Legend of the Seas - Rome to Venice 8/31 Review

This was my first cruise and therefore, this will be my first review. I discovered Cruise Critic while planning this cruise and found the community incredibly helpful, so I’m excited to write my own review and hopefully others will find this helpful. And if not, it’s a fun way for me to re-live the cruise through stories and pictures.

To introduce myself, I’m Jessica and I was traveling with my husband. We are in our late 20’s, no kids. We had been talking about taking a Europe trip for a while, and Italy was top on both of our lists. I also really wanted to go to Dubrovnik, Croatia, ever since watching an episode of the Bachelorette that was filmed there (really, it looked beautiful). We first considered a land tour, but after a couple of our friends came back from a Mediterranean cruise last year, it seemed like a great way to see many places in a short period of time and sounded a little more relaxing than trying to take trains/planes/buses ( or small boats) from city to city.

We started searching for the right cruise. We developed some criteria:

1) Must be over the Labor Day Holiday (one less vacation day to take!)

2) Must go to Italy and Croatia – especially Rome and Venice, preferably Dubrovnik

3) Greece would be fun too, maybe Santorini since that seems to be everyone’s favorite island?

Well I couldn’t find the “perfect” itinerary but I think the one we chose was pretty awesome. We settled for Split instead of Dubrovnik and Corfu instead of Santorini, but the idea of visiting places we had never even considered visiting before really grew on us, and this is what we landed on:

Rome, Italy

Naples, Italy

Catania (Sicily), Italy

Valletta, Malta

Day at Sea

Corfu, Greece

Kotor, Montenegro

Split, Croatia

Koper, Slovenia

Venice, Italy

We also added one night in Rome and one night in Venice to make the most of the two cities that were on the top of our lists. We wanted to add more nights, but we were trying to maximize our vacation time for this trip, so that’s where we landed.

In this review I will talk about how we prepared for the trip and our experience with the ports, tours, ship, etc. I will also talk about the food we ate and options available to me as a vegetarian. Don’t worry, you’ll see some meat too because my husband is not a vegetarian. I won’t go into a ton of details, but I might also include a few notes on cost, since this was something I was curious about and found helpful when trying to plan on a budget. I’m happy to include any other information you’d like, so please feel free to ask questions.

I will mostly be writing this as I go. It will likely take me a long time to finish writing all that I would like to share, so I appreciate your patience!

We booked the cruise in mid-February, which gave me more than six months to plan. I love to plan (which I seem to have in common with about 95% of cruisers – those on CC anyway!), and I agree with those who say that planning is half the fun.

I’m going to start with a few lessons I learned as a first time cruiser.

Lesson #1: Keep your eye on the price

We did not book directly through Royal Caribbean; the agency we booked through offered about the same price as Royal Caribbean plus a $120 ship credit. We booked room 3078, a Large Ocean View room (category H). I had heard we should try to be as close to the center of the ship as we could. I briefly considered an interior room, but knew it would drive me crazy to feel the boat moving but not be able to look out a window.

Although I was convinced that we booked the cruise at a low price during wave season, I continued to check the cost of our cruise about once per week on Royal Caribbean’s website. My obsession paid off when the prices dropped significantly at the end of March. We had not yet made our final payment, so I called to see if we could get the better price. I had to pay a $25 fee to change our price, which resulted in a price decrease of $689. I was so excited and could not believe that we would be able to pay for most of our excursions with the money saved. I spent that afternoon reminding my husband how I earned my keep for the day.

We made our final payment in June. In early August, I began to see posts on our Roll Call about fellow cruisers receiving free room upgrades. I decided it was worth a try, so I called Royal Caribbean. After waiting on hold for 30 minutes, they informed me that because I booked through a third party, I would have to call that third party if I wanted to make any changes.

The next call I made took almost an hour and half, but I think it was worth it. I was first informed that we were not eligible for a free upgrade because we had paid so little for our room. Then I was offered an “upgrade”: a balcony room on the lowest floor at the very front of the ship. I was warned that we would feel the boat rocking the most in this location, so this did not seem like much of an upgrade. After much back and forth discussion, Royal Caribbean offered a room upgrade for just $150 total.

We ended up with room 7555, a Panoramic Ocean View Stateroom (category F). This moved us up four decks, slightly closer to the center of the ship, and gave us a larger window. We were also informed that Royal Caribbean had provided us with $100 in ship credit from our initial booking, which had not been mentioned to me before and I felt like I was receiving that money for the first time and really only paying $50 for the upgrade. I feel like this was a great deal. I will provide more details on the room later, but (spoiler alert) we were very happy with what we had.

Great start! Can't wait for more.......

I'll be going on honeymoon on this ship in a bit less than 6 months. Very much looking forward to your review and hopefully photos of your vacation. I wish we could afford the time and expense of a European vacation, they all sound so awesome.

I'll be going on honeymoon on this ship in a bit less than 6 months. Very much looking forward to your review and hopefully photos of your vacation. I wish we could afford the time and expense of a European vacation, they all sound so awesome.

That is exciting! Where will you be going on your honeymoon? I will include plenty of photos, some from the ship and more from the ports.

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

10 Southern Caribbean. St.Maarten, St.Kitts, Tortola, Antigua, St.Croix. :cool:

Lesson #2: It doesn’t hurt to ask

We would not have received a room upgrade if I had accepted the first response to my request, which was that we were not available for any upgrade. I brought up other “friends” I knew (thanks Cruise Critic!) who had recently received upgrades and asked what they would be able to do if we were willing to pay a little bit more.

Negotiation also helped me with our phone bill. We wanted to add an international calling plan and text plan, but did not want to purchase data. We knew we would have free Wi-Fi at our hotels before and after the cruise and thought we could find free or cheap Wi-Fi at cafes/restaurants at the ports if really needed, so we decided to disconnect somewhat for this trip. However, we did want to have some way to stay in contact with our families and wanted the ability to make phone calls if needed (and we did have a need while we were in Rome).

The package posted online was $60 for 30 minutes and 200 texts. After asking what they could do if we were to buy a calling and texting package together, they offered 50 minutes and 200 texts for $45. We accepted this (I thought) and then they came down even further to $30 for 50 minutes and 200 texts. We were happy customers!

And one more spoiler alert: Stay tuned for more details. We were not satisfied with one aspect of the cruise. I asked Royal Caribbean to make up for it while we were on board, and they did by providing us with additional ship credit.

Lesson #3: Build your Cruise Critic network

When I first discovered Cruise Critic, I was a little weary. It felt awkward to be making “online” friends, and as I discussed with a few of my new CC friends, it often felt a little like online dating. Or as I would imagine online dating would feel like since I have no experience with that (met my husband at age 18). I was curious to meet people in person and see if they looked or acted like I expected them to from their online personalities, and hoped we would click in real life.

The community was incredibly helpful. I received many tips that made me feel more prepared. Everything from a suggestion to buy a small cross-body purse for use on the ship (best idea ever, thanks Bonnie!) to the fact that I should consider changing my flight to Rome because a 45 minute layover in the Philadelphia airport was not going to cut it (thank you to my airline for changing our flight and shortening the layover and a real thank you to Denise for guiding me to make a change before it was too late!). I was also able to set up a ride share to cut the cost of our transfer to the port in half and joined excursions that were cheaper than the ship’s excursions with fewer people and more flexibility. Thanks to CC, we only signed up for one tour with the ship.

Participating in the Roll Call was one of the best decisions, and by the end of our cruise I felt like we had built a little Cruise Critic family on the ship.

10 Southern Caribbean. St.Maarten, St.Kitts, Tortola, Antigua, St.Croix. :cool:

That sounds awesome!!

Excellent start, can't wait for the rest!:):)

Keep it coming :)

You had a great itinerary, would love to see and hear more.

I mostly used Cruise Critic for ideas on what to do in each port and Trip Advisor for reviews of tour guides, hotels and restaurants. I also bought the Kindle versions of Rick Steves’ Mediterranean Cruise Ports and his book Croatia & Slovenia, which I downloaded to my iPhone. This way I would have the information with me while we traveled, without having to be connected to the network.

It took me awhile to get organized. I started by using PowerPoint to collect ideas on what to do in each port. I eventually switched to an Excel document where I could track the itinerary and tours along with the costs. I kept track of the total costs in US dollars, the total cost we would need to pay in euros (to help determine how much to take out of the ATM once in Europe), and the costs we had paid in advance vs. needed to pay to help with tracking our budget.

I included exact numbers where I could and rough estimates for any other cost I could think of – including parking at the airport, boarding our dog, and meals and snacks in each port. I have not done it yet, but have good intentions to go back through with our receipts and see how close I was to my original estimate of the cost of our trip. I’m going to guess we did not go over it by more than a couple hundred dollars, if that (hopefully!).

I also created a spreadsheet to plan my outfits in advance. Everyone warned me that we would over pack, and I did not want to drag any more weight than necessary with us. So I planned my outfits and the shoes I would need with each, and only packed what I expected to wear. And I did wear all 7 pairs of shoes and almost every single clothing item I packed. One of the only items I did not wear: a floor-length formal gown. I packed an old bridesmaid dress just in case I needed something floor length, but after watching what other people wore the first formal night, I decided to stick to my knee-length dresses. There were people who wore floor length dresses, but I did not think I would feel out of place in my knee-length dresses, and that was my preference.

Finally, I created a spreadsheet for our packing list. I referred to many Cruise Critic packing lists and started building the list several weeks before our trip so I had plenty of time to add to it as I thought of more items. I think this worked great and felt very prepared for the trip.

There were a number of items we bought based on other lists and recommendations. I am breaking these items down to two categories:

What we used

• Converter/adapter: This was not necessary for the ship because they had American outlets. I did not pack a hair dryer either because I knew there would be one in both hotels and on the ship. I bought and packed this heavy item only because I wanted to use my hair straightener in the Rome and Venice hotels. It turned out to also be helpful for charging my phone and cameras in the hotels.

• Travel clock: I would have been lost without this. Not only was there no clock in our Stateroom, but neither of our hotel rooms had clocks.

• Money belt: My husband wore this every day. I was glad we spent a little more on a more comfortable money belt so he was willing to wear it.

• Extra memory cards for our cameras: We packed a DSLR and a point and shoot camera. Although one 16 GB memory card would have held all our pictures, it gave me peace of mind to be able to swap out the memory card in our DSLR every couple of days. I left the used cards in our safe and felt comfortable knowing that if anything happened to the camera, we would not lose pictures from the entire trip. Again, thankfully, this was not an issue, but being prepared is always a good feeling.

What we did not use

• Mini flashlight: I bought a tiny flashlight that fit on my key ring. I suppose it would have been helpful if power had gone out, but thankfully did not need to use it.

• Sea sickness medication: I was happy to have both pills and patches packed just in case, but even happier that neither of us needed to use them. I have gotten motion sick on small boats in the past and was nervous about getting sick, but I had nothing to worry about.

• Maps of Rome and Venice: Not necessary at all. In fact, on our first day in Rome, the only time when a map would have been helpful, I forgot to bring the Rome map with us. We should not have spent money on maps. The hotels had maps, the ship provided general maps for most ports, and I realized we could have picked up maps at TI’s in the ports if needed.

Just subscribed. Looking forward to reading the details.

Great start! Our family is cruising the Med next year (1st time over there for the 6 of us!) & I'm a planner like you. Can't wait to hear more!

Thank you for all the comments and for subscribing/reading already!

One more planning post and then I promise I’ll get into the good stuff. Reading other reviews helped me to think about the last minute to-do items that I would need to do the week or so leading up to our trip, so I am sharing the list I put together:

• Hold mail – simple with the USPS Mobile App!

• Make arrangements for our dog – she originally had a reservation at her normal boarding spot, but we were lucky to have friends who were able to stay with her at our house, which made me feel much better about leaving her for 12 nights.

• Contact our credit companies to make sure they knew we would be in Europe and not put a fraud alert on our cards halfway through the trip.

• Convert some money to Euro. Thanks to my detailed spreadsheet, I knew approximately how much Euro we would need for the entire trip. We decided to bring just enough Euro with us to cover our transportation from the airport in Rome to our hotel, and pick the rest up at an ATM in Rome.

• Print copies of our itinerary, passports and driver’s license. We left these documents with our family and house sitters.

• Sign into the cruise and book My Time Dining. We only booked a reservation for our first night, and I was glad we didn’t lock ourselves into a certain time for the entire trip.

• Print copies of all confirmation emails. I organized emails and itineraries by day and used a separate folder for each day.

What did I miss that you typically do in the week or so leading up to a trip?

I will be on the Legend next month. I look forward to your review.

• Print copies of all confirmation emails. I organized emails and itineraries by day and used a separate folder for each day.

 

 

What did I miss that you typically do in the week or so leading up to a trip?

That's a lot more organized than I am. Or actually I just keep all that stuff in my head. Weighs a lot less but increases the stress ;)

That's a lot more organized than I am. Or actually I just keep all that stuff in my head. Weighs a lot less but increases the stress ;)

The folders were probably not entirely necessary :) They did come in handy a few times, but did add a lot of weight. I threw away documents each day to try to lighten the load on the way home!

Our travel day began at 4:45am CST so we could finish packing. Our goal was to leave at 5:30, but of course it was closer to 6:00 before we walked out the door. With three flights and almost 5 hours of layover time, I knew it was going to be a long day.

Our first flight was 2.5 hours from Houston to Charlotte. I managed to sleep about 30 minutes.

After lunch at Chili’s and my first email from home (a “Bon Voyage” message from our dog(sitter)), we boarded the flight from Charlotte to Philadelphia. It was a short flight with no sleep.

By the time we got off the plane in Philadelphia we had just under an hour until we needed to board our flight to Rome. I was thankful that we had a full hour for the layover so we had enough time to change terminals, use the restroom and pick up a bite to eat. I bought a peanut butter and jelly sandwich just in case there were no vegetarian options for dinner on our 8.5 hour flight. As a vegetarian, I always feel the need to be prepared for the worst case scenario when it comes to food. I think I have a fear of being hungry.

We boarded on time and then sat on the tarmac for an hour before taking off. They served dinner shortly after that. I was worried because I forgot to call ahead and ask for a vegetarian meal, but they offered everyone either chicken or penne pasta. The pasta came with salad, bread and dessert and was actually pretty good. They offered complimentary wine with dinner. It was the first time I’ve been on a flight that offered free wine. It wasn’t great, but it was free.

I liked the options on the TV screens in front of our seats. You could choose from recent movies or TV shows. I watched a movie I had never heard of with Tina Fey and Paul Rudd called Admission. It was cute. I also enjoyed watching the GPS with information on where our plane was, what altitude we were flying at, how much time we had left to go, temperature outside the plane, etc.

I did not sleep well at all on this flight. I would sleep for 15-20 minutes at a time and my bobbing head would wake me up. At one point, I woke up with a headache, feeling very dehydrated. I asked the flight attendant if I could have a bottle of water instead of a cup. She told me that she did not have enough bottles for all 200 passengers, so no, she could not give me a bottle of water. So I had 5 cups of water instead.

Breakfast was a lemon muffin top. It tasted great but I couldn’t eat more than a few bites. I don’t know if it was the headache, lack of sleep, jet lag or all of the above, but it made me nervous about making it through the day I had planned for us in Rome.

We landed in Rome around 9:30am, one hour later than planned. I was eager to start our first day of touring!

Anxiously awaiting more!

Legend of the Seas was the first cruise ship I ever went on ... To the Med from Southampton! We live only 30 mins from the cruise terminal so we were able to take as much luggage as we could carry!

It holds a special place in my heart! 😄

Legend of the Seas was the first cruise ship I ever went on ... To the Med from Southampton! We live only 30 mins from the cruise terminal so we were able to take as much luggage as we could carry!

 

It holds a special place in my heart! 😄

It's awesome that you live so close to the port! I think Legend of the Seas will also hold a special place for us.

We booked Rome Cabs to take us from FCO Airport to our hotel near Termini Station. I was nervous when we got in an hour late. While we waited to get off the plane, I pulled out my folder with the Day 1 confirmation emails and texted Rome Cabs to let them know we were late and ask if there would still be a driver waiting for us. About 20 minutes later I received confirmation and began to relax.

The Rome airport was not nearly as confusing as I expected it to be. Maybe this was because I read so many details ahead of time that I knew exactly where to go (thanks to Ron in Rome). Or maybe it was because we just followed the rest of the crowd.

We made our way to Passport Control where I was really looking forward to adding another stamp to my passport. As we approached the counter, I was still digging in my purse to pull out my passport. The man at the desk waved us through the line without even opening our passports. I was so disappointed.

Next up was baggage claim. I was even more relaxed when I saw my husband with both of our checked bags. It did not take long to exit baggage claim. We saw the bright orange column labeled “Meeting Point” to our left when we exited baggage claim. And there was our driver, holding a sign with our name. He was a fairly young guy with a thick mustache.

My husband stopped by the ATM to get our Euro, and then we were off. The driver took one of our bags and we followed him outside to a curb. He instructed us to wait there, and a minute or two later he pulled up in a car. He did not speak much English but answered the few questions we asked just fine. He drove quickly (we never felt unsafe), and we were suddenly at our hotel, the Boscolo Exedra Roma.

The hotel is located in Piazza Repubblica, about a 5 minute walk from Termini. It was a beautiful piazza and convenient because there was a Metro stop just underneath the hotel.

We picked this hotel at the recommendation of friends and because we could use airline miles to pay for it. It also happens to be the hotel where James Gandolfini died in June. Morbid, I know, but if it was good enough for the rich and famous, we figured it must be a good place. Actually, we had booked this hotel long before that happened.

The lobby was beautiful:

I think we arrived a little before 11am. We were thankful to be able to check-in early and freshen up. As we were escorted to the elevator, we were informed we had been upgraded, I think they said to a Deluxe room. I’m not sure what the difference was, but we loved our room. It was huge, especially considering what I am used to at most European hotels. It was larger than most hotels I’ve stayed at in the US and offered a King size bed. The bedroom included a TV, sitting area, desk, entry way with closets and a very large bathroom. Here’s a picture to try to show the size of the room, don’t mind my husband:

The hotel is supposed to have a beautiful rooftop pool. Unfortunately, they closed the roof level at 6pm for a private party, so we did not even get to see the pool.

My overall impression was that this was a very nice hotel, but we did not spend enough time there to really be able to appreciate it. The bed was a little firm for me, but comfortable, the bathroom was very clean, and that was about all I needed that night. We did not even get to try the complimentary breakfast the next morning because we left the hotel so early for our tour. It was a convenient location because it was right on the Metro and about a 15 minute walk from the Colosseum area. If we go back, I would like to try staying closer to Piazza Navona to enjoy it in the evening, but I did not have any complaints about this hotel or location.

We rested in our room until noon and then headed out to begin our first day of touring. We were only about 30 minutes behind the schedule I had created for us, so I was feeling pretty happy with the timing. Stay tuned for our first day in Rome!

We were also on the cruise, and had an absolute wonderful time.

We were also on the cruise, and had an absolute wonderful time.

It was such a small ship, there is a good chance we saw you! You'll have to let me know if you pop up in any of my pictures :)