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Our "Sweet" Suite Cruise--a Photo Review


EMc&DrS

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Last summer my wife and I took a fantastic cruise on the Carnival Dream, so this year we decided to take our kids (18 & 23) along to celebrate our son’s HS graduation. After weeks of research and comparing back in the fall, we finally settled on the Carnival Legend—and then counted down the 258 days until the cruise, which left Tampa on June 10. The biggest difference this time was that we booked an aft-wrap suite for ourselves with an adjoining aft-extended cabin for our kids.

 

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(Those were our rooms--the first deck up from the dining room windows)

 

And so begins a somewhat lengthly photo review of another great week at sea. Please be patient with me--it will take a few days to put this all together. For those who really just want to see the photos, I will highlight important key info in red in case the reader wants to skim through the review.

 

 

We left for the cruise early on Saturday, June 9 making the 8.5 hour drive from Atlanta to Tampa. I booked a room at the Sheraton Riverwalk Hotel using Starwood points, so the room was free!

 

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The hotel only offers valet parking, which was $18 for the night, but the great news was that they would allow us to leave the car in their covered deck while we were on the cruise at an additional cost of only $5 a night. Total cost of the room and parking for a week: $53!! They also offered a free shuttle to the port, so we had no additional cost getting to the port other than a tip for the driver. The hotel is within walking distance to the port (too far to walk with luggage), but I never see it mentioned in people's reviews. When I checked in and asked if there would be a long line for the shuttle, the man said, "No, you might be the only cruise passengers in the hotel tonight. Sometimes we get a lot of passengers, and sometimes we don't." He was right--it was very quiet in the hotel that evening, and the only other person riding the shuttle to the port with us was a Carnival employee returning to her job at the Shore Excursion desk.

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Just wanted to thank you for your fabulous review on the Dream. I hung on every word and referred back many times. It was so helpful for our Dream trip over Thanksgiving last year. Can't wait to read more even if I'm not going to follow you this time!

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After checking into the hotel around 4 PM, we were happy to walk around to explore the area near the hotel.

 

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(We thought we might know some people who belong here--but, alas, they must have all been out driving other people crazy at the time...)

 

 

We had dinner at Hattricks, a sports bar around the corner from the hotel, and then walked over to Channelside to see the port area.

 

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When we left Channelside, we were able to catch a golf cart shuttle back to the hotel for $5 (for 4) to avoid the 10-15 minute walk back. These extra long golf carts are available for hire beginning in the late afternoon and continuing late into the evening.

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SUNDAY, JUNE 10--Embarkation Day!!: My son and I woke up early and decided to escape the room so my wife and daughter could have plenty of time to get ready. We walked over to Starbucks at the Embassy Suites Hotel, and then decided to walk over to the port to see if the Legend had arrived. As we were approaching the port a little after 7:30 AM, we could see the ship approaching in the channel—and could hear the familiar sound of the cruise director announcement. Here are some photos of the Legend’s arrival:

 

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OUR FIRST SIGHT OF THE SHIP!!

 

We arrived at Channelside just in time to see the Legend pulling up to the pier:

 

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I didn't take a photo, but we also saw two HUGE drug dogs arriving at the port for work!

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After watching the action of the ship’s arrival, we walked back to the hotel. We had left 90% of our luggage in the car, so we had the valet bring the car out and my son and I then drove back over to the port to drop off the luggage around 9:30 AM so we wouldn’t have to carry it onto the shuttle.

 

I took the photo below when my son and I walked over to the port. While the area under the overhang is for passengers arriving back in Tampa to load their cars, at 9:30 AM there were porters standing on the sidewalk (just to the left of where I was standing) waiting for new passengers to drop off their luggage. The process was very quick, and we were back at the hotel by 9:45 to drop off the car for good.

 

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On the way back to the hotel, my son noticed this sticker on a light post--we liked the image of the sticker and the ship together:

 

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My wife and daughter were ready when we returned, so we gathered all of our carry-on luggage, two 12-packs of bottled water, and two 12-packs of soda, and headed for the lobby. The valet told us the shuttle would be back within 10 minutes, so we had only a short wait. (We had been told the night before that there were very few cruise passengers in the hotel that night, so we wouldn’t have to worry about a shuttle line). We arrived at the port by 10:15 and were guided right inside. We cleared security within 5 minutes (after they carefully shook all of our water bottles!), and were pointed to a private room for VIP check-in (since we had booked a suite). Although our kids were in a separate room, since the two rooms had been booked together, they too were allowed to use VIP check-in. (I will say there was basically no line at the regular check-in at this early hour, but it did pick up quickly after we were in the waiting area).

 

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There were two wedding parties that were allowed to board first, but then those of us with VIP Express check-in were called to board around 11:20. The time had finally arrived!

 

 

Our new “tradition” is to skip the buffet and go straight to Serenity. Here was were we set up camp for the next two hours:

 

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Some other views of the Serenity area:

 

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They made the announcement that rooms were ready about 12:30 PM. Since we had ordered some decorations and goodies from Bon Voyage as a surprise for our kids, I made an excuse about not wanting to lose our spot on Serenity and said I would go check on the rooms alone. (I had read reviews of people arriving in their rooms only to find that the decorations hadn’t been put up yet, so I wanted to make sure everything was in place when our kids opened the door). It was:

 

 

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And as soon as I saw our aft-wrap suite, I immediately knew we were going to be spoiled for life:

 

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Here are some additional pics of the suite:

 

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Views from the bed:

 

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The large bathroom was nice:

 

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But those shower controls are crazy to figure out!

 

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Changing area between bedroom and living area--walk-in closet was just to the left:

 

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View from the bedroom all the way to the adjoining cabin:

 

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And of course the reason you book an aft-wrap cabin--the balcony!

 

 

We had two loungers, two chairs that reclined, two standard chairs, and two tables.

 

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You can't get it all in one photo. This is the section on the port side of the boat. There was an especially nice breeze in this area:

 

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A view from the divider between our two cabins:

 

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By the way--I went to Guest Services shortly after getting onboard to ask that the divider between our two balconies be opened. The man pulled out a sheet and noted that several of the dividers between aft balconies can no longer be opened due to "maintenance reasons" including ours. This was somewhat frustrating because we had picked these rooms in part because we were going to be able to open the divider, but there wasn't anything I could do. We got over it.

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