Thread: Destiny Ship?

DESTINY.CAN ANYONE TELL ME THE GOOD, BAD AND THE UGLY ABOUT THE DESTINY GOING ON THE SOUTHERN CARIBBEAN? WE ARE BOOKED FOR JUNE OF 06. BEEN ON DISNEY THREE TIMES. THOUGHT WE WOULD TRY THIS FOR A CHANGE...TANKS.JON

Jon, I sailed on the Destiny last October. The ship was fine and the crew was very hard working and took great pride in their ship. I, however, had a big problem with some of the fellow passengers. The week we cruised, over half of the passengers were Puerto Rican (obviously, they sail from San Juan). I do not know if this is abnormal or normal. However, their attitude was pretty bad and they acted as if they owned the ship. I experienced quite a bit of rude behavior from both adults and kids. When I was trying to sit in the hot tub, an entire clan came in and crowded me. The kids were jumping in and out as if it were a pool. I tried laying on a lounge chair and kids were running and jumping over me. I asked them to please stop running and they looked at me as if I were from Mars. Even though I'm sure they all spoke English, they only spoke Spanish on the ship. It really was horrible. This happened every time I went on the Lido deck unless it was extremely early in the morning. Luckily, we had a balcony cabin and spent lots of time on our own balcony where it was quiet. Using the elevators was very difficult because there was a group of youth who constantly ran around the ship pushing all the buttons and/or riding the elevators up & down for no reason. When the doors opened, the elevator would be packed with a group of kids who laughed and wouldn't let you enter. It really was an uncomfortable experience and the ship's security did nothing to stop them. The same "gang" would run up and down hallways, banging on cabin doors. I even heard them one night (morning) at 2:00am. They seemed to have no adult supervision at all. Eating in the dining room, however, was nice. I never saw any of the "gang" in the dining room. In fact, at early seating, at least half of the tables were empty. The food was excellent and the service superb. We sat at a table for 8 and had lovely tablemates who were a delight to spend time with. They also experienced the rude behavior of the "gang" and each night we shared our unfortunate experiences from the day. Even though I loved the ports (some of the best I've been to) and I loved the ship (very nice even though she is old), I can not recommend it. I haven't seen any posts about this happening on other cruises so perhaps mine was an isolated incident. I feel, however, that I should at least warn you about my experience. I love Carnival and have never experienced anything like this on any of the other ships I've sailed on.

Hmmmm...

We are doing the Souther Caribbean itinerary next month - but on an RCL ship. I'll report back if we encounter anything similar.

Yes, please let us know. I'm hoping mine was an isolated incident. I can't imagine how the cruiselines could afford to remain in Puerto Rica if this was the norm.

Back in 1997, I sailed on the Fascination out of San Juan...I experienced the same atmosphere. I was told that they great huge last minute discounts...if this is so...it makes me angry to think that I spend a mint to fly into San Juan and they supposedly paid very very little for the cruise.

So conclusion is: Watch out with cruises from San Juan !
But, I am pretty sure those were isolated incidents. I have cruised from PR few times and never had those problems with Puerto Ricans.

And also I have friend who was on Destiny last month. He sad it was time of his life. His imressions are excellent.

We sailed on Princess out of Puerto Rico...but didn't have that problem. We had a great cruise. We had the most issue with the airlines over booking, or seemingly needing to cancel flights only to have a larger plane later in the night that would accomodate everyone.
The airport was full of angry passengers when we arrived, but we didn't pay much attention, since we were hurrying to our ship. But when we got back to the airport a week later, it was the same scene. Our flight had been cancelled, but luckily they could get us on the later one coming in that night. Which meant we got back into the states very late...Atlanta airport was actually closed so they had to put us up in a hotel...and we had to fly stand by coming home. Luckily we all got on the same plane the next day and miraculously our luggage had been sitting at our home airport all that time. And it was there safe and sound..all locked together.
Those don't leave good sound memories or warm fuzzy feelings about trying San Juan again. I think we'd do a long cruise to go Southern Caribbean again. But that's just us!

Hey Jonnie! I took that cruise in July. If you're going to Barbados, Aruba, St. Thomas, and Dominica, that's the cruise we were on (7 days). It was nice. The ship was great. The only problem is it can be a little hard to navigate around the ship. The one dining room being in the middle of the ship can get in the way. Other than that, I thought it was a great ship. For me, I found the food was good, but it wasn't as good as it used to be. But it was still very good. The coffee wasn't the greatest. My favorite non-dining room meal was a Ruben sandwich at the deli. Great stuff.

The ports were nice. I found Aruba had the best beaches. We went to Palm Beach in Aruba (or something like that). I recommend it. Barbados: we went to a beach called the Blue Monkey. I don't recommend this beach. There were gnats flying around the sand and if you sat down on the beach your legs would get covered in them. The only nice part about it was that there was a covered deck at the beach. In Dominica, my sister and I took the "Rasta Man's Rainforest Hike & Falls" tour. If you enjoy a moderate hike, this is the tour for you! It was amazing. You can see some of the picture we took in the photo gallery here. St. Thomas is mostly shopping. At least that's what we did. We didn't go to a beach there so I can't comment on that.

Hope this helps! If you have any other questions, please ask.

Destiny just spent 3 weeks in dry dock for some refurb. They moved the band stand up one level and reworked the spa tubs by the former band stand. They remodeled the dining area in the rear of the ship and also spent a considerable amount of money were most passengers wouldn't notice in the area of the suite cabins. It was a multi-million dollar project. The Destiny is one of the older mega ships cruising and if you take a close look you can see signs of wear. Our service was great. My wife broke the lever for the shower and they were up to fix it within 10 minutes. We had a light bulb out on the vanity and again, one call and they has someone to fix it in 10 minutes. One other incident was when the shower head split and water squirted out the side, once more it was fixed within 10 minutes. You couldn't ask for better service. The crew was for the most part very friendly. Our cabin steward was more on the serious side. The waiter up on the pool deck where we usually sat was quite a cut-up and everyone in our party got a very nice tip put together for him, great service. I was expecting a less than nice cruise from previous reviews but it seem only those that are negative get the press or rather take the time to bitch.

I will be sailing on the Destiny in Sept of 06 so I too am looking forward to hearing more about everyones opinion.

My therory is if every one likes it then they must brain wash people...with out someposts telling it like it is how can one really judge it.