Carnival Legend Review (Jan 1 to Jan 8)

[silvercrikhix]

Great start! Legend was our 1st cruise in 2010, the cruise that started it all! Loved it! We missed Grand Cayman, too.....now we have to schedule another cruise there! So sad........not :D

[LunaBell]

I'd like to add that we loved listening to the captain with his anouncments! His accent was cute. :p He'd say things like, "dis-a-reguard-a the times you will see-a in the ports." ...in reference to staying on ship time. And when giving the weather report, it was so improvised and silly. It sounded like he'd pause to look up at the sky and say, "yes-a, the weather will be-a pleasant." hehe

 

So this now Sea Day found us with gail force winds apparently and a ship that was rocking and rolling! I found myself needing to steady myself constantly. ... in the shower, standing in line at the buffet, etc. The horizon would be there one moment and then we'd roll and it was no where to be seen. :eek: And the pools were sloshing around. Speaking of the buffet, BF got some yummy caribbean food and I, well I ate some bread and potatoes, haha. I was starting to feel a lil woosy at that point.

 

After lunch we went back to the room to check things out...

 

The picture doesn't do the waves justice

 

We also spotted this ship bobbing along out there. Check out all the white caps!

 

I found I could no longer tolerate the upper decks with the extra rocking and rolling, so we stayed low and wondered around a bit.

 

Here's BF checking out the waves

 

[LunaBell]

My saving grace this day? Ginger Ale!!

 

 

 

The ship never felt crowded, but today it was definitely feeling spacious. I guess a lot of people were dealing with sickness. We even spotted some barf bags out and about, just in case. :eek:

 

The other thing that helped today was the casino. We played around in there which helped take my mind off all the movement. It was the first time that BF had ever gambled...I think I may have created a slight addict. LOL We won a little bit here and there, but always ended up giving it back. One of the times we were in the casino, someone won 7500 bucks...nice!

 

We grabbed some food from the buffet for dinner and took it back to our room. There was no way I was going to be able to sit through dinner tonight! I didn't end up eating and had a hard time falling asleep because I was moving in bed due to the ship! Luckily I never got sick, just felt off.

 

[Laurie S.]

Oh, we were so upset that we missed Grand Cayman! We had some wonderful shore diving planned and were so looking forward to getting wet after three "sea days" (we did the B2B). I was up at 6 am and looked out at Grand Cayman to see that we were cruising away from the island and knew we weren't going in at that point. Then, although we made it to Cozumel, the conditions were not safe for diving and we elected not to do it. Sat at the dive bar at the Villa Blanca dock instead and consumed mass quantities of alcohol to drown our sorrows. Five days in a row with no diving! Arghhhhhh!!!!

[Oskial]

We stayed at the Tahitian Inn in October when we cruised the Legend. We loved it and it was a much better experience than the Holiday Inn Rocky Point from the year before. I wrote a mini-review on the Florida departures board.

Our room was in the building off the main building. We were on the second floor. It was clean and quiet. The only noise we heard was when we were outside and you could hear folks at the pool. The KonTiki restaurant was great--we have a wonderful dinner and also breakfast. The Tahitian staff were wonderful and the shuttle was good too!

 

We stayed in an obstructed balcony and think it is the best value!

 

Love your review--wish I was cruising now!

K

Can you tell me what was was wrong with the Holiday Inn Express? We have that hotel booked for the night before we sail. It looked OK on line and the reviews were good. Let me know if you have time please. We haven't paid for anything yet and still have time to cancel if need be.

[relbeis]

Great photos! We'll be on the Legend for our HM in November. Looking forward to hearing more about your trip!

[LunaBell]

This a very different pic and just great!:D Do you remember where that was taken? What deck?

 

Loving the photos and review.

 

The Enchanted Forest! :)

[Laurie S.]

Can you tell me what was was wrong with the Holiday Inn Express? We have that hotel booked for the night before we sail. It looked OK on line and the reviews were good. Let me know if you have time please. We haven't paid for anything yet and still have time to cancel if need be.

 

There's nothing wrong with the HI in Rocky Point. I've stayed there twice.

[boowaaccaa]

This guy was waiting for us in the room. Not exactly sure what is was though. :confused:

 

 

 

I think we may have ventured out and wondered around some more in the dark up on deck this night. We went to bed fairly early though since we were getting up early for our first port day the next morning.

 

 

Monkey?

[Crown Vic]

LunaBell...top notch review. We're sailing on the Legend later this month. Almost do not have to go after such a good review. I said 'almost'...thanks...

[Andoria]

Yay, it's a special treat to read your review! I sent the link to my Mom.

 

Hi Mom!

 

-Heidi

[Jeffn57]

Lunabell,

Thanks so much for this great review!!! My wife and I along with some friends will be sailing on the Legend for the first time 2/12/12. This just makes the wait a little bit harder to take... Can't wait to get there !!!

[Justgettinstarted08]

LunaBell, what cabin were you in?

[RedbirdFL]

Thanks for the great review and pics! Can't wait to see the rest!

 

We're going in May and your review is rekindling my excitement about the trip!

[Ehpride]

Great review! I have almost that exact picture in the enchanted forest :)

[rphgf]

Thank you so much for the puctures! I was on that cruise too and your pictures are reminding me just how much fun it was. We had a party of 17 ranging in age from 10 to 85. About half had cruised before and for half this was the first time. What can i say? Each and every one of us had a blast and would definitely cruise again, and with Carnival, and on the Legend. We are already looking forward to next year. Some notes:

- wow it was rocky with those gale force winds but we were happy to discover that none of us suffered from seasickness

- we were however disappointed to learn that the Valor was able to stop in Grand Caymen - if we had realized that the larger ship was always given preference then we might have chosen differently

- the food was actually much better than I had expected or had experienced before on the Glory. We found that there was always something at the buffet or in the dining room. The food was always the correct temperature and the service was always very good.

- our steward was perfect

- we lucked out by being the first off in Cozumel. It seems the dock was closed for quite a bit of time while the Valor docked. We walked a bit then grabbed taxis straight to Chankanaab park. What a perfect day. Great little tour by Miguel, wonderful snorkeling, fantastic dolphin swim, good food.

-Bannister Island in Belize was disappointing but the girls loved the shopping at the port - the Mayan caves were a big hit too

Overall a really great trip. I have to say I was not sure what the crowd would be like on a New Year's sailing. This was the nicest group of people you would ever want to sail with. Just lovely.

[spacepotatoes]

Great review and pictures! We were actually in port with you in Cozumel, on the Imagination :) We also felt that wind - we were the only ship to make into the Key West on the 2nd and it was a pretty rough ride down to Coz from there. But it was a beautiful day in Cozumel and smooth sailing after that. Hope that was the case for you, too!

[BigDoug]

We are ready for Day 4.;)

[LunaBell]

We are ready for Day 4.;)

 

 

Okay, okay...you don't have to twist my arm! hehe Sorry about the wait folks, but I've been struggling with some stiff fingers and it's difficult to type. Postings may come a little slower, but I promise I will finish! (thanks for the reminder!)

 

Since we missed Grand Cayman yesterday, we were up bright and early and ready to go in Cozumel. Hey, we were getting there three hours earlier than planned! We got another room service breakfast while we got ready. I'd like to point out that room service always came on or a little bit before the time we wrote on the card. We asked for it EARLY too. :o Also, the same woman brought it to us each morning and she was very friendly. She always tried hard to accommodate my request for a "green" banana. :p

 

We hurried down the decks to get in line to get off the ship. Well when we got there, there were just a handful of people. And when they finally let us off the ship, it was still just a handful of people. I guess most were still sleeping or forgot we got there early.

 

As another poster commented, most of the shops/restaurants were closed and or just starting to open here and there. We didn't mind as we were just happy to be off the ship and seeing something! Our excursion didn't meet until 10am so we did "laps" around the pier area...

 

Sunrise over Cozumel

 

There really weren't many people getting off the ship with us

 

[LunaBell]

We took lots and lots of photos during our laps. I'll post a bunch of those with minimal text, for your enjoyment. :p

 

 

By the way, it was still very windy today although the sun did peak out here and there.

 

 

 

[LunaBell]

 

Still some Holiday decorations around here

 

 

Very empty

 

[LunaBell]

Hey, it's hard to resist the silly props :rolleyes: Notice I'm wearing a jacket...my teeth were chattering from time to time. It's cold in the morning here!

 

Looks like we've got some company

 

I just loved all the color here

 

[LunaBell]

We finally found where this sign was! I knew I had seen it in other people pictures.

 

From here it was just a few steps to the main road. We headed over just to take a glance before continuing our laps.

 

More prop madness

 

Awesome

 

Arsty garden shot

 

Sorry the foreground got in the way, but this is the ferry (UltraMar) that would be taking us to the mainland for our excursion.

 

This was the only day that we had booked a Carnival excursion as opposed to a private one. We really wanted to see Tulum, but did not feel like risking it on our own. I will continue that part of the review a little later!

[Laurie S.]

There were few people out because it was an hour earlier on the island. :)

[hhwdwfan]

Love seeing the pictures - we leave in 12 days! I can't wait! Thanks for sharing.