Will Legend be Disappointing

[A&G]

Hi all...we are travelling on Legend on Feb 20, 2005, 14 day westbound Panama. We have read many posts and reviews about this ship/cruise ranging from extremely disappointing to absolutely fantastic. So we have some questions of our own please.

 

1) Does the ship's furnishing, carpets, decor etc show it's age.

2) I presume she has propellers and not pods so is there much engine vibration

3) Are the rooms spacious - D1 balcony, deck seven.

3) Will it be a walking frame and wheelchair fest. My wife and I are young mid 50's somethings and worried that it will be full of old people.

4) My wife is a vegetarian, how do you think she will get on with the menus.

 

I would be interested to hear of experiences of recent sailings. We sailed Carnival Conquest last year and enjoyed the ship, the people we met, the entertainment, everything about the cruise so I guess that will be the standard to which we will judge Legend and so hope we will not be disappointed.

 

Cheers

Alan

Sydney, Australia

[ZPOOD@AOL.COM]

Cant review this ship, we are sailing it in December. Please write a full review upon your return. As far as the age of passengers go, RCL is a great choice for your age group. DH and I prefer RCL,we are now in early 40's. I think Panama Canal cruises may attract a slightly older crowd as these cruises tend to be 10 or more days and its hard for the younger people to get away from there jobs and children. You will have a great time. Looking forward to your review

[Toto2Kansas]

We don't sail agaiin on the Legend until March. But I do know that after our sailing the Legend is supposed to go in for some type of refurbishment. So, that will probably mean she won't be in tip top shape until sometime next summer.

 

When I called about booking this cruise some time ago RCI had told me that they were hoping to have all of the refurb. done before the spring sailings, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen.

 

I have sailed on her twice before and loved the layout of the ship, that is why we are sailing on her a third time. Last time was 2000-maybe 2001, can't remember exactly. But we have sailed 37 days total in the past on her. The most we have ever sailed on one ship.

The Balcony cabins and Jr. Suites are not too bad. They have a nice sitting area, small balcony and lots of storage space. One thing I did not like about them was they still have a pretty small bathroom, even though they do have a small tub. But they are comfortable and plenty of room for 2 or 3. Much better than the typical outside cabins, that I will guarantee you.

[KamloopsCruisers]

We sailed on the Legend Christmas/New Year's two years ago (Hawaii to New Zealand). This cruise was one of our favourites. I was a little anxious that I would find the ship too small after cruising on a Voyager class ship, but I found I didn't feel cramped or wanted for anything offered on the bigger ships. The staff were some of the best we have enjoyed. By the time we ended our 17 night cruise, many felt like good friends.

 

The ship was in first class shape when we sailed, but I can't comment how she is now. Teenage daughter was then a vegatarian and she had ample to eat. There was a vegetarian entre every night in the dining room, and, of course, you will find a good variety and selection in the Windjammer.

 

I am in my 40's, DH in his 50's and there were many passengers our age. As mentioned in the previous post, the longer cruises do attract an older crowd, but our cruise was not filled with seniors.

 

We had many "Aussies" and passengers from New Zealand sailing with us, and we found them to be a delight. (Wished we had spent more time with them - they always seemed to be laughing, laughing, laughing. Our tablemates (Americans and Canadians), while very enjoyable and fun, didn't let loose as much as the Aussies.:D

 

We are hoping to cruise through the Panama Canal next year and we would love to sail on the Legend again. Please, please, post a review when you return.

 

I'm sure your cruise will be wonderful, despite the fact there may be some worn carpets, etc. if she is being refurbished in the Spring.

 

Enjoy! Enjoy!

 

Sue

[Qualicum]

Hi Alan.

 

How exciting! There are 4 of us who will be sailing with you - Ben and Chris and Connie and Doug from Vancouver Island, British Columbia. We are all around the same age - mid-fifties, except Ben who is 61 but thinks he is still 22. Our daughter and granddaughter live in OZ ( Townsville ) and we now have a new Aussie son-in-law. We love to have fun and the 4 of us have been know to liven up many a situation. Hope you have signed up for the M & M. We have 25 people attending the party on the ship so we are now official - more always make it better. Another great couple joining us can be found under "RivercityAl". There is a thread on here just for the Legend and Feb. 20th. cruise. Take a look for it. You can contact us direct at bc@lifestylerealty.com

[TERRY223]

With that criteria, such as - carpet & furnishings showing their age, and any walkers or wheelchairs appearing, propellers verses pods,,,, I believe you and the little lady will be dissapointed.

[abridalmaven]

I also had the same fears after going on the Radiance and the AOS.We did a 10 day Hawaii run last Christmas, I feared I would be bored for the sea days, too small and so on. Well I tell you I was so pleasantly surprised. It was one of the best cruses we have done! That was a year ago but even when we went on our first cruise on the Empress in 2001 it was already and older ship, and I was surprised at how well kept it was. I am not a picky person and do not look for flaws, but would notice glaring things wrong. So I'm sure it will still be nice. The solarium was my favorite part of the ship!:D

[Packers forever]

We were on the Legend last summer on a 7 day out of San Diego. DW and I had a D1 on deck 7 and the room was in great shape. While the ship is older it's an RCCL ship and in great shape. Did not notice anything in our room out of order. Our cruise was a sellout packed with families, including our kids and everything worked well. We've sailed 9 times with RCCL and the service by the staff on this ship was first rate. There seems to be a high level of satisfaction by the crew and it shows in all aspects of the ship. I didn't care for the food too much, I think the chef was German, but everyone at our table seemed very happy with the food. My problem with the food is that I keep remembering what it was like back in the 80's.

 

We did the Canal on the Brillance last spring and I think you'll really enjoy it. We were looking at booking the 14 day cruise for Spring Break on the Legend, but decided against it because our 2 17 year-olds wouldn't see many kids on that cruise. Yes you'll see some wheelchairs and walkers, but book second seating and everything will be great. The passanger mix's will be 70% 40's, 50's and 60's, but it should work out real well......Big John

[VikkiGarcia]

Did Legend Oct. 2004 for 14 day Panama Canal cruise. In my opinion...

1. The carpet and furniture looked nice to me. I noticed nothing detracting.

The ship looked as nice as any other I had been on. The only place I

noticed anything worn was the gym equipment was a bit rusty and older

than other ships.

2. I did not notice any excessive vibration. Our seas were fairly calm and our

glasses did not jiggle in the dining room.

3. Had an interior cabin can't answer.

4. Hubby and I were 36. Kids were 10 and 13. Maybe 10 wheelchairs (MIL

MIL was in one of them) not alot of walkers. Although the age range was

much higher than other cruises it was an active bunch. Plenty of grandma

and grandpas climbed the rock wall. The casino still had plenty of action

later in the night. People really seemed to enjoy themselves. It was not

the old and jadded crowd I feared.

5. Hubby has celiac disease. The staff went out of there way to make sure

there were things he could eat. Each night they would give him the next

nights menu. He always found something (hes not picky) If you had some

things you wanted to change to any item. (like maybe a different sauce)

you let them know then so it will be ready the next dinner.

 

Feel free to ask any other questions

Vikki

[NiniB]

i was on the LOS this NEW YEARS 04,,,,, and let me just emphasize that i am not a picky person..... BUT i was TERRIBLY dissappionted by this cruise...... i would not plan on doing a LOS cruise again...... i was going to write a review of the cruise,,,, here's a short one pro's & cons.....

 

PRO'S

wait staff in dining room was great

some of the entertainment was good

ship looked GREAT / and CLEAN

 

CON's

embarkation was a NITEMARE,,,, no exaggeration here

most staff unfriendly or just indifferent,,, not wanting to be bothered

most food dishes were poor

alcohol drink service was almost non-existant,, could have died of thirst

our first M&M was cancelled (with no notice),, then rescheduled

boutique's/stores staff were horrible,, they spent most of their time in hall

Purser desk staff was even worse,, not enough people working the desk

several calls to Desk rang for atleast 5 min. before being answered

entertainers would announce last song/dance AFTER it was played

giving people who wanted to dance/stay no forwarnings

Windjammer is super tight,, in most areas,, making it hard to walk around when crowded...

 

the embarkation was the worst,, but too much to state.... maybe some of these things will not bother some folks... i for one will not cruise this particular ship again....:mad: and also being that it was a HOLIDAY cruise i definetly expected BETTER than we got......:mad:

[NiniB]

the LOS was not my first RCI cruise,,, i have also cruised the ROS...

i had a wonderful time on that cruise, the staff, food & ect. was excellent.. i would not hesitate booking that ship again.... :D

Many of the pax we met & spoke to on the LOS were in the same mind frame about the service on this cruise... Several of our CC memebers had cruised before on the LOS and stated the service had declined dramatically.....

[abridalmaven]

And so it goes to show you how opinions can differ, the staff and ship were great for us and going on and off were also great. Remember one thing, two people can be in the same place and see two different things. Alos each sailing can differ from another. If you go with the idea you will have fun you will. If you go looking for bad things to happen, they will !:rolleyes:

 

I found

embarkation was a NITEMARE,,,, no exaggeration here

most staff unfriendly or just indifferent,,, not wanting to be bothered

most food dishes were poor

alcohol drink service was almost non-existant,, could have died of thirst

and

boutique's/stores staff were horrible,, they spent most of their time in hall

Purser desk staff was even worse,, not enough people working the desk

several calls to Desk rang for atleast 5 min. before being answered

entertainers would announce last song/dance AFTER it was played

giving people who wanted to dance/stay no forwarnings

Windjammer is super tight,, in most areas,, making it hard to walk around when crowded...

it to be the exact opposite, so who do you believe? Now if those we quotes about the NCL cruise we were on I would have agreed, so each experience is different

[A&G]

Thanks to all who have answered. I guess we panicked a little after reading a few bad reports. However I must admit the good reports out number the bad by at least tenfold. We were probably also worried about Legends smaller size after cruising Carnival Conquest but I have not read any negative reports on that aspect.

 

Alan

Sydney, Australia

[lahore]

hi Alan

 

I am from Melbourne and we did the Panama Canal Xmas Cruise, in fact we are just back home. I expect you will be quite happy, as most Aussies are not particularly high maintenance. We had a great time, the cruise was the highlight of our six weeks away. I am 45 and he is 60. Some brief answers:

 

The ship did not show it's age at all to me. I thought it was perfectly fine and it's not my first cruise. Rather ostentatious in its decorations - which is either a bit different to English cruise ships or a bit 1980's - but hey, who cares? I didn't spend most of my time meditating on the weird metal decorations around the glass lifts. We had an interesting time with fixtures and fittings though - which reflects the pursers desk too. When we embarked the carpet in our room was smelly and wet. To cut a long story short our steward turned himself out to fix it, but when he coudn't he recommended we phoned the purser's desk. I did, I spoke to the customer service manager (I didn't seek, nor want, a change of cabin) and he had the carpet in our room replaced the next day. Dont' know that you can ask for much better service than that, and I wasn't in an owner's suite, nor have I cruised with RCCL beforek, so I had no prestige status (just used politeness, which seemed a bit lacking in some passengers).

 

As far as food goes, there is so much of it that it's beyond belief. Whilst it's a tad dull (I eat mostly Asian food) from my perspective you will never find a day when you can't find something you would be more than happy to eat. I love spicy food and often pigged out on the Chili and Guacamole in the solarium for lunch and then ate sparingly at dinner. We often ate in the Windjammer as we find set dining a bit tedious and we aren't good at keeping to schedule. That being said, we turned up on lobster night and had seconds. Keep an eye on the pooside buffet too (that's different to the chile previously mentioned) as on our cruise they had different ethnic fares on different days. We nearly missed the Indian day which would have upset us greatly! I don't know about vegetarians - whether they do good fresh vego food is questionable - I suspect your options may be limited but the same can be said for any mass eating environment (I am an ex-vego).

 

As far as old poeple go, I think I'm an old 45, but yes there were plenty of people with wheelchairs and frames, but that didn't in any way spoil our time. I know there were plenty of people up till the early hours dancing. And most had a great time with all the activities. For us, sleep, read around pool, eat, read around pool, play suffleboard, eat, read, sleep is about it on a cruise. We save all our energies for port days.

 

Vibrations were considerably less on Legend than we noticed on Norwegian Wind. We had a rough day too. She handled it well.

 

Agree with previous comment that shop staff spent most of their time playing in the mid section and one blond girl in general shop had bad attitude. But the quality of my cruise experience is not affected by what the shop staff do or don't do.

 

We were on deck seven, in 7049: a spacious inside cabin (with new carpet!). We had drinks in a deck seven balcony cabin and it was more than adequate in my view.

 

Oh, and debarkation was a total nightmare, but there were ten ships in Florida that day, it was Boxing Day and apparently less than 50% of the immigration officials turned up for work. I doubt it is always that bad.

 

Have a good cruise, I'd be amazed if you don't.

[ttowers]

hope you have a lovely time. we will also be travelling with legends, this is our first cruise we will be going in july2nd 2005 from southampton around the med for 15nights called the classic med. We did check before booking and were told its an older ship but still fantastic, well thats good enough for me, we have a JS on deck 8 aft well if nothing else the room looks nice!!! when you get back could you please send me some info ta from Ireland!!!

[jwlane]

Please call your TA or RCCL and have my family substituted. We'll try to make our way thru it somehow.;)

[ewheelock]

ZPOOD, when in December are you sailing? We sailing on the 10th

[ZPOOD@AOL.COM]

Looks like we will be getting off,when you are getting on. We are sailing 12/3.

Getting anxious now though.