Carnival Legend Review

Carnival Legend - Western Caribbean

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Legend
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GaNavy
First Time Cruiser • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Sep 2007

BF Bob and I are two unattached guys in our 50s, living in Atlanta, and friends for 30 years, but we had never traveled together. This was my seventh cruise - previously three times on Princess, twice on Carnival and once on the late, great Norway. BF's only previous cruise was on a steamship service across the Mediterranean from Marseilles to Israel in the early 1970s, so the modern resort cruise was new to him. Obviously, we had no kids with us, so I have nothing to offer about Camp Carnival.

We flew out of Atlanta the day before the cruise on BF's buddy pass, such that the cheapest fare involved flying from here to Sarasota. We rented a car and spent the afternoon trolling the beaches (Bradenton Beach, etc.) between there and downtown Tampa, where we spent the night at the Courtyard by Marriott downtown - nice staff, pleasant facility, good location. We drove to Ybor City for dinner at Columbia, the famous Cuban restaurant. Though my main course was a little disappointing (red snapper a la Rusa), BF's grilled sea bass Bilbao was great, the other courses and side dishes were very tasty, and I'd go there again any time.

We had a leisurely breakfast Sunday and caught the shuttle to the pier at 12:30. No sneaking in before the crowd at this hour: the pier was the scene of great hubbub, with vans and taxis making their way through all the pedestrians coming across the street from the Channelside attractions before dropping off their charges into the tender hands of the porters, while security and cruise line personnel waved their arms in various directions for our ostensible benefit. Contrary to what you might expect if you've only left from Miami, this very high-energy scene was actually pretty festive and got us where we needed to go inside the terminal. At first, it looked like the queue for boarding was almost laughably long, but even with people and bags everywhere, and all those Funpasses and passports flying around, we were on the ship at 1:30. Everyone at the terminal was helpful and friendly. How they move all those people and all that stuff around so smoothly is amazing. Our luggage was delivered by 6:30 or so. I give EMBARKATION 5 stars.

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