Jamman54

Come on BS, you know that you choose a CHECK-IN time!

And most of those cruises are during the summer which is peak time. You can get some decent prices on September and October cruises though.

That's a great plan! Don't think I'll get to my 75th Milestone cruise by then, but that's the type of cruise I would use it on. 😎

You can use it on your 50th if you want to, but you can use it on later cruises as well. Pick your most expensive cruise that you have or will be booking. Call the Milestone desk @ 877-225-8477 at least 30 days prior to your sailing date. The OBC will show up 2/3 days before you sail. 😎

Looked at those as well. Pricey though. 😎

Makes sense to me. We're looking to do Europe in 2024, so we'll be happy with the Legend. 😎

Jamman & Patti's Picture Reviews

Just keep checking. Was having the same issue with the Poolside Cabanas in Grand Turk. They just dropped in earlier this month for a January cruise, so just three months out.

This scenario happened earlier this year when many of Mardi Gras sailings were changed from San Juan to Nassau. Our cruise on the Mardi Gras did go to San Juan. The reason that I was told, unconfirmed, was that San Juan was limiting the amount of passengers being allowed to debark on any given day, so they don't want two mega ships with high passenger volume, in port on the same day. That means they wouldn't allow, say the Harmony of the Seas, and the Mardi Gras to be there on the same day. If I remember correctly, Royal Caribbean had to alter the schedule on some of their cruises as well. Don't know if that's the case this time, or Carnival just drew the short straw..... Edited to update: Just checked the San Juan port schedule versus the dates that have been changed. For the most part what I mentioned above doesn't appear to be true, so your guess is as good as mine.

Thanks so much for reading! 😎

Freedom and Spirit in January. 😎

Well done!! Looking forward to your cruise on the Sunshine!

Here is our updated cruise review list. Unfortunately, we had to delete all of our reviews prior to 2017 because we changed photo hosting sites and now the pictures no longer show in the older reviews. We have also included a link to our cruise and vacation albums where you can see all the photos Patti took on every cruise: *** Carnival Pride Repo Journeys Cruise - 2/26/17 - Tampa to Baltimore *** Carnival Magic B2B / Carnival Elation - 10/7/17 - Western Caribbean x2 / Bahamas *** Carnival Paradise / Carnival Conquest - 4/14/18 - Western Caribbean / Eastern Caribbean *** Carnival Pride - 10/21/18 - Bermuda *** Carnival Inspiration / Carnival Splendor - 4/22/19 - Baja Mexico / Hawaii Journeys Cruise *** Carnival Sunrise B2B - 9/16/19 - Not Bermuda / Canada & New England *** Carnival Horizon – 8/21/2021 - Southern Caribbean *** Carnival Miracle / Carnival Panorama - 10/15/21 - Baja Mexico / Mexican Riviera *** Mardi Gras B2B - 4/23/2022 - Eastern / Western Caribbean *** Carnival Legend - B2B - 8/28/2022 -Bermuda / New England & Canada *** Our Cruise and Vacation Albums. ***

Now, let’s talk about the New England/Canada leg of the B2B. At the time you needed a Covid test and had to fill out ArriveCan in order to board the ship. That is no longer the case. We were given our Covid test the day we left Bermuda on the first leg of the B2B. We were nervous about passing this one because of all the stories we were reading about people coming off of cruises with Covid, but all the people doing B2B’s tested negative. We also completed our ArriveCan, but nobody on the ship, or in Canada, ever asked to see it. Our first two port stops in Boston and Portland, we had to deal with rain. At least in Boston the rain held off until after noontime. We enjoyed our Old Town Trolley Tour, and our time at the Quincey Market. We were saddened that the Cheers Bar didn’t survive the pandemic. Portland was a complete washout. We were glad that we didn’t have a tour planned. We just stayed on the ship and relaxed. The weather at the two Canada stops was beautiful. In Halifax, we weren’t thrilled where the Carnival Legend had to dock, but we enjoyed the City Tour that we took. My mind has gone blank, so if you have any questions at all, we’ll be more than happy to answer them for you. If I think of anything else, I’ll be sure to post it. We have six cruises booked in the 2023. In January we will be doing a S2S on two ships that we haven’t yet been on. First, we will be boarding the Carnival Freedom in Port Canaveral to the Eastern Caribbean, and then we will be boarding the Carnival Spirit in Miami to the Southern Caribbean. In April we will be doing a B2B on the Carnival Celebration to the Western and Eastern Caribbean from Miami. In September we will be boarding the Carnival Magic from our homeport of New York on B2B cruises to the Eastern Caribbean and Canada. Will any of you be sailing with us? If you are, be sure to say hello! If not, we’ll be bringing these cruises to you! Before I end this, I have to thank my wife, Patti. I couldn’t do these adventures, or these reviews, without her. She is my best friend, my rock, and a heck of a photographer! Speaking of photography, the photos you see on these reviews are only a small portion of all the photos Patti takes during our cruises. If you would like to see the whole package, there is a link in my signature for our Cruise and Vacation albums. Feel free to check them out if you are so inclined. So, until next time, may you have blue skies and calm seas!!!

It’s time to talk a little bit about the entertainment. As you may or may not know, Patti is hearing impaired, so musical acts and production shows are really just noise to her. If the entertainment is more visual, say like a magician and such, she enjoys that. There are two production shows that she really enjoys, and they are Celestial Strings, and Soulbound. Unfortunately, they are not performed on the Legend. The Playlist Production shows on the Legend are Motor City, The Brits!, Studio VIP, and Epic Rock. We didn’t go to any of them. After dinner, Patti is happy to have a drink, walk the ship, browse the shops, and then go back to the cabin to read. Myself, I like to sit at the Lobby Bar or Alchemy bar, have a drink, and listen to the entertainers. I enjoyed them all. I also like to head to Punchliners and watch the comedians. Over the two weeks I got to see five different comedians, and all were good except one, whose name I will not mention again! We basically hung out at only four of the bars onboard. Three of them had bartenders that we knew from our Panorama cruise last October. Angela, who worked at the Havana Bar on the Panorama, was at the Casino Bar. Omer, who is Angela’s boyfriend, was at the Alchemy Bar. He was at the Pig & Anchor on the Panorama. And finally Ramil, who worked at the Tides Bar on the Panorama, was at the Lobby Bar. The other bar that we hung out at was of course, the Red Frog Rum Bar. We made quick friends with Argee and the rest of the gang there! Now let’s talk a little about the Bermuda leg of our B2B. Of course, back in August we still needed to be tested for Covid in order to be let on board. Thankfully, that’s not the case anymore if you have been vaccinated. Now, Bermuda has a nice scam going. You have to pay $40 pp to get a Travel Authorization to step foot on their soil. That still continues to this day. I guess we should feel lucky, as I had heard that last year it was $75 pp. Without the Bermuda Travel Authorization, you were not getting on the ship. We must have been checked half a dozen times during the embarkation process. I have an issue with the six day Bermuda cruises from Baltimore. The issue is that there is only one overnight. It doesn’t take two and a half days to get to Bermuda from Baltimore. Leaving on a Sunday the Legend should easily get to Bermuda by Tuesday, giving us two overnights. Instead, the Legend gets there Wednesday morning giving us only one overnight. For that reason, we will probably not book a Bermuda cruise from Baltimore again. Six-day Bermuda cruises from New York will give you two overnights, and New York is further away from Bermuda than Baltimore is! The weather while we were in Bermuda was not good. Except for a six- hour window from noon until 6 pm on Wednesday it rained the whole time. Of course, the weather is not Carnivals fault, but if we were here on Tuesday, it was a beautiful day. We did get out and about for those six hours but cancelled our trip to Horseshoe Bay because of the threat of rain. Our last two sailings here before this one were weather affected. In 2019 our Sunrise cruise was diverted to Charleston because of Hurricane Humberto. In 2018 our cruise to Bermuda on the Pride was also plagued by rain. We’ll keep trying though, because this is one beautiful island! To be continued……..

Our final thoughts, ramblings, & future plans. The Spirit Class continues to be our favorite class of Carnival ships. We love the layout of these ships, and the fact that even when these ships sail at capacity, they never feel crowded. We have now done fifteen cruises on this class of ships, five each on the Legend, Pride, and Miracle. Ironically, we have never sailed on the namesake vessel, the Spirit, but we will cross her off the list when we sail on her in January. Our very first Spirit Class sailing was on the Legend in 2002. It was on the very first cruise out of New York after she arrived from Europe. It was only a two-day cruise, a fam trip, which was completely free including drinks. A group of us were invited to sail as casino guests, and we immediately fell in love with her. I pulled these shots out of the archives….. We also did two family cruises in 2004 and 2006. Both were eight-day sailings from New York to the Caribbean. Now after sixteen years we were back on her again. We thought that she looked marvelous! Yes, you could spot a little wear and tear in places, but we saw nothing major. Everything in our cabin worked just fine. Speaking of our cabin, our room steward Kris, was just fantastic. When we needed anything, he took care of it with a smile. We requested evening service and asked that our ice bucket be filled in the morning. Done, no problem. We find that the once-a-day service is just fine for us. Not rushing to get out of the cabin in the morning so the room can be cleaned fits us perfectly. We only ate in the Dining Room three times. I think we’ve gotten bored with the menus, and the fact that it takes so long to get through the meal. We did go twice on elegant nights, and it took nearly two hours. It seems like the food is never that hot, and the portions are much smaller. Now we know that we can order more, but three tiny shrimp making up a shrimp cocktail? We find that eating up in the Lido much easier. Most of what is on the Dining Room menu is available there, and you can take as much as you want. Some of our dinners were from the deli, pizza pirate, and salad bar. We did do the Steakhouse one night and had a very good experience, had the Seafood Corner one night, and Bonsai Sushi two nights. Our dinner requirements were more than satisfied. We did the SeaDay Brunch one time, took too long, so we never went back. We were more than satisfied with the Lido buffet, omelet stations, and Blue Iguana breakfast burritos, when we did choose to have breakfast. Lunch was mostly the deli and Chopsticks, with a couple of days at Guy’s Burgers. No complaints from either of us here. To be continued…….

Looking forward to see what the offerings from New York are going to be.

Thanks for reading! I guess the excitement of boarding the ship makes it difficult to park between the lines. Enjoy your cruise!

Sure, no problem. Sounds like you got the same email as we did. Once we boarded the ship our internet plan that we had paid for in advance was refunded back to our sail & sign account. I immediately bought the 24 hour value plan, (premium plan wasn't available), and it worked just fine. Now, here is the kicker which I can't promise will happen for you. We were never charged for buying the 24 hour plan, and we had the internet for the entire cruise. The exact same thing happened on the second leg of our B2B. Bottom line is that you should receive your internet refund on your sail & sign account. 😎

We were in Bermuda in September. Applied for the Authorization 30 days prior to sailing, received it 9 days prior to sailing.

Enjoying your review and pictures! I hope you had better weather in Bermuda than we did!

Are you still confused? 😁

Megan, the obstructions are the lifeboats. They don't block your view looking straight out, they block your view looking straight down at the water. 😎

I meant for the New England/Canada itinerary. 😎

Thanks so much for reading! They will usually have early card sales a couple of hours prior to the show. Check the Hub App or the paper copy of the activities for time and place. You can also go about a half hour prior to the show and get your card(s). Cards are $25 each, or 2 for $40. Here are what your cards look like. At the bottom of your card, hidden under the tab is your card number. It is that number which is randomly drawn to select the on-stage contestant. They will also show the name of the person who bought the card up on the screen. There are two games per session, and your card is good for both games. Everybody else plays for the prize board. The idea is to have as many matches as you can. The more matches, the better the prize. What is a match? As the on-stage contestant selects cases, say he selects case # 5 and it has $10 in it, then you open # 5 on your card, and if it shows $10, you have a match. You don't win anything until you have two matches. After every round they will show the prize board, and you can see how many people have matches and at what level. Whatever level you're at when the game ends is what you win. They will explain how you will receive any prizes that you win. I think that covers it!