This was our second trip aboard the Carnival Destiny & I was just as satisfied the second time around as the first. The only big disappointment was our inability to port at Half Moon Cay. According to the captain, the winds were too high to safely tender from the ship to the island. Huge let down for the travelers, but I'm sure it was also horrible for the cruise line because since it is Carnival's private island, they lost a ton on excursions. That being said, everything went pretty smoothly.

Loved our stateroom! The biggest we've been in so far. We usually book interior rooms to save money, but were able to upgrade to ocean view when Carnival reduced its price online. Normally, we have the king bed with a bunk directly overhead for one of the kids, with another bed nearby for the 2nd. In this stateroom however, we had a separate space, and it was nice and roomy. We were on the Riviera deck, nice and close to the water. The only problem we had in our room was because it was an adjoining room, we had an issue with the door leading to the next room. Apparently there were some pretty heavy smokers in that room, and when we returned from dinner on our first night, a strong cigarette smoke odor had permeated our room. Our room steward was quick to assist, sealing the door with tape on both our side and the adjacent room's door. It wasn't pretty, but it did the job, and our room steward, her assistant, and her supervisor checked on us more than once to make sure that was an adequate resolution to our problem. As usual, the room stewards kept the stateroom in tip top shape daily.

They'd changed some of the things we'd gotten used to with entertainment. In our past trips, the comedy shows were always included in the big shows in the large theatre (Palladium Lounge on the Destiny) after dinner. On this cruise, they moved the comedy acts to the Criterion Lounge. I preferred this, because I'm not a big fan of the song & dance shows (same ole, same ole). No more free drinks on Captain's Night either, but they were discounted. We enjoyed our Past Guest Party---FREE DRINKS!! And casual, which I love. Read more