CARNIVAL DESTINY 09 to 14 August 2010 Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay and Nassau We booked this cruise for my wife and I and our youngest son who is home for summer break from his Masters degree. But after our oldest son had such a great time in February, he wanted to come along. So the four of us rebooked on the Destiny.

Day 1: Since we have never been to Miami, we decided to drive down on Saturday and spend Sunday sightseeing. We left the house at 7:00 am and arrived at our hotel around 6:00 pm. We decided to take the toll road and purchased a sun pass. We ordered it off the internet and it arrived about two weeks before we left. We enjoyed the drive down, was fantastic and the sun pass worked like a dream. The only drawback to the trip down was the intermittent rain. It rained so hard a couple times we had to put on our emergency flasher. All things to consider we will definitely take the toll road home and use it again in February when we will cruise out of Fort Lauderdale which just happens to be 30 miles up the road from here.

Hotel: After we were checked into the Hilton Downtown and headed to the 17th floor to get settled in. Our room has floor to ceiling windows and you can see the cruise ships as they dock. Wooohoooooo. We walked across the street for dinner and then returned to our room. Day 2: I woke up around 7:00 am and started writing this review. It is now 9:30 am and the rest of the family it starting to wake up and move around. When we woke up and look out are window we saw the Valor and a RCCL ship docked. After breakfast we found our way to the Dolphin Mall. Did some shopping and the went to Dave and Busters. If you have never heard of it don't feel bad neither did I or the wife. My oldest described it as a "Chuckie Cheese for adults, OK that helps. After we left the mall we headed to South Beach or SoBe as it is called here. After parking and walking around for a bit we ended up at the Hof Brau Haus where we hoisted a liter mug of great German beer and feasted on a Jaeger snitchel with krataufensaklad, It tasted like the dinners we would get while we lived in Germany. After we ate, we went shopping again. Then it was back to the car and back to the hotel. I forgot to mention that the hotel has a valet service to park the car and we loved it, no hassles. Just pull up, unload and give your keys to the attendant and head to the room Read more