The Cruise!

Cruise: Carnival
Ship: Destiny
Duration: 7 nights
Dates: June 1, 2008 - June 8, 2008

What makes this cruise unique is that it is at port every day! There is no day at sea. We travel at night and awake to find ourselves at a new port of call. This was both good and bad. You got a lot of stuff crammed into the time you were on the cruise. The only bad thing was about halfway through, it starts to catch up to you and you long for a day at sea where you can get up late, relax by the pool, chill, do whatever! But its all good. Its a great value.

The ship is an older one in the Carnival fleet, but I couldn't tell. However, this was our first cruise, so more experienced cruisers may notice a difference. Word was that the stabilizers were not working so it was going to be a bit rougher at sea than normal. I don't know if they were working or not, but I didn't get the least bit sick. I am prone to sea sickness and motion sickness. I didn't get sick at all. There were times you could feel the ship moving, some nights were a little bad when the water got a bit choppy. I took Dramamine the first night, just in case. After that, didn't need it.

We stayed in a balcony room that sleeps three. The room was alright, small which was expected. It had a king bed, a love seat/sofa, and the 3rd bed dropped from the ceiling, above the sofa, to make kind of like a bunk bed, without the lower bunk. The room was functional and the 3 of us were fairly comfortable in it. The only times we noticed it being really small was packing and unpacking. There wasn't a whole lot of floor space so we had to be judicious in our packing/unpacking and also where we put our swim suits and clothes. There was plenty of closet space and the bathroom was fine, big enough.

Ports of Call

Day 1 - San Juan
We embark in San Juan, Puerto Rico. There'll be another post on embarkation and how much "fun" that was. We set sail at 10PM.

Day 2 - St. Thomas
Our first day at port in St Thomas. We took a land tour that consisted of a half day shopping in their outdoor shopping center and the rest was spent swimming at Magens Bay.

Day 3 - Dominica
When I think of my favorite port, this one is the top one for me. I don't know about an extended stay as I'm not sure if there are any real resorts on the island, but this place is incredible! Rain forests, snorkeling, hiking, WOW. Its not very touristy at all. If I remember correctly, our cruise is currently the only one that goes to this port. If you like roughing it, seeing things off the beaten path, this is your island. We took a tour to the rain forest, which included cave swimming, some hiking, relaxing in hot springs, a quick jaunt to the botanical garden, and finally, some snorkeling at a place that ranked as the top 10 in the world.

Day 4 - Barbados
This island is pretty touristy, the vendors more aggressive than on the first two islands. A beautiful place though. The beaches were awesome. White sand, turquoise waters. We created our own tour. We rented a cab for the day. Our first stop was Mount Gay Rum where we got a tour of their operations and bought many bottles of their fine rum. We then made a journey to see some monkeys, and finally, to the Boatyard for some swimming on a beautiful beach.


Day 5 - St Lucie
On this day, we left KK on the ship at Camp Carnival and went on a tour of the island. The tour included visits to some botanical gardens, rain forest, many points of interest, snorkeling, and one nasty, interesting visit to the sulfur volcanoes. The roads in St. Lucie are crazy, I don't think there is any single stretch of STRAIGHT road anywhere. One member of our tour got sick and threw up on the way back.


Day 6 - Antigua
Again, we left KK on the shop for this island. She would have liked it I think, but she opted to stay behind. This was an easy day. We did take their public transportation to a beach, Nelson's Beach. BEAUTIFUL! This was my favorite beach I think. Barbados comes closer. The only reason it may go above is because this beach was less crowded. The vendors on the beach are a little annoying - selling anything and everything it seems. But we just chilled and relaxed on the beach all day. At the port, there is a big market place and we went shopping there. Talk about crazy! Man, you get pulled in so many directions, so many vendors in such a little space.


Day 7 - St. Kitts
KK joined us on this tour, mainly because we prepaid for this one. We took a catamaran all day. Very easy to get to, a very short walk from the ship. We went snorkeling, to Nevis for a beach lunch, and then swimming. Finally headed back. The catamaran was pretty fun - more of a party boat. The island was nice, but I'd say this was my least favorite. Although to say that is really comparing "very good" to "awesome", so its not like I had a terrible time at all, s till had a good time.