Legend Review -Roatan, Belize, Cozumel, Grand Cayman- with teens!

[CMM]

We enjoy playing cards together. The views out the windows are so beautiful. This ship is so pretty. There is so much to look at everywhere. They begin to get this area ready for the afternoon tea. I usually try to attend tea on cruises as it is usually so nice and relaxing, but this trip it didn't work out for us.

I want to check out the spa area. We had taken the tour on the first day and my daughter agrees to go with me. We enjoy the nice big Jacuzzi hot tub there. Even though my daughter is only 13 she is allowed to use the area since I am with her. I think you have to be 12 and with a parent. It is beautiful and relaxing. There are 5 other people there too. The hot tub has a diamond shaped domed skylight window over top that opens up to the area of where they have the miniature golf. Others in the hot tub comment that it isn't hot enough and that the outside ones are hotter. To me it is too hot to stay in for too long. I guess I don't like a true hot tub. It was fun to try this area out and I would like to get a massage or something on a future cruise.

 

We enjoy our last dinner. We will miss the great food and service of the Truffles restaurant. My son enjoys his last warm chocolate melting cake. He loves it and I tell him I will try to make it back home some time as I have read some recipes here on cc.

 

There is automatic tipping that appears on on your account of 10pp per day. That gets split between all the workers. We have enjoyed great service and tip extra in cash directly to our assistant waiter, waiter, and assistant room steward. I do not see the room steward so leave an envelope that are available at the pursuers desk, for him with his name on it we leave it on our pillow tonight. We also give a small tip to our cocktail waitress in Truffles. She is a nice lady who is learning the ropes. This is only her second cruise. On our rainy Cozumel day she shares her own disappointments. She has waited 2 weeks for her time on the beach there and got completely soaked too. We also leave a small tip in an envelope for the circle C person and ask the pursers desk to give it to her.

 

We look at all the pictures taken by the Carnival staff. For the most part we find them a waste. They print up thousands of them. I buy one 8x10 of my two kids taken on formal night. I think it was $22. For $9 I get an extra sheet of this pose that includes one 5x7 two wallets and a photo about 3x5. It will be ready in the am. I think for $9 that is a good deal and wish I had gotten another one. They will make good Christmas gifts for relatives. For $50 you could get a big canvas print and it includes the additional 8x10 of the same pose. I consider this too. It comes rolled in a nice travel tube, but deciede against that.

I find it annoying that the want to take your photos when getting off the ship. Especially when it is backed up and you are waiting to get off. They should have the photographers off to the side and if you want the shot you can go over without holding up anxious people wafting to get off.

In Belize they had a man dressed as a Pilgrim and they were taking peoples pictures. It was nice they were acknowledged Thanksgiving, but they had this little kid there too. He was dressed as a turkey. He didn't look too thrilled and really must have thought we all were lunatics.

[CMM]

"We used the casino a number of times to get cash. We took only a moderate amount of cash with us from home. We went each night to get our excursion money for the next day. You can charge a couple of hundred dollars a night this way. It goes on your credit car at a casino slot machine and then you transfer it to your account and lastly you go to the cashier window and cash out. They give you the cash like a mac machine, but with no fees. It worked good for us, so thanks to those who posted this method on cc."

 

So does the cruise line turn a blind eye to this? Do you play a few rounds of slots before cashing out?

 

Sorry haven't been online with Holdiay get togethers.

 

Yes I read about this on CC and it works good. You don't have to play at all if you don't want to. Just make sure you remember to transfer it to your account first before leaving you machine. One night I went to get $100 out and the cashier said "your account is saying zero, you better go check your machine" I ran back and thankfully nobody was there and made sure it was in my account and then got the money.

I am not explaining this the best way. There are staff that can help you in the casino if it sounds confusing and there are a some posts here on CC if you search that explaine it step by step.

[CMM]

I am looking into sailing on the Legend in June. I did have a few questions about the ship. Thanks in advance for any input.

 

1. Is there a Serenity deck for adults only? Does it have a whirlpool for adults only (anywhere on the ship?)

 

2. Is there mini-golf on board?

 

3. My other question was is there a coffee bar, but I think that was answered.

 

I was deciding between the Freedom and the Legend and I think the Carnival pier with beach access in Routon will be the deciding factor. I am into inexpensive port visits and don't like to feel swindled, and really only care about seeing the beach--this sounds perfect for me!

The front of the ship has an adults only area that has lots of lounge chairs, a small pool and hot tub. It was nice and no kids each time I passed it. The spa also has a hot tub for adults.

 

There was a nice mini golf above the spa, but we didn't get a chance to play

 

There were two for pay coffee areas. One was where they sold the pastries and one was in the unicorn cafe. They also had free coffee at all the drink stations. I'm not a coffee drinker so can't comment on how it tasted.

 

We were not at the new pier in Rotan with the new beach they made there.

 

Hope this helps!

[CMM]

I forgot to mention the airbrush tattoo my daughter got on the last sea day. She had been contemplating one all cruise. On the last sea day we headed up for her to get one. She wanted it to last until she got home. She picked out one for her arm. They were $12-16 for the black ones and extra for color. Hers was $14. They stay on in water, but will rub off so if your clothing rubs at them they will wear quicker.

 

She enjoyed getting this as she isn't the tattoo type girl and got some fun jokes about it when she got home. Her friend at Circle C said that they will touch them up for free for you at the end of the week if they wear, so she didn't really need to wait till the end to get hers. They are suppose to last up to 4 days and I think that was about the life of hers. If you want one of these I would ask early on in the cruise if they will touch them up later. That way you can enjoy them longer.

[Biffer1997]

Question for anyone who has sailed on the Legend--if I book a category 7A which is a balcony room on Main deck, they say the view is "obstructed". Question is, is the actual balcolny size affected?

[CMM]

I woke up before the rest of the family as usual and headed up to the photo area to pick up my extra pictures I had printed. I reviewed our onboard account statement that was in my husbands cabin's mailbox. Everything looked like it was in order. When everyone was up we went to the unicorn cafe for breakfast. We gathered up all our carry ons and took them to breakfast so that we wouldn't be in the room stewards way. Service was friendly and as good as the rest of the week- good job Carnival.

 

One thing that was exceptionally nice about Carnival was that they allow you to hang out wherever you want waiting for your turn to get off the ship. On Princess you had an assigned area and there was often not enough comfortable seating. I remember sitting in the hall for a while one cruise. On the Legend we leisurely enjoyed seconds and thirds of breakfast tidbits and I had another cup of tea. We remembered that we left an item in the cabin night stand and I went back for it and the cleaning staff welcomed us in.

 

We had a 12:05 PM flight so were not in too much of a hurry. I don't know how they get the ship ready so quick for the next weeks passengers because we found the ship immaculate when we arrived too.

 

Most people were called to debark before us and we were still off the ship by 9:30. A very leisurely relaxed debarkation. We headed out to claim our luggage. I had warned the kids how chaotic this step would be. We had marked the luggage with florescent green duct tape by putting a small strip on each corner and then one on the top of each piece of luggage. Even though our luggage does not all match it works great to quickly identify your items(and keep others from mistakenly taking yours too) This process was soooo smooth this time around. Since we were one of the last groups off there was only a few items left and our bags looked comical scattered around an empty room. We grabbed our bags, breezed through customs, and exited to the cab area.

 

We took a cab ride that was short to the airport. The cab drivers in Tampa were friendly and polite both to and from the ship. We arrived very early to the airport, so no stress this morning.

We headed to the US AIRWAYS booth and I asked the agent if carrying my precious Mexican rainbow hammock chair on the plane would be a problem. He was a friendly guy and told me to go over and talk to the TSA agent. The TSA guy was really nice too and examined my hammock rolled around a hefty pole and broke the bad news that "it would be considered a whacker" and made a baseball bat swinging motion with it. I said "PPLLEEAASSEE, I really want my souvenir Mexican hammock" He laughed and asked me how much I was charged in luggage fees. I told him $45, 3 bags @ 15 each. He whistled and shook his head and then told me to go over and ask them if we could tape it to the outside of our suitcase.

 

US AIRWAYS guys was nice and was reluctant to have us tape in on as he couldn't guarantee the condition of it at the end of the trip. He told us to take all the time we wanted with our bags and he gave us some string and strapping tape.

My husband and I quickly removed the string part of the hammock and packed that in the bag. I wish we had done this more carefully as we haven't had the time yet to see if we can get it back on properly! We took the big pole and ran the string through the one end of the pole and tied it to the underside of the suitcase. I used my ss lanyard to lassoed the other end of the pole to the handle of the suitcase. Then we used up the roll of tape around the suitcase. It looked absolutely ridiculous, but worse case scenario my husband said he could make me a new pole.

We had uneventful flights home, a good thing. Out came our suitcases on the luggage claim area and there was the pole attached to the bag in great shape!

Home to school, cold weather, and responsibilities. This was our first trip away from our little rescued beagle and we picked him up from my mom and gave him a plush Fun ship Freddy we bought for him in the ships gift shop. The first thing he did was tear his pants off!

[kat228]

Hahaha...so I skimmed your last post like I usually do before I fully read it. And of course fell on the "The first thing he did was tear his pants off!"

 

...whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa? Hilarious out of context.

 

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us! :)

[CMM]

Some Final thoughts on our cruise.

 

Soda Card

Having 4 port days in a row and free lemonade, ice tea, and ice water I didn't thing this was necessary for us. I left if up to the kids and they agreed. I told them they were free to order sodas and just use their ss card whenever they wanted and it would take about 4 sodas a day for it to cost more. Turns out each kid only ordered 2 sodas the whole cruise. They were happy enough with the lemonade and my daughter enjoyed two smoothies.

 

Smuggling Liquor

I have to admit that after reading so many reviews refering to this, I got the idea that I should bring along some alcohol. I brought two small bottles in our packed luggage. I bought them in PA and choose ones that were sold in plastic bottles. I put them in a double zip lock wrapped in a swim suite and they arrived with no leakage. This turned out to be a non issue for us. We ended up taking the one home unopened and the other one we left in the room at the end of the cruise with only an inch gone out of it. Unless you are a serious drinker, I don't see the point of bringing on liquor. We enjoyed ordering a drink when at a show or up on deck and trying different drinks like the DOD.

 

Cruise Director Jen

Lots of negative comments about her in previous reviews, but we thought she did a really good job. She was funny and entertaining. Her British accent was pleasant not annoying. She did a great job in my opinion until the very end when both my husband and I found her very offensive in the debarkation talk. She spent a great deal of time during the debarkation talk in the Follies Lounge the last sea day talking about how we were to fill our our comment cards. She instructed us to fill out them as all excellent. She said if we didn't have any fun at all, hated every moment of our cruise, and will never cruise again then we should fill out "Met my expectations" She claimed that anything other than the highest mark in all cartagories is a bad mark for the Legend. Well I hate to point out the obvious, but met my expectations means just that. They met your expectations. I think her various stories she told to exemplify her point and her illogical explanations really cheapened Carnival. We had a great cruise and were very impressed with most areas, but her talk or lecture was really rather rude. I believe what she says is true, but the conversations she should be having is with Carnival for their unrealistic interpretations of comments. She shouldn't be redefining the English language to the 2,000+ passengers.

 

Food

I can't see how people can't be happy with the food on the Legend. The food was diverse, well presented, and very good. I loved exposing the kids to new things. We would have liked to see some more offerings like cookies etc available between meal times. We loved having free lemonade & ice tea available. Mixing 1/2 lemonade & 1/2 ice tea became my favorite. The Legend had many drink stations, including ones outside on the lido making getting something to drink easy and relaxing. I appreciated the rotating ethnic foods at lunchtime too.

We tried breakfast in the dinning room only one morning and didn't care to try it again. They sat my two kids and myself at a large table of loud talkative ladies. The service was unfriendly and incredibly slow. We ordered just one entree and had to wait until all the tables in our area were ready for the main course to get it. Then when it arrived it was an odd meal. The turkey bacon reminded us all of Beggin Strips dog treats.

Service in the breakfast/lunch buffet was very good. They were constantly clearing dishes. Our evening wait staff was excellent and the dinning room food was very pleasing to all of us.

We didn't get a chance to try the pay extra steak house (although we walked through it during the day and it is beautiful), lunch in the dinning room, formal tea, the sushi bar, or room service, but you can see there is a lot in the way of food that the Legend has to offer. Gone are the days of midnight buffets, which disappointed my husband. I'm not sure why as we weren't usually up that late anyway.

 

Interactive TV- Don't know why all cruisline don't have this! I like that you can check your credit card tab, look at the menu (some entrees even have photos), and get other information.

 

The Pursers desk- Good marks here too. They were friendly and accommodating. I have witnessed passengers blowing up at the pursers desk over issues on previous cruises, but everyone seemed to be well taken care of this cruise.

 

Entertainment- we found it entertaining! big surprise there. I think we prefered the options the Crown & Caribbean Princess had a bit more, having two offerings in different settings most nights. That was a larger ship though too. The Legend gets higher marks in their main show lounge Follies. It was big enough to accommodate everyone and the seats were roomy with tables in the lower level.

 

Shops- There is really one two main stores, so we would have liked more, but there were mini stores within each. The Legend pleased us in that they didn't set up tables in the hall way selling things like Princess did. This caused major traffic flow problems and had a flea market appearance. Carnival keeps it organized.

 

Elevators

While this may seem like an odd thing to mention, the elevators were quick and easy to use. They were all working and were decorated very nice. The glass ones near the atrium were especially fun to ride in.

 

Cleanliness

The ship was clean and well maintained. The public restrooms were clean and very attractive, something I appreciate. Our cabin was kept very clean. Much, much, cleaner than any hotel I've ever been on.

 

Passenger Make Up-

I guess I shouldn't even try to compare as each cruise we have taken has been different. This trip leaving out of Tampa was nice as we have left out of NY on our past 3 cruises. This cruise passengers were not as loud or pushy. Lots of big family groups this time which I am sure was due to it being Thanksgiving week. Definitely a casual crowd. A little more rowdy, but nothing bad. Not sure I would pick Carnival if I was traveling with my 70 year old mom. Lots and lots of return Carnival Cruisers. While I enjoyed Carnival, Princess, & Celebrity, I prefer to try different lines and ships. I met a lady who had been on the Legend 15 times. I actually had mistaken her for staff as she was even wearing Carnival buttons etc.

 

Overall friendliness & professionalism of all staff. Everyone was so friendly and professional to us. Always a warm welcome and prompt attention. I had read the book "Cruise Confidential" before sailing and I must say I reflected on it while on board. The staff sure does work long hard hours.

 

If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to try to answer them. If you are considering or have already booked the Legend, I don't think you'll be disappointed. It is a good deal for the rate and we had an excellent cruise!

[cardbucfan]

Thanks so much for such a thorough review! We are booked on the Legend in April (DS13 and DH one week, DS15 and me the next! Stupid spring breaks!) and I'm really excited after reading your review. I hope we have better weather than you did though but you all sound like such troopers to not be bitter having to deal with such bad weather. Thanks!

[CMM]

Thanks so much for such a thorough review! We are booked on the Legend in April (DS13 and DH one week, DS15 and me the next! Stupid spring breaks!) and I'm really excited after reading your review. I hope we have better weather than you did though but you all sound like such troopers to not be bitter having to deal with such bad weather. Thanks!

 

Are you going two different weeks?

[loltastic]

Thank you for the detailed report! We are looking at going in Sept 11 and I love how well your report was written.

[CMM]

Thank you for the detailed report! We are looking at going in Sept 11 and I love how well your report was written.

 

Your welcome. I read tons of reviews before our cruise and really appreciated them. Let me know if you have any questions that I could try to answer.