Ship: Carnival Destiny | Sail Date: 9/24/08 | Destination: > Southern Caribbean

I sailed on Carnival Destiny, out of San Juan, Puerto Rico on August 24th of this year. My then fiance and I had a great experience last year as first-time cruisers. So much so that we decided to tie the knot this year aboard Destiny. However, this year's trip turned out to be HORRIBLE. I expected to have a great time, an even greater time since I was getting married and invited friends and family along. There was construction going on throughout the trip - constant noise, drilling going on. There were areas not accessible due to stacked up chairs put aside to make room for machinery. Aside from this being an inconvenience, it was a huge eye-soar. This was supposed to be a "luxurious" vacation - not the case when you have chairs stacked in front of the window blocking views while dining (for the ENTIRE trip). A couple of nights the bars were sectioned off while workers were fixing/replacing wires in the ceiling. There were elevators that were not available to us - sectioned off with yellow tape - because they were being used for the workers which means longer wait times between decks - this was during the afternoon - a time when there could be any number of people using elevators. At one point during my trip (the morning), I was told to leave my stateroom at a certain time because "work needed to be done to the balcony". Not one morning was I able to sleep late without the sound of constant drilling. My husband and my 7 year old were with me which means that we all had to rush to get ready before the workers started. At another time, my toilet refused to flush, which I contributed to the construction going on. There were friends/relatives in two other staterooms with the same experiences. All but one were first-time cruisers and they didn't hesitate to say they didn't like the fact that we were in the middle of a construction project. It was humiliating to my husband and me that we asked friends/family to spend money for a trip that turned out to be crappy. Some type of discount could have been provided for booking the Destiny during this time or an incentive to sail on another Carnival ship. And on top of all of this, I was getting married!!! I had friends/family join us for the wedding, onboard and abroad (Barbados) - telling them "this was such a great ship," "they weren't going to have another experience like this one," "sailing on Carnival was going to become an addiction." Only to come to a ship under construction. I gave this ship such great reviews only to be completely disappointed. Not only did I pay for three people to sail, I also paid for a wedding which Carnival promised to be nothing less than perfect - not to mention airfare coming from New York. I spoke to Carnival NUMEROUS times prior to our trip. At no time did anyone mention that the Destiny was under construction. Being that this was not just a family vacation but my WEDDING!, I would have expected a carnival representative to give us the heads up - give us the option of booking a trip on this ship or another. With the work being done, and the noise, it made the experience less than exciting. The fact that I was allowed to plan a wedding aboard without knowing the circumstances shows me that Carnival didn't have my best interests in mind. I would have been more than happy to sail/marry on another ship in your fleet. Now, I am not sure if I want to sail Carnival ever again! I'm definitely not recommending it! posted by THE WIFE!