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Just off the Legend today...great cruise!

TeresaJ

By TeresaJ,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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TeresaJ

TeresaJ

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We are me (42), DH (44), DS (13), and DD (9). We are from Wisconsin and try and take a cruise during spring break each year and escape the cold weather for a week. This is mine and my husband’s 5th cruise overall (4 on Carnival) and our kids’ 4th cruise.

 

We started our adventure on Friday, March 14th after school and drove 4 hours to the Milwaukee airport area and stayed in a hotel since we had an early 7am flight on Saturday morning. All went smooth and we landed in Tampa at 10:45am. Woohoo! Warm sun and palm trees! We spent the day at one of my dearest friends' house who lives in Inverness, FL (about 1 ½ hours from Tampa area). We had a great time.

 

Left around 9:15am early Sunday morning to head to port! We had to return the rental car and boy was this a crazy adventure! We rented a car from Budget at the Tampa airport on Saturday and it was easy peasy..however I chose to return it to the Budget location in downtown Tampa at the Embassy Suites because it was 5 minutes from port. What was I thinking! Downtown area was crazy, of course and we finally found the hotel and there was no direction from the Budget staff and instead the Valet from the hotel directed us where to park. I went inside the hotel to find the Budget counter and there were probably 10 people in line to rent and return cars and only 1 desk person. WHAT! Another guy who was also returning his car decided to go up to the counter drop the keys and tell the 1 person on staff that he was returning the car. I proceeded to do the same. I was not going to wait an hour in line to return a car. Anyway, hard to believe they only have 1 person on staff and no one to greet you upon your return so you can be on your way. Lesson learned on that one. Then we needed to find a taxi – that seemed to not be easy either. The Embassy Suites was a madhouse of people and cars coming and going and a very small drive up space. A shuttle driver must have noticed us walking around aimlessly with all of our luggage and offered us a ride to port for $20 for our family of 4. I thanked him so much! He had one other couple going on the NCL ship. So thankful as it literally took 5 minutes or less and we were at the port. I was so glad that rental car mess was done with and we could start our cruise!

 

Boarding was easy…we were on the ship in 20 minutes or less. Got on board about 11:40am. Hard to believe a mere 30 minutes ago I was at the hotel wondering how in the heck to return the car!

 

I have to head off to work now :( so I will write and post pics this evening! Thanks!

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TeresaJ

TeresaJ

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Glad you had a great time. We will be on her July 6th s nd can hardly wait. Would love to see a review. Have a safe flight.

 

Thank you! Glad to be home last night after a long day of traveling. Hope you have a great cruise!

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TeresaJ

TeresaJ

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We will be on July 6 too. Would love to hear more about your cruise and maybe see some pictures too. What did you do in ports?

 

We mostly did beach related activities in ports since we don't live near the beach and live in cold weather climate. We did Carnival excursions in Belize and Roatan and on our own in Cozumel and Grand Cayman. I will give more detail on those soon!

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TeresaJ

TeresaJ

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How was the new Green Thunder waterslide?? Happy to hear that you enjoyed the Legend

 

My husband went on the green thunder. It is literally a 3-5 second ride and a very long wait in line. The kids didn't want to go on it as they didn't care for how the floor drops from underneath you at the beginning and also didn't like how the wateslide extended over the side of the ship. They enjoyed the yellow water slide though!

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Captain Carnival

Captain Carnival

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...Boarding was easy…we were on the ship in 20 minutes or less. Got on board about 11:40am. Hard to believe a mere 30 minutes ago I was at the hotel wondering how in the heck to return the car!...

 

Got to hand it to the Embarkation Crew in Tampa; do you recall who checked you in and presented you with your Sail N' Sign Cards?

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2xprincess

2xprincess

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We mostly did beach related activities in ports since we don't live near the beach and live in cold weather climate. We did Carnival excursions in Belize and Roatan and on our own in Cozumel and Grand Cayman. I will give more detail on those soon!

 

 

Thank you. Can't wait to read more.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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wrigley80

wrigley80

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My husband went on the green thunder. It is literally a 3-5 second ride and a very long wait in line. The kids didn't want to go on it as they didn't care for how the floor drops from underneath you at the beginning and also didn't like how the wateslide extended over the side of the ship. They enjoyed the yellow water slide though!

 

 

Thanks. I have a client leaving on the Legend in a month and she was in last week asking me if I had heard anything (good or bad) about the slide.

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TeresaJ

TeresaJ

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Continuation of Sunday, March 16th – Embarkation Day

 

It was beautiful and sunny – probably around 80 degrees. Just what we needed! After we got on board, we grabbed lounge chairs on Lido deck, had lunch and relaxed for a while! They told us our cabins would be ready at 12:30 (we didn’t purchase FTTF) and we went to our cabin a few minutes before 1pm and it was ready. We had cabin #4151, French door interior cabin. Our view was completely blocked by a lifeboat (which I knew it would be). We enjoyed having a bigger cabin space than an interior offers. We have four in our cabin so the set up was the 2 twins pushed together for my DH and I. For the kids, 1 Upper and the sofabed down below.

 

Muster was around 3:30 or so (I think) and it was painless. We lined up at our actual muster station and listened to instructions. After that, we went up to Deck 10 for sail away! After awhile, we decided to go to the cabin to get ready for dinner and then head back up to Deck 10 for going under the Sunshine skyway bridge (I think that's the name). This was amazing! I believe it was somewhere close to 6pm by the time we reached the bridge and the wind was gusty at times.

 

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It seems closer than it probably is. Glad we stayed up there to watch this.

 

Then it was off to dinner. We had Anytime dining in Truffles dining room, Deck 3 Aft. We had a pager the first night only – I think we waited 15 minutes at most. All the other 4 nights we went, we walked right in. We went at different times through the week. We skipped the Main dining room 2 times and ate in the buffet instead. I did not take pictures of food but I did write down what we all had each night in the dining room.

I had the Southern fried chicken, iceberg salad, and WCMC. DH had beef brisket, chicken tenders, and butter pecan ice cream. DS had gourmet burger and butter pecan ice cream. DS had Caesar salad, kids mac’ncheese and lime sherbet. It was all very good. Service was great.

 

I am sorry to report that we were so tired from our 2 days of traveling and visiting that we were tired out after dinner. We did not go to any shows, just walked around the ship for a bit and went back to the cabin.

 

Tomorrow – our first sea day and wind, wind, and more wind!

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TeresaJ

TeresaJ

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Monday, March 17th – Sea Day & St. Patrick’s Day

 

Lots of people dressed in green and St. Patrick’s wear. Loved seeing all the green! Anyway, I slept until 8:40, which by the way is super late for me. I’m usually up at 6am on a Saturday morning when I don’t have to be. I got up and went up to Lido deck to check out a lounge chair. Grabbed coffee and brought my book to relax. Right away I noticed it was very windy and they had the stairs to Deck 10 roped off so you could not go up there. I decided to sit out there anyway. Soon my family joined me and we grabbed breakfast on Lido deck. After breakfast, we lounged in our chairs, then went in the pool and hot tub for most of the day. The weather was windy, sunny and then cloudy and back and forth all day, and the ship was rockin’ as it was very wavy! We hung out in the Camelot pool area which is not the main pool area (Avalon) - the music was too loud in the main pool area- I must be getting old ;)

 

Around 3:00 we decided to go back to the cabin and take our time to get ready for Elegant night. We actually thought it would be a good idea to be ready early and get pictures taken. This would be a first for us as we are never ready for dinner early. It was shortly after we went back to our cabin that it began to rain so it was a good decision.

 

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Yep, she likes getting her picture taken. The boys, were not having it.

 

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We were ready for elegant night by 5pm so we went down to Deck 3 lobby/atrium area and had our pictures taken and had a before dinner drink (or two) and then went to Truffles dining room at 6pm and walked right in – no waiting for a table. I had the BBQ ribs, Greek farmer salad, and the apple pastry dessert. DH had prime rib; DS had gourmet burger, and DD had kids spaghetti. My family had the same dessert every night (boring!). Butter pecan ice cream or sherbet. I on the other hand, tried a few different things but had WCMC a few times :D

Service was excellent and food was good.

 

We went to the Family Comedy Show at 8pm in Firebird lounge (deck 1 FWD) and then caught most of the Motor City show in Follies lounge (Deck 2 FWD) right after. We enjoyed both. I liked the family comedy show the best of the two though. The Motor City show was good however.

 

Night 2 towel animal

 

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Next up is Cozumel….

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TeresaJ

TeresaJ

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Green Thunder and Twister Waterslide and the smallish waterworks area.

 

The Green Thunder is a short ride (3-5 seconds) that starts with the floor dropping from underneath you. My hubby tried it and said it was fun but it was a long line for such a short ride. Strangely enough there is no line in this picture. Maybe he made that up so he didn't have to go on it again.

 

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The kids liked the yellow Twister waterslide

 

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The small Wateworks area:

 

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