Just Back Destiny 1/13/08

[Elawies]

I went on this cruise a little apprehensive after reading some of the member reviews. However, I am here to tell you that the ship is fine. It is clean and the crew is great. They have problems, of that there is no doubt, but the main things are under control. My husband, who notices stuff, said that it wouldn't take much maintenance to spruce it up. In our cabin the medicine cabinet mirrors were out of alignment, and if the screws were tightened, they would be fine. The same thing applies to the closets. The hinges are adjustable and just need tightening. Our table in the Universe dining room was second floor, #535, aft. Nice view as we pulled out of port. However, there were a few bulbs out and we actually couldn’t read the menu because it was so dark. So we complained to the matre de and explained that the light bulbs over our table needed replacing. They fixed it! But as a woman, I really don't care about the medicine cabinet or the closet, because I'm only there for a week. If it was mine - well that's a different story. Our steward was in our room frequently and there was ice in the bucket all day. There isn’t a small refrigerator or mini bar so his attending to the ice bucket was appreciated. The bed was very comfortable, and I enjoyed using the complimentary bathrobe. We had cabin #6178, which is a balcony and I enjoyed sitting out there, reading my book, or before dinner and later after we retired to our room. My husband enjoys a cigar and having a balcony gives him the opportunity to smoke and not disturb anyone. The cabin is near the elevators and there wasn’t any noise. One night we had a few party goers saying a late goodnight, but that was all.

FOOD – Unfortunately, it is not a five star restaurant. The menu has many selections, but you are better off going with the meal of the night instead of the alternate choices. Even then, it is hit and miss. I would say, adequate is my rating. On our first night, everything was topsy turvy, it was come as you are, and there was no assigned seating. I chose to have the chicken breast, and it was awful. Dried out and very tough, I couldn’t eat it. I asked for decaf coffee, and I think they made a mistake and gave me regular because I was awake most of the night. The rest of the week we had Chateaubriand, lobster, veal parmesan, beef wellington, sirloin steak, pacific pike fish, filet migon, red snapper, etc. All good choices, but each had a drawback. My chateau was served in two pieces, the one on top was great, the piece on the bottom, tough and inedible. Our tablemates all complained about the veal parmesan, too tough. As for the turkey I had, well Stouffers could have done better. One bite and I sent it back and had the red snapper. As for the appetizers, I had the French onion soup, no onions. Broth was tasty though. The stuffed mushrooms are good and so is the egg roll. I decided to try escargot, and guess what, it was good. A little garlicky, but good. I guess it depends on your taste, but I didn’t care for the salad dressing on the Caesar salad. Our tablemate ordered a tossed salad each evening, and he said it was great. Not on the menu, but if you ask, it will be provided. As for the desserts, well the chocolate melting cake is just as good as ever! On formal night, we dressed up. No tuxes, but put on our finery. However, the dress code needs to be reinforced. Not so much formal night, as just regular dressing. For instance: we sat near a man who wore a baseball cap every night. Never took off his hat! Now that’s a little too casual. We are used to having the wait staff perform, and they did on this cruise, but just a little bit different. Not everyone participated, and there were two nights where four of the waiters did a back street boys interpretation. Good talent, and enjoyable. The wait staff all spoke Spanish, and some English. Occasionally it was difficult to understand each other, but we all persisted and managed to communicate. I would say that regardless of their nationality, for all of the crew English is a second language. We didn’t spend much time on the Lido Deck, but it was a busy place. I got turned off when I was up there looking for a snack. The NY Deli had very good sandwiches, but everything else is buffet style, and when you reach over to put the food on your plate, frequently it drops off and it lays around. No one cleans it up, and it is very messy. There are french fries everywhere. Not anything appetizing about that. The ice cream machine works good though.

SHOWTIME - There were two Las Vegas type shows, a comedian and a magician. If you like Las Vegas type shows, well ok. We don’t. So we didn’t attend after the first one. I did enjoy the show where one of the Platters entertained. That was an “oldies” night. He is getting older and had a hard time hitting the high notes, but since we grew up listening to those songs, we didn’t care. We just sat back and sang along. We had the early seating, and there were a couple of shows at 8:30, but frequently it was a combined evening and the show started much later. After a long day, for me it was too late. We chose to go to the Onyx Bar after dinner, have a port, smoke a cigar, and listen to the jazz trio. When they were done, we went to the casino.

TOURING THE ISLANDS – St. Thomas is a very busy port. I’ve been there before, but husband hadn’t so we decided to take a local tour. The taxi’s are just outside Havensight Gate and the rate is $25.00 per person for a two hour tour. Our driver was A. (Tony) Rogers and he was very knowledgeable and personable. We saw Meagan’s Bay, Drakes Seat, stopped at the highest spot on top of the island and did a bit of shopping in a small mall. That was nice, away from the cruise crowds in the city. We wandered around Havensight Mall a little bit after our tour and were back on ship early afternoon.

Dominica is an island where it will be better to take a shore excursion sponsored by the ship rather than go off by yourself. We went in a small bus/van that the taxi dispatcher chose for us at the end of the pier. The fee to Trafalgar Falls is $25.00 per person. We didn’t want to spend a lot of time touring the island and decided to just go to Trafalgar Falls but when the doors closed, our guide “Skippy” tried to talk us into going on to the Emerald Pool, for only another $5.00 each. This was vetoed and we started off. On the way, Skippy stopped by a few street vendors, who he said were his friends, but I saw one of the friends give him a kickback. At the falls, which is part of the rain forest, a ticket costs $2.00 and the bathroom is $1.00. The short ten minute walk is very strenuous. It is straight up the side of the mountain, climbing dirt stairs all the way, without a handrail. Some of the people on the tour had to turn back, especially the elderly or infirm. I would like to say that the climb was worth the trip, but it wasn’t. It’s not rainy season, so the falls are not as pretty as they are when the water is plentiful. The streets are very winding and narrow. The tour bus drivers drive very fast and pass each other with inches to spare. The terrain is very hilly, and there are no guard rails. Our driver was a good driver, and made it all look easy, but it wasn’t. On the way back to Roseau, we passed through the botanical gardens. In town, just off the pier there is a straw market, which is open on Tuesday which is the day the ship is in port. We walked around the market a little bit, but didn’t buy anything. On the way back to the ship, I stepped in a hole and fell down. I had to stop into the Infirmary on the ship and the nurse, Moira, cleaned off my knees, bandaged me up, and gave me a tetanus shot. There was one other person who came back to the ship in an ambulance, she fell down and broke her wrist. So I guess I was very lucky.

BARBADOS – We decided to take the tour “A Flavor of Barbados” from the ship. This involved going to a rum factory located in Heritage Park. They were having a jazz festival that evening on the grounds and were setting up the area. It looked like it was going to be a fun evening, but we were sailing before the festival got started. We sampled the rum, and it was tasty. From there we went to Sunbury Plantation and got an idea of how they used to live and work on the plantation. Had other shot of rum and wandered around the gift shop. Then we were supposed to go to a mahogany factory, but our guide was new and didn’t leave us enough time. He said he didn’t know what time we were supposed to be back on the ship, but I think he should have. Anyway, I complained to the purser and we received a partial refund.

ST. KITTS – We wandered around the little town, shopped in the local stores. All the stores had the same T-shirts, etc. Decided to stop and have a beer at a pub just off the pier. It was called Carib, and it’s not bad. The Queen Mary was also in port, so it was a very busy little town. We elected to not take a tour, too tired. Our friends grabbed a taxi and went around the island, and said they had a good time.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – We were the only ship in port for two days. We arrived mid-afternoon and decided to take a taxi into La Roma. It costs $20.00, round trip, for four people, one hour. We went to the Jumbo Dept. Store which is like a large Wal-mart. It had everything, including liquor. We paid for our purchase with US dollars, and received Dominican money for change. We went on to a cigar store, and hubby got some cigars. He said their prices were high. During this drive around the city, our impression was that it was very busy, dirty and poor. The people in the store either don’t speak English, or won’t. Sometimes they were rude. Don’t bother to go. It started to rain as we got back to the ship, so we dressed for dinner, and stayed on board that night. The next day we were booked on a shore excursion called “Countryside Experience.” This was a drive through miles and miles of cane fields on a Safari Bus. Very bumpy, very boring. The bus finally stops and you get out in the middle of a cane field, have a bit of rum and cola, and they bring out a bunch of hats to sell you. $15.00 each. After that it’s back on the bus and they drive to a nursery so that you can wander around looking at the orchids and cactus. We got back on the bus and rode through La Roma to a gift shop. There was a lot of traffic, and our impression of busy, dirty and poor was only reinforced. The gift shop was nice, had a lot of local artists, etc. One of our party bought a picture that was painted by a local artist. Very pretty.

DEBARKATION – Make sure you go to the debarkation talk the evening before docking in San Juan. We got back from our tour at 4:30, talk was at 5:00, dinner at 5:45. So we had to dress for dinner to make the talk. It started at 5:00, but the first 30 minutes was just a revisit of the cruise. The steward will put colored numbered tags in your room to place on your luggage the night before. Luggage is to be outside your cabin that evening before midnight. The dining room is open early for breakfast on the day of debarkation. So too is the Lido Deck, or you can order room service. You are allowed to wait in your room until 9:00 am, or until your number is called. Our flight was at 3:00 pm, and our number was 12, and we were off the ship around 10:00/10:30. We picked up our luggage and proceeded thought the terminal to customs. After that we had prepaid transportation to the airport, so we went there as soon as possible. We arrived around noon time, went through security and decided to have lunch. There are quite a few places in the airport to eat, and wait.

It is possible to do self-debarkation. You must take every piece of your luggage and go to the Palladium between 7:00 and 7:45 am. That is the only time you are allowed to debark. If you fail to make it on time, you must wait until the rest of the ship has finished debarkation. If you have a late flight, it is also possible to take a tour of the city before being transported to the airport.

Our cruise was interesting, at times a lot of fun. However, at times it was disappointing too. We had a great time, good friends, and new places to see. I tried to be as honest as possible in reporting what we saw and did and hope you will be able to use the information. If you have any questions, I’ll try and answer. Elawies

[kiraryker]

Thank you! We will be sailing on Destiny this Sunday. We are taking the tour of Dominica with a private tour guide Beno - have you heard is he good?

 

Also did you purchase and put in your carry on any alcohol from the liquor store by the pier before getting on the ship?

 

And when you leave the ship on the return in San Juan you need to go thru customs - never had to do that before what do they do? Does it take long?

 

Thanks for your info!

[old sole]

Thank you for the great review. We're sailing on the Destiny 02/10 and will be doing some of the same excursions as you so your comments are especially welcome!

 

At debarkation, did they have the "bags" program, where you can check your luggage all the way to your home airport and not have to mess with it in San Juan?

[Elawies]

Thank you! We will be sailing on Destiny this Sunday. We are taking the tour of Dominica with a private tour guide Beno - have you heard is he good?

 

Also did you purchase and put in your carry on any alcohol from the liquor store by the pier before getting on the ship?

 

And when you leave the ship on the return in San Juan you need to go thru customs - never had to do that before what do they do? Does it take long?

 

Thanks for your info!

I haven't heard anything about tour guide Beno. Can't help you there. As for alcohol, go to Target and they sell large plastic containers with a screw top. Put your alcohol in them, no problem. You can buy extra alcohol duty free in Dominican Republic at Jumbo. Take the container with you in a carry on bag, pour it out of the glass bottle, and it goes through the scanner without problems.

 

Going through customs is not difficult. Make out your declaration, pass it through and they stamp your passport. Very easy. Hope you have a great time. Elawies

[Elawies]

Thank you for the great review. We're sailing on the Destiny 02/10 and will be doing some of the same excursions as you so your comments are especially welcome!

 

At debarkation, did they have the "bags" program, where you can check your luggage all the way to your home airport and not have to mess with it in San Juan?

At debarkation you pick up your bags at the terminal, go through customs, and then transfer to the airport. Once at the airport your bags are checked through to your home airport and you never see them again until you land. By the way, make sure your bags are not over 50 pounds. Have fun. Elawies

[goingagain]

so elawies were you in the dominican republic as you wrote or were you in dominica (pronounced dom-in-eeka} as i know that this ship alternates itineraries often and does go to both places ....but they are in fact two totally different places ........

 

 

edited.; i should've read more carefully... i must have scrolled down by accident and read the begining of dominica... then the middle of dominican republic...LOL :)

 

how was the weather...days/nights...and the seas....?

[Elawies]

The weather was perfect. We started out with a little rain shower, but that passed over. The seas were calm for the most part, but the ship rocked a bit at night. A couple of nights returning to the cabin, we were tossed around a bit, but not too bad. I kind of like laying there in my bed and being rocked to sleep! Dominican Republic was the only place we had any real rain during the day. It was somewhat cloudy, but on every island we were wearing shorts. Warm, but not humid. Great time. Elaweis:)

[lucyjlou]

what was your take on D.R. as far as feeling safe? I have read reviews of people on the destiny getting mugged there?

[pacerzfan]

Thank you for the review.

[goingagain]

A couple of nights returning to the cabin, we were tossed around a bit, but not too bad. I kind of like laying there in my bed and being rocked to sleep! :)

 

 

I love that too.... that rocking feeling puts me to sleep like a baby!! although my GF gets a little sea sick which turns into a panic attack sometimes so she hates it

 

She actually spent the whole week of our first cruise sick and panicking when she wasnt sick worrying that she would soon get sick...on the celebrity constellation......such a beautifull ship and she cant even remember what it looked like.... what a shame...

 

she used to take dramamine or the patch but has had reactions to both.. almost an overdose if you will. blurry vision.. bad taste in her mouth.. shakes... Now she gets a prescription for valium ( very week dosage ) from her doctor and has never had a problem again. we cruise a few times a year.. no more worries... i know i went off topic a bit ... but thought maybe some of you have this experience with sea sickness.. and or dramamine or the patch..{tranderm patch}

[CSCtime2go]

Thank you for the great review.

 

For kiraryker - We too are sailing this Sunday on Destiny and have a non-private tour booked with Beno for Dominica. He sent us his picture so we can identify him. I have emailed him to find out if he has someone else also doing tours that day but I did expect to have him as our tour guide. If you were doing a group tour you might have been with us! Have a great trip.

 

I have to say I'm looking forward to getting out of the cold.

[Elawies]

Lucy, we went on a Canival sponsored tour, so didn't have any problems about being safe. However, the cab ride into the city did make me feel that there could be problems if we weren't careful. It is a very poor country, and I think that could be a problem if you flaunted cash, etc. Elawies