Legend - Alaskan Cruise 7-19/26 Quasi-Review and Odd things you didn't even think of!

[Krystm]

It seems like there is a quite a few people that have/are writing reviews for this exact same week (which is great!) I am planning to keep this as simple as possible while also kind of outlining my experiences against what I was looking at when I was waiting for the cruise to come up. Overall it was a wonderful cruise, surely a "once in a lifetime" as we got to see a lot of what the guides said were VERY rare. (Bubble Feeding whales - Same Group multiple times for about 40 min and then another group on the way back / Close encounter with a whale / Close (50 ft or so away) from an Eagle / Saw a bear on the Endicott excursion.

 

So, first thing's first. I went on the 7/19/16 Cruise to Alaska out of Seattle with my future in-laws. We had 3 cabins all next to each other. 6142, 6144 and 6146. As others have stated Tracy Arm is most likely going to be closed all season. According to our tour guide these glaciers recede about 6 feet a year, The Tracy Arm one (Sorry Don't know it's name) was said to recede 5000 FT! Causing all kinds of icebergs and making it impassible for cruise ships. Being in Endicott is rare for Cruise ships as they do have to have special permission. Also was told this glacier is about a 1/2 mile wide which is bigger than the Tracy Arm Side.

 

NOTICE: The views, options are simply what I experienced and others of course may have similar or completely different experiences. So this is WHAT I SAW!!!! While there were some things that were bothersome, NOTHING stopped me from having a great time!

 

 

Balconies:

We did get the balconies opened up which is done by going to guest services with someone from each room. (eg. since I was in 6142, I had to have someone from 6144). Even though we signed the sheet for this, it did not happen until the 2nd Day! They do open to the rail side so you do lose some visibility, but overall this was well worth it.

 

Wanna see how they hold them open?

 

The tool they use to lock it is a simple square, sorry no dimensions on that:

I was limited to 6 pics so here is a link: Here

 

One last thing.... MOST (not all) of these Doors SLAM with the force of 1000 winds.... Almost everyday and throughout the nights it was almost a constant "slam" "slam" with windows and walls vibrating because of it. It doesn't have to be your neighbor either.

 

6142: Slams

6144: Slams

6146: Door Shock works properly and doesn't slam.

 

TV:

So this was one of the biggest things I could not find any info about at all. So hopefully this will help some of you. NOT ALL ROOMS have flat panel TVs.

 

The TVs were Samsung Model: HG22NA470BF and the HDMI ports were not being used. As other's have stated they may be "disabled" but a universal may open that up. So having that model "MAY" help you as I cannot speak for all rooms just my room.

 

6142: Flat

6144: Flat

6146: Old CRT TV

 

 

 

 

Lido (In Reference to Crowds):

In my experience it seemed like Lido had various times where it would be more crowded than other (that's like saying the sky is blue...stay with me here). It seemed like most times were packed in the middle of their set times. So if Breakfast was 6-12 then around 9:30 is when Lido was packed. I was up most days around 7:30 and there was no issues getting food, very little in terms of lines and plenty of open seats... 9:30 BAM - Good Luck finding something. My suggestion is you can do MDR OR an overlooked option was in the back Serenity has tables that were almost always open. It's covered but it is outside so YMMV!

 

Pro-Tip: (At Breakfast Only) EVERY BUFFET HAS THE SAME THING! So if there is a huge line at one you can go to another and get the same stuff. Except the back where the salad / pizza / coffee is, those typically stay the same.

 

There was a HUGE exception to this rule and it was Day 3 in the Endicott Arm.....People were... not exactly rude but not willing to move. People even went as far to pull chairs up to the windows where people walk and would eat off their laps (PICS INCLUDED!).

 

For those wondering - Cereal comes in dispensers and Milk is in self serve (Jugs I guess, like tea or coffee dispensers with a spout) comes in Skim, 2% and Chocolate.

 

 

 

That's all I got for now, Not sure I can edit to add more later or will post, feel free to ask questions....and YES I have the Fun Times and will post pics probably tomorrow as I still need to unpack them and take pics.

Edited July 28, 2016 by Krystm

[Krystm]

Reserved for moar!!!

 

Coming soon!

[Longs]

We were on the Legend from July 19th - July 26th as part of a large group (89 people with over 40 cabins). This was our first cruise. Some items that come to mind are below.

 

We were in Cabin 6204 on the port side of the ship. It had an "adjoining door" to the next cabin but we didn't know the people next door. I believe that allowed more noise from that cabin than we would have heard otherwise. It's hard to spot those cabins on the deck plan on the Carnival site but if you see little white teardrop looking icons between two cabins, that means they're adjoining. 6204 has an older tube TV, not a flat screen. The picture was just OK and some of the remote functions like being able to book shore excursions, previous channel, etc. did not work. The room was comfortable enough but didn't provide a lot of room to maneuver. The bed was a little hard but also comfortable overall. There is one 110V outlet and one 220V outlet on the desk, and one outlet for low-power devices like recharging shavers in the bathroom. There are a good number of shelves in the bathroom so at least everything doesn't have to sit on the small counter on either side of the sink.

 

We boarded slightly after 1:00 p.m., did not have "Faster to the Fun", had no problems, boarded very quickly. Luggage showed up around dinner time, no problems there.

 

We had breakfast delivered to the room several times, easy enough but it's continental - cereal, fruit, yogurt, muffins and pastries, etc. Toast or bagels won't be hot. It's also possible to just go up to the buffet on the Lido deck and take food back to the room. Someone had a good suggestion to keep a room service tray for that purpose. They make up the rooms 2X per day so if you leave the tray out, they may take it.

 

We brought a couple of extension cords/adapters but didn't really need them that much, just to charge a couple of items at the same time while my wife was using the 110V outlet for her hair dryer. The provided hair dryer is in a drawer and doesn't work that well or reach that far, and you have to keep the button depressed constantly. Women may want to bring their own if they're particular about the hair dryer. We didn't leave any cords out based on the potential that the Stewards might take them if we weren't there.

 

Most of the food was good. The food served in the dining room is better than the food on the dinner buffet even though some of it is actually the same offering. Dinner portions are not large but between an appetizer, main course and desert you leave full.

 

Most of the ship is non-smoking, only a couple of areas are available. We aren't smokers and were bothered by the amount of smoke in the casino area. There are some machines that are "non-smoking" but they're so close to the others and there's enough smoke in the air to make your eyes burn and generally be annoying. If they're going to allow smoking in such an area, they should find a better way to vent the fumes out - after all, it is a ship, pump some air out of the area or get some better ventilation going. I believe that if smokers want to gamble, they'll hold off on smoking while they do, but people who don't smoke will be less likely to gamble because they can't or won't tolerate the smoking. I know that we spent less time in the casino than we would have otherwise because of the smoke.

 

The comedy club and the theater are nice venues but you have to be aware of the support poles that create some blind spots to the stages. It's best not to get there at the last minute because they were crowded sometimes, particularly for the comedians' shows. The comedians were good, their shows were only about 1/2 hour long. The early shows are PG and the later shows at 8:30 and 10:30 p.m. are "R rated" for those only 18 and over.

 

We had unfavorable weather. It was pretty cold in Endicott Fiord. As others noted, Tracy Arm was impassable and probably will be for a long time. Even though the temperatures were generally in the mid-50s to lower 60s with the wind it's cold on the decks. We didn't spend much time on the public decks at least partially for that reason. The balconies are better but there's still wind so it can be cold. The balconies hold two chairs and a small table and generally one of the chairs tends to be in the way of the cabin door, but it was still great to have a balcony on this trip.

 

We had two shore excursions cancelled. We had booked the dog sledding on the glacier in Juneau and it was cancelled due to weather. By the time we found out, we couldn't really book another excursion that day and they don't give any priority to those whose excursions are cancelled so we didn't have an excursion that day - it's weather but we were disappointed as the helicopter ride and dog sledding was going to be highlight and it is about the most expensive excursion you can book; our money was refunded. We decided to book a seaplane tour to the Misty Fiord in Ketchikan the next day but by the time we booked it the only option was the tour leaving at 7:30 a.m. We had to get up early, go to the Follies theater, wait to be directed to a bus to the "airport", then didn't find out until we got there and waited around a while that the ceiling was too low and that tour was also cancelled, so we got up early and wasted a couple of hours for nothing. We ended up booking the Lumberjack Show just for something to do, and it was OK but not worth anywhere near the $45 per person.

 

We got off the ship in Victoria - since there wasn't a lot of time in that port, arriving at 7:30 p.m. and being back on the ship by 11:30 - the lines of people getting off were really long so it took about 15 minutes just to get off the ship. Victoria was nice, we took a taxi to the downtown area (walking would take at least 30 minutes each way so it wasn't really that practical with such a short stop) - taxi is a flat rate $10 each way. The drivers will offer to tour you around for an hour for an extra $40, so $60 total, but we didn't do that. I saw where every cruise has to stop in an international port so Victoria checks that box, but it was at night, it was dark for half the time there, really just too short.

 

Note that on all of the "arrive and depart" times on the cruise, the expectation is that all passengers are on board 30 minutes prior to the departure time so if it says "depart 3:00 p.m." you don't have until 3:00 p.m. to get back to the ship - you have until 2:30. I'd say that overall, with arriving at 7:00 a.m. on three of the stops and the departures, Skagway was the only port where the stop wasn't too short or didn't feel rushed.

 

On departure we placed our checked/bigger bags in the hallway on the last night (keep clothes for departure day and a carry-on and medicine/valuables). They transported the bigger bags into the terminal and we were able to locate them quickly - you're assigned a numbered position or zone to disembark from the ship and the luggage was grouped by that number. We were in Zone 16 and they were running ahead with disembarking so we got off the ship about 20 minutes earlier than the approximate schedule had estimated.

 

Overall this was a great cruise, lots of "once in a lifetime" aspects to seeing Alaska. The ship was fine, food was good, entertainment good. You can't predict the weather, ours wasn't ideal by any means. I would do this cruise once, but I would not do it twice!

[Clarea]

Excellent report, thanks!

[Longs]

I thought of this element and was going to edit my post but apparently there's a time limit to editing.

 

I had seen a number of questions about Wifi, cellular service, etc. On this cruise you could buy the "social media" Wifi for $5 per day for the cruise. I suppose that if you used Facebook messenger or Twitter or Instagram as a communication tool, that would be sufficient but we don't use those services. General wifi was $16 per day or $60 for the entire cruise, we didn't do that either. We had cellular service in Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan with Verizon and AT&T but lost service pretty quickly once getting away from the ports. Victoria was really weak service and seemed to want to join other networks - we saw Rogers and Bel show up - we went to Airplane mode to avoid the roaming. Overall we had less cellular access than we thought we might, given that we were cruising close to land in a lot of areas.

 

The advice we've seen is to put phones in airplane mode when not in port, and if you want to use the ship's wifi, keep airplane mode on (to kill cellular and avoid roaming) and reactivate wifi on the phone. It appears that you can contact your wireless provider to purchase some temporary international access too, but we didn't do that either.

 

One other "electronics" note - the Legend has several "Carnival" TV stations and you'll get a few others - an NBC and a CBS station from New York, TNT, USA, Cartoon network - but overall not much, which is OK - you're there to cruise, not to watch TV!

[stjlo]

I was just wondering if you had copies of the Fun Times from your cruise? It would be wonderful if you could post them. Thank you!

[crazycruzer68]

Thanks for your review, looking forward to more!!

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[Krystm]

Still working on writing some more, but in the mean time here are all the fun times.

 

Obviously I can't post them all here so you can find them on my flickr Album by clicking the picture below or this link: CLICK ME FOR FUNTIMES

 

[clearwaters]

I LOVE that Carnival passengers are so multi-culti! Many different kinds of people all getting along. Looking at your wonderful pics reminds me of that. Thank you for the posts and the pics! (I'm Heinz 57 myself--- [used to describe a person who is a mixed blood of many nationalities, also for a dog that is a mix of many breeds. "That guy has irish, italian, french, native american, and african in him, so he's a heinz 57]") lol. :)

Edited July 30, 2016 by clearwaters

[ozlady93]

We are going on the Legend in May, 2017, can you please send me a copy of the fun times, we have done several cruises with Carnival just not Alaska. We were wondering if activities were different. Thanks,

 

Betty

coozlady@yahoo.com

[Seago2]

Great review(s), great info you don't always get. Thank you!

[EZcruiserfamily]

Enjoy reading your review! Family just decided to get together for Mom's 75th birthday next July for Alaska cruise so just starting my research. We want to book by the end of the month. We'll be 3 families plus Mom and any other extended family that decides to join us. Excited already and I'm not even booked!!!