Carnival Destiny??
 

Anyone been on the Carvinal Destiny lately? I'm NOT a person who likes a "Disney" feel to a vacation. Am I choosing the wrong cruise line? Never been on a cruise before. Bringing our 14 and 3 year old children. Looking at a southern carb. route.

Linda:<BR><BR>I did the Destiny this on the Southern route this year and had a good time. Not sure what you mean by &quot;Disney&quot;--G rated? Nothing to do for adults? Overly managed? Carnival is a good line for kids and there is plenty to do for others. <BR><BR>To get a better picture of the experience, suggest you visit<BR>http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?q=Y&amp;a=frm&amp;s=927093444&amp;f=9690 97554<BR><BR>Lots of posts specific to the Destiny; lots of past cruisers to answer questions.<BR><BR>Cheers!

I guess what I mean by &quot;Disney&quot; feel is overly commercialized.

Here's the type of cruise report you get from Carnival passengers:<BR><BR>&quot;I'm glad the previous poster had a good time on the Pride. I wish our time had been better. Yes, I've seen drunks on occasion on Princess ships. But NOTHING like we saw on the 6/29 sailing of the Pride. We were surounded every night at dinner by folks who arrived drunk, stayed drunk, and probably staggered off the ship at the end of the week. When was the last time you saw someone on a Princess ship spraying the waiters with &quot;silly string&quot;???! And it wasn't just at dinner. The &quot;Fun Ships&quot;...hmmm...why does that seem to equate to getting loaded to some people? The food was OK at best in the Normandie, service was rushed and mostly impersonal, the dining room was too bright, too loud and at least at our location (table 100, almost under the stairs to the second level), the floor vibrated through dinner every night. Now add things like saltwater pools (that are closed at night), virtually no life on deck after 8 p.m., screwed up reservations in David's, a stern pool that had to be drained on the last day because someone went in with their baby in diapers and the kid left a &quot;deposit&quot;, and total anarchy in the distribution of tender tickets. No cruise is perfect (well, maybe your first cruise!) but after a certain point annoyances add up and become unacceptable. Although I'm no seasoned veteran like some on this board, I think you'll find that most of those who are unequivocal in their praise of Carnival have only cruised Carnival, and in most cases only once or twice. If they had a great time and were satisfied with the service, food, and the overall experience, well all I can say is God Bless. But for us, we know there is at least one better alternative...PRINCESS!&quot;<BR><BR>This comes from cruisecritics and is typical of the Carnival experience. DISCLAIMER: I have never sailed on a Carnival cruise (and never will) and this post is merely a recapitalization on someone else's experience.

Peter,<BR><BR>Why is Carnival the most popular cruise line in the world? Why are they filling their ships? Why did the staid Ocean and Cruise Liner Society state Carnival's food as all fresh and USDA approved. They rated the food similar to a 4 and 5 star cruise line.<BR><BR>So you can rant and rave all you want but it will not stop people from cruising Carnival.<BR><BR>And, oh yes, Royal Caribbean is SO much better and Princess only has a FEW drunks.<BR><BR>Paul

I don't believe I was ranting and raving about anything - simply quoting a cruise review from another website. If you have a disagreement, it would be with the poor lady with the bad experience. I do believe that what she says about Carnival cruisers that do rave about the line probably only cruise Carnival and have never experienced the true class of cruising. And as far as being the most popular cruise line - did you know that the number of shoppers that frequent Walmart, Kmart, Target, etc outnumber those that shop at places like Macy's, Saks, Dillards - about a thousand to one. So you could say they're the most popular department store, couldn't you?

As a veteran of 20 plus cruises and a member of the travel industry having sailed on Carnival, HAL, Princess, NCL, RCI, and Celebrity, I can say without question Carnival is my favorite line. The frat house at sea theory is an outdated (by about 15 years) rep, and you're as likely to have a few bad apples on ANY cruise you take.<BR><BR>I'm sorry if you had a bad experience with Carnival, but the fact is you're as likely to have a problem with a fellow passenger just about anywhere. Short cruises are rowdier, longer cruises and exotics are more subdued-- and that goes for ANY line.<BR><BR>Me? I love the atmosphere, energy, AMAZING detail of the ships, and friendly, non-prententious attitude on Carnival ships. There's an energy there you can't find anywhere else, it's an intangible.<BR><BR>I love just about every cruise I've taken-- my point to posting here is to say that most people who tell you how bad Carnival is have never cruised them (as in this case) and are going on outdated second and third hand info from biased cruisers who may have been on a 4 night Jubilee and have a skewed perception.<BR><BR>Go on, have fun. :)

I'm with Paul, Carnival offers one hell of a cruise experience, particularly for first time cruisers.<BR><BR>Peter: Give me Target anyday of the week, I'll leave Saks to you and Winona Ryder. One's a pretentious know-it-all, and the other is a convicted felon.

Peter, how long are you going to keep that &quot;post from another board&quot; in you anti- Carnival vault and post it?<BR>Why don't you be very honest and also tell Linda that you have never been on a Carnival cruise?<BR>Truth is Linda, you probably will see some drunks on any cruise line, not just Carnival.<BR><BR>

You know, people always say how there are so many drunks and &quot;hillbillies&quot; on Carnival, but there are the same people on Royal. I've read where people have said Carnival is a hillbily ship that has bellysmack contests and men's sexy legs contest...what did I see on RCL's Voyager last week?? Bellysmack contests and men's sexiest legs contest.

Cruise, I agree with you 100%.<BR>I have been on both lines and overall I can't really see the difference that some people talk about, especially Peter, who says Royal Carb. is classy.<BR>There are always a few nuts no matter where you go.

Absolutely. If you wish to see quite a few alcholics just join your local upscale country-club.<BR><BR>Paul

As an avid cruiser and a cruise agent I have a few things to say about CCL. Since I have been in this business I have seen CCL grow from a small cruise line into the giant company it is today. CCL ships are beautiful for the most part. The pools need to be re thought and re designed. Food is good. The service on the other hand is very poor and unfriendly. The pursers desk is not helpful ususally and do not seem to care whether or not the client is pleased. Having sailed on CCL 4 times and each time I couldn't wait to get off the ship. In my opinion it was a nightmare. But I know that there are a lot of people who like CCL and thats fine. My last cruise on CCL was in November 2001. The cruise and the service was so bad that when we returned to the office we trashed every brochure and promotional material that was CCL. We also informed all of our agents that we would no longer be selling CCL. And we sent out a letter to our clients informing them that because of the bad service we would not be reccomending CCL or selling CCL. We explained that we do not want to sell a product which is consistantly bad. This looks bad on us as a business and our clients work hard for thier money and should get the best for their money. Let me put this into prospective. If I owned a garden shop and sold lawnmowers. If I consisantly sold a particular lawnmower that broke down and the company did nothing to improve or repair the lawnmower would I continue to sell that lawnmower? Good business sense says NO! Its the same for me in the travel business. If a particular cruise line has bad feedback and the line does nothing to improve itself or rectify a problem why should I sell it? It only hurts my business in the long run. <BR>Don't get me wrong. CCL has beautiful ships for the most part. But they need a lot of improvement. Until they do improve I will not sell them. Just a note....we only recieved one negative response from our clients because we do not sell CCL. That particular client was a pain in the butt anyway. On the other hand we recieved over 50 responses from other clients thanking us for being honest and having integrity. As a business owner that made my day.<BR><BR>Thanks!

I really don't think travel agents should give their opinion on public threads, whether good or bad, but that's my O. We have sailed 3 times on RCC, 1 time on NCL &amp; 1 time on Oceanic. We will be on our 10th Carnival Cruise in about 3 weeks. Last year we did 3 Carnival cruises. My husband and I just turned 65 and we are young at heart, very. We have NEVER been disappointed on a Carnival Cruise. They are fun ships as they say. As far as drunks, when you pick a cruise that sails over a &quot;spring break&quot; or a holiday, you are bound to find that. 4 or 5 day cruises generally draw a more rowdy crowd on any cruise line.
Our travel agent ( 15 yrs) and her boss ( been on 50 cruises) had never been on a Carnival. So, just for info, they BOTH went on a Carnival, one was on 9/11/04 ( which I wouldn't even thought of going on and hit hurricane weather too) the other went on the following week, different ship. BOTH of them came back RAVING about their cruise, raved about the food, entertainment, etc. I was so happy to hear that, since we are always praising Carnival. You cannnot.....even come close to matching their cabins sizes on new ships to other lines. We love their &quot;Las Vegas &quot; syle shows, but then again we love Vegas. Just hope the Pride on April 3rd, brings no disappointments. Easter break should be overwith by then. (hopefully) Vacations are to have fun and sometimes people just don't know &quot;how to&quot; without complaining. I sometimes book directly with Carnival and sometimes with my travel agent friend. I actually &quot;pick &amp; choose&quot; what cabin that I want. Carnival Spirit series ships have some real neat aft corner cabins to die for.
Happiness is just having &quot;fun&quot; live is too short.

How you like or dislike Carnival will truly depend on the kind of person you are, and what your preferences/taste are.
I for one, am in the camp that is for the anti-Carnival cruisers.
We sailed on the Carnival Destiny last winter 2002, and simply hated it. Why you ask?
We're fairly young, early-mid thirties, and I couldn't stand the atmosphere on Carnival. It was a tad too rowdy for my liking - found all sorts of obnoxious groups hogging the hot tubs, and generally being very loud in the public areas. Sure, everyone's on vacation and are out to have a good time... But the crowd on this ship were just the sort of people I think I would categorize as over the top obnoxious, and bore no class. Then again, this is all just my opinion.
To provide you with a background, we prefer to be in a crowd that tends to respect other's space and recognize shared spaces are for EVERYONE.
The food was good in the main dining room, but the buffets were terrible.
The shows were downright tacky. They had a magician that was incompetent and kept dropping his equipment - so he never got around to doing his tricks properly. Oh brother. I left a couple of the shows early, and spent the time wandering the quieter areas of the ship - since everyone was at the show apparently.
The cabins were so-so. Ours was unfortunately beside the pool area, and the swinging doors that led to the pool. So it was noisy.
I was completely put off by Carnival that I had sworn off cruises forever. But then my husband has now convinced me to go on Celebrity - which from all reviews (ie. Frommers, Conde Nast) sounds like a safe bet.
Of course nothing is perfect, and we don't expect it to be - however, there should be some level of standard that is acceptable to our own level of comfort.
FYI: There is a reason that Carnival never makes the Gold List on Conde Nast Traveller.

Oh well the debate goes on I suppose. We took the Destiny in the summer/03 and had a grat time. The cabins were fine, the food was WONDERFUL! In fact the head chef was featured on a travel channel show and he has won several awards for his art. The service was quite good as well. Overall would we cruise Carnival again? Without hesitation. There are those who have never cruised Carnival who have nothing better to do than jump on the anti-Carnival band wagon and shout like the mob at Caesars funeral if you know what I mean. if you do you are probably more open to CCL. Just know who the players are and what the game is. Frankly it is the wont of those who critsize using trite stereotypes to back up their stance that I find extremely offensive. JM2C. Larry

All I can say is WOW! Reminds me of when I look up a perfectly fine hotel on tripadvisor and you see &quot;wouldn't send my dogs there&quot; to &quot;Best vacation of my life&quot; right next to one another describing the same property! People, we have to stay objective here. It is true that each cruise line has it's own personality, but overall there are many factors that can make one sailing different from another. I don't think anyone would argue that Carnival is one of the most &quot;successful&quot; cruise lines in the industry. They are just that for a reason. The best description of the Carnival personality to me is &quot;Las Vegas&quot; style. Very energetic and active. However, I have been on a group trip on Carnival every January for a while now and last years' Jan. crowd was much more rowdy than this years. This year seems us 30 somethings were the minority. Most were older. A couple strong points for Carnival would be the childrens programs and the food (for a mass market). I have consistantly found Carnival to have as good as or better food that RCCL. This after 5 cruises on RCCL and 8 on Carnival. My advice for Linda is to take people like peter with a grain of salt. Look at his words carefully. He says he has never sailed on Carnival. He says his review is from a &quot;typical&quot; passenger. Peter has chosen to display one negative review and say this is typical. What is objective about this? I have seen negative reviews on the most deluxe cruise lines. Keep an open mind, Linda, and realize that first and foremost your vacation will be what you make of it. But, to answer your question directly I would say most mass cruise markets do feel somewhat commercialized. To avoid this feel, steer clear of the shore excursions, the picture taking everytime you turn around (you can avoid this) and fun and games and find a peaceful corner to relax. I sailed on the Destiny, and although a bit big for me personally it was a nice experience as every cruise (18 now) I have taken.

Well said wtg. I agree with you. Just be fair and objective.