Better Late than never?? Destiny...

I know it’s a little late, but here is my review of our (Kate-26, Dan-28) week long cruise aboard the Carnival Destiny. We cruised the week after Thanksgiving Nov -24 through Dec 2. Overall we had an awesome cruise!!

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http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f287/KtBarker/Cruise/?action=view&current=a4cba0bc.pbw

Saturday – San Juan, Hotel Caribe Hilton

Arrived at the airport with plenty of time for our 7:30 flight to Philly where we were connecting to San Juan, so we decided to stop for a quick breakfast. Dan went to McDonalds for some hotcakes, and I stopped at Au bon Pain for bagel. We walked over to our gate on the other side of the terminal, before eating… when we got there, Dan realized he didn’t get any syrup for his hotcakes… at this point we should have known our vacation was off to a bad start. We boarded the plane on time, pulled away from the gate, and waited, and waited. The next thing we knew the captain came on announcing our plane was having mechanical problems and would be pulling back up to the gate. Well the problem (which was only supposed to take 10 minutes to fix) was taking a lot longer so they took all 8 of us flying to San Juan off the plane, and booked us on the direct flight leaving at 8:30. Unfortunately we were stuck in the row in front of the exit row with non reclining seats, due to the last minute transfer. Still Dan had no problem sleeping most of the flight down.

Getting off the plane we were guessing what chance we had that our luggage had made it onto our flight (even though the agent at the gate in Boston told us it would be switched). Well we were right in guessing it wouldn’t be there. After the last bags were off the carousel we made our way over to file a claim before heading over to the Caribe Hilton. Getting a taxi was pretty easy, and the rate was set around $15 I believe to take us to the hotel. Since US Airways failed to provide us with any sort of snack, by the time we got to the hotel we were starving. We tossed on our bathing suits which we both had in our carry-ons, and went down to the pool bar for lunch. Turns out that the Caribe Hilton was the birth place of the Pina Colada, so along with lunch, we figured it would be a sin not to try a Pina Colada at it’s home!! 2 hamburgers, 2 rounds of drinks and Mozzarella sticks made up our lunch. (And an expensive one at that at $84)

Our room at the Hilton was room # 637, it overlooked Fort San Jerónimo, the ocean, and the roof. Room was OK, pretty good size. TV was tiny, hallway smelled pretty musty, balcony was small, but nice to have. I wasn’t impressed with the bathroom, and the bedding wasn’t as nice as other Hilton’s (i.e. no down comforter).

After a rest on the beach, we headed back to the room, to clean up and head out to dinner. The bar waiter at lunch suggested that we check with the concierge for suggestions on where to go to eat in town. While I understand this isn’t the same concierge level service that I have with Marriot (as a gold member), I didn’t find the concierge helpful at all. He basically told us to take a cab downtown, and walk around until we found something we liked.

Our next stop was the excursion desk with the hopes of booking a trip to El Yunque on Sunday morning. After we got over there we were informed there was only one seat left on the tour. That just seemed to be how our day was going… Oh well, off to dinner we went.

We were dropped off by the taxi driver at Christopher Columbus square, and after walking around downtown for 15-20 minutes we settled for dinner at Al Dente, an Italian restaurant with outdoor seating. On a side note, the small narrow roads were pretty dark, and as a first timer in Old San Juan that made me a little nervous, right outside the square, someone tried to offer us drugs, and I think that led to my feeling uneasy. Our meal at Al Dente was pretty good, a little on the expensive side, Dan got Chicken Parm (which was huge), and I got a pasta dish. I had a glass of sangria which was really good, and Dan tried the local beer, which he wasn’t a huge fan of.

After dinner we took a walk around down to the pier (where Princess was docked) and then headed to Senor Frogs for a few (one large) drinks. The drink I ordered ended up being a frozen drink, but when the bar tender went to make Dan’s he told him he would make it extra special… and it was with a gallon or two of booze in it. I was surprised at how empty it was in there for a Saturday night… we were probably 2 of 8 people in there. After that we got a cab back to the hotel over outside the Sheraton.

When we got back to the hotel we called US Airways to see if they had located our luggage yet… they had not. I was getting pretty frustrated at this point, and told them if we didn’t have our luggage by the morning, we would need to go out shopping, and wanted to know how much of that they were going to cover. They told me until it had been 24 hours, they were not able to authorize that, and I could call back after 7:30am.

We headed out to explore the hotel for a bit and walked out onto a small pier that was built to enjoy the huge waves crashing out in the ocean. Still feeling a little on the depressed side about our luggage we headed back into the hotel for a drink at the bar. I asked if they had a drink called “my luggage is missing”, but apparently that’s not on the menu… yet… Since they had been promoting their mojito’s (almost as much at the Pina Colada’s) I decided I would give it a shot, since Dan wasn’t sure what he wanted, he said sure make me one of those too. He didn’t realize mojito’s are full of “leaves”… and insisted it was probably the worst thing he had ever tried. After that we decided to call it a night.

The next morning when I woke up I made a call to US Airways who insisted they did not know where our luggage was yet. Since is was 8:00, I said fine, tell me how much I can go spend because you are paying for clothing for my 7 day cruise. I got the ”it hasn’t been 24 hours yet”, you need to wait a half hour more. (Yes I new that COULD be the case as I was now on San Juan time, rather than good ole EST… but I still wanted to try. J) They told me they were sending out another notice to the possible airports involved (Boston, Philly, and San Juan), and I could call back in a half our.

I called back, and low and behold, they had located our luggage in San Juan, and it was out for delivery. Realizing that no flights had arrived from either Philly or Boston since my phone call the night prior, I was definitely a little aggravated that they didn’t identify it the night before. My bags are pretty hard to miss they are black covered in pink hearts. Oh well it was now 9:00 and I was told I’d have my luggage within the next hour.

We decided just to spend the morning out lounging on the beach (and I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of our luggage). After 3 more calls to US Airways (yes sometimes I’m a little crazy) our luggage arrived around 12:00. The beach was nice, but very windy. Due to the set up of the man-made beach at the Caribe, the waves were pretty big out to sea, but the rock wall inside kept the waves to a minimum inside. We had requested a late checkout which we were granted, so around 1:00 we headed down to catch a cab over to the pier.

There was a big Santa parade in town and traffic was pretty heavy getting over to the pier (cab ride cost went up from $12 the night before to $20 due to traffic), but have no fear, I driver swerved in and out of lanes to get us there as quick as possible.

Finally after a long day/night we were at the pier getting ready to board the ship. There were a few school busses dropping of people, but we managed to make our way around. Due to all the luggage confusion I didn’t have my tags from the E-docs attached… no worries they has some at the pier for us to use. Due to the separation anxiety we were experiencing from our long time without our bags, the only bag we didn’t carry on was my 25 inch suitcase. They rest were all small enough to carry right on with us.

When we got upstairs to check in at the pier, I think we both noticed the same thing… we were the only two people who were English speaking. I had read reviews about the ships being filled with locals, which seemed to be the case. Well maybe they just hid out in secret parts of the ship, because other than check-in we never saw many Puerto Rican’s at all. The line went pretty fast, we spent time trying to figure out what people were saying in Spanish, as Dan was heading to Spain 2 weeks after we got back, so we were trying to figure out what we remembered from high school Spanish classes.

We finally got up to the front of the line, received our Gold S & S cards, and the first thing we notice is the 5:00 dining time. What a huge disappointment that was. We would never make it to dinner if that was the case. Oh well, so far things just weren’t going our way… maybe what we needed was a Funship Special to change that.

We walked onboard, and right away I noticed the Maitre’D in the dining room, with only one other person in line. Great, I figured we could try and change our dining time. Since we had some (most of our luggage with us) Dan waited in the atrium while I checked to see if we could get our dining time switched. The Maitre’D looked in the system, and said the reason we didn’t get the time we wanted was because we booked so late (early Oct) for a November 24th cruise. He said he didn’t think there was anything he could do, but he would let us know either way.

They said 2:00 to get down to our rooms, so at 2:05 we walked down and the doors were still locked. We lugged everything up one deck to the lido deck to grab some lunch!! WOW!! the lines long at all the buffets. Dan grabbed us both burgers and fries from the grill, while I sat at our table and ordered our first round of drinks.

After we finished eating we headed down to our cabin (#8128), which was finally ready. Since we had most of our luggage with us, we were able to unpack and settle in a bit, before heading off to the pool, to catch a little sun, and relax… and of course, do a little exploring.

We were only gone for about an hour or two, and when we got back, our only checked suitcase had arrived!! YAY!! No more luggage separation anxiety. J Finally I could fully settle in as well. Dan seemed very impressed with the balcony, as this was his first time having one. Our room was a pretty good size, not quite as much storage as the OV cabin we had on the Valor. I love those drawers that pull out from under the sofa. The bathroom didn’t have shelves like the Valor either, more like 2 medicine cabinets. Still plenty of room to hold our stuff. The hair dryer (which was much better than the button-holder-downer, in the drawer on the Valor) was in the bathroom on the wall, and worked pretty decent. I will say that the toilet was a bit odd. I typically sat on it a bit sideways. The shower was much bigger than any cruise ship I had yet to be on. While it was somewhat narrow it had a glass casing ½ way and shower curtain the other 1/2. I’d say it was about 4.5 feet long.

That night dinner was open seating. So we went around 6:45, as we wanted to ensure we would be done in time to watch the start of the Patriot’s game at 8:15. We were sat at an 8 top. Across from us was what appeared to be a Aunt & Niece from Puerto Rico, and then next two us were two friends cruising… never found out where they were from. It’s a little odd being at a table of 6 with two empty seats. We all made small talk during dinner then we were on our way to watch the Patriots get another W!

We both realized that lifeboat drill was during the game, so we had a plan. Watch the game in our room, go to lifeboat drill, I’d return the lifejackets to the room, and then meet Dan up in the sports bar. Just as we thought lifeboat drill was over, they told us they would be repeating the entire drill in Spanish due to the large # of Spanish speaking guests on board. While normally we wouldn’t think twice about it, poor Dan was anxiously shifting from foot to foot wanting to get back to see the game. Finally, lifeboat drill was over, and the mad dash to get to the sports bar was on. I went back to the room to put away the life jackets (which is right by the door) when all of a sudden my door flew open. I jumped a mile before I realized it was just Dan.. they hadn’t turned the TV’s back on in the sports bar yet. A few commercials later we headed down to the Sports Bar to watch the end of the game.

After a very close… to close for comfort game, we headed to the casino to donate our nightly allowance. I can’t remember what we played this night. Hmmm… Well anyways I think it was the tables, and we both went home down $5-10. Finally it was time for some late night pizza, and then bed time!!

Monday – St Thomas

Woke up Monday morning to find a table change slip under our door stating that we got the 8:00 dining time!! Perfect! That is the exact one I wanted.

Went to the lido deck for breakfast, and oh my goodness the lines were OUT of control!! Sorry to those who aren’t fans of reaching in to grab something, but no one was around the cereal, bagel area, so I reached in grabbed a box of cereal and two plain bagels and we just ate them on the walk down to the gang-way.

I had done my homework before hand thanks to CruiseCal.com, and since we were the only ship in port we decided to head over to Magen’s Bay for the day. Again the cab ride was approx $15 to get over there, and the entrance fee was $4. When we got there, we pretty much had the whole beach to ourselves. We walked down to the left quite a ways and staked out our spot for the day. Although the scenery a Magen’s Bay is nice, it just isn’t my favorite beach. The sand was super sticky, and there was tons of little fishies as soon as you enter the water. Ewww!!

When we were ready to leave we headed back to the Taxi area, and were told we would have to wait a bit for more people to leave. No problem… we waited about 10 minutes, then headed back to the pier with only one other couple in the cab.

Got back around 2:30 and went up to the lido for some lunch.. Again lines were out of control!! (Are you beginning to notice a pattern here?)... I really wonder if maybe after realizing how long the buffet lines were if they fixed the layout on the newer ships) We realized that since we were in port the casino wouldn’t be open to get a deck of cards, so we headed to the pursers desk to see if they had any, and they did! (No not as nice as the casino cards, but they would work to do a norm, play a few games of cards, drink a few cocktails, and watch the ship pull out from port.)

At dinner that night we met our tablemates, and wait staff. We were seated at a 4 top booth with a couple celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary on Tuesday night. I feel awful but I can’t remember our Waitstaff’s names. Dinner was good, and since we aren’t really into the Dancing Show’s we skipped the Welcome aboard show, and headed out to explore. We headed back to the casino, and took part in the black jack tournament since only 7 others had signed up and there was a $200 jackpot we felt for $20 our odds were half decent. 5 made it into the second round, and I was bumped down to #6. There was also a random raffle for all the non winners. Dan made it into the finals, but only took 3rd place.

The boat was rocking a decent bit this night, but the weather on the TV mentioned the winds were “near gale force” so I’m guessing we were out running some sort of weather or something. I started to get worried due to my sensitivity to motion sickness, but woke up feeling fine the next morning. I was starting to feel a cold coming on prior to our trip so I had picked up Airborne, and was taking that just once every morning. It’s said to have ginger in it, so I wonder if that (along with the patch) helped to keep my stomach feeling good. We were pretty far forward on the ship too.

Tuesday – Dominica

Since the lines seemed to be chronically bad at the buffet we decided we would head to the dining room to grab some breakfast before going on our River Tubing excursion. We were planning on booking with Wacky Rollers, but didn’t end up doing so, so we just booked through the boat. We were scheduled to meet on the pier at 10:30, so breakfast was at 9:30. We got seated at a booth for two, and I ordered the Eggs Benedict, and Dan went with pancakes, and assorted meats. Around 10:00 as we were finishing up, an announcement came on through the loud speaker saying due to river conditions River Tubing was cancelled. Since we had planned to do some sort of tour here, we headed back to the Shore Excursion desk to find something new to do.

When we asked what was still available the worker, was like, hold on I’ll highlight everything, and you can pick off that listing. Well the first two items we picked turns out he accidentally highlighted. So our third choice was a hike to Sari Sari falls. We ran to the room, made a few clothing exchanges, and headed over to the Palladium lounge to meet our group.

The drive was almost two hours to get to the base of the hike, but it flew by as the tour director (again so bad with names) gave us great information about Dominica’s History. I had worn water shoes, and Dan just had on slip in sandals, so I was a little worried when we started the hike and realized everyone was in supportive sneakers. (side note: the purser working at the Shore Excursion desk told us the woman leading the hike when he went on it was bare foot so we assumed what we had on our feet was fine. If I were to do the hike again, I’d definitely wear sneakers. Pictures just don’t do the waterfall any justice. http://www.avirtualdominica.com/hiking.cfm

The hike involved crossing two rivers on the way to the base of the waterfall. It wasn’t a super strenuous hike, but most people on the excursion appeared to be in pretty decent shape. I’d say there were only 15 or so on the hike. The whole hike they kept mentioning the rum punch we would be getting on the black sand beach when we were done. What can I say about the waterfall, it was absolutely amazing. On the walk up they told us they would show us how to get behind it, but they never did. I’m guessing for the same reason river tubing was cancelled. The waters were too high.

On the trip back we stopped at one of the rivers for some Creole soup, and homemade grapefruit juice. The juice was great, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the soup. Almost everyone else was though. We stopped at the black sand beach, which was now rock covered due to hurricane Dean, and were all given about ½ a shot glass worth of Rum Punch. Then we took a few pictures, and continued back to the pier.

We stopped briefly at the pier to grab a magnet and before we made it back to the pier were again offered drugs. We just kept walking, and hopped back on the boat pretty quickly since it was almost time to be back on board. After we got back on board we grabbed a bite to eat on the lido… STILL lines. I got a sandwich at the deli, which was good not great (the tomato & fresh mozzarella), and Dan got a burger again.

Tonight was formal night, so we rested up a bit and then headed out to dinner. We skipped the captain’s cocktail party due to our resting state. Off to dinner we went. We both got the prime rib, which was pretty good, and they had my all time favorite soup Strawberry Bisque. Dan’s who is super picky won’t eat soup, but got the Bisque, and said it was just like drinking a milkshake.

After dinner we ran back to the room to change out of our formal outfits and headed out for a night on the ship.

Wednesday – Barbados

Ordered room service for morning, which arrived promptly and acted as our alarm clock as we had forgotten the travel alarm clock (OK fine I forgot it… it’s mine). We got ready early went out on the balcony and realized we were one of FIVE ships in port. Ouch! We got off the boat, walked through the little shopping area and headed out to the taxi stand, which is regulated, to try and catch a cab to Accra beach. Since we weren’t going to the typical tourist beaches we were told we’d have to wait (basically until they found others who wanted to go there). About five minutes later there was another group of 5, and a couple of 2 that wanted to go.

Well the group of 5 heard somewhere that you could “bargain” prices, and wanted to “bargain” for a cheaper fare. Oh goodness… This was taking forever. While waiting, the cab drivers kept telling us we shouldn’t go to Accra, they would take us somewhere else, Payne’s beach, or one of the other touristy beaches. We almost caved until the other couple was adamant they wanted to go to Accra, and we decided if they were going so would we. Finally it was just the 4 of us in a car heading over to Accra. Well let me tell you I am sooooo glad we didn’t cave and go elsewhere. The beach was perfect. Accra beach was just what we were looking for.

The only down fall to the taxi service was that we had to set a time for them to come back and pick us up. When we got there we spent close to 3 hours straight in the water. It was perfect. The cab drivers insisted the waves would be too big, but that wasn’t the case. They were perfect to play in and far from what I would consider rough. The cab driver was back just when he said he would be, and we headed back to the pier to shower change and do a quick bit of shopping. I was so said to see my day at Accra end… you can bet the first thing I did when I got back to work Monday was check out the Accra Beach Hotel. Once again the pictures we took just don’t do Accra Beach justice… if you go to webshot.com and search for Accra Beach, you will get some much better pictures.

We had to set a time for our taxi driver to come back and pick us up, and were told we wouldn’t pay until the return. Well the couple we went over with paid on the way over, but our cab driver still showed up to take us back to the pier. We ran up to the lido deck got some lunch, and headed back out to the shopping area at the pier.

They had lots of free samples of alcohol being offered, but the only thing we ended up buying was some premixed rum punch from a booth in the middle of the shopping center. It was $5 a bottle, and came prepackaged in small plastic bottles, perfect for traveling with. No glass. J

When we walked back on the boat I sent it through the screener and picked it up and carried it back to the room with us. No questions asked. We did not drink any during the week, but it was nice to not have to wait for it the last night to pack.

That night was the Newlywed/Not so Newlywed game at 9, so we opted to pass on dinner in the dining room and just grab dinner up on the lido deck so that we could make it to the show. It was a pretty good show, partly due to Skip Lyons who did a great job hosting it.

Thursday – St Lucia

We booked our tour with Cosol Tours just a few weeks prior to sailing. His email responses were pretty quick, and we were told $50 for the entire tour. What a bargain!! The tour was great. We had to meet by 8:20, so we got room service so we wouldn’t be pressed for time in the dining room or fighting with the long lines in the buffet area. We were off the boat by 8:05 and waited around while window shopping at the pier. By 8:30 or so everyone was there, and we were off. We were greeted by Baptiste one of Cosol’s drivers, as Cosol was picking up passengers of the Norwegian Ship docked across the way. The piers in St Lucia aren’t in the same spot.

As we were boarding the van Baptiste said that one of us would need to be his co-pilot and ride up front with him, as no one had volunteered, Dan suggested that I do it. What a great idea, being up front was definitely a good spot for someone with motion sickness. I didn’t feel queasy at all during the tour. First stop was the Banana plantation. Maybe it was because I’m not a big banana fan, but I couldn’t taste the difference between the fresh one, and the ones we buy at the local supermarket. We had a few more photostops before we made it to the fresh fruit stand. Dan and I both tried all the fruits, some we loved, some were OK, some we weren’t very fond of. Our next stop involved a stop where we could get out and hold a Boa Constrictor for $1. I didn’t do it.. but Dan did! YUCK! I took a few pictures, and we moved on to our next photo stop where we got our first view of the Pitons. It made me that much more excited to go swim between them.

Next stop was the waterfall and botanical gardens. Nothing super special here... The waterfall was nice, but nothing close to Sari Sari Falls in Dominica. You did have the option to actually go stand under the waterfall. I opted out as I did not want to be wet for the rest of the tour. At this stop is where we tried Jhonny Cakes, and Fish Cakes. Both were excellent. And now it started… Rum Punch, and Piton Beer. That is one thing they definitely didn’t skimp on!! Dan said the Piton Beer reminded him of Miller Light, and I enjoyed a few sips of the tasty rum punch, which included nutmeg, and cinnamon.

Upon leaving the location we were given the option to either go directly to the beach, or go see the drive in Volcano. We opted to go to the Volcano. We figured how many times in our life will we get to visit a drive in Volcano?? We met up with the rest of the group at the Jalousie after our stop at the Volcano. (yes it did smell bad at the Volcano). The beach was amazing. It’s not your typical aqua blue Caribbean waters but being in-between those 2 mountains was such a unique experience. Leaving the beach we were all handed additional cocktails to ensure we weren’t thirsty on our drive back. We had a few more photo opportunity stops, and a chance to try their “liquid *****” on the way back. We made one last stop in town where we were greeted with fresh hot brick oven bread, and some home made cheese cubes.

On the way back to the pier Baptiste received a call from his girl friend saying there had been an earthquake on the island measuring 2.4 on the Richter scale. We hadn’t felt anything, but continued on our drive back to the ship. Shortly after everyone was on board Skip came over the announcement system from the bridge to fill us in on the earthquake. Apparently most people on the island, and on board had felt the shaking. The earthquake reached 7.4 on the Richter scale in Martinique. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/11/30/2106034.htm He informed us there was no sign of any tsunamis as well. Being that we were just about to sail by Martinique, I did get a little nervous about any sort of Tsunami, but thankfully there was no Tsunami.

Friday – Antigua

We were both looking forward to another relaxing beach day, once Antigua rolled around, unfortunately after spending the day at Accra, Dickenson Bay in Antigua just doesn’t compare. This was the only island we didn’t have a set plan, as we figured by the end of the week we’d be tired, and just figured we could see what we felt like. The minute we got off the ship we were hounded by taxi drivers wanting to drive us somewhere. They were by far the pushiest I have ever encountered in the Caribbean. Finally by the time the 5th one approached us we couldn’t take it any more so we just told him we wanted to go to the beach. The first beach he suggested was on the other side of the island and was going to cost us $60pp to get there. We were hoping for something closer to the pier so we settled on Dickenson. We figured since the brand new Sandals was just built it had to be pretty nice. Boy, were we wrong. The beach was OK looking. But the water had tons of sea weed at the entrances. We opted just to use our towels rather than rent chairs. The entire time we were laying out, even as we were sleeping people kept asking us to ‘buy something’.

After laying out at the beach for the day we headed back to the pier to walk around the shops, and get back on board. Again I wasn’t really impressed with the shops, I almost felt a little uncomfortable out walking around them. We spent the afternoon out by pool, and I did some reading. Later we headed back to the room, and spent a few hours out enjoying our balcony. It is so nice to just sit out there for hours and relax. I finished my book, and Dan did some of the daily brain teasers which you could pick up down by the shore excursion desk.

Saturday – Day at Sea

We were hoping to get up early to get out and get some chairs by the pool, but we overslept. Finally at about 9:30 we headed up to the pool thinking we’d be lucky to find two chairs. We were shocked when we got up there and there were plenty of chairs available. Since there was good amount of Puerto Rican’s on board the only thing I can figure is that sun isn’t a novelty to them like it is to those of us who are facing single digit temperatures as I type this. But for whatever reason, and I’m not complaining, there were plenty of deck chairs.

We spent the morning out by the pool, and in the afternoon headed in to do the Battle of the Sexes Game, and decided to stick around for bingo. Bingo = biggest rip off ever. The biggest jackpot was $150. They gave away a total of only like $350 over the entire bingo session. At $20 a ticket it definitely wasn’t worth it. First and last time I’m playing bingo on Carnival. We counted over 100 in there playing. At $20 per ticket ($40 for 3), Carnival made some sweet profit on that one. Definitely will never play bingo again, but maybe that is just the accountant in me over analyzing the bingo jackpots vs people playing.

Instead of offering a ‘free cruise’ at bingo they now offer raffle tickets to win a free cruise. I think it was like $20 a ticket. Again another huge profit earned on this cruise. There were probably over 1,000 tickets purchased for the raffle. They did offer a discount for past guests leaving the past guest party, but we didn’t want to wait.

Sunday – Flying Home

Our flight back to Boston was pretty uneventful. We took a city tour so that we could get off the ship early, and be dropped off in time for our flight. Customs was pretty uneventful. The lady behind us was annoying. She kept asking why people in our line were going one at a time, and people in the other lines were going 3-4 at a time. Finally I turned around and told her why so she would stop complaining.

Before you load the busses for the city tour you put your luggage into a big truck that takes them to the airport, where they wait in a guarded holding area until you arrive at the airport. The only part of the tour I really enjoyed was stopping at El Morro. When we stopped downtown to shop neither one of us really wanted much so we headed to La Bombnera for breakfast. It was pretty good. Neither one of us are big pastry eaters though. Our bags were taken from the pier right to the hotel, so after the tour we stopped and picked them up in a waiting area. We were both getting a little nervouces as the time moved on and our flight time was approaching, but we did arrive at the airport by 12:30.

We were flying USAir again, and of course they were the only airline with a wait. Our flight was at 2:30, the tour dropped us off around 12:30, and we had plenty of time to get through the line, and then security. On a side note, it still amazes me how many people still don’t understand the liquids ban… I travel quite frequently for work, but are people really that clueless that they don’t know the rules. The 3 people in front of us ALL had ALL their liquids in their carryons and were amazed they couldn’t take them on the plane. When we got to the airport they were looking to bump people from our flight and put them on the American Airlines flight an hour later. However snow was due into Boston that night so we opted not to take their deal for fear of delays. Before we could even get off the plane we saw snow starting to fall. L

OVERALL

We both really enjoyed our cruise. I felt the ship was in very good condition for a ship her age. We have never dined at a Supper Club so we didn’t miss that. The one thing we missed being able to do was check our Sign and Sail balances on the TV. Dan had never been in a balcony cabin, and after our week in it he said he’d hate to go back to just an inside room.

We both thought Skip Lyons did an excellent job as cruise director. Neither one of us has ever really “noticed” a cruise director until Skip on this cruise. He definitely helped enhance our vacation. Bubbles was the assistant CD, she was OK, but nothing to write home about.

In the piano Bar was Bryan. We thought he did a pretty good job, however the crowd was never too big in there. Could have just been our week of sailing.

The hot tubs at the main pool were closed all week, but there always appeared to be room in the 3 open hot tubs. (2 at the aft pool never had too many people in them.) With such a port intensive itinerary I think people we always too busy to care.

Formal Nights – the first formal night everyone was in formal attire, the second there were a few “rule breakers”, who felt jeans and T-Shirts were OK. Just because you buy your T-Shirt at the Armani Exchange, it still doesn’t make it ‘formal’. Or at least that is my opinion. Dan HATES dressing up, but did because that was the rule.

We spent some time in the casino. Neither one of us are high-rollers, we typically shared a 2/5 cent machine. We played “The Frog Prince” for a little while every night. It was actually pretty good to us as well. We won an $80 jackpot playing .02. We did end up down at the end of the week, but we had fun playing. We played a few hands of 3 card poker and black jack as well.

Food in the dining room was good when you take into fact how many people they were serving. Having a wait staff that had a ton of small tables, I didn’t feel like we got the same level of interaction as we did on our last cruise sitting at a table for 8. Ate at the grill & deli for lunch quite a bit. Dan was a big fan of the Pastrami sandwiches. And of course, late night pizza was great.

Went two the comedians a couple of nights. Both did a decent job. Didn’t spend too much time at the Vegas Style shows as that’s not really our cup of tea.

I’m sure I missed plenty, I’ll be happy to answer any questions.

That was a nice review makes me really miss the Destiny. That is one thing I have always feared, "the luggage hasnt shown up":eek: glad you enjoyed the Destiny. My favorite island was Dominica.

Beautiful slide show, Thanks! Makes me very excited for our upcoming trip!

That was a nice review makes me really miss the Destiny. That is one thing I have always feared, "the luggage hasnt shown up":eek: glad you enjoyed the Destiny. My favorite island was Dominica.

Everyone asks us what our favorite island was, and all we can say is "we don't know, just not Antigua"... 4 for 5 wasn't bad.

Beautiful slide show, Thanks! Makes me very excited for our upcoming trip!

Thanks!

Thanks for the review! Can't wait to sail her, just a little more than a couple months away!