We have a booking out of San Juan aboard the DESTINY, for April 20th. I have been watching for flights,out of Charlotte, for months. We usually fly USAIRWAYS, and the flight that suited our needs showed all booked up back in November. I started looking to other airlines and found a flight through American with a stop in Miami,which I wasn't too crazy about but it seemed as though we were running out of options...can't drive to San Juan. I booked the flight with American. About a week later, just looking around on the internet, I found that USAIRWAYS had added another flight to PR,right in the timeframe I needed. No stops and 1/2 the price of my now scheduled flight. I felt totally violated. Even though it was my own fault for being overly anxious and fearing we would not get a flight. I am not one for flying. I HATE landings,so direct flights are my preference....I booked the USAIRWAYS flight also. Now I have 2 scheduled flights to PR. I then called American to see if they would be gratious enough to return my money for the 2 stopper...that was a joke, so, I changed my tickets to my next cruise in October, out of Ft Lauderdale. I lost $200, but, once again, that was my own fault for being in too much of a hurry....I should have waited. I just got worried we wouldn't get ANY flight, and like I said earlier, You can't drive to San Juan. I don't think I'll book any more cruises that don't leave from the mainland. Has anyone been on this 7 Day So Carib cruise, several people have told me it's very different, with more of a spanish fair aboard the ship. Any input would be appreciated.

It is always hit or miss with airfare. Don't beat yourself up to badly. The airfare could have just as likely gone up significatly and then you would have been mad you didn't buy when it was lower.
You most likely will notice more
Spanish speaking people on a cruise leaving out of San Juan. The ship will make announcements in English and Spanish and maybe even other lanuages. The Southern Caribbean itineraries have some very nice stops that can't normally be reached on a 7day cruise out of Miami. Therefore; leaving out of San Juan is necessary to reach the islands in 7 days.
Enjoy your cruise.

I know what you mean wanting to secure a flight. Let me share with you what I found. There is a web sight called yapta.com and you can pick your flights, put it on yapta and then if the flights change they notify you and you can ask for a discount. I have saved hundreds of dollars so far. We are going on the Destiny March 2nd and flying from California so it is very costly. Like you I booked early, but since there has been 2 drops and each time yapta let me know and I called and the airlines gave me the new fare. I'm looking forward to the trip and coming in PR early to enjoy that port before getting on the ship...by the way I am bushing up on my spanish..lol

I've done this Destiny cruise 2 times and would do it again in a heartbeat. You will find more Spanish spoken than usual but it was not problem for us. We love doing cruises from San Juan, we feel we get to see more for our money. Destiny used to go to Aruba which was a big selling point for me as I love that port. Guess gas prices have made it non-profitable so they changed ports to keep miles off the ship. I hope you enjoy the cruise.

ok just to clarify
90% of the island can understand english especially on San Juan, problem is that most of them does not talk using english that's the problem.
Probably you ask someone something in english, they will understand it, and will try to give you the answer either on spanish or "bad english"
For all of you that will visit San Juan that's not the case there since thats our tourists area and most people speak in english.

As for the ship things have change over the years,this is what I found out about the Carnival Destiny:

On my last trip I notice that the number of Puerto Rico cruisers were not the same actually was wayyyy down in numbers.
When I ask some of the Carnival people on the dinning room,

Why is this happen??

they just told me that the problem was their new route, for some reason they did not know, the people of PR does not like it and the cruisers from the island were going down. Problem is Carnival Destiny makes great $$$ numbers from the people of the island and Carnival know it.

As you know I am from Puerto Rico, the reason is they don't go to Aruba and we really like Aruba Chesse
LOL

That's one of the reason why Carnival Destiny had new routes, just looking to catch that $$$

at first Dominican Republic

Why?

since is an unexpensive port and also people of PR always take their vacation on there,
We love it!!!
because they have all inclusive hotels there for less than half the price of what you will get here.
But Carnival never consider that it was also half the price of booking a cruise with them,
So it did not work the way they want it and they change the route to the one I have now...I even believe that the one I have
will change also since the st.Lucia port does not start again until march and before that the are visiting st. Martin.
I believe that at the end they will keep st.Martin insted st.Lucia but that's only what I think don't really know what will happen...