Live from the Legend!! December 19-26, 2021 with Kmom.

[KmomChicago]

Hello, hope you’ll join us as we get our COVID RAT’s this Friday and hit the road for Baltimore!

[mkcurran]

I'm in!!!!

 

[kupton]

Me too!  😀

[Hogladyrider]

Me three!

[SenatorsFan]

I'm ready to follow along! 😊

[KmomChicago]

Thanks early joiners! I’ll try not to disappoint.  
 

Why do our jobs expect us to do work the week before vacation? Seems rude. Luckily I’m doing so from home allowing me to pack while on Zoom meetings.
 

I ridiculously overpacked for our August  cruise on Mardi Gras so I’m trying to cool it this time. Fortunately or unfortunately, stupid pandemic weight is a real thing so just taking the few remaining items that fit will keep the bags under control. I’m doing Richard Simmons tonight but I don’t think starting today was enough time to meet my cruise goal. 😕 Yes, Richard Simmons is still the best exercise program and the only one for Kmom. I don’t like looking at people who are prettier, better dressed, and in better shape than me when I exercise. Those people infuriate me because I have a complex, okay? Furthermore I’m klutzy and awkward and in no way graceful so keeping up with Mr. Simmons and his typical crew of models is the best I can hope for.

 

All respect but I don’t want to hear about your spinning or your Pilates or Zumba or the SATC Peloton heart attack that obviously was inevitable and likely delayed by the Peloton, not caused by it. I don’t much like equipment or gyms or live classes in rooms with other live people exercising better than me and a live instructor telling me when my form is off or reminding me to suck in my gut. But you look great, it’s really working for you. 
 

Weather report is looking pretty good for the drive which we’re splitting over 2 days because none of us likes to be out after dark. Assuming we all pass our rapid antigen tests Friday morning, we are leaving midday and have rooms booked on I-70 past Indianapolis. We should be settled out in the Baltimore suburbs right around dusk on Saturday afternoon / evening. Could be some rain but should be above freezing during the daytime hours.

 

Y’all I’m ready to go NOWWWWWW.🚢🕶🌞☀️🏖
 

 

Edited December 15, 2021 by KmomChicago

[KmomChicago]

The worst thing about travel these days for me is not the masks. Or the irritating logistics of getting to a daggone port. It’s leaving these two, both of whom were pandemic era acquisitions. Yes they are rescues but as is often the case, they seem to have rescued us.

 

Edited December 15, 2021 by KmomChicago

[lilchuckie]

Excited for your review!

[jimbri]

Looking forward to your review

[KmomChicago]

I got my 3rd Covid dose last week. Mom got hers about a month ago and hubby just this past weekend. I chose to mix and get Pfizer after my two priors were Moderna. Our teen doesn’t qualify for a booster yet but will later this winter. 
 

My goal is to never get Covid and I will let them keep jabbing me every month if that’s what it takes. So far so good. 

[sparks1093]

I will follow along to cruise vicariously until we board Legend in February. We normally drive but DW had such a hard time with her back this last time that we decided we'd fly to the port instead. Since that will now be the norm for us we will be booking our future cruises out of Florida which will open up a lot more ships (and cruise lines) for us. (So our cruise in February may be our last cruise on Legend.)

[KmomChicago]

Why this cruise you ask? 
 

1. Flying is a drag and while driving is too, Baltimore at just over 11 hours is the closest port. It may be a miserable drive, who knows?
 

2. All things equal, we feel Carnival offers the value, vibe, and overall experience we like best.  There are factors that make the equation less equal sometimes, however (such as being an Oasis class or other mega ship). In short this was simply the best option at the moment. 
 

3. School schedule. 
 

4. Get away from the dark Solstice of northern Illinois.

 

5. This is allowing us to sample all the CCL ship classes as we work our way around the fleet. This wii be our first Spirit class. We’ve previously done Destiny, Fantasy and Excel classes and have Vista tentatively booked for next year.

[kelkel2]

I’m following along!!

[kdr69]

12 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

Thanks early joiners! I’ll try not to disappoint.  
 

Why do our jobs expect us to do work the week before vacation? Seems rude. Luckily I’m doing so from home allowing me to pack while on Zoom meetings.
 

I ridiculously overpacked for our August  cruise on Mardi Gras so I’m trying to cool it this time. Fortunately or unfortunately, stupid pandemic weight is a real thing so just taking the few remaining items that fit will keep the bags under control. I’m doing Richard Simmons tonight but I don’t think starting today was enough time to meet my cruise goal. 😕 Yes, Richard Simmons is still the best exercise program and the only one for Kmom. I don’t like looking at people who are prettier, better dressed, and in better shape than me when I exercise. Those people infuriate me because I have a complex, okay? Furthermore I’m klutzy and awkward and in no way graceful so keeping up with Mr. Simmons and his typical crew of models is the best I can hope for.

 

All respect but I don’t want to hear about your spinning or your Pilates or Zumba or the SATC Peloton heart attack that obviously was inevitable and likely delayed by the Peloton, not caused by it. I don’t much like equipment or gyms or live classes in rooms with other live people exercising better than me and a live instructor telling me when my form is off or reminding me to suck in my gut. But you look great, it’s really working for you. 
 

Weather report is looking pretty good for the drive which we’re splitting over 2 days because none of us likes to be out after dark. Assuming we all pass our rapid antigen tests Friday morning, we are leaving midday and have rooms booked on I-70 past Indianapolis. We should be settled out in the Baltimore suburbs right around dusk on Saturday afternoon / evening. Could be some rain but should be above freezing during the daytime hours.

 

Y’all I’m ready to go NOWWWWWW.🚢🕶🌞☀️🏖
 

 

I am so following this one!

[AKR2011]

Thanks for starting so early. I'm excited to join the ride. Happy sailing! ❤⚓

[Momma1980]

Following!

[OhioDogLover]

Went on this cruise the week after Thanksgiving.  I hope you have as good a time as we did.  

Ohiodoglover

[PelicanBill]

Ready to ride along. I am one of those booked for next October's Panama Canal partial. 

 

Interested in the check-in process and experience. And details on good coffee and the food at the buffet stations, Blue Iguana and Redfrog. Have fun!

[MAsquared]

Following along!  Please have a safe drive in.

[HLR]

I'll see you Sunday! Less than 17 hours before I take my test at 7 am at home Friday ...with an 11:15 CVS back-up scheduled which I trust I will be able to cancel. Yes...weather for Sunday looks good in Baltimore...if not a wee cold.

 

Luckily the anxiety of the test has been transferred to my neighbor informing this morning at 8 am that they are replacing their fences TODAY and I've already been informed that they heave decimated my flower beds on MY SIDE! 

 

Time for a CRUISE!!!

[KmomChicago]

Up early and still working through last minute additions to the packing list and the “secure the house” list. 
 

Warning - the brain is in imaginative overdrive and I’m getting rather DARK and philosophical in this post so scroll on if ya need to. I am a deep, rambling thinker of busy brain. Words words words. The voices never quiet. But there’s both yin and yang in Kmom and these ponderings are balanced with even more grateful perspective for the many luxuries we enjoy, like cruise vacations. 
 

The four of us have been discussing the worst case scenario of someone testing positive this morning. There are no flights to worry about. Do the others still pile in the car and go? Do we drop from 2 cabins to one or does someone end up in a single room? How do refunds or credits work in such a case and as close contacts would it be wiser not to proceed at all? How full is the ship after months of low occupancy but during what was typically a high demand week back in The Before?
 

How many fellow passengers will learn today that the current surge has placed the mark upon them? How odd to feel, after literally a lifetime of reading and seeing so many grim or sometimes humorous stories and shows imagining The After, that indeed our lives have moved into a mini or maybe a soft dystopia. Our training dystopia, if you wax pessimistic as Kmom is prone to do. Preparing us. If we choose to prepare. Woooooooo. (Go ahead and laugh at my ridiculousness now).
 

The plague is deadly, but perhaps not quite enough to make its point. The people are angry and tired about it all, and yet we carry on and stubbornly reach back, determined to return to everything we once had. Believing we can do that out of sheer will.
 

Two years ago such thoughts were still unimaginable. The After was coming, is probably coming, but not yet, not really, not for US. Kevin Costner and his little scurvy preventive lemon tree, and Mad Max, and so many other variations on the same old theme, were from a time far in a future that might not ever be real. 
 

People got sick before of course which is why we always buy the cruise line insurance, mediocre as it may be per endless analyses here in these hallowed boards. But it was really up to you to decide how sick you were and when to cancel your voyage, for better or worse. 
 

Now sick is different, isn’t it? Infected matters even if you don’t feel sick. Positive. Negative. The all powerful Rapid Antigen Test shall cast its judgment and determine our fate. And we, having thus far done everything possible to evade the virus, shall have no choice but to submit to its word. Until then we prepare and we wait. 
 

In case you read all that and are seriously wondering if I require psychiatric care, I’d say, probably I’m okay. But there’s definitely some atypical stuff going on up there in the gray matter. I laugh at my own meandering thoughts and I know I’m not quite like everyone else. I don’t make small talk well at parties which should now be painfully obvious. All these concerns actually make me deeply grateful for every little thing that does work out well and tolerant and accepting of the inevitable irritations and stresses of travel and life in general. 
 

As you might have guessed, I’ll letcha know if we triumph over the swab gauntlet. 

[jbhcw]

following....thanks for sharing with us....Spirit class is my favorite....and it's only about 5 hours to Baltimore from here in NC!  Scheduled to cruise Hal in February...it actually doesn't seem real yet....so really enjoying following everyone's reviews.....Safe travels!!

[jimbo5544]

Been waiting for this

[kleibo]

Will hopefully be on the Legend next month.  It is a little nerve racking until you get that "negative" test result, but as the saying goes - don't borrow worry.   Go about your day, pack, enjoy, do last minute errands.   Enjoy now.

[Heartgrove]

Following along as we sail on the Carnival Legend to Greenland in 2023. We are originally from Chicago so I feel your pain of not being close to a cruise port. Currently our primary cruise line is HAL which means at least a 14 hour drive to FLL for us. That is why we are so anxious to sail from Baltimore, a mere three hours away! With a  Carnival Sunshine cruise in April, we hope to sail on the Legend at least once before 2023 just to try it out

 

Safe driving!.