My family endured a very stressful year (like most of us!) and what better way to end it than a cruise! We booked through an internet travel agency and booked the balcony guarantee. We ended up in cat. 8g on the 8th floor just below Lido Deck which made for easy access to the buffet! This was my fourth cruise overall and my wife's fifth, all with Carnival.
This was the second time on the Legend for my wife and I. We picked the Legend for its proximity to our home (we live in the Orlando area) and for the cool ports of call. We were on the Legend in Sept 2007 but due to hurricanes were diverted to a more eastern route, thus our reason for going back to the Legend.
Since were are less than 2 hours from the Port of Tampa, we drove over on Sunday morning and arrived at the port around 1 p.m. We chose valet parking for our car and got into a long line to go through the embarkation process. The process took almost an hour, but went ok in light of the fact that security appeared to be heightened since our last visit to the port.