My Review of Carnival Legend 9/18-9/25

We just got back from Tampa late last night. I haven’t unpacked or done any laundry, but here I sit on Cruise Critic.:p I am so excited to relive my trip, plus I need to post it before I forget some stuff. This review will be long and full of pics (yay). I took over 800 pictures, I will spare you guys a few hundred of those though :D Okay, on to the review……….

 

 

I am Nella (30) and this was my seventh cruise. Only a few more before I am platinum! I cruise annually with my hubby of six years. He is 29 or 34 depending on what day you ask him. This was his fourth cruise. We are both from Virginia. We cruise every year to celebrate our anniversary!

 

We booked this cruise over 280 days before it sailed. Long, long wait. We had a few financial setbacks (my back issues, car troubles) and we thought it would be better to change the cruise to something to fit our decreasing budget. Thank God, everything worked out in the end and we were able to keep our cruise as it was! So at 5:25am on our anniversary, we were headed to Tampa!!! Go us!! (I am so festive lol)

 

 

We got to Tampa around 5. I was so excited to finally get there. I loved the fact that we had so much vacation ahead of us! We stayed at the Hampton Inn Rocky Point. It wasn’t anything special, but it definitely was not bad. I would stay there again or recommend to a friend. The staff were all very nice. The bed was really comfortable!

 

 

The hotel sat right off the water. The area driving towards the hotel was beautiful. Our hotel was right behind the hotel with the blue roof towards the left of the pic.

 

As soon as we checked in I told DH that I wanted to go Clearwater Beach. I love seeing new places. So we showered and went to the beach and caught the most beautiful sunset. Then we headed to the Cheesecake Factory. It is our tradition that anytime we go out of town we visit the local Cheesecake Factory. Yes,very fat I know!:o We had our anniversary dinner and saw some football stadium and then headed back to hotel!!

 

A few pics of our hotel room. Entering the room

Hubby never wastes anytime making himself comfortable and turning on some football.

And out this window,we had a nice view of the Bahama Breeze Restaurant lol.

 

Oh, something I forgot to mention. When we got to the hotel the only shuttle times they had were 1 and 2pm yikes. No WAY!! I am a planner by nature and I NEED to get to the port by 9:30. I maybe just a little OCD, but hey I own it lol! So they told us that we could call a different service and they would lower our price since we were not using there shuttle! Sounds good to me. We called “Blue One” (let me check on that name to make sure it’s correct) they told us they could pick us up at 9:15. I was a happy lady then!

The stadium was Raymond James where the BUCS play. Go Bucs - first win of the season yesterday. The Cheesecake Factory at International Mall is GOOD. Loving your review.

The stadium was Raymond James where the BUCS play. Go Bucs - first win of the season yesterday. The Cheesecake Factory at International Mall is GOOD. Loving your review.

 

Congrats on the first win!! Dh kept on telling me the name but I couldn't remember lol. More review coming up!

I board the Legend in 103 days!! I can't wait to read more!:)

Keep it coming Cuted. I have enjoyed your other reviews.

Can't wait for the rest of the review....thank you for taking the time to write it! :)

As soon as we checked in I told DH that I wanted to go Clearwater Beach. I love seeing new places. So we showered and went to the beach and caught the most beautiful sunset. Then we headed to the Cheesecake Factory. It is our tradition that anytime we go out of town we visit the local Cheesecake Factory. Yes,very fat I know!:o We had our anniversary dinner and saw some football stadium and then headed back to hotel!!

 

A few pics of our hotel room. Entering the room

Hubby never wastes anytime making himself comfortable and turning on some football.

And out this window,we had a nice view of the Bahama Breeze Restaurant lol.

 

Oh, something I forgot to mention. When we got to the hotel the only shuttle times they had were 1 and 2pm yikes. No WAY!! I am a planner by nature and I NEED to get to the port by 9:30. I maybe just a little OCD, but hey I own it lol! So they told us that we could call a different service and they would lower our price since we were not using there shuttle! Sounds good to me. We called “Blue One” (let me check on that name to make sure it’s correct) they told us they could pick us up at 9:15. I was a happy lady then!

 

 

Love the review so far and your pictures are beautiful! We will be sailing in 75 days!!!! Can't wait. Please hurry and post more of your cruises!

Thanks for the great review,I will be on the Legend,in 20 days. I look forward to hearing more.

Can't wait for the rest. Thanks for taking the time to write a review.

Although we set a wakeup call for 7:30am I was already up and ready to go by the time we got it. DH wanted to run the store because he felt a sinus infection coming on. Poor baby. He told me it was hard for him to even sleep throughout the night cause he felt so bad. We rushed off to the store and got our stuff really quick, but as soon as we were ready to pay, the lights went out and the system was down. We stayed about 20 mins to wait on it, but it never came back on. I started getting nervous cause we were making good time and now it was almost 8:40 and Blue One was supposed to pick us up soon.

 

Lucky for us there was a CVS right down the street and by the time we got back (at 9:05) and checked out and got our luggage, the shuttle was there. It was about a 20 min ride to the port. I was so excited when I finally saw the whale tail. We had waited so long to be here and it felt great that it had finally arrived. The port was packed with people still getting off the ship and people waiting to get on. See, I’m not the only person who like to get there early J We went in the port and we were third couple to sit down to start our wait to board the ship.

 

The lady that checked us in told us that she didn’t have any zone cards yet and that as soon as they started giving them out, she would have one for us. Well, the port started filling and then I noticed that people were walking around with Zone 3 cards. DH went and asked what was going on. Obviously the lady forgot about us and they gave us a special assistance card to make up for it,since they didn't have anymore Zone 1,2 or 3 cards.

 

We chatted with another couple that we met whom we named Mr. & Mrs. Colorado since we knew their names. If you guys are reading this, it was nice talking and seeing you throughout the trip and I hope you had a wonderful vacation! Ok, I think they started boarding around 10:50 and we were on the ship around 11:15.

First Impression of the atrium was that it was closed in and dark. Well darker than the other boats I’ve been on. Staff members were guiding us straight to lido deck to have lunch. I didn’t wanna go to Lido because I like to take pics while all rooms are empty. Not only that, but this was my first time on a Spirit Class ship. I was intrigued by not knowing exactly where everything was so I wanted to wander around for awhile.

So we did, but that was short lived. Most things were closed due to the four weddings that were taking place. So we went on up to Lido to find some food. I LIVE for that first lido cheeseburger and Fun Ship Special. The first waiter I saw,made a beeline right for me J Maybe I have that feening for the DOD look lol. I was so happy to get one and it was everything that I remembered and missed!!

We got our food and people watched for awhile. I basked in this moment. Just being on vacation and not having any worries for the next seven days!

Next up around the ship pics!

The beautiful glass staircase. Located on lido and leads to The Golden Fleece.

Lido grill checkout DH in the line!

One of the pools

Oversized chess

Enjoying your review very much, :) thanks for taking the time. Mark

I wanna give a shoutout to Danny and Debbie from Cincinatti. Nice meeting you guys! Danny stopped me and asked if I was on cruise critic. He had read one of my reviews! That was cool! Cruise Critic unite!!! :)

 

More ship pics

First floor of the Golden Fleece

Inside the belly of the Funnel

 

Kiddie Pool

So cute!

Thanks for taking time to write a review! We're going on the Legend in May - can't wait!!

I board the Legend in 103 days!! I can't wait to read more!:)

You're gonna have fun!!!

 

Keep it coming Cuted. I have enjoyed your other reviews.

Aaaaawww, thanks so much! I think this one is gonna take awhile. Deciding which pics I wanna post is the hard part!

 

Can't wait for the rest of the review....thank you for taking the time to write it! :)

You're welcome! Thank you for reading along!

Loving your review... reliving my Aug. 28th cruise... and thinking about another one :D

(Hello, My name is C, and I'm a cruise addict :D)

Love the review so far and your pictures are beautiful! We will be sailing in 75 days!!!! Can't wait. Please hurry and post more of your cruises!

Thanks!! I am trying to get sail away and the first sea day done tonight!!

 

Thanks for the great review,I will be on the Legend,in 20 days. I look forward to hearing more.

I'm jealous,I wanna go too!! You gonna have a great time! I really enjoyed the Legend!

 

Can't wait for the rest. Thanks for taking the time to write a review.

You're Welcome!!

Enjoying your review very much, :) thanks for taking the time. Mark

Thanks and you're welcome! Much more to come

 

Thanks for taking time to write a review! We're going on the Legend in May - can't wait!!

You're gonna to enjoy the Legend! It's a great ship!

 

Loving your review... reliving my Aug. 28th cruise... and thinking about another one :D

(Hello, My name is C, and I'm a cruise addict :D)

I know what you mean! I am ready to start looking at some dates now!!

The slide

The huge casino

Satchmo's Sorry it's so dark

Note the beautiful chocolate & carrot cakes sitting on the counter *yummy*

Just yesterday we booked an aft-wrap suite on the Legend for next June. Can't wait! Looking forward to reading the rest of your review!

Hi Nella, Do you remember how much the Blue Line Shuttle was for the 2 of you? We are staying at the Embassy Suites Westshore and I have to find transporation still. We cruise in 75 days on the Legend !! I am looking foward to your review and pics.

Kelly

I was so love reading reviews especially ones about the Legend. I also like to see how others view my city. Thanks for taking the time.:)

One of the elevator areas

This boat reminds me of the game Clue. Every time we would go to the elevator area, I would say professor plum did it with a candle stick. It is very dark and it has a lot of mystery to it. I say that because it has lots of nook and crannies almost like secret rooms. For instance the enchanted forest is hidden away, without being hidden. You could find it if you wanted to, but it is easily missed.

 

I loved how if they closed the door to the art auction area, you would never know it was there. The doors looked like a wall with a mural on it. I loved that!

 

Truffles,well the top level of it

Rodeo Drive

 

Enchanted Forest,I loved this area

 

You can sit in the window and watch the water go by

Arcade