cantw82cruise Posted April 15, 2005 #1 Share Posted April 15, 2005 Well this is my first attempt at a review and I’m sure this will run long so please be patient and enjoy. Our vacation was from 4/2/05 – 4/12/05 We were a party of eleven that went on this cruise. Two families of three that have cruised together 6 times now, one family of five that were on there first cruise. The six of us headed to Chicago from Michigan early Saturday morning. We figured we might as well take advantage of the weekend, as part of our vacation being the cruise didn’t leave until Monday. We did a stay and park at the Double Tree by Midway airport. The hotel was nice, it was $129 + tax to stay the one night and park up to 14 days, with free shuttle to and from the airport. We went down town and did some shopping. It was my sons 14th birthday so we took him to Ed Debevic’s for lunch. This is a 50’s style diner where the wait staff dresses up and acts kind of rude in a nice funny sort of way. We all had a good time there. Went back to the hotel to watch the final four (we were hoping for Michigan State to move on) oh well. We got up at 4:30 to get to the airport by 5:30 and meet up with the other family. We were flying Southwest, none of had flown with them before. We booked with ATA but the quit flying to FFL so the transferred us over to Southwest. We were worried about being able to sit together as families it ended up being no problem at all. Both our flights were wonderful and I would not hesitate to book with Southwest again. We arrived in Fort Lauderdale about 11:00. Rounded up our luggage, headed for the courtesy phones to call the Ramada for the shuttle. They said they would be there in a half hour to pick us up, an hour and twenty minutes later we were loading our stuff in their van. The hotel was a little old looking but pretty clean. We booked there for $86 a night with free shuttle from the airport and to the pier as well as free breakfast buffet. We hung around the pool most of the day. There was nothing close by there so we slipped the shuttle driver a $20 and he took us to a K-Mart to get some waters for the cruise. We also hit a diner close by there for dinner. Called the driver and he came back to get us. It worked out very well for us, as the cabs are pretty expensive around there as I found out the next day. Monday morning we got up and I realized I had forgotten to pack my swimsuit. My wife suggested I just purchase one on the ship. I told her no way I was paying for a $50 suit on the ship. I went to the front desk and asked how far it would be to get to a Wal-Mart or Target. He said the closest Wal-mart was about a $10 cab ride. I told him call me a cab. He said it would be there in ten minutes; a half hour later I was getting into the cab. Well it was a heck of a ways and a $50 dollar ride, but at least I had a suit now. Guess I should have listen to the wife again…. We were on the 11:30 shuttle for the pier so about 12:15 they started loading us up (I think they have some trouble with the time concept around there). We arrived at the pier about 12:30, got in a very long line and waited to board the ship. It only took about a half hour and we were picking up our sign and sail cards. We boarded and headed for the lido deck for some food. We booked a balcony guarantee and were assigned cabin 8121. The other threesome that was with us booked the same way they were in cabin 8125, just two doors down. The other family of five booked two cabins on the Riviera deck cabins 1149 and 1151. The cabins were nice; we had been on the Legend two years ago. I really love the décor of this ship. Our cabin steward’s name was Dean and he did a fabulous job for us. We made sure we gave him a little extra at the end of the cruise. We set sail a little after 4:00, and had muster drill about 4:45. Got all the out of the way now it was time to relax. We had main seating for dinner (5:45). We were at table 106, our head waiters name was Orlando and our waitress was Eva. Orlando was by far the best head waiter we have ever had on a cruise. He really went out of his way to take care of us, even in the mornings when we ate breakfast in the dining room. We found all the staff to be in pretty high spirits. The Legend was going into dry-dock for two weeks once our cruise was done and they were all getting a two week vacation. I think that might have had something to do with it. Tuesday was a day at sea so we hung around the pool and relaxed. A couple of down things for this cruise, the water slide was down all week. The kids were all very disappointed for that. The arcade was down for the first couple days and that was a little problem as well. I had a M&M with some fellow CCers at 2:30 at the atrium bar. It was nice to put some faces to names. It was pretty funny found out one of the guys cabins was right between two of ours. Wednesday we were in Belize. I booked a tour with Coral Breeze to snorkel and have lunch on Cay Caulker. We were to meet them on the pier at 8:00 Belize time 10:00 ship time. We had a few problems trying to get on an early tender because we did not book a tour with Carnival they were going to make us wait till 10:00 to even be able to get a number to get on a tender. We ended up just getting in line with one of their tours and going ashore. It ended up not being to big a deal because we had to wait for others who did not do this. We got in a boat at the pier that held about 20-25 people and headed to Cay Caulker. It was about a 45-minute ride the boat really moved. We made a quick stop to pick up some fish for the sharks and headed back out to sea. We first snorkeled at the coral gardens. The water was pretty rough and you had to be careful because the current would carry you right over the coral. We swam about a mile and a half in a big circle, we saw all kinds of coral and quite a few different types of fish. After swimming back to the boat we loaded up and went to shark-ray alley. Once they heard the purr on the motors the sharks and rays were everywhere. There were 3-6’ nurse sharks and rays that measured about 3-4’ across. It was very cool. After that we went back to Cay Caulker to have lunch on the beach. They served us rice & beans and beans & rice, fish, chicken and coleslaw it was all very good. Then we walked around the island a little bit; they had some small stores there so we did a little shopping. We collect hot sauces and found one there that was made in Belize so that was a good find. We then headed back to the boat and loaded up and headed back to Belize. For anyone thing about taking a tour in Belize I highly recommend Coral Breeze they did a fantastic job and got us back to the pier with at least and hour to go. You will find their prices very reasonable. Thursday was another day at sea. We hung around the lido deck and watched some of the activities around there. I don’t really remember anything jumping out at me for the rest of the day so I will leave it at that. Friday we were in Costa Rica. Here we did a tour with Oscar Brown, well not actually with him but with an associate of his. The tour was nice an informative, we did not get to all the things he said we would be doing but we still had a good time. Most of our party did the zip line at Almonds and Coral. That was really neat. It did rain most of the day while we were there. We did got to a banana plantation, and saw several other sites. It was a long bus ride but the bus had air and was pretty comfortable. Oscar’s tour was $30 pp and the zip lining was $40 pp. still a pretty good value. We got back to the pier with some time to spare so we did a little shopping there. We picked up another bottle of hot sauce; we also bought a piece of wood that had the Legend on it and the date we were there. It was our 16th anniversary so we thought that would be nice to have. Saturday we were in Panama. We decided not to do a tour there, I thought the prices on the ship were a little steep and we didn’t trust a private tour. We did get off the ship to do a little shopping. There was a gated shopping plaza just as you got off the ship. We bought a few things there including another bottle of hot sauce. We got a good deal there because we were able to find a grocery store. That’s one of the places I really like to go to when we go to different places. I also collect Coke stuff and I can usually find a nice bottle or two, although I came up empty this trip. We shopped for a couple hours and got back on the ship. We did not like all the tour guys pestering you to go for a ride with them. Some of them just don’t understand the words no thank you. Sunday and Monday were both sea days we just hung around and had fun. Over all this was a great cruise for us. The food was pretty good most nights; I do get tired of the same things being served every cruise. The lido deck food was good as well. The entertainment on the ship was great as always. We hit the casino pretty much every night (I had some huge swings but ended up down only $20 for the whole trip). My wife and son won a couple times at bingo, no really big jackpots but I think the got $220. The Blue Martini played in the Satchmo lounge and they were really good. We did have about 50-60 blind people on the ship so that was a little strange there seemed to be dogs everywhere. We wondered what they were doing about the dogs going to the bathroom until we found the kiddy pool and tarp on deck three… Yuck !!!!!!! Sorry it got so long just a lot to talk about. Overall I would rate our cruise at about an 8 out of 10. Hope you enjoyed reading it, let me know if you have any questions and happy sailing to all. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dizzy205 Posted April 15, 2005 #2 Share Posted April 15, 2005 Glad to see that you and all of your family had a good time. On our last cruise we were a group of 11 also. Only one other family member, the rest very close friends. Thanks for the review. We all appreciate reading reviews, it certainly psych's me up for our up-coming trip :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hvbaskey Posted April 15, 2005 #3 Share Posted April 15, 2005 Thanks for the Legend Review ! We just booked the Legend for the Feb 2006 sailing to the same ports of call. Very excited about the trip :) Only 296 days to go - LOL ~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2boyzmom Posted April 16, 2005 #4 Share Posted April 16, 2005 Another post about the water slide.... Hmm- I hope it gets fixed quick! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPete Posted April 16, 2005 #5 Share Posted April 16, 2005 John, Who was your cruise director? What are the two main shows on this ship? Do you really have to wait that long to get leied? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herb Posted April 17, 2005 #6 Share Posted April 17, 2005 any reason why the water slide was not operational for the entire cruise? I could see one day for maintenance, but the whole cruise! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cantw82cruise Posted April 20, 2005 Author #7 Share Posted April 20, 2005 John, Who was your cruise director? What are the two main shows on this ship? Do you really have to wait that long to get leied? Ok Pete the cruise director was Brent Mitchell, he was marginal at best IMHO. The first main show was "Jazz Hot". I didn't get to see most of this show, about 10 minutes in they had some sort of technical problem and cancelled the show. They did replay it on the last sea day at like 4:00 but we were busy. The second show was " Singing With The Big Band" (a tribute to Frank Sinatra). Not my cup of tea so I skipped this one. Then they had a third show called "Take II" This show was pretty good. One night the had a show called " The Village Idiots" Two juggling comedians, they were very good and funny. And last but not least, yes I do have to wait that long. I understand it will be worth the wait though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cantw82cruise Posted April 20, 2005 Author #8 Share Posted April 20, 2005 any reason why the water slide was not operational for the entire cruise? I could see one day for maintenance, but the whole cruise! I didn't understand this one at all either. We had some very bummed out kids though. Three of them had never cruised before and that was one of the things they were looking forward to the most. I told them now they will have to have their parents take them again to make up for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
booboo4031 Posted April 20, 2005 #9 Share Posted April 20, 2005 Hey John Glad to see you got around to writing the review:) and made it home safe. I've just booked the next one for this fall. Diane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
funduo Posted April 20, 2005 #10 Share Posted April 20, 2005 John, Thanks so much for the review. I love to live the cruise through someone else's eyes. We just booked the Legend for August and cannot wait. Did you go to the supper club restaurant? What night would you suggest to go to the alternate dinner club? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cantw82cruise Posted April 21, 2005 Author #11 Share Posted April 21, 2005 Did you go to the supper club restaurant? What night would you suggest to go to the alternate dinner club? We did not eat at the Golden Fleece this time. We did eat up there when we were on the Legend two years ago. It's not really our cup of tea, we are just happy eating in the dining room with our friends. We were celebrating our 16th anniversary while on the cruise. Because of this they offered us a coupon to eat up there on the first night for half price. We still decided against it. It is really something you should try at least once just to see for yourself. Have a great cruise and enjoy the Legend, we sure did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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