We took the Carnival Legend out of Tampa for a Western Caribbean cruise in December of 2011.
I traveled with my husband and 2 ½ year old son. This is just a brief review of some of our experiences. I learned some tips and tricks from CC which helped me greatly but I also learned that I need to take some tips with a grain of salt too!
Flying in and out of Tampa with Delta from Detroit was fine. We stayed at the Wyndham using some credit cards points. In some ways, I would not recommend. The free shuttle took forever to get us at the airport; they forgot us. The hotel is very beautiful and the breakfast buffet was good. The free shuttle was so overbooked you would wait forever for it. Service was not very good, even though it seemed to be a high class hotel.
Excellent location; lifeboat only blocks view straight down. Still a huge beautiful view of the water; great while in port or at sea. close enough to aft elevator but very quiet, no noise. Also great to be near aft elevator as that's where the dining is both down to MDR and up to Lido. Super location, would book this room or a room in this area again in a heartbeat.