| Cruise Reviews - Carnival Destiny | |
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My new husband and I just returned from our honeymoon on board the Carnival Destiny. It was the worst vacation we have ever had. It started the moment we got off the plane in San Juan. The agents who pick you up had the social and informational skills of a 4 year old. After waiting for 15 minutes at the terminal, for who knows what reason, they finally half way led us to the baggage claim and disappeared. Once we got our luggage, my husband and I walked to the other side of the baggage claim trying to find our way out...since the agents had disappeared. When we reached the other side, we ran into another agent who pointed us back to the other side for that entrance...not convenient with 4 pieces of luggage, etc. Finally, a group of agents came and lined us up to open up our sail and sign card (they don't have any cash flow on ship so you had to give a cc# to open an account to do anything onboard). Again, the agents were on the verge of out right rude...not very friendly to say the least. After we registered our account, we were left standing there with no explanation of what to do next. Finally we asked, and we were told where to go. The bus ride was OK..... a bit long after waiting on everyone and their luggage to board. I would have taken a taxi if I had known. We got to our ship and it wasn't as clean as I expected but it was OK. That night at dinner, we had open seating and were uncomfortably crammed into a table with another couple, who was obviously annoyed as well. Our waiter, who was not very friendly either, served everybody their dinner but me. I had to wait about 20 minutes to get mine and of course everyone else was on to dessert by then. The food was bland and nothing that Carnival claims on their website. The entertainment was not "Las Vegas" style either. It was very disappointing, to say the least. We played Bingo three times and saw the three same movies about 2 times...that should tell you how entertained we were. San Juan and Aruba were nice ports and if we had it to do all over again, we would have spent all of our time at one of those islands instead of a cruise. We were ready to go home after day two. On our "Fun Days" at sea, they had one pool open out of three. This one open pool was filled with screaming and jumping kids so it really wasn't an option. This cruise did not accommodate honeymooners at all. There was nothing planned for honeymooners....I honestly don't know why the travel agent even bothered asking. The crew was nice but it wasn't genuine...they were almost like a bunch of robots. You could not ask for anything out of the norm or different. They wouldn't know what to do. We found out from other people on board that you supposedly get your towels left in the shapes of animals on your bed and that you get mints at night....we got none of this. The immigration and disembarkation was the most chaotic thing I have ever
seen. It seemed like forever to get off of that ship. We were so
ready to get back home. As my husband said, he would have jumped of the
ship if immigration had not let him off. Before we left, we did wait in
line at the purser's desk for a good hour so that we could remove the $140 in
gratuities they had added to our account. We were not about to spend one
more penny on that cruise. While in line, we found out we were not the
only unsatisfied customers onboard. We will NEVER take Carnival again.
Don't waste your time or especially your honeymoon.
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