Review of RCI "Legend of the Seas" 11/26/05 -- very long

[campboo]

Review of our cruise on the Royal Caribbean "Legend of the Seas" 11/26/05 -12/03/05 (very long):

 

This was my first cruise, so my only expectations had been formed by reading hundreds of posts on various Cruise Critic boards I can't imagine setting sail without having the insider knowledge that I learned online, especially about excursions and booking with independent tour companies.

 

DAY 1: SETTING SAIL

 

Our flight arrived in Tampa too late for the RCI transfer to the ship (which I knew ahead of time), so we just got a taxi to the ship pier. It was $20 for two of us (cheaper than RCI's price of $18/each). It made me sorry that I had pre-bought the return transfer from the ship to the airport. Oh well…

 

There were no crowds when we checked in at the pier; in fact it was so empty that we wondered if we were in the right place. But we were, and we walked right on the ship with no wait at all. We went to our stateroom (oceanview midship Deck 6) and it was fine. I had read posts from cruisers worried about where to put their suitcases, but we unpacked and there was room in the closet for our two big cases. Other people said they put them under the bed. I was surprised at how much storage room there was in the stateroom, including drawers, lots of hangers, shelves, and cubbyholes everywhere. We put all our stuff away with no problem.

 

We chose the main seating for dinner (6:00 pm) and were at a table with three other couples, two in their late 70's, and no one talked at all. After the first two nights, we couldn't face it anymore, and just went to the Windjammer for the buffet dinner. The days when we were off the ship on excursions, we came back about 4:00 and were hungry so we'd go up to the Windjammer for a snack, and then we weren't hungry at 6:00 anyway. So we'd go to the 7:00 pm show, and then have dinner at 8:00 or so. Others had more luck with their assigned tables; just chance that we didn't. We did go back to the dining room the last night, when at least we'd done enough stuff during the week that we had something to talk about. Overall I thought the food was good (not exceptional), the service was good, but they make too big a deal about the servers. I don't really want my dinner waitstaff to be my best friends; I just want them to bring me my food. Then again we don't ask for much in the way of special requests, we don't drink wine, so perhaps we aren't the model of the cruisers who use their waitperson to the most advantage. On the last night they made this big production of all the waitstaff parading around the dining room and introducing all the chefs and they all sang a song. Seemed pretty absurd to me, but others were videotaping and snapping photos right and left. To each his own…

 

Day 2: AT SEA

The first day at sea it rained the entire day, so we didn't do much. The seas were kind of rough, but I didn't know if that was normal or not so I took Bonine to ward off any seasickness. It seemed to work, but I was pretty drowsy all day (could have just been the weather; I'm not sure.) In the Windjammer up on Deck 9 you could certainly feel the ship rock the most. We sat in the solarium where it was quiet, but the pool was rocking like a wave pool and without any sun it was a bit chilly in there (that was true throughout the cruise; when the sun came in through the glass panes, it was comfy in there, but without the sun, it was cold.) We slept well despite the rough seas, and by Monday morning we were ready for our first Port of Call.

 

Day 3: GRAND CAYMAN

 

We did two excursions in Grand Cayman. In the morning we went on the 2-person bubble sub tour. This was the only tour we booked through RCI, because that was the only way it was available. It was expensive ($400 for 2 of us for an excursion that lasted about an hour, start to finish) but it was really fun. The depth ranged from 15 - 40 feet, and the guide was in scuba gear behind the sub, steering it and talking to us the whole time through a microphone, pointing out different fish and coral, and we could ask him about the stuff we saw. We got to steer the sub ourselves for a little while, but the guide got us a lot closer to the reef than we did, so we let him control it most of the time. We were underwater for about 35 minutes. The visibility was excellent, and since we aren't scuba divers, this is probably the only way we'll ever be that far below the surface.

 

When we got back to shore, we had time to eat lunch and wander around the shops for awhile, until we got picked up by Soto's to go on their afternoon stingray excursion.

 

They were about 20 minutes late picking us up at the appointed meeting place, but luckily there was another couple waiting also who had gone with them last year so they were confident they'd show up and eventually they did. The van took us to the boat where we paid (cash or traveler's checks only; there was one couple who thought they could charge it and didn't have enough cash), got our snorkel gear, and got on the boat. There were 13 of us on the boat, though it probably could have held at least 30. The boat just had unpadded bench seats running the length of the boat, so it wasn't the most comfortable ride, but there was a bench up front (only held 4 people) and it was more pleasant to sit there. First we went to Coral Gardens to snorkel for about 30 minutes. The visibility was decent and we saw some fish, but not as many as we'd seen in the bubble sub that morning. Not surprising.

 

Then we went on to the stingray sandbar. There were two other boats there, both of them had more people than we did. There were plenty of stingrays to go around. In fact, they were everywhere! If you didn't get freaked out, then it was really cool to hold them and feed them and just watch them swim around. I stayed in the water as long as I could playing with them. The photographer took lots of pictures, and while we were heading back to the dock he showed each person/couple/group the pictures he took of them, and offered the pictures for sale. He took a total of 13 pictures of me and my DH, and said we could get them all for $45 (cash only). I wasn't totally sure if I wanted to, and at the last minute he dropped the price to $40, and I went ahead and bought them. (One other group on the boat paid $50 for their pictures; maybe he took more of them, I'm not sure.) We got off the boat about 3:15, and we told him our last tender was at 4:30 and he made it to the ship with our CD so we picked it up from the purser's desk after we set sail. I thought that was pretty impressive.

 

The biggest hassle concerning that day was that when we got the tickets for the bubble sub delivered to our stateroom the day we set sail, we didn't open them right away. It turned out that they had changed the time of our sub tour (we had reserved 9:30 am, so we could do the stingrays in the afternoon, and the tickets were for 12:30.) We went to the purser's desk the night before we got to Grand Cayman to get it straightened out, and they gave us a very hard time about not having come to them sooner. And then they didn't want to change it since our afternoon tour wasn't booked through RCI. But in the end they switched us back to the bubble sub at 9:30 and it all worked out fine. RCI does not help you at all if you've booked your tours independently.

 

Day 4: COSTA MAYA

 

We had booked the Chacchoben Ruins tour with David and Ivan. We got off the ship first thing (we docked here, so no tendering issues) and took a cab to Mahahual and were told that the meeting place was 2 blocks down from where the taxi let us out. Turned out that was wrong; it was right there, so we walked all the way down the "strip" and back. When we got back to The Cat's Meow (the restaurant where we were supposed to meet), the group had already left about 10 minutes earlier. We were not late (we were told that the tour left "an hour after the ship docks" and we were there 45 minutes after the Legend had docked, but I guess the other people were from a different ship and it must have docked earlier than we did.) Anyway, they put us in a cab and said that David would pay for it. It was about a 50 minute drive to the ruins, and I was bummed that we missed listening to David and/or Ivan talk about the history of the Mayans, etc. during the drive. Instead we just sat there as the bleak countryside sped past, and my DH kept saying "I have a bad feeling about this; what if the taxi driver is a psycho killer?" Well, DH finally lightened up when we saw signs for Chacchoben, and David was there to meet us and apologized for leaving without us (although we never really heard why they did.) But they had waited for us to start the tour, and for the next 1-1/2 hours we were captivated by the history and knowledge that these two guys shared with us. There were 13 in our group, and both David and Ivan stayed with us the entire time, taking turns talking. The other group that walked past us had about 50 people, and they were done in less than an hour, so I'm guessing that their guide didn't tell them nearly as much as we got to hear. I am not much of a history buff, but this was a very interesting tour and I'm glad we did it.

 

If you want to contact David & Ivan use dvillagomez@chacchobenruins.com rather than their website's information request form. It might take them a day or two to reply, but they will get back to you. And just make sure to confirm the time the tour is leaving, so you won't get left behind.

 

 

DAY 5: BELIZE

 

This was the day I was most looking forward to, because we had booked the aerial trek/cave tubing combo tour and I had heard only great things about it. I was wary of booking the combo tour with a private tour company because it was a long excursion (7 hours) and I didn't want to miss the last tender back to the ship, but after reading the reviews I decided to "risk" going with Nacho and Cynthia. It was the best decision I made!

 

The ship's tour had 140 people. We had 2 people (me and my DH) w/ 2 guides (Nacho and Cynthia). The ship's tour took 1/2 hour just to load the buses. Nacho met us right outside the pier building (he had e-mailed me with specific directions of where to meet him) and we hopped in his van and got a 1/2 hour tour of Belize City instead of waiting in the crowd.

 

It was over an hour's drive to Jaguar Paw Resort, and Nacho told us about Belize the entire ride. We got there about the same time as the ship's tour. While they tried to organize 140 people, Cynthia marched us up to the front of the line, and we were the first two people to go through the zipline course. It was lots of fun, but the whole thing goes pretty fast; we were done in less than 20 minutes.

 

When we had entered the resort, the resort staff had told us that the caves were closed because the water level was too high. Big disappointment. But Nacho gave us the choice of going to the Belize Zoo instead, or doing a different cave tour, where we would paddle instead of have a current carry us downstream. We opted for the alternate cave, so after we finished the zipline (the people on the ship's tour were still waiting in line to get their equipment) he took us through the resort to the Crystal Caves, where the 4 of us (me, DH, Cynthia, and the cave guide) spent a wonderful 1-1/2 hours paddling and walking through the caves. It was really great. As far as I know, we were the only two people on the ship that got to go into any caves that day.

 

Then we had lunch INSIDE the resort's air-conditioned restaurant. (The ship's tour ate outside; we all had the same food, though.) On the drive back Cynthia took us into a local store and helped us pick out some local products (cashew wine, honey, spices) to take home. We got back to the ship with 2 hours to spare. The ship's tour got back about 1/2 hour before we did, and they didn't get to do half the stuff we did. They did get a partial refund, at least, since the caves were closed.

 

Even if there had been more people in our group, we still would have been back in plenty of time. I was SOOOO glad we went with Nacho & Cynthia. E-mail him at nacho_cynthia@yahoo.com and he'll answer any questions you have. Tell him Boo sent you; he'll remember me.

 

The only hassle was getting off the ship on the first tender. After arguing with the purser the night before for about an hour, we finally just went to the theatre early that morning (6:45 for a 7:00 arrival in Belize) and waited until they called the ship's combo tour (they call them by code: listen for BEAD) and just got in line with those people. They all had stickers on their shirts; we didn't, but no one questioned us and we just walked right onto the first tender.

 

DAY 6: COZUMEL

 

We had booked the Tucan Sailing Adventure (www.cozumelsailing.com) and were really looking forward to a day on the water, good food, snorkeling, and hopefully parasailing off the spinnaker sail on the way back. But unfortunately it was raining in the morning so the trip was cancelled. We had taken a taxi to the marina where the Tucan is docked, but once the trip was off, we walked back along the main street. It was about 3 miles, and we stopped at some of the shops (Los Cinco Soles really is the nicest store) and saw the destruction all along the waterfront that Wilma caused. They've done a lot of cleanup work, but have a lot of reconstruction ahead of them. I was disappointed that we didn't really get to do anything fun in Cozumel; but once our scheduled trip was cancelled, I didn't really remember what other places were open or closed since Wilma so we just did our little bit of shopping and went back to the ship.

 

DAY 7: AT SEA

 

The last day at sea was the only day of our cruise that was clear and sunny the entire day. We enjoyed lounging in the beach chairs behind the fitness center/spa (they were the most comfortable chairs on the ship) and we spent lots of time at the rock wall. I went to the towel folding demonstration which is a talent I never knew I needed, but now I am determined to learn how to make some of the creatures.

 

We had to have our bags outside our staterooms by 11 pm that night, which wasn't a problem. We had brought two carry-on's with wheels, which we packed with whatever we thought we'd need the next morning. Then the rest of our luggage was gone and we didn't have to worry about it until we were off the ship.

 

DISEMBARKING:

 

We had to vacate our staterooms by 8 am the last morning. We went to the dining room for breakfast about 7:40 am and were seated at the last available table. and by 7:45 am there was a line out the door and people were waiting up to an hour to get seated. They called our group to disembark before we had been served, but we went ahead and enjoyed breakfast and then proceded to exit the ship. There was a long line just off the gangway, and it took almost an hour to get through customs, get our luggage, and board the bus to the airport. As mentioned earlier, it is $18/person for the ship/airport transfer, and we saw drivers with signs offering $8/person as we exited the ship. There were plenty of taxis available, too ($20/car). As it was, we were close to the last ones to board our bus, which was the first bus that departed. This means that the first people off the ship had been sitting on the bus waiting for the hour that it took us to get there. A taxi would have been cheaper and quicker.

 

That is the summary report of our week on the RCI "Legend of the Seas". We had a good time, will probably do it again sometime (on Royal Caribbean or another cruise line; not convinced one way or the other), but cruising will not replace our annual trips to Club Med as our vacation of choice.

[OliverTheCat]

Was the ship rocking back and forth on the day at sea that it was not raining? I am going on Legend in March and am curious as to how much Motion you feel on ship as a whole. We are also in a midship cabin.

 

Thanks so much!

[HRHMadonna]

Thanks for the great review and all the tips!!!

[48is24is1]

Great review. Thank you for taking the time to give us this information.

[campboo]

Was the ship rocking back and forth on the day at sea that it was not raining? I am going on Legend in March and am curious as to how much Motion you feel on ship as a whole. We are also in a midship cabin.

 

Thanks so much!

The only day the rocking was at all a problem was that first day at sea, when we were in the middle of a storm of some sort. That day, the water in the pool was sloshing around so much it was spilling up over the sides and you got swept from one end of the pool to the other with the waves. The rest of the days, the pool was perfectly calm. I could always feel the boat swaying a little when we were up on Deck 9 in the Windjammer, but I got used to it. I could feel the movement a little when we were in bed at night, but it didn't bother me then and I slept really well.

 

Have a blast...

[wolfcathorse]

Its too bad you had to argue with the Pursers, what ever happened to the saying "the customer is always right?!"

[Merion_Mom]

Ah, wolfcathorse.........customer service....... Many try very very hard to please you, but "the customer is always right" applies very few places these days, and a cruise ship is not always one of them. You'll have a great time, anyway, if you just "roll with the punches." :) :) :)

[wolfcathorse]

Yup, I always feel bad for the employees getting chewed on by customers. I worked as a CSR in an insurance office for 13 years and some people just don't listen to explanations. I found if you provide a valid plausible reason why something can't be done, the customer will be satisfied. I've never bothered a Purser, Maitre D', or Cabin Steward with a problem, as I didn't want them to think I was stupid and a pain in the #$@%. They are busy enough for low pay

[Green4me]

Boo, Great review, we sail in two weeks. reading your review is like being on board.

 

All the best,

[campboo]

I'm glad it was useful. I learned so much from these boards before we sailed, I figured it was the best way to return the favor. Have a great cruise, and don't miss the towel-folding demonstration! I intend to use my new skills to fold napkins into interesting creatures for our holiday meals. (I'll let you know how that turns out.)

[megsterl]

Im just wondering what time would you be allowed to get off the boat to be tendered in if you dont have the excurstion booked through the ship. for belize that is . thanks for you time. Meg

[campboo]

From what I could tell, they took about an hour to get all the people off the ship for RCI-sponsored excursions. Then anyone could get on a tender. They usually issue tender-tickets for those wishing to get off on their own, but in Belize and Cozumel they announced the night before that they weren't using tickets; anyone could just get in line on Deck 1 to get off the ship. And as I said, we just fell in line with the RCI-tour people and were loaded on the first tender with no hassle (other than arguing with the purser the night before).

 

BTW, coming back to the ship you just go to the same pier you arrived at and they'll check your sea-pass card and you get on the next tender. It seemed easier coming back, but we were never there for the last one; maybe that was crowded; I don't know.

 

Hope this helps.