Airport to Port: Our flight arrived at the Miami airport just after noon on a Thursday. I hadn't booked transfers with Carnival because I knew they were more expensive than a taxi and that it would take longer to get to the port. Just after we got our luggage we were approached by a Carnival transfer salesman who stated a bus would be leaving very shortly for the port and that a transfer would be only $16 (one way) and could be charged to our room. As we were presenting our stateroom number for payment purposes, we figured out that the salesman meant the bus ride was $16 per person. Should've known. I started to back out of the sale, but was told again that the bus would be leaving soon and I had previously calculated a taxi to cost around $25 - not too much of a difference in price, so we proceeded with the transfer. Bad idea. We ended up waiting at least 30 minutes for the bus to arrive. Once it was at the airport, we were herded up with fellow passengers then made our way to the dock. After forking out more money to tip the bus driver, we were happily at the port. I was surprised that Destiny was the only ship docked. Once off the bus we handed our luggage and a few more dollars to a porter who got our luggage onto the ship for us.

Embarkation: This was one of the longest embarkations that I've experienced though we only waited in line for approx. 30 minutes (we arrived at the port around 1:15). I thought our "Fun Pass" would allow us to board quickly but as it turns out, everyone else had a fun pass too. We waited in line then checked in via kiosk where we received our Sign 'n Sail cards then advanced to another line to have that awful "Welcome Aboard" photo taken. Several people around us were asking the photographer if they HAD to wait in line for the photo but the photographer did not respond - so many waited in line and once it was their turn to take pictures they simply walked right past the photographer. I imagine this gets frustrating for the photographers, but gosh, the photographers can be really irritating to people who just don't want their picture taken. Once past the photographer we waited in a line to get onto the ship where we immediately had our Sign 'n Sale identification photo taken then we proceeded to our room. I've read several reviews where people were asked if they had alcohol in their luggage - we were never asked this. I also didn't hear anything about smugglers getting caught with booze. We didn't smuggle so sorry that I can't provide more info. about this.

Cabin: We went to our cabin (6121) immediately after boarding the ship. I was surprised to have not met our cabin steward immediately. It wasn't until we were getting ready for our early seating dinner that we met our cabin steward who was very nice and almost always present in the hallway from our introduction on. I had read that others thought their cabin was dirty. I found a buildup of dust behind the tv and on the base of the table in our room but everything else seemed nice and clean. We had a flat screen tv in our room which, oddly enough, broadcast a Denver TV station throughout the trip. I also discovered "newer" movies on two of the Carnival channels. At one point I caught part of "My Sister's Keeper" and "Sherlock Holmes." Another perk were the free samples of aspirin, toothpaste, razors, etc. in our bathroom. The shower had a soap and shampoo dispenser and there was also a hairdryer in the bathroom which blew a little lightly, but got the job done just fine. I loved that our cabin had two robes in it. My husband and I used these a lot. We were also supplied with two beach towels in our cabin. After leaving the towels on the Lido deck once, the towels were not replenished in our room. I asked our cabin steward for more beach towels and he told me he didn't have any and that I could get them on deck 10. There were sodas and water in our room available at a charge but there was no fridge. We also had an ice bucket but I honestly never checked to see if it was filled by our c. steward or not. The room seemed similar to other staterooms I had been in - had a bed, couch, safe, spacious closets, and a queen bed. On our first morning on the ship, the fire alarm went off in our room and we had no idea why. We received a call asking if things were ok - my husband stated they were and that was the end of the call. Soon after a maintenance worker came to the room, saw that my hair was wet, and stated that the steam from the bathroom had made the alarm go off. He asked me to keep our cabin door open for a bit to clear out the room even though we saw no steam in it. A bit later our cabin steward asked if everything was ok, commented on how annoying the alarm was, then left. The alarm "beeeeeeeeeppped" for twenty minutes and this is by far an under exaggeration. I asked my husband to finally call to have the alarm turned off so he did and so it was. Read more