Erin

Age: 35
Occupation: Insurance Underwriter
Number of Cruises: 1
Cruise Line: Carnival
Name of Ship: Destiny
Sailing Date: April 27th, 2003
Itinerary: Southern Caribbean

My husband & I were very excited & nervous about taking our first cruise. This would be the first time we had ever left our son for more than an overnight trip, and also because of the many reviews we had read about this cruise ship - both good and not so good. I can honestly say that we had a great time. There were things that we didn’t do that probably would have added to the great time we had – but that was our decision.

Once my husband & I decided to go on a cruise, the first thing I did was go to the bookstore & buy some cruise guides. The one that I would highly recommend is Hunter Travel Guides – Cruising the Caribbean – A passenger’s guide to the ports of call. As far as websites go, I did not find any of the websites for the islands that we were going to helpful. We decided to book our cruise online with I-cruise.com. I would not recommend doing so again. It’s not that they did or didn’t do anything in particular, but you miss out on the personal service. We also chose to fly into San Juan for a pre-cruise stay the day before. The package that I-cruise offered for the pre-cruise stay was at the Tanama Princess Comfort Inn in the Condado Resort Area. All I can say is that if this is the hotel you are offered – run!! My husband took pictures of the bathroom because no one would believe how small it was.

Saturday – San Juan (pre-cruise stay)

We arrived in San Juan about 11:40am. We took a taxi to the hotel ($20 cab fare). Our room was ready, so we dropped off our luggage and set out to see the sights. We took another taxi to Old San Juan ($10 cab fare). The taxi driver dropped us off at the bottom of the hill that is in front of San Cristobal. (Take note – you want to be dropped off near El Morro. This is where all the shops and restaurants are.) We took the tour – it was ok – nothing great. Time for a tip – it was hot – very hot on every island we were on. I would suggest that you take something to drink & a snack with you if lunch is not included as part of the tour. I would skip this tour & try to get to the Bacardi Rum tour. It leaves from pier 2. We were too late to take the tour. We went back to the hotel to get some much needed relief from the heat (cab fare - $10). Since we were very uneasy about going out at night and we had been up since 5am, we ordered pizza (delivered) & stayed in.

Sunday – Embarkation

We checked out of the hotel around 11:15am & took a taxi to pier 6. We were able to start boarding around 12pm. We boarded, ate lunch & were in our room by 1pm. If you are interested in the spa – there is a tour at 2pm. I took the tour & booked a facial ($99) and a haircut ($52). You can book your shore tours using FunVision on the TV in your room starting at 3pm. This is how we booked all our tours – except for golf – you have to go to the golf pro & book in person. There was a mandatory lifeboat drill at 9:30pm.

Monday – St. Thomas

We arrived in St. Thomas at 7am. We took the “Best of St. Thomas Island Tour”. The first stop took us to a scenic overlook (can’t remember the name). It had a little shop that had great items for sale. I bought a beautiful hand painted Christmas ball ornament. They also sold shot glasses that came with a little bottle of rum w/a straw hat on it for $3.99 – what a bargain. If I had known that I wouldn’t find these anywhere else – I would have purchased more for gifts. Which leads me to a very important tip – If you see something you want – but it. Don’t assume that all the islands will sell the same stuff – they don’t (except for t-shirts). The next stop was Drake’s seat – a scenic overlook over the harbor. This is a perfect spot to take a picture of the cruise ship. There are also a couple of stands selling t-shirts – 3/$20 & beach towels that have a cord on them that fold into themselves to become a beach bag. At $10 each, they are a steal. Again, you won’t find them anywhere else – had I known I would have bought more. The next stop was Mountaintop, which offers some shops, a scenic overlook of Magen’s Bay and the most delicious Banana Daiquiri’s (get the extra shot). It seems that Banana Daiquiri’s were invented in St. Thomas. Our final stop was St Peter’s Great House, which used to be privately owned. It was absolutely beautiful. On the way back to the ship, you have the option of being dropped off in downtown Charlotte Amalie. We did not – but later heard that it was great. We opted instead to do more shopping at the Havensight Mall right across from the ship. It was very disappointing except for a few gift shops – one in particular “Captain Morgan’s”. Dinner tonight was casual dress.

Tuesday - Martinique

We started the day with breakfast & then I had a haircut in the spa ($52). We arrived in Martinique at 11:00am. We took the “St Pierre & Island Tour”. I read a lot about this port in reviews that stated a lot of people tend to skip this island. So while this tour was very long ( 4 ½ hrs), it was a way for us to at least get off the boat & see the island. I would not recommend taking this tour if you have early seating for dinner, as this was formal night. To make a long story short - we had a bus whose air conditioning didn’t work, so we had to pull over & wait for another one to arrive and ran into a lot of construction, which delayed the tour immensely.

Wednesday – Barbados

My husband went golfing and I took the “Barbados Island Tour”. When I returned from the port tour, I went shopping in the terminal. Let me just say that I wish all the ports had this. It is a big air-conditioned terminal that houses gift shops. I bought a lot of stuff from the “Best of Barbados” shop. They sell gift items such as cutting boards, placemats, coasters, etc depicting street scenes in Barbados. They are great mementos (& useful) of your trip and make excellent gifts (beats another t-shirt gift). There is also the Calypso rum cake shop – yummy!!!!! The smallest size sells for around $3.75 each & they come in a variety of flavors – they make excellent gifts. There is also a little shop that sells soda, snacks etc. Tip – Buy a six-pack of soda & a liter or water everyday from port and bring it back on board with you. Hopefully Carnival will not have changed their policy yet about bringing soda and water (not in excess) aboard. I am a diet coke addict. I was originally going to buy the soda card, but I just brought back a six-pack of diet coke everyday from the ports. I also had brought with me an AT&T calling card that my mother had bought for me from Sam’s Club. It turns out that you can use it to call from the Caribbean. There is a calling center in the cruise terminal. I live in New Jersey & the calling card I had was for 100 minutes which translated to 11 minutes for a call to New Jersey. You can always purchase calling cards on the islands. There are also a few little stands outside the terminal, which sell clothing. Like I said before – if you see something you like – buy it. Your last stop is in Aruba & I didn’t see the same things. There were cute bathing suit cover-ups etc. A little further down is Pelican Village, which has shops. I didn’t walk into town, but what I heard wasn’t good. Dinner was casual tonight – but shorts were permitted in the dining rooms for dinner due to being in port late.

Thursday – Fun Day at Sea

My suggestion would be to get some needed sleep. Stay up late Wednesday night – party the night away & then sleep the day away. Unless of course you are a sun worshipper - then maybe you should sleep on deck. Unfortunately, I do not have anything good to say about the days at sea – it gets to be very boring. If it weren’t for the fact that it really takes this long to get to Aruba, you would swear they just had these days to sell, sell, sell. I was really disappointed. Dinner tonight was formal.

Friday - Aruba

We loved Aruba. Out of all the islands – this would probably be the only one that we would actually go & stay for a week. We took the “Natural Wonders of Aruba tour” and it was outstanding - by far the best tour. After the tour, we went out to the market that is right across from the ship. We did a lot of shopping for gifts. There is also the Royal Mall, which was nice. We also took the “Sunset Cocktail Cruise”. We had a blast – too bad it was overcast & didn’t get to see the sunset. We drank this green drink – called an Iguana. You must try it – delicious. Dinner was casual tonight & you were allowed to wear shorts in the dining room.

Saturday – Another “Fun” Day at Sea

Party it up in Aruba on Friday night & sleep late today. I would then start packing your bags. You have to have your suitcase outside your room by 11:30pm.

Sunday – San Juan –Disembarkation

Overall, this wasn’t a bad process. It is long, but Carnival is organized & knows what they are doing. I wish however I could say the same for the San Juan Airport. Lets just say we had to wait in line for 3 hours to find out that our flight was delayed for 4 more hours. My advice is get a flight out before 11am or noon or if possible – do a post-cruise stay.

Overall:

I would say that my husband & I really enjoyed our cruise. There are some things we would do or not do, but again that is due to personal choices that we all have to make. Not everyone is going to love every port tour. Sometimes you just have to do it & decide for yourselves whether or not it was worth it.

Here are my tips:

· Find out as much as you can before hand – buy a guide to the Caribbean, go to the cruise line site & read through the port tours offered, etc.

· If you see something you want – buy it. Chances are you are not going to see it on another island & you may never come back here again.

· Buy a calling card at home. If it doesn’t work, you can always buy a calling card on that island.

· If you can afford it, get a room with a balcony. We did & absolutely loved it. I don’t think I could ever cruise again without one.

· Surprise your loved one with a gift in your cabin. My husband had our cabin decorated & ordered a cake. I had ordered a champagne gift set. This leads me to another tip – you are allowed to bring aboard with you one bottle of champagne or wine at embarkation. Bring it even if you order the gift package that comes with champagne. Our champagne was not delivered until Tuesday when we were in Martinique. Kind of spoiled the whole purpose of it.

· Purchase a six-pack of soda & a liter of water every time you are in port.

· If you want a great place to hang out & don’t mind cigar or cigarette smoke – check out the Onyx Bar. We went everyday – my husband smokes cigars & I am an ex-smoker. I was never bothered by the smoke. I think they have a special ceiling that helps with the smoke. Plus, they have a great jazz band.

· Our cabin had a medicine cabinet with more than enough space for all your toiletries. There is enough closet & shelf space as well. You don’t need to buy those over the door shoe holders that all the websites suggest.

· Pack extra hangers, if you like to hang up all your clothes. If you take old hangers, you can leave them in the closet.

· If you take any of the port tours that we did, make sure you sit on the right side of the bus. There were a lot of pictures I didn’t get, because I needed to be sitting on the right side of the bus to take the picture.

· Don’t listen to all those websites that suggest you take everything but the kitchen sink. I did & it really took a lot of extra space for stuff that I never needed to use. If you don’t normally take something with you on vacation, then don’t take it with you on the cruise.

· Check out the decks on Deck 6 and Deck 7. It feels like your own private deck. Go to either Deck and go forward as far as you can (like you are going to a room on that deck). There’s an unmarked door that opens to the deck. These decks can’t be accessed by the top deck, so almost no one knows they are there. Take a drink and your camera for pictures of beautiful sunsets.

· Make sure that your travel agent suggests cruises that will fit you with a cruise line/ship that will provide you with what you are looking for. Don’t go on a cruise where you don’t want to ever get dressed up, but expect to be able to walk in wearing jeans on formal night.

· Take all the reviews & message boards with a grain of salt. While they are very informative, they are based on someone else’s experience and personality.

· Read your literature.

· Pack your best attitude & remember Murphy’s Law. Go with the flow, you are on vacation.

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