CookieShip

I wonder what prompted the change, especially so late. 

Glad to see OP is rolling with the changes, not sure I could with such drastic changes. 

24 minutes ago, nwcruiselover said:

When I have done the Behind the Scenes tours no cameras or phones were allowed.  You were fortunate to have gotten these pictures.

Same here, we got wanded and a security dude followed us around the whole time.

3 hours ago, alyssamma said:

Not sure...we had anytime dining so were always on 3...

We had the anytime time as well, maybe he recently joined the ship, I'll be on the look up for him if we go on our Feb cruise. 

Ouch, so much tipping for drinks. I imagine a few bucks here and there probably gets you better attention from the bar tender. 

I don't really drink but wanted to try out something with my gold vifp benefit free drink, took forever to get the bar tender's attention. They focused on "regulars" whom still had drinks in front of them!

 

I'll have cheers next cruise, how does tipping work for a bar runner (or the person that brings you the drink), is there separate tipping for the bar tender and the bar runner? Or do they kind of split it?

I don't think I ever saw him, did he roam both floors of MDR?

I booked a cruise then noticed I had the offer, was able to move to RU1. My brother didn't have the offer, he did after finishing a cruise with me. Not really sure if the latter had any affect, but noticed it when I was seeing if he had any offers.

They were the same on our Christmas cruise.

1 hour ago, BasicSailor said:

It was open last month. But seeing as how fast this virus spreads It's not a sure bet.

I was there last week. 😊 Looks like this week's Legend cruise goes to Princess Cay instead, but seems all the Bahamas ports are open... for now. 

The big thread on the Bahamas board seems to indicate those new regulations don't apply to cruise ships 

 

 

1 minute ago, KmomChicago said:

I’ve always wondered about the brunch burger but because of Guy’s I can’t ever seem to consider it. Is it better?

 

When I ordered the signature tower they asked me if I wanted the tomatoes and cucumber which I thought was weird because I thought it was automatic but apparently not. I suppose they must have an issue with people ignoring it and so now it’s by request to avoid waste, particularly if they have trouble getting enough vegetables in the first place. Also, it’s not a tower, just a bunch of dishes. It was a tower on  Mardi Gras! 

 

We maybe got lucky but thought the lobster and prime rib were both very good. My mom said her mahi mahi was dry and overcooked. Everyone in my party with crème brûlée also said the crust was good.

 

Those shots seem like a scam to me-not included on Cheers!

 

The aft deck is actually brisket so maybe I should have called it sandwich? It was not a hamburger patty and I would try it again. 

 

We weren't asked if we wanted those sides for the signature tower, but good on them for cutting  waste. I did want to see the tower in person, lol. 

 

Those shots aren't included? Good to know! I'll be trying out Cheers for the first time on our February sailing (if it happens....). 

Reminds me that at Tea Time that they often first tried to offer the specialty teas that have an up-charge (but I think included on Cheers) before offering the regular free teas.   

Going to try to cover some of the food, because there was some stuff that wasn't worth the calories!

 

The shots at dinner always appeared to be some crazy color, this kind of looks like antifreeze for the car.

 

Calamari was kind of rubbery and not very crispy outside.

 

Chicken quesadilla was kinda boring, something I expect they would serve on lido.

 

Cured Salmon, my brother had this and liked it.

 

Mahi mahi - an attempt to be healthy here, tasted good, wasn't fishy.

 

This danish was a little sad at sea day brunch, it just had that dollop on top of the creme. I was expecting more creme I guess.

 

Steak and Eggs, yum

 

Ahi Tuna salad and smoked salmon from the signature tower selection.

It implies that it comes with tomatoes, cucumbers, bagel? My brother ordered seconds of this and explicitly requested tomatoes and cucumbers which came the second time around.

 

Banana creme pie - Tasty and you can see the chia seed pudding my brother ordered after I raved about mine.

 

Chopsticks menu on lido for lunch. They seemed to always offer a soup and then a few different dishes. 

 

Tasty option for lunch, it's not fancy. I've seen it compared to Panda Express and I would agree.

 

Blacked pork tart - Didn't really care for this so much, ate the pork on top. 

 

My brother got mushroom bisque and meatball soup

 

Usual lobster tail

 

Prime rib - as mentioned, not very beefy.

 

Creme brulee - This had the perfect top crust.

 

I think this is the coffee creme cake that my brother had

 

Big brunch Cesar salad with plenty of chicken, I had asked for the dressing on the side, but they brought it already  tossed. Aft deck burger. I enjoyed my brunch.

On 12/28/2021 at 6:33 PM, sparks1093 said:

I priced tickets to Florida at the time I booked the airfare to Baltimore and as I recall it was less than $200 more, so like anything else it depends. 

I can't recall if this was the lady that said their party of 6 (3 rooms) got extended balconies for $200/PP. 

We thought we had gotten bargains on our regular balcony room, but paid more than they did.... I do think the holiday/kids being out of school affected the flight costs more than usual during this time frame.

7 hours ago, Giantfan13 said:

Thanks for the review. We are on the previous sailing and found things very similar to you.

 

Funny you mentioned about the liquor sales. We went to buy their 'sale' on 
Bacardi's, 4/$40 and they were out. I have never heard of a ships liquor supply being out. So much for Bacardi's as Christmas presents. 

 

 

That is exactly why I mentioned they didn't seem to restock. I saw a few bottles early on, but then it was empty the rest of the cruise. 

A 90 day sighting? :o

Did you see them again? Were they filming? 

 

Loved that you got the pictures of your ship alongside Pride. We were on Legend last week and someone was telling my brother how big the Mardi Gras was, so now I have a good comparison picture for him.

 

I believe your hubby had escargot that one night with the veal. 

If you have your own home tests, I would absolutely pack them. Don't have to worry about them being unavailable or something like that with the increase in cases. 

On Legend, I liked the pizzas and thought they were very consistent. I remember on the Splendor that sometimes you would get a lot of crust and/or be burnt, but that was also almost a decade ago :|.

 

I liked the chocolate chip cookies ok from the buffet, not the best thing ever, but edible. The brown flour chunks from the deli were inedible to me, regretted getting 3 of those. 

4 minutes ago, alyssamma said:

So...maybe it is me but I'm on the legend now and while the link is there to view future day menus, it gives an error when you click on it. I can only see the current day's menu

That was how it was for me on Legend as well. Sometimes the menu never worked from the app and I would have to go to the URL to download the PDF.

7 hours ago, KmomChicago said:

Thanks Cookie! Great review. They were giving out the Christmas hats right before Leigh’s Q and A on the last sea day in Follies. I’m surprised you didn’t get one up in the balcony. I believe the bells were given out at caroling on the Lido on Christmas Eve but we didn’t go to that either.
 

We saw only one of Kier’s shows and it was okay for us as we are old enough to know the songs. I wanted to see Roman but the timing never worked out for us.

 

Glad you had a positive experience on this sailing as we did, despite doing a lot of things differently. We saw your drone fly by us at Cabana 13 down at the far end of HMC. 

I heard later that the Truffles emergency was a choking handled with a successful Heimlich and I actually was trying to go to sleep early when they called the Avalon. Since my teen was out and about I immediately got dressed and ran up the stairs to check it out. It was an older man who was conscious and sitting in a chair when I arrived and surrounded by a bunch of crew, staff and officers. I assume he had either fallen  or fainted as the danger seemed to have already mostly passed and was under control. Of course I didn’t linger or get too close or in the way. 
 

I appreciate your post, great recap.

Thanks for filling the details!

That was probably the other drone flyer on the ship, they were flying in Nassau as well. I tried to keep high and away from people to not disturb them with the drone. 

5 hours ago, cocomango said:

Since KMom mentioned "despite doing a lot of things differently." ... May I ask how you kept yourselves healthy on the ship?  Aside from the handwashing, masking etc.  How was it in MDR and in the buffets? Did you try to eat outside?  Stuff like that.  Trying to make mental notes!  

 

Thank you! 

 

We masked, felt the MDR and buffet were operating just like normal. Some of the MDR seats are very close together. We did not do a shared table at anytime. At the buffet, we tried to sit away from others and there were times we took our food out to the serenity deck or back to our cabin. Sometimes being in a crowded area was just unavoidable, like the returning water shuttles from Half Moon Cay. I did bring a pack of covid tests with us, just in case we felt the need to test.

5 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

Well, considering that we'll have to fly to the port now (even if it's Baltimore) it's very likely that our next cruise on Legend will be our last cruise from Baltimore since if I have to pay for a flight I'd rather fly to Florida, but I'm with you in spirit anyway. (I hope that all makes sense, it's why Ms. Hammond hated run on sentences in English class.)

I kind of wondered who flew in for this cruise, because it's not all that exciting of an itinerary, why wouldn't have they flown to say like Florida and been able to see more ports? From talking to another passenger, the plane tickets to Florida were very expensive at this time of year, more than the the cost of the cruise itself! 

3 hours ago, 1025cruise said:

I'm glad they are giving the crew some space for R+R. 

I was on Legend last week, they closed the Serenity area some nights for crew to use. However, noticed this was not the case later on in the cruise and at a Q&A with the CD, he mentioned the crew were not allowed to congregate. I though that was all Carnival ships, but I guess he could of meant just that ship. 

 

 

15 minutes ago, cocomango said:

Thank you for posting this! 

Helpful to see the pics right before we board this Sunday! 

 

Did the ship feel crowded?  

 

It really didn't feel that crowded except at certain times. It was a little challenge to use hot tubs/whirlpool without a crowd. 

Comedian rankings 

Best Roman Murray - He was leaving the ship with us in Baltimore. He never repeated his shows so always fresh material that was hilarious.

 

OK Kier Irmiter - He does musical impressions about half the time so if you don't know music, you might not find those funny. He does repeat shows, but the fun times should have the names listed so you know if it's the same show or not. 

 

Don't waste your time Jeff Capri - I admit I'm pissed I wasted time going to three of his shows, I walked out of the last one. With his credentials, you would think he is funny, but it was not so. The worst part is he repeated his unfunny material across the three shows I went to. I didn't go to any of his shows after that. 

I wasn’t planning on doing a review as many others have done the live review/updates on Carnival Legend on this exact itinerary, so I didn’t take as many notes as I normally would. Putting down what I recall in case it will be helpful to myself or others later on. I’m booked for the same itinerary in February, but with my SO.

 

Travelers: My brother and myself, we’re in our early 30s. 
This is my brother’s 2nd cruise. He was previously on Carnival Splendor out of New York many years ago. 
This is my 7th cruise. Previously only traveled out of New York on Carnival and NCL. Most of my recent cruises have been on NCL.
First post pandemic cruise for both of us.

 

Baltimore vs New York departure
Baltimore is about a 1 hour drive, nearly all on the highway. Parking for the week is only $105 and just one toll each way.
New York is about a 2.5 hour drive and you’re in the city for that end part. Parking for a week was $245 (looks like now $280!) in addition to several hefty tolls. This made taking a bus into the city very attractive, but certainly would not do that in the current times. Last cruise with my SO, he very likely caught a cold from the bus and was a little miserable. 

 

Cabin 
8A Balcony 5139
This was a $10 upgrade from an obstructed balcony that my PVP sold me on, so there wasn’t a lifeboat in front of the balcony, but there was some other machinery I could see below the balcony. 

Also on deck 3 there is an infrequently used smoke area, only a time or two could I smell cigarette smoke from my balcony.

The cabin is showing it’s age. The bathroom light switch was nearly falling off and the laundry line was missing in the shower (my magnetic hooks came in handy in the meantime). The balcony door was very difficult to open at times and seemed to have a poor seal so when there was heavy wind, there would be whistling noise coming from it. Now, to their credit, I spotted the guest service line being empty one day so I told them about the issues so they could get them fixed, they came the next morning to address all the issues! I got a new bathroom light switch, they found a laundry line and installed it (my brother had mentioned they were out of this spare part, but then it was installed when we came back to the room in the evening), and they installed a new seal on the balcony door. Unfortunately the door became even a bit more difficult to use and we still heard whistling when there was high winds. The curtains helped drown out the sound and just became white noise. Also I was never sure if that top latch is even suppose to be there, seemed like something they added?

On the plus side, we were very close to the elevator and stairs, made going to follies theater or firebird lounge very easy. 

 

Power Outlets
These may not matter to some folks, there are some things I certainly would have liked to know. In our FB group, some people mentioned their bedside lamps had USB outlets. Our room did not, it sounded like they may be replacing lamps with USBs as the old ones break. At the desk are a 110 and 240, they are directly right next to each other! This means if you have an angled 110 power strip, it will block you from using the 240. We were able to remedy this by using the 110 behind the TV, plugged the TV into the power strip for the duration of the trip. Behind the bed are two 240 outlets that are used for the bedside lamps. We were able to unplug one and my brother could plug in his CPAP with an adapter. I was able to use a universal power adapter with 2 USBs to keep the lamp plugged in and be able to charge my phone in the evenings. So if you already have UK adapters, pack them to get yourself a few more outlets in the room. 

 

Internet
I got the premium internet to make sure I could keep in touch back home. I was able to stream from YouTubeTV and DiscoveryPlus. Netflix loaded, but I didn’t actually try to stream from there. Hulu is explicitly blocked. 
Pokemon Go would not load for some reason, I’m not sure if it was blocked or it couldn’t get a good GPS signal lock.
Having internet all the time was a little distracting, I can usually plow through a book or two on a cruise, but only got ⅔ of the way through my book this time. I’ll probably just get the social package in the future and use my offline media to keep entertained. I basically never looked at my loaded kindle or tablet during this cruise.
On departure day, we had cell service well after midnight. On Saturday, we had cell service at 11:30 PM, possibly earlier. 

 

Food
I’ve seen a lot of complaints about the food so I went in with low expectations. Food is highly subjective, there were things we really liked (chia seed pudding) and some things that we found disappointing (prime rib). Main point being you aren’t going to go hungry on the ship. 
I will say Legend needs to have more late night options, I kind of recall the deli being 24/7 on the Splendor back in the day. Only the pizza place is 24/7 now and it can get slammed at times. Especially at about 11 PM after the late night comedy show lets out, the deli closes at 11PM and the late night munchies doesn’t open until 11:30 PM so everyone is trying to get some pizza.

 

Christmas
Never have done a Christmas cruise so didn’t totally know what to expect. The ship was slightly decorated, there were Christmas trees throughout the ship and some garland on railings. I didn’t see any inflatables, but just as well as it is a small ship. 
On Christmas Eve, it seemed half the ship had bells on. I’m not totally sure where those were distributed.
On Christmas, they did have an early morning service. I did not attend, but it was a non-denominational service led by one of the passengers. Lots of people had Carnival Christmas hats on, again wasn’t sure where those were distributed. They had holiday themed watermelon carving and large ice sculptures. 

Some of the prizes were or included a wreath pin during the cruise. 

 

Covid/Masks
I think this was the first sailing of masks on anywhere indoors.I feel like most passengers complied without too much issue, but of course we have the folks that don’t cover their nose. The comedy club is really the only place I found that they really checked for that and enforced proper mask usage. 
On Lido, they seemed to have a person handing out masks, but only from the aft elevator side. They didn’t seem to have people handing out masks from the Lido pool areas, which is where I feel like people might forget or  have had their mask fallen off. On Half Moon Cay, they had someone handing out masks at least on one end of the bbq lunch place. I went back towards closing time and had forgotten my mask at the beach, the mask giver was gone by then. 
Sanitizer was plentiful onboard in public areas. They didn’t really force people to use it. Not like NCL and their washy washy dance that they did even before covid. 

All the crew wore KN95s, I feel really bad for them because it is a little struggle to breathe through those. I had a hard time just sitting and wearing a KN95. I packed both KN95s and the regular surgical masks, opted to wear the latter most of the time. 
Post cruise, I’ve been keeping tabs on the facebook group. A husband and wife have tested positive, someone’s kid has tested positive, and someone said their family member was sick while on the ship (the other positives were after they left the ship). I’m negative on a home test and have a PCR scheduled later in the week. 

 

Day 1 - Embarkation
The port was easy to get to, we saw some of the crew walking into Baltimore to probably do some shopping. 
When you enter the port, they ask if you are dropping off or parking, they give you a paper sign accordingly. As we were parking, we had to wait in line to drop off our luggage. They had luggage carts on either side of the road, so only two cars could go down at a time for the porters to take luggage out of your trunk. Then you proceed to the line to pay for parking. $105 for the week, they give you a tag to hang off the rearview mirror.

After you park your car, you walk over to the port building with your carry on luggage. For some reason a lady and her group that were early for their check in time were blocking the entrance to the line. She got mad at myself and the other group of people who ducked under the rope in front of her as it was our check in time (the port person had already looked at our boarding passes and said get in line). Luckily we were not outside for long. I did see some folks sitting in their cars as I guess they had arrived way early.

At the first line, they check for your covid vaccine and test stuff, they stamp your boarding pass once that is checked. You can then put your covid paperwork away. Next is the metal detectors and xray for your carry ons. Then you finally check in at the desks. The lady at the desk said rooms would be ready at 1:30 so I was excited we would be able to drop our stuff off in the room as it was nearly 1:30 already. We make our way through the rest of the port building then UP the gangway. Luckily we able to snag an atrium elevator going up (the other elevators were being used for luggage delivery), so we check out deck 5. Unfortunately rooms are not yet ready, the doors say they would be ready at 2:00. So off to Lido we go with our luggage and sodas. My brother and I each get burritos from Blue Iguana and split a Guy’s burger. It is about 2 after we’re done our lunch so we go to check if the room is ready again. 

We went down the midship or aft elevators and it is a bit of a trek through the cabin hallways to our room (as it is by the forward elevators). As we check out the room, my brother’s bag is delivered and the room steward stops by, to ask if we would like the morning or evening service. We pick the evening service as we’re likely to sleep in. We also request to pull the beds apart as it is currently in the one bed configuration (I had requested the beds to be apart online as well). My bag is also delivered, so we do some unpacking. Two of the closets are hanging closets. The third has shelfs. I kind of wish I had more shelfs or maybe the option for more shelfs. 

Afterwards we proceed to explore and make our way to our muster station, we’re at station B. We wander around some more before going back to the room. At 5:30 it’s basically completely dark and the ship hasn’t moved. It is getting close to 6 so we check in on the Hub app for our YTD table, by the time we get down there our table is ready. We also feel the ship beginning to move at the start of dinner.

After dinner, I see that we have already passed the Key Bridge, but can see the lights in the distance. I do some walking around trying to burn off the enormous number of calories I’m sure I’ll be consuming on this cruise. The Welcome Aboard show is at 9:30, Leigh gave the demographics on the ship, there are 557 kids! There are about 2200 passengers onboard with 900 crew, so it is a fairly full ship in these times. Leigh is kinda funny, poor 8 year Danner had to keep running up to the stage. He wanted high fives from the kid, after which he would sanitize. Danner got a build a bear for her efforts. 

Day 2 - Sea Day
Our first sea, we begin with brunch in the MDR. These chia seed puddings are delish!

I spot one of the service dogs onboard, I believe this is Frankie (the human) and Bella (the dog).

I don’t have much notes on today, there didn’t seem to be much activities I was into. I took advantage of my premium internet to steam some trash tv shows. 

It is our first elegant night and most folks appeared to have made the effort. I did see someone in shorts and a guy in shorts and a tee as I was leaving in the MDR. Of course I have lobster and prime rib to split with my brother. The prime rib was tender but didn’t have a lot of flavor. The creme brulee was totally on point though.

I tried to go to the 8:30 (PG) comedian show, but the lounge was already full at 8:15!
I think I was able to make it to the 10:30 show, but I have note that it was just meh so believe it was Jeff Capri. 

 

Day 3 - Sea Day
Second sea day, it’s warming up though the morning starts off gloomy.

I have brunch in the MDR again. From the pictures, looks like I lounged around and read all day. 

Did a little window shopping in the funshops, White Hennessy is $70!

The selection seems small on the ship, seems they may not replenish alcohol once sold? I don't drink myself, sent my SO some pictures and he said prices weren't much better than at home, at least for the bourbon/whiskies. 

We checked in for our YTD as usual, we get table #347 which we can see at the hostess stand. While we’re waiting to be seated, another party is seated there! I pull up the app and I still have #347, but it’s a party of 3. Not sure what happened there, but they do computer stuff and we’re seated at another table shortly after.

I see Jeff Capri again, my notes say he is an ugly girl who repeats.

I see Kier Irmiter for the first time, he isn’t bad. He does a bit of musical impressions which may only appeal to certain crowds

 

Day 4 - Nassau
Our first port! I’ve been to Nassau once before, it looks the same and different. The Carnival ships are docked the furthest away. It is us and Carnival Glory on the outermost dock. Then Celebrity SUMMIT, followed by RCL Independence of the Seas and RCL Brilliance of the Seas. 

There are some Christmas decorations up in town.

Walked down to Junkanoo Beach, its free and I guess you get exactly what you pay for here. I did not find any changing facilities so had to maneuver into my swimsuit underneath a towel. Get in the water, chilly! First part of the beach is sandy and you also kind of sink in if you stand there. The next part is rocky, I was wearing croc like shoes so the rocks got in and would stay there. I get out and dry off best I can and maneuver back into regular clothes underneath a towel. It was not with the effort! Back to the ship for us. Plan for next trip with SO is John Watling's Distillery tour. 

Celebirty SUMMIT departs and so does RCL Brilliance of the Seas oddly. Eventually we do a 3 point turn to leave Nassau as well. Carnival Glory and RCL Independence of the Seas are beginning to light up as we leave. 

Somehow I lose my brother for dinner so I go over to MDR solo. I’m saved from a crew song and dance by a proposal. Congrats to the newly engaged couple. 

Give Jeff Capri another chance and even get my brother to come along. He is still terrible and repeating the same horrible jokes. I walk out and my brother walks out shortly after even though he hasn’t seen the guy before. 

There is some kind of medical emergency in the Truffles restaurant at about 9:25, I never get any further details on this. 

Love & Marriage show is tonight, which is always good for a few laughs. There was a male gay couple who had volunteered, which I thought would be kind of interesting, but the audience voted for a more traditional couple to play. 

Roman Murray is the late night comedian tonight, even though I’ve got an early morning tomorrow, I go see his show and am not disappointed. 

Day 5 - Half Moon Cay
First time to this private island, we have the stingray excursion booked first thing in the morning so we’re able to get one of the first tenders over to the island.

The excursion was short, but fun. I wish I had gotten to snorkel around the area more as I there were coral further out with even more sea life. I just wasn’t totally comfortable with my snorkel and mask at first.

They have lockers at the excursion, but it’s just one big closet with cubbies for everyone.You have to wear a snorkel vest that they provide. You can bring your own gear of course. It starts off first with a little exploring of your own. The guide then brings the rays around, you get to hold and kiss a little one, ours was Lily. Also pass around starfish, urchin, and sea cucumber. Then you get to “feed” one of the rays, though this felt more like the guide was feeding the ray. 

Then they get your group together for some photos with the rays. They have a Carnival photographer there to capture photos, but you are free to take your own pictures as well. In our group, we also had two spectator family members who sat nearby under a covered sitting area. The coloring looked off on the photos when we viewed them at Pixels. I think they were 11.99 each, if you bought 8 they would give you the stack. My brother and I’s stack was about 20 photos, though we only really wanted 1 or 2 of them. I do wonder if you could pretend to be with another family and split the cost of the larger stack? 

(The area behind the blue sign is the stingray adventure area)

They drove us back to the dock area and we walked to the beach. The sun is really intense here. I had not ordered a clamshell in advance, so was just kinda aimlessly looking around. A lady noticed me and said she had an extra ticket as she misunderstood how they worked (they were a party of 2 and the clamshell already has 2 loungers), she wanted $33 for the ticket. I offered her $30 since she didn’t have change. Looking at Carnival’s site, they are only $29.99 to begin with? It saved me from having to find the rental hut I guess. They also spent most of the time in the sun, so not totally sure why they got the clamshells to begin with, lol.

The beach lunch was enjoyable, I found the jerk chicken to be tasty. The island chickens also seemed to know it was lunch time.

After lunch, I explored further down the beach. There are much less people and also natural tree shade. I did some drone shots and also saw folks doing the horse riding excursion in the water.

The last water shuttle is 3:15 so we pack ourselves up at about 2:45ish. You go through security on the island before getting on the shuttle to return to ship. I tossed our drinks just before security, but it appears that wasn’t necessary at all as many folks had drinks after security. 

Kier’s PG show tonight was a little less impressive than the last adult show I saw. He did more musical impressions which I did not recognize many of and my brother was totally lost. He didn’t have enough time to do the audience participation/assistance portion, which might have given us some laughs. 

This is the night I see that guest services doesn’t have a line. I get a new key card made as mine had started peeling. The new and old card continue to work for room access. But only the new card works for getting off and back on the ship and probably purchases as well. I also put in about issues in our cabin, not really expecting much to be done.

 

Day 6 - Freeport (Christmas Eve)

This is my third time to Freeport, I’ve previously flown in for a vacation here. Dead Man’s Reef is pretty nice, but a bit costly for the time we’ll be in port. I don’t book it as I know I will not be able to convince my brother to come out to the reef, as it is deep water.

Almost first thing in the morning they are here to fix the things in the cabin. Since it was Freeport, I had sort of planned on lazing around this morning. 

I get myself up and out of the room so they can do their work. I get some breakfast and also grab my drone. I had charged my drone batteries to full, so I needed to fly them a little to drain the batteries down for storage. I’m actually a little surprised I was able to fly it in the port area, but got some nice aerials of the ships there.

With the batteries drained down, go ashore and do a loop of the immediate port area. Doesn’t seem like much has changed since my last visit. There does seem to be more little independent eateries that might be worth a try to taste the local cuisine. 

I get back on the ship, have some lunch. I try to do one of the slides with a gopro in a chest harness, but they do not allow that so I put it away. I take a few turns on the smaller yellow slide, it doesn’t go too fast, and you even kind of get stuck in one area. Even the kids get stuck there, so it not due to me being a plump adult! First time I had to push myself quite a bit, subsequent turns I lifted my feet and only got slightly stuck at the one spot. I walk up the stairs for the bigger and faster green slide, but chicken out at the last second. It is basically one of those coffin drops, something about having to cross my feet in there really freaked me out. I do the walk of shame down. 

We depart Freeport.

I decide to join in on majority rules, I’ve never played before and didn’t know what to expect. They mention teams so I join up with two siblings whom I had just seen in the elevator. We end up winning somehow, get a Carnival medal and a wreath pin. Pictured below with some other goodies from this cruise as well.

So you can technically also play solo without a team. You basically try to guess what is the most popular answer, so first question was an easy one like what is the most favorite flavor of ice cream. It basically always comes down to chocolate or vanilla here, the room can skew it to either one. Some people are confused and put their own favorite down like mint chocolate chip or strawberry. 

This would normally be the second elegant night and they are doing the more formal backdrops for the pictures. In MDR, we had some folks dressed in their finest and some in matching Christmas PJs. 

There is another medical emergency at Avalon bar, again I never get any details on this. We did past by the area about half hour later and everything seemed to be business as usual. 

Day 7 - Sea Day (Christmas)

Brunch again in the MDR, love these chia seed pudding things. My brother is hooked, he gets a double. 

I tried the fried chicken today and it is delish. 

They have a ship life Q&A with Leigh. He shares a couple stories with us and a bit of his career path. That stuff is always interesting to me. He also shares that the crew no longer have shore leave and aren’t allowed to congregate. There is also no passenger interaction with the captain due to heightened covid concerns.

You might be able to spot the other service dog onboard, Sammie almost right in front of Leigh. And all the Christmas hats.

We went to our first tea time this cruise, there are tasty macrons. The other stuff is ok.

In the evening I try to redeem my gold vifp benefit free drink at the Alchemy Bar. For some reason it doesn’t come off automatically. I ask alchemist and they say I only have a free water (though I already redeemed that?) and then they say I need to redeem it in one of the lounges. Checked the materials and it says any bar so I used the virtual que for guest services as there were a few people in line. Eventually I got notification it was my turn, went down to the desk and the amount of people in line must of doubled! So that virtual que works! She says there is an issue with first time golds and the bar system. Offered me another drink, but I don't really drink, so they took the charge off.

They are doing the second elegant night tonight, along with the special Christmas dinner, but it doesn’t really appeal to us so we decide to try Bonsai Sushi. We’re the only people in there practically the whole time. 

For the novelty, I also decide to try the clam chowder in a bread bowl from the Seafood Corner. It’s not good tasting, I barely get down half, mostly to dig out the clam meat. Would not recommend this. 

Though glad we make the trip to the buffet as I see they have put out a holiday ice sculpture.

 

We noticed land at about 11:30 this evening and had cell service. 

 

Day 8 Debarkation 

We used self assisted and outside of having to wait a bit for an empty elevator to reach us on Lido (deck 9) it went smoothly. We didn’t have to go walk our luggage around the entire deck for seemingly no reason. Just from forward elevators to about midship. The gangway was just downhill rolling of luggage. The customs agent barely seemed to check our passports, we walk over to the car, and load up. We're home before noon. 

14 hours ago, groundloop said:

It's too bad Carnival doesn't give the Hub App the ability to bring up past menus and "what's happening" so we can better remember the fun we had.  

If you went to the URL for the menus, they usually downloaded as a PDF that could be viewed later. 

I'm not sure if there was a similar feature for the funtimes, but that would be nice to have.

On my recent cruise, one family was all dressed up on Xmas Eve in their church going outfits. Everyone except grandpa, who dressed as a pirate... Lol

As a cheapskate myself who also lives about an hour from port, just park at the port. As expensive as taxis and Ubers are these days (plus additional possible covid exposure), you likely wouldn't be able to save much after dealing with alternate parking and time loss from vacation. 

Depending on when you arrive, there maybe a huge line to get in as the luggage is dropped off from the car. I'm not sure if drop off vehicles don't have to wait in the line.

Then on pick up, there doesn't seem to be a designated area for that. As I was walking down the gangway today, these ladies were in the middle (getting the "aerial" view) trying to  find where their ride was.

17 minutes ago, mpacker said:

uh... yeah it is... we have had two dogs flown to us and they flew as "cargo"... it is temperature and pressure controlled

I stand corrected, looks like they do control the temperature somewhat, I've had luggage come out "very cold" at a warm destination. Looks like animals are placed in different area than luggage, so they can heat those to normalish temps.