Review and FYI Info From Nervous First Timer

[just4steven]

Ok, I finally have time for my little write up from a skeptical first timer

Carnival Legend - January 19th to 26th out of Tampa, FL

 

This will give away my opinion but for those who missed it or those with reading A.D.D. like me, here is the video summary:

 

 

Video summary: Clearwater Beach to Port of Tampa, Native Way stingray sandbar and island tour on Grand Cayman, La Casa en La Playa A Select Retreat in Cozumel, Xunantunich in Belize, and Little French Key on Roatan.

 

Now, where to begin! I'm hoping to crack a few smiles, it's a message board so I'm sure I'll p.o. a few people :D but most importantly I hope this helps to ease some worries of other first timers. So here comes the rambling...............

 

Prior to Cruise - Research, research, research is what I did, although I'm a big believer you should do that even on land vacations. The other topic in this thread, "we could just not get into cruising", actually helped me a lot. It let me know what to expect and what to mentally prepare for on some things that had me worried. Also, if you have the time I recommend flying in the night before as it will relieve any stress from timing issues, not to mention all the flight delays there has been this year with the nasty weather.

 

Embarkation - Yeah, I got that email as well about do not arrive until 1 or 1:30. We didn't really ignore it, but we also took our time in the morning and did not get to the port until around 12:30. We just chilled and did not hurry. This might have been because of the time we arrived, but everything was simple and easy. Carnival really has a great setup in Tampa and it is easy to follow along as to where to go and what to do next. A couple of lines looked pretty long, but they all moved extremely fast. We were on board I think around 1:10. I think we were at what some call a busy time for the cruise ship, but try the St Thomas airport at a busy time! This was a piece of cake compared to most airports. Again, the lines look long but they sure go fast.

 

On Board - The elevators are a little crowded at this time of course, but that is to be expected. I was not sure if we could get in our cabin already, so we just followed the crowd and sure enough all hallways were open and our cabin was ready. We had a 7th floor extended balcony and after seeing the interior room across the hall there is no way we can downgrade on our next cruise. Definitely go with a balcony if you can! I can get a little freaked out looking over ledges, but I got used to this right a way and it was well worth it. If you are used to staying in hotels or renting condos, please do look at cruise ship cabin pictures first and make note of the size. I was more than fine with ours, but if you are not prepared and are used to 650 sq ft or bigger suites you might be in for a little shock. A couple other odds n ends - the Lido buffet is a little crowded the first day, but we never had a problem finding a seat. And I know the noise of the toilet flushing is mentioned a lot, but I didn't really think it was that bad.

 

Events/Meet and Greets - Don't get me wrong, please join your roll call and do try to sign up for different meet n greets/cabin crawls if you want to. Just an FYI tip I noticed from a first timer, you are just so overwhelmed in a good way and want to check out the ship that time will pass you by and you end up missing out on things. I also had another "incident" tip on how you can miss out on some things but I'll save that for the "Booze" section. So please do sign up for some things, but just know on your first cruise it is highly possible you will miss out on some/all of them, but hey, you will still be having fun.

 

Sign and Sail - I read a lot about this and as to whether you should do cash or credit, so I went ahead and put it to the test. I went with cash and my partner credit. Yes, I had to stop at Guest Services when I got on board, but there was no line at all. In fact, we never saw a line there at all anytime we walked by Guest Services. Overall neither of us had any issues, so if you prefer cash then use it, credit card then use that. Oh and this ties into the Sign and Sail as well. I love the fact you can view your account from the tv in your room. It is updated instantly, but do note there were a couple of times it was offline/not working.

 

Legend Interior - I'll just touch on this really quick, but we thought it was pretty cool! I can't comment much as this is the first cruise ship I have been on, but if it is your first cruise I'm thinking you will be impressed.

 

Food! - We could have been happy with something every night from just the buffet. Just make sure you look around at all the stations and I'm sure you will find something you really like. If you want to make it a room service night I highly recommend a few reubens! I am the introvert and skeptical one of the two, and I have read some horror stories about the seating arrangements in the MDR. We went with anytime dinning and I had no clue how this was going to work or what was going on, but they asked us how many, I said two, and they took us to a nice table for two. I thought this was great for the first night so I could see how everything worked. I don't know if it was because we were on anytime dining but they did seat us at a table for two every night (although I think you could have asked them to seat you with a group if you want). So pretty much if you want a quieter night for two, there were plenty of tables for two, or if you are in the mood to meet others it seemed you could have that as well. Now, the overall experience of the MDR - I can't remember if it was reviews for the Legend or even Carnival for that matter, but I saw some for a MDR comparing it to Applebees??? Not sure what ship that was for, but the MDR on the Legend is definitely not Applebees. We do like to eat out at many different levels of restaurants, so to keep it short every single thing we had was very, very good and if you are not happy with something just order something else. I feel pretty confident even the pickiest eaters will find something they love in the Legend MDR. On a side note I briefly read up on the dining room changes on some ships already. I can't comment on that but I just sure hope they do not change the quality. The MDR was definitely a pleasant surprise I was not expecting. I did have reservations for the steakhouse the last night, although I did end up canceling them a few days into the cruise. I am not really kicking myself for that because the MDR food was so good, and just the fact we were getting into such relaxation mode and I knew in a few more days I would have to be dressing up for work again, well, we just didn't feel like. I am not saying to not go to the steakhouse, it just sort of happened that way for us. I know we would have enjoyed it, but we were still extremely happy. FYI tip, I don't know why but I didn't think our cruise had a Sea Day Brunch. Well, it did, and it is definitely not to be missed!

 

Sea Days - I was a little worried about this thinking I would be bored out of my mind "trapped" at sea. Not in the slightest! You will see so many things in the Funtimes, plus you can just lounge around and read, explore the ship more as, trust me, you have not seen it all yet, different shows, art galleries/auctions, EAT MORE, bars, bingo, various fun trivia things, learn how to make the animal towel art, sleep, EAT AGAIN, try to play basketball with what feels like 50 mph winds, and for me the casino. If you are even slightly into gambling and want to kill time and enjoy the casino without breaking the bank, I had a nice surprise I did not research. $5 blackjack and roulette, along with penny slots! For the hardcore gamblers, I know, I know, you cannot win much if you even do win playing for those amounts, but you can sure last a long time without losing much. Shoot, I didn't even mention the gym, and if you are a people watcher you could plop yourself down at various spots and keep busy for days. There is just so much or so little you can do that it's up to what you feel like, but you will not be bored. P.S. water slide was closed on our trip due to Carnival upgrading it.

 

Hermits to Social Freaks - One thing that had me worried about a cruise versus a land based vacation was that I would not be able to do what I want when I want. I thought the entire cruise we would all be herded like cattle all day every day. Other than maybe a couple cruise sponsored shore excursions where you have to meet up maybe 45 minutes early in a theater, I want to put you at ease right now. You can do whatever you want, whenever you want. Um, I'm talking about legal things of course. If you are a hermit and/or extremely shy and want to stay in your room all day, that is fine. If you want to get out and mingle with some or a lot of people, that is fine too. The entire 7 day cruise I never once felt I had to do something I didn't want to. It seriously felt like a land based vacation. Side note to this - I have read some and heard people talk about "oh you only have fun on cruises if you go with a big group". While that may be true for the pool area (more on that later), it is definitely not the case. Just two of us went and at times we were the hermits chilling on the balcony, reading, ordering reubens from room service, and other times we were the social butterflies. Again, it's all up to you and do not worry like I did that you will be "forced" to do things 24/7. Not at all, other than the muster drill of course, but that can be rather amusing in it's own way :cool:

 

Pool(s) - If you are used to hotels or renting houses/condos with their own private pool, um, yeah, the ships pools are tiny compared to the amount of people. I read about this a lot before we went, and also read how some people at times still do not obey the "leave towel on chair rule while I walk away for several hours". In addition I saw some videos on youtube and heard the volume of the music and I'm not always in the mood for that. I made up my mind before we booked that to me it's not really worth it to deal with the hassle of fighting for a spot around a tiny pool that is only like 3 feet deep. Just my opinion, so we had a great time for us on some of the upper deck chairs, less crowded areas of serenity, and even our own balcony when we wanted true quiet. The larger groups of friends and families did seem to "control" the pool area. I mean, don't get me wrong, if you really want to you can get up super early and claim a chair and be right down there in the mix. This is just more of an FYI that if you are used to larger pool areas with less people this will be a little different. I was prepared before we went and made up my mind this will not be a pool vacation. But hey, as I mentioned before there is just so much to do that you will not be disappointed.

 

Booze - Oh my, so much to say, but I also am afraid to cross the forum line of giving anything away online for fear that Carnival will see it. :rolleyes: Hmmm, I'll probably do it anyway, lol, but I first wanted to give my most important tip! So yeah, I wanted to and did sign up for some roll call things on the first night and the cabin crawl thing the first sea day at 10:30 a.m. I believe. Well, my first true day of vacation I like to let loose a little. I know what I usually have my first day, which is my heavy day, and I was pretty much right around that pace. I forgot something I read about and should have known............... THE MOTION SICKNESS MEDS STARTED KICKING IN! Oh, and then, and then, we start to get out into the sea and the ship is rocking! Overall we had a very calm sailing, this was just one of the two times it got a little rough and the timing for my smash fest could not have been worse! It all hit me at once like a ton of bricks! I should have known better on the motion meds, but the rocking took me by surprise! I was sitting at a bar talking to people, watching the water spill out of one of the pools and I just literally had to get up to run and vomit. Um, the walking was not going so well at this point. Somehow I managed to stumble back to the correct cabin and take care of my business and then just go to sleep! I was out of commission from like 9 p.m. the first night until around 11 a.m. the next day. The good news is I felt much better the next, but please, please, please be careful with the booze the first night! Ok, I'm going to leave the topic of smuggling on board alone because you can find that everywhere. We will stick with ports of call. Ok, first of all, if one of you is not really a drinker, remember the 2 bottles of wine you are allowed to bring on. Just get some that is like 13 to 16% and you are set for a while, maybe buying a drink here and there. In port I can say the bigger the bottle, the more likely the xray will get it. Um, in one port I had hot sauce and 3 200ml bottles of Jose directly in the duty free bag and they zipped right through :D Also the mini airplane bottles zip right through in duty free bags or your backpack. I went for it all in one port thinking I was slick going with two big bottles. One I left in the duty free bag and the other stuffed way down in my backpack. Xray picked up both. The lady running the xray yelled to the guy checking in the booze saying I had 2, he nodded his head. I'm like 10 feet away from him when all this is happening and I get up there and he is like "so you have 2"? I just show him the duty free bag and say no just 1. He says ok, I sign the sheet and off I go with a big bottle in my backpack. Ok, enough of this topic...................... Oh wait! One last thing. I was the one that booked the cruise and everything was in my name. Well, I took a couple mini bottles from our cabin fridge and was wondering why they never showed up on my Sign and Sail account when everything else was so quick. Just an FYI, I'm not sure if they did this because he used a credit card and I used cash, but all the mini bottles got charged to his account, again, even though the cruise was all in my name.

 

Debarkation - They do get you out of your room pretty quick and then there is some waiting, but we were in no hurry so we grabbed some breakfast and sat on the Serenity deck. Tip for those that are in a hurry to catch a flight or something, take all of your own bags off. These groups got off a little earlier. We did stay another night in the Tampa area just to be safe and wanted to catch up with some friends in the area. If you can get an afternoon or later flight I do not see an issue on flying out on the return day, but do remember Tampa has had some fog issues before delaying the ship coming in.

 

I rambled on forever but I am sure other stuff will come to mind. I'll just respond to this thread and will also reply here with port reviews if this would be the correct location, as we did do an excursion in every port.

 

In summary I am not sure if I made it clear how iffy I was about doing this cruise thing. I really was worried.............. but it ended up being one of the best vacations we ever had! We will definitely be cruising again! :)

[just4steven]

And for those looking to get away from thousands of screaming kids - Don't get me wrong, I like kids, just not so much on vacation unless it is a relative. Anyway, lots of topics around about this already, so if you want away from the rugrats just remember the longer the cruise the less kids, and also the time of the year when they are in school.

 

I know the Legend is only around 2,100 passengers, but going in January on a 7 day cruise there might have been 50 children? I also want to say they all seemed well behaved, but we never even saw enough to judge.

 

This also reminded me that I was worried about doing a 7 day cruise for my first time. Some suggested I try a 3 or 4 day first. Well, the 7 day felt like it wasn't long enough, it was that much fun! I know I could do longer and still enjoy it and now that I know how the sea days are I could easily do something with 2, 3, or 4 sea days in a row.

[sparky-elpaso]

Welcome to the great world of cruising. :D Very well written review - sounds like you had a wonderful time. I think you did an excellent job of addressing some of the "fears" of new cruisers. One of the best things you did was research what to expect - so many new cruisers don't do any research at all and then gripe because they're surprised.

Edited February 2, 2014 by sparky-elpaso

[paul929207]

Glad it worked out so well

[just4steven]

Just thought of something else, the noise factor from your cabin and balcony. When in the room itself I do not think either of us heard much from any other room. No voices or t.v.'s for sure. I read about the door slamming so I tried my hardest to not let the balcony door slam, but of course I forgot a few times and did feel bad. Others must already know about the door slamming because there was very little of it and it seemed like people were trying to watch out for it.

 

 

Also we really did not notice hardly any voices when sitting on the balcony. I do have one tip for all levels of cruisers when on the balcony though. While the noise factor was great with the voices and doors slamming, everyone seemed very courteous, something I have not seen mentioned yet is the chair and table moving! Wow, that gets loud, lol. I did it myself so I'm not picking on anyone, but maybe we can start a new thread next to the door slamming about being careful when moving balcony furniture too :D Ok, just being goofy there, it was a little loud but nothing to ruin the trip.

[kimlovesfl]

Great review! One of the things that really surprised me for a first time cruiser was how absolutely quiet it was. I was expecting airplane-level noise from the engines, but no, it seemed that no matter where you were on the ship, you heard either nothing, or just the water rushing by. We were on deck 2 on the Constellation, and again, almost complete silence. And, maybe 30 or 40 kids.

[IslandBound79]

I can't wait to share this with all my other "iffy" friends!

Great review!:)

[stephanievrubio]

Wonderful review, and thank you for addressing so many of the concerns a new cruiser may have; but is too scared to ask. A lot of these we had as well prior to sailing, but found them to be unfounded.

[just4steven]

I thought of another thing, the photographers. I read a lot about them being pushy and in the way, so maybe something changed but the only time we were kind of "trapped" was the first ones getting on the ship. Also, we really weren't "trapped", I was in happy mode and thought it was fun and wanted to stop.

 

Other than that though you would see them getting off at the ports but they were not pushy at all and you actually had to tell them you wanted your picture taken. The other thing I noticed is we did not seem to notice them at all when walking around the ship. I don't know, maybe all cruise lines are different, but the photographers were definitely a non-issue. I guess this could be a downside though for travelers that want hundreds of pictures taken by the cruise line, but we did not mind.

 

P.S. - I did get lucky enough to photobomb a few people in Cozumel :D Sorry if I got yours but hopefully you get a kick out of it, especially the person I put the rabbit ears on!

[meatball_nyc]

Very nice review! Thank you for taking the time out to post it. Enjoyed reading it very much.

Welcome to the wonderful world of cruising!!

:)

 

 

 

~Robin

Norwegian Breakaway July 2014

Carnival Miracle 2010

Carnival Legend 2006

Every Day at Sea is a Great Day

[Roz]

Glad to hear from a newbie that had a great time. I too was skeptical my first time, but have been cruising yearly ever since. Nice review, and happy cruising.

 

Roz

[Psychobueller]

Great review! Thanks for taking the time to write it up. I am looking forward to my first cruise this summer.

[Pyxie]

Great review. I'm a first timer too so it is nice to see this perspective.

 

I'm also interested to see what your comments are on La Casa en La Playa. I'm signed up for this in August.

[just4steven]

Hi Pyxie, I am actually going to work on that review today and hope I get it done. Check the port of call forum for Cozumel late today or tomorrow :)

 

I did think of something else, laundry! We could have been lucky but we almost never saw anyone in there. It is a very easy set up and we did ours quickly with no problems on a sea day. It was good for us to know because our next cruise we will pack less!

[Kashagi]

I really enjoyed reading your review. I am planning my first cruise next year and this was very helpful!!

[Heartkrazy]

Debarkation - They do get you out of your room pretty quick and then there is some waiting, but we were in no hurry so we grabbed some breakfast and sat on the Serenity deck. Tip for those that are in a hurry to catch a flight or something, take all of your own bags off. These groups got off a little earlier. We did stay another night in the Tampa area just to be safe and wanted to catch up with some friends in the area. If you can get an afternoon or later flight I do not see an issue on flying out on the return day, but do remember Tampa has had some fog issues before delaying the ship coming in.

 

What a great review of your cruise, as a first time cruiser myself I found this to be extremely informative!

 

I have been searching threads looking for information on Debarkation once back in our home port & just want to make sure that I am understanding your experience. My son & his friends took a Carnival cruise out of Long Beach, CA a few years ago and he told my husband that they didn't have a choice other than carrying their own luggage off the ship once back in LB. Am I reading your review correctly that there IS A CHOICE and we don't have to schlep our luggage on our own?

 

Thanks in advance for helping me out here!

 

Laurie

[blondie151o]

On your part about the motion sickness ... Were you already taking meds and then drinking and you still got sick ? On my first cruise I felt bad the 1st morning waking up and I didn't take any meds for sickness. I was thinking about taking Bonine but does drinking with is make it worse??? Thanks

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums