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Legend-3/17 Photo Review


Danacat222

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This was a Mother-Daughter trip, I'm 44 and Mom is 72. This was my 6th cruise and Mom's second.

 

We both work full time and Mom had a very urgent deadline on Monday, not wanting to risk canceled or missed flights we drove from Richmond, VA to Tampa, leaving at 4am Saturday and arriving at the Holiday Inn Express Rocky Point at about 5:30pm. The drive went fast, we entertained ourselves with satellite radio, stopped only 4 times.

 

I took no photos of the hotel room, the room was fine and there is a nice little pool out back with some pretty scenery.

 

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I booked the hotel using Priority Club Rewards Points. We initially planned to do the "Park & Cruise" but with the money saved by using Points for the room alone; the hotel let us park the car there all week at no additional fee and we decided to forgo the hotel shuttle and take a taxi to port. Instead of needing to wait for a 11am shuttle and to pay $10 each and share a van with others and luggage, we were happy to fork out $25 for the taxi, we were picked up right at the time we requested, 9:45am. We also had a light breakfast at the hotel's free continental breakfast lounge.

 

With all of the controversy surrounding the Triumph, now the Dream and Legend were having problems and when we were walking to the terminal we saw a TV news camera crew interviewing passengers and we were stopped and interviewed by a newspaper reporter. She wanted to know what our initial reaction was to the news that Legend was having propulsion problems, when we heard about it, and how we felt about going on the ship and about the port change (Costa Maya substituted for Grand Cayman). Apparently my responses were too favorable towards Carnival, as when we arrived back to Tampa we found her piece and only the anti-Carnival commentary made it in. I was not worried about my safety, I was thrilled with the port change, and I could not wait to get on board the Legend!

 

We booked Faster to the Fun, so upon entering the terminal we were given what felt like the VIP treatment. There were not many people arriving but we did not have a line to wait in and the woman who checked us in was super nice, it was suggested that we go grab seats in the VIP lounge area, there were to be 2 wedding on board and that area was half-filled with the two wedding parties, so we grabbed seats and waited, as we were told boarding would begin at 11:30am.

 

 

Once the boarding process started (weddings first, then VIP, Priority, then FTTF, things went quickly. We were on the lobby in no time, the Guest Services Desk was not even functional for establishing our on board accounts, so we went straight to our cabin 4115, an obstructed "French Door" cabin. My boyfriend and I had been upgraded to one of these rooms on Pride and we loved it. I don't like to be in the cabin much so this works for me.

 

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Next up, embarkation day pics of general areas on board and lunch (food porn).

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After unloading our carry-on luggage, inspecting the room, storing a few items in the safe, and unpacking a few things, we headed out to go explore and our luggage was already at our door, we had been on board for 20 minutes tops.

 

Being that Legend is sister ship to Pride, i found it extremely easy to navigate having been on Pride a year and a half ago. We were fairly forward on deck 4 so the elevators to get up to Lido were very convenient. First we wanted to get our accounts started so we went back down and walked through the casino and on to guest services. For those who are thinking about or have already booked FTTF, there is a dedicated line for VIP/FTTF but we never had a line the few times we went to Guest Services.

 

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After that we went up to lido...

 

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After walking around and doing a little exploring, we decided to have some lunch since we had our breakfast at about 7am.

 

 

 

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Next up, more scenes around the ship and Steakhouse food porn.

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Serenity Deck was a favorite spot on Pride, and we did spend some time there on Legend, but not as much as I had expected and for no particular reason. Well, there is a definite lack of shaded areas to lounge in (as opposed to the covered sitting areas) and we hung out there a few times but we ended up at the main pool more often and had a lot of fun watching the kids dance to the DJ playing music.

 

 

 

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A few observations at this point...the ship was extremely clean, did not feel crowded, there were a lot of kids on board (Spring Break) the elevators were running smoothly and quickly. Usually embarkation day has felt rushed and that some things just seem to take forever, long lines and impatient people bickering about this and that....there was none of that! We had a great first afternoon exploring.

 

Even though we had Steakhouse reservations for the first night, we wanted to see what the "regular" dining rooms looked like, so we stopped by Truffles to take a look. Upper level is for Anytime Dining and lower level is for the early and late seating.

 

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Next up, sail-away ...then Steakhouse Food Porn.

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After sail away and exploring the ship some more, we decided to go back to the room to rest for a little while before our dinner at the Steakhouse. When we got to the cabin we had a few treats from John Heald. Mom was very tickled about this.

 

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Our reservation was at 7 so we made it a point to get there a little early as we were nearing the Sunshine Skyway Bridge...

 

 

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So we were seated with the best view I could have imagined, and we were offered the "First Night Special" complimentary bottle of wine, we were asked if were preferred white or red, and we accepted a bottle of white which was well chilled and stored in a wine bucket just behind our table.

 

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From inside the Steakhouse...

 

 

 

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Before having an opportunity to review the menu, a cart was presented to us showcasing the different cuts of meat and the young lady described each and then let us alone to decide while another waitress took our order.

 

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Even the Steakhouse staff were exited to see the bridge nearing and they invited us to get up and go watch with them from under the whale tail...

 

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I can't recall what the wine was, i am in no way a wine snob but i do know what i like and i don't like, we ended up consuming the whole bottle, so it's not bad quality and of course it was free.

 

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After passing under the bridge we ordered our meals and soon after were were presented a little starter compliments of the chef. I had read about that and it was pretty neat...i was given the "burger"...it's the cutest little darned thing, it was so tiny i put a fork next to it for scale...it is such a little thing it's hard to say much about the flavor, the beef was very tender and juicy. I managed to cut it in half to share with Mom.

 

 

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Mom was given tomato soup, which was delicious!

 

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The bread served with dinner was very good, we loved the accompaniments.

 

 

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For starters, i had the Baked Onion Soup, it was served hot and cheezy and gooey and very good, it was very rich, i only was able to eat about a quarter of it, plus i knew what was coming up so i did ot want to fill up too soon.

 

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Mom had the Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail...she really enjoyed it and we went to the cooking demo the next day to see if the chef would tell us a little about the preparation and dressing, which he was happy to indulge us, he was very kind. My brother is a chef so food interests us ;)

 

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For salad Mom had the Baby Leaf Spinach with Blue Cheese Dressing and Warm Bacon Bits, the waitress almost tried to dissuade Mom from getting it because she said the blue cheese was very strong and "are you sure?" Mom LOVES blue cheese, she said it was perfect!

 

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I had the Sliced, Sun-Ripened Beef Steak Tomato with Gorgonzola Crumbles. That was very good!

 

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Now for the main food event of the eveing...

 

Mom ordered the Surf & Turf...Maine Lobster Tail and Grilled Filet Mignon.

 

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I had the Filet Mignon...cooked medium rare, it was cooked perfectly and was very good.

 

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By the time we were asked to order dessert, we were both pretty well stuffed, not so much that we did not want to try something.

 

Mom ordered the Chocolate Sampler...there are 4 different cakes in each cup and each topped with a different flavor of ice cream that is home made each day.

 

 

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I had the Caramelized Washington Apples in Puff Pastry Dome. It was not what i expected, though you know i really was not sure what to expect, that kind of thing...it was just OK. It needed something, maybe a crispy caramel praline garnish of some sort.

 

 

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I am so glad we chose to eat at the Steakhouse, it was a very good meal, we had wonderful service, the timing of the scenery was perfect and made for an enjoyable start of the cruise. My boyfriend and I had reservations on Pride for the 6th night but by the time that night arrived we were fooded out so we canceled.

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