Our cruise this year would be on the Carnival Legend. The cruise was actually not Kiera or mines idea. Kyle and Valisa asked us to come for there 5th anniversery and of course we weren't going to turn down the chance to cruise again. And it just so happened that Kyle and Valisa chose a route that we hadn't been on yet and also one that we wanted to do. We would be traveling to the Western Caribbean and visiting the ports of Grand Cayman, Roatan, Belieze, and Cozumel. Boy were we instore for a suprise.
Carnival actually has many ships that go on the Western Caribbean route. The reason we chose the Legend was because it would set sail out of Tampa Florida. With Tampa being only 45 minutes away from Orlando and our desires to go visit the Wizarding World it would be one of only 2 ships we could go on and the Legend was the much cheaper of the two.
For this cruise just like last year we ended up booking and inside cabin. However we tried a differnt location on the ship this time. Deck 1. The very bottom of the ship. We heard a lot of mixed opinions about being on the ship but we can say that we were 100% satisfied with the location. We didn't feel any more motion on the bottom of the ship then we had at the top. The only draw back of the being at the bottom of the ship was there stairs. When we cruise we choose not to take the elevators and only use the stairs. This was tough at times climbing 9 decks of stairs multipule times of the day to get to the pool or buffet, or Ice Cream.
We love the food on Carnival cruises. If you ever find yourself hungry on a cruise then something is wrong with you lol. From the buffet food to the nice dinners each evening the food is spectacular. As we hinted at from our last cruise review we elected to go with the 8:15 dinner instead of the 6:00. Although once again we saw advantages of both times we think we will continue to stick with the late dinning. The biggest advantage being that you won't have to rush back from any ports. However I didn't find myself hungry enough for the midnight buffet and pizza like I did the last cruise. Which is probablay a good thing.
One area where the Legend excelled over our last cruise was in our wait staff. These guys were so good and hands down the best waiters we have had on any of our cruises. They went above and beyond and I may say that they are who truely put the icing on the cake of our wonderful cruise. They were happy to see us each night and they made us feel special to them. They even took time each night to speak with us as friends. This wait staff will be very hard to beat for future cruises.
On the flip side though our room stewards were kinda meh..... I mean the service was never bad. There were a few times where they didn't fill our ice or they forgot some towels but the room was always nice and clean. I think the biggest thing was we never even knew who our room steward was. We never saw them and they never introduced themselves to us. Something that was really different from our past cruises. But oh well we had a nice clean room with cool towel animals to still look forward to each evening.
To go along with our excllent wait staff the rest of the staff on the shop were also excellent. Our Cruise Director Wee Jimmy as well as the rest of the activity staff were very good. One thing we really liked about Wee Jimmy is that we actually saw him out and about thruout the ship talking and getting to know the guests. I don't recall every seeing our past cruise directors anywhere other then the shows. A big props go out to all the staff on this ship.
We ended up spending alot more time on the ship then we originally planned. This was because Hurricane Paula decided to come along and change our cruise itenerary. We originally had 4 ports planned. Now because of the Hurricane we would only be going to 2. So out was Roatan, Belieze, and Cozumel. In there place we would get to go to Ocho Rios, Jamaica (we still went to the Grand Cayman). The flip side of that is we replaced 2 days at sea for 4 days at sea.
With our new found days at sea we spent most of them doing what we always do on cruises. Relax in the sun. We found a perfect location along the side of the ship each day to lay out in the sun instead of trying to fight the crowds around the pools. One of the days we were even treated with the oppertunity to see Cuba off the side of the ship. Yeah its not that impressive lol. At least not what I expected it to be. Other day time activities inccluded relaxing in the hot tubs, swimming in the pools, and taking naps.
There is always alot to do on the ships in the evenings and this cruise was no different. One thing we looked forward to that Carnival was trying out on our last cruise was the Carnival Comedy Club. We went to the club 5 of our 7 nights and laughed very hard at the comedians. Of course some were better then others but it was still something to look forward to and something I'm very happy that carnival has decided to add to each one of there ships now.
We also looked forward to the main theater shows each evening (which with late dinning we typically go to the show prior to dinner). Although now we are starting to find that most of the shows are exactly the same on each ship. So we decided to miss out on the ones we had seen. But we still had a good time seeing some of the shows like the Welcome Aboard Show, a Juggler, the Marriage Game Show, and one of the musical type shows.
Other things on the ship that kept us entertained were playing Bingo, going to the Kareokee lounge, getting some Virgin drinks, shopping in the ships shops, and playing many of the different trivia games.
We had one last suprise when it was time for us to leave the ship. And that was that it took forever for our ship to clear customs. We were never told the reason for it but although our ship arrived back in port on time Customs didn't clear us to disembark the ship for nearly 3 hours later then normal. It was no big deal to us though as we were in no rush and once we were finally able to leave the ship we got thru customs very quickly.
Overall we really enjoyed our cruise dispite the change in itennerary and spending much more time on the ship then we originally planned. Although we liked the "theme" of our past cruise more then this one overall we still like the theme it had and the layout of the ship was much better then the Glory. I also like the smaller size of this ship too compared to our last one. I loved the location we left out of and the ship crew was very good. Its a ship I highly recommend based on the ship itself as I can't speak for all the ports.
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