I just got back 30 minutes ago from sailing the Carnival Destiny. Here's my saga.

We left May 12, 2007 from San Juan. We are members of the Carnival Vacation Club so embarkation was easy. I, too, bought a bottle and put it in the carry on. No problem. In fact, the liquor store is about 100 ft from Carnival Security. We were told, if they take your bottle, we'll buy it back. I was told that Sunday is the only day when rules are 'relaxed'.

The boat was scheduled to go to St. Thomas, St. Lucia, Dominica, Antigua and Barbados. I have to start with the highlight of my trip. We went on COSOL tours in St. Lucia that was recommended on this site. This guy has it together. No where else could we get a 6 hour tour for $45.00. Apparently he started the business at the suggestion of one of the tourists. He has six vans and sometimes more. He had 39 people -- sometimes as many as 139. He does no halking. It's all from this site. I will tell you, his company is every bit as good as the other member's stories. We went to the Pineapple resort in Antigua. It is 22 miles from the port. We had a great day. Beautiful beach and great pool, and food and drink. In St. Thomas we went to Megan's beach. Beautiful. In Dominica, we booked a river tubing tour with Carnival. It was fun although it was pricey. We did it at the recommendation of other members on this site. I can tell you that taxi tours ARE available at about $20-$25 PP. There isn't too much to see. There are some falls. There are no beaches there. There is some little shops at the port. Read more