REVIEW - Carnival Legend 5/8 - 5/15

[Hamitchell]

Did you see any 4-5 year olds on the Xanuntunich trip/tour? I am selfishly hauling mine up there with Mommy. I don't think she'll hike to the top of the temple, but she'll probably enjoy the other adventurous stuff.

 

She's part Maya or Aztec-derived tribe (Mommy is Nicaraguan) so I think it will make an impression.

 

But I am the most interested of the bunch! Typical Gringo . . .heh.

[pomm1972]

Good advice, i was goingto bring wipes since they are a little easier to pack and lighter. OFF sounds like a better investment.

 

That was the mistake I made. Had to use someone's spray.

[pomm1972]

I wonder if time of year and weather has anything to do with the mosquitos?

We went in February and nary a bug was to be seen.

 

Was there rain before you got there?

 

No, it rained after but it was July. When we got there it was covered in dew. On a separate topic people complain about sand fleas in Roatan specifically at Maya Key. However, when we were there wasn't bothered by fleas.

[mprince4]

Did you see any 4-5 year olds on the Xanuntunich trip/tour? I am selfishly hauling mine up there with Mommy. I don't think she'll hike to the top of the temple, but she'll probably enjoy the other adventurous stuff.

 

She's part Maya or Aztec-derived tribe (Mommy is Nicaraguan) so I think it will make an impression.

 

But I am the most interested of the bunch! Typical Gringo . . .heh.

 

Actually, I did - on the tender over, I noticed what was probably a 4-year-old boy with his parents (and maybe an aunt?). They ended up being on the other bus, so I can't tell you how he fared during the tour, but I did see him again at the end of the day and he and his parents all seemed to be in good spirits. He seemed like a very well-behaved child, so I bet he was fine. I wouldn't let a young child climb (and I doubt the tour guides would either), but the rest of it would be ok for well behaved kids that wouldn't get really cranky in the heat and wouldn't necessarily want to be carried around the whole time.

[pomm1972]

Thanks so much for the extra Nachi pics.

 

Those ruins are so much more impressive than Altun Ha. Looks like the stairs were better on this one though. The Sun Temple at Altun Ha was probably 1/3 the size of that ruin, but you were almost on all 4s climbing to the top. I think Belize is one of the last places where you are able to climb ruins.

[mprince4]

Thanks so much for the extra Nachi pics.

 

Those ruins are so much more impressive than Altun Ha. Looks like the stairs were better on this one though. The Sun Temple at Altun Ha was probably 1/3 the size of that ruin, but you were almost on all 4s climbing to the top. I think Belize is one of the last places where you are able to climb ruins.

 

Yeah, the stairs were in good shape and it made for a surprisingly easy climb. I was all set to crawl or scoot if necessary and there was only one place I sat down to start on some stairs (right at the top, in the picture where that guy is going down the stairs that are kind of enclosed). I picked Xunantunich because it did sound more impressive based on what CCer's said, and I liked the idea of being able close enough to see into Guatemala. If I went back to Belize, I would do Altun Ha next.

[pomm1972]

Yeah, the stairs were in good shape and it made for a surprisingly easy climb. I was all set to crawl or scoot if necessary and there was only one place I sat down to start on some stairs (right at the top, in the picture where that guy is going down the stairs that are kind of enclosed). I picked Xunantunich because it did sound more impressive based on what CCer's said, and I liked the idea of being able close enough to see into Guatemala. If I went back to Belize, I would do Altun Ha next.

 

We did Altun Ha because it included the river wallace tour. We didn't want to do a full day at ruins. Still undecided about what to do in Belize in July but I think we'll probably do carnival excursion to Goff's Cay because it departs from the ship, not having to go to port and then back out. This way we will be able to spend time at the dock also because last time we only had like 20 minutes or so and we were on the last tender.

[debee1015]

Thanks for your review we're going on the Legend in October and I just booked Nachi the other day (I think 75% of our roll call is going to Nachi).

 

I read I think on John Heald's blog it's 90 minutes from the Port of Tampa to the Skyway bridge.

 

Can't wait to read more. :)

[SunshineOnTheBrain]

Thank you so much for posting the additonal Nachi pics! We can't wait to get there!!!

[mprince4]

Day 5 - Roatan

 

I had a lot of dilemmas about what to do in Roatan. I knew we were going to have a really long day before it (with the ruins tour in Belize), but everyone raved so much about seeing the island that I didn't just want to go to Mahogany Bay beach and stay around the pier (even though it probably would have been a nice beach day with us being the only ship in port). I finally decided I should book with Victor Bodden, but then I wasn't sure if I wanted to just do the private tour or do the ziplining and beach tour. J liked the idea of ziplining, but we have a zipline near us that we have some Living Social deals to, and I've been on the zipline in Labadee, Haiti, so eventually I decided we'd just do the private tour - I figured we could always add in ziplining if we felt like doing it when we got there.

 

When I made my request, I trolled CC and gathered up the names of like 10 different guides that people had talked about and liked, and I just made a blanket request for one of those guides in no particular order. I never did find out who our guide would be before we left.

 

I tried to make this a relatively early morning so we could get off the ship and get going on our tour (especially since we were only in port for a short time - 8-3), but we didn't end up getting off the boat until about 9 am. We walked through the port area and luckily I'd looked at the picture Victor sends saying it's behind the red building (I did not look at the map, and that turned out to be a mistake), because it is quite confusing if you've not done it before and you stupidly did not look at the map he sends. It is very, very, very much set up to make it exceedingly difficult and confusing for you to get to your private, independent tours. If you didn't know where to go, you'd have no idea. For those of you reading this who have never been there before, you have to go completely out of the port area, up a hill (where there is like a security station) and down a hill before you will see the tour people.

 

The hill does kind of suck, but I didn't think it was that bad because I was too worried that I was wandering around aimlessly in the wrong place. At the top of the hill, there was a cat at the security station that we stopped to pet before going down the hill. At the bottom of the hill there are a lot of representatives and guides from tour groups. We found the guy holding the Bodden Tours sign and met up with our guide Sam, who immediately said that he had been waiting all morning for us to get there - I felt bad that we were so slow getting off the ship because I'm sure he was worried we wouldn't show and he wouldn't be making any money that day. Sam took us down to another location where our names got checked off, and then he led us to his Toyota Corolla.

 

Driving around in an air-conditioned car most of the day was the best - it was beastly hot and humid in Roatan, and I don't know if I would have liked being outside (either ziplining or just sitting at the beach) for any length of time. When I submitted my form, I had marked stuff about seeing sights/taking pictures, going to Victor's Monkey Business, doing a little shopping, and maybe having lunch on the beach. Sam took us EVERYWHERE to take pictures - I seriously think we have about 50 pictures of J and I that Sam took. I feel like we saw about 80% of the island because we drove all over the place. He took us to a couple of beautiful resort areas for pictures, up to some higher areas where there were good photo ops, and around to some places with absolutely beautiful houses right on the beach. He also showed us the the "mall" they just built with an Applebee's - which set off a fun conversation about what kinds of American chain food they have on the island - no McDonald's or Taco Bell - seems like the franchises that go to Roatan are more on the fried chicken side of things - they have 2 Bojangles! And according to Sam, they are getting a KFC soon! At most of the places we went, there were little stalls set up for shopping, so we got to do some shopping along the way. I bought a couple of wooden bowls (I love wooden bowls) and a shot glass, and J bought a slingshot, a necklace, and a bracelet.

 

I had a great time talking to Sam while we were driving around. I was asking him all these random personal questions (like how many brothers and sisters he has and what they do, and how old he was) and he was fine answering everything I asked. He is 25, which was a good fit for us because of our ages, and he seemed like a really responsible guy. A lot of the roads in Roatan are really rutted and hard to manage, and I never felt unsafe driving around with him. The way he talked, I got the impression that other people his age on the island are very much into partying, and he is not.

 

I asked Sam where he had been besides the island, and the only place he's ever been is mainland Honduras - he is a true native to Roatan. When I asked him where he would go if he had the chance, he said he wanted to go to Colorado or Utah to ski on the snow!! I thought that was hilarious!

 

I told Sam that I wanted to try local beers, and he said I could drink them in the car, so at one of the places we stopped with shopping stalls, I bought a Salva Vida for $2. This means "Life Savior" and I thought it was a good beer. I also bought a strawberry soda when we stopped at a gas station. After we drove around quite a bit and took a bunch of pictures and shopping, Sam took us over to Victor's house to go see the monkeys. This is where we paid for both our tour and the monkeys and Sammie (different guy) was our monkey guide and took us through the whole area. There are a LOT of animals here now - I think I've read before that people who went a few years back were disappointed because there weren't that many animals, but we saw at least 5-6 monkeys, 4 random other animals, and there were like 5 deer, 4-5 native rabbits, and about 4-5 parrots. It is also apparently $8 to go to the monkey place if you are not on a Victor Bodden tour.

 

We absolutely LOVED Victor's Monkey Business. In fact, when my dad asked J about his favorite part of the cruise, he said it was the monkeys! That's how much fun we had with them. The two monkeys you can hold and play with inside the cage are the best, and we loved the baby and momma spider monkeys too. We also each had parrots sitting on our shoulders, and we got some really great pictures the whole way through. It was so much fun and well worth $5/pp.

 

Sam asked us if we wanted to go ziplining since we were there, but we opted out. So after we saw the monkeys, we got back in the car and Sam took us over to the other port area, which is downtown, and we saw a Semester at Sea ship in that port - how funny! Then we headed over to the West Bay beaches because I wanted to at least see them (and I especially wanted to see the infinity pool at Infinity Bay).

 

Sam brought us in near Bananarama, and J absolutely refused to walk on the beach, so they stayed at the bar/restaurant there while I took a quick walk down to Infinity Bay. The West Bay beaches look absolutely gorgeous. I had brought my bathing suit and a towel, but J wasn't going to be up for hanging out on the beach, and I wasn't going to be up for it either with my sunburn - so I just walked down, took a few pictures, and walked back to Bananarama. J had bought a Salva Vida, so I bought another one of the local beers - Port Royal - and we sat in the restaurant drinking those two beers for a little while, and J told me he was ready to go back to the ship for lunch and didn't want to eat somewhere on the island. I was ok with this because we had already been driving around with Sam for 4 hours and there wasn't much else we wanted to do on the island. If I hadn't been sunburned, I would have been all about staying on the beach for a couple of hours, but it just wasn't in the cards.

 

So after we took a picture with Sam on the beach, we told him we were ready to head back to the ship. I think he thought we were disappointed in our tour because we were going back before we had to, because he kept saying that he hoped we had a good time and saw everything we wanted to see, and asking us to recommend him to anyone coming to Roatan because he wouldn't have worked that day if I hadn't requested him - but we were perfectly happy with the tour! I would definitely recommend Sam to anyone taking a Victor Bodden tour and I would request him for another tour if I went back to Roatan. He also drives a taxi, so if I went back to Roatan when I wasn't on a cruise, I would try to get him then too if I needed to go somewhere. And the way I saw it, I was freeing up the rest of his day for other stuff - he'd been up so early for our tour because we docked there at 6 am Roatan time!

 

Sam drove us back to the port area (which is actually a fairly long drive from West Bay - I feel like it took 20 minutes) and dropped us off. We tipped him $15. As we walked through the store you have to walk through to get back to the ship, I found a cute monkey with an "I heart Roatan" shirt that I decided to buy for my nephew since one of our Roatan highlights was the monkeys (and the monkey makes noise when you squeeze it - even better).

 

A couple of side notes I'll mention about Roatan and the Victor Bodden tours - I think the people who have been disappointed in Victor Bodden tours were disappointed because their tour guide had an agenda and they didn't really assert what they wanted to do. Sam wasn't overt about having an agenda, but he did talk about taking us to his house to have iguana. I thought he was joking at first, but when I realized he was serious, I told him all the things I don't like food-wise or would not eat - no iguana, no seafood, very little meat - which would severely limit our options :p I'm sure that if we ate lunch on the island, Sam would have wanted to take us to a local place where he knew the people working there. This didn't bother me because it's just the way things are in a poor country - I mean, at one point we drove down a hill after going up to a higher point for pictures, and there were two little kids dressed up dancing around and the little boy was making gestures that I could take a pic of them for $1. Another time we were at some shopping stalls and a person using a crutch came up to us and handed a sign in English saying that they were all sick and needed money for their family, etc etc. When we stopped at a beach, a little boy opened my car door and immediately started trying to sell me necklaces. At the West Bay beaches, there were vendors walking up and down the beach trying to sell things. They are all trying to get money, and if they can also get money for family and friends, that's even better. I never found anyone to be really pushy, and if you have a specific plan for what you want to do in Roatan, you just need to be assertive about doing what you want to do and you'll have a good time like we did. :) I didn't feel like we had to be assertive with Sam at all - he had a plan in mind based on what we had said we wanted to do and it worked out fine, but if we had needed to ask him to do particular things, I'm sure he would have been receptive to that. He was always receptive when he asked if we wanted to do things and we said no - like the ziplining, and he also asked us if we wanted to go to the iguana farm or the butterfly park - I told him we didn't give a crap about butterflies and it was perfectly fine with him ;) As for the iguana farm, J probably would have liked it, but I had zero interest, so we opted out of that too.

 

Anyway, we were back on the ship around 1:45/2 (really, we couldn't have stayed with Sam much longer because we were supposed to be back on the ship by 2:30) and went up to the buffet for a late lunch. My notes say we just hung out on the balcony until dinner (man, I love having a balcony!!!).

 

At dinner, it was just us and the couple from Virginia, and they told us that everyone but us had been there the night before when we opted for the buffet after Belize. It sounded like the Tampa couple was still unimpressed with the Atlanta couple, and I suspect that the Tampa couple may have asked to be moved after Belize night because they were never at our dinner table for the rest of the cruise!

 

I had a good meal this night, although the menu situation was confusing because when we looked at the menu posted for the day, it was completely different from the menu at dinner... and we ended up having the menu that was posted on Roatan day for Grand Cayman day. :confused: Anyway, I had the cream of broccoli soup, which was ok, and I opted for the grilled chicken breast on the Carnival classics menu, which is very good! I also got a side of mashed potatoes, which were recommended by the Tampa couple (who ordered the chicken breast most of the time we ate with them) and they were delicious. For dessert, I had the amaretto cake, and it was very good. I’m sure J and I also got some fruit with dinner.

 

After dinner, my notes say I just passed out. I had wanted to go see one or both of the comedians, but I missed everything. J went to play poker this night and won big :D

[mprince4]

I forgot to say that I should be getting pics of Roatan up later today :)

[mprince4]

NYParrothead - I just friended you on Facebook (or attempted to...) - sorry, I had seen your post earlier and then forgot about it while I was putting up Belize pics.

[SunshineOnTheBrain]

NYParrothead - I just friended you on Facebook (or attempted to...) - sorry, I had seen your post earlier and then forgot about it while I was putting up Belize pics.

 

No worries...thanks for remembering! I just checked and it did go thru. At work now so can't check spend time on there but will later. Thanks again!

[serene56]

 

 

If you didn't know where to go, you'd have no idea. For those of you reading this who have never been there before, you have to go completely out of the port area, up a hill (where there is like a security station) and down a hill before you will see the tour people.

g :D

 

 

Ho wmany ways are there to get out of the port area? is it only through the stores?

[Gecko7]

We just got some plans ironed out and will be doing the Victor Bodden Zip-n-Dip. We are excited about the monkeys too. I'm glad that you recommend his operation. We'll be with a group so no private tours, but I think that'll be OK for us. Can't wait for the pictures.

 

Geoff

[mprince4]

Ho wmany ways are there to get out of the port area? is it only through the stores?

 

Yeah, there seemed to be only one way to leave Mahogany Bay - it's just a little hard to find if you don't know what you're looking for because it's not like you can see a group of independent tour guides off in the distance, at the top of a hill just beyond the end of the shopping area (which was kind of what I was expecting). It's very, very much set up to keep you in that shopping area and the Mahogany Bay beach if at all possible.

 

 

Gecko - you will love the monkeys - that is, if you don't mind having monkeys grab onto you and crawl on you. You'll see what I mean from the pics, they're fantastic!

[Gecko7]

Yeah, there seemed to be only one way to leave Mahogany Bay - it's just a little hard to find if you don't know what you're looking for because it's not like you can see a group of independent tour guides off in the distance, at the top of a hill just beyond the end of the shopping area (which was kind of what I was expecting). It's very, very much set up to keep you in that shopping area and the Mahogany Bay beach if at all possible.

 

 

Gecko - you will love the monkeys - that is, if you don't mind having monkeys grab onto you and crawl on you. You'll see what I mean from the pics, they're fantastic!

 

The picture looked awesome! Do they give you fruit to feed them or are they just that curious?

[mprince4]

The picture looked awesome! Do they give you fruit to feed them or are they just that curious?

 

They are just that curious, we didn't have anything to feed them. The baby spider monkey loved my watch and J's bracelet, but the other monkeys were just all over the place trying to find stuff to play with on us. I thought it was hilarious that J kept trying to put the one monkey back in the enclosed area because the monkey was having none of that - it really just wanted to lay on his arm indefinitely.

 

Momma spider monkey was kind of sad - she didn't want us to leave and I think she loves the attention, so she wrapped her tail and arm around each of us tight so we wouldn't go - it made me sad that her baby is in a separate cage :(

[mprince4]

A few pics of the view from the balcony - my camera lens was fogging up like crazy because it was so hot outside

 

 

 

This is where the Mahogany Bay beach area is

 

 

 

I tried to get a good pic of the sunset, but it wasn't working out

 

 

 

Cool shipwreck

 

[mprince4]

On to pics of us driving around the island - this is one of the many, many pictures of J and I, so you can get an idea of the beautiful scenery in the background :)

 

 

 

These were taken in this really gorgeous resort area

 

 

 

I've forgotten the name of the area where we saw this beach - if anyone recognizes it, let me know - it was just stunning!

 

 

 

[mprince4]

A couple pics of the views from the island

 

 

 

 

 

Monkey time!! This is the baby spider monkey wanting to take off my watch

 

 

 

Now he wants J's bracelet

 

[mprince4]

This was some kind of squirrel

 

 

 

This is Lola, the momma spider monkey - she just loves J

 

 

 

She liked me too - look at that tail wrapped around my arm

 

 

 

Now she's jumping down the cage as we're walking away :(

 

 

[mprince4]

These are the monkeys you can play with, and they are awesome - our guide Sammie immediately put this one on my head

 

 

 

Monkey on J's arm - they just loved laying on our arms

 

 

 

This picture cracks me up because the monkey's expression is hilarious

 

 

 

Here's J trying to put the monkey back in its play area

 

 

 

... and it was not successful

 

[mprince4]

This monkey looks like he's settling in for the long haul

 

 

 

Ok, enough of those monkeys - here was one outside the cage that was verrrrry interested in the puddle

 

 

 

This monkey appeared to be on crack

 

 

 

This parrot hates the paparazzi

 

 

 

J looking apprehensive about having this green parrot on his shoulder

 

[mprince4]

I, on the other hand, am perfectly comfortable with it

 

 

 

 

 

Native deer (or is this a buck? I don't know deer sexes) looking very curious

 

 

 

More deer

 

 

 

Baby deer and momma deer - so cute