Carnival Destiny Review

3.5 / 5.0
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Destiny family cruise

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Destiny
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DBCH911
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Aug 2009
Cabin: Balcony
Traveled with children

This was the first cruise for my nieces and nephew. I cruised on the Destiny in 1999 on my honeymoon. We chose this cruise based on the price. We drove from Daytona Beach to Miami on the day before the cruise. We had booked a junior suite at the Hilton Downtown Miami. The hotel was easy to fond and beautiful. Parking at the hotel cost $28.00 for the night. The room was large and comfortable and food options were plenty. We spent the afternoon in the hotel pool and ordered in pizza for dinner. On our sailing day, we had opted to park on offsite parking ran by CBM. I dropped my Mom and 3 of the kids off at the port while I went and dropped off the car. It cost $52.00 to park the car there for 5 days. The shiuttle dropped myself and my nice off at the port. While we were gone, my Mom had all of our luggage tagged and sent onto the ship. Embarkation was quick and we were on board by noon. We went to the Lido deck and had lunch at the buffet. What a zoo! It was so crowded. People were pushing and shoving each other and the lines were very long. We finally got our food and sat down. The food was very good. It was served hot and was very tasty. The drink choices were very limited. They unsweet iced tea, coffee, and lemonade. There were no juices available at lunch. We were able to go into our rooms at about 1pm. We had booked category 8A balcony cabins. I was in cabin # 6163 with my nieces and my Mom was in cabin # 6171 with my son and nephew. The cabins were a good size and clean. We briefly met our room steward, Noel. That was pretty much the only time we saw him during the cruise. He kept our cabin clean and provided ice but there was no other interaction with him. The beds were very comfortable and the in room movies were good. The only problem that I had with the room was the balcony. My niece and I were out watching the dolphins one morning and we got stuck out on the balcony. The whole door handle had come off when the door shut. We had been out there for about an hour with no one else in sight when my other niece came back into the cabin and went to get maintenance to let us in. The door was immediately fixed. We ate all of our breakfasts and lunches at the buffet. It remained crowded and chaotic during the whole cruise. The food was good and there were always several choices. We had pizza one afternoon and it was very good. The food at the grill was good also but you had to wait quite a while there to get served. We did not eat at the sushi bar. All our dinners were in the dining room. We found everything to be very good there. The kids at the table loved the shrimp cocktails and the lobster. I don't eat seafood but enjoye dthe prime rib, grilled chicken and steak. The desserts were yummy, especially the warm chocolate melting cake. :-) We did the Conch Trolley in Key West and had a good time getting off an on during the day at whatever stops that we were interested in seeing. The shopping was fun and we got ome great pictures. In Cozumel, we spent the day at Mr Sancho's beach. The taxi ride one way cost $13.00. The day was a lot of fun. We had a covered table and use of the beach chairs and swings. We had some drinks and relaxed. It was very enjoyable. No one bothered us on the beach at all and everthing was very clean. They had a small shopping area out front and also took a photo of your whole party that you could purchase if you wanted to. We went back to the ship, showered, and ate dinner then went back into the city to shop. I got some fantastic jewelry deals and the kids had a great time. Our sea day was spent by the pool then some casino time. The casino was small and very crowded. I play roulette and found it hard to get a spot at the tables most of the time. We had some family pictures taken and went to the show. I found the musical shows so-so. Some of the singing was off and the costumes left a lot to be desired. The females were always in thongs. I was not offended by this but we did have kids with us and thought it was unnecessary. Debarkation went smoothly. We chose to carry off our own luggage and we were off the ship and through customs in less than 10 minutes. Overall, we had a good time on the cruise. I wish that the staff had been more friendly and personable but I also understood that the ship was full. I would sail with Carnival again but probably on a larger and newer ship.

Cabin Review

Balcony

Cabin 8A

Our cabins were in a great location, plenty of storage room, pretty quiet, and roomy. They were kept clean and were located close to the main elevators.

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