Legend - My long review

[neatokimmo]

Hello all!

 

I am going to do a multiple posting for my review so I can post some of the 900+ pictures that I and my best friend took on this trip!

 

Pre-Cruise - Roadtrip - Our 730 mile trip from East TN to Tampa was uneventful. There was a lot of construction on I-75 which wasn't fun but it didn't slow us down too much. We stayed at the Quality Inn on Bearrs Ave off of 275 that night. I used my free intro Choice Hotels CC points for a free night (woohoo). The rooms were plain but clean and they had a nice pool and a good free breakfast in the morning. I would stay there again.

 

Day 1 - I was so excited I couldn't stand it. We got to the port early only to find easily a hundred travel agents in line to board our ship for a tour. That slowed us down a little but check-in was fast and painless. Everyone we encountered was friendly and happy to be there.

 

The local peppermint eating squirrel

 

We had to wait 30 minutes in the holding area before they let us board. After boarding we ran to our room, which was only 4 down from the glass elevators and there was our luggage! We threw our carryons in the room and started wandering the ship.

 

Keep in mind I had only been on the Imagination and Inspiration up to this point. I had no idea Carnival had ships like this and now I'm ruined, I'll never go on a Fantasy class ship again!

 

I love the art theme that was throughout the ship. We wandered through the entire ship taking pictures because there were so few people on board. I took 160 pictures in an hour!

 

one of the staircase walls

 

a look at the glass elevator area from the lobby

 

elevator art

 

walls outside the art studio

 

Lunch was on the Lido deck. I was really surprised by all the food choices. They had the standard hamburger and hotdog type stuff and two buffet lines inside that had roasted chicken and porkchops. Only after eating did we discover the other half of the resturaunt with Chinese and Italian food. LOTS of things to choose from!

 

I have all kinds of sailoff pictures of the city of Tampa and of the bridge if anyone is interested in seeing them.

 

to be continued....

[neatokimmo]

Our first dinner on the ship was great. Our waiter JP was a lot of fun and he went out of his way to make our dinners interesting.

 

I thought the dining room was very pretty. There was a lot of wood and some pretty cool blue/turquoise light fixtures that would light up during their singing and dancing.

 

At this point I think I need to tell you all that I'm one of those people. Yup, I take pictures of my food! It helps me remember what was good so I'll order it next time. It also helps me to avoid something that might of set off allergies. Also, the food is just pretty and we don't have this sort of dining opportunity where I live.

 

Onward to the food:

 

Penne with Italian Sausage - thumbs up!

 

Indian Veggie Platter - thumbs up!

 

LAMB! I think this was my best meal. Think of the best piece of prime rib you have ever eaten and this was better. YUM!

 

This was the only pastry on the dessert menu that night. Some sort of fruit cream thing. Was pretty but hard to eat and not that great - Thumbs down!

 

Bing Cherry Choco cake - thumbs up!

 

Oops I'm out of pictures for this post, we also ordered the cheese platter. I have a pic if anyone wants to see it. It was good!

 

A lot of our tablemates ordered the strip steak. They said it was tough and a bad piece of meat. It looked sort of grey like it had been boiled. I found that to be my experience with steak on the Imagination so I tried to avoid it.

 

After dinner we had very good intentions of going to the show. We got sidetracked in the casino. I played penny slots until I was half blind lol

[PINEVIEW01]

Nice photos:)

[muffy168]

Can't wait to hear more. I've never been on a ship with penny slots. Nice to hear for us cheap people. We are going in 3 weeks!! Love the details.

Cari

[sallywallygal]

We'll be on the Legend in 4 weeks. Can't wait to read the rest of your detailed report! Love the pictures!!

[nmyorkiemom]

Please keep the info & pics coming! We'll be on the legend 6/3 - first time cruisers!

[neatokimmo]

Day Two - our fun day at sea and formal night

 

We laid out in the sun for awhile, wandered the ship and went to the art auction (actually we went to all three, who knew we'd like it that much?). No issues with chair hogs at all (see, worried about nothing). The sea was calm and a beutiful blue color (those pics are on the other camera). I really didn't feel any motion on the ship until the 6th day, there was a big difference between this ship and the other 2 I have been on.

 

some of the art in the Firebird Lounge

 

This was also the night for the Captain's Party! For those who haven't sailed Carnival, this is the opportunity for some of us frugal types to get some free drinks. And by some I mean gallons. Or at least it felt like gallons, they had all kinds, my favorite was the melon ball. Sort of like the blue margarita but without that lime twang.

 

Sooooo after drinking our weight in free drinks we wandered to the dining room.

 

our head waiter, JP, happy as always

 

I won't post pictures of the soups. The pumpkin soup tastes like chicken and the strawberry bisque tastes like melted ice cream. We liked both of them.

 

DUCK - sorry for the blurry picture, it was VERY good

 

standard lobster pic - I thought it was the best one I have had on a ship (and yes, I ordered 2 things and they didn't even blink....so try some stuff out)

 

I'm out of picture space again on this post. We ordered Cherries Jubulie (sp?) - sad looking little thing but it was tasty. It looked like a scoop of vanilla ice cream with some warm cherry topping.

 

Another pretty pastry dessert that was icky. This was apples and it was cold. The "carmel" was honey.

 

We went to the show afterwards and really enjoyed it. It was a tribute to a lot of different movies.

[neatokimmo]

I love penny slots! I max out my bets, you win so much more that way. My favorite machine is the butterfly seven machine. If you are looking at the cashiers window you will see a crew door to the left. It is on it's own wall before you turn a bit and see 4-5 more machines and the 2 quarter pusher machines. This was my first win that hooked me:

 

a whole $12 - woohoo!

 

AND I have a 5 minute video of me winning 6000 pennies lol After it rolled past the 700 mark I was trying to figure out what I had won (3 oranges, 1 double, 1 triple) and thought hello, I should film this!

 

Can't wait to hear more. I've never been on a ship with penny slots. Nice to hear for us cheap people. We are going in 3 weeks!! Love the details.

Cari

[arcone]

We are sailing in November, Thanks for the pictures it will help the little less then 200 days go by quicker, at least for me. THose days that I wish I was cruising I can now go on a virtual cruise. Thank s for the picture Please keep posting them

[cuyahoga11]

I was on the Legend 6 months ago and this is bringing back such sweet memories. Keep it coming.

[Cincy Gal]

I love penny slots! I max out my bets, you win so much more that way. My favorite machine is the butterfly seven machine. If you are looking at the cashiers window you will see a crew door to the left. It is on it's own wall before you turn a bit and see 4-5 more machines and the 2 quarter pusher machines. This was my first win that hooked me:

 

a whole $12 - woohoo!

 

AND I have a 5 minute video of me winning 6000 pennies lol After it rolled past the 700 mark I was trying to figure out what I had won (3 oranges, 1 double, 1 triple) and thought hello, I should film this!

 

I am a slots player and will be on the Legend in three weeks any other machines that you liked?

[CalgonCruiser]

On Legend Jan. 2008, love the pics, can't wait for more. Thanks !

 

Happy Cruising, Sea YA !!

[Corsair41]

Great review! Only problem is now I'm jonesing even more for December to get here!:D

[book-a-roo]

Love the pics!!! Keep them coming! :D :D :D

[jixjix6305]

Even though I am not going on the Legend, I am enjoying your review immensely! i love the pictures!

[WeatherGeek]

I love detailed reviews like this. Keep it coming :D

[CBXRAY]

Kim...

 

We miss you!!! Weez and I had a great time with you and shelly! Tell her hello from us.

 

I concur about the legend, it was fantastic!! Clean,fun,great food, great staff.....overall great vacation. Highly recommend this ship.

 

Kim...what's your email??

 

I Miss my food fix, and especially the warm chocolate melting cake..yum!!!

 

take care kim,

 

Chris and (weez)

[smalltowngrll]

I'm loving this review and all of the great pictures! We are on The Legend in July and I'm excited for it to get here!!!! Thank you!

[cusyl]

Enjoying your review, please tell us more...I'm on a countdown to the Legend.

[pflorio994]

Keep the pictures and reviews coming. Travelling on 6/24. Can't wait.

[neatokimmo]

Day Three- Grand Cayman!

 

We woke at the crack of dawn (actually I think it was pre-dawn!) to get off the boat first thing. We made it off around 7:30 and realized it was only 6:30 AM their time. Oops. We hung out for half an hour not really knowing what to do because nothing was open. At 8 our time stores started opening and we started shopping! We bought the standard tourist stuff and made our pictures made with a set of parrots not far from the port (and they bite, be careful!). We found a great store near the bakery that was the second floor of a concrete block building on the opposite side of the ocean. They have free calls to the US and free internet!

 

Our shore excursion for the day was the Rum, Reef and Rays tour through Native Way. It was $45 each and a lot of fun. They picked us up at 8:30 their time and we got back just in time for the last tender. We took a short bus ride to get on our boat. We really liked that there were only 25 or so people on the small boat for the tour.

 

Our first stop was on the stingray bar. We were the 3rd or 4th boat there and many more came. We each held a small stingray (male, about 1.5 feet across) and the braver ones held the females that were 3-4 feet wide. I had one chase me around the area and try to give me a hickie on my ribcage. So if your dog started barking around 11:00 am on Tuesday, that was me with my super sonic screech (I got back on the boat lol)

 

Snorkling was fun, saw a few fish, took lots of pictures with an underwater camera. Will post pictures later on if any turn out. They also took us to Rum Point beach to a little club there that was nice and quiet. Lunch is included in the price, you should get the blackened mahi mahi, it was very very good!

 

Back on the boat we were dead tired and slept until it was time to get ready for dinner. (BTW, all the Grand Cayman pictures are on her camera, I'll have to do a separate post.)

 

Food time! We had the black bean soup and cold cumber soup. Michelle said the black bean was pretty good, and the cucumber one was a little weird, more milk than cucumber.

 

Sushi Sampler - pretty good, better than what the cart offered

 

Chicken Quesedia (sp??)- pretty good

 

roasted chicken with the white sauce, very good

 

This is either the perch, the snapper or the mahi mahi - it came with a little bread bowl of tomato sauce that I didn't care for. The orange sauce was really good.

 

Our tablemate's samon (notice how she offered her plate for a picture? they knew me well!) She said it was really good.

 

Oops, out of picture space..will continue in another post.

[neatokimmo]

Can't forget dessert, they were both good that night. The cheese cake was creamy and not heavy like some can be and the diet lemon cake wasn't super sweet which I liked.

 

 

 

We spent more time in the casino, this time playing nickels. Don't you hate it when you accidently bet the wrong thing? I hit max bet a couple of times not thinking about what I was doing. Lucky for me, I had a good hit and was able to cash out $40!

 

 

We then watched the guy balance all kinds of stuff on his head.

 

 

And here is a random picture since I haven't hit my 5 limit on this post:

 

 

Congrats! There were several weddings on board. I have pictures of the chapel if anyone is thinking about doing a Carnival wedding.

[neatokimmo]

You know I found this one and really liked it and played all my pennies there. I thought it was easy to read, I could actually figure out how much I was winning with the spins.

 

I didn't win a thing on quarters and won about $60 total on nickels. After a week I was in the hole $50-ish, not bad at all for the thrill of winning tons of pennies! :)

 

I am a slots player and will be on the Legend in three weeks any other machines that you liked?

[neatokimmo]

Chris!

 

You don't call....you don't write..

oh wait, I guess you are writing :)

 

Our poor little roll call is dead, post and see if anyone will respond!

 

Kim...

 

We miss you!!! Weez and I had a great time with you and shelly! Tell her hello from us.

 

I concur about the legend, it was fantastic!! Clean,fun,great food, great staff.....overall great vacation. Highly recommend this ship.

 

Kim...what's your email??

 

I Miss my food fix, and especially the warm chocolate melting cake..yum!!!

 

take care kim,

 

Chris and (weez)

[Cincy Gal]

You know I found this one and really liked it and played all my pennies there. I thought it was easy to read, I could actually figure out how much I was winning with the spins.

 

I didn't win a thing on quarters and won about $60 total on nickels. After a week I was in the hole $50-ish, not bad at all for the thrill of winning tons of pennies! :)

 

Well then I will have to hunt it down and give it a few spins. I just like when the machines let me play for hours.

Thanks