Legend out of NYC this summer?

[tadbconn]

Hi all! This will only be our 2nd cruise (our 1st was on the Sensation 3 years ago) -- and since we live only 30 miles from Manhattan the Legend seems to be a good choice for us. I have not booked it yet--we'd like to go in August.

 

Can anyone tell me about a recent cruise they've taken on the Legend, out of NYC to the Caribbean? The specifics about the ship, the itinerary and the ports of call.

 

Thanks in advance, Anne

[bphman]

We sailed the Carnival Legend in 2003. It was our first Carnival cruise out of 7 overall. We were a little skeptical of sailing Carnival because of all of the rumors we heard but we were very happy with the overall experience. We also wanted to cruise out of NY since we too live 10 miles away.

 

The Pier has few comforts and we sailed on a Saturday when all of the ships were in and traffic was worse than a nightmare. We had to get out of the limo in the middle of gridlock and walk the rest of the way to the Pier. Once inside, things moved pretty quickly. We arrived at 11:15 and were on by noon.

 

What you hear about the "ship of urns" is true but you don't even notice them by the end of the first day. I actually found the ship to be attractive and well laid out. We had one of the famous cat. 11 cormerncabins and can't say enough good things about it. We felt very special. The cabin steward was very attentive and always made the towel animals for us. We had a connecting cabin with out kids, the only way you can have 5 together in connecting cabins.

 

The Lido restaurant was very good with plenty of variety and we felt good quality. We liked the 24 hour Pizza. We had late seating which worked out well for us. Food in the dining room was also very good, not quite the level of Celebrity but very good nevertheless. Service was great but a little rushed for out taste. Our waitress was on top of everything and always had our drinls on the table. We went to David's 2 nights, one night was exceptional but the second was a big disappointment, not with the food but with the service. We felt as if they forgot about us.

 

Most of the time, we had enough activities but not as much of a variety that there should have been. If you gamble and drink, you're set. The shows were terrific, the best we've seen so far on a ship. The comedians were also very funny.

 

The ports were OK. San Juan isn't one of my favorites and my daughter was robbed but that can happen anywhere but left a bad taste in our mouths. We took an excursion to St. John since we have been to St. Thomas before. Very pretty island. Tortola was the big surprise. We loved it. We took a tour on our own. When you land in port, taxis are lined up and for about $15 each we had a tour of the whole island and a stop at the beach. We also took a taxi tour in San Juan for $20 each which was fine. The St. John tour was the only one through Carnival and was good.

 

What I really liked about the cruise was the sea days which were very restful. The onlt real problem was the chair hogging but we never were unable to fing a chair. We're not pool loungers anyway.

 

Disembarking was as big a pain as was embarking because of the crowds. We had a car pick us up since gatting a taxi can be a real hassle. All in all, we loved the cruise so much that we booked the Pride for this August. The Spirit class is a great class of ships. I'm sure you will enjoy!