Carnival Destiny Review 12/10 - 12/17

[Keys2Heaven]

In this review I will share our family experiences aboard the Destiny. I know most threads as of late really knock this ship, and while some things are true, I'll try to put it in perspective.

 

I'll post the review in this thread per day.

[CCLNCLRCICRUISER]

Welcome Back!

 

 

Looking forward to your review.

[Keys2Heaven]

Here's what you can expect if you arrive at the cruise ship terminal around 10:30am. First, the terminal has a couple of parts to it. The first area is what I call the luggage area and the second the area is the actual cruise ship terminal.

 

It was very crowded when we arrived. There are many people debarking as well as people (many locals) getting ready to board. There are guys (porters) wearing blue baseball jersey shirts (I can't remember the name on them) that have luggage carts. They will take your bags and move them to the luggage bins for you. We tipped $1 per bag and all was well. I asked a Carnival employee that was stationed out in this area if these guys were o.k. and he stated that they were, so I felt good about that. The luggage bins are located in the covered walkway that leads up to the cruise terminal entrance.

 

We were allowed in around 11:00am and you will need to have your boarding pass and ID ready. Once ok'd you then walk through the covered area and proceed to the entrance of the terminal. You will see the luggage bins on your left as you approach the doors. Once inside, there is an escalator that will take you up to the check in area. We had our fun pass info already filled out, but the line was so short that it didn't matter. All the worries I had about my daughters (my wife and her ex are divorced) and whether or not they would want to see custody paperwork were relieved. They didn't ask for anything except their student ID's but I had all documentation with us just in case. We showed BC's as identification (remember this changes in Jan '07 and passports are required) and were checked in about 7 - 8 minutes. Got our S&S cards and were directed to the waiting area which is upstairs as well.

 

We were in group 1 (yeah) and were actually pretty close to being first on board. We waited for about 1-1/2 hours until we were let on about 12:30PM. During our wait, it gave us time to check out the mix of passengers. I would say on this cruise it was about 60% locals and 40% mix of everyone else. I would say American passengers were in the 15-20% range. So, from the perspective of pervious posts of this being cruise with a lot of locals, that is true. I noticed that many locals were first time cruisers (blue S&S cards).

 

Once on board, we dropped off the few items we had in our hands in our cabin closet (met our steward Sean from Jamaica - GREAT) and headed towards the infamous Lido buffet. Lunch was good and most items we had before on the Miracle. But, our daughters absolutely loved it. I think they were amazed not only with the ship but the food and people as well.

 

Our impression of the ship is that it is a bit worn but is still in very good shape for her age and number of passengers sailing every week. Some things that did stand out were the passegeways on deck 1 (Riviera) where we stayed. It seemed that the middle of the passegeway was worn. No the carpet but the floor underneath so when you walked in the middle it felt like you were going to go through the floor. My suggestion for women in heels is to stay to the side. I don't know if the rest of the decks were this way.

 

The room was worn but clean. About what you would expect from a heavily used hotel room. Plently of drawer and closet space for 4 in our OV room with a good view and nice beds. The bathroom is small (1 person at a time, unless showering) and there is a hairdryer there as well. The hairdryer also had an outlet for an electric shaver. There were plenty of towels for all four of us and we never used all that were in the bathroom. Air conditioning was NEVER a problem for us even when we turned back the vent. All in all, we liked the size of the oceanview room and found it works well for 4 people.

 

Our luggage arrived in two phases between 3:00 and 4:00PM. We unpacked and got ready for dinner (open seating). Safe in room did not work but had no need for it. Food was good with nothing overly astounding.

 

After dinner we relaxed and headed to Lido for the sail away party. The girls were anxious to learn more about club O2 and went to check that out. No towel animal tonight and got a good nights rest.

[Keys2Heaven]

This was a great port. We got up early and while the women were getting ready, I headed to the Lido deck for an omelet, coffee (very important) and pictures.

 

What a beautiflul island! You simply must take a land tour (we chose Godfrey) and enjoy the thrill ride through the winding roads and the breathtaking scenery and views. We were taken downtown to shop first (we chose 3 hours and found that to be a bit long) and then the tour. There is an open flea market right before the main part of downtown and we purchased some necklaces for the girls (look for the singing vendor, she was great). Went a couple of blocks over and checked out some stores. Most were the typical tourist booze, t-shirt or jewelry stores we've come to love.

 

O.K. need to go to the store so I will continue this when I get back.

[jimbug]

Yay, I can't wait to read the rest!

 

Oh, just a question - when you mention the passport rule changes in Jan. 07 - did someone on the ship say that? The reason I ask is because according to the Homeland Security website, you will not need a passport to fly from the U.S. to Puerto Rico since it is a U.S. territory, and I understood that passports for cruises were not required until 2008 or 2009? (Yes, I have my passport...but traveling companion does not...)

 

Just curious if Carnival is enforcing different regulations than what is being published?

 

Thanks!

[chrly]

Great review so far...can't wait to read the rest.

[tootiesmom]

Thanks for posting ! We're going on the Destiny next June and love every bit of info we can get :D

 

tootiesmom

[Calyn2323]

Love reading your review. We leave in 12 days. Can't wait!!

Thanks for posting.

[Keys2Heaven]

Yay, I can't wait to read the rest!

 

Oh, just a question - when you mention the passport rule changes in Jan. 07 - did someone on the ship say that? The reason I ask is because according to the Homeland Security website, you will not need a passport to fly from the U.S. to Puerto Rico since it is a U.S. territory, and I understood that passports for cruises were not required until 2008 or 2009? (Yes, I have my passport...but traveling companion does not...)

 

Just curious if Carnival is enforcing different regulations than what is being published?

 

Thanks!

 

Jim,

 

I'm going from memory on this and probably have it wrong. No, there was nothing posted on Carnival's end. However, I think our family was the ONLY one who showed BC as ID. Everyone around us during check in or showing ID at the ports were using passports. So, in my personal opinion, get them now.

[Keys2Heaven]

We met our waiters this evening and I can't tell you how much your dining room staff can make or break a great cruise. Our waiters were Tairpin (Indonesia) and Kristian (Slovakia) and were absolutely fabulous!! We had the 5:45PM seating in the Universe dining room, table 578. One thing we noticed was how empty the dining room was (at least on the upper level). We had our waiters almost exclusively to ourselves, or at least that is how it seemed.

 

Since my wife and I had cruised before, we told our daughters that a good wait staff will know your name the first night and your preferences and, from then on, will have everything ready for you when you arrive. Well, one of my daughters likes to drink water with lots of lemon. She asked only once that first night and Tairpin made sure that there was a bowl of fresh sliced lemon for her every night. My other daughter likes iced tea and was offered tea each night without asking. These are the things we look for and is a big reason why we hate to see our cruise come to an end. It is amazing how much you can like people in such a short amount of time.

 

They do make announcements everywhere in English and in Spanish. There are times when they make announcements only in Spanish if it pertains only to the Spanish speaking passengers and they indicate this in English before doing so. One thing about this is why does it take twice as long to make an announcement in Spanish than is does in English. I'm not making fun, but it honestly seemed this way. For instance, in the dining room, one of the hosts speaks Spanish. So, when our assistant Maitre 'D made the announcements in English, the assistant would get up and make a similar announcement in Spanish but it took twice as long.

 

Tonight's entertainment was commedian Anthony Acosta, who was very funny. I did notice that a lot of locals left when he started delivering his act in English. Perhaps they thought that he would be doing his act in Spanish.

 

One highlight of this cruise has to be the cruise director, Steve Knisley. He is a big departure from Lanny Holiday that was CD on the Miracle when we first cruised. Steve, who is Canadian, didn't miss a beat in his delivery with jokes and improv. I don't know if he can speak Spanish or not, but it was refreshing to hear English.

 

If you have teenagers who want to be part of club O2, have them skip the orientation. The schedule that we had for the club activities had an orientation scheduled at the club at 10:00PM but nobody showed. No biggie, the club was open thereafter according to the schedule.

 

Towel animal for tonight: Swan

[Keys2Heaven]

We arrived in Dominica around 10:00AM and the gangways were opened about 10:20AM. We had a tour booked for 10:00AM so we had to hurry up. I'm going to make an observation at this point. It seemed like many locals could give a flip about a family trying to stay together in a line. Many folks just pushed their way into line and just looked at you when done. Now I know that "rude" is spoken in many languages and within many ethnic groups, so I don't want to be uncategorically unfair in the above statement. But it does seem that some etiquette was missing amongst many of the local population.

 

We booked a whale watching tour with ALDive Shop and were met at the dock as planned. We were escorted to our boat, which was a 30' fishing boat with an observation/pilot deck. Captain Jerry told us that another vessel had spotted spouts about 6 miles off shore and that's where we were headed. Most days while at sea, the sea conditions were moderate (4 - 8 ft) swells. We soon found out the difference between a cruise ship with stabilizers in 4 - 8' swells and a 30' fishing boat. Let's just say that one of my daughters made a contribution to the environment a couple of times. It was rough on us land lovers. I think everyone on the boat was ready to hurl so we nicknamed the boat, the "The Hurler". Needless to say we didn't see any whales (which we were told we had a 99.9% chance of seeing that day). Captian Jerry turned us back towards shore and told us that he would take us to Champagne Bay for some snorkleing. Now, he didn't have to do this as it wasn't part of the tour, but I think he felt like he wanted to do something for us. On the way back in, Captain Jerry spotted some dolphins. Well, we all perked up and soon found ourselves in the midst of a school of dolphins, perhaps 50 - 75. It was amazing to see up to 8 dolphins running ahead of the boat and jumping out of the water simultaneously. They were everywhere. We did go to the bay and the snorkeling is incredible. It was like being in a fish tank. Hundreds of multi-colored fish, barracuda, tube sponges...amazing.

 

Tonight was formal night #1. We had already planned on going to just one formal night (Thursday) so we ate at the Sun & Sea restaurant/Lido buffet. It seemed that a LOT of locals ate here instead of the dining rooms. Bring your patience.

 

My daughters are starting to make friends at this point, but no american boys on this cruise. One thing that I was diappointed in is that there were many PR teenagers on this cruise. The boys wanted to talk to my daughters and would speak to them in English or get someone to interpret for them if they didn't. However, not one of the PR girls would have anything to do with them. It was very cliquish. There were some PR girls who did speak English but never spoke it around them, only Spanish. So, there is some truth to the folks speaking English when they felt like it.

 

Don't get me wrong. We met many from PR who spoke English to us. In fact, there were two very nice women who sat right next to us at dinner; an aunt and her niece. The aunt could hardly speak a lick of English but we communicated via other means. Her niece spoke some English and we were able to talk with her. They couldn't have been nicer to us. We also met some folks from PR during on of the art auctions and they were extremely friendly as well. Yet, there were some locals who adopted the pack mentality and you had to be a little firm in your tone when you needed to get through somewhere.

 

Tonight's towel animal: Dog

[Calyn2323]

Is the ship decorated for Christmas?

[Keys2Heaven]

Is the ship decorated for Christmas?

 

The only thing that I remember is right outside the entrance to the Lido Deck from the forward elevators (heading aft) and into the pool area was an edible winter scene composed of iced buildings and other items. There was some ornaments and evergreen wrapped around the table. Other than that I don't recall.

[Keys2Heaven]

I wanted to break up this review to highlight some of the good/bad with what we saw regarding the ship and passengers.

 

Good:

 

1. CD Steve Knisely - Very funny and very knowlegeable about the ship and the excursions. Better than our last CD hands down. He only speaks english, so that ought to help you non-spanish speaking folks. He mentioned during our debarkation talk that he was assigned to the Destiny for 2007 as well.

 

2. Crew - Amazing. Everyone was friendly and someone was always doing something. Our room steward, Sean, was overworked I'm sure. He and his assistants did a great job and made us feel welcome every day. And we just gush thinking about our wait staff (Tarpin & Kristian). Hats off to them and the rest of the dining room staff!

 

3. Debarkation - Probably the most organized thing I have seen yet. They play America's Funniest Home Videos in the Palladium while you wait. They take small groups of people (100 or less) at a time and you proceed through immagration and then off to find your luggage which is sorted by color/deck. Then to customs where you drop off your customs declaration form and then out the door to get a taxi. Find the orange booth (Tourism Company) that says Taxi's and they will write out your taxi slip which is composed of your destination, # of people and # of bags. FYI, for 4 people with 7 bags going to Luis Munoz airport it cost $24.50.

 

 

 

Bad:

 

1. Elevators. If you are able take the stairs, it is much quicker. Best bet is to go to deck 5 as this will take you bow to stern. There is a walkway on the starboard side of the casino which will take you to the Criterion Lounge at the aft end and the top of the Palladium on the other. The Universe dining room is located below the Criterion Lounge and there are stairs there. The elevators are SLOW and sometimes don't stop at your floor. We saw this numerous times. Plus there are usually many people who get on the elevator (they only hold 18 and it looks like it) at one time. However, between 6:00AM and 7:30AM there is hardly anyone on the elevators. Good time to use them to go to the Lido deck for some coffee.

 

2. Comment cards. You get these the night before you debark. There are 4 ratings: Above Expectations, Met Expectations, Opportunity for Imporvement and Not Applicable. To me, I think of meeting an expectation as a 'B or C' grade while an Above Expectation would be an 'A'. Opportunity for imporvement would be an 'D or F'.

 

Steve, the CD, stated during our debarkation talk that if you mark 'Met Expectations' it only gives them a score of 50/100 which is an 'F'. And marking 'Above expectations' gives 100/100. There is no middle ground, either pass or fail. 'Opportunity for improvement' means those situations where you informed one of the staff of a problem and it wasn't addressed or resolved. These comment cards are slanted in such a way as to make one give a score that may not truly reflect how you feel. You're scoring how Carnival wants you to score. Steve even made a point about writing comments on the back praising someone for a good job and then marking that area as 'Met expectations'. In other words, you thought so and so did a great job but you indicate on your comment that they really failed. I had already filled my card out before the talk. But, I'm sure many did not and probably filled their card out after the talk and had their scores tainted by the talk. Steve did indicate that the cards had been redesigned and I think they are worse than before.

 

3. Layout - Not as friendly as some of the other ships in the fleet. You will get a workout if you take the stairs. I didn't like the two dining room idea.

 

4. Passengers with unrealistic expectations. We were seated with others during an open seating breakfast on our last sea day. All of us were Americans with my wife and I being the youngest at the table. The rest of the folks were retired. Not one of these people had anything good to say about Carnival, the Destiny, the passengers, etc. One woman repeated over and over how this particular cruise was the "Wal-Mart of cruising". She vowed never to cruise Carnival again. Of course she was the one who was asked if she would like some toast, didn't answer and then demanded to know why she wasn't offered toast. I mentioned that I researched the ship, the passengers and the ports on cruisecritic.com and that we knew about all of this ahead of time. They were astounded that I actually knew about these situations. They felt that it was a latino based cruise (I heard lots of American party music) and that Carnival catered to the PR community.

 

One individual was writing a letter to Carnival detailing how he felt his cruise dollar was devalued because of the discounts given to the locals. He paid more and was put on a lower deck than somone who paid less and was put on a higher deck. Frankly, I don't know if there is a real difference being on a higher deck. (maybe it is a status thing. Seems like all the AC issues were on higher decks anyways) Heck, we were on Deck 1 and it was a timesaver getting to the gangway when in port. Our daughters talked with many of the PR boys and they indicated that they all had to pay full price for the cruise and that they did not get a discount. So, who knows.

 

I will say this, my daughters told me that the PR boys explained that everyone in PR considers any other PR family, even if they aren't related. There is a tremendous sense of community amongst Puerto Ricans. We saw this first hand. And yes, you could feel left out being an American (yes, I know that PR is an American territory). But, we made every attempt to be kind, smile, say "ola" when passing in the passageways. Some answered, some did not. But, we made an effort. We sure as heck weren't going to be considered "ugly Americans". I think it helped as we did have some very nice conversations (in English) with Puerto Ricans.

 

We took it in stride, were patient and found the cruise to be very enjoyable.

[CVL105]

Keep it coming! I love it!:D

 

5 days and I'll be cruising the caribbean!:p

[Fancy_Goods]

Someone asked about Christmas decorations? Yes they are there....you really have to look for them because they blend into the Destiny decor so well. Most are done in red/gold/silver but there weren't any trees or other types of big decoratons on my sailing (11/26).

[Lynn & Michael]

That is correct, you do not need a passport for the cruise at this time...BUT, If that person gets left on an Island for some reason or has an emergeny and need to flt out of one of the ports. They will be stuck there.

 

Hopes this helps