We were ten people divided amongst 4 cabins: two triples and two doubles, all with balconies on the Upper Deck. One of the triples held an adult with two pre-teenagers; the rest of us are adults. We're all friends, and many of us have cruised together often over the years. One newbie to our group was on her first cruise, but most of us are seasoned cruisers. Four of us had been on the Destiny once before, on a cruise to Canada, when the ship was much newer. We flew from NY to San Juan, arrived early in the morning. We rented a van, drove to the ship, parked, dropped off our luggage, went through registration, and had lunch on board. Then we took the van out for some sightseeing, and got back to the ship in time for our late dinner. This set the tone for our whole trip: always on the go. We wanted it like that, but a word of warning -- if you get off the ship at each port and do anything more active than strolling around you will probably be exhausted by the end of the cruise. General impressions: yes, the ship is showing some signs of wear, but nothing was a deal breaker. A closet door didn't close properly; the safe didn't work; we noticed some rust around the balconies; the balcony lights didn't work. Anything we complained about, however, was dealt with promptly. The Carnival staff was consistently friendly and helpful; our cabin steward was great, and even though we only had two meals in the dining room, our waiter and his assistant remembered us and our preferences.

Now for some specifics: FOOD: In general, I thought the food was somewhat better than the usual Carnival fare. Had some excellent Chinese food, breakfast omelets were always good, the sandwiches in the deli also always good. The food at the buffets, so-so, but could usually find something. One dining room meal was inconsistent. My pork chop was hard and dry, but two others who ordered it got their's tender and moist. Go figure! The second dining room meal we had was much much better. Did a lot of room service too. The tuna on English muffin very very tasty. SHORE EXCURSIONS: We didn't book any. In every port we figured out what we wanted to do and never had any difficulty negotiating with a cab driver to get where we wanted to go (and get back again), for far less than what Carnival charges. And we were in our own little group, not loaded onto a bus with 50 other people. In St. Thomas we spent the day at Coki beach (we'd done the sightseeing thing on another cruise), with chairs, umbrellas, and floats. A couple of the people rented jetskis. Great day. In Dominica we got a guy to take us to Emerald Pool -- high up in the mountains -- a waterfall emptying into a basin you could get into. Along the way, our driver pointed out all points of interest. These excursions averaged about $20pp. In Barbados we got a driver to take us to The Boatyard, a great beach. It's not one of the beach tours offered by Carnival, so it wasn't at all crowded. It's about $3pp to cab it there. The admission is $15pp, which includes one cocktail, a beach chair, use of the on-water trampolines, and free shuttle back to the ship. So you don't have to arrange for a pick up by your driver. For $2 extra you get an umbrella, and one umbrella covers two chairs. This beach had a nice bar/cafe, rest rooms and gift shop. Very friendly staff. There are various water sports you can do for extra $$. Beautiful beach, great day. The beach peddlers, hawking everything from tours, jewelry to marijuana could be a little annoying, but they were polite and went away without too much coaxing. St. Lucia was just beautiful. Very similar to Dominica geographically, but a much better economy. Some of us went to a beach for some parasailing, and some of us did an island tour. Again, much less to arrange these outings than to pay the cruise line prices. Hurricane Dean kept us from Antigua, so I can't comment on that island.

CASINO: very large by cruise ship standards. I only play the slots so I can't comment on the table games. Lots of machines to choose from, with a large selection of 1c, 2c and 5c machines. ENTERTAINMENT: don't go to shows, but did catch some music in various places -- on Lido deck, in the Onyx Room (jazz), and even just outside the casino, and it was all good. SHOPS: I know some people complained about the size of the shops, but I've been on ships with far less. Didn't buy anything this trip, but in the past I've availed myself of the $10 specials Carnival always has. Lots of watches, costume jewelry, bags, scarves, ties, etc., so a good deal if you have a list of people to buy gifts for. ON BOARD ACTIVITIES: I don't do trivia, karaoke, hairy chest contests, bingo, etc., so can't comment from experience, but the people I saw participating in these activities seemed to be enjoying themselves. I only encountered the cruise director during the disembarkation talk, but he seemed to be very funny MISCELLANEOUS: We had the same experience others wrote about re: bringing liquor on board. We got some in the duty free shop in the terminal, put it in our tote bags and no problems. Some people got through carrying liquor in the duty free shop bag, but I did see some people stopped. The guy in the shop told me if they don't see the bottle there won't be a problem, and for me that was correct. I'm an early riser so I never encountered crowds for breakfast, but around 9:00 it did start to get difficult to find a seat. Most days for lunch we were off the ship, but on the sea day (in our case days, since we missed Antigua) Lido deck was always crowded during meal times. That's when room service came in handy. FINAL SUMMARY: We had a great time, did a lot, saw a lot, didn't let the little bumps in the road get us down.