MB on Carnival Legend

[jjmsbu09]

Mahogany Bay: How far is the beach from the ship? I hear the chairlift gets a long wait? I'm going on the Legend and planning excursions for likely Cozumel, Belize, and Grand Cayman so I was thinking about Rotan just being a beach day. Is it a good spot to just enjoy the beach, get a drink and maybe some food? Thank you everyone :D

[pamawi]

The MB beach is really close to the ship but to have to walk up the ramp by the Fat Tuesdays where the booth to get on the sky ride or walking path is. It moves slow and you could likely walk there faster. It's a nice view and you might want to ride it out if the line isn't long to get a ticket and get on. Be careful about buying the Relax on the Beach package they sell on the Legend and probably other ships in order to guarantee a pair of lounge chairs with a clam she'll cover for shade, floating mats and unlimited sky rides. It seemed like a good idea but they sell it as a ticket for 2 and if you don't go together and try to meet up after separate excursions, it is not designed that way. I had an early excursion that was supposed to last only 2 hours so my husband for off the ship with me and went to the beach to get us a good spot. He doesn't care much for the beach but thought he could do a couple hours in the shade netil I got back from my excursion, but we got back 2.5 hours late and didn't have time to spend on the beach. I ride to get on the skylit to go find him if he was still there and let him know I was back. They wouldn't let me on the skylift free even though I had all the info from our ticket as instructed by the guest services guy that sold it to us and said it shouldn't be a problem for me to come later. I was aggravated and decided I would either buy a ticket or walk it to see if he was still there waiting for me. The guy at the booth told me he could tell me if he was still there because they take your sail and sign card when you check in and you get it back when you give the floats back. They told me he had left so I assumed he was back on the ship so I stopped by Fat Tuesday to pick up a drink before goi g back on board and out my husband walks from the beach path. Apparently he had just left, which would have been nice to know, but I'm sure they just saw they didn't have his card anymore. I kind of thought this package would be like reserving a set of chairs at the beaches on the gulf coast where they put your name on it for the day and you can come and go. I'm thinking even though the package includes unlimited sky rides that if you leave your chairs to go back to the ship and get your ship card back that you are giving up those chairs and if you come back I don't know if you can get those same chairs again. I complained to the excursion desk that they need to explain to people that this package doesn't work so smoothly if not arriving together. They refunded half my money, which I appreciated. She said she would make sure guest services staff understands this if asked in the future. I think they could do this by giving each person a bracelet when they buy the tour, then they don't have to arrive together.or the person who arrives first with rhe one ticket could leave the name of the second person who will areive later. I did ride the sky ride last year after and excursion just to see the beach after an excursion and walked back. The walk wasn't bad. The beach looked nice and I may try it again in the future but probably without buying their excursion since the beach is free, walkable and you can rent a clamshell when you get there if you want one and there are any available. My preferred way to get shade at a beach is to get in the water with a water shirt, hat and shades. I heard those clamshells block the view and breeze and they are further from the water behind the regular chairs.

 

http://www.carnival.com/Activities/Excursion/518034

Edited January 12, 2014 by pamawi

[pamawi]

Please excuse the typos in the above post as I did it on my iPad and by the time I noticed them it was too late to edit the post.

[jjmsbu09]

Thank you for the detailed response. We are planning excursions for Cozumel, Belize and Grand Cayman so I wanted one port to just be a play it by year port and the beach sounds perfect. I'll likely just walk and avoid the excursion! Thank you again

[crewsweeper]

Thank you for the detailed response. We are planning excursions for Cozumel, Belize and Grand Cayman so I wanted one port to just be a play it by year port and the beach sounds perfect. I'll likely just walk and avoid the excursion! Thank you again

If you hang to the right past Fat Tuesdays there's a nice little "nautre" trail that goes over the hill closer ot the ships and down to the excursionpier then ties back into the main pathway at the entrance to the beach. Not sur eif it's still up but there was a nice porch swing at the tiop of the hill where you could watch the shannigans at Fat Tuesdays.:D

[canadian85]

It was still there 2 weeks ago. Didn't know about the shortcut until we were there.

But if you don't want to go shopping on the way back, take the nature trail with the option for a shortcut back to the ship! Was nice with 2 young kids in the hot sun. And apparantly we were late getting on the ship, so shortcut was even better.