September 7, 2008 Carnival Legend review ( a little late)

[Cruisin' Ron VA]

I know it is a bit late for my review but here it is.

 

Carnival Legend review for the September 7, 2008 sailing.

 

We flew in the night before and stayed at the Marriot hotel at the Tampa airport.

 

I must say that was the fastest check in at any hotel I have every experienced. My information was already in the computer from when I made the online reservation. I was greeted right away, asked for my credit card and was handed my room key and on my way in about 60 seconds. NO KIDDING!

 

Our room was on the 5th floor with a great view of the Southwest airlines terminal. I have never stayed at a hotel in an airport before but let me tell you it was QUIET!

 

The beds are like sleeping on a cloud! I didn't want to get up the next morning.

 

Sunday morning the day of the cruise we cleaned up and headed downstairs to catch the Carnival bus to the port.

 

We went down to baggage claim and the ladies down there seemed a little confused that we had transfers but didn't actually fly in that day. They finally pointed us to a glassed in waiting area. We gave the guy there our luggage and had a seat. About 15 minutes later the bus showed up and we boarded the bus.

 

The drivers name was Christian and he was quite knowlegeable about the procedures and what to expect when we get onboard the first day.

 

We arrived at the port and after pointing out our luggage to the porters "for security purposes" we headed inside.

 

The line was quite long but it moved pretty fast. We were onboard by about 1230 or so.

 

This was our second time on Legend so we were quite familiar about the lay out and how to find the Lido deck.

 

We headed up for some lunch and my fear was correct. The buffet was not the best. Back in February on Liberty the food quality nor the offerings were that impressive. This was the case on Legend as we were to find out the rest of the week.

 

We had some lunch and toddled around the lido deck for a while and took some pictures of the nice port area. What a great job Tampa has done to the port! WOWZERS!

 

Around 1:30 we checked out our stateroom.

 

We booked this trip a little last minute and usually choose our own stateroom but not this time. We wanted a balcony but only had the option of an 8A GTY. We were a bit surprised when we got our assignment and ended up with an 8H. Stateroom 8263. Sigh. I was a little nervous about this stateroom because of the location right under neath the Lido deck and I was right! OMG the noise from sun up to sun down was terrible. Deck chairs scraping. People with heavy feet walking back and forth. People (kids?) running around the deck. I have learned my lesson here! Never again!

 

Speaking of kids. There were very few kids onboard this sailing. That was ok with me.

 

After we settled in the room we headed down to the dining room to check out our table. We had table 337 in the Truffles for the 8:15 seating. This is a table for 4. We would meet our table mates later at dinner that evening.

 

I had a hankering for a soda so I had the bright idea of buying a soda card at the lobby bar. I guess I forgot that Florida charges tax on purchases if you buy such things before sail away. :rolleyes:

 

I did use the card through the week but not as much as I thought I would, so it didn't really pay for itself.

 

I did find out though if you like diet coke like me it will come from a can instead of the fountain.

 

Lifeboat drill blah blah blah....dinner time. We met our table mates. Two nice ladies from Vegas. Quiet at first but we warmed up to one another after a while and even saw some shows together.

 

The welcome aboard show was ok. Nothing special. Tina Noble was the cruise director for our cruise. It was her very first week on Legend. I am guessing Shawn Bussey (SP) was on vaction or something. Tina was ok. I cut her slack as she was getting used to a new ship.

 

Day two was a sea day. We got reaquainted with the ship. I still love The Enchanted Forrest! Nice little quiet place. Awesome.

 

Tonight was "Cruise elegant night". We decided this time that were were packing light and only allowed one suit case each. IT WAS HARD! This is a guy that needs a suit case just for shoes! But I managed! I learned that I can recycle pants.

 

I saw a bit of everything as far as clothing in the main dining room. Jeans, to shorts, to tuxedos. Did any of that bother me? NO! NO! NO! I wore dress pants and dress shirt with tie. No jacket. I fit in quite nicely thank you.

 

The show that nigth featured the Legend dancers. The show was called Jazz Hot. I like Jazz. It was a nice show. We hung around for the adult comdey show after. It was pretty good.

 

Cansino time before a late night snack of burgers and oinion rings and off to bed.

 

Tuesday was to be our first port of call, Grand Cayman. Due to the storm we skipped it and it turned into a sea day. Nobody seemed go be disappointed and we continued to Roatan.

 

The nights entertainment was awesome! Miss Yolanda Barber performed and she was fabulous!

 

This was my first time at Roatan and it was quite nice. It was hot as hell, but I liked it.

 

Tonight was guest talent show night. Yawn. It was pretty much a Karaoke show. I thought someone would eventually stand up and testify as it seemed to be headed toward the Old time gospel hour.

 

Off to Belize. We have been here before. It was nice as well.

 

Tonights show was Derrick Eason, "comedian". I didn't care for him but he got by ok I guess.

 

Cozumel. We did the carverns by jeep tour. I would tell anyone to take this tour. It was neat!

 

The caverns were awesome in that you get to go into a cave and dive or walk into the water and swim around. The water is deep but a nice 75 degrees.

 

Tonight was "Take II" featuring the Legend dancers. The show was ok.

 

Last day at sea and headed toward Tampa. We relaxed and didn't do much.

 

I was chosen to play sea feud and was this close to winning a ship on a stick. :(

 

Now to cover some odds and ends.

 

The crew didn't seem very happy this cruise and it showed.

 

My waiter announced 4 days into the cruise that his contract was up and he no longer had to wait tables. How nice. :rolleyes: He was ok and did his job as did his assistant.

 

On that nigth I decided that I wanted some cheese cake as nothing on the dessert menu appealed to me. Well the waiter made all sorts of excuses WHY I couldn't have cheese cake.

 

Cheese cake was served every single day of that cruise on the Lido deck. All I wanted was one little piece. NO! I can't have any. My table mate actually left the table and made her way to the Lido deck to get me some but they had already closed. My waiter magically found me a piece after I voiced my displeasure. I wasn't mean or rude or even raise my voice. But I let him know that I can get it all day on the Lido.

 

Speaking of dining room service. One evening one of my table mates had to send her filet migon back twice because it was not cooked properly. I summoned the maitre'd and he sent the assistant. The assistant was apologetic enough and even offered to cook the meat himself. By this time the rest of us were ready to order dessert. She declined and he insisted and ran off. He returned later with another that he "cooked" himself. By then it was too late. I suggested perhaps the lady would enjoy a free meal in the specialty restaurant. Well he said that would not be possbile. I asked for the maitre'd. Eventually he showed up. Problem discussed and again said he did not have the power to authorize a free meal upstairs. He insisted that could NOT be done ever. He instead wanted to play lets make a deal and bargain. We kept asking what he could do and he responded what do you want me to do? Over and over again. I already told him and he refused.

 

I happened to see the hotel director, shahnaz Kashanipour, so I spoke to her and she refused to get involved. So I cornered her and called over my table mate and she repeated the whole issue. Shahnaz agreed to respond to the issue by noon the next day.

 

The next evening a bottle of wine was brough to the table to make up for the problem. If only the maitre'd had been so accomodating at the time of the issue was brought to his atttention. Instead he wanted to play games. Sigh.

 

I thought it funny that the next day during the galley tour he made a big deal that he was in charge of ALL off the restarunts on the ship. HA.

 

I seem to recall that the CD gives out free dinners to newlyweds during the newlywed game etc. Hmmm.

 

The food budget seems to have been cut and it shows. I know food is subjective and I am not picky but it sucked.

 

Oh! I must say that I finally got to see chocolate melting cake the way it is supposed to be! That was a first!

 

The casino smoke. I enjoyed the nickle slots and won plenty but the smoke was not so nice. People were smoking at machines with little signs saying no smoking. Usually smoke doesn't bother me but this week it did. None of the staff seemed to care. :( I am a former smoker and I get along great with smokers but this time around was not pleasent.

 

Deck chairs seemed to be available and there was some saving but not much.

 

As I said very few kids this week so no trouble there that I saw.

 

Again the crew seemed a bit unhappy for some reason. They seemed to be going through the motions.

 

EXPRESS DEBARKATION!

 

Man what a dream that was!

 

We signed up for express service. The last night we were given special tags and told to meet in Satchmo's lounge at a certain time. I swear we were off the ship and on the bus by 745 am? FAST! We set out luggage out the night before and never saw it until we got to our home airport.

 

This about covers it.

 

This was my 5th Carnival cruise. My second Carnival this year.

 

While Carnival wil be in my future plans I think I am going to take a break from them for a while and explore other lines.

 

I want the old Carnival back. :(

[lvcrzn1016]

Thanks for the review...I'll be checking it out for myself in 10 days!!!

[wentworth]

Ron. Who was the maitre'd?

 

Sorry you didn't enjoy this cruise as much as your others.