Destiny Review 8/6/06-8/13/06

[treyct]

This is my mini review as I don't have alot of time this morning, Ill post a full review in the review area asap.

 

No problems arriving in San Jaun, a little late as we had an issue with our plane out of JFK. We arrived at 11:30am and were on the lido deck by 12:35pm. Check in was such a breeze and everyone we encountered were very nice and helpful. The alcohol rules were the most lax I've ever seen on Carnival. I tempted fate and was able to bring in a virtual bar in a carry on, the girl at the xray machine just looked at the bottles and smiled We opted to just stay on the ship as we had been to San Jaun just a month earlier.

 

OK, well our last cruise was on Carnivals Miracle, this was our first on the Destiny. We picked this cruise for the itinerary. Well lol all I can say is it was like going from the Hilton to the days Inn. The ship is "dated". It was dry docked within the past couple of years, I'm not really sure what they did but I'm glad I wasn't on the ship before the update lol.

 

Our room was ready at 1pm, we had a cat 8a balcony. All of our preordered stuff was waiting for us in our room, and was set out perfectly. After unpacking I'm looking around for the fridge...looking...still looking...finally I call down to the desk and ask someone, the nice girl on the phone says it must be there somewhere or maybe they took it out because it wasn't working. I paige my steward, after introductions and pleasantries, I ask him about the fridge....this is when he gives me the bad news that there are no fridges...only in suites....I shrug and just tell myself its no big deal really (our steward suprised us that afternoon with a cooler and always kept it full of ice for us...we never had to ask)...so finished unpacking switch on the TV to check the account on fun vision...damn the remotes not working I keep pushing menu and nothing happens...so I call down to the desk again....opps no fun vision either...This I was sad about. I love to check my account balance daily. All the rumors you've read about the air conditioning are true. It doesn't really work well in the rooms. Our room was hot. We took the cover off the vent ourselves, still didn't help. Alot of people had it worse than us though, especially the interior cabins on our floor. It was weird all the public places were super cool, just the rooms were hot.

 

We head to the spa to make my friends hair appointment for formal night. We were talked into the girls night out package which included updo, and light make up for $75.00. Checked our dinner table..loved it...and headed up to the bar and to catch some sun.

 

 

Sail away was fun.

 

ports, St Thomas, I've been here done this but my friend hadn't so did the island tour and megans bay. good day, next time though I'm going to st John.

 

Dominica...LOVED this island, loved the people, loved the tour. we did the falls and the pool as well as an island tour. Breath taking! Yes it rained 99% of the time, but we expected it and still had a blast. The mountains are just so beautiful. One excursion had an issue. The cable car that goes through the mountains and rain forest broke down for the first time. Some elderly and handicapped people had to hike down through the forest back to town. Horrible for them. No ones fault, but they didn't have a good day.

 

Barbados. An interesting island. Opted for an island tour. Now one thing I learned about Barbados. They are not gay friendly. In fact it dangerous to even talk about it. My friend and I are both gay. and of course we end up on this tour with..you guessed it the only other gay couple that I think was on this cruise. It was funny really. Not planned, it was our first time to meet them. We don't say anything to the driver...he's giving us a history lesson....we drive by the prison that just burnt down...he tells us the "che che boys" (gay men) started a Machete war and burnt down the prison and most were taking care of. Thats it were all dead. we butch it up...the rest of the tour was interesting he took us some place were a group of monkeys came down to us which we got to feed, that was cool

 

Aruba...nice beaches, hot desert, and boy are they proud of that light house lol. we toured the island, snorkled a ship wreck, toured the natural bridge and hit the beach. Every tour guide we encountered asked if we saw the light house lol. It reminded me of Arizona.

 

Formal nights..we opted for black tie.....the "girls night out" package from the spa was disappointing...the updo was nice but the light make up turned out to be only a bronzer brushed across the face.....I would have at least thought the eyes would have been done.

 

Overall the food was good. we ate lunch in the dining room once. wasn't very impressed so didn't go back. It felt very rushed.

 

All the staff were excellent. we lost our head waiter the 3rd night. He had to fly home for a family emergency. They covered well, dinner was always awesome.

 

The cheers bar had the best martini's.

 

The music on the Lido deck was aweful for us. It was 99% hip hop....not something were really into. Wish it would have been more carribien.

 

Lots of kids on our cruise, expected that as it was summer. The bad thing was while in port for some reason they only opened one pool. so all the kids were in that pool. Sucked if you wanted to get away from them.

 

All in all it was a good cruise. I like Carnival, but wouldn't cruise the Destiny again. I prefer the newer ships myself.

 

Legend here I come

[jckvpa0]

Thanks for the review.

[serene56]

The air conditioning thing scares me some.

 

was this all week or just while in the ports?? I know on past cruises the cabin was not as cool as I think it should be when we board.

[wwakla]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review.

 

Did you see any of the shows on board and how were they?

 

Did you have early or late seating for dinner and did you like it?

[dsnygrl]

I have got to agree with Serene on the air conditioning statement. This is the thing about the Destiny that also worries me the most. Thanks for the review. The last Carnival ship we were on was the Miacle last year too.

[treyct]

The air conditioning thing scares me some.

 

was this all week or just while in the ports?? I know on past cruises the cabin was not as cool as I think it should be when we board.

 

It was hot in the room all week..while in port and sea days. By the fourth day we were pretty much acclimated to it but alot of people bought fans on port days for their cabins. On port days we kept our drapes drawn so the sun didn't make it worse while we were out.

[treyct]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review.

 

Did you see any of the shows on board and how were they?

 

Did you have early or late seating for dinner and did you like it?

 

we had requisted late seating but ended up with early, we didn't try to change it deciding it might make for an interesting change for us. But before the first day was up we received a notice in our cabin that we had been changed to the late seating..same table...so we just kinda went with the flow. The funny thing is that on the third day we met the people who had our table at the early seating...they wanted the late seating and were pretty bummed about it. so we gave them our table on the second formal night. Not sure why they changed us to beging with lol.

 

we saw all but one show. They were good. I got to meet most of the dancers they were a fun bunch. Skip is a little cutie...his humor is a bit cheesy but arn't all cruise directors hehe...we didn't care much for the comedian...but don't hold that against him, he just wasn't our style is all. The destiny idol show was a trip only because one guy got up and decided that he was already the winner, tryed to sing an introduction of himself acapella before the actual karoke song (think of usher subtract 40lbs and add a less than harmonious voice) he was booed which ticked skip off but the guy was arrogant...he challanged everyone that booed him to meet him on the deck lol

[serene56]

Was any complaints made to the pursers office about the air problem?

 

was anything tried to be rectified??

 

We have an aft cabin and they tend to be less cool compared to the side ones to begin with.

[pacerzfan]

Thanks for the review treyct.

[Dubsolute]

I guess I have no worries since I hate air conditioning.

[mnstahl]

You mentioned the lido deck played hip-hop, was there much salsa on lido?

What type of music the main loungeband play?

 

Also, how were the crowds in the discos?

[serene56]

I guess I have no worries since I hate air conditioning.

 

Since you are from NY I guess you know about humidty== st thomas was horrendous last time we were there.

[treyct]

Was any complaints made to the pursers office about the air problem?

 

was anything tried to be rectified??

 

We have an aft cabin and they tend to be less cool compared to the side ones to begin with.

 

yep I talked to the pursers desk, but I figured it was just an ongoing problem with this ship as I've read about it in several threads. They did offer a fan. We took the cover off the vent instead of waiting for them to do it, it just screws off. It was still hot though :p The crew seemed to be well aware of the problem and tried to make everyone happy.

[treyct]

You mentioned the lido deck played hip-hop, was there much salsa on lido?

What type of music the main loungeband play?

 

Also, how were the crowds in the discos?

 

The only timed they played Salsa is during part of the sail away, and during the mexican midnight buffet. 99% of the time it was hip hop especially on sea days.

 

Disco crowd was ok around 11:00 but died shortly after midnight

[scruzer1]

The only timed they played Salsa is during part of the sail away, and during the mexican midnight buffet. 99% of the time it was hip hop especially on sea days.

 

Disco crowd was ok around 11:00 but died shortly after midnight

review is great. couple questions for u, was there any friends ofdots onboard? many (family), how was the nightclub on board? me and my boyfriend will be traveling in sept? i am a little worried about the air since we keep the house at 70 thanks jim and scott

[treyct]

review is great. couple questions for u, was there any friends ofdots onboard? many (family), how was the nightclub on board? me and my boyfriend will be traveling in sept? i am a little worried about the air since we keep the house at 70 thanks jim and scott

 

Hi Jim and Scott :)

There were 4 FoD meetings. A different bar each night. A good number for carnival. We were the only ones that showed up though...the couple we met while in Barbados on excursion, didn't know what a FoD gathering was so thats why they didn't come.

 

The Nightclub was cool but given that there are so many ports on this cruise people opted to end the night early alot of time. the best nights were the sea days too and from Aruba. The played mostly hip hop, but worked in some techno as well. There was an 80's party one night that no one showed up for lol. One night we went in without reading the 100 TV's that make up the wall on the outside and it was a 18 and under party. The hostess ran up to us and asked us how old we were...when I told her 32 she looked horrified lol.....I thought she might blow a whistle and scream predator predator! hehe

 

The most romantic place on the ship is directly on the bow of the ship. just go as far forward on the 6th deck as possible and go through the doors on either side of the deck it will put you on a public deck. They talk about it on here all the time, no one ever went out there on our cruise, it was awesome...below you are two crew decks you can walk down the stairs to your right or left and go down one more deck..no one will say anything to you...the last crew deck is a bit harder to get to, we only went down there one day with a couple of the dancers we had befriended...we didn't want to be rude to the crew and bother them on their time off. Theres two hot tubs on that deck for them. the Stars at night from this deck are awesome!

[treyct]

About the air conditioning again. I see that a another thread was posted and alot of people replied that they didn't have any issues on the Destiny cruises they were on. I'm glad for them. It didn't seem to be ship wide, just certain areas and alot of cabins. What may be hot for one person may not be for another..some people live their entire lives without ever having air conditioning....I only bring it up so people can know what to expect. Sometimes suprises like that can ruin a vaca for someone. As with anything unless you have a medical condition you will get acclimated to the temp and the crew does do everything they can to make people comfortable.

 

I mentioned the temp on my comment card....but wrote a documentary about not having funvison! ;)

[serene56]

I agree with you about differnt people will see the airconditioning as a hot or cool issue. Really depends on the person.

Makes me wonder if people had their balcony doors opened a lot. Or their curtains opened during hot times of the day.

SO will be extremly uncmfortable if the air works only sometimes. Me I am ok no matter what-- jsut cant stand it when its too hot.

[PFV]

TreyCT, nice review. 22 days until the Legend. I think the air works better on that ship as we haven't read anything to the contrary. Overall it sounds like you had a nice cruise and now start packing for the Legend!:cool:

[scruzer1]

thank u treyct for the fast reply. jim

[mexicobob]

Thanks for an interesting review.

 

On an unrelated note..............we are booked on the Destiny next year. Think we can make a 12:40 flight to go home.

 

Look forward to seeing your full review.

 

 

MexicoBob

[treyct]

Thanks for an interesting review.

 

On an unrelated note..............we are booked on the Destiny next year. Think we can make a 12:40 flight to go home.

 

Look forward to seeing your full review.

 

 

MexicoBob

 

Well it depends on the on the current security status at the airport. We made the airport by 11am but it took us about 2 hours to get through security and that was with being bumped to the express line for business class.

[serene56]

On an unrelated note..............we are booked on the Destiny next year. Think we can make a 12:40 flight to go home.

MexicoBob

 

We have a flight out of there on Sept 10th for 12:35- will let you know when we get back how it was.

We booked this flight with a lot of people say so but that was before the security stuff.

I do know to head to the purser and ask for early off tags. And head to the lounge and wait til we are called.

Destiny does not have self embaration-- any one know why?

[treyct]

We have a flight out of there on Sept 10th for 12:35- will let you know when we get back how it was.

We booked this flight with a lot of people say so but that was before the security stuff.

I do know to head to the purser and ask for early off tags. And head to the lounge and wait til we are called.

Destiny does not have self embaration-- any one know why?

 

We'll we took our bags off ourselves with no problems. But soon understood why it would have slowed things down if everyone did this...theres just not alot of room, so we felt like jerks :rolleyes: ...when they call your colour you go to the lounge and then disembark in small groups. We disembarked with the third group right after 10am. Even with everthing that happened with the threat level imigration took only 5 minutes. It was a nightmare though at the airport with all the people who brought liqour back with them. I don't think most of them thought about liqour as a liquid which turned ugly at the x-ray machine.

[serene56]

It was a nightmare though at the airport with all the people who brought liqour back with them. I don't think most of them thought about liqour as a liquid which turned ugly at the x-ray machine.

 

I am expecting this since a lot of people think those rules dont apply to them.

 

I am hoping to get early off tickets. I was hoping to jsut forget to put my luggage out the night before since we do pack light but now will have to reconsider that.

 

Did you precheck in for your flights the night before while on the cruise??

 

How long from the time you arrived at the airport to the time you arrived at your gate>