Helen Ahern

Age: 45
Occupation: Secretary
Number of Cruises: 3
Cruise Line: Carnival
Name of Ship: Destiny
Sailing Date: March 9th, 2002
Itinerary: Southern Caribbean

I was very nervous, being the planner of this cruise and reading some of the other reviews, however………can’t say enough nice things about this cruise line, the ship, the people, or the destinations. This was my third cruise and by far the best. We were traveling with another couple that had never cruised before and our children (ages 10, 11 and 21 – our 21 year old was on spring break and had a friend with him). I can safely say that a great time was had by all of us. We choose to go a day early and stay in San Juan at the Wyndham Condado Plaza. A very nice hotel, however a little pricey on the alcohol ($6 for a 10 oz can of beer), the pool area was nice, there is a swim up bar at one of the pools and a water slide that my younger ones enjoyed, the beach was shared with the locals - not as nice as the pool area.

We left the hotel via bus to get to the ship, just a short ride away. The embarkation process was a breeze, we were aboard ship, had our Sail and Sign cards, and were in our cabins (with most of our luggage) in less than an hour.

We had the late seating at the Universe dining room (highly recommend the late seating) the food and service was wonderful, the children’s menu at dinner was good for the younger ones. Helena, our drinks waitress always had the sodas waiting at the table for the younger ones. My ten year old son enjoyed the pizza 24 hrs a day, as did the two older boys at 4 AM when the clubs closed!!! The serve yourself soft-serve ice cream was a big hit too. We purchased the soda cards for the children ($45 for both of them). Well worth it, however, there is fruit punch, iced tea or lemonade free of charge, once my son discovered this he was happier with the lemonade. We never had breakfast in the dining rooms, always just the breakfast buffet, which was good.

We signed up the 10 and 11 year old for Camp Carnival. Again can’t say enough good things about this program. Both children loved the activities and the counselors. Had we not insisted they spend some quality time with us, they would have been happy to be with the friends they met on board.

Our cabins were on the Upper deck – the balcony was a joy to have. Our friends were in the cabin next to us and we had the dividers on the balcony opened up between us. We shared this cabin with out 10 and 11 year old. Not nearly as bad as we had expected. It was tight, but manageable. One of the extra beds rolled under our bed and the sofa was made up as a bed too. We also had the cabin across from us for the spring breakers, they were fine in there.

As for the island tours, I can only tell you about those that we took. In St. Thomas, we took the ferry to St. John to Trunk Bay and snorkeled. All of us had a wonderful time, the ferry ride was informative, the snorkeling was outstanding (don’t forget an underwater camera!). Martinique isn’t very glamorous, we took the island tour of Mt. Pelee, St Pierre, the rainforest and the rum distillery (my 4th and 5th graders just happen to be studying about Mt. Pelee and rainforests this year, so this tied in beautifully). The tour was informative and the scenery once in the mountains was beautiful. I’ve got to give the bus drivers credit for maneuvering those streets and mountain roads. My favorite island was Barbados, what little I saw of it I loved. We took the beach tour here, and enjoyed the day at a beautiful beach, lunch was enjoyable and we were entertained by a fire eater, limbo dancer. The snorkeling here was fun, we went off a boat where they fed the fish, we were surrounded by very colorful fish that we could reach out and touch. My daughter had her hair braided here, with her long hair and having the entire head done, it was over two hours, (at a $1 a braid) far less expensive than on the ship. She sat in the shade and had it done while I wandered back and forth from our lounge chairs to check on her. Our spring breakers took the Jolly Roger pirate tour here and LOVED it. Our next fun day at sea, was just that, our deck waiter, John Kurian of India was a gem, always remembering us and our children and what we all drank. In Aruba our friends took the island tour (we had been to Aruba before and didn’t want to do a tour) they really enjoyed the tour. We took a taxi ($10) to Palm Beach, which is at the Radisson Hotel, and spent the day there. We rented lounge chairs and an umbrella for $26 and a float for the water for another $5. There were plenty of water activities if you wanted to do these, my kids tubed behind a boat. This was the only day we skipped dinner in the Universe and had dinner at Sea and Sun buffet line, this too was great food.

The disembarkation was not too bad, with 8 pieces of luggage and 7 pieces of carry on it went as smoothly as can be expected – we (or our porter) somehow missed that we were on US Air and we ended up on the Northwest bus. At the airport that porter got our luggage to the right place.

You are able to check your Sign and Sail card balance via your in-room TV. I recommend that you do this on a daily basis. We found a few overcharges (three different ones totaling $160) a trip to the information desk will take care of them.

I guess that I should mention that this wonderful trip started off on a very sour note when we arrived at American Airlines at Logan airport at 4:45 AM with four “children” in tow, and found out that even though we had tickets in our hands we were not confirmed on our flight. After an hour on the phone with Carnival we were confirmed on a 12:11 flight and were on standby for our original 7:05 flight and standby on the 9:30 flight. We all ended up on the original 7:05 flight, which was fine, but not without a lot of unnecessary stress. We still don’t know if this was the fault of our travel agent, Carnival or American. Check your flights before leaving and make sure you’re on the right bus in PR and you’ll have a great time. Our children are already looking forward to their next cruise, wherever that might be, but it will be on Carnival.

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