Carnival Legend 4/13/2014 Trip Report/Review

[wendynat]

I know some folks aren’t into intros and all of that, so if you don’t care about intro or pre-cruise stuff and just want to get to the Legend goodies, skip this first post and go to my second post!

 

Fair warning – I’m a very detailed person, and will put all those details here because I love reading reviews with details. If you don’t, my apologies in advance!

 

Quick “us” background: We’re a family of three, DH (44) aka “hubby”, DS (12) aka “kiddo”, and me (39) aka “I”.

 

Quick “our cruises” background: Our first cruise was just hubby and I for our tenth anniversary – 2006 Alaska on the Vision of the Seas. Had a great time, fell in love with the whole cruising thing. A few years later, we headed to Orlando in August 2012 for Star Wars Celebration VI convention. Since kiddo was a little older then, we brought him to his first Celebration and since we were down there ANYWAY, I decided to check out short cruises to see if kiddo would enjoy cruising.

 

Couldn’t stomach the thought of a 3 or 4 day-er after 7 short days in Alaska, so decided on Carnival Ecstasy’s 5 day Bahamas cruise out of Pt Canaveral. Had the right price, timing, and waterworks. We LOVED the cruise, kiddo LOVED the cruise, the friends we went with LOVED the cruise, and we REALLY loved Carnival.

 

Don’t get me wrong – the Vision was a great cruise, but we did like the food better on Carnival as well as the crazy over-the-top decorations and larger room. Also liked the more casual dress code, but that might have more to do with the Bahamas destination than the cruise line. If the price was right, we’d cruise either but would miss the slides and crazy Vegas decor. And hubby and kiddo would cry daily over no 24-hour soft serve ice cream ;).

 

Now, back to the Legend trip– we knew we had to do a longer cruise with kiddo, and also knew that August was hotter than Hades, so we decided to go with a Spring Break 7-dayer. Spring Break for Va Beach schools is usually either the week before or after Easter, thus April 13 was the magic date. I had heard that the Legend was undergoing drydock a month or two before our cruise, so I was excited about that. And we could use our Busch Gardens passes prior to the cruise in Tampa! I like stacking vacation destinations…

 

Our friends who were on the Ecstasy with us also switched to the Legend. It’s a husband-wife team with their 11 year old son. This time, they were also bringing their 11 year old niece.

 

Start the trip report, already! OK, then.

Pre-cruise: Found super cheap air prices out of Raleigh, which is a three hr drive from Va Beach. A three hour drive for a third of the price? No brainer. Note: a lot of things happen in threes in this trip report – more on that later.

Uneventful drive right after kiddo came home from school Fri evening to Raleigh. Had a park-and-fly rate at the Fairfield Inn Brier creek.

 

Pre-flight hotel stay was fine except for the fire alarm going off THREE minutes after I put on my polar bear pajama pants. We waited a few seconds to see if it was really a real alarm, and doggone it, it was. Hubby laughed at me because the only thing I brought outside during evacuation was my carryon that contained our passports and cruise tickets. The fire could take my clothes, but not my cruise! I can handle wearing polar bear pants on a cruise ship so long as I have a DOD in my hand! Stylin'.

 

Of course it was a false alarm, I think someone tried smoking in the non-smoking hotel or something. About 45 minutes the Fire Dept declared all-clear, we warmed up inside (no jacket, and polar bear pajama pants are not as warm as they sound) and then fell into bed.

 

Had set up a 5 AM time with the front desk the night before for a shuttle to the airport. Flight was at 7, and we’re get-to-airport-early types of people. Got to lobby at 5, waited around for the shuttle driver to show, and finally the dude at the front desk just took us himself at 5:15. Shuttle driver was sleeping in that Sat AM! It was only a ten minute or so drive, but I had to chuckle because near the end of the trip our newly-created shuttle driver all of a sudden started talking to us. I guess he realized that’s probably a better way to get a good tip than sullen silence ;).

 

Airport and flight were uneventful. We did eat some excellent breakfast burritos which happened to be heart-stopping in two ways: cholesterol content AND price.

 

Landed in Orlando (only way to get cheaper direct flight early), picked up rental car, headed to Tampa. Talked about moving to Florida when we retire, because it’s so pretty (well, the places we were going :) ).

 

We got to the hotel, Courtyard Marriott Westshore, and walked in with hopeful eyes at 11:30 AM to ask front desk if just maybe there was a room available early. NO!

 

Dejected, we hung our heads and went to eat lunch at Sweet Tomatoes and then pick up some supplies at Walmart. Water, soda, crackers for ports, etc. DH got his cruise essentials – two action figures: one Batman (blue and gray, this apparently matters), and an Iron Man. Oh, and some contact lens solution. Son got some transformers.

 

Not unusual for us to pick up random toys as we go about doing other things – we’re toy collectors. But I still rolled my eyes - really, action figures on a cruise ship? They can’t even eat! But since I didn’t have to pay for them to share our cabin, I didn’t complain. Plus, it would give me something to mock him about later. Always a bright side!!

 

(Turns out I was way wrong, and Iron Man would become a huge part of our cruise experience. Batman, not so much. Maybe because he’s too emo.)

 

Called hotel again. Please, sir, may we have a room? NO! So we went ahead to Busch Gardens. We have the platinum passes for our home park Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and they work at Sea World, BG Tampa, Aquatica, etc etc. Yay. We’d been to BG Tampa a couple of times before so we knew we’d only stay a couple of hours, ride the highlights, then get back to hotel early to rest up for EMBARKATION the next morning! Kiddo picked his top two rides and we rode them, then left to get our hotel room. Definitely worth the quick trip - Cheetah Hunt is best roller coaster around.

 

Aside from Apollo’s Chariot. And maybe Manta. OK, so the THIRD best coaster around.

 

Anyway, ate dinner at the hotel's Bistro and had a great night’s sleep. Quiet, comfy bed and… no fire alarms! Also free parking, which is one reason we booked this hotel since we knew we’d have a rental car.

 

Next up - Embarkation and First Official Day.

[wendynat]

Day 1 – Embarkation and First Official Day

 

I’d gotten an email a few days prior stating to head to the port around 1. Since it didn’t include any specifics, we figured it was one of the “OMG we must control traffic!” types. We’d also bought FTTF, so there was no way I was waiting that late! We had snacks, we had water, we were cool.

 

We did hedge a bit and decide to take our time getting there, though, rather than showing up at 10 with big, hopeful eyes only to have to sit on the sidewalk. After sleeping on a sidewalk a couple of years ago to see George Lucas at Celebration V, I’ve come to the realization that sidewalks + my butt are not a happy combination. Well, maybe for the sidewalk, but not for my butt.

 

Anyhoo, enough about my butt. The rental had to be returned, and returned full of gas (insert butt joke here), so we headed to the airport at 9:30 with plans to take leisurely meal and then grab cab to port. For some reason, Tampa doesn’t want you to buy gasoline. There was one ridiculously crowded gas station on the way to the airport that I passed, declaring, “Crazy! I’m not waiting in line to get gas, this isn’t the 70s gas crisis! We’ll find another one closer, other people with rentals need to fill up, after all.”

 

Wrong, once again.

 

Finally gave up when we reached the airport without seeing a reputable gas station. Call me crazy, but I’m not putting my credit card in a pay-at-the-pump station called “Cheap and Easy.” Hubby’s cell phone was completely useless in finding new reputable gas stations. It kept telling us to turn around and go back to the real one, or take the Cheap and Easy route and say bye bye to my credit line.

 

Fine, then.

 

Turned around and headed back to the crazy crowd at the most happening-est place in town on Sunday morning. Took a half hour to get gas! But, it ended up working out because when we got to the rental return at TPA, it was crazy far from the “land side” concourse where we could eat and get a taxi. Carryons plus three big suitcases, plus our clumsy inability to keep the rolling suitcases upright while traveling through parking decks = bad news.

 

BUT!! Right after we got there and returned the car, our man in shining armor (well, slightly stained cotton shirt, but he had a dolly) Ramon rolled up with a huge dolly that was capable of wrangling our luggage. We followed him through the maze of the parking deck, chatting him up along the way, and he dragged our bags all through the airport to one of the tables near the red elevator and the food court. Tipped him well, super nice guy!

 

Ate breakfast and chatted, then around 10:45 decided to go down and get a cab. A slight pang of guilt for ignoring Carnival’s decree, but I quickly squashed it.

 

Believe it or not, they ran out of cabs right before we got there, and there was a line of about six families waiting. This is apparently an unusual occurrence, and the taxi stand dude kept apologizing. We kept saying no problem, since we knew we were being rebels getting to the port early anyway. It didn’t take too awful long to get a cab.

 

While in line, we started conversation with the couple behind us. They had flown in that morning from Chicago… and while they made it, their luggage was still enjoying the sights of the Windy City. They were going on the NCL Dawn, leaving same time as us. Yikes! They were headed to the mall to get clothes before checking in on their ship. I felt awful for them. We always fly in at least the day before, for that very reason (and also delays, etc etc etc etc).

 

So we’re in cab, I’m taking pics from the cab as we careen around the blocks downtown. It kept my attention away from the way we were careening around the blocks downtown. Here’s one of the bow of the ship between two buildings:

 

The cops wouldn’t let our cab pull up front because … I dunno why (rebels never prosper!), so our taxi driver took us around the back of the parking garage. We walked over – not far at all – and by 11:35 we were dropping our bags off with one of the porters outside the port terminal. Thus began the “I have FTTF, do I need to do anything special?” questions, because I wanted to be sure he put the magic orange tape on our bags. Sure enough, he gave me the orange tapes to write our name and cabin number on, then I watched him put the magic orange tape on our luggage before tipping him. Now we only had our carry ons and hubby is hauling the extra dufflebag we brought that’s filled with water and soda.

 

The port of Tampa is very quick. Crazy quick, compared to Seattle and Port Canaveral. We made our way to the security dude standing outside the main door and he takes the passports and boarding pass, looks at them, hands me back the passports and then tells us to go on. A little confused, I say, “Sir, you still have our boarding pass, do I still nee-“

 

He said a quick sorry and handed it over and then we were being rushed on by the lady at the bottom of the escalator right inside the door, me struggling to put our passports back into my cargo shorts. Note – I always carry everyone’s passport. The one time I let hubby carry his own in an airport, he forgot which pocket he put it in and was tearing through his carry on while everyone in line behind us began whittling voodoo dolls and chanting. So now I carry everything important.

 

Went up escalators (ONE HAND ON HANDRAIL! the kind lady reminded us) to the next floor up for the search-n-seizure – er, security. Put duffel through, told them it was water and soda, they didn’t even check. I was a little miffed… we were actually being honest this time, so they COULD’VE checked. I bet if it’d been vodka-in-water-bottles they’d’ve checked, that’s my luck. Walked into another room where a nice lady was standing next to a FTTF sign, so I didn’t even have to ask my question. She checked us off, let us through rope, and we were next in line to check in!

 

Heard announcement for priority and vip while we were there at counter. Check in Lady was new or something, kept forgetting where things were, etc. Heard them call FTTF, not in line yet… Ah, well. We finally got the priority placard and all of our Sign n Sail cards, and was told to skip the line and show placard.

 

Now, I have issues with lines. I’m very line-conscious. I hate people cutting, and I refuse to cut. But this was sanctioned, I even had a plastic sign saying so, so I did it. I felt guilty, but not guilty enough to wait behind all the Group 1 – 3 people.

 

So we walked right through, they opened the ropes where needed upon seeing the priority placard, and we were directed to the right hand side of the line for the first “bong” of our trip! (Not that kind of bong, the *bong* noise you hear when you put your card in the reader thingie). No one in the right side of the line, so we were bonged in, told to keep cards out because there would be another bong ahead, took quick welcome pic, and then we were on the gangway. Kiddo and hubby on the gangway:

 

We were bonged onto the ship at 11:55 (via the timestamps on my pics). Quickest embarkation ever – drop bags at 11:35, on board twenty minutes later! We never stopped moving except when at the counter. Very awesome.

Dropped bags in room, cabin 6140, so hubby no longer had to pretend to be manly man and carry many pounds of liquid refreshment on his shoulder. That was worth the 50.00 for FTTF alone, even without the quick embarkation!!

 

Some room pics – this was our first balcony cabin – we’d gone from inside to oceanview to now balcony. Not going suite next time, but definitely doing balcony again!

 

After dropping the carryons, we headed to Guest Services to get the cash out of my hands and into our onboard account, and also check on the shore excursion credit to be sure it had been applied (no letter in stateroom, but it was early yet). One person was ahead of us in the Platinum/Diamond/FTTF line. The regular line had a lot of folks. So I’m standing there, with my Sign and Sail card out and FTTF sticker facing out so the guest svcs person would know I’m not a line jumper, and all of a sudden I feel this really hard tap on my shoulder. Now, I’m no lightweight, but that almost hurt!

 

I turned and a woman was VERY close to me. “The line’s back there!” I looked at her in confusion for a minute, trying to figure out why she was talking to me then she repeated it. Now, it wasn’t in a helpful tone at all, and I was really still baffled so the best I could do was to raise an eyebrow and show her my card and point to the sign above the desk. “No, this is the Fast to the Fun and Platinum line. The picture’s right there.” She didn’t apologize or anything, just turned on heel and went to end of the other line.

 

I got called up shortly after and after conducting my business, I left the line. I did look back – how could I not? – and she was still staring at me. Yikes! Some people need to a) mind their own business and b) chill the heck out. First day of vacation and you decide to be the hall monitor (who gets it wrong). Luckily, that was the only person who was rude/strange/busybody that I noticed for the rest of the trip.

 

-cont

[wendynat]

Day 1 cont.

 

After that we headed to the Lido for some grub. While wandering I found Chopsticks, and made sure to lord it over hubby when I got back to the table with my fried rice – he loves Chinese food but didn’t see that part of the buffet. Kiddo had some, too, along with other things *I* didn’t notice.

Hubby went and got some for himself, of course. I was lucky to be behind a nice lady in line at Chopsticks and she gave me a rundown of where all the buffet parts, deli, pizza, etc were. I like the way it was all spread out to better handle the lines, but it took some getting used to.

 

On the way to get ice cream, hubby spotted the Cheers and Bottomless Bubbles signup tables. Stopped to sign up kiddo (for the bubbles, of course), after confirming that root beer was indeed in the picture. Got him the insulated cup, to – not so much for soda refills as for ice water to bring with us in ports.

 

Ice cream and other pics:

 

Explored ship some, Serenity deck on Legend is amazing! Pool and hot tub, hammocks, etc, much nicer than the Ecstasy’s Serenity area. Kiddo was excited at what he saw through the glass door until he saw the sign. Awww.

 

We made our way forward and up a deck, where the spa was. Outside there was a door you could go through and have a good view. Hubby grabbed more ice cream and made the final cell phone call to his parents.

 

- Continued

[wendynat]

After that, we went back to the cabin to find two of our three bags. Yay! The third came a little while later. We relaxed and unpacked. There was plenty of storage space, especially in the bathroom. It felt bigger than the Ecstasy bathroom, but that could have just been the layout. I will say it was easier to not be molested by the shower curtain thanks to the Legend’s bathroom setup, which was kind of nice and kind of lonely at the same time.

 

Finally our friends made it on board and came by to check out our room and say hi because they didn’t have their luggage yet. We stopped unpacking and went with them to explore the ship. And now I need to make up some names for them. Friend and Friendhubby, and for the kids we’ll call them Friendson and Friendniece. Yep, I’m masterfully creative!

 

We went floor by floor, until we paused at the casino bar to get her kids’ soda stickers. We also got some pina coladas! Well, hubby, me, and Friend did… Friendhubby was taking forever to decide which beer would be his first.

 

Hubby, Friend and I got our drinks, the kids got their virgin versions of our drinks, and Friendhubby decided he was ready to order. Whoops – right then, the captain came on and announced muster. Too late, bar now closed. Aww. We made our ways to our separate muster stations (they were midship, same deck) and planned to meet back at the casino bar afterwards.

 

Muster – eh, it was muster. It’s outside on the Legend, and we were foolish enough to head right over so we were the line in front of the wall line. BUT we lucked out with some kids in front of us. Ah, air!! There was a lady with claustrophobia behind us, so I tried to angle my body so she could see out clearly and thus, breathe. I still had my drink, so I was content. Hubby had drank all of his drink on the way, I mocked him for not rationing appropriately. He was sad.

 

Others laughed, whatever you can do to liven things up. Waited and waited while the captain – or whoever - called other folks on the intercom who ignored the muster drill (all of whom I wanted to stab with a chopstick for making us stand out there longer). They don’t take roll, so I assume those must be people in their cabins that the steward turned in? Anyway, they finally did the briefing. Couldn’t hear anything, but got the idea from them pointing to the correct lifeboats.

 

Finally over, we met back at the casino bar and Friendhubby got his drink. We wandered through to see the new Bonsai Sushi and Red Frog Pub. What a great spot! Lots of games (free) like shuffleboard and foosball, which the kids spent many hours at during the week. Good drinks and lots of room.

 

The guys hung out while Friend and I signed the kids up for the kid clubs. They were in separate age groups, so I kind of figured they’d more likely skip those events and hang out together. I was right, but still needed to sign ‘em up. Explored a little to find the clubs, which were sort of tough to find unless you went the Enchanted Forest route. Checked out the arcade, then went on deck to meet the guys.

We sat up on deck to watch sailaway. Kids went swimming – told them to be ready after we pass under the bridge to go to dinner. We had Anytime Dining, which we loved on Ecstasy and felt the same on the Legend. Even with 7 people, we didn’t wait a single time.

 

Passed some cool murals on the sides of some industrial thingies

Then we finally got to the bridge:

 

Afterwards, we called the kids in from the pool and got cleaned up for dinner. It was around 6:45 by then, and we walked right in with our 7 peeps. Magic Leo was wandering around – what a great show! Still can’t figure out some of the tricks.

I had braised beef brisket, some appetizers, and crème brulee - Yum. I love food, but didn’t do food pics and all of that.

 

Sent kiddo off to Circle C meet n greet and Video Game hour – I can’t remember what Friendskids did, but they weren’t with us for the martini tasting.. I think they went to the arcade. We did do some shopping (browsing for me and hubby, actual purchasing for friends – they are professional shoppers).

 

So, Friend and I did the martini tasting. A couple were just vile, but most were pretty good. The favorite for both of us was the Melon one.

After that, we went to get kiddo then headed to bed. As agreed he met us outside the Circle C room at 11. He said it was OK, but too many kids for too few machines. He already had built-in friends on board, so he wasn’t much interested. Next year they’ll all three be in same group, so it might be a different story.

 

Next - Day 2. Probably post in a day or two.

[nycfa]

Yay! A legend review. We go in July.

 

BTW I totally hear you on getting gas by the Tampa Airport!!! We flew in there last summer to go to Disney (Saved $$ instead of Orlando).

 

We drive back the morning of our flight and can't find gas for the rental. Actually went thru the WHOLE airport and back out cause NOTHING was on the way in!!!

 

Oh to make it worse our youngest DD had thrown up in the car about 20 min before we got there for we wanted to get her changed and clean up better then the quicky we did on the side of I-4. :eek:

 

Eventually we found 7-11 and took care of it! Thank goodness we had PLENTY of time. It was a bit stressful even then and I felt bad for my poor DD.

[elainmir]

I really enjoyed your review..you are very funny...I was hysterically laughing at the part where you carry passports because your DH forgot where he put them and folks behind you were whittling voo doo dolls and chanting...thanks for the laughs!

[mere08]

We cruise on the Legend in 4 days and am loving your review. Can't wait to read more!!!

[recjus85]

Great review so far! Can't wait to board in 18 days!

[2xprincess]

So excited to see another legend review - Thank you!

[HMC RET]

Going on legend in July. Looking forward to read review. BTW. Wendy. Your husband works with dw at GEICO. Sorry to hijack

[fofita01]

Great review. You have me laughing.... Especially when I read this:

 

"I will say it was easier to not be molested by the shower curtain thanks to the Legend’s bathroom setup, which was kind of nice and kind of lonely at the same time."

 

:D

 

You're right, the bathrooms are a smidge bigger on Spirit/Conquest/Dream class ships.

Edited May 1, 2014 by fofita01

[Gingee]

Bring it on:)

[wendynat]

I’ll post Day 2 later today/tonight, but wanted to thank everyone for reading and replying. I promise I’m not going to draw out the review, but it does take some time to get pics together and type up my notes into a format suitable for human consumption. My goal is to put up a day each day, maybe more this weekend.

 

nycfa – Thanks! And I’m glad we weren’t the only ones that noticed the gas situation in Tampa near the airport. What is the deal? I started wondering if the rental agencies bribed the city to not allow gas stations nearby, hoping people would not fill up in desperation and just pay the $5,243 a gallon the rental companies charge. Sorry to hear about youngest DD – that is always just an awful experience. Kiddo used to get sick in my car all the time when he was younger, much better now.

 

HMC_RET – Hi, there! Yep, it’s me. I spoke to your dw at the last work get-together about the cruise and planning, etc, and she said you were on here. You guys are going to have a great time!

 

elainmir, mere08, recjus85, 2xprincess, fofita01, and Gingee –Thanks so much for the replies :).

Edited May 1, 2014 by wendynat
Add spaces, fix font

[wendynat]

Day 2 - Monday - Sea Day

 

So, the night before at dinner and even later as we drank – I mean, walked - our way around the ship, hubby, Friendhubby and I made concrete plans to hit the gym the next morning. Solid, irreversible promises that we WOULD meet and work out… for at least 15 minutes. Hey, I’m a realist. So much a realist that I stared at Friendhubby, trying to determine whether it was the alcohol talking or if he had been taken over by a pod person.

 

“Yes! I will be there, mark my words!” the pod person said.

 

Now, we’ve traveled a lot with these friends. They’re also comic, sci-fi, Star Wars, etc fans and we go to conventions and other trips together. We’re all costumers as well – mainly Star Wars, but some Star Trek, Lost, Dr Horrible, etc. Hubby and I are members of the 501st Legion, the international group of movie-quality “bad guy” costumers from the Star Wars movies. Our organization helped raise over 30 million dollars for charity last year, while having an awesome time in plastic armor. Friendhubby attends charity events and cons as a fantastic Mace Windu (the Sam L Jackson character from the Star Wars prequels, for the uninitiated). Hubby is already a Rebel Legion member (the good guy sister group of the 501st) as a Jedi and XWing pilot, and Friendhubby is planning to join soon. Friend does some costuming but hasn’t settled on a character.

 

Anyhooo – that long intro was to state that we have traveled a lot with these peeps, and I *know* Friendhubby likes to sleep in. Like, a lot. The only times he’ll get up early is 1) for a great panel at a convention (and it better be a great one – he even slept in rather than hit the Leonard Nimoy/William Shatner DragonCon panel a few years back), 2) golf, 3) a sale on watches, or 4)… yeah, I think there are only THREE.

 

So I stated as much to the pod person, and he lifted his drink and once again adamantly stated that he would BE THERE, along with some further comments about how we wouldn’t make it. At first hubby said 7 AM to hit the gym, but both Friendhubby and I laughed so hard that hubby finally admitted he wouldn’t be up by 7. So we set a more reasonable time of 9 AM to meet in the gym. Then, we’d clean up and head to the $10 sale in the shops (as I said, friends are professional shoppers) and then the Seaday brunch, which I was determined to try this time.

 

The next morning came. Slept GREAT, beds were super comfy, and something about the faint rocking motion puts me right out. I got up before hubby and kiddo, not unusual, and went out onto the balcony to take some pics, read my nook, and enjoy the new balcony-ness of my cruise existence. It was so peaceful out there, aside from the heart-stopping BANGS of the neighbors letting their balcony door slam shut. They did this all week, but since they tended to only use the balcony when I was awake, no real issue. It didn’t seem to wake up the guys, which should have been a surprise but wasn’t – very little wakes them up. Hubby could probably be eaten by an alligator in his sleep and not wake up until he reached the pearly gates.

 

Anyhoo, I usually had at least an hour out on the balcony by myself each morning. It was great.

 

A little later, hubby came out and opened up his Iron Man. After The Great Unpackaging, he filled me in on his plans.

 

Now, a few years back I had gone to the National Barbie Convention (toy collectors, remember?) in Orlando, and took a travel doll from an online acquaintance. For the uninitiated, travel dolls are kind of like the Travelocity gnome, except they’re way older (well, the idea, not that they all have longer beards). Barbie collectors hang out online, and will trade travel dolls for a couple of weeks or a month, etc. The recipient will take the travel doll with them to neat spots and take pictures, helping to create a scrapbook of all the cool places the travel doll went.

 

My travel doll has been to some really awesome spots. The wench.

 

Anyhoo – after The Great Unpackaging, hubby announced that this is a travel Iron Man, except he wouldn’t be sending him off to stay with other folks. No, he would come with us on our travels.

 

So, Iron Man, International Man of Travel, was born. He took some action shots of Iron Man, of course. Here’s one with the sunrise in the background.

 

We spent a little more time out on the balcony while hubby repeatedly wondered whether to take Batman out of his package and I repeatedly told him I didn’t care. Kiddo came out to enjoy the balcony and then announced he was headed out to explore the arcade and the pool deck. Told him have fun, be back by 10:15. Being 12 now, we gave him a little more freedom than he’d had last time. He was very good about things on the Ecstasy, was always where he said he’d be on the post-it-notes, etc. We once again gave him a precise spending limit for the week on the sign and sail card (didn’t limit it officially, just unofficially), for arcade and virgin drinks and candy from Cherry on Top (they told him he was their best customer, there every day!). No problems this time, either.

 

Anyhoo, he took off and hubby and I got ready to meet the pod person in the gym. As it turned out, we met the invisible pod person in the gym – as we’d expected. So hubby and I worked out - I actually did a full thirty minutes - on the machines facing the water. What a great idea! I was done after 30 and headed up to clean up and meet the friends at the $10 sale. I had no doubt they’d make it to that!

 

And I was right. They WERE at the 10 sale. Kiddo (he came with me) and I wandered a bit and looked at things, but nothing really stuck out as needing to come back to the cabin with us. I looked at some insulated tote bags but the zippers didn’t move easily, so I didn’t pick one up. Overall, the goodies on the ship weren’t too enticing, which was good for my wallet. The Bella Per-whatever bracelet sale was scheduled for the final sea day, and I did want to get some charms for the one bracelet I’d bought at the free-for-all cage match that was the Ecstasy Bella Perl-whatever sale.

 

After friends exhausted the sale, we all headed back to rooms – they to drop off their goodies and us to pick up hubby for… food! We grabbed hubby, went by friends’ cabin to grab them. While we were there, we met their cabin steward. (I almost forgot – our cabin steward was Nelson and he was awesome. The phone didn’t work the first day and I mentioned it to him… it was fixed by the time we got back that evening.) Their cabin steward was from the Philippines, so he struck up conversation with hubby and kiddo.

 

Finally everyone is ready and we’re headed to the sea day brunch. Mmm. It was pretty good! I ordered the steak and eggs with a side of bacon. It was good, but I was glad I ordered the steak rare because they definitely overdo it a bit. It was more medium rare/medium level. So, keep that in mind. The MDR at dinner was a little better, more a solid medium rare when ordering a rare. Hubby got eggs benedict, which we keep seeing on all of Gordon Ramsey’s various challenge shows but have never eaten. One of the best things about cruising – trying things you always wondered about, and not having to later kick yourself for spending 15 bucks on something that ends up tasting like a chihuahua’s hindparts.

 

To be clear, I've never actually tasted a chihuahua's hindparts. I have to assume it's not delectable.

 

Verdict on eggs benedict – he liked it! I tried his, too, and it was really good! We got them on the breakfast buffet on port days as well, but they definitely weren’t as good as in the MDR.

 

We also used our past guest free drink coupons. I got a bloody mary, hubby a Miami Vice (strawberry daiquiri and pina colada together), and kiddo a non-alcoholic daiquiri. We had good service this time, and the bar service was really great. The last sea day brunch not so much, but that’s for later.

 

I want to say that Magic Leo came by the table again this morning, but I can’t swear to it. It could be the Bloody Mary talking. He did the stealing-hubby’s-watch trick, and one trick that was really crazy. Friendniece was given one of a pair of white dice to hold in her fist. He talked a little, then had her open her first. The die was now red.

 

Super cool.

 

Anyhoo, after we ate we split away from the younglings. They went to the arcade and then slides/pool. We let kiddo know where we’d be going and to meet back in room at 4:00 to clean up for Hunger Games trivia (and dinner after).

 

We made some donations in the casino. Friend and I were able to stretch our 10 bucks in the penny slots for a good while. The guys wandered around the tables, but didn’t see anything that they were willing to part with 6 bucks a hand for. Hubby finally came over and tried a dollar slot, but didn’t look closely to see that it was a dollar slot, but 5 dollar minimum. So he lost half his 10 bucks right away. That’ll teach him to read the directions!! (No, it actually won’t.)

 

So he gave up and let Iron Man play a little. HE was luckier than hubby, in that he didn’t LOSE any money!

 

I had 11 bucks in bank but hubby was pouting over loss, and Friend pointed out Super Trivia on the activities schedule in the Red Frog Pub. Sounded good, so we headed over.

 

Got a Rum Jumper this time. Yummy! I really liked the pub. It had a lot of space, and had great drinks. I think the kids might’ve come in for a while to play foosball, but again – that could’ve been the Rum Jumper talking.

 

Emily ran the Super Trivia – she was great. It was one of the ones where they have a participant roll a huge die to determine the category. The team next to us got into the traveling Iron Man thing, and Emily noticed and pretended she thought it was cool when people do the traveling things. She was probably lying, but I didn’t care. She did let Iron Man roll the die once.

 

 

We didn’t win, but we had a good showing. I’d blame the drinks, but the team next to us had more drinks and they won. Iron Man didn’t care – he just played with his pretty umbrellas, like any good super hero.

Before we went our separate ways, we asked Emily if she was doing the Hunger Games trivia later and received an affirmative. Score! We told her Iron Man would be there.

-cont

[wendynat]

Day 2, continued

 

We split up then, as friends aren’t as into sun/water as we are. They went shopping again, I think, and we headed to the room to get ready for the Serenity deck. Got my nook, put on my layers of sunscreen with hubby’s help (full application of lotion, then full application of spray sunscreen), and he grabbed his book and we headed up.

 

Ah, Serenity, how I love thee! We lucked out with loungers next to each other. Hubby grabbed a singleton that we saw, then I walked slowly around, eyeing people who looked like they were shifty. One couple right in front of the pool started putting things back in their bags – after verifying they were leaving, I put my bag down, grabbed hubby, and we had two loungers next to the pool. Woot! I will say most loungers had humans in them at this time of day, no hogs. Hung out, read, swam a bit, read some more. Was very nice!

 

 

Twister slide and you can see the top of the Green Thunder in this pic:

 

We stayed there for a couple of hours and then headed back to the room to shower and get ready for trivia. Trivia was fun, and our team lost by only 1 point. Blast! The winners were kind enough to let Iron Man pretend to have won.

 

 

After easing Iron Man’s sore loser-ness, we left to get ready for elegant night. Hubby, kiddo, and Friendhubby STILL whined about it, even though Carnival’s elegant night only requires minimal dressing up. Slacks and an alligator-style shirt, Oh My! They did dress with minimal whining once back in the cabin so we got ready and headed to friends cabin at 5:45 as agreed.

 

Knocked, someone said to hold on. We held on. Finally, Friendhubby opened the door and there was some commotion going on about a missing bag and no shoes – we just backed away slowly and said to call our room when they were ready. Another point in Anytime Dining’s favor!

 

About 6:15 they called and were ready (missing bag retrieved from the luggage peeps and shoes found), so we headed over. We went and had pics taken, then headed to the MDR, arriving around 6:45. Again, no wait. I was impressed. The dining staff checking us in asked if we wanted the same wait staff and we indicated a new one would be fine (the wait staff the night before had been OK, but not amazing). No problem, we got a big round table next to the big round table we were at the night before. Head waiter that night was Thomas. He was good, much more lively than the wait staff the previous evening (not naming that head waiter, since it was first night and there was nothing really WRONG with the service).

 

Let me take a moment to call out the best MDR bar waiter ever – Agus. He’d come by the previous night and actually remembered us from the Ecstasy cruise… down to the drinks the guys liked! Unbelievable. I can’t remember what drink *I* like most of the time! Hubby was “whiskey sour” and Friendhubby was “Long Island Iced Tea”. We always got super fast service from him, including the kids with their soda cards.

 

The food was great. Had lobster (of course) and prime rib (ordered rare – it came almost rare!). Both were excellent. I forget which dessert was that night, it could’ve been Bitter n Blanc, but don’t quote me. Whatever it was, it was good. Now I wish I had taken some pics of the menu. Ah, well.

 

After dessert, hubby ordered cappuccino. Now, what did I tell you about hubby and reading directions? Right. The look on his face when the waiter brought out the thingie to sign told me he’d had no idea that the price right near the specialty coffees actually applied to the specialty coffees. It gave Friendhubby something to laugh at hubby about in addition to the questionable manliness of a cappuccino.

 

Continued

[wendynat]

Day 2, continued again

 

We got out of dinner too late to make the family comedy, but knew it would be happening again the next night with the same comedians so no worries there. We checked the funtimes and saw that there was to be a piano bar sing-along soon, so we headed to Billie’s Piano Bar.

 

Only to be denied.

 

Billie’s was not only empty, but the doors were locked. LOCKED! How rude. We waited a while along with some other folks, but the piano man never showed up so we got some candy at Cherry on Top and headed down the spiral stairs to where the 70s Name That Tune was going to happen in the Legends Café.

 

It ended up being a very fortuitous thing – the piano man did us a favor by standing us up! What a fantastic time. Mike, the Assistant Cruise Director, is hilarious and kept the entire event upbeat and fun. The Name That Tune trivias soon became standing room only during the cruise – we had to go get seats 45 minutes in advance in order to have seats. If you’re ever on a cruise with Asst Cruise Director = Mike, go to the Name that Tune trivias. Trust me.

 

Best part, aside from singing along with 10 or so seconds of the songs and trying to remember who sang it and what the name was after a Rum Jumper or two, was Mike’s tendency to point audience members out and create nicknames for them. I can’t remember all of them, but we had:

The Manliest Man in Manville (amazing mustache that grew down into an open goatee),

The Commitment (shouted out the answers with pure commitment, and they were always wrong),

Mr. Confidence (who sat back with his hands behind his head, nodding confidently),

The Woman Who Dances Like She’s Swimming (self-explanatory),

The Man Who Combs his Mustache with a Straw (guess who THAT was? Yep, Friendhubby),

The Man with Impressive Mustache (Mike has somewhat of an obsession with mustaches),

The Champ (who won multiple of these events)

Man with Big Watch – self explanatory

Boy Band – a guy who looked like… well, like he could be in a Boy Band.

 

Haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. The trophy for this trivia was also more impressive than the regular ship on a stick – it was… Bling on a String! A ship, with an adjustable strap, and two medals.

 

Well, after all of that we were pumped up. Saw on the Funtimes that there was a late night Magic Leo show in one of the lounges. We decided to head over, though hubby wasn’t sure he’d be able to stay awake. Told hubby that if he was tired to go ahead to bed, because if he whined I’d have to hurt him, and then he’d only whine more.

 

He decided to come along.

 

I am glad we got there early, because it ended up being standing room only – see by the picture! It really needs to be moved to a bigger venue.

More awesome tricks! This time we saw him steal someone else’s watch, so were able to see how he did it. Very slick – if this magic thing doesn’t work out, he’s got a solid backup.

 

After the show we headed to our rooms to snooze – early-ish wakeup the next day for Grand Cayman! Friends were taking an excursion to the Car Museum and Island Tour, while we planned to take the local bus to the beach. Made plans to meet for dinner the next night, and headed out.

 

A good-night crab said good-night.

[mamatojonah]

Do you happen to have any of the circle c fun times? Going on the Legend in a few weeks with my 13 yr old autistic son and it really helps him to get involved if he is prepared. :-)

 

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[mishka422]

Loving your review. I feel like I'm back on my favorite ship! We were on the week before you

 

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[wendynat]

Do you happen to have any of the circle c fun times? Going on the Legend in a few weeks with my 13 yr old autistic son and it really helps him to get involved if he is prepared. :-)

 

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I think I do - I'll take a look this weekend and scan them in if I did put them with the other papers!

[mamatojonah]

Awesome! Thanks! :-)

 

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[Island Crazed]

Love your report. We got off the Legend the 13th. We Loved Mike's trivia games and nicknames. We had a Swimming Girl on our cruise too.

 

 

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[island girl22]

Loving your review! I was on this cruise & was actually in Boy Bands group of friends!! lol Best cruise I've ever been on ;)

 

 

🌴☀️🌴

[oneboysmom]

Love your story telling and your travelling action figures....I would actually like to copy you and do that...those pics were just too funny!!!!

Loving your review and can't wait to read the rest!!

[NCTattoo]

Thank you, wendy! I am loving your review. You have a GREAT sense of humor. We'll be onboard the Legend in June. Can't wait....even more so now that I'm reading this review.

[miss tea]

Looking forward to this review