered lobster and it was very very small (1”x3”), the shrimp on the plate were very small as well, they are usually large, but I never eat those, I find them bland when compared to the lobster tail. The mashed potatoes were very tasty as was the broccoli. I ordered another tail and just ate that and he had an extra plate of lobster that no one wanted that I just couldn’t see go to waste. Again, just eating the tail and not the sides that came with it. Tonight cappuccino and bitter n blanc for dessert, yum. Worth mentioning, DH had the prime rib, he likes it well done and requested the end cut, it was delicious.

Wow, awesome pictures, now I need to go on a cruse. Thanks for posting all of them.

Day 3

HMC: Gorgeous, love it here, but it was hot and the water temps were very chilly. The boys managed to stay in the water all day and toss this little water ball DSF bought in Nassau back and forth. At the end of the day I managed to stay in for a few minutes longer then just a dip to cool off.

The buffet again was a mad house, we got there at a decent time and only had to wait about 15 minutes to get our meal, but later I went to get some dessert I saw a line still backed up on the side and no Carnival employees directly them to the front where the lines had died down. They could do better here. Last time I was there we were on a smaller ship and it was off season and I didn’t see this problem then. These poor people were talking about how going back on the tender would probably be quicker and coming back. Our lunch was tasty and satisfying.

I never took the time to check out the interior of the new ship bar they have, but it was impressive from outside.

bye bye HMC :(

I made the mistake of not bringing any bottled water with us thinking we could get it from the buffet area, but its not that convenient, my son ended up getting dehydrated and almost passed out on the tender back to the ship. DH was able to get to the front of the line and brought him to the infirmary, he ended up needed a pint of fluids because his blood pressure was real low. They were very nice in there, but the nurse didn’t let him know what she was doing and stuck him with a needle without warning him and you can tell by the look on his face:eek: it hurt and then blood was squirting all over, it was very upsetting to him. We were only there for an hour, bill came to $134, I’m in the process of seeing if our insurance, both private and extra purchased for the cruise will cover any of it.