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Legend Halloween Cruise Review

MagSeven1413

By MagSeven1413,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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MagSeven1413

MagSeven1413

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This is my first attempt at a cruise review so be patient.

WARNING: NO FOOD PORN PHOTOS

With the number of pictures I took, I am just going to include a link to my photobucket albums as I go.

Background:

 

My DW Kim and I offered our son Mike and fiancée Jamie a choice – either money towards their wedding or the equivalent for a honeymoon. They chose the second option but only if they could do a cruise with us (since neither of them have ever had a vacation). We offered to buy their airfare, the cruise fare, and the hotel rooms before and after the cruise and they would be responsible for the rest of their expenses. Our plan was to get them either and inside or an ocean view, but at the time of booking, the OV was only $30 cheaper than a balcony so we surprised them with a balcony room. So the four of us, along with friends Pam and Dave, were able to get 3 adjoining balconies on deck 6 (6283,6285,6289). From the time we booked the cruise in February to departure date, my DW and I walked them through everything they would need – from passports to spending money to packing tips.

 

Once booked, I started a roll call which became very active as people booked and joined the thread. One of the couples, Karen and Mark, cruised with us several years ago and just happened to book the same cruise. I organized a 2 hour cocktail party on our first sea day, during which we had a hometown grab bag exchange plus a half the take drawing from which we gave the waitstaff an additional tip.

 

We left Pittsburgh Saturday morning during a small snow storm and the plane had to be de-iced, which was a new experience for me. The flights to Atlanta and eventually Tampa were mostly uneventful and we checked into the Embassy Suites Downtown by 3pm. The rooms were very nice and the price was excellent – the hotel even honored a $30 price drop per room the week before we arrived. The kids kept to themselves while my DW and I explored the immediate area, including the Riverwalk. The hotel was very busy as the TB Lightning were playing hockey next door and there were 2 extravagant Halloween parties that evening – one in the hotel and one in the convention center.

Pam and Dave had flown to Daytona earlier in the week to visit one of their friends and they drove in from Daytona and met up with us in the hotel bar. I also met up with Jim and Judy from our roll call in the elevator of the hotel.

 

http://s546.photobucket.com/albums/hh440/MagSeven1413/Cruise%202011%20Pittsbugh%20and%20Tampa/

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MagSeven1413

MagSeven1413

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Embarkation Day:

On Sunday morning the 6 of us grabbed the 10am hotel shuttle and were at the port within minutes. As we got out of our van, we ran into Karen and Mark as they were getting out of theirs. Embarkation was a snap. We walked right into the terminal and were waited on immediately. As I left the counter, another member of our roll call (Rob) recognized me and introduced himself and wife Shelly to us. We chatted for a few minutes and found a place to sit. While sitting, I posted on our roll call and on Facebook where I was sitting in the terminal and within 10 minutes Bill tracked me down and another round of introductions were made and he took me over to meet his wife Denise.

The zone boarding was very efficient and we were on the ship in no time. I enjoyed seeing the look of awe in Jamie’s face when she first saw the ship and then again when she got her first glance at the Legend’s atrium.

 

The ship is absolutely gorgeous! The décor is awesome and I liked the Enchanted Forest.

 

The crew was very friendly and extremely helpful at all times. The only drawback that I found is that a few areas are extremely COLD! Specifically, the 2 big open areas on Decks 2 & 3 Aft (the Atlantis and Odyssey Lounges) were frigid and I am never cold.

 

We found a table in the smoking section of the lido deck to bide our time while the rooms were being readied. The drink waiters were out in full force pushing the DODs – one after another. The girls each got one and I got my mojito. Dave, Mike and I hunted out the lunch buffets. The oriental buffet was excellent as were the burgers and hot dogs. At 1pm Kim and I had to take the kids down to Guest Services as the 2 rooms were booked in our names. It took all of 5 minutes for the staff to switch Jamie to Mike’s room (6283) and me over to Kim’s (6285). We also were able to get the balcony dividers open between our rooms by having one person from each cabin signing the request at the desk. We also had the divider opened between ours and Pam & Dave’s (6289). We were told that the dividers would be opened the next morning, and they were.

 

Mike and especially Jamie thought the rooms were really cool and absolutely loved the balcony.

 

http://s546.photobucket.com/albums/hh440/MagSeven1413/Cruise%202011%20Embarkation%20and%20sailaway/

 

I met the roll call at the funnel as we approached the Sunshine Skyway bridge. I took a few group pictures then went down a deck to get photos of everyone as the bridge passed over us. Being near dusk, the bridge was just blah. There wasn’t any sunlight to make the spires glisten and it wasn’t dark enough for the lights to be noticeable.

 

http://s546.photobucket.com/albums/hh440/MagSeven1413/Cruise%202011%20Sunshine%20Skyway%20Bridge%20w%20Roll%20Call/

 

I let Mark and Karen know that we would not be joining them in the MDR that evening as we decided to take it easy and just munch at the Unicorn Café.

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MagSeven1413

MagSeven1413

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Day 1 At Sea:

I organized a 2 hour cocktail party for our roll call that was held in Billie’s Piano Bar from 1pm - 3pm. I had collected payment from everyone prior to the cruise through either paypal or personal check and the party ran very smoothly with 32 attendees. Wee Jimmy made an appearance and spent at least 30 minutes with our group. He also agreed to perform a ‘zombie wedding’ for one of the couples in our party at 9pm that night since it was halloween. We collected extra cash for the servers’ additional tips by having a half the take drawing. Karen organized the gift exchange which took about 45 minutes to complete. I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves – at least I didn’t hear any complaints!

 

Regarding the party itself, Lwana from hotel services contacted me the morning of the party and we arranged to meet ½ hour prior to the party. She asked if it was a Cruise Critic party because Carnival could have put it into the Fun Times, and my answer was yes and no. While we met on Cruise Critic, it was a private party. She understood and told me that she would get Wee Jimmy to stop by and chat with the group – that’s why Wee Jimmy showed up. During the party, Lwana and I continued to chat. She was very interested in Cruise Critic – she knew it existed but wanted to know what it actually was. I explained that the message boards are a great wealth of information for cruisers – both first timers and veterans. People can ask questions and get answers from others. I told her there are boards for every cruise line, every ship, every port of call, etc and that I found it to be very valuable. As we neared the end of the party, she asked what my final count was and I gave her the breakdown of those drinking alcohol and the non-drinkers. We calculated the total and she billed my S&S. I put the money I collected from everyone on my S&S to offset the charge. All in all, it was a wonderful experience and would highly recommend it.

 

http://s546.photobucket.com/albums/hh440/MagSeven1413/Cruise%202011%20Roll%20Call%20Cocktail%20Party%20-%20Oct%2031/

 

Today was our first elegant night along with Halloween. The MDR had a range of attire ranging from suits and dresses to ghouls and zombies and everything in between. Our waiter made it a point to learn our first names the first time around and remembered them the entire cruise. Lobster was on the menu and 6 people at our table of 8 ordered it. I also tried the gator fritters and enjoyed them. As we finished our lobster, our waiter told us that he ordered another round of lobster for the table and we all nodded our approval.

 

There were a lot of Halloween costumes this cruise – more than I’ve seen in past cruises. I haven’t looked at all of the pictures yet, but I think I got some good ones in the group. Kim and I decided to see the adult comic – Valerie Storm. She was hilarious and had me in tears.

 

http://s546.photobucket.com/albums/hh440/MagSeven1413/Cruise%202011%20Sea%20Day%20Halloween/

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MagSeven1413

MagSeven1413

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Tuesday (Cozumel)

Woke up to an overcast sky and it looked like it had rained overnight. The Triumph joined us in port that morning. We were booked at Nachi Cocum but had about 1 ½ hours to kill before they opened (being 2 hours behind ship time) so we wandered the shops at the pier and had a drink at 3 Amigos before grabbing a taxi.

 

http://s546.photobucket.com/albums/hh440/MagSeven1413/Cruise%202011%20Cozumel/

 

The prices are posted on the board - $32 for 6 people. It might have been cheaper if we split into 4 and 2, but no one wanted to split up. We drove to Nachi in a rain shower. We were greeted warmly and saw 12 other people were already there. Soon our waiter Manuel arrived to take our drink orders and my wife jokingly told him that he needed to make the rain stop – he laughed and said after lunch. She and I walked the beach in the light rain (not like we haven’t been in the Caribbean during a rain shower before). We had to wait slightly over an hour before the cook arrived to make lunch.

 

We ordered one of every appetizer with an extra chips and salsa…….to die for! I ordered the fajita as my entrée and couldn’t believe how much food was piled on the platter. Manuel brought a second round of chips and salsa for us. The guys drank Sol and Dos Equis while the girls experimented with the ‘foo-foo’ drinks.

 

As we ate lunch, the sun appeared and Manuel showed up wanting to know if his timing was good enough for us. After lunch we spent our time in the water enjoying the beach time. I think there were maybe a total of 25 people there that day.

 

http://s546.photobucket.com/albums/hh440/MagSeven1413/Cruise%202011%20Cozumel%20Nachi%20Cocum/

 

That evening, dinner was uneventful. Afterwards, we cruised the lounges/bars looking for good music. Kim and I ballroom dance socially and I really wanted to spend some time on the dance floor. However, the pickings were slim. Eventually we headed over to Punchliner’s Comedy Club to see another adult show.

 

The one thing that I didn’t like on the Legend was the show times. The shows for the late seating were at 7pm which defeats the purpose of having a late dinner seating; we didn’t want to be ready by 6:30 so we never saw any of the shows.

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MagSeven1413

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Looking forward to the rest! I board on Sunday!

How was the food quality, I have seen mixed reports. My friend who was on the ship earlier in October said the food was good, though he is by no means a foodie.

As far as I'm concerned, the food in the MDR was good, but not as good as I remember back in 2009 and earlier. I'm also not a foodie, but I guess the way you can describe the MDR dinners is that the majority of them aren't the 'exclusive gourmet' meals that were formerly on the menu. They are more down to earth meals. No one in our group of 6 ever really complained about the food. I think the only real 'issue', if you can call it that, was that my wife couldn't get a hot baked potato one evening. They were lukewarm at best.

 

The deli was awesome. It was tough choosing from the many choices: pastrami, corned beef, reubens, hot turkey, etc.

 

We also enjoyed the chinese/oriental station at the buffet.

 

One last thing: The steakhouse was worth the extra expense. We went on Wednesday night because there wasn't anything on the menu that stood out for us. It was not busy so we had the undivided attention of our 2 waitresses for the 2+ hours.

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paper1122

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As far as I'm concerned, the food in the MDR was good, but not as good as I remember back in 2009 and earlier. I'm also not a foodie, but I guess the way you can describe the MDR dinners is that the majority of them aren't the 'exclusive gourmet' meals that were formerly on the menu. They are more down to earth meals. No one in our group of 6 ever really complained about the food. I think the only real 'issue', if you can call it that, was that my wife couldn't get a hot baked potato one evening. They were lukewarm at best.

 

The deli was awesome. It was tough choosing from the many choices: pastrami, corned beef, reubens, hot turkey, etc.

 

We also enjoyed the chinese/oriental station at the buffet.

 

One last thing: The steakhouse was worth the extra expense. We went on Wednesday night because there wasn't anything on the menu that stood out for us. It was not busy so we had the undivided attention of our 2 waitresses for the 2+ hours.

 

I believe that Wednesday is the day that we are considering the Steakhouse as well.

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MagSeven1413

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Wednesday Belize

We woke up to sunshine and promised to be hot. We did not plan an excursion today so we decided to have a leisurely breakfast before heading down to the tender at 11am. I headed to the internet café to catch up on my emails. While there, an announcement was made that tender boarding was being put on hold due to a medical situation down at the tender station. Around 11:30 they resumed tender operations. I found out later that someone had slipped and gashed his leg while boarding the tender and needed medical attention. We waited in line for about 35 minutes before we boarded the tender.

 

Jamie, our daughter in law, had some equilibrium issues and didn’t seem to be enjoying the tender ride. Once we got to the pier, we decided to do some shopping. Kim was intent on finding a tanzanite ring for herself so we headed to Tanzanite International. After some hard negotiating with the sales girl and her boss, Kim got a great price and bought her ring. Dave and I were joking that Diamonds International and TI were subsidiaries of the Wings Souvenir Stores in the Outer Banks as they seem to be everywhere. LOL

 

We stopped at the Wet Lizard for lunch – the food was excellent and the beer was cold. After a little more shopping, we hopped on the tender and headed back to the Legend. I think everyone ended up taking a nap before dinner.

 

Dinner tonight was in the Golden Fleece Steakhouse. When I made the reservations, the hostess made it seem like they were doing us a favor by squeezing us in that evening. I think there were 2 other dinner parties there that evening when we were seated. We didn’t mind as our 2 lovely Romanian waitresses were able to devote the majority of their time to our group. These young ladies were exceptional – refined and definitely groomed for the steakhouse. We all agreed that they would fit in perfectly in any high end restaurant in the states.

 

After dinner, Mike and Jamie went down to karaoke. Since Jamie is a semi-professional singer, she wanted to sing at least once. When she was done, she was asked to perform in the Carnival Legends show as Gloria Estefan.

 

http://s546.photobucket.com/albums/hh440/MagSeven1413/Cruise%202011%20Belize/

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