LEGEND March 20-30,2015 REVIEW w/lots of photos

[Hoopster95]

Coming in from the pool deck into the Centrum area, I headed up the stairs to get to Viking Crown and snapped this great view down into the Centrum through the aerial act apparatus. Note that we did not get an aireal show on this cruise as per CD Paul Rutter the equipment had a "technical" problem. For the safety of the dancers/aerialists they cancelled the show as they did the last couple of cruises as well per Paul.

 

 

 

And here on deck 10 just before the stairs heading up to the Viking Crown is this very cool scale model of the Monarch. During Monarch's final sailings I had decided to do Majesty for a 2nd time instead and I really regretted missing a chance to sail on Monarch, as I am now regretting very likely never being able to get on Splendour before she's sold. I am grateful that I was here on Legend for one of her final sailings in North America as I feel I'll never get another chance to sail on her as well.

 

 

 

Up to Viking Crown, Izumi's & Chops we go!

 

 

 

And here's the Viking Crown bar and dance floor. This space acted as the nightclub. It was very dead for the most part on this cruise but the last couple of nights it was great. I am sure you "younger" partier Ozzies will liven this area up as the demographic on this ship here in North America was older than on most RCI ships I've been on. Note that unlike the Vision & Rhapsody where the DJ has a booth above looking down over the bar, there's no room up there on this ship as this Viking crown is smaller, and thus the DJ stands up by the elevator and mixes from his laptop!!

 

 

 

Here the Viking crown acted each night as the Diamond Lounge overflow, and had a full array of hors d'ouvres available

 

 

[Hoopster95]

In between the two elevators and looking out over the pool deck facing forward is Izumi's. I dined there one night for the first time enjoying signature dishes like their hot rocks, creamy lobster rolls and others. I'm blessed to live in a very culturally diverse area of the world so I have the opportunity to eat a lot of great sushi where I live. Izumi's would rank as maybe just barely above average compared to what I'm used to, but I feel if you do not have good Japanese in your neck of the woods that you would really enjoy it here

 

 

 

 

One of the biggest fails on this ship is that RCI took away the very best view within Viking Crown for Izumi's, and the place is very empty everytime I looked. For sure this space should've been taken by Chops

 

 

[Hoopster95]

I ate at Chops 3 times... absolutely superb all 3 times! Unlike many of the negative reviews of the changed menu, this was my first time with the new menu items and I loved it! I tell you what... you just have to try the Crusted Tuna, my favorite meal of the cruise and by far and away better than anything in Izumi's... delicacy Sushi quality for those of you who want to try something different. I also had the Spicy jumbo shrimp another night and they too were superb. On the 3 nights I tried 6 appies and they were all great... awesome carpaccio, onion soup and crabcakes! The biggest disappointment was the not so good mud pie, but that was long forgotten with the excellent creamy and yummy red velvet and the super surprising totally delicious Huckleberry Cheesecake. Chops is a 100% must do at least once on Legend... my favorite Chops experience on any ship so far.

 

By the way, the personnel and wait staff were beyond awesome. Mitch, Romeo and Halil were totally excellent, with special thanks to Halil who seemed to see me everywhere on the ship at all times of the day! Super fun guy who went out of his way to say hello to me and all cruisers he befriended. Those of you on the upcoming Canal or Hawaii segments definitely ask for him when you book Chops and get to know this guy when you see him around, a real joy and excellent server.

 

 

 

 

 

[Hoopster95]

For those of you who didn't follow my story on previous threads, I was originally booked in a J interior. About 4 weeks prior to sailing my TA called me and said RCL was offering me an upsell... $300 total would land me any available balcony I wanted!!!! Duh... no brainer!!! Having followed some of the empty cabins as I was thinking about upgrading up to two months before sailing, I had decided against it because a balcony was more than double my J, but I did know there were possibly some afts available so I asked... the rep said "sure, there are two left. Which would you like". I said "I don't care!!! Pick one, surprise me" Hehe. So I was assigned 6628. That walk down from the Centrum to the very aft of the ship is a long way even for the "tiny" Legend.... but soon enough we were there!!!

 

 

 

 

For those of you who have followed my last few reviews, you would've seen pics of my last few cabins I've experienced. This D1 aft cabin is no bigger than my OV on both Serenade and Navigator, and definitely much smaller than any of the superior balconies I've seen on various cabin crawls. In fact, I walked by deck 8 to check out the interior J I originally had, and the interior J is exactly the same size as this D1 aft at a 1/3 of the price. Wow, the newer ships have come a very long way.

 

 

 

Coming off the extremely sleek & sexy lines with modern colour schemes of Quantum, this was like hopping into the hot-tub time machine... back to the "standard" colours and dated tones

 

 

[Hoopster95]

Aaaaah... and finally the view

 

 

 

 

 

I'll have plenty of more pics and commentary of the aft balcony as I continue with the ship review, but the picture below shows in full the cabin looking back to the closet space> Also note this sofa bed is pullout, but for a single it does not need to be pulled out at all as the matress sits just underneath the cushions. So 3 people can easily stay in this room with lots of space to move around.

 

 

 

And lastly the bathroom... as small as most interiors... and oh the dreaded shower curtain!!!!!

 

 

 

That's it for now. G'night all

[BecciBoo]

For those of you who didn't follow my story on previous threads, I was originally booked in a J interior. About 4 weeks prior to sailing my TA called me and said RCL was offering me an upsell... $300 total would land me any available balcony I wanted!!!! Duh... no brainer!!! Having followed some of the empty cabins as I was thinking about upgrading up to two months before sailing, I had decided against it because a balcony was more than double my J, but I did know there were possibly some afts available so I asked... the rep said "sure, there are two left. Which would you like". I said "I don't care!!! Pick one, surprise me" Hehe. So I was assigned 6628. That walk down from the Centrum to the very aft of the ship is a long way even for the "tiny" Legend.... but soon enough we were there!!!

 

We did the same thing when we booked our int. and have been discussing this scenario for months. We hope to get that same email in a week or 2!! You have renewed my hopes! Thanks so much for sharing this! I think I will probably say the same thing....'surprise me' I will be so happy!:D

 

There are still plenty of balconies and if they hold out a couple more weeks, we too, could be looking at Deep Blue instead of halls!

 

As for the shower, having experienced both, I am the odd duck who likes the curtain better. I seem to always be bumping noisily into the plastic doors of the other enclosure.

Edited April 4, 2015 by BecciBoo

[westwood65]

Following your review, we where on her last year. Love the AFT lounge area. We split our lounging time between there and deck 4. We really enjoyed the ship, but have to say the gym was a big disappointment.

We have sailed on all the vision class ships except for the Grandeur. Guess will have to book a cruise from Baltimore to complete the sweep. I totally agree with your statement about feeling at home when you are on the ship.

I can't wait for two weeks from now when we board the Independence. Looking forward to seeing more of your review.

[Setting sail for fun]

Enjoying all of the photos. It has almost been a week since we left the Legend.

We really enjoyed Chopps also, we ate there twice and I think they were the best meals we have had on any ship.

 

Looking at the Viking Crown photos brings back fond memories. Alfred did a great job in the evenings with the Diamond (overflow)!

 

You may have mentioned this already. But, we were actually able to enjoy the Casino this cruise. It did not seem as smoke filled as other ships or cruises. Not sure why, maybe the ventilation or less smokers on this ship. At any rate it was enjoyable! We were on Vision last November and you could not bear to even walk thru the Casino and the smoke drifted out into other public areas.

 

Thanks for the great photos!

 

 

Debbie

[cruiseapril]

Great photos; great review.

 

We had one of those new sinks on the Enchantment. Does anyone know why they put those in?

[wolfcathorse]

This pool was by far and away the strongest most chlorinated pool I have ever experienced on any RCI ship... WOW! You only need to open your eyes underwater once and they''ll sting for 15 minutes.

 

The pools are saltwater. Very few of RCI's ships have a freshwater pool (only the biggest and newest ships). Your eyes were stinging from the salt.

[wolfcathorse]

Is this the Sunil you had? We had a Sunil on Vision in Alaska in 2005, and he was excellent.

[Hoopster95]

Is this the Sunil you had? We had a Sunil on Vision in Alaska in 2005, and he was excellent.

 

Nope, different Sunil

[Hoopster95]

It was here in my cabin that my camera died with all the photos I've done so far throughout the day! So I plugged in the charger and chilled out for a while. Also unpacked and went to muster camera-less while it charged so it would be ready for sailaway.

 

But I just now realized I missed showing you pics of the Anchors Aweigh Lounge from deck 5... don't know how I missed that in this review, but here we go

 

 

 

 

 

Spent quite a but of time here in the Lounge including Karaoke, The Quest, various Game Shows, the M&M, some dance events, etc. A hint if you wish to have a chance of winning at the Quest: you must be one of the teams within the front rows as the first team to fulfill the quest request gets 5 points, 2nd team 4, and so on.... if your team of 8-10 is sitting farther back you have little chance of accumulating points.

 

 

 

[Hoopster95]

And now shortly after muster it was time for sailaway. I headed up top deck to watch us pull away and then get a few shots from the bow as we pulled into the channel.

 

 

 

 

 

I never get bored of that Ft Lauderdale (or Miami Beach) view as we sail out of the channel. Sailaway was typical to Royal as I can hear the music start up in the distance behind me at pool deck, so I knew the activity staff were out there doing their start up dance and then getting cruisers to join in on line dancing.... including me! Here you see Activity staff Orlando (lower) and Lorenzo (on the pool's edge), both Dominican's and super fun guys, the excitement guys of the cruise to try to get people going. I had met Orlando on Oasis 2013 in Boleros handling the Latino events and salsa/merengue dancing competitions and latin events... he was totally in his element back then and incredibly fun. Here on Legend he tried but was definitely not the same as what I remembered of him. This ship was much more "quiet", older crowd and thus much less of a party atmosphere for him to perform

 

 

[sparkymom]

Thanks for the wonderful review and pictures!!

[Hoopster95]

Tonight's dinner would be at Chops with great friends Noelle & Stan whom I met on Quantum. What a hoot these guys are, and it was an excellent reunion! But before reviewing Chops, I went out to my balcony to take a bunch more photos of Legend's superstructure and sitelines back there

 

 

Note in the photo above the one of the exhausts immediately below the cabin that extends out to the back. The turquoise colour you see below between the slats is deck 5 aft crew area just outside of the gym I believe

I immediately noted that there was a lot of dark "smudging" on the deck and the glass was extremely dirty... more on this coming up at St Thomas day 4. Poking my head over the railing and looking around I immediately noticed that the superstructure had quite a bit of rusty and seemingly ignored maintenance type of areas that I did not see during my walk around of the public areas

 

 

 

 

I also leaned forward as far as I could and took a photo upward, getting this really interesting shot all the way to the rock wall up on deck 10

 

 

 

And making sure no one was on my neighbor's decks, here are photos of 6630 and corner aft 6626. Note that unlike Vision & Rhapsody, the corner afts are not wrap-around. None of our decks had loungers and I didn't feel the need to ask for one

 

 

 

We got ready for the Welcome Aboard Show at 7:15pm with Chops right after at 8pm.... as mentioned in a previous post when I showed you Chops pictures, this was my favorite Chops of any ship that I tried so far as I normally prefer Giovanni's... food was just superb as was service. Halil was our server this evening and I pretty much saw him everyday somewhere on the ship after this first night, great guy and excellent service. It was on this night one that I had the only 2 things on the menu that wasn't the best: Grilled Black Pepper Bacon and the Mud Pie.... everything else was just awesome, and the fillet was melt-in-your-mouth fantastic!!!! Good wine, great server, the best company... made for an excellent night #1

 

Leaving Chops at about 10, we headed for the Anchors Aweigh Lounge to check out the Karaoke, but it was really sparse in there with only a few people and activity staff Billie was struggling getting singers up. We left rather quickly... Schooner Bar was empty and so was the Centrum, so we just simply decided to get to bed after a long day as well.

[Michaele]

Thanks very much for the photos. We are sailing on her on the 24th May 2015. She looks very much similar to Rhapsody which we enjoyed a couple of years ago

[Hoopster95]

Thanks very much for the photos. We are sailing on her on the 24th May 2015. She looks very much similar to Rhapsody which we enjoyed a couple of years ago

 

You're welcome. I've been on pre and post re-vitalized Rhapsody twice... much nicer ship than Legend imho. Rhapsody advantages over Legend:

 

• Giovanni's,
  
• balcony seating in the larger 2-tier theatre
  
• more deck space, and thus loungers, on pool deck
  
• a much nicer set up in the Windjammer
  
• Diamond Lounge is one of the very best in the fleet imo as it faces aft with the full floor-to-ceiling windows at the back of the "Shall We Dance Lounge"
  
• The gym is larger and offers fabulous views
  
• Viking crown is only cut-off by the Concierge Lounge so it's still large enough for events and evening nightclub whereas Legend is cut-up 3 ways with Izumi and Chops taking away much too much space.
  

 

Sorry to say, Legend is somewhat of a downgrade for the Aussies compared to Rhapsody imho, but still a nice little ship for however long she stays in the fleet.

Edited April 5, 2015 by Hoopster95

[ace30927]

Thank you so much for this! We sail on the 14th heading through the Panama Canal!!!! :):D

[kandj05]

Thank you so much for this! We sail on the 14th heading through the Panama Canal!!!! :):D

 

Ace....are you signed up for the Meet & Mingle?

[Hoopster95]

For those of you who have read my previous reviews, it's been mentioned many times how much I do and see on port days... I guess I'm a monster when it comes to site seeing and being super busy and active. My last 3 cruises have been very busy and port intensive, so this cruise on Legend, and without the bells & whistles of Quantum, my #1 goal was to relax and not be busy at all! Believe me, that's actually quite a chore for me as I do enjoy being active and busy for the most part.

 

Part of achieving this goal was putting my camera down and leaving it in my cabin for extended periods, so you will see now that I've finished doing the full tour of the ship, the days ahead will be be much shorter to post. I'll still show you what I did in ports for those of you who wish to have an idea, but not even close to the extent of what I did in the Med on my Serenade review for example. SO enjoy... I'll have plenty of random ship photos and so forth as we continue through and I figure it won't take too too long to get to day 10 from this point.....

 

One thing that makes me feel like home on RCL is heading up to the gym and jogging the track, getting a great workout in to start the morning... but especially dropping by the CL the breakfast of champions!!!... a double macchiato latte to start my day and bring down to the cabin with me. SO with java in hand, I got ready and headed out for the M&M today, the 1st day at sea, and was held in the Anchors Aweigh Lounge on deck 5 forward. CD Paul Rutter and his right hand "man" Activity Director Cece hosted the M&M and it was well done... no sales pitches, no b&s... it was just really nice to meet them up close and they gave out raffle prizes which were actually very decent (free spa credits, etc). Birdlady ran the gift exchange and also reminded everyone of the slot pull & cabin crawl for the next day.

 

Besides good buddies Noelle&Stan, I got to meet for the first time my next set of good friends on board Sharon&Roger and Cathy&Tony, both who joined up my private tour I had set up for Dominica, my favorite day of the entire cruise with a totally awesome van of these great friends and one of the best most fun guides ever... more no this day 6 when we get there

 

 

 

 

I had not eaten breakfast, so we decided to head up to the Windjammer for the first time. I may or may not mention throughout this cruise that the Windjammer food was better than average on this ship, so once again kudos to the Culinary Team. They had various Asian offerings on one side, and more often than not a theme day (ie. twice they had an absolutely massive vat, prob 3 feet in diameter, of Mexican ground beef with an entire two rows set up for do it yourself tacos, burritos, etc). Just outside the Windjammer is this model of the Viking Sun I had remembered DarthGrady took a picture of on his review, so I did the same to remember

 

 

 

Heading back to the cabin to change for the day and leave my camera in the room the entire afternoon, I remembered on my other reviews that I always took a morning and then an afternoon picture from my window/balcony for my reviews, so here is where I shot these... you just cannot beat the aft balconies for a relaxing ocean view

 

 

 

 

 

And here is where I ended my photo taking for the afternoon and headed up to pool deck to feel the sun for hours until dinner. Pool deck was extremely busy, but I was able to find two separate loungers, pick them up and carry them to wherever there was space (normally the larger deck areas closer to the Pool Bar and stage). Many people did this, moving loungers up to the pools edge, loungers everywhere many times. What an awesome day in the 80 degree heat!!!! Drinks in hand, Caribbean Band playing, pool games, sexy man contest (I didn't compete this time... had to let someone else win lol!!!!!!!!!!!) and just a plain great day of absolutely nothing

Edited April 5, 2015 by Hoopster95

[Hoopster95]

After a great day out on pool deck enjoy the fabulous weather, we went back to chill in our room a little bit and get ready for formal night. I have MTD on this sailing so I had pre-booked for 6pm.... note that this ship MDR traditional was a very early 5:30 or 8pm... I'm not a fan of the 5:30 time slot (too early). In speaking with the Maitre'D, I tried booking a couple of other future nights and he said 6-7:30 fully booked way ahead of time with no ability unless someone cancels, so all he has left the entire cruise was 5:30pm or 7:30 and later. Early MDR seating is always the hot ticket, especially with the older demographic on this ship.

 

Coming out of dinner and before attending the show and seeing other events, I noticed down on deck 3 where the bathrooms were was the entrance to the Legend's Conference Center, so curiosity hit me and I took a quick look just for fun.

 

 

 

 

This evening was also Capt Kjell Nordmo's reception and picture taking event in the Centrum, so with nothing else planned for activities between dinner and the show, we hung out and watched. The Legend's orchestra was playing and the customary champagne was being handed out to all. The headliner tonight was a Doo-Wop a capella 4some called "The Alley Cats" and they were excellent. A theme after the shows for the entire cruise, until closer to the end of the cruise, was that there was not much going on.... walking through the Schooner Bar was sparse, the 3 piece band in the Centrum always had it's steady 20 people with 10 of them dancing every night but nothing spectacular going on, and the Viking Crown nightclub you could hear the crickets! We were both pretty tired so we didn't mind shutting down early once again this evening, so it was off to hag out on our balcony for a little bit before bedtime.

 

 

 

[Hoopster95]

Day 3 brought just about the exact same thing as day 2... zero expectations, and a carefree relaxing day at sea! Again after my morning workout, hello chat with Luca up the CL with my morning machiatto, I ended up going for a walk with the gf rather than an early visit poolside. A typical day on the Legend on a sea day.... busy jogging track with many walkers in the morning, there was a min-golf tournament going on, and the pool deck was already getting busy by this early time in the morning (around 10am'ish I believe).

 

 

 

 

 

Before getting ready for the day, we decided on a late breakfast at Windjammer. A note to you Meusli fans... the home-made Meusli on this ship was the only food that I normally love on all ships, but it wasn't as good here.

It was quite runny, and I tried it only a few days just to see if it repeated that way... it did unfortunately. No worries, I did not starve lol!!

 

One of my favorite places to eat my Windjammer fare was at the outside seating area which is undercover as you exit the Windjammer towards the pool... I thought this was a fantastic spot is is one of the features that differentiate the Legend (and I assume Splendour as well) from all other ships in the RCI fleet. We made a point of coming out here to eat and if I remember correctly only once in the entire cruise did we ever sit down inside the Windjammer.

 

 

 

And now I was ready for yet another slow and quiet day of relaxing by the pool.... aaaah! But Lorenzo and Orlando started to follow the trend of previous activity staff by "picking" on me to join in on events! So they came over pen in hand and signed me up without saying yes lol! Today is Belly Flop Contest day! Tipping the scales at about 195lbs, most people don't think I can compete against the bigger guys, but I've placed in the top 3 a few times and won once... gotta hit that perfect sounding *splat* when you hit the water and get the crown involved to give you those "5"s. But I really sucked this time (I face planted according to everyone... ouch!) and came last out of 7 lol!!!! The 19 year old kid from Indiana beside me (about 160lbs) won the event!!! He was great, put the other bigger guys to shame, definitely the crowd fave as the underdog.

 

We had almost too much sun today so we decided to get inside earlier. To give you an idea of the popularity of trivia on this sailing, here's the Schooner Bar late afternoon... I think this was the Beatles Trivia. Standing room only!! Billie hosted the trivia for the most part and was funny as hell! Everyone loved her, she's a hoot and really entertaining. She'll make an awesome activity director or CD if she aspires to do so some day.

 

[Hoopster95]

Dinner this evening was again MTD, but at 5:30pm. No worries, having had hardly anything for lunch we were good to go. While I can't remember the menu order nor exactly what I had, I had yet another great meal. As mentioned in a previous post, this MDR/MTD was much better than what I had experienced in previous MDR's, so now I've had great MDR and food on Serenade/Q/Legend within the last year that was better than most ships the previous two years. Perhaps Royal has stepped up their game again.

 

I went to trivia this evening before the show, and the evening trivia being held in the Anchor Aweigh Lounge. For the life of me I coudn't remember if I had snapped any decent photos here on day 1, so I took a few more just in case and as other cruisers were gathering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight was the 1st of 3 production shows performed from the RCL singers & dancers: "Invitation to Dance". Many of you have seen this one already as have I. Quite a good show yet again and the professional dancers on board who were part of this show, as always, were spectacular to watch.

 

Paul Rutter is our CD on this cruise, and if I recall correctly the oldest CD in his 50's. Here is is below, and for this ship in North America I think a really good fit for the older demographic. For me the entertainment was lacking... it was geared for early bed time, but I dealt with it no worries. He's got a dry sense of humour which I like and he's a really nice guy. Kudo's to him and his staff for always being visible. Paul was everywhere on the ship and visible, every night down in the theatre he was sure to be there 15 minutes earlier shaking hands and speaking with cruisers in the first few rows. Depending on the night and their duties, you would also see Orlando or Lorenzo down there as well visiting and saying hello to folks. Stuff like this is noticeable to me, great job guys

 

Edited April 5, 2015 by Hoopster95

[ace30927]

Ace....are you signed up for the Meet & Mingle?

 

Yes we are Joe and Amanda from Ingleside MD, his parents are coming with us and they are signed up as well! They left today by train as his mom doesn't like to fly, they will be celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary!! :)