Another Legend Review - Honeymooning First Timers with Pics!

[PinkJellyFish06]

I was on the same cruise with my parents & I am reallllly enjoying reading your review. It's nice to see what other people did. I love all of your diving pictures. My dad & I love to snorkle and have sworn that before we go on our next vacation we are taking diving lessons!

[tiggerman101]

Such a great review. I am loving all the diving shots. We have done this itinerary on the Valor and will be doing it again on the Dream next year (swap GC for Coast Maya). I really just want to get back to Roatan. Thanks for taking the time to do this. I know how long a review can take.

[travlngrl1996]

First, allow me to congratulate you on your marriage. May you have many years of wedded bliss.

 

Second, I loved the underwater pictures, they were totally cool.

[mrsbean1990]

Congratulations on your marriage. May you have many, many happy and healthy years together.

 

I am enjoying your detailed review, and your pictures are great.

 

I chuckle though whenever you say "took a nap," "afternoon siesta," "skipped the show," "crashed early," and "slept in" because you were on your honeymoon. Uh-huh. ;)

[Smoofdaddy]

Day 4 – Cozumel

 

 

Not even 2 minutes into our dive, we had our first large animal encounter!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This guy had to have been at least 12 lbs. He was huge!! And he was totally walking around on the reef like he owned the place, which he probably did.

 

Im a diver as well and I can tell you that lobster is more like 3-5 pounds, not 12 pounds. He may look big, but he wasn't that big!

[Deano88]

Thanks so much for the review. We will be on the Legend in September for my brothers honeymoon. Me and DW are scuba certified but the bro and his DW are not. I am going to show them your review this weekend and with any luck can get my instructor to get them certified in time for our trip. Cant wait for the rest of the trip

 

Congrats on you marriage.

[marshhawk]

crystalight, I am so enjoying your report/review. I didn't get a chance to get to it until last night, and sweetums said to me, it's 11:30 and turned out the lights, so as soon as I got to work (earlier than anyone else) I turned on the computer to catch up with your next chapter. Can't wait til your next update. Did you feel safe in Cozumel? Awaiting your next adventure, marshhawk

(glad the cat was spoiled) (i've got 5, and have to pay a kitty sitter big $$ when we travel)

[crystalight33]

Thank You for taking the time to share a review. I am looking forward to the rest.

 

Having never (and will never-too much of a scaredy cat) scuba dived before, I am interested in your photos. The coloring is so blue. Is that how it really looked or is that just how the photos turned out. Really great photography!

 

It is pretty blue down there, but the level of 'blue-ness' depends on how deep you are, because the light gets more and more filtered the deeper underwater you go. Also, if the sun goes behind a cloud, it gets bluer. I have a setting on my camera that brings out more red in my pictures (red is the first color to go underwater), so my pics would have been even bluer had I been on the wrong setting.

 

 

Congratulations on your marriage. May you have many, many happy and healthy years together.

 

I am enjoying your detailed review, and your pictures are great.

 

I chuckle though whenever you say "took a nap," "afternoon siesta," "skipped the show," "crashed early," and "slept in" because you were on your honeymoon. Uh-huh.

 

Well, I was trying to keep this review G rated.... Oh well :p.

[crystalight33]

Day 5 – Belize

 

For today, we decided to go to the Altun Ha Mayan ruins through Carnival. We did the Altun Ha and Belize City tour. Our tour ticket told us to meet in Follies at 8:30 for a tender to the port, so we set the alarm for 7:45 and again put the room service tag out the night before. Right on time, our room service arrived. I had marked down milk and cereal, and only the milk made it, so I made due with the fruit and muffin I’d also gotten. We headed towards Follies at the stated time, and found out that everything was running behind schedule. On vacation, so no worries. Our group ended up getting called about 9am, and we made it the port about 9:30. It is a loooong way to tender, and I was very glad DH and I are not prone to seasickness. Once at the pier, we were loaded onto coach buses for our tour. Our tour guide was Gilbert and he was very nice, but sometimes hard to understand. We started off with the city tour part and were driven around Belize City.

 

You hear Belize called a third world country all the time, but as an US citizen, most of us have no idea what that really means. I have led a pretty sheltered life, and I was shocked by the living conditions of many Belizeans. Pretty much all the houses are raised off the ground because of hurricanes, but many many houses would be falling off their stilts, causing the floor to lean, and people would be living in these houses. It was all very sad. After an hour driving around the city, we started the trip to the ruins.

 

Again, my sheltered background led me to be slightly shocked. The ‘highway’ to the ruins was a two lane road, on a one lane sized road. It was also very very curvy, so I was very impressed with the driver of the tour bus maneuvering us through all those curves.

 

After an hour, we arrived at Altun Ha. The very first thing on everyone’s mind when we arrived was the bathrooms. There was a group of kids waiting in front of the bathrooms with a variety of animals, baby turtles, an alligator, a parrot, all asking us if we wanted our picture taken with said animals. They were not pushy and a simple “No thank you” was enough.

 

Tour guide Gilbert led us around the ruins, telling us about Mayan medicine, rituals, and jade worship. The ruins were very neat, but I wish they would move the museum that holds the jade carvings from the ruins to Altun Ha instead of Belize City. Jade was very important to the Mayans, so it would have been neat to see the carvings Gilbert talked so much about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The end of our tour involved climbing up the tallest pyramid at the site. The stairs are around the back of the pyramid (they are newly built, not original Mayan) and are very steep, like 2 ft tall and less than 1 ft wide, and there are many of them. DH was kind of sore from the diving we had done the days before, so climbing all those stairs took a toll on him.

 

 

 

 

The views were spectacular from the top of the pyramid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that, we had a little bit of time to browse the tourist stands at Altun Ha, then it was back to the pier. We arrived back with about 45 mins before the last tender left, so I had wanted to do a little bit of shopping in the tourism village, however, DH was sore, tired, hot, and hungry (aka, grumpy) so instead of pushing the issue, we just hopped a tender back to the ship. After he’d eaten, he did feel bad that I didn’t get to shop, but then it became my fault for not saying something. It was pretty funny though, once we got back, I polled my mother and his mother on what they would have done in my shoes, and they were unanimous that they would have done the same thing. So I won in the end.

 

We ate at Lido back on the ship, then crashed until dinner. For dinner tonight, I had the fried mozzarella appetizer (AWESOME marinara sauce!!) and rack of lamb. DH had the smoked duck appetizer (he said it reminded him of smoked ham) and also rack of lamb. For dessert, I had bread pudding and DH had the infamous melting cake. Again, we had every intention of making the bathrobe party and the Mexican buffet, but we were too stuffed from dinner to even think about food, and we were feeling anti-social, so we called it a night.

 

 

Our Mama bear waiting for us. How did we know it was a mama bear? You’ll just have to wait and see.

[elliebelle]

What a fantastic review.. can't wait till the next installment. We cruise on this in October.. can't wait.

[deeron51]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write your review! I am really enjoying it and your pictures are wonderful.

 

We will be sailing on the Legend in August.

 

Congratuations on your marriage!!!

 

 

Thanks,

Deena

[tangerineplaid]

We're booked for the Altun Ha tour as well. Could you opt out of the climb or was it manditory? (I'm not that athletic and am afraid of heights...)

 

Thanks again for sharing all of your experiences! This is really cool! :D

[ronrythm]

Im a diver as well and I can tell you that lobster is more like 3-5 pounds, not 12 pounds. He may look big, but he wasn't that big!

Sorry you weren't there and we were. You don't get a sense of scale in the picture. It was definitely in the 12-15 range, the kind of prime breeder you only see in protected areas like underwater national parks anymore. I've been on a lot of bug hunts here, and that spiny would have definetly won Jackpot on most of them.

Enjoy

Ron

[ronrythm]

Day 4 – Cozumel

 

Before we left on the cruise, we made reservations for a 2 tank boat dive with Scuba with Alison based on the recommendation from cdiver. He and his son were also going to be diving with Alison in Coz, so we made plans to meet on the ship and share a cab to the marina. So, after a couple phone calls, we met up with cdiver and his son and headed towards the taxis. We found a taxi van and began negotiating the price to the marina when who should show up but ronrythm, another member of our roll call board! He also booked with Alison, so we were a merry party on the 5 min trip to the marina. Once at the marina, we easily spotted Alison’s boat, the ‘Maximus’. We must have been a little early, because Alison wasn’t there yet, but her assistants Orlando and Carlos got us all settled in. Alison arrived about 10 minutes later, and we were off!

Here's a photo of someone you may recognize as we head out to the reefs. http://www.ronrythm.com/photogallery/Cayman%2009%20024.jpg.

I left the UW camera at home so I don't have much else to contribute. Thanks for letting me share your dives.

Enjoy

Ron

[icerider]

Our family is cruising on the Legend July 26 as well. Is this information wonderful or what?

[marshhawk]

crystalight-Don't stop! I've waited all weekend for more of the story.

[MustardMan]

Very nice review so far and the underwater photos are incredible!!

 

Congrats on your marraige as well! Sounds like the honeymoon was a blast!

[LorrieB]

I try and wait a little while before reading reviews because I don't want to get left hanging. Well.... we got left hanging!!!!!!

 

Great review. I am going to be on the Legend September 2010. It's a long way off but I am still excited. It will be my sister and her husband's first cruise so we are excited we get to experience that with them.

 

Thanks for the great pictures. It makes reliving your cruise through your words and your eyes so much easier.

[myacuna]

Thanks for the great review and photos!! Congrats on the wedding :)

 

We were married back on May 9 and are heading out on our Legend Honeymoon (first cruise for both of us) in 5 days!! :D

 

I only wish we were Scuba certified.

[crystalight33]

Ahhh, I'm sorry I've had to keep everyone waiting! I had to work over the weekend (to make up for all the time off I took for the wedding and honeymoon), I really did intend to finish my review by now. The rest will get posted quickly, I promise! To everyone leaving this Sunday, eat some chocolate melting cake for me!

 

We're booked for the Altun Ha tour as well. Could you opt out of the climb or was it manditory? (I'm not that athletic and am afraid of heights...)

 

Thanks again for sharing all of your experiences! This is really cool! :D

 

The climb is definitely optional; in fact, only 1/4 of our group decided to climb up to the top, and only 4 or 5 of us dared to go up to the edge to take pics.

[crystalight33]

Day 6 – Roatan

 

We did another Carnival tour today, the 2 tank boat dive with Anthoney’s Key Resort (you didn’t think we were sick of diving yet did you?). Our tour ticket told us to meet at 9:15 in the Satchmo’s lounge, so we woke up at 8am and had a nice breakfast in Lido. We still had plenty of time after breakfast, so I snapped some photos of the island from the aft pool area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is very windy up here, can’t you tell?

 

 

We went back to the room, grabbed all our gear, and made our way to Satchmo’s….only to find out our meeting place had been moved to the pier. Oh well. Once on the pier, we met up with the Anthoney’s Key rep, showed him our tickets and certification cards, and waited for the rest of the group to show up. At about 9:20, we were loaded into vans and were driven to the resort. Roatan is gorgeous!! The island is so lush and non-commercialized that it has been able to retain it’s natural beauty.

[crystalight33]

After we made it to AKR, we were separated onto two boats. Our boat ended up with about 12 people on it and we all had plenty of room. The people who had not been diving recently (as in, the past 2 days) were required to do a quick weight check at the dock. After everyone was taken care of, we motored off. The first dive site we went to was a wall dive called Wayne’s Place and was about 3 minutes from the dock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our welcoming party. These grouper were very friendly, and some of them were quite large. At one point during our dive, one of the larger grouper was hanging out close to me (probably hoping for food) and a smaller grouper swam between me and him. Mr. Big let out his huge ‘bark’, which was very loud and startling, and it sent that smaller grouper running. It also made me want to swim closer to the rest of the group.

 

 

Our first dive was 47 minutes long and our max depth was 77ft. Between dives, the boat went back to AKR to get us fresh tanks of air, and to encourage us to spend money in their gift shop =). They did give us watermelon slices and water, but DH needed something more substantial, so he bought a ‘coke lite’ and a butterfinger. While we were at the dock, it poured down rain for about 5 minutes. We couldn’t believe our bad luck, having been rained on twice over the entire cruise! :D

[crystalight33]

After enough time had passed, we headed back out to a site called ‘Green Outhouse’. The grouper were numerous there as well, but this time I was more interested in the smaller stuff.

 

 

Another spotted drum

 

 

Blennie (?)

 

 

Some kind of frogfish? I called it the “Where’s Waldo?” fish.

 

Dive 2 ended after 48 minutes and max depth was 57ft. I mentioned before how lush the island was above water, well, it was just as lush underwater. The coral was the most healthy and prolific we had seen the entire trip, and have I mentioned the huge congregations of grouper?

 

 

As nice as the sights were underwater, the experience could have been better. 12 people does not sound like a lot, but when every one is underwater with all the gear on, everywhere you look you see fins and bubbles. Also, there were some experienced divers with us, as well as some very in-experienced divers. You learn quickly who has more experience, because the novices tend to kick you with their fins, hit you with their flailing arms, and run out of air the quickest. There were 2 dive masters in the water with us, and I wish they would have divided us into two groups of 6 instead of one group of 12. Even though I didn’t love all of my fellow divers, the reef made it worth the kicks, punches, and shorter dive time.

 

We headed back to the pier and actually looked in a couple of shops (DH wanted a tee shirt). The stars weren’t quite aligned though, because he didn’t buy anything, so we walked back onto the ship. We went to our room to drop off all our stuff and noticed a new addition.

 

 

 

Mama bear had a baby!

 

We went to Lido for lunch and this was the only time we ever had a hard time finding a table. We wandered around with our trays for a few minutes and finally found a table. After we ate, we went to the aft pool bar for a DOD (today was the Yellowbird) and found cdiver and his wife. We sat with them for a little bit, then jaimie1957 saw us and joined in and we all talked about our different excursions. All too soon, they had to leave to get ready for early dinner, so DH and I went back to the room and napped (Yellowbirds are pretty potent, be warned).

 

Tonight was the second formal night in the dining room, so after getting all dolled up, we went down to Truffles. We were sad to see our tablemates weren’t there (she told us the next night she got really seasick), but the food was wonderful, as always. For the appetizer, I was daring and got the escargot, but then I ordered the green bean and roma tomato as well, in case I didn’t like the snails. Well, the snails were really good! Very buttery and not at all rubbery like I thought they would be, the texture was somewhere between chicken and a hard boiled egg. Hard to describe, but I really liked it. DH also had the escargot and he liked it too. I had pasta for the main course and DH had the beef. For dessert, I had the baked Alaska, DH had sherbet.

 

After dinner, we went to the formalities shop to sign up for On Deck for the Cure which was being held the next day. You can donate any amount you like, but Carnival asks for at least $10 and you get a shirt and bracelet. By the time we signed up, the only shirts left were large and extra-large, so if you want a small or medium, sign up early!

 

By the time we were done in Formalities, the show had already started, so we headed back to our room for bed.

 

 

 

 

The only monkey we saw on our trip, but he sure was cute!

[crystalight33]

Day 7 – Fun Day at Sea

 

Today ended up being a very lazy day. We woke up around 9am and went up to Lido for breakfast. I decided to go to the debarkation talk at 11am to find out the ins and outs of debarkation. Jenn did a really good job at making it funny as well as informative. She did the “Top 10 stupid questions” and one of my favorites was a woman who came up to her and said how nice it was for Carnival to find out where everyone lives and to beam their local news channel into their staterooms :p.

 

After the debarkation talk, DH and I ordered more room service BLT’s and chilled on the balcony for a bit. At 2pm, we went up to deck 10 to start On Deck for the Cure. There ended up being 4 or 5 survivors on the walk with us, which was 4 laps around deck 10. It did seem kind of strange that we had to navigate around the deck chairs people had moved around on deck 10, but it was fine. There was a water station set up at the ‘start’ line, but we didn’t really need it during the 4 laps.

 

Once we finished our walk, we went back to our stateroom and just hung out. DH read on the balcony, I watched Juno on the cabin TV, we took a nap. Basically, we were boring! I did take one picture of how calm the water was in the gulf.

 

 

 

 

After doing nothing all day, we went to our last dinner in the dining room. We were very sad to be leaving Carlos and Adam, they really did go above and beyond to make sure we were happy. I can’t remember what we had (the one day I didn’t record in my journal), but it had to have been wonderful.

 

Because it was the 4th of July, they had all the wait staff sing “God Bless America” which DH and I thought was very ironic, because none of them are actually from America. We had a hard time not laughing when Carlos and Adam (from Guatemala and Hungary) got to the part “God bless America, my home sweet home…” We also had to say our goodbyes to our tablemates, who had been a lot of fun to talk with and just added to our great experience.

 

I considered going to the Legends show by myself since DH had no interest in going, but I decided not to and we went back and got packed. Unpacking was a lot more fun than re-packing, we hadn’t realized how much we had spread out in the stateroom. Once packed, we set our big suitcases out in the hallway to be moved to the terminal in Tampa when we docked into port. We spent a few minutes filling out our customs forms and I realized we had not spent a single cent on any souvenirs! Every dime we spent was on excursions, a few drinks, and a donation to the casino. This ended up being a good thing as my suitcase just made it under the 50lb limit due to all our scuba gear. We looked at our mostly barren stateroom and vowed we would be back!

 

 

Carnival must have known how much we loved them.

[crystalight33]

Day 8 – Debarkation

 

Since we decided on doing the general debarkation, we didn’t have to leave the ship until 9am. We set the alarm for 8, but were woken up at 7am to the ping-pong of the PA system. We got dressed and packed up our last few belongings then went to have our last breakfast at Lido. Our debarkation group was number 14 (our embarkation number was 14 too!) so we were off the boat and through customs well before 10.

 

 

The official end of our vacation.

 

 

I was very sad.

 

We had to wait about 30 minutes for our shuttle to come and get us (we pre-paid before the cruise) and then we had to go to the airport.

 

We had a GREAT time and it was the perfect choice for us for our honeymoon. I’m already looking at options for our one year anniversary.