Legend Review -Roatan, Belize, Cozumel, Grand Cayman- with teens!

[CMM]

Our November 22-29,2009 Carnival Legend Cruise Report.

 

Husband & I are in our 40's traveling with a 13 year old Daughter & 15 year old son over Thanksgiving!

 

My husband & I have been on 6 cruises. Last two having been on Princess and we sailed on the Victory about 6 years ago. My kids have been on one other cruise, but don't remember it as they were young.

 

Overall we had a great cruise. We enjoyed carnival and I feel they put out an overall pretty good product for the money they charge. The food was very good and the entertainment enjoyable. The ship is beautiful, the staff friendly and efficient. I will break the review down in sections and provide detail in the ports and various areas of the ship we used. If I can figure out how to add some photos I will.

[3travelalot]

Question which is best side of ship for port views

plan on going Jan 3

[CMM]

We traveled from Pennsylvania the day before. We choose to travel over Thanksgiving as the kids only missed 1 & 1/2 days of school. Rates were higher this time of the year, but worth it for us.

 

The Tampa airport is nice. We stayed at the Hyatt Place West shore and got an excellent rate on Hotwire that came to less than $60 with taxes etc. They had a free shuttle to pick us up from the airport and arrived quickly. The shuttle will also take you within a few miles of the hotel for shopping/restaurants, but not to the pier.

 

We ate at the Green Iguana westshore which is about a 5 or 10 minute walk. It is on a busy highway, so maybe the shuttle might have been a better choice. Our dinner was very good and reasonable with most offerings between $8- $20. I think there were some strip clubs in the area and my husband felt two young ladies that came in and briefly cruised the bar area adjacent to our table were hookers. My daughter was checking out their fashions. A little awkward, but brief.

 

Hyatt Place had the nicest room we have ever stayed in . There was two double beds, a divider and a sectional couch. A huge flat screened TV could be viewed from both areas. There also was a bar area and a large work station. There was a pool and fortunately the kids were not interested in because although described as heated it was freezing. There was a free continental breakfast and they had nice teas and star buck coffee. The only bad thing was that the rooms air conditioner was loud and came on with a very loud startling sound throughout the night. Also you can not walk to much of anything here as it is in a cooperate business like area. We took a taxi to the port in the am and we stopped along the way for Pepsi at a drug store. I think the taxi fare came to $22 with the stop.

[CMM]

Question which is best side of ship for port views

plan on going Jan 3

 

Let me try to think. We had odd rooms and in Cozumel we had a view of the Crown Princess docked next to us, so I would figure the even cabins had the view there. You will be at a different cruise terminal in Roatan as we were still at the old one. And Grand Cayman and Belize were tenders so I don't think it would matter.

[framerman]

Question which is best side of ship for port views

plan on going Jan 3

More often than not, the port side has better views

[CMM]

I think we left the hotel around 10:30, stopped at a store along the way and arrived at the port easily. We found Tampa to be a great port to cruise out of.

 

We went through the cruise processing with ease and waited in the seating area as they were not allowing passengers on yet. This was a nice covered area with a view of the Legend and bathrooms available. We were on the Legend and enjoying our lunch by noon.

 

We were in awe of the beautiful atrium and decor of the Legend. I was not impressed by the photos I had seen prior to sailing as everything looked so dark, but it really is elegant and impressive in person. We passed art work along the way. This ship has so many interesting things to appreciate and look at. In the landings of each stair area are glass art in showcases and framed artwork. These little things my husband and I really appreciate.

 

The Lido had tons of food awaiting us. There was pizza, Asian food (very spicy), deli sandwiches, and hot buffets & salads. There was free lemonade, ice tea, coffee, tea and water.

 

I was disappointed to find that there was no Drink of the Day Cards for sale. I asked. So I just got my DOD in the souvenir cup and paid for refills on it. They always replace the glass with a fresh one when refilling. The first days DOD was the fun ship special. That was my favorite too. The kids ate Pizza and I got my first Rueben Sandwich which was great. My husband opted for the Asian food. I had been looking forward to having the Asian area in the Lido as my family does not care for Asian food, so I don't get it much. Go figure why 3x on the cruise this is what my husband choose. And he didn't care for it much either, big surprise there! I thought it was pretty good, but often too spicy. They had about 6 different sauces you could put in little cups at the end like garlic soy and many spicy choices too, so I think they could have easily made the Asian food a bit milder.

 

There was free ice-cream and yogurt available all of the time on the Lido too. That was a nice option and the kids enjoyed it several times during the embarkation time! The chocolate had an odd taste and although we are chocolate fans, most of the time we stuck to the vanilla. I often saw people going by at 7am with an ice-cream in hand, so this is a nice perk Carnival offers!

[cruisinsly]

Question which is best side of ship for port views

plan on going Jan 3

 

There are a lot of us from cruise critic on this same sailing. Come on over to the roll call section and introduce yourself.

[kat228]

I'm excited to hear your review! We'll be on the Legend 1/31!

[HoustonTodd]

Yep, we'll be on her in April, so looking forward to reading this review

[stacycakes1]

We will be on the Legend in Two Weeks, can't wait to read the rest of your review. I hope you can also figure out how to upload pics!

[AryMay]

Hyatt Place had the nicest room we have ever stayed in . There was two double beds, a divider and a sectional couch. A huge flat screened TV could be viewed from both areas. There also was a bar area and a large work station. There was a pool and fortunately the kids were not interested in because although described as heated it was freezing. There was a free continental breakfast and they had nice teas and star buck coffee. The only bad thing was that the rooms air conditioner was loud and came on with a very loud startling sound throughout the night.

 

Your description sounds exactly like the room we stayed in at the Hyatt Place in Ft. Lauderdale...nice room, but obnoxious air conditioner!

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review...and hopefully pictures!

[CMM]

I can't believe I am writing this section for the 3rd time! I keep loosing it on the computer!

 

Cabins 4141 & 4143

 

These are great cabins! They are classified as interior cabins but are the same size of a balcony cabin and have the sofa seating area. Even though they are classified as interiors they have French doors that open up to the orange lifeboats. There is no balcony and there is a bar preventing you from exiting the French doors. 4143 has a view of a beautiful orange life boat, but was still nice to get daylight in. 4143 was a treat as it was between two lifeboats and had a view.

 

These cabins are located on the Main deck which is deck 4. We loved these cabins as there was no noise from neighbors and no creaking/banging/ and groaning noises you hear in cabins sometimes. We are light sleepers so this was fantastic.

 

The cabin itself was very nice. The bedding was excellent and the bed comfortable. I liked that in addition to the duvet there was a top sheet and then a pretty decorative spread that only was at the foot of the bed. I hate having full bedspreads. They give me the creeps having something that isn't washed every guest up around your face etc. There is nothing worse in my opinion than looking over at my kids sleeping in a hotel room with just the bedspread tucked in around their face, Yuck! So anyway I liked carnivals bedding. My daughter thought it was extra comfy too.

 

We went to our cabins around 1:30. We tried earlier but they had the doors at the ends of the halls closed off. Our cabin steward was not there and my husband felt the need to separate the beds in his room himself. When we met our room steward later that night I asked to have my bed separated from the king and he wanted to know who separated the beds in the other room. I said my husband and he said he shouldn't have done that & he would.

 

We had decided to have a guys room and a girls room. My kids didn't like the idea of sharing a room being the opposite sex and I was looking forward to spending some quality time with my daughter. I had considered booking one balcony room for the 4 of us. We haven't had a balcony before and I envisioned it being fun being all together. I priced it out and found these cabins to be only about $30 more pp to get two compared to one balcony. We enjoyed the extra space and privacy and the extra bathroom! You should of seen the look of horror on my kids face when I told them half way through the cruise that we almost were all in one cabin. They clearly didn't find the thought of that as cozy! I also think we would have been miserable too. My husband snores and my kids like privacy, we are all light sleepers too. Having two cabins was really nice.

 

The sign & said cards are your room keys and you charge everything on the ship to them. This way you don't have to carry anything else but the card. We went to the pursers desk and asked for extra cards so we could each have one for each cabin. That was great as we were always in and out of both cabins. I wish I had switched who was registered in each cabin. Despite what people say about kids not being able to be booked alone in a cabin, that is how ours was registered. The kids in one and us in the other. Funny thing was we didn't even want it that way. This caused a problem when I tried to view my on board account on the interactive TV. You can only do it from the room you are registered. I thought the TV was broken and they even sent up a repair lady to work on it for me! Having two cards per person did cause some confusion when exiting the ship. The staff seemed confused as to why we had the extra card and we learned to cover up the extra one to quicken the process.

 

I brought along a lanyard and got the cards punched at the pursers desk. My daughter didn't understand why we all needed a room key at first, she didn't get why she really needed to carry one. She also didn't think it was very fashionable to have it around her neck. By the end of the first night her card was lost. We got replacement ones and went to the casino to get a free lanyard. They give out the spring type ones that are like a plastic coil with a clip. Both kids used them.

 

That is another thing I like about Carnival. The interactive TV lets you see your account, view menus, and other stuff. Princess does not have this feature.

 

Lets see what else is good about the cabins. There is a room safe that you need a magnetic card to operate (bring an old gift card or something worthless so you don't have to use a valid credit card). There were robes in the cabin and beach towels. If you leave the towels on the floor they replace them with clean ones. There was a basket of samples in the bathroom including a razor. The shower has dispensers for body wash and shampoo, but no conditioner. There is a clothes line in the shower stall, but it is pretty small. We had a lot of damp clothes throughout the week due to rain and we found it challenging to dry them. Here is a tip. There is a metal trim edging along the ceiling and the wall that has holes in it. You can hang your hangers from these. It made the cabin look like a ghetto, but it helped!

 

There was also a stocked mini fridge that the steward asked if we wanted unlocked. They kept a ice bucket full and there were glasses.

 

We loved getting the towel animals every night on our beds with chocolates. Loved this about Carnival and my daughter especially appreciated it.

 

The cabin phones have an answering machine on them. There are phones located in all the elevator areas & elsewhere around the ship so you can call and leave your family messages. We also brought along post it notes. I found that the kids noticed them quickly when placed on the cabin mirror.

 

Bring a clock as there isn't one in the cabin! The thermostat kept the room at just the right temperature for us too.

 

We were happy with our cabins. They were kept nice and clean. We saw more of the assistant room steward and he was very kind and friendly. They did a great job.

[CMM]

Circle C and Club O2

My 13 year old Daughter was the age for the teen club named Circle C. Why it is called that they never explained, much to my teens annoyance. They had a designated space for this group, but my daughter often got lost trying to find it. It was a bit tricky as it is tucked in way back by the arcade area. They had an orientation the first night close in time to the O2 one so my husband took my son and I went with my daughter.

 

Both my kids said that there was only one staff person who worked with their groups. Circle C it was Natasha and my son said it was some guy for the O2 group and I forget his name. Having worked in humans service with abused kids as well as having been a foster parent for 9 years, it really shocked me that there was not more staff working with these kids. That is the number one rule is to always have two adults. It helps to protect not just the kids, but adults from false allegations. With Carnival it was just one.

 

My son attended only a few events prefering the video game themed things. He said the guy just announced the event and then retreated to his booth by himelf. My son is kind of a loner and probabally wouldn't have attended more anyway, but I was surprized they didn't interact much.

 

 

My daughter, being the more social of the two attended Circle C a little more. She too described the staff as not very interactive. She attended the icebreaker the first night, a scavenger hunt type activites, apples to apples, the smoothy tasting, one of the the disco events, and a few other things. She was disappointed that some of the activities listed did not occur. She was looking forward to a dance lesson that never happened. Some of the events were combined with the older group Club O2 which I think intimidated her a bit. With 800 kids on this sailing I wondered why that was necessary. According to Natasha at the orientation there was 180 kids of circle C age group alone!

 

My sons description of the smoothy tasting went like this. Someone brought in a tray of smoothies and said "here are some smoothies" I don't know why that kind of cracked me up. I think my daughter expected more too. She said they got the ones left over from O2 and the flavors were picked over. I think she thought it would be somthing more than a plate of drinks.

 

The last night they had a tee shirt signing event and gave each kid a t shirt with Circle C on it and they had markers to sign it with. She thought that was cool. My daughter made some friends with a few nice girls, but described many of the kids as obnoxious and out of control. The 2nd to last night she said a group of kids broke one of the glass tables in the enchanted forest. After the last night she said how obnoxious some of the kids were, she gave me an expample of how they were running around with pepper shaker doing their best to shake as much pepper into the air. She said most of the kids had been on numerous cruises and seemed to really own the place. At the orientation of Cirlce C Natasha asked the parents "how many of you are looking forward to getting rid of your kids for the week" She was met with cheers and hoots from the packed room of parents. Maybe it is just me, but we took this cruise to spend time with our kids and that is what we will cherish. Sounded like some of these kids might just be a refection of their parents.

[CMM]

So the rest of the first day was pretty fun. We wandered around some more checking out the ship. The staff were wearing buttons that said ask me or something like that and were very quick to point you in the right direction. We were very impressed by the overall friendliness of the crew throughout the cruise.

 

My daughter and I decided to take a tour of the spa. While waiting for one to start there was a woman doing hot stone massage demonstrations and she did a sample one on the back of my neck. Boy that felt good! They were heated smooth stones with oil and used to massage. That is on my list of must do's in the future.

 

The spa was a nice facility and they had various technicians in different rooms to explained each treatment. Some sounded good, but a lot of them were hard to believe were necesary. There was a really nice hot tub / Jacuzzi in the spa area that was free. You don't need to book a spa to use that or the work out equipment. I asked about my 13 year old and they said as long as I was with her she could use it too. Even this first afternoon the gym was full of exercising people! Talk about dedication. We were more interested in relaxing and pigging out. Sad, but true. If you have the time take the tour. It only takes about 10-15 minutes and it was enjoyable.

 

We still laugh when we remember what my daughter said on the way out of the spa. She said "I can't believe how tall that woman was." I started asking her if she ment the blonde on or the skin lady etc. Turns out she thought a male spa worker was a lady. It took some insisting on my part to convince her it was really a femine man.

 

We had early seating and were on the upper level of the Dinning room. Truffles is the only dinning room on the Legend. There is the extra charge steakhouse, but we didn't get into that this trip with the kids with us. To be honest there wasn't a need anyway the food and service were outstanding in Truffles.

 

We met our waiter Reuben from the Philippines. He promptly learned all of our names and called us by name each time he spoke to us. He was a great waiter. We had a booth with just the 4 of us, which is what I had hoped for so I was happy. I would have liked to experience the lower level as both my Carnival Cruises have been on the second floor. They did nightly "shows" in the dinning room and there was more action on the lower level. The first night we had a great meal. Husband had the ribs. They were huge! My daughter and I had the shrimp and my son had the steak. Everything was excellent. I usually order meat rarer on cruises as they tend to overcook, but not tonight. My sons medium steak was really red.

 

For desert everyone, but myself got the warm chocolate melting cake. Seems like this is a hot topic with people. When it came I could see it sloshing in the little cup! My daughter was completely turned off from it, my husband thought it was like raw cake batter, but to each his own my son was in heaven! He ordered this each and every night! But honestly it wasn't cake at all. Clear liquid with a film on top like pudding would have. Not my type of thing at all.

 

The kids attended the welcome events in the teen areas and we all attended the welcome aboard show. While waiting for it to start we sat in the upper balcony area. Bingo was just finishing up. People were cheering and calling out from the audience and really getting into the bingo game. My daughter, being at that 13 year old age, was appalled at adults acting like goof balls. Then bingo finished and some canned music came on. A Joan Jet song started to play and this lady below just started going wild. She was around 45-55 and was dancing up and down the row of chairs. It was kind of comical to watch. My daughter said to me? Are all these people drunk? So we had an opportunity to talk about how a lot of people let loose on vacation as there are no responsibilities of jobs or driving home etc. I felt like it was role reversal time. Anyway we nicknamed this dancing queen "Joan Jet" and saw her all over the ship through the week. She was very easy to spot as she was usually up in front waving and demanding that others in her large party join her in whatever event was occurring. Rather than it being a negative thing to put up with, it became a fun sort of entertainment as she became an interesting side show for us.

 

The show tonight was humorous and I got a kick out of watching my son crack up at the humorous comments the comedian was making. The Follies Lounge is where the shows are each night. We thought that lounge was very nice. You can enter it from 3 floors. Plenty of seating. The lower level had small tables in front of the seat and still had plenty of room to walk pass without making others get up. On the Crown & CB Princess the lounges was really inferior. So tight and you had to get there so early to get a seat. You had to dodge the poles in the follies for best viewing, but overall it was a nice room.

 

The second floor balcony seating in the Follies has glass panels along the balcony. Either a lot of people didn't care what they looked like or were unaware, but people were propping there feet and legs up on the panel. A lady with heavy legs and shorts on (at least I hope had shorts on) was not attractive at all. All you saw were the legs all the way up from across the other side of the balcony. Others had their bare feet pressed into the glass, and still other little kids were sucking and licking the glass. Whose feet were there before the tot tasted it? I pitied the guy who cleaned the glass in there. It always looked clean and nice.

[jimbo5544]

Nice start to a detailed review. Post some pics if you can.

[kat228]

Oooo! We have one of those cabins! I'm so excited for it. From what I can tell, ours is just of the life boat, but we chose that category just for some natural light and fresh air, so I don't really care about the view :)

[CMM]

Day 2- Sea Day

 

We ate breakfast in the unicorn cafe buffet area. They have hash brown potatoes, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, fresh fruits, grits, oatmeal, banana pancakes, muffins, Danish & other baked goods, bagels, omelet stations and more. Basically the same offerings every day with a couple of additions like French toast etc. The only thing you did not serve yourself was the bacon and sometimes sausage, but they would give me the exact amount I would ask for. Bacon looked half raw, so I would ask for crisp bacon and they would find some cooked more.

 

Juice dispensers had orange, apple, and some other juice that I think might have been guava. I am a tea drinker and they had Lipton at all beverage stations, but at the main big drink station there was a wooden box with the nicer teas like earl grey etc. I liked these teas better as the Lipton was on either side of the little hole to drop all you trash and there was coffee drips around it.

Staff was constantly taking away your plates the minute you finished your food. It is crowded and hectic in this area later in the day, but there were always tables to be found. The way they have the tables set with dividers makes it more private and the views are excellent by the windows.

 

The kids headed off to some of their activities this day and we spent some time out on the pool deck. We went up on the the higher levels for chairs together and to be able to look out at the water.

[CMM]

Oooo! We have one of those cabins! I'm so excited for it. From what I can tell, ours is just of the life boat, but we chose that category just for some natural light and fresh air, so I don't really care about the view :)

 

I still have to figure out the photo thing, but I have some pictures of it. You can't really open the door up that much. If you ask to have both little night stands closest to the french doors that would give you a little more room to open the doors up. We didn't open ours, but a couple of time and that was more out of curiousity. If your a smoker, it would be nice to get the fresher air, but otherwise the room was fresh and clean on its own.

[CMM]

Tonight my husband and I attended Jazz Hot a vocal and dancing show. It was pretty good. We hit the casino too and in no time flat I had lost my $20 on the slots.

 

I really wanted to see the adult comedy show of Thomas Brown at midnight. My husband couldn't last that late, but since I had napped I went anyway. He was pretty funny and although it was adult in content it wasn't really rude or anything. Some of the folks in the audience were more x rated calling out the "F" & "C" word. But then again it was midnight and probably most had done a bit of drinking by then. Getting tired and sitting by myself, I decided to slip out of the Lounge and call it a night about 30 minutes into the show. Had my husband come along, I think it would have been more enjoyable.

 

 

GRAND Cayman! Day 3

 

We were to arrive in Grand Cayman at 7am and we had a private Stingray/Snorkel tour booked with Moby dick at 9AM.

 

My husband had been having really bad intestinal problems through the night and had himself freaked out that he had norovirus or swine flue and would be quarantined throughout the cruise. He said that had him nervous all night, but by morning he was feeling better and decided he would be able to join the excsion. Don't know if it was the double lobster tails he ordered or the liquid melting cake that did it, but others had some of the same dishes with no problems.

 

Grand Cayman is a tender port and it was quick and effient getting off the ship.

 

We found Moby Dick tours easily they had a tent and were wearing the teal shirts described in the email. First we were told to return in 20 minutes, but after another family arrived he had us leave early in his van. We drove around Grand Cayman and got a little tour and met up with the big purple old bus that all the other people were in.

 

At first I had thought maybe it would just be the 8 of us. But I was not that lucky. We were at capacity and one of the ships didn't even make it into port that day. There was about 5O people.

 

One of the reasons I choose Moby Dick was that their boat had a covered area of shade and that there were bench seating. My husband would have been uncomfortable sitting on the floor of a catamaran type boat. Just about every spot was taken by someone. There were a number of kids too. First we went to the stingray sandbar, but left as it was too crowded and went to the coral reef to do the snorkel part.

 

This was chaotic. once the boat stopped everyone was trying to get their gear- masks, snorkels, fins, and life vests and make it off the back of the boat. Nobody really seemed to know what they were doing, especially us! My husband was in the back and one of the last to get off. The kids and I were in the water for about 15 minutes without him. We were floundering about and laughing the whole time. My daughter is a skinny little twig and she didn't have her snorkel on right and the vest was not tight enough so it was up around her face.

 

Like a dummy I unsnapped her vest and tried to adjust it and get in back on her while it was inflated. We should have deflated it first as it was like the 3 stooges out there for a while. The more we laughed the harder it got. Keep in mind we are in deep choppy water! Finally we were situated and my husband joined us. We saw a lot of cool fish especially when we got away from the boat and towards the reef. It was pretty rough out there and harder than I expected, but we all thought it was a really cool experience. We could have spent more time there, but they blew the conch horn and we fought our way back to the boat.

 

The boat had a inclined stair ladder that made it easier getting back in. I am out of shape and overweight and did just fine.

 

I was surprised that they didn't do a head count before taking off. That would be just my luck to be left behind out in the ocean.

 

We were off to stingray city. This was cool, but freaked me out. When they brushed up against you, I panicked and jumped up and then feared I would step on them. My husband and son were fine, but were annoyed with the hysterics of myself and my daughter.

 

My daughter was really starting to freak out and panic. Then she points to this 15 inch garden hose like fish with a long needle nose tip on it heading our way in the crystal clear water. She says "what is that" in this nervous breakdown voice and begins to completely loose it. At that point my husband had to physically force her through the water and back to the boat. She had this look of shear terror like she just witnessed a horrific crime. I got out too and sat with her on the boat. She still is saying how scary the whole thing was.

 

Meanwhile the other 48 people seemed happy as clams!

 

After that everyone was pretty well drained and we skipped the option of going to 7 mile beach as planned and possibly stopping off at hell. My husband would have been interested in hell as he is in the geological field, but we can do that another time. We went back to the ship instead to unwind. I wished we had been on a tour with far less people, even if it cost more. This tour was $40pp.

 

I was happy to find that they had a Caribbean lunch offering in the taste of the nations area of the Lido. I was able to sample the Jamaican Meat Patty that I had planned on getting in Grand Cayman. While my husband was less than impressed with the food at the buffets, I couldn't get over how great everything was. I think the best thing to do is make a big circle around the whole area to see all that is there. The stations may look the same, but there are always so much new there to pick from. I love trying new things and on a cruise it is great because it is all included.

 

Tonight was the show "Lubo and the hilarious comedy of Ronnie Bullard" It was enjoyable family event, but not a don't miss type thing. We played bingo before and it was $20 for one 3 card strip. I was thinking we could tear the card apart & 3 could play one card each, but they warn you that the card will be invalid if torn.

 

We missed the bathrobe deck party as we were all really tired and we were really looking forward to our day tomorrow in Cozumel as we were heading out to Chankanaab National Park for some snorkeling, beach time, and to check out the nature trails and have some Mexican food. So we all went to bed pretty early enjoying again a towel animal and chocolate on our beds!

[stacycakes1]

I can't wait for mor! Your review has been great so far. I am enjoying all of your explanations of what you saw and details about things most other people don't write about. I hope you post more today!

[balcony bound]

You have a lovely writing style, and I'm enjoying your review. Looking forward to more; thank you for taking the time!

[crusinpsychRN]

I can't believe I am writing this section for the 3rd time! I keep loosing it on the computer!

 

 

We had a lot of damp clothes throughout the week due to rain and we found it challenging to dry them. Here is a tip. There is a metal trim edging along the ceiling and the wall that has holes in it. You can hang your hangers from these. It made the cabin look like a ghetto, but it helped!

 

This made me crack up!:D

[lindasuej]

Thanks for your review. I am anxiously waiting on the rest as we sail in Oct. I have a question. You have two teenagers and had early dining. I will be taking two grandchildren 9 & 11. They are use to eating later so we chose the late dining. We were thinking we didn't have to rush when we came back from the ports. Do you think we made a mistake? If you ate late do you think the kids would still be able to participate in the kids club? Not sure if we should switch to early or anytime. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Linda.

[crusinpsychRN]

 

My daughter was really starting to freak out and panic. Then she points to this 15 inch garden hose like fish with a long needle nose tip on it heading our way in the crystal clear water. She says "what is that" in this nervous breakdown voice and begins to completely loose it. At that point my husband had to physically force her through the water and back to the boat. She had this look of shear terror like she just witnessed a horrific crime. I got out too and sat with her on the boat. She still is saying how scary the whole thing was.

 

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=needlefish+pictures&aq=0s&oq=needle+fish+pictur&aqi=g-s1g-msx1 Needlefish!:eek:

[scraphappylady]

 

We were off to stingray city. This was cool, but freaked me out. When they brushed up against you, I panicked and jumped up and then feared I would step on them. My husband and son were fine, but were annoyed with the hysterics of myself and my daughter.

 

My daughter was really starting to freak out and panic. Then she points to this 15 inch garden hose like fish with a long needle nose tip on it heading our way in the crystal clear water. She says "what is that" in this nervous breakdown voice and begins to completely loose it. At that point my husband had to physically force her through the water and back to the boat. She had this look of shear terror like she just witnessed a horrific crime. I got out too and sat with her on the boat. She still is saying how scary the whole thing was.

 

I'm sorry you had such a rough time with the sting rays! We did Moby Dick in July and I can understand why you and your daughter might have felt that way. :(

 

I was REALLY worried that my two kids, especially my daughter (14), would be scared too, but I guess all the times they touched sting rays at aquariums and Sea World really helped! They didn't bat an eyelash - go figure! :p

 

Now, I think I would have been freaked out if I saw that needle fish! Something like that you just CANNOT view as cuddly or harmless, no matter how much you try. :eek: