My wife of 24 hours and I were setting off on our long anticipated honeymoon upon the newly refurbished, top of the line Carnival Destiny. We made it through the embarkation process, both of us without passports, with marriage license in hand, as I am under 21, with no problems. The line was eternal, but, moved surprisingly quick. Our first impressions of the ship were through the windows of the terminal-many bolts and other metal "parts" had left long dark rust streaks down the sides of the otherwise white ship. So, naturally, my first thought was "great, we got the old janky ship..." We were proven very wrong once we crossed the gangway into the lobby. Quite impressive, if I do say so myself. The ship is very Vegas-esque, with many uses of "rope light" and bright florescent neons. Flashy-not so much elegant-but very nice, nonetheless. We headed to find our room Verandah Deck-8319. We found the hallway of "odd numbered cabins" and started towards our cabin. That was when we smelled it. Poop. Not just a whiff, as if coming from a stateroom-it was potent. We dismissed it, and made it to our room, which was lovely, granted I would never in my life put those colors in my house. We proceeded to check out the ship. All public areas were clean and well kept, the staff in all our encounters were nice, except for a couple bartenders who clearly wanted to be back home in the Philippines rather than working behind the bar... can you blame 'em? The Lido Deck Sun and Sea Restaurant was very clean, well kept, the food was good, though rather unusual most times. Let me just say I was thankful for the 24 hour pizza and the burger buffet on the deck. As time approached, we headed down to the lifeboat drill. There it was again. Poop. We were told that because we were in port backed up behind other ships, the odors from the sewage systems was wafting onto the Atlantic Deck where the lifeboat drill was held. So, fine. The smell will go away. Grin and bear it. We went about our merry way, found our way to dinner, met our lovely table partners, and got acquainted with our PHENOMENAL wait staff in the Galaxy Dining Room-really, they were outstanding, best service I ever had. We returned to our room, which was a balcony stateroom, and intended to enjoy the warm ocean breezes from our deck. We opened the door and were greeted once again by the theme of the evening-poop. We were now at sea, and there were clearly no other ships to be giving us their sewer odors. Clearly, the problem lay within the bowels of the Destiny, herself. As the days went on, the smell came and went, particularly around our elevators, which, being near the Lido deck kitchen tended to smell like seafood, onions, and, of course, poop. The seas were very rough on this particular voyage, however my wife and I were not affected by it. As the trip ended, we overheard someone else talking about the "sewage leak" the ship had. There you have it. The ship had been in port for two days since its last voyage, why wasn't this fixed? Clearly you could smell it every time the wind blew just right. So, in short here's how I would put it:

Good: Food Galaxy Dining Room Staff-amazing Stateroom cleanliness Love and Marriage Show-GO, its totally worth it. Its at 2pm in the Palladium Lounge during your "Fun" Day At Sea Purser's Information desk was very helpful Super selection for Shore Excursions Karaoke with Karao-Kay in the Downbeat Lounge was fantastic

Not so good: Smell Roughness of Ocean (as if Carnival could help this) Poor selection for roomservice Rooms aren't very sound proof-noises from hallway could be heard as if the cabin door was open. I am not racist or against immigration, but I had a really hard time understanding many of the staff on board the ship. They were all from other countries and many of the kitchen staff and bussers for the buffet areas and bar staff spoke little to no English whatsoever, which proved to be slightly frustrating. A lot of the comedy shows and other shows had room for improvement.