After flying out of St. Louis early Saturday morning we finally arrived at the Port of Miami about 2 that afternoon. Even though we were late getting to the ship the good news was our stateroom was ready and we were able to unload our carry-on bags. Anxious to explore we headed to the upper decks to check out the views. Our next stop was the buffet line at the Sun & Sea restaurant, where we choose from a variety of meats and vegetables and a huge selection of desserts. Next up was the muster drill which had to be done before we set sail. We easily found our way back to the cabin, which was the last time we easily found any place on the ship, picked up the life vests and went to our muster station. The drill took maybe 30 minutes, while a little crowded, over all it wasn’t that bad. When we returned the life vests to the cabin our luggage had been delivered. This surprised us since we had read so many times that it would be very late before the bags arrived. Not even thinking about the time, we finished our unpacking and almost missed the sail away. As we watched Miami disappear in the distance we were thrilled that our long awaited cruise was finally under way.
The Destiny consist of 12 decks, 0 thru 11, with the top two being partial decks. The layout of the ship didn’t allow passage all the way from the front to the back of the ship on some decks and this kept us quit confused. We spent a lot of time going up and down and across to find the area we were looking for. The ship was built in 1996 and carries a little over 2600 passengers plus another 1050 crew members and has 1321 guest cabins. For cost reasons we choose an inside stateroom for the three of us. We had 2 twin size beds and an upper twin bunk, which came down out of the ceiling. There were 2 wardrobes, a closet with shelves and 3 drawers that provided plenty of room for all our clothes. There wasn’t much space on the vanity, the ice bucket and tray took up a lot of the area and the rest was just a narrow shelf . Along this shelf was located the only electrical outlet in the room, so the power stripe we brought was very useful. We had seen and heard a lot about the Carnival Comfort bedding and I have to say the ads were all true. Even the upper bunk was super comfortable. The bathroom was pretty small but had a good sized shower. In fact I think I would be safe to say that the floor space in the shower was larger than the rest of the bathroom floor. The shower had a retractable clothes line that came in handy for hanging up wet clothes. There was a blow dryer and electric razor outlet over the sink. The blow dryer wasn’t much to speak of and I was glad I had brought my own. The room might have become overly cramped to have 4 adults in the cabin but by taking turns the 3 of us got along fine. Our cabin steward came by the first day to introduce himself and even though we never saw him after that he done a wonderful job. The cabin was always neat and tidy and each night we had a cute new towel animal and chocolates.
Food aboard the Destiny was abundant with as many as 8 places serving meals at one time. We had the Sun & Sea buffet several times, other than the large selection of desserts, the food was typical buffet food nothing really stood out as exceptionally good. A lot of our lunches were from the outside grill on the lido deck, they offered hamburgers, hotdogs, French fries, nachos and chicken stripes. The chicken stripes were one of my favorites, they were really good cut up on a salad or along with French fries covered in nacho cheese. We were assigned to the late seating dinner, 8:15, in the Galaxy room which was one of 2 main dinning rooms. The food here was very good and we tried a lot of new things, including strawberry bisque, smoked salmon, tilapia, and lobster. Smoked salmon was the only thing I didn’t care for, everything else was delicious, especially the lobster. The chocolate melting cake was our favorite dessert and couldn’t be passed up. Our waiters done a fantastic job, they had so many people to wait on yet we never wanted for anything. They even took time to entertain us with some song and dance routines each night.
Activities onboard were so numerous we didn’t get a chance to take part in even a third of them. From the lido deck games to trivia games, mini golf to towel folding lessons, there was constantly something to do. One thing we never missed was attending the after dinner theater shows. There were a variety of programs including a comedian and ventriloquist along with the Vegas style singing and dancing shows. One evening we were even entertained by our fellow guest who had proved to be the top talent in an onboard talent show. It appeared that the casino and bingo were both very popular. We played the penny and nickel slots a few times but never tried the bingo. One highlight of our trip was the digital scavenger hunt held the last day. We were given a list of activities and we were supposed to photograph someone in our group doing that activity. The first team to bring there digital photos back won. We ended up in 3rd place but we had so much fun rushing around the ship trying to accomplish our tasks. This was a real blast and we would have loved it if they had played this more than once.
Other than our confusion with the layout we thoroughly enjoyed our time onboard this wonderful ship. And while I don’t really have anything to compare it to I would have to say that with the attention and service we received the Carnival Destiny was a great choice for our first cruise.
by pbpd81 on April 1, 2009
Carnival Cruise Lines
Cancun Cancun, Mexico
(888) CARNIVAL