ShedQueen77 Posted January 8, 2008 #1 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Pre Cruise We flew in on Saturday via American Airlines booked through Carnival. Aside from a horrendously rude flight attendant on our connecting flight who actually told me verbatim in a snobby tone to “move my butt because I was slowing everyone down” the flights from MLI to ORD and ORD to SJU went well. We were delayed one hour at MLI due to a small backup at ORD from the snow the day before. We were delayed about 2 hours at ORD due to mechanical problems with the plane. The flight attendants were great after the bad apple. They allowed me to hang my wedding gown with a big smile and lots of congratulations! We arrived in San Juan at 11:45pm. We stayed at the Courtyard San Juan Miramar, which was a 15 minute taxi ride from the airport and another 15 minute ride to the pier from there. The Courtyard was great. It’s not the Ritz, but it is a nice clean hotel with a very friendly staff. I would recommend it as a good pre-cruise hotel. After settling down, we walked a few blocks down the street to the Los Pinos Café to have a bite to eat. The food was great, the service not so much. We waited 15 minutes to be seated when there were only 6 people in the restaurant and another 20 to have our order taken. After finishing it took about another 15 minutes to get our bill and another 10 on top of that to pay. It made for a very late meal to say the least. At least the food was worth it! The Ship Embarkation: Embarkation was a breeze. We took a taxi from Courtyard to the pier at 12:00 noon. We were on the ship by 12:20 and to our cabin by 12:40. The steward was still getting our cabin ready but we were able to put our carry on luggage away and explore the ship. Lo and behold, all three of our suitcases made it to our cabin by 2:30pm. I was very impressed and happy that none of our luggage was lost. We did get two fliers in our cabin the first night though looking for two pieces that someone had lost. Our cabin: We stayed in a balcony cabin, 6293 on the Upper deck, starboard side. Great location, close to the elevators. There was no noise to be heard. The laundry was also a few steps away, not that I was doing laundry on vacation though! Our cabin steward was Nair from India. He did a great job for us. We didn’t have any ‘special’ requests of him for the duration of the cruise but our cabin was always clean and ready for us. We did not have Dove shampoo and Lever body wash in our shower dispensers. Both items were some cheap crap that didn’t lather and left my skin and hair in horrible condition. I was thankful that there were samples of Garnier Fructis shampoo and conditioner in the cabin and that I brought my own conditioner along as well. I just used a lot of body lotion due to the soap! Lesson learned, bring my own next time. Another lesson learned: Even if your legs are short enough to fit behind the door while using the toilet, close the door anyway! The ship took a nice pitch and I ended up with a nice bruise on my knee from the door swinging shut on me! Muster Drill and Sail-away: I’m wondering why this is such a big deal to some. It was pretty painless. It took about 15 minutes even with the “encore” in Spanish. We were lucky to be by a “window” so there was a little breeze although we were sandwiched in the back row. The rows of people were only three deep. We sat on our balcony for sail away. Sure as heck, not even 5 minutes after we pulled away from the dock, some dimwitted moron threw a lit cigarette over the balcony above us and about 6 cabins down. Right after Muster Drill when they specifically tell you not to this happened, not to mention the DUH factor involved. I hollered down the way and told him exactly what I thought of his stupidity. He heard me and gave some stupid response but never knew it was me yelling. I guess those balconies are somewhat private! Condition of the Ship: I read the reviews and thought for a while that I’d be stepping into a junkyard. Not true! The Destiny is a beautiful ship and she’s wearing her age well. A dry-dock might not hurt her any though. We did have a few maintenance issues. The up button on the midship elevator never worked for the whole cruise, nor did the down arrow light on the forward elevators. One of the lobby elevators did not work for 5 days. Our balcony light never worked and the switch plate for our cabin and bathroom light was broken. It was jammed into the switches and we did have a bit of a time getting the switches to work. These issues were reported but never taken care of during the whole cruise. The chair in our cabin had some sort of nasty looking stain on the seat. Needless to say we never parked ourselves in that chair! While checking under the bed to make sure we got everything packed, I found a child’s sock under the bed that obviously wasn’t ours. Ick! Dining Room Staff: We requested late seating and ended up with the 6:15 seating. We left it alone because we decided we’d like to eat early instead anyhow. We were seated in the Galaxy Dining Room on the upper floor. We were supposed to be seated with another couple but they never showed up so we got a table for two without asking! Our wait staff consisted of Ramon and Jinkee, both from the Philippines, and our bar server was Biljana from Macedonia. All three of them were truly great. Always prompt with their service and all three loved to chat. Jinkee was awesome with the three kids who were seated around us. She even took them with her during the singing “shows” and took them through the conga line. Our staff, along with a few others, sang Happy Honeymoon to us and gave us a cake at our wedding night dinner. Yes, there was the nightly episode of the singing/dancing waiters. It didn’t bother me when I was there to see it. Our wait staff was so good we could have easily escaped before the hoopla and did a few times. We stayed for a few just to say we saw it. The Maitre’d, Franc, was another story. I never met him 100% personally but he struck me as pretty arrogant and cocky. Unknown to him, I heard him addressing the staff over the loudspeaker quite a few times while waiting for the doors to open for dinner. He was not very nice to his crew. We were greeted by Franc for about 1 second our first night and didn’t see him again until, of course, the last night when he was fishing for tips. Then he approached our table twice in one night. Needless to say, he got no tip from me. He didn’t do anything for us the whole cruise except hold out his hand. The assistant Maitre’d, Larisa from Lithuania, was very nice. I saw her run her legs off every night making sure her dining room was as it should be. I did tip her, although I know Franc got some of it as well. It was the principle to me and it made me feel better to know I put it in her hands and acknowledged HER hard work, not his. Dining Room Food: We ate dinner in the dining room all of the nights but Thursday. We overslept a bit and missed dinner. The dining room food was pretty good. I only had issues twice. The Spaghetti Carbonara was very cold and pasty. The other “issue” was with the Chocolate Melting Cake. After reading all the rave reviews about this cake, I was so eager to try it. All I can say is YUCK. I LOVE chocolate and I couldn’t hack this at all. It was basically a small rim of cooked chocolate cake with a blob of undercooked batter or runny pudding in the middle. Thinking it was a fluke, I tried it again another night. Same verdict. I’ll be saving that dessert for those who enjoy it! My favorite dishes were the Prime Rib and the Chicken Breast. DH enjoyed the lobster. The lemon cake was also very good as was the Strawberry Bisque. It was like sipping on a melted milkshake! Lido Buffet, Pizzeria, Grille, and Deli: We had no complaints about the food in either of these areas. We enjoyed the Lido Breakfast Buffet. Everything was great except for the scrambled eggs, which were a bit loose for my liking. Lunch was OK but nothing spectacular; basically what you’d get at Golden Corral. The Lido staff on this cruise must have had a burp or something. There were dirty tables everywhere and not many people cleaning them up. I sat at a table for 30 minutes while Ted was making his way through the Grille line and never saw one single staff member clearing the dirty tables surrounding us. I was looking for someone to fill the ice cream cones, which had been out for an hour. Even after we got done eating, I still had not seen a single staff person. I thought this was odd at 5:30pm, when the Lido is usually the busiest. I never did get my ice cream from that station; I had to walk to the other one. No biggie but it was sort of disconcerting to not see a staff member in such a long period. Speaking of ice cream, the ice cream at one machine was not operating and the yogurt at the other was not working. The ice cream on the one side never did work the whole cruise but the yogurt was fixed after a few days. The Pizzeria was great. We received fast, courteous service and the pizza was awesome. We ate a LOT of pizza this cruise! The Grille always had a super long line but it was worth the wait. The burgers and fries are pretty good. We ate there for dinner the one night we overslept for dining in the dining room and had lunch there a few times. We had lunch at the deli a few times. The turkey wraps are very good. The lemonade and fruit punch provided at no charge is great. DH is an avid soda drinker and only had two sodas the entire cruise. Room Service: We ordered room service a few times. Prompt service and pretty good food. The menu is mainly cold items like sandwiches, juices, cakes, and assorted desserts. The chocolate cake is great! Shows/Entertainment: Since we were on such a port intensive cruise, we were usually pretty tired after dinner. We only took in a few shows. The dancing/singing show was OK as was the Magic show. It was nothing that totally WOW-ed me but they were decent. We played Bingo once and lost. Surprise! We went to the Karaoke bar one night. It wasn’t anything horrible but nothing spectacular either. It was a good drink stop, that’s about it. We were also chosen to play on the Newlywed/Not-So-Newlywed show since we were married that day. We felt sort of bad because there was a couple next to us that got married on Saturday and really wanted to play but we beat them out. It was pretty fun. Not as racy as some of the other shows, so they tell me, but we had a great time doing it and of course, bought the DVD to take home for the memory. Although there were technically no winners, we did answer the most questions the same and technically we did win! We were awarded a bottle of cheap champagne for playing. The color teams were talked about in the Capers but we never heard a single announcement about them throughout the entire cruise. Perhaps they are doing away with it and just need to update their Capers a bit! One could hope…. The cruise director, Skip Lyons, was OK. He was fun and not generally obnoxious like some CDs I’ve heard about. Atmosphere: Yes, there are a lot of Puerto Ricans on the ship. Were they rude? No more so than the other jerks of all other ethnicities we encountered. We did encounter some pretty uptight, obnoxious people but there were by far more people that were very friendly and chatty. There were 718 children on board but we didn’t see much of any of them except for a few clogging up the elevators and making messes by the ice cream machines. Overall a pretty well behaved crowd of kids. Debarkation: This process was a bit painful. We opted not to self assist as we had a lot of bags with the wedding gear and all. We had a 3:30pm flight out and were group number 14. The biggest problem we saw was passengers not going when their numbers were called. For example, the number 7 was called at least 45 minutes before number 10 and there were people with number 7 going into the Palladium to disembark while the numbers were at 10. That pushed everyone back a lot in the line. We were finally called at 11:00am and made our way to the Palladium. We made it out of the lounge by 11:15 and spent about 20 minutes going through customs. We were officially off the ship and pier by about 12 noon. I had to wonder what time those with numbers in the 30’s got off. We opted not to use the transfers included with our Carnival air and grabbed a taxi instead. It was $21.50 with our 4 pieces of luggage. We were at the airport by 12:30pm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShedQueen77 Posted January 8, 2008 Author #2 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Ports of Call San Juan: To be honest, San Juan really did nothing to impress me. We didn’t spend a lot of time here due to our late night arrival, but it was just another city to me. We did see some of Old San Juan but not much. Maybe if we have some more time someday San Juan will get the chance to WOW me. It didn’t happen on this cruise. St. Thomas: We took the BOSS Underwater Excursion booked through the ship. We were met at the pier by a representative of the company and took a short walk to the boat, The Prince of Tides, captained by Jim Briar, which took us out to Buck Island, the sight of our excursion. Buck Island is a bird sanctuary and you are not allowed to go on land, but can access the area via water. We were put on the scooters in 4 groups. Since our group was third, we had about an hour to snorkel. The underwater sights included a sunken shipwreck, some sea turtles, and a “friendly” barracuda who apparently likes to be around the boat. The crew is familiar with him and even gave him a name. Imagine my surprise when that booger swam right up to my face. Even though they deemed him harmless, I panicked when I saw all those teeth coming at me. Dummy me, I opened my mouth to scream, lost my snorkel and got my first gulp of salt water. Yum…ha ha ha. Even with my freaking out, I did manage to get a blurry picture of him though. I am a first time snorkeler and was pretty impressed with the area. I took some underwater shots with the camera. We finally got on the scooters. It was a pretty easy process. They drop you about 8 feet and you drive around. I was only able to drop to 4 feet because I couldn’t get my ears to stabilize. DH made it all the way down. It was an experience of a lifetime! I would not recommend this excursion if you are claustrophobic or have ear problems. It was an OK excursion, but not one I’d probably repeat again. Maybe because I had trouble doing it, but it was a lot of money for not a lot of time spent on the scooters. I think it was maybe like 10 minutes or so. At least I can say I did it! We did some shopping around Havensight Mall and headed back to the ship for lunch. Dominica: This is an island where you need to book some sort of excursion. There isn’t much to see or do on your own and it is helpful to have some guidance in appreciating the natural beauty of this island. We booked a river tubing excursion privately through Wacky Rollers. We were picked up via taxi at the pier and taken to the river. The guides are very knowledgeable about their job and I felt completely safe. We were given helmets, vests, tubes, and a paddle and set down the river. This excursion offers the most time in the water. The excursion booked through Carnival offers only half the time and is more expensive. It was misting when we arrived and Carnival cancelled their excursion. We still went though. The rain stopped by the time we arrived. The guides tubed right down the water with us. The taxis we took and a guide vehicle followed us down the river via the road next to the river. A word of caution about river tubing: Watch out for the rocks. You can not always see them and when your hind end bumps them it HURTS. I went back to the ship with three watermelon sized bruises on my butt and back. It was worth it though. The views from the river are amazing. We did not encounter any creepy crawlies in the water at all. I would recommend wearing shoes though, as the bottom is rocky. We were offered rum punch, water, and soda at the end of the river. There was also a table of souvenirs available for purchase as well. Our taxi took us back to the ship around 4pm. Barbados: We didn’t tour through Barbados as this was the port we were married in! Our wedding day started at 9:00am. Our coordinator, Lisa from Weddings…Beyond Your Imagination, met us at the gangway in a stretch limousine. I thought it was great that she met us directly at the gangway and not at the pier, which is a bit of a walk depending on where your ship docks. We took about 10 steps off the gangway and were inside the limo. We rode in the limo to the Ministry, where Lisa took care of all of the paperwork to get our license. We were sat in a chair and all we had to do was pull out our passports and give them to her. After she had the paperwork done, we were escorted to an official who verified our information and had us swear on a bible that our information was correct. We were issued our license on the condition that we come back and visit Barbados on our anniversary. The limo ride to Foul Bay Beach was about a 30 minute drive. We chose a beach that was a bit off the beaten path but well worth the drive. We were met at the beach by our videographer, Russell and our photographer, Steven Cumberbatch of Magical Moments Photographic Services. I can’t say enough about either of these gentlemen. They are 100% professional and 110% fun! They really made our day exciting and fun, the way a wedding should be! Our photographs are fabulous. We are absolutely thrilled with the results. We haven’t received our video yet but judging by the results of the photographer Lisa hired, I’m sure it will be awesome too! After some photo shots in the limo, we were taken off to a few locations to shoot photos before the ceremony while Lisa was setting up the table and floral arch. After we were finished, the ceremony began. Ted and I did the legal vows required by the Ministry and said our own personal vows as well. We also did the sand ceremony. After we were pronounced man and wife, it was time for some cake and champagne! Lisa had a table set up with our cake, champagne, flutes, and everything we needed. We did the traditional cake feeding and toast and spent some time just relaxing, snacking, and enjoying the moment. We signed our official documents and were presented a very nice official license. It was all written in calligraphy and it is very pretty for a legal document. However, we do need one officially “sealed” by the Ministry for legalities in the US. That is going to be sent Fed-Ex to us in a few days. My license is legal, but the US wants to see a copy with that darn seal. Afterwards it was time for more photo and video moments. After everything was finished, our limo took us to Bonito Beach Bar and Restaurant right across the road from Bathsheba Beach for lunch. We were escorted to a reserved table for two overlooking the beach and the ocean. We enjoyed a great lunch consisting of many local foods. Our driver then took us on a two hour tour of Barbados. She stopped a few times so we could take photos and shop. When we were getting in the limo after lunch, a goat wandered up to us and started bleating like crazy. We figured he was congratulating us as well and had the driver take a photo of us with the goat. I’ll post that later when I have my photos all off my SD card and up. We were brought directly back to the gangway in the limo at 3:30pm. When we arrived, the line to get back on the ship was very long. Just as we got in the back of the line, a couple ready to step on the ship came back to us and told us they were stopping the line so we could get in front of everyone. I thought that was very sweet! After we got on the ship, I realized that in all the excitement we forgot to tip our videographer and photographer! I am so embarrassed. I am going to contact Lisa and see if I can get something to them somehow. I can’t believe I forgot this and especially after the great work they did. All in all, I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Lisa is truly a professional in every way. Her taste is exquisite and she truly only hires the best to do her weddings. Our photographer and videographer were the best of the best and we are so glad they were hired to record our memories. We do have our photos webhosted. If you would like to see the pictures, drop me a line at midnightmaniac68 at yahoo dot com St. Lucia: Of course, we booked a tour with Cosol. I can’t rave enough about his tour! It was simply fantastic. We were in a van with our driver, Adrian, and a family of 7 from Canada and a retired couple from Chicago. We were taken on a very nice tour of the island. Adrian gave us a lot of history and facts about St. Lucia along the way. We visited the banana fields and sampled some bananas. The bananas in St. Lucia are so much better than the ones here in the US! We also saw the sulphur springs, volcanoes, and of course the Pitons. We sampled some rum punch and Cosol’s “liquid *****”. A bit strong for our tastes but definitely a treat! We then were dropped off at the beach by the Jalousie hotel for some swimming and snorkeling. We didn’t have room in our bag for our snorkel gear so we just swam for awhile. The sand under the water is pretty rocky so I would suggest wearing water shoes when swimming on this beach. We purchased some of the infamous banana ketchup but my dingy DH packed it in our carry on without my knowing. It was confiscated at security in the San Juan airport. If anyone is going on Cosol’s tour soon, drop me a line at my email listed above in my wedding review and I’ll send you the $4 to purchase some for me and pay to ship it to me as well. I really wanted that ketchup; it was awesome! Be prepared to pay $1 a head to use the restroom. The restroom stop Cosol makes is actually at someone’s home and they charge money to use the facilities. Never thought I’d see the day where I’d pay to use the toilet. I think I’m in the wrong business!! We did a bit of shopping by the pier and returned to the ship around 3:30pm. Antigua: It was rainy and overcast when we arrived in Antigua. It only took about an hour for the haze to clear and about 10 minutes for the rain to stop. We chose Antigua as our ‘lazy beach bum’ day. We went to Runaway Beach near the Sandhaven Beach Bar and Restaurant. We were given chairs and purchased an umbrella for $5. A jet-ski was available for riding (for a fee, of course) as was horseback riding. There were showers and restrooms available by the bar. The beach itself was marvelous. Nice soft sand and pretty turquoise waters. We were able to walk right into the sea without shoes on our feet; the sand was soft all the way out. The view around us was beautiful. The only bad thing I can say about this area of the beach is that the vendors are very pushy. They were in our faces for at least an hour after we arrived. The same ones would come back 10 minutes later after we had already told them no thanks, using lines such as “We need to make a living” and whatnot. It sort of takes away from your relaxation having to fend them off every few minutes. All in all, it was a great time that gave us some great memories. I will most likely cruise Carnival again, but probably not out of San Juan. I just didn’t like the port itself and the airfare is almost as expensive as the cruise itself. If you have any questions, feel free to ask away! I’ll do my best to answer and help. Here’s a link to our cruise photos: http://community.webshots.com/album/562048630BFOHXc?vhost=community The pictures from the underwater camera are on the last few pages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acanadiangirl Posted January 8, 2008 #3 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Great pictures!!!... you look like you both had a great time!!... thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShedQueen77 Posted January 9, 2008 Author #4 Share Posted January 9, 2008 You're welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopper Chick Posted January 9, 2008 #5 Share Posted January 9, 2008 Thanks for the great review and pics! DH and I are getting excited about our cruise and your pics helped us to get even more excited! I had a question, you said that in Dominica you recommended doing an excursion. DH and I like to only take the cruise lines excursions so we don't have to worry about the ship leaving us or anything. We have excursions book for every port except Dominica. The 2 that we wanted to book are not available online. I called CCL and the lady I talk to said you can only book those once you are on the ship. Did you see or hear pf many people having to book these once they were on the ship? We have cruised on other lines before and never enountered this so we aren't sure if this is a CCL thing or if I just got someone on the phone that didn't know what she was talking about. Any advice would be appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShedQueen77 Posted January 9, 2008 Author #6 Share Posted January 9, 2008 Thanks for the great review and pics! DH and I are getting excited about our cruise and your pics helped us to get even more excited! I had a question, you said that in Dominica you recommended doing an excursion. DH and I like to only take the cruise lines excursions so we don't have to worry about the ship leaving us or anything. We have excursions book for every port except Dominica. The 2 that we wanted to book are not available online. I called CCL and the lady I talk to said you can only book those once you are on the ship. Did you see or hear pf many people having to book these once they were on the ship? We have cruised on other lines before and never enountered this so we aren't sure if this is a CCL thing or if I just got someone on the phone that didn't know what she was talking about. Any advice would be appreciated! I honestly didn't hear a thing about any excursions that had to be booked once on the ship. It's a pretty easy process to do though. The shore excursion desk is right to your left when you walk on the ship. I would call and get someone else on the phone and see if you maybe get a different answer. It could be right and I just didn't know! ;) FWIW, I was very nervous about booking outside the ship's excursion offerings. Wacky Rollers does other excursions for Carnival though so I thought I'd be OK and I was right! Just curious, what was it you were looking to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LPYRCRUISER Posted January 9, 2008 #7 Share Posted January 9, 2008 Thanks for the great review and pics! DH and I are getting excited about our cruise and your pics helped us to get even more excited! I had a question, you said that in Dominica you recommended doing an excursion. DH and I like to only take the cruise lines excursions so we don't have to worry about the ship leaving us or anything. We have excursions book for every port except Dominica. The 2 that we wanted to book are not available online. I called CCL and the lady I talk to said you can only book those once you are on the ship. Did you see or hear pf many people having to book these once they were on the ship? We have cruised on other lines before and never enountered this so we aren't sure if this is a CCL thing or if I just got someone on the phone that didn't know what she was talking about. Any advice would be appreciated! I also had that question. We're thinking about river tubing in Dominica but its not available through the carnival site. Do you think this one that is offered just onboard? I learned my lesson in Belize, if you don't have an excursion, don't get off the ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiraryker Posted January 9, 2008 #8 Share Posted January 9, 2008 Thanks for the great review!! Sorry if this has been asked but did you get any alcohol in San Juan and put it in your carry on??? Just wondering if it is true that you wouldn't have any problems doing that. I leave in 3 weeks and just want to be prepared. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShedQueen77 Posted January 9, 2008 Author #9 Share Posted January 9, 2008 I also had that question. We're thinking about river tubing in Dominica but its not available through the carnival site. Do you think this one that is offered just onboard? I learned my lesson in Belize, if you don't have an excursion, don't get off the ship. It might be! I do know there were in fact people booked for a river tubing excursion through Carnival. It was cancelled because of the weather (it was misting slightly when we arrived and cleared quickly) but the Wacky Rollers excursion we were on went anyhow. I would highly recommend booking the river tubing through Wacky Rollers. You can book it through their website and payment is due when the tour ends. Even though it's technically independent of the ship's offerings, Wacky Rollers does offer other excursions through the ship and they know the routine. You won't be late returning and left behind! :) You also get more time on the river for a lot less money. Wacky Rollers was only $60 pp. Thanks for the great review!! Sorry if this has been asked but did you get any alcohol in San Juan and put it in your carry on??? Just wondering if it is true that you wouldn't have any problems doing that. I leave in 3 weeks and just want to be prepared. We personally didn't do it but witnessed many doing so with no problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShanteS Posted January 9, 2008 #10 Share Posted January 9, 2008 Thanks for sharing the pics and review. I'm glad you & hubby had a great time. The wedding pics are really nice as well. I'm sorry to hear you encountered so many problems. When I was on the Destiny things were a lot different from what you describe. The ice cream machines were working properly the entire time as well as the elevators. And the staff were really good about keeping the tables on the lido deck cleaned. Seems they've gotten lazy and are slipping a little. With a full ship I couldn't imagine one of the elevators being out of service the entire week. I also saw you note that the cruise directors name and it's a different person. We cruised with CD Steve and he was hilarious. Did you get a chance to check out Eugene "Genie" Williams at the Destiny Bar right by the casino? We went every night and had a great time with him. He had us dancing well into the night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShedQueen77 Posted January 9, 2008 Author #11 Share Posted January 9, 2008 It was a bit disappointing but nothing that would totally bring me down. As much as I love ice cream it was pretty simple to just take a short walk! :) Maybe the holiday "spirit" caused a bit of a lapse in the service! lol We didn't get a chance to go to the Destiny bar. With all the ports we visited, we were pretty pooped by the time it came to enjoying the nightlife. I can't recall ever being up past midnight. We're so boring! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cardinala Posted January 9, 2008 #12 Share Posted January 9, 2008 Ports of Call Dominica: A word of caution about river tubing: Watch out for the rocks. You can not always see them and when your hind end bumps them it HURTS. I went back to the ship with three watermelon sized bruises on my butt and back. It was worth it though. The views from the river are amazing. We're there alot of rocks? Down the middle or just on the sides? Seems like you could really do some damage if you picked up speed a little?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShedQueen77 Posted January 9, 2008 Author #13 Share Posted January 9, 2008 We're there alot of rocks? Down the middle or just on the sides? Seems like you could really do some damage if you picked up speed a little?? There really wasn't that many but I think I had a magnet or some sort of tracking device on the bottom of my tube that attracted every rock in the river! I was the only one who had such problems. The tour guide said he'd never seen anyone before end up with such bruises. There were only maybe two areas where you really picked up some speed. It was mostly lazy floating. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruisenFlamingo Posted January 9, 2008 #14 Share Posted January 9, 2008 So glad you had a great trip! You were a very beautiful bride! :) Can't wait to be on the Destiney in only 1 short week! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TennisLover Posted January 10, 2008 #15 Share Posted January 10, 2008 Thanks for the review, Lora! I can't believe I missed it yesterday! I hope they get those ice cream machines fixed before we board next month! DS will want his ice cream to be convenient, wherever he is! I don't have time to look though all your pictures yet... but just looking at some of them got me so excited for our upcoming cruise! You didn't stop in the piano bar? Well, since you were honeymooning :D , I guess you are excused! So what are you planning next? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deangeles Posted January 15, 2008 #16 Share Posted January 15, 2008 I was on the ship on the next cruise after yours. The Bad: Sadly, the obnoxious behavior of some Puerto Ricans really started to grind on me by the end of the cruise. It was never really anywhere but the Lido dinning areas. Cutting in line, they were treating the chefs very rudely and their little kids ran around unsupervised without any sort of manners. The "Grand Buffet" was pretty much off limits to me because of how ridiculous these kids acted and their parents were not much better. I never heard any of them say "sorry" or "excuse me" when they would bump into you or try and shove their way in line. On numerous occasions, I saw people walk up and basically shove a plate in the pizzas guys face demanding a slice while there were 10 other people in line. One woman ordered a chicken sandwich and was going ballistic because it wasn't ready immediately like the hamburgers are. What shocked me most was the amount of people removing the $70 gratuity from the Sail & Sign card during the last night on the boat. Pathetic. Also sad was the fact that many people had shore excursions canceled because of low booking numbers. I get the feeling that a large % of the ships population probably couldn't afford to bring their family on a cruise, decided to anyway, and never spent another dime once on board. Either that or they were just cheap. The casino was dead compared to other cruises as were most bars. Apparently, the crew wasn't too happy with the general attitude of a lot of the guests either as I spoke with several who shared the same sentiments. I spent about a week in San Juan prior to sailing and came across ZERO people that struck me as rude. So I was pretty shocked at some of the behaviors on the boat. I'm sorry if any of this came of a prejudiced, because it's not intended to be so. Many of the Puerto Ricans I talked to in bars or the casino were outstanding people. This ship doesn't have an interactive TV like my other Carnival cruises had, so you can't book shore excursions on, check your account balance, check the food menus and do other stuff right from your TV. This was annoying the first day since I was expecting it, but it didn't bother me after that. The Good: Fortunately, this cruise was in port every day, so we had tons of things to do during the day. I had no complaints with any of the ports. Dinner was good every night and the bars were generally fun. Embarkation and Debarkation were easily the fastest I've ever had. For those who are worried about bring liquor on board: don't be. After you check in, there is a duty free liquor store right before you get on the boat. You can go in there, buy whatever you want and carry it on board. You don't even have to "hide" it in your carry on. I saw several people actually carry it on in the bags provided by the liquor store which had pictures of liquor bottles printed on it. Security didn't care and helped some women put their bags of liquor on the scanner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShedQueen77 Posted January 16, 2008 Author #17 Share Posted January 16, 2008 So glad you had a great trip! You were a very beautiful bride! :) Can't wait to be on the Destiney in only 1 short week! Thank you! 1 week...you're almost there! Thanks for the review, Lora! I can't believe I missed it yesterday! I hope they get those ice cream machines fixed before we board next month! DS will want his ice cream to be convenient, wherever he is! I don't have time to look though all your pictures yet... but just looking at some of them got me so excited for our upcoming cruise! You didn't stop in the piano bar? Well, since you were honeymooning :D , I guess you are excused! So what are you planning next? We didn't get to do that much on the ship, period. Well...besides that! ;) lol I did see in the capers that Bryan was in the piano bar still though. I did remember to check if he was still there, I just didn't get the opportunity to check him out in person! We're going to set sail on the Glory next, with the kids this time! I was on the ship on the next cruise after yours. The Bad: Sadly, the obnoxious behavior of some Puerto Ricans really started to grind on me by the end of the cruise. It was never really anywhere but the Lido dinning areas. Cutting in line, they were treating the chefs very rudely and their little kids ran around unsupervised without any sort of manners. The "Grand Buffet" was pretty much off limits to me because of how ridiculous these kids acted and their parents were not much better. I never heard any of them say "sorry" or "excuse me" when they would bump into you or try and shove their way in line. On numerous occasions, I saw people walk up and basically shove a plate in the pizzas guys face demanding a slice while there were 10 other people in line. One woman ordered a chicken sandwich and was going ballistic because it wasn't ready immediately like the hamburgers are. What shocked me most was the amount of people removing the $70 gratuity from the Sail & Sign card during the last night on the boat. Pathetic. Also sad was the fact that many people had shore excursions canceled because of low booking numbers. I get the feeling that a large % of the ships population probably couldn't afford to bring their family on a cruise, decided to anyway, and never spent another dime once on board. Either that or they were just cheap. The casino was dead compared to other cruises as were most bars. Apparently, the crew wasn't too happy with the general attitude of a lot of the guests either as I spoke with several who shared the same sentiments. I spent about a week in San Juan prior to sailing and came across ZERO people that struck me as rude. So I was pretty shocked at some of the behaviors on the boat. I'm sorry if any of this came of a prejudiced, because it's not intended to be so. Many of the Puerto Ricans I talked to in bars or the casino were outstanding people. This ship doesn't have an interactive TV like my other Carnival cruises had, so you can't book shore excursions on, check your account balance, check the food menus and do other stuff right from your TV. This was annoying the first day since I was expecting it, but it didn't bother me after that. The Good: Fortunately, this cruise was in port every day, so we had tons of things to do during the day. I had no complaints with any of the ports. Dinner was good every night and the bars were generally fun. Embarkation and Debarkation were easily the fastest I've ever had. For those who are worried about bring liquor on board: don't be. After you check in, there is a duty free liquor store right before you get on the boat. You can go in there, buy whatever you want and carry it on board. You don't even have to "hide" it in your carry on. I saw several people actually carry it on in the bags provided by the liquor store which had pictures of liquor bottles printed on it. Security didn't care and helped some women put their bags of liquor on the scanner. I'm glad you had a better debarkation than we did. Ours was very disorganized to say the least. How terrible that people were removing the tips! I only went to the Pursers desk once during the whole cruise and that was to get another copy of the capers which DH accidentally threw away. If I had seen that, I'm not sure I could have kept my mouth shut! lol I did get a sense of discouragement from the crew at times. I did see a few incidents of the passengers treating the crew pretty bad. Whenever I encountered ANY crew person, whether it be in the casino or a steward walking down the hall, I always stopped and said hello or good morning. Sometimes they looked at me like I sprouted a second head or something because I was actually nice! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderqn Posted January 16, 2008 #18 Share Posted January 16, 2008 :) Thank you so much for the review and insight to the cruise and ports. We are looking forward to May...a port each day with the new itinerary. I do have one question....On Carnival ships that I've been on in the past offer a service for airline bound passengers. I think it's $15 a person, and they send your luggage to the airport directly, so you don't need to worry about it. I think it's called Express something. Did they offer this on the Destiny? Or is this something that only ships that port on US shores/mainland can offer? Christine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deangeles Posted January 16, 2008 #19 Share Posted January 16, 2008 I'm glad you had a better debarkation than we did. Ours was very disorganized to say the least. Well, we did the self carry thing and there were only like 50 people in line. We stood in line for about 10 minutes waiting for the gangway to open and once it did, we were off the ship and through customs within 5 minutes. Every other time we've self carried, it's always been a much longer wait with many more people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acanadiangirl Posted January 16, 2008 #20 Share Posted January 16, 2008 HI lora.. just thought of a question for you... I have sent Steve the deposit for the pictures, but when I pay him the balance what sort of payment does he take?.. does he take credit card, cheques, or ??? ... just want to be prepared.. thanks :) Tammy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShedQueen77 Posted January 16, 2008 Author #21 Share Posted January 16, 2008 HI lora.. just thought of a question for you... I have sent Steve the deposit for the pictures, but when I pay him the balance what sort of payment does he take?.. does he take credit card, cheques, or ??? ... just want to be prepared.. thanks :) Tammy Oh boy, I'm not sure! :( We paid our coordinator who, in turn, paid him. She took a cashiers check from us. I'd play it safe and use cash or a cashiers check. Since you'll likely be paying him on the beach the same day, he might not be able to swipe a card! ;) If you need to or want to use a card, maybe see if he would take payment in full before your arrival? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShedQueen77 Posted January 16, 2008 Author #22 Share Posted January 16, 2008 :) Thank you so much for the review and insight to the cruise and ports. We are looking forward to May...a port each day with the new itinerary. I do have one question....On Carnival ships that I've been on in the past offer a service for airline bound passengers. I think it's $15 a person, and they send your luggage to the airport directly, so you don't need to worry about it. I think it's called Express something. Did they offer this on the Destiny? Or is this something that only ships that port on US shores/mainland can offer? Christine I hope you have a great time as we did! :) There was no Express service of luggage offered. I believe that's only a mainland thing. The only way they would help you in the way of luggage is if you booked a post-cruise excursion with Carnival. Then they'll hold your luggage on the bus until your tour is over. Well, we did the self carry thing and there were only like 50 people in line. We stood in line for about 10 minutes waiting for the gangway to open and once it did, we were off the ship and through customs within 5 minutes. Every other time we've self carried, it's always been a much longer wait with many more people. I wish we could have used self disembark! We figured it would be a mess with all the wedding stuff we were dragging along. I'll have to try it next time! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2112 Posted January 16, 2008 #23 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Thanks for the review. I am considering taking a 10:45 flight out of San Juan after the cruise as it is $100 cheaper per person than the flights after noon ($300 in total savings). Although I am not thrilled to self disembark with a 2 year old and the extra stuff we will need to carry, do you know what time the self disembark people were finished? Was it any later than 9 am? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acanadiangirl Posted January 21, 2008 #24 Share Posted January 21, 2008 How was your reception at home on Saturday?... I hope you had a good time!.. I was wondering something about the cruise... I understand that there are 2 formal nights on the cruise.. are they both pretty formal or is one more formal than the other?.. thanks!!.. (I can't believe we leave in about 20 days.. I am waiting for my call still.. once that comes the time will fly by I am sure!!)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShedQueen77 Posted January 21, 2008 Author #25 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Thanks for the review. I am considering taking a 10:45 flight out of San Juan after the cruise as it is $100 cheaper per person than the flights after noon ($300 in total savings). Although I am not thrilled to self disembark with a 2 year old and the extra stuff we will need to carry, do you know what time the self disembark people were finished? Was it any later than 9 am? Self disembark started at 7:30am. From what I recall, it ended at 7:45am. They specifically said that you had 30 minutes to get off the ship. Once we were off the ship, getting to the airport was the easy part. That only took a grand total of about 25 minutes from pier to airport, including catching a taxi. Grab a porter. Not only will they get your bags out quickly, ours grabbed us a taxi as well! How was your reception at home on Saturday?... I hope you had a good time!.. I was wondering something about the cruise... I understand that there are 2 formal nights on the cruise.. are they both pretty formal or is one more formal than the other?.. thanks!!.. (I can't believe we leave in about 20 days.. I am waiting for my call still.. once that comes the time will fly by I am sure!!)... We had a great time, although I started in with the stuffy nose/sore throat thing about half way into it! At least it waited until Sunday to become a full blown, I want to crawl in a hole sickness! The two formal nights were Tuesday and Friday night. I didn't really see a big difference in the two nights although the Captain's reception was on Tuesday night so there were some more people dressed up. 20 days...it'll come sooner than you think! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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