Carribean Jewels: Live from the Legend (sort of)

It was always my intention to write a live report from the Legend as we sailed from St Maarten to Aruba and back again. But the internet on board was incredibly slow, so I didn’t bother with it, and then I thought that some of what I had to say might be better kept until I got home. Anyway, these daily reports are written just as they were on the day and haven’t been edited much, except perhaps in the interests of concision.

This was my first Seabourn experience. The Legend, with 200 passengers, was twice as big as the ships I normally sail on. I usually go on expedition cruise ships to seriously remote places and those trips cost twice as much.

So here goes . . . I’ll be posting two or three days at a time.

23 Nov 2014: St Maarten

Before the cruise we spend two days at La Samanna in St Martin which seems a far better option than Seabourn’s hotel, the Westin Dawn Beach. La Samanna might be bracingly expensive - about $1000 a day - but it’s worth every cent.

In the afternoon we take a cab to the port and get our first sight of the Legend. It’s a handsome ship, gleaming white in the Caribbean sunshine. We are shown to our Deck 4 cabin which has a bathtub which we expressly didn’t book. Fortunately, another couple on the same deck have a step-in shower which they expressly didn’t book. So we switch cabins with a minimum amount of admin fuss. Our luggage takes a full 90 minutes to arrive. On Deck 7 the sail away party is dominated by the noisy racket of a singing group. Dinner at the Veranda is pretty average. Not a particularly promising first day.

24 Nov: Prickly Pear Island, BVI

We take a tender to the little island, which overlooks Sir Richard Branson’s house on Necker Island, currently being rebuilt after a freakish fire. On Prickly Pear Seabourn have set up a BBQ lunch and promise caviar and champagne in the surf but the small beach is fairly grotty, with murky water and lots of weed. The idea of a lunch here, surrounded by 200 other passengers, isn’t a happy prospect so we take a tender back to the ship and the main restaurant where we lunch alone on a perfectly grilled steak and a few glasses of Chilean syrah.

In the afternoon I get a receptionist to guide me through the rather arduous procedure of logging my laptop on to the ship’s internet. I buy a three-hour plan for 5c shy of $40 but when it takes more than five minutes to get the BBC homepage to feed through I get the selfsame receptionist to log me out and refund my money. I can do without the interweb for two weeks and I’m sure it can do without me.

This evening there is something called a ‘block party’ which is, apparently, a Seabourn tradition and involves standing in your corridor, drinking fizzy wine and chatting to your neighbours. I’m afraid we opt out of this as well. It's not that we're anti-social or anything; we just dislike enforced folksiness.

Dinner in the main restaurant consists of two nice starters, carpaccio and escargots, and two fishy main courses accompanied by mashed potato or wallpaper paste, I couldn’t decide which. Our doddery dining companions were from Florida, well into their their 80s and really hard work. They tell us they have booked a holiday in the UK and are intending to drive from Heathrow Airport to the Lake District. I’d avoid that road next May if I were you.

Thanks for you post,

I would strongly recommend a table for two so you are not inconvenienced by other guests again.

And stay at la samanna in future for the duration.

I do agree about the block parties,they are hideous and thankfully they do not happen on all Seabourn ships,it depends on who the cruise director is.

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Fletcher, thanks for your review. Please continue to post your experience and do not be deterred by those who might have a differing opinions. It is helpful for those of us considering whether to sail Seabourn. I also agree that nether the block party nor Caviar in the Surf is enjoyable. Good for you for returning to the ship for a "civilized" luncheon.

Caviar in the surf is a signature event for Seabourn and is featured in most of its publicity. Knowing this perhaps Seabourn is not the right fit for Fletcher.

I agree with the always wise Mr. L and avoid block parties by heading straight to the Club.

Just because i also think caviar in the surf is akin to the first day of the sales (why struggle in the surf for a tiny taste when you can order anytime?), it doesn't mean Seabourn isn't right for me!

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I agree the block parties aren't for me either, isn't it something similar to what Regent do? Anyway I also just go to the club as I find it easy enough to meet people there :).

I have to say of the three beach parties I have done Prickly Pear was my least favourite but it was a windy day with some rain and the beach.........well coming from Perth with long, white sandy beaches it was only okay. Ko Kood in Thailand was wonderful and the beach at Mayreau was pretty good as well. Mind you I'm from Australia and we love Barbecues and beaches. :D I have got some great photos........I wish I knew how to post them here. I have tried but I am technically challenged.

I am sorry you didn't enjoy your dinner with the older people but we all get older and I think "doddery" is a bit disrespectful, even if it was tongue in cheek. Good on them for still wanting to explore the world.

We have been on Seabourn a number of times. Have always enjoyed the atmosphere. Enjoyed smaller ships too. All have their good and bad points. Koo kood probably has the best beach. The staff work so hard to ensure you have a good time. I do agree though the block parties are to be avoided. As too this couple from Norfolk. By the sound of it have no worries there!!

25 Nov: Anguilla

Until yesterday I’d not tendered anything except my resignation. Then we tendered to Prickly Pear and got a bit frustrated by the whole process. First off everyone had to wait three hours while the crew set up the beach BBQ and it’s then that the ship showed some of its deficiencies - 200 people trying to find shade was an obvious problem. The sun deck and the laughable pool area are truly terrible, without shade or any trace of elegance. A bit Benidorm if you get my drift. And then it took about 90 minutes to tender everyone ashore. I’m hoping that Mayreau next week might be better.

Today it’s tendering to Anguilla - a different set of circumstances but those on ship’s excursions had priority. We’ve often fancied Anguilla and wonder why we’ve never been before so this day trip will be a sort of audition. At the dock a charming young Anguillan woman from Island Car Rental issues us with a battered Toyota Corolla Xli 1.6 and we drive the not so long length and the not so wide width of this British Overseas Territory. We explore the main township, drive north-east to the museum and then drive back down the island, stopping by at Cap Juluca and marvel at its blindingly white beach. Could we ever survive a week on this griddle? We doubt it. We drive over to Malliouhana, one of the island’s classic, seriously upscale resorts which has been recently relaunched and where we have pre-booked lunch. They serve up a fancy conch and lobster pizza. While Malliouhana has some cutting-edge design features, we decide that Anguilla isn’t really for us after all - it’s flat and boring and I suspect we would have had a far more interesting day visiting St Eustatius which was on the original itinerary of this cruise.

Getting a tender back to the ship is impressive. You just show up and they don’t bother to wait for more passengers. It’s just like having a private yacht!

Tonight is Formal Night and in this era of relaxed dress codes I’m surprised by the number of male passengers who have dressed up as waiters - I would say that half the men are wearing tuxedos. For my part, I’m wearing a jacket and an open-necked white shirt. An Englishman in a dinner jacket frowns at me with evident distaste. At the Welcome Party in the dreary King Olav Lounge, Captain Pedder, from Yorkshire, introduces us to key members of the crew. The Cruise Director is a position unknown to us; we usually have Expedition Leaders who are the fonts of all knowledge. Aaron appears to be some sort of actor-crooner and oozes insincerity from every pour.

We dine in The Veranda and dispense with the jacket immediately. The cuisine tonight is truly excellent, with pan-fried foie gras and a lobster risotto which was heavy on the lobster and light on the rice. The waiters up here are outstanding in every way.

Absolutely loving your review as we prepare for our journey in March.

Really enjoy your candor and clever wit.

Absolutely loving your review as we prepare for our journey in March.

 

 

 

Really enjoy your candor and clever wit.

Indeed,and you would not even guess that he was the President of sales and marketing for Seabourn would you?

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Just fantastic!

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26 Nov: St John’s, Antigua

We’ve been to Antigua many times, on ships and staying at resorts, and we’ve driven all over it so we’ve pre-booked a day pass at Coconut Beach Club which is a short taxi ride from the dock. Sadly, this proved to be a mistake as the resort was terribly rundown with filthy sun loungers, only partly the result of a hurricane a month ago. The guests were mainly obese smokers with tattoos. The lunch was pretty basic though the wine was OK and they didn’t stint on it. While the beach was nice and the pool was clean I would urge people to avoid this place.

We have already settled into a pleasant routine. After the sail away we retreat to our cabin, shower and change, then head up to the outside bar on Deck 8 for a Jack Daniel’s. The barman already remembers us and doesn’t ask what we’d like. At 6.30pm, we usually have this place to ourselves - where everyone else goes we don’t know. Apparently there’s a place called The Club but we haven’t found that yet.

Tonight it was dinner with another American couple who didn’t seem to remember what they had done today or where they were going tomorrow. They did know, however, that they lived in Minnesota, so that was a relief. One conversational gambit of mine was the recent, brilliant TV series Fargo. They'd never heard of it. A shame, dontcha think?

We’re beginning to dislike the main restaurant. It’s a huge space, often noisy, with dull decor and an oppressively low ceiling. The ludicrous ritual of waiters taking diners by the arm and the equally ludicrous pantomime with the giant peppermills adds to an overall air of pretension. Peppermills like that died out in the 1970s but perhaps the Legend’s chef thinks his food is underseasoned? The food is sometimes OK, sometimes not, and often disappointing when you’re accustomed to eating at Michelin star level. But I guess many people on this cruise regard the sit-down area at McDonalds as fine dining.

We agree to dine a deux in future (I’m practising my French for Martinique tomorrow) and to avoid the restaurant whenever possible. There was some sort of musical entertainment and desserts event planned on the sun deck but the weather has been so rainy so far that it was transferred to one of the lounges. I’m sure Cruise Director Aaron is crestfallen - and on that subject, where is he during the day? Anyway, we will be in bed by 9pm. Just like home.

27 Nov: Port Marin, Martinique

As in the evenings, in the mornings we have a pleasant routine. We rise at 6am and head straight to the Midnight Sun Lounge on Deck 8 for an early morning cup of tea. We then head out to the breezy foredeck to witness our arrival. Today it was a view of the dramatic coastline of Martinique and offshore Diamond Rock - quite a history that rock including a spell as an official British Naval vessel. We enjoy this spectacular vista alone and get the impression that on this ship many people don’t bother getting up before the pina coladas are served.

We had prepaid for a rental car but the woman in the Europcar office was so offhand and unhelpful that after half an hour of getting nowhere we walked out. It was raining as we strolled through the town which is, surely, one of the worst dumps in the Eastern Caribbean. Why are French colonies often so untidy and unfriendly? The worst we have seen is Mayotte in the Indian Ocean. We get a tender back to the ship by lunchtime and then the heavens opened. It remained wet and misty for the rest of the day until sail away which gave us gorgeous soft light and a dramatic sunset.

We dine again outdoors at our preferred Veranda. Tonight it was a gloriously sticky ossobuco. The food out here is simpler than the restaurant and has been generally excellent so far, much better than the ships we are used to, and the service levels remain incredibly high. However, I’ve not had what Europeans would call a decent coffee since I’ve come aboard.

I was just wondering if that cloud will follow you for the whole trip.

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I love this peek at what some do when their private yachts are in dry dock. I can't wait for the next installment.

It's curious that you did not mention that where you stayed (and enjoyed) in St Martin was on the french side. However, your disappointment with the port in Martinique became a french bashing opportunity.

Indeed, Les Picantins, most of Fletcher's posts seem to me to be equal opportunity bashing. Whether you are French, in your 80's, from Minnesota, a filthy lounger (love that one), smoke or have a tattoo, you are a target of unending disdain. It would be interesting to know what their fellow cruisers think of THEM. Perhaps it is a relief that they have decided to dine "a deux." Maybe next time they will stay at home in order to make it to bed by 9. We can only hope. This is so entertaining. Keep it coming.

Indeed, Les Picantins, most of Fletcher's posts seem to me to be equal opportunity bashing. Whether you are French, in your 80's, from Minnesota, a filthy lounger (love that one), smoke or have a tattoo, you are a target of unending disdain. It would be interesting to know what their fellow cruisers think of THEM. Perhaps it is a relief that they have decided to dine "a deux." Maybe next time they will stay at home in order to make it to bed by 9. We can only hope. This is so entertaining. Keep it coming.

He does come from Norfolk In the UK which is a very quiet part of the country.

In fact it's so dead that they had to shoot an old lady to start a cemetery.

When someone turns an electric toothbrush on,the streetlights dim.

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Thank you, Mr L…..very funny. It doesn't quite explain away everything, though, does it? They must have at least seen obese people in Norfolk.

Thank you, Mr L…..very funny. It doesn't quite explain away everything, though, does it? They must have at least seen obese people in Norfolk.

Of course,who knows they could be riding around the ship on scooters themselves.

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This evening there is something called a ‘block party’ which is, apparently, a Seabourn tradition and involves standing in your corridor, drinking fizzy wine and chatting to your neighbours. I’m afraid we opt out of this as well. It's not that we're anti-social or anything; we just dislike enforced folksiness.

 

QUOTE]

 

Block party is not a Seabourn tradition.

It is something rather new, which one of the Hotel Managers who came over from Regent (Seven Seas) brought with him.

'Fletcher' does have an unusual view on life, to say the least.

Other Brits. will probably have heard of the note Doctors apparently put on case notes about patients who seem unusually thick - NFN, i.e normal for Norfolk.

28 Nov: At Sea

So here I am, gliding across the Caribbean aboard this Legend of Seabourn, a ship built in 1991 and initially called Royal Viking Queen, hence all the Slavic names on board. It became Seabourn Legend in 1996 and only a year later starred in Speed 2, one of the worst movies ever made. Next year it will be transferred to the Windstar line and renamed Star Legend. Seabourn is abandoning their smaller ships for good and while many Seabourn regulars regret the decision it’s easy to see why.

We have a cabin on the lowest deck, Deck 4, which is more than acceptable - it’s spacious, the bed is comfortable, and everything works. The only major design flaw is the siting of the desk and chair at the foot of the bed, so if I’m writing this journal on my computer my wife can’t walk from the sitting area to the bathroom without crawling over the bed. Our cabin often isn’t serviced until lunchtime or even later and the entrance from the corridor seems to be the point where all the cleaning gear is parked for hours on end. Sometimes it’s all reminiscent of an airport motel. That wasn’t what I was expecting from Seabourn.

The more expensive cabins only have Juliet balconies which aren’t practical but they do allow fresh air to moderate the aircon. And there are those forward luxury suites which have all sorts of amenities but, really, do you want to pay all that money when your private balcony directly overlooks the forward jacuzzi filled with half-naked people drinking martinis and beers?

There is a lot on this ship which doesn't interest us at all - the Spa, the Casino, the pool or anywhere Aaron is staging one of his shows. From the little contact we have with the Cruise Director’s team and the Excursions Desk I’d say they were a fairly useless bunch. Most of them seem to be actors with little or no interest in the cruise business or travel in general. There’s an English guitarist on board who always pronounces the names of the islands wrongly and has a tedious habit of impersonating the late Robin Williams when the tenders are called. I’m used to different sorts of ships - ones that would offer lectures on birds and fishes of the Caribbean, the Dutch Influence in the Caribbean, and so on. So in this sense the Seabourn style isn’t ours at all - for us, this ship is just a taxi from one place to the next.

Although we are enjoying the trip we feel that the ship isn’t quite right - we think it’s too big to be properly flexible and not big enough to be properly luxurious.

We are on this ship principally to see the ABC islands - the Dutch colonies of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. We’ve always fancied visiting them but not as a resort-based trip so a cruise seemed the ideal way of doing it. Our regular cruise line never goes to Aruba. We are also informally chasing down the so-called 324 List - an accepted list of every sovereign state and colony/dependency/possession in the world. This trip will add four places to our tally so it’s quite a cheap way of doing it.

29 Nov-1 Dec: ABC Islands

We pre-booked only one ship’s tour and that was today, on Bonaire. Yesterday afternoon we learned the tour had been cancelled quite a few weeks ago - a pity no one at Seabourn thought to advise us. However, things turned out rather well as we took a local tour with German-born Simone Wackenhut of Bonaire Custom Tours. She proved to be an excellent guide who drove us all over the island and stopped whenever we asked. We saw flamingos, incredible stands of cactus, the extraordinary salt flats and the slave huts which were a compelling sight. We loved Bonaire - one of the most interesting islands we’ve been to anywhere. And we’ve been to a lot.

There is a seaside resort in the UK called Blackpool and I think Aruba is its Caribbean equivalent - a dreadful place, really cheap-looking and full of slot machines, mass market hotels, junk food and tourist tat. From Hertz, for $180, we rented an enormous white Jeep Wrangler and planned to see the entire island. We started by going up to the California lighthouse, then over to the wild coast and down through Rincon to the National Park. We started south and then hit the endless lines of oil terminals so we abandoned the idea of seeing the beaches further down, swung the Wrangler around and headed back to town. Aruba just didn’t do it for us - boring, built-up, traffic, everlasting oil refineries.

Lots of passengers got off this morning so we have many new arrivals.

Curacao’s capital, Willemstad, is quite a special place which we explored by taking two walking trips. The touristy side, Punda, has some handsome official buildings, a good market, a lot of seedy-looking back streets and an incredible ruin of an Art Deco cinema, the CineLandia. Across the swing bridge - an engineering marvel and I don’t know how it works - lies the more commercial and residential neighbourhood Otrobande. This was even more interesting, especially the mansions on Hoogstrat - we photographed everyone of them. On Punda there was is lots of restoration work going on which happens when you get listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We’ve really enjoyed our visits to the ABC islands. Aruba in places was a sleazy dump, though not quite as seedy as Sint Maarten, Bonaire was fabulous and the architecture of Willemstad on Curacao an exciting ensemble. The weather was another matter - unrelenting heat and wind, truly inhospitable places.

 

 

 

This evening there is something called a ‘block party’ which is, apparently, a Seabourn tradition and involves standing in your corridor, drinking fizzy wine and chatting to your neighbours. I’m afraid we opt out of this as well. It's not that we're anti-social or anything; we just dislike enforced folksiness.

 

 

 

QUOTE]

 

 

 

Block party is not a Seabourn tradition.

 

It is something rather new, which one of the Hotel Managers who came over from Regent (Seven Seas) brought with him.

 

 

Yes you're quit right about this.

Bloody awful thing is a block party.

 

I know a few Americans who think that it is a fun thing to do but I haven't found any Brits yet that rave about it.

 

Much nicer to socialise when going about the ship

 

 

 

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This evening there is something called a ‘block party’ which is, apparently, a Seabourn tradition and involves standing in your corridor, drinking fizzy wine and chatting to your neighbours. I’m afraid we opt out of this as well. It's not that we're anti-social or anything; we just dislike enforced folksiness.

 

QUOTE]

 

Block party is not a Seabourn tradition.

It is something rather new, which one of the Hotel Managers who came over from Regent (Seven Seas) brought with him.

Sorry for pressing submit before I wrote anything in the above post.

It seems to me that something as intrusive as a block party should not be allowed to be implemented at the whim of a hotel director. Ideas that stupid should come directly from management!!!!