We sailed the Carnival Destiny on June 17, 2007. We are a family of four with two parents in the 40's and a 15 and 18 year old daughter. We flew into San Juan a few days before the trip and stayed in the San Juan Marriott in downtown San Juan. We booked the motel on Priceline for $125 a night and it was worth every penny. The motel was beautiful and we even won a bit of money in the casino. We did rent a car from Avis and do not recommend that you rent a car in San Juan. First of all our first car had a flat tire and the second car was on its last leg while driving through the rain forest on the second day. We did return the car and Avis even drove us back to our motel. The traffic in San Juan is terrible, so we would not rent a car again. The area around our motel had restaurants and stores so we didn't really need a car. We got to the Destiny about 2:00 and only waited in line for about 35-40 minutes to check in. From other reviews we had read, we expected a longer line and were thrilled that the line was not bad. We did by alcohol at the duty free shop and had no problems taking it on the ship. We also bought soda and took it on without a problem I was not really sure of what to expect when we got on the ship. I am glad that we did not pay attention to some of the other reviews. The ship is older- and if you look closely- you can see signs of wear. But overall, the ship is well maintained and clean. We had no problems with the maintenance of the ship. It is a really nice ship. We went into Old San Juan to find that most of the shops were closed for Father's Day. It appears that Father's Day is a large event in San Juan. We got back on the ship and found our luggage was delivered. We got ready for an early dinner. The food on the ship was very average. We really could not say that we had any meals that were amazing, although most meals were good. We were very disappointed in our wait staff. Our headwaiter, Jesus, was nice and polite. He just could not get his timing together to get our meals to us in a timely manner. At some meals some of us would just be getting our appetizers while others had their entree. We had some meals where we did not even get what we ordered. This is not typical of other ships that we have sailed. The buffet was typical of other ships. We enjoyed the pizza, burgers, and hot dogs. We saved a ton of money by bringing our own liquor. Our first port was St. Thomas. Since we had been here before, we decided to go to the beach for the day. We took a taxi to Coki beach for the day. We got there around 11:00 and the beach was almost empty. We did some snorkeling (bring your own gear, it is worth the money) and the water was beautiful. Later in the day the beach started to get very busy. We left around 2:00 to have lunch on the boat and then took a taxi to downtown for shopping. We did end up spending around $100 dollars on taxi service for the day, but the beach was free with cheap beer. (Overall a pretty inexpensive day for 4 people.) My daughters did find some good knock-off purses that they enjoyed, otherwise the shopping is pretty typical of what you would find on any island. Our next stop was Dominica. We took a tour with Reyno tours. This was a great part of our trip. The tour guide (Matilda) was very informative and answered all of our questions. We visited both off the falls and Mr. Nice’s fruit stand. The fruit stand was so much fun. Mr. Nice is really nice and gave us every type of fruit to sample at no charge. We did leave him a tip. For $40 per person, this trip was worth every penny. There is a lot of walking to get to the falls. The walking is strenuous. We did buy beer at the port and took it on the ship. As long as you just take a six-pack you can get it on. This was new to us! In Barbados we took a taxi for $5 pp and went to the boat dock. We each paid a $15 entrance fee, which covered our chairs, umbrella, and one complimentary drink. The water was clear and beautiful with a water trampoline and a rope to jump into the water. The admission also covered our transportation back to the ship. We really enjoyed this relaxed day. In St. Lucia we booked our tour with Cosol tours. They supplied a tour with drinks (beer, rum punch, soda, water) and admission to all stops. I think it was $45 pp and we booked in advance on the Internet. This was a good informative tour and Cosol wanted to make sure that you had a good time. Our driver, Baptist, was very nice and informative. The roads are curvy, if you are prone to carsickness you might want to avoid this trip. We enjoyed the tour, but felt that some of the stops were made to promote the selling of items from the locals. There just didn’t really seem to be a point to some of the stops, but overall it was a good tour. Our final stop was Antigua. We had booked a day at an all-inclusive resort (Pineapple Beach Resort) for $50 pp. The fee included all drinks, food, and use of the resort’s amenities. The cost to get there was $9 pp and also cost that price to get back. We really enjoyed this resort. The beach was beautiful. Drinks and food were good. We were glad to use the pools to get out of salt water for a while. We highly recommend this resort. Overall this was a very good trip. The service on the boat leaves a bit to be desired, but you spend very little time on the ship. The shows were good, but we saw some repetition from other ships. Disembarkation was a little cumbersome. We were in the first group and finally got off the ship at about 10:00. The hold up was due to customs taking longer than usual, so this was not really Carnival’s fault. The San Juan airport is a crazy mess on Sunday mornings. We waited 2 hours just to check our luggage and get boarding passes. I recommend flying later in the day. We bought raffle tickets on the ship to win a new cruise-- and actually won!!! What a hoot! We will be traveling again for free. We really enjoy Carnival and will sail with them again.