Carnival Destiny Review with Pictures 6/11/12 to 6/16/12 - long

[kirstennindy]

Introduction and rooms:

 

My husband and our two daughters (16 and 20) cruised on the Carnival Destiny June 11-16, 2012. This was our first cruise so I don’t have much to compare it to. We picked the Destiny mainly because she offered a cruise in our very limited vacation window. We heard this ship was getting ready for a total makeover, so we were a little worried it would be a bit run down. We found a mostly beautiful and well kept ship. If you got picky and looked close, I guess there were a few areas where the carpet was worn on the stairs etc…but it was nothing really noticeable without looking for it…and I can be picky!

 

We booked 2 rooms, both with porthole windows. Our rooms were 1114 and 2109. We loved the port hole windows…they were so ship-like! We had to book the rooms with an adult in each room, when really we stayed with the girls in one room and us in another. This was only a problem because our room keys did not match up…and due to buying alcoholic drinks we didn’t feel we could switch keys. We might have been able to fix this at guest services, but were afraid they would say an adult over 21 had to stay in each room. It was an inconvenience but we just had to stay on the buddy system. Both rooms were very nice! They had plenty of room for 2 people. We did hear some morning noise when the chains dropped in port one day from both rooms, but this just assured we got out of bed at a decent time!

 

The bathrooms were nice. The hairdryer was plenty powerful for me, but I have very fine hair. If you have thick hair you might want to bring your own. There is not much counter space, but there is a closet with shelves that worked perfect for our toiletries right outside the bathroom door. One word of caution…watch the shower curtain when showering. It tends to cover the drain hole and then you flood the entire bathroom…eeek…good thing there is a drain in the main bathroom too!

 

There was plenty of closet and drawer space for two people, but it might be tight with more. There was a room safe with a 4 digit password that was free to use. The beds were comfortable, but I had a lot of trouble sleeping as I couldn’t get used to the rocking motion while I tried to sleep. If you are a light sleeper make sure to bring a sleep-aide!

 

There are 2 to 4 large Carnival beach towels to use in port or at the pool in each room, but be sure they make it back to your room or you will get charged for them. They were washed daily for us. They also had towels at the pool at the towel shack, but you had to check them in and out with your room key.

 

Overall we were very please with the rooms!

 

[kirstennindy]

As soon as we boarded the ship we made our way to the excursion desk to book the Behind the Fun Tour. My husband is an engineer and was really excited about this tour. We were told that they had canceled this tour for our cruise. This was a big let down…but we were on vacation so we tried not to get down. Our money stayed in our pocket and went on with our day. We ate, checked out our great rooms, and then headed up to the Lido deck for the sail away party! The sail away took a while due to many ships being in port, so we sat back and watched the fun…line dancing etc. My husband stood up to get a better view of the fun and was standing right under where the railing from the next deck up was when a full tray of 5 red sticky fruity drinks came down on top of his head from up above! A plastic glass even bounced off his head! The bar staff immediately came down flustered to clean up the mess, but totally ignored my husband. I pulled one of them aside and asked if they noticed what they had done to my husband. He looked up at my husband who had a red sticky substance running down his hat, face, shirt and shorts. It was like a bad Carrie remake! He said sorry and handed my husband a free drink….no towel to wipe down with…no offer for free laundering…no offer to replace his hat or shirt with free Carnival ones. WOW…we were really let down with how this was handled. We probably should have gone to the customer service desk to complain, but felt we shouldn’t have to if we pointed it out to the employee on deck. We also felt like making a big deal of it would just make the day worse. We made our way back to the room. While my husband hopped in the shower I went in search of our luggage for fresh clothing. Luckily I had tied yellow handkerchiefs around all our luggage handles, so they were easy to find. I asked a porter for my bags and he told me no…they would deliver them later. NO? When I explained our situation he did finally dug our luggage out…but did not offer me help getting them to our room and I had to struggle down the hall with them myself. After a quick shower and change of clothes…we went back up to the Lido deck trying to salvage the sail away party. We had missed most of it at this point, but were able to see Miami off in the distance as we sailed away. The night ended a little better with a nice dinner in the Galaxy dining room followed by the Welcome Aboard Show! Please stick with me…our trip does get better…well a little anyway!

 

Pictures are of leaving Miami - what we got to see anyway and hubby before the "accident" - I wish I had taken a post spill picture...but he didn't really seem in the mood for posing!

[oncruisecontrol]

Great start. Keep it coming.

[kirstennindy]

The next day was a sea day with no port stop. We slept in and then enjoyed a self guided tour of the ship. We made a point to find every public area and check out what the Destiny had to offer. This helped a lot through the week! Tonight was formal night and we all enjoyed dressing up. I did not see a single tux on this cruise! Most men wore suits or jackets and slacks with a tie. A pair of slacks with a button up shirt and a tie was popular among the younger men. We ended the night with a show in the Palladium – Nightclub Express. Overall we think the two things Carnival does best is the food and the entertainment. We loved both the entire week! We have a hard to feed family. My 20 year old daughter is a strict vegetarian. She said the food was awesome and never had problem finding really good vegetarian food at any meal. Her favorite dishes were in the Galaxy Dining Room. My youngest is mostly vegetarian and really picky. The dining staff was wonderful at piecing together a meal she would eat! I noticed that they serve children their entire meal with the appetizers…wonderful idea! My husband and I will eat anything…and gained about 7 lbs each! The all night pizza and ice cream were great! I love a bedtime snack. My absolute favorite thing they served was the bitter and blanc dessert (which is like a chocolate vanilla bread pudding)….YUM!

 

Pictures are of us dressed for dinner, my nutty family, and an average lunch for me on the Destiny.

[caro1998]

Great review and pics... Can't wait to read more! I am going on this trip in August!

[jvteach77]

Do the porthole windows actually open to where you can get air in the room? They appear to be open in your picture, but I can't tell if they still have glass the outter portion of the window.

[oncruisecontrol]

I have a question about the wrap on your lunch plate: Did you get that from the deli?

[kirstennindy]

Today, our girls wanted to get up early and watch the sunrise...WOW...our teenagers WANTED to get up before noon! It was beautiful watching the sun come up over Grand Turk...I recommend a sunrise and a sunset on your trip! Today we went into Grand Turk. We had prearranged a golf cart rental with Nathan’s Carts. We had to leave the port area to get to the golf carts. We had no problem getting our cart and it ran perfect all day! We loved the self guided tour of the island! We went to the lighthouse first and then wandered back. We even found a nice private beach for a swim! After our swim we went to Jack’s Shack for a free shot of rum (sign up on their site) and fried conch…YUM! We also enjoyed a couple of local beers here. If you are thinking about renting a golf cart…DO IT! The island is very friendly. There are wild horses and donkeys wandering the streets. The locals were very friendly and waved as we passed by…but no one bothered us or tried to sell us anything. After our tour we headed back to the ship for another great dinner in the Galaxy Dining Room. We ended the night at a comedy show in the Criterion Lounge…very funny! I am sure there was alcohol and pizza involved somewhere in the evening too!

 

Lots of pics today so I will separate them in a few posts.

The sun coming up over Grand Turk

Welcome to Grand Turk

Grand Turk Cruise Area

Destiny in Grand Turk

[kirstennindy]

Do the porthole windows actually open to where you can get air in the room? They appear to be open in your picture, but I can't tell if they still have glass the outter portion of the window.

No they do not open...but they do let in plenty of sun.

[kirstennindy]

I have a question about the wrap on your lunch plate: Did you get that from the deli?

 

Yes, it was a turkey wrap from the deli...and the salad came from the salad bar. The turkey wrap was really good!

[kirstennindy]

Here are more pictures from Grand Turk

 

The Grand Turk Lighthouse

The old kitchen at the Grand Turk Lighthouse

The Grand Turk Grocery Store

Wild Horses in Grand Turk

[kirstennindy]

I posted so many pictures of Grand Turk because I wanted to show you what you could see if you are willing to step away from the cruise port!

 

A boat off the shore in Grand Turk

A sea critter at our private beach

Our "private" beach area

Jack's Shack

Fried conch and local beer...YUM

[kirstennindy]

A quick note while I am thinking about alcohol. Yes...we were bad and brought a little more alcohol aboard than we were supposed to. The alcohol prices were reasonable on board (similar to a big city bar)...and we did buy a fair share of drinks from them...but I am not usually the kind to drink at bars because I hate the major markup on alcohol. We brought on the two bottles of wine we were allowed in our carry-on and then I packed small individual bottles of liquor in my regular luggage. I packed them in with my toilitries...so it probably just looked like I had a bunch of little bottles of shampoo if they looked with x-ray. BTW...rum goes really well with the free lemonade they have on the Lido deck....I bet vodka would too.

[christybell]

Great review, we are on Destiny on July 9th....looking forward to reading more. Think we will skip the welcome "shower" though....your poor hubby

[kirstennindy]

We stayed up late last night so slept in a little later than we wanted. You really have to pace yourself on a cruise because there is so much to do and you have to fit sleep in somewhere! We saw in our daily Funtimes that we should be totally prepared to board the tender before we went to get a tender ticket. I guess this was a newbie mistake, but we did as told and grabbed a quick breakfast and all our stuff before heading to get a ticket. It was about 11:30am. We were told there would be a 45 minute wait. We waited in the Palladium. Someone with entertainment was on stage getting little kids to tell jokes for about 15 minutes…but then no entertainment. It was actually 1:00pm before our number was called to go ashore….1 ½ hours later! We feel they could make this process better by offering entertainment and food while waiting for the tender to arrive. We were bored just sitting in the Palladium for 1 ½ hours looking out the window at all the people have fun on Half Moon Cay! Once ashore we grabbed a quick sandwich and then headed to the water sport shack to rent a hobie cat. It was just before 2pm…and we were told that they were closed for the day…WHAT? This was another thing my husband really wanted to do as we were really let down they would close so early when they just pulled our tender in! The boat was pulled up and sat in front of us for the remainder of the day just sitting there…and our money AGAIN stayed in our pocket! We really enjoyed this beach. It was the nicest beach I have ever been on. I just wish we had enjoyed more time on the island and a fun hobie cat ride! We all left Half Moon Cay a bit disappointed. We had another wonderful dinner in the Galaxy Dining Room! I can’t remember what we did this night…but I think alcohol was involved and I had fun! Oh wait I think the alcohol started in the Apollo lounge with a wonderful sing along with George and his guitar! He was outstanding! He came into the audience and talked to us between sets. I highly recommend his show! Even my girls loved it!

 

A tender heading to the Destiny From Half Moon Cay

The bar at Half Moon Cay

Our sail boat sitting ashore not making Carnival any money!

A pretty sitting area at Half Moon Cay

Carnival Destiny from Half Moon Cay

A pretty sunset from the Destiny over an island in the Bahamas

[kirstennindy]

Today was our last day aboard the Destiny and we were determined to end on a good note. After a big breakfast at the buffet we headed into Nassau for some shopping. The girls really liked shopping here. Their favorite store was Del Sol…they have clothing and items that change color in the sun. We walked around a lot and wandered through the straw market. It was nice that each day ashore was totally different for us so we never got bored. Back on board we went to the future carnival vacations presentation to see if we could get any inside information on room options etc. It was really just a sales pitch with minimal info…oh well they presented it well anyway. They had us all bring cards for a drawing, but never did any drawing…so I guess that was just to get us there. We went to the show Viola Paris before dinner. It was my favorite of the week! They did an outstanding job! Another great Galaxy dinner and we headed to the Criterion Lounge for a comedy show. The comedians they hire are great! Have I mentioned we loved the entertainment! I was also pleasantly surprised when we walked in to this show and the waiter remembered our name, room number, and what we ordered earlier in the week! WOW…I can see how they know in the dining room after we give the hostess our room number…but this was random and well appreciated! Back in our room we packed up…then headed to the big screen for a movie. I kind of remember some sci-fi alien western movie on the big screen, but that may be alcohol talking. Anyone know what movie this was? We headed to bed before the movie was over because we were cold and hadn’t thought to bring blankets. It would be nice if they had the towel shack open with blankets in the evening to borrow with your room key!

 

Nassau

Shops in Nassau under a cloudy sky...but it never rained!

The straw market in Nassau

View from the ship in Nassau

4 Carnival ships in port in Nassau

[kirstennindy]

We woke up and headed to breakfast after packing our bags. After breakfast my husband realized he had left his brand new Harley Davidson Nassau hat in the stateroom on a hanger. I went to the room to find the hat was gone and the door was open. They were cleaning for the next guests. I inquired about the hat to a room steward in the hall. He said he had no idea…they threw everything in the trash and showed me where the trash was. My husband’s hat was NOT in the trash and I would bet there is a Carnival employee somewhere enjoying his new hat. They hadn’t even started disembarkation! They could have held it for us or sent it to a lost and found! Oh well…just another let down for my husband. He just wanted off the ship at this point. This wasn’t to happen quickly as there was a delay getting clearance (not Carnival’s fault). We grabbed a few more cups of coffee and enjoyed our last few minutes on the ship. All that coffee was getting to me and I felt a need to find a ladies room…but the bathrooms by the Sun and Sea dining room were closed so we headed to the bathrooms by the Palladium. There was a lady cleaning the bathrooms there and she told me all the water was off on the ship and we could not use the bathroom. WHAT? I can’t get off the ship and I can’t pee either? I told her it wasn’t an option and tried to go in anyway. She held the door and refused to let me in. WOW! Well I had to go….it wasn’t an option....Carnival just needed to decide if it would be on the floor or in a bathroom somewhere. I finally found an unattended bathroom and was able to go…but this was the last straw for us! I don't mean to be petty here...but you really can't close the bathrooms on a ship with 3,000 people!

[kirstennindy]

There are some things that carnival does so well. We loved the entertainment and loved the great food! We also liked the variety in the ports on this trip. Overall we had a pretty good vacation. We are pretty laid back people and usually don’t get worked up over little things. We try to go with the flow and have fun no matter what...but this trip was trying for us. It seemed that every bad experience we had (except for the bathroom thing and having to lug my own bags) happened to my poor husband. He had 5 drinks spilled on his head….ruined a shirt, a pair of shorts, and a hat…was unable to tour the ship…and unable to rent a sailboat…and he had a new hat disappear. Maybe it was just a lot of bad luck or maybe a cruise just isn’t for us…but I think our next trip will be back at an all-inclusive in Jamaica. If this is par for a cruise…I just honestly feel this isn’t the best option for our hard earned vacation money. I feel that every issue was a basic customer service issue that could have been resolved with better trained employees! I hope I don’t upset anyone with this report. I tried to be as fair and honest as I could! I can see a great value to cruising…there were things we loved…and I think we just had a big handful of bad luck. I wish you all the best in your cruising…and maybe someday I will talk my husband into a cruise again…but I doubt it! If you are planning a cruise on the Destiny…go and have a great time without worry…she is a beautiful ship and this was a great itenerary!

I have more general pictures of the ship I will look through and post!

[caro1998]

Thanks for your honest review! Look forward to more pics :)

[kirstennindy]

[Topo Gigio]

Maybe you need to try another cruise line.

[jnmcruise]

thanks for a real review.. honest and to the point both positive and negative side to it..

[Topo Gigio]

Btw Destiny is my least favorite cruise ship to date!

[kirstennindy]

Maybe you need to try another cruise line.

 

It looks like you have been on plenty! Have you seen much difference with customer service between the different lines? If so which line might offer better customer service?

[kirstennindy]

Drink Station on the Lido Deck

Waiters dancing in the Galaxy

The Galaxy Dining Room...I think

Wow...a hallway...I must be out of pictures...the end.