Cabin: First I must say that I had a 6A Guarantee so did not know where my cabin would be until I checked in..When I checked in they told me my cabin would be 7150, so to go from Riviera Deck to the Empress deck was a good upgrade, at least I thought so until I got into the room. Upon opening the door to my cabin I realized that I got a fantastic upgrade I was looking at a Cat 11 Mini Suite. Minibar, Jacuzzi Tub, seperate dressing area, refrigerator. I would have been happy with just a balcony. Also I was travelling alone so this was really a huge room for 1 person(although I was not going to complain..LOL) I only had 2 problems with the room which I will address later.

Ship: After unpacking I decided to venture out and see what the ship was like. I found her to be typical Carnival Decor, that glitzy Vegas style we have all grown to either love or hate. I was on the Fascination last October on my first Carnival cruise so I was comparing everything from that experience. I really only have 2 complaints a bout the ship and they are traffic flow and the elevators. I found traffic flow to be very bad especially in the forward areas around the lounge, lobby area and most of all around the gift shops. When the tables come out for the sales these areas are clogged with people. I found that on the Fascination these tables were in front of the theatre so unless there was a show about to go on or get out these areas were out of the way of the general traffic. On the Destiny they were right out in the the Aisle in the Atruim area. I was just waiting for someone to get pushed over the railing with all the traffic.... The second problem I found was the elevators. There are 3 elevator areas forward,aft and one bank in the middle(TIP 1: Use this bank of elevators most people use either forward or aft ). The forward elevators were the worse. with a total of 12 elevators you would think you would get one........Don't hold your breathe..Most times I just walked the stairs....(TIP 2: When you get out of the elevators you can orient yourself to to the front of the ship for port(left and even number cabins and starboard(Right and odd numbered cabins) by looking for the stairs. )

Entertainment: I must preface this section by stating the I am a New Yorker and love the theatre. That being said I must say the entertainment was good. Typical musical reviews with dancing, I must say both vocalists were very good and I was not disappointed. The magic show was also good. I missed the Talent show( but one of my table mates was Mary in the Bedtime Story) and also the late night comedian so cannot comment on them. John Heald was the CD and was ok. I had heard all the jokes before on my last cruise, so think that maybe Carnival ought to hire someone to bring up new material. most of the other entertainment was Bingo, Horse racing, Trivia, There was 2 movies in the lounge (of course,one was Titanic( a fitting movie for going to Halifax)).

Food: let me just say I gained 5 pounds.....Nuff said!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Staff: Everyone was very good for the most part. I heard of some complaints with on of the people in the Photo area, but other than that everyone gets high marks. I must point out the one person I will remember for a long time and that is Andrea who is a bartender in the flagship lounge. She is there during the afternoons so everyone has to stop by and say hello. She is one of the best barpeople I have ever had the pleasure to meet. Tell her Gary, Sharon, and Randi all say Hi.....

Ports: The first thing I have to say is that the local people are extremely friendly, you do not have people hawking to get you to take a tour with them like in the caribbean, At both stops there are Flea type markets located right after you get off the ship. you can get all the gifts you needs at these places.Some places have both US dollar and Canadian Dollar prices on them, but for the most part they are listed in canadian prices...Exchange rate is close to 1.50 to it is easy to convert. Also they will likely give you canadian back.Just use it at another vendor. In Saint John I took the St. Martins/Echo Caves tour. I enjoyed this very much. you make the following stops. Reversing Falls, City Market, St. Martin, Echo Caves. In St Martins you make 2 stops, one is at a gift shop and the other is at the docks where you can take pictures of the Bay of Fundy,Twin Covered Bridges,and the lighthouse.At echo caves you also have a great seafood chowder for lunch at the little restaurant. the tide was coming in when we got to echo caves so was able to get all the was out to them(they are accessable only during low tide). The guide talks about the history of the areas and are knowledgable. They only do this a few times a week though so you can stump them on a question. One thing to keep in mind is that Saint John is on the Bay of Fundy with the highest tide changes in the world.I have pictures of a small fishing boat laying in the mud in St Martin and on the return from echo caves about an hour later it was floating upright in the bay. On the way back the tour will ask if there is anyone who wants to get off at the city market or go back to the ship. It is only about a 5 minute walk from the market to the ship so if you want to do a bit of shopping you have about 2 hours before you get to the ship. During the trip from Saint John to Halifax there was a woman who had a Heart attack so the ship was delayed for 4 hours getting into Halifax. Here Carnival fell down by not informing people earlier. We were due to get into Halifax around 8-9am so there were alot of people milling around wondering what was going on.The TV system has a channel that will give you all the ships info, sea conditions, time, estimate time of arrival, distance to next port. I noticed when I woke up that the Est time of arrival was 13:30. I thought there was engine problems...I had read all about the problems that Destiny had in Boston so was paying attention to any problems.About 9am John Heald got on the intercom and announced what what happened,that the woman was doing ok. At that time all of the tours were cancelled. Alot of people were upset. But later all of the tours were put back on, they were just not sending out tours every half hour of so but just filling up a bus and going. They also decided not to leave Halifax until 8pm instead of 6pm. So in the long run carnival did all they could to accommadate everyone's needs. We arrrived at Halifax right around 2-2:30pm....(TIP: They say to keep your watches on Ships Time.. Remember this is 1 hour EARLIER than Halifax and Saint John's time. There were a few problems in Halifax with the shops closing at 6pm Halifax time). I did not take a tour here as I was supposed to meet a friend,but my friend broke her ankle and could not take me. So I just walked the city. There is a great walking tour of the city that Halifax has worked out. You can either pick up the Halifax guide either at the information desk in the terminal or you can order it through the Halifax website.I will say that most everyone took the Halifax/Peggy's Cove tours or the Titanic Musuem tour....I did not hear anything negative on either tours. If you have the time make sure to stop and walk around the Barrington/Historic Properties shopping area. They are right next to the bay. Uppon leaving Halifax we ran into a good storm. Up to this point the seas were 1-4ft waves, but that night the rain kicked up and the seas were up to 15ft waves. so things got pretty hairy for some people(read seasick. there were alot of little white bags all around the ship that night and the next morning). I had problems sleeping because one of my cabin closet doors keeped opening and closing. and there was a light switch attached so not only was the door banging but the light would go on at the same time.I finally just stuck all my shoes in the doorway and took out the ballast in the light and the next day told my Cabin steward to have it repaired which it was during the day. Disembarking: We were a little late getting back to New York Harbor by about 1/2 hr.Immigration got onboard in Halifax so the last day at sea they took care of all that. They also had 2 types of Disembarking the ship....If you were carrying off all your luggage you would be able to leave as soon as customs released the ship. If you were not in a hurry you could leave bags outside your door the night before and after all the other guests had gotten off they would be letting you go. Since I live only 15 blocks from the ship I was going to just set my bags out that night and not rush. But my dinner table and I starting to party and I did not get my bag out in time.Which worked out well in the long run because the current in the Hudson was strong enough that it took us over 2 hours to dock. There was mass confusion because everyone decided to wait in the lobby instead of their rooms as was suggested. Carnival was keeping people informed on the situation but should have said that the lobby would be off limits so customs could check the ship.Once I got to the ganway I was off the ship through customs and cathcing a cab in 5 minutes. So after docking things went smooth. Closing Remarks: All in all the cruise was all I had expected it to be. This is not your party hardy cruise but a relaxing 5 days at sea. This time of year you have to expect the weather and sea to be changing, so I would never conmplain about a rough ride or bad weather (the ride was not rough at all but you did notice rocking though). This was an older crowd I would say 90% were retirees. There were about 300 kids on board and they all were very behaved. Camp Carnival was all over the place with the kids and all the kids seems to be having a good time. All in all I would take this cruise again anytime, The people on carnival were great and the people in the ports even friendlier.