Western Med June 2013 - Legend of the Seas - review

[xxHadleyxx]

Yes, I have to grin while reading your trip report. :D

 

And although there were many affinities, some things changed, e.g. the singers you loved or some trivias you made.

 

In my opinion there were many newbies among the stuff this cruise. Some of them looked very insecure or didn't keep track of things. And not all of the guests were polite and appreciative, keeping in mind that it's vacation and not time to anger about peanuts.

 

Everyone sees different things ;)

 

We were surprised by the well mannered guests (and there was ONE family on the second week, the grandmother in particular, who was an issue. Poor guests services). Our last night of the ship--with the new batch of people who embarked in Rome (and then sailed with you) seemed to be a little "wilder" shall we say? :rolleyes: When I get to that last night and post about the little, older, drunk Italian man in the game with us--well we have thought the poor cruise staff were in for a lot of issues with that one!

 

There were also a lot of new cruise staff shadowing the current staff on our second week--I wonder if they had those new people running things for you? We really thought Gio, David, Mo, Chris and Sam were very good. Andrea was sweet as could be and tried but really struggled with English and with understanding the technology, etc.

[xxHadleyxx]

I LOVE your photo with the fountain and the cathedral from the Plaza of the Virgins--I couldn't get one to come out nearly so well.

 

And I have to ask, because we were totally surprised to not be the only ones with the answer, and to in fact have the "majority" answer---did Angela Merkel end up being the "right" answer for "ugliest woman" again in Majority Rules?

We took that as a sign that there really were not many Americans on board--since most Americans would not even think of her :D

[Cachecruiser]

Thank you, DH is always happy if somebody likes his photos. :)

 

We haven't got the question regarding the ugliest woman on our cruise. But the answer may well be a good indication for a lot south european cruisers aboard. ;)

 

US citizens were the largest group of people on our cruise, followed by Canadians, Italians and surprisingly people from Venezuela. Do you got some figures from your cruises?

[Cachecruiser]

At sea

 

Thank god we’re at sea! :cool: After all these days packed full of sightseeing, walking and geocaching we were happy for some free and relaxing time on board. We prefer having a day at sea in the middle of the cruise for a break during all these days. Skipping a port is not an option for us.

 

We woke up late and had a late breakfast in Windjammer. It was very crowded and almost no empty tables.

DH wanted to sort his pictures and I grabbed my Kindle heading up to the Solarium where we had relaxed hours. While we enjoyed our free time, the staff had time to fix our toilet. According to our stateroom attendant, the toilets were broken in the whole deck.

 

To salve our conscience after all that great food we considered a workout. First, we went to the climbing wall and later to the Shipshape. Shipshape wasn’t crowded, it was possible to use every equipment without waiting time. At the climbing wall desk they stamped our seapass card with a stamp as a reminder we filled out the security form. This stamping made problems afterwards, because one of the seapass cards was stamped right at the edge.

 

We had a nice dinner again. Really, we enjoyed all the food in the MDR in the evenings during this cruise. It’s a pitty we missed lunch in the MDR on this sea day, we never did this before and we are curious about selection and tasting.

 

Expecting our plans for the next port of call and my upcoming cold we planned going to bed by time. Arrived at our stateroom, we used the damaged seapass card to open the door and it stuck in the slit. Nothing happend, neither the door opened nor getting the seapass card out of the slit again. With some force DH extracted the card but it was broken. My seapass card didn’t work - obviously the mechanic of the door was broken. We went to guest relation desk, but the purser didn’t understand what our problem was and made two new seapass cards. It took some explanation and he called a mechanic to come to our stateroom. Waiting in front of our door took very much time. A stateroom attendant asked for help, trying his card but door didn’t opened as well. So the mechanic was called again and had to repair the whole lock. It took 1,5 hours in total fixing the lock - this scewed our plan going to bed early. :rolleyes:

[Travel R]

Thanks for the ongoing review. We plan to spend most of our day whil in Valencia at the Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias. In trying to find something that the kids and adults would all agree upon, this seemed like the best fit for us all. We can also spend as much, or as little, time walking around that area as we wish.

 

Just to confirm, you would suggest that a cab from/to the port to that area is a better choice than the ship's transfer?

 

FYI - once again, tell your DH that the pictures are wonderful.

[xxHadleyxx]

Thank you, DH is always happy if somebody likes his photos. :)

 

We haven't got the question regarding the ugliest woman on our cruise. But the answer may well be a good indication for a lot south european cruisers aboard. ;)

 

US citizens were the largest group of people on our cruise, followed by Canadians, Italians and surprisingly people from Venezuela. Do you got some figures from your cruises?

 

I don't recall the figures from our cruise--though my husband did hear them both times around. I believe in both weeks US and Italy were more or less tied for the top, then I think UK, Germany and Canada were all about equal for the next followed by France, but there was a very good mix. In the teen clubs my kids were the only Americans; they had teens from Estonia, India, The Philippines, Germany, Egypt . . .

 

Not on this most recent cruise, but we HAVE had large groups from Venezuela about 50% of the time in the last 3-4 years (we must hit their school holidays some).

 

And, yes, we figured the Merkel answer was largely because of how many Italians currently feel about Germany ;)

[xxHadleyxx]

Yikes on the late night waiting for a repair! I never thought about totally being locked out of one's room.

[Deebs2]

Beautiful photos!!

[Cachecruiser]

We plan to spend most of our day whil in Valencia at the Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias. In trying to find something that the kids and adults would all agree upon, this seemed like the best fit for us all.

In my opinion this is a very good choice. I am sure your family will love the area and the museums.

 

Just to confirm, you would suggest that a cab from/to the port to that area is a better choice than the ship's transfer?

Absolutely! The ship's transfer don't stop in this area, there is only one stop nearby the city center. And I don't know how you can get here by local bus service.The area is closer to the port than city center is, so the costs for a cab are cheaper, totally cost for a cab was 6 EUR. But take care that the taxi driver is starting the taximeter and don't let them argue on the price - I guess this applies to most of the ports on this cruise. ;)

 

FYI - once again, tell your DH that the pictures are wonderful.

DH is happy. :)

 

@NHDisneylover Thanks for the figures from your cruise. It's interesting how it varies within only two weeks.

 

@Deebs2 Thanks. :)

[Cachecruiser]

Civitavecchia

 

We ordered breakfast to our stateroom as we wanted to leave the ship early. Before the cruise started we informed ourself about timetables of Trenitalia to get to Rome by train. Eight years ago we spent a wonderful holiday in this amazing city. This time we wanted to refresh our memories and DH had to retake some pictures.

As we left the ship I didn’t remember wether there was a shuttle service or not. No bus was waiting in front of the terminal so we walked through the port area. Not the best idea - we realized the walk took way longer as expected. After reaching the ferry terminal we saw a bus and ask for a lift. We were quite happy when the bus took us to the entrance of the port area. Altogether we lost about 30 minutes and couldn’t reached our train as planned.

 

From port entrance (bus stop) to the train station it is only a short walk. On the right hand side after the port there is a kiosk selling tickets for the train. Costs are 12 EUR per person valid for trains from Civitavecchia to Rome and back as well as for public transportation in Rome for the entire day (the tickets includes the BIRG). We bought our tickets at this kiosk to not have to queue up for the ticket machine or at the ticket counter directly in the station. Many people disembarked that day and the Legend of the Seas wasn’t the only ship in port so there are many people with their luggage catching the train. We took the next train at 8:41 am, which was very crowded, no seat for everybody. Leaving the train at 9:23 am at metro station Rome St. Pietro and headed directly to the Vatican. But unfortunatly the italian president had a private audition with the pope and both the Basilica St. Peter and the square were closed until 3 pm. Too bad we did not know that before. We met another couple who pre-booked a guided tour through the basilica and they were not able to attend to any tour and their tickets expired.

 

We started our walking tour through Rome, along all these famous places like Fontana di Trevi, Spagna, Piazza Navona, Pantheon... it was impressive. Unfortunatly my cold was coming up and I was unable to really enjoy the city as I wanted to. Anyway, each of us threw a coin into Trevi fountain which means, we will come back. That worked the last time too!

 

We took the metro again to get to San Giovanni station in order to visit St. John Lateran - or at least to find one of the Vatican City caches. In the metro some pickpockers approached us. A group of 3 little girls, maybe 10 years old, barged me while boarding the metro. One of them tread on my foot deliberately to detract me. But I noticed before something was very strange with these girls and so I took special care for my belongings. The girls weren’t dressed up well and each of them wore an open handbag with nothing inside and with their hands hidden behind the bags. A guy in the metro spoke to us we had to be careful because these girls are pickpockers. They were trained to steal from tourists. I don’t want to frighten you, just be careful at the metro or at crowded tourist spots such as Trevi fountain. They have a lot of unimaginable tricks to steal from careless tourists.

About 3 pm we went back to St. Peter. Obviously, this was the plan of many people who were unable to visit the Basilica in the morning. It took over an hour standing in line to reach the Basilica. And because we had to catch the train back to Civitavecchia at 4:30 pm we had only 10-15 minutes left in the church.

 

We rushed to train station again and our train was a little bit late, but back in Civitavecchia at 5:30 pm it was time enough to reach the ship. After a coffee and wifi stop in a local café we took the shuttle bus back to the Legend and refreshed for our last dinner onbord.

 

This was embarkation day for many people. Waiters stood in line at MDR, to take the new guests to their table. Funny they asked for our table number and took us to it also. Our second waiter felt better and came back to serve us again. We had a new assistant waiter and this guy did an excellent job. At this evening, the new menu was introduced for this and the following cruises. The Legend of the Seas was one of the last three ships which got it. The motto of the menu of the day was “Mojo” and we enjoyed it very much. Our waiter told us the size of the dishes increased and they are of better quality.

 

Our waiter brought a family of 8 persons to our table. So we had our last dinner with tablemates and they were so nice - we wished we had a dinner like that every day. They celebrate a very special anniversary and we were invited to take part of it. We had nice conversations and this was the first time we left the MDR while waiters prepared the other tables for second seating.

 

After dinner it was time to say good bye. We packed our last belongings and had a last drink in the Schooner Bar.

 

Spagna

 

Trevi Fountain

 

Streetview

 

Pantheon

 

Window

 

Piazza Navona

[Cachecruiser]

Too many nice pictures from Rome, so I added some more.

 

 

St. Peter Basilica

 

St. Peter Square

 

Inside Basilica

 

Streetview

 

Castle and Bridge of the Holy Angel

 

Tiber Bridge

[Cachecruiser]

Genoa again

 

Waking up early and knowing this will be our very last breakfast in Windjammer was sad. We left the ship at 9:30 am and from a table outside the terminal we got our Leatherman back from security - interesting, what kind of things people try to get on board. :rolleyes:

 

We grabbed our luggage and the shuttle service was waiting in front of the terminal. The driver brought us back to the parking garage and DH breathed a sigh of relief everything worked well with our car.

 

We started our trip home and it was a little bit arduous after this week. But we travelled home safe.

 

Altogether we had a great cruise with beautiful memories - and of course tons of pictures. I hope it doesn't sound like a lot stuff bothered us. The unexpected things or things which went wrong are the ones that are being told and really make traveling interesting.

 

Thank you for reading (or working through ;) ) my trip report and please excuse my writing - you may have figured it already, I'm not a native speaker. :)

[Travel R]

A wonderful review. Thank you for all of the informative and for help with our questions. I am glad yourself and your DH had a great trip.

 

Only a few days until I take the same journey.

 

Peace & Health,

 

Travel R

[JaniceW]

Thank you for all the wonderful info.

[Peperoo]

We will be going on the same cruise at the end of July and your review has been great, full of useful tips. Thank you for taking the time to write it. :)

[cruiserking]

Gorgeous pictures brings back so many wonderful memories of our transatlantic to Europe.

 

Jonathan

[Ariel76]

Genoa again

 

Waking up early and knowing this will be our very last breakfast in Windjammer was sad. We left the ship at 9:30 am and from a table outside the terminal we got our Leatherman back from security - interesting, what kind of things people try to get on board. :rolleyes:

 

We grabbed our luggage and the shuttle service was waiting in front of the terminal. The driver brought us back to the parking garage and DH breathed a sigh of relief everything worked well with our car.

 

We started our trip home and it was a little bit arduous after this week. But we travelled home safe.

 

Altogether we had a great cruise with beautiful memories - and of course tons of pictures. I hope it doesn't sound like a lot stuff bothered us. The unexpected things or things which went wrong are the ones that are being told and really make traveling interesting.

 

Thank you for reading (or working through ;) ) my trip report and please excuse my writing - you may have figured it already, I'm not a native speaker. :)

Thank you for your great review. My DH and I are first time cruisers taking this cruise next week. The tips and photos are great!