PRE CRUISE DAY- After reading several reviews, we chose the Wyndham Condado a 4 * hotel for $157 a night (via cheap tickets). For two people, six pieces of luggage it cost $12 total for the taxi from the airport to this hotel. We were extremely pleased with our room #844, a corner room with views of the lagoon and port (saw the ship!) and a balcony overlooking the ocean. The shower easily fit two and there was a walk in closet for clothing as well as a bar area and separate seating mirror to get ready. The hotel will hold luggage for free until check in, we arrived at 2pm and our room was ready. Then we changed in to swim suits and lounged poolside while had a drink in the swim up bar. Two pools, 1 salt water and 1 regular as well as a huge hot tub. A slide with shallow water for the kids too. We ate pool side, limited menu for lunch.

Excellent grounds including walking paths along the ocean, hammocks, private sunbathing spots and a beach.

For dinner we decided to walk around town, "new San Juan". There are several restaurants in the immediate area, one very fancy (all expensive BMW's pulling up) wide menu selection about $20-50 per plate. We ate next door at La Hacienda, a small locally owned place with views of both the ocean and the strip (street with all the action at night). If you like hot food try the salsa with chips...very hot we loved it. The restaurant also serves breakfast, ate there again, mistake - not very pleased with the Mexican eggs. We sat facing the strip, pleased as the later in the evening, the more it picked up with everyone walking around from Armani suits, to shorts to night club clothes. We then felt even safer walking the main strip, heading away from the lagoon, stopping at all the ocean front bars. We walked a total of a mile one way, a ton of night life that really picks up about 10 pm, by midnight though we were done!

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Now here is the BEST advice if checking out Sunday after 10am... If you agree with your room bill, sign it and leave it with the key card at the main desk. after 10 am, the lines are so long with all those checking in and out (unnecessarily) that they have a free rum punch bar set up to keep the tempers down. The line, which we did not need to wait in was over 45 minutes long. That preferred member line was no different. If the computerized system is working you can check out via your TV, it didn't work for us. Call a bell hop 15 minutes before you wish to leave anytime after 11am, as ours took over 30 minutes to arrive.

Pictures of hotel, grounds and areas we walked on the web here, if interested.

THE DESTINY- (There is a ton of info on the net about the ship, so only included is what we would want additionally.) From the hotel, the taxi was $15 about a 15 minute drive. Very, very crazy taxi driver who wanted to get us there in less than 5 minutes, all traffic aside. The port at 1:30 already had a 30 minute wait. As soon as your feet hit the ground, grab a porter, if not, they are hard to come by as you wait in line with all your stuff for that 30 minutes, all the porters passing you are taken, It's a pain to keep picking it all up to take two steps for 30 minutes. Very organized, they let groups in about 25 at a time and proceeded to check your documents in line as you wait outside(about 10 people pre checked while waiting, so being pre-checked, we skipped through all that and went immediate to the sail and sign "pre checked in" short line) and were taken next. Pictures for the card were about a 5 minute wait, then no wait and two choices for your boarding picture. Then onto the ship at level zero.

It's two pm now, boat doesn't sail until 10 pm and OUR ROOM IS READY!!!) We had a balcony #6307. The room had enough storage to hold our 200lbs of luggage. The couch area with table was ample for two. In addition, almost the entire wall across from the bed was a desk with mirror and chair to get ready while the bathroom is in use.
Limited plugs bring a power strip. As we're told, don't unplug the TV, an alarm goes off! The shower was large, great mirror storage area, if all my junk fit, it's big! The toilet was on a strange angle, so that if you are large in nature, I'd imagine it might be tough to maneuver, (need to sit sideways). Balcony was small. Nice but a waste to us. It had three chairs for a room that slept two? Had to climb over the chairs to sit. It's only value to us was taking pictures while pulling out or in and not wanting to mess with going up on deck. We worried that the location above deck 5, promenade, would bee to noisy but we didn't hear a thing. Our location however was above Cheers, the wine and Martini bar, not the casino or piano bar.

People we met had room 8101, the room right next to the bridge. They had a bit of a foyer, but the room was the same, except for the view... they could look to their right on the balcony and wave to the captain in the bridge... no privacy.

Unlike the Conquest (which we sailed spring break), there were plenty of lounge chairs available on all the deck levels, never had to go out early in the morning and save chairs.

Kids activities, now camp carnival did a great job, we know because we seldom saw any kids. Aside from the camp, there were VERY limited facilities for the kids, especially if yours are over 12 and find the camp embarrassingly childish. Unlike the Conquest, there is not a separate teen disco and hang out. The arcade is half the size which IS a bad thing because there are so few events scheduled for those kids old enough to venture out on their own. The disco is for teens until 11pm, then there is no entry under 16 BUT this is an ADULT disco now... and you DON'T want them there. The tweeners and teens just seemed to walk around. Carnival Capers had little to offer them. We didn't bring our kids on this one and were glad. But for those with younger kids who'll go to the camp, I'm sure it was great as all the young ones were hard to find during the day.

Also be aware that the Destiny picks up and drops off passengers at three ports. Because of this the ship was increasingly multi-cultured than others. This was really neat as there was a Latin lounge to accommodate a larger Latino population. We enjoyed meeting people from even Holland and Germany as well as San Juan, although I never did learn to salsa.

If you sail before November, say hi to Rayna at Cheers wine and Martini bar. You can stay there drinking beer from another bar on the Promanade, as you'll want to because she's such a fun bartender, just strike up a conversation. Tell her Carol and Rob say HEY!

Although we had confirmation of late dinner, seating for 8, we were tortured by an early seating, table of 4 (there were a ton of tables for 4). Well when your table mates just smile and nodded at you (yes they were English speaking), it's the longest hour of your life. Switch to late, after begging and agreeing to a table out in Siberia, which was a MUCH better alternative.

Although not advertised you can go to decks 6&7 and enter the balcony for the front of the ship, can't see it any other way on the open decks that we've found.

ST. THOMAS
Okay, now there are a few excellent beaches here. All I can say is COKI is a must do (see pictures), took a cab $14 for two, one way. If you don't accidentally get on a tour taxi, it only takes 10 minutes to get there. This is right next to Coral World, which we did not do but looked like the biggest rip off known to man. The chairs are $5 per chair, umbrellas available and restrooms and staff that will walk into the water to bring you a drink. Stands for the usual stuff including snorkeling mask $5, you should get this. There are snorkeling reefs to the right and left of the beach. To the right is Coral world. To the left is more secluded. We entered the water, to the left when facing ocean and the fish all swam up to us, waiting to be fed. It was GREAT. Drinks about $4. There are several stands there, not that you ever need to think about getting up for a drink. Staff were accommodating, without being pushy, you'll see several walking with tray's announcing "drinks", you just nodded and they're there. The beach here was the cleanest and the clearest. It is NOT Carnival affiliated (CCL doesn't own it), but CCL does offer excursions to coral world and the snorkeling is at this beach. We did it for 1/4 the price by catching a taxi at the peer.

We passed Sapphire and it looked beautiful, about 5 minutes before Coki, if your coming up the south east towards the north (again that tour thing). Saw Magdens beach from above, not impressive to us.

The driving... holy cow!!! The driving is on the European side, without changing the steering wheel on the car to the right!!!! Plus it is all hills and narrow winding roads with a probable 50% blind spot around each turn. And we were going to rent scooters! ha! I could have screamed, several times.

Didn't shop here, well anywhere else except Aruba!

DOMINICA
Well for us, 100 degrees, plus humidity was a bit much at 7am, This is a gorgeous mountainous Island from what we could see on the boat and port. We shopped for 15 minutes, very pushy people like Jamaica, same stuff at every stand. (found the necklaces cheaper at Aruba). Looked up at the enormous mountains, continued sweating and said.. NO WAY, are we hiking up any mountain to see water falling from it. Back to the ship we went!

Now we asked the several couples we met. One broken down van, one group of seniors in a tour that extended it beyond belief and the lunch was orange slices and one bottle of water in a four hour rain forest excursion (which they had to wait for despite complaining of thirst). We were told that the temperature did drop 20 degrees once on top of the mountain and the water was very cold, and a lot of hiking. Wish we could give a better review, but the fact that only our ship from a port that just sailed three actually went there, might say that Princess and RC know something about Dominica that CCL doesn't.

Did visit the spa and had a facial. The spa offers specials on port days and I was pleasantly surprised that when I called to book, they lowered the price another $15.

BARBADOS
Disclaimer-left all my research at home so forgot what beaches to visit.

Our room facing the bridge was on the right side of the boat. Well the port had no special view from the balcony, just a shipping dock. We went into port and asked the information desk to recommend a beach with a restroom, bar and snorkeling. This paid off jerk LIED, and told us to go to SURFSIDE (which if I had my notes I would have known better) Picture trailer park trash, on the dirtiest and rockiest beach. Yep!

Worse, my bad, we overpaid the taxi driver in US dollars, which was double, ask if your taxi is US or Barbados and determine the price ahead of time. This did give us a great tour of the west coast and the resorts, so the money was still well spent. $25 US to get to the surfside, about 10 minutes from Mullens and then $15 US dollars to go to the Boatyard, which is past the port, past downtown a bit east of the ship.

The boatyard, as all the reviews' say, was excellent. The facilities clean enough, a shopping strip to the right with an additional restaurant, or you could eat at the boatyard. Admission as $12 pp, then you're given $8 pp back in tokens. Chairs for free, just a tip if you want an umbrella dug in for you. Volleyball, free, jet ski can haggle down to $40 for 30 minutes which we did. Also banana boat and inner tube rides, don't know the price. Snorkeling from a dive shop right as you walk in for $10pp which CCL charges over $40 for to go to the same spot just to the left of the boatyard. Tried the flying fish sandwich, liked it. Drinks about $4 for beer. Credit cards accepted, ran a tab all day... and night too.

Now the excursion for the Beach Carnival, which ran from about 2-5pm was a rip off at $78 pp. (our buddies did this, we crashed it.). Included all the rum punch and burgers which they ran short of. This was just left to the boatyard (when facing ocean) at Carlile beach.

Want the comparison?-per person, boatyard vs. this beach Carnival- to do CCL excursion $78pp, transportation,all the rum punch (no other choices), one burger, chairs a bathroom and no water sports.

Boatyard on your own, taxi both ways $6 total, $4 to enter after you subtract the drink or food credit. Chairs, bathroom and availability to rent all motorized water activities and snorkle for $10 if you want that. Figure if you paid for that burger it would be $10. I'm at $20, Can you drink more then $58 worth of rum punch per person? In three hours? In addition, on your own, you stay as long as the boat is still in port.

We joined our friends at Carlisle, brought our own $4 beer for a short bit then walked the 10 minutes back to the boatyard along the beach, after being very pleased about not choosing that excursion. Had such a great time, and new friends we so jealous that we returned to the boatyard for the night life. Don't cut off your wrist band for re-entry. This was just like Carlos and Charlie's at night. Caught a taxi both ways again no problem finding one they all wait for the tourists out front. It was a blast, got on the boat at the last minute, after getting some beads first.

DAY AT SEA
Not pleased with Jorge, the cruise director, hardly saw him and there was a three hour window with no activities planned, okay for us who like to lay out, but wouldn't have minded some options.

ARUBA
How much more time do you have?? We followed many peoples suggestions and rented a jeep, just across from the dock.... THANK YOU! This was the greatest time. We rented the big jeep with the 'air conditioning' (back open) and took the insurance for $110 plus a $20 to fill her back up. Had the jeep from the am until 6pm. Even though none of the roads really are named, the map they give you lists restaurants so it's left at subway... and so on. Surprisingly easy, for driving all day, we were only turned around once.

We drove counter clockwise from the port, turned left before the natural pool. I've heard mixed reviews about going through the national park. We just LOVED it. These are dirt, rocky bumpy roads. You do need a 4x4. Mind you as I say this, a tour bus is tipping side to side winding down this path with all the passengers being bounced around. So, if those crazy bus drivers can do it.... but don't try it in a car. Then off to the natural bridge, which was beautiful to see. Great photo stop. A shop with facilities and drinks was there, 25 cents to use the bathroom.

The lighthouse to the northwest corner had a breathtaking view of the island. A must see, even just for the view. Next to the lighthouse is an Italian restaurant La Trattorie El Faro Blanco where we ate. Don't let the formal appearance scare you off. Food was excellent, the prices are in Aruba's currency, our exchange was 0.55 so the price was good, $60 for 4 for lunch and the VIEW, well just go there to see. Could have sat all day overlooking the beach and island, but hadn't been to the beach yet.

Many people are suggesting Palm. Take into consideration that a hurricane or two just hit the pier. There was an oil spill near Palm beach. The water was greasy, odorous and murky. There is parking as well as a public entrance next to the Hyatt. Here you can rent beach chairs for 5$ and be pointed to the hotel, next to the Hyatt to use the facilities - pool and all. From here we decided to try a different beach, there are several great looking non resort type beaches. Eagle was one between Palm beach and pier. Eagle beach had those Corona beer commercial huts with a bar a bit down the beach. There are fewer people here on eagle, the water clean and clear. There were still shade huts and palm trees like Palm Beach, only a longer walk to the bar, which is across from the resort you'll know it, that's where everyone is gathered.

All the main carnival approved shops close at 6pm. The shopping centers, right off the pier, looked, and ARE terrific, stays open much later. These are all local shops where haggling is allowed, the carnival approved mall area is across the street.

Night life is everywhere in the downtown area, although if you want Carlos and Charlie's get there early the line gets long. We stopped at several clubs, avoiding the ones with covers. Iguanna Joes had a large frozen drink, some lethal looking in ½ carafe containers. Restaurant atmosphere although there are tables that overlook the strip where all the action is. Next was La Petite grille, more fancy, still overlooked the strip. Then Mambo Jambo, or something close had a large frozen drink selection and fair menu choices it was a rowdier bar atmosphere, like Jack Asters, excellent décor and a bar with stools aligned the parimiter to watch the strip. Further down on Westraat street, opposite direction from the pier was choose a name bar. For $25 pp from 6-8 pm all you can drink and latin music. Competes pretty well with Carlos and Charlies.

Kukoo Kunuku excursion was attended by another couple. Four hours, you start with a ride in a crazy decorated bus being taken to a local' house (happens to be a chef). Here he serves your group dinner for 1 ½ hrs. Then you get on the party bus and stop at 4 bars, with a one drink voucher for each bar, ending up at Carlos and Charlies, bypassing that eternal line to get in. They had a great time. Dinner was served restaurant style outside, with a house tour after. $75 pp

Day at sea
-sunburn

EXITING BOAT INFORMATION
The best info we came by. You remember how long it takes to finally get off? We booked the cheapest tour in San Juan, our flight booked for 3:15. The tour with transportation was $37 pp. So You're off the ship 830am, get a porter to take your luggage to a van where it is delivered to you at the airport and board the bus! We went to a fort, 45 minutes, great pictures, interesting. Then the bus stopped at old San Juan, right next to the Princess port. We had a brief guided tour then 90 min. to walk around. Gorgeous!! Then the bus drove through new San Juan, past our old hotel to the airport. There was the van and our luggage was being unloaded! Through security to the bar for lunch where we met people who were just let off the boat at 1130am and by the time they caught a cab and cleared security it was past one when they reached the bar with us.

Info. We have a ton of cab and all the excursion prices as well as the carnival capers. Will post on the web if anyone has questions. E-mail I'll try hard to get the info to you

Thank you to everyone who posted reviews who helped make this the best vacation, you all are the best!!!!