Review: Carnival Legend, March 27 - April 3

[mprince4]

We were VERY apprehensive about the same thing. Our cabins were right beside the midships elevators. Extremely convenient--exit the elevators or stairs, and the cabins were right there.

 

To answer your question: we were delighted to find that we never heard a single thing! Not a sound from the stairwell or elevators (or the users of them, either). Kudos to the shipbuilders; they did a good job with the sound insulating.

 

That is good to hear! I was pretty apprehensive booking it, but I figured I would probably be out on my balcony most of the time I was in the room anyway... and it takes a lot to prevent me from sleeping or wake me up! And I think the convenience of being by the stairs will be fantastic.

[Gecko7]

We were VERY apprehensive about the same thing. Our cabins were right beside the midships elevators. Extremely convenient--exit the elevators or stairs, and the cabins were right there.

 

To answer your question: we were delighted to find that we never heard a single thing! Not a sound from the stairwell or elevators (or the users of them, either). Kudos to the shipbuilders; they did a good job with the sound insulating.

 

I guess I missed that, what room were you in? We will be on Deck 8 near where you described and I have the same concerns. We are two couples and will have the divder opened to make the balcony a bit larger.

[dvd77]

I guess I missed that, what room were you in? We will be on Deck 8 near where you described and I have the same concerns. We are two couples and will have the divder opened to make the balcony a bit larger.

 

6219 & 6221. Starboard midship.

[dvd77]

Eagerly waiting to board... "Which cabin is ours?"

 

This was before we were informed that we were jeopardizing national security. ;)

[dvd77]

 

Waiting on Serenity deck--making the best use of our time!

 

 

Andy & Lisa enjoying a hammock while waiting...

[dvd77]

Ready to head to Golden Fleece...

 

Balcony with the divider still in place...

 

Bathroom 1. Lots of convenient storage!

 

Bathroom 2

 

The joys of unpacking...

[pcrum]

Mprince4: We found out about the wine from reading the boards here at CC! CC rules! :-) We got a bottle of Merlot, I don't remember the label. I'll check with one of my companions.

 

When you board the ship, there will be someone there with models of the food at Golden Fleece. If you make eye contact with them, they will tell you about it.

 

More details coming as I'm able to type them up.

 

Sorry to jump in here, but the wine given for free at the steakhouse is Santa Carolina. It is Carnival's house wine and I agree with you, it is not the best! This is the same wine served at the Chef's Table.

 

Love the review. Although we are 90 minutes from the Port of Tampa, we have only sailed out of there once. But, we love the spirit class ships and hope to try the Legend one day!

[dvd77]

Enchanted Forrest

 

Transparent stairs leading to Golden Fleece

 

Dining in Golden Fleece. Note the crowds. ;)

 

Ahi Tuna. Beautiful presentation.

 

Mini burger!

[dvd77]

 

[dvd77]

Balcony with divider swung back.

 

 

Elegant night. Our awesome servers, Heinki and Rey.

 

Food porn! :D Lobster & shrimp, pefectly done.

 

Beef--it's what's for dinner!

[vt2flkel]

Monday, March 28 – Day at Sea

 

After lunch, we wandered for a bit. We saw the end of the hairy chest contest. The guys they had picked for it were VERY good sports, and really hamming it up for the crowd. We got a good laugh thanks to their antics. We went up to try to play mini golf. Well, remember how windy it was? NOT conducive to playing mini golf. We watched some trying to play. They would hit a ball, and then chase it as it accelerated aft. Certainly a new challenge to the sport! We decided against mini golf that day.

. . .

 

That afternoon, there was a shopping talk. If you attended, the Fun Times said you would receive free Tanzanite studs. That’s all the girls needed to hear! Off we went.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, this was 1 hour 15 minutes of pure torture. Granted, I’m a guy, and I don’t view shopping as a sport like others do. ;-) But even the girls were bored here. The talk was conducted in Satchmo’s, which is the karaoke bar. The seats there are very uncomfortable, so that didn’t help. But darn it, we were going to get those studs! :-D Well, at the end, they gave us coupons with which we could go into a store at port and exchange it for the studs. When we saw folks come in with 5 minutes to go and get the coupon—sure wish I had done that!

 

By the way, the couple that gave the presentation did a fine job, and the majority of the people there seemed to enjoy it just fine. I’m just whining here.

. . .

 

After dinner, they had the portrait stations set up, so we went to 7 different stations and got pictures taken. Some of the photographers really seemed to be putting a lot of effort into their work, and we appreciated their effort.

 

. :-D

 

Note from DVD77's DW-

re: mini golf: It was located all the way forward on like Deck 10 or 11. So after fighting the winds and climbing up to check it out, we walked all the way around it and discover that you don't get your equipment up there! If we had wanted to play, we needed to pick up the club and ball down somewhere around the mid-ship pool. We couldn't find any sign up there telling us about it. We just had to ask those who were playing. (We never did attempt to find it - so much to do/eat.)

 

Yes, the Jewelry Shopping seminar was dreadfully long. Maybe because we were not really looking to invest in huge gemstones or expensive jewelry. But the wooden bench seats in Sachmo's Lounge are pretty hard on the butt, especially rounding the hour mark!

 

Do take the time to wait in as many photo session lines as you have to. When else do you have an opportunity to look so nice and not have to pay photo sitting fees? We went to several, and it payed off. We found some pics that were the best we have ever wanted to purchase (of course, that made for some tough decisions!). Some of the photographers were better than others. I thought i would like some other photos because I liked the background, but it was the good photographer that made the biggest difference.

[loltastic]

I like your review so far. I can't wait for our trip on the Legend to come!

[crusin4funtimes]

Great pictures! Loving the review, thank you for taking the time to write it!:) Can't wait to read more when you have the time to write.

[hfitzger]

Thoroughly enjoying your review-- we are due to embark the Legend in 9 days and your review has been great for all of the details and photos I have been looking for in our first 7-night, Spirit-class cruise!

 

Keep the posts coming!

[Gecko7]

6219 & 6221. Starboard midship.

 

Wow, we are going to be two decks up same side. Great view judging from your outstanding photos. I can't wait for the rest of the review.

 

Geoff

[mprince4]

Oooh thanks for the pics! Can't wait for the rest of the review!

[mprince4]

Bumping from page 4 :eek: so dvd can find it for more of the review :)

[LindaJSteele]

QUOTE: "We got to our table, and met our servers. We had Heinke (“Call me Heinke Panky!”)"

 

I can't believe it - he was our server on the Freedom last July, and he was FABULOUS! We're going on the Legend in July; by any chance did he tell you how long he'll be on the ship? I would ask to be seated in his section if he was going to be there. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, for sure!!!

 

He DID sing, "My baby does the Hanky Panky" didn't he? LOL

[dvd77]

QUOTE: "We got to our table, and met our servers. We had Heinke (“Call me Heinke Panky!”)"

 

I can't believe it - he was our server on the Freedom last July, and he was FABULOUS! We're going on the Legend in July; by any chance did he tell you how long he'll be on the ship? I would ask to be seated in his section if he was going to be there. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, for sure!!!

 

He DID sing, "My baby does the Hanky Panky" didn't he? LOL

 

Huh, we didn't get that song from him! But of all the servers, he seemed to enjoy the singing and dancing the most, and was quite good at it.

 

He also told us that, after one more week, he was going to be taking a vacation to see his family. I will check with my friends to see if they remember how long the break would be.

 

If I were to travel the Legend again, I would absolutely request to sit in his section.

[dvd77]

Tuesday, March 29 – Grand Cayman

 

We were really looking forward to this day. My wife and I were planning on scuba diving in Grand Cayman. We’ve heard so much about it—in fact, we have some friends who named their dog “Cayman” because they loved diving there so much.

 

We had made arrangements with Eden Rock Diving Center. Kellie and I brought our masks, fins, and snorkels, and would rent the rest of the scuba equipment from Eden Rock. We would do 2 scuba dives from shore. At the same time, Andy and Lisa would snorkel above and around us, renting the snorkeling equipment from Eden Rock. We opted for the guided dives, because we had heard so much about the coral formations and figured a guided dive would be the best way to see all of it.

 

We arrived at GC sometime after 7 a.m. We enjoyed watching the approach from our balcony. We were in no rush, since our first dive was scheduled for 9:00 a.m. local time, 10:00 ship’s time. Today we started with breakfast on the Lido deck. I particularly enjoyed the custom-made omelets. The only downside to them: the only cheese available is American, which I don’t think really qualifies as cheese! But anyway…

 

I was very surprised to see, once the ship was anchored, that Eden Rock was right in front of our balcony! I felt like I could dive over the edge and swim right up. At that point I felt a little anxious—did we book a bad deal? I mean, how good could the diving possibly be, if it was right there where the cruise ships anchor?

 

We grabbed our gear and went down to deck 1 to catch the tender to shore. Again, since we were taking our time, there were no difficulties. We were able to board right away, with no waiting.

 

Once ashore, it was perhaps a 5 minute walk to get to Eden Rock. The staff there were very nice and treated us very well. We rented our gear and went out back. Our group would consist of our guide Steve, another diver from Michigan, and Kellie and I. Steve’s briefing was very thorough; we felt quite comfortable. The gear: well, battered is a good description for it. It had definitely been around for a while. Because the max depth is less than 50 ft, they don’t give you dive computers either.

 

I’m going to skip over most of the dive, since I’m guessing most want to hear about more common excursions than scuba diving. I will say we did 2 dives, each 1 hour long because of the relatively shallow depths. As we did so, Andy and Lisa snorkeled above us, snapping pictures too. On our second dive, we again had a group of 4—the guide, Kellie and I, and one other diver. The dives consist of one swim-through after another. The coral has grown so that it forms tubes. They aren’t claustrophobic at all—plenty of light comes through from above, and you never feel like you are going to get stuck. Very cool.

 

So: after the dives, we changed into dry clothes. Unfortunately, since the 2 dives were each an hour, plus surface time in between, plus time to change, etc—well, most of our time for Grand Cayman was gone! We all had wanted to do at least a little shopping, so we just browsed some stores on the way back to where you catch the tender. Oh—recall that I forgot to pack shorts? Found a pair for “only” $30 US. Ouch. But at least I could make it through the rest of the week now… Incidentally, that is one other disadvantage of being on a smaller ship. I went to the ship’s stores to see if they had any men’s shorts. They had some swimwear, but no shorts. Fairly limited selection.

 

Anyway, we got back to the tender spot. There was a line of perhaps 100 people at this point. We waited 10 minutes or so, a tender came, and no problem getting on and getting a seat.

 

One other side note: Before the cruise, both Andy and I bought Pandora bracelets for our wives. That way they could find a bead at each port and it would make a nice souvenir of the cruise. (Husbands, are you listening???) ;-) At Grand Cayman, the girls didn’t find a Pandora store, but they were able to find other brand beads that fit well—including one from the dive shop. There may be a Pandora store there, but we didn’t spend much time shopping at all.

 

Back on the ship, we threw our gear into our cabins and ran up to the Lido deck for lunch—we were famished! We returned to our cabins, and watched the departure from our balcony. We showered and changed, and were just relaxing. Until—

 

We then remembered that the “past guest” party was in progress! The night before they had left coupons/invitations in our room. There were still a few minutes left, so we ran down there (I don’t remember if it was in the Firebird or in Follies—I think Follies.) We circulated for a bit. They were serving free drinks and everyone seemed to be having a good time. We stayed for a few minutes and then returned back to our friends. (They were past cruisers, but not on Carnival).

 

It was time for dinner. We opened a bottle of wine (for those who are keeping score at home, it was a Ferrari merlot—yummy!), divvied it up, and headed down for dinner. For our appetizer, Kellie and I ordered the sushi. I can’t remember what it was called, something like the Sushi Sampler… at any rate, it was *excellent*! We both immediately requested a second serving of it. Also enjoyed ribs and seafood pasta. For dessert, we had cheesecake. It wasn’t that great, I don’t think any of us finished it.

 

Now stuffed like pigs, we wandered the ship. Looked at some of our portrait pics, then went down to the comedy club to watch the ventriloquist. (He had performed a “sample” at the Welcome Aboard show, where he worked with an audience member. Unfortunately, the guy he picked from the audience was CLUELESS and it crashed and burned. But he made the most of it and was funny anyway). He was very entertaining and we were glad we went.

 

We stopped by Satchmo’s and watched karaoke for a while. I’m always amazed at the breadth of talent out there—some who get up and sing and just take your breath away, and then some that have my singing talent (as in—none). But they all seem to have a good time with it.

 

Back we went to the balcony, where we sat and planned for tomorrow: Roatan.

[dvd77]

Arriving at Roatan, being shadowed by the Carnival Valor. She would be at every port we went to.

 

View from our balcony after anchoring. The blue building is the Eden Rock dive center. Yup, we were that close!

 

The obligatory tourist shot!

 

Kellie and I during the second dive. Note how clear the water is!

 

Andy in the foreground, our scuba group in the background.

[dvd77]

Sorry I didn't get a shot of the sushi! Here's the cheesecake, which unfortunately wasn't as good as it looked.

 

Towel animal for the night:

[deadmoney]

:cool: Thanks for returning to finish up, looking forward to it.

[dvd77]

I hope everyone can be patient with me, it might take me a couple days to get to the next day.

[Honeyroastedmelnut]

I hope everyone can be patient with me, it might take me a couple days to get to the next day.

 

OK, I guess. I'll be waiting with baited breathe. Getting close to my turn on the Legend and I'm loving reading your preview of things to come for me!