Legend of the Seas---Live!

Service has been excellent, food good, except pork chops one night, which were tough, but word to head waiter, who had heard same story from more than us, really cared to know.

Weather has been quite windy, but warm and humid in ports. Today is a little chilly.

Really enjoyed being in Puerto Vallarta until 11PM, and had deck party buffet at sail away.

For being Diamond member,received chocolate covered strawberries one night delivered to cabin and the usual robes, which are the nice thick and fluffy kind. Also had Plat. and Diamond party this morning with free drinks, and food. And in coupon book, each of us got 20 min. free Internet access.

Inside room was compact, but functunal and had plenty of floor space to move around for our tastes.

Will write more detail upon returning, and after we get settled back in to our hum drum, non cruise life, Sunday.

Wanted to post this for all those cruisers going on the Legend in the next few weeks, especially those on the upcoming June 13th cruise!

Sheila

Likes to cruise twice as much for half the price.

Thanks Sheila. The 13th will be my daughter's honeymoon cruise. I'm excited for them. Enjoy what's left of yours.

Dave S.

My cruise isn't until sept but am anxiously awaiting your review. especially interested in the excursions you took.

Diane

Explorer of the Sea 12/5/04

Legend of the Sea 9/12/04

Voyager of the Sea 8/24/03

Sovereign of the Sea 07/01

Thanks for the update Sheila, we are almost packed and ready for the 13th. Was the first sea day very cold? Looking forward to talking to you upon our return over at our thread. Keep it active so we can find it when we return.

Mike

Legend of the Seas

June 13, 2004

Sheila,

Welcome back. Hopefully you had a wonderful time. We are looking foward to your review.

If anyone is interestred in seeing the Legend of the Seas in port in San Diego today, here is the link:

http://live6.truelook.com/face/newface.jsp?name=/ecodb/1amnorth&func=live&overlay=default

use the tools to zoom in/out.

Ed.

Legend of the Seas June 27th, 2004

M&M Board: for June 27th http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?q=Y&s=927093444&a=tpc&m=457106342&f=1683059817

Sheila:

Thank you for the report, while our cruise is not until October 17th we have not seen much about the Legend lately. We have sailed on other Vision Class ships and found them lovely. The Splendour, Vision and Grandeur.

Have a wonderful time and let us hear your full report when you come home.

<img src=http://www.wtv-zone.com/snowgirl98/geocities/images3/dom_lips.gif>

Well, boo hiss, we are now on our home turf in San Diego and busy doing laundry. What fun!

Once I have settled down a little I'll try and compose a few tidbits and highlights. Not very good at a full blown trip report, as I tend to get a little wordy, but I see the request about shore excursions, and we did take two that we had never done before, so will cover them, however remember we are kind of sedate people so our shore excursions are not riding horses or flying in the air or swinging from trees, so may not be of interest to those that like that kind of stuff.

Back later.

Sheila

Likes to cruise twice as much for half the price.

cruisldy; thanks for any information that you can give us on the ship we leave on September 5th and can hardly wait.

Our group is the kind that will be swinging from the tree tops and horseback riding but will be interested to hear your views.

We will be waiting.

Nordic Empress 3/03

Star Princess 10/03

Legend of the Seas 9/04

Parents 60th Anniversary Cruise

Dawn Princess 11/04 Thanksgiving Cruise with Family

HI! What shape is the ship in?

How is the mini golf course? Is it free on the Legend class too?

1/01 NCL Majesty

1/02 NCL Majesty

1/03 RCCL Brilliance of the Seas

3/03 Carnival Jubilee

8/03 RCCL Navigator Of the Seas

1/04 RCCL Adventure of the Seas

3/04 RCCL Radiance of the Seas

8/15/04 Rhapsody of the Seas

14 DAY LEGEND OF THE SEAS PANAMA CANAL CRUISE (12/26/04)

3/12/05 SPRING BREAK on the GRAND PRINCESS

7 DAY WESTERN ON THE EXPLORER (5/22/05)

Sheila,

Did you take (or did you hear anything about) the pirate ship in P.V.? Since we are going with kids, we were thiking that wold be fun. How about beach recommendations?

Thanks.

Ed.

Legend of the Seas June 27th, 2004

M&M Board: for June 27th http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?q=Y&s=927093444&a=tpc&m=457106342&f=1683059817

oh, I forgot to ask you...

How about dress? What % of the men wore tuxes vs. dark suit vs. anyhting else on formal nights?

How about drinks? Should we bring a couple bottles of wine and pay the corkage fee?

Did you use or did you notice how babysitting worked? We would like to have a babysitter most nights to watch our younger ones.

Thanks,

Ed.

Legend of the Seas June 27th, 2004

M&M Board: for June 27th http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?q=Y&s=927093444&a=tpc&m=457106342&f=1683059817

Hoopster, The ship is in fairly good shape. I noticed that most of the public area hall carpet seemed to have been replaced fairly recently, although, since never having sailed here before, I just judged this by the way the carpet looked, without soil and it just looked new.

Stair banisters were always being polished and always shiney. Windows also seemed fairly clean, as clean as you can keep them at sea.

However our cabin, which was an inside, did look a little more used, with a few stains here and there.

The mini golf course is "free" and although we had planned to try it out, never did make it. Too much other stuff going on. I did see a few people using it however, but was told since it is on a top deck, during sailing it tends to be a little windy. But hey, if it's free, why not try it out. What we did notice was however, was the, and I don't know what you call the area, not being a golfer, but from the putting area to the hole, was not a flat surface, as in regular land based putt, putt golf, but rather sort of a textured surface. Don't know how this might effect your game, but my husband noticed this right off and thought it might. It's not a defect, but the design.

dcourt, We actually talked to a few people that did, what I think was called the Canope tour in PV and they loved it. Rode in offroad type vehicles and then what they called the Tarzan thing where they went from tree to tree on ropes. They had their 11 year old Grandson with them and since he loves trees they thought it would be a good excursion for him and they were right, he did well swinging in those trees, so they said.

One day at lunch, talked with a couple and their young child who were going to do the dolphin swim and were quite exited about it. Didn't see them after so don't know how they did.

Hubby and I have been on 28 cruises in the past 15 years, and a lot to the Mexican Riviera, so have taken most city tours and the Cabo glass bottom boat tour already, so I am always on the lookout for something new. Well this time I found two! In Cabo, we took the Pacific Highlights tour, which busses you along the coast on the way to San Jose Del Cabo, stopping at a high point along the route which is very pretty, then continued on to San Jose Del Cabo for a visit to a church and what I call the obligatory shopping on all Mexican tours. I found that the shops in this town, which by the way is about 30 miles from Cabo San Lucas, did not bargain as much, as it took me 3 shops before I found a deal on T's, which I always buy for my Grandchildren. In fact two of the shops even let me walk out, after they didnt' get their asking price, which is unheard of in the past in Mexico. I finally found one young man in a shop who would bargain and when he came within the price, he made the sale.

Our new tour in Mazatlan was to the Pacifico Brewery. I had posted on CC regarding a tour here as I noticed that RCL did have it listed and we had seen this many times from the pier on other cruises but didn't know if it had tours. A person who is the guide for these tours, answered my questions in the thread and we did indeed purchase the tour and Frank, was our guide.

We were taken in a trolly, rather than air conditioned van, because it's only like a 10 minute ride from the pier. Since the safety regulations to tour the brewery require that you wear no opened toed shoes and must were long pants, and it was quite warm that day, that was the only downside to this tour. But I love to see actual working things, rather than just pictures to look at or museums of what factories make, as I feel you get the true flavor of it. Well, this was a working brewery and we walked right amongst the workers and even had to wear safety glasses when we went into the bottling part of the tour. It was really interesting in my opinion to see how many bottles of beer are filled and labeled in a time frame, that we were there. We then went up to the top floor of the factory, which has the most beautiful 360 view, from old Mazatlan to the "Golden Zone" and all shores in between. We were offered free full size samples of the beer, although I don't like beer, so I had bottled water, which was also offered.

From there, which Frank says is a new addition to the tour, is a ride up the hill by old Mazatlan and a stop at the top for, what else, obligitory shopping. However I did find something here to my liking. I love to buy somehting I see being made and up on this lookout was an artist who was painting tiles with local scenes, and they were a very reasonable $4, but we gave the artist $5 because to me it was a value. I don't buy trinkets that are stamped out on machines and if you turn them over say "made in some other country" When I go to Mexico, I want to buy from local artisans of the city I am in.

Well, got to go put in another load of laundry. Hope this has helped answer a few of your questions.

Sheila

Likes to cruise twice as much for half the price.

Cruzor,

The pirate ship you are referring to, was not there this time. It was reported, from other cruisers, that the ship is in drydock for some much needed refurbishment. However I don't know how long it will be gone, so maybe the folks coming back from the 13th or 20th cruise can tell you if it is back before you leave.

Sorry to say, well no I'm not, that we are not beach people. I lived most of my younger years near the cold beaches of Washington state, and I got enough of it then. Now I will clarify that sand between my toes is OK, as long as I happen to be on a beach, such as Hawaii, but to go to one to enjoy what it has to offer is not what I do. I am sure, once again that the others coming back next Sunday can probably tell you more, since they seem to be a hrrrph, much younger group of board folks than myself. Not that I'm old, just not in my prime. So stay tuned.

As for dress, my husband never did buy a tux and has always worn a dark suit, which has always satisfied the rules of formal nights. Did notice a few tuxes so if you have one bring it, if you don't want to pack it, a dark suit with accesories will do fine. Also didn't see any kilts this cruise, but have in the past.

I don't know how you will be arriving, but just in my opinion, save the packing of the bottles of wine, and the corkage fee and just buy onboard. Since my husband didn't drink wine at dinner this time, I really didn't have a chance to look at the wine menu or prices, but did notice a lot of folks purchasing it at dinner. The reason I say don't pack is because is because it is extra weight and possibility of breakage is greater. However if you are talking a special bottle from your cellar, than by all means, do bring it. Not being a wine consseseur myself, I would say it's your choice.

You know, this cruise had a lot of wee one on it and not so wee, in betweeners. More so than we have noticed on any other cruise we have been on, so I'm sure they must have had a run on child care requests. However did not talk to anyone that used the service and since we have only grown children and non have cruised with us, I can't tell you about anything pertaining to that service. Sorry.

Sheila

Likes to cruise twice as much for half the price.

How was the food and service in the dining room?

How to put this. We are not into gourmet food, so we found it to our liking. It was served timely, and hot. The menu items for dinner always included a fish, beef, and pasta dish. One night they had pork chops, which my husband ordered. However I thought that was a strange menu item to offer and it turned out to be right on the money, as these chops were about an inch thick and tough. The Head Waiter got wind of this somehow and started asking those that had them how they were. We told him straight out and he said he suspected as much as some had mentioned that they were great and he asked for the truth and then they admitted that there's were tough as well. I'm sorry, but my brain must still be on vacation because I don't remember in detail all the dinner items I ate.

I do know, because I had two, that lobster tails were served on the last formal night and they were the best I had ever had on all of my 28 cruises. Sweet and tender, but not fishy or mushy. All the tables around us, that ordered the lobster had seconds, they were that good.

I saw no "ranch steak", however they may have renamed it, because there was a steak of some sort on the menu one night and hubby had it and I remember from a description here that it looked a little like maybe "ranch steak".

And one night my husband ordered a so called steak from the menu the first night, but when it was delivered it sure had the appearance of prime rib. And I know prime rib because I usually order it. Other's at the table shared my opinion.

The breakfast and lunch menu in the dining room are always the same, with the normal breakfast fare, with the exception of eggs benedict, which I had three morning in a row, as I love them.

The lunch menu has some sort of sandwich wrap, which was reported by one of the guests we sat with to be very good, always a soup, one day cream of broccoli and always a special, which I had one day, being a BBQ chicken sandwich and the last day the special was BBQ ribs.

The deserts were one night peach flambe for example and always an ice cream and sherbet, not sorbet, of the day, every day a different flavor. One night I had a banana cream pie that was very good.

If you go with a meat and potatoes but served with a flare type hunger you will find something to your liking. If you are a gourmet diner you may not.

Just as an example, as much as I loved our Celebrity Mercury New Year's cruise, I was hard pressed to find a menu item that, at least in the name on the menu that I could say, yes, this I would like. However on the Legend of the Sea menu, I could have ordered several and one night did indeed have two appetizers.

The service was quite good. We never had a wait for the food to be delivered and our assistant was super, because on the first night we told her that my husband and I like coffee before and with our meal and every night that cup and coffee were served before we even ordered.

Hope this helps a little and remember this is just my opinion.

Sheila

Likes to cruise twice as much for half the price.

I noticed you were on Legend in 12/04. How was it?

HI! What shape is the ship in?

 

How is the mini golf course? Is it free on the Legend class too?

 

1/01 NCL Majesty

1/02 NCL Majesty

1/03 RCCL Brilliance of the Seas

3/03 Carnival Jubilee

8/03 RCCL Navigator Of the Seas

1/04 RCCL Adventure of the Seas

3/04 RCCL Radiance of the Seas

 

 

8/15/04 Rhapsody of the Seas

 

14 DAY LEGEND OF THE SEAS PANAMA CANAL CRUISE (12/26/04)

 

3/12/05 SPRING BREAK on the GRAND PRINCESS

 

 

7 DAY WESTERN ON THE EXPLORER (5/22/05)