You'll feel like cattle. Good ports, bad experience.
Written: Aug 25 '08 (Updated Aug 25 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Exotic and unique 4 port locations. Wacky Rollers Safari in Dominica.
Cons: Over crowded. Dining was terrible. Class of guests. Expensive shore excursions. Staff.
The Bottom Line: Avoid the Destiny. The ports are good but everything else is bad. Way too crowded. You could tell that this was a 'mass produced' cruise.
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| wrldtravler's Full Review: Carnival Destiny |
The Carnival Destiny is a huge ship with a lot of people on it. Thousands of people on one ship for about a week. If you don't like crowds and like special attention, this is not the cruise for you. There literally wasn't anywhere on the boat where you couldn't escape people and have a few quiet moments. This is not the cruise for couples or romance.
One thing I noticed right off the bat is that this cruise leaves from San Juan Puerto Rico. There are just as many Spanish speaking people on the boat as there are English speaking people. The instructions and announcements take twice as long because they have to do them in Spanish and English.
The cruise is relatively cheap for the amount of ports and the length, which in my opinion makes for a lower class of people that took this ship compared with other Carnival Cruises. In the formal dining room, there were a lot of shorts and t-shirts during dinner and the people on this ship tended to be much louder and obnoxious than on other cruises I have been on. There was a lot of line cutting and pushing and shoving during port lines or dinner lines. The class of people really took away from my enjoyment of the cruise, especially considering the ship was so crowded. Especially annoying was the large amount of teenagers who roam all over the ship at all hours. There are lots of loud teenagers making out all over the boat at night and screaming at the comedy shows and events. This crowd tends to be very loud and it really felt that past 10 o'clock the boat belonged to the teens as if it was a high school dance.
The ports on this cruise are why I selected it. We wanted to visit a lot of places we hadn't been before and didn't want to be stuck on the ship for long periods of sailing. While the cruise does offers more ports than the average cruise ... 4 stops ... you will find yourself rushing to the ship because the boat leaves before night fall in most of the ports. I was a little dissapointed that we didn't have more time to enjoy a dinner or some shopping after a shore excursion. Usually you leave the ship by 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning and are back on the boat by 4 p.m.
Carnival is the 'fun ship' but their biggest mission is to sell you anything and everything that they can to get every dollar from you. Shore excursions through Carnival are double the price they would be if you purchased them at the tourist center in town. They will try to sell you bottled water before they have you leave the ship going so far as to tell you the local water will make you sick, even though most of the tours give you bottled water and most of the countries you visit do have filtration systems making the water perfectly safe to drink. There are photographers everywhere taking your picture and then posting it on a board for everyone to see, hoping you will buy a copy for $15 - $20. On formal night, they sell these pictures in packages making them very expensive to buy.
Dinner was my least favorite of all the things on this ship. Because the boat is so crowded and they only have a few dinner seatings, it is almost impossible to get a private table. When you are on a romantic cruise, you would like to not sit with a large group of people. Many of the other Carnival Boats have 'upscale dining' options, where you pay $30 extra to eat in a restaurant type of dining with better food and tables for two. The Carnival Destiny does not have one of these upscale restaurant options. I was surprised because of the size of the ship. The maitre' de at the main dining room acted as though he was the head of the world's most exclusive restaurant and was hitting on all the girls that came through. You were very likely to get the type of seating you wanted if you were a group of attractive women who flirted, but couples were obviously not this maitre' de's priority. We were told there was absolutely no way to get a table for two or a later seating even though we requested it far in advance and were instead told we would have to sit at a table for 8 at the early seating, which nobody wants. After a $30 tip which went right into his pocket, he found a table for 2 at the least desirable early seating time, right next to the rack where the waitors put the dirty dishes. Lots of clanking and chatter from the staff right next to our table, but worth sitting by ourselves. Our waitor was fantastic. Very personable and he made dinners fun. The people on these ships who work the hardest are the waitors and the servers. We gave him a great tip because he made a bad dinner situation tolerable.
Because we had the early seating, a lot of the time we had to skip dinner in the main dining room and instead do the buffets. Dinners in the main dining room had been one of our favorite things to do on the cruises we took before, but we felt cheated out of it this time because most of the shore excursions overlapped the first dinner time, which we were assigned to. Another bad thing is that the first seating was so close to lunch, who feels like eating a big meal after eating lunch a few hours before? Many times we went just to see the presentation of the food and have a few bites because we just weren't hungry enough to have dinner. During lunch in the formal dining room, you could not have a private table. You had to sit in groups, which made for very awkward interaction. One time there was a big group of people who were all together and ignored us as if we were just in the middle of some big party where everyone knew everyone else except us. It felt more like ostracization as if they were resentful that we intruded on their lunch together by being made to sit there by the wait staff, even though there were unbussed tables for 2 everywhere around the room. The other time, there were 3 couples at our table ... one of whom wouldn't stop talking about how much they hated the ship ... the other one kept asking us questions about our jobs. By the second lunch like this, we decided to eat at the buffet. I think many people did this as well because most people ate at the buffets for most of their meals. Carnival gets off cheap this way.
The food in the dining room was not good. The chef was trying too hard to be a good french chef. The entres were covered in thick sauces which were not very good. The portions were small and the menu did not have a whole lot of variety. One time, we ordered a shrimp dish and it was 3 shrimp covered in a weird sauce. It bearly filled us up. Because the dining only has 2 times, you are rushed through your dinner so if you don't like an entre or if it was not what you expected, it was very hard to order another entre. Or if you were just hungry and wanted another plate, which is normal for cruise ship dining. If there was a night where lobster tails were on the menu, we missed it. The food in the dining room looked and sounded fancy but in actuality was mass produced and not fun to eat. Many times, the menu repeated itself.
The buffets were honestly not bad. Most times they had themes to them and offered a big variety of different dishes. The lines were very long though and sometimes it could take 30 minutes to get through the line. There always were hamburgers, hot dogs and pizza available. I am more of a gourmet and wasn't really too fond of eating hamburgers and pizza but sometimes you had to get going to make a shore excursion and a 30 minute lunch line or 30 minute breakfast line for an omelette couldn't work for the time schedule. There was lots of line cutting and I saw a few arguements break out during lunches because someone cut a buffet line or bumped into something because there are people zipping around everywhere carrying plates.
Finding a seat was also a tough thing as there were too many people and often, we had to sit at dirty tables because we just couldn't wait for it to be cleaned. Carnival offers unlimited soft drink cards for around $30 or $40. This might seem like a lot to pay, but considering the other option is to pay $5 a can for soda or drink watery sugary fruit punch or iced tea the whole time, we bought one card and used different bars to get drinks for each other. The bartenders tended to ignore you if you were just getting a soft drink and went for those buying alchohic drinks first, making it a 5 minute wait to get a drink sometime.
Honestly, if the room we got didn't include a private balcony, I'd probably have gone insane. During the day, all the lounge chairs were taken. You'd have to walk around the whole ship a couple times to find a couple lounge chairs together. Most times, you had to hear screaming kids or couples speaking in Spanish loudly nearby. There was no quiet on this boat. Forget about actually going into a pool or a hot tub unless you wanted to be packed in. The pools closed at night early, so during the day and early evening was the only time to do this and there were literally so many people in the pool, it looked like an orgy of hairy men sitting on top of each other or kids running around and splashing everywhere. You couldn't even sit at a bench in one of the main areas without being annoyed by loud people. Anywhere you went on the ship was like being in a crowded store during holiday shopping.
The rooms were very nice. We paid a lot extra for a room with a balcony, which is a little bigger than the average room. Obviously, the room was on the small side. There was just enough room where I could do pushups before bed on the floor. The television was small, but adequate. There was a little sitting area with a desk. The bed was on the firm side but comfortable, although I wasn't a fan of the white comforter which got dirty fast. We only had towels made into animals one or two times during the trip. It was obvious the cleaning people were in a rush having so many rooms to attend to because a lot of the time, they didn't clean the stuff that is typically cleaned on a cruise. On smaller cruise ships, the rooms were immaculate when you came back to them. This time, there were still shoes on the floor and towels on the chairs. The bed was made and occasionally the soaps were changed and that is it.
The decor of the ship looks like something out of a casino. Lots of purples and blues in loud patterns ... lots of brass. The rooms kind of had an 80s modern feel to them. Definately not classy looking ... but everything was adequate. I will say I was surprised with the amount of closet space there was. Technically on this boat, nobody ever really dressed up ... but there was plenty of room for dresses and suits. I brought a tuxedo, a suit and a sportcoat and honestly could have gotten away with just a sportscoat. There is a tailor shop that rents cheesy tuxedos for exorbitant prices and they were nice enough to cuff my pants for free on the tuxedo I purchased for the trip. (Definately not needed! There were people wearing jeans on formal night in the dining room.)
The ports were excellent. They were very exotic and many weren't the typical touristy places you'd expect. We stopped in Barbados ... instead of the cheesy Malibu Rum distillery tour, we did an ATV ride which was worth the price. They teach you how to use the ATVs if you have not used them before and take you on a nice trail along the beach. The views were beautiful. You really won't be able to go too fast on the ATVs but you will appreciate the scenery and it is not a crowded tour. When in Barbados, you need to try the flying fish. There is a little stand that sells fried flying fish near the boat for very cheap. It is a dark, greasy type of fish but tastes very good and the locals go there for lunch.
We did the Wacky Rollers Safari in Dominica and it was hands down one of the best shore excursions I've ever been on for a cruise. You start off in an open top large Safari jeep type of thing. You go through the town of Dominica (which is very third world.) and they give you a little tour. Then it is into the jungle. They stop along the way and let you try some exotic fruits. The ride up the hill/mountain is amazing. You feel as though you are in a movie. It is VERY scary if you are scared of heights because there is literally a 100 foot drop right next to the road, with no guard rail and lots of twists and turns in the road, which is barely 2 lanes wide. At some points, I looked down and saw that the wheels of the Jeep were only a few feet from the edge of the road with a 100 foot drop on the other side. I think this is the most nervous I've been on a shore excursion. After the jungle ride, you will stop at a little changing area where you can get into your swim suit and your life jacket. There is an old lady there who sells Coke, which is bottled differently in that country ... its sold in the old, thick glass bottles from the 1950s. The place where you will swim was used in the filming of the movie Pirates of the Carribean II and it is a natural channel that is cut through stone. You go in the water near a little water fall and you swim through the crevice in the rocks. It is a lot of fun ... you can even climb up the rock wall and jump off into the pool at the end of the river. It feels like something out of an exotic pirates movie and is definately worth the price of the tour. For the ride down through the jungle, the guide gives you a special Rum punch to drink. It has to be 100 proof. It is very strong and the ride down is a lot more fun than the ride up because everyone is feeling good and singing.
Avoid the Pirate tour in St. Thomas. It is the biggest rip off ever. It starts with a stop to a souvineer/convenience store so that should tell you something about the trip. Then you stop at an overlook where you can see the ship and you continue past a Home Depot and a Supermarket where the guide tells you fascinating things about St. Thomas such as 'they drive on the same side of the road as the United States' and that 'Oprah Winfrey has a house here' (something they told us in 4 different countries on every stop.) Finally, you end up at the 'Pirate Museum' where there are really no artifacts other than a giant tower made of mud and shells which was used 'in case pirates ever invaded'. Then you walk past some very cheesy looking statues of pirates to find out that pirates never landed in St. Thomas, much less lived there. The museum is actually part of a cheesy tourist hotel and you are allowed to use the pool if you want or buy lunch. This was by far a waste of time. At the end of the tour, you can either get a cab back to the boat or walk there. The tour was almost like a joke ... we couldn't believe how bad it was and should have gone on a beach excursion instead. If you read the description of the tour in the excursion guide it sounds so good we couldn't pass it up, but in actuality it was a stop at a convenience store followed by a stop at a cheesy hotel. Pirates weren't even part of St. Thomas' history.
You can take an optional excursion when you return which is a bus tour of Old San Juan. You can also go to the rainforest, which I heard was not very good because they don't really let you get out of the bus. San Juan is very interesting and my suggestion would be to get a hotel in San Juan the day before or after the cruise. Its a nice day to unwind after being on a boat with so many people and the city is nice to see. We stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel in San Juan which was on the beach. It was about 20 minutes to Old San Juan which is fun to walk around and shop in.
Overall, I'd say that this cruise did not lead up to my expectations. The boat was too crowded, dinner was ruined most days and the general feel on the boat was being annoyed all day and night long. The shore excursions and add ons such as drinks added about half the price of the actual cruise to the bill. The food was okay but nothing spectaular. The room was okay. The shore excursions were either really great or really bad. We even didn't have nice weather while we were there (which still didn't prevent all the lounge chairs from being used.) I've been on 5 Carnival cruises and this was by far the worst. Pick another boat unless you really want to see a lot of exotic locations, in which case if you can take a week on the crowded ship it is worth it. It did feel like being cattle on a ship ... and not even a very nice ship.
Recommended:
No
Best Suited For: Families
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Epinions.com ID:
wrldtravler
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Reviews written: 43
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