First Time Cruisers Review- Legend- 02/07-02/14

[Chowder_17]

Hello!

 

Looks like I am one of the 1st to review the past week's Legend cruise. This will probably take me a bit so bear with me...

 

Despite the small blip in one of the propellers going out we had a fantastic time and was still able to make it home yesterday (Sunday) only a few hrs later than our original flight time.

 

Background: This was my husband's and I first cruise and we were going to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary and were also considering this a belated honeymoon (I am active duty military and was in training/deployment status when we got married). We are in our mid-20's and were coming from Colorado (originally from Ohio). We have an 8 month old son that the in-law came in town to watch him. So, it was just the two of us.

 

 

Feb. 6th:

 

We live down in Colorado Springs, but flew out of Denver on Southwest Airlines. No issues with the flight, but we were running late to the airport. So, there was some running through the airport for us to make our flight. We arrived in Tampa at around 6:15PM.

 

We booked hotel reservations at the La Quinta- Airport, because of the free transportation from the airport to the hotel, free breakfast in the AM, and a shuttle ride for $10 to the port. We got our bags and called via the courtesy phone for the shuttle. There was already one waiting outside, so we didn't have to wait or anything. The hotel is about a 10 min. ride from the airport. When we arrived, it looked like an older hotel and didn't look as nice as other La Quinta's that we've stayed in before. We got our key and had a standard king-sized bed room on the 1st floor (all doors open to the outside parking lot). The room was small, as was the bathroom, but was adequate enough, as we were tired and hungry and didn't want to search for anyone hotel. If we were to do this again, we wouldn't have stayed here. The price was typically $99 a night, but since I’m military it was $65. For the price it was adequate.

 

However, they did have free transportation to the International Mall, which is shortly down the street. We went there for a few hrs and picked up some dress shoes for me, some cigars for my husband, and some missed toiletry items (they had a convenience store inside the mall on the 2nd floor). After shopping, we were starving, so we went and ate at Champs, a very nice sports bar/grill. We both got burgers and beer and they were fantastic.

 

After dinner, we called the hotel for the shuttle and within 5 min. we were on our way back to the hotel. We reorganized our bags, put on the bag tags, and hit the hay…

[mom2isabella05cole08]

congrats on the belated honeymoon! DH and I got married Jun 2007 and haven't had a chance for our honeymoon yet, as we had a 2 year old when we got married and we couldn't justify at the time going without her (at 4 years old we are just now getting used to her spending the night at Nana and Papa's house)

 

Looking forward to how your cruise went and hoping that the Legend's problem(s) are solved quickly

[Chowder_17]

Day 1-Feb 7:

 

We got up around 8AM and hit up the breakfast. It was typical hotel continental breakfast items. We ate pretty light since we knew that we would get lunch shortly after we were on board. At this time, they also were selling the shuttle tickets to the port ($10 pp) and we were scheduled to leave on the 1st one at 11AM.

 

They brought a few shuttle busses and a few town cars for the disabled. Well, there was extra room in one of the town cars, so my husband and I rode in one of them with a nice couple from Montreal, Canada.

 

We arrived at the port at about 11:15AM. Gave our 3 bags to the porters (unlocked), showed our id’s and funpass at the door and we headed inside for security. The line moved very quickly. When we got to the scanner/x-ray, the guards were curious what was in my backpack since it was heavy. I had a 2 liter of Pepsi and a bottle of wine. They wanted to confirm the bottle wasn’t opened (only by asking me, not opening the bag). After that, we headed to another line to check in and fill out a simple heath questioner. We got up to the counter and handed them our id’s and funpass again. Two minutes later we had our S&S cards and were on our way to get our photos taken and on the boat.

 

We headed up to the lido deck for some lunch and were sitting down with our food before noon..

 

To Be Continued….

[habby]

I know it's only been a little over 24 hours since you last posted, but I'm anxiously awaiting to hear about the rest of your cruise. (at least little tidbits to keep us going!)

[Chowder_17]

I know it's only been a little over 24 hours since you last posted, but I'm anxiously awaiting to hear about the rest of your cruise. (at least little tidbits to keep us going!)

 

Sorry for the delay. I was trying to adjust back to a 12hr night shift schedule. I should have a lot of the review done tonight and posted for your reading pleasure :)

[Chowder_17]

Day1 Cont.

 

After lunch (around 12:30pm) we decided to explore the ship since our rooms wouldn’t be ready for another hour. The boat wasn’t too crowded so we were able to go everywhere and get photos very easily.

 

We also went to the purser’s desk to put cash on our account (Yippee for tax returns!). There was no waiting at the desk and within a few minutes we had $400 on our S&S. We also picked up a few decks of cards.

 

By this time, our room was ready. So, so we eagerly headed up to deck 5 to check it out. We booked an obstructed balcony (# 5169) that was located on the starboard side, with the lower life boats, and in-between the boats, so we actually had a good sized gap to look down at the water. When we got to the room 2 out of the 3 bags we checked were already outside our door. I was a little worried about the third bag, since that was the one that I packed two rum runners in. When we got in the room I was excited to see that the “Happy Anniversary” decorations that I arranged for the room where beautifully done. We also ordered a bottle of Jameson (about $52) from Bon Voyage and my husband’s rented tux was there as well. We then headed out to our balcony (two chairs and a table) and read the capers for the day.

 

After about an hour, I was starting to get really nervous about the missing bag, but then read in the stateroom guide that it could take as late as 8PM for all bags to make it to the room. So, with that info we decided to head to the Dream Team Sports Bar for a drink. On our way up there I saw my bag on the carts and I finally began to relax.

 

The sports bar was a very relaxing place. It also sold cigars for a reasonable price (my husband didn’t buy any on board since he bought some in Tampa). We had a beer and then head back up to the room to get my bag.

 

We bought the bag into our room and I was happy to see that my rum runners made it though with no problem. However, throughout the duration of the cruise I think I only made two drinks with the alcohol that I bought. When we cruise again I probably won’t bring the rum runners anymore. There was too much worrying about smuggling alcohol when I barely drank it. However, the bottle that I got from my husband through Bon Voyage was a great deal and we will do that again.

 

We then proceeded to unpack and put away all of our clothing and then we head up to the lido deck for sailaway

We went up to the Lido deck at the unicorn bar, back in the adult area and waited for sail away. Both my husband and I bought a Funship special DOD and my husband enjoyed a cigar while we pushed away from the dock. Also, on the deck we met up with the family that started the Roll Call on this message board.

 

It was a little cold and windy in Tampa, but we were so excited to be on the boat that we stayed outside and watched the boat got through the channel.

 

At about 6PM, we were getting close to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. It was quite a site to see. Our cruise director, Jen Baxter, gave us all the details. It was crazy to hear that the boat clears the bridge by only 5 feet! We had anytime dinning, so we decided to stay outside to watch us go under the bridge. We were standing up by the “whale tail” and the horn went off as we went under, which scared the crap out of me.

 

After the bridge, we decided to head to dinner. We were on deck 3 for anytime dining. There was no line and we were able to get a table for two (we got a table for two with no waiting every time we ate in the dining room). Our waiter that night was Carlos, from Colombia. The wait team was great that night. I ordered the Beef and Barley soup for starters, Penne w/ Italian sausage and peppers for the entrée, and the Warm Chocolate melting cake for desert. All of the food was fantastic!

 

However, during dinner I was starting to feel a little dizzy. I don’t know if I was getting sea sick or the seas were rough, but since this was my 1st time on a boat I think I was just getting my sea legs.

 

Tonight was also the night of the Super Bowl, which we missed the start due to dinner. They were showing the game in Follies (show lounge) and also had it in our rooms. We headed to the lounge and picked up a bucket of beer on the way in ($2 off!). It was halftime, so we watched the show and the start of the 3rd qtr, but I still wasn’t feeling well, so we headed back to the room, so I could lie down and watch the game there.

 

After the game, there were doing the nightly show. I wasn’t feeling 100%, but I didn’t want to be a party pooper, so we went. We went up into the balcony and had no problem finding seats (Actually, every time we went to a show there was never a problem finding seat and we never saw the seat saving horror stories that I read about). The show consisted of the singers/dancer and a comedian. There was also an intro by Jen, the cruise director (we liked her throughout the cruise).

 

After the show, we decided to hit the hay to enjoy our fun day at sea…

 

TO BE CONTINUED…

[Chowder_17]

Day 2- Fun Day at Sea:

We woke up around 8AM that morning and I was feeling a heck of a lot better than I did last night. Once again I wasn’t sure if the seas calmed down or I got my “sea legs”. We decided to hit the gym right away. Well, we went up to deck 10 and boy was the gym crowded! My husband went to lift weight, while I attempted to get a cardio machine. Well, they were ALL taken up, so I decided to head up to deck 11 on the jogging track. There were only a few people on the track and they were all running. It is 14 laps to a mile and it was pretty windy. I decided to give it a go anyways and I ran a mile with no problem (with us coming from over 6,000ft altitude in Colorado, being a sea level was great!). Afterwards, I headed back down to the gym and got a treadmill and did any extra ½ mile.

Observation from the gym: We were the only Americans in the gym, which we noticed translated to a lot the passengers. This may come as rude or whatever, but we noticed that there were a lot of very, very overweight passengers on the boat. Now my husband and I aren’t the smallest people in the world, but we weren’t the ones eating three deserts for lunch and taking the elevator while going up or down one floor. Enough about that, just an observation…

After the gym, we went to deck 9 and hit up the breakfast buffet. There was a wide variety of foods for whatever your morning tastes was that day. There were bacon police at some stations and none at the others.

After a quick shower we headed up to the Lido deck, aft area- Adults only. We never saw any kids in the pool/hot tub or on the chairs, so no need for Carnival’s enforcement. Actually, anytime we were in that area we had no problem getting a chair; no chair hogs that I saw. We laid our pasty white butts out in the sun, enjoyed a few drinks, and I swam and went down the water slide. We watched the Hairy Chest Completion at the middle pools and an older gentleman one. The whole thing was a hoot! For lunch we went to the Deli section of the buffet and both got the most delicious corned beef sandwich on rye and a crisp, fresh caeser salad.

Tonight was “Cruise elegant” night and the Captain’s party. Since we were doing a vow renewal during the cruise we rented a tux, so my husband wore that, while I wore a black cocktail dress. We headed down to the lobby before dinner for the reduced priced cocktails and photos. To our surprise a lot of men were in tuxs and a vast majority of the others were in suits (everything we read on hear was talking about casual dress on the elegant nights). We decided to get a few photos with the different backgrounds (I was planning on purchasing some, but when we looked at them some were blurry or off-center) and a DOD (blue margarita). We headed off to dinner with hopes to make it back for the Captain’s introduction.

We got seated right away, but tonight the service was really, really slow (about 2hrs for dinner). In the dining room we saw people that were dressed down a little more, but nothing too outrageous. We brought one of our wine bottles to dinner and they reminded us that there would be a $10 corking fee, but they never took our S&S card, so we were never charged. Tonight, I ordered the casear salad for starters, prime rib for entrée, and for desert my husband’s boss surprised us with a “Happy Honeymoon” cake. The maître d and the wait staff sang happy honeymoon to us. Since dinner took so long (the only night service was bad) we missed the introductions, but I later caught it on the ship’s channel.

After dinner, we went back to the room to change. Tonight’s show was a Jazz ensemble. We aren’t showtune singing and dancing people, so we decided to skip that show, but planned on attending the midnight adult comedy show. In the meantime, we decided to hit up the casino. We played blackjack ($20 each). My husband lost it right away and headed over to the slots, while I played over an hour on my $20 before losing it all.

Afterwards, we planned on taking an hour nap before the show, but ended up sleeping later and misses it, which was fine since we had a 7AM arrival into Grand Cayman.

 

To Be Continued…

[Chowder_17]

Day 3- Grand Cayman:

We woke up around 6:50AM and we had just arrived in Grand Cayman. We were anchored next to a NCL ship and the sun was just coming up.

One of my friends that I’ve known since I was 6 is a diver instructor on Cayman and she works for the Sea Trek Company, which is one of the Carnival excursions, so we were able to do the excursion for free. We didn’t have to meet her until 8:30AM, so we took our time getting ready to catch a tender to shore.

We had no issues leaving the ship and the tenders were running consistently. We arrived to shore and made the short walk down the road to Hammerhead’s Restaurant (the company was right next door). It was crazy to see cars driving on the “wrong” side of the road, since we forgot this was a British Island.

We met up with her and picked to do the excursion at 9:30AM. We had some time to kill, so we decided to seek out the Big Black D*ck Rum that I read about. We found the cut out very easily and of course took photos and headed upstairs to the shop to make our purchases. We bought a rum cake, shot glasses, and one bottle of the coconut flavored, which was delivered directly to the ship and we got it on the last evening.

We headed back to the shop to start our excursion. We decided to the Sea Trek excursion (wearing helmets and walking on the ocean floor), instead of Snuba. We were with another couple from the Valor and a gentleman from a Costa ship. Actually, there were 6 ships in port that day (Celebrity, Costa, MSC, Two Carnivals, and NCL). The excursion started with a safety brief and a bit about the helmets. We then boarded a small boat that took us out to the point where we would be walking on the ocean floor. The helmets were really cool. Outside of the water they weigh 75lbs, but when you have them on in the water they feel less than 15lbs. After getting the helmets on, you walk down a ladder to the ocean floor. The tour guide was my friend’s boyfriend, Chris, and he was wonderful. He showed us the different types of coral and plant life along with the various types of fish. He carried around a pouch of fish food, so we had a school of fish following us the whole time. And I am not just saying this because they are my friends, but it was our favorite excursion on the whole cruise. We highly recommend it!

We were pretty hungry after the excursion, so we decided to eat lunch at Hammerhead’s. We both got jerk chicken sandwiches with seasoned fries. The sandwich was delicious, but boy was it spicy! I loved the sauce and I wish I could have bought a bottle of it.

We still had a few hrs to kill, so we decided to head to 7 mile beach. We took the bus, which was $2.50 per person. They are van and man do they pack them full. We got to the beach and it was very, very crowded. I’m glad we decided not to spend the whole day there. We went in the water for about an hour before deciding to catch the bus back to the ship.

Getting back on board was easy with our S&S card and a driver’s license. We got back on board about 2 hours (an hour before they wanted you back on) before the ship left.

We got cleaned up and headed down to the casino a bit before dinner. I played roulette and ended up winning a little bit back of the money that we lost the night before.

We headed to dinner and tonight our wait staff was fantastic! Our head waiter was Hastya and the waiter was Probo. They were so great that we ate in their section for the remaining dinner that we ate in the MDR. I can’t remember what I ordered that night, but we ordered a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon ($24).

After dinner, we headed to the 8:30PM show, which was another comedian. He was ok, but not good enough that we had our hearts set on attending his adult show. Afterwards, we hit up the casino again and then hit the hay to prepare for Cozumel the next day.

[Chowder_17]

Day 4: Cozumel, Mexico

This morning we got up around 9AM. Although, we arrived in Cozumel at 10AM, our excursion wasn’t until 11:30AM (Playa Mia Beach Break Deluxe). So, we decided to take advantage of the mostly empty ship to hit up the gym. This time I had no problem getting a cardio machine. After the workout, we got cleaned up and got a quick breakfast before leaving the ship.

It was nice that we were docked this time, but the pier was so long that we knew it was going to be a rough one after some drinks.

We found our meeting point among the shops in town. It was nice to finally see some folks around our age (up to this point all we saw on the ship was older people and a few families, but the adults were mostly in there 30’s). After waiting a little bit longer we walked a short distance over to our shuttle bus. The bus was big, comfy, and had A/C. After about a 20 min. drive we arrived at the beach. Before we got off they told us that they will make several notifications to get back to the bus and the bus would leave at 4:30PM (or so I thought they said…I’ll get to that later…)

The beach was pretty crowded, since there were several ships in port today. We went and claimed some chairs, but after a small altercation with some chair hogs we moved over to the other side of the beach, which worked out better since there was a bar closer and it was near the water trampoline. The excursion included: open bar, all you can eat Mexican buffet, access to the beach, and a bunch of different water toys (trampoline, kayak, etc.).

The sand was nice and white, but upon entering the water the ground was rocky for the 1st 50 yds or so, which made it a bit rough. Once you get past the rocky area its nice sand. About 100 yds out was the water trampoline, which was a blast! There was a slide off the trampoline, which was fun to go down as well.

A few hours after we got there a thunderstorm rolled through, so they cleared the beach. We took that opportunity to get lunch. It was a Mexican buffet that had chips, salsa, meat, salad, etc..We thought the food was fantastic! After, the storm clear up we headed off to the beach.

This is where the rest of the day gets fuzzy. We were steadily drinking throughout the day, but I thought that the mixed/frozen drinks were really weak, so I switched to Dos Equis. Well, later on we just started asking for extra alcohol to be added in. Well, we were feeling really, really good. We knew that it was starting to get close to the time to leave, so we went over to the bathroom and food areas. We ended up getting another bite to eat.

Well, we headed over to the bus area and come to find that we missed our bus back to the ship! I guess the bus was going to be back at the ship at 4:30PM, not leaving the beach at 4:30PM like I thought. Well, luckily this was a Carnival excursion, so the lady running it, got us a cab back to the ship for free! We did tip the driver though. We were the typical drunk Americans…

Overall, the excursion was a blast. However, the beach was crowded. I think if we ever go to Cozumel again we would go to Nachi Cocom Beach Club or one of the other resort. However, going through Carnival saved our behinds from missing the ship!

Somehow we made it back on board and we ended up crashing for about 4hrs. We got up around 8:45PM, feeling a bit better and rushed to get to dinner before they closed. For obvious reasons I don’t remember what I had for dinner that night.

After dinner, we went to the 10:30PM show, which was a hypnotist show. I’ve been to hypnotism shows before and have tried to be hypnotized with no success. I decided to give this guy a shot and volunteered to go on stage. My heart was beat so fast, since I was in front of all these people, so I figured it wasn’t going to work. Well, somehow I relaxed and I guess I was hypnotized. I knew where I was the whole time and sort of knew what I was doing, but didn’t really care. I ended up being on the people “picked on” to do a bunch of stuff. They had me on the phone with the President, forgetting the number 5 and making count my fingers, and pretending I lost all my life saving and then scrambling after napkins (money) to get it back. The crowd loved it and I had a blast!

After the show, we headed to bed to rest up for Belize…

 

To Be Continued…

[spideyfam]

This is one of the best reviews I have ever read on here. Good detail. Keep it coming!

[Chowder_17]

Day 5: Belize- OUR 5 YR ANNIVERSERY

Today we got up around 6:45AM, since we were suppose to arrive at 8AM and I’ve read horror stories about catching tenders in Belize, especially if you didn’t book a Carnival excursion.

We put out the continental breakfast form on our door the night before and right on time our breakfast arrived. We got ready for the day and headed down to Follies lounge to get a tender ticket.

The ticket system was fairly organized from what I can see. They had different colored stickers for the Carnival excursions and numbered stickers for those who had non-Carnival excursions and those that had none and just wanted to go ashore. We booked Major Tom’s Cave Tubing and we were supposed to take the earliest tender to meet our group.

Shortly after 8AM they started with some of the earlier starting Carnival excursion and I believe it was the second tender they started on those with non-Carnival excursions. The tender ride was a good 15-20 mins and the seas seemed a bit rough.

We got off the tender and saw the signs and teal shirt for Major Tom’s and we followed them to meet up with another large group from a different ship. A lot of the other tours had their buses nearby, but our group had to walk a decent distance through a run-down part of town. When we finally got to the bus, it was a school bus and it was completely full with two adults to a seat that was meant for school aged children.

Now, I researched this excursion and read awesome reviews for it, but the day seemed to be filled with stuff that wasn’t mentioned in the tour description…

First, the drive to the caves was a little over an hour on a cramped school bus. However, the tour guide gave a good background and I found that to be very interesting. I had no idea that Belize was an English speaking country. I thought all Central America countries were Spanish speaking. Anyways, after we arrived to the site my husband and I rented water shoes ($3 pp), since all we had was running shoes and flip flops. One of the things that wasn’t mentioned that if you didn’t book zip lining also (most of our group didn’t) you will be waiting around a lot. Since the zip lining + cave tubing was 6.5hrs and just cave tubing was 5hrs.

Anyways, we pick up our tubes as did the several other groups and began our journey through the Rain Forest. Now, I knew there was a small hike through the forest to get to the site, but what wasn’t know was the fact it was a several mile hike (took about 1.5hrs) over rocky terrain and you’re in water shoes. It was pretty cool to see the Rain Forest, but it got really old and uncomfortable after the first 2 miles.

In the middle of the forever long hike there was an area where you could jump off a cliff into the water and rope swing into the water. I did both and they were fun! I noticed that a lot of the other tour groups didn’t stop to let the guests do either.

After we finally got to the tubing site there were several other tour groups, which resulted in about a hundred people getting in the river. Most of the other groups had helmets with lights on them, we didn’t. Just lifejackets and a selected few people got flashlights. We linked up in two lines by have your ankles locked under the armpits of the person in front of you. As we tubed down the river there were several area where the water was only a few inches high and even though there was the call of “butts up” I got several bruise on my lower back.

Overall, the caves were pretty cool to go through. There were some neat formations, but the tubing part was maybe 45 mins long.

After tubing, people who bought lunches in advance got to eat. I didn’t purchase them in advance thinking we could buy them on the spot, but that wasn’t the case. We were very hungry!

Then began the long bus ride back to the ship. We were so worried that we were going to miss the last tender, which was at 3PM. We got back at 2:45PM and luckily we made it back.

Overall, I picked cave tubing since it looked like the best excursion to do in Belize, but we really didn’t like it too much. We could of skipped Belize all together…

Since, today was our 5yr anniversary we booked dinner at the Golden Fleece Steakhouse. My husband wore a long-sleeved button down shift, dockers, and dress shoes and I wore the same dress that I did for the 1st formal night. We ate once we got back on the boat at the buffet since we didn’t get lunch and I’m sure that it spoiled our appetite for the amazing steak dinner.

The people at the steak house were awesome. We got a table for two, right next to the window and there were about 5 people waiting on you hand and foot. It was suppose to be a 7 course meal and there was too much food. I ordered the Baked Onion soup for starters and they brought out fancy bread with 3 different spreads (butter, bruschetta, and a eggplant spread), a small chef’s special (I got a mushroom soup thing and my husband got a seafood thing). I ordered the prime chop and my husband ordered the porterhouse. We brought our own bottle of wine and we did get charged the $15 corking fee. Anyways, the food was so delicious but it was too much. I only finished half my steak and we skipped desert all together.

Overall, I think it was worth the $30 price and we would do it again. Next time, without spoiling our appetite.

I believe after dinner we went and gambled away some more money before the show. Overall, I though the casino was great. For smoking being allowed, I didn’t think it was smoky at all. There was a wide variety of slots ranging for 1 cent up to $5 and plenty of table games.

We went to the 10:30PM show (we liked that time frame better since it was less crowded). We got there a little early to play half off Bingo, but I didn’t win anything. Tonight show was a guy that can balance all sorts of crazy things. It was pretty neat!

After the show they were having the adult show for the hypnotist. While some of the people were pretty funny, most weren’t hypnotist, so they were booted from the stage and one guy was pretending and it was really obnoxious.

Afterwards, we hit the hay to prepare for early morning in Roatan…

 

To Be Continued This Evening…

[habby]

Holy Cow! You are BUSY people!! What a great description of the cave tubing. That had been on a list of "maybe" but seems a bit much for us at this time. It does sound like you had a blast though!

[jtdlmc]

Great review - love the details - good and bad - about the excursions and shore activities! Thanks!!!

[lindasuej]

We are suppose to have our meet and greet at the Unicorn Bar. I know the pool is adults only but are the kids allowed in the area at all? I have two grandkids that I need to bring along. If the kids aren't allowed in the area then I will have to let them know I can't make it or maybe we can change the location. Please let me know. Thanks

 

Linda

[mgob]

We are suppose to have our meet and greet at the Unicorn Bar. I know the pool is adults only but are the kids allowed in the area at all? I have two grandkids that I need to bring along. If the kids aren't allowed in the area then I will have to let them know I can't make it or maybe we can change the location. Please let me know. Thanks

 

Linda

 

I'm Chowder's husband, we saw plenty of kids in this area at least at sail away, I think the rule is, don't have your kids causing a fuss or swimming in the pool/hot tub and you'll be fine.

 

The roll call leader for our cruise was at unicorn with his son for sail away and didn't report any issues...

[Chowder_17]

So, I just re-read my capers and realized that I messed up on the different shows for each night:

 

Day 1: Legend Dancers did a few numbers and the comedy was done by Thomas Brown.

 

Day 2: Jazz Hot- We didn't attend

 

Day 3: Lubo- balancing act and Ronnie Bullard comedy

 

Day 4: Didn't review yet---was physical comedy of Max Winfrey. He did a whole bunch of crazy juggling. He juggled a lot of unusual items like tennis rackets, bowling bowls, swords, etc. He also did a few of these tricks on a huge unicycle. For this show my husband got to go up on stage and gave him a poker chip to juggle along with a bowling ball. We thought that the show was pretty cool.

 

Day 5: Hypnotism of Mark Maverick

 

Now, that I cleared that up I will continue to review the rest of the days.

[SAC69]

Thanks for your great review. We were on the Legend last July and we had a great time on a great ship. Also, thanks for your service. My son is also Air Force, special ops V22 Osprey currently serving in Afghanistan.

[Chowder_17]

Day 6: Isla Roatan:

We woke up this morning at about 6:45AM. We were schedule to arrive in Roatan at 8AM and we booked the Tabyana Beach excursion through Carnival and was scheduled to meet at 8:45AM. This morning we also got room service for breakfast.

 

This port was docked, so it was very easy to get off the ship. We found the sign board for our excursion and shortly we were on our way to the beach. For the ride there we were on a van and it was a little cramped. As it turns out, we got the only English speaking driver, so we got a wonderful guided tour as we drove about 30 min. Overall, the island is beautiful! But, you can tell that there is poverty as well. Apparently, a decent amount of celebrities own property here.

 

I booked this excursion in advance and when I got on board and was looking over the other excursions we saw a few beach excursion for Mahogany Beach that were over half the price of what we paid for Tabyana and were debating on changing. Boy, were we happy we didn’t!

 

After we got to the beach, we were greeted by a woman who went over where the different amenities were. They had a gift shop, a shop where local artist good were sold, a restaurant that you could eat the buffet for $15 or purchase items individual, a covered area where live music was being played, a bar, and area to rent scuba gear, and sea trek.

 

We were the only ship in port today, which made the beach not crowded. We went and claimed some chairs and I went to rent some scuba gear. They had the full set available for $15, but we got the mask/snorkels for $8 pp. The beach had pure white sand, which continued out to where the reef was. We swam out to the reef (about 50-75 yds or so) and when we put our faces in the water we saw a huge sea turtle right away! I tried to snap a picture, but I guess it didn’t turn out. We had the equipment rental for 2hrs and nearly used up all the time exploring the reef. We saw a water snake on the ocean floor, tons of fish, and all sorts of coral.

 

After we returned the equipment we continued to swim around and lay out on the beach (the only day I got sun-burnt). Before we knew it, it was time to go. On the way back, we had a shuttle bus and it was very comfy.

 

After we got back to the ship area, we saw where the Mahogany Beach excursion was and we were so glad we went to our beach. That area was very small and very crowded! I think this was our favorite port and its too bad that its only a half day here.

 

After getting back on board, we grabbed a quick lunch and headed up to the cabin for a nap. Today was the day of our vow renewal! We originally wanted to have it done on our actual anniversary (Belize), but the Captain was unable to do it that day since the navigation between Belize and Roatan involved weaving in and out of tiny islands and reefs. Anyone considering doing a vow renewal, while you can book it in advance (and should), you can only pick your time frame once on board and you can pick anytime the boat is at sea, so either a sea day or after leaving a port.

 

Anyways, our vow renewal was scheduled for 7:30PM and my husband wore his tux and I wore a simple white dress. We booked a videographer, since the photo packages were so expensive and we could take clips from the video as photos. The placed a mic on my husband and the captain. The Captain was very nice Italian gentlemen; however I had a hard time understanding him. My husband got a boutonniere and I got a long steamed rose. The ceremony was set up very much like a wedding. They had me walk down the aisle to the wedding march. The Captain read over the beautiful vows and we walked down the aisle together afterwards. Then the Captain and the senior officer signed the certificate. Afterwards, we headed into Billie’s Piano Bar for a mini reception. There was a 2-tiered cake, with a cake topper, champagne, and two flutes that had anniversary on them. We had the traditional cake cutting/feeding (nicely ;) ) and we enjoyed champagne and cake. Afterwards, we got a few more photos on the stair case. Everything was beautifully done and we are so glad that we did it.

 

Tonight was also the second formal night, so we stayed dressed for dinner. Once again I can’t remember what I had for dinner, but they brought the remainder of the cake to the MDR and we had some more for desert.

 

Tonight’s show was another song and dance number entitled Big Easy, in the spirit of Mardi Gras. Well, as mentioned before that wasn’t really our thing, so we decided to forgo the show and get prepared for the bathrobe party.

 

The party was divided in two teams and our team met in the Medusa disco. Now, we attempted to go to the dance club a few nights back where they were supposed to be playing the latest hits. Well, there was only a little over a dozen folks and they were playing all 80’s and 90’s pop and hip-hop, so we left 30 min later. It was a shame, because the club has a really neat décor, and seemed like a cool place to dance. Anyways, in our bathrobes we did a bunch of silly dance and it was a lot of fun! Afterwards, the party moved up to the lido deck. It was a lot of fun and there were friendly competitions between the two teams (teams were divided by odd cabin numbers vs. even). After the competitions they were offering a Mexican buffet, but we decided to forgo and headed up to the cabin to prepare for our last fun day at sea…or so we though…

 

TO BE CONTINUED!!!!!

[Chowder_17]

I'm Chowder's husband, we saw plenty of kids in this area at least at sail away, I think the rule is, don't have your kids causing a fuss or swimming in the pool/hot tub and you'll be fine.

 

The roll call leader for our cruise was at unicorn with his son for sail away and didn't report any issues...

 

Yeah, we saw a lot of kids on the chairs and in the adult areas on sailway (no swimming or hot tub, since it was so cold), but every other time to follow there were no kids. The only time we saw them in the area was to say something to their parents real quick.

 

You shouldn't have any issue with your kids.

 

Most of the action on the lido happenend at the mid pools, so it wasn't a big deal.

[habby]

Since you have your Capers, would you mind checking to see who played in the Piano Bar? Thanks!

[Chowder_17]

Day 7- Fun Day at Sea:

We decided to sleep in a little bit this morning since nothing was planned. However, this morning we made it to the MDR for breakfast. Wow! What a change! It was so nice to have a sit down breakfast, without having to witness the disgustingness of the buffet.

The previous night, it was pretty cool to see that the sea was finally going at full speed, but this morning we had dropped down to 14-15kts. The weather was a little crappy outside and the seas were a bit rough, so we figured that was the case for slowing down.

I attended the disembarkment meet at 11AM, while my husband did laundry ($3.50 for the washer and $3.00 for the dryer per load). At the meeting, they said due to slowing down we now were going to arrive around 9AM instead of the 6AM timeframe. Well, we had a 1:30PM flight, so it was no big deal to us.

The weather outside was cold and windy (up to 40KTS), so we didn’t do too much during the day. However, we did sign up for the “One Deck for the Cure”, a 1 mile breast cancer walk around the ship. Originally, it was suppose to meet on the jogging track, but due to the weather it was moved to deck 3, which made the walk half inside, half outside. There was a pretty good turn-out, about 190 people and there was a good handful of survivors in the mix. It was a good walk and we were happy to participate. It was on the walk that we saw that only one propeller was going and we knew that it wasn’t the weather causing the ship to slow down, but something was broken.

At about 4:45PM (15 min. before the free drinks party was scheduled to start) that they made the announcement that the ship was in fact broken and now were weren’t expected to arrive until 3PM! Well, there was a cry out from the crowd and we knew that we were going to have to re-schedule our flight. The free drink party started right after in one of the lounges. There was a live band and the waiters were walking around with your option of: beer, manhattans, whiskey sours, mai tai, screwdrivers, and non-alcoholic fruit punch. The waiters just kept handing out the drinks one after another. We drank a lot during that hour (free drinks were only for 1hr). After feeling a little toasty we head back to the room to change our flight. The Internet was running incredible slow, so we decided to use my phone to call Southwest. The latest flight that we could get on for Sunday was 5:30PM, we decided that we were going to take our chances with the 3PM arrival and took that flight.

I think Carnival handled the situation well. They were offering up to $200 money back if you had to pay a fee to change your flight and if you couldn’t get out until Monday they gave you a complimentary room at the Doubletree for the night.

We then headed to dinner and I got pasta with mushroom cream sauce (delicious!!!) for an appetizer and grilled shrimp for dinner. My husband has some more of our cake for desert and I got the warm chocolate melting cake one last time. We also gave our favorite wait team and extra tip for the awesome service we had with them.

After dinner we spent the rest of the evening in the casino. We also attended the $5000 bingo (didn’t win L) before the Carnival Legends show. Overall, the show was great. Some of the people that portrayed the “legends” were great, others were mediocre. Not too bad from selecting from the passengers. The legends portrayed were: James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Britney Spears, Madonna, Garth Brooks, Ricky Martin, Gloria Estefan, Elvis Presley, and Frank Sinatra.

After the show we headed to bed to prepare for ANOTHER fun day at sea.

TO BE CONTINUED!!!

[Chowder_17]

Since you have your Capers, would you mind checking to see who played in the Piano Bar? Thanks!

 

It was Milburn and he played from 9PM-late every night.

[Chowder_17]

Day 8: Fun day at Sea #2/ Disembarkment

This morning was another sleep in morning, but we made it to another breakfast at the MDR. Most of today we spend it watching the ship cam/track to see when we will make it back into the port. Today (and yesterday; forgot to mention) we also attended lunch in the MDR and both were delicious! For lunch today, I got the Spinach/ricotta ravioli in mushroom cream sauce; it may have been my favorite dish.

 

Today we also got a future cruise certificate, which for $100 you get a cruise certificate that you can use anytime in the next 5 yrs. After you book you mail in the certificate and get the $100 towards the cruise and then you get $75-200 OBC depending on the length.

Not too much happened today, although they did have activities going on throughout the ship, but we didn’t do anything.

 

Since we were trying to catch our flight, we decided that we were going to do self-disembarkment. We headed down to deck 3 at about 2PM and we arrived into Tampa at 2:15PM. They were making announcements for non-US citizen and the boat went through immigration/customs, which took a good hour. It also took longer because people kept going down to deck 2 when they were suppose to and it was holding up the process.

 

At 3:15PM, they made the announcement for self-disembarkment and it was a bit of a madhouse, we hurried quickly since we were trying to make the 5:30PM flight. I have a passport, but my husband doesn’t, but we were still off the boat in about 10 minutes. We hurried over the shuttle, since we booked the post transfer through Carnival, but we were one of the 1st ones there and the shuttle wasn’t going to leave until it was full. We didn’t want to take a risk, so we decided to take a cab instead (the cab was $25 for the two of us and I am going to work with Carnival to get my $36 back).

 

We made it though security and everything by 4PM and we were so happy we were going to be able to make our flight…

 

I’ll do a quick rap-up to finish out this thread in the next post…Stay Tuned!!!

[Chowder_17]

Wrap up:

We absolutely loved this cruise! I was really big into researching everything beforehand, so nothing really came as a surprise. However, I think I got my husband hooked J

The service was amazing. You never would have guessed that the crew work day after day for months at time, without time off.

There was something to do on the boat 24/7 for everything. You could be as active or as lazy as you wanted to be.

Everything was taken care that we planned. From the decorations, to the bon voyage gifts/tux, to if we didn’t finish our cake or wine it could be delivered to the MDR or our bedroom.

We loved our balcony! It was nice to step outside and see where we were at without having to go to one of the upper decks.

As mentioned earlier, I thought Carnival did a great job handling the passengers after the ship broke with great compensation.

We wished that there were more people/couples around our age. Maybe it was the time of year? But, it would have been nice to have some others to hang out with.

That’s about all I can think of for now. If I think of something else I’ll add it later. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

I also plan on posting the capers in a few days, so look for that.

Thanks!

[cruising grandma]

Thanks for a wonderful review! We are going on Legend in four weeks, and you have helped me have a great idea of different things to expect. I had not heard about a bathrobe party......do we bring them from home or wear the ones on ship? Do you know if the walk for breast cancer is on each sailing? I was diagnosed last summer, after we had done a walk for the cure on a different cruiseline. Do they sell tshirts for the walk?

 

We plan on doing Bannister Island through ecotoursbelize. Did you talk to anyone who did this? Which beach on 7 mile beach did you go to?? Seagrape, Royal Palms, or some other one?? We have been to Tabyana Beach(before Mahogany was built) and thought we would just stay at Mahogany this time, but now I'm having second thoughts.

 

Again, thanks so much for all your time involved in writing your review.

 

Also, congratulations on your five year anniversary! We'll celebrate 39 years this July!