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We just got off the Destiny this morning. We are a couple in our early 50's that have cruised approximately 40 times in the last 10 years. The Destiny was our 6th this year. We booked this last minute to celebrate my wife's birthday. It turned out to be a Halloween cruise and Fantasy Fest in Key West. Most of our cruises have been on Royal, NCL, Celebrity, and Princess. A friend at the gym convinced us to give Carnival another try after many years, so we booked the Inspiration for 10/1/09 and the Destiny for 10/29/09.
We found the Universe Dining Room quite good, great Maitre'De and a good leader. His staff has alot of fun in the Dining Room and are great entertainers. Food in the dining room was good and above average for many of the dishes. The Halloween Party was great for the children and adults. The Cruise Staff did a great job with the children for trick or treat and had some nice decorations along the Promenade. The adult Halloween Party on deck was fun and many of the guests had great costumes. The Information Desk Staff and Photo Staff were very friendly and helpful. The Cruise Director Brent and his staff were good and they had the normal activities you come to expect.
Now for the areas of improvement. We found the ship was looking a little worn, the carpet in the stairwells needs to be replaced. The hallways and cabin areas are fine, but stairwells are really worn. Many of the tiles around the pool areas could be re-grouted and brought up to the usual cruise line standards. For example, the Inspiration was also built in 1996, refurbed in 2007, and felt like it was in much better shape than the Destiny. Most disappointing to us was the staff effectiveness in cleaning the Sun and Sea Buffet Area on the Lido Deck. They were slow to clean tables and we found many tables with crumbs and felt they were lax in cleaning them. Our belief is that they need a bit more supervision and motivation. Food in the buffet was standard for Carnival, and more limited than other cruise lines for selection and quality. Lines were long and slow due to the old linear design of the lines as opposed to separate bar areas where guests can navigate around vs. lining up and moving slowly through a line. Entertainment was below average for singers and dancers, pool band, etc. The Show Band was good, and so was Brad in the Piano Bar. Probably most disturbing to us was Staff response to a woman falling in the Sun and Sea area and their response to her bleeding arm and inability to get up. The bar staff acted liked they did not care, the guy cleaning the floors called Housekeeping, and the guests were the ones to get napkins, ice, and go to medical to get help. All told it took almost 20 minutes before Medical Staff came to assist her, and the bleeding stopped, and move her to the Infirmary. After that I looked around for Defibrillators, and prayed nobody had a heart attack.
All in all we had fun and will do the Destiny again, as we are booked for 1/7/10. However, we hope Carnival improves their performance in the Sun and Sea for cleaning, and the Crew response to guest injuries.
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