Danny

Age: 42
Occupation: Financial
Number of Cruises: 3
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Destiny
Sailing Date: August 31st, 2003
Itinerary: Southern Caribbean

We began our cruise trip a little early to spend an extra day in the city of our embarkation, San Juan. I recommend this highly, as San Juan is a beautiful and interesting city, and I wish we had spent a little more time there. Overnight, we stayed at the Ramada San Juan Beach Hotel, and the staff there was simply delightful, and very helpful with advice on transportation and dining. The hotel was a little worn around the edges, at least by American standards, and I was a little surprised that Ramada’s quality guidelines would have permitted the property to get into the condition it was in. Happily, though, the people made the difference and made our short stay a pleasure.

BOARDING

On Sunday, we boarded the Destiny, and, although the lines were lengthy, they moved quickly and everything seemed to be well organized for boarding. Before long, maybe only 20 minutes or so from our entry into the first of three or four lines, we were on board. We weren’t finished, however, as we immediately had to proceed to the theater for final documentation for issuance of our Sail and Sign cards, which serve as an on-board credit card and identification card for leaving and entering the ship during the cruise. A word of advice here – have everything in your cruise packet ready by the time you get to the dock. Those passengers who were unprepared made the wait longer for everyone.

SERVICE

Almost without fail, the crew on board the Destiny was wonderful, with the exception of our very first encounter with a crew member. Another couple was joining us on our cruise, and our cruise tickets were purchased at the same time, in fact, on the very same phone call and it was clear we were traveling together. But, when we examined our Sail and Sign cards, which showed our dinner times and table numbers, we were seated at different tables in different dining rooms. Obviously, this would have been a vacation-ruining situation, so we immediately went to the maitre’ de of one of dining rooms to make a change. He was actually an assistant maitre’ de, so maybe that was part of the problem, but nonetheless, he seemed oblivious as to how this scenario represented a problem, and all he wanted to tell us was that it was not their fault. Of course, we asked him to correct the problem, and he was completely noncommittal, and just said “I’ll see what we can do. We’ll let you know if we can make a change.” Following an open-seating dinner that evening, we stopped by the maitre’ de station in the Galaxy Dining Room, and spoke with the maitre’ de (this time the “real” one) and he had no record of our request, but, thankfully, he took care of it on the spot. Typical of the other crew members we encountered, he was helpful, courteous, and concerned. Not only was he able to correct our problem, he was able to arrange a late-seating time, and put us a table for four.

FOOD

Speaking of dining, the food was excellent, especially at dinner, although the casual dining offered was also very good in terms of variety and quality. Dinner entrees were widely varied, and a great selection was offered nightly. Carnival also offers “Spa Selections” which are lower in fat and calories, which appealed to the health conscious among us (my wife) as well as choices like chateaubriand and beef Wellington for the big eaters (me.) Several casual dining options were also available, including a grill, a pizzeria, a Chinese buffet, and a buffet-style restaurant. The lines at these locations were sometimes long and slow, but overall I give them high marks. It was mostly fellow passengers who were the problem here, like the kid in line in front of me at the grill who took the entire remaining inventory of steaks (5!) for the steak sandwiches, forcing the rest of us to wait for some more to be cooked, OR the woman who waited in line 20 minutes and then got to the head of the line and asked “What do you have?” when the menu was in plain view, OR the woman who took two whole pizzas as they came out of the oven, forcing everyone else to wait, OR, well, you get the picture…

SHIP CONDITION AND AMENITIES

As we explored the ship the first evening (Sunday), we were surprised that the Destiny was as old few years old, as everything was in tip-top condition and sparkling clean. One of our companions, a veteran cruiser, spoke highly of its condition, amenities, and decor, comparing it favorably to any ship he had ever sailed. The staterooms were, I think, exactly the same size as on the other Carnival ships on which I sailed, and were comfortable even if not necessarily expansive. The only problem we encountered with regard to our staterooms was that they didn’t really get as cool as they needed to be to be really comfortable, and our traveling companions had a problem with their shower. Annoyances, certainly, but minor.

The Destiny was extremely well appointed, and the décor was fabulous without being too “over the top” which is a criticism I’ve seen before about Carnival ships. The lobby area had a multi-story skylighted atrium, with a large piano bar in the center. Several theme bars and lounges were located on the Promenade and Atlantic decks, along with a big disco area. We noted that the disco had private parties booked a few times, but there was always plenty to see and do in the other lounges, and live music could always be found in at least one location, if not several. Our favorites were the Cheers Bar and the Onyx Lounge. Make sure to see Isabella, the barmaid at Cheers, and take advantage of the best deal on the ship, a 4-wine sampler (your choice of wines) for only $3.00.

There were three pools and several hot tubs, and a separate children’s play area and pool, although most of the little ones used the main pools. A tall, twisting water slide is adjacent to one of the pools, but it got surprisingly little use, maybe because it didn’t lead to a “splashdown” in a pool, it just had a slowdown lane at the end. One thing Carnival really needs to do is enforce their rule about having no kids in the hot tubs. Even though a sign is posted on the hot tubs stating that no one under 18 is admitted, little kids as young as 5 were using them, often right in front of a crew member, who would do nothing about it. Let’s face it, little kids pee in pools. Enforce your rules, Carnival.

Fitness and spa facilities were very impressive, and included a large gym, complete with treadmills, stair steppers, stationary bikes, weight machines, and free weights. Massages, salon services, and all types of fitness/aerobic instruction are also offered at an extra charge. One of the potentially most appealing features of the gym was underutilized, though, quite inexplicably. All the treadmills and bikes are face so that they look out a large picture window facing out over the bow. However, the height of the top of the window is only about 5 feet, so when you’re on the equipment, you’re facing the wall, over the window. Go figure.

ENTERTAINMENT

The nightly shows were adequate, but nothing to write home about. They had a couple of comedians, each of whom was fairly good, and a couple of late night, adults-only shows that I missed, although our friends saw them and said they weren’t too good. The Las Vegas-style shows were fairly well done, but were mostly just a collection of music and dance numbers that really didn’t seem to have a connection to each other. One night they had a Mexican juggler (he was Mexican and a juggler – he didn’t juggle Mexicans) who was truly amazing. I missed one of the apparent high points of the entertainment, which was a singer who was originally with The Platters from back in the 50’s and 60’s, and I heard he was excellent. At the other end of the entertainment spectrum was the magician on the final night, who acted like he wanted to be somewhere else, and the audience actually did want him to be somewhere else.

As I stated before, live music was always to be found somewhere. A calypso band played on the Lido deck every day, and there was a variety of music played in the other lounges, and a DJ in the disco. We saw a jazz combo that we really enjoyed, and they also offered live classical music, which I found surprising for a “Fun Ship.”

PORTS OF CALL

St. Thomas - We took a shore excursion in St. Thomas, taking a boat over to St. John to snorkel. Our snorkeling destination was Trunk Bay, but in the open-air bus along the way, we also saw several other beautiful beaches including Hawksnest Bay. Snorkeling at St. John is always incredible, and this time was even better than my last time here. We saw several extremely large schools of fish around the reef, and a big flock of pelicans came in to feed while we were snorkeling, which was pretty amazing as the pelicans were feeding on the fish just a few feet from the snorkelers. After snorkeling, we walked around downtown Charlotte Amalie back over on St. Thomas and did some shopping. We returned to the ship around 5:00 and left for Martinique.

Martinique – We had heard from the cruise director that a ferry could be taken to the beach, so that’s what we had decided to do. Walking from the cruise terminal to the ferry terminal, we had to pass some fairly bad areas along the way, and it was a little longer walk than we had bargained for, so if you do this, you might want to take a cab. At the ferry terminal, we boarded a ferry for Pointe du Bout, which is across the harbor from Fort-de-France. The beaches at Pointe du Bout were very small and were man-made, and were too crowded to be enjoyable, so we left and went for a walk. At a shop, we met a lovely French woman who showed us a picture book of Martinique, and we concluded that the things to see and places to go in Martinique are just a little too far away from Fort-de-France for a cruise passenger, with only a few hours available, to really see. We also found out that there were, in fact, some natural beaches in the area, and walked to one, Anse Mitan, just up the street a few block, but by that time we were out of time and headed back to the ship. We did get to do a little shopping at the market across from the ferry terminal, and picked up a few good deals there.

Barbados – One piece of advice – don’t rent a car in Barbados. We did and, although we had a good time and saw parts of Barbados that many don’t get to see, it was a hassle. You drive on the left (tricky), and there are no road signs, so the map they gave us at the rental agency was virtually worthless. Once you get off the beaten path, many of the residents don’t even know how to tell you to get anywhere, although they are all very nice and as helpful as they can be. Once back to the city, it was tricky to find and get to the cruise terminal. Now, that having been said, we loved Barbados and want to go back and spend some time there. We drove to the Animal Flower Cave, a lesser-known series of caves than the popular Harrison’s Cave, and it was absolutely beautiful. Plus, they had a charming little bar at the cave that served the local brew, of which we had a couple. We also drove virtually the entire length of the Caribbean side of the island, and visited several beaches and some old churches along the way.

Aruba – Another rental car adventure was had in Aruba. No doubt, Aruba was our favorite stop, and we had a full day to tour it. We drove all over the island, stopping at Baby Beach, Rodgers Beach, and the Natural Bridge. We ended up at Palm Beach, where we rented snorkel equipment, and then drove to Arashi Beach, the northernmost beach on the west side of the island, to snorkel there. The snorkeling at Arashi was almost as good as at Trunk Bay, and some of our group thought it was better, because it felt a little more “wild” than at Trunk Bay, which felt more like a park. After getting cleaned up, we went to Carlos and Charlies for a famous “Yard of Beer”, and then on to a superb restaurant called El Gaucho, which is an Argentinean steak house. The meal at El Gaucho was one of the highlights of the trip, so if you go to Aruba, make a stop at El Gaucho.

SUMMARY

Our entire group had a great time on our Carnival Destiny cruise, and there’s very little we would change. The ship was wonderful, the staff and crew were great, the food and drink was fabulous. Okay, the entertainment was so-so, but that’s really not why you go on a cruise anyway, is it? If I had to give Carnival some advice, I’d probably tell them to smooth out the debarkation process at the end (Can you say NIGHTMARE?) and please, please, please, lay off the sales pitches to the passengers (Can you say NON-STOP?) Otherwise, this itinerary and this ship are definitely winners, and I would definitely do it again.

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