A Legendary Time on Carnival Legend

[MissyMac13]

Sorry for the cheesy title - I couldn't resist! We are a week and a half back from our Alaska cruise and here is my review.

We are from Southern California and flew into Seattle on the Saturday before the cruise. We stayed at a private apartment that I found through Airbnb. If you have not used this service before, I highly recommend it. The place we stayed was in Shoreline, which was about 20 minutes from Seattle. It had a bedroom for us (husband and I) and a sleeping area for our daughter, as well as a patio, full kitchen and laundry facilities. We paid $90 a night and the owner of the apartment (who lived upstairs) made us breakfast for our first and last morning. Since we planned to do a little sightseeing before the cruise, we rented a car.

We got in after 5pm on Saturday and after a really nice dinner in Shoreline, we went to a local park to relax - Shoreview Park. We waited for the sun to set before we headed back to our home away from home.

 

The sunset

[MissyMac13]

Sunday after breakfast, we met up with a college friend of mine who lives in Edmonds. He offered to take us around to some of the sites we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise.

We took a ferry to Whidbey Island and did a little shopping and sightseeing, then had lunch.

My husband, daughter and I

 

Then we went to Deception Bridge State Park and walked across the bridge.

 

Pretty far down!

[MissyMac13]

After driving back to town and enjoying a wonderful dinner with my college friend and his partner, we headed back to our place to sleep.

Monday, we had decided to do sightseeing on our own and bought City Passes. They were $69 for my husband and I and $49 for our daughter. This gave us 5 places to visit - the Space Needle, A harbor tour, the Seattle Aquarium, and a choice between the EMP Museum or Woodland Park Zoo, and a choice between the Chuhuly Glass Center or Pacific Science Center. Since the City Passes are good for up to 9 days after you first use them, we decided to visit 3 of the locations on Monday and save the other two for the day back from the cruise. So our first stop was the EMP Museum. The best way for me to describe it is as a pop culture museum. There were huge displays of Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix items, as well as a Star Wars costume exhibit (costs extra) and other costumes and items from recent movies.

After visiting the EMP Museum, we went to the Space Needle and reserved tickets for a 4:30pm trip. Since we hadn't had lunch yet, we went to a local cafe called "Collections Cafe", where each table had a shadow box with a collection in it. Our table had a collection of fishing lures.

Edited July 17, 2015 by MissyMac13

[MissyMac13]

One of the many costumes

 

Musical instruments!

[MissyMac13]

 

From the bottom of the Space Needle

 

 

The city

 

 

Free photo! They also take one as you are waiting for the elevator. They email them to you.

 

[MissyMac13]

We went to the Chuhuly Glass Museum after the Space Needle. It was beautiful and just overwhelming to see what could be created with glass.

 

 

 

 

 

Since we love baseball, we drove to Everett to see the Aquasox play. They are the single A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.

Edited July 17, 2015 by MissyMac13

[MissyMac13]

After a full day of sightseeing and a good nights' sleep, it's Tuesday and time for our cruise! My husband dropped me and our bags off at the cruise terminal and drove with our daughter to the airport to return the rental car. They took the light rail train from the airport to downtown, and then a taxi back to the terminal. Total cost for both was about $21. I was not bored sitting and waiting because there were lots of people to watch! They returned in about 1 1/2 hours and it was finally time to start our cruise.

 

Embarkation - Seattle has you go through security before checking in. There was a separate line for FTTF and Platinum, so the security part took about 10 minutes. We were then shown the line to get in for check in and waited a couple of minutes. We were checked in within 5 minutes and on our way to the ship.

Edited July 17, 2015 by MissyMac13

[MissyMac13]

So after getting on the ship, we went to our room and were greeted by our luggage. We had checked it in when my husband dropped me off. It was the first time we had ever had our luggage beat us to the room. We had an obstructed view balcony.

[MissyMac13]

We had lunch on Lido, went to the muster drill and were in our way. Dinner was at 5:30pm and we had a 6 seat table. We were alone until around 6:30pm, when our table mates joined us. It was a mother, her mom and son. This was the only night they showed up to the MDR and we didn't see them the rest of the trip. We enjoy spending time to get to know others but still enjoyed getting to know our wait staff.

After dinner, we walked around. We have sailed on Spirit and Miracle and Legend is very similar to those ships. We decided to try our luck in the casino, since we had gotten a great deal on the cruise with a casino offer. The casino was not our friend.

[MissyMac13]

Wednesday was a day at sea. This cruise was different in that they had a Naturalist named Michelle who gave talks throughout the cruise and also spoke over the speaker when there was something to see. We had breakfast on the Lido and then went to a cooking demonstration in the Steakhouse. We got to try some of the food and it was delicious. It was so good that my husband and I booked dinner in the Steakhouse for that night. One of the shows was a Gold Rush theme, where they introduced 4 characters and gave us a mystery to solve - which one of them took Joe Juneau's gold. You had to attend 5 other events during the cruise to get more clues. It was the CD staff who did this - Troy, Zoe, Dee and Mat. We really enjoyed all of them as they were very personable and visible throughout the entire cruise. After Tea Time and dinner, it was time to lose a little more money in the casino before bed.

[MissyMac13]

Thursday was Tracy Arm. We did not go on the excursion, although I talked to a couple who did and they loved it. I would suggest that if you don't have a balcony, get to Lido early because every space in front of a window was taken by 8am. I found a place near the smoking area to eat and took some photos.

 

 

 

[ctop]

I am enjoying your report you seem to have a gift for writing. I am having problems opening some of your pictures though. Do you plan to post the fun times? Look forward to hearing more of your adventure!

[marshhawk]

Thank You! I have subscribed to your review! Can't wait for more!

We booked the Legend for next year, taking a dear friend along, tell me more about what happens on the ship, the naturalist and the mystery activity! I am not a gambler, but DH is, what hours were the Casino and the store shops open?

[MissyMac13]

I didn't keep any of the Fun Times - Sorry. I am not sure why some of the photos are not coming up. I am able to see them and I'm using my iPad to upload them.

 

Our Naturalist Michelle held a number of seminars during the cruise to alert us to what we would see along the way. She also spoke over the ships' speaker while we were in Tracy Arm to let us know when she saw something. The only wildlife that I saw was a couple of seals, which you can see perched on one of the icebergs above. She was very informative. Our CD Troy also made announcements on what we would be seeing and had a very informative seminar on excursions and which ones would be best.

 

The "Mystery" surrounded the missing gold, taken from Joe Juneau. The other characters were played by the Entertainment staff and each one was a suspect in the theft of the gold. There were a number of events during the cruise where they appeared and gave a clue as to who took the gold. I attended one of the events where we made "gold nugget bracelets" and were given a clue, but I was not able to attend any others. I asked one of the assistant CD's Zoe on our last cruise day who took the gold, and she told me that it was "Soapy Smith". She and the CD Troy said that they have this mystery game every cruise and change up the culprit every time. It was even better that the names of the characters are real people who have history in Alaska's past!

 

The casino was open during sea days but not when in Alaska. It also closed around 3:30pm on the Victoria B.C. day and did not re-open. I was told that this was because Canada does not like the cruise ships to allow gambling while in their waters. The Fun Shops were open while at sea, but not while in port.

Edited July 17, 2015 by MissyMac13

[MissyMac13]

First Alaska port was Skagway. We had shore excursions purchased prior to the cruise and bought one in each Alaska port, which gave us a 20% discount off the total. We chose the White Pass Railway tour as my husband is a huge train buff. We also selected the early afternoon tour as we had read that the early morning tour could experience fog. The tour lined up right outside of the ship and we were off. It was an incredible ride with lots of great views of everything.

Waiting on the tour

 

On the train

 

Posing with the train

 

After our train ride, we had the option of being dropped off in town or at the ship. We opted to get off in town to do some shopping. We decided to have dinner at a local place called Bonanza's Bar and Grill. The menu had regular bar kind of food and we enjoyed it. After dinner, we walked around and did some shopping. We were able to catch a shuttle back to the ship at $2 each, but we probably could have walked back.

Once we were back on the ship, we went to the PG rated comedy show. It was good. We did not go to any of the bigger shows as we had seen them when we cruised in February. After the comedy show, it was time to lose more money!

Edited July 18, 2015 by MissyMac13

[MissyMac13]

The next port was Juneau and it was the 4th of July. Because of the length of the daylight, we were told there would be no fireworks. In fact, Juneau had their fireworks at Midnight as it turned the 4th of July. This was our early day as our excursion was leaving at 7:30am. All excursions met in the main showroom and we were divided by colors and sections. When the leader of the excursion was ready for us, they came to get us. We chose the Mendenhall Glacier and Mount Roberts tramway tour. Our tour guide came to get us and we took a bus to the Glacier. Along the way, he gave us a tour of the city. We got to the glacier around 8am, and the visitor's center had just opened. We took a short hike to the visitor's center for some displays and a movie about the glacier. We had some time to explore on our own after.

 

The glacier behind us

 

Edited July 18, 2015 by MissyMac13

[MissyMac13]

The bus brought us back to the ship and the tramway was right there. Our ticket allowed us to go up and down as much as we wanted that day. Thankfully, we got back before the huge 4th of July parade that was going on. We went up the tram (or as I call it, my kind of zip line). There is a store, restaurant and coffee bar at the top, along with hiking trails. This is one of the few places offering free wi-fi.

 

View from the top

 

This attraction has a beautiful rescue Bald Eagle named Lady Baltimore. She is blind in one eye and can't fly, so volunteers take care of her.

 

The lady

Edited July 18, 2015 by MissyMac13

[MissyMac13]

My husband and daughter hiked while I sat and enjoyed the view. While up there, the Golden Princess joined us, as well as the Oceana Regatta.

 

Edited July 18, 2015 by MissyMac13

[Kfoot]

Beautiful pictures. We are doing Alaska next May. We haven't decided on any excursions yet, so I'm reading all Alaska reviews to decide which excursion is for me.

Thx for the review.

[marshhawk]

What trail did your DH and DD hike? How long were the trails, did they see bears?

[Jdfireman]

Thank you for the review. 3rd time to Alaska next week.. One day i will do a review..

[MissyMac13]

They took a trail that took them to a cross. It was about a mile, according to my husband. I will post some of his photos in the next post. They did not see bears, but saw snakes and squirrels.

Edited July 18, 2015 by MissyMac13

[MissyMac13]

 

 

 

Photos from the White Pass Railway

[Biffer1997]

Thanks for great review! Booked on Legend next June.

[bakersdozen12]

I'm enjoying your review. Can't wait to read more!