Mountainbreeze's B2B Destiny review - long w/ pics

This is a review of our Key West beach wedding and our back-2-back DESTINY honeymoon cruise. We were on the 5/2 Eastern caribbean cruise to Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay, and Nassau Bahamas. And also the 5/7 Western caribbean cruise to Ocho Rios Jamaica and Grand Cayman. I'll just mention here that we had a WONDERFUL time, and everything went as close to perfect as it could have. I could not have asked for a better wedding and honeymoon! This was the first cruise for both Tim and I. We thought Carnival and their staff went over and above to take care of us the entire time.

I'll begin by introducing ourselves, I'm Andrea (44) and I work as a secretary at a college. My new husband is Tim (44) and he builds power plants. Tim and I were high school sweethearts in the early 80's. He was 16 and I was 17 when we met. I remember the day we met like it was yesterday. Tim offered to give me a ride home from school on his motorcycle, and I accepted. We were instantly hooked! We "went together" for several months and Tim was the first boy to ever give me a ring. At some point our relationship fizzled out, and Tim and I went our separate ways. We lost touch for 25 years and during that time both of us married other people, and both of us had children.

Forward to the summer of 2007, Tim and I found each other on Classmates.com. We began to email, and we just seemed to hit it off right away. Lucky for us, we were both single! Emailing led to phone calls and then we met for dinner one night (burgers and fries) and from there we have been inseperable.

Here we are in May of 2010:

Tim proposed to me last summer (July 2010) and we began making plans for a simple beach ceremony in Key West and a B2B honeymoon cruise on the DESTINY!!!! This review will start with our wedding, since this was the reason for our taking such a loooong cruise, and then I'll move onto the cruise review. We took over 2000 pics during the 13 days we were gone, and I'll post quite a few of them with this review. This review will most likely be very long and detailed with lots of pictures.

DAY 1: TRAVEL DAY

FINALLY, after all of my planning and preparations, April 30th came, and after a very long and sleepless night for both Tim and I, we left the house before the sun came up head to the Kansas City airport, about a 35 minute drive from our house. My oldest son went with us to the airport so he could take our car back home for us.

After our uneventful flights to Miami, we found all 3 of our suitcases in the baggage area and made our way outside of the airport. We easily found the shuttle bus to the rental car pick-up. We had reserved a Mustang convertable for our drive to Key West, but when we got to the Budget counter they only had a hard top available. We could take a Mustang 5.0 hard top then and there, or wait around for a while for a convertable. We chose to take the hard top and get going! This turned out fine, as we probably wouldn't have wanted the top down with the sun beating down on us for the whole drive to Key West anyway.

We found the car in the huge Budget lot and WOW, it was quite a BRIGHT shade of blue. No big deal if it was a little BRIGHT on the outside, we were going to be inside!

Here is our BRIGHT and shiny Mustang waiting to carry us off to Key West:

We loaded the car with our luggage, and headed out of the lot. We had our GPS with us, set for Key West. Tim navigated through the Miami traffic and we found our way towards the Keys. Neither Tim or I had been to Key West before so we really enjoyed our 3.5 hour drive. It was just beautiful! The weather in Kansas City had been so cold and yucky, we were glad to be in sunny Florida FINALLY!!! The weather through the Keys was warm and the temp was in the low to mid 80's. The sun was out and we really began to feel like we could begin to relax now. This day felt really good!!

We stopped along the way for lunch at an outdoor restaurant called "Evelyn's" in Key Largo. I don't eat seafood, so I ordered a chicken wrap which was very good. Tim was finally able to eat some very FRESH seafood, the first of many seafood dishes he would eat over the next 13 days. Tim was in seafood heaven!

I snapped another pic of the BRIGHT Mustang before we left the restaurant:

A few more pics of our drive down the Keys:

We continued our drive down the Keys and around 6 PM we made it to the Doubletree Grand Key Resort in Key West. The hotel was as nice as the pictures showed, and they gave us warm fresh cookies at check in. Our box that we mailed down there was waiting for us at the check-in desk. We had sent this box to ourselves at the hotel with all of our large bottles of shampoo, soap, conditioner, sunscreens, etc..... so we could save on the Delta baggage fees. This worked out very nicely for us.

Congratulations on your marriage! I can't wait to hear more about your trip!

YAY.....we are going on the same cruise in Nov for our honeymoon.....Congrats and im glad you had a wonderful time cant wait to read the rest of the review... :)

Ahhh, nice story! Waiting for more! :)

...

First..congrats on your nuptials!! Second, my story story is IDENTICAL to yours!!! DH and I went together when we were 18 (first true love, etc.), separated after a year and a half (we were just too young), married other people, had kids, etc. Then 25 years later, I looked him up online. He was living in Washington state..I was living in Massachusetts. We spoke on the phone for a few months and he moved back here in MA..we were married in 2008 and will be on the Destiny celebrating our 3 year anniversary in August. Believe it or not there's so many other people who have reunited after numerous years like us and got married. Another woman on these boards posted the same thing. I think it's becoming a trend. Anyways..looking forward to your review.

APRIL 30 - TRAVEL DAY CONTINUED

Our room at the Doubletree was very nice, and although we were exausted from traveling all day, we mustered up the energy to get out for a few hours.

Our room at the Doubletree:

We were so tired from our sleepless night, our 2 flights and our drive through the Keys. BUT, we were only going to be in Key West for about 19 hours total, and our beach wedding was in the morning. We knew we were going to have to make the most of our evening so we dropped our bags in the room, freshened up, and got back in the car to drive towards Duvall street, where all the Key West action is. Key West was absolutely beautiful! We loved it there, and would like to go back and spend more time there.

We found Duval Street, and found a place to park so we could walk around a bit. Luckily we had some change for the parking meter, (25 cents for 10 minutes, and 10 cents for 4 minutes) we had enough change to buy ourselves a couple of hours, so we fed the meter and headed off to find dinner. We happened to be right near the Hard Rock Cafe, so we stopped there. The food was very good! I had an appitizer combo platter (it was HUGE!) and Tim had seafood.

The atmosphere was great! We sat at a table on the patio overlooking Duvall street, and there were people and goings-on and music and noise and excitement. It was a lot of fun, and we got a great feel for Key West while we were eating.

I had a big cold red drink with my dinner:

Tim and I finishing up dinner at the Hard Rock:

Before we left the restaurant, we stopped in the gift shop and bought a Key West Magnet. Our "thing" that we do in every town or city we visit together.

We found our car, and drove back to the Doubletree. Tim was assleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. I downloaded our pictures from the day off of our camera and onto our laptop. I set our alarm for 6 AM and was soon sleeping like a baby in the very comfortable bed.

MAY 1 - WEDDING DAY

At 7 AM, Tim woke up, which woke me up. Uh-oh! What happened to the alarm?? After I inspected it, I realized I had set it for 6 PM........user error! So glad Tim has a built in alarm system, he NEVER sleeps in. Ever. His body says go go go and he just never stops from early morning till he falls assleep at night. I secretly wondered if Tim would be able to relax on this vacation. I hoped he would eventually wind down.

So anyway, It was already 7 AM and my hairdresser/make-up lady would be at our hotel room at 8 AM to get me ready for the wedding. I threw TIm his clothes and I jumped in the shower. After my shower I looked outside and noticed it looked like it was going to rain. Oh-no!! I hoped our officiant had a back-up plan for rain!

No big deal, I told myself. I'm still in Key West and I'm still getting married!!

I ironed my dress, and straightened up the room a bit, and Tim and I waited for Lorri. We watched the weather, and although it sprinkled a little bit, it had stopped by 8 AM, and a rainbow came out!

Lorri showed up at 8, and she did a wonderful job on my hair and makeup. While she went to work on me, Tim filled up our little cooler bag with ice and cold drinks for the beach, and he loaded our suitcases into the car.

MAY 1 - WEDDING DAY CONTINUED

Lorri was done with me by 9:15 or so and after she left I put on my dress and jewelry, and packed our remaining bag. Tim and I checked out of the hotel, and drove the short distance to the beach. The sun was out (YAY!) and it was warm and windy.

At five minutes to 10, Colleen and Gary showed up. Colleen was our wedding officiant, and Gary is her photographer husband. These two were SO SWEET!! We just loved them both! They absolutely made sure Tim and I had a perfect wedding!

Colleen and Tim and I stood under a palm tree while she performed the ceremony, and Gary ran around taking hundreds of pictures. The ceremony and ring exchange was short and sweet, just the way we wanted it. After the ceremony, we spent about an hour and a half posing for pictures on the beach.

By noon, Colleen and Gary said goodbye, and Tim and I spent some time together on the beach. We collected sand in a baggie (something we decided we wanted to do from every beach we visited on this trip), and we walked along the water enjoying our day. It was turely perfect!

We decided to leave the beach around 12:30, and we both wanted to drive through Key West one last time before we left this beautiful place. Our wonderful beach wedding was over, and now we set our sights on OUR CRUISE!!! Our ship would be waiting for us in the morning, but first, we had to get back up to Miami!!!

Sadly we left Key West, promising each other we would be back when we have more time to REALLY spend some time there.

Our drive back up the Keys was beautiful, and we enjoyed every minute of it.

I thought these trees in the Keys were just beautiful:

Traffic was fine until we got to Miami, and then it got a little hairy, even though it was a sunday. We hit Miami around 4 PM and headed toward the airport to return the Mustang.

on the wedding!

MAY 1 - WEDDING DAY CONTINUED

From the airport, we grabbed a cab, and asked him to take us to the Intercontinental at the Port of Miami. WOW! What a hotel this was!!! It was a 5 star hotel I scored for OUR WEDDING NIGHT for $105.00 using Lastminute travel.com. Beautiful place! Tim and I opted to give them an extra $20.00 to get a room with a view of the Port of Miami, and we were thrilled with our 24th floor room with a view to die for!!! Tim and I both spent a lot of time looking out that window!

The porter brought our suitcases up and Tim and I freshened up. We decided to walk to Bayside Marketplace to find dinner. It was a nice walk over there, and we had many restauraunts to choose from. We picked a hamburger place, and although it was very good, I can't remember the name.

I carried my wedding bouquet with me all afternoon and evening, trying to get the most out of it since I wouldn't be allowed to take it on the ship in the morning. Here is my burger and my bouquet:

After we ate, we walked around and window shopped, and stopped in a gift shop and bought our magnet for Miami.

I posed for a pic by a huge Banyon tree in Bayside Marketplace:

First of all.. Congratualtions on your wedding. Beautiful story and scene....

I am 44 too and my best friend married her HS boyfriend last year... similar story to yours... finding each other after 20 years apart. Stories such as yours certainly warms my heart!

Looking forward to your Destiny adventure!

Catrin

Mountainbreeze,

Loving this review. Your wedding was just beautiful. Beautiful dress and his crisp white shirt was just the perfect choice. Can't wait to read about the cruise. Thanks for taking the time to post.

Great start !! Thanks for sharing!

MAY 1 - WEDDING DAY CONTINUED

We walked back to the hotel, and just as we got back up to our room, we got a text from Brian and Norma, our new cruise critic friends. We found Brian and Norma on our Roll Call sever weeks before we left. They happened to be doing the same Back-to-back cruises as we were, and they were also staying at the Intercontinental the night before the cruise too. We had arranged to meet in the lobby at some point that evening, and Tim and I texted back that we would be right down to the lobby to meet them.

Before we could get to the door of our hotel room to go down to meet them, someone knocked.......it was a nice lady from the hotel wheeling in this cart with fresh strawberries and champaigne! How sweet!!!

We really don't know why they brought champagne and strawberries, other than as a gift since it was our wedding night. We quickly munched on a few strawberries, but left the champagne there and went down to the lobby to meet Norma and Brian.

We found them sitting in the lobby and joined them. We had plenty to talk about, as we were all very excited about our cruise in the morning!!!!

As we sat and talked, Norma and I thought we recognized another roll call member, Sandra and her husband Hameed walk past us. Norma and I went up to Sandra and introduced ourselves. We pointed out where we were sitting, and asked them to join us after they finished checking in.

The 6 of us sat and talked in the lobby for quite awhile, and soon Sandra and Hameed left for Bayside Marketplace to find food. Tim and I returned to our room and repacked our things for the cruise.

We watched the news and discovered that Bin Ladin was killed on our wedding day....NICE!!!

I downloaded my photos from the day onto my laptop, and joined Tim in the HUGE and very comfortable bed.

I was so excited that I was GOING ON A CRUISE the next morning, I don't know how I ever fell assleep that night.

MAY 2 - BOARDING DAY

Tim and I were both up by 6AM. We were so happy that today was the day we were going to board the ship!! The sunrise from our window was beautiful and we sat and watched Miami wake up.

GOOD MORNING MIAMI!!

Around 6:50, the DESTINY pulled into port. We still had several hours to go before we could leave for the port, so we tore ourselves away from the window and showered, repacked more of our stuff, and went off to explore a little.

We found the hotel jogging track and swimming pool and spent a few minutes enjoying a beautiful Miami morning walking around the hotel grounds. We asked one of the bellmen for directions to the CVS, and found it was only about 2-3 blocks away. It was a nice walk.

We bought a few things (toothpaste, a bottle of water, and some candy) and headed back to the hotel. It was still early, so we watched some morning news and I took a short nap.

About five minutes to 10:00 AM, Tim woke me and we gathered our stuff to meet Norma and Brian, and Sandra and Hameed in the lobby. Norma and Brian met us in the designated spot in the lobby, and we all checked out of the hotel. We called Sandra and Hameed, and made plans to catch up with them later on the ship. They had a much later night than we did, and they wanted to find breakfast in Bayside before boarding.

So Tim and I, and Norma and Brian shared a cab to the port sometime between 10:15 and 10:30. The cost of the cab was $8.00 plus a tip. The porter that helped with our bags once we reached the port was very helpful, but made sure to let us know he expected a tip. We expected this, and Tim gave him a few dollars for his help.

The 4 of us headed towards the building, and I was more excited than a 5 year old!! I may have skipped into the building that morning! We went through several different lines, and honestly, I was happy Norma and Brian were there to direct us. I don't remember much of that process, as I was SO excited, and it all went by very fast.

Norma got us a ZONE 7 card, and we all took a seat to wait for boarding. We only sat there for about 15-20 minutes when they began to announce the boarding zones.

Norma and Brian waiting for our zone to be called:

Tim and I:

By 11:30, our zone was called and before we knew it, we were taking our embarkment photo!

Here are the 4 of us just before we walked on the ship:

We headed to the Lido deck and grabbed a table. The 4 of us took turns waiting at the table and getting food. Tim and I had corned beef sandwiches from the deli which we thought were very good, and I had a drink of the day!! (Tim doesn't drink, or he would have joined me)

Yum! It was just what I needed!

After lunch, we made our way up to one of the open decks. We found a few lounge chairs and spent some time enjoying being on the ship and watching the port activity.

After a while, the 4 of us headed to the Universe dining room to find our tables. Tim and I located our table, it was against a window and seated 6. Tim and I had talked about eating with others vs. eating alone at a table for two. We consider ourselves friendly people, but we ultimately decided we would rather try to get a table for two if we could.

We found the assistant MatreD in the dining room on the other side of the ship (The Galaxy dining room), and we got a good look around while we were trying to find him. He made arrangements to get Tim and I our own table, and he helped Norma and Brian straighten out their didning arrangements.

MAY 2 - BOARDING DAY CONTINUED

At about 1:30, Tim and I were off to find our cabin. We just loved it! It was a perfect home away from home. Our suitcases hadn't come yet, but we freshened up a little and took a few pictures of the room.

At 2:30, we went to the aft pool bar to join our meet-n-greet. Of course, Norma and Brian were there, and we were also joined by Sandra and Hameed and Cassandra and her mom, Mary. We all talked and took pictures of each other and the ship.

Muster drill was at 3:30 or so. It lasted about 15 minutes and was painless. They showed us how to use the lifejackets and told us about the lifeboats.

After the drill, Tim and I headed to the top back deck to meet with our new friends for sailaway.

When we hit the open ocean, around 5 PM or so, Tim and I thought we would like to check our room to see if our suitcases had arrived, and get ready for our 6:00 early dinner time in the main dining room.

YAY! our bags had arrived!! We unpacked, changed our clothes and watched a little TV.

Our room steward came by to introduce himself, and ask if we needed anything. He was very nice! His name was " I Wayan " , but he asked us to call him "Y". Easy enough!

Just before 6PM, Tim and I made our way to the Universe dining room. Very confusing to figure out how to get around the ship, but within a few days we learned which elevator to take to get to our favorite areas. To get to the Universe dining room from our room, we had to walk to the far back elevators on our floor, and go down to the 4th floor. The doors opened up right in front of the upper entrance to the dining room.

We were shown our table, number 517, which was a little booth for two tucked in along a side wall. We LOVED our little booth for two!! Our server was "Achmed", and he was very funny. He took care of us very well everytime we ate in the dining room, and we grew to love him.

While we were in the dining room that first night, Tim and I were surprised at how much rocking and motion we felt. We wondered how we would be able to eat with all the rocking. It was a strange sensation, and we both hoped we wouldn't become seasick.

For dinner that night, I ordered the St Louis style ribs, and they were very good! I don't remember what Tim ordered, but I am certain it involved seafood. We were fine eating dinner while swaying back and forth that first night, although we were amazed, and I want to add here that by the end of the 10 days we were onboard, we both grew to LOVE the swaying feeling.

Tim and I were exausted by the time dinner was over, and we were stuffed. We decided to skip dessert that night and we left the dining room early.

On the way back to our room, we stopped and looked through a few of the shops on the ship. We stopped in the Formalities shop and ordered a small cake to be delivered to our table for dinner the next night. This was going to be our wedding cake. It was $8.00, very reasonable, and we ordered chocolate. While we were in the Formalities shop, we both spied the bins of candy, our weakness. Tim and I both have a sweet tooth. I made a mental note to re-visit this shop for candy!

We found the photo place and hunted for our embarkment picture of the 4 of us. We loved it, and decided to buy it. I'm pretty sure it was $10 or $11.00, and it was a 5 X 7. I'm so glad we bought this picture, it was one of the few pictures we bought from the ship.

Back in our room around 8PM or so, we found our bed turned down and looking SO comfortable. Our room steward had also left our FUN TIMES newsletter telling us the goings-on for the next day, which would be a sea day. There was no towel animal that night, something I wanted to see, but I figured our room steward must be busy that night.

Since we knew we had plenty of time to explore the ship later, we changed into more comfortabe clothes and settled in to our cabin on the ship for the night.

I decorated our door to our cabin:

We watched the news, lots of news about Bin Laden...................we ordered room service (chocolate cake and a fruit plate). I downloaded our pictures from the day.

We could feel the rocking of the ship in our cabin, and again we wondered if either of us would get seasick. We wondered how we would sleep!

We were both assleep by 10:30 that night, and the gental rocking of the ship put us to sleep like little babies in a cradle. It turns out we had a great nights sleep. We loved the rocking sensation and we both got used to it very quickly. Neither of us felt seasick at anytime on the cruise.

Great review. Looking forward to more.

Mountainbreeze - CONGRATS!! I love your story.

I'm really enjoying your review and photos too. Thanks for bringing us along:D

I Love the Destiny! Have sailed her twice...once for the milenium (new Years Eve 1999...and that was unbelievable...Carnival pulled out all the stops) and in April this year.

Did you have a chance to catch Tony in the evenings in the lobby bar??? He kept me mellow...April was full of spring breakers:eek: with alot of people feeling a great need to be LOUD!!!!

Your love story is very neat too, especially for me right now. I am just re-acquanting with my first "love" after not being in touch for 36 years (Facebook makes you a detective...lol)

It was surreal talking to him for hours last week...like it had only been days since we last spoke. We are both divorced but live on opposite ends of the country But long distance is a nice start....

Congratulations and I wish you much love and many more cruises

Great review can't wait for the rest :cool:

Congratulations

Heyyyyyyy strangers!

That wedding picture is absolutely stunning! You guys looks as beautiful as you turned out to be on our cruise. You really made our time more enjoyable. Just checking in as, I had to hit- the- floor- running when we returned from the cruise. I am going to check in w/Kealoha quickly and will be back to read your review later today. WELCOME BACK and glad you had a good time. We miss you guys already -gotta do Colorado sometime! You are always welcome -seriously!

I am so enjoying your story and review. Your wedding was perfect! Congratulations and best wishes for a happy and healthy marriage. :)

Hi again Tim and Andrea!!!

We are loving the review! :) Can't wait for more.... It was a pleasure meeting you both and being a part of your "date with Destiny" honeymoon cruise. :):)

MAY 1

 

Lorri was done with me by 9:15 or so and after she left I put on my dress and jewelry, and packed our remaining bag. Tim and I checked out of the hotel, and drove the short distance to the beach. The sun was out (YAY!) and it was warm and windy.

At five minutes to 10, Colleen and Gary showed up. Colleen was our wedding officiant, and Gary is her photographer husband. These two were SO SWEET!! We just loved them both! They absolutely made sure Tim and I had a perfect wedding!

Colleen and Tim and I stood under a palm tree while she performed the ceremony, and Gary ran around taking hundreds of pictures. The ceremony and ring exchange was short and sweet, just the way we wanted it. After the ceremony, we spent about an hour and a half posing for pictures on the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By noon, Colleen and Gary said goodbye, and Tim and I spent some time together on the beach. We collected sand in a baggie (something we decided we wanted to do from every beach we visited on this trip), and we walked along the water enjoying our day. It was turely perfect!

We decided to leave the beach around 12:30, and we both wanted to drive through Key West one last time before we left this beautiful place. Our wonderful beach wedding was over, and now we set our sights on OUR CRUISE!!! Our ship would be waiting for us in the morning, but first, we had to get back up to Miami!!!

 

 

Sadly we left Key West, promising each other we would be back when we have more time to REALLY spend some time there.

Our drive back up the Keys was beautiful, and we enjoyed every minute of it.

 

I thought these trees in the Keys were just beautiful:

 

 

 

Traffic was fine until we got to Miami, and then it got a little hairy, even though it was a sunday. We hit Miami around 4 PM and headed toward the airport to return the Mustang.

 

 

 

 

 

Wow!! Beautiful! Congratulations! You both look so relaxed and happy. I love the simplicity and casualness. DH and I had a simple wedding too. Fancy formal with tons of people just wasn't our thing. Best of wishes to you! As I think others have mentioned, there are several on this board who have rediscovered each other after a number of years. Member pcrum comes to mind--check it out. Loving the review!:):)

mountainbreeze....congratualtions on your wedding! Best of the best to you and Tim. Thanks for sharing with all of us. Enjoying your B2B review so far. BTW those trees in KW are royal poinciana trees sometimes called flame trees.

First..congrats on your nuptials!! Second, my story story is IDENTICAL to yours!!! DH and I went together when we were 18 (first true love, etc.), separated after a year and a half (we were just too young), married other people, had kids, etc. Then 25 years later, I looked him up online. He was living in Washington state..I was living in Massachusetts. We spoke on the phone for a few months and he moved back here in MA..we were married in 2008 and will be on the Destiny celebrating our 3 year anniversary in August. Believe it or not there's so many other people who have reunited after numerous years like us and got married. Another woman on these boards posted the same thing. I think it's becoming a trend. Anyways..looking forward to your review.

Congratulations...love your story!!! I also have a similar story...my DH and I first met in college, were briefly engaged but then broke up and each ended up marrying other people. Some 20 years later, we found one another again, and have been married for 2 years! Our 3/27/11 Glory cruise was to celebrate our 2nd anniversary!! It definitely seems to be a growing trend that people are finding their first love was their true love!!

I am loving your review!! Best wishes to you and your new husband for a life time of happiness!!!

Thanks EVERYONE for your sweet comments! I'll be back later tonight with more of the review......I'm writing, resizing pics, and trying to do real life at the same time.......I sure am having fun reliving this though!!!:)

Coming up next......our first sea day and GRAND TURK!!!!