Destiny - the good the bad and the mediocre

[sharona211]

Just a quick review. Six of us (late 20s - early 40s) sailed on the Destiny 3/4 - 3/8. My first cruise in 10 years. 3 of the others had cruised before and we had 2 newbies with us.

 

Pre-cruise stay at the Holiday Inn - POM was fine. One of our travelers gets the employee discount so it was nice for the price. Clean rooms, good location if you want to go to Bayside and a CVS right down the street. The consensus - skip the breakfast there.

 

Destiny embarkation - A+ fast & easy. We arrived by 11:30 and were on the Lido before 12.

 

Our cabins - 8B balcony rooms on the starboard side - A+ for roominess and shower size. We had 3 adjacent cabins but only 1 balcony divider could be removed due to the door location. Would have been nice to have all 3 balconies connected but it was not a big deal. Location of the rooms was great: 2 decks up to Lido food/pool area, 2 decks down to Casino and clubs and same elevator as our dinner in Universe deck 4. Great sunset views on the first night and a nice sunrise on the final morning.

 

Service - Our waiter was good. We never noticed a long wait for anything and he was quick to accommodate any special requests. From conversations we had with some other late dining guests, I think we hit the jackpot as there were a lot of people complaining about long waits. The waiters dancing was fun. Our bar waiter for dinner was great - the friendliest crew member we dealt with the whole cruise and the only one who consistently addressed us by name and with a smile. Service at the bars was ok - it was efficient. Our room steward was also very good. We barely saw her but the one time I called for something she had it taken care of immediately. Our cabins were always ready when we got back and we had cute towel animals each night.

 

Food - Winners: prime rib, bbq ribs, lasagna, veal parm, onion soup, chicken fingers on Lido, the beef dish at Happy Valley, choc melting cake and bitter & blanc. Losers: the coffee, tilapia, baked alaska, choc mousse from the buffet, ice cream from Lido and the Mexican buffet (why have a Mexican buffet when everyone has just spent the entire day in Mexico??????) Mixed reviews: lobster, flat iron steak, burgers on Lido

 

Entertainment - the comic the second night was very good and we enjoyed the salsa band and the cover band (Voodoo). karaoke in the common area just outside the casino on our sea day was torture - that really should be in a room with a door, lol. Although I guess it probably saved me money as I left the Let it Ride table earlier than I wanted to. Also the piano player we thought was truly awful but others we talked to found him good. The comic the last night was not funny at all. Bingo was overpriced ($20 for 2 games?). The Love and Marriage show was funny. The music in the nightclub was decent as was the Lido deck music for Sail Away. It was a little windy on the Lido most of the cruise especially the last day so we skipped the deck party and only saw a bit of the hairy chest contest. We did not use the pools, slides or mini-golf.

 

Other items - the spa sauna and steam room was nice with windows looking out the front side of ship and big shower facilities. The photographers were everywhere but $21.99 for a portrait is too steep for me so other than the embarkation photo, I skipped most of that.

 

Excursions - in Key West we went parasailing. We booked it independently through Sebago Watersports. It was $40 pp which was 1/2 what Carnival wanted and we ended up with a private excursion since the four of us were the only ones for the first trip out. The crew was great and really made it a great experience. We were a little nervous about 9am with the cold weather the Keys were having but it was not bad at all. We skipped the "dip" part since it wasn't warm enough. I highly recommend Sebago for parasailing in Key West - it was one of the highlights of our trip. And the 9-10am time was just right as it left us the rest of the morning to see the town. The other 2 in our group did the kayak tour with Carnival and loved it. We had drinks and lunch at Sloppy Joe's then shopping for souvenirs on Duval. In Cozumel we booked the Cozumel Bar Hop Bus that was recommended so highly by others on these boards. It was truly a great day. Again we were the only ones booked so we ended up with a private tour for the 6 of us. The other side of Cozumel is beautiful. We had massages on the beach during our first stop. We went to Coconuts and Rasta Bar as well as Punta Morena and ended up at Paradise Beach. Each place had a specialty drink for us to try and we had great appetizers at Coconuts and a great lunch at Rasta. We followed that up with some shopping in the little plaza by the ships and an adios Mexico drink at Fat Tuesdays.

 

All in all - you can't beat the price for a balcony cabin on Destiny with a great weekender itinerary. I'd go again tomorrow if I could!

[murphalina]

Thanks for the review! I can't wait to take this cruise in THREE WEEKS!!!

 

I couldn't agree more about the Mexican buffet the night of Cozumel. I mean seriously?

[FanofFlorida]

Can you tell me more about your para sailing adventure?

What I am wondering is how many people were on the boat with you? How long was your turn, and did they take you up in pairs or individually?

 

Thanks so much!

[sharona211]

Are you going to post pics?

 

I don't have many of the ship. Most of the pics are scenery or pics of our group. I did take my camera up when I parasailed and got some great shots up there. I'll try to figure out how to post them...

[Nunu]

I agree with the OP. Good value on a ship that was really un-memorable for us.

[sharona211]

Can you tell me more about your para sailing adventure?

What I am wondering is how many people were on the boat with you? How long was your turn, and did they take you up in pairs or individually?

 

Thanks so much!

 

We did the tandem parasail so we went up in pairs but they did offer individual. It was nice to share the experience with someone. I can't wait to go again and take my daughter as soon as she's big enough. There were just the four of us and the 2 crew on the boat. They took pictures which they put on disc and we bought. We were up about 15-20 minutes each I think. It was just right. I was able to take my camera up with me. They played music during the ride. We left the dock at 9am and were back at 10. It was right down the street from Duval - only about a 5 minute walk from the pier. If you search the Key West board for parasailing there are some other people who also used Sebago and recommended them - that's how I found them.

[deej696]

Glad it was a great cruise! Question: do you mind me asking between which cabins the balcony divider wouldnt open? We have a starboard 8A and can't get a straight answer from Carnival, or even here on CC, if our balcony doors open. Thought maybe the position of your cabins may shed some light on it...

[uffdafla]

weight determines singles vs, tandem. we always go together and take two cameras. one for us and one for the peps on the boat to take pics of us.

[sharona211]

Glad it was a great cruise! Question: do you mind me asking between which cabins the balcony divider wouldnt open? We have a starboard 8A and can't get a straight answer from Carnival, or even here on CC, if our balcony doors open. Thought maybe the position of your cabins may shed some light on it...

 

The location of the balcony doors is the determining factor as far as I could tell. We had 7301 where the door was on the far left of the cabin and 7305 the door was on the far right so the divider between those two could be swung open and locked in place without blocking either doorway. For 7305 and 7309 the doors were immediately on either side of that divider so to open it would have blocked one of the doors. It was nice and really convenient to have the bigger connected balcony so if you're booking 2 cabins, try to find two where this will be possible.

 

I know there was website posted by one of the cabin experts - maybe Serene or Firefly - that had details about what could be opened listed by cabin for each ship. Seems like on the Destiny it is every other divider for the standard category 8s, although the PVP had advised all could be opened when we were booking. Try asking on the cabin selection board.

 

Good luck and good weather to you!

[murphalina]

Glad it was a great cruise! Question: do you mind me asking between which cabins the balcony divider wouldnt open? We have a starboard 8A and can't get a straight answer from Carnival, or even here on CC, if our balcony doors open. Thought maybe the position of your cabins may shed some light on it...

 

This will tell you whether you balcony can connect to any other:

 

https://www.bookccl.com/irman/bookccl/the_fleet/destiny/destiny.htm