Trip Report - Family Reunion/60th Anniversary Cruise - Legend - Aug 15-22, 2010

[JohnsPrincess]

Now that I have almost all of our pictures from our August cruise uploaded, I can finally start this trip report!!! There is a quite a large cast of characters though of course I will mostly talk about myself (Lexi) and my Dh (John). Here we are the day of the cruise!

 

The purpose of us all going on this together was because it was my grandparents 60th anniversary! They really wanted a cruise, and they wanted it with as many of us as possible, which they got! There were only a few family members unable to come and those were mostly due to new babies!

 

Cast:

John, my hubby

Me, Lexi

My mom

My 10 year old sister, Nikki (not many pictures of her because she was sick almost the whole time...but more on that later)

My grandparents

Aunt Cheryl

Amara and Kali (her daughters) and Kali's boyfriend Jeremy

Julia and Jackson (Aunt Cheryl's grandchildren - kids of a cousin who couldn't be there)

Aunt Wendy and Uncle Kevin

Ashley (one of their daughters), her boyfriend Michael, and Andrew (wendy and kevin's son)

Also joining us was my uncle's sister Sue and her two little girls!

 

About half of these people live up in New England so I very rarely get to see them. I basically grew up with Amara and Kali though, so any time I get to spend with them is awesome.

 

Anyways, I did most of the planning for the cruise and decided on the Legend out of Tampa (home for the other half of us). I was in Kuwait for about half the planning year and that helped to give me something fun to do while there!

 

Also, my husband is an AMEDD recruiter in the Army and we are currently stationed in Little Rock, AR. So while Tampa is home, and we even have a house there, you'll see us spending a lot of time at my moms since our place is about 45 min from hers and I wanted to get lots of family time in!

 

Okay, I'm going to post this to see if it all worked and then I'll try to get started on day 1!

[JohnsPrincess]

Today dawned too early and not fast enough all in one. John and I were the lucky ones who got to sleep on the blow up mattress in the living room and it wasn't exactly...comfortable. Plus, my mom likes really soft pillows and since we'd forgotten ours, it pretty much felt like I wasn't using one at all. Jeepers. Around 7, my mom was crashing around in the kitchen...which opens onto the living room. *yawn* We'd gone to bed around 1-1:30 so I could finish the family laundry so this was WAY too early. At the same time I was super excited to just get up and start the day!!!! By 730 Aunt Cheryl was up too. I was still trying to just cover my head and get more sleep but it wasn't really happening. Once mom had a her morning freak out and cussed like a sailor on leave over the possibility of her dog swallowing a pill (she didn't), and me laughing myself awake because this is so out of character for her, I finally dragged myself out of bed.

 

Amara and Kali were up and about by then so we sat at the kitchen table and chatted for a while. John slept away... Jeremy eventually came down too and Kali and he pulled out their leftovers from the steakhouse they'd gone to the night before. Mmmmm...good breakfast! Combined with our first bottle of champagne and we were happy campers!

 

Here's Kali and Jeremy...along with our breakfast!

And here's Amara, ready to go:

 

Eventually everyone was up and dressed and just itching to go. Grandma and Papa didn't arrive until a little after 10 and our driver who was supposed to get there at 1045 called and said he'd be at least 15 min late. So we waited. If anyone has seen Christmas Vacation or Home Alone, you know what our house felt and sounded like. We now had 12 of us waiting to leave with 8 more waiting at the pier. It was loud and happy and crazy.

 

Julia, Aunt Cheryl, Jackson, Grandma, Nikki

 

FINALLY someone looked out the window and saw our ride. Surprise! A stretch Hummer Limo!!

I'd kept it from John so that he would have a few "wow" moments and I think...and hope...that was one of them. We all loved it!! And yes, it was Really fun to drive down the road and have so many heads turn to look! We popped open a bottle of champage and all had a glass and toasted!

 

Jeremy, Kali, Mom, Papa (Grandpa)

 

The ride didn't last quite long enough and then we arrived at the pier. To a Really long line. *sigh* As we pulled up, we saw Uncle Kevin and their gang and as we were stopped and waiting to get to the drop off area we got their attention!

We were all there! Since Grandma and Papa were with us we did get a bit of "special treatment" and got to bypass some of the lines. We still waited quite some time though!

[JohnsPrincess]

After what felt like FOREVER, we were all through! We got our pictures taken and walked up the gangplank to the ship. So Happy!!!! The first thing we did was head to our rooms. It was Just 130 and so we knew they'd be ready. After checking them out a few of us ran to the guest services desk to ask them to open our balconies to each other while everyone else went to get lunch. Starved, we soon joined them. I mostly got some of the food from the oriental bar but I got a few other things too! It was pretty good!

 

After lunch John, Jeremy, Kali, and I took a little tour of the ship. We found the pools and then the adult pool. We grabbed a drink and sat there taking it all in for a few min.

We knew the muster drill would be starting soon and we wanted to swim after so we came back to our rooms to change into our suits. I'd reminded EVERYONE to pack theirs in their carry ons...and then forgot to pack one for John. Oops!!! So everyone except for John changed. Lol. We then went to the muster drill which pretty much sucked. It wasn't too long and we really didn't listen, but they really pack you in. We were in the second line from the back so we had 3 or 4 lines of people in front of us. Ugh! Thankfully though, as I said, it really wasn't that long.

 

Once it was over John went back to the room to see if his suit was ready and the Kali, Jeremy, Amara, and Julia all went to the adult pool. We went to the bar to get a drink and mom and Nikki stopped by. Nikki wanted to go swim in a different pool - one with kids. That's fine. I KNOW the adult pool is for adults so technically neither Nikki (10) nor Julia (13) should have even been in the area. However, they're both quiet and so we hoped it wouldn't be an issue...though were prepared to have someone ask that they leave. Anyways, mom and Nik left to find another pool. The others were debating on going to another but I told them that they were all the same size and that they were going to be more crowded, loud, etc. So...we decided to stay. Lol. We hopped into the pool and were chatting when Mom and Nik came back. Why? It was too loud and crowded. Uh huh. So they joined us. We all just sat in there for a while and chatted. John eventually made his way there. It had taken awhile for his bag to arrive and he'd been about to give up. I'm glad he didn't, it was really nice up there! Michael also found us there and joined us.

 

 

cont.

[JohnsPrincess]

We swam until about 530 when we had to get ready for dinner. Quickly. So we all ran back to our rooms, showered, and changed in record time!! We knew there was a sushi bar after dinner and really wanted some so the plan was to not eat a ton at dinner. Yeah right, huh?? Lol. I passed out all the gift bags that I'd made for everyone and then the meal began.

 

Yum!! I had the cream of sun dried tomato soup which was Really good for my appetizer (John had the fruit plate).

 

For dinner I had the steak, which was great and John had the chicken which he really enjoyed. I LOVED the side of mac and cheese that came with mine...and it was the perfect little amount, but I HATED the creamed pea stuff. I think it had onions in it and just really tasted like that. I was VERY happy that they could give me the steak with NO peppercorn sauce. And dessert? Yes, dessert. I got some brie and gouda and John got the vanilla creme brule. Both were REALLY very good. Dinner actually took a LONG time. It didn't feel that way while it was happening but we didn't finish until about 745! Almost 2 hours!!! Sushi ended at 815 but first it was back to the room to grab some smuggled booze. I had a glass of coconut rum and John some Jack and coke! We grabbed those and ran down to the sushi bar where we each grabbed three pieces. And they were good too! LOL Jeremy bought a bottle of Saki and a few of them shared it. I think it's foul so I stayed far away.

 

cont. (sorry...this 6 picture limit sucks!)

[JohnsPrincess]

 

At 9pm there was a movie tunes piano trivia contest. It was in the piano bar and the pianist played a bit from some songs from movies and your teams had to figure out what they were. My team got 22 out of 30. The winning team had 23. DRAT!! I Really want one of those ships on a stick!!! We stayed in there calling out songs for Paul until almost 1030, lol. He was good but it seemed like ALL the songs he knew were pretty slow paced and he didn't sing them quite right! We still had a good time though, singing along and talking.

 

Then we headed to the 1030 Welcome Aboard show.

The first part was extremely cheesy. I thought that the female lead singer really wasn't that good at all and it was just...not great. Amara, Kali, Jeremy, and Julia ended up leaving during that part. John and I stayed though because even a bad show is a good show to me! LOL. I can at least laugh at it. But right after they left they did an audience participation thing with a spoon (quite funny) and then a comedian did a preview of his show. He was REALLY FUNNY!!!! John and wanted to go see his show but we figured we'd go to the hot tub where the gang was and see if they wanted to come. They did...so we went to grab seats while they changed. Except by that time they were already full and we couldn't get any seats. Boooo...he has other shows this week though so hopefully we can catch one!!!

 

We came back to the room where I just uploaded my pictures and we chilled out!!!!! Day one is basically over but it was a great great day!!!

[JohnsPrincess]

Today John and I slept until about 11am!!! We were awoken by the phone and it was Aunt Cheryl letting us know that the "wedding" would be at 430. I groggily asked John what time it was and was shocked when he told me! We had the curtains closed so I could tell that it was light out...but wow. I hadn't wanted to sleep that long. We rolled out of bed and checked on what everyone else was doing.

 

John wanted to go to the gym and I went with Kali and Jeremy. We first checked the pool but it was busy so we decided to play some mini golf. It was pretty cute up there and we had a fun time.

My hole in one:

 

Who should we see running around the short track up there but John himself!

 

cont.

[JohnsPrincess]

Once we completed our game, we were all ready for lunch so we headed to the dining room. Today was Carribbean but I didn't think it was all that great. I tried the fried plantains but they didn't taste good to me...just like greasy fries!! After a bit most of the family trickled in until we were taking up 3 of the large tables! Lol We chatted with everyone until we all grew restless.

 

We had sat there so long that we didn't have time for much since John and I wanted to go to the Murder Mystery show. We did head to the slide and we all went down it twice! It was fun until the "pool" at the end. Both times I went down the water splashed into my left ear and nostril! It was really gross and annoying!!!

 

 

After that John and I ran back to the room and showered and got ready. We grabbed Mom and Nikki and went to the Mystery thing. It was really cute and we got our clues...we'll see if we figure and more out during the rest of the week!

 

[JohnsPrincess]

Okay, I think that's good for today, lol. My back is starting to hurt from sitting here and John wants to go watch something out in the hot tub! So, to be continued, hopefully tomorrow!

[whendoweleave?]

Love all the pics and I would love the idea of a big family group on a cruise together!

 

Can't wait for more!

[Mike&Shell]

Lexi thanks for the awaesome review so far. The pictures of the family are nice. But more important thanks for the service you give to the Country.. :D

Can't wait to read more of your review.

[jrmende63]

Nice start! Keep it up! We love reviews!

[Calgary3]

Thanks JohnsPrincess. One of the things I like best about CC is reading

vacation reviews. Yours is very, very good. Thank you for taking the

time and considerable effort to post for all of us.

 

Betty:)

[proudpatriot07]

Looks great so far :). That cream of tomato soup and the fruit look soooo yummy.

[AryMay]

Our family of 8 was on this cruise with you! I just finished (finally!) my own review so now I am ready to sit back and enjoy yours! I know how time consuming it is to do a review with photos so....thanks!

 

Just curious...where was your table located in the dining room? The curtains behind you didn't look familiar. We were seated in the upper level and although I would have preferred to be on the lower level we were all happy to have a table by the window. (Although it meant we only got to "hear" Ken Byrne singing each night...not see him.) :rolleyes:

 

Looking forward to more of your review...I will be checking every photo to see if some of our family might be in the background!!

[JohnsPrincess]

Love all the pics and I would love the idea of a big family group on a cruise together!

 

Can't wait for more!

 

It was SO much fun to have everyone together! I would do it again in a heart beat! Lol

 

Thank you! It's really hard trying to par down the pictures...especially since I can only put 6 per post. I took hundreds and hundreds!!

[JohnsPrincess]

Lexi thanks for the awaesome review so far. The pictures of the family are nice. But more important thanks for the service you give to the Country.. :D

Can't wait to read more of your review.

 

Thank you so much for your kind words! They are so appreciated!!

 

I'm glad you're enjoying it!

[JohnsPrincess]

Nice start! Keep it up! We love reviews!

 

Thank you! I love reviews too, so I knew I had to post one of my own, lol.

[JohnsPrincess]

Thanks JohnsPrincess. One of the things I like best about CC is reading

vacation reviews. Yours is very, very good. Thank you for taking the

time and considerable effort to post for all of us.

 

Betty:)

 

Thank you So much!! And you're very welcome. It's fun reading back over my notes and getting a chance to look at the pictures more!

[JohnsPrincess]

Looks great so far :). That cream of tomato soup and the fruit look soooo yummy.

 

Thanks!

 

They were yummy!! I'd heard that the food wasn't very good on the ships. And while there was some stuff I really didn't like (I'm picky though) there was a LOT that was soooo good! As evidenced by my lack of food pictures...it would be put down in front of me and I'd totally forget my camera!! Haha!

[JohnsPrincess]

Our family of 8 was on this cruise with you! I just finished (finally!) my own review so now I am ready to sit back and enjoy yours! I know how time consuming it is to do a review with photos so....thanks!

 

Just curious...where was your table located in the dining room? The curtains behind you didn't look familiar. We were seated in the upper level and although I would have preferred to be on the lower level we were all happy to have a table by the window. (Although it meant we only got to "hear" Ken Byrne singing each night...not see him.) :rolleyes:

 

Looking forward to more of your review...I will be checking every photo to see if some of our family might be in the background!!

 

Oh how funny!!! I'll have to go check out your review once I've finished mine!!

 

Our table was in this small little alcove. I think there was only 3 families back there...all large. We had almost one whole wall and then a round table next to us. If you are in the bar area where everyone waits before the doors open, there was a door to the left (right IN that area)...maybe 10 ft from the bar. We were directly behind that door. Or, if you went in to the dining room, turned left, and then turned left again! :-) We did get a table by the window! We were quite secluded but it was actually pretty nice!!

[AryMay]

Oh how funny!!! I'll have to go check out your review once I've finished mine!!

 

Our table was in this small little alcove. I think there was only 3 families back there...all large. We had almost one whole wall and then a round table next to us. If you are in the bar area where everyone waits before the doors open, there was a door to the left (right IN that area)...maybe 10 ft from the bar. We were directly behind that door. Or, if you went in to the dining room, turned left, and then turned left again! :-) We did get a table by the window! We were quite secluded but it was actually pretty nice!!

 

I knew there was a room off of the dining room and thought that was maybe where you were...and I was right! It was nice that you were able to all be seated together.

[4evercruiser]

I am loving your review and the pictures. I'm getting ready to sail the Legend in 2 weeks. My DH and and were married last year on the ship and are celebrating our 1st anniversary. The Legend is one of my favorite ships!

[GLENANDT]

I am loving your review and the pictures. I'm getting ready to sail the Legend in 2 weeks. My DH and and were married last year on the ship and are celebrating our 1st anniversary. The Legend is one of my favorite ships!

 

My favorite ship too and hubby and I were married on her in 2007!

[mississauga]

JohnsPrincess, what a wonderful way for you all to celebrate your grandparents' 60th anniversary. I bet they were so happy to have you all together to celebrate and what a bonus to be able to do it on a cruise!

 

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts of the cruise and your pictures with us. Looking forward to more of your review.:)

[alwayshappytocruise]

Love your review but I do have a pet peeve...please don't keep us hanging!! You are doing a great job.