Legend Review! 11/17, Western Caribbean out of Tampa

[camorelli]

Pre-Cruise:  We booked this cruise in April.  We booked a balcony on Deck 8.  This trip was for hubby and me only.  A couple of weeks later, I was looking at available cabins again and found an Aft-Extended Balcony had opened up and we upgraded to it asap.  We've never done an Aft-Extended balcony before and we decided we had to try it.  At that time, Faster to the Fun was not available.  On Mother's Day, while waiting for my family to get ready for dinner, I checked Carnival just for fun... Faster to the Fun was available and I grabbed it for $90/cabin.  Never had it before but knowing how my husband hates waiting in lines (gets claustrophobic), I decided getting off the ship first on tenders, getting our room immediately, getting on board quickly, etc. all sounded perfect for us.  This cruise was a 7-day out of Tampa, Sunday to Sunday, stopping in Grand Cayman, Roatan, Belize and Cozumel.  I pre-booked one excursion through Carnival for Cozumel.  We planned to do a beach club in Cayman on our own, we were meeting family in Roatan, and we planned to do Belize on our own (water taxi to Caye Caulker). 

 

We flew in to Tampa on Friday... bye bye kids!  We'd just had our first snowfall in Michigan the Monday before we left... around 9" of snow!  So we were ready for some Florida sun!  Mother Nature had other plans for us though.  Tampa was cloudy, dreary and a high of 65.  But, we were looking at palm trees instead of computer screens, so we were feeling good!  We rented a car from Alamo.  I have to say that Tampa has always been the easiest airport to fly in and out of.  The luggage was coming out by the time we got there.  And the car rental there is SO easy!  A quick train ride to the car rental area in the airport, check in, take the escalator down to the garage and Voila!  Take your pick of any car there with a trunk open in your rented car size aisle.  We chose a car out of 15-20 available cars.  Key was already in the car.  Drove out of the garage and vacation had begun!  We rented a hotel room on Belleair Beach.  We love Clearwater Beach area and go every year, so for us it was a no brainer...we were staying on the beach.  We didn't get to swim because it never got warmer than 63 all weekend, and the sun never came out, but that's ok because we have family in the area and we visited with them.  Did get to visit our favorite beach restaurant as our first stop of the vacay... French's Rockaway Grill in Clearwater Beach!

[camorelli]

Day 1, Embarkation Day:

On Sunday morning, we returned the car to the airport... again, it was super easy.  We took a taxi to the cruise port for $30 per-tip.  We were there in about 20 minutes.  We arrived to the cruise port at 10:30am and our bags were grabbed as soon as we got out of the car.  So we went in.  They looked at our 2 bottles of wine but didn't bother looking at the 2 8-packs of Bubly water we had.  We were checked in within 5 minutes and escorted to the FTTF section.  By the way, we had our passports with us but they expire in February 2020.  I also brought our birth certificates with us just in case, since our passports expire less than 6 months of our cruise.  It was not an issue.  The passports were fine.  Anyway, we sat in the FTTF section and there were a lot of Diamond/Platinum folks on the other side of the wall.  At 11:10, the Diamond/Platinum all started boarding (a lot of them) and we boarded right after them.  I was on the ship by 11:21am!!  We immediately went to our cabin to check it out.  It was perfect for us!  We dropped our bags and went to check out the balcony.  There was one lounge chair, one upright chair and a table.  We loved it!  

 

We went to the Lido for lunch.  Hubby found some things in the buffet while I went to the Blue Iguana and got a burrito.  It was delicious.  He saw mine and then he went for one too!  We beat the crowd since we were on so early.  That was nice!  A tip... do not pick a table near the buffet lines or the crowds, when they get there, will all stare at you and your food and comment on it while waiting in line!  lol.  After that lunch, we always chose a table a bit away from the end of the buffet line.

 

Because the sun STILL was not out (never saw it that weekend once), we opted to hang out in the DreamTeam sports bar to watch Sunday football.  It was a popular choice because the bar was packed.  We found two seats at the bar and met, Milan, our new favorite bartender!  We actually hung out with Milan several times during the week, at Dreamteam Bar and Serenity Bar.  He was our fave!  There were several different games on and the crowds were enjoying the games, the drinks and the beginning of our vacation.

 

At 3:30, we had do the safety briefing.  It didn't last too long... maybe 15 minutes because of some people that dragged their feet getting there.  At 4pm, it was SailAway time!  The Sailaway party on the Lido wasn't like I've seen in the past and it was not Carnival's fault.  The weather was just yucky... cloudy and 63 degrees and windy... nobody really wanted to be out there.  Nobody was in the pool at all.  Too cold.  We watched our departure from Tampa from our balcony.  It was nice there.  We saw a dolphin out in the channel!

 

We waited to go to dinner until after we went under the Sunshine Skyway bridge because my husband didn't see it the last time we left from Tampa port.  We went under at 6:15, so just over 2 hours from Tampa departure.  But it was FREEZING!  I think it was around 35 windchill with the cold Florida temps and the big winds.  I sat on the floor as close to the window of the sports deck as I could, under the railing, just to block some of the wind!  It was cool though!  (We didn't even want to be in our cabin because it was cold also).

 

We had Your Time Dining for this trip and we really liked it.  Somedays, we just needed a nap between our sun activities and dinner.  It worked our perfectly for us.  Tonight, we were seated in Volodymyr's section.  He was FANTASTIC!  We really enjoyed our dinner with him.  He was professional, spent some time chatting with us and recommending certain dishes, gave honest feedback on different items, was efficient, etc.  I can't remember everything we ate but the Tiramisu was spectacular!  

 

We went to the Comedy Club (Punchliners) and saw Dan the Man Mengini at 9pm.  He was funny, good show.  After his show, we went outside quick around 10pm and it was WARM!!!  We had finally gone far enough south that it was warm outside!  We were so excited!  We did a little happy dance on the pool deck and then we went back to Punchliners to see Jeff Big Daddy Wayne's show.  He was also good.  We liked Dan a little bit better though.  

 

After the show, we were exhausted.  We ended our night and went back to the cabin.  It was a great day!

 

 

[Out of Iowa]

Thank you SO MUCH for your review.  We'll be doing the same itinerary in just a few short weeks.  Since Legend arrived in Tampa, there have not been many reviews.  Love yours:  it's entertaining and interesting, touching on what I am interested in.  Looking forward to reading the entire weeks' worth.

[camorelli]

Day 2, Sea Day:

Today we went to the Lido for breakfast.  We hit the sanitizer station every time we passed it.  Some mornings, the Lido station was empty, but it was usually full.  I usually hit the omelette station and I never had more than a couple of people in front of me in line.  I believe there were 4 different omelette stations in the Unicorn Cafe (Lido).  Hubby liked the eggs benedict from the buffet line... sometimes it had ham and others it had salmon.  

 

We spent all of our pool time in the Serenity Deck pool area.  I liked to lay out and read and hubby likes to be in the pool for awhile.  He's usually the first in the pool!  The first day, the hot tub in Serenity was very hot.  They got it to a better temp later in the day.  I can't really comment on the other pool areas because we didn't spend a lot of time there.  One thing I noticed in Serenity area was that somebody would mop up water spots whenever they appeared.  Even if there were just a few wet footprints, they would get mopped up right away.  Servers were always coming around with smiles on their faces, ready to get drinks.  And there were never many people at the Serenity bar... didn't take long to get a drink at all.  We liked checking out the yellow towels there and leaving our blue towels in our room to use at port the next day.

 

We liked using the clam shell once.  They were often full but you could usually find one open after a short bit.  And while chairs were mostly full, we never found that we couldn't find a seat there.  We usually found some right by the pool.  We made lots of friends there that day.  Everybody was loving the warm sunny day!

 

After awhile, we went back to our room to rest.  We found a towel animal!  Linda was our housekeeping person.  We met her in the hall on the 1st day.  She asked if we wanted service once or twice a day and we chose once, in the morning.  She asked if we needed anything else and I asked for a robe.  She was happy to bring one for both of us but hubby didn't need one.  We never saw her much, just in passing, but our room magically got cleaned and restocked every day!  And she always had a new towel animal for us.  We knew we could find her if we needed her or leave her a note.  She was fantastic.

 

I loved reading on our balcony (cabin 4230).  It was very calming.

 

We had the hotel room keys that I thought we needed to keep electricity on (I read about needing a card in a slot to have the electricity on but we didn't need it.)  Electricity was always on.

 

Tonight was Elegant Night.  We got sat in a different section and we noticed a difference in the service.  It wasn't awful but we decided we wanted to be in Volodymyr's section every night from then on.  :)  Hubby did enjoy his lobster, both the first plate and the second.  :)  I don't eat seafood... can't remember what I ate.  What I do remember though is that EVERYBODY had a birthday that night.  We heard birthday singing every single minute of our time in the dining room that night.  It got to be too much and we kind of rushed to get out of there.  It's cute but it was too much that night.

 

We went back to Punchliner's to see Dan and Jeff again.  Another funny comedy show night!  The shows ended around 11:45.  I think hubby wanted to hit the ice cream station once and then we went to bed.  We had an early morning in Grand Cayman.  Another fantastic day on the ship!! 

 

 

 

 

[camorelli]

29 minutes ago, Out of Iowa said:

Thank you SO MUCH for your review.  We'll be doing the same itinerary in just a few short weeks.  Since Legend arrived in Tampa, there have not been many reviews.  Love yours:  it's entertaining and interesting, touching on what I am interested in.  Looking forward to reading the entire weeks' worth.

Thanks.  :)  I think we were on the 3rd cruise out of Tampa since Legend came back this season and same as you, I couldn't find any reviews for this trip.  I knew I'd return and try to tell everything I could.  I'm trying to touch on as much as I can remember... with Thanksgiving tomorrow, might be a few days before I get it all out here. Lol.

[Joe817]

Great start to a good review! Looking forward to reading more. 👍

[Lottacruises]

Nice

[zorky12]

Oh man I was going to follow until I saw the M on the jacket! We banned all M's this week in Ohio. Go Bucks!! Just kidding great review !

[jimbo5544]

Great start to your review and nice pics, love the Legend, will be on her in 5 weeks.

[camorelli]

2 hours ago, zorky12 said:

Oh man I was going to follow until I saw the M on the jacket! We banned all M's this week in Ohio. Go Bucks!! Just kidding great review !

I'm a Buckeye!  My husband is a Wolverine!  It's a good week this week!  🙂

[camorelli]

I did save all of the Fun Times.  I will scan them and post them Monday when I'm back at the office (had a busy 3 days playing catch up this week).

[camorelli]

Day 3, Grand Cayman:

We got up early for breakfast on the Lido Deck.  It was sunny and beautiful out.  We knew it was going to be a great day!  Grand Cayman is a water shuttle port (I kept saying "tender" - apparently that has been replaced with "water shuttle").  Because we had FTTF, we were on the first tender off the ship.  We were told to meet at the Alchemy Bar at 7am, I think.  By 7:15, we were escorted to the water shuttle.  We stepped on to Grand Cayman shortly after.  We didn't have an excursion planned, we were doing it on our own.  There are several excursion and taxi cab people holding signs to go to various places.  We got into a taxi with several other people... it's really a van and they won't leave until every seat is full.  It didn't take long to fill the taxi.  The ride was $5pp.  The first stop was our destination... Royal Palms Beach Club.  We got out with a few other couples.  At the entrance, they checked our bags to make sure we weren't carrying in food or alcohol.  They did examine our Bubly water but quickly realized it was water.  The entrance fee was $2 and we had to have cash, correct change.  That may have been because we were the first to enter for the day and maybe they didn't have change for big bills.  Not really sure.  We were the first to enter and we had our pick of the beach.  

 

The beach club was very nice and we highly recommend.  We chose a couple of lounge chairs.  They staff was getting the water toys ready still.  They told us to grab whichever chairs we wanted and they would be around later to collect.  Maybe half hour later, a server came around to collect for the chair rentals.  The chairs were $12 each.  If you wanted an umbrella, it was another $15.  I decided to wait and see if I wanted one later and that was ok.  They put tags on our chairs to indicate we'd paid.  We ended up not using an umbrella at all because it wasn't a long day in Cayman and we only stayed at the beach club until 12:30.

 

A server is assigned to each section of chairs and he/she comes around often to see if you need food or drink.  You could rent water toys if you wanted also.  I didn't pay much attention but we definitely saw wave runners for rent.  There is a nice area to eat if you'd like, a big bar, a pool with a dj and nice restrooms, changing rooms and lockers.  We didn't eat there or drink.  We just hung out for some sun time.  We left around 12:30 and got on the wrong cab.  We didn't actually get on to the wrong one, but we wished we'd gotten on a different one.  We got in with 2 other couples but had to wait until the cab filled up.  It was like a hot box, a literal sauna.  My husband grabbed the front seat by the ac and drivers seat because he gets claustrophobic in the back.  I think we waited 15-20 minutes for the cab to fill up.  One couple did get out.. we should've.  It finally filled up and I'd lost about 5 lbs in sweat at that point.  (I never get too hot... but I was feeling terribly hot).  The driver finally got in and turned this teeny little fan on us.. he couldn't understand why we were ready to go.  It was an experience for sure... the bus was held together by duct tape (see pics below)!

 

We did a little walking around the shops and saw a little rooster walking with us.  🙂  We got on a water shuttle and were back on the ship around 1:15 for lunch.  We enjoyed the rest of the Grand Cayman sun on the Serenity Deck.  I did stop by the Blue Iguana Bar for a nice refresher.  I chose Sol beer!

 

We spent a little time in the cabin and balcony resting.  My husband turned on his new daily afternoon tv show during our midday rest... Ghost Adventures.  🙂  It seemed like the only two shows were able to see on our tv were Ghost Adventures or Property Brothers.

 

Tonight, we went to the dining room and asked if we could have Volodymyr's section.  Ava, the main hostess, said "You like Volodymyr!  Absolutely!"  We had another fantastic dinner and service was fabulous!  We sat in a great section that overlooks the 2nd deck dining area.  

 

We went to Punchliners again.  We really do enjoy the comedians.  It was their last night on the ship before new comedians would come on in Belize.  We also checked out the Mega Deck Party.  When we went up, Frankie, the CD, was trying to teach people how to dance the Cupid Shuffle.  We decided to keep moving on.  Can't remember exactly but I think hubby grabbed some coffee and ice cream and then we headed back down for another comedy show.  Another great day!

[camorelli]

Day 4, Roatan:

 

This is the day I was so excited about!!  My aunt and her husband recently retired and moved from Dallas to Roatan!  We were going to be their first visitors to their new island and home!  We were pulling in to the dock at 10am ship time (Roatan is an hour behind) and they were going to meet us just outside the port shop area.  They aren't allowed past a certain point without a S&S card.  By 10:05, we were in the port shop area.  We saw the chairlift that takes you to the beach (we saw the beach from our balcony)… it looks nice!  But we were walking the opposite way... through the shops, past the taxis and over the wooden bridge.  I saw my aunt waving and then start running to me.  I handed off my bag to my hubby and I ran to her.  We embraced and started crying when we got to each other... it was like a scene from a movie but real!  Such an awesome moment!  We got in their car and they took us to see their new home.  They actually moved with another couple, their best friends.  They live in separate houses on properties next to each other.  The view from their front porch is amazing!  They see the water everyday and the cruise ships come in and go out!  They took us to see West End village where they have awesome shops and waterfront restaurants.  Then we went to Beachers Restaurant on West Bay Beach.  We dropped our bags, walked down the beach and went snorkeling on our own along "the wall."  It was amazing!  We saw so many different kinds of fish, so many different colors and the beautiful coral reef!  We saw angel fish, a starfish, black & white striped fish, orange & purple fish, black fish with white polka dots, black fish with bright blue polka dots, rainbow colored fish, grey and orange fish, yellow fish and we even hung out with a huge school of blue tang fish!  So amazing!  

 

At one point, my aunt was trying to catch up with a guy she saw standing on the coral and jumping off like it was a diving board.  She wanted to say something to him but she couldn't catch up with him.  😞  So sad.  She said the coral looks so different just in the year since they first visited.  Hopefully most people know to not stand on the coral and to not touch it if possible.  And please bring your reef safe sunscreen when swimming in the coral reef waters!

 

When we were done snorkeling, we had some lunch and drinks at Beachers before heading back to the port area.  It was honestly the best snorkeling I've ever done (Maui was close).  We got back to the port shop area and did some quick souvenir shopping before somebody told us it was 5:25 (board time was 5:30).  So we did quick, sad goodbyes and started running towards the ship.  Debra, the ship's shopping guide, was walking the same route and told us we didn't have to run, that we actually had 15 minutes.  And since she was behind us now, and they weren't leaving her behind, we knew we were ok.  We went up to the Lido deck to watch the 20 people who did arrive 10 minutes after board time though.  Not sure if they were late on their own or if they were on a Carnival excursion because they were sauntering in without a care of the time.

 

We waved goodbye to Roatan and went to our room to get ready for dinner.  We showed up to the hostess stand and Ava (main hostess) and Mila (seater) recognized us right away.  They greeted us by name and Ava told the hostess on the computer "they like Volodymyr and would like his section," without us even having to ask.  That was awesome.  🙂  It was the same every night after that.  They knew exactly where we wanted to sit.  And also on this night, we noticed that Volodymyr and his team of John and Franklin already knew our likes and dislikes.  They knew we didn't want the bread, that my husband wanted a straw with his drink, that he likes seafood and I like meat, that he likes a lot of ice in his water, that he needs a knife after dinner for his fruit plate, that he wanted coffee but I didn't.  It was so nice that they greeted us by name, made dinner recommendations based on what they knew we liked, they gave honest feedback on certain dish items we were wondering about, etc.  It made dinnertime special for us.  

 

There were no comedians tonight so we went to watch the Love and Marriage Show.  It was the same fun show we've seen before.  They bring 3 couples on stage and put on a show like the Dating Game.  They bring up a newlywed couple, a couple married 20-30 years and a couple married the longest (61years).  It was fun.  All walked away winners with a botte of champagne and a ship on a stick!  Then we went to the Comedy Lounge for Carnival Quest, hosted by Frankie.  That was one of our favorite things on the ship.  We've done it on other cruises and it continued to be as much fun.  It's a scavenger game for adults that includes finding things or doing things.  Things can get a bit risque and you're on a team with people you know and probably strangers too.  But it's sooooo much fun!  Frankie said Carnival is thinking of getting rid of it for safety reasons (people running quickly to stage) and he hoped we all expressed that we want it to stay.  We hope it stays for sure!

 

Time for bed!  It was the most fantastic day!!!

[Joe817]

What an absolutely awesome time you all had!! I can only imagine having that much fun PLUS seeing family all the way down there. I'm so glad for you all to experience that. And thanks for the great review of Roatan! It makes me wish we were there! 

[camorelli]

Day 5, Belize:

For Belize, we planned on taking a water taxi on our own to Caye Caulker. But I was having a bad feeling about that.  After the day we had at Roatan, I was afraid we'd feel underwhelmed with Caye Caulker.  I know it's not a big island with a lot to do and while at first it seemed like our style, I was afraid we'd want more.  I know most people visit the ruins or go cave tubing but being on a bus ride an hour each way sounds like torture to my husband (claustrophobia...) so we couldn't do those.  So at 6am, we went down to Guest Services and signed up for an excursion... the Barrier Reef Snorkeling/Swim with Sharks and Stingrays/Caye Caulker excursion.  It was $99 each.  Hubby was excited about swimming with sharks!  We went up for breakfast and knew we had some time before our 7:45 meet time for the excursion... until we realized that we were looking at Belize time on our phones and not ship time.  It was actually 7:26 (ship time) and not 6:26!  We slammed down our eggs, ran to our room to get ready for the day and quickly went down to Follies theater where our excursion was to meet at 7:45.  We made it on time!  We got a quick talk from Ian and then we were called by excursion groups and got a sticker with our group number.  We all boarded the water shuttle and made our way to Belize City.  It was a 20-30 minute ride.  The weather was sunny and beautiful again!  We made our way to our Terminal 3 to meet our group.  We had time to use the restroom quickly before we boarded.  We boarded the boat with Javi, our tour leader, a medic, a captain and about 3 other crew members.  They gave us a safety chat and a little description of what was planned for the day.  Then we started our long (45 minutes approx.) ride to Caye Caulker.  Along the way, Javi had the captain stop between the mangroves to describe the importance of the mangroves to the ecosystem.  It was very clear that Javi loves his country and he is very knowledgeable about it.  He was sharing info with us all day.  It was impressive and I loved hearing the history, culture and info about Belize!

 

We stopped at Caye Caulker to drop off our food pre-orders at The Lazy Lizard, use the restroom and get geared up for snorkeling.  By this time, the weather had changed drastically,  The skies were dark gray and it was clear we'd get rain.  Our 2 medical staff members went out on another boat ahead of us to find a good spot and to watch the snorkelers from the boat in the case of assistance being needed.  We went out by the reef and split into two groups with 2 guides for each group.  They guided us along and pointed out different fish and cool things.  At one point, a barracuda swam in front of me... I poked my head up and asked what it was and the guide assured me that it was indeed a barracuda!  It was then that I realized it was raining out.  We were wet anyway.  By the end of our 45 minute snorkel time, the rain picked up.   While I was climbing the ladder to the boat, it was torrential downpouring.  The crew had moved our bags to a safe dry area.  It was kind of cold with the wind and rain.  We headed towards the next stop.  The rain stopped by the time we got there.  We stopped the boat and the engine sound and some chum from the staff brought out the nurse sharks and stingrays.  We got in the water and were hanging out with them!  So cool!!!  We had our snorkel gear on so we could see underwater.  While floating with my gear on, stingrays were swimming underneath me (inches below me) and nurse sharks were swimming around and under us too.  So so so so cool!  We stayed there for about 30 minutes.  Then they took us for a "surprise."  They stopped in a lagoon area and we were allowed to feed "baby" tarpon!  We'd hold little fish over the water and the tarpon would jump up and grab them. It was so fun!  I actually got "bit" by a tarpon!  It didn't hurt.  He was jumping up to grab the fish and clamped on my wrist... just felt like pressure.  But as he fell back down, his teeth scraped my wrist.  It didn't hurt badly and I couldn't see anything at first.  It stung and felt like a fresh scrape.  The saltwater didn't make it feel good though.  It did get more red later but nothing bad.  It was a fun experience!  Then they brought out the rum punch (and non-rum punch).  We went back to Caye Caulker and ate our lunches at the Lazy Lizard.  Some people hung out by the rum punch cooler.  We chose to walk around and see the little town area of Caye Caulker.  It was fun!  Shorly afterwards, we boarded the boat and made our way back to Belize City.  It started raining again and the waters got rough.  I thanked the captain afterwards.  He did great... kept the boat moving smoothly through the rough waters while watching some of the people who'd had too much to drink.  This was an excursion we'd highly recommend!  The tour was fun and the crew was great!  We did a little shopping and went back to the Legend.

 

This was another Elegant Night on the ship!  We enjoyed another wonderful dinner in Truffles!

 

We also went back to Punchliners to see the shows of our two new comedians, Happy Cole and Joe Bronzi.  We've seen Happy before.  He said he was Carnival's first and is their longest running comedian.  He's been doing shows on their ships for 40years!!  They both put on good shows!

 

It was an unBelizeable day!

[camorelli]

Day 6, Cozumel:

Today we had an excursion booked through Carnival.  We pre-bought the Isla Pasion by Twister Boat.  HIGHLY recommend this excursion!!!  We got off the boat and found our excursion group by the Puerta Maya sign.  They let us know that recent storms had churned up the water so it might not look as clear as we were expecting.  They were asking if we still wanted to go...they would've found another excursion if we didn't want to go.  We decided to stick with it.  I'm SO glad we did!  We sat and waited while the entire group got together.  From the website, I was expecting a ton of people and a huge boat but it was a smaller boat and there were only 10 of us.  They asked us again if we were good with a fast boat kind of ride... they couldn't take anybody with back pain, somebody pregnant, anybody with health issues.  I saw one lady get denied boarding and she was very upset because none of her group could join.  I got the impression she was trying to risk getting on with some kind of health concern and they wouldn't allow it.  Safety seemed to be a priority.  Anyway, we were led out to the pier by Alberto, Aldo and Pepe.  They were our guides.  We got down to swimsuits because we would get wet.  They put life jackets on us, stored our bags in a dry area underneath and put us on the boat in a certain order to distribute weight.  There were 10 of us plus 3 crew members.  There were probably 6 open seats.  We were strapped in to our cushioned seats with seatbelts that went over our heads and locked down by belt between our legs.  It was comfortable.  I have to admit.  I was getting nervous knowing that we were going to do 360's in the water and the waves were kind of choppy.  After awhile, I got used to the boat and the waves... the captain was excellent at driving the boat.  When we came to a certain calmer area, they asked if we were ready and they indicated with their hands that we were about to spin.  It was AWESOME!!!  We did get wet.  They did the 360 four times and then we headed to Isla Pasion.  Our group of 10 included 5 couples that ranged in ages from 40's to 70's.  One couple was celebrating their 50th anniversary that day.  Everybody on the boat was having the time of their life!

 

Isla Pasion is BEAUTIFUL!  It was a clean and pristine island.  We were the very first people there so we got out pick of spots to sit at.  We all sat together and had fun getting to know one another.  Alberto, our tour guide, stayed on the island with us.  He checked in frequently to make sure we were enjoying ourselves.  The lounge chairs, tables and umbrellas were included.  So was the open bar and Mayan lunch buffet - both were open the entire time.  We did a free tequila tasting together.  Two couples bought some tequila... be sure to negotiate because they were able to negotiate Aida down!  I tried my first dried cricket!  🙂  The chicken, onions and peppers in my taco was the best I've ever had!  So good!  Alberto told me it was iguana... lol.  We had fun chatting and enjoying the sun, playing in a water balloon toss with about 20 couples and dancing on the beach.  We never even got to use the hammocks on the beach or in the water because we were having too much fun with our new friends!

 

The only bummer was how fast it went.  By 12:45, it was time to head back to Cozumel.  But it was ok, the island was starting to get more people by that time.  It was nice having it to ourselves for so long.  I did intend to get a massage but I didn't have enough time for that or shopping on the island.  We did go back by Twister again with 4 more 360's, including one near the pier in the middle of the cruise ships!  We spent a little time shopping in Puerta Maya (very nice shopping area) and getting drinks at Fat Tuesdays.

 

Then we went back on board and spent time watching the latecomers again.  I was sure a few were getting left behind.  The last lady to board was 21 minutes beyond ship boarding time.  She had clearly been drinking.  By the time she walked up, everything was packed up except the one gangway and 2 officers looking and waiting for her.  😞  Rude.  

 

We had another great dinner with Volodymyr.  We spent some time with our new friends from the Twister excursion.  And then we watched 2 more comedy shows.  Cozumel did not disappoint!!

 

[camorelli]

Day 7, Sea Day:

Since today was going to be a leisurely day, we did some relaxing.  We skipped the Lido for breakfast today.  We went right to the Serenity Deck around 9am.  The sun didn't stay out for long, so we decided to go to the Sea Day Brunch.  It wasn't as great as we hoped for.  We were sat right away but so was everybody else around the same time.  We sat in a section next to Volodymyr (should've requested him) and it looked our server was in the weeds.  He had a bunch of new tables.  We waited for about 15 minutes before our drink order was taken.  And then it took a long time for the food order to be taken.  When the food finally, came, along with all of the other tables' food, my husband's food was cold.  He just pushed it aside.  The server did come over and chat for a long bit about this and that... you could tell he was trying to make sure we weren't too upset.  We were ok.  It wasn't the breakfast hubby had hoped for but it was ok, he'd get food later.  He was a little annoyed but not upset.  It was no biggie.  

 

We went back to the Serenity Deck and our new friends joined us soon afterwards.  We noticed people complaining about the hot tub water temp.  Apparently it was too hot again... I mean scalding hot.  People next to use complained and soon the head pool guy came and took the water temp.  It was 114 degrees!  He closed it down.  So hubby went in the pool and we chatted with him from the poo bench.  Soon the water level started dropping and the pool girl told him he had to get out.  She said a pump stopped working.  The pool drained completely and then a mechanic came out and the head pool guy again.  After awhile, the mechanic left and the head pool guy told the "pool watcher girl" to close it up.  So she started trying to put a net across it.  She was handling it fine but kind of struggling.  It looked difficult to maneuver by oneself, especially while her boss stood there looking at his phone.  I said "I wish I could help you, you look like you could use a hand."  Another lady chimed in and said the same thing.  The head pool guy looked at me, put his phone away and stepped in to help her.  🙂  We sat on the lounge chairs for a bit waiting to see if the pool would open but then it was time for me to head to Dreamteam to watch the OSU vs Penn State game.  the guys went to smoke a quick cigar and my friend was going to change and then join me.  I went down to the sports bar & saw a bar full of Buckeyes watching the end of Game Day.  I pulled up some chairs for us and sat down, ready to watch the game of the week!  🙂  At 12pm, the tv switched to Harvard vs Yale.  The other tv was Auburn vs Stanford.  Huh?  People started questioning the bartender.  He said they didn't have Fox, only ESPN an ESPN2.  I felt bad for him.  It wasn't his fault but there were some VERY upset football fans in there.  We couldn't watch the game at all.  Michigan fans were happy though because they knew their game would be on ESPN at 3:30.  So at 3:30, hubby and I went down to watch his game.  Guess what?  It wasn't on either.  The tvs were airing Kentucky vs UT something or other and Cricket.  Huh?  Man, this was bad.  So my one complaint about Carnival was their lack of sports channels and poor programming.  Bad for College Football fans on Saturday aboard the Legend.  😞 

 

We took a great nap.  We had a great dinner.  And then we had so much fun playing 80's music trivia with Frankie in the Colossus lobby bar.  We got all but the last one right...guessing Frankie's fave 80s song (Don't Stop Believing).  So much fun!

 

We packed most of our stuff but didn't put it out.  We were doing self assist with early debarkation with FTTF people.  We watched the last 2 comedy shows and went to bed.

[camorelli]

Debarkation Day:

We got up early, around 6am.  We ate our last breakfast in the Lido.  😞  Then we finished packing up and left our cabin for the last time.  4230 was a great home away from home.  We took the elevator down one floor and joined the other FTTF people in Truffles restaurant at 7:30am.  We were off the ship and in a cab by 8am.  We were at the airport by 8:20am.  We actually got another rental car for the day because our flight wasn't until 5:10pm.  We drove around the beach for a bit and then joined hubby's sister and her family for lunch.  We were back at the airport by 3 where we watched the Lions lose again.  Lol.  We were home by 8pm.  Thankfully the snow had melted and it wasn't as cold as when we left.

 

Our cruise was definitely Legendary and we're so happy we cruised the Western Caribbean with her!

 

Feel free to ask me any questions!  I'll try to answer the best that I can!

[Joe817]

Wow! That's all I can say! What a wonderful adventure you've taken us all on. Thank you for a fantastic review. We did the same picture in Cozumel. 

[4hunters]

Thank you, thank you!!  Really enjoyed your trip report!!

[E@syPe@zy]

That was a wonderful trip report!  Thank you so much!  Our last cruise was out of Tampa and it was so easy.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

[deadmoney]

Great review.

We have done the same itinerary four or five times and there is always something new to do and see.

Love roatan, it's our favorite port, such a beautiful island.

If it wasn't for family we would move there in a hot second.

[Shaded Lady]

10 hours ago, Joe817 said:

Wow! That's all I can say! What a wonderful adventure you've taken us all on. Thank you for a fantastic review. We did the same picture in Cozumel. 

Thanks for the pic, Joe! Glad to finally put a face to the name!

[Joe817]

16 minutes ago, Shaded Lady said:

Thanks for the pic, Joe! Glad to finally put a face to the name!

Just to show the sceptics out there that I actually went on a cruise to Cozumel! 

[allisonwilson73]

Thanks so much for your review, we will be on her for Christmas and have been waiting to see some reviews of the sailings out of Tampa!