Our "Love Shack" on the Legend - Dec. 12-19, 2010

[okwriter]

After returning from my Sensation 4-night cruise in January 2010, I never got around to writing a review. THIS time, I vowed to do so! Here goes! (Please note: I didn’t write anything down while we were gone, so I hope my memory about days/time/events serves me correctly!) Also hope my images show up properly.

 

DH and I were aboard the “rocking and rolling” Legend out of Tampa December 12-19, 2010. We are in our early 50s. I had only cruised once before, and this was his first. We flew in from OKC the day before. I chose to stay at Quality Inns & Suites Near Fairgrounds Ybor City (yes, that whole thing is the name of it) because I had enough Choice Hotel points for a free room and this was a highly rated hotel on Trip Advisor. Facility and rooms were clean and the staff was friendly, but the place was located in a rather seedy part of town and far removed from shopping and food. By the time we paid for cab fare, we could have stayed in a much more centrally located hotel elsewhere. NOTE: I didn’t think the area was that bad in the daytime, but a cab driver who picked us up from a mall and also took us to the port the next morning said he tries to avoid the area at night. YIKES! :eek:

 

Arrived at the port by 10:30 Sunday morning (cool and overcast!) and walked onboard shortly after 11:30. WOO HOO! Some people say the Legend is too ornate or gaudy for their tastes. We loved it! :D There were some Christmas decorations but it wasn’t overdone.

 

 

Atrium bar area

 

Gingerbread display in the atrium area

 

I immediately began to drink (which I seldom do at home), and I forgot about the Meet and Greet to be held right after the muster drill. :o By the time I realized it a few hours later, whoever had been there was gone. I really hate that because I was soooo looking forward to meeting everyone!

 

Fun on the Lido right from the start!

[okwriter]

This ship was extremely easy to navigate. Nice layout! Things were easy to find, and it was pretty simple to remember how to get from place to place. We were in cabin 7253, an 8E balcony SUPERBLY located near an elevator. About a week before we left, I posted here about our “Love Shack” and explained why I decorated our door with a sign that designated it as such.

 

 

 

The only thing I’d have changed about our cabin location was that it seemed to “move” more in the rough seas. Almost wished we’d have stuck with our original location several floors down. Our cabin steward was Marcus, and he was phenomenal! He received an extra tip before the week was over.

 

Because it’s December, we sailed under the Skyway Bridge after dark. It was cool and windy, but the bridge is beautiful at night, and we enjoyed seeing it. Sorry I don’t have any pictures that do it justice in the dark. We missed Early Dining the first night to see the bridge. Turns out our room steward was also ill that night. We managed to dress and eat in the DR the second night (formal night), and everyone I saw was dressed beautifully! Our table mates were friendly and interesting, but I was disappointed that we never saw the DR staff dance. I’m not sure if they only do it once or if they did it on the few nights we missed eating there. ??

 

As other reviewers have said, the seas were very rough. The first two days, DH mostly stayed in bed. His was an equilibrium issue rather than nausea. I mostly hung out in the casino the first day, returning to the cabin occasionally to take him ginger ale, seasick meds (a couple of bucks from the Guest Services desk), green apples, or something else for him to eat. By Day 2, when we missed Grand Cayman, I was also starting to feel icky. The seas were better by then, but I kept thinking “enough is enough” and wanted to get off the ship! I joined him in bed most of the second day, hoping things would improve soon. We made it to dinner in the DR that night, but I began feeling ill before dessert so we left.

 

On Day 3, we finally saw better conditions! We got off the ship in Roatan and walked around the port area---beginning with the beach since we knew it would not be crowded early in the day. This was the Carnival Dream rather than our ship, but I loved the picture so much!

 

 

We walked around some of the shops in the port area, then went to eat and have a beverage. Breakfast? Lunch? Who cares…it’s 5:00 somewhere!

 

We had booked an afternoon Carnival catamaran snorkeling excursion on the room TV once on board. It was GREAT! Attentive guides took us to a sweet spot---one of the guys would dive down and pick up a sea urchin, starfish, etc., for us to look at and hold. He also pointed out a big lobster on bottom! No waterproof camera, so I have no pics other than this one. A lady from New York happily waving from our catamaran to a lobster (crab?) vessel that we met. The skies are cloudy, but it was sunny while we snorkeled!

[okwriter]

The following day, we arrived in Belize. Here we had booked the Lost Canopy Zipline tour through Carnival. It was an hour and a half bus drive into the rain forest, which gave us a real view of life in Belize. It certainly made us appreciate what we have! We saw a few armed guards holding machine guns—hmmmm. This excursion was about $100 each, but we’re glad we did it. Five zips and two rappels…DH wanted more zips that were faster and longer. I am afraid of heights, but I managed. I did injure my ankle because I didn’t lift my feet high enough up when landing on a platform so I smacked right into it. Heed this warning: when they yell “FEET UP!” that is exactly what you should do.

 

Me before takeoff…

 

Quite a hike getting to the first platform.

 

Because of my ankle, we wanted to cancel our Cozumel excursion (Amazing Race) the next day and wait until the following morning to see if I was up to something less physical. At first, the folks at the Excursion desk fussed because it was less than 24 hours’ cancellation notice. When they learned I had injured my ankle on a Carnival excursion, they quickly complied. One young man (Adam) followed up by contacting the excursion operator. He also called us on the room phone the next day to check on me and asked me to go see Medical. I did see a nurse there, and she said as long as I could walk I should just continue to apply ice and take Ibuprofen. I am still icing it here at home, mainly for the ache. The swelling isn’t nearly as bad, and I really think it will be fine. I wasn’t worried about it on board and wouldn’t have even thought to go to Medical if they hadn’t insisted.

 

We eventually decided to do the Playa Mia beach excursion through Carnival. We didn’t do the Deluxe package with Carnival transportation, as we wanted to go early. It was very nice, although I wasn’t nuts about the boulders in the water. Also, the rather steep incline of the beach (hard to tell from the pictures) and the loose sand on the beach made it uncomfortable for me to walk because of my foot. Still, we had a GREAT time!

 

The Legend in Cozumel.

 

 

Playa Mia beach.

 

 

Back at the pier, we were seated at an end table in the outdoor area at Fat Tuesday’s for some refreshments. Turns out one of the guys at the next table, who was on the Conquest, was practically related to DH. This guy’s uncle (now deceased) was DH’s brother-in-law. With four ships in port, what are the odds? Even stranger was that when we got back aboard the Legend, this guy’s balcony on the Conquest was directly across the pier from ours!

 

After dark but before Conquest left, we turned on all of our cabin lights so they could see the Christmas cling on our balcony door.

 

 

A few minutes before we left port at 10:00 PM, there was a medical emergency on board and we had to wait for an ambulance. That was unfortunate for someone but a lucky break for the two “pier runners” who would have missed the ship if we’d have left when scheduled.

 

Our fun continued on the last sea day. We saw waterspouts from our balcony, which was cool! We also went to the tea, which was a real treat! I’d highly recommend that to anyone! DH loves hot tea, something I didn’t know about him until we got onboard. (You’d think that after 20+ years, I would have known…)

 

In the afternoon, I failed to qualify for the slot tournament so we went to play a $1 slot machine that someone said they had won on earlier in the week. I am normally a max better on the penny, two-cent, and quarter machines, but we gave the $1 machine a whirl. About a dozen spins later (playing the max of two credits per spin), I won $1,080! I immediately cashed out and didn’t give it back! The win was within a few dollars of paying our entire S&S account for the week, which included gambling, excursions, photos, and drinks! WOO HOO! DH is still laughing because it took me so long to figure out how much I’d won…when you’re used to playing one- and two-cent slots, I was slow to realize that 1,080 credits on a dollar machine was $1,080! DUH on me. LOL!

 

Later that evening, we watched a helicopter evacuating someone from a nearby ship. Royal Caribbean, I think. It was an awesome sight in the dark! Disembarkation process was fairly smooth the next morning, and our return flights were uneventful.

 

A few random parting comments…

 

The food was fabulous all week! There were only a couple of times we tried something that we didn’t like. Granted, the first few days we didn’t eat much. Most of the time, however, we ate ourselves into oblivion and loved everything we tried, both on the Lido deck and in the DR. Excellent service and excellent food. My favorite was a dessert called Hazelnut Cream “something” we found at a buffet on the Lido. YUM! After the first couple of rough days, we awoke about 2:00 one morning and ordered BLTs from room service. Loved that!!

 

I didn’t find the CD announcements annoying at all. In fact, I hated that we couldn’t hear them in the cabin. Wish there was a way to enable/disable that.

 

I didn’t like the ship TV map as well as on the Sensation. I think the one on Sensation also showed temperature and water depth, whereas this one only showed time, wind speed, and ship speed.

 

We did go to the Past Guest party, and it’s the only time drink service was slow. Since I’m a Past Guest and DH wasn’t, we weren’t sure if they’d let him in or not. The guy at the door checking invitations said that for $20, DH could go in. DH said “No, thanks!” and turned around to walk away when the guy said he was just kidding. LOL! We went on in and watched the presentation.

 

We only did one “show” on board: the Marriage Show just before (after?) a Bingo session. We thought it was hilarious!

 

I didn’t find the photographers annoying at all. We had lots of photos taken but only bought four. We had one of them made into Christmas cards, and I spent most of yesterday (back home) addressing envelopes. We never get dressed up, and we hadn’t had professional photos taken in 20 years, so it was a treat for us!

 

One afternoon, we made it a point to put on our bathing suits and go down the slide a few times. THAT was a BLAST!

 

Despite the bad weather the first two days, DH has said he will cruise again. I am scheduled to take another girls cruise the end of April (130-some days?) on the Ecstasy out of Galveston. When I return from that trip and see how Galveston is for a departure point, I will likely book another for DH and me.

 

There were many activities on board and seemed to be a lot of entertainment that we didn’t take advantage of. As new cruisers, we haven’t seen/done many of the things that experienced cruisers call “the same old thing.” For us, it was more because of losing the first two days and just spending a lot of time in our cabin or walking around. We were never bored, though, and will definitely participate more on future cruises!

 

In summary, I’d give this cruise a 10 out of 10 rating in terms of food, service, and staff. The weather early on was crappy, but we just dealt with it as best we could. I’ll try to answer any questions!

[cjkumbaya]

Wow - great review! Glad you had such a nice trip. This is one of our favorite ships.

[klmorg]

Are you back already? Don't you hate how it seems to take so long to get here, then it's over in a flash!? Thank you for the nice review & pics! The Legend & that itinerary are about my all time faves. I'm glad you had a great Love Shack trip, despite the rockin & rollin. :)

[oncruisecontrol]

Very nice review. Congrats on your casino win.

[racegrrl]

Welcome back and thanks for the great review! I love the pictures too, really makes me feel like I get to enjoy the vacation with you....

 

We sail on the Legend the end of January and we would have been your neighbors, we are in 7251. I picked that cabin specifically for the location - mid ship and right next to elevators, but not directly across from them. Sounds like you enjoyed the location as well.

 

Congratulations on your casino wininngs as well! What day was the slot tournament on? I have always wanted to try one of those and I would love to do it onboard. Thanks again for taking the time to write your review - helps me tick off the days to our upcoming trip even faster. :D

[My6Dogs]

Excellent Casino win!!!

 

It's nice to hear a positive review instead of all the complainers!!!

 

Thanks :D

 

Mike

[Captain Carnival]

Nice review and CONGRAT$!!

[okwriter]

We sail on the Legend the end of January and we would have been your neighbors, we are in 7251. I picked that cabin specifically for the location - mid ship and right next to elevators, but not directly across from them. Sounds like you enjoyed the location as well. You will love the convenience! Just out the door and around a corner to the elevator down to the lobby!

 

Congratulations on your casino wininngs as well! What day was the slot tournament on? I have always wanted to try one of those and I would love to do it onboard. Thanks again for taking the time to write your review - helps me tick off the days to our upcoming trip even faster. :D The one I tried to qualify in was the last sea day, which was Saturday en route back to Tampa. There may (?) have been another earlier in the week...I'm not sure!

 

Enjoy your trip! I know you will! :D

[okwriter]

Are you back already? Don't you hate how it seems to take so long to get here, then it's over in a flash!? Thank you for the nice review & pics! The Legend & that itinerary are about my all time faves. I'm glad you had a great Love Shack trip, despite the rockin & rollin. :)

 

YES, I hate that it's over! But you know, this vacation seemed to last a good long time. We were so enthralled with the experience (once we were able to enjoy it) that every few days, DH would ask me what day it was. :) No cell phones, no computers, no animals, no callouts for work--NO DISTRACTIONS of any kind!

 

This sounds harsh, but I actually told the family not to call us for any reason. I said, "If someone dies, bury them. If the house burns down, call 911. We'll deal with stuff when we get home." Fortunately, nothing bad happened! But even if it had, we couldn't have helped anyone, so we just separated ourselves from the world and enjoyed each other! ;)

[tkbloomfield]

i think you nailed it!!!! Many would have complained about being sick and the rocky seas... I truly believe that if you go into it with a 'whatever, we are on vacations' attitude, it will fun-its really its what you make of it. DH and I are going on a kidless trip to unwind next month and ya know... as long as we are together and can relax, it will be fun!

 

So glad you had a blast. Congrats on the slot win!!!

[nomadron]

I love your review okwriter! I'll be on the Legend in January. But I have a question. On a different thread I believe a desire to gain membership in the "Balcony Club" was mentioned by you. Were you successful? :D:D:D

[okwriter]

I love your review okwriter! I'll be on the Legend in January. But I have a question. On a different thread I believe a desire to gain membership in the "Balcony Club" was mentioned by you. Were you successful? :D:D:D

 

Oh, yes! If it hadn't been for those first few days, we'd be Platinum! :D

[gsu_paintballer]

We were also on the cruise and had a great time.

 

I'm the guy from the newlywed couple in the marriage show ;)

[okwriter]

i think you nailed it!!!! Many would have complained about being sick and the rocky seas... I truly believe that if you go into it with a 'whatever, we are on vacations' attitude, it will fun-its really its what you make of it. DH and I are going on a kidless trip to unwind next month and ya know... as long as we are together and can relax, it will be fun!

 

So glad you had a blast. Congrats on the slot win!!!

 

Enjoy your cruise! It will be nice for you to be together without the kids. One thing that struck me about the Legend was that even though we were cruising with several thousand other passengers, we felt like we were alone...like we were the only ones there. It was awesome!

[okwriter]

We were also on the cruise and had a great time.

 

I'm the guy from the newlywed couple in the marriage show ;)

 

AH! We saw you two sitting on the floor waiting to disembark! Here's wishing you a long and happy marriage! ;)

[gsu_paintballer]

AH! We saw you two sitting on the floor waiting to disembark! Here's wishing you a long and happy marriage! ;)

 

Not sure if you happened to be at the comedy show that I got us involved in (much to her chagrin), but after that and the marriage show, quite a few people recognized us the rest of the week.:o

[okwriter]

Not sure if you happened to be at the comedy show that I got us involved in (much to her chagrin), but after that and the marriage show, quite a few people recognized us the rest of the week.:o

 

We didn't do any other shows except the Marriage Show. We loved it, though!

[nomadron]

Oh, yes! If it hadn't been for those first few days, we'd be Platinum! :D

 

 

Good for you! I'm glad you got lucky in the Casino too! :D

[Mxlady]

We were just down from the love shack in 7243. We had fun. First few days were pretty ruff. Was glad to walk on solid ground. Although that was rufff for a few minutes till my body realized ground was still I was wobbling. Loved Marcus he was great and very friendly. Edsil and Sidney were great in the dining room as well. I thought the ship was decorated very nice and not overly done. The kids (19 & 27) were a little disappointed, the clubs weren't as lively as on the Conquest. Piano Bar was pretty slow most of the week. She played well, the cruisers just weren't in there. Loved your pics of Mahogony Bay. That place was beautiful hands down. I really could see myself seeing that every morning. Glad to be home, but long to go back.

[marne001]

excellent casino win!!!

 

It's nice to hear a positive review instead of all the complainers!!!

 

Thanks :d

 

mike

 

ditto!!!

[okwriter]

We were just down from the love shack in 7243. We had fun. First few days were pretty ruff. Was glad to walk on solid ground. Although that was rufff for a few minutes till my body realized ground was still I was wobbling. Loved Marcus he was great and very friendly. Edsil and Sidney were great in the dining room as well. I thought the ship was decorated very nice and not overly done. The kids (19 & 27) were a little disappointed, the clubs weren't as lively as on the Conquest. Piano Bar was pretty slow most of the week. She played well, the cruisers just weren't in there. Loved your pics of Mahogony Bay. That place was beautiful hands down. I really could see myself seeing that every morning. Glad to be home, but long to go back.

 

Hi, neighbor! :)

I'd love to go back, too. RIGHT NOW wouldn't be too soon! :D

 

Marne, love this: I was infected with the cruising virus in 1967. There is no cure for this, only a treatment--another cruise! ;)

[cuted126]

Thanks for the review!!!

[BettyPC]

Glad you enjoyed your cruise - even though you had a rocky start!