Caribbean Cruise: Day 1

September 1, 2012

We left home around 9 a.m. and headed to Chicago (a little over a 2 hour drive).  We dropped the van off at Thrifty Parking and took a shuttle to the airport.  We were able to get through security quite quickly and walked to find our gate. 

There was about an hour before boarding time so Tracy went to browse through the bookstore and I read.  We did not have seats together on this flight - I sat directly in front of Tracy.  We arrived in Tampa around 5 p.m., collected our luggage, called the hotel for a ride, walked outside, and they arrived a few minutes later (great timing). We stayed one night at the Wyndham Tampa West Shore Hotel - very nice hotel.  After checking in and taking our luggage to our room, we walked to a nearby mall and saw the movie "The Dark Knight Rises".  After the movie, we had dinner at Chipotle.  Then it was back to the hotel for the rest of the evening.

September 2, 2012

We got up around 8:15 a.m. and after getting ready we made a quick run to Walgreens and then to breakfast at Waffle House.  Our hotel stay included a shuttle to the Tampa cruise port.  Our shuttle time was 11:30 a.m.  We met some very nice couples on the shuttle.  The drive to the port was short.  We had to go through security - luckily the line moved quickly.  Then we checked in and got the key to our cabin.  As we headed to the ship, they took our photo for ID purposes and then there were several opportunities for professional photos.

We boarded the ship and found our room quite easily.  We were absolutely thrilled with our balcony stateroom!!  We were to our room by 12:30 p.m.  That was a fast embarkation process!!

After dropping off our carry-ons, we decided to explore the outside sections of the ship.  Of course, we had to try the "drink of the day" - yum!  Loved the glasses - we got to keep them as souvenirs!  We enjoyed lunch at the Lido cafe buffet.

Our ship was the Carnival Legend:

After lunch, we explored the inside of the ship. 

The Carnival Legend left port right around 4 p.m. It took several hours to get out of the bay.  It was smooth sailing so far...

The ship had to go under a bridge - everyone came out to watch.  It was close!!!



  

We ate dinner in the main dining room - Truffles.  We had picked "open dining time" so we could eat whenever we wanted. There was no waiting this evening.  It was a good dinner and we had a very nice waiter - Joel.  

After dinner, we watched a beautiful sunset!!

We enjoyed a piano bar sing-a-long at Billies Bar.  It was a lot of fun singing along and requesting songs.  We also enjoyed a yummy drink!

We went back to our room for a while before the welcome show at 10:30 p.m. in the show lounge.  After the show, we returned to our room to crash.  Great start to our cruise!!!  We were loving it already!!!