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Destiny Review 11/05/06 Sailing

LuViNiTCuZiCaN

By LuViNiTCuZiCaN,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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LuViNiTCuZiCaN

LuViNiTCuZiCaN

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Well here is my review, straight honest and to the point. If any one has questions please feel free to ask me. I will try and post each day as seperate post.

Day 1 - 11/4/06 Saturday- Air travel day arrive in San Juan

Our plane left Sea-Tac at 6:00 am on Amercian Airlines. No issues for us as far as TSA our luggage or lines. We watched a AA documentary 4 days before we left for our trip which gave us a wonderful insight on their processes and procedures, especially on luggage. When you are flying into to DFW, which we did, always have at least a 1 hour time frame for connecting flights or your luggage will not arrive with you, (DFW's AA bag routing system is extreme long).

We left DFW on time and arrived in SJU 15 minutes early. We did have an issue when we went to get our bags. If you are a smoker, which we are, do not leave out of the airport until you have your bags. Once you leave you cannot just re enter you must go through the security check point again! We did and had to get a pass at the AA customer service counter to go and get our bags.

We got a porter to take our bags to the curb and we cought a taxi to Old San Juan, the Sheraton. There were 6 of us, 3 couples. We paid 10 dollars each, not including tip. We arrived at the Sheraton at about 9:30 pm. We all checked in and went to out rooms. My husband and I freshend up and went to our friends room. We had just left their room, went to the elevator, hit the button for the lobby, and BOOM, the power went out! My DH pried the door open and we headed back to our friends room. We waited a few minutes thinking that the generator would kick on, about 15 minutes later it did and auxillary power kicked on, then 5 minutes later, that went out.

We waited about an hour and could see that everywhere around us was out of power. So we went down to the bar, had a drink to see if the power would come back on and it did not, anywhere, so we caught a taxi and headed out of that area to a Restaurant called Waikiki . This area was about a 10 minute drive from the Sheraton and they had power. We had a great dinner lts of dinks and then headed back to our hotel. The power was back on by then 12:30 ish. We all hit the hay.

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habby

habby

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Yes, please continue your review in the same thread. As I've sailed on the Destiny in the past (and enjoyed every one of our three cruises), I enjoy hearing about others' experiences.

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LuViNiTCuZiCaN

LuViNiTCuZiCaN

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We got up around 10 ish and got ready, ordered room service, had some coffee, got ready and headed down to the casino about 11:30 am ish. We gave the porter our bags to hold till we were ready to head to the ship, we tipped him 2 bucks a bag. We played in the casino and DH won $1400.00, yah, great start for us.

About 1ish we all headed up to the fort which is about 3 blocks behind the Sheraton. We paid $ 3.00 each to enter the Fort. We took some great pics, it was beautiful.

We headed back to the hotel around 2 ish and stopped at a little café/bar across the side street from the Sheraton. We all ate lunch had some local food, good, then we headed back to the Sheraton to get our bags. We were debating on whether or not to catch a cab or walk our luggage down to the pier. The porter at the Sheraton was nice enough to get a big luggage carrier, put our luggage on it and then he carted all our luggage across the street and down a ways for us. That was very nice of him and it saved us a cab fare and ride. We then strapped all six pieces of luggage and carry ons together and rolled then down the street. I know we looked totally stupid but who cares, we needed the exercise!

When we got to the entrance they asked for our carnival docs and passports which we furnished. This area was very congested as their are 2 ships entrances here and it is a very small entrance, also the taxis and porters all around, very jumbled.

We entered the long walkway to the entrance where we drop our bags to be x-rayed. We then proceeded up the escalator to the area where you get in line for the Carnival reps. At the bottom of the escalator you can get your liquor or you can get it after the line at the top of the escalator. The duty free at the top has a much larger selection. We got our embark photo taken and then got in line. We were in line about 15 minutes before we saw a rep. It was very smooth. We produced our docs and credit card and passports and then headed to the duty free area.

If you are buying any duty free items, you must do so now, you cannot access duty free after you get off your cruise at this terminal area, they bypass you. You can however access and purchase at the airport when you leave. We purchased 2 liters of liquor and cigarettes. We placed these in our carry-on. We then headed to the line for x-ray screening. We passed through that 5 minutes max. Then we all headed up the ramp to get on the ship.

This whole process was no longer than 30 minutes.

We got on and headed right up to 7 Empress to our rooms. Our rooms were the aft rooms, 7322, 24 and 26. Our room was the 9A, 7322. It was a quiet area in the aft and the balcony was to die for. We had a wonderful wonderful room and balcony. Our room was decorated by the casino, and we had champaign water bottles, some key chains, bar credits, and photo credits from them it was a very nice gesture.

I will continue this day on next post

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LuViNiTCuZiCaN

LuViNiTCuZiCaN

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We all checked out our rooms and balconies and unpacked. We were scheduled for dinner at 5:45 but we missed that so we headed to the buffet. We ate the buffet which was OK. It was just as I remembered it from the last cruise we were on, no different. Some people whine and bitch and complain about the buffet food, it's a buffet and it's not Vegas so it's only going to be what it is. We finished up our dinner and I headed to the bar that is right there at the pool and got a drink.

 

The drinks were good and strong there, I had a Vodka Cranberry, mmm good. My friends had the drink special, I forgot what it was, but it was peach and it was good, so right on!

 

We headed back to the room to freshen up some more. We saw our room Steward and asked for ashtrays and introduced ourselves. I forgot his name, he was nice and promptly contacted us if we paged him, but we did not have the same contact with him as we did on our last cruise. I do believe his cabin load was more than what the norm would be.

 

At 10:30 we headed to the casino to drink, gamble and introduce ourselves the the staff we had contact with prior to our cruise. We had a line of credit waiting for us at the cage and we also got a casino comp of 200 and 50 for our previously play. We met the Casino Manager and Casino Host, both are wonderful people and the host Denver took such good care of us, he made our cruise amazing. While we were in the casino we did not pay for 1 drink, it was nice to have that ability, we appreciated it.

 

We gambled, got drunk and had a great night, hubby won $800.00, so hey right on! We went to bed about 2:30.

 

 

OVERALL- Condition of ship, great, hello it's 10 years old! Food, good for what it was, buffet, drinks, hello, awesome, staff, no issues here, anyone I spoke to was nice on this day. Other cruisers, no issues, no rudeness.

 

Good start were my thoughts! More tomorrow, St Thomas.

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LuViNiTCuZiCaN

LuViNiTCuZiCaN

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We had a wonderful view of St Thomas when we arrived in the AM. The weather on our whole cruise was perfect. Our room was port side and over all on this trip we had mostly the best views while in port. We were aft though and our friends were directly aft so the view was great!

We got up around 7:00 am, had our usual coffee and danishes promptly at our door. Which by the way, it was there every morning on time, never a problem. We always fill out the continental slip and place it on our door knob before bed.

We all got ready and headed off the ship about 8:30. We had an excursion booked privately with Ike Witch Charters. We headed to Red Hook Harbor, we caught a taxi for $10.00 per person. Note: if you do not want to wait for the driver to fill the van or large truck taxi, go to a taxi that will only accommodate your party and no more than that, or you will wait for them to find other riders.

We met Pat the captain at the flag pole at 9:15. He is a great down to earth guy. If you do not like down to earth REAL people, book another charter. We loved him and his outspokenness and jokes, he was great.

He tendered us out to the sail boat, ladies first then the guys. he joked that he was gonna take us and leave the guys....it was funny.

We headed out and it was breathtaking. Pat took us out to Honeymoon Bay, we saw St John and Tortola, it was great. We went there because of the winds and the surf was high. We snorkeled there and Dh and my friend both stepped on sea erchants. There feet hurt so bad for about an hour. There was a notice at the medical clinic on the ship about them, I"ll talk about that later.

We snorkeled for a while some more then Pat made us lunch, chicken Caesar salad breads, danishes and some home made brownies and these peanut butter sexy bars, they were amazing! We also had awesome rum punch that rocked too!

We headed back about 2 ish and got back to the Red Hook at around 3:15. We had our taxi driver meet us there at 3:15 and he was on time. We headed back to the ship, we got stuck in traffic, and got back to the dock at 4:15. It is usually a 20 minute drive. The ship was sailing at 5 and we had to be back on the ship at 4:30. There is shopping right there so we mega shopped, which was easy because I have a PHD, black belt and full certification in shopping. So I got all items in 15 minutes and we were in the line to get on the ship at 4:30.

We ran up to our rooms and got ready for formal night, we left to get pics at about 5:40, we got enough pics, but barely enough time. We got to our dinning room at 6:15. Our scheduled time is 5:45 but you have a 30 minute grace period.

Our dinner was good, but some of the entrées were not at the standards that we had experience on our other cruises. Our bar waitress and wait staff were obviously spread to thin. We later asked what their table areas were and I was shocked. This was an issue for us as we all love to drink, but ooh well, no need to flip out or stress, every other night we dined we new what to expect so we either came with drinks our stopped on the way down to have some.

After dinner we headed back to the room to change and then headed to the casino again. We drank and were merry all night, it was great! Once again, every drink was comped, it was great.

The disco was definitely mostly Reg-atone, except this night it was Hip Hop. On our last cruise we went to the disco and requested some old school, (atomic Dog, Brick-house, you now the usual) and it was us, our friends and 3 other couples our age that danced. It was funny, I know all the young-ins were just waiting for us to get out of there, ;) . I know that people have complained about this on this cruise but if you go to any clubs at all than you know they mostly play what is in and is current, duh Hip Hop and Reg-atone! I know if I want to dance to specific rock music or disco or 70's stuff than I need to go to very specific local bars or to a themed club. I do not or will not expect to listen to "my stuff" on a cruise, unless I request it. When there is 1 club on a ship it's going to play music that is CURRENTLY IN BY THE YOUNG EARLY 20'S CROWD! So that being said, we only went to the club briefly throughout this cruise.

Our friends went to a comedy show this night and said it was funnier than.........well you know, (it was R rated). They really like the comedian.

DH headed to bed at 1 and I headed to bed at 2:30.

Overall - St Thomas, beautiful, sailing with Pat from Ike Witt, amazing, shopping, great got everything I wanted and needed, other passengers, no issues, staff, stressed at dinner and spread to thin, ooh well I now knew what to expect. We did not attend one presentation or talk about the ports, we always watched them on the TV, we just personally prefer it this way. We always read our capers thoroughly at night right before we go to bed.

Tomorrow...Dominica.......or so you think...........................:eek:

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LuViNiTCuZiCaN

LuViNiTCuZiCaN

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I need to make a correction, our first formal night was today...Dominica...but I said it was St. Thomas. It was pretty much the same thing, just drop the words Formal Night and insert dinner and their we go.

We woke up at about 8:00 am and started to get ready for the day and once again our coffee and danishes showed up right on schedule. We were all out on our desk ready to go for the day and started talking about how we were still at see and should already be at port, when over the loud speaker someone came on sand said that we had a "medical emergency" the night before and had to return to St Thomas to debark a sick passenger...so were going to miss Dominica:( !

 

We were all so sad, but we know if it were one of us we would want the Captain to make the same decision, so Ooh well, what could we do? They gave everyone a 25 on-board credit for our port charges. This is customary.

 

So in light of this we thought, ooh we'll go have breakfast in the sit down restaurant. We headed up there and had just missed the last seating:( . Things today were just not going our way.

 

We called the spa and got some appointments for a 3 for one price, so we got a couples message scalp message and eye treatments. The price was 99 dollars. We got our butts our of our room after sulking some more and headed to where............THE CASINO!

 

We had just got to the casino and I went over to the dollar area. DH went over to the video slots and started playing. I sat down at a multi denominational machine. It played $1-$2 and $5, per 2 credit spin. It was the triple double star machine in the bank where the wheel of fortunes are, it was the second machine in.

 

Now you are probably wondering why this is so important? Well let me tell you why, here it goes:

 

I sat down and put a $100 bill in the machine. A woman and her two cruise mates were also in the same area playing the slots. She had just left that machine and started playing the double popper machine right behind me. I thought "I'm going to play $5 once and see what if?" Well I did and nothing...so that left me with 18 credits so I was about to change it to dollars, but I thought "well I'll hit it one more time." I guess it was meant to be because BING BANG BOOM! On the line, double star, triple star, triple star! I had just won! I turned around and the ladies were all happy, you just won! It was the second down jackpot. I had just won 3000! Well I told that to one of the ladies and she promptly informed me that it does not say $$$ it says credits, and low and behold I was playing $5 a spin......which meant $15,000.00!!!

 

I sent one of the ladies to go get my hubby. I was shocked! It was great, let me tell you. It took them about an hour to pay me, which was in cash so that was cool. We headed to the Pursers desk and got a safe deposit box and stashed our cash! DH started referring to the 3 ladies throughout our cruise, which we kept seeing everywhere, as my cheering squad. Before we left the casino I gave each one of them a $100.00, they were so grateful. I was more than happy to make them happy.;)

 

We headed to find our friends and tell them about the 15K. Then after that we headed to our Spa appointments. After our spa stuff we headed to formal Night, which was exactly how I said on the the St Thomas day post, (oops).

 

After dinner we changed and headed back to the casino and got LOADED! We had a great night. I will be honest, most of my cruise review after this point will be pretty much awesome because if you win 15k on a cruise it really takes allot to make your cruise crap, let me tell you.

 

Well off to bed at 4 in the morning and drunk as skunks. I think we acted like the people that everyone talks about on their carnival cruise that are loud stupid and drunk.

 

Day break down:

 

We missed Dominica...that sucked, I won $15K, that didn't suck! Basically the day rocked. No issues at all that I can remember. Just keep in mind that could be because I was on cloud 9.

 

More tomorrow...Barbados hung over and turtles.....:cool:

 

Lucky Luv!;)

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pholter

pholter

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I'm lovin' your review and your lucky day in the Casino!! Can't wait to hear about Barbados and Aruba, so please keep it up :)

 

Sorry about Dominica, as it was one of my favorite ports, but now you have $15K to book another cruise!!

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Catrin

Catrin

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OH WOW!!

 

Your cruise is what my cruise dreams are made of......

 

Corner Aft Cabin

PHD in Shopping

FOO FOO Drinks

and.. did you say $15000!! That is terrific!

 

Can I ask about your terrific relationship with the Casino and Staff? It seems that they knew ahead of time that you would be great Casino customers - having drinks comped on a cruise is normally unheard of... can you explain?

 

THanks for sharing.. and looking forward to the next installment!

Catrin

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LuViNiTCuZiCaN

LuViNiTCuZiCaN

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OH WOW!!

 

Your cruise is what my cruise dreams are made of......

 

Corner Aft Cabin

PHD in Shopping

FOO FOO Drinks

and.. did you say $15000!! That is terrific!

 

Can I ask about your terrific relationship with the Casino and Staff? It seems that they knew ahead of time that you would be great Casino customers - having drinks comped on a cruise is normally unheard of... can you explain?

 

THanks for sharing.. and looking forward to the next installment!

Catrin

 

We were in contact with them before we left for the line of credit that we set-up.. I think the line of credit, the e-mailing, and the VIP status is why we never paid for a drink.

Lucky Luv;)

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Rural11

Rural11

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Hi there Luv! Got a question for you. Got any pictures of the cabin you can share? We just booked the same cabin for one year after you were there. We have the Nov. 4, 2007 cruise. We are hoping that the luck you had there will return for an annual visit!

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