Review of Legend 8/30 - 9/6

[crzjnke]

My DH and I sailed in an 8c balcony room 6123. This was our fourth cruise and our first with Carnival. Overall, we had a very good time!

Embarkation

We arrived in Tampa around 11 am and were dropped off at the pier by my wonderful brother and sister-in-law. I had our luggage tags ready that I had laminated with tape and the porter came right over as we pulled up and attached the tags and whisked our luggage away. We got into a fairly long line and we were on the ship by about 12:30 pm. The line was long, but did move quickly. We had completed our fun pass online and everything was ready to go!

We had about an hour before the room would be ready, so we walked around the ship and checked everything out. The ship was nicely maintained and very clean. The decor was interesting and not at all over the top.

Balcony State Room

At 1:30 we went to check out our room. To our surprise, all of our luggage was waiting for us in the hall right outside our room. The room was exactly as we expected. It was the standard balcony room. It seemed small because we had been upgraded on out last RCI cruise to a mini suite which seemed huge compared to this room. However, the room was plenty large enough for the two of us and the price was right. Our room steward Julio was great. I just love those little towel animals! The one drawback of the room was the balcony door. All of the rooms we’d had on other lines had a sliding door. This one was a hinged type door with a closer on it that SLAMMED if you didn’t hold it while it was closing. This made afternoon naps impossible because of all the folks around us slamming their doors. This was a huge disappointment to DH who loves his naps on vacation. We unpacked and got everything settled in our room then headed to the Lido deck buffet.

[crzjnke]

Dining

I was pleasantly surprised by the Lido buffet. The food was very good and there was plenty of variety. I also liked how it was broken into several stations as opposed to one long line. The salad bar was excellent!

 

We chose the Anytime dining option which we really enjoyed! We were able to go to dinner when ever we wanted to between 5:45 and 9:30. We even had the same wait team all but one evening. Nicoleta was AWESOME! The hostesses bent over backwards to accommodate our request. The food in the MDR was just OK for me. There was always something on the menu that I liked, but nothing knocked my socks off. If I had to choose a favorite, it would have been the shrimp dishes. They were quite tasty. The chocolate melting cake was also just OK for DH and I. All in all the MRD was good, but not great.

 

We did utilize room service twice. We ordered a BLT, Grilled Cheese, veggies and dip and cheese cake upon returning from port. It hit the spot. We also ordered dessert one night because DH wanted cookies and milk and there were none to be found as there is a period of time between the dinner hour and the late night buffet where there are no desserts out.

 

Entertainment

The shows left a lot to be desired. The first comedian was great and The Legends show was pretty good. The cruise director Jen’s performance in this show was hilarious! I felt that Jen did a pretty good job overall. I loved her accent and she was funny.

 

As far as on board activities, we felt like there were a lot less activities to choose from that appealed to us on this ship. We’re not really into the trivia or competitions. We did hand out a bit at the aft adults only pool. It seemed more laid back and relaxing than the other areas. We never had a problem finding a chair there were always some available.

[crzjnke]

Ports/Shore Excursions

Vacation for us means NOT being scheduled! I did a lot of research on the ports before leaving here on cruise critic. I did plan a couple of things, but ended up deviating from that. I also have always booked everything through the ship. I’m so glad that we decided to try going on our own because we ended up with far better tours for a lot less money. The summary is below.

 

Grand Cayman: This was our third time to GC. We had done the snorkel and Sting Rays twice before and loved, but decided to do an island tour. We pre-booked the island tour for $30 pp (Half-Shell Tour) though Cayman in a Nutshell which seemed to be operated through Captain Marvin’s. The tour was excellent! We had our own guide Maylee who was wonderful. You can see the description of the tour on their website. I wanted to let everyone know that we LOVED the turtle farm tour. It was very informative and was a really nice facility. After the tour, we did a little shopping and headed back to the ship.

 

Cozumel: This was also our third time in this port. We decided to head to Playa Uvas which we pre-booked online for $7 pp which included a welcome drink, loungers, umbrella and general use of the facilities. I chose this beach because DH hates just laying on the beach while it’s my idea of heaven! We snorkeled and DH had a massage which he enjoyed. We ended up sharing some Nachos and a couple of margaritas which were excellent. The taxi was $10 each way. We did share a cab on the way there. The snorkeling wasn’t great here, but hasn’t been for us at this port. However, the water is wonderful for a swim! We enjoyed an extremely relaxing day here. The were no children here which was a plus for us as we were on an adult vacation this time and were looking for peace and serenity.

 

Belize: I originally planned to book something on the ship for this port. I was unsure of booking independently due to what I had read online. However, we decided to just get off the boat and see what happened. We didn’t rush down to get tender tickets. As I said earlier, we don’t like to be scheduled on vacation. We slept in and headed to the Lido for breakfast. As we were finishing up around 10 am they announced that tender tickets were no longer needed. We headed down to deck A got right onto a tender and off we went. The tender ride is a long one. Once we got off the tender, we stopped to talk with one of the reps from FAB Boys tours holding a snorkel/beach break sign. We bartered with him and ended up paying $35 pp. They took us to Spanish Lookout Caye and for an hour boat snorkel. The coral here was unbelievable! We saw many fish and a couple of stingrays. The island was beautiful and not too crowded. They returned us to the port area in plenty of time to do a little shopping and back to the ship we went. FAB Boys were great and would do their tour again. I didn’t see any of Belize other than the port area. Even our tour left from inside the gate. I felt very safe and had a great time.

 

Isla Roatan: This was our favorite port. I had originally booked Fins and Flippers Island which looked beautiful from a distance. However, we had snorkeled the two days prior and we wanted to see the island. I read a lot about Victor Boden online. We headed over to their booth and decided to take the Best of Roatan Tour. Our guide Kacey was awesome! The island does have a lot of poverty, but was absolutely gorgeous! We went to Victor’s house to see the animals which was fun and many other places around the island. We went to Banannarama Beach Resort on West Bay beach and had a couple of Cokes in glass bottles. The beach there was gorgeous!!!! We liked this port so much that we’re considering a land vacation next year.

[crzjnke]

Debarkation

We received zone 10 luggage tags and were off the ship by 9:30. We were impressed with Carnivals organization and were surprised at how smoothly this process went.

 

Our cruise was relaxing and restful and we had a really good time. It’s wasn’t as good as the cruises we’ve taken in the past. We felt that NCL and RCI had better food and a level of service that really knocked out socks off. However, we feel Carnival was a great value for the money spent. If we could cruise Carnival at a substantial savings over NCL or RCI, we would cruise them again. I think I will let price and itinerary guide our next cruise selection. I hope my review was helpful and all of your future Legend guests have a great time!

[CMM]

Thanks for your great review, good things to consider.

 

I have been reading comments from others too about the slamming balcony doors. We are very light sleeps and this type of thing would bug us. Our cabin is not a balcony room,but does have a balconies above us. Do you recall if there was noise from the door above you or just the ones on your level?

Thanks again.

[BaseballMomof4]

Would love to see photos if you have them!

[Payd]

Thanks for your review. We also loved the ports on our Legend cruise!

[Perfect Stranger]

I enjoyed your review.

Did Playa Uvas have enough of a sandy beach for people who do like to just lie on the beach or was it mostly rocks?

[G37]

I enjoyed your review of the Legend.

I have a quick question.This will be our first cruise and we know squat about cruising so is there any info you could give me on the empress deck cabin 6181

Thanks G37:)

[crzjnke]

We couldn't tell where the noise from the balcony doors was coming from. It seemed like it was all around us. The positive was that it didn't bother us at night.

 

Playa Uvas was sandy where the beach loungers are, but was pretty rocky in the water. The have a path of sandbags where you can enter and exit the water. They have great pics on their website.

 

I'm not sure about cabin 6181. Ours was a category 8C. The cabin looks the same as the pic on the website.

[CMM]

Thanks for the info!