I sailed on the Carnival Destiny from 3/11/07 - 3/18/07 along with my girlfriend. We are both 25 and this was my second cruise and her first cruise. We did a lot of research prior to deciding on this particular cruise and mainly chose it for it's price and itinerary. We took a direct flight from New York to San Juan on the morning of the sailing date. When we arrived, we were pleased to find that Carnival had very clearly marked where we were to meet for the prepaid transportation to the port. We were escorted by a Carnival representative to the bus where we sat for about 30 minutes while we waited for passengers from other flights to arrive. Once the bus was full, we headed to the port. The driver was informative (and loud) and told us whatever he could about the areas we passed on our 30 minute trip to the port. Once we were at the port we preceded into the terminal where we checked in and proceeded to security. It should be noted that we dropped off our larger luggage at a separate truck at the airport. Waiting on line to go through security there were free drink samples, which were certainly welcomed. The owner of the liquor store right there said he guaranteed that any liquor purchased would make it on board and we were a bit skeptical, but purchased a bottle anyway and placed it in our carry-on. It worked!! Apparently, the people doing security going onto the ship are independent and do not work for Carnival. Therefore, they could care less if you "sneak" liquor on board. This does not work once you are in port by the way.
Once on board, our room was not ready since we were so early so we went to the buffet for lunch which was very good. After lunch our room was ready and we dropped our bags off. Unfortunately, our AC was not working and I tried to find our stateroom steward to inquire. I managed to find him later on in the day and he informed me that due to environmental restrictions, the AC could not be going at full power in port. They did manage to fix the problem and called to make sure that everything was working properly later in the day.
The room itself was a decent size with three drawers and one closet, although there was not much room to maneuver around the bed. The bathroom was large, plenty of room for two people. The water temperature in the shower was tied to some of the other cabins, and the water would get periodically scalding hot or cold during a shower. Another thing to mention about the room, (if you're on the Lido deck) the crew stacks the lounge chairs each evening. Each morning around 7, they slam them down waking up anyone in the rooms directly below them. Again, this would only have an effect on those with rooms under or near the Lido deck. We were woken up every morning.