Legend Review May 7 - 14th

[cruiseguys2009]

Bookmarked your review....we have 20 more weeks to go until its our turn. Your review is wonderful so far and we too are staying at the Holiday Inn Rocky Point. Glad to know to get there early for the reservation on the shuttle to the pier.

Can't wait to read more!

[gogetter]

Well......

 

I am very disappointed you gave Grand Cayman an F Maybe the excursion.....i dont know......i am not happy as Grand Cayman,personally, is my favorite port and we have never had a bad time there.

 

Belize on the other hand,. you gave an A....i wholeheartedly disagree with that....that place is the armpit of the western caribbean.

 

But anyways to each their own. welcome back...

[Honeyroastedmelnut]

I must say when I was planning and preparing for the cruise I envisioned spending tons of time poolside either listening to my ipod or reading my book, along with numerous visits to the hot tub and sauna rooms.

 

While I never was bored. I spent a total of 30 minutes in the pool on the first day at sea (my only pool time). Never once entered the hot tub. Didn't even open the door to the gym area to poke my head into the sauna area.

 

I did however spends lots of time in the rocking chairs on the sun deck people watching and gazing out of the windows in the enchanted forest when I wanted to get out of the sun.

 

The lunchtime food spread was quite tasty. I really really liked the goat cheese (chevre) pizza dispite it having mushrooms on it (yuck!). Never tried their calzones. Just ate plenty of the goat cheese and pepperoni pizza slices during the entire cruise.

 

While I know there were lots of activities on the first day at sea. I didn't really hit any of them. Not one trivia game (and DH is full of useless knowledge). We just enjoyed people watching.

 

We also each donated $20 to the casino. I went in not expecting to win money but to see how long I could be entertain/stretch my $20. It took me about 3 hours to finally lose it all (at one point I doubled my money but my goal was entertainment not winnings). Never did any of the tables ... strictly played the slots.

[Gecko7]

Can't wait for the rest. I'll be on the Legend soon enough. Thanks for the review!

[Honeyroastedmelnut]

DH & I then got ready for the first elegant night or as we refered to it "fancy pants night"

 

I knew there were going to be backdrops and whatnot for picture taking and planned on doing as many as possible in case a few shots turned out nice (very hard to get a tee shirt and shorts type of guy to dress up).

 

DH was not game for this. Heaven forbid we had to wait a minute or two for a backdrop. I think I managed to get us through a few of the sittings but by then DH wasn't having it. So I threw in the towel and off to dinner we went.

 

Well, not quite off to dinner. There was a long wait. After about 45 minutes and DH seeing a couple who arrived well after us and then be taken directly to a table, DH talked to the hostess. When we were asked if we wanted to sit alone or with others, we said "first available" which we thought meant that we were fine eating alone or with others which ever was the shortest wait. Apparently the hostess took this as, lets see if I can find another couple that wants to eat with others and will arrive in the next hour. After DH talked to the hostess we were brought to a table immediately. (He was polite)

 

Dinner was good. I tried the strawberry bisque and loved it. DH tried the mushrooms and felt they were OK. For the main course I had the duck and DH had the lobster and shrimp. I normally love duck. This was disgusting with a caveat ... I cannot stand the site of cooked fat and the duck was served with the fatty skin baked on it. That instantly started the dish at a huge disadvantage with me. Then the taste was very very bland. And by bland I mean unless you doused it in salt and pepper it was lacking in the normally wonderful and rich duck flavor. DH loved his lobster and shrimp. I had a bite of the lobster and it was pretty good. We agreed that I picked the best appetizer and DH picked the best entre.

 

For dessert I decided to try the WCMC again but this time with a glass of milk. I then understood why people say they cruise for WCMC ... it was fabulous. Hot and ooey-gooey chocolate delight! DH really liked his Cherries Jubilee. Since I don't like cherries and really don't like cooked fruit I didn't taste it.

 

Here are shots of us all gussied up taken by the ships photographers:

 

 

After changing back into street clothes (and out of my ferslugginer "spanx") we went to the late showing of Jazz Hot. This was probably one of my favorite of the production shows. Good song selections and dancing. They say it is rated PG for the costuming but in all honesty the kiddos would see far more skin in out by the swimming pool than in the tastefully done "showgirl" costumes.

 

We then saw the comedien Carl Faulkenberry. He too was one of the funnier ones. We were impressed with him during the Welcome Aboard show becuase he came out on stage to a musical version of a song from South Park (hint the song title sounds like Uncle Focker). Out of all of the comediens he felt the most seasoned.

[Honeyroastedmelnut]

The first port of call was Cozumel. We purposely didn't book any excursions for here. We were going to see Mayan Ruins in Belize, do the beach thing in Roatan, and a submarine trip in Grand Cayman so for Cozumel our plan was to explore the city, shop, and visit the Discover Mexico Museum.

 

Overall Discover Mexico was neat but neither DH or I think it was $20 a person neat. The park/museum consists of a small building with museum type examples of Mexican art work, pottery, and textiles. Their main focal point is outside where they have replicas of all of the major Mexican architectural buildings from Mayan to modern day. The replicas were nice, with good detail and to scale but at the end of the day you are looking at replicas none-the-less.

Here are some of the pics:

 

 

 

After a little over an hour at Discover Mexico (and we really took our time taking pictures of everything), we took a taxi to downtown San Miguel.

 

A word of caution. If you are ever in the main square DO NOT visit the large yellow store at the back of the main square! That store is run by a guy we have nicknamed Ripoff Raul. This was one of the first few stores we entered. He had very nice looking Mayan masks. We negotiated down to about 40% of his asking price ... too bad that was still about 2-3 times as much as some masks we saw later that day! :eek: Granted we never saw the same design but I don't think the craftsmanship was that much better. This was one of the reasons why I gave Cozumel a "C" (which is average by the way).

 

One of the other reasons was/is the booby-trapped walkways (aka poorly maintained sidewalks). Many of the sidewalks had gaps or holes in the sewage/utility covers. DH tripped over one of those holes. He still has a nasty road rash style wound on his shin and a nice chunk of skin missing from his knee.

 

We ate lunch at a nice looking restaurant just across from where the ferry to Playa Del Carmen lands. We weren't starving but I wanted DH off his leg and this gave me a chance to try and clean the wound out a bit. Don't remember the name of the place and the food was pretty forgetable as well. Not bad but my favorite local Mexican restaurant here in Tallahassee feels and tastes more authentic than that place ... very little spices. Although DH normally hates guacamole but did enjoy the guacamole they gave him with his fajitas so it isn't terrible food just not the fabulous "authentic" Mexican dining we were hoping to have.

 

After lunch we made our way to Los Cincos Soles. I now know why people rave about that place. Very nice indeed! Especially after our visit with Ripoff Raul. Now there is a small Los Cincos Soles in the Puerto Maya pier area. That will do if you are on an excursion that doesn't leave much time for shopping. If you have the time, go to the main one on the north side of San Miguel. It is huge, the selection is very diverse, and the prices are very good.

 

We then headed back to the pier. Stopping at a cigar shop to get a cuban ... an H. Upman #2 for those cigar afficiandos out there. Neither of us are smokers but if you are going to smoke a cigar, why not smoke one of the best.

DH looking cool with the cigar:

 

Me hacking up a lung after trying it (see I'm really not a smoker):

 

As all tourists must do we stopped at Fat Tuesdays before getting back on the boat. Now we were not one of the crazy drunken idiots but boy were they fun to watch.

 

I tried the sushi this night since the sushi area was right outside the sports lounge on deck 2 (where you can smoke cigars). Not really impressed. I like nigiri-style sushi (thin slice of raw fish over a bed of rice) and this was mostly rolls. The spicy tuna one was pretty good but then again it wasn't a roll.

 

Since DH's leg was so banged up he didn't want to put on pants for dinner. We just ate in the Lido/Unicorn area that night. Some of the MDR options were available. DH got the jerk pork loin which he loved and then got seconds of as well as the braised short ribs. I tried the smoked quesadilla ... yuck. Someone needs to remind Carnival that queso means cheese therefore a quesadilla should have some cheese in it! Oh well ... another excuse for me to get more of the goat cheese pizza :p

 

That night was the Motown and More show. While the songs were all performed well it was more of the "More" part than the "Motown" ... unless It's Raining Men by the Weather Girls is now considered Motown?

 

After that we saw the other comedian, William Troxler. If you are going to miss one of the comedy acts, this is one of the ones to miss. He wasn't bad but some of the jokes were old (like so old my Grandma has emailed me some of them!)

 

Since DH's leg was bothering him and I'm an early bird we crashed after the shows.

 

Here is the link to our Cozumel pictures for those who are interested. Once again they are not in chronological order.

http://s1184.photobucket.com/albums/z324/MelissaHCox/Cruise%202011/Cozumel/

[Gecko7]

Looking forward to the rest of the reivew. Thanks!

[KirkNC]

Looking forward to why Grand Cayman did so poorly.

 

Kirk

[hankandteri]

3rd times the charm???

 

 

 

 

 

Hey, I can see the back of my head in your picture. I'm the one in red and DW is the one in pink standing next to me. Loving your review so far. We had a great day in Grand Cayman and I'm also wondering why it got such a lousy review from you, Mel.

[deadmoney]

And that's me second from the left just before my camera battery died:(

[Honeyroastedmelnut]

Belize tends to be one of those ports that people either love or hate. DH and I loved it. We did the Altun Ha ruins and River Wallace excursion. We booked this directly through Carnival because it tends to run long. And run long it did! We had 5 minutes to spare between arriving in port and when the last tender was schedule to depart. While I would have liked to have shopped in the port area we just didn't have time.

 

This excursions goes 2 different ways. Some of the group go straight to the ruins then take the river back and the other group goes up the river then to the ruins. We were in the group that did the river first. This was quite nice since it was still a little cool. I'm sure in the heat of the day the river ride could be scorching. I highly, highly recommend a brimmed hat and not a baseball cap. I wore a Tilly hat (you Canucks out there should recognize that name) which is a brimmed hat that lets the heat from your head escape while providign nice shade for your face and neck. DH wore a baseball cap and boy was he sweating since those hats just provide shade and actually trap heat against your scalp.

 

May is the end of the dry season so the bugs were not bad at all but we were also wearing 100% DEET bug spray so that probably kept what few bloodsuckers were out away from us.

 

I have mixed feelings about the river part of the excursion. I'm a Florida girl so most of the river experience I can get here at home with maybe more wildlife visable. With that said the river part was enjoyable and those of you who live in parts of the country that don't have manatee and gator/crocodile infested waters might really really enjoy this. I did have to laugh at one point. We came across a dead croc and it took about 5 minutes of furious picture taking by everyone on the boat to realize that "hey that croc ain't moving and boy it sure is bobbing kind-of funny in the water" Even though I am a spoiled and hard to impress Florida-girl it was cool to see the monkeys sleeping and hanging in the trees. Who doesn't like monkeys, right. :)

 

 

After the boat ride, the group stops at a little riverside restaurant where you can get either local Belizian style chicken (dark meat) with beans and rice and fried plantains or a burger with fries. I tried to local food (hey when else and I going to eat authentic-ish Belizian food). It was delicious even for typically nasty dark meat (at least in my book dark meat is gross). The fried plantains were some of the best I have ever had. DH has tried to make them at home but I think with these being locally grown and perfectly ripe really made the difference ... not like the plantains you get at the typical grocery store. DH got the burger which actually surprised me a bit ... I guess he wasn't up for "exotic" food for lunch.

At the restaurant you can purchase some local crafts as well as some of the local wine. After reading so many reviews about how sweet the local cashew wine was I was looking for to tasting (and buying some). All I can say is BLECH! Maybe I've had too much Manischewitz but that stuff was not sweet.

 

We then took a 45 minute air conditioned bus ride to the ruins. The tour guides talked and gave information for most of the ride but I cannot tell you what they said. I have a habit that if I am in a moving land vehicle and am not driving, odds are I will fall asleep quickly. I think I napped for about half of the ride :o.

 

We then arrived at the ruins. Awesome! One of the things that attracted to me to the Altun Ha ruins in particular is that they are only partially excavated. DH and I both found it really fascinating to see how the jungle took back the ruins after the Mayan civilation declined. Sometimes you wonder how we can "lose" cities. Seeing the ground swallow back the ruins was really neat to see first hand how with time nature reclaims everything.

 

 

 

With Carnival you are allowed to climb one of the ruins. Apparently some other groups allow you to climb or different ruins but with Carnival you can climb the Temple of the Sun. I had planned to climb the ruin. Until I found out just how much my fear of heights can over-rule my desire for adventure. I committed the cardinal sin of climbing. Yep I looked down. About 3/4 of the way up I looked both out into the ruins (very cool) then down towards the ground (very not cool). Instantly I knew I could not go any further. Neither the tour guide nor DH could persuade me to finish it. I technically had the leg strength (the stairs really weren't that bad and you can tell by my picture that I am not a small athletic type girl) but once I looked over the ledge they turned to uncooperative jelly! My adventurous spirit said climb but my mind/body said heck no, God made you short for a reason ... you are not meant to be up in high places!

 

After a fairly good amount of time (maybe an hour) we headed back to the port. There were also local vendors outside the ruins selling local jewelry and wood carvings. Some of the prices were reasonable. DH picked up a nice clay and jade Mayan mask (for way way cheaper than one of the wooden ones we got in Cozumel) and I found a neat gator carved out of mohagony (I personally like alligators and the mascot of my alma mater is a gator).

 

We then had an hour bus ride back to the port. I again fell asleep. At least this time the tour guides jokingly said it was now nap time when the bus started moving ... so I probably wasn't the only one who slept.

 

After getting back on board we showered and dressed for dinner. We were hungry early tonight and were at the MDR right when it opened at 5:45. We were seated in Lizzette's section (she was one of my 2 favorite head waiters along with Nyoman). For the starter I had the mozzarella sticks and the grilled salmon. DH ordered the cream of peaches and the lamb. Hands down DH had the better dinner. That lamb was awesome. I make a darn good leg of lamb and that put mine to shame. Plus the lamb chops were really really good. Now for dessert I picked the best. I had the Bitter and Blanc. For as much as I enjoyed the WCMC, the Bitter and Blanc is worlds better. Really really good bread pudding not too moist yet not too dense and the cream sauce, ah just thinking about it makes my mouth water! DH ordered the Tiramisu. He liked it but when I gave him a bite of mine, he was like "wow that is awesome!"

 

The entertainment that night seemed a little weak (party on the Lido deck and not an actual show) so we enjoyed a nice quiet and relaxing night on the Serenity deck.

[Honeyroastedmelnut]

Oops, I forgot to include the link to my Belize photo album. Here it is for anyone interested:

 

http://s1184.photobucket.com/albums/z324/MelissaHCox/Cruise%202011/Belize/

[hankandteri]

Loving your review. Looks like I was stalking you the entire week. First I'm in your going under the bridge picture and now I find out I was on the same boat and bus as you on the Altun Ha/River Wallace tour. I also loved the "lazy monkeys."

 

The bitter and blanc was my favoritie dessert all week, including the night DW and I went to the steakhouse.

[Honeyroastedmelnut]

DH and I LOVED Roatan!!! Wow is/was that an awesome port of call. Too bad this stop allows for the shortest amount of time ashore.

 

This was the only morning I was up, dressed, and outside for the sunrise. It was quite beautiful to see the sun come up over the mountains.

 

 

While I missed it when the Legend did the manuaver to turn around, it was quite neat to see her back up into the port. Although I must admit this also was the only time I went outside to watch her dock. For those non-balcony traveler, the views from the Sun Deck (deck 10) were quite nice.

 

For Roatan we booked the Tabyana Beach break. I debated booking independantly with Bananarama which is essentially at the same beach. I decided on the Carnival excursion for 2 reason: 1. Bad information in an information request where Carnival told me snorkel gear was included in the price (it isn't and this made the Carnival excursion look roughly the same price as the independant). 2. I didn't like the posted cancellation policy on the independants website. They charged a $50 cancellation fee ... this was most likely for those booking rooms or diving packages and not the cruise people but none-the-less I decided against them.

 

Hands down this was the best snorkeling I have ever experienced. The water was crystal clear. No waves. Tons and tons of tropical fish to see.

If you have never snorkeled before I can think of no better place to get your feet wet. DH has had problems in the past snorkeling (panicky breathing issue with the snorkel) but he finally mastered it and really really enjoyed himself. We brought 4 disposable underwater cameras which I thought was borderline overkill ... we could have used more!

 

 

Seriously for those looking for a great reef this is it. Very easy swim out to the reef. There are guys stationed in various locations in sea kayaks to keep an eye out on the swimmers. The depth was so nice that a person just floating on top of the water could see as much as those diving the reef. For the more adventurous/experience snorklers, very easy free diving (like 20 feet) to get down at the divers level.

 

I had heard reports of the sea trek dive helmet people being along the beach to rent their gear. Didn't see them. The snuba people were there and for I think $25-30 you could rent the snuba gear which is essentially dive gear that floats on the surface and doesn't require dive certification. In preparing for the cruise, I really thought I was going to rent the dive helmets. I'm almost glad they weren't there. The water/reef was so wonderful for snorkeling that I don't think the divers or people renting the snuba gear saw anything I could see view surface swimming or free-diving.

 

 

Now at one point I did get pretty far out and quite a bit from the nearest swimmer. So of course at that point in time the Jaws theme starts playing in my head. So I swam back to where most of the other swimmers were.

 

 

We then headed back to the port area for about an hour of shopping before having to be back on board. Like Belize, Roatan had some very nice wood carvings and items made out of wood. Picked up a beautiful cutting board (a souvenier that I would actually use and not just collect dust) and some pearl earrings.

 

Tonight at dinner was the only time we were seated with others. It was nice talking to them but the timing was way off. We were seated after they had already eaten their appetizers and were waiting for their main dishes to arrive. It seemed like one of us was eating while the other was waiting to eat. A lovely couple just a little awkward. Becuase we wanted to chat with the dinner companions, neither DH nor myself really looked over the menu. We both ordered the cold asparagus soup. Now, had I been paying attention I wouldn't have ordered that. In my opinion asparagus is fabulous when cooked right and served hot but just down right nasty when cold. Neither one of us ate more than a couple bites of the soup. For the main dish, DH ordered the veal parmigiana and like it. I ordered the filet mignon and the short rib confit. Probably should have ordered the red snapper. I am quite picky about cuts of meat. The filet part of the meal was delicious. It came out a perfect medium-rare. The short rib part is frankly a cut of meat that no matter how great the cheif is, I normally don't like due to the texture. DH didn't mind though ... he happy ate my rejected beef. For dessert, I once again chose the WCMC and DH ordered the apple pie.

 

Dinner was also the other cruise elegant night. While people still dressed appropriately it wasn't a dressy as the first one. We followed the same trend with me in a cocktail dress and DH in a nice sports coat instead of his suit. For the first timers out there, the picture backdrops change and a different set of backdrops are used. I was able to get DH to agree to take more pictures since the lines were much shorter but most of them were not very good.

 

For the evenings entertainment we watched the Big Easy. A wonderful production. For the parents out there, I do agree with the PG rating. The costuming wasn't bad but the dancing was a little suggestive so it may not be appropriate for the under 10 crowd. I'm not a prude but I understand that parents may want to keep their kids from seeing things they are not yet mature enough to handle.

 

After that we went to the comedy club. I believe that night we saw Joe Bronzi. Ugh, horrible. Almost his entire routine was heckling the crowd. Not funny at all and it wasn't even good or clever heckling.

[Honeyroastedmelnut]

Oops, I forgot to post the link to the photo album again.

http://s1184.photobucket.com/albums/z324/MelissaHCox/Cruise%202011/Roatan/

[Honeyroastedmelnut]

When I started this review, I almost couldn't wait until I got to Grand Cayman so I could blast a company out of the water. I still don't like what occured but after the cruise they did everything they could to make things right. With that said I will tell you what went so wrong.

 

When planning this cruise it came down to the Legend or the Dream. I initially wanted to book the Dream since it was a newer ship. My hesitation was that the Dream's 4th port of call was Costa Maya and the Legend had Grand Cayman (all other ports were the same just in different order). It boiled down to I really wanted to go to Grand Cayman becuase I had heard such wonderful things about the submarine ride you can take there (yes it is in Cozumel but I heard their reefs are still recovering from Hurrican Wilma).

 

When it came time to start booking the excursions I wanted a morning sub trip so that I would have the afternoon free to go to the Turtle Farm as that looked really neat as well. Booking directly with Atlantis Submarine was a good bit cheaper than through Carnival (same excursion company). I contacted Atlantis and said I wanted to book the morning sub trip. They told me that was being reserved for the cruise. So I went to Carnival's website and while I could find the excursion doing a search it was never listed as a bookable option for my exact cruise. Hmm. So I emailed Carnival to see what was up since Atlantis said they had a sailing saved for them. Apparently the contract with Atlantis was set to expire shortly before my departure date and Carnival wasn't opening up the excursion while they were still in contract negotiations. So I went back to Atlantis to book with them. The only option they gave me was a 1:30pm departure time. So I booked it and received my confirmation back in March 2011.

 

Now sometime between March 2011 and May 13, 2011 someone decided to cancel the 1:30 sailing. They moved everyone booked for that departure time to an earlier time slot. Unfortunately some internal procedures broke down on their end and I was never called nor emailed about this change.

 

Fast forward to when we are in Grand Cayman. With the way the tendering was going, DH and I decided to not attempt to go to the Turtle Farm in the morning becuase we would risk being late for our submarine trip which I wanted to do more than see the turtles. So we putzed around the port a bit.

 

There is a Cayman Island National museum about halfway between where the tenders dock and where Atlantis Submarine is located. It was a little neat but not overly interesting (neither DH nor I took a single picture). We then went to the Guy Harvey shop to get a tee shirt for my brother who is a huge Guy Harvey fan. We ate at his restaurant as well. While I initially gave Grand Cayman an "F", I would give this restaurant an "A". Very good food. We had fantastic conch fritters to start with (that's all I really wanted but I ordered a lunch anyway). DH had a fabulous Mahi Mahi prepared "Cayman Style" which I guess is a whole bunch of island spices with fresh peppers on top. Too spicy for me to eat the whole thing but the bite I had was very tasty and DH gobbled it up. I ordered a gyro (yes I know ... ordering Greek food on a British Caribbean Isle is not eating local) which was average.

 

We then went to the Atlantis Submarine place. We arrive early at around 12:45. When I said we were there to check in for the 1:30 departure I was met with a blank stare. I then handed the clerk my reservation print-out and repeated that we were there for the 1:30 departure. I was coldly told I was too late. What???? Then the clerk stated there was not 1:30 departure. I was not happy. I replied, "what do you mean there is no 1:30 departure. I have reservations for it and that was the only departure time I could choose." The clerk punches around his computer and says that I am late that I was on the 11:30 departure. At this point another employee comes up. Looks at my reservation confirmation printout out and says, "You were moved to the 11:30 departure."

 

At this point I was getting very upset so DH and I leave before I cause a scene. Just outside the building there was a bench so we sit there for a few minutes. DH tries to console me. I then go back inside and ask to speak to the manager. She flatly told me, "There is not a 1:30 departure today. You were moved to the 11:30 departure. I don't know when you were moved or by whom as I was not here." That was all I would get out of them. No appology no nothing. They just acted like I was in the wrong for missing the 11:30 departure that I was never notified that I was moved to.

 

So DH & I walked out again. At this point I was crying. We didn't really do anything in the morning becuase I didn't want to risk missing the submarine trip and at this point it was too late in the afternoon to do anything. I was very upset. I chose that particular cruise for that port becuase of that excursion. Granted my cruise wasn't ruined and I never felt that but in the prep for the cruise the sub trip was anticipated to be one of the highlights of the trip. Then poof it was gone through no fault of my own and without even a hint of sympathy from the excursion company.

 

So that is why when I started this review on Sunday, I gave Grand Cayman a big fat F. But, I am not going to end the story there as it would not be fair to Atlantis Submarine. Last night I emailed them and told them what had happened. It was more to give them feedback than anything else since I didn't know when I would be able to cruise again and at that point Grand Cayman wasn't high on my list of places to visit. Within a few hours of emailing them I received a reply. Their general manager gets a gold star in customer service! He acknowledge how upsetting it must have been for me. He said he was already notified of the mishap and they were looking into what went wrong since their policy is to call and/or email when changes are being made to reservations. At this point, I would have been satisfied with his appology had the email ended there. One of the things that upset me almost more than missing the trip was the perceived lack of caring from the staff. The manager said he wished the original order of ports was observed (where Grand Cayman came before Cozumel) because he would have put DH & I on their sub free of charge. Since he couldn't do that and since nobody can change the past, if DH & I return to Grand Cayman or Cozumel we are invited to go on the submarine ride free of charge! I was not expecting that. Seriously the acknowledgement of my disappointment and the appology was enough to make things right in my book. Now I'm not sure if DH & I will be taking another cruise in the near future. But if we do go on another cruise and it happens to stop in Grand Cayman, I might just take them up on their offer as I still really do want to go on the submarine ride. Cozumel is kind-of out since DH has said if we every go back there he wants to go to Tulum.

[hankandteri]

Wow, you handled that situation with more grace than I could have managed under the circumstances. I know how disappointed you must be about missing the submarine excursion through no fault of your own.

[Honeyroastedmelnut]

Wow, you handled that situation with more grace than I could have managed under the circumstances. I know how disappointed you must be about missing the submarine excursion through no fault of your own.

 

I wouldn't say I handled it gracefully. I let out a string of "expletives deleted" outside the building that would make a sailer blush. I once had a crap job in a complaint department so I learned to not take frustration out on employees ... hince the walking away a few times.

[Honeyroastedmelnut]

It occurred to me today while at work that I goofed on my dinner review for Roatan. This was indeed the other fancy-pants night but my food and sitting information was for Grand Cayman not Roatan. Apparently either the website I was using for the menu was off or Carnival deviated a bit sine the menu I looked at for night 5 (Roatan) was actually for night 6 (Grand Cayman). I will post the correct dinner review for Roatan tonight when I get home.

[Froufie]

Wow - sorry about that miscommunication in GC - guess GC doesn't get an F - but Atlantis submarine does? Hope you were still able to enjoy what you saw of the island altho I too would have been pissed off and cranky - esp after having planned everything in advance!

 

But the customer service part seems excellent and I would definitely take them up on that offer should be ever visit GC again (and I did the sub ride with dh and ds who was 6 at the time and we all loved it!)

[deadmoney]

I hope you get to go back and take that sub ride.

The free trip offer is exactly what any "good" manager would have offered.

I hope you printed out that e mail.

[Honeyroastedmelnut]

OK, the second elegant night on the Legend was on Thursday which for me was Roatan (some of the sailings had different orderings of the ports).

 

DH and I both tried the escargots. Neither of us had ever had escargot and we were both delighted to find out we love it! DH also ordered the chilled bing cherry soup. He liked that as well but we agreed that of all of the chilled fruit soups the strawberry bisque was the best by far.

 

For the main course DH and I both ordered the Chateaubriand. I was looking forward to this every since I saw the menus on a post way back in the planning stages of the cruise. Don't get me wrong it was very delicious but if you have ever had it in a Ruth Chris caliber restaurant, what is on board is not as fabulous. I would still order it in a heartbeat but my first chateaubriand is still placed on a pedistal compared to this one. (Or it really could be that my memory of it is so high that even if I went back to the place I first had it I wouldn't think it was as good as the first time).

 

For dessert we also both ordered the Baked Alaska. Again I was not as impressed as I thought I would be but I think what I was expecting was not realistic. The first and only other time I ever had Baked Alaska was when I was 15 on a cruise to Alaska. Back then the waiters came out with it flaming/on fire which for a 15 year old was awesome!!! On this trip it was a thinly sliced piece served flat (on its side). It was ok. Not bad. But not wonderful. I had kind-of wished I had ordered the WCMC.

 

One thing I forgot from the first elegant night. Our waiter brought out a piece of the diet banana cake (pretty tasty actually) before the desserts we had ordered and sang "Happy Anniversary" to us along with a few other waiters. It was very nice and one of those little gestures that Carnival does that doesn't really cost them much but returns a good amount of customer appreciation/good will.

[Honeyroastedmelnut]

After dinner (read what I wrote in Roatan for my dinner review of Friday night since I accidently switched the dinners around in my review), we went to the Showtime show. The Funtimes really does this one a disservice by offering virtually no explanation as to what it is. Luckily I overheard an announcement by Wee Jimmy that it was a comedy and juggling act. The performer was quite good. While it wasn't something I would watch on TV, it was very entertaining to watch in person ... especially considering he was doing the juggling on a moving cruise ship. The comedy bit was more apart of his act than a seperate stand-up bit but I found him to be very amusing.

 

Afterwards we caught the final comedian of the cruise, Chas Elstner. He was hysterical and it was a packed house. We ended up sitting in chairs along the outer wall. What appeared to be an octogenarian couple came in and sat next to us. At first due to pressumptions and stereotypes I was little nervous about them sitting next to us since this was the "R" rated show. In the end it actually made it better (and a little disturbing at times) to here the gentleman laughing hysterically at the raunchiest of the raunchy jokes ... I know every generation has naughty jokes but you just don't expect someone who looks like your grandpa to be laughing at the same "inner 13 year old" humour as you. Well at least I didn't.

[ahoys]

I think that the compensation was a very nice offer for your disappointment. In my book, that means you must take another cruise soon--after all, when will you get to do the submarine trip for free, right?

 

Take a quick 5-day out of Tampa on the Inspiration (or later, the Paradise) to Grand Cayman during one of the off-peak months. Those sailings can be pretty good bargains!

[Honeyroastedmelnut]

For the last day at sea it felt like I did more than the first day at sea. DH had a late night (he was reading in the Enchanted Forest which was a favorite place for both of us). So I got up and went to breakfast by myself ... nothing unsual for me since DH usually sleeps in until noon on Saturdays when we are not on vacation. I had my lido breakfast staple of grits, scrambled eggs, bacon, and the passion fruit guava fruit punch. All but 2 mornings we at in the Lido. For the 2 times we went to the MDR it was nice and I had the eggs benedict. Now for you Southerners out there, the grits were not that bad. Comperable to the grits you would find at the Cracker Barrell.

 

I went back to the room to quitely start organizing stuff. Then headed over to the gift shops. I had initially planned on just getting some of the rum cakes (for some reason I thought the 6-pack was $25 on board but they were $30 just like in Grand Cayman). While there I picked up a Belize and Roatan tee shirt that were on sale for 2 for $20 ... $10 a shirt isn't that bad especially since I picked up the super-large "fluffy" size shirts.

 

After I got back into the room with my purchases, DH was waking up. So while he showered and got ready I did some more organizing. We then headed up to the Lido for lunch for me (it was now 11) and breakfast for him. I shocked DH with my lunch choice. I normally hate ruebens or anything made from the brisket cut of meat (briskey, corned beef, pastrami). But on embarkation day I tried a bite of DH's rueben (more to be polite since he was raving over it). Their reubens are fantastic! I ordered my with a little extra sourkraut and then enhaled it.

 

At noon on the last day at sea, Carnival offers a Chocolate buffet. DO NOT MISS THIS. Oh my goodness was I in chocolate heaven. They had tons of chocolate cakes and a chocolate fountain that you could dip a wide variaty of fresh fruit, rumballs, and/or donuts in.

I gorged on a piece of chocolate cheesecake, 3 rumballs, pineapple dipped in chocolate, an apple sliced dipped in chocolate, chocolate mousse (this I would pass on if I did it again), and strawberry bisque. Ok, ok the strawberry bisque isn't chocolately but that stuff is awesome!

DH had even more dessert than I did. I don't know about DH but my tummy was not a happy camper for a few hours after that.

 

At 12:30 I went to the towel animal folding class. If you have kiddos (especially girls) this would be neat for them. I was midly amused but after 30 minutes of sitting crossed legged on the floor I left (they had just one more animal to do and I had already established that I stunk at towel animals).

 

Another reason why I left a little early was that at 1:30 there was an ice carving demonstration by the lido stage. This was quite cool. The guy didn't do the most interesting ice sculpture I had ever scene but he still whipped out a neat American Indian bust really fast. He has talent and I really enjoyed watching how fast he could carve the ice.

 

 

For the rest of the afternoon I alternated between people watching on the lido and staring out at sea in the Enchanted Forest.

 

For dinner that night we had reservations at the steakhouse. I highly, highly recommend the steakhouse. While the first night out at sea you get a free bottle of wine, for us having this wonderful dining experience was a great way to finish a nice vacation.

 

The funny thing about this night is that for both of the fancy-pants (elegant) nights we tried to get out pictures taken by the steps. They always came out like crap. This night we asked a random passenger sitting in the lobby to take our picture and it was one of the best pictures taken of us during the entire cruise!

 

 

Ok, back to the steakhouse. For the appetizer DH tried to beef carpaccio. I had a bite and it was very tasty. I ordered the escargot becuase in my mind, when else was I going to have escagot. While the steakhouse escargot have the same name as the MDR elegant night escargot they are not the same. I really liked the escargot in the MDR. The steakhouse escargot were probably one of the best tasting dishes I have ever eaten. I would almost cruise again just for them!

DH tried one and he concurred. His appetizer was awesome but mine stole the show.

 

When we ordered our salads (spinach and mushrooms for DH and ceaser for me), the waitress tried to get me to try something else and offered to let me have another appetizer. When a wait stuff does this take their hint. The ceasar salad was blander than bland. Since I had ordered the salad before the escargot arrived I was kicking myself for not ordering a double serving of the escargot.

 

For the main dish I ordered the filet mignon. It was a huge 9oz portion. Seasoned and cooked to perfection. DH ordered the porterhouse and actually ate the whole thing! Again his was seasoned and cooked to perfection.

 

We both ordered the cheesecake. The slices were so large they were almost comical. Neither of us came close to finishing our slices. But it was so tasty. The steakhouse is very much worth the $30 a person charge.

 

That night was the Legend's show which neither one of us were interested in. Since we still had to pack we went back to the room to do that. Lucikly I planned in advanced for the trip home. I have very loosely packed our suitcase with clothes on the way to the cruise and also packed 1 small and 1 medium size duffle bag. This worked perfectly. Was able to pack all of the clothes and goodies in the suitcases and duffle bags. While during embarkation my purse and DH's backpack were completely filled on the way home they just carried last minute necessities like pj's, toletries, and stuff we wanted at hand for debarkation.

 

While we were tired, neither of us wanted to go to bed. So we to the Colossus Lounge (Atrium) on deck 2 to listen to music. Jay was playing and he was one of the better musicians. Sadly the cruise that is currently out at sea right now is his last one with the Legend and I forget what ship he is transfering to.

 

We got to chit-chat with him during one of his breaks. Very nice guy. On the trip we encountered another musician named Angela. While still on the ship I had it in my mind to warn future passengers about her. She is/was so bad that she would make it on the rejects montage footage if she auditioned for American Idol. I've never known a musician who could butcher every song she sang so badly. She could clear a room faster than a smelly dog fart! Actually she cleared the area aroung the lido stage on the first day at sea. Luckily for future Legend passengers her contract ended with my sailing so none of you will be subjected to her.

 

The professional dog:

 

My attempt at a dog:

 

The professional towl elephant:

 

My sad and pathetic elephant about 10 seconds before his head fell off: