Carnival Legend 4/13/2014 Trip Report/Review

[wendynat]

We cruise the Legend on June 1 and I can't wait! I am loving your review. I am going with my parents, who are celebrating their retirement, and my BF. You and your hubby will appreciate this ... BF is missing Phoenix ComiCon for this trip. He's a little bummed, but excited about the cruise. Seems like the Con adds a super new guest everyday, lol.

 

Thanks for posting!

 

I so know the feeling that BF is enduring - it always seems like the cons we have to skip are the ones that have the BEST guests being announced!! Have a great time on your cruise, and thanks for replying :)

[wendynat]

May book the Legend and this review is pushing me to want to great job so far!

 

Thanks so much - I'm glad you're enjoying it!! The Legend is great :D

[wendynat]

I look forward to your account of the tender into Belize.. I assume you were on the same one we were since we had the same excursion! Haha

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Oh, yes... coming up RIGHT after I post this! LOL!

[wendynat]

Day 5 – Thursday - Belize

 

We got up early the next morning to be sure we had plenty of time to eat and make it to the Follies lounge by 9:30 for our excursion group meet-up. As usual, I was the first up – before sunrise - and took some pics on the balcony before hitting the shower.

 

The Glory before sunrise:

 

Good morning, moon,

 

I made the others get up when I was done so they could get ready while I enjoyed the beautiful morning air on the balcony. We packed up for the day (it felt odd not schlepping the beach towels along with us) and headed to the buffet with our stuff. After we got our food, we did see our friends hitting the buffet. We were able to get seats all together, ate, and Friend headed back to room to get something – reminding Friendhubby, Friendson, and Friendniece not to forget their bag. Well, we finished up and Friendhubby made certain to leave the bag on the seat.

 

To his credit, he realized it before we got to the Follies lounge. RIGHT before, when Friend was already there and he couldn’t pretend he didn’t do it. This whole missing bag thing was a theme with them this cruise, apparently. Luckily he did find it nestled in the seat where it had been abandoned, and we all headed into the lounge.

 

Got our cool green “23” stickers. I’ve now come to the conclusion that since 23 is exactly ten more than 13, that means it’s ten times as unlucky of a number…. But I’m getting ahead of myself. After putting on our fashionable stickers we went to sit in the lounge until our number was called, like good little cruisers.

 

Now, when planning out our Belize day I knew we wanted to do the ruins there because they still let you climb on them, whereas in Mexico it’s a no-no. I imagine Belize will follow suit eventually, but for now you’re free to clamber up the rocks if you’re feeling spry (as long as it’s not raining). Carnival offered two tours to Altun Ha and a tour to Xunantunich ruins.

 

The Xunantunich tour was out because it took ALL day, 2 + hour bus ride there and back again (not a Hobbit Holiday), and no time to shop in port. I really, really wanted to check out the port area shops, especially Moho chocolate. Hubby had the burning need to buy a Hawaiian shirt, and I knew Belize would be a cheap place for it. I also wanted to pick up some hand-carved wood pieces, but that could be purchased at the ruins sites.

 

The River Wallace Altun Ha tour sounded interesting, except… hubby and kiddo. As you guys can tell, I’m the planner. I’m way detailed, plan options in each port, and hubby likes that because he doesn’t have to do any work other than complaining about whatever I decided on. To be fair, he’s usually very satisfied and non-whiny when we’re actually AT the place, but the prior-to he makes these weird assumptions in his head that don’t match what I told him we’d be doing, mainly because he tends to listen to maybe every fifth word and then tune me out. Can’t always blame him, but I will anyway.

 

Anyhoo, I do know his likes/dislikes and what will turn the whining monster on, so when I researched the two Altun Ha excursions I knew we had to do the city bus tour. Why? The River Wallace version is wonderful, but is in an uncovered boat (usually) and it can be hot. Now, you might assume that this dear man whose family hales from an equatorial area would be perfectly comfortable in heat… and you’d be completely wrong. So, no river boat for us, because I’d be pulling out a voodoo doll with short black hair holding a mini iron man figure and stabbing it.

 

So, City Tour it was. I had to admit, a nice air conditioned bus sounded grand to me as well.

 

So, back to sitting in the lounge, chatting. Friends told us about picking up a ticket for an art auction or raffle or something later that day. We weren’t interested, we have lots of stuff for our walls and not enough walls to put it on, but friends have a lot more wall space in their pad. Iron Man decided he was interested, too – he wanted some art. Maybe Pepper is a fan.

 

 

Finally they call our group – said something about us being the largest group – and we got in single file line a la elementary school. Down the stairs and through the halls, to the tender boats we go! We get stalled in the hallway on Deck 1 during the wait for a tender, and I thought MAN I’m sorry for the folks in these rooms. I hope most of them were out and about on the ship, but I did see some folks come out of their rooms. Each of them stopped and blinked for a minute at the row of peeping toms lining the wall across from their room, but quickly moved on.

 

Finally we file onto the tender, get situated, and the tender takes off. Friend and Friendniece are across from the rest of us, who are facing the rear of the tender. A nice Belizean man gave us a quick rundown of the safety stuff, where the lifejackets were, etc. I’ll refer to him as the Spokesman.

 

About ten minutes in, I’m enjoying the breeze and watching the wake of our little boat. We’re going a little slower, but I figure it’s because we’re trying to not disturb the pretty fish along the reef. Friend and the guy directly across from me start looking at each other funny.

 

I ignore them. Can’t bring me down!

 

“Something’s wrong,” Friend states.

 

I shake my head. Denial is my middle name. “Nope. We’re still moving.”

 

The gentleman across from me nodded. “Something’s wrong.”

 

Friend is looking over my shoulder, where the captain sits at the controls – not really a bridge (which makes me think of Starfleet), just a grouping of knobs and twisties and other technical things.

 

Friend says, “Look. They’re all up there, the whole crew, trying to figure out what’s wrong.”

 

“We’re fine,” I say. Maybe Denial should be my first name.

 

“We haven’t been getting any closer to land.”

 

“I’m not looking,” I insist, because if I turn and look, it makes it real. Then I see black smoke coming from one side of the back of the boat, and I finally turn around.

 

 

I made it real.

 

Sigh.

 

The Captain and everyone else other than the passengers were huddled around the… cockpit?... and shaking their heads and shrugging. Not the best sign. Finally they cut the engines altogether, only putting them on here and there to keep us lined up with the pier way, way off yonder.

 

The gentleman across from me owns a boat and is pretty sure he knows what’s wrong. We’ll call him BoatOwner. The steering pump most likely went out. He called it out to the Captain and the Captain very eloquently shrugged in response.

 

So we’re bobbing around and every now and then cutting the engines on to shift us so we’re not spinning lazily like a failed synchronous swimming contestant. I was glad for the evening bonine/meclizine we all took – I don’t tend to get seasick, but I figured there’s no need to risk it happening and ruining a day on the cruise. I did get a bit queasy on our Alaska cruise the first day out, but seas were crazy large. Ever since then, hubby and I always do a nightly meclizine (and kiddo, too), just in case.

 

Friend, unfortunately, had a bit of trouble – she’s fine in large boats or when on a smaller boat that’s moving, but the side to side bobbing like a cork movement is not conducive to a happy stomach for her.

 

The Spokesman came up and told us there’s some engine trouble, but don’t worry we’ve already called the rescue boat. Yay! So we sat and bobbed around, chatting. BoatOwner talked about his boat and their plans for the day, Hubby and Friendhubby talked a bit, and Friend concentrated on not making the deck more colorful. That lasted about a half hour, by which time we’re all wondering what happened to the rescue boat as other tenders go speeding by. They don’t even wave.

 

Then the Spokesman stands up again. “I have a funny joke for you!” He points out over the water where we can see another boat bobbing about, imitating us. “That’s our rescue boat. You see it?” Um.

 

“It broke down, too. But don’t worry! We’re calling another boat!”

 

OK, so it wasn’t the funniest joke I’d ever heard, but what can you do but laugh at that point? Gotta have a sense of the ridiculous – particularly when you’re dealing with Belizean boat maintenance. Spokesman assured us he’d radioed to the excursion and ship personnel so they knew we’d be late. In my head I’m counting up hours and mentally knocking out options on my “things I’d like to do once back at port” list. Chocolate wasn’t going to happen, but should still be able to do some shopping and get the Hawaiian shirt my hubby craved.

 

Third time’s the charm! A sleek(er) green tender boat came up and our crew jumped out onto the outer deck areas to perform the Tying of Ropes. We’re meanwhile still bopping around like a dancing drunk, and I’m hoping everyone on board is able to make the transfer. They went slow and steady, with lots of hands helping folks across to the new boat, and everyone made it. Whew!

 

 

 

Saying bye bye to the dead tender – bye bye!

 

Continued --

[wendynat]

Day Five, Continued

 

The new crew had a great attitude, and I found that I didn’t mind them joking around one bit. A working boat helps that perception, I guess. In no time, we were pulling up to the pier. An hour and fifteen minutes late. But – we’re there!

 

 

The tour operator met us coming off the tender, and immediately took us through the shop and to the bus depot directly behind the shop building. Hubby spied a couple of Hawaiian shirts along the way, so I knew that as long as we had even fifteen minutes at the end, he could get his shirt.

 

On our way through the shop building :

 

Now, everyone says to stay behind the fenced area when in Belize, but what I didn’t know was even the BUSES stayed behind the fence. They didn’t open the gate until everyone was on the bus, and they closed the gate immediately behind the bus. Yeah… I’d stay behind the fence. Call me a coward, but I’ll be the coward with intact skin and all her possessions!

 

Gated entrance to the bus depot, opened once we were on board:

 

The city tour seemed a little short due to our late arrival, but it was still interesting. The tour guides were very animated and funny, kept us all entertained. They gave some really good information about Belize, and encouraged us to tell everyone our trip was “Unbelizable” when we returned.

 

We’d definitely be able to say that!

 

Some shots during the tour and drive to the ruins:

 

 

Iguana chilling in the upper left corner

 

 

Cashew tree – the little yellow fruit have the nut hanging off the bottom.

 

Continued –

[wendynat]

Day Five, Continued

 

 

 

 

When we got to the ruins they let us have a bathroom break and buy some sodas and waters from the wandering salespeople. Got some waters and kiddo fell in love with the Coca Cola bottles (real glass!) so we got him one of those. We saw the little shopping area where the locals were selling crafts, and I was excited to see some wood carvers. No time right then, it was off to the ruins!

 

 

 

 

The ruins were wonderful, climbing them was great, but I could definitely see why they didn’t let anyone climb them when it was raining – even dry, the steps up the largest ruin were really slippery. Here are some pictures of and from the first ruin we climbed – we only climbed two, though I’ve read that others climbed three. Probably due to the hour and a half spend bopping around in the waters of Belize.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continued –

[wendynat]

Day Five Continued

 

The smaller one was fun to climb and there were some good views up top of the rest of the site. The steps are wide and oddly slanted down – good for rainwater to drain off, but bad if you are challenged going down stairs like I am. Solved the problem by going down sideways – I highly recommend it!

 

 

 

Iron Man surveying the area.

 

 

 

 

I definitely recommend climbing up if you’re able – the smaller ruin was fun to climb up, then we moved over to the second section of the site and saw the Sun God temple. We stopped under a big tree in the second section of the site for our guides to give us some history and background. Very interested again, and very animated delivery. There are no real signs or placards around describing what you’re seeing other than a name and code number, so having a guide was necessary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continued

[wendynat]

Day Five, Continued

 

So amazing that the ruins had lasted this long, and how good the acoustics were! Friend didn’t climb due to a bad knee, so we were able to test out the great acoustics the guide had told us about. Friend could hear us clearly from the grass below the structure, and we weren’t really yelling loudly at all.

 

She’s down there:

 

The climb up was a good workout. The steps are very high, so the ol’ thigh muscles were screaming at the end (well, it was more of a whimper, really). Completely worth it. It was such an awesome experience – we’ve never been to any Mayan ruins sites before, so it was perfect for us.

 

Iron Man on the sacrificial circle

 

 

After we carefully climbed back down the rear stairs, there was just enough time to hit the restroom again and buy a couple of things at the craft shops. When we finished with the restroom, the guides said we only had five minutes to buy things. Not a problem for me, but would definitely be a problem for friends. Kiddo and hubby went to the bus and I made a beeline to the first wood carver’s table that caught my eye. Friend and Friendhubby waved at me from the end of the line of huts – I waved back, but knew I couldn’t hang with them… five minutes.

 

I picked out two wood carvings for a great price – 25 total for a beautiful figure-8 type carving and a beautiful bowl for my dad’s birthday. Then walked by the jade jewelry and bought myself and sister hematite and jade necklaces and a pair of earrings for me. Score! I was done, under five minutes, so I headed to the bus where it was already pretty full. Some folks had to be moved out of the seats they were in – they’d moved around on the bus which normally would be fine, but people had left their belongings in the seats so it really wasn’t fine in that instance. Once that was squared away, I sat down and settled in to wait.

 

By this time it was around 2:15, so we had an hour and forty five to get back to port before the last tender – the drive took about an hour fifteen per the guides. Half hour for Hawaiian shirt pickup – no problem! Or so I thought.

 

The tour guides counted heads and realized they had to go and grab some late shoppers… who could it be? Yep. They had to go peel our friends away from the shopping area. Remember I told you – professional shoppers? That settled, we pulled out and were on our way.

 

The way back… I wish I could say it was uneventful. After needing three tender boats to get to shore, you’d think we could catch some luck. Your think would be wrong.

 

I’m sitting there looking at my watch and calculating the time back, thinking that we’d have about twenty minutes for hubby to grab one of the Hawaiian shirts we saw and get to the tender if traffic was forgiving….

 

Traffic was fine. The bus, however, was not.

 

BUMP! THUMP! Thumpthumpthumpthupthp… there went our hopes of getting back in time to do any shopping.

 

Blown tire. Which really wasn’t surprising, given the state of the roads. And given our luck.

 

I will say this – I was SO GLAD we were on a Carnival excursion! Otherwise I would’ve been petrified over getting back in time for the final tender. Keep in mind that hubby and I are early-birds back to the ship… we’re usually back at least an hour before all-aboard time. We’re not pier-runner material.

 

The fun part is that we weren’t in the best area, apparently, when the tire blew. The guides radioed for a new bus, and rather than wait where we were, the driver kept on driving on the blown tire for a while before finally stopping in front of what looked like a farmhouse. Much nicer than where we had been when the tire blew, so I was happy the driver wasn’t concerned about the tire rim.

 

We saw the replacement bus – it must’ve been in the neighborhood on patrol or something, because even our guides were shocked to see it that early. Yay! Finally something was going right – but I didn’t think it too loudly, in case the new bus decided to blow up or something. Obviously we’d angered some random-bad-things-happening spirits, and I didn’t want to poke the monster any more.

 

I thought this was funny – we passed it soon after getting on the replacement bus:

 

 

 

So we all filed out and walked to the other bus, keeping fingers crossed that this time, the rescue vehicle would stay healthy. It did, thankfully, and we made it to port with about ten minutes to spare, so we quickly scanned two shops for Hawaiian shirts and hubby basically picked one from the final store (that he’d seen on the way to the buses earlier), threw ten bucks at the shopkeeper, and kept moving to the tender boat. We got on the 4:00 boat and took off. This one didn’t break down – but you can bet we were listening for any weird throttle slowdowns or bumps.

 

Nothing more exciting happened, which was a good thing, and we went to cabins to clean up and get ready for wandering and eating.

 

Met back up with friends headed down to the dining room, and saw the Invicta watch table set up in the corridor. Friendhubby decided he had to own one of the collector models, and Iron Man offered to raise its value by posing with it. Marketing genius!

 

 

 

He paid, then found out that he couldn’t get it that night – he needed a link removed to fit his wrist correctly, and they had a backlog of watch repair so they had to keep it overnight. He’d be able to get it the next day after 6. Well, Friendhubby wasn’t happy about his new prize not being available to him – he tried to talk her into doing it earlier, even attempted his patented pouting technique, but no go. They already had his card and payment, so I guess negotiations were OVER!

 

We made it to the dining room about 6:30 – no wait - and sat in Henry’s section again. Agus hooked us up with drinks – I tell you, that guy is good. Just when I decide I’m not going to order a drink at dinner, he pops up and is so friendly I feel like I’ll let him down if I don’t…. yeah, that’s my excuse!! So I ordered the day’s special – something yellow. It was good.

 

This time kiddo and Friendson danced with Henry when he encouraged them to – they had a great time, and I’ve got to give the wait staff kudos because they really seemed as if they were enjoying themselves. There’s no way they could REALLY be enjoying themselves that much, so it’s nice they put the effort into acting for us! Friendniece was too shy, but she had a good time laughing at the boys.

 

 

 

After dinner we knew where we had to go – Name That Tune trivia – Boy Bands. The seating in the area was getting completely full by 45 minutes prior to the start, so we didn’t want to risk not getting a good seat. We were able to snag the chairs we had the first night, over behind Mike/the piano. One of the other “regulars” had made name tags for the folks with nicknames:

 

 

Continued

[wendynat]

Day Five, Continued

 

We knew nothing about Boy Bands, but it was too much fun to skip. Once I’d exhausted my single answer: New Kids on the Block! - I just sat back and enjoyed the spectacle. Tonight Mike had on Brit socks – each night he had one different crazy socks. And I’ve got to say again – everyone was such a good sport with Traveling Iron Man. Here he is with Mike’s socks:

 

 

 

Before trivia started, a nice lady whose name I’ve forgotten sought out Friend and we chatted about the crazy Breakin’Down Excursion that day. She had actually thought to go to the Shore Excursions desk and she tipped us off that they were looking into the matter. That was a nice bit of news – apparently they told her that while have no control over the tenders, the bus tire going kaplooey might get folks who complain a partial refund. I mentally filed this away and kept sipping on my drink.

 

This night the game was pretty awesome – Boy Band actually won this night! Very appropriate :). Hubby was called up to dance like a boy band with some other guys:

 

 

 

All around good time again. By the end we were exhausted and we were planning a fairly early morning to beat the crowds at Mahogany Bay (friends had an excursion planned – island and flower tour), so after a short trip to the candy store, we headed back to the cabin to find this guy swinging around:

 

 

 

At least this one didn’t scare the daylights out of us – on our first cruise, being towel animal newbies, we were shocked when a white face in dark sunglasses was right in front of us when we stepped into the room. He was hanging from a hook just inside the door.

 

It would be an early day tomorrow - we said goodnight to the monkey, and hit the hay.

[nycfa]

Loving the trip report!! Can't wait for more. :)

Edited May 22, 2014 by nycfa

[wendynat]

Loving the trip report!! Can't wait for more. :)

 

Thanks so much! It's nice to know people are still reading :)

[navybaby1113]

Enjoying your review. We're looking at sailing on the Legend to Alaska next year, so loving the ship pictures.

[diwijo13]

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.

 

Nice to hear a report from someone so close to us. We are from Chesapeake and going on the Liberty in June.

[Gone away]

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

 

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk

 

Does anyone happen to know if they upgraded the internet as they said?

[cruisequeen007]

Thank you very much for the thorough cruise review. I enjoyed reading it but must admit I am a little afraid to get off the ship in Belize. We will be on the June 8 sailing. We were there in 2011 and went to the same ruins. All we had were tons of mosquitos. This time we are hoping to spend time shopping at the pier.

[scotto313]

We are on the same cruise and from the same general area. Hope to see you the week of June 8th!

[cruisequeen007]

Scotto313: We are a group of 8. me and my Dh, daughter and boyfriend and 4 kids from 2 - 18. This will be our 7th Carnival cruise but 24 overall.

Who will be in your group?

Joanne

[jdyer09]

We are booked too for the 8th! 4 adults, all family

 

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[wendynat]

Enjoying your review. We're looking at sailing on the Legend to Alaska next year, so loving the ship pictures.

 

You'll love it! I really liked the layout. You'll also love Alaska - we went there in 2006 on the Vision of the Seas, and had a great time. Breathtaking views!

[wendynat]

Nice to hear a report from someone so close to us. We are from Chesapeake and going on the Liberty in June.

 

Hello, neighbors! I actually went to high school in Chesapeake, and my parents still live there.... all of ten minutes away :). I hope you plan to post a report of your trip, would love to read it!

[wendynat]

Does anyone happen to know if they upgraded the internet as they said?

 

I don't know how to tell if it was upgraded, since I only used the free sites. They were really slow.

[wendynat]

Thank you very much for the thorough cruise review. I enjoyed reading it but must admit I am a little afraid to get off the ship in Belize. We will be on the June 8 sailing. We were there in 2011 and went to the same ruins. All we had were tons of mosquitos. This time we are hoping to spend time shopping at the pier.

 

I'd be happy to go back to Belize, with hopefully better tender luck! But I'd definitely stay within the tourist shopping area, or do a ship excursion. Just my opinion and comfort level - I know some folks have had a great time wandering but it's not my cup of tea there!

 

We were either lucky or the time of year was good, but we didn't have any mosquito issues. I'd brought bug repellent just in case, but didn't use it.

 

You'll have a great time!

[wendynat]

Day 6 - Friday – Mahogany Bay, Roatan

 

How beautiful is this view?

 

I was up around 7:40 and took a ton of pics from the balcony. My camera was whimpering in pain by then, but I heartlessly ignored it. I didn’t linger out there too long - we wanted to get to the beach somewhat early because we were in port with the Glory (of course) and the beach would get crowded. Our plan was to hit the beach relatively early – not crazy early – and then leave beach to shop when it started getting crazy crowded.

 

Got the lazies out of bed and ate in the buffet. Nothing earthshattering happened, then we got beach ready and headed out. We were on shore by 9:30, walking through the port shops. MAN could I feel my thigh muscles and one calf muscle crying from the ruins climb the day before. Unbelizable!

 

Welcome to Mahogany Bay!

 

We walked through the port shopping area and towards the beach, taking some time to grab the obligatory set of pictures in the big fake shoes.

 

 

Continued

[wendynat]

Day 6, Continued

 

The chair lifts looked really neat, but the line to buy tickets was really long so we decided to walk the whole five minutes over the bridge instead. I’m glad now that we chose that route, although my thigh muscles argued vehemently. On the bridge and on the way to the bridge we were able to get some of the best pictures of the day. Just gorgeous flowers along the way, as well.

 

 

 

 

 

The chairlifts that parallel the bridge.

 

I was glad that before we got to the beach entrance, we were asked for our cruise cards to be sure we were legit. Seemed to be good security, which was nice after the little BEWARE ROATAN letter was left in our cabin the night before. We’d already planned to have a chillin’ beach day at the port complex, so it didn’t impact us much.

 

Continued

[wendynat]

Day 6, Continued

 

By ten, we were in a lovely spot under some trees and I was reading my nook. Most of the loungers by the water were already taken, and I preferred a little shade, anyway. The clamshells cost a little and unless you were in the front row you got a view of… another clamshell. So, we just kept walking past where the green bubbles were all stationed and got to a spot in front of the showers where no clamshells lived. Beautiful trees lived there, instead! Score! We could still see the beach from the seats, and when I lay back this was the view overheard, rather than the burning yellow sun:

 

 

The next couple of hours passed while I did a combination of reading, resting, snorkeling (mostly saw seaweed, but still fun), and resting some more. Kiddo spent the majority of the time in the water, except when he had to go to the restroom which was conveniently near our chairs. Iron Man also enjoyed the beach area.

 

 

 

Me and my nook

 

Around noon we headed out to do some shopping and then back to the ship. We left our lounge chairs, turning them over to a nice couple who we saw wandering with their stuff like a couple of woebegone beggars (definitely get on the beach before noon if you want some chairs – it was packed when we left). After washing off in the showers (Iron Man included), we headed down the sidewalk to see how far the beach area went. At the end, after the cabanas, there was a large bar and some volleyball nets, etc. We didn’t hang out, but it looked fun.

 

We headed back the way we’d come and checked out the gift shop right before the bridge. The wood carvings were more expensive than Belize, so I was glad I’d gotten my souvenirs there instead. They were still reasonably priced, though. We picked up some Fanta and “Light” Coke – their version of Diet Coke. Again, kiddo loved the different bottles and saved the caps.

 

They’re serious about no shoplifting:

 

Continued