Carnival Destiny Review; B2B 20th Anniversary Cruise

[Nunu]

Unbelievable photos of Half Moon Cay! Wow! How far can you walk on the beach? Did you feel the cabana was worth the $225 for the two of you? It looked like it includes drinks, snacks, etc? In addition, you mentioned you had priority debark off the ship?

Yes having a cabana rental includes taking the first tender into HMC. (we were on the tender with most of the staff and some of the supplies)

[taxiang]

Thanks for posting the cabana pics. I want one of those soooo bad.

[pmoniz]

When we were there in May 09 we rented the Private Oasis and some of the workers who live on the island came over and they told us they were planning on building more cabanas. Not sure when - but that's what they told us!! Had a great time at HMC - it's an amazing place!

[mouche]

What a great review and pics, I so miss the Destiny!!!:mad:

[hill6]

Paul

 

we just got back from the Destiny - Key West and Cozumel itinerary. We throughly enjoyed the ship. We tried following the map for the hand rolled cigars but had no luck. Oh well we tried.

 

I was confused by your term of Key Wasted but boy it did not take long on the island to figure out what you were talking about. We had an abundence of partying since it was the beginning of Fantasy Fest the day we were there. Lots of early revelers.

 

We also found the topless beach. It was at Pier House. I wanted Stone Crab for lunch and that was one of the places that was recommended to me on the Key West Board. We seen it from the Trolley tour we were taking so we got off at the next stop and walked back to there. We sat down and then we noticed the lack of dress. I walked out to the pier to take pictures of the water. I avoided taking any of the beach. DH enjoyed the view (LOL).

[gail811]

Another GREAT review Paul! I forgot how much we loved Half Moon Cay! I wish it was incorporated into more itineraries. Congrats on 20 years of marriage too! I will look forward to your review of the Dream and seeing pictures of the boys again; it has been fun watching them grow up on your reviews over the years! Did you end up with an aft wrap for that sailing? We have 7459 on our June cruise and hope we are as pleased as we are with the ones on the Glory.

[PaulMedik]

Another GREAT review Paul! I forgot how much we loved Half Moon Cay! I wish it was incorporated into more itineraries. Congrats on 20 years of marriage too! I will look forward to your review of the Dream and seeing pictures of the boys again; it has been fun watching them grow up on your reviews over the years! Did you end up with an aft wrap for that sailing? We have 7459 on our June cruise and hope we are as pleased as we are with the ones on the Glory.

 

 

Gail,

 

Thank you.

 

Yes, our aft wrap booking on Glory automatically transferred to Dream aft wrap 6479. Apparently they're 9C Premium Balcony cabins now?

 

 

 

Still says 9A in the URL though;

 

[lhuggi1]

Great Review !!!!!

[gail811]

Looking at all the pictures coming through now Paul, it looks like you got a great cabin! Did they honor the price you paid for the Glory? I imagine if they did then you saved quite a bit of money!

[PaulMedik]

Looking at all the pictures coming through now Paul, it looks like you got a great cabin! Did they honor the price you paid for the Glory? I imagine if they did then you saved quite a bit of money!

 

 

Gail,

 

Yes they honored the price. The only downside is they didn't honor booking three people in deck six aft wraps.

 

When ES pricing came out they changed the booking to those terms as well. We also got $100 OBC on Dream for Future Cruise credits when we sailed Liberty in Summer '08 because the price was unchanged.

 

Because of how we booked Dream, our booking may be the first Dream booking ever. :D

[scraphappylady]

Hi Paul and Karen!

 

Congrats on your 20th anniversary!! Saw your review come up and knew I just had to read it, even though we're not even sailing her. First read about your family with your Legend review and loved it and how many pix you included then. Am loving this one just as much! I must admit, tho, Paul that I didn't recognize you in your pictures until later in the post when someone mentioned the lack of whiskers. Aha! (Takes some of us a while!):p

 

I can understand how you felt without the boys! My DH and I are set for the Victory soon, without our two kids, and i'm really looking forward to couple time, but just a bit sad, too. Were the boys jealous? My kids just keep asking how we could do this to them. We reply that of course we will take them on the next cruise, but for now it's "mom and dad time." ;)

 

Eagerly waiting for the rest of your review!:D

[PaulMedik]

Hi Paul and Karen!

 

Congrats on your 20th anniversary!! Saw your review come up and knew I just had to read it, even though we're not even sailing her. First read about your family with your Legend review and loved it and how many pix you included then. Am loving this one just as much! I must admit, tho, Paul that I didn't recognize you in your pictures until later in the post when someone mentioned the lack of whiskers. Aha! (Takes some of us a while!):p

 

I can understand how you felt without the boys! My DH and I are set for the Victory soon, without our two kids, and i'm really looking forward to couple time, but just a bit sad, too. Were the boys jealous? My kids just keep asking how we could do this to them. We reply that of course we will take them on the next cruise, but for now it's "mom and dad time." ;)

 

Eagerly waiting for the rest of your review!:D

 

 

scraphappylady,

 

Thank you.

 

No, the boys weren't jealous. They were occupied with football games and school so they didn't have time to sit around much.

[PaulMedik]

After checking out the horses and speaking with the Wranglers of Pegasus Ranch we headed back down the beach toward our cabana;

 

 

It was a long walk in the hot Caribbean sun so I opted to try and float back;

 

 

 

Half Moon Cay has a small town feel where neighbors sit on their front steps and say 'Hey' or 'Eh' since these neighbors are from Canada;

 

 

We were hungry for something besides snacks after our walk so we headed back inland to the island buffet;

 

 

[PaulMedik]

The crew has their own place to picnic on the island;

 

 

Cold drinks! We wouldn't be needing any of these because our cabana was stocked by our elvs;

 

 

 

 

The spread includes sweets which I am quite fond of (also in this pic is a very unique cup holder. Can anyone identify the cup holder? I can't imagine the size of the cupholder....) ;

 

 

Lots of fruit too, but we also had our own compliments of Carnival cabana rental;

 

 

Perfect picnic food;

 

[PaulMedik]

The walk back to our cabana always seems longer than the walk to the buffet. Perhaps because we're hungry and carrying food;

 

 

 

That cloud stretching out toward the ship looks dark. It's a good thing we'll have a dry place to eat;

 

 

 

Ominous black clouds overhead;

 

 

We made it back to our cabana;

 

 

The view was quite a bit different from earlier in the day;

 

 

Karen getting the table ready for lunch;

 

[falkcor]

We don't normally watch movies while we are at sea, but Mark (Falkcor) got to see Star Trek on the plane before his cruise so I was pleased to get to see Star Trek while on our cruise;

 

 

paul - i'm honored to have made it into your review

 

and that.. we both took approximately the same photo...

 

 

and i'm glad that you got to see it... if not on the plane, on the ship...

 

not bad, eh? ;)

 

The spread includes sweets which I am quite fond of (also in this pic is a very unique cup holder. Can anyone identify the cup holder? I can't imagine the size of the cupholder....) ;

 

 

oh, i see it! :eek:

 

how uncouth :rolleyes:

[PaulMedik]

Way too much flash, but this was a cheeseburger in paradise;

 

 

In an instant as the rains fell, the beach emptied and the water filled up;

 

 

I have no clue who this fellow was, but he did his best to cover up with sand;

 

 

Mission accomplished;

 

 

 

As the rains fell harder, our cabana walls came alive with sounds of thrifty beach goers taking shelter from the rain under our eaves;

 

[PaulMedik]

Our neighbors Liz and Steve waving from the sea. They spent the entire storm in the water;

 

 

I wish this picture was able to show just how hard it was raining. Everybody had either headed to a tender or hit the water;

 

 

Karen had her belly full and the sounds of a warm Caribbean rain storm to lull her to sleep;

 

 

Our ship was about to get hit headon by the storm;

 

 

Notice the tender that all the beach goers rushed to. I wonder if they escaped the rain?

 

 

[PaulMedik]

Mother nature provides the best water mister. But she tends to block the sun out while she does it. Our ship is still there, but we could barely make it out;

 

 

 

Once it really started pouring the rain I couldn't take it anymore and had to join Liz and Steve in the water;

 

 

The ship was barely visible through the down pour;

 

 

On the way from the cabana to the water, the rain was VERY cold. Once in the water it was like a hot tub with the bubbling from the rain hitting the smooth surface;

 

 

Steve hates getting his picture taken;

 

 

But given the fact we could barely see each other due to the downpour, I'm not sure he minded this day;

 

[PaulMedik]

Liz was just a bit upset over the rain;

 

 

 

This is not an Egyptian dance. This is Liz just after she said 'can you believe how hard it's raining?' Mother nature then opened up another valve and really poured it on;

 

 

Other than the rain, clouds, and water Steve and Liz were my only photo subjects once the real heavy rain hit. I don't know, but it sure looks like they enjoyed the rain;

 

 

It was still raining heavy, but blue skies were on the way in;

 

 

Did our ship leave without us;

 

 

I think they would have at least blown the horn a few times.

 

After a while the front of the ship was visible through the storm;

 

[PaulMedik]

 

 

 

Destiny freshly bathed by Mother Nature;

 

 

 

After the rains passed, we found sand dollars all over the bottom of the surf;

 

 

[PaulMedik]

Liz and the swim area floats;

 

 

The seas became like shimmering glass;

 

 

 

Destiny's water reflection was dancing all the way from her to where I was wading;

 

 

Our cabana;

 

 

Karen back among the living;

 

[PaulMedik]

 

After the rain we have a few passing black clouds;

 

 

 

We didn't leave too much of a mess;

 

 

The elves returned to clean up our cabana and retrieve the plates and coolers;

 

 

As we walked away, they walked in;

 

[PaulMedik]

As we made our way down the beach toward the tender area, we noticed that once again we were near the last ones off of Half Moon Cay;

 

 

Cabana Seven marks the halfway point;

 

 

Four tenders were loading with passengers and unloading at Destiny;

 

 

If they start to pull out, we knew we'd have a boat available to try and catch up to them;

 

 

Motorized mules help clean up the beach;

 

 

It was a great day. Yes we had some rain, but it was only for a little while and it made the day all the more memorable;

 

[PaulMedik]

If our boys had been with us, they'd have had to stop and wear this thing out a few more times;

 

 

To the left is the 'Private Oasis' of Half Moon Cay;

 

 

Our tender for the ride back;

 

 

 

The sun was back out and it was hot hot hot! Just like I like it;

 

 

Not too long before it was like this;