Review: Carnival Legend, March 27 - April 3

[wantavacay]

Great trip report. We are looking forward to sailing on the Legend in July.

[LindaJSteele]

Great trip report. We are looking forward to sailing on the Legend in July.

 

When are you going in July? We have a roll call thread for the 10th.

[oncruisecontrol]

Are there any zip lines that go down to any of the beaches? Looks like fun, but more of a ride through a plantation rather than a jungle expereince. Who did you book with?

 

Thanks

Geoff

 

There is a zipline at the beach (with spectacular views of the ocean) at Labadee in Haiti, a Royal Caribbean port. Someone on these boards posted photos a while back (you'll have to do a search). If I have time, I'll search and then post the link.

[dvd77]

Leaving the Legend in a tender in the early morning

 

[dvd77]

Manny introducting himself to every single person on the bus

 

[dvd77]

This is the beautiful location where we entered the river. Note that we did not go into THIS cave; the water was flowing OUT of that one.

 

 

In the next 2 pics, you can see how 1) we were grouped into "trains," 2) the guides wading beside us, and 3) just how suave and sophisticated a person looks with a light strapped to their forehead!

 

 

 

Entering the cave...

 

 

Exiting the cave, being pulled along by our guide.

[dvd77]

Beautiful scenery along the river...

 

 

 

 

[oncruisecontrol]

You have posted some very nice photos this morning. Thanks for sharing.

[dvd77]

 

 

We liked this little bridge...

 

 

Go Lisa, go!

[dvd77]

You have posted some very nice photos this morning. Thanks for sharing.

 

Glad you have liked them!

 

Hopefully, it will help someone plan their cruise as much as other reviews helped us plan ours.

[dvd77]

"We're going to Vegas, baby!"

 

 

 

I forgot to mention this in my review. This is called the "Sleeping Giant." Picture someone lying on their back, with their head to the right and feet to the left.

 

 

Belize City version of Wal-Mart!

[dvd77]

Fried shrimp

 

 

You know it! Warm chocolate melting cake!

[dvd77]

Henkie the entertainer!

 

 

[dvd77]

[mprince4]

Great pics from Belize!! I was getting confused there because I think your itinerary was a little different - in May we have Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, and Grand Cayman, but it sounds like on yours it was backwards from that!

[dvd77]

Great pics from Belize!! I was getting confused there because I think your itinerary was a little different - in May we have Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, and Grand Cayman, but it sounds like on yours it was backwards from that!

 

Exactly backwards!

 

Maybe they were getting dizzy going in circles, so now they are going the other way. ;)

[Lady_Jag]

Great pics from Belize!! I was getting confused there because I think your itinerary was a little different - in May we have Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, and Grand Cayman, but it sounds like on yours it was backwards from that!

 

We leave Sunday on this exact same itinerary. It was the reverse order when we booked, but the itinerary changed to this some months ago. I think it's a fuel-saving thing. :confused:

[ciship]

Enjoying your review SO much. Can't wait to hear about Cozumel. We are on Legend this summer.....yah!!

[deadmoney]

That sleeping giant photo looks like Grandfather mountain in reverse.

Great review.

[ReadytoGoAgain]

Great review! Keep it coming!

[cjkumbaya]

Wow, your review is really great so far. The Legend is one of our very favorite ships (we'll be on it in November). Thanks for sharing - looking forward to more.

[nasa1974]

Really enjoying the pics. Keep them coming, please. ;)

[dvd77]

I'm working on Friday (Cozumel); hope to post it tomorrow.

[jamoka]

Thanks for the pictures. I have been showing them to my kids. We are so excited to be on the Legend soon!

[dvd77]

Friday, April 1 – Cozumel

After 3 days of excursions in a row, we were looking forward to a somewhat low-key day. We had considered going scuba diving here (there are some very reasonable dive trips available) but we decided a day at the beach would be relaxing.

We slept in a bit, then breakfasted on the Lido deck around 9:00 a.m. Then a more leisurely departure from the ship—didn’t have to worry about tenders, meeting a guide, or anything like that. We stopped for the obligatory pics on the gangway, and then a couple poses with costumed staff on the pier.

At Cozumel, the ship is tied up to a concrete pier that is a couple hundred yards long, with a right-angle turn in it. They have bicycle rickshaws for those who don’t want to walk the length of the pier.

Cozumel is proof that Carnival learns from Disney. If you’ve been to Disney World in the last decade or so, you’ll notice that when you exit an attraction, you are dumped into a gift shop. Likewise, at Cozumel when you get to the end of the pier, you have to proceed through a huge duty-free shop to get to the rest of the port. You are then in a large shopping area (wow, what are the odds of that!) this is spotlessly clean and would rival any outdoor mall you’ve been to.

We wandered for a bit and browsed. There is a tequila shop where you can taste various tequilas (but NOT Petron—that one sells just fine without free tastes!) One store had a statue of a soldier in front of it—that turned out to be a live human. J I quietly told him: “I’ll be back in a minute with some others for you to surprise.” Found Andy, and we got the girls on the pretext of showing them the store. He (statue guy) waited until Lisa was right next to him before he moved, startling her in a most satisfying way. Make sure you walk past him if you have time.

We went back to the ship, up to our cabins, picked up our snorkeling gear and beach towels, put on sunblock, and headed back down to the pier. We took a cab to Paradise Beach (the rates to various locations are already set and posted on a sign, so you don’t have to worry about getting ripped off by a cab driver.) It was $13 for the 4 of us to get there, about 5 minutes away.

I really liked this place. OK, first of all, there is the beach, with chairs and umbrellas set up. There is a covered bar, and rental lockers. A huge fresh water pool. The pool has a large ledge about a foot deep in several areas, so you could put a lounge chair on the ledge and sit with the water lapping around your body. A nice touch!

Out in the water, they have inflatable “toys”—a couple slides, an “iceberg” you can climb, a 4-way seesaw, a trampoline, and kayaks you can use. The rates, if I remember correctly, were $12 to use the toys, and $2 for the use of a chair. We had read that you were expected to buy a certain amount of food or drink while you were there. We did buy food, but I never sensed any obligation to do so. There were servers walking by, and you just wave one down and order food and/or drink from them. Or you can go to the bar and order.

My goal was to just plop down in a chair and relax in the sun—but we had too much fun playing on the toys. Move over kid, time for an adult to play! :-D Unfortunately, several of the handles have torn off, making it difficult to climb onto the toys from the water. This is especially the case for ladies.

We brought snorkeling gear with us, but in the immediate vicinity of the beach the water is full of silt, and is just sandy bottom anyway, so we didn’t bother. However, there were some divers rinsing their gear there, and they said out deeper the diving was excellent. Kellie checked out a kayak (included) and paddled around for a bit too.

After a few hours, we took a taxi back to the pier. The girls still had shopping in them, so Andy and I took the gear back to the ship. Another poster mentioned “wobblers.” There was a young man completely, totally drunk as we were headed to the ship, making a fool out of himself and mortifying his mother who was doing her best to herd him back to the ship. She finally got him to the security area—where he fell flat on his face. When we last saw him, he was enjoying a full patdown from the security staff. From the balcony, Andy and I watched other passengers boarding while we waited.

Eventually the girls made it back, and we got showered and changed. The ship departed, backing out. We were watching our progress from the balcony, when the cruise director came over the PA system, excitedly reporting a whale visible off the port side! Rats, we were on the starboard side. We craned our heads aft, just in case it appeared back there. Five minutes later, the cruise director again came on the PA system, now saying that a pod of dolphins had joined the whale! That was too much for Kellie, she figured it was worth a shot. She ran up topside and over to the port side, but was unable to see anything. We saw some swirls in the water, but nothing identifiable.

It was time for supper, so we opened a bottle of Hess cabernet (yummy!) and went to the MDR for supper. Henkie seemed a little subdued tonight. We tried to cheer him up, but no success. After supper we went down to deck 3 to look at our growing collection of pictures. (Following a tip of CC members, we tried grouping our pictures together to find them easier on later days. But they kept moving all over the place, making each time an adventure in search and rescue.) Then we mosied to the Lido deck for some dessert.

At 7:30, we went down to Follies for the movie quote contest. This proved to be very disappointing. The lady who was hosting the event doesn’t read well. Since her entire task was reading movie quotes, she was the worst possible choice for hosting. We knew we were in trouble when she asked for help to pronounce “napalm.” Oh well—at least we didn’t pay extra for it!

Dana Tison, the comedian/juggler, was coming up soon. We were in good seats, so we sat there and waited through bingo. Then came Dana Tison.

DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW!!! This guy is fantastic. He has amazing talent as a juggler (especially on a rocking boat!) but is genuinely funny as well. We enjoyed every second of his show and were disappointed when it finally ended.

While introducing Dana Tison, Wee Jimmy, the cruise director, was chatting with the crowd. He asked “How many of you were able to see the whale and dolphins today?” I looked around, and I couldn’t see any hands up. He then said, “How many of you remember what today’s date is?” Aaagh! It was April 1—he was playing an April Fool’s joke on everyone! The crowd collectively groaned. Wee Jimmy went on to relate that one woman heard the announcement while in mid-shower. She jumped out of the shower, run out to see the whale—and lost the towel. Lest we think he was fibbing to us again, he asked if she was there that night. She good naturedly raised her hand, and confirmed that yes, it was she, and yes, it did happen. Oops!

Andy and Lisa were wiped out after the day, so they headed back to their cabin. Kellie and I went to Satchmo’s to watch some karaoke. It was much emptier than normal (but then again, it was later than normal too). Unfortunately, some of the guests were obnoxiously drunk. When one starting walking up to random women, pressing his body up against theirs and making lewd suggestions, we took that as our cue to leave.

There was a performer playing guitar and singing in the main atrium that Kellie really liked. Had a James Taylor-like voice. So I grabbed my Kindle from the cabin, and we sat in the atrium for quite a while, with me contentedly reading while Kellie listened to the performer.

One thing we noticed: There were now “wolf packs” of teens and tweens wondering the ship in bored groups in the evening, looking for something to do. For the most part they behaved perfectly fine, but it was amusing to watch.

At one point the performer paused between songs to take a drink of water. Some of the folks in the atrium were calling out requests to him. One of the kids nearby called out, in a high prepubescent voice, “Do you know any Justin Beiber?” The performer laughed, and answered good naturedly, “No, but it sounds like I need to learn some!”

When the performer took a break, we decided to call it a night. We headed to our cabin, now feeling slightly melancholy, thinking that we only had one full day left of our cruise.