LEGEND Dec 23/13 Holiday Cruise Long Review (with Disney comparisons)

Hi,

 

Thank you for continuing the great review!!! :)

We plan to snorkel as well when we are on our Caribbean cruise in Spring 2014!

Do you have some recommendations for Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua and St Maarten?

 

Maybe you also describe it later in your Review. :)

I will be reviewing Barbados, Antigua and St Maarten......we did not go to St Lucia we went to Grenada which I am almost finished and will post soon.

Grenada

We were in Grenada from 1:00 to 8:00 and there were two ships in port. Grenada is a mountainous, lush island and the view from the ship was fantastic.

Unfortunately, we did not take a view from the ship but here is one we took of the Legend…..

JNJ Tours

Again after researching a few different choices we went with JNJ Tours which is run by Stan Grainger. Everything was organized through email. We had an amazing day!

So the nuts and bolts…

Time – 1:30 - your choice (as he drops and waits for you at the beach and returns you to the ship when requested)

Cost - $50 per person (you pay cash at the end of the tour), please note that at the different stops there are entrance fees, this $50 covers all entrance fees, Stan will pay when you enter

A suggestion – take some small bills with you to tip along the way (you will see why soon)

Meeting Time and Location – between 1:00 – 1:30 in the port terminal, he is there with a JNJ Tour sign, we then walked out to the parking lot to his van (new and air conditioned). We were the only ones on the tour, his van can hold 10.

During the drive around the island Stan talked nonstop about the island of Grenada that he loves so much, we had a lot of questions to ask and he answered them all.

Ken loved taking photos here so I will use the photos to explain the day…….

On our drive to our first location ……

More Grenada to come….

Annandale Waterfall

We stopped here to walk down to the waterfall. At the entrance, there are many “opportunities” to tip, on this day there were ladies with baskets of fruit on their head, a man with drums and man with a monkey. You can take a photo with them and a tip is expected. Usually, you say no thank you and they won’t bother you. The monkey is trained to jump on your shoulder so we did take a photo with the monkey. We were sad to see the big chain on the monkey’s leg, but this was good life lesson for our girls.

Notice the white Target t-shirt!!

A short walk to a beautiful and peaceful Annandale Waterfall. There are men at the falls that will jump in, for $5, we said no thank you. A family came over to ask if we had $1 to add so we could have a man jump, what’s $1 for a little bit of entertainment.

One of Ken's "artistic" shots

We also purchased 2 spice necklaces as gifts here, again there will be many ladies trying to sell, a smile and a no thank you works. Another tip that I learned here on cruise critic, take some small brown paper bags with you. When we returned to our cabin, we took the spice necklaces out of the plastic bags (they really sweat in these) and put them in the paper bags for the rest of the cruise and on the way home, they were perfect.

More Grenada to come….

Spice Shop

We stopped at a little spice shop on the side (literally) of the road. The very nice shop owner explained all the spices and the process that a spice goes through from fruit to dried spice. She had many examples to show us and we could “smell” them all. There were many spices you could buy for very reasonable prices. We bought a lot of nutmeg, cinnamon, cumin and cocoa for $14.00.

More Grenada to come….

We're doing J & J as well. How much did you pay for the necklaces? I have pretty much shot myself in the foot since last year because in St Kitts there were some gorgeous necklaces and earrlings for $5. I only bought 3, they were the black lava. I am so cheap on vacation I hate to spend money. Well, once I got home I just beat myself up over it every day!! Could have been presents for my casual friends all year.

Thanks so much for taking the time to do the review, much appreciated, 3 weeks from now we'll be there....

Grand Etang Rain Forest / National Park / Volcano Lake

The drive up……

A picture is worth a thousand words……

I need to digress here a little, when getting ready to leave I saw some more spice necklaces (there are numerous people selling) that I liked, I asked the lady how much, the conversation goes like this “$5 each”….me “ok how about $4”,“no, no, these are big, $5”, “my guide told me not to pay more than $4 but I like this one so I will give you $5”….so I buy and as soon as we are done, well watch out, she walks directly over to Stan and starts to “cuss him out ” about the $4 comment, they argue back and forth, very heated, but when it is over there are laughs and hugs.

Well I am sure anyone else would feel very uncomfortable in this situation, not me, I felt right at home, actually amused…..my mom is from Guyana and if you are or know anyone from Guyana you know exactly what I am talking about, Guyana is a country in South American but really feels more like a Caribbean country (island), not sure why but it does. When my mom and my aunt get going there is no stopping them. Boy oh boy, if you wrong one of their children/grandchildren watch out you are in for an earful! Ironically the 2 spices necklaces I bought earlier are for my mom and aunt! As a side note, they grew up with a pet monkey!

So if you witness “heated” arguments when on any Caribbean island take it with a grain of salt, usually all passion no action!

More Grenada to come….

Fort Frederick

Stan will explain the history and significance of Fort Frederick, here are some photos….

More Grenada to come….

Grand Anse Beach

Your tour ends at Grand Anse beach, Stan will drop you and stay here until you are ready to return to the ship. For some reason we have no pictures of our time on the beach (I could blame Ken again!) so I will describe it. It is a large beach that has pretty views, when we were there 5 luxury (I mean luxury) yachts were out in the ocean. One even had a helicopter parked on it! The beach was busy but you could easily rent a chair for $10. I did hear from fellow cruise passengers that there were boats that would take you to and from the ship.

Photos driving to the beach……

We took this tunnel back to the ship ….

In summary, Grenada, the spice island, is picturesque and our tour was fantastic!

Next up Barbados….

We're doing J & J as well. How much did you pay for the necklaces? I have pretty much shot myself in the foot since last year because in St Kitts there were some gorgeous necklaces and earrlings for $5. I only bought 3, they were the black lava. I am so cheap on vacation I hate to spend money. Well, once I got home I just beat myself up over it every day!! Could have been presents for my casual friends all year.

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to do the review, much appreciated, 3 weeks from now we'll be there....

I would say $4.00 or $5.00 at the most. Say hi to Stan for us!

I can relate, I budget everything out on vacation, in retrospect I should have bought more spice necklaces.

thank you have enjoyed your detailed review.

Thanks!! Are the necklaces actually made of spices? Or how does that work? Either way, it's something not available here in Tucson. I'm going to be sure to bring cash and spend $4 apiece but buy a lot of them!! That way I won't be bemoaning my fate again this time next year.

I'll be sure to say hi to Stan, I think there are 12 of us going (maybe even 2 vans) from our roll call.

Thanks again for the review....

I am really enjoying your review! We are booked on Legend in 2015. Just a side note, on spice necklaces and packages...you might wish to microwave them for a minute (on high) or so, when you get home. We have an awful lot of people bringing them into our office (agriculture department) when common pantry pest beetles start crawling out of them after they sit for awhile. :)

Seriously?? OK, necklaces off of my list....

Seriously?? OK, necklaces off of my list....

Not a big deal. Just microwave them for a minute or so...kills everything. Or else use them up for cooking or grinding promptly. :D You can also store them in the freezer.

Thanks for your photo review. :):):):)

So they are not actually necklaces? Just spices? I've never been there, so I guess I'm confused...thanks!

So they are not actually necklaces? Just spices? I've never been there, so I guess I'm confused...thanks!

They are organic (temporary) products and they don't store well.(that's enough...back to the review :D)

We were in Grenada from 1:00 to 8:00 and there were two ships in port. Grenada is a mountainous, lush island and the view from the ship was fantastic.

 

Unfortunately, we did not take a view from the ship but here is one we took of the Legend…..

 

Although I am from Germany, I know which of these two ships I would book - and which one DEFINITELY NOT!! :D

I am curious Max. Which one and why?

Thanks to the OP for the wonderful review. We were on the Legend the cruise before you. We went to Labadee instead of St. Martin. I thought the ship was beautiful and loved the views of the sea from all over it.

Barbados

We were in Barbados from 7:00 to 5:00 and there were 4 ships in port.

The Boatyard

We had some costly (but well worth it excursions) so I researched a “reasonable” choice for our day in Barbados, so the Boatyard it was!

So as I started writing about Barbados I went to my photo folder and lo and behold no photos, it was a beach/water day so we left the phone on the ship. I will use my keen sense of description to explain our day. But if you really need visuals google the Boatyard and you will find lots!

So the nuts and bolts…

Time - you can stay as long as you want

We arrived around 9:30 and we got the last 2 seats on the front row of chairs, and I got the last “soft cushion” to put on my chair. They do have lots of chairs but as the day went on they did all get filled.

Cost - $15 per person which includes a chair with a shared umbrella, one free cocktail (we had rum punch and soda), free transport back to the ship, use of the facility and free Wifi.

You get a bracelet to wear to show you “belong”!

Taxi to the Boatyard - you can get plenty of taxis in front of the cruise terminal, it was $20.00 for the 4 of us and it is about a 10 minute drive

Facility - the Boatyard is a very friendly spot, the bar and restaurant is built on decking with the chairs/beach in front. There was a line at the bar all day but no longer than a 5 minute wait. As the day progressed the music from the bar got louder and livelier, around 2:00ish they have “free shooters” at the bar. In the ocean you have the use of a water trampoline, floating climbing “iceberg” (as Cassidy describes it) and a rope swing. The Boatyard seems to be the spot for crew from the ships, we saw singers/dancers from the Legend.

Beach - It is a very busy and long stretch of beach but great for tanning and people watching.

Restaurant - A suggestion when you think your family is going to be hungry, put your order in. At some points they were announcing 1 hour waits for food. The food was actually not bad, good size portions and reasonably priced. We ate the nachos (big order with lots of cheese), crab cakes (Ken liked, not the girls), chicken fingers with fries (homemade white breast meat), and samosas (homemade, a little greasy but tasty).

Swimming with Turtles - There are many offers to take a boat to snorkel with turtles. From my research on cruise critic, Neville (yellow glass bottom boat) is the best and should cost $20 per person. We had our own snorkeling gear and the Boatyard showed us where to walk/swim to see the turtles. Ken and the girls swam with 3 turtles and they were large turtles. If you do not have your own gear than Neville would be your man!

Return Ride - We left around 3:00 and they had many taxi’s waiting to fill up and return us back to the ship

In summary, we did not see “Barbados” at all but enjoyed our relaxing day in the sun!

Next up Antigua….

Your review is fantastic! I can't believe that in less than 24 hours we will be on board to start our journey. :D

Lisa

Thanks!! Are the necklaces actually made of spices? Or how does that work? Either way, it's something not available here in Tucson. I'm going to be sure to bring cash and spend $4 apiece but buy a lot of them!! That way I won't be bemoaning my fate again this time next year.

I'll be sure to say hi to Stan, I think there are 12 of us going (maybe even 2 vans) from our roll call.

Thanks again for the review....

I will be interested to know how you like Legend, we will be on Legend later in the year. Legend was our first cruise - we are also from Tucson. :D

Antigua

We were in Antigua from 10:00 to 6:00 and there were three ships in port. I have a soft spot for Antigua because my parents use to own a villa at St. James’ Club so I have spent a lot of time here.

Coconut Beach Club

I know the island quite well so I researched a great spot that I don’t think is well known. Coconut Beach Club is an all inclusive resort. Everything was organized through email (reservations@cocnutbeachclub.com) and they were always prompt with replies. They do appreciate knowing how many people will be using the facilities so they can prepare food accordingly.

So the nuts and bolts…

Time – they only give you a 10:00 start time

Cost - $50 per person, we paid $45 but it has gone up (you pay cash/credit card at check in). The price includes buffet lunch, all alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, towels, use of the pool, beach, beach loungers and tennis facilities.

Taxi to Coconut Beach – I have heard that many cab drivers may not know where the hotel is so I recommend 2 things, first make sure you say Coconut Beach Club at Yepton Estates and second, when we got off the ship we walked by numerous taxi drivers, we walked directly to the cab stand (round building) so we could talk to the dispatcher who will call out the next cab and make sure he knows where he is going. I also confirmed the price, $4.00 per person.

I need to digress here, while driving through St. John`s we did not get a very good feeling, it seems a little dangerous, which is a shame because it did used to be like this. Nothing at all happened to us, it was just that feeling you get. Interestingly, Luis (our server) warned us to stay in the tourist areas and to not stray too far!

Lunch – There is a small outside, covered restaurant, easy to get a seat. There are servers that will get you drinks from the bar and they also serve wine. It is a buffet, we had the choice of soup (sweet potatoes), green salad, apple salad (my favourite), potatoes, rice, beef stew and fried shark. For dessert there was fruit salad and pecan pie. There are no labels on the food, but as you walk in the restaurant there is a stand that has the menu for lunch on it. The food was very tasty and plenty of it, Ken described it the best as “home cooking”!

Drinks – Bartender was very nice and drinks flowed all day long. If you are taking your drink out to the beach they give you a small disposable cup so ask for two drinks. We lived on Pina Coladas and an amazing drink he suggested called Coconut Crush….so yummy!

Beach – The beach was very private, the guests from the resort seemed to come and go all day. It was not very crowded. From the Legend, there was a total of 8 of us there (no other cruisers). Chairs were easy to find and keep! There was a strong breeze all day which kept you comfortable in the sun.

Beach Pampering – There was an English lady (sorry I forget her name) who comes around to offer treatments while sitting there on your beach chair, I know amazing! I had a pedicure, hand and foot massage for $20. The other cruisers had back massages!

Pool– The girls loved having a pool for the day, they were the only ones who used it!

Internet – This was the only island that we all “checked in”, so we took 3 phones and 2 iPads with us (yes Caitlyn was deprived from technology all this time!!!). The wifi was slow, the best place was right by the check in desk.

Taxi Back –The other cruisers had their cab come back to get them at a certain time. We were not sure how long we wanted to stay. So when we were ready, the front desk called and a taxi was there in 10 minutes.

In summary, we had a relaxing day being pampered at Coconut Beach Club!

Next up St Maarten….

Small world, DW and I also enjoyed the resort.

We've reserved Coconut Beach Club for our Legend stop in March...thanks so much for "the nuts and bolts". Very helpful hints and now we really know we've made a good choice.