Our "Legend"ary Cruise Review with Lots of Pictures and Details

[wrigley80]

Ok. Let me start off by introducing myself. My name is Brianna and my cruising buddy is my dad, Rick. We are from a small farming town in northern Illinois. Ok that's enough about us :p We cruise with Carnival 2-3 times a year depending on prices and ship itineraries.

 

We booked this cruise on the Carnival Legend for a few reasons......

(1) We had never been to Roatan before.

(2) We wanted to go back to Belize. We had been to Belize once before on the Nordic Empress back in 2004 and I didn't like it so I was excited to see how much change there had been in 7 years.

(3) Swim with Manatees in Cozumel.

(4) And the last reason was because it was a Carnival ship and we needed a vacation :D

 

We started out our vacation by flying in a day early from O'Hare International Airport to Tampa International Airport. Our flight arrived at 11:30 am so we went down to baggage claim to get our bags. I had booked our hotel with Hampton Inn - Rocky Point. This was an absolutely fabulous hotel from the very beginning. Once you get your bags there are a couple phones to call the hotels so we called to tell them that we had arrived and we were ready to be picked up at the airport. Now usually we don't have the best of luck with "free" shuttles from the airport. We are usually stuck waiting for an hour or more but not this time.

 

The man from the hotel told us walk out the door at the end of the baggage claim area and the hotel shuttle would be there waiting for us. NO WAY I DIDN'T BELIEVE HIM. IT COULDN'T POSSIBLY BE THAT EASY. Oh but it was.......our shuttle was sitting there waiting to take us to the hotel. THAT WAS AMAZING!!!! Since we were so early we were unable to check-in but we were starving so we had the hotel call us a cab. (now usually the hotel provides a shuttle within a 4 mile radius of the hotel but the driver was busy going back and forth from the hotel to the airport). The man at the hotel said that would be taken care of when we returned from lunch. I wasn't sure what he meant by that until later on.

 

We took a taxi to Chili's for lunch (it was about 3 miles away). For our return trip to the hotel we called for the shuttle just as we were finishing eating. The hotel shuttle arrived at Chili's about 10 minutes after we called. When we arrived back at the hotel it was time for us to check-in. The hotel manager gave us $20.00 off the hotel room rate because we had to pay for the taxi for lunch. WOW!!!!!! We weren't expecting that :)

 

we didn't go in the water because it was super cold but I did stick my toes in

 

this was in the front of the hotel. It was in a very pretty area but not much around. There was a restaurant right next door called "Bahama Breeze" but the line was out the door for dinner

 

this was when I realized that the water was way too cold......brrrrrr

 

One other thing when we arrived at check-in I had requested to be put on the earliest shuttle available.......which was 10:00 am. The hotel gives you shuttle tickets at check-in and you have to have these in order to get on the shuttle. The Hampton Inn - Rocky Point was one of 3 hotels that provided a shuttle to the Port of Tampa

[nickiefriend]

Can't wait to read more. We our on the Legend in November! 55 more days!

[wrigley80]

From the time that we left the hotel to arriving at the port took us approximately 10 minutes. It seemed a lot longer but I think that was because we were so excited

 

I had my camera ready to capture that first sight of the ship......and there she is

 

our home for the next 7 days.......the CARNIVAL LEGEND

 

We are getting closer. The shuttle dropped us off. The porters took our bags and off we went to check-in. We had to show our passports and cruise documents at the door. And then off we went to go through security. Security was a pain for us. My dad wears an insulin pump so when he went through x-ray machine...he beeped. We got pulled over to the side and he was given a pat down. Its like they had never seen an insulin pump before :o

 

well we are getting ready for sailaway. Sorry I didn't get any pics of our lunch on the first day. I think I was just too excited :D

[wrigley80]

As you may have noticed from the previous picture I had a lot of mardi gras beads on. The members of our roll call all wore mardi gras beads so we could identify each other onboard. This was a lot of fun :D you would see someone walking around with beads on and you would try to guess what their screen name was.

 

Our roll call group had a few fun activities planned while we were onboard....we had meet and greet roll call party, a cabin crawl where we went to other cabins to see what the different categories looked like, a poker run, many of the women went to afternoon tea together, and some of us even planned our excursions to do with each other.

 

this was Lloyd and Annette from our roll call at Victor Bodden's monkey farm........more to come about the monkey farm a little later

 

this was Greg and Diane in Roatan.

[wrigley80]

One of my favorite places to relax onboard is the Serenity Deck because it is quiet and peaceful. I never had any problems finding a chair to sit.

 

I just had to paint my toenails Carnival logo colors.

 

I could lay up on the Serenity Deck for hours and in fact I did. One night after an adults only comedy show I went out there to lay in one of the clamshells. It was so peaceful listening to the ocean and watching the stars that I fell asleep. I woke up the next morning when the sun started to come up :eek: I must have been tired........hehe

 

The Serenity deck onboard the Legend has a pool, 2 hot tubs, a pool bar, hammocks, clamshells, loungers, and a nice sitting that is out of the sun

[wrigley80]

I gotta go for now. My Chicago Bears are playing on Monday Night Football. I will check back in later to add some more pictures and review :)

[Aldeya]

Great review so far! Keep it coming:D

[jules815]

I gotta go for now. My Chicago Bears are playing on Monday Night Football. I will check back in later to add some more pictures and review :)

 

Enjoying your review! GO BEARS!

[jimbri]

Great review! Looking forward to more pics!

[Nannydd12]

Nice review so far, looking forward to reading more. We were on the Legend last April and loved the ship and the Serenity Deck too. Go Bears.

[Mrs CruisinCritter]

My dad wears an insulin pump so when he went through x-ray machine...he beeped. We got pulled over to the side and he was given a pat down. Its like they had never seen an insulin pump before :o

 

This is one of my fears with the security check at the port. I wear a Medtronic insulin pump and I had trouble with the TSA when we flew to Vegas at the beginning of summer. They acted like they had never seen one before either and then acted like I was trying to get away with something when I requested to use the metal detector instead of the body scan (because it can fry the pump). I know it's only a metal detector at the terminal, but I just don't want it to be a hassle.

[Pooh72]

Great review and thanks for the info about the hotel. I will have to keep them in mind for any upcoming cruises out of Tampa we may be considering.

[alreadypacked]

Great review! I remember your last review with your dad. Thanks for posting!:)

[MrFunInTheSun]

Great review and pictures. Thank you for sharing your cruise adventure with us. I'm glad you thought the pool water at the hotel was cold, especially you being from Illinois. Living here in Florida some like the pool water warmer, those from the north at times give a hard time for that.

[Elsisi]

Keep the review coming! I have a work conference in Tampa in February and I'm trying to figure out a way to squeeze in a cruise afterwards. That way I don't have to pay for transportation to the port. (Yeah, that's the reason I'm thinking about a cruise - it's not like I'm addicted or anything!). (:

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[toemi]

I can't wait to hear more! I will be visiting these same ports on the Glory in December.

 

Your story about falling asleep on the Serenity deck made me LOL!! I have never slept as good as I did up on that deck. So relaxing!

 

And GO BEARS!!

Edited October 2, 2012 by toemi

[Banditswife]

Hi Wrigley80, Brianna. I can't believe we rate post #4. Great pic of us, thanks for putting it in. I am looking forward to the rest of your review. I'm hoping to recapture some wonderful memories thru your review. That was probably our best cruise so far.

 

Go Bears, I guess (not a fan) but if that's your team- GO BEARS.

[wrigley80]

Enjoying your review! GO BEARS!

 

YAYA!!!! Another Bears fan!!!! They played awesome tonight

[wrigley80]

Nice review so far, looking forward to reading more. We were on the Legend last April and loved the ship and the Serenity Deck too. Go Bears.

 

OOOOO another Bears fan. That was an awesome game to watch :D. Yeah the Serenity area was definitely my favorite spot on the ship

[wrigley80]

This is one of my fears with the security check at the port. I wear a Medtronic insulin pump and I had trouble with the TSA when we flew to Vegas at the beginning of summer. They acted like they had never seen one before either and then acted like I was trying to get away with something when I requested to use the metal detector instead of the body scan (because it can fry the pump). I know it's only a metal detector at the terminal, but I just don't want it to be a hassle.

 

It was somewhat of a hassle and my dad isn't the kind of person that likes to be pulled to the side. He even had to pull up his shirt to show the people at the security checkpoint where his needle site was. They still looked at him funny. He went to his endocrinologist today. They gave him a letter that states what it is so we shouldn't run into that problem again. You may wanna see about getting something from your doctor.

 

He had a bigger problem at the port than he did at the airport :rolleyes: oh BTW my dad also wears a Medtronic pump

Edited October 2, 2012 by wrigley80

[wrigley80]

Great review and thanks for the info about the hotel. I will have to keep them in mind for any upcoming cruises out of Tampa we may be considering.

 

I would definitely stay at the Hampton Inn again. It was a wonderful hotel with very nice staff. Plus they are one of the few hotels I found that offered a shuttle from the airport and a shuttle to the Port of Tampa. When the cruise was over we called the hotel to tell them that we had disembarked and the shuttle arrived to take us back to the hotel.

It was very convenient :D

[wrigley80]

Great review! I remember your last review with your dad. Thanks for posting!:)

 

Thanks. He is my cruising buddy. We do everything together. I went on a cruise without him in March 2011 and he still gives me crap about it :p

[wrigley80]

Great review and pictures. Thank you for sharing your cruise adventure with us. I'm glad you thought the pool water at the hotel was cold, especially you being from Illinois. Living here in Florida some like the pool water warmer, those from the north at times give a hard time for that.

 

Thanks for checking out my review.....and yes the pool water was absolutely freezing and usually cold water doesn't bother me :rolleyes: it was like they had chilled the water with ice cubes :eek:

[wrigley80]

Keep the review coming! I have a work conference in Tampa in February and I'm trying to figure out a way to squeeze in a cruise afterwards. That way I don't have to pay for transportation to the port. (Yeah, that's the reason I'm thinking about a cruise - it's not like I'm addicted or anything!). (:

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

That sounds like very logical thinking to me. Any cruise is perfect for me ;)

[wrigley80]

I can't wait to hear more! I will be visiting these same ports on the Glory in December.

 

Your story about falling asleep on the Serenity deck made me LOL!! I have never slept as good as I did up on that deck. So relaxing!

 

And GO BEARS!!

 

I couldn't believe that I never woke up :p its a darn good thing that no crazy person came along :eek: it was so peaceful that night.

The other funny part about that story is that my dad never woke up in the cabin that night so he had no idea that when I returned to the cabin at 6:30 am that it was from the night before.....haha oh well :)