Carnival Legend 4/13/2014 Trip Report/Review

[wendynat]

Quick replies before posting Day 3 -

 

Mamatojonah – I do have the Circle C schedule, but now my home scanner is angry. I’ll first try to get good pics tomorrow and if that doesn’t work will scan them at work next week.

 

Island Crazed – Mike’s great, isn’t he? Too funny that you had a swimmer girl, too :)

 

Island_girl22 – that’s awesome! He was such a good sport :). As you saw, Friendhubby is Man with Mustache Comb

 

Oneboysmom – Thanks! Traveling dolls – ahem, action figures – is a time-honored tradition that we copied, so you should definitely do the same thing!

 

NCTattoo and miss_tea – thanks :)

 

And now Day 3

[wendynat]

Day 3 – Tuesday – Grand Cayman

 

So we planned to get up at 8 AM and take our time getting ready for the beach, but not too much time because we wanted to get there pre-noon to avoid a) crowds and b) the blazing, unrelenting sun. I probably could’ve slept till 8, but instead I woke at 7 when the anchor dropped. At least I think it was the anchor – it could’ve been the neighbors SLAMMING THE BLEEPING BALCONY DOOR.

 

OK, so despite my earlier “no biggie” outlook, I’ll admit that it did bug me that morning, but as soon as I went outside and saw this beautiful sunrise, the bugs went away. Wow. Who has time for minor irritations when this is in front of you?

 

I sat out and watched the sunrise, then spent some time watching the tender boats that were loading on our side of the ship, thinking idly that we could have been on one, but why rush when it was only 6 AM island time (and we were only going to be bumming around anyway). Then I spent more time reading and staring at my purple toenails.

 

I kept an eye on the time and promptly went inside the cabin at 8 and woke up the lazies. Time to eat and hit the beach! And buy things! My other objective that day was to buy rum cakes and Big Black Dick rum. Because, really, how can you not? Plan was go to beach first, then shop, then back to ship before the hordes returned. I also packed snacks (pre-packaged) as I’d heard that food was super expensive on Grand Cayman, and we planned to head back to the ship in time for a late lunch.

 

So, to make that plan work, we had to hit the buffet for a hearty breakfast. We had planned to maybe do room service, but the night before we looked over the breakfast menu and saw there was nothing hot, and no real protein other than salmon. Which I love, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not part of a proper hearty, stick-to-your-ribs breakfast. (That saying really isn’t anatomically accurate, but I still like it.)

 

The buffet wasn’t crowded at 8:30 (tenders started running around 7:15, so the true early birds were already gone). Didn’t take long to eat and determine that the Eggs Benedict in the MDR were far superior to these objects which were cleverly disguised as Eggs Benedict. Hubby got an ice cream cone for the road, and we headed back to the room to slather sunscreen on the pasty white girl and do a quick spray on the “I got a sunburn once – it was warm and felt itchy!” melanin-privileged guys.

 

On the way back to the room, I took a couple of pics of the decor. I really like the layout of the Spirit class – every deck you can go completely forward and aft, without having to remember that this elevator only goes to deck 3 and then you have to go forward to take another elevator to 10, etc etc. I also loved the décor – not just the atrium stuff, but the details in the stairwells. Some stairwells had metal-looking reliefs like this one:

 

 

And each elevator vestibule had a different vase. Some were really pretty.

 

So, sunscreen applied and snorkel masks packed for practice run (and money prepped), we were on the tender by 9:45 and walking through the “stop and smile!” pictures by 10.

Continued— (only six pics allowed per post, which is why these are split up so much)

[wendynat]

Day 3, Continued:

 

Anyone who has been to the Cayman Islands raves about the beautiful water, and for good reason. Here are some pics from the dock after we got off the tender and through the gauntlet of beseeching photographer expressions.

 

Following instructions from this site and my own obsessive google-mapping, I confidently turned left out of the port and then right on Fort Street. The guys followed along without protest. I’m the planner, and they both know it. The blocks were shorter than I thought, and thus the walk was shorter than I thought. Not a bad thing when you’ve got kiddo and hubby with you, trust me, or the “following along without protest” comment above would need to be edited out.

 

Another Cayman-sized block up Fort St and we reached Heroes Square, a square of grass with statues set around it. Directly across the street from that was the Public Library, with the bus depot to the right in the parking lot. We paused to read some of the statues, then crossed the street to the bus depot.

 

Due to my wonderful friends on cruise critic, I knew that the cheapest and best way to get to 7 mile beach was via city bus vs taxi. $2.50 a person instead of $5.00 a person and no shenanigans? Sign me up! The buses were vans that looked suspiciously like the taxis, but had less desperate-looking drivers that said the magic words “2.50”.

 

Here’s a shot showing the library and the buses to the right:

 

The driver was very nice, got us settled and didn’t take our money right away, which surprised me somewhat until I realized it’s probably standard, in case we changed our minds and decided he should take us outside the 2.50 zone. That, or maybe we just looked good for it.

 

I told him we wanted to go to Calico Jack’s area of the beach, and he took off. And I do mean he took off. Yikes! I didn’t see any stoplights, which was good since I doubt the driver would’ve bothered seeing them, either. I distracted myself by taking pics through the window and asking questions.

 

As we drove along, the driver would slow and honk at folks to see if they wanted a ride. “Beach, 2.50 American per!” We picked up a few hardy souls who were already sweating up a storm – the beach was farther than they’d thought. I mean, I’m sure the walk is doable, but it’s also awkward without sidewalks. The second group we picked up were French, I believe. This based on three years of junior high and high school French I took over two decades ago. There was also a local that we picked up – she got off before us and when she paid, she used Cayman dollars. (Insert complaint about how US money isn’t as pretty as everyone else’s money.)

 

Anyhoo, five minutes after picking up the last group, we made it to the beach. The driver – who somehow could tell we were tourists – explained where to stand and wave to get the bus back to the port later on.

 

We paid and piled out of the van, walked up and immediately were greeted by two life forms. One, a guy named Tony who I’ll get to later, and two, this guy -

 

That was so cool to see a rooster just chillin’ on the beach, wandering around like he owned the place! Now there were two big differences between our beach here in Va Beach and the gorgeous 7 mile beach – beautiful blue water, and OMG ROOSTER!

 

While I took pictures of the rooster, Tony was very kindly pointing out various things that we’d need to know, like the changing rooms and showers and the bar and the bathrooms and oh, yeah, where to rent chairs and umbrellas (from him). I knew he was there as the rental dude, but I was glad not to have to hunt anyone down because the sun is crazy and as I’ve mentioned before – my cave-dwelling ancestors didn’t adapt much melanin for their descendants. I told him we’d get three chairs and an umbrella, and we were suddenly his bestest friends.

 

Now, the French folks were with us walking to the oceanfront, and I soon figured out they didn’t speak much English. Well, to be more clear, they didn’t speak much Cayman-accented English, so they looked at Tony quizzically while he pointed things out to us all.

 

He quickly figured out that they weren’t getting it, so he looked at us and grinned, then looked at them and pointed to the restroom building while pantomiming the purpose of said building in no uncertain terms. Complete with sound effects. We cracked up and the French family nodded their understanding, then Tony walked us over to the chairs (making sure not to let us out of his sight – there were other Tony’s along the beach waiting for tourists to arrive).

 

So Tony hooked us up - I think it was around 30 for three loungers and the umbrella. He set it up right near the water (glad we were there early), and I unpacked the snorkels and such so kiddo could go run into the water.

 

I still don’t know why I said three loungers – kiddo never really sat in one, except to put his water shoes on. He ran out without them at first, and did notice some large rocks in one five-foot square area. They weren’t loose and small, so they didn’t dig into your feet, but they were still a toe-stubbing danger. They were only in that one area, but that area happened to be in front of our chairs so we kept encountering ‘em.

 

The water was beautiful, and just kept getting clearer as the day went on. We were close to our bags when in the water, but I still wore my waterproof pouch for our passports, money, and seapass cards because I doubt I would be as quick running after a thief as he/she would be running away from me. As discussed earlier, those important items remained in my possession.

 

More details, because these are the things I always wonder how other people handle - We wore lanyards while on the boat, the kind with the clear holder so I could fold up the funtimes sheet and keep it with me. Once we got on the tender, I took everyone’s lanyards and put them in my bag, and put the seapass cards in the waterproof pouch. My camera and such I put under the big yellow-flowered beach bag on the chair. I got a couple of paperbacks from the used bookstore before leaving home – my nook stayed on the ship, and I brought a paperback for on-shore beach reading.

 

We did a mixture of sitting, reading, swimming, trying out the waterproof camera, and practice-snorkeling to try out the equipment. Kiddo and I had the optical pseudo-prescriptive masks so we could actually SEE without our glasses, but hubby was able to get a regular mask since he wears contacts. It worked really well. We’d also ordered our own snorkels to bring with us, because ehhhh. I’m not a germaphobe, but putting my mouth around something that’d been in someone else’s possibly sketchy mouth for at least an hour is a wee bit icky. I know they clean them and all, but ehhhh. Now, if buying our own snorkels had been expensive I would’ve sucked it up and prayed to the noro gods to spare us, but we found the dry snorkels (which keep splashes from coming down the tube and choking you – always a plus) on Amazon for something like 12 bucks.

 

So, some pictures:

Hubby and I sitting in the loungers, showing off our sandy feet. Ahhh.

 

Kiddo’s foot – he kept doing handstands, and I kept clicking the camera button too slowly. Kiddo is an excellent swimmer, on the swim team, etc, but we still kept an eye on him.

Continued

[wendynat]

Day 3, Continued

 

More pics from 7 mile beach, Public Beach area

 

Kiddo in water

 

 

Banana boat. We didn’t go on it, but it was neat to look at.

 

 

Pretty beach – not crowded at all at 10:30!

 

 

A view of the Legend from the beach

 

 

Iron man saving people on the beach

 

 

Iron Man needing someone to save HIM on the beach

 

Around 12:30 we packed up, cleaned up, and headed out. Right about the time the crowds were heading in, so great timing. We walked across the street and waved a bus down (politely turning down a taxi that stopped to let us in), and were back at the port by 1:00. On the way, the driver pointed out different trees and flowers, concentrating on his favorite - the breadfruit tree, going into how they are cooked, etc.

 

When we got back to the bus depot and paid, we headed over to Blackbeard’s which is across the street from the dock. Picked out some rum cakes and two bottles of Big Black Dick’s (they were 12 dollars each – the 2 pound rum cakes were three for 40 – aka, buy two, get one free at 20 bucks each). The cashier took my sail and sign card and our cabin number, and said the rum would be boxed up and sent to the ship. We’d get it delivered to our stateroom on the last day.

 

---- Cont

[wendynat]

Day 3, Continued

 

We were all pretty tired and hot by then (aka grumpy), so we didn’t spend a lot of time shopping. Hubby went into a couple of t-shirt selling shops to look for a new Aloha shirt, but didn’t see anything reasonably priced. He has two blue ones, and was looking for a red or orange this time. Kiddo was thirsty and we’d exhausted our water supply while on the beach, so we popped into a smoothie place to get him a vitamin water from their cooler. I was thinking possibly a smoothie, but couldn’t stomach paying ten bucks for one when we’d be back on the ship soon.

 

Went to the dock and browsed some of the shops on the pier, and then headed to tender. Here’s a shot of hubby and kiddo, hubby making himself useful by carrying the rum cakes:

 

 

Some pics from the tender

 

 

 

 

Home sweet home (for the week, at least):

 

Once on board, we dropped off our purchases and bags and headed to the lido for a light late lunch. Well, I had a light late lunch – the other two ate a regular sized lunch. Growing boys, ya know. I got a plate of the prosciutto pizza. When I first got it I wasn’t so certain about the pile of arugula (I’ve ever had it before), but it was really great. The arugula has an unexpected flavor that really enhances the ham.

 

After eating and getting an ice cream, the boys went back to the cabin to clean up and relax or something, while I wanted to take advantage of the low crowds to hit the Serenity deck. And the crowds were great! I was able to get the same chair as the day before, but this time without stalking anyone. Read, relax, repeat. Ahhh.

 

A little bit later I hopped up and got in the hot tub. One other lady was there, a very nice woman from Ohio, and we started chatting. We got to talking about the port and what we had both done, and she told me her shenanigan-filled story of their taxi driver on the way back from 7 mile beach. Now, I know hundreds of people used the taxis without issue, but I also know that sometimes the drivers do what they can to maximize their money without regard to the comfort of their passengers.

 

Apparently, my new friend had gotten to the beach without incident in a full taxi. Five bucks a person, normal rates. It was on the way back that she ran into problems. The driver took her money, indicating they’d leave right away. Once her money was in his hand, however, he promptly turned off his cab (translation – no air conditioning) and said he had to wait to get more folks. She tried to get her money back, but he eluded capture and went out to try to drum up more business. She was not happy, especially about the air conditioning after baking on the beach, and was about to get out and press the issue when he found one other victim – er, person – to get in and they headed out. She indicated it wasn’t a long wait in retrospect, but it definitely seems long when you’re sitting and sweating.

 

Again, I know hundreds and hundreds of people from the ship had no problems with the taxis, but I was still glad I’d done the bus route. A bus driver could care less about running the a/c – he doesn’t pay for gas for that bus, unlike the taxi drivers! If we tried a taxi with my luck, we’d definitely hop into Frugal Fred’s cab and be sweating up a storm.

 

Anyhoo, we chatted for a while longer and then got in the pool to cool off, then I went to read some more and pseudo-nap. I went back to the cabin around 3:30 and showered off. I missed sail-away, but the shower felt too good to rush :).

 

After clean-up, I sat on the bed and picked up my computer. I opened it up (it’s a laptop) and got it all ready for some serious note typing to prep for Ye ol’ Trippe Reporte. The only drawback to having a beautiful open view of the water through the big glass doors was seeing how amazingly dusty and gross my laptop screen was. I never notice it at home, where I type in the corner in a dark room.

 

So I asked hubby for my eyeglass cleaning cloth back (he’d borrowed it earlier to wipe down his tablet screen, and somehow it’s now living in HIS eyeglass case… hmmm….). He couldn’t find it, or didn’t want to relinquish the hostage without some concrete benefit, so I told him to give me a towel animal body part instead. And as I talked, I typed – except I typed “towel animal boy part” because my laptop keyboard has shallow keys and I have fingernails. I laughed to myself over that typo as he handed me a non-pornographic towel animal body part. I’d like to say he was curious why I was chortling to myself, but we’ve been married 18 years. He’s used to it.

 

So I downloaded the pics and typed on my trip notes. I made sure to download the pictures from our waterproof 30-dollar Ebay camera (it’s a Polaroid something or other), and was impressed at how they came out. To be quite honest, I was impressed they came out at all! The view screen was impossible to see underwater (or out of the water in the sun) and there is no old-school viewfinder, so it was basically a situation where you point in the general direction of the subject and “click”.

 

The colors weren’t as vibrant as my regular camera, but the shots were clear and it also didn’t go ‘glug, glug, ACK!’ when I took pics under water. And did I mention – 30 bucks?? Well, 30 bucks plus a 6 dollar neon yellow floating wrist strap – a must for clumsy people or for folks who want to be extra-visible to sharks.

 

A practice shot

 

 

So now I had high hopes for the trusty Ebay camera for the following day. We’d be in Cozumel, snorkeling! Woo! Now that I had done a test run with the snorkel and knew I wouldn’t have a frantic flailing episode at trying to breathe underwater, I was really looking forward to our excursion.

 

--Continued

[wendynat]

Day 3, Continued

 

After downloading pics and typing inappropriate things about towel animals, I popped down to the library to get on the Free Sites section of the internet café. Again, thanks to my good friends here at cruise critic, I knew that I could set up an account on the Carnival forums, open a thread there under the “onboard” section and keep in touch with folks back home for free! Fair warning – the free sites in particular are veerrrryryyyy sloooowww so pack your patience.

 

Mainly I did it to keep in touch with my sister – who was house-sitting and taking care of our moronic dogs (they’re cute, but dumb). Everything back home was fine, she told me it was raining which made me feel good that I was on a cruise having perfect weather, but bad because that meant that she had a hard time making the dumb dogs go outside. For some reason, they believe fresh rainwater is one of the most disgusting things on the planet… which I don’t get, because I’ve seen some of the truly disgusting things they gleefully put in their mouths. But I digress.

 

We met with friends at 6ish for dinner, had to make sure to go early tonight to hit the family comedy at 7:45. We were seated in Henry’s section this time, and he and his wait staff were awesome! It didn’t hurt that the table was a longer one (vs big round) and was next to a window. It was kind of funny – as we walked up, the kids actually seemed to think that they should get the window seats. The seats were great – could see the wake at the back of the ship, and could see the Glory following us (she stalked us all cruise… seriously, have some pride!). Anyway, the poor delusional children were quickly corrected and directed to seats at the end of the table, away from the window. We kindly pointed out that THEY hadn’t paid for the cruise, and they wisely shut up and made happy.

 

Dinner was good, service was great. I forgot what I ordered, but I know I ordered two of them. And I know hubby didn’t order as much, because he was still full from late lunch. I also know I ordered the fig cake for dessert – Iron Man helped me decide (well, he and the waiter’s assistant who recommended it. It was very good.)

 

 

We talked about our days over dinner. Friends had a great time on their excursion, and the car museum was cool. Friendhubby sat next to hubby for a while to share their pictures. After dinner (no cappuccino tonight), we headed to the family comedy at the other end of the boat.

 

We were there early enough to get good seats, and we carried our drinks from dinner. Another thing I love about cruises – can carry your drink from one venue to another. They frown on that on dry land (understandably, since they’d constantly be replacing stemware). Anyhoo, the comedians were both very good. The second guy had some jokes about Grand Cayman and the Stingrays which were great. I like it when the comedians tailor the jokes to the places you go.

 

After the comedy, we were all tired and none of us knew enough about 90s Music to try the Name That Tune. So the families split up to head to different places, making plans again to meet at dinner the next night. We were doing a snorkeling excursion and they were doing an all-day ruins tour in Cozumel the next day. Friend and Friendhubby thought they might swing by the shops then go read in cabin, and kiddo and I decided to show hubby the arcade (which he hadn’t seen yet).

 

Now, this is a jump-forward because we heard about it the next day, but since it actually occurred on Day 3 I’m putting it here as an aside. You guys should be used to my asides by now. So, the next day Friend and Friendhubby told us they made their way out of the Firebird lounge and to the second floor, planning to go by the casino or something on the way to purchase goods. Well, as they walked by Legends Café, they were snagged by Mike, who was doing the 90s Guess That Song trivia. I believe he called out to “Man with a Mustache Comb!” over the microphone as they walked down the hallway. Mike brandished a straw, which he’d brought especially for Friendhubby to use as a mustache comb – Friendhubby got the nickname the night before by thoughtfully stroking his mustache with a straw during the event. So they stayed and had a great time.

 

Kind of wish we’d gone, but we had such a good time in the arcade and hanging out together that night that I can’t wish it with any fervor.

 

On the way to the arcade we popped into the Follies main show lounge to catch some of the Justin Illusion show. After seeing Magic Leo, we were more interested in the more straightforward magic shows vs the showy type with dancing, so we headed out after a few minutes. What I saw was good, just not what we wanted that night.

 

So, the arcade. Hubby and kiddo played some shooting game that they were both actually good at, and I took some pictures of them and watched for a while before playing the hunting game which I actually was NOT good at (stupid deer!) and trying my hand at the Batman driving game (stupid Mr. Freeze!). I love skeeball, but took a look at the prizes offered for the tickets you get and realized I didn’t want any of them, so I saved some money there!

 

 

The guys finally lost the shooting game and moved to play a few rounds of the Batman driving game. Then we headed to the Lido deck for some ice cream and pizza. We took the Enchanted Forest route, which was a cool area that was usually empty. It was a neat place to sit away from the crowds and read a book or look at the waves.

 

Here’s kiddo pretending to chop down one of the enchanted trees. Hooligan.

 

We finally made it to the Lido deck and I told kiddo to get me a slice of pizza – we decided to split a twofer of pepperoni (they normally give out two big pieces on a plate). Hubby went to get ice cream while kiddo went to order the pizza. I sat back in the cushy Lido buffet chair, happy that the child was finally old enough to be useful.

 

While hubby was off getting ice cream and kiddo was off doing my bidding, I was startled from my drowsy haze by some teenagers shouting BS! I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about – and no, they weren’t excited about the prospect of getting their Bachelors of Science degrees. They were playing the card game, and shortly after another teen yelled something and started laughing.

 

That’s not a huge deal, but it did pull me from my reverie and was definitely bothering some of the other diners by their expressions of pure loathing. Before it could get truly annoying to me, a crewman in a white uniform – which means he’s somewhat important, I think – came over to their table and sternly told them… something. I couldn’t quite hear, but they got really quiet and left a few minutes later. So whatever it was, it worked. Go, white uniform dude!

 

Not much else exciting happened. Ate, went back to cabin around 10 to get some beauty sleep. Fluffy Elephant says good night!

[mamatojonah]

Thank you so much!:)

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Forums mobile app

[wendynat]

Hi, mamatojonah,

 

I've posted the Circle C schedule in a separate thread in case non-trip report readers were interested. Here is it is: Circle C schedule.

 

I hope it helps!

[shoppingfever]

Same cruise and loved the man stroking his mustache with a straw!!! We laughed and laughed about that!

[msua2]

We were on the same cruise as you. Reading your review helps in remembering all the fun we had on that cruise! Thanks, and I'm looking forward to reading more from you..

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[mamatojonah]

Thank you Wendy! Is there a link to your review too?

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Forums mobile app

[sjb.illinois]

Love. Love. Love. Your review. You are cracking me up. I may just steal the traveling action figure idea.

You seem to be noticing and mentioning all the things I would be curious about.

Thanks for taking the time to write this!

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Forums mobile app

[wendynat]

Shoppingfever – so cool you were on the same cruise, and saw Friendhubby (AKA the mustache comber)! Now we have years worth of gag gifts for him

Msua2 – It was a great cruise, wasn’t it? Thanks!

Mamatojonah – the Review is here, unless you meant the review of Circle C. Kiddo only went to it that first night, actually, since we had friends on board not in his age group, they mostly hung out together. They were Camp Carnival aged. He did say that if he’d been alone (no built-in friends with us) then he’d’ve spent a lot more time there.

Sjb.illinois – Thanks so much!! Please, steal away! I’m glad to hear you say that I’m mentioning things you’d be curious about – I love reading little details on how other folks do things, and am trying to include those.

Day 4 – Cozumel – will be up later tonight or tomorrow. Work has me working, of all the NERVE!!!

[mamatojonah]

Thanks for the reply and your help! Do you happen to have any of the kids club fun times? (I know....pain in the butt alert)

[wendynat]

Thanks for the reply and your help! Do you happen to have any of the kids club fun times? (I know....pain in the butt alert)

 

In post 33 in this thread I put a link to the copies of the Circle C funtimes/schedule. Since kiddo is 12, that's the only club I got the schedule for. Hope that helps!

[wendynat]

Day 4 – Wednesday – Cozumel

 

We had a noon excursion that was slated to last two hours, which would allow plenty of browsing time after the excursion for the Purchasing of Goods, so we took our time in the morning. I still woke up at around 8 (stupid internal clock) and went out on the balcony with my camera and my nook and my awesome morning ‘do.

 

We were still a ways out from Cozumel, but approaching land. This was the view over the water before we were really close to land:

 

 

 

And a cool shot of the newly cleaned balcony windows reflecting the water:

 

Pretty blues!

 

The Glory was still stalking us, but I couldn’t get a good shot because we started curving towards port. Cool curvy wake:

 

 

I watched a Disney ship docking – they docked pretty far from the other ships. There were five ships in port that day – I expected some crowds on shore but it wasn’t too bad. As we approached the other sets of piers, I watched the Celebrity Constellation backing into one of the docks. We continued on to the final pier dock. All the other ships aside from the Constellation pulled in straight, including ours. We ended up docked at the same pier as our stalker, the Glory.

 

Eventually the guys joined me on the balcony, taking some Iron Man action shots and just enjoying the view.

 

 

Kiddo asked about Celebrity, and I told him they don’t have water slides (instant killer for the kid) and are more expensive most of the time (I know, I know, not always, but on average). He then noticed that they were the only ones who’d backed in and asked why. I told him I didn’t know, but I supposed it’d be easier for them to pull out straight than back out like everyone else.

 

Somehow, kiddo took “more expensive” to mean the equivalent of the Regent Seven Seas and started making comments about all the rich people. He decided he knew why they’d backed in, so when they left they could call out, “Have fun backing out, peasants!”

 

I’ll admit it, I laughed.

 

- Continued

[wendynat]

Day 4, Continued

 

We headed to breakfast just before we finished docking, trying to beat some of the crowds. Sadly, we were too late – the Lido deck was packed…. But they weren’t eating.

 

 

More crowds of animals

 

 

 

Love on the stage

 

Pole dancing monkeys

 

Bacon!

 

Now I was really in the mood for some bacon. At first I thought we’d have a tough time finding seats, but as we continued to move farther to the second set of buffets (coming from forward) there was plenty of seating.

 

We took our time at breakfast, and saw friends arrive at the buffet around 10:15 – they had to bolt down some food quickly to meet up with their tour group in the Follies lounge at 10:30, so we didn’t chat other than to wish a good time.

 

Played the big chess board on Lido for a while (the towel animals were all gone by then), then went to get ready. Same sunscreen regimen as the previous beach day, with the addition of bringing along a swim shirt for me. I was worried about my back being exposed to the sun and water for an hour plus while snorkeling, so I brought it along. I ended up not needing it because – glory of glories! – the sun decided to hide behind a few clouds. It was a perfect, warm, slightly overcast day. Yay!

 

- Continued

[wendynat]

Day 4, Continued

 

So, we headed out to the end of the pier as the shore excursion tickets demanded. Beside us was the Glory, making eyes at our ship.

 

 

We finally get through the duty free shop and hit the end of the pier. There is a cool dude in sunglasses standing there with a group of signs. One was for “Shore Snorkeling for Beginners” so we walked up to him, checked in, and went to wait next to the shop with our cool neon green wrist bands. More of the green wristbanders appeared and we chatted a bit while we waited for everyone to make it out.

 

Then we walked single-file elementary-school style after Didi, the cool guy in sunglasses, passing through the port area shops and around to where the cabs were lining up. A limo was also there, but I had a feeling it wasn’t picking up people with neon green wristbands.

 

Didi put us in groups of 8 and each group had its own cab/van. It was maybe a five minute drive before we pulled up to Sunset Beach and Watersports. On the way, Didi gave us the basics of the excursion and to get him for a taxi back after we were ready to go (we could stay as long as we wanted at the facility after the excursion).

 

 

When we piled out of the taxi, Didi led us past the bar and to a counter where a nice lady rented us a locker for 2.00. Totally worth it. We put our stuff away, including the swim shirt - I decided not to bother with it after all, since it was overcast and I was wearing my double-layer of sunscreen armor.

 

This is what the lockers looked like –

 

The lockers and bar are up at the street level, while the beach and restaurant were down at… well, the beach level. We walked down a set of stone steps to the beach level.

 

It wasn’t a typical beach, which I’d expected from reading ahead of time. It was a sandy area with a stone/concrete short wall separating the sand from the rocks/water. There were a few openings in the wall with wide stairs to enter the water. Man-made, but still a nice view.

 

A view of the Constellation and MSC Divina from the beach.

 

So Didi introduced everyone to their group’s guide. Ours was Roger – he was awesome. We were assigned equipment – we had our own masks and snorkel, but needed flippers and everyone had to wear a snorkeling vest. It’s a small orange vest that you buckle on (or someone buckles on you, since it’s a little awkward to bend around) and there’s a little tube on your chest that you can use to inflate it as desired. I inflated mine a little bit just so I could be lazier, but it wasn’t really necessary.

 

Then we entered the water and put on our flippers with each other’s help – translation, by falling all over our nearest neighbor AKA our newest friends while hopping on one foot. The official excursion photo guy took very unflattering pics of us with snorkels and masks on, and then Roger led us out.

 

He had a buoy with a long rope, and told everyone to follow the rope while snorkeling. He was great with the weaker swimmers, seeming to sense when folks had difficulty. At the same time, he spent plenty of time with the more experienced swimmers, and pulled all sorts of cool (and gross) sea life up from the bottom.

 

Overall, had a great time on this excursion! Fair warning - as others have pointed out, this is a man-made beach, but we still saw plenty of fish, sea horses, etc. It was our first real snorkeling experience so I'm sure some more advanced snorkelers who've been at natural reefs, etc, might want a little more. But you really can't beat the price, and it was great for beginners who weren’t sure how they’d like snorkeling.

 

Some pics using the trusty ebay camera:

 

 

- Continued

[wendynat]

Day 4, Continued

 

White sea urchin

 

 

 

 

 

Sea cucumber

 

There was a photographer who took some photos during the excursion – after we cleaned up and dried off and tipped Roger, we checked them out at the counter. We bought one – a shot of all three of us underwater. The price was 12 bucks for a 5x7. Not bad.

 

- Continued

[wendynat]

Day 4, Continued

 

After all that time in the water we were ready for some grub, and the food the waiter was bringing out to other lucky peeps was begging for my attention, so we decided to eat there. The food was great and reasonably priced. I got shrimp ceviche, kiddo some beef tacos, hubby a beef chimichanga and we all shared beef nachos. Mmmmmm. Mouth’s watering from the memory… sigh.

 

Our neon green wristbands were good for a buy-one-get-one-free drink – we got some Fanta and Sprite. Kiddo loved the bottles with the Spanish writing. He collects bottlecaps so he was extra happy that the caps were in Spanish, as well.

 

Now, this might offend someone but I’m sure they’ll get over it. It’s the internet, right? NO ONE takes things personal- ok, I couldn’t even finish typing that. So, anyway, as we’re waiting for our food I’m watching other people’s dishes come out with all the attention of a beagle. Hubby was as well, and he suddenly turned to me and whispered, “Are you kidding me?”

 

“Huh?” My witty and brilliant response.

 

He nodded over to anther table and I saw a kid getting served a hamburger and fries. Well, kids are kids, some are really picky so I was about to point that out to hubby when I saw that ALL of them – adults included – had ordered burgers and fries. On the beach. In Mexico. With tons of non-exotic, excellent Mexican food to be had on that menu. I was sad for them, they really missed out.

 

The waiter took a pic of us:

 

And I took a pic of the guys:

 

 

Beautiful water

 

 

When we finished scarfing down our food and scoffing at the hamburglars, we headed back up the stairs to catch our ride back. There was a taxi already there, but I remembered what Didi said and went to find him – he waved a different taxi over and helped us in.

 

Once back at the port shopping area, we wandered around and picked up some souvenirs. I grabbed some vanilla and vanilla powder plus some things for my sister as a thanks-for-feeding-those-moronic-dogs gift.

 

Some musicians taking a break in the shopping area:

 

- Continued

[wendynat]

Day 4, Continued

 

After wandering and parting with more cash, we headed back to the ship. On the pier:

 

 

 

 

Back on the ship, we cleaned up and kiddo stood out on the balcony to watch pier runners. At first I was bummed because our port side balcony didn’t face the pier, but the way it curved actually gave us a great view. We were supposed to leave at 6. At 6:05, I joined kiddo to watch for runners.

 

The first pier runner was kind of unusual – she was running TO the pier FROM the ship! The odd quality of sound over water – and our balcony’s location forward – actually allowed us to hear some of what was going on. Apparently, she’d left her purse or wallet or something in the duty-free shop. She ran to the glass doors – which were apparently now locked – and pounded on them. A dude finally opened it up and she explained the situation. I could clearly hear that her passport was in the shop, he left and then came back out with her bag. Lucky lady!! Here she is running back to the ship, victorious!

 

 

There was a delay and I started to think there would be no pier runners after all. It was 6:30, an hour after all-aboard, and the white-shirted pier officials started walking away from the two ships and towards the duty-free shop. The engines started rumblin’ under us… and two poor souls started running up the pier towards the ship.

 

Now, no idea if they were on our ship or the Glory, but we were both leaving at the same time so it didn’t really matter. They were a full HOUR after all-aboard time. The pier officials stopped them from running, and although with the engines going we couldn’t hear their words as well, we could read their hand signals. I believe I saw the sign for “WTH? C’mon, pleeeez!” And the pier official pantomimed looking at his watch and shaking his head.

 

 

Sorry, fellas. Hope you enjoyed Cozumel, cuz you just won a land vacation of some unknown duration there!

 

We met up with friends and made it to dinner around 7:15. Again, no wait but there were only two tables open for our size party – one with the wait staff we had the first night and another near the front with wait staff headed by Mondo. We picked Mondo, and were pleased – he was very efficient, but the table location wasn’t as awesome as Henry’s table.

 

Friend and I ordered mai tai’s, and Iron Man wanted some of that action. He’d missed Cozumel, but after his rough wipeout in Cayman the day before we figured he needed a break.

 

 

Dinner would have been uneventful, except hubby made me turn inside out in embarrassment. So hubby and Friendhubby have this ongoing joke about how rich the OTHER one is. Friendhubby buys a TON of rare comics, beautiful statues of comic figures, etc. He is nicknamed “the Curator.” Hubby buys a TON of video games and action figures, cheaper than statues by a long shot, but impressive in sheer volume. The golfing guys group calls hubby “Biff”, but that’s related to his habit of golfing in sweater vests vs our toy collection.

 

Anyhoo, that background is to explain why hubby was mocking Friendhubby about being used to people cleaning up after him and cooking for him, etc, joking about him having a butler (he doesn’t). “All you have to do is this,” hubby said, raising his hands and clapping them. “Oh, Jeeves, come here!”

 

Immediately, Mondo – who had been standing nearby – appeared and said, “Yes, sir, what can I get you?” I was mortified! We quickly explained that he was talking to Friendhubby, not to Mondo, just joking around and… yeah. I’m sure it made no sense whatsoever. *headdesk*

 

It took a few deep gulps of my mai tai to recover.

 

- Continued

[wendynat]

Day 4, Continued

 

After dinner we went right away to get seats for Name that Tune – 80s night! This was OUR decade! Iron Man was ready –

 

We got our drinks from the lovely Red Frog Pub waitress – she handled the pub plus the Legends Café. The kids played foosball in the pub until trivia started, then kiddo hung out with us and the other two rotated in and out.

 

Friendhubby got a Miami Vice – half pina colada, half daiquiri, all wonderful goodness in a girlie drink glass. So we’re going along, singing with the tunes, writing down ALL the answers between us four old fogies, and suddenly Mike stops the event. He comes over, grabs Friendhubby’s Miami Vice, and puts it on the piano, explaining that only a manly man with a mustache comb could be secure enough in his manhood to drink a drink like that.

 

Well, only a man with a mustache comb… OR the Manliest Man in Manville. Mike asked the waitress to bring Man the pinkest, girliest drink they had, because he could certainly get away with it. Manliest Man said it was good – score for him – free drink! It’s not just for ladies anymore!

 

This was hands down the best trivia night – because we WON! Wooo!

 

Note Iron Man in seat of honor on the piano:

 

Bling on a String!

 

After that high, we stayed around and chatted with some of the other regulars, then decided to hit the Love and Marriage show. We were excited to see some trivia regulars get called up – Mr. Mustache and his wife. It was a lot of fun. When it was over we headed back to our cabins to get some sleep. Tomrrow was Belize and our one joint excursion – the Altun Ha and Belize City Tour. We made tentative plans to either meet in the buffet or, in case *someone* couldn’t wake up in time, just meet in the Follies lounge at the 9:30 time stated on the tour tickets.

 

So, back to our cabin. The towel animal that night was a seal maybe? It looked somewhat pornographic. I think it was the universe mocking me for the towel animal boy parts typo the day before… but it gave me girl parts instead?

 

Before hitting the hay, I took some pics of our stalker – the Glory – all lit up and looking pretty.

[jerseygirlinAZ]

We cruise the Legend on June 1 and I can't wait! I am loving your review. I am going with my parents, who are celebrating their retirement, and my BF. You and your hubby will appreciate this ... BF is missing Phoenix ComiCon for this trip. He's a little bummed, but excited about the cruise. Seems like the Con adds a super new guest everyday, lol.

 

Thanks for posting!

[Jnas63]

May book the Legend and this review is pushing me to want to great job so far!

[msua2]

I look forward to your account of the tender into Belize.. I assume you were on the same one we were since we had the same excursion! Haha

 

 

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