Carnival Destiny Review Nov 25-29

[Warm Breezes]

Background: This was the 7th cruise (4th Carnival cruise) for me (44), DH (44), DS (16), and DD (13). This was a make-up cruise for a Glory cruise in July that got cancelled when DGM passed away the night before our cruise. We used our insurance money to pay for this cruise and the airfare to FLL.

Pre-cruise: We flew from DTW to FLL on Wednesday. This was supposed to be one of the busiest travel days of the year, but we did not see any delays. We were through Delta check-in and security within 20 minutes. We all went through the normal metal detectors with no problems. We took a taxi to our hotel. The cost was $17 incl. tip.

We stayed Wednesday night at Embassy Suites – FLL. We walked to Outback for late lunch/supper and then to Publix for our bottle of champagne to take on-board. The hotel is older but we had no complaints about the cleanliness or staff. The free drinks were flowing at the manager’s reception and the cook-to-order breakfast was delicious. The pool with the waterfall and KOI pond next to it was beautiful and clean. We enjoyed our stay here and would come here again.

Embarkation: We had SAS Transportation take us to the Miami cruise terminal. The cost was $60 incl. tip. They picked us up at 11:00 AM as agreed (we were the only ones picked up in the shuttle van) and we were at the cruise terminal by 11:30 and on the ship by 11:45. There were absolutely no lines. We had no troubles using our BC and DL and I was not asked for my ML even though the Carnival Rep told me it was required beforehand since my last (married) name was different than my BC.

Rooms: We had 2 inside room’s side-by-side. Our room stewardess Slavana (Sunny) was awesome. She automatically set up one room for DH and I and the other for the kids. She kept our rooms spotless with towel animals and chocolates every night and she kept our little cooler for our champagne filled with ice without us asking. She introduced herself to us right away, giving us her cell number in case we needed anything. She kept us up dated on what was going daily. She was the most attentive room stewards we have ever had and her disposition matched her nick name.

Buffet: We ate at the buffet every morning for breakfast and a couple days for lunch. They had an omelet station at the Happy Valley window which hardly ever had a line. The biggest line we encountered was lunch on embarkation day. Food is very subjective. I will say that we were all able to find something we enjoyed when we ate there.

Dinner: We had anytime dining. We went at various times each day. We never encountered a wait, but we did notice a couple times when people were getting backed and getting pagers while we were eating. 3 out of the 4 evenings we had Constantine as our head waiter. He was excellent. On one of the days he seemed to be short-staffed as he was the only one who came to our table. He did a great job of keeping up even though he seemed a little frustrated with his help a couple times. The 4th evening we were seated in another section. They were extremely busy while we were there and the head waitress didn’t even introduce herself to us. She was all business. Constantine interacted more with us when he passed our table than our own head waitress did. The food was good. I seemed to recall the selections having more things to my taste on our last Freedom cruise. I had a hard time finding things on the menu that appealed to me. However, everyone did enjoy the food we received.

Production Shows: Personally I though the shows on the Destiny were a little on the boring side. DD is a competitive dancer so I am used to seeing a variety of dance numbers at her competitions. The choreography just did not seem as good as I am used to seeing. I know the dancers wear skinned colored body suits under their outfits so I am not offended by the costumes, but DD, who wants to dance on cruise ships sometime in her future, said that this was one ship she didn’t want to dance on because the dancers showed a little too much bottom for her comfort level.

Comedy Shows: The comedy shows were pretty good. They appealed more to DH and DS’s sense of humor than mine, but it takes all kinds.

Farewell Party: This was just mentioned on the first day's Fun Times as something to look forward to and listed as Fun Farewell Party on the last day. There were maybe 100 people there. The drinks were free flowing. The band was playing and people were on-stage dancing and having a blast.

Activities: We played the 5 game Bingo and lost. We played Amazing Race Destiny and won our first 2 ships on a stick. The kids loved it. The kids did not do Circle C or Club 02. They have never gotten into the kids club scene. We hung out together playing cards, ping pong, shuffle board, mini-golf and just laying out in the sun. I ended up losing about $4 in the casino and DH lost about $20. Not bad for the couple of hours we spent in there.

Key West: We did our walking tour since we were only there in the morning. We got back to the ship early and enjoyed lunch and the pool with not many people around.

Cozumel: We did the Isla Pasion by Twister. It was excellent. Our driver Willy got us soaked going there and back with exciting twists and turns. There were maybe 50 people on the island. It was gorgeous and we had a large expanse of the beach to ourselves. A Mexican buffet, draft beer and well-drinks were included. The food and drinks were not the best but it was great having that little slice of heaven to our-selves for a few hours.

Debarkation: Again a breeze. We were zone 9 and it took us about 10 minutes to get off the boat once we got in line. We had no issues getting off with just our DL and BC (again not asked to show my ML). The 2 people in front of us had passports and they took longer than the 4 of us with BC and DL. I called SAS once we were outside. Steve was right there to pick us up and take us back to Embassy Suites FLL. This cost us $60 incl. tip.

Post-Cruise: Back at the Embassy Suites we spent the day hanging out at the pool. We walked to Duffy’s Bar and Grill for a late lunch/supper. Again we had free flowing drinks at the manager’s reception and a great make-to-order breakfast in the morning before going make to the hotel. The hotel set us up with a shuttle van back to the airport for $20 incl. tip.

At FLL airport we were through check-in and security within 15 minutes. I was chosen to go through the body scanner while everyone else went through the metal detectors. It was no big deal.

We had a great time. No odors. No propulsion issues. We have never had everything go as smoothly for us as it did on this cruise. Now I have get back to reality and deal with the snow that has been falling all day. Let me know if I can answer any questions. I did not bring home any Fun Times or menus so I can't help you there.

[jimbo5544]

Background: This was the 7th cruise (4th Carnival cruise) for me (44), DH (44), DS (16), and DD (13). This was a make-up cruise for a Glory cruise in July that got cancelled when DGM passed away the night before our cruise. We used our insurance money to pay for this cruise and the airfare to FLL.

Pre-cruise: We flew from DTW to FLL on Wednesday. This was supposed to be one of the busiest travel days of the year, but we did not see any delays. We were through Delta check-in and security within 20 minutes. We all went through the normal metal detectors with no problems. We took a taxi to our hotel. The cost was $17 incl. tip.

We stayed Wednesday night at Embassy Suites – FLL. We walked to Outback for late lunch/supper and then to Publix for our bottle of champagne to take on-board. The hotel is older but we had no complaints about the cleanliness or staff. The free drinks were flowing at the manager’s reception and the cook-to-order breakfast was delicious. The pool with the waterfall and KOI pond next to it was beautiful and clean. We enjoyed our stay here and would come here again.

Embarkation: We had SAS Transportation take us to the Miami cruise terminal. The cost was $60 incl. tip. They picked us up at 11:00 AM as agreed (we were the only ones picked up in the shuttle van) and we were at the cruise terminal by 11:30 and on the ship by 11:45. There were absolutely no lines. We had no troubles using our BC and DL and I was not asked for my ML even though the Carnival Rep told me it was required beforehand since my last (married) name was different than my BC.

Rooms: We had 2 inside room’s side-by-side. Our room stewardess Slavana (Sunny) was awesome. She automatically set up one room for DH and I and the other for the kids. She kept our rooms spotless with towel animals and chocolates every night and she kept our little cooler for our champagne filled with ice without us asking. She introduced herself to us right away, giving us her cell number in case we needed anything. She kept us up dated on what was going daily. She was the most attentive room stewards we have ever had and her disposition matched her nick name.

Buffet: We ate at the buffet every morning for breakfast and a couple days for lunch. They had an omelet station at the Happy Valley window which hardly ever had a line. The biggest line we encountered was lunch on embarkation day. Food is very subjective. I will say that we were all able to find something we enjoyed when we ate there.

Dinner: We had anytime dining. We went at various times each day. We never encountered a wait, but we did notice a couple times when people were getting backed and getting pagers while we were eating. 3 out of the 4 evenings we had Constantine as our head waiter. He was excellent. On one of the days he seemed to be short-staffed as he was the only one who came to our table. He did a great job of keeping up even though he seemed a little frustrated with his help a couple times. The 4th evening we were seated in another section. They were extremely busy while we were there and the head waitress didn’t even introduce herself to us. She was all business. Constantine interacted more with us when he passed our table than our own head waitress did. The food was good. I seemed to recall the selections having more things to my taste on our last Freedom cruise. I had a hard time finding things on the menu that appealed to me. However, everyone did enjoy the food we received.

Production Shows: Personally I though the shows on the Destiny were a little on the boring side. DD is a competitive dancer so I am used to seeing a variety of dance numbers at her competitions. The choreography just did not seem as good as I am used to seeing. I know the dancers wear skinned colored body suits under their outfits so I am not offended by the costumes, but DD, who wants to dance on cruise ships sometime in her future, said that this was one ship she didn’t want to dance on because the dancers showed a little too much bottom for her comfort level.

Comedy Shows: The comedy shows were pretty good. They appealed more to DH and DS’s sense of humor than mine, but it takes all kinds.

Farewell Party: This was just mentioned on the first day's Fun Times as something to look forward to and listed as Fun Farewell Party on the last day. There were maybe 100 people there. The drinks were free flowing. The band was playing and people were on-stage dancing and having a blast.

Activities: We played the 5 game Bingo and lost. We played Amazing Race Destiny and won our first 2 ships on a stick. The kids loved it. The kids did not do Circle C or Club 02. They have never gotten into the kids club scene. We hung out together playing cards, ping pong, shuffle board, mini-golf and just laying out in the sun. I ended up losing about $4 in the casino and DH lost about $20. Not bad for the couple of hours we spent in there.

Key West: We did our walking tour since we were only there in the morning. We got back to the ship early and enjoyed lunch and the pool with not many people around.

Cozumel: We did the Isla Pasion by Twister. It was excellent. Our driver Willy got us soaked going there and back with exciting twists and turns. There were maybe 50 people on the island. It was gorgeous and we had a large expanse of the beach to ourselves. A Mexican buffet, draft beer and well-drinks were included. The food and drinks were not the best but it was great having that little slice of heaven to our-selves for a few hours.

Debarkation: Again a breeze. We were zone 9 and it took us about 10 minutes to get off the boat once we got in line. We had no issues getting off with just our DL and BC (again not asked to show my ML). The 2 people in front of us had passports and they took longer than the 4 of us with BC and DL. I called SAS once we were outside. Steve was right there to pick us up and take us back to Embassy Suites FLL. This cost us $60 incl. tip.

Post-Cruise: Back at the Embassy Suites we spent the day hanging out at the pool. We walked to Duffy’s Bar and Grill for a late lunch/supper. Again we had free flowing drinks at the manager’s reception and a great make-to-order breakfast in the morning before going make to the hotel. The hotel set us up with a shuttle van back to the airport for $20 incl. tip.

At FLL airport we were through check-in and security within 15 minutes. I was chosen to go through the body scanner while everyone else went through the metal detectors. It was no big deal.

We had a great time. No odors. No propulsion issues. We have never had everything go as smoothly for us as it did on this cruise. Now I have get back to reality and deal with the snow that has been falling all day. Let me know if I can answer any questions. I did not bring home any Fun Times or menus so I can't help you there.

Sounds like you had a great cruise. What were your thoughts on the Destiny itself?

[spideyfam]

Thanks for the review!! We will be on her in 11 days!!

[Warm Breezes]

Sounds like you had a great cruise. What were your thoughts on the Destiny itself?

 

She is an older ship but I really can't say that I saw a lot of wear and tear. She was kept clean. We were familiar with the layout as it was similar to the Carnival Freedom. DS wanted to know where the Fish station was and I had to let him down gently on that one. The beds were comfortable and I slept like a baby each night. It was a littly rolly but not to bad. I did not notice that much smoke smell in the Casino or on deck. The bath rooms did not have the shelf space that the Freedom had. We knew this ahead of time and got a couple mesh pocket holders that we hung with suction cups on the mirrors in the bath rooms and the bedrooms to hold our toiletries and hair stuff. I never really notice the decor on the ships as it is not all that important to me unless something really sticks out. Nothing really stuck out to me on the Destiny. All I can really say was that it was clean, odor-free, and comfortable.

[jimbo5544]

She is an older ship but I really can't say that I saw a lot of wear and tear. She was kept clean. We were familiar with the layout as it was similar to the Carnival Freedom. DS wanted to know where the Fish station was and I had to let him down gently on that one. The beds were comfortable and I slept like a baby each night. It was a littly rolly but not to bad. I did not notice that much smoke smell in the Casino or on deck. The bath rooms did not have the shelf space that the Freedom had. We knew this ahead of time and got a couple mesh pocket holders that we hung with suction cups on the mirrors in the bath rooms and the bedrooms to hold our toiletries and hair stuff. I never really notice the decor on the ships as it is not all that important to me unless something really sticks out. Nothing really stuck out to me on the Destiny. All I can really say was that it was clean, odor-free, and comfortable.

That sounds great. We have sailed on her twice, once when she was the "largest cruise ship afloat" and then again a couple of years ago. On the second voyage, she had probably the worst reputation of any Carnival ship. It was kind of sad. Glad to hear she has made a come back.... and that you had a wonderful cruise. I will always associate her with Kathy Lee Gifford....

[coltonsdad2]

Thanks, for Destiny, sas review.

[AdrenalineRush]

Thanks for sharing!

[Froufie]

Great review! And glad to hear you read/knew about the farewell party and attended (some recent reports regarding this party were pretty dismal!).

 

Question - - How much was the 'isla passion' twister excursion - and what time did it leave? and how much time did you spend on the beach? (I presume you were docked in Cozumel from 1pm - 10 pm?)

 

Also very curious about the Destiny amazing race contest? Can you provide a little more detail? What was involved? How long did it take? etc!

 

And my dd and ds are both competitive dancers so I could really relate to your comments!:D My dd kinda rolls her eyes sometimes at the 'moves' and gets really upset with the 'fake' recorded tap sounds! ha ha ha

 

THanks,

 

 

-

[Warm Breezes]

Great review! And glad to hear you read/knew about the farewell party and attended (some recent reports regarding this party were pretty dismal!).

 

Question - - How much was the 'isla passion' twister excursion - and what time did it leave? and how much time did you spend on the beach? (I presume you were docked in Cozumel from 1pm - 10 pm?)

Also very curious about the Destiny amazing race contest? Can you provide a little more detail? What was involved? How long did it take? etc!

 

And my dd and ds are both competitive dancers so I could really relate to your comments!:D My dd kinda rolls her eyes sometimes at the 'moves' and gets really upset with the 'fake' recorded tap sounds! ha ha ha

 

THanks,

 

 

-

The tour cost $69 each. The meeting time for the tour was 2:00 at the end of the pier and return time was 7:00. It took about 25 minutes to reach the island. We had about 3 - 3 1/2 hours on the island.

 

For the Amazing Race your team was given a list of 10 clues (which took you to different places on the ship). You had to answer a question about the place the the clue sent you to. Your team had 20 minutes to answer the questions. If your team split up or ran you had to deduct 1 point. Ties were split by check in time as you had to check in on your return. The quickest team with the most points won 2 ships on a stick.

 

We didn't have any tap dancing on this cruise, but we did see that on the NCL Jewel when all the dancers but the lead dancer had on jazz shoes but the music and their moves made it sound and look like they were tapping. We had a good laugh at that one. There were a couple moves in Destiny's shows that DD thought were good, but overall it was pretty boring choreography.

[Warm Breezes]

Thanks for the review!! We will be on her in 11 days!!

 

I hope you have as much fun as we did!

[CruiseCentric]

 

For the Amazing Race your team was given a list of 10 clues (which took you to different places on the ship). You had to answer a question about the place the the clue sent you to. Your team had 20 minutes to answer the questions. If your team split up or ran you had to deduct 1 point. Ties were split by check in time as you had to check in on your return. The quickest team with the most points won 2 ships on a stick.

Im very interested in doing this, is there a limit to the number of people on each team? Im traveling with some highly competitive guys, so this could be fun:p Been sending in tapes to Amazing Race since season one. :D

[boaterette]

Really great review. Thanks for taking the time to post.

[mountainbreeze]

Thanks for the Destiny review! I love to see that positive reviews of the Destiny are still coming! :)

[Warm Breezes]

Im very interested in doing this, is there a limit to the number of people on each team? Im traveling with some highly competitive guys, so this could be fun:p Been sending in tapes to Amazing Race since season one. :D

 

If I remember correctly it was 2-4 people. Not really sure on that one though. We did it as a family. We had a lot of fun doing it. The 20 minutes went by really fast.

[darth frosty]

Background: This was the 7th cruise (4th Carnival cruise) for me (44), DH (44), DS (16), and DD (13). This was a make-up cruise for a Glory cruise in July that got cancelled when DGM passed away the night before our cruise. We used our insurance money to pay for this cruise and the airfare to FLL.

 

Pre-cruise: We flew from DTW to FLL on Wednesday. This was supposed to be one of the busiest travel days of the year, but we did not see any delays. We were through Delta check-in and security within 20 minutes. We all went through the normal metal detectors with no problems. We took a taxi to our hotel. The cost was $17 incl. tip.

 

We stayed Wednesday night at Embassy Suites – FLL. We walked to Outback for late lunch/supper and then to Publix for our bottle of champagne to take on-board. The hotel is older but we had no complaints about the cleanliness or staff. The free drinks were flowing at the manager’s reception and the cook-to-order breakfast was delicious. The pool with the waterfall and KOI pond next to it was beautiful and clean. We enjoyed our stay here and would come here again.

 

Embarkation: We had SAS Transportation take us to the Miami cruise terminal. The cost was $60 incl. tip. They picked us up at 11:00 AM as agreed (we were the only ones picked up in the shuttle van) and we were at the cruise terminal by 11:30 and on the ship by 11:45. There were absolutely no lines. We had no troubles using our BC and DL and I was not asked for my ML even though the Carnival Rep told me it was required beforehand since my last (married) name was different than my BC.

 

Rooms: We had 2 inside room’s side-by-side. Our room stewardess Slavana (Sunny) was awesome. She automatically set up one room for DH and I and the other for the kids. She kept our rooms spotless with towel animals and chocolates every night and she kept our little cooler for our champagne filled with ice without us asking. She introduced herself to us right away, giving us her cell number in case we needed anything. She kept us up dated on what was going daily. She was the most attentive room stewards we have ever had and her disposition matched her nick name.

 

Buffet: We ate at the buffet every morning for breakfast and a couple days for lunch. They had an omelet station at the Happy Valley window which hardly ever had a line. The biggest line we encountered was lunch on embarkation day. Food is very subjective. I will say that we were all able to find something we enjoyed when we ate there.

 

Dinner: We had anytime dining. We went at various times each day. We never encountered a wait, but we did notice a couple times when people were getting backed and getting pagers while we were eating. 3 out of the 4 evenings we had Constantine as our head waiter. He was excellent. On one of the days he seemed to be short-staffed as he was the only one who came to our table. He did a great job of keeping up even though he seemed a little frustrated with his help a couple times. The 4th evening we were seated in another section. They were extremely busy while we were there and the head waitress didn’t even introduce herself to us. She was all business.

 

Constantine interacted more with us when he passed our table than our own head waitress did. The food was good. I seemed to recall the selections having more things to my taste on our last Freedom cruise. I had a hard time finding things on the menu that appealed to me. However, everyone did enjoy the food we received.

 

Production Shows: Personally I though the shows on the Destiny were a little on the boring side. DD is a competitive dancer so I am used to seeing a variety of dance numbers at her competitions. The choreography just did not seem as good as I am used to seeing. I know the dancers wear skinned colored body suits under their outfits so I am not offended by the costumes, but DD, who wants to dance on cruise ships sometime in her future, said that this was one ship she didn’t want to dance on because the dancers showed a little too much bottom for her comfort level.

 

Comedy Shows: The comedy shows were pretty good. They appealed more to DH and DS’s sense of humor than mine, but it takes all kinds.

Farewell Party: This was just mentioned on the first day's Fun Times as something to look forward to and listed as Fun Farewell Party on the last day. There were maybe 100 people there. The drinks were free flowing. The band was playing and people were on-stage dancing and having a blast.

 

Activities: We played the 5 game Bingo and lost. We played Amazing Race Destiny and won our first 2 ships on a stick. The kids loved it. The kids did not do Circle C or Club 02. They have never gotten into the kids club scene. We hung out together playing cards, ping pong, shuffle board, mini-golf and just laying out in the sun. I ended up losing about $4 in the casino and DH lost about $20. Not bad for the couple of hours we spent in there.

Key West: We did our walking tour since we were only there in the morning. We got back to the ship early and enjoyed lunch and the pool with not many people around.

 

Cozumel: We did the Isla Pasion by Twister. It was excellent. Our driver Willy got us soaked going there and back with exciting twists and turns. There were maybe 50 people on the island. It was gorgeous and we had a large expanse of the beach to ourselves. A Mexican buffet, draft beer and well-drinks were included. The food and drinks were not the best but it was great having that little slice of heaven to our-selves for a few hours.

 

Debarkation: Again a breeze. We were zone 9 and it took us about 10 minutes to get off the boat once we got in line. We had no issues getting off with just our DL and BC (again not asked to show my ML). The 2 people in front of us had passports and they took longer than the 4 of us with BC and DL. I called SAS once we were outside. Steve was right there to pick us up and take us back to Embassy Suites FLL. This cost us $60 incl. tip.

 

Post-Cruise: Back at the Embassy Suites we spent the day hanging out at the pool. We walked to Duffy’s Bar and Grill for a late lunch/supper. Again we had free flowing drinks at the manager’s reception and a great make-to-order breakfast in the morning before going make to the hotel. The hotel set us up with a shuttle van back to the airport for $20 incl. tip.

 

At FLL airport we were through check-in and security within 15 minutes. I was chosen to go through the body scanner while everyone else went through the metal detectors. It was no big deal.

 

We had a great time. No odors. No propulsion issues. We have never had everything go as smoothly for us as it did on this cruise. Now I have get back to reality and deal with the snow that has been falling all day. Let me know if I can answer any questions. I did not bring home any Fun Times or menus so I can't help you there.

 

 

Thx for the review just trying to make it easier for me to read.

[Warm Breezes]

Thx for the review just trying to make it easier for me to read.

 

Sorry. I copy and pasted from Word and it took out all of my paragraph breaks. :o

[CruiseCentric]

If I remember correctly it was 2-4 people. Not really sure on that one though. We did it as a family. We had a lot of fun doing it. The 20 minutes went by really fast.

Thanks, does sound fun.

[Froufie]

The tour cost $69 each. The meeting time for the tour was 2:00 at the end of the pier and return time was 7:00. It took about 25 minutes to reach the island. We had about 3 - 3 1/2 hours on the island.

 

For the Amazing Race your team was given a list of 10 clues (which took you to different places on the ship). You had to answer a question about the place the the clue sent you to. Your team had 20 minutes to answer the questions. If your team split up or ran you had to deduct 1 point. Ties were split by check in time as you had to check in on your return. The quickest team with the most points won 2 ships on a stick.

 

Thanks so much for the responses and great info - just wanted to clarify 'twister' return time - were you back on the ship at 7 pm??? or left the island at 7 pm (and if so what time did you get back on the ship- trying to determine if it's possible to make it for late dining!!!)

 

And I definitely want to try out that Amazing Race hunt! :D

 

Thanks!:D

[Warm Breezes]

Thanks so much for the responses and great info - just wanted to clarify 'twister' return time - were you back on the ship at 7 pm??? or left the island at 7 pm (and if so what time did you get back on the ship- trying to determine if it's possible to make it for late dining!!!)

 

And I definitely want to try out that Amazing Race hunt! :D

 

Thanks!:D

We were back to the pier by 7:00. You should be able to make late dining. We had anytime dining so we didn't worry about what time we got back. DD and I did a little shopping before heading back to the ship so we got back about 7:30 and were at the dining room by 8:15. We definately needed a quick shower before heading to dinner (one of the times I was glad we had 2 rooms with 2 showers).:D

[Froufie]

We were back to the pier by 7:00. You should be able to make late dining. We had anytime dining so we didn't worry about what time we got back. DD and I did a little shopping before heading back to the ship so we got back about 7:30 and were at the dining room by 8:15. We definately needed a quick shower before heading to dinner (one of the times I was glad we had 2 rooms with 2 showers).:D

 

Thanks again (and I need at least that hour to 'beautify' myself for dinner - takes a bit longer every year - ha ha ha :D).