Legend June 8th, Absolutely Amazing!

[mom2girls]

Saturday June 7th:

Pre-Cruise Day: We were excited to be embarking on our vacation. We woke up early without any problems. After we dropped off the girls we were on our way to Tampa. It was a painless trip with barely any traffic. We were at Busch Gardens in about an hour. As we walked through the gate we realized that it wasn’t very crowded. This was a surprise to us since we knew that most of Florida’s schools were now out on summer vacation. But, we certainly weren’t complaining. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to ride Mantu, but my boyfriend pretty much told me it was that or Sheikra!

There was no way I was riding Sheikra, so I said, “Ok!” to Mantu. It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I had a wonderful time. After the ride we went walking around, and came upon a show in one of the places that has a restaurant and a stage. I found it very entertaining, and it had me thinking about the shows that we would be seeing soon on the Legend. Another ride that we went on was called the Rhinoceros Rally. Basically it was a ride through the “jungle” in a jeep. It was kind of neat to be so close to the wildlife. The guide was humorous. When we passed by the Rhino, he stated that the Rhino had his body guard with him. The body guard was a deer.

[mom2girls]

Pre-cruise continued:

 

If you want another look at the wildlife at Busch Gardens you can go on the train ride or the sky ride. They both offer great views of the amazing wildlife.

 

 

If you ever end up at Busch Gardens check out “Jungala”. We were able to see a Tiger sunning himself in the water. He looked as though he were the King of his domain. He certainly looked comfortable in the water. A little further from the tiger in the water there was a white tiger sleeping in the shade. It would have been cool to see her awake, but that was not meant to be. One of the best things we did at Busch Gardens was see the show called Katonga. It was an awesome musical production that talked about 4 different animals that are common in Africa. It was a folk tale that had a moral to the story. If you have children this is a must.

 

[mom2girls]

Around 3:00 we decided that we had a bid day ahead of us tomorrow, so we should head to our hotel. We really love our GPS. That thing got us from Busch Gardens to our hotel without any problems at all. We were quickly checked in, and off to relax by the pool. The water in the pool was comfortably warm, but not too warm. I wasn’t too happy with the Jacuzzi, because in my opinion it wasn’t warm enough. But, we were only here for one day, so who am I to complain?

 

 

 

Later, we decided that we were hungry. We went to the front desk to see what there was in walking distance. I had researched this earlier and heard that there was a mall a little more than a ½ mile away. The kind lady at the desk gave us a map and directions to the International Mall.

 

 

Wow, it’s an awesome mall. It was also very busy. I’m thinking that many locals must go here. If you’ve ever been to the Millennia Mall in Orlando you will think that this is a carbon copy. It must have been built by the same person. Many of the same stores are also in this mall. We decided we wanted to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. This was in the Bayside Market of this mall. This is a little area outside that has different restaurants and bars. When we arrived at the Cheesecake Factory we were told that there would be a 15-30 minute wait. That wasn’t too bad, so we decided to wait. As we waited we looked at the menu so that we would be able to order quickly. We actually had to wait 40 minutes, but we didn’t complain. My boyfriend had the Chicken Crusted Romano and I had the Spicy Chicken sandwich. Both were delicious! Originally we were going to have to desert, but I explained to my boyfriend that we were going to have desert 7 nights in a row so it didn’t make sense to have desert now since we were already full. So, the mud pie (my favorite at the Cheesecake Factory) will have to wait until another visit. I forgot to mention that the walk took about 10 minutes. I really enjoyed it as the weather was perfect. We got to the hotel around 9:30. We watched tv for a little while, then finally fell asleep waiting for the day that we’d been waiting for for months.

[debster11]

I've heard so much about this ship that I am really thinking of booking it.:)

[mom2girls]

Day 1 Cruise Embarkation:

We were very excited, and woke up around 7:00. I knew that we couldn’t leave for the ship yet, so I decided to type up some things from yesterday for my review. I’m hoping to do this every day, so that I don’t forget anything. I look outside, and see that it’s another gorgeous day in Florida. We watch the news on Fox, and they state that the weather in the Caribbean is perfect. There’s no likeliness of a TS any time soon!  I was thrilled to hear this. I went downstairs to see if I can access the supposedly free wi-fi, but there is a charge. Since wi-fi wasn’t free I ended up using my boyfriend’s laptop to check in to CC.

 

We left the hotel around 10:20. We were inside, and waiting to be called to the ship around 10:40. We were in group 3 to board the ship. We boarded around 11:30. When we boarded we were told that the rooms were not ready yet, but if we wanted to we could drop off our luggage. Cool, because I didn’t want to carry it around. After dropping off the luggage we went to the pursers desk to get S&S’s punched so that we could put them on our lanyards. We then booked the beginners dive in Grand Cayman. My boyfriend is certified in diving, but wanted to do an excursion with me. After that we talked to someone about our reservations for the Golden Fleece. Boy am I glad we double checked since the reservation we made online was not there. Finally, we decided that we should get something to eat. It pretty much was a madhouse on the lido deck. There were people everywhere, and long lines. We finally got our food, and were on to the task of finding someplace to sit. After we got our seats we found we had yet another task. We needed to find some silverware. I finally hunted down one of the staff members, and they were able to point me in the right direction.

 

After eating we decided to wander the whole ship. I was impressed by the fact that there were 4 pools. (One of them is a baby pool, and is very tiny. But, if you have young children I’m sure you’ll be happy that there is a pool that your child can play in.) Now that I had the layout of the ship down pat (Ok, I didn’t but at least I somewhat knew my way around.), I figured I could just layout by the pool. It was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining brightly, and there was a gentle breeze which made it extremely comfortable outside. It was getting kind of warm, so I decided to go to the pool. Wow, the flooring was HOT! I realized that I should have worn my flip flops. I imagine once the ship starts moving the water from the pool helps to cool the surface. But, since we weren’t moving ouch!

 

 

 

[finoky]

Love your review so far and your pics are amazing. We also went to the International Mall on our precruise stay. Your pics bring back a lot of good memories. The Legend will always be one of our most favorite ships.

[mom2girls]

Around 3:00, we decided to head to our room. We were surprised to see that it wasn’t completely done. There was no bar soap. We also expected to have a bucket of ice, but we didn’t get that until much later. The muster drill was supposed to be at 3:30. We figured if we went at 3:45 we wouldn’t have to wait that long. We were wrong. It seemed as though people kept coming all the way up until the end of it around 4:30. I’m thinking that we had muster and sailaway late because we were waiting on some late arrivals. After muster we rushed back to our room. (I realized how out of shape I was after I walked up 5 flights of stairs.) We dropped of our life vests. Then we were off to the Lido deck to have our unofficial M&G. We were there a short while when Andrea and Ryan showed up. We had met them earlier in our explorations. (I was wearing my CC lanyard, so Andrea asked me if I posted so we quickly explained who we were.) Tess and Al showed up a couple of minutes later. We hung out for another 10-15 minutes to see if anyone else from our roll call would show up. But, we were itching to get up deck to watch sail away. Eventually, we went on deck to watch what was going on from up top. We took a bunch of pictures.

 

 

[mom2girls]

I've heard so much about this ship that I am really thinking of booking it.:)

 

After being on 6 cruises with Carnival, I have to say the Legend is my favorite!

 

Love your review so far and your pics are amazing. We also went to the International Mall on our precruise stay. Your pics bring back a lot of good memories. The Legend will always be one of our most favorite ships.

 

I'm glad I could bring back some happy memories! :) Thanks for the compliments on the pictures. I wanted to share as many as I could since so many others had done this for me before I sailed. It certainly helps build the anticipation.

[mom2girls]

Then we went down to our room to see if our luggage had arrived. (The others from CC had their luggage.) I was happy to see that most of our luggage was there, but unfortunately our garment bag with the formal wear had not arrived. :( We had told the others that we would meet them out on deck around 6:15 to see the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

 

Isn't the rainbow beautiful?

 

It looks as though it will be cutting it close.

[Payd]

Quick...post the rest, I can hardly wait!!

[mom2girls]

 

 

 

We went out there, and noticed that it was raining, but the sun was shining brightly. We took a picture of a beautiful rainbow. Hopefully, it will come out. It started to drizzle, so I told my boyfriend that we should go up top because a little rain wouldn’t hurt us. Shortly, thereafter it stopped raining. We ended up going to the deck with the funnel. I told my boyfriend that the others would find us here because it’s the best place to view the bridge. A couple of minutes later the others showed up. We of course, got some more pictures. Seeing that funnel right under the bridge was a breathtaking sight. It really looks as though we’re going to crash right into the bridge. Wow, it’s something you really should see at least once in your lifetime.

 

After going under the bridge we decided to check out the free liquor tasting. At this time the shops should be open, but since we had sail away so late they were not open yet. There were a lot of people here for the liquor tasting. It was pretty neat to get to try a couple of different things. We ordered a couple of bottles since the price was so good. Then we decided to go check our room once more to see if our formal bag had arrived yet. Yes, it finally had.

[mom2girls]

Quick...post the rest, I can hardly wait!!

 

Well, I'm getting kind of tired. So, I'm stopping for tonight. I'll post some more tomorrow.

[stephuney]

Well, I'm getting kind of tired. So, I'm stopping for tonight. I'll post some more tomorrow.

 

Thanks for the review ... loving it so far!

 

I will be on the Legend in two weeks ... I wondered if you remembered which deck exactly you watched the bridge passing?

[Debster2Cruz]

Oh no, you went to bed but I wanted to see more pictures and hear more. This is like reading a book and you can't wait until the next chapter to see what is going to happen next. Great review so far. I will be taking the Legend in October so good to hear it is a favorite cruise ship for some. Debbie

[snc421]

Hey 'Mom'! Awesome review so far!

 

I did get the rest of my review finished. The link is in my signature if you'd like to finish reading it. Again, I am sorry I didn't get it done before you left. This and that, it just didn't get done how I wanted to. (and I don't know anything about typing it ahead of time... so I typed as I posted.)

 

I am looking forward to more of your review and great pictures!!!

 

Thank you! :D

[pe4all]

Keep it coming - great pictures and review:)

[deuceybean]

What an awesome review so far, can't wait to read the rest!!

[TheCruisingBrewers]

I love this new trend Tink and Carries started with the pictures and the idea of writing the text as you go on the laptop... very good idea, that way all you have to do is upload the pics, add pics and post the report into the boards.

 

I cannot wait 24 days and counting!

 

Nancy

[mom2girls]

What an awesome review so far, can't wait to read the rest!!

Thanks, I plan on posting some more today.

 

I love this new trend Tink and Carries started with the pictures and the idea of writing the text as you go on the laptop... very good idea, that way all you have to do is upload the pics, add pics and post the report into the boards.

 

I cannot wait 24 days and counting!

 

Nancy

I have to admit that I did get the idea of posting the pictures in the review from people on CC. I enjoyed it so much, I knew that's what I was going to do. But, I was having so much fun on the ship I ended up only typing up part of the first day. The rest of the review is going to b by memory.

 

Hey 'Mom'! Awesome review so far!

 

I did get the rest of my review finished. The link is in my signature if you'd like to finish reading it. Again, I am sorry I didn't get it done before you left. This and that, it just didn't get done how I wanted to. (and I don't know anything about typing it ahead of time... so I typed as I posted.)

 

I am looking forward to more of your review and great pictures!!!

 

Thank you! :D

I read the rest of your review on Sunday. It was a wonderful review. I'm glad your seahorse was replaced. :D If you want to type ahead of time, just write what your planning to post in Word. Then copy and paste it into where you would post it.

[MASH723]

LOVE that picture of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge with the rainbow!! Thats beautiful!! Can't wait for the rest of your review!!

 

Marianne:D

[Carnival Game]

Wow, the pictures are great!

 

I've read reviews of the Legend elsewhere that said the food is pretty bad because they want you to go to the supper club. What did you think?

[mom2girls]

Thanks for the review ... loving it so far!

 

I will be on the Legend in two weeks ... I wondered if you remembered which deck exactly you watched the bridge passing?

I'm glad you're enjoying the review. We were on deck 11. It's definitely very windy up there.

 

Oh no, you went to bed but I wanted to see more pictures and hear more. This is like reading a book and you can't wait until the next chapter to see what is going to happen next. Great review so far. I will be taking the Legend in October so good to hear it is a favorite cruise ship for some. Debbie

I'm sorry I was tired. But, I plan on writing some more today. I have to take my daughter to get some lab tests done. But, after that I'll wroite some more.

 

Keep it coming - great pictures and review:)

Thanks! :D

[mom2girls]

Wow, the pictures are great!

 

I've read reviews of the Legend elsewhere that said the food is pretty bad because they want you to go to the supper club. What did you think?

 

Oh, the food in the dining room is terrific! We did go the the Golden Fleece one night. That food was fantastic as well. But, I really enjoyed the regular dining room too. Plus, I like the singing and dancing waiters. :) Our tablemates were fun too.

[pungo3]

Thanks for posting all of this. It makes me really, really miss the Legend! What a wonderful ship!

[mom2girls]

Here is a picture of our room. It was a category 8I. The room number was 8182. We didn't have any problems with the Lido deck above us. We heard some noise the night of the Lido party, but it wasn't bad.

 

 

I was happy that the last bag had arrived because I really wanted to change for dinner. We finished getting ready. Then we went downstairs to Truffles. I was shocked at how long the line was. But, I realized it was probably that long because many people didn’t know where there tables were. We had a great table near the back of the restaurant. We didn’t have a window seat, but we were close enough to be able to see out the windows. We ended up having New York Strip. I had been telling my boyfriend about the chocolate melting cake. So, of course we both had that for dessert. Yum! After dinner we went to the Welcome Aboard Show. We ended up getting there a little late. We sat on the second floor of the Follies lounge. The seats weren’t great. But, we really enjoyed the show. (It played on the fact that Carnival is known to be the FUN ships.)

 

Pictures of the dining room: