My girlfriend and I booked a 7-day cruise on the Carnival Legend after enjoying our 5-day cruise a year earlier on the Fantasy. We are both in our mid-late 20's - this was her third cruise, and I have been cruising since I was a kid, and this was my sixth (5th on Carnival).

The booked itinerary was Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize, and Costa Maya. Hurricane Dean's damage to Costa Maya changed that port of call to Roatan, Honduras. However, Hurricane Felix's potential path across Honduras forced Carnival to change the itinerary yet again the morning of our departure. We were notified of this by large signs and handouts that were given to us in the terminal as we made our way to check in. The final itinerary was to be Key West, Grand Turk, Ocho Rios, then Grand Cayman. We were initially disappointed about another change, but quickly realized that this would certainly be better than a rainy, windy attempt to visit the original ports.

We drove to Tampa from South Carolina, and found that this port was a bit more hectic than Port Canaveral. I ended up paying the extra money to valet park my car to save what looked like would have been another hour to get out of traffic and self-park it and walk back. After that, check-in was very smooth. We were on the boat in less than 45 minutes, somewhere around 12:30. The cabins were not ready until 1:30, so we had a drink and started to look over shore excursions for the new ports. Read more