Legend 8/2 thru 8/9 First Time Cruiser experience

[buckeyecruiser09]

Our family took our first cruise on the Carnival Legend 8-2 thru 8-9. After spending months reading the reviews here on cruise critic, I decided to finally be a cruise critic. The following review is what we thought about our experience from beginning to end. I understand that many may have different opinions. Here is a link with some of our pictures:

http://our2009carnivallegendcruise.shutterfly.com/

We arrived in Tampa International two days prior of our arrival and stayed at a very nice hotel for $59 called the Crown Plaza Westshore. This hotel picked us up at the airport for free within 10 minutes of our arrival. The rooms were very nice, they even have a restaurant on the first floor. They have a nice pool as well. You can walk to a mall close by or they will shuttle you anywhere within 3 miles of the hotel for free. The beds were so comfortable. I highly recommend this hotel for the price. We had friends that drove over from Vero Beach and that night we ate at a restaurant called “Crabby Bills”. It was a great time. You can eat out on the outdoor deck and listen to the band or play some volley ball. Our kids got to play the bongos with the band. We had a great time and the seafood was so fresh. On Saturday 8-1 our friends drove us to Bush Gardens for the day. It’s a very nice park, clean and well done. Great for the kids. We then went to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ free practice at the stadium. We had a great time.

On 8-2-09 we took a shuttle from our Hotel to the port of Tampa. It was the Blue Shuttle and it was $10 per person. We checked out at 11:00 am and headed to the port. Our shuttle was about 20 minutes late but that was ok. The ride was quick and comfortable in a nice air conditioned shuttle. When you arrive at the port, you have to use the porters who will carry your bags to the appropriate destination. Have your tip money ready when you arrive with your bags. You will not need to use them when you debark after your cruise because you can gather bags and walk out about 100 yards to get your taxi or shuttle. Have your Carnival travel documents in your hand when you arrive. They will check them before you enter the building. We then stood in a long line until we met with a nice lady who checked us in. We got our sign and sail cards and off we went. We skipped the first photo stop but in hind sight, I wish we had done it. All the photos will appear later in the photo ship area for you to look at. You never have to buy a single photo. So stop and get your photo done and if you like, you can buy it for a small fortune. I think they run about $8 for a 5x7 and about $20+ for an 8x10.

Once on board, we headed to the Lido deck to begin our daily over indulgence of food. The unicorn café is excellent if you wish to gain 20 pounds. The food is everywhere. We decided to not buy the soda cards and gave up soda for the week. The lemonade, ice tea, coffee, hot chocolate were free so we took advantage of that. What we found and what you will find is that everyone is there waiting on there rooms to be ready. So be prepared for a very busy and congested area. Also bring your appetite. At 1:30 we headed to our room. We had a beautiful category 8I aft balcony dead center in the back of the ship, on the Verandah deck. There are several advantages to having a room here. Only people on your hall venture back there, so it’s less crowded. It’s near the elevator that will take you right to the Unicorn Café and the Truffles restaurant. The view is unlike other balconies. You get to see the water movement down below from the engines and you get a slightly larger balcony but the extra balcony space is really unusable unless you plan to store things out there. A disadvantage is that all the entertainment and Camp Carnival are on the other end of the ship. Some might find this a problem but we didn’t. I ate so much every day that I needed to walk a little extra every day.

Camp Carnival was great for our 6 year old daughter. They had lots of fun things for them to do. They give you a schedule of what is going on and when and where to drop your child off. Camp carnival is actually done all over the ship so have to know where they are to drop off and pick up. They do have times where they take a break for an hour to prepare for dinner. Our daughter ate with Camp Carnival several nights with other kids and loved it. After 10 p.m. you can leave your child there for $6 an hour for the first child and $4 for the second. Til 3 a.m. If I would say what was the best service we received on our cruise it would have to be Camp Carnival. They are so nice there.

Instead of breaking down every detail of each day, I will review each area that we experienced.

Cabin Steward- Abdul. He was nice, but didn’t clean our room two evenings, so no animal towels. 

Truffles Restaurant. We ate there several evenings, including one of the formal nights. We ate at the “Anytime Dining” which allowed us to eat when ever we wanted with virtually no wait. The pros are, if you go at the same time of the first or second seating are, you will walk right up and get right in and watch a line of people a mile long, waiting for there table. The food is the same, the tables are the same, but the waiters will be different. Now if I would complain about something, it would have to be the service in the dining room. These guys seem to be in a hurry and never smiled unless I called them out on it. I was disappointed because I have heard so much about the service on these cruises. I got better service at the IHOP two days after my cruise then I did in this restaurant. Now before you regular cruisers say “If you would have done the traditional dining, you would have got better service” I don’t buy it. It’s not a big deal to me if the waiter knows what I like to drink every night or my name. What is important to me is that the waiter is friendly, timely, and smiles every once in a while. They have a lot of work to do here. The food was very good. I have had better but you can order as much as you like and if you don’t like it, order something else. The chocolate melting cake is awesome.

Unicorn Café. This place will make you gain so much weight. The food is everywhere. It is well laid out. Seats are a plenty. Hamburgers, pizza, Chinese, fruit bar ( I should just ate that all week), eggs, omelets, desserts and more. You can sit down and watch the waves go by while you eat. We ate here most of the time. Sometimes they even had the chocolate melting cake so no need to go to Truffles.

Merlins Casino. Stay away from the roulette tables. They will drain you dry. When the ship is moving, the ball drops in some strange ways. Try the $3 or $5 blackjack tables, your odds will be better. Stay away from the slots too, nothing but a drain on your wallet. Sure you can play the penny slots for hours but not any big return. My wife and her friend Karen got great service from their waiter named Tude.

Drink Specials. They are very good but bring your wallet. The second day my wife got a carved coconut drink that our daughter will use as a bank. It makes a nice souvenir. I found a great way to bring on booze. At a liquor store in Tampa, we found these individual bags of vodka, gin, rum, etc. that you can carry in your pocket. I saved a fortune on drinks. I would go to the unicorn café, grab an ice tea or lemonade and add my favorite spirit and made my own drink of the day. I bet I saved $300-$500 by make my own. I also had brought on board a 12 pack of coke that I had my room steward put in our room fridge the first day to make some rum and cokes. They are totally undetectable in your bags.

Pools. Saltwater pools, Not real big but there are plenty of chairs to lay out on. You get your pool towels from your room steward. They are big blue towels that you can buy if you want for $22. The pool area had a great atmosphere. They have music playing and a bar and food near by.

Cruise Director. Jen is hilarious. She is British I believe and is a hoot. I’d give her an “A+” for sure.

Follies lounge. Very nice theater but we never made to a show. We did do bingo there and that was fun.

Grand Cayman- We took a tender off the ship. It was very quick and nice. The tenders hold a lot of people. We did not do an excursion. We took an air conditioned bus for $5 each way/ per person to “Sea Grapes Beach/Calico Jack” on seven mile beach. One negative with the bus is that they do not leave until they are full. Full means that the little isle seat that folds down has someone sitting in it. We waited for 20 minutes for the bus to fill up. Once at the beach, we were in heaven. We rented some chairs for $6 each I think. The water was crystal clear. Just beautiful. Calico Jacks has good food and beverages but beware. They are expensive. They list the prices in Cayman dollars and we have a $1.25 US to $1 Cayman. We spent over $75 for lunch for two adults and one child. Bring your own if you can.

Cozumel- We walked off the ship here. They have the shops at the port the cruise ship wants you to buy at. It’s almost like being in the U.S. We wanted to experience the real Mexico so we put our daughter in camp Carnival for the day and took a cab for $7 each way for both of us to the downtown area and started to shop and drink, or is it drink and shop. We had a ball. We loved talking to the locals and bartering for jewelry. Watch out for the guys giving free shots of tequila. I think I had five. Yummy. We did stumble upon a fantastic little bar called “Wet Wendys”. Believe it or not, it is owned by an American named Chad who use to play piano on a cruise ship. My wife got this huge strawberry daiquiri. If you go to Cozumel and like a fun little watering hole, this is it.

Belieze- Carnival could skip this one if they wanted and do two more days in another port. After doing our research here on Cruise Critic and other places, we ended up going to Bannister Island. Here is the good the bad and the ugly. The good is how beautiful parts of the beach are. The bad is the water, water quality, and the ugly is the SAND FLEAS! Did I mention sand fleas. We had even bought bug spray but had left if on the ship. The tiny little bugs and the horse flys were horrible. If you like to snorkel, don’t do it here. Once several ships arrived, the water was very cloudy. If our daughter were older, we would have done one of the other snorkeling trips. My suggestion, consider the cave tubbing or some other excursion. This trip will keep you scratching all day long.

Roatan. If I could live here, I would. This little island is just gorgeous. I understand why some of the cruisers earlier this year were upset they could not stop here. We spent the day at Tabyana Beach. OMG is this the most perfect beach. They have music playing, souvenirs to buy, food, showers, and of course the most awesome snorkeling from a beach. You literally swim out 25 ft and you see some amazing fish and coral. Just gorgeous. I got some great underwater shots of the fish with my Canon Powershot D10. I went out where it drops about 100 to 150 ft. Complete visibility. This stop was the highlight of our trip. I would come here again in a heartbeat and stay a week.

Rodeo Drive/Giftshop/Photoshop. Got some good deals on duty free merchandise. They do a raffle on the last sea day; we didn’t win but had fun watching the deal chasers. The quality of the photo were very good. I even printed some of my photos on the ship off my camera, 22 cents each a little higher than what I normally pay.

Debarkation. It was very easy. We got luggage tags the night before. We had them on and our luggage packed by midnight and in the hallway the night before we left. We kept our carryons for the next morning. Our ship arrived early, I think we were docked by 6:30 or sooner. We got up got showers, grabbed our carryons and headed up to the unicorn by 8 a.m. We got our last breakfast and headed off the ship by 8:30 a.m. All went smooth. Once off the ship you go get your luggage which is sitting in rows with your number. Ours was “7” and we found our bags very easily. There were porters who wanted to help with the bags, but I told them “no”. We then preceded though customs and out the door. Customs was very simple. Since we were staying in the Tampa area for a few more days, we rented a car from Hertz. Now there is a Hertz at the Terminal but don’t rent your car from there. The prices are a lot higher. Take a cab for $10 to the Marriott Waterside. We reserved our car online and picked it up at the Marriott Waterside Hertz with a drop off two days later at the airport.

We then headed to Treasure Island Beach and stayed at a gem of a hotel called the Treasure Island Bay and Marina hotel. It was wonderful. A public beach is right across the street, a McDonalds and grocery store nearby. We got an ocean view and got to see the sunset every night. We then drove down to Siesta Key, near Sarasota for a day. What a wonderful beach. The next day we flew home.

All in all for a first time cruising family, we had a great time. Our ship the Carnival Legend was very nice and easy to get around. I would recommend staying in the back of the ship. You will feel the movement but it helped me sleep at night. I had bought all this Bonine, patch, and Dramamine. We didn’t need it. I would suggest not getting a room on Level 5 in the front of the ship. All the kids and parents heading to Camp Carnival have to pass by your rooms. I am spoiled with Verandah Aft. The décor was not overly done. I have been to Vegas many times and this was calm compared to some of those places. The ship has plenty to do. We found that the ports wiped us out. We took long naps after returning back to the ship. What is great is that you can do a lot or nothing at all. We had fantastic weather, no rain. I would highly recommend this ship and cruise line for anyone. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Thanks to all the cruise critic members, we were prepared for our cruise and had a great time. See ya on the next one.

BuckeyeCruiser09

[Kurbanfan]

Nice review!!! We are looking at booking this one next......
Thanks!

[family cruisers]

I thought you gave a great review. Very fair and to the point. We too have chosen the any time dining.
Your saying if theres a long line waiting for the dining room you don't have to wait? You walk right past everyone?
We're going on the Pride in november , our first time on carnival and look forward to reading reviews of all carnival ships.

[buckeyecruiser09]

Originally Posted by family cruisers

I thought you gave a great review. Very fair and to the point. We too have chosen the any time dining.
Your saying if theres a long line waiting for the dining room you don't have to wait? You walk right past everyone?
We're going on the Pride in november , our first time on carnival and look forward to reading reviews of all carnival ships.

If you happen to want to eat at the same time the first or second seating is on the Legend, you will be able to walk right up on the left side of a very long line and be seated within minutes of walking into Truffles. We sat at a different table each time which was fine with us. I assume the Pride is similar. Have fun on the Pride.

[TakeMeAway1001]

Nice review, thanks for sharing

[poblead]

great review! Thanks!!

[smilz]

Do you remember the name of the liquor store where you got spirits in a bag or where it is?

[buckeyecruiser09]

Originally Posted by smilz

Do you remember the name of the liquor store where you got spirits in a bag or where it is?

My Receipt says" Lazzara Family"

4643 W. Kennedy Blvd.
Tampa, Fl. 33609
813-282-0183

I think the shot are called "port shots"

Happy drinking

[susanl9532]

Great review and pictures (the underwater ones are spectacular!) I'm leaving on this cruise in just over two weeks; your pictures just raised the level of excitement. Thanks!

[KimberleyFL]

Thanks for the nice review. My sister (she lives in Ohio) and I are going on the Legend in September. We like to watch DVDs at night after a long day of shore or ship activities. Are the TVs old or are they the newer flat panels? I'm wondering if we can hook up a dvd player to the TV. I know this question has been asked and answered about other ships, but I haven't seen a response about the TVs on the Legend. Thank You.

[winakork]

We are heading out on our first Family cruise Sunday. Can't wait!!! Your review has got us pumped up.

Thanks!

[ADL3]

Thanks for your review. We were on the Legend a couple of sailings before you and we really had a great time.

I am still stunned at how quickly we got off the ship. It was so different from our experience on Holiday last summer (which wasn't bad to begin with!). We carried our own bags off both times.

[KimberleyFL]

Originally Posted by winakork

We are heading out on our first Family cruise Sunday. Can't wait!!! Your review has got us pumped up.

Thanks!

I can't wait to hear about your trip too. I have over a month to wait for mine.

[buckeyecruiser09]

Originally Posted by susanl9532

Great review and pictures (the underwater ones are spectacular!) I'm leaving on this cruise in just over two weeks; your pictures just raised the level of excitement. Thanks!

Here are some more: All shot with the new Canon Powershot D10 bought at Walmart.com

[buckeyecruiser09]

Originally Posted by KimberleyFL

Thanks for the nice review. My sister (she lives in Ohio) and I are going on the Legend in September. We like to watch DVDs at night after a long day of shore or ship activities. Are the TVs old or are they the newer flat panels? I'm wondering if we can hook up a dvd player to the TV. I know this question has been asked and answered about other ships, but I haven't seen a response about the TVs on the Legend. Thank You.

The TV's are older I think about 13 to 20 inch. I can't answer for sure about the DVD hook up but i'm sure there would be an RCA video input on it but I never looked.

[buckeyecruiser09]

Originally Posted by winakork

We are heading out on our first Family cruise Sunday. Can't wait!!! Your review has got us pumped up.

Thanks!

You'll have a great time. Take lots of photos. I've already started our scrapebook that we bought on the ship. A must have.

[buckeyecruiser09]

Originally Posted by ADL3

Thanks for your review. We were on the Legend a couple of sailings before you and we really had a great time.

I am still stunned at how quickly we got off the ship. It was so different from our experience on Holiday last summer (which wasn't bad to begin with!). We carried our own bags off both times.

Yea, the Legend has it all figured out. We went to the debarkation meeting in the follies lounge that helped us understand it very well. We were off so fast that I got to the rental car place a little early.

[buckeyecruiser09]

Ok A FEW MORE PHOTOS:

[Delta Dear]

The photos are stunning !

[phinfan63]

Is this what the port shots looked like

http://www.alibaba.com/product-free/...showimage.html