A girlfriend and I (we're both 37) did the 4-day Western Caribbean cruise last week out of Miami. We flew to Miami on the preceding Wednesday and stayed one night in South Beach (Park Central Hotel...I recommend it!)We boarded the ship at about 2:00 p.m. on Thursday afternoon and I was surprised how fast and smooth the embarkation process was.

I've only been on one cruise before and that was on the Caribbean Princess a year ago. I can safely say that Carnival Destiny is no Caribbean Princess. The crowds that afternoon up on the Lido deck were crazy and there was not enough room for everyone to line up. The buffet selection was nowhere as extensive as on Princess and the salad bar was pathetic (iceberg lettuce, old cucumber slices, radish, tomatoes, grated carrots, kidney beans...and not much else). So right off the bat, I was disappointed. I should say though that our balcony stateroom on the Empress deck was very clean and nice. No complaints there.

We were happier with the food in the dining room although the service was not outstanding. It seemed to be very hard to get a glass of wine. For some reason, the regular waiter cannot perform this service; there is a special bar person, but she was always impossible to locate. Almost each night, I didn't get my glass of wine until at least halfway through my entree. The meals were quite good, although one day at lunch in the dining room, I was less than impressed with my salad. The menu said "mixed field greens" and I got 2 hunks of iceberg lettuce with a piece of tomato and a radish. Not a big deal, but not exactly fine dining. The ship seemed in decent condition. One thing I didn't like was a distinct garbage odor (sometimes combined with the smell of a dirty ashtray) in some of the elevator areas. Yuck. I had read about this in previous reviews, and it was true. Luckily, I did not smell the sewage odor that some other reviewers had smelled. Read more