Carnival Legend Review 11/14-11/24

[BeachChik]

I loved reading others reviews of the ship I was going to be on so I wanted to share our experience. This was my husband’s first cruise, my second. I had been on the Disney Magic during its first year so it’s been a while.

We had about an hour and a half drive to get to the port. Thankfully we left early as we ran into an accident on the way that shut down I-4 to one lane and was backing traffic up. Getting on the ship was pretty painless. We waited in line for maybe 25 minutes to check in and were able to get right on the ship. After reading so many reviews of people talking about Carnival taking liquor I really expected to see quite a bit of it. I didn’t see any alcohol taken. We had three cases of soda and a bottle of wine in our carry on. It went through the xray and they didn’t question it so it looks like it would have been pretty easy to take on alcohol. Once on board we went to the Lido and had lunch. We sat up there and relaxed until 1:30pm, when the rooms would be ready.

We had room 5236, which had the extended balcony at the same price and the regular balconies. We loved the extra space. Stinks that they don’t have the lounge chairs but we had two regular chairs and two tables so we were both able to layout and relax and not be crowded.

I ordered a bottle of rum from Bon Voyage because my hubby said he just needed to have it. We are not big drinkers so I ended up bringing almost the entire bottle home.

[BarJen]

Great start, more please! :)

 

 

 

 

Barry

[BeachChik]

And apparently I'm still on vacation time because my dates are wrong in the title. :) It was Sunday to Sunday.

 

The first night we mostly just wandered the ship taking pictures and exploring. I have this really neat feature on my camera that allows me to isolate one color and have the rest of the picture show as black and white so I will post alot of those photos as they are my favorites. I also was apparently very focused on getting a good sunrise/sunset photos as I took more than I can count.

 

Here are some pics of the ship

 

 

 

Enchanted forest, we went down here several times, never saw anyone else except for someone cleaning the windows. Definitely a hidden gem

 

 

 

 

 

Shopping area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coffee bar area

 

 

[Froufie]

That's my cabin - next year!! WOW - any more pics of cabin and/or balcony please? (and I noticed the dates seemed a bit off - esp when someone else had a Legend review with overlapping dates! :D:D)

[BeachChik]

I wanted to see the ship pass under the bridge in Tampa but we went up too early and as it started to get dark it was really cold. So we went to grab something to eat and went back on deck right as we were passing under. Most of those pics didn't come out well, it was just too dark. This pick is on the way out of port after passing the bridge. It is lit up very pretty at night.

Sunset pics

[BeachChik]

Some more sunsets

 

 

This guy walked into the photo right as I snapped it. Tampa in the background.

 

 

 

 

Sailing away

 

 

 

 

 

Just a side note. I read alot about people complaining that the photo people were everywhere. We didn't really encounter this. We didn't do any of the photos because I knew we wouldn't buy them so we just told them no as we walked by and that was it. But the drink people were crazy. Anytime on deck or at the shows they were relentless.

[boaterette]

I love your pictures of the sunset.

[BeachChik]

Just a little background, when we travel we want to see outside the tourist areas and the hubby loves to hear about the history. So when planning we didn't want to do any excursions per say but rather tours of each place.

 

First port - Grand Cayman

I know the big thing here is the stingrays, but we did that when we were in Bora Bora so we decided to skip it. We instead rented a car from Cayman Auto Rentals. I should have gotten more info from the car rental company other than they were the only one within walking distance. When we got off the ship we didn't know which way to go. After asking three people and walking in the wrong direction for about 15 minutes we finally found a security guard that was able to tell us where they were. Rental process was quick, took maybe 10 minutes and then we were on our way.

 

 

This was our first time driving on the "wrong" side of the road, but we adjusted quickly and only had one incident where we were going the wrong way down a one way road. Oops. But a local stopped to let us know to turn around.

 

 

We went to the 7 mile beach first. It was cloudy at first and only one other couple was there. Very nice.

 

 

 

 

Later in the day.

 

 

 

 

And we drove over to Hell and took some pics

[navybaby1113]

Those isolated color pictures are really cool. Can't wait to see more!

[BeachChik]

That's my cabin - next year!! WOW - any more pics of cabin and/or balcony please? (and I noticed the dates seemed a bit off - esp when someone else had a Legend review with overlapping dates! :D:D)

 

It was great. And it is right next to the elevators so when you go to the Lido deck it is right by the buffet which is great for those times you want to grab something to eat and bring it back to your room.

[BeachChik]

We drove through town and along the coast. I was feeling really bad that day, had a monster migraine so we didn't stop much. I have never seen a place that has so few stop lights and so many roundabouts but we never got lost.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pulling away from port in the tender boat.

[BeachChik]

I'm so cheap that my thought process was why pay for food when I can eat on the ship for free but the hubby had other ideas. :) We ate at the bar on the beach, it was pretty good, but a little pricy.

 

 

 

 

Jerk Chicken (It was REALLY good, I wished I had ordered it once I tasted his and the hot sauce it came with was yummy too)

 

 

 

 

 

Going back to the ship

 

I always trade out some US dollars for local currency where ever we visit and I put it in my scrapbook. I didn't expect it to be so difficult but everyone told us that on port days they only bring US dollars. I managed to get currency in each port but it wasn't easy and in one port a shop person actually traded me her own money because none of the stores had any.

[BeachChik]

We didn't really participate much in the on board activites. We did watch the hairy chest contest and the drink contest, both pretty entertaining. Wee Jimmy was the cruise director.

 

 

 

 

We also went to the R rated comedy shows every night they had them. We loved them, some were funnier than others but overall pretty good. And we went to a few of the stage shows which were good as well.

 

 

 

[BeachChik]

Couple more random pics

 

 

My Corona commercial :)

 

 

 

Moon over the water on the last night

 

 

 

This tree was in Grand Cayman, I have no idea what they were but they looked cool/

[BeachChik]

Next stop Roatan. Roatan and Cozumel were my favorite ports. Roatan was the reason I picked this itinerary and was the one stop I didn't want to miss. I was really afraid it was going to rain all day because of the time of year, but it rained for maybe five minutes when we first arrived and it blew over and was sunny the rest of the day. We decided to do a driver with Victor Bodden tours. I believe his name was Michael. He was great. Told us all about the island as we went along, took us to the good and the bad so we could really see Roatan and even showed us where he lived. And of course a visit to the monkeys.

 

The one thing we didn't get to do that I wanted was to ride in the chairlift things. We just didn't have time.

 

 

My favorite picture, taken from the top deck as we pulled into port.

 

 

 

 

Port area is beautiful

 

 

Another pick from the ship as we pulled in.

[BeachChik]

Pics from around Roatan

 

 

 

 

Of course had to visit the monkeys.

 

[BeachChik]

 

 

One of the more expensive neighborhoods. Houses were very nice and right on the water.

 

 

[BeachChik]

Leaving Roatan at sunset

 

 

 

 

The Dream at the dock

[Mike&Shell]

Great Review... I miss the Legend Already

[BeachChik]

Nex port - Belize

 

This was the one port where we decided to do a Carnival excursion. I bounced around until the very last minute as to what excursion we would do. The hubby wanted to visit the ruins and this was the only place that didn't have a huge drive to get to them so we decided to visit Altun Ha. We finally decided on the City tour and Visit to the ruins.

 

It was about an hour to hour and a half drive around the city with a guide pointing out various landmarks and buildings while also given historical information about the country.

 

 

 

 

 

While it is very obvious that many people here are very poor it was still nice to drive through the city and hear some history. We had a great guide for the bus portion who talked about everything from wages, lifestyles, schools to the cost of air conditioning. She was very informative and really made the drive seem very short.

[BeachChik]

We were able to climb the Altun Ha which was awesome. But the stairs up were misleading. The stairs are far apart which made really large steps for someone that is short. But I made it to the top and it was very pretty. And for someone who is afraid of heights I felt like I was going to fall off the side at any moment. My hubby had to walk down in front of me so I had him to hold on to because I was so nervous. I can definitely see why if it is wet they don't allow anyone on them.

 

 

 

 

 

Views from the top

 

[niagaracris]

Excellent Review!!!! Fabulous pictures...very creative. can't wait for more!:cool:

[navybaby1113]

Wow...Altun Ha is gorgeous. Looks like that's where we'll be going next time we go to Belize.

[tandemcruzr]

We had room 5236, which had the extended balcony at the same price and the regular balconies. We loved the extra space. Stinks that they don’t have the lounge chairs but we had two regular chairs and two tables so we were both able to layout and relax and not be crowded.

 

Great balcony. However, it's not an 'extended' balcony. It is a 'longer' balcony at regular balcony price. Extended balconies are two feet deeper than regular -- extended are 6' X 10' vs 4' X 10' for a regular. Yours was 4' X 30' but still a great amount of space.

 

Look at 6281 for an extended 6' X 30' for a lot more room.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review. We will be on the Legend in Jan 2011.

 

We will also take advantage of Bon Voyage.

[FlaGrl4Evr]

Hi Beachchick, Great review so far, love the pictures.

 

We were on the Oct 31 Legend cruise and also did the Altun-Ha and city tour through the ship. Did your guides happen to be: Joyce, Diane and Edwin ( or Erwin)? If so, they were excellent!!!!!

 

In addition, We also found that the photographers were not pushy. In fact, we had to kind of seek them out when we wanted to have our picture taken.

 

I do have to agree with you about the pool waiters. Every 3 minutes they would make their rounds to ask if you wanted another drink. I realize that they have to meet a certain quota but geesh, how much alcohol can one person drink?

 

Cari