Carnival Legend trip Report 10-24-10

[bondsman]

I can sum this cruise in one word, SUPERB!!!

Peaches went to Tampa on Friday and checked into the Tahitian Inn, http://www.tahitianinn.com/. We arrived around 8:00pm, checked in and straight to the tiki hut by the pool. The entire hotel was in great shape and the pool area was beautiful. The staff was most helpful. I found this place by accident while surfing the web one night. I am skeptical by nature, but found the hotel was just as it was advertised on their website. Their rates were unbelievable (77.00 including tax) and they have a shuttle to the port in addition to allowing you to leave your car in their parking lot. I wont put any pictures of the Tahitian as their website has alot of pics and they are representative of the actual hotel. The entertainment on Friday night was a guy named Billy. Billy was fantastic. Saturday nights entertainment was not very good and I understand he was a fill in. Both nights we met some really great people (all locals). The Tahitian was among the best places I have ever stayed. I will be staying there again.

On Saturday, we first went to the port to see the Inspiration. We parked in a lot right next to the port and Channelside (which is a large shopping complex). We were amazed how big the Inspiration was. We walked through Channelside and over to the Carnival complex. The Florida Aquarium is right next door. If you walk past the aquarium and keep the aquarium on your right side you will end in back of the aquarium where the American Victory is moored. It is an old WWII ship. After we left there we went to Ybor City and some of the best Pizza I had ever eaten, then back to The Tahitian for a while.

　

[bondsman]

After a short nap we headed out again. This time we went to the see the Skyway bridge to see the Inspriation leave. We drove across the bridge just to do it and had intended to go over to the state park beach to watch the Inspiration. We then found out that portions of the old bridge were still there being used as fishing piers. There were piers at the north and the south shore. We went out on the south shore pier. It is $3.75 to go out on the pier for one hour. We were told by the attendant that someone patrolled the pier and would be checking tickets to make sure you didn't over stay your time, but, we never saw them. We stayed about three hours. We left about 7:00pm, the Inspiration never came by. We later found out it went into dry dock. I would say however, the trip was not a waste as it is very beautiful out there and well worth the effort. Just the sunset was worth the trip. The piers are state parks so "DO NOT TAKE ANY GUNS", Peaches and I left our guns in the hotel room. It was weird not carrying guns, extra magazines, tasers and handcuffs. After leaving The Skyway bridge we went back to the hotel. The tiki hut was kicking so we joined them for a few too many rum runners. Another late night enjoyed by all. What a great place the Tahitian is. I must sound like a commercial for them, what can I say, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay there.

 

 

 

 

 

[boaterette]

Very cool pictures.

[Name Of The Game]

Was that a FREE shuttle to the port from the Tahitian Inn?

 

How late did the music play? Were the rooms quiet for sleeping?

[bondsman]

Ahh, the day of reckoning has come. IT IS CRUISE DAY. We had called the front desk the day before and reserved the shuttle to the port for 10:00am. You must reserve the shuttle, don't just show up, there a alot of people going to the port, you may have to wait a good while if you don't make a reservation. The ride to the port was uneventful and filled with excitement. Everyone was chomping at the bit to get onboard.

 

We arrived at the port around 10:15am. When we arrived at the port we were met by a porter to get our bags. Please tip your porter, he is working for you. He was very friendly and helpful.

 

We went to the entrance to the terminal showed our paper work to the Port guy and went on in. You will then go up an elavator to the 2nd floor to wait in a line and be called to the check in desk. At the check in desk you will get your sign and sail cards and a zone number. The zone number is the order in which you will board the ship.

 

If you are using a debit or credit card you will give it to them at this time. If you are going to put cash on it you will do that after you board the ship at the guest services desk. If you are going to use cash on your sign and sail card is still good as soon as you get on the ship. You can use it just as everyone that used a credit card can. The only thing is, is if you don't put money on it immediately and you use the card, you will have a negative balance that will be deducted after you put money on it. That concept may sound like common sense but common sense is rare these days.

 

After you leave the check in desk, you go to a person that will give you a form to fill out attesting to your health. If you have any health issues you will be examined by a member of the ships medical staff. The form asks specifically about diarrhea and vomiting. Who after spending 2 days in Tampa at the Tahitian tiki hut drinking nothing but rum runners and not eating much couldn't admit to at least part of that. At that point in the process I wasn't about to cop to any of it, after all, the ship is only 100' way. I figured it was self induced and therefore outside the realm of

their question. I answered the questionaire the best of my ability and headed to the first restroom I could find. Good thing they didn't follow me.

 

After first things first, we had a seat in the waiting area. We met a few people from our roll call. We waited for about 45 minutes before they started calling zone one. We were in zone two and were onboard the ship about 11:30am. When your zone is called you will get in a line where you give your sign and sail card to the person at a computer where your picture will be taken and embedded on the card.

 

You will then go into another lobby where you will have your first of many cruise pictures taken. I found that just stopping and letting them take your picture takes alot less time than arguing the point you don't want your picture taken. With that thought in mind, any time you see those picture guys, just stop, smile and keep on going. The one important thing I came to realize is, the less time time I spent arguing with the picture guys, the less time it took me to get to the Fat Tuesday's at the end of the pier.

 

Finally, after many months of waiting, thousands of dollars spent, hundreds of miles driven and an endless number of rum runner drinking practice sessions, we were finally on the Carnival Legend. YEEHA!!!!

 

Yep you guessed it. Straight to the bar for our first of many "Drinks of The Day"

 

 

[bondsman]

Was that a FREE shuttle to the port from the Tahitian Inn?

 

How late did the music play? Were the rooms quiet for sleeping?

 

The shuttle was free, as was leaving my car in thier parking lot. I made my reservation for Saturday night a few weeks in advance. We decide to go down a day early and made that reservation on Friday afternoon right before we left, because of that we had to take the only room left, which was adjacent to the tiki hut. We could hear the music, but Billy was great so we didn't mind. We typically sleep with the tv on, so we are used to some noise. It wasn't bad though. The music played until about midnight.

[Meyer2]

Great review & pictures so far!!! The pictures of the bridge & sunset are wonderful!

[Name Of The Game]

Thanks!

 

Nice pictures!

 

BTW, I just looked at their website and it appears all rooms are booked in October 2011.

[sdeepdiver]

Jerry and Peaches!!!!! Cannot wait to keep reading your review. I am trying to re-live it all!!! It was great meeting you guys on the ship and hope to sail with you all again...

[katiecat]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review & pictures,

I'm enjoying it!:)

[bondsman]

Finally, onboard!!!!

 

 

After boarding the Legend, of course we have to get the DOD and it was very good. We then went to guest services desk to put some money on our S&S card. We used cash because I have had bad experiences when I have given my credit card to someone to use at whim. It worked out well. With drinks in hand, we went exploring the ship. There is alot of it, so it took some time.

 

About 12:30pm we thought we would just go by our cabin to see where it was. We found it with no problem. Not only did we find but, our cards worked and in we walked. It was ready for the party. We had cabin #8158 on the Promenade Deck. We had a short walk to the elavators and stairwell. All we had to do was was a short walk, go up one flight of stairs and we at the pool. It was a great place to have a cabin. We also met our room steward team.

 

Our chief steward was Edwin Gomez and his assistant was Raisa. They were awesome. After the first day Peaches and I had figured out what we needed on a daily basis, just a few things that we wanted that were not in their daily routine. I related those things the Edwin and from then on, they were flawless. There was one day, things were not done properly and I mentioned it to Edwin and he said he did not work our cabin that day. Carnival had put them elsewhere on the ship. I thought something was up as we had not seen them the previous day and that explained why things were not done properly.

 

Our cabin was typical of most others on the Legend. We had an extended balcony. Its location was just forward of midship. There was no noise from the Lido pool deck, which was just above us from inside the cabin. When we were out on the balcony we could hear such things as when someone would drag a chair across the floor occasionally. We could not hear normal noises such a music or voices.

 

The Legend is in great shape and absolutely beautiful. I am not a fan of urns and such but, after a while they didn't bother me.

 

 

Raisa is on the left and Edwin on the right

 

 

 

 

[quickrate]

Jerry, you're doing a great review. I'm really enjoying reading it. We found this to be a fantastic cruise and will probably do it again in the future.

Pat

[skings]

Jerry and Peaches, enjoying your review. Your pictures are awesome, excited to see more.:)

[bondsman]

As for the rest of the ship.

 

We found the rest of the ship to be in great shape. There appeared to be in some very small areas, some on going maintainence, as is required on a ship but, nothing that affected the daily activities.

 

The staff was excellent except one bar tender that appeared to have wanted to be somewhere else. Guest services was always fast and efficient. The shore excursion desk people seemed to be knowledgeable and very helpful. Wait staff around the pool were always johnny on the spot. Casino folks were very good. Wee Jimmy, the CD was Wee Jimmy. Excepting the one bar tender, I would say the staff and crew was excellent.

 

The Captain was a guy named Vito Garuccio, whom we were fortunate enough to meet. I thought it was somewhat humorous to to see him on our cabin tv doing his welcome aboard speech. He was sitting at his desk and appeared to be a tall, stocky guy. When we met him it became apparent he was about 5'4". I guess he was sitting on one of those things I remember sitting on when I was young and getting a haircut. A very nice, proffesional man in all respects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bondsman]

Some more Pictures of the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bondsman]

And yet some more pictures.

 

Life boat looking from our balcony. Capable of holding 150 people.

 

Atrium looking down from the Promanade deck (9th deck).

 

Looking from Cozmel

 

 

 

[loltastic]

Great start and can't wait to read more!

[kittycrusin08]

Great review with outstanding pictures!!! We leave on the Legend 11/14 so please write more of your review. Thanks for sharing. ;)

[Lady_Jag]

Oooo! I'm so happy to see this review. We sail in April, and I just can't get enough. :D

[mariamherrera]

more more more please!!! :D I sail her in a week and I"m so excited to read your review!!

[bondsman]

I guess we are now at the leaving Tampa spot.

 

Leaving Tampa was of course a very exciting time for all onboad. The lido was deck full of people having their first drink of the day and waving goodbyes. I am not sure if they were waving because they excited to finally be moving or if they were waving to say "see ya suckers we'll be back in seven days" or perhaps a little of both. I am sure there were over 2000 different reasons. At any rate the Carnival Legend was moving. At first it was very slow, picking up steam as we got further from civlization. People were all over the place on land, waving goodbye. Peaches and I were sure glad we were waving from the ships perspective.

 

It takes about two and half hours to get the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. What a sight to see!!!! Going under the bridge is a sight no one should miss. Peaches and I, as a matter of fact got up early enough to see us going under it on the way back, albeit, not as excited as when we left. One thing was for sure, we had memories, experiences and had developed friendships that would remain with us for a lifetime.

 

By the time we passed the bridge it was 6:30pm. We continued to wander this monstrosity in complete awe of all that went into constructing something this large that actually floats, not only floats but, can do it going 25 mph.

 

We went to our cabin for a while and sat on our balcony, just watching anything there was to watch. After awhile we decided to go eat for the 5th time that day.

 

On the way to the lido deck for more munchies, I decided we should do so via the casino. Besides making the decision to go on this cruise, this was the best decision I had made in a long time, certainly the best one on this cruise.

 

Considering Peaches had never been in a casino, I thought it was the only right thing to do. In our way out of the way route to the Unicorn for dinner, this one slot machine caught my eye, I just couldn't walk past it. It was calling my name. I could hear it calling Jerry, Jerry, the further we got away from it the louder it called my name. I just had to turn around and take another look. Magically, a ten dollar bill just floated out of my pocket and into the money slot. There was nothing I could do, but watch it disappear. I then told Peaches to play the machine and play she did. On her second or third pull, it started flashing making sounds and numbers started going up in one column and down in another. I knew something big had just happened, I just didn't know what or how much. I told Peaches "don't touch a damn thing". I left and got an attendant, who told us what to do. Apparently, you have to put your s&s card in a slot, punch in some information along with a password before you can reap your reward. We did that, where upon the attendant announced that she had won $489.00. I told her let's go before put it all right back in. We proceeded to dinner on the Lido deck.

 

For some odd unkown reason, we reversed our course back through the casino on the way back to our cabin. Upon arrival at the casino, that same machine started calling my name again and magically, just like before, another ten dollar bill just floated out of my pocket and disappeared into the very same slot as before. I played it this time, not expecting any great reward. Boy, was I wrong. On my second pull I hit for $200.00 and on my 5th pull I hit for another $290.00. $980.00 in all.

 

We took that money to the guest services desk and applied it to our s&s card. That money paid our bar bill and all of our excursions.

 

We wandered around a bit more, excited about our new found cash cow and went back to our cabin for the evening.

 

Click on the link below for a video of us passing the Sunshine Skyway bridge.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf2EkOTzuLs?fs=1&hl=en_US

 

 

 

 

 

[okwriter]

I'm enjoying your review, but you're gonna chap my hiney if you took ALL the money out of the casino! :eek:

We'll be on the Legend Dec.12 ! :D

[SMSACE6]

Loving your review and photos! The Legend is one of the ships that I hope to sail on in the future.:) Congrats on the casino win btw;)

[sunshinecruiser62]

I'm enjoying your review, but you're gonna chap my hiney if you took ALL the money out of the casino! :eek: We'll be on the Legend Dec.12 ! :D

 

 

Let's just hope they refill the slots BEFORE my Legend(ary) cruise in March!!;)

 

Loving ur review....keep it coming!!!:)

[Le Cruiser]

Bondsman- we were on the same cruise with you! Probably passed each other in the casino, I'm sure. Loved the review and photos - we were in 7302, aft cabin. Did you go to the costume contest?? My wife (and friend) were the Tiki Drinks and I was the Tacky Traveler with the Carnival Funnel hat on.