Sunburns, Drownings and Other Tales From the Sea - Legend 9/4/11

I work an hour away from home and I work until 7pm at night. Why oh why did I book a 6:30am flight from Charlotte when I live another hour away from the airport? We got up at 2:30am (I think I went to bed around 11pm) and left for the airport by 4am.

The long term parking lot at Charlotte Douglas Airport was packed but we finally squeezed the car into a non-spot along the edge with tons of other cars parked the same way. Where the heck were all these people going on Labor Day weekend at 5:30am?

I knew where I was going! Tampa Florida and the Carnival Legend were waiting for me! It was myself and DH and we were celebrating our 30th Anniversary even though it was actually two months ago – but we didn’t want to cruise when kids were out of school and the ship was apt to be full of children – no matter how cute they were!

We connected in Atlanta and had a two hour layover. DH had never flown through Atlanta and I warned him that Hartsfield was a zoo – I was right! But it is a great place to people watch! We found an outlet at the gate and charged up our phones again (somebody really needs to make a smart phone that has a battery that really does last longer!!)

A little background – we booked the Legend about 5 months ago, mostly because of the scheduled ports and I gave DH the option of Miami or Tampa and since he had been to Miami once, he chose Tampa. I’m 52 and he is 59 and we are not your “tux type” of cruisers. We are jeans and T-Shirts in real life, we ride motorcycles and we work hard so this was our time to relax! The last time we cruised there were a few Harley shirts on the cruise but this time there were tons and it seemed that every 10th person had a tattoo so we felt right at home! :)

We arrived at the Tampa airport about noon and caught a taxi to the Embassy Suites Downtown – very nice hotel, clean and lovely! Worth it for the 2 hour free alcohol Managers Reception at night and the massive breakfast buffet alone! I think we paid $133 and considering it adjoins the Convention Center and there was a Home Show in progress, we considered it a bargain. All the rooms are 2 room suites, large flat panel TV’s in each room, microwave, a refrigerator that works really well – we considered it a fine choice!

Welcome back, we loved the Legend! I can't wait to read the rest of your review :)

We were starving so we walked down to Channelside to grab some dinner. Ended up at Hooters and had possibly the dumbest waitress to have ever lived. Ok, yep, she was cute and she fit into her Hooters outfit very well (or so DH said) but this girl didn’t have a brain one! I wanted to know what was in a drink (don’t remember which one) but I wanted to know what types of juices, soda, etc were in it mainly because I cannot stand coconut and while I wanted a Foo-Foo drink – I didn’t want one that tasted like coconut. So I ask her what is in it – she says “I don’t know but I can ask” and I say please do. She comes back and tells me what kind of liquor is in it but nothing else – not that it tastes like oranges or pineapple or ginger ale but just what kind of liquor was in it. :confused: So, I ordered water! Dummy, her loss! Then I asked about the shrimp and she says it is either ½ dozen or a dozen and I look at her a bit odd since there aren’t two prices listed, just one and she doesn’t know how many come for that price. I was just dumbfounded but DH pointed out she was hired for her “assets” and a brain wasn’t one of them!

We ate and escaped the idiocy that is Hooters and wandered down to a place that sold every type and flavor of Daiquiri known to man. I had only ever seen that type of dispenser and amount of flavors on Bourbon Street before my first cruise and of course we had to check it out. It was called Wet Willies and we ordered one each large size Call A Cab and Attitude Improvement. Of course they both come with warnings that they were the strongest drinks on the menu and we didn’t notice that they both had Grain Alcohol as the first ingredient! Let’s just say it took us a few minutes to get through those drinks! Whew! Strong and Lethal would be a good description! But, hey, this is vacation right? DH says the one should have been called Call An Ambulance!

We stumbled back to the Hotel and took a breather and then walked to the Publix for sodas and wine. It’s a short walk but I recommend taking your rolling luggage with you to roll that stuff back to the room – 3 8-packs of soda bottles and 2 bottles of wine can get heavy!

There was a wedding in the hotel and we watched them walk around outside taking pictures and after which I took a short swim in the pool and then since we were operating on less than 4 hours of sleep we turned in early.

The next morning we could see the Red, White and Blue Funnel from the elevator and rode it up and down a few times just to gaze at it! Cruise junkies, I swear!

We did our final packing, rearranging some things into our larger suitcase so that we could do the carry-on of the soda and wine and went to hail a taxi the few blocks to the port. We didn’t have the doorman hail us a cab but instead walked out to the street where there were a line of taxis waiting at the curb. I asked the driver to take us to the port and we climbed in. After a block or two I realized that he was headed to the AIRPORT and I said that I was going to the cruise port and thus began the taxi ride from HE-DOUBLEHOCKEYSTICKS!! He mumbled under his breath a few times, actually spoke about this being a terrible trip where we could hear him and didn’t seem to have any idea how to go about two blocks south and two blocks east. He made right turns from the center lane, took corners like Mario Andretti and essentially threw us all over the taxi in the back seat. Thankfully DH had already taken a Xanax and didn’t kill him and at one point it was so bad all I could do was just laugh out loud. I think that made him madder and he swerved more! Lesson learned – say CRUISE port or AIR port and hopefully you won’t ever get the cab driver that Satan spawned! :D

Nice start...keep it coming...

As far as the smart phone... if you disable your GPS / Bluetooth / and or wifi when not in use, it will GREATLY increase the battery life of your smart phone

He didn’t put us out anywhere near a porter so here we are with our two carry-ons and the big suitcase along with our backpacks. Couldn’t see a porter anywhere and finally a man directed us to the side and a porter that was helping another couple came to our rescue! We were directed into the terminal and into security. I had one 8-pack of soda and two bottles of wine in my carry on and I didn’t get a second glance going through the scanner. DH had two 8-packs of soda and they opened his bag and inspected the bottles, the seals and shook them to be sure they weren’t alcohol. The couple in front of us had a sealed case of water (sealed in factory shrink wrap) and security opened it and took every bottle out and shook it.

We were in with our sail and sign cards by 10:30 and waiting to be called. Weddings and VIP’s were called first and we were probably called in the second group after that! We were on by 11:30 with no issues! I had planned to go straight to Serenity to get a seat but we got lucky and got a table at the Avalon pool right by a window and we took turns getting lunch and spent the next couple of hours just people watching. And watching people struggle to find a place to seat, and struggle with their luggage. It was great - there we were - comfy with DOD’s, full bellies and smiles on our faces!

I never use Bluetooth, I rely on GPS and WiFi gets turned on and off accordingly! I have two extra batteries and about 20 USB cords! I'm kind of a power user! :D

HA! We are not cruising on the Legend, but I'm glad I started reading this... nice writing! :)

Here is your cast of characters!

At exactly 1:30 we headed to our cabin, 8132 on the Panorama Deck. A balcony room and right at the stairs to the Lido Deck and the elevators to anywhere else we wanted to go! It was convenient to everything and NOT loud as others have complained about. We never heard any noise from the hall but again, there were very few children and not many college kids either.

We prowled around the ship until time for the safety drill – thank heavens you don’t have to drag that life preserver to the drill anymore! It seemed to take forever – I can’t decide if it is better to arrive early so you have a wall to lean against or arrive late so that you miss most of it. We chose the former and we at least had something to lean on and it was another great opportunity to people watch. They didn’t seem to enforce the no alcohol policy and although they did state the policy a couple of times there were quite a few with drinks out there.

We took along a 12 x 12 x 12 soft cooler and gave the cabin steward Kumtuenjai $20 the first day and he kept it full for us the entire cruise. Of course it leaked (do they make ones that don’t?) so after the first day the cooler lived in the shower, wasn’t a problem as we just put it on a towel when we were taking showers. He also brought us a corkscrew and an ashtray.

Smoking side note – I am a smoker, DH is a former smoker but hasn’t smoked for a number of years. I didn’t have a problem with the current smoking policy and probably won’t even mind after December 31st. We don’t do the nightclubs anyway so those changes didn’t affect me but the one that did was the casino. There is still a small smoking area at the bar in the casino and the machines that you can smoke at are labeled individually – odd because there were non-smoking machines located right beside the smoking ones and the smoking ones are still right beside the walk through area. Seems they would have chosen a more secluded area of the casino instead of the one where people still have to walk through. And sometimes there was a wait for smoking machines – the penny machines anyway!

We walked around a bit more, the luggage arrived around 5pm and I can’t remember what time we went to dinner – around 6:30 I believe. We had Anytime Dining (ATD) and we loved it! I had chicken tenders for appetizer and they were ok. I had the Tilapia for the entrée and was not fond of it. And the WCMC was – heavenly! J We had an all male wait staff and they did an adequate job. Yes, the waiters are not as attentive as they once were but only once did we feel ignored and I’ll tell that tale when it happened a few days later.

Great review so far....your cabin is in the perfect spot...i will be cruising the Legend next summer!

I know its a seal but every time I get one of these I'm like, Oh Look Towel Vagina.

Thanks for the review!! 22 days til I'm on the Legend!

I know its a seal but every time I get one of these I'm like, Oh Look Towel Vagina.

 

Thanks for the review!! 22 days til I'm on the Legend!

This greeted us on the Legend last year! My wife and I just cracked up.

ATD side note – ATD was great! It is our vacation and we despised having to share our dinner with people we don’t know and may or may not have something in common with. The last time we cruised ATD wasn’t available but we had the Maître de move us to a table for 2 after an uncomfortable first dinner. This time the ability to not only have a table for 2 but to eat on our schedule and not someone else’s was fabulous! The tables are NOT as close as I had been lead to believe on CC. You are not alone during dinner but you aren’t elbow to elbow either. We always sat at a table for 2 overlooking the main dining room and couldn’t help but think how fortunate we were not to be dining at one of those tables for a jazillion people down below us! The view was great and we were able to see the dancing waiters at least once.

We sat on our balcony, walked around the ship and just generally had a good time the first night sort of learning our way around. We stayed up way too late but we had a good time! We even got some hammock time in Serenity! Just heavenly! I wanted to take a nap and if DH had let me I’d probably have slept there forever!

(I don't know who that girl is - but she and her chins snuck into the hammock with my husband :D :eek: :D)

I also got my first look at Cigar Dude! Holy Moly - what the heck - have you seen that guys guns???

I have a tip for anyone with a smart phone and that is the Shipmate app. It is FREE and would have been worth paying for (app developers out there – don’t get any ideas!)! We put our phones on Airplane mode soon after sail away and never took them off until we were back in port. But the Shipmate app works fine with no internet access and has the best map of the ship. I carried my phone for the camera and the clock anyway but with this app I was never lost! I highly recommend it! Angry Birds works too and it can be great when waiting in line at Guest Services! Just remember to turn the sound down!

We are not sun worshipers (watch The Big C on Showtime to get an idea why) and we spent the Day at Sea bumming around the ship. We did go to the Mixologist Contest and the Hairy Chest Contest. Oh my. They really humiliate those guys but I am guessing that a lot of alcohol is involved with the participants so they are only humiliated the 400th time or so that it is shown on the in-cabin TV! J We made a donation to Carnival in the casino and a few at the bar but I had purchased some drink coupons before the cruise via the Bon Voyage website and that took some of the sting out of the bar tab! I’m ready to start buying them again! We stopped by the internet café to double check that there was a special on minutes if you bought a package that day and there was – 20 free minutes.

I know its a seal but every time I get one of these I'm like, Oh Look Towel Vagina.

 

Thanks for the review!! 22 days til I'm on the Legend!

OMG! :D :D :D

Wait till DH reads this - they will hear him laughing on the next block over!

Now, pass the monitor squeegee!

Great review so far! We only a few rooms down from your room location in a few weeks. Looking forward to hear more.

Great review, we're on the Legend in Dec. Thanks!

mick

Monday night was the first Cruise Elegant night. It was also Lobster and shrimp cocktail night. I had two of both and Theresa our head waiter did put both lobsters on one plate and the sides were not doubled. WCMC again, wow that stuff is good!

The five itty bitty shrimp at the bottom of all the internet controversy. Hardly seems worth it, huh? They serve ones about 10 times bigger at the sports bar beside where I work for 50 cents apiece - and they have more taste!

Men in tuxes and women in long formal gowns is the minority. I mean REALLY, REALLY the minority. In my lowly humble opinion that is a good thing but it is ONLY my opinion and I am sure that yours probably differs. The first time I cruised less than 10 years ago I felt like I was the minority by not wearing a formal gown and when we cruised 3 years ago I felt like it was more half and half but this time I was WAY more comfortable in dress 24 hours a day! My opinion here is don’t sweat the dress – take something a bit more dressy for Elegant night but to be honest I didn’t even see that many suits. Most men wore nice pants and a button down shirt, some with ties and some without and I only saw one couple turned away at the dining room and they were both in very casual shorts and t-shirts. For non-Elegant nights I didn’t see anyone turned away and pretty much anything except swimming apparel was allowed in.

We went to the Adult Comedy show and I wish I could remember the name of the comedienne. His show was very similar to a Jeff Dunham show, he is a ventriloquist and his character was very funny. He picked on several of the audience members and if I have any complaint it was that the show wasn’t very long.

Tuesday was Cozumel and we are snorkelers. I choose the cruise for the ports where snorkeling is good. I don’t care about the beach – sand just gets up in the crack of your you know where anyway and we don’t lay in the sun – shade is of most importance! Plus I own stock now in sunscreen but I still require shade!

Our plans were to take a taxi to Chankanaab where we have been before and love it! So we zoom past all the shops at the Playa Mia port and out to the taxi stand and tell them we want to go to Chankanaab.

Then the taxi driver suggests Palancar.

The most beautiful beach he says.

The best snorkeling on the island he says.

Best place to go he says.

No entrance fee he says.

So we look at each other and say hey – it is some place new maybe it could be better than Chankanaab and why not try it as it is new and different.

Somewhere along the way we must have stopped and gotten new tattoos that said SUCKER on our foreheads. We didn’t remember doing it but we must have just the same. He drives and drives and drives past where the road south takes a big curve and then turns down a little potholed road with a marsh on either side. He takes the little road slow to avoid the million and one potholes but still we don’t say anything, just continue to look out the window and feel we are in good hands in this man’s taxi.

He drops us in a deserted parking lot but I don’t feel that is weird as we are usually at Chankanaab as almost the first customers since we don’t stop to shop first. We pay him, he zooms off and we head toward the water. Up an itty bitty hill and past a few deserted buildings and then we can see the ocean. It is pounding waves. Ok I think we’ll walk down here surely there is a spot for snorkeling. Get down to the beach and there is a couple sunning themselves and we had passed one little local man on the way down. We find a table (we had our choice) and the $5 plastic chairs like you would have on your deck are still stacked up so we unstack two of them and sit down. And gaze at the rough surf. And think “no way is this what we are after”! DH looks at me and my frown and says would you like to go back to Chankanaab and I enthusiastically say YES!

So we pick our snorkel gear and backpack back up and head out to the deserted parking lot. And we sit and we sit and we sit some more! A scooter comes down carrying a tourist couple and they get off the scooter, walk to the beach and a half a second later they are back on the scooter zooming off. Finally the little local man asks if we need a taxi and he pulls out a cell phone and calls us one. And when it shows up we head back to Chakanaab. So far, taxi costs have exceeded $35! EEK!!!

Loving your review. Keep writing please. We board the Legend a week from tomorrow.

OP You are my type of cruiser.

Paid to get into Chankanaab and they inform us that everyone must wear a snorkel vest now to use the facilities. Bummer I say and DH is happy – he isn’t going in without one anyway! We get our vests (they are included with admission) find a palapa and a couple of chairs and get ready for fishes!

After much research we purchased an underwater digital camera. We have never paid so much for a camera, we’ve always had good point and shoot camera but rarely paid over $100 and the entry level underwater ones with Image Stabilization are over $300 so I spent months making a decision between the Canon D10 and the Panasonic Lumix T3 and I went with the Lumix. This would be the big test, we didn’t even try it out in the bathtub! It has a beach/snorkel setting and I’m happy to report that it works great! It is easy to use, switches between camera and video instantly and I’m very pleased with how it performed.

The water was warm and clear and there were lots of fish. I know it isn’t as pretty as the reefs offshore and they reefs along the shore pretty much took a beating and have not recovered after the last hurricane but you get so much more time in the water when you snorkel from shore than on a tour of any sort. We went out two or three times and spent most of our time in the water. They do have service and we had a couple of local beers along with a Mexican Plate which was a pretty good combo plate. We took a taxi back to the port, stopped to pick up a glass Coca-Cola bottle for my collection and then back on the ship.

We ate in the MDR and had Vicktoria for the head waiter. If she had a staff under her (and according to the little card on the table she did) we never saw them. Never had a visit from anyone offering a drink (and I had drink tickets in my pocket) so settled for water. I took little Crystal Light packets most nights with me to the main dining room but I think this was a night I forgot to take one. The service this night was the one night I felt neglected and it took forever between courses and I’m not sure why. Vicktoria’s staff must have been new or they didn’t like her or something but they sure didn’t ensure that her tables were waited on in a timely manner. I had jerk pork and I didn’t like it at all. That didn’t mean it wasn’t good but I just didn’t like the jerk taste. Oh well, I tried it and it wasn’t my cup of tea.

Food side note – I was not as impressed with the menu or the food in the MDR at all this time. It was adequate. It was ok but it wasn’t to “die for”. The best station in the buffet and the one with the longest line was always the Asian one. The Panini’s were good and the salad bar was good. The last two nights we didn’t even go the MDR because the food was better in the buffet.

Great review! You're a good storyteller :)

More fish porn. I know you were expecting food porn but honestly, don't you think fish porn is sexier?

Sorry, you'll just have to suffer through it. Or skip the next few posts.

I like fish porn! :) Kinky... this thread has cracked me up already.... the anatomically correct towel animal was hilarious! I love "The Big C".... thats a great show.

We were thinking about doing Nachi Cocum in Cozumel because of the "all inclusive" aspect... but we really want to snorkel, and Chankanaab looks great. How much were the drinks and food there if I may ask????

I know I am boring the divers to tears. Sorry! These are just run of the mill fish that chased us all over the Caribbean!

That night we were woken at 4:30am by a storm of epic proportions! A clap of thunder woke me and when I noticed all the lightning we got up and watched for a very long time from the balcony. I got some pretty impressive video. It was a very intense storm and amazing to see from sea. It did however have a negative effect on our day in Belize.

Here is a link to a video I took. It is long and there are periods of just black but some of the strikes of lightning are pretty impressive!