REVIEW - Carnival Legend 5/8 - 5/15

[mprince4]

A beach we stopped at (not West Bay)

 

 

 

Another nice view

 

 

 

West Bay beach

 

 

 

 

 

[mprince4]

This is Infinity Bay, for anyone who wants to see it - it was beautiful and the pool looked awesome

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More pics of the beach - the water was beautiful!!!

 

 

 

[mprince4]

The water was so clear

 

 

 

The local beers we drank on the beach (that's Sam in the background)

 

 

 

J and I with Sam

 

 

 

Back at Mahogany Bay - here's a couple pics to give you an idea of the port shopping area

 

 

 

[mprince4]

A couple final shots of the pier and Mahogany Bay beach in the sunshine

 

 

 

 

 

I think I took these as we were sailing away

 

 

 

 

 

And the ocean at night (before the sun totally set)

 

[mprince4]

Ok, that's it for Roatan!

 

Next up I will try to do Grand Cayman, the last sea day, and debarkation all together - there isn't much I can write about GC because we didn't spend much time there (as you will see :rolleyes:) and I don't have gobs of pictures for these days like I do of Belize and Roatan.

 

At the end, I will do a summary and give grades to everything - so stay tuned :)

[AryMay]

 

I've forgotten the name of the area where we saw this beach - if anyone recognizes it, let me know - it was just stunning!

 

 

 

 

These photos are at the Parrot Tree Plantation Resort. Victor's brother, Francisco, was our guide last summer and took us there. The resort was beautiful but almost seemed deserted when we were there.

 

I have more photos from this resort in my review (link is in my signature).

[serene56]

A few pics of the view from the balcony - my camera lens was fogging up like crazy because it was so hot outside

 

 

next cruise-- keep your camera in an ninsulated bag and wrap the bag with a towel. Keep the bag/towel low to the floor that way when you need to run and grab the camera to get a fabulous photo on the balcony-- it will be ready

 

 

Your camera took amazing photos-- is it a DSL?

[Hamitchell]

They sound like the Nicaraguans. Not very pushy. If I don't want them bothering me I just sat politely, "no gracias" and most leave you alone. Very nice people, but two very poor countries--tied for poorest behind Haiti, but not the lawlessness of Haiti. Respectful and well-dressed (not dirty). It blows me away how they only wear long pants--shorts are too informal. It's bloody hot and humid in central America (but I still love Nicaragua all the same).

 

Beautiful land.

 

Thanks for your great review, mprince.

[Islandbear]

Keep it coming! I love your review.:)

[mprince4]

These photos are at the Parrot Tree Plantation Resort. Victor's brother, Francisco, was our guide last summer and took us there. The resort was beautiful but almost seemed deserted when we were there.

 

I have more photos from this resort in my review (link is in my signature).

 

Ooooh thanks! I knew it started with a P, but I didn't pay much attention when we drove through the gates. I wanted to see how expensive it would be to stay there because it was so awesome - I would love to go back.

[mprince4]

next cruise-- keep your camera in an ninsulated bag and wrap the bag with a towel. Keep the bag/towel low to the floor that way when you need to run and grab the camera to get a fabulous photo on the balcony-- it will be ready

 

 

Your camera took amazing photos-- is it a DSL?

 

Hahaha not that I know of - just a Canon PowerShot - I think it's an SD1300 or something like that. I got it last Christmas to replace a digital camera that was 7 years old and I still don't really know how to use all the features, but it does take some good pics!

[mprince4]

Day 6 - Grand Cayman

 

This was the one port I didn't plan for because I wasn't sure what we'd feel like doing after having plans in the other three ports. I figured we could always hop on the bus and go out to Hell or 7 Mile Beach or whatever. Well, remember how I said that the Tampa couple rented a scooter in Cozumel and J thought that was a really good idea? After they talked about how much fun they had, J was DEDICATED to renting a scooter somewhere we went, and since we were totally planned out for Belize and Roatan, I acceded to his wishes and agreed that we could try to rent scooters in Grand Cayman. :rolleyes: Side note - I have less than zero interest in renting scooters anywhere and I was not really that pleased with the Tampa couple for putting this idea in J's head. :\

 

We slept a little late this morning since we weren't in any hurry to get off the ship and we had a longer stop here. We got up around 9:30 (the tenders started around 10 for all the excursions) and I think we grabbed a quick breakfast - although my notes say that we grabbed an early lunch before we got off the ship. Maybe we didn't eat breakfast this day? I'm not really sure. We might not have been hungry in the morning so maybe we did wait. Anyway, we eventually got off the ship at around 12:30. Our first stop was a liquor store, where J bought some liquor - he loves bargains and the prices were very good - who cares that we have about 15 bottles of liquor at home that we never drink? :p Remember if you are buying liquor in GC, you have to buy it an hour before the last tender because they have to deliver it directly to the ship. I thought this was wonderfully convenient!

 

After buying the liquor, J and I started walking around the pier area. I was trying to find the bus station, and we were also trying to see if we could find a place that rented scooters. About 1/4 or 1/2 mile up the main road to the left, we did find a place that had bikes and scooters for rent. The scooters were $50 to rent. However, I flatly refused to ride my own scooter because a) they drive on the wrong side of the road in GC, and one mistake on a scooter could be a dismal end to my vacay and b) the main road was very, very busy and not a good place to learn to drive on the wrong side of the road. I'm sure there are many less busy roads on the island that would be great for riding a scooter, but I was not about to make my first mistake on a super busy road and risk getting injured or killed.

 

I told J I would be fine with him driving one with me on the back, but I think he was similarly apprehensive about safety because he didn't like the idea of being responsible for my safety while he got used to driving on the wrong side of the road. I then suggested that we split up and he ride a scooter and I go do something else, but he said that wouldn't be fun. :rolleyes:

 

So we decided the scooter thing wasn't going to work out, and we walked back towards the ship to do some shopping (and I was still trying to find the bus station). I bought a shot glass and J bought a necklace, and then I found the bus station and suggested we hop on and go somewhere (although the beach wasn't going to work because I hadn't worn my bathing suit in anticipation that we might rent scooters), but J got all grumpy and said that riding scooters was the only thing he wanted to do and now that we couldn't do it, he didn't want to do anything else. :mad:

 

I was kind of disappointed because I had never been to GC (I was supposed to go on my 2007 RCCL cruise but we couldn't tender due to weather) and wanted to at least see some of the beach and maybe go to Hell, but I didn't really feel like exploring on my own and I was also thinking that it might be nice to hang out at the pool while it was mostly empty, since I hadn't really done much of that yet. So I suggested we do a mini bar hop back to the ship to try some local beer - which turned into one local beer at Rackam's (cool place right on the water) before J wanted to get back on the ship :rolleyes:

 

All in all, we only spent about 2 hours on GC before we got back on the ship around 2:45. I was still kind of ticked at J, so I went straight to the pool and relaxed there for a few hours - it was really pleasant being in the shade and I took a few dips in the pool while hardly anyone was around. Sometimes being on the ship during a port day is so nice :)

 

I got ready for dinner after my pool day and we went down to the MDR as usual. Again, it was just us and the VA couple, and they told us they were eating at the steakhouse the last night of the cruise, so this was the last time we'd see them. I got the thai chicken tenders, which were ok, and the chilled asparagus soup, which was also ok, and then I had the penne with tomato vodka cream sauce, which was simple but really excellent. For dessert I had the chocolate, raspberry, and vanilla cream cake. This was definitely one of the best meals I had in the MDR because I liked the entree much better than I had most other nights.

 

After dinner, J and I headed to the Firebird lounge to see one of the R rated comedy shows by Chas Elstner, who was pretty funny. Then, not surprisingly, J left to go play poker and left me to go see the second comedian by myself. This one was Joe Bronzi and I thought he was hilarious - the best of the three I saw. I saw in her review that honeyroastedmelnut didn't like him because he spent the whole time heckling the audience, but that's the kind of thing I find hilarious, so for my taste, he was great. Perhaps not for everyone, though.

 

After Joe Bronzi, I popped over to the card room to see some magic (I love magic) and this guy Tim was doing card tricks. I just caught the very end of it, so after it was over I went to Medusa's Lair for a little while before heading to bed. J came back later and he had lost big at poker and woke me up because he was all angry (I would do another eye roll face here if I wasn't out of images - lot of eye rolling for GC day).

[mprince4]

Day 7 - At Sea

 

Not much to say about the sea day because I was pretty much just relaxing. I can't remember if J and I ate breakfast together this day because I was pretty ticked at him for waking me up and being all surly the night before, so I might have eaten breakfast on my own. After breakfast I went out to the pool and initially sat in the shade, which happened to be on the smoking side of the ship :( I couldn't stand the smoke after a while, so I had to move over into the sun and I went in the pool a couple times to cool off because it was so hot over there! I also drank a double mimosa while I was out at the pool :D

 

After I couldn't stand the heat anymore, I went back to the room and hung out on the balcony for a while, and J left to go play in the poker tournament (he didn't win, so he was in a bit of a mood after this too). I think we ate lunch separately because he was in a mood - and today I made a marvelous concoction where I made a giant salad from the salad bar and topped it with cut up chicken tenders and honey mustard dressing - mmm! After lunch, I came back to pack. We weren't in any hurry to pack because we were doing self-assist, but I like to get everything in order. Since we had filled one carry on with soda and it was almost all gone (and we weren't taking it back with us), we had tons of room in our bags, so I got a few of the bags packed up and ready to go that afternoon.

 

After packing, we went to the fun farewell party. This was a good time! A bunch of people were waiting outside the Firebird lounge for the doors to open, but it wasn't that crowded at all. J and I were downing the free drinks at lightning speed and getting plenty of others, probably because J kept tipping the bar servers (he is a tipping machine). It was a nice little party with music, and Wee Jimmy came around and shook everyone's hands, which was a nice touch.

 

With our last 2 free drinks, we went over to the card room to play cards and ended up playing Battleship against my wishes - and saw a rainbow! When it got to be about time to get ready for dinner, we weren't quite sure what to do, because we didn't want to be the only people at our table in the MDR, but we also didn't want one of the other couples to be alone there either. We decided that it was pretty unlikely that the Tampa couple or Atlanta couple would show up since they hadn't been there for the last 2 nights (including the last formal night), and the MDR menu didn't really excite us anyway, so we just headed up to the buffet around 7:45ish. We popped out to the Serenity deck at some point to take a picture of the sunset and saw the Atlanta couple in the pool, so we were right about them not showing up! After we ate, I wanted to go down to the MDR just to say goodbye to the Tampa couple if they had shown up for dinner, but sure enough, our table was empty.

 

I'm not sure what we did after dinner. I think J may have gone to play a little bit more poker, but I'm willing to bet that I went to bed early. I'll look at the Fun Times from this day and make sure I'm not forgetting anything, but I think that was about it for the sea day. I definitely recommend checking out the Fun Farewell party - I told the VA couple at dinner about it and what it was, but I think they got there too late to enjoy it. It's not very long, so you have to get there when it starts!

[Islandbear]

What a downer. I really was enjoying your review but these last two posts have got me all sad. :(

 

Tell me that your last two days on the cruise were not as bad as they seem from these two posts.

[Clearwater]

Great review but sad that the food sounded so bad. I am a foodie and I am bummed to hear that the quality wasn't up to par most of the week. We went on the Legend 2 yrs ago and we are going back on her with a larger group this October.

 

We loved Roatan last time and did a VB tour. So this time, I want to do something different.

 

I loved the pics of Parrot Tree Plantation & Infinity Bay. Both look gorgeous - almost like a nachi of Roatan. Do you know by chance if you can do something similar as Nachi?

 

Can you go there for the day and pay and use the beach, restaurant, bar and pool area at either of them?? Would love to know because they are gorgeous!

[Froufie]

I believe both Parrot Tree and Infinity Bay offer 'day passes' - if you do a 'search' on the 'Roatan' port of call board I'm sure you can find some recent information!

[mprince4]

What a downer. I really was enjoying your review but these last two posts have got me all sad. :(

 

Tell me that your last two days on the cruise were not as bad as they seem from these two posts.

 

Hahahahahaha!!! I didn't want to make anyone sad, and they weren't bad days - just not quite what I was expecting to do in Grand Cayman. It really wasn't any big surprise to me that we didn't end up doing much because J was being kind of grumpy at points during the whole cruise. I booked it this particular week because I thought it would be a good way for him to celebrate graduation (he has been getting his MBA while working full-time and it's taken a long time) and it was cheaper, but in retrospect, I think it was hard for him to go that quickly from being in school mode to vacation mode. You know, some people just hate changes in routine and can't get used to it right away.

 

Also, J didn't like what I'd planned for some of the ports (mainly Belize and Roatan - although he wouldn't give me any input when I asked what he wanted to do in Roatan :rolleyes:) - you know, the typical "I didn't care when you asked me but now I want to share my opinion that you didn't plan what I wanted to do" - which was obviously annoying to me after I did all kinds of research and planned everything out. But, keeping him in mind, I was very much open for Grand Cayman, so it wasn't a total disappointment that we didn't do much - I'm sure I'll be back on another cruise - in fact, if all goes well with the weather, I should be there in October with some female friends and then we can do something fun :) I really enjoyed relaxing by the pool on a mostly empty ship that afternoon, and it worked out better for me being in the shade by the pool than it would have being on the beach with my painful sunburn.

 

As for the sea day, I know how J gets when he loses at poker - he is a giant PITA - and before we left I told him he probably didn't need to play every night of the cruise. I should have restricted it more strongly to 4 or 5 nights tops, but I think he ended up playing 6 or 7 nights instead... but he was always so excited to go play because he loves poker. But he is also pretty cheap and hates losing money, so he can be in an extra terrible mood if he loses a lot of money. So it was not a surprise at all that he was a grumpy monkey on the last sea day after having a bad poker night, and I was perfectly fine relaxing by the pool by myself and fending for myself. It didn't ruin my vacation or anything like that - by early afternoon he had come out of his funk and all was well :)

 

I didn't want anyone to think they were terrible days - I just got annoyed by the whole scooter issue in GC (and getting woken up later that night). I would have gladly punched the Tampa couple in the face for talking about how awesome it was because really, Cozumel is the only port (on this cruise) that was ideal for renting scooters, so that ship had sailed as soon as we were done with Cozumel. I mean, I don't want to ride scooters ANYWHERE, but if J really, really wanted to do it, that is one of the few places I would MAYBE be on board for it. I didn't want to do it in GC, believe me, but I was willing to ride with him because he wanted to do it sooo badly. He has since conceded that it was ok to do something else in Roatan because it would not be a good place to ride scooters because some of the roads are steep and not in great shape, but he remains convinced that Belize would be a good place to ride scooters :eek::eek:

[mprince4]

Great review but sad that the food sounded so bad. I am a foodie and I am bummed to hear that the quality wasn't up to par most of the week. We went on the Legend 2 yrs ago and we are going back on her with a larger group this October.

 

We loved Roatan last time and did a VB tour. So this time, I want to do something different.

 

I loved the pics of Parrot Tree Plantation & Infinity Bay. Both look gorgeous - almost like a nachi of Roatan. Do you know by chance if you can do something similar as Nachi?

 

Can you go there for the day and pay and use the beach, restaurant, bar and pool area at either of them?? Would love to know because they are gorgeous!

 

I'll be grading the food and everything else when I write up my summary. I don't cruise for the food and I certainly never went hungry, but it wasn't as good as I was expecting from previous cruises (including my previous Carnival cruise which was admittedly a long time ago). I actually came to prefer the buffet over the MDR for dinner because I could mix and match small things that I knew I'd like instead of ordering an entree that maybe didn't turn out so well - and also because I LOVED the salad bar.

[kew1031]

Ok, last picture before I stop for the night and continue tomorrow. As we were walking by the doors out to the promenade to go to dinner the first night, J goes, "hey look!" and I look outside, see this sunset, and I RAN out on the promenade, tripping over the lip of the door to take this picture :p I saved myself from falling and I think it was worth it :)

 

 

but I copied and pasted this picture to my computer and have it set as my desktop background.

Absolutely beautiful picture. I'm very glad you managed to get the shot without sacrificing your body by falling down!

[mprince4]

but I copied and pasted this picture to my computer and have it set as my desktop background.

Absolutely beautiful picture. I'm very glad you managed to get the shot without sacrificing your body by falling down!

 

I don't mind at all - I'm glad you like it!

[Islandbear]

OK Glad that the last two days were not a complete downer. My DW Is just like J. No interest at all in planning or discussing what to do till 12 hours before we arrive, then its all "why are we doing this? or what is this about?" :rolleyes: I on the other hand love to plan. Thats why I'm here on the Boards. We'll wish us luck we will be on the legend, too.

 

Cozumel: 3 Hour Catameran Snorkeling trip & Hang Around Town

Belize: Lamanai Tour

Roatan: Bananarama By Taxi

Grand Cayman: Sting Ray City & Two Snorkle Sites Tour (Not Sure Who Yet)

[Gecko7]

OK Glad that the last two days were not a complete downer. My DW Is just like J. No interest at all in planning or discussing what to do till 12 hours before we arrive, then its all "why are we doing this? or what is this about?" :rolleyes: I on the other hand love to plan. Thats why I'm here on the Boards. We'll wish us luck we will be on the legend, too.

 

Cozumel: 3 Hour Catameran Snorkeling trip & Hang Around Town

Belize: Lamanai Tour

Roatan: Bananarama By Taxi

Grand Cayman: Sting Ray City & Two Snorkle Sites Tour (Not Sure Who Yet)

 

Ditto, I feel like a CD since no one I'm traveling with incuding my DW really care until we get there and it's my fault when something doesn't live up to their expectations. I research and plan, and get pegged as a travel nerd, but if I didn't they would be standing at the pier going what do we do now....:confused:

[mprince4]

Ditto, I feel like a CD since no one I'm traveling with incuding my DW really care until we get there and it's my fault when something doesn't live up to their expectations. I research and plan, and get pegged as a travel nerd, but if I didn't they would be standing at the pier going what do we do now....:confused:

 

EXACTLY! I'm glad you guys know what I mean - I told him that if he didn't like what I planned he could do his own research and come up with something and he was like, I don't want to do research because I don't need to plan anything :rolleyes:

 

I shudder at the thought of a J-planned vacation - it would be awful for everyone involved - but apparently I should be reading his mind, because what I plan is never good enough :rolleyes: I got the most flak for going to the ruins in Belize because J does not have any interest in learning about new places. But it's my vacation too, and I love learning about new places, so tough luck!

 

By the end of this cruise, I had finally figured out J's ideal vacation - sitting in a nice hotel every day playing Sudoku and then playing poker at night. :p What a blast that would be... :rolleyes:

[mprince4]

Sea the morning of Grand Cayman day

 

 

 

 

 

The island

 

 

 

 

 

View of the ship from the pier - look at the color of that water!

 

[mprince4]

Here's a bird I followed around and took like 5 pics of - I'll spare you the rest

 

 

 

For those of you looking for the bus depot in Grand Cayman, it is basically across from this fountain - I was on the same side of the street from the depot when I took this picture, and it was just down a little ways to my left

 

 

 

Cool old tree

 

 

 

J at the bar at Rackam's or Rackham's - see the ship in the background

 

 

 

Heading back to the ship