REVIEW-Our Honeymoon on CARNIVAL LEGEND March 14th -21st, 2010 (LONG with PICS)

We got married back on May 26th, 2009 (if you want to know more about us or our wedding see http://www.momentville.com/dawn_jake) so our Honeymoon cruise is almost an Anniversary Cruise haha…what can I say, we booked it in advance with the super saver rate-HELLO balcony room!! Besides I am a PLANNER -I like to look forward to a vacation for a long time so booking this cruise in September was perfect for us and definitely gave us something to look forward to over the long cold snowy winter of Northern Michigan!

We booked directly with Carnival and I called "Charles" several times with numerous questions over the months…he probably was thrilled that I had his direct line. Then I found this website and it was a godsend these boards are not only addictive, but also VERY helpful and the reviews are amazing so I’m going to do my best to make an informative review to help others.

I booked our airline tickets through Air Tran (Spring Break not the cheapest time to fly, but who cares right..we are going on a CRUISE…(our first and it’s our HONEYMOON!)

I decided to cut some corners and book a cheaper hotel for March 13th. I booked Howard Johnson 2055 N. Dale Mabry Hwy. (the pictures looked like your average hotel and we were flying in during the evening so really just a place to lay our heads for a few short hours right?…oh so wrong I’ll get to that!!!!)

Fast forward to March 13th, we drove 3 hours south to Flint, Michigan to fly out in the afternoon, short layover in Atlanta, and arrive in Tampa at approximately 7:30 p.m. We called the hotel shuttle for Howard Johnson and waited for about an hour. We were on vacation we had nothing but time no worries. Check in is a breeze, we walk into our room and I looked at my husband and I said, "There must be some kind of mistake this can’t be our room!"

-It reeked like it had never been cleaned-and looked it too…we’re not talking a little dust-we’re talking full on grime and filth! Note: my husband killed a spider within minutes of entering the room…lovely!

Spider:

-There were poorly patched holes in the wall everywhere, a broken chair, the coat rack was held up by wire and a nail, cobwebs in the corner of the room, and mold on the floor boards..not to mention the carpet was literally coming apart at the seams…and the front door was broken in at least 3 different places as though it had been kicked in at one point and repaired somewhat "Ok don’t put your luggage down we are getting a different room or leaving this hotel!"

Some holes in the wall:

Broken Chair:

"You can leave your coat on"...lol-wire holding up coat rack:-

Broken door-also the chain and metal catch plate were broken on door (nice curtains as well don't you think haha)

Did I mention the bathroom door had writing on it, didn’t close without force cause it rubbed on the floor. The floor was sticky, there was black grime on the faucet, hole in the tub, mold/mildew on the showerhead, the fan was just kind of hanging there and rust on the toilet back…I mean these were all things you could see just by walking in-you didn’t have to SEARCH for them! LOL

Ewwwww where you go to get CLEAN!?!?

SHOWERHEAD!

Bottom left of bathroom door!

Close up in case you were or "was" wondering what it said -

If they have housekeeping-they need to fire them and hire new people!!!! GROSS!

Rust!

I immediately grabbed the phone and said, "We need a new room." "We are completely booked" was my response back. I grabbed the phone book (looked down and there was someone’s toe nail clippings between the bed and the night stand-cringe) and from 9:00 p.m until 1:00 a.m. called every single hotel in the phone book not one single hotel had a vacancy! Unbelievable!!! We were stuck there!!! Oh my god it was going to be a long sleepless night!

Cringe....toe nail clippings!

First order of business ripping off the comforter cause I’ve seen CSI and I was certain it wasn’t clean-I was right sure enough on the other side a huge brown stain..ewww it stayed on the floor the rest of the night. We inspected the sheets for bugs and I slept with all my clothes on! (I use the term "slept" loosely, because the walls were so thin car alarms were going off outside and people were fighting outside our door all hours of the night-it felt like the night would never end!) We couldn’t check out soon enough LOL

Stain on comforter! Ahhhhh gross!

Bugs and cobwebs in room

Our mistake is everyone else’s benefit-we took LOTS of pictures and I intend on posting on several travel websites to warn people NOT to be cheap like us thinking it was like your average hotel to lay your head for a couple hours before a cruise. It was something out of a horror movie…I think Bates Motel would be safer and cleaner Haha!

Ok enough about that onto the good part-the CRUISE!!!!!!!!

OMG.......is all i can say:eek:

Yuck! Reminds me of a hotel we stayed at in Atlanta....I bet getting on the cruise ship was wonderful after this.

You didn't check out this dog of a hotel on TripAdviser? They have a ton of negative reviews on there mirroring your experience.

The sixty bucks a night rate should have been enough warning though.

It's tricky going cheap on a hotel in a strange town.

You didn't check out this dog of a hotel on TripAdviser? They have a ton of negative reviews on there mirroring your experience.

 

The sixty bucks a night rate should have been enough warning though.

 

It's tricky going cheap on a hotel in a strange town.

So true...20-30 more dollars can make a HUGE difference.

March 14th, 2010 we’re alive and we RAN out of that dive hotel! LOL

When we first pulled up and saw the Legend-it is JUST LIKE EVERYONE SAYS-the ship looks HUGE! We were sooooo excited! We arrived at the port at around noon and went through the process of the lines and as soon as we got on the ship "PICTURE!" I’m a picture-a-holic and let me tell you it was all I could do to not buy ALL our pictures…I probably would have too if they weren’t all 8x10’s haha

Here is our very first picture on the Legend! You can see we were in AWE and had no idea what or where to go…but we were loving it already!

We couldn’t check into our room until 1:30 p.m., which was fine with us we wanted to check out the ship anyway. Here are a few pictures we took as we wondered around until we made it to our room. It is funny-that there are soooo many urns everywhere too….hey I guess if we die, at least we die happy LOL

You didn't check out this dog of a hotel on TripAdviser? They have a ton of negative reviews on there mirroring your experience.

 

The sixty bucks a night rate should have been enough warning though.

 

It's tricky going cheap on a hotel in a strange town.

This is the embarrassing part-I DID check it on Trip Advisor AND Expedia... :o I thought those people were exaggerating and just complainers in general... ummmm they weren't-that's why I spent a good majority of the night taking pictures to post on the travel websites...for naive people like me who thought nahhhh can't be THAT bad-pictures don't LIE :eek: LOL (I have to laugh cause it's the only thing that got us through that awful night!) :rolleyes:

That hotel was disgusting. I bid on priceline for four star hotel and usually get one for under 100. I am enjoying your review though. Tahnk you for posting. Congrats on the honeymoon.

It was 1:30 p.m. time to check out our home for the next week!!!

Our Balcony Room was Cabin 6136-Everyone is right about the Balcony room being worth it too-we LOVED it!!!!

Aww you guys are a cute couple. Looks like you had great weather on the first day :)

2:30 p.m. Time to go meet the other Cruise Critic Roll Call people! (I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of anyone!) We really enjoyed meeting and getting together with Kiersten, Jeff, Jessie, Chris, Kathie, Brad, and Morgan throughout the cruise!! (didn't really see any of the other C.C. roll call people much during the cruise)

4:00 p.m. We found the Pizza in the Lido Buffet YUM and what is this?! We are moving....kind of a weird feeling to look out the window and notice that ship is moving at first.

EVERYONE said you absolutely can't miss when the ship goes under the Skyway Bridge and the Captain said we should be going under it at about 6:30 p.m. you got it captain ;)

I bought this one on the ship for $2 to show how close the Legend comes to the Bridge!!!

It seems all of the hotels close to Raymond James are disgusting. One that really worked for us was the LaQuinta at the airport. Older hotel, but really clean, free airport shuttle and I think they had a cruise port shuttle for $15.00 bucks. Check on that. They also let us park the car the whole time we were in Hawaii last fall. Sorry about your experince. Booked on the Legend in Sept. canlt wait for the rest of your review.

Where did you buy that picture at??? The one of the Legend going under the bridge? I would love to have that to show people that look at me like i'm crazy.:eek:

Oh my word! That hotel is just horrible, they need to shut that place down ASAP. Just nasty....anyway, loving your review so far though, it's very funny, you have me laughing already with the hotel story.

8:15 p.m. we had late dining (but managed to get a table for 2!) Anthony was our waiter and was AMAZING!!!! We tipped him extra at end just loved him and wanted to take him home with us!

Just a note about me: I am a creature of habit: I don't eat out of my comfort zone...and I don't eat any veggies (I know weird...) I literally had Fruit, Steak or Prime Rib and fries, and Chocolate Melting Cake every single night when we ate in the Main Dining Room. I'm sorry I know what I like and I don't try new things...The last night Anthony FORCED me to try mushrooms and I laughed so hard... I tried them and I am POSITIVE I STILL don't like mushrooms LOL

I will say that EVERY SINGLE MEAL I ate in the Main Dining Room was FABULOUS and seriously we really considered kidnapping Anthony! (Or whoever can make that Chocolate Melting Cake..aka HEAVEN!)

Here we are the first night, which was casual night with our Chocolate Melting Cakes-as you can see Jake (husband) didn't mess around-he had two..he didn't make that mistake again, they are VERY filling especially after a huge meal hahaha

Gotta have the Towel Animal picture...and we did every night! I know, I know how touristy of us! haha

Met up with our new friends from Cruise Critic Roll Call at the Piano Bar and then to Medusa's Lair and they taught us how to do the Cupid Shuffle...how ridiculous is it that we didn't know how to do that yet!?! Anyways we had a great time! We were so tired from getting little to no sleep the night before at the Ho-Jo so we decided to call it a night around 12:30 a.m.? We decided we wanted to try out the Room Service just cause we could and I ordered a Grilled Cheese and Chips.. SO GOOD!!!!!!! The service was SO FAST too!

Other things to mention from First day: I didn't realize once we got out onto open water that I, of all people, would be bothered by the movement of the ship-I was (only on the way to Grand Cayman and on the way home from Roatan) Happy we brought that Dramamine!

-The water didn't work in the room that night-we ended up cracking open the $4 bottle of water they give you in the room to wash my face and brush our teeth...kind of a bummer, but it worked by morning so it was A-OK

-My Aunt & Uncle sent us a $25 credit on our Sign and Sail account for Jake's Birthday (March 20th) and our Honeymoon was on the door when we came in for the night-very sweet!! Just things I wrote down

Where did you buy that picture at??? The one of the Legend going under the bridge? I would love to have that to show people that look at me like i'm crazy.:eek:

It's a great picture and it has all the ports that we went to!!! Bonus!

There is a table right there where you purchase the pictures and where the pictures are set up to be taken (you can't miss it)

There are several other pictures on the table for you to purchase if you want for $2 each some nice ones or Roatan, Belize, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, The Ship, Etc...

I just loved that one cause it shows just how close the Legend comes to the bridge!!! You could always just right click on mine and save to your computer too save yourself a couple bucks! ;)

You are braver than I would have been to stay in that place. I'll probably go back to the airport and sleep in a chair there. Love the review so far. Takes me back to Feb. 7 when we boarded. Can't wait to read the rest.

Aww you guys are a cute couple. Looks like you had great weather on the first day :)

Awwww thanks-we try to clean up when we go out in public-jk

The weather was REALLY nice in Tampa on March 14th on the 21st...well that was another story-weather delays all the way home from Florida and Georgia, but we could care less-it was on the way HOME not on the way THERE right? ;)

(I'll get to that...........eventually hahaha)

Monday-March 15th, 2010 -Sea Day

We slept in...I'm embarrassed to say how long-but it was well deserved and you sleep HARD on a cruise ship (if you've been on one you know what I mean...if you haven't get excited!)

Ok so we took our sweet time getting ready and enjoying the Balcony view and water-oh it's soooo blue and beautiful and took some more pictures of the ship and found that Pizza Bar again!

Our balcony and the BLUEST WATER EVER!!!!

I don't know how many other cruise ships have an Enchanted Forest?! How cool is this?!

At the end of the Enchanted Forest we found the Arcade-we didn't go in there just use the lighted stairs for a photo op

Glass Elevator in the lobby-loved it!!!

We're cruisin now!

Oh yea check out the water slide!

It was the first FORMAL EVENING...I decided what the hell-I want to get my hair done-called the spa and made an appointment- Raymond from the Philippines did my hair and it turned out great! We went to EVERY picture station down in the lobby (I highly suggest you do this-it's free and it takes just a few minutes before dinner you'll love how the pictures turn out and you'll want to buy them all...haha try to resist the urge!)

8:15 p.m. We went to Formal Dinner it was AMAZING as usual

I can't believe I forgot to mention him until now-the Cruise Director-Wee Jimmy is from Scotland-I love, love, loved him with his wee lil' accent and his kilts...cracked me up! (I couldn't get enough of him...I hope he is on everyone else's cruise too...he was adorable!)

10:30 p.m. Jazz Hot was the show of the evening-we both loved it (I will say the blonde girl in the show tends to scream when she sings, other than that I thought the rest of the singers and dancers were REALLY good!..watch for the guy with the pony tail-he looks like Corky Ramono I'll see if I have a picture of him somewhere) Seriously, great show-highly recommend!!!

Our attempt to recreate the lobby picture with the self timer..haha like I said BUY the $22 pictures in the lobby they do a much better job!

Oh and what's this...another animal?...heck yes!

Oh yea..and if you're a single lady going on this cruise or you're taking your daughter-you're in luck....keep your eyes pealed for SCOTT...SWOON! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scott-Foster/66112691815 ok I'm a bit of a stalker...he is GOOD though...I have no idea what he is doing on a cruise ship-this guy has TALENT! :D

Wait till you hear him..he sings Van Morrison, John Mayer, Dave Matthews etc. He was like an angel up there on the bar...I was like, "Jake who?" JUST KIDDING.... :p

Love the formal night pics, your hair looks awesome!!:D We are going on Legend in June, loving the review, can't wait for more.

BTW, thank you for letting me know what hotel to not book in Tampa.:eek: