Legend of the Seas My Cruise My Views !!!!!

[Guest012]

A new kid in town yet no reviews on here yet !!!!!.......... guess I will have to be the bunny who sticks her head in the firing line then :)

 

Warning it ain't all pretty.................

 

Sail Date: November 20, 2015

Destination: Hong Kong to Brisbane

 

 

Embarkation:- quite well organised and speedy, no problems for us getting onboard ........well done Kai Tak....

 

First impressions:- Ok so I was naive in thinking as we have had no problems with RCL ships in the past that this dear little lady would be up to the same standard as the rest of the RCL fleet... rule no 1 broken......never ever assume...... we knew she was smallish which didn't bother us, we have been on much smaller Ocean Princess......what did stand out, even though they had tarted up a few of the public areas, was that she was looking a tad shabby and lacked TLC especially to the exterior of the ship...... a little too much rust showing on this little lady..... such a shame....

 

Cabin 2519 - Interior -:- As we booked last minute and don't really mind where our cabin is we thought on paper the position was quite good....... same as most of the ship the cabin was tired looking but liveable...... This 4 berth cabin is a reasonable size but is NOT suited to beds together due to the fact that it does not have 2 bedside drawers it has one largish set of drawers which meant when the beds were pushed together one side of the bed was hard on the cabin wall and with the couch at the end of the bed further limiting reasonable access, even by commando roll, it was decided next morning to leave a note for our cabin attendant to separate them, a cruise 1st for us and not a good one.... :( Bathrooms had been overhauled sometime in the past from ugly creamish tone to white which certainly made them look brighter......the vanity is very small with the basin almost taking over all bench space...... note there is only one little tiny corner glass shelf to put your toiletries on unless you use the shelf under the sink..... there you only have to compete for space with the tissue boxes, toilet rolls and the shower mat !!!!!!!! Our bathroom unfortunately was far from clean wasn't impressed with the dirt, grime and mould around the basin and floor.....unacceptable.... Can't complain about drawer or hanging space though we had plenty....but i will moan about the fact we only had 9 yes 9 coat hangers......4 berth cabin remember......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stupid me was lulled into a false sense of security having had plenty onboard the Sun Princess in August as well as the Rhapsody of the Seas in April and the Arcadia last December...........won't happen again................back to packing hangers for me...........

 

First night in this cabin i got very little sleep.....why you might ask.......well.......this cabin creaked, moaned and groaned like a banshee.... non stop .....combine that with the intermittent loud banging clanging noise late at night, during the night and early morning coming from behind our back wall and next morning you have one very grumpy angry exhausted sleep deprived cruiser......yet another cruise 1st for me "no sleep". Thought a quick shower would waken me up......well it would have if the shower water minimisers weren't so mean..... look i can understand saving water but Mr RCL I had to spend 5 times longer than normal in the shower........go figure......stepped out of the bathroom onto the carpet and damn it ...... wet feet........yep the bathroom is leaking....... time to investigate why........2 minutes of observation and we have the answer....shower curtain way too short meaning water is splashing out of shower base and instead of traveling left to the floor drain is traveling in the opposite direction where it is escaping via the very obvious corroded door frame and bottom corner of door....hello......this didn't just happen during the night !!!!! Tired me decides it's time to visit the pursers desk about not only the overly excessive noise but the leaking and dirty bathroom issues........not going to elaborate on exactly what I said to get this actioned immediately but put it this way they treated it and me very seriously....... We hadn't seen hide nor hair of our cabin attendant and by now had been onboard nearly 22 hours, when we did finally meet him late morning he was aware of the complaint we had made and insisted I show him where the grime, dirt and mould were.....hmmmmmmmmmm he says.........i will clean.......so he should me thinks grrrr lazy lazy lazy ....he did manage to get rid of the dirt and grime however the black mould remained.... and was still there when we disembarked !!!!!!!....... Have room attendant standards of training dropped......our attendant was quite nice but his cleaning and bed making skills were sadly lacking........ he did however excel in towel animals !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Pool area's :- showing signs of age but reasonable........metal shade area's for loungers deck 10 ...missing the shade sails .... no excuse for this ....... you have the structure there isn't it time you replaced them........ Solarium area reasonable....they emptied the pool to respray it..... we got in day after they refilled sure missed a lot a dings !!!!... Big screen TV pool deck.....still waiting for bits to repair blown out areas......someone said they were coming.........but then again so is next Christmas 2017 !!!!!!

 

Public area's :- On reflection she sadly lacks interior sitting area's, not all of us enjoy toasting ourselves in the sun.... !!!!! Atrium very small not conducive to much of anything other than an Art Auction.... Biggest disappointment is the destruction of the Viking Crown Lounge .....didn't this used to be RCL's claim to fame signature showpiece ......... This ship was not built with specialty restaurants in mind, giving Izumi's pride of place in the VCL has destroyed the beauty of this sitting area.... Pool Bar went once very very busy think they need more staff !!!! Schooner bar extremely busy late afternoon so get there early if you want a seat.... it's also gets very noisy so those with lip reading skills are the lucky one's !!! must say staff in this bar are fantastic. Anchors Aweigh lounge under utilised shame quite a nice room......That's Entertainment showroom nice venue, comfy seating and good accoustics........

 

Food:- MDR not bad, quite a reasonable choice...... Windjammer food at lunch and dinner good plenty of options......as for breakfast we always have it around 6.30am when the Windjammer opens ...breakfast at this time of day has been on display for ages with hot food cold, dry, hard and very unappealing... my friend on the toaster was happy to toast my rye bread each morning so at least my toast was hot and soft...unlike the poor dried out hard offerings everyone else was supposed to eat...... My favourite... bacon..... overcooked American rashers and under cooked English ...... pretty standard across most ships me thinks .....is there no one in the world of chefs that know how to cook bacon.....!!!

So now we come to cleanliness....all i am going to say is, and yes another 1st, i would not eat off the sticky dirty tables unless i put down a napkin which served as my place mat....... I cleaned the salt and pepper shakers before using as well as our cutlery..... the carpet was littered with remnants of the previous nights feasting and the tiled floor showed signs of old spills, was sticky and in areas dangerously slippery.......this is just not good enough ........ Service is another issue.....and not only breakfast time but it was blatantly obvious that the 6.30am mob didn't really want to be there, wandering around with blinkers on like lost sheep not clearing tables and yooohoooo have you forgotten it's your job to smile and welcome the punters ...if life's that bad ....get off !!!!!!!!!! I gave up on them day 3 took to cleaning and clearing my own table .....senior staff also seemed afflicted by the same don't really care attitude..... oi ...lead by example i say !!!!!

 

Entertainment:- Average....not the best certainly not the worst.... ....dancers and singers not bad...... CD whatever he is he isn't one of them, his sidekick not much better... did notice this cruise was very limited when it came to the variety of daytime activities....it did however suffer from a bad case of trivia diarrhea...........

 

Ports :- Manila and Puerto Princesa - had a wonderful welcome by the locals when we arrived, do yourself a favour and take ships tours in these ports, nothing much to see in port towns ......lots of beggars in Manila mostly impoverished children as young as around 3 !!!!! Kota Kinabalu fantastic port loved it need to investigate further.....will go back for a land based holiday... Bali......tender service dismal......as we were there in May on the Rhapsody we only got off to use the free port internet.... did a little shopping with the port market traders ...bartered a bit but this time being close to Christmas let them win....... :) Darwin, Cairns and Airlie ( slow slow slow tender service) all great as usual..... By the way port info is no longer delivered to your cabin night before you now need to go get yourself at the Tours Desk.... warning....... get it early in the cruise or you will miss out........

 

Disembarkation:- Very good considering it was Legends first real turnaround in Brisbane....we had a very early disembarkation number which didn't suit, a quick visit to the purser changed that...

 

Conclusion:- All i can say is thank goodness for good friends onboard and the fact that we got the cruise at a massive knockdown price !!!!... Towards the end of our cruise upon meeting new passengers, as you do, one was loathed to ask how they were enjoying their cruise as the initial silence spoke volumes. I have no idea what RCL were thinking sending this one to Brisbane.....yes i know this one can turn in the river .....but.......are you that cocksure of your reputation here in Australia RCL ......reminds me of the days P&O Australia were bestowed run down tanks by head office !!!!!!!... Having done many RCL cruises including the inaugural Rhapsody of the Seas cruise from Hnl to Syd back in 2007 this cruise line is a mere shadow of what it once was..... sad ......penny pinching meanies i refer to them as........

 

She isn't a young ship but by no means is she old....Mr RCL you can tart up some of the insides and add fancy money spinning restaurants but what about the rest of her....she is badly in need of TLC....sad to say but not only was she the dirtiest ship we have ever cruised on but she was also the noisiest structural wise and the most unloved :(

 

Our booking on the Legend of the Seas for February 2016 we have cancelled as we won't be cruising on her again...... a lost deposit .....yes......but that's okay we can pick up the loss on a last minute knockdown plenty of them about........

 

Should we decide to cruise RCL in the future, and I guess as we are Diamond members it's a waste if we don't, we will only do so out of Sydney where the better ships are based...... RCL you aren't novices at repo's to Australia so there is really no excuse for the way you portrayed your product on this cruise.

 

 

There is nothing sadder than seeing a beautiful white lady treated with such disrespect, could it be that Brisbane may be one of the last home ports she will ever call home..... ????

[Aus Traveller]

Hi Shiona,

 

Thanks for the review. You are an experienced cruiser so you know what you are talking about. I'm sorry things weren't better for you and John. :)

[rkmw]

Shiona i enjoyed reading your review and hope RCI fixes up the problems

[MicCanberra]

Thanks for the review Shiona.

[gogo65]

Thank you for your review, hopefully not the sign of things to come across the rccl fleet:(

[The_Big_M]

Unfortunately there's been a lot of similar bad reports about the 3 day Legend sampler.

 

While samplers can have specific issues, reading those reports it is also apparent there are bigger issues than the usual at this point.

[shrekaus]

 

RCL were thinking sending this one to Brisbane.....yes i know this one can turn in the river .....but.......are you that cocksure of your reputation here in Australia RCL ......reminds me of the days P&O Australia were bestowed run down tanks by head office !!!!!!!...

 

There is nothing sadder than seeing a beautiful white lady treated with such disrespect, could it be that Brisbane may be one of the last home ports she will ever call home..... ????

 

Thank you for your comprehensive review.

 

Sorry I wanted to truncate the post, so apologies for cutting extra bits out that should have stayed.

 

The comment I wanted to make is:

Once again Brisbane is the poor relation. It seems the only "real" ship sailing out of Brisbane is supplied by Princess. It is obvious that the Brisbane cruise market is expanding, but it appears we only get thrown the bones with no meat.

I am starting to wonder if cruise lines have a share in the airlines that fly to Sydney and, to a lesser degree, Melbourne.

Last week we flew back from Sydney having cruised on Celebrity Solstice, we have booked a cruise in 6 weeks on Pacific Dawn out of Brisbane. We know it is going to very different to Sea Princess and Solstice, just going with a positive outlook :) We were hoping that Legend would be a great addition, maybe it will improve?

Thanks again for the extensive review.

[tompaddyelle]

We found similar things with the Explorer.

I am thinking I will be avoiding RCL from now on.

[Rassa]

Cancelled the same cruise you were on to go on Explorer. I was considering booking the cruise with Legend again but you have turned me off somewhat and particularly because I had a hard time with the call centre. I will only book via the RCL website now.

 

I feel RCL are penny pinching with food and entertainment and trying hard to get us to buy their expensive stuff in the shops on board compared to say 10 years ago. This is not just with RCL and happening on other cruise lines. But I guess we also shop around for the lowest prices.

 

However, it is either go Crystal (as someone suggested) and pay much more but I like to cruise, so I guess I will keep looking for bargains and putting up with OK food and entertainment so I can cruise more.

 

It is a shame that Legend has been let go i.e. dirty etc. The Explorer was fine. I guess we just have to be careful which old boats we go on as you also mentioned Rhapsody was fine.

Rosie

[goodycruising]

Unfortunately it is starting to be a pattern that guarantee allocations can be to noisy cabins. We have had two RCI guarantee cruises and one upgrade, and they were to either a noisy creaking room or under an air intake ducts. I know plenty of people say they get great rooms with a guarantee, but you can't relate to that noisy creaking & cracking until you experience it, and it is really horrible to not sleep well.

 

I appreciate you taking the time to come and do your review, and I hope your next trip will be better :)

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Sad to hear about Legend. We cruised on her from Sydney to Auckland when she was here for a season in 2002. That season had been marketed Internationally so there were very few Aussies and Kiwis on board.

As for staff , there would have to be very good incentives to lure them down to a non tipping culture on an old ship. The best staff would be deployed to the big modern ships on the lucrative runs overseas.

She is an old ship these days, and unfortunately the older a ships get , the higher the maintenance costs seem to be.

 

 

 

[Guest012]

The comment I wanted to make is:

Once again Brisbane is the poor relation. It seems the only "real" ship sailing out of Brisbane is supplied by Princess. It is obvious that the Brisbane cruise market is expanding, but it appears we only get thrown the bones with no meat.

 

Beautifully said......:)

 

Unfortunately it is starting to be a pattern that guarantee allocations can be to noisy cabins.

 

Guess the 15 yrs run of GTY luck has to run dry up sometime....:D....we have had cabins in the bow of ships that were quieter even in rough weather :D won't phase us though...... will continue booking them just have to be more choosie which ship...and read current reviews !!!!!

 

 

Would love to step up to Crystal or one of the elite lines but that means dropping back to only 1 cruise a year.....think i may need to attend therapy for my cruising addiction before considering that..... :p:eek:

 

Thanks for your kind words everyone....... never been one to gloss over anything when reviewing .........call it as i live it ....... hoping RCL will somehow see the light and lift their game, till then for local cruises I might just pop back to Princess or even give one of the little P & O girls a go.........always up for an adventure :cool:

[Aus Traveller]

As for staff , there would have to be very good incentives to lure them down to a non tipping culture on an old ship. The best staff would be deployed to the big modern ships on the lucrative runs overseas.

RCI would be paying their staff a reasonable wage on the ships where tipping no longer is required. Princess, and I am sure RCI, have to abide by an international labour agreement that sets minimum remuneration.

 

On Princess, when the tips were removed in May 2011, staff (stewards & bar staff) who were in the tipping pool went on to a much higher wage. They have told us they love it. They know exactly how much they will get paid and they don't have to jump through hoops to please demanding passengers in the hope of getting a tip. They have also told us they love the Aussies because they don't complain all the time. They complain when there is something really wrong and that is OK.:)

 

You could be right that some staff prefer to work in a market where they can get much higher tips, but I have been told by crew that jobs on the Australian ships are sought after.

[lacrossemitch]

Thank you so much for posting your review. I had seen a long list of poor reviews over the last few months and was hoping it wouldn't continue on to Brisbane...we will be on her on March 6th... Hopefully they can work some of this out now before March rolls around.

[MicCanberra]

Whatever you end up cruising on, happy sailing.:D

[cheznandy]

Thanks Shiona, appreciate your opinion and experience.

 

We had a Legend cruise booked but cancelled quite a while ago.

I wasn't going to post our recent Voyager experience yet as we have Explorer next week......really wanted to give Royal a go. Not expecting much to change, but at least we will know what we are in for:)

 

Long lines, no seating, crowded public areas:( I have never seen such a crowded dining room, our table was at the front door!!

Sell, sell sell, they wait at the lifts when you come back onboard and shove ipads with the specialty restaurants at you.........harrass you at bars when you are having a quiet drink!! Grrrrr

 

Was just talking to someone who was on your cruise Shiona and she had the same experience as you. Sad, as I like the size of the Legend, hopefully they will make some changes for all those booked out of Brisbane.

 

Chez

[erewhon]

Thank you for reviewing your cruise.

There is no excuse for the lack of cleanliness.

 

Did you ask your room steward for more clothes hangers?

[cruisine21]

Sell, sell sell, they wait at the lifts when you come back onboard and shove ipads with the specialty restaurants at you.........harrass you at bars when you are having a quiet drink!! Grrrrr

 

 

Chez

 

Another area of high pressure sales is the photos. On one cruise I was about to go outside on deck and a photographer tried to snap a photo of me with someone dressed up. I spoke to a couple who said the photo of her on display in the photo shop had been photoshopped. Apparently she was wearing an outfit it the photo that she did not even own.

[Aus Traveller]

Another area of high pressure sales is the photos. On one cruise I was about to go outside on deck and a photographer tried to snap a photo of me with someone dressed up. I spoke to a couple who said the photo of her on display in the photo shop had been photoshopped. Apparently she was wearing an outfit it the photo that she did not even own.

That's hilarious. Who would buy a photo when they can see it is not really them? I wonder if it was a nicer outfit? The possibilities are endless. Put someone's face on a much slimmer body? :D

[Guest012]

Thanks Shiona, appreciate your opinion and experience.

 

Was just talking to someone who was on your cruise Shiona and she had the same experience as you. Sad, as I like the size of the Legend, hopefully they will make some changes for all those booked out of Brisbane.

 

Chez

 

Hey Chez please come back and let us know your thoughts on the Explorer vs Voyager......at least we were spared the harassing up sell on the Legend ... saw the touts a couple of times but i have perfected the don't even think about asking me "smile" or is it a sneer....came in handy in Manila and Bali too :D

I didn't really like the Voyager when we cruised on her back when she did the first Perth to Sydney......thought she was a tad big and unfriendly ....but the Mariner of the Seas changed my mind a little when we did her repo from Barcelona to Dubai....during her cruise they were ripping apart her bars and the nightclub to install more gambling and high end shopping areas to keep the Chinese happy was a little bit of a pain but the cruise was still fantastic.......never had too many problems with overcrowding on either but then again neither was probably close to full ... will consider Voyager or Explorer if the price is right :cool:

 

Love to say I feel better knowing I wasn't the only one disappointed and had issues with the standard of this cruise but I don't...this cruise line was fantastic at one time but as we know things change and not always for the better.....

 

Watched the Quantum of the Seas show that we recorded whilst away and I now have a better understanding where the money is going and why the lesser vessels are in the state they are in....

 

"Quote of the Cruise" that I overheard whilst waiting in line at the pursers desk..... " If this is the standard of cruising the Asian market accepts you can turn the bloody ship around and send it back to them !! .... :eek: ooops obviously not a happy cruiser :eek:

 

Did my online guest satisfaction thingo for RCL they got my opinion warts and all........have offered them the photos and video to back up my story....odds of them giving a toss...... gazillions to one :D:D

[Aus Traveller]

Did my online guest satisfaction thingo for RCL they got my opinion warts and all........have offered them the photos and video to back up my story....odds of them giving a toss...... gazillions to one :D:D

The 'head honchos' probably do not know the condition of the ship. Great that you told them your impressions. Let's hope they pay attention and do something, otherwise there will be a lot of specials available. :)

 

Word gets around. Someone I was talking to this morning has just come back from her first cruise and loved it. She mentioned Legend, and I told her that a friend of mind (Shiona) has just got off the ship and that her review wasn't good. I referred this person to CC, so she will probably read the review herself.

[Guest012]

Thank you for reviewing your cruise.

There is no excuse for the lack of cleanliness.

 

Did you ask your room steward for more clothes hangers?

 

 

We did...how many he asked.... we said 12 thinking we are really pushing it and being greedy.....he said you sure you can have lots more :eek: must have a secret stash...and not a wire one amongst them.... phew..... lolololol........

 

Apparently she was wearing an outfit it the photo that she did not even own.

 

 

Lololol that's gold....we had a photo taken at one of the ports went up to take a look and couldn't find it......for the very first time we had gone out of our way to give the photographer our best celebrity paparazzi pose and smile...:cool: We looked for days even tried face recognition search...we are now gutted its gone ...no photo :( .....then the penny dropped when we were trying to remember what we were wearing that day........oooops... we were both wearing Princess caps, Princess lanyards and John had a Princess logo polo top on ... guess photo shopping wasn't even a consideration .... imagine it went straight to the trash.............:D:D:D

[MicCanberra]

That's hilarious. Who would buy a photo when they can see it is not really them? I wonder if it was a nicer outfit? The possibilities are endless. Put someone's face on a much slimmer body? :D

 

LOl,:D

A funny story (or weird) was when once we went to look at our photo from the MDR formal night and couldn't find it. We asked about the pic and was told that someone else had bought it and they could make another copy if we wished.:eek:

[MicCanberra]

 

Lololol that's gold....we had a photo taken at one of the ports went up to take a look and couldn't find it......for the very first time we had gone out of our way to give the photographer our best celebrity paparazzi pose and smile...:cool: We looked for days even tried face recognition search...we are now gutted its gone ...no photo :( .....then the penny dropped when we were trying to remember what we were wearing that day........oooops... we were both wearing Princess caps, Princess lanyards and John had a Princess logo polo top on ... guess photo shopping wasn't even a consideration .... imagine it went straight to the trash.............:D:D:D

Now that is Gold.:cool:

Edited December 14, 2015 by MicCanberra

[Guest012]

Word gets around. Someone I was talking to this morning has just come back from her first cruise and loved it.

 

Word certainly does especially with so many social networking sites now.... I was amazed by all the complaints made about the poorly handled 2 nighter after we got off....many many unhappy cruisers...... Must congratulate the first timer on such an adventurous first cruise....lets hope they stick with it moving on to not only RCL's other ships but other brands too.....:D