Legend of the Seas Western Med TR

Hi everybody!

Our family of four disembarked the Legend on Sunday after two fun weeks doing a B2B around the Western Med.

We boarded in the alternate port of Genoa.

My photos do not hold a candle to the lovely ones posted in the FABULOUS Borneo trip report from a month or two ago, but I did try to take several.

I got my first post, about embarkation day, up on my blog tonight and hope to get at least one port per day up after this if anyone is interested in reading a trip report with photos, or in just seeing photos of the ship from today's post (sorry, I have never figured out how to post photos here without making the thread to wide for the screen, so i will not repost it on cruisecritic directly).

Oh, and we did all of the ports with busses and/or on foot (but we had been to all before and were not trying to fit a lot in or see any major attractions)--so some of the info about how we did that in the coming posts might be useful to someone.

If anyone has any questions, ask away and i will try to answer :)

http://hadleyswanderingsandramblings.blogspot.de/

Hadley:

Thank you so much for your report and the photos. Can't wait to see the rest. We are taking that same cruise next week, starting in Civitavecchia.

I have a few questions about the ports of call that maybe you can answer:

1) Was there a shuttle in Marseilles from the ship to the Old Port? If so, how much was it?

2) In Palma de Mallorca, (same question), what mode of transportation did you take from the ship to the city center? (We are planning on taking Bus L210 to Valldemossa and Port de Soller)

3) How quickly were you able to disembark at each port?

Thanks,

Humberto

Thanks for the review and all the pictures. We're going to be sailing on the Legend in a few months. Can't wait to read more.

Thanks for the pictures. They're the first I've seen of one of the new Deck 6 balconies.

We're scheduled for a Deck 6 E2, 6030, in March. If I might ask a couple of questions? The information on RCI's web site doesn't seem accurate. They state:

Deluxe Ocean View Stateroom Two twin beds (can convert to

queen), sitting area with sofa, vanity area and a private bathroom.

(193 sq. ft., balcony 39 sq. ft.).

Also includes refrigerator, vanity area, hair-dryer, TV, phone,

vanity table with an extendable working surface for laptop

computers and 110/220 electrical outlets.

Does this sound like the cabin you were in? Was there a refrigerator?

Our last cruise was in an E2 on the Jewel OTS. It's listed on the web site as being 162 sq. ft., with a 51 sq. ft. balcony. There was room for a love seat, but not a couch. I was expecting the 193 sq. ft. E2 on the Legend would have the extra space for the couch. We also had a nice sized closet, half full length, and half divided, with a set of floor to ceiling shelves separating them.

Thanks

Hadley:

 

Thank you so much for your report and the photos. Can't wait to see the rest. We are taking that same cruise next week, starting in Civitavecchia.

 

I have a few questions about the ports of call that maybe you can answer:

 

1) Was there a shuttle in Marseilles from the ship to the Old Port? If so, how much was it?

 

2) In Palma de Mallorca, (same question), what mode of transportation did you take from the ship to the city center? (We are planning on taking Bus L210 to Valldemossa and Port de Soller)

 

3) How quickly were you able to disembark at each port?

 

Thanks,

 

Humberto

In Marseilles you had to walk out the length of the pier (about 1.5 km) to where the public bus picks up. It was very easy to do, there is a green line painted on the ground and signs every so often telling you how much further. Once at the bus stop, both the 35 and the "special" go into Jolliete and stop just steps away from the metro if you want to go elsewhere. There were signs up saying there was a free shuttle to the ship from the end of the pier--but in two days of looking we never saw it run.

The bus was 1.80 Euro and ran quite often (about every 15 minutes either the special or the 35 was running, even on our first trip when we were there on a holiday).

I have photos of the walking path, signs, etc that I will hopefully have up on the blog tonight :)

2. In Palma the public bus stop is right outside of where you get off the ship. Not even 2 minutes of walking required. It runs along the waterfront all the way into the heart of the city. There are lots of stops along the way, so it would be easy to get off wherever you wanted. We had a nice and somewhat cooler day and never did take the bus, we walked (yes, we are crazy like that), so I am not sure what the price was.

Thanks for the pictures. They're the first I've seen of one of the new Deck 6 balconies.

 

We're scheduled for a Deck 6 E2, 6030, in March. If I might ask a couple of questions? The information on RCI's web site doesn't seem accurate. They state:

 

Deluxe Ocean View Stateroom Two twin beds (can convert to

queen), sitting area with sofa, vanity area and a private bathroom.

(193 sq. ft., balcony 39 sq. ft.).

 

Also includes refrigerator, vanity area, hair-dryer, TV, phone,

vanity table with an extendable working surface for laptop

computers and 110/220 electrical outlets.

 

Does this sound like the cabin you were in? Was there a refrigerator?

 

Our last cruise was in an E2 on the Jewel OTS. It's listed on the web site as being 162 sq. ft., with a 51 sq. ft. balcony. There was room for a love seat, but not a couch. I was expecting the 193 sq. ft. E2 on the Legend would have the extra space for the couch. We also had a nice sized closet, half full length, and half divided, with a set of floor to ceiling shelves separating them.

 

Thanks

Oh my, this is a problem IMO! A week or so before our cruise it came up on a thread here on cruise critic. Someone had heard the rooms were not as big as advertised online and called. Sure enough, the rooms are much smaller (I want to say 151 sq ft) and RCI is aware of this but is apparently in no hurry to change the incorrect info they have on their website.

I really like Royal and we sail them a lot (4 times this year), but I feel this is blatant false advertising and it does bother me. We were in gty balconies so I did not feel we had any right to complain (though we looked at balcony sizes and thought a 20% bigger room was the smallest we might end up with when we chose to go with a gty), but if I booked a specific room based on that wrong information and knew that RCI was aware that the information they have out is wrong, I would be fuming.

The room is small. There is no fridge--which was a pain with our bottles of all white wines, but there is also no place you could put a fridge.

We had a CHAIR. Not a love seat, or a sofa. There is absolutely no way a sofa would fit. A slightly wider than normal chair/tiny love seat might fit though. We had to change cabins between legs of the B2B so with the kids' rooms we were in 4 E2s and all had only the chair.

The closet was medium sized. Half divided (with that stupid safe making it basically unusable as shown in the photo) and half full length (with half of THAT space behind an unmoving wall so sort of hart to reach up into). Only a pole divided the space. The only shelves are those that you can see along the sidewall in my photo.

We do not pack a whole lot, so it all fit, but we really didn't have any extra room to spare, and I cannot imagine putting a third person in one of these rooms.

The "sitting area" and "vanity area" are all pretty much one space (well it ALL is) with the chair and small table (diameter of a dinner plate) on one side and across from it the vanity (which has its own, more basic chair). There is no pull out work area for a laptop on the vanity. It does have three drawers under it on the right (one is mostly full of the hair dryer, but we stuck that on top of the closet to get it out of our way) and a cupboard above it on the same side, which has three shelves in it (and one of those is taken up by the "mini bar" of room temperature sodas and waters).

There are also end tables on either side of the bed which have a shelf on them. We kept out ice bucket on an end table to leave the vanity top clear--which was good because room service trays only fit:

1. on the vanity, if it is otherwise totally clear (they JUST fit)

2. outside (it was cold and windy a lot on our cruise, so that was not always a good place, and even if it was, having the door to the balcony open while the door into the hallway was open during delivery would create a hue amount of wind).

3. on the bed (which is where they invariably wanted to place our food). I don't want a tray full of food and juices on my bed. Maybe I am weird (okay, I know I am weird, but is THAT weird? I don't know).

Really, they are fine rooms and we enjoyed our cruise. It's just an older, smaller ship. I would not say that people would be unhappy in them or should not reserve them, but I DO think people deserve to know what they are actually reserving so they can decide if it will work for them or not.

I am too late to edit my last post! Sorry for three posts in a row.

Looking at my photos again--my husband's knee is visible in the photo of the "sitting area". He was still in the same position on the bed as he had been in the photo of the "sleeping area"--so that gives you a good idea of how little space was in between.

For the closet, that photo shows 3/4 of the closet. There was more "full length" space to the right of the photo that was behind a fixed wall, but otherwise that is IT.

Thank you so much for all the info.

If I may bother you again with more specific questions..........

1) In Palma, you mentioned that the bus stops a lot on its way to the city center. Do you recall if there were taxis available at the port?? (We have an "ambitious" schedule in port that and need to be on the bus to Valldemossa as early as we can).

2) Was the disembarkation process easy (quick) at ports??

3) IF you did the walk from Santa Margherita to Portofino or know by any chance,....is it worth it and safe??

4) In Barcelona.....did you have a chance to walk in El Born?

Your review is greatly appreciated and very valuable to us. It will be our first time in Europe and while we are very excited, we are also a bit anxious about moving around and making it on time back to the ship.

P.S: Not to rush you, but because we will go to Paris a few days before the cruise, we might not get to see all of your review as you post it. I am pretty sure you have a lot of people checking every hour to see if you have posted. By the way, you do a fantastic job.

NHDisneyLover:

Thank you for the review so far, it has been a good read and I have actually learned a few new things about the ship even after posting all of the info for the All Things Legend of the Seas thread. However, there are a few questions which I would like to ask - and I thank you inadvance since some of the questions are pretty specific.

1) How many kids were on the ship (pre-teens & teens)?

2) Were there seats available at the pool, or did the seat-hogs drop have every chair "reserved."

3) How was the dress in the MDR on formal, smart casual, & casual evenings?

4) Were there any areas on the ship you would recommend for any of the sailaways?

5) Do they have a steam room or showers that are free?

6) Was escargot served on any evenings during either itinerary?

7) In "The Planner" for this itinerary that was posted not long ago, they had an event listed as "Ice Under the Big Top" -- could you please explain what that was?

8) Were there any shows that were "must see" or "nice to see" or any that were "don't waste your time"?

9) Do you have a list of the shops in the centrum (I know, a picky questions, but trying to get all the details on the Legend as I can)

10) Would you please post (on here or your blog) pictures of the Cruise Compass for each day?

11) Where there any non-crowded or "secret" areas on the ship you enjoyed?

12) Were there any non-production events that you think are must-attend?

Sorry for all the questions.

Thanks again, and I look forward to reading the remainder of your review.

Cheers,

Travel R

Thanks for all the nice comments everybody. We have company over (but they ran out with DH for 10 minutes, thus my chance to post). I'll get to your questions and get the next post up before I go to bed though :)

hcvina:

1. We did not disembark right away, 'wed been in port about 45- one hour by then, but at that point there were no taxis at the port.

There were a lot of bus stops, but it still seemed the buses moved pretty quickly (and they only stop if someone is waiting or someone pushes the stop button, so they often drive on by).

2.Yes. Easy and quick. Genoa and Marseilles also had one gangway just for "in transit" passengers and a separate one for those disembarking and embarking. In Civitavechia the terminal is just a tent and there is no possibility of a raised gangway so everyone goes through the same point. It may have been a bit crowded there if we had been wanting off right when the ship cleared. We were not going to Rome so did not see what it was like early.

3. Sorry, we did not do it, so I do not know. I felt safe everywhere we did go.

4. NO, we did not go over to El Born this trip. It is a nice area though

Travel R, my guests are back, but I will not forget you (and hcviana; I promise to add to the blog tonight; I'll post here to let you know when I do).

NHDisneyLover:

 

Thank you for the review so far, it has been a good read and I have actually learned a few new things about the ship even after posting all of the info for the All Things Legend of the Seas thread. However, there are a few questions which I would like to ask - and I thank you inadvance since some of the questions are pretty specific.

 

1) How many kids were on the ship (pre-teens & teens)?

2) Were there seats available at the pool, or did the seat-hogs drop have every chair "reserved."

3) How was the dress in the MDR on formal, smart casual, & casual evenings?

4) Were there any areas on the ship you would recommend for any of the sailaways?

5) Do they have a steam room or showers that are free?

6) Was escargot served on any evenings during either itinerary?

7) In "The Planner" for this itinerary that was posted not long ago, they had an event listed as "Ice Under the Big Top" -- could you please explain what that was?

8) Were there any shows that were "must see" or "nice to see" or any that were "don't waste your time"?

9) Do you have a list of the shops in the centrum (I know, a picky questions, but trying to get all the details on the Legend as I can)

10) Would you please post (on here or your blog) pictures of the Cruise Compass for each day?

11) Where there any non-crowded or "secret" areas on the ship you enjoyed?

12) Were there any non-production events that you think are must-attend?

 

Sorry for all the questions.

 

Thanks again, and I look forward to reading the remainder of your review.

 

Cheers,

 

Travel R

1. I don't really know how many kids there were. There were about 8-10 teens who used the teen club regularly. (interestingly, for the first time ever my kids were the only native English speakers in the club--both weeks!). We did see quite a few other teens who weren't going to the clubs.

2. No seat hogs. In fact, we commented both weeks that this was an exceptionally well behaved group of passengers. People did not save seats all day by the pools (though the cold weather may be part of that), no one tried to save seats in the theatre, only 2-3 times on the second cruise did we run into people smoking where they should not, only one (notable) woman yelled at staff, no one cut in line at the buffets, no kids were running wild (heck, we saw kids wait for adults to get out of the hot tub before quietly getting in themselves!).

3. It was less dressy/stylish than other Med cruises we have been on. Nice, but not as nice as we have gotten used to. I think part of this may be because it was cooler than most expected and people were sticking to their warmer clothes. On formal night about 10% of men wore tuxedos and 50% suits, the rest were in sports jackets, ties only, or even golf shirts. About 15% of women had on long gowns and the most of the rest wore cocktail dresses.

4. Honestly, it was cold and windy for most of the sail-aways so if we were anywhere, we were on our own balcony (note, the Starboard side--which we were lucky enough to have--faced the port at each stop).

5. I did not use them but I believe the restrooms in the spa had saunas in them (not showers). You can go through the gym to access them.

6. Yes. Escargot was on the menu during the first formal night (Marseilles).

7. We did not have an "ice under the big top" This was the name if an ice skating show on the Adventure last year (we did notice MANY mistakes on the written things--like saying the pool was on deck 11 on the "getting oriented" sheet that they hand out at check in, etc; so my guess that this was also a mistake. In any event it was not happening while we were on board).

8. We enjoy the production shows. Even more, in the Centrum we like "Seasons" and the Broadway song set by Reece and Amy. We LOVED the Emperors of Soul (they were on our first week, and we were told they tend to be on 2 weeks then off 2) and Kirk Marsh (but I think he left that week). Persoanlly, I think Abbamax (who has been on literally every one of my RCI sailings) is a "don't bother" but if you adore Abba then you may feel differently (though my kids love Abba and still are not wowed by this show).

9. I am not much of a shopper, so I do not. Sorry. I can tell you what some of them were, but no names. There was a candy/snack shop, a shop with RCI merchandise and some sports clothes (Quicksilver, etc), a watch and sunglasses shop, a jewelry shop and a shop with souvenirs like one could find in port (Spanish fans, etc).

10. I'll try to scan them and get them posted on the blog. I only kept the first week (as they were mostly the same).

11. It honestly never felt that crowded anywhere.

12. Everyone likes different things, so this is a hard question to answer. I highlighted above the shows that I liked best :)

As promised, I am back just to let you know the post about Marseilles is up :D

any other questions I can try to answer for anyone?

Thank you for the cabin info, Hadley. There is little available on the Deck 6 balconies, and it appears most of it is wrong.

I'm finding 7 day cruises on the Freedom OTS in a Grand Suite at the same price point as the 10 day cruise on the Legend in what is basically an up-jumped Ocean View. I think I might be changing cruises!

Thank you for the cabin info, Hadley. There is little available on the Deck 6 balconies, and it appears most of it is wrong.

 

I'm finding 7 day cruises on the Freedom OTS in a Grand Suite at the same price point as the 10 day cruise on the Legend in what is basically an up-jumped Ocean View. I think I might be changing cruises!

You're welcome. I am glad the information is helpful to you.

NHDisneylover - Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions.

Enjoying your review so far and looking forward to the rest of it. I will be on Legend in two weeks from Saturday - cannot wait!

NHDisneylover - Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my questions.

 

Enjoying your review so far and looking forward to the rest of it. I will be on Legend in two weeks from Saturday - cannot wait!

Thanks :) We really enjoyed the cruise; I hope you enjoy it just as much.

And i am scanning in the Compasses right now :)

okay, the Compasses are up on the Blog (I am missing Civi--sorry) along with two of the teen schedules.

okay, the Compasses are up on the Blog (I am missing Civi--sorry) along with two of the teen schedules.

You are fabulous. I did not even think to ask about the teen schedules- I can't wait to show it to my own teen who will be very interested. [Also interesting to know that the 12 to 14s are together with the 15-17s -- as a parent of a 13 year old DD, I have to wonder if that is a good thing or a bad thing. -- although some of the European schools are out the week before, which may mean more kids onboard] My pre-teen is very sociable, so as long as there is another kid in the OA (even if they do not speak English), she is set regardless of the activities. Although it is a family vacation, it will be nice a few hours on one or two of the days for myself & the DW to have some alone time.

Thanks again for all your great help and information!!!

You are fabulous. I did not even think to ask about the teen schedules- I can't wait to show it to my own teen who will be very interested. My pre-teen is very sociable, so as long as there is another kid in the OA (even if they do not speak English), she is set regardless of the activities. Although it is a family vacation, it will be nice a few hours on one or two of the days for myself & the DW to have some alone time.

 

Thanks again for all your great help and information!!!

None of the kids were native English speakers--but they all spoke English pretty well so hopefully your preteen will be really fine. The RCI staff seems really good at adjusting the programming to be less language intensive when needed too. Foosball or ping pong tournaments, Wii games, poker, crafts, etc do not require a lot of talking :) The staff rotated through, so some of the teen staff one week was OA the next and vice versa. My kids were really impressed with all of them and how well they got everyone doing things and having fun.

Hadley!!!......where are you?? Are you ok??? Your fans are eagerly awaiting another installment of your Western Med cruise report.

UPADTE: OOOOOpppss......my apologies......I just saw that the Palma de Mallorca episode was posted.

Hadley!!!......where are you?? Are you ok??? Your fans are eagerly awaiting another installment of your Western Med cruise report.

 

UPADTE: OOOOOpppss......my apologies......I just saw that the Palma de Mallorca episode was posted.

Aw, thanks for missing me :o

Sorry I did not get anything up today. My daughter took the ACT this morning, and the nearest test center was 2 hours away. We got caught in traffic from a big wreck coming home and I am just now here at 10:00 pm having left at 5:00. I'll try to get two posts up tomorrow to make up for none today.

(and I found the civitavecchia compass in my purse, so I am about to scan it and add it into the post with those in it :))

I'll be here patiently waiting for your next post.........we all understand how mundane and boring life chores get on the way of the all so important and essential cruise-related duties...........

Thank you for the cabin info, Hadley. There is little available on the Deck 6 balconies, and it appears most of it is wrong.

 

I'm finding 7 day cruises on the Freedom OTS in a Grand Suite at the same price point as the 10 day cruise on the Legend in what is basically an up-jumped Ocean View. I think I might be changing cruises!

Understand there is no walk in closet in the JS either on Legend.:confused: Shows it but were told there is not one.

We are booked on the Legend because of the itinerary only......not the smaller ship.

I'll be here patiently waiting for your next post.........we all understand how mundane and boring life chores get on the way of the all so important and essential cruise-related duties...........

I know, stupid reality just keeps getting in the way. Grrr :p

Understand there is no walk in closet in the JS either on Legend.:confused: Shows it but were told there is not one.

We are booked on the Legend because of the itinerary only......not the smaller ship.

This is true (we ended up in a JR Suite for much of our second week onboard). That Jr suite was about the same size as a normal balcony room on the other RCI ships we have been on (with a slightly bigger bathroom--beware though, the tub has a thick base which meant that my 6'5" tall husband was about 4 inches too tall to stand fully upright in the shower).

Thanks for posting the Compass for Civi -- I see that there is an opportunity for my DW to lose money on the first night of the cruise - she like to play Bingo.

I enjoyed reading your post about the Chef's table -- a very different experience than the one from iluvcruising2's review (only a few weeks earlier).