My husband and I are in our mid 50's and this was our 5th Carnival cruise in 5 years. (It took me 30 years to talk him into cruising and now we cruise every summer.) We arrived in Tampa on Saturday and checked into the Holiday Inn Express near the airport. We spent a relaxing day at the pool, ate a delicious dinner next door at the Bahama Breeze Restaurant and had a great night's rest in a beautiful room. On Sunday we shuttled to the port using Blue One Shuttle Service.

Embarkation: The embarkation process went quickly and without any problems. We found ourselves on the Legend by 12:30. We had lunch on the Lido deck and set out to explore the ship. Our previous cruises were all on Conquest class ships and we were anxious to compare them to the Spirit class. We immediately fell in love with the Carnival Legend. It seemed less crowded even though it was somewhat smaller...2,000 passengers compared to 3,000...made a huge difference. This ship is very easy to navigate and we had mastered it in a couple of days.

As with all our experiences with Carnival, the ship was extremely well maintained and clean. After three years with interior cabins, we decided to go back to a balcony room with this cruise. It proved to be a wise decision as we enjoyed not only the scenery but also the peaceful solitude which can only be found on a balcony. Our cabin was spacious and the Carnival bed as comfortable as advertised! Our room steward, Allista, silently kept our cabin clean and the ice bucket full. Read more