LEGENDary Transatlantic cruise - Sept. 25-Oct. 10, 2013

[Lori Dobson]

An absolutely amazing transatlantic trip on the Carnival Legend!

Port Itinerary:

London (Dover) (embarkation)

Dublin, Ireland

Glasgow (Greenock) Scotland

Belfast N. Ireland

Reykjavik Iceland

Qorqotoq Greenland

St. John’s Newfoundland

Embarkation:

Flew into Dover on 9/25/13, landing in London and taking a private transport into Dover. We arrived at the port at about 10:30. Easiest and quickest embarkation EVER. There were about 5 people there when we got there, immediately handed our bags off to a porter, walked up to the counter, got our cards immediately and went to the waiting area, with about 20 other people. Less than 15 minutes later we were on the ship and on the way to lunch. Amazingly easy and quick.

Cabin:

Standard balcony cabin - #6219, great spot, midship. Arnold was our steward and he was terrific.

Fellow passengers:

This was one well-travelled ship of people. Many of them were on B2B2B2B cruises – most of the passengers I spoke to cruise numerous times a year and have been everywhere at least twice. Most people were mid 60’s to early 70’s, only a handful of children. It was a nice change – veteran cruisers know the buffet is never going to run out of food so there was almost none of the pushing, shoving and “I have to be first so get out of my way attitude” of some tropical cruises I have been on. The pace was very nice and relaxed and everyone was very friendly.

Food:

Ate in the MDR every night except one when we did the Chef’s table. We had anytime dining – there was almost always a line to get in but since the entire 3rd floor is for anytime dining, it moved fairly fast so it was never an issue. Food was very good to excellent with only two exceptions – one main entrée of duck that was dry and tasteless and a strange desert – was supposed to be almonds in pastry dough, was like long strips of hard rubber. The Chef’s Table was superlative as always.

Food on the lido was always very good – my husband ate at the Deli a lot, loved the sandwiches – I ate from all of the different stations at one time or another – never had anything I didn’t like. There were never really long lines, either – I never waited more than a minute or two, even at peak times. Finding a table was sometimes a challenge but more due to people reading or playing cards and taking up a table, at which time John H (Cruise director) came on the intercom and asked people to move to a different area.

Ship:

I have been on several Carnival ships and loved them all – but I really enjoyed the Legend. It is getting a little worn around the edges – some torn carpet here and there, paint chips, worn fixtures, burnt out light bulbs in the high fixtures etc. – I hear it’s going into dry dock soon – but it’s a great ship. Terrific size, not too big or too small, easy to navigate and get around. I found the décor very pleasant. The follies was comfortable and we always were able to get seats for shows. The Firebird (comedy show lounge) was a bit tight at times but it is a lot smaller.

The Serenity area was lovely – most days it wasn’t used as it was too cold but the last sea day was beautiful and you still had no trouble finding a lounge. A few CHOGS but no big issue.

The library was very comfortable, always a computer available. Internet was surprisingly fast but it did go down a few times during the voyage –again, not a big deal.

I had one spa service – an oxydermie facial and a polish change – as everyone knows, the services are overpriced and the product pitches are annoying but it’s nice to feel pampered, especially on a long cruise. My husband used the gym on several days and all of the equipment was working. We didn’t take any “for a fee” classes.

John Heald was our cruise director and was terrific – Calvin was his second, I’m sure he is a fine person but I find him to be very annoying, just my personal opinion. We also had a speaker for Greenland and the northern lights – he wasn’t the most exciting and dynamic speaker but gave some good information.

They didn’t push drink service as much on this one as previous cruises, which was nice – I don’t drink – photo service was a bit pushy but easy to avoid. We bought a few photos and the voyage video due to the great itinerary.

Shows: The production shows were very good, especially the New Orleans reviews. There was a hypnotist and ventriloquist that were very good, two guitar shows that were fantastic and a magician and dancing show that was a bit in your face (think Chris Angel) and loud but very good.

We also did the “Behind the fun” tour which was terrific.

Ports:

This is why we took the trip. This was our first and maybe only Transatlantic and Carnival’s first trip to Greenland – which not many people have been to.

Dublin, Scotland and Belfast N. Ireland were all lovely weather was cloudy to partly cloudy and temps in the 40’s -50’s each day – we took non-Carnival excursions in each port and enjoyed them all. Scotland in particular was lovely, there was a band of pipers in highland dress that gave a ½ hour concert right on the dock after everyone was back on board as a send off – I love bagpipe music and it was wonderful to see.

Iceland – due to strong tailwinds and following seas, we actually arrived here at 9AM instead of Noon as originally anticipated. We knew this a day in advance and Carnival actually let anyone with a NON-Carnival tour go to at the guest services desk and call their tour operator to see if they could change the time of the tour – I thought this was very nice of them to do.

This was the only port where the weather was not very good – it was cold and varied between a heavy mist and a steady rain. There were plenty of excursions to take or you could buy a $23 round trip ticket on the shuttle into the main part of town. Lots to see and do in town – prices were very expensive. We went into town for about 2 hours to buy some pricy souvenirs and then did the most popular tour, the “Golden Circle” – we enjoyed it very much despite the awful weather.

Greenland – we had two sea days between Iceland and Greenland. AS the distance is not all that great, I thought it was strange to have so much time between ports but it turned out that we were making a detour which was VERY weather dependent, which Carnival had not announced as to avoid disappointment if we could not do it. The weather was perfect so on the second sea day, we cruised through Prince William Sound, the lower islands of Greenland. This was similar to the inside passage of Alaska and absolutely beautiful. Icebergs everywhere, soaring mountains, scenery galore. Carnival had given each stateroom a souvenir postcard and offered to mail it FREE to anyone you liked from a tiny, tiny fishing village in the middle of the sound, where the ship stopped for about an hour – I thought that was wonderful. John H. and some crew members got off in a lifeboat tender and went over to the village to mail the cards. What a wonderful thing to do for the passengers!

The next day we arrived at Qorqotoq, Greenland – there is no dock so the lifeboats were used as tenders. The weather was beautiful – sunny and in the 50’s and we roamed as far as we could in the several hours we were there, climbing mountains and enjoying the spectacular scenery. It is a very small town – only a couple of thousand people – no shopping and only one or two tiny restaurants but how many people have been to Greenland?

St. John’s Newfoundland – We have been to Canada before but this was our first time in St. John’s. Enjoyed it very much, no tour but went up to Signal Hill and toured the town. Really enjoyed the 4PM sail away as you pass through a very narrow channel back out to sea – we had a cannon send-off from Signal Hill and the scenery is magnificent.

Disembarkation – as usual, the only sour note in any cruise. We had been given DETAILED instructions on how disembarkation was to proceed and it didn’t remotely happen that way, total chaos. Self-assist was supposed to be first, called by deck – Deck 6 was called first (we were deck 6) but all deck were in line and let off at the same time anyway, a mob scene. But after such a fantastic cruise, we did not let it bother us – we had 15 fantastic days aboard the Legend and were very lucky and blessed to be able to take this amazing trip.