We booked this cruise about one year ago because we wanted to go away for our anniversary and we wanted to go to some of the places it was going to. We also wanted to book another trip on the Legend then found out the Miracle and Legend were changing places. We liked the Legend and the layout of the Spirit Class ships a little better than some of the other classes of ships that Carnival has. We have sailed Carnival before and knew what to expect: good food and fairly good service.

Embarkation- We arrived at the port in Manhattan by car service vehicle. We checked in then waited for boarding. The ship hadn't quite finished deboarding so we had to wait. Then travel agents came on board for a tour of the ship and they had lunch on board. Wedding packages got to go on board first too. Embarkation didn't go as smoothly as on prior Carnival cruises.

On board- Once we got on board the rooms weren't ready so we had to carry around our luggage for a couple of hours. First, time on five cruises this happened. On Celebrity at least they allowed the passengers to drop off luggage in the room even if it wasn't ready. The precruise went well then we went around the ship and back to our stateroom. The room was clean. We had our lifeboat drill then I put our life vests in the stateroom and went down to the casino bar to meet other cruise critic friends going on the voyage. Only Derf and Derfette and we were there. They are very nice people and we are happy we met them. Read more