Legend Panama Canal March 30 to April 14 mini review

[margeecruiser]

We were on the Legend of the Seas Panama Canal from Fort Lauderdale to San Diego March 30 to April 14,2015. We are frequent cruisers, mostly on Royal. A little about us : me, 74; DH, 77.

 

We flew on American from DFW to FLL the day before cruising and stayed a the Embassy Suites 17th Street. We booked our air thru Choice Air for $1057 total for both of us.

 

Embarkation in Fort Lauderdale was smooth and very quick. We used Pier 18 that Oasis class ships use. What a delight!

 

We booked aft junior suite 8582 for this cruise since we wanted to see the locks up close and personal. Our cabin was great and the air conditioning worked superbly. I like my room very cold to sleep well and it seems to help keep my feet from swelling. The bed was very hard, so we asked our room steward for a mattress topper; that fixed the problem. Our room steward was very good.

 

This was our first cruise on this class of ship. We will not book this class again because we missed the added features on larger ships such as Vintages, Italian speciality restaurant, Sabor, central promenade, etc. Only smaller ships can do the Panama Canal, so we knew we would be limited in choices.

 

We had a complete ship-wide power outage on our second sea day. This started about 10 am and lasted about 2 hours. They were able to get hotel operations going in about an hour. The Captain kept us informed and we were not impacted. We were in our cabin and had finished room service and dressed for the day. It would have been worse if we had been showering, in an elevator or something.

 

Our ports of call were Cartegena, Colombia; Colon, Panama; Puntarenas, Costa Rica; Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala; Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

 

Cartegena: we booked a private tour with Dora De Zubiria, Dora the Exployer. This was an all day tour in a large bus. We saw the monastery, fort, old town and some shopping. This was a good tour.

 

Colon: We did the Gamboa Aerial Tram tour through the ship. This was the highlight of all our tours. We went on busses to a hotel and then to the aerial tram, which took us up to a mountain top. We then walked up a ten story lookout tower, using ramps not stairs. We could see both sides of the canal and some of the new construction. The aerial tram was peaceful and beautiful gliding amongst the tree tops.

 

Puntarenas: We did a private tour to the Monteverde Cloud Forest and Coffee Plantation tour. This was wonderful, but the road up to the Monteverde Cloud Forest was under construction! This is a mountain road and there were Boulders and holes and all dirt. It was slow going and uncomfortable. We were a small group of 7 in a large van. We finally made it to the top. This area has zip-lining, hiking trails, a tram, and our choice, a walk through the 5 Bridges trail. These are large open bridges through the tree-tops. Great photos!

 

Puerto Quetzal: We booked a ship tour to Antigua, a Unesco historical site. We were taken up to Antigua, which is about 5000 feet above sea level. We hired a private guide at the Jade Factory where the busses left us. He was wonderful, but this is a very primitive town that Unesco has designated a historic site of Colombian architecture. The streets are cobble stones and very difficult walking. We ate lunch at a little local place and were careful, drinking only bottled water or beer. The jade shopping was great and some of our group got some Guatemalan woven things and I bought a jade ring. Beautiful!

 

Puerto Vallarta: We booked a ship's tour to Colonial San Sebastián. We realized this would be similar to the Antigua tour with very difficult walking on cobble stones, so we cancelled. Unfortunately the bay cruise we wanted to substitute was sold out, so we stayed on board.

 

Cabo San Lucas: We missed this port due to me coming down with norovirus. More on this issue later.

 

After the ship left Guatemala, people began to exhibit norovirus symptoms. I have been on many cruises and have never experienced this so I was not concerned. Five days later, I came down with it. I was aware of the symptoms, which started about 5 am. I called the medical facility and was directed to come down. I was much too ill and finally a technician came to the cabin about 10 am. I received a shot for nausea and told to take my own Imodium. I was very ill for about 24 hours, and then began to feel better. I called the medical facility again and was released from quarantine. I continued to take the Imodium about once a day to control the diarrhea for several days.

 

The norovirus outbreak was rampant all over the ship. The staff were constantly washing down the doors, railings, bathrooms and all surfaces. The situation was just a mess, with sticky, wet floors, rails, and all surfaces. The number of people reported in the news was just the ones who called the medical facility to report they were ill. Many, many others were ill, but did not want to be quarantined. We were told there had been norovirus on the previous 3 sailings that stopped in Guatemala and Royal was going to stop using them as a port of call.

 

We ate at the Chef's Table once. (Of course, this was before I became ill). We had a great time, with great table mates. We have done this many times before and the experience was not as superb as before. We will hesitate to book this again, as the experience was not worth the cost. The wines were good, but not really earth-shatteringly good. We have had some of the best fine wine in our lives at previous Chef's Tables. Perhaps on a larger ship, the experience would be better. There has been some discussion that this is going to be changed to something called Prime Table and "dumbed down". I don't think the price will change.

 

We won a lunch in Chop's on the day we went through the Canal. Perhaps because this was lunch, it was not very good. My fish and my husband's steak were poor. Others seemed to be enjoying theirs, however. The views were outstanding and the service was great.

 

The entrainment overall was great. The singers and dancers were very good. All the specialty acts were also very good. There was no aerial act in the centrum at all. There were many disappointed people.

 

The Diamond Lounge was very well attended. The staff was wonderful, with plentiful cocktails and beer. The food offerings were a little meager, but this might have to do with the size of the room. The Concierge, Sergii, was brand new, but he did a great job.

 

We had late dining in the main dining room. Our waiter, assistant waiter, and head waitress were all very friendly and efficient. We especially liked our waiter Ali; he was one of the best we have ever had. He had 3 large tables and he seemed to handle it with ease. I'm amazed at how hard they all work. The food was good, not great. We had lobster and prime rib once in two weeks. I missed this, but my husband said it was great. The best meal was the rack of lamb; this was really outstanding! Our only problem was the wine service. We like really top quality wine with dinner when cruising and pay accordingly. It was apparent the assistant waiter was new. He did not know anything about wine at all. He was new and from China, so he was in training for when the ship transitions to Asia later this year. Our head waitress was more knowledgeable, but still needed help. She offered to find a decanter for our old Cabernet, but did not know how to pour the wine into it to separate the sediment. With much discussion, both she and the assistant learned about sediment in wine. The last night, with our last special bottle of Caymus Special Selection, we had a mess, with wine spilled, and a horrified assistant waiter. This is simply unacceptable in a fine dining establishment. I really miss the "old days" with the wine sommeliers who were knowledgeable and available for proper wine service. I think with the wine prices, Royal should do better.

 

Well, overall we still had a great time. We lucked out with our table mates again and they made this a great cruise. I guess getting norovirus is the luck of the draw, when the best practices don't help.

 

We are cruising again in November on the Liberty and certainly expect to have a great time on Royal, as usual

 

Sorry, this so long. If I've missed anything or you have any questions, please just ask.

 

Margee

[Susie51]

Thank you for your wonderful review. I'm so sorry you became ill on your cruise.

[edjny]

We were on the Legend for the March 9th Southern Caribbean cruise.

 

Aerial acrobatic show..... There was no aerial show on our cruise either. Nothing was said about it until a question was asked about it at the "Meet the Cast" meeting. The cruise director apologized and told us he "forgot" to mention that there were "technical" problems and that they had not been able to get anyone to fix it. At that point it had been broken for the previous 3 cruises.... :confused:

 

Noro.... We heard that about a dozen people had a case of Noro on the ship on our cruise. But there were no special cleaning going on that we could see.

[Setting sail for fun]

Thank you for the review! We were on the 3/20/2015 cruise before yours and it was nice to hear of your adventures. Sorry to hear that you were one of the individuals that contracted the Noro. We picked up some sort of cold/cough thing that we are just getting over now. Even people in our local area (just south of Wash DC) have had it as well.