^{7 Night Cruise aboard the Carnival Legend} 

On this cruise we were part of a group of eight including first time cruisers all the way up to seasoned veterans.  It was nice to have good friends to have enjoyed our Legend experience with.  It was a wonderful, peaceful, and whimsical experience.  The weather after leaving Tampa’s rainy and overcast skies was wonderful. The whole trip was warm but not hot, nice ocean breezes, and calm sailing seas.  This is why we sail in January. 

After your arrival at the port, we found a porter to take our bags away.  With hope that we will see them again, we followed the crowd to the single open door guarded over by a grumpy, overworked security person. After showing our tickets and several forms of id, we progressed to the security station to have our bags and bodies scanned. I am glad for the security but what a pain. The boarding process was fairly normal with about a 20 minute transversal through the typical roped maze. The shuffling to find paperwork, signing last minute health statements, and meeting new found friends all were part of the experience.  

              Itinerary           

                  Sunday Jan 2 - Embark from Tampa, Florida                                 

                Monday Jan 3 - Day at Sea                                            

                Tuesday Jan 4 - Grand Cayman                                                             

                Wednesday Jan 5 - Roatan, Honduras                                      

                Thursday Jan 6 - Belize - Altun Ha                                          

                Friday Jan 7 - Cozumel, Mexico

                Saturday Jan 8 - Day at Sea

                Sunday Jan 9 - Disembark Tampa, Florida

Later, with a sign n sail card / room key in hand we were herded down hallways, up escalators, through dark passageways, around photo stations, across sky bridges, to finally be squeezed up the gangplank into the ship.  We had arrived, let the cruise begin.

In all we had some wonderful experiences at each of our ports of call. Grand Cayman was a lot of fun in the water with the sting rays.  Isla Routan was a relaxing day on the beach since we opted to just stay in Carnival’s Mahogany Bay.  In Belize we adventured to the Altun Ha Mayan Ruins and climbed up one of the step pyramids. Cozumel was a short cab ride into town to shop. Us men lasted about twenty minutes.  This was a great itinerary.  

Debarkation morning does come and we found ourselves searching for our bags and moving through customs around 9am. The process was smooth until we got outside and got thrown into the hordes of departing and arriving cars, vans, and buses all being blockaded by security and traffic police.  So much for my calm, relaxed mood I worked so hard to gain and enjoy during the cruise. It was back to reality.