Review: Legend 3/2/14-3/9/14

[erby2283]

I haven't ever been on the Legend and am just starting to research it as a possibility for a cruise so thanks for this review.

 

 

Better hurry, it's heading to Australia - permanently - after this Western Caribbean run ends.....:mad:

[Mrs.C05]

Day 4, Roatan.....

Tommy and I are pretty excited to see and visit this island. Alan Pearson built a house on this island, and I sure wish we had the trust of someone to take us to it and see it, however I do not see that happening on this trip. For now though, we'll just buying an item from here, and experience the beauty of it.

 

We arrive in Roatan at 7am and are tied up and ready to disembark by 8:55am. People started getting off at 9am. We got off by 9:30. We shopped first at the port. The port is very nice, and quiet with a Fat Tuesdays at the port, and also at the beach. Tommy grabbed a rash guard shirt, I got a shirt, and got my father-in-law a shirt and mother-in-law a cat that says Roatan, Honduras. After shopping we headed to the beach.

 

First sign headed to the beach:

 

Walking to the beach:

 

Mahogany Bay Beach was very nice and reminded me a lot of Half Moon Cay. It was free, unless you bought the unlimited day pass for the sky ride/cable car rides which was $12. The water was cold but once you got used to it, it wasn't so bad. After the water, we got out, and ordered drinks. My brother in law loves Fat Tuesdays, so I got a drink in the sipper bottle that says "Fat Tuesdays Roatan" on it. The guy Curtis that waited on us said it was $25, so I gave him $30, and I asked him to bring me change, but he never did, and I want to say he avoided our area as well. We thought it was going to be $30 anyways, since he said it was $14.50 per drink in that size bottle. I know it's only $5 but the point is, don't tell me you're going to bring me change, and then don't and/or avoid me.......

[Mrs.C05]

These are the skyride chairs (can't think of the word!) that you could take to get down to the beach. It wasn't necessary, but I'm sure it gave a wonderful view of the island, and surrounding area:

 

We stayed about an hour and a half before heading back to grab some lunch and Ethan to nap.

Here are some pics from Mahogany Bay Beach....

The view from my chair:

 

 

View from the water, the ship really is that close!

 

 

This is the shopping area:

 

 

And walking up to Fat Tuesdays: (It's on your right before you walk down the path to get to the beach)

This afternoon is the Past Guest party and it's also Elegant night. We do plan to go to both. Dad and Maria will watch Ethan while we go to the Past Guest party. We all ended up napping for 2.5 hours, great for Ethan and an unusual occurrence for me but it felt refreshing once we woke at 3:30pm.

Soon after waking our phone rings. It was my Dad asking if we were still going to the Past Guest party, in which I told him yeah. We all went down there at 4pm, but it was premade drinks, so we didn't stay. Dad took Ethan for about 45 minutes while Tommy and I had a drink at Red Frog Pub, and then walked around. At 5pm we all went to our rooms to get dressed for Elegant night, and then eat together at Truffles. Tonight for dinner the following was ordered: Dad ordered spicy asian chicken fingers and chicken noddle soup for an app, and filet mignon for dinner, Tommy had the same app as Dad, but ordered the lasagna, I ordered 2 shrimp cocktails for app, and Red Snapper for dinner, and Maria ordered a shrimp cocktail and asparagus soup for an app, and the snapper for dinner as well. I ordered Ethan a cheeseburger this time, but he ate like 2 bites. Could have been because he had some yogurt raisins while we were getting ready.....Tommy and I stayed for dessert, ordering vanilla ice cream for me and pumpkin pie and applie pie for Tommy.

Funny sidenote story: The head waiter, Kwame came over since Tommy was initially handed some turkey plate for dinner, when he ordered the lasagna. Well the head waiter came over when we were given the wrong thing, and Tommy and Kwame looked at each other for a minute.....both in unison saying "You look familiar." Kwame asked what ships we've been on, and come to find out, Kwame served us a lot on Carnival Glory in 2007. We thought that was pretty cool he remembered and recognized us from 7 years ago. I know he sees and talks to a lot of people, but for those who stand out to him, and he remembers, it means a lot to us.

[Mrs.C05]

Anyways, after dinner I take Ethan while Tommy heads to the casino. Ethan and I wander in to Follies, where we waited to see what they were going to perform. We stayed for 30 minutes watching, and awesomely enough, Ethan sat and watched it with me. We left at 8:45 to say goodnight to Dad, Maria and Tommy before coming to the room to whind down, and drink a bottle. Tomorrow is Grand Cayman and we have a private distillery tour at the place we went to last year. I don't even know the name of it. I hope we make it because I see we tender into this port. I could have swore we docked, but now that I think about it more, we are tendered in. Our tour is at 11am, and we arrive at 10am, so we'll see. I never did go to the gym today. :mad:

[Mrs.C05]

Day 5, Grand Cayman......

We arrived in Grand Cayman a little early, I think somewhere around 9am. We had a tour at 10am with the Seven Fathom Rum distillery which is now known as "Cayman Spirits Company. They moved from where the were last year, to a newer, bigger facility/warehouse, so we'd have to take a taxi this time. Dad and Maria kept Ethan while we went which was great. I wouldn't have wanted him to run around that, nor smell it. Anyways, Tommy and I got off the ship with the first platinum group, at 10am. I thought it was a docked port, but given the casino laws of no gambling allowed in Grand Cayman, they are not allowed to dock, only tender in. At least that's what one of the taxi drivers told us....so we were tendered in but it wasn't a long tender like Belize was. Once through security, we went to Margaritaville to get free wi-fi, to see if the guy emailed Tommy or not. He didn't so we found a taxi driver that knew where it was, and we were off. It was a short taxi ride, and she gave us her card to call her when we were done.

When we get out of the van, we see this little guy:

 

No pictures were taken at the distillery, but the guy was really cool, shared a wealth of information on how everything was done. We stayed about an hour, and then headed back. He called Shauna for us to come get us, and I had a White Tale beer while waiting. Reminded me of Red Stripe. I like to try local beers in their local country, lol!

[Mrs.C05]

We were given the tour of the newer facility which was right at an hour long, and were given a very different total when we were done. We were quoted over $100 for the hour tour, and including a shirt plus the tour, it ended up being less than $50. We tipped him pretty well though. The tour was pretty interesting but given that we know a lot about how it works, I felt I was told stuff I already knew. Tommy mainly wanted signed bottles of rum again, and then also to see the new building.

Once we were done at 11:45am, the distiller personally called Shana, our taxi driver to come get us. She was there within 10 minutes and then took us back to Margaritaville to meet up with Dad, Maria and Ethan. They were there waiting, Dad was texting Brad, my brother/his son. Once they were done, we walked back across the street to get a taxi to 7 mile beach.

After a quick 5 minute ride (I wouldn't want to walk it though) and $20 later, we arrived at Calico Jacks.

My son holding on:

They had multiple picnic tables, and about 8-10 picnic tables under canopy tents which was nice since I wanted Ethan in the shade.

Him playing in the sand. He loved it!

We ordered drinks and food, stayed about 2 hours. It was a nice restaurant, but a little pricey in my opinion. For 5 alcoholic drinks and 4 meals, it was $175 after tip, $50 of it was a tip. After changing Ethan into dry clothes, he was quickly asleep on Tommy's shoulder. Sorry, I never did get any pictures of Calico Jack's. I really should have, it had great seating, bar area and selection of food. Only down fall was pricing, but oh well, we were on vacation, and celebrating my brother's job offer.

After grabbing a taxi back to the port, we went to Tortuga to grab 4 bottles of Seven Fathom rum before hoping on a tender to get back on board. We were back on board by 3pm. Dad got us reservations, complimentary from the casino, tonight at 6pm. We all got ready and relaxed until then.

[Mrs.C05]

Dinner at the steakhouse was amazing!!! It's definitely worth the $35/person (if we had to pay). In all the cruises we've been on, we have NEVER eaten at one of the steakhouses. The 4 course meal was excellent! I ordered the crab cake for an appetizer, the iceburg salad, the 9oz filet and the cheesecake to go. After dinner we went to the room to relax before going to bed. I didn't end up eating the cheesecake until the next night, and it got kinda dried out. It was still good though!

Here are pics (sorry none of the cheesecake):

 

 

All the waitresses loved Ethan. He ate a little bit of food.

Edited April 3, 2014 by Mrs.C05

[Mrs.C05]

The steakhouse was called "The Golden Fleece" steakhouse. Excellent food and service! We will definitely be doing this again!

 

 

[Mrs.C05]

Saw random vases like this around the ship. I really liked them, I wish I could've purchased one. However, I'm sure it would've been very expensive if they were for sale.

 

[Mrs.C05]

Day 6, Sea Day.....

We were awoken by "Team Alpha, Bravo, Bravo, Bravo, Deck B, Team Alpha, Bravo, Bravo, Bravo, Deck B". The cruise director just came on and said smoke was detected in the air conditioner on Deck B. It has been extinguished, and they will keep us updated on the situation. Lovely!!! My biggest fear.....*sigh*.

We went upstairs to grab breakfast and see if anyone can tell us anything. Tommy and I had a small breakfast, just an omelet each and hash-rounds. Ethan had a cereal bar and cheerios. I made an appointment last night, for a "Happy Hour Massage" which was a refreshing facial, back and neck massage, foot and calf massage, all for $99 if booked before 12 noon (or $109 after 12noon). My appointment was 9am and given that it was daylight savings time, I about missed my appointment. My massage was wonderful!!! I never do any kind of massages at home, so this was a real treat, that was almost free (I'll tell you why in a little bit).

Afterwards, we relaxed in the room, before heading to lunch. I had haven't heard anything so I am guessing it is something that was minor with the smoke. I sure am glad. After lunch, Dad, Maria and Tommy were at the casino, but it's been up and down with the craps table. We're in the room now, slowly packing up. Since Dad is still touchy with his ankle, we're going to check our bags and slowly get off tomorrow morning. The day was mostly spent relaxing, not doing much. Lunch was late for us. I had minestrone soup, a piece of lemon fish, and some potato sticks. Ethan had french fries with mustard (he's allergic to tomatoes) and a few bites of chicken fingers. I read a magazine on our balcony while Ethan napped and Tommy watched golf. Before we started packing, I went down to the shops at 3:40 to grab some Bella Pelina charms. They had the charm sets, which I like because I put them on my necklace, on sale $14.95/each, or buy 2 get 1 free. I got 1 for being an aunt, one for our son that is a baby carriage that says "Baby" with a teddy bear (he'll forever be my baby!), and one for love that says "Happy Anniversary" and "Forever together". Ever since I got the cruise ship and anchor on my last cruise, I like collecting them. Once I got back from that, we slowly started packing. We did our laundry, so we were still waiting on that. Once the majority was packed, I took Ethan down to eat around 6:30pm.

 

Side note: What I find odd is that they close 4 sides down in the buffet room (2 inside that are "The Carvery" station and 2 outside that are normally the "Off the Grill" station). They only had the deli open, pizza, and 1 carvery with other options.

 

There was a good size line for the 1 side with Carvery, so I grabbed a roasted pepper with arugala and mozzarella sandwich, and Ethan a turkey sandwich. He took a few bites of the sandwich, and 1 of mine, but he did have a turkey sandwich from room service that he ate about 2pm. We went back to the room to change before going for a walk. It was much later than I thought it was, so we didn't get back to the room until 9:15. He's just now falling asleep at 10:15, granted his body and ours for that matter, still feel the "old" time since last night was daylight savings time.

 

 

Tomorrow is debarkation, and we have 2 bags checked. We got luggage tags #3 since we're platinum and our zone is to meet in the Red Frog Pub at 9:15am. This will be the latest debarkation that we'll have done. Usually out of Port Canaveral we have clearance from port authority by 7am, and we're off and home by 9am. I guess with how long it takes to get into Tampa to dock it takes that long? I don't know. This is only our second time cruising out of Tampa. Not sure we'll do it again.

 

Not sure if I mentioned but our room steward is named Artha. He's an exceptional worker, and loved on Ethan every time he saw him. Artha's assistant is Marica. She too loved on Ethan, said Hi, chatted with us, etc. I love how much they enjoy Ethan, but at the same time hate it because I know it makes them miss their own children. All of the staff were excellent with Ethan - saying Hi, giving High Five's etc.

Edited April 3, 2014 by Mrs.C05

[Mrs.C05]

Day 7, Debarkation morning……..

Now, I know that getting up to the port after coming in from the Gulf takes some time but I didn’t think it would take this long. We were still waiting for clearance at 8:30am, and they were calling passengers names to come to the guest services to settle up with their sign & sail account. They didn’t start calling people off until 9:30am. Once they did, we headed down to the Red Frog Pub where our meeting place was. No, not for my daily drink, although I wished! Haha!! It was a little crazy and shuffled our way there with everyone waiting in their designated areas, but we made it. We stood there for about 10 minutes before they called out Zones 2 and 3. While waiting though we heard some people complaining. I understand the frustration, however they did a really good job keeping things organize. It’s when passengers don’t listen or follow the “rules” that makes things crazy and hectic and then staff have to keep reiterating the instructions.

Once they called Zones 2 and 3 we headed out, and it was a pretty quick process from there on. Walked off, grabbed our bags, went through customs and on to the car. We were on the road by 10:30am. It was a lovely cruise and great itinerary. Would we do it again? Absolutely, but out of a different port if they offered it.

 

We had close to $300 in onboard credit, so that's why I said in the last post that my massage was almost free. We ended up owing our account $85. I really liked having the onboard credit.:D

Edited April 3, 2014 by Mrs.C05

[Mrs.C05]

Was it a lot of work having your son along?

 

The drinks looks great!

 

It wasn't a lot of work, no more than when I have him at home which is 99% of the time. Thankfully, he loves to just walk around and see people, see what's going on, etc. He's very observant. Being in the room was a bit easier, obviously, since he could run around, knew where his stuff was, and I didn't have to keep a hold of him.

 

I haven't ever been on the Legend and am just starting to research it as a possibility for a cruise so thanks for this review.

 

Does the Legend have the Mongolian Wok?

 

No, sadly it does not, but I sure wish it did!!! That's the one thing I missed on this ship!

Edited April 3, 2014 by Mrs.C05

[Mrs.C05]

I will post the FunTimes tomorrow when I'm home all day and can scan them in.

[jusilva]

Thank you for sharing! I am going on legend in July 2014. My daughter it will be 17 months. Any advice? Thank you!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Mrs.C05]

Thank you for sharing! I am going on legend in July 2014. My daughter it will be 17 months. Any advice? Thank you!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

Advice would be to take toys and books, whatever entertains her! Take plenty of diapers and wipes (you'll use wipes for cleaning hands, counters, etc) and if she is still on whole milk TAKE YOUR OWN! They only have it in canisters by the coffee and there is no telling how long it is sitting out. I tried asking for whole milk but they pointed me to that. **side note: we figured out on our first cruise with our son that they didn't have whole milk on carnival, so we resorted to 2% but it didn't sit well with him. We have been on 2 cruises since then and have taken Borden whole milk in the cardboard-ish containers (non-refridgerated). Worked out perfectly

 

Sent from my SPH-L720T using Forums mobile app

[skiorcruise]

Thank you for your review. We sail on the Legend for the second time April 27th and cannot wait. Thank you again. It sounds like you hada wonderful trip.

[blrgrl]

Great review! We sail next month. Would really like to see your scanned Fun Times if you get a chance. Thanks!

[Mrs.C05]

I am so sorry about not scanning them yet. I will bring them to work and scan them here which will be much faster than with the scanner I have at home. I will try and do this tomorrow, however I'm suppose to be out of the office most of the day.

[blrgrl]

If you can do it at all it would be appreciated! Thank you :)

[zumbaguy]

Thank you for posting your review! Thinking about this ship in the future as my wife and I try to sail the entire Carnival fleet.

[CruisinMama7]

I've got to join with the others and thank you for the review with pics. We're booked on the Legend's July 2015 sailing to Alaska. I'm well acquainted with the RFP on the Magic and was surprised to see a different lay-out of both the RFP and the Steakhouse. I much, much prefer the Legend's version and really looking forward to that aft Serenity (a much more suitable location for an Alaskan cruise)!

 

So your review and pictures really jump-started my excitement for our 3rd Alaskan cruise. Question please...which day of the week did you embark and also on which nights were the two elegant nights held?

 

Thanks in advance for your responses and the future posting of the Fun Times...whenever...we'll wait for you. It's got to be hard to complete this review in addition to juggling an outside job as well as caring for a 2 year old boy! You must be Wonder Woman! :eek: :confused: :)

[Mrs.C05]

I've got to join with the others and thank you for the review with pics. We're booked on the Legend's July 2015 sailing to Alaska. I'm well acquainted with the RFP on the Magic and was surprised to see a different lay-out of both the RFP and the Steakhouse. I much' date=' much prefer the Legend's version and really looking forward to that aft Serenity (a much more suitable location for an Alaskan cruise)!

 

So your review and pictures really jump-started my excitement for our 3rd Alaskan cruise. Question please...which day of the week did you embark and also on which nights were the two elegant nights held?

 

Thanks in advance for your responses and the future posting of the Fun Times...whenever...we'll wait for you. It's got to be hard to complete this review in addition to juggling an outside job as well as caring for a 2 year old boy! You must be Wonder Woman! :eek: :confused: :)[/quote']

 

 

Ack! I am so sorry everyone. I completely forgot about the FunTimes. I now have a note on my phone to remind me to grab them and scan here at work (much faster than the one at home). Full time work, wife, and mommy and now introducing potty training, plus my workouts, I really don't know how I do it. I just do ;) Wouldn't trade it for anything.

[Mrs.C05]

I am scanning them in now!

[Mrs.C05]

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 7, 2014 by Mrs.C05

[Mrs.C05]

 

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2014 by Mrs.C05