Legend 6/29 review - long

[nybumpkin]

I'm going to split this into separate posts - it's way too long for one.... I found myself finishing my dinner last night at home by placing my silverware in the position that indicates one is finished with the meal - and then realized no one was going to take my plate for me and I'd have to clean up after myself:o . Then today I found myself turning up the radio when they played "Beyond the Sea." Even with another cruise booked, there's a level of post-cruise depression. I'm working on photos now and hope to post some shortly.

 

This was our third cruise; first was Victory from New York to Canada in 2004, then Conquest from New Orleans to the Western Caribbean in 2005, and now Legend from New York to the Eastern Caribbean. We’re a family of five: DH (45), me (46), and sons (15, 10 and 6). Last year we were chased around the Gulf of Mexico by Hurricane Dennis; aside from a storm at sailaway in New York, Mother Nature was much more cooperative this year for us.

This ended up being the cruise that almost wasn’t; I came home from work the day before sailing to find DH ready to take oldest son to the urgent care facility – seems he had been visiting a friend with several other boys and there was a pellet gun in the house. It was loaded, it fell off a table and discharged – right at son’s eye. He ended up seeing the eye doctor both that evening and first thing the next morning; doctor wanted us to cancel the cruise “just in case,” although he thought there was no serious damage. We decided to go ahead with the trip; while son had pain and redness the first few days of the cruise, it did get better. Off to the ophthalmologist next week, though….

Embarkation: We arrived at the pier around 11:30 and were aboard a little after 12:30. Parking is easy (albeit expensive). Yes, there are lines for boarding, but they move. Sailing out of New York is much less stressful for us than flying to another port, but it does limit us a bit. We’ll have to bite the bullet and fly the next time we want to sail the Caribbean. While we were scheduled to sail at 4:00, there was a “Code Bright Star” called around 3:00 – apparently a passenger collapsed and died on the Lido deck, with the resulting necessary delay. Not a great start to a cruise – but I can only imagine what the poor person’s family was going through. We finally sailed around 7:30 – just as we were finishing the early dinner seating.

Cabins: We booked one 8A guarantee and one inside guarantee for the five of us, and received two 8B balconies – 5136 and 5254. The upgrade from inside to balcony was very nice. The cabins weren’t adjacent, but at least we were all on the same deck – last year, we had a balcony on deck 9 and an OV on deck 1. Although the cabins had the identical layout, I preferred 5136; while it was above a lifeboat, it did not have the vibration that 5254 had as a result of being aft. (More on that later.) However, 5254’s balcony tended to stay drier. We had great stewards, especially Fortune, who was in charge of the boys’ cabin.

Dining: We had early seating in the dining room. As was the case last year, I found that 5:45 is just a bit too early for me; I prefer the 6:15 seating that is offered on ships with two dining rooms. However, the Spirit-class ships don’t have that option, and with 3 kids an 8:15 seating isn’t practical. We were fortunate enough to meet someone who was one of the highlights of our cruise: Achmad, our headwaiter. Truly the best server we’ve had on a cruise, this man was amazing. Great personality, doted on the kids, offered dinner suggestions, brought out extra dishes. He worked very well with Chandra, his assistant – when we asked to take his picture with the kids, he made sure to find a time when she was free to join in the photo. He also worked the Lido grill at lunch, and our kids reached the point where they went to the grill just to see Achmad. Dining room food was generally very good; we never went to The Golden Fleece. If you are thinking of going, though, my suggested nights for reservations would be the second sea day, San Juan day if you’re on board, or Tortola day – I thought those menus were weaker than others. (Tortola day does have the Beef Wellington if you’re into that, though.) There were several occasions when I wanted two appetizers instead of one appetizer and a salad, and Achmad was more than willing to make the substitution. I especially like the soups; I had lobster bisque, pumpkin soup, and the wild mushroom soup. Bar service – Tatiana brought several cans of soda for the kids every night, enough to take back to the room with us. DH ordered his favorite, a rum gimlet with “a BIG wedge of lime” – and she came back with a drink decorated all around the rim with wedges of limes!

Lido dining for breakfast and lunch was fine; breakfast is the standard fare. Hot and cold cereals, pastries, fruit, scrambled eggs, home fries, bacon, Canadian bacon, sausage, pancakes/French toast, and omelets made to order. Good thing I’m not due for a cholesterol check. Lunch provided the options of the grill, deli, pizza, Chinese, salad bar, carving station, and “Taste of Nations.” The latter varies by day; I saw Italian, Caribbean, French, Indian, American, Mexican and Greek. For American day, there was New England clam chowder served in a bread bowl – very good. I also liked the fried wontons and the wonton soup at the Chinese station. A word of caution about Tortola day: since everyone gets back to the ship around 1:00, everyone hits the Lido restaurant at the same time. We ended up sitting at some unused bar stools; there were no tables to be found. If I had known, I would have ordered room service.

[nybumpkin]

Activities: We managed to come home with three – count them, three – ships on a stick for playing trivia. We’ll display them right alongside the one we have from Conquest. Now I just have to win one on Victory. We didn’t participate in the horse races, but it was fun to watch people going around the ship with their dressed-up horses on display. (One horse, “High Heels,” occupied his/her own seat in the dining room a few tables away from us.) Generally we followed a routine: breakfast, get the kids off to Camp Carnival, morning trivia, sit on deck with coffee/tea and either play cards or people-watch, lunch, take kids swimming, either do an afternoon activity or enjoy some “down time” on our balcony, dinner, kids back to Camp Carnival, then evening activity. On the last full sea day there was a galley tour; if you have the opportunity to take the tour, it’s well worth it. The cruise director is Jake Covey; he and his staff did a very good job with the deck activities. There was lots of very good music; Kolorz was the deck band and we liked their afternoon music, and in the evening we liked the Michael Skinner jazz trio in the Odyssey Lounge. Past guest party was on Tortola night at 5:00; much like the Captain’s reception (see below). There was a good deck party for sailaway from San Juan at midnight (although I paid the price for having tacos and blue margaritas that late at night).

Formal nights: They were scheduled for the first and third sea days (first full day out and day after Tortola). The Captain’s cocktail party was held in the Follies Lounge, the main showroom. I liked the party in the aft lounges on Victory and Conquest better – less like watching a show – but it was fun. Youngest son filled up on meatballs and ate very little dinner after that. While there were lots of appetizers, drinks seemed to be in shorter supply. We managed to pick a spot in the lounge where the servers seemed to run out of drinks. (Hint: go as far forward in the lounge as you can; the servers seemed to start at that end and work their way to the rear, so by the time they’re back a few rows there’s not much left on the serving trays.) I thought people dressed well; I saw outfits that would work for formal nights being worn on non-formal nights. (Okay, there was one pair of jeans in the dining room on the second formal night….) There was also the group that apparently didn’t understand the concept of assigned seating and showed up at 6:30; despite being dressed to the nines, they were politely invited to dine on the Lido deck. DH and the boys wore tuxes and were certainly in the minority, but by no means the only tuxes in sight.

Shows: We made it to four of the main shows: “Take II” and “Jazz Hot,” the two main production shows, “Swinging with the Stars,” a tribute to Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra, and Roger Homefield, a multi-instrument musician. “Swinging with the Stars” was particularly good (and not just because our 6 YO was onstage with the other Camp Carnival kids to help sing “Candy Man”). I liked “Take II” better than “Jazz Hot”; I guess I just liked the movie theme better.

[nybumpkin]

Ports: We arrived in San Juan around 1:00 (rather than the scheduled 3:00) and were off the ship by 2:00. This was a difficult port to plan, given the scheduled arrival time and limited activities that worked for kids (can’t take them to the Bacardi plant, and somehow I can’t imagine them enjoying flamenco dancing); we ended up walking on our own up to Fort San Cristobal (shorter walk than El Morro), then around Old San Juan and back to the ship. The restaurants in town all seemed crowded, so we opted for dinner on the ship, then took the younger sons to Camp Carnival and took oldest son off the ship with us for another walk; after returning to the ship, we watched Carnival Destiny and Adventure of the Seas leave port for the Southern Caribbean.

St. Thomas: We booked Godfrey’s tour a number of months ago; while the price of the tour had increased from $20 to $25 per person in the meaning, he honored the original price. Godfrey himself was not available this day, but our driver Reynaldo was very good. There were about 15 people in the group, most from Carnival Destiny. We had two hours of shopping in Charlotte Amalie, about 1 ½ hour tour of the island, and then went to Coki Beach. We actually spent our time there at Coral World, which the kids really enjoyed (especially when they got to touch a shark). The underwater observation area is really fun. Godfrey’s tour is well worth $25 per person, and I highly recommend it.

Tortola: We booked the Virgin Islands Sailaway through Carnival – the only excursion we booked through the ship, largely because (a) our time in Tortola was so limited and (b) I really didn’t see anything comparable being offered privately. This was a great excursion – a short bus ride to a marina where we boarded a 50’ catamaran for the sail to Norman Island, across the Sir Francis Drake Channel. There, we had the opportunity to snorkel directly from the boat, then motored around to a beach where we had another opportunity to swim and snorkel. The catamaran ride alone was well worth going on this excursion. While the listed time for the excursion is 4 hours, we ended up taking over 5 hours due to propeller problems – all the more reason I was glad we booked through the ship.

Camp Carnival/Club O2: Once again, younger sons had a great time with Camp Carnival. Youngest son was in the 6-8 group, middle son in the 9-11 group. A lot of the activities have really expanded and improved since we first cruised two years ago – H2Ocean, ExerSeas, Edu-Cruise, and Sea-Notes among them. My only complaint about Camp Carnival on this particular cruise was that our kids’ age groups moved between Noah’s Ark (deck 5 forward) and Medusa’s Lair (deck 2 aft). We spent a fair amount of time running from one end of the ship to the other to drop off or collect kids; it would have been easier on us if they used one of the forward lounges on deck 2 for some of the activities.

We joked that oldest son seemed to be taking a separate vacation – he spent a lot of time with the teens in Club O2. I think we saw him for dinner and when we went on shore excursions. He stayed up late and slept in every morning – life doesn’t get better for a teenager! It doesn’t show on the deck plans, but the Club O2 room is on deck 10 forward, near the spa. Son had a sticker on his S&S card to indicate that he was registered for ClubO2; apparently, they did have both older and younger teens who tried to get in, but I gather they were fairly successful in enforcing the 15-17 age limits.

[nybumpkin]

Miscellaneous: A few thoughts and observations about this cruise and the Legend….

- Unfortunately, we never met up with our fellow CCers. For those future cruisers that have settled on a 10:30 meeting time the first night at the piano bar, think again: it’s the same time as the Welcome Aboard Show. (There’s only one show.) The piano bar was practically empty at that time. Ellen and Mike, G&D, and Sassy, I’m sorry! We probably would have done better to try to plan something for the first or second sea day, during the afternoon. Hope you had a great cruise!

-

- The aft pool and hot tub are labeled “adults only,” and the rule was well enforced. After the second day, I never saw a kid in the pool. It was nice being able to have a kid-free pool while still being able to keep an eye on our kids up at the waterslide above. The other pools and hot tubs were full of kids.

- Deck chairs were in very short supply, unless you went to deck 10 forward or aft of the pool area. It was even hard getting a table under the covered areas near the pools. While I liked the more traditional Lido deck layout, as compared to the stadium seating on the Destiny and Conquest class ships, Legend seemed much more crowded.

- The cigar bar on Legend is in an open lounge on deck 3, and I know it bothered some folks to have to walk by this area. The placement of the cigar bar in a closed lounge on deck 4 (a deck that does not go through) on Victory and Conquest was preferable in my view.

- DH and I both found problems with the flow on deck 2, particularly when a large number of people are exiting the Follies lounge (compounded when the sushi bar is open – there was always a crowd there) and in the atrium on formal nights. The photo stations on Victory and Conquest seemed to interfere less with movement from one end of the ship to the other. However, Legend had a number of nice, comfortable sitting areas on deck 2 – that’s where we usually went to play cards in the morning.

- It was nice to be able to go from one end of the ship to the other on any deck, as compared to Victory and Conquest where decks 3 and 4 are split by the galley.

- I noticed significantly more vibration aft on Legend when traveling at speed (generally 22 knots) than I did on Victory or Conquest, particularly in the dining room. It was also noticeable in our cabin on deck 5.

- In-room movies were An Unfinished Life, Domino, and Ice Age. The “Big-Screen Movie” in the Firebird Lounge on Tortola day was “Lord of War.”

- The infamous urns are a bit over the top; I liked the atriums on Victory and Conquest better. The Unicorn Café was very nicely decorated, though, and I liked the layout of the dining room better than the dining rooms on Victory and Conquest.

In sum, this was an excellent cruise and we would sail Legend again in an instant. Which is my favorite ship? I’ve liked all I’ve been on – Victory, Conquest and Legend – and I don’t think I could pick a favorite. Each ship has its strengths and weaknesses. I guess I’d have to say that my favorite ship is whatever ship I’m booked on! Next up: Victory on August 31 – a long Labor Day weekend away from home!

[silentbob007]

Thanks for the review. Very thorough.

[lhall85917]

Thanks so much for the great review. I'm in the process of gathering as much info on the Legend as I can and this really helped!!:D

[janetz]

Excellent! :D

[perkyblue]

Thanks so much for the review! It was great to relive last month's cruise for a few minutes!

 

I'm glad to hear they're apparently doing a better job of keeping kids out of the adult pool and hot tub. I had to kick some kids out of there a couple of times during my cruise.

[bobbyfk]

Thanks so much for the great review. I'm in the process of gathering as much info on the Legend as I can and this really helped!!:D

yep. same here. Great review!

[G & D]

Very good review. I left my spouse and group and was at the Piano Bar at 10:30 the first night. Not many people in lounge and Alex did not do anything to impress me, although she sang some Billy Joel for me as I am from Long Island. My group had a blast. Many were first timers and they cannot wait to cruise again. In addition to those I was already scheduled to be with, my wife's brother and his wife supprised us by walking into my cabin as we sailed out of New York. Very pleasant surprise. My wife enjoyed the trip even more having both her sister and brother on the cruise. The only negatives (if you wish to call them negatives) is that the ship did rock more than usual and those deck chairs need to be improved upon. I spent time each day helping fellow passengers putting the supports in the chairs so that they can adjust (up or down). Other than that I truly had a great time and it was most enjoyable. Kathy if you happend to have purchase the CD of the cruise or if you saw it on your cabin's TV, I am the one that was in the hairy chest contest with "Legend Rocks" written on my chest - yes the one with NO hair. My wife won Jeapody (ship on stick) and I along with several of my friends participated in the Sea Feud (aka - famly feud).

[campdaan]

Legend is a great Ship. Thanks for the review.

[Lisa0719]

Kathy,

 

Thanks for pointing me to your review from our Victory board. You've sold me, I think I will have to book. I was thinking May 07, but the rates for Sept 07 are just too good to pass up (we are military rate!). I'll have to find something else for late winter/spring 07. Thanks again.

 

Lisa

[lhall85917]

Kathy,

 

Thanks for pointing me to your review from our Victory board. You've sold me, I think I will have to book. I was thinking May 07, but the rates for Sept 07 are just too good to pass up (we are military rate!). I'll have to find something else for late winter/spring 07. Thanks again.

 

Lisa

 

The reviews I've seen of this ship have all been very favorable, can't wait to go!! Lisa, we don't have pricing yet for our June CC group, but you might want to check them out when they come in - we'd love to have you join us! :p

[nybumpkin]

Kathy if you happend to have purchase the CD of the cruise or if you saw it on your cabin's TV, I am the one that was in the hairy chest contest with "Legend Rocks" written on my chest - yes the one with NO hair.

And it did rock - literally and figuratively! We made the video as well - the couple in tux and cocktail dress dancing on stage during the Captain's cocktail party. We suitably embarrassed our 15 YO! Glad you had a great time.

[Sassy5]

My family and I were on this cruise also. We had a blast. We were in a wrap around aft cabin on deck 8 -- it was fabulous. We practically lived on the balcony. The Legend is a beautiful ship with a fantastic staff. Our cabin steward (David) and his assistant (Arnello) were the best as were our head waiter (Rex) and his assistant (Inor).

 

We went to the Piano Bar at 10:30 but didn't see anyone so we went to see the show instead of hanging around. It's a shame that we didn't get a chance to meet one another.

 

I had read a lot on these boards about the vibrations on this ship and everything I read was true. Yikes!! But everything else about this ship is fantastic and I would sail on her again in a New York minute.

[cruzindad]

Thanks for the great review. We are sailing in 3 weeks and can't wait. Will post a review and pictures when we return.

[luvbunny]

I and my two daughters (16 and 9) were on the legend for the 6/21 cruise. I have the second the posters about the waitstaff and cabin steward. Yes, we had Achmed as our waiter AND David as our cabin steward. They were wonderful--very accomodating.

[jefarl]

I'm leaving on the legend this sunday but embarkation time is 2:30pm.

 

Just to confirm that your itenerary was the same time but they let you on board as early as 12:30??

 

I live in NYC so would love to get on board as early as possible!!!

 

Thanks for any inside tips on this subject

[janetz]

Yes!!!!:d

[nybumpkin]

jefarl - Our boarding time was listed on our tickets as 1:30-3:30, but you can board early. The cabins aren't ready until 1:30, but lunch will be served on the Lido deck. When we disembarked around 10:30, there was already a good number of folks waiting (more or less patiently;) ) to board. I wouldn't recommend getting there much before 11.

[vincenzo0506]

Kathy,

 

Thanks for the great review. I am sailing on the Legend on 9/01. I was wondering what the name of the charter company was or the name of the catamaran you took to Norman Island from Tortola.

 

Thanks,

 

vincenzo:)

[grandsix]

Can you give a rough guess breakdown on how people dressed on formal nights? Tux., suits, sports jacket, dresses, pants suits etc. Thanks

[nybumpkin]

Kathy,

 

Thanks for the great review. I am sailing on the Legend on 9/01. I was wondering what the name of the charter company was or the name of the catamaran you took to Norman Island from Tortola.

Vincenzo - Not sure of the charter company, but the catamaran was "No Fear."

[nybumpkin]

Can you give a rough guess breakdown on how people dressed on formal nights? Tux., suits, sports jacket, dresses, pants suits etc. Thanks

I saw a mix of everything. Overall, I would say that most women wore dresses of one variety or another - there were a few in gowns, more in cocktail dresses, and others in wear-to-a-wedding dresses. A few pant suits, and some fairly casual dresses. Among men, there were some tuxes (certainly no more than 5-10%, and that includes my DH and sons) and the remainder were fairly split between suits and sport coats with ties. There were some men without jackets, but again the exception not the rule.

[vincenzo0506]

Vincenzo - Not sure of the charter company, but the catamaran was "No Fear."

 

Thanks! I saw the Legend coming in this morning at about 8:30am. Right on schedule. 5 more Fridays and I'll be there. Can't wait.

 

vincenzo:)