ccotting

We will be on the Legend in September. I went to make specialty restaurant reservations. For all three places on Legend it only offers me 8 or 8:30 or 9 pm. What gives? Is it too far out, do they hold back earlier times, or could it really be that full this far off. (we have fully paid for the cruise already). Thanks in advance!

I agree with the earlier posting that there will be some spots left for on board booking but having recently sailed on Legend, this Chops is a bit smaller. We enjoyed it very much and found the service better than on some previous cruises with other ships of the line.

I think it may also be the days you chose. Sometimes the 'at sea' days are busier, often because those are often formal nights and some folks choose the speciality restaurants those nights to escape having to dress more formally.

When you board this ship, they generally have a bit of a welcome 'fair' in the pool area with information about the speciality restaurants, drink packages and spa. If you head there you can talk to staff about booking.

Also, on this ship the Park Cafe staff are the staff for Chops and the manager does both. We found them excellent and wonderfully helpful.

We had an aft balcony on Brilliance and it was great! I have had an aft on Legend where there were issues with soot for a part of the voyage but we had no such problems with Brilliance. Enjoy!

Gas Turbines have all been removed. They were not as efficient as they needed to be.

Apparently now half and half or CoDag:

https://exchange.dnv.com/exchange/main.aspx?extool=vessel&subview=machinerysummary&vesselid=21562

Hello

We were aft on Legend back to back Caribbean and Panama Canal. Cabin was lovely for the Caribbean leg with the deck chairs and sun space but for the Panama Canal leg we had significant problem with soot and smuts. The ship puts an extra engine on for the longer transit and periodically the engines are 'blown' which makes the dirt. No issues in the Caribbean leg but it made a difference for the Canal leg. Our poor cabin steward worked phenomenally hard cleaning daily. It was manageable but you checked the chairs and the railings before you sat down..... And our carpets were washed more than once during the transit.

That said, the aft was wonderful for viewing the canal, no chasing for a good spot on deck. So I wouldn't let that stop you but I would consider it if you were doing a cruise where the ship has long transits between ports and decide if you are Ok with managing through.

We have been aft on Radiance class and that class has gas turbines not diesel. It is cleaner and we had no problems.

It really depends on the type of cruise you take. If you are doing a cruise where the ports are the same, for example, the same ports in the Caribbean and the ship is doing the same route for many cruises, then often on your first night you get a schedule for the whole cruise which shows formals and other activities. If your itinerary is a one off or, if there are only 1 or 2 of the same route, then they don't always set things until just before the cruise. I do agree with others that they are usually on sea days and that the first sea day or day 2 are pretty common starting points. We look at length of cruise, pack accordingly (2 or 3 formals) and then ask the concierge on first night. Your wait staff may know too.

If you want to special order something in advance of sailing and you find your dates are wrong for the planning when you get on board, you can ask guest services to help you change your order. The ship gets those orders on sailing from Miami and after that it's their management so no worries about things being final final before you sail.

I've not heard of any theft and I am very sorry if this is so but when we were travelling on Brilliance a few years ago, the lift equipment failed as luggage was moved to the ship and a couple luggage lifts were lost in the river. A lot of bags were lost and were not able to be recovered. I didn't hear how RCI handled it but I knew the crew were very distressed. Some metal broke on the grips and that was the cause of the collapse.

We booked a Junior Suite , aft port side ... Where do we want to be???

We had a wonderful time! You will too! We had a junior suite aft on Legend and it was the best. If you can get aft, I would recommend it. The transit takes about 12 hours so it is not a short view. With the aft cabin you could watch everything and not have to leave your space. Our transit began at 7:30 am. Our neighbour who also, of course, had an aft cabin, was a photo enthusiast and staked out his bow front camera position at 4:30 am! So that is what you are dealing with on deck.... We put the TV on and watched the view from the ship's bow camera and then saw everything as we sailed along from the back.

Now... we booked 2 years ago to get the aft.... It is a popular place. It does have it's down side, there is more vibration, you always know when the ship is docking. Also, we had a terrible problem with soot on occasion. We did the cruise before the Panama in the same cabin and didn't have this problem so we attribute this to the need for additional engine power to do the Panama ports, there is more difference in distance between ports and the ship 'boots' along at quite a high rate of knots between port stops. But once you realize, you just plan to put towels on your deck chairs. Our cabin steward worked like a demon to wash the deck anytime this happened.

I am not the engineering enthusiast of our couple but I was really taken with the Canal, the technical side was just amazing.

I wish you a wonderful cruise!

Cat

Just finished a cruise and didn't have any problems with my Mac. It is important to log into safari, then get the RCCI login and when it asks you to bookmark say yes. It just creates a tab. Keep the tab and when you need to log off you will see the arrow to press to log off to ensure you don't run on your bill. I find it is still slow to use the cruise ship network but it is faster to use my laptop than using the ship's computers

This is a really interesting thread!

I too was on that recent Radiance round trip round Australia and there was a child allowed in the Diamond lounge but it was apparently not without some effort on the part of the parents. The child (who was a darling and well behaved young man) went everywhere with Mom and Pop and was himself Diamond status. He was originally declined admittance but the ship relented. Probably quite a conundrum for the ship's staff given the rules!

We too met the D+ cruisers who chose the Diamond lounge over the Concierge and they told us they found the folks they spoke to were very work-focussed, "What do you do" and that sort of thing and, mostly talked about their work and work achievements. They were retired and said they didn't want to talk about work. The Diamond crowd was more their set, folks who were interested in travel and had the time to pursue it.

Cheers, cat