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Easter Cruise On The Carnival Legend (w/pics): 4/24/11-5/1/11


Lady_Jag

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I am still uploading pictures, but I wanted to get this thread started before I get too lazy to do a review/recap. :o

 

Overall, we had a great time. The cruise was far from perfect, but we tried to focus more on the positives and just shrug off the negatives. After all, it's the less-than-perfect moments that make life interesting, right?

 

Meanwhile, here are my general impressions, both good and bad, about the ship and cruise:

- The staff was incredible! Everyone was very helpful and friendly, from the room stewards to the wait team in the MDR, to the crew working on the Lido deck.

- The ports (Cozumel, Belize, Roatan, Grand Cayman) were nothing new to us, but we had great weather and enjoyed having the time to relax and not feel like we were rushing through excursions trying to take everything in.

- Embarkation was easy, except that security made my 5-year-old little girl cry...more on that later.

- Debarkation was a snap, despite the delay in waiting for people who were very late in showing up for immigration. Still, it was the fastest we've ever gotten off the ship (and we're NOT yet platinum!)

- The ship still needs some TLC. It came out of a 2-week dry dock in Feb., but it still needed some maintenance. For instance, there were tears in the wall art in several places down the hallways where the room steward carts would scrape down the walls. The mural in the Colossus atrium was worn, and the seams of the 3 sections that made up the giant piece were rolling back so that there were white vertical lines down the mural. On the wall above my daughter's bed was a thick, black sticky streak. When we flipped the switch, our bathroom light would take a good 45-60 seconds to flicker once, then another 5-10 seconds to finally turn on. The TV was an old model and the remote and volume were wonky. There were several light fixtures in the MDR that were missing some pieces, and one of the "new" chairs at our table one night was rickety and had to be replaced.

- The layout of the ship was really easy to navigate, and it took no time to become familiar with it. I don't know if it was the ship or if we just lucked out on the weather and swells, but we had some really SMOOTH sailing (except for the one night we were approaching Belize.) I didn't even feel the ship leave the port of Tampa! And usually, it takes me a few days to get my "land legs" back after being on a ship for a week, but this time, I was almost back to normal right away. A couple of times on debarkation day (yesterday), I felt my house pitch to the starboard side a bit, but today I felt no waves what-so-ever.

- We tried Your Time Dining for the first (and last) time this cruise. YTD was a mess! It often took 2 hours to make it through dinner. One night, only 3 of our party of 7 received menus. Almost every night, someone from our group would have to wait about 10 minutes or more for their starter or entree after the rest of our group were served.

- The Past Guest and Farewell party were fun, and the drinks flowed in abundance at both parties.

- Wee Jimmy, the CD, was pretty funny and made my daughter's week by letting her tell a joke on stage before the "Jazz Hot" show.

- We were given a champagne toast at dinner near the end of the cruise, in honor of the 100th ship the Carnival Corporation rolled out.

- The food was pretty good overall. A couple of times, I got some dry meat at dinner, but all my favorites (ribs, enchiladas, strawberry soup) were still yummy!

 

I'll post a brief note on our pre-cruise and the details of our embarkation day tomorrow.

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Good start to your review! I'm waiting for more, and want to see your pictures. Thank you for taking the time to do a review. I like to hear others opinions of the ships I'm going to sail. It's a long time until October, so your adventures make the wait bearable.

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We are leaving on her on Sunday so I am eagerly awaiting your review of the new route.

Couple of questions if you don't mind.

Which nights were "dress up" :D night?

Do you know if any of the rooms got new TV's?

Was the Serenity area crowded?

 

Thanks.

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We are leaving on her on Sunday so I am eagerly awaiting your review of the new route.

Couple of questions if you don't mind.

Which nights were "dress up" :D night?

Do you know if any of the rooms got new TV's?

Was the Serenity area crowded?

 

Thanks.

 

I'm on my work machine right now, so pictures and the start of my review will be posted tonight. Hopefully, I'll be able to get through most of it before you leave Sunday.

 

Our "dress-up" nights were Monday (1st sea day), and Thursday (Roatan day).

 

The suites have new flat screen TVs, and they're supposed to be slowly replacing the TVs in the rest of the cabins on an ongoing basis. The operative word here is "slowly," as none of the 3 cabins for our group had flat screens.

 

Serenity area was crowded on sea days, especially the first sea day, but I was pleasantly surprised that there were still opportunities for me to enjoy the area and get a seat without camping out there overnight. It was the least crowded...almost empty... on embarkation day, and I had my choice of hammocks that day. I also snagged a clamshell on our Belize day, and got some hammock time on our final sea day.

 

One thing of note on the Serenity area - they did not play the soothing new-age/intrumental type music (like Enya) I had grown accustomed to on the Dream and Inspiration. Instead, they played more adult contemporary and soft rock music (like Donna Summer).

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Totally looking forward to your review - we are also leaving in 11 days!! WOOHOOO!!!

 

What cabin were you in?

 

We also have YTD and your review makes me a bit nervous - however, what I am seeing is that the YTD is not good for groups of more than 3 or 4 -it seems the bigger groups have a bad YTD experience. It's only my husband and I so hopefully there won't be a problem - but hey - we will be on a cruise -there are no problems!! :D

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Also, ladyjag - I think I read one of your older posts on the Florida Departures board about staying in the Sheraton Riverwalk pre-cruise and parking your car there for the duration of the cruise for $5/day - I wrote a question on the board about that here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1396953

 

If you get a chance, can you answer any of the questions in that thread? Thanks!!

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Also, ladyjag - I think I read one of your older posts on the Florida Departures board about staying in the Sheraton Riverwalk pre-cruise and parking your car there for the duration of the cruise for $5/day - I wrote a question on the board about that here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1396953

 

If you get a chance, can you answer any of the questions in that thread? Thanks!!

I will visit that thread momentarily and do my best to answer the questions.

 

Do you have a copy of the fun times?

Yes, but I have not yet scanned them in...or located them at the moment. My house is in turmoil right now, since we're in the middle of adding a new bathroom and remodelling an old one. As soon as I find them (they're probably under 6 inches of drywall dust), I'll post them.

 

Someone made your daughter cry?:eek: For shame. I remember how cute she is from a previous review.:) Looking forward to more.

Heather

Thank you! She's a very tender hearted child, but it was a terrible shame that security made her cry on Easter. Details to follow...

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I’ll try not to spend much time on this part, since our pre-cruise adventure will be much different from most people. I managed to score $39 tickets to SeaWorld in Orlando a week or two prior to our cruise, and I used one of the PRICE onLINE bidding sites to secure a cheap rate at the Holiday Inn & Suites Universal Studios Maingate in Orlando.

The plan was to drive 2 hours to Orlando Thursday night, visit SeaWorld Friday, then drive to Tampa Friday night, where I bid on and won a $49 rate for the Sheraton Riverwalk Downtown Tampa hotel for two nights. Saturday, we would make use of our annual passes to Busch Gardens, then board the Legend on Easter Sunday.

Not everything went according to plan, though. We stuffed my SUV with our luggage (8 bags for 3 people!) left the house after work, and made it to the Holiday Inn around 9:30 Thursday night. Check-in was a breeze, and our room was pretty spacious, with a fridge, coffee maker, and two double beds. I brought a Styrofoam cooler for the car, because I was afraid that some of the meds and lotions in my medicine bag would get too hot in the car parked in the SeaWorld parking lot. I wrapped the bag in a plastic grocery bag, and the next morning, got the security escort to fill the cooler ½ way with ice. Yes, I said “security escort,” because the hotel has removed all ice machines from every floor of the hotel, and you have to request ice from the front desk. When you make this request, security comes out, takes your cooler (or ice bucket from your room), runs off to Area 51 of the hotel, and returns with ice.

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(Our room at the Holiday Inn across from Universal Orlando)

The Holiday Inn had a TGI Fridays on site that offered a breakfast buffet for cheap, plus kids eat free. It was here that I ate cantaloupe and discovered I was allergic to pineapple. You read that right! I helped myself to one of the last couple of pieces of cantaloupe set out in one of the bowls on the bar, and it tasted like it had been soaking in pineapple juice. From the bowl of pineapple on the bar, I figured the bowl used to contain pineapple and no one rinsed it out before loading it with cantaloupe. Oh well, no big deal. Except after eating one piece, my throat was itchy and burning from acidity. I thought I was coming down with a cold or sore throat, but it finally cleared up just after noon time that day, and I was finally able to figure out what happened. Anyway, I wouldn’t recommend that restaurant – not only was the service bad and the food lacking, but the lemon wedge that was in my water looked like it had teeth marks in it! Ew!

So back to our journey. The day we arrived, SeaWorld was just opening a new Shamu show called “One Ocean,” and everyone had come out to see it! Really! We arrived at least 30 minutes after the park opened, and the crowd was so huge, it took us almost an HOUR just to get through the front gates! Every show at Shamu stadium had reached full capacity at least 90 minutes prior to showtime. It was crazy, but it also dragged a lot of the crowds away from the other shows and rides. We ultimately decided to skip the Shamu show, since we’re Florida residents and would most likely be able to see it later on…maybe in a year or two…when the first-run popularity dies down.

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(Massive crowd outside the gates of SeaWorld about 20 minutes after the park opened.)

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(Alyssa waits somewhat patiently to enter.)

Anyway, I took young Alyssa on the “Wild Arctic” ride while Alex rode one of the coasters. This ride is a simulator that drops you off at the SeaWorld arctic exhibit for polar bears and…mating walruses. Yes, there were two walruses up against the glass of one of the underwater viewing areas, putting on a show for a small crowd of people. Alyssa was so excited to be able to see walruses up close (and personal!) that she managed to get through all the people holding up their video cameras and cell phones and get right up to the glass. I braced myself for the inevitable “what’s that?” or “what are they doing?” question and my mind tried to formulate an educated answer that my 5-year-old would understand, without getting into too many details. Fortunately, Alyssa never asked!

The rest of the day was a typical sunny Florida day in a theme park. We rode rides, saw a show or two, did some people watching, and visited some of the animal exhibits. (Alyssa loved petting the stingrays!) Around 4:00pm, we decided to hit the road, stop for some dinner, and check into our hotel room in Tampa.

The inside of my car was HOT from sitting in the parking lot all that time, but there were still some solid ice cubes floating in cold water in our cooler. Unfortunately, though, the plastic grocery bag I so carefully wrapped our med bag in leaked, and our med bag and its contents got pretty wet. Ooops! No big deal, though. The medications may have had soggy packaging, but the pills and liquids themselves were fine. I meticulously dried off everything when we reached our hotel room, then set all the meds on a hand towel along with our med bag, which I turned upside down to “drain.”

The Sheraton Riverwalk was a nice place. I could tell it’s an older hotel, but it was pretty clean, and the staff was very friendly. There is valet service for $16/night during your stay, and then we bought a cruise parking package for $5/day during our cruise. The hotel offers a free shuttle to the port and back, and one side overlooks the river.

Our room was on the “preferred guest” floor (or whatever they call it), and we had a nice balcony outside our room, free in-room WiFi, and free computer/internet usage in the main lobby. I’m not sure if the entire hotel is non-smoking or just that floor, but at one point I had to call the front desk because we could smell cigarette smoke coming out of our A/C vent one night. (The response I received was “Thank you for letting us know. We’ll send someone up to investigate.” And the problem was gone within the hour.)

Anyway, we tucked a tired out Alyssa into bed and Alex and I sat out on the balcony for a while so she could fall asleep.

The next morning, Alyssa woke up with a headache, tummy ache, and dry heaves. She would yell “water! Water!” then after the first sip, wretch into the trash can. Oh no! My poor baby! No question we would skip Busch Gardens that day, so I called the park to cancel the stroller rental I had reserved online the previous week. The real questions were: do we cancel our cruise Sunday? Do we take her to an emergency care clinic? Do we wait and see?

I sent Alex out in search of breakfast. He thought maybe McDonald’s hotcakes, her favorite, would make Alyssa feel better. He returned a bit later with food and drink, which we slowly fed to Alyssa. ½ way through the second hotcake (and after holding down a lot more water), Alyssa was all smiles and declared her tummy ache and headache “all gone!” Weird. My guess was that she had dehydrated herself in SeaWorld the day before, which caused her to wake up feeling sick. (Bad Mommy!!) There was still time to go to Busch Gardens, but I decided we’d hang out in the hotel and downtown area instead so that Alyssa could take it easy and recuperate.

It turned out to be a very relaxing day. We bought a few cheapo thin beach towels from Walgreens since I forgot to pack ours, and Alex bought Alyssa a green water blaster at a nearby dollar store. Dinner was at a place called “The Jerk Hut,” which had excellent Caribbean Jerk food! And there was a pizza place right next door so that Miss Picky could have a slice of cheese pizza instead.

Sheratonroom-1.jpg

(Our messy, out-of-focus room)

 

Sheratonbalconycu.jpg

(Our balcony)

 

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Continuing with Embarkation day in just a moment...

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Today was Easter Sunday, and I made sure the Easter Bunny paid Alyssa a visit. In lieu of a basket, Mr. Bunny left Alyssa a big sand bucket full of beach and pool goodies, plus some egg-shaped animal pool toys (they look like giant Weebles) hidden around our hotel room. Alyssa woke up ready to go, and had a lot of fun finding her hidden goodies.

By 9:45am, we were packed and ready to go! We just couldn’t wait any longer, so we called down to the valet for the shuttle service, [over]loaded a luggage cart, and checked out of the hotel. The shuttle arrived in moments and we were on our way!

0424_luggagecart-1.jpg

(We brought all this?!?)

 

We shared the ride with 6 of the ship’s crew, who were just starting their contracts that very day. We wished them luck as the shuttle dropped them off at the crew entrance, then gathered our abundance of belongs, tipped a porter to take our checked bags, then walked over to the very short line waiting to enter the terminal. Lots of people from the previous cruise were just leaving, and there was a wedding scheduled, but we still didn’t wait too long. I’d say we were inside the terminal by 10:15.

 

Once inside, we went upstairs and through the x-ray screening. One of the security guards saw Alyssa’s bucket of goodies and picked up the water blaster that was sticking out. He muttered something about “can’t have this,” then told me and Alyssa to follow him to the Naughty Room. Oh boy!

 

Alyssa was all smiles until he told her he was going to have to confiscate her water blaster and pack of squirt guns. Then she looked at me confused, and I explained to her what the word “confiscate” meant. Cue waterworks! Alyssa immediately started to bawl, and no apologies or assurances that she could have her toys back after the cruise was going to make her stop. Honestly, I wanted to cry seeing how brokenhearted my poor little girl (still wearing her Easter bunny ears) was! I placed the claim ticket in my purse and walked a sad crying Alyssa out of the room.

confiscated-1.jpg

(Alyssa's "dangerous" arsenal)

 

Now my husband Alex was walking ahead of us, so he didn’t see any of this. He made it to the point where he had to fill out the health form, and turned around to ask me what our cabin number was. He didn’t see me or Alyssa at first, but then spotted us walking out of the Naughty Room, Alyssa still in tears. I explained what happened, and the Carnival employee standing next to Alex said “aw! That’s terrible!” Alex just sighed and said, “Well, for a minute, I thought maybe Alyssa had been probed or something!”

 

Alyssa continued to cry over her confiscated toys as we walked over to the main desk to get our S&S cards. “What’s wrong honey?” the woman at the desk asked. I explained, “She just had her squirt guns taken away by security.” The woman rolled her eyes, muttered, “I think they need to lighten up. That’s just too excessive!” and with a sympathetic smile to my still crying little girl, handed me our S&S cards and a card for Zone 2.

 

Alyssa finally stopped crying when I took her over to the window, pointed out the ship, and asked her “which cabin do you think is ours?” She thought about it, and I said, “I bet it’s that one way over there! See that life boat?”

 

0424_aw-1.jpg

(Not the lip!)

 

We talked about the ship and activities and Alyssa was smiling and happy again. (At one point, she was jumping up and down chanting “Party! Party! Party!”) While we waited, I got to meet some nice folks from our CC roll call and introduce Alyssa to some other young cruisers. Crisis over!

 

Around 11:00am, our boarding zone was called, and we were on our way to board the Carnival Legend! Woo hoo! First stop was the Lido deck for lunch. Alyssa and I grabbed a table while Alex went to get himself some lunch and Alyssa some pizza. While we waited, I whipped out a travel “Gone Fisin’” game to keep Alyssa entertained. The little girl seated at the table behind Alyssa was intrigued, so Alyssa invited her to play.

0424_Yay-1.jpg

(All smiles now!)

 

“Laura! Hi, how are you?!?” I looked up to find our long lost friends, Mort and Emily, standing at our table. We originally met as table mates on the Carnival Celebration back in 2004, and hadn’t seen each other since the end of that cruise. We still exchange Christmas cards, and I always make sure to let them know when we’re cruising again and which ship. Well, just a few days before we left for our vacation, I received a surprise note from Emily in the mail telling me that they would be on the Legend with us and that they couldn’t wait to meet Alyssa!

 

We did a quick catch-up at the table, and they introduced me to their first-time-cruising friends, Chuck and Sharon. Then Mort handed Alyssa a snorkel set, which Alyssa just LOVED, and since our cabins were on the same deck, we promised to meet and catch up after the muster drill.

 

After lunch, we sought out Camp Carnival to register Alyssa. (I had registered her online, but forgot to bring the printouts with me.) Finding Camp Carnival (called “Noah’s Ark”) proved to me more difficult than we expected, since many of the corridors were closed off while the cabin stewards got all the rooms ready. We wandered everywhere, trying to get to the front of the ship on deck 5, but finally made it. Alyssa begged me not to register her for Camp Carnival, because she didn’t want to go. I told her she didn’t HAVE to go right then, but that she did need to be registered, in case she changed her mind and wanted to participate in the activities later in the cruise. She wasn’t convinced, but went along anyway.

 

While Alex and Alyssa went to the “open house” at Camp Carnival, I stood by our carry-on bags at the bottom of the stairs and took pictures of the “Enchanted Forest.” Unfortunately, they were not accepting registrations at Camp Carnival until the orientation that evening, so we took our bags to deck 4, since it was only a few minutes before 1:30 when our room would be ready. There, Alex watched the bags while Alyssa and I searched for a deck plan and Fun Times.

 

We got a little lost on our way back to deck 4, and wound up in one the corridor outside the rooms. The door to our cabin was open, so I snapped a few shots from the doorway and moved on. We found Alex just as the doors were opened, so we all went to our cabin to thoroughly check it out. This was our first 4K, cabin 4130, and it was…just ok. For the price, it was neat to have the French doors and natural light, but if given the choice between a standard OV room and a 4K, I would choose the OV.

 

The view was mostly of a lifeboat, but we could see the blue water below, and if I leaned out, I could see a little bit of the horizon between the lifeboats. The main obstruction wasn’t the lifeboat, though, but the huge white metal pulley system/winch that held the lifeboat in place. Bummer!

 

Another disadvantage to the 4K was that we had less space for our things. We wanted to keep the small area in front of the doors clear so we could open them, and since we didn’t have a window, we also didn’t have a window sill for placing items.

 

There was also a small makeshift wooden shim sticking out of the top of the doorframe. It looked like maybe something was rattling there, and someone just rammed a chunk of wood there to stop the noise. I guess it worked, but that, coupled with the TV issue, the sticky black streak on the wall that I mentioned earlier, and the bathroom light issue, made the room feel a bit dilapidated. Plus, when I turned on the faucet at the sink, I got just a small no pressure stream of water that all but dripped down the side of the sink. But it was all just minor cosmetic stuff and wasn’t going to get in the way of our good time!

 

We dropped off our carry-ons, grabbed the bottle of champagne we brought for our long-lost friends, and walked down the hall to Mort and Emily’s cabin. Lucky us, they were there! We visited for a while and Alyssa thanked them for the snorkel set. Then we decided to let them get settled, so I returned to our cabin to decorate our door and unpack, while Alex took Alyssa to the pool and hot tub.

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(Our door banner, sans last name)

 

Amazingly, ALL of our checked luggage arrived to our room by 3:00! With all that stuff to unpack and only one closet with shelves, I was happy that I brought along a hanging sweater shelf from the dollar store for all of Alyssa’s clothes. Her folded shorts and shirts fit perfectly in the canvas shelves, and then there was room at the bottom of the closet for her travel car seat, beach toys, and our excursion bag!

0424_sweaterhanger-1.jpg

(Handy extra shelves, since we didn't bring many "hanging" items.)

 

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Photos of the ship next...

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Please forgive me for ending my narrative mid-embarkation day, but it is getting very late, and I have a busy work day tomorrow. Before I say goodnight, here are some pictures of our cabin:

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(Looking in from the door)

 

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(Alyssa's bed)

 

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(French doors, decorated by Alyssa)

 

0424_4130outside-1.jpg

(The REAL obstruction!)

 

0424_4130view-1.jpg

(We can see the water...and part of deck 3... below.)

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We are sailing in a bunch of months:(

 

We contemplated Any Time Dining due to the Bridge. We sailed on the Inspiration in December and loved the experience of going under the bridge and picked this exact cruise so my son and his friend (our other son) could experience it. We had ATD on the Inspiration and even though we didn't have long wait times, we just didn't get the one on one attention the main dining room staff give you. So we are trying Late Dining. I sure hope I can stay up that long!:rolleyes:

 

Really looking forward to it.

 

Always enjoy your reviews!! Read your Inspiration on also.

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We are sailing in a bunch of months:(

 

We contemplated Any Time Dining due to the Bridge. We sailed on the Inspiration in December and loved the experience of going under the bridge and picked this exact cruise so my son and his friend (our other son) could experience it. We had ATD on the Inspiration and even though we didn't have long wait times, we just didn't get the one on one attention the main dining room staff give you. So we are trying Late Dining. I sure hope I can stay up that long!:rolleyes:

 

Really looking forward to it.

 

Always enjoy your reviews!! Read your Inspiration one also.

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