It's that time of year. Alex and I are off on our father son trip that is becoming an annual event. This year the event is a drive to Florida capped off with a week long voyage on Carnival Legend from Tampa. We will be sailing from Tampa with stops in Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize,, and Roatan Island, Honduras before we re-cross the Gulf of Mexico and return to the west coast of Florida. What adventures await? Only time will tell.
We have a number of snorkel excursions planned along with a lot of relaxing, of course, my young friend is likely to find others to keep him busy, but fear not I have books and unfortunately a big project that I am working on to take some time, when he is not around.
We wish that we had something exciting to report to you, but there is not much exciting about driving eight and a half hours. My traveling companion had to work late Thursday night and did not get a lot of sleep. He tried to sleep in the car, but we all know how that works, so he hit the bed about 8:30 tonight without dinner. Something tells me that we will have an early breakfast tomorrow. Our plans are to spend a few hours on the beach, tour the Daytona International Speedway and head to Tampa, with a probable side trip north to Tarpon Springs for some wonderful Greek culinary delights.
Saturday was another travel day. We spent Friday night in Daytona Beach and decided that we had to stop and tour the Daytona International Speedway before we crossed the Florida peninsula. The track is quiet impressive, but after visiting we decided that it is not a place that we want to watch a race. The darn thing is just too big, and too much of it can't be seen. Hey, that doesn't make it a bad place just not our style.
After reaching the Tampa area we went up to Tarpon Springs for dinner. Our main purpose was to visit a restaurant that is no longer there, that was not what we expected, but it turned out perfect. We ended up eating at a place called Mykonos, wonderful homemade Greek cuisine. The pastichio, dolmades, tiropita, and avegolemono were all home made, and the rice pudding was some of the best that I have had in years. Alex was amazed that a place like that exists in the US, and of course he had to visit some of the stores, which my wife refers to as dusty closets.
Sunday dawned as a typical Florida morning in the middle of the summer. Partly cloudy with storms coming off the gulf. We were up and out of the hotel by about 10:00. I would love to tell you that there was something wonderful to report about the hotel, but it was a typical Holiday Inn Select. The bedding was nice and the breakfast that was included was enough to satisfy us until we reached the Legend.
We arrived at the Port of Tampa around 10:30, after running a couple of errands to grab a few things that we needed. There was no wait to drop of either our bags or the car. We did not use Carnival's self print luggage tags, but the porter had plenty and after writing our name and cabin number we were ready to get moving. The area around the Port of Tampa is not like Miami or Fort Lauderdale. there are things to see and do there, including the Florida aquarium and a Liberty Ship the American Victory and a nice shopping area. In a way it reminds me more of one of the destination ports than one of the other embarkation ports.
The checking process was painless, and we were in group 2. Carnival was having some computer problems so embarkation was delayed until 12:15. We got on then and went to the Lido deck for some lunch, after which we explored the ship. We were not allowed to drop off carry on luggage, but were in our room at 1:30 on the dot. The room is nice, and is large for mass market cruise lines.
Muster drill was at 3:30, and is held outside. Other ships I have been on have muster stations in common areas inside the ship. The Legend uses deck 3 outside for mustering, and it can get a bit hot. This might have been one of those times when my habit of getting there early backfired, because the late comers are in the front of the pack of people and the early arrivals are stuck at the back of the crowd. From beginning to end the drill was about 20 minutes. After exploring the ship we got our luggage around 4:30, and immediately unpacked and headed to the aft pool on the Lido deck. The pool is supposed to be adults only but on Sunday it was full of kids.
One of the highlights of leaving Tampa is cruising under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. We were at the bridge at 6:05 after departing the port at 4:00 exactly. The ships funnel clears the bottom of the bridge deck by a mere six feet. A nice sight, and unfortunately my pictures do not show how close the ship comes to the bridge.
We choose the flexible seating and really enjoyed it. There was no wait at all. We were seated on the dining room balcony on deck three, and had a wonderful wait staff. we have their names and will request them again tonight at dinner. (Tonight is the captain's welcome dinner aka the first formal night. ) The Matre'd made an announcement last night that shirts and ties for men would be nice but are not required at formal night. He did say no shorts allowed. This brings me to a hot topic on Cruise Critic, dress codes. I am going to defer judgment until later in the week, but if last night was any indication, people simply do not understand what is meant by resort casual. I will say that some people were at dinner in bathing suits with cover-ups, and the wording on some of the tee shirts is inappropriate for the gutter, much less a family environment.
We paid a visit to the casino later on. The roulette table had 50 cent minimum bets. We played an hour. Alex came out even and I was up a nice amount. After that we wondered around the ship and Alex went to find some people to hang out with, next time I saw him was about 2:00 a.m.
Monday was a sea day. When I awoke this morning the gulf was flat as glass and it looks like we are in for a good day at sea. I can take sea days or leave them but I know that some people really look forward to them. We spent the morning at the pool, enjoying the weather and a few beverages. It is really hot this week, and as a result I decided that the best place to spend the afternoon was napping. Unfortunately there are no Balinese Sun beds, nor anyone to provide cold towels or spritzes with Evian, so it was off to the cabin.
The dress of the day was cruise elegant, which is Carnival's acronym for formal nights. Carnival has toned down the requirements, and it was noticeable, but not like Sunday night's mess. Most of the gentlemen wore dress shirts and ties. There were quite a few suits, but very few tuxes. There were a few that will never get the message that dress pants and shirts do not mean shorts and tee shirts with something written on them at dinner. After dinner Alex went his way and I went mine meeting up around 11:00 in the cabin. All in all it was an uneventful day.
Tuesday morning we pulled into Grand Cayman just as the sun rose. There is no cruise ship pier in Grand Cayman so we anchored and were tendered into town. I We grabbed a quick breakfast and were on shore by 8:00 ship's time (the ship has remained on EDT the entire trip, Grand Cayman and all of the ports are in different time zones.). t was a very smooth operation, maybe because we are the only ship in town today. We had an excursion with Native Way to go to Sting Ray City, but we were about 45 minutes early so we looked around the pier area.
My wife swears that I know someone everywhere we go, and today was no exception. While waiting I heard someone call my name. A woman came over and I did a double take. It was a friend who had lived three houses up the street when we were growing up. She and her husband are celebrating their 25th anniversary along with their three kids. This woman and her family were more than casual acquaintances; I had been in both her wedding and her brothers, so we spent some time getting reacquainted.
We had a good excursion this morning, the sting rays were neat. Other than too many people there it was not too commercialized. Our boat only held 25 so we were not in a mass of people. Al and I both held rays. We then did a snorkel stop at a beautiful reef, but there were not a lot of fish, which was disappointing. Lunch was at Rum Point, a nice bar and restaurant on the bay. It was included in our excursion. The red stripe and corona were out in force and our friends from Knoxville were there too. We were on the next to last tender back to the ship but did not feel rushed at all. We sailed from Grand Cayman about an hour ago and are on our way to Cozumel.
Anytime dining seems to be working well, we have not had to wait for a table at all, but I did see some larger parties having to wait last night. They were told that they should have made reservations. They seem to be set up to handle four tops and smaller pretty much as quick as you walk in, it is the big tables that cause problems.
Today we are in Cozumel. Al and I decided not to do much of anything except shop. He was tired and did not want a beach day since we had two coming up. We were off the ship early and into town. Our goal was some tequila, kahula, and vanilla. We managed to find all three but not without some pain. We were almost taken to the cleaners by one shop owner on some tequila. We found the same stuff at a much lower price and went back and confronted him about it. We ended up getting our money back and moving on. We enjoyed a nice lunch at a restaurant overlooking the water front. Needless to say beer and liquor flow freely in Mexico, our waiter said that the drinking age was five, unless they wanted it when they were younger.
After lunch we went back to the ship. We took a bicycle propelled rickshaw down the dock because the heat was sapping us. Al remembered he wanted a shirt so it was back into town for us. Thank goodness we were docked right in town at Punta Longusta pier. We went in got the shirt, some cervezas and were back on board for sail away with plenty of time to spare.
A couple of observations about Cozumel: While it is recovering from the hurricane hit from Wilma a couple of years ago, it is not there. It is really struggling with its infrastructure, more than with the buildings. The entire city smells, and the large chain stores that you see all over the Caribbean are taking over. It seems to me to have lost the character that it had before the storms.
The ride from Cozumel to Belize was bumpy to say the least. The winds in this area have been running about 25 kts from the east. Since we are basically sailing south they are pushing on the ship and making the ride rough. The seas have never been above 3 feet that I can tell but the winds are here.
We did not go into town, instead opting for Carnival's excursion to a private island, Bannister Cays. This is a small man made island with a beach, a bar, restaurant, gift shop, and all the necessary facilities. It was uncrowded (about 100 of us from the ship were there). There were snorkeling tours offered out to the reef for $20. The reef in this area is beautiful. I am waiting to see the pictures when I get home. The only problem here was the surge which made the water cloudy. This reef though is not to be missed, it is one of the healthiest ones I have ever seen and it is second in size only to the Great Barrier reef in Australia.
Some random thoughts about the cruise so far: Carnival seems to have changed the menus from the last time I was with them in the spring of 2006. If I remember correctly they have gone from 3 courses at dinner ( a soup, salad, and entree) to a two course dinner, starter, and entree. The food, while hearty, can only be described as OK. There is not much else that can be said and that includes at the Golden Fleece. It is amazing that a steak house cannot cook a steak to the correct temperature. We wanted medium rare steaks; They came out medium, really there is no excuse for it.
Today we took a carnival excursion to Tabyana Beach. If you don't take an excursion on Roatan there is nothing else to do, though the excursion does not have to be arranged through the ship. It is about a 30 minute ride over the spine of the island to the beach. The beach is very nice, but the reef is incredible. This beach is well worth visiting. Snorkeling is no more than 50 yards off shore and there are plenty of beach boys in the water to protect both you and the beach. Once we had our fill of the beach we went back to the ship and rested. It was our second formal night but dinner was nothing special.
Today was a sea day as we crossed the Gulf of Mexico. The first few hours last night after leaving Roatan were a but rocky, probably because of the way the currents flow in that area. We spent Saturday at the pool on the rear of the Lido deck with our friends, talking over old times, our families and growing up. The kids all got a big laugh listening to the old people talk about the past. It is hard to have to be an adult. We put our bags out for pick up tonight and spent the evening at the roulette table. Between the two of us we had more than enough in winning to pay our sign and sail bill.
We did not rush to get off the ship but did not tarry either. We were off and into the car by 9:30 or so, and started the drive home. It was an uneventful drive with Al driving about 45 % of the time which made things easier for me.
To everyone that might see this and ask, yes we will cruise Carnival again, we select cruises based on itinerary and price and if Carnival is it that is who we will cruise.
