Just back from Legend - longest review ever!

[zqvol]

Well, I'm not sure everyone thinks as highly of it as I do. My dad discovered it when he went to Grand Cayman maybe ten years ago. It's not like the squirty cheese in a can, its a harder product - to be blunt, it's welfare cheese. It's got an incredibly high milkfat content, and its *wonderful* in macaroni and cheese. Actually, I absolutely love it on crackers or any way you want to serve it to me.

 

I have absolutely no idea if anyone else in the US likes the stuff, but BOY was I looking forward to it =P

 

 

The correct name is Cheez Whiz and it is available in your local grocery store.

[Cigar Dude]

Please post a zillion pics, as we will be on the Legend for our next cruise! :D

[navybaby1113]

The correct name is Cheez Whiz and it is available in your local grocery store.

 

Looks completely different than Cheez Whiz.

 

[gapearl]

What an awesome review! I'm looking forward to reading more. I'll be headed back to GC on my next cruise. Thanks for the heads up on the Tastee Cheese. I've never heard of it and will be on the lookout for it.

 

P.S. I'm also a fellow Pastafarian! :p

[Kaboochi]

This is a great thread, love the "on the ship" reports. Sailing Legend in May so I enjoy all you have to say. Enjoy the rest of your cruise and I pray for smooth seas, warmth and lots of sunshine.

[Virga]

We got ready for dinner, and were lucky to be seated with our dining staff from the night before without even needing to ask. They sat us with the most awesome couple – a pair of men from Chicago. We spent most of the dinner sharing sordid stories – their tales of the start of their relationship bears a startling resemblance to ours. It turned out they were only a dozen or so doors down from us, and they played ding dong ditch on us for the rest of the cruise. As for the dinner itself, the service was spectacular – this is when we realized we were going to request them for the rest of the cruise. I had the French onion soup, and my boyfriend tried the ‘study in sushi’ as a starter. He tried the flat iron steak, and it came medium rare when ordered rare – unsurprising, as that’s what we’re used to everywhere but the nicest steakhouses. I had the penne with seafood – they had a fancy name for it, but it was just a nice pasta full of squids and shrimps. Yum! I also ordered macaroni and cheese off the kids menu, and was happily surprised to get a huge bowl of creamy baked mac and cheese. We both ordered warm chocolate melting cake, but we should have split it because we always forget how rich it is. Dinner done, we went back to the room to digest the feast we’d just eaten.

 

Puppy

[Virga]

This was the first day we did any real drinking – and drink we did. We had thought we’d be stopping in Grand Cayman, so we didn’t bring many sodas for mixers. How sad, we just had to pour ourselves exceptionally strong rum and cokes. We went to catch Thomas Brown again, but we only got there about fifteen minutes before showtime. Apparently word had gotten out, and it was already standing room only. He was worth it! About three-quarters of the show in, he called out the underager sitting in the front row, and sent him packing. We stuck around for the next comedian – Dobie Maxwell – and he was also very funny, though it was a totally different flavor of comedy. He wasn’t nearly as popular, I think because much of his humor seemed to be hard on idiots. Not being idiots ourselves, I liked him a lot =P

 

I was already kind of lit by this point, but we decided it was a good idea to go to the piano bar and drink more. Angela was a highlight of our trip! She’s an excellent piano player, and pretty good in the piano bar setting. Her list of songs is huge, and she’s very personable. She had ten or fifteen people in there, and we had a blast making fools of ourselves. We made the poor girl play Piano Man, and she didn’t even complain. While there, we made friends with a brother and sister and invited them back to the room for drinks. Gah, more drinks! We finally opened our bottle of Grey Goose, opened up the bottles of olive juice we’d brought, and made some absolutely wonderful dirty martinis. We showed off our balcony and shot the **** and enjoyed ourselves until the wee hours of the morning. At some point we thought it was a good idea to take drunken late night pictures, which turned out surprisingly well. I don’t know what time we all finally gave up the ghost, but the pictures were taken after four o’clock.

 

Four o'clock in the morning

<deleted cuz I decided it wasn't mine to post>

 

I should completely avoid cameras when drunk

[Virga]

The next morning we were due to be in Roatan at something like 7:00. We knew darn well that wasn’t happening, but we certainly didn’t expect to sleep until noon. Whoops! We really didn’t plan to do anything there except buy cigars, though, so it wasn’t a big deal. We grabbed a quick meal from the buffet, but we weren’t much in the mood for food. Off the ship we went, and hit up the tourist information stand to ask where to find some good cigars. They recommended the airport, and told us to tell the cab driver we were going to Coxen Hole. Apparently it’s $5 per person to go to Coxen Hole, but $10 per person to go to the airport, which is half the distance. When we approached the airport, we told him we wanted out. Nice trick! The cigars weren’t cheap, but my boyfriend liked them a lot. We went back to the port (caught the cab outside the airport, so it was only $5 per person to get back) and wandered around for a little while. Precious little to see there at the port itself, but we looked around anyways before getting back onboard.

 

Nifty wreck in the harbor

 

I wanna live *there*

 

Christmas tree in the compound

 

We saw this exact thing in Cozumel! WTH is it?

 

Some nice woman took our picture in front of the Roatan sign

 

The sky lit itself on fire as we were leaving

[sjcruiser]

Great review and pics.

[Virga]

Because we’d had so precious little to eat before we got off the ship, we were pretty hungry when we got back. We got cleaned up and headed off to see Khemchai and Srdjan. We told them we were fine sharing a table tonight, but they never added another couple to our four-top. That ended up being fine, because we ate like pigs again and noone should have to see that. We split a bunch of appetizers – prosciutto, duck, fried mozzarella, and potato soup – and both had the lamb leg and chops. Everything was wonderful as always, and we couldn’t even try to eat dessert. I think this was the night I realized we’d been gypped! The maître’d wasn’t the guy that sings Sinatra =(

[Virga]

After dinner, we hit the casino. We’d stopped through a few times – the boyfriend had decided he didn’t want to get into the poker tournaments for fear of spending many hours of cruise time sitting at the table. All I play is video poker, and the pay tables on the ship are just awful, so that left me out. We’d stopped through a few times, though, and put a few dollars worth of quarters into the quarter pusher machines. We determined it’s the slowest way to lose money in the casino, and we burned a little time that way. Tonight, however, the quarter machine had a stack of dollars that looked ready to fall, so we got ten dollars worth of quarters and settled in. We played and played and played. I think we traded in a total of fifty dollars for quarters that night. Seriously, we played for like five hours. We DID finally get that stack of ones, and left with about ten bucks in quarters. I suppose fifteen dollars down for five hours of fun isn’t too bad, but WOW we didn’t mean to be there that long.

 

We went up to the Lido deck where we’d actually managed to miss the late night munchies buffet, so we got a calzone and some garlic bread and went back to the room for some room service. The garlic bread wasn’t very good, but the calzone was better than I remembered. We got our classic favorites from room service – new york steak and brie, grilled cheese, BLT… sooo good. Since we were *supposed* to be down in the lobby to get off the ship at 8:00am, we set the alarm for 7:00 and hit the sack. Yay, four hours of sleep!

[footballfu45]

We really liked Angela too. We were there two or three times. We couldn't believe her 2000+ song repertoire. She was a lot of fun.

[racegrrl]

Great review so far!! Thanks for taking the time and effort to write it, very appreciated! We are on the Legend in January, a lot of nice gems of info in here - keep it coming.... :D

[albertiger]

Hello Virga,

Glad you enjoyed MY cabin, I was the previous tenant, sorry about the food left in the fridge!;) It's fun looking at your pictures as they are almost identical to mine. Did you have any trouble with the shower? There were so many adjustments to make and being over 6 feet it was a tight squeeze!

I never noticed the AC not being strong as it was so cold on my week that i turned it to the lowest (warmest) setting. Loved the location of that cabin and the balcony, quiet too!

[navybaby1113]

Love the review. Sounds like you had a great time.

 

And the cake thing in Roatan was a prop to take a picture with. We got one while we were there.

 

[Cigar Dude]

Off the ship we went, and hit up the tourist information stand to ask where to find some good cigars. They recommended the airport, and told us to tell the cab driver we were going to Coxen Hole.

 

The cigars weren’t cheap, but my boyfriend liked them a lot.

 

 

Wish I had known you wanted info on cigars! Roatan has a La Casa del Habano shop in Coxen Hole, inside the new port facility! An LCDH sells ONLY cuban cigars and it is a franchise shop through Cuba. I assume he was looking for Cuban cigars?

 

Anyway, I'm a little late to tell you this now, but remember for next time!

 

We'll be on your exact same cruise in September and will be stopping by the LCDH! :)

[Virga]

Hello Virga,

Glad you enjoyed MY cabin, I was the previous tenant, sorry about the food left in the fridge!;) It's fun looking at your pictures as they are almost identical to mine. Did you have any trouble with the shower? There were so many adjustments to make and being over 6 feet it was a tight squeeze!

I never noticed the AC not being strong as it was so cold on my week that i turned it to the lowest (warmest) setting. Loved the location of that cabin and the balcony, quiet too!

 

 

LOL, no worries! And it's funny, but I got the shower running with no problems the very first time, but I had to call in my boyfriend to help me get it going the second time. I was about to just wash under the spout instead! The steward also kept covering up the main drain with the nonslip mat, and it took me a couple of days to remember to move it each time. It was quiet! I'd choose that cabin again in a heartbeat, but I'm almost sure I wouldn't have the luck to not get bumped in the future.

[Virga]

Wish I had known you wanted info on cigars! Roatan has a La Casa del Habano shop in Coxen Hole, inside the new port facility! An LCDH sells ONLY cuban cigars and it is a franchise shop through Cuba. I assume he was looking for Cuban cigars?

 

Anyway, I'm a little late to tell you this now, but remember for next time!

 

We'll be on your exact same cruise in September and will be stopping by the LCDH! :)

 

We didn't intend to be looking for cigars, or I'd have done research and *hopefully* found you! One of our friends asked us to pick some up - he didn't ask till the night before we left. And yes, we planned on picking up cubans, but we were less than sure that what the airport had were 'real' so we ended up with a bunch of really nice Hondurans. Nothing to complain about, but at least now we know we want to go to Coxen Hole next time. Enjoy it!

[Michael Scott]

We stayed at a Hampton Inn out on Rocky Point in Tampa for 99- which included parking for the cruise and free shuttle each way- 15 minutes or so- plus hot breakfast. I thought it was a great deal. Got there the day before and relaxed...no rush to drive the 3 hours from the east coast and it was cheaper than using the garage at the terminal.

 

Michael

[friedshrimp]

We stayed at a Hampton Inn out on Rocky Point in Tampa for 99- which included parking for the cruise and free shuttle each way- 15 minutes or so- plus hot breakfast. I thought it was a great deal. Got there the day before and relaxed...no rush to drive the 3 hours from the east coast and it was cheaper than using the garage at the terminal.

 

Michael

 

Wish there was a hotel like that in Miami. The ones I found that allow you to park and take the shuttle to the port CHARGE you for the return trip, usually $12-15 per person. With 6 people, it's just not worth the cost of the hotel room and the return shuttle ride.

[Michael Scott]

Wish there was a hotel like that in Miami. The ones I found that allow you to park and take the shuttle to the port CHARGE you for the return trip, usually $12-15 per person. With 6 people, it's just not worth the cost of the hotel room and the return shuttle ride.

 

Fried- check out the Days Inn in Miami. 7 day Snooze and Cruise- I popped in a week in January and it gave me 91- for a queen bed room. Here's the link:

 

http://www.daysinnmiamiairport.com/index.html

 

It was the first place I looked at in Google so there may be more; this place has a free airport shuttle and an Olympic size pool too.

 

Michael

[ciship]

This review is going to be LONG! I'm about halfway done already, but it'll probably be a few days before it's all done, mostly because I have to sort and upload the photos as I go. Hope you guys enjoy!

 

 

 

This trip was my boyfriend’s third cruise, all on Carnival. I’ve been on 11, on Royal, Princess, and NCL, but I honestly prefer Carnival. This was our first ‘long’ cruise – we have always taken the quick getaway three and four night cruises – and our first balcony. We were to visit three new ports this trip, Grand Cayman, Honduras, and Belize.

 

We started our trip a day early – even though we only live three hours away in Daytona, we decided to get a hotel room so we could be some of the first people on the ship. Plus, the total cost including taxes was less than $80, which is cheaper than parking the car at the pier. We stayed at the Tahitian Inn, which was incredibly easy to get to. We got a late start, and didn’t check in until almost midnight. We got to our room too late to order from the very nice looking on-site restaurant menu, but just in time to order a pizza from one of the local delivery joints, and settled in to download a bunch of Kindle books on the very fast free wireless internet. The room was clean and comfortable, and I’d highly recommend the hotel to cruise passengers. By the way, the outdoor pool was heated to a nice warm temperature, and looked *very* inviting with steam billowing out into the cool night.

 

We had no trouble waking up the next morning – the alarm clock was ridiculously loud and obnoxious, something like an air raid siren. Hitting the snooze button wasn’t needed, we wanted to get going! We had signed up the night before to take their (free!) shuttle to the port at 10:30, so we got everything together and headed down. We triple-checked our documents, loaded our luggage, and sat down with the other six people who had reserved the same shuttle trip. It was a short trip, less than ten minutes, during which our driver explained where we’d want to meet the shuttle after we returned. He unloaded our luggage, and a porter collected them to bring onboard for us. We took our carry-on bags and our documents and after a cursory check of our documents, they let us inside.

 

 

My boyfriend on the shuttle ride

 

Our first glimpse of the funnel

 

The ship awaits!

 

First question........did the hotel let you keep your car in their parking lot free of charge for the week?

[ubouu]

More More, please. :D

[friedshrimp]

Fried- check out the Days Inn in Miami. 7 day Snooze and Cruise- I popped in a week in January and it gave me 91- for a queen bed room. Here's the link:

 

http://www.daysinnmiamiairport.com/index.html

 

It was the first place I looked at in Google so there may be more; this place has a free airport shuttle and an Olympic size pool too.

 

Michael

 

I called them to verify and it is the same as all the other hotels in Miami that I've checked, they will let you park your car there and give you a ride to the port, but you have to pay your own way back from the port. In a taxi, he said it would be $30 from the port back to the hotel.

[cuted126]

More More, please. :D

 

 

I second that!!