Legend Cruise Review May 15 Sailing Long

[PattiD]

Review of May 15 2004 Carnival Legend Cruise…

 

I would like to thank all of you on this board for all the information I received.

 

Myself 35(Patti) and my husband 38(Bernie) –this was our 10th anniversary trip

We have a 6 year old who stayed with Bernie’s mother. I will definitely take her next time.

 

This was our first cruise and it will not be my last

 

Let me get my negatives items out of the way first….

 

The New York Port wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, however maybee they need to put some signs up or need more people directing you.

 

Truffles Restaurant- Overall I thought the food was good. My only two complaints was one night we both ordered the prime rib medium well – it came really rare and my husband said that the coffee could be stronger. With all the other food sources around the ship there is no way you could go hungry.

 

With that over with I think they do a great job cooking for that many people at on time.

 

Embarkation:

We got there around 11AM and the driver was able to pull up and drop us off. They were still many people getting off the cruise before and it was crazy however we just kept asking questions. We found a porter that took our luggage, and went into the terminal. We finally were told by someone that we should to go upstairs and wait. If you get there early look for two Carnival employees that are upstairs going around checking you documents. They check them and put a sticker on them (a great time saver). Around 12n they started to open the doors for everyone to go through security. There was one line that the custom guys were glancing at pictures and waiving them through. The line that we were on that he was inspecting all picture ids really closely. I am not complaining but maybee the other guys should have been inspecting the picture ID closely too. We then waited in a line for them to start processing you through x-ray. Once that started this the line moved very quickly. You then walk to the back of the terminal and if you have a sticker they waive you to the end of the desk’s were they pull your sign and sail card and you are on your way. We were in our room by 1PM. I thought it went ok. I was very stressed over this whole thing. I was so glad to get on that ship. The moment I crossed over the gangway and walked into that beautiful ship I felt myself relax.

 

 

Our room: I had booked an 8A guarantee. Was upgraded to an 8I cabin 8159. I was worried about all the noise and the movement everyone talked about. We did hear some noise but it didn’t seem to bother use. I would hear what I think were chairs moving but some mornings I was able to sleep to 9:30AM. Our room steward Olag was great our room was always clean, we had towel animal’s every night, and the best of all kept our cooler full of ice. We gave him an extra tip at the end of the week.

 

The fire drill was painless. I think it only took a ½ of hour. As we were waiting for the drill to end they were disconnecting the lines and the walkways.

 

At this point we still hadn’t received our luggage. As we were walking back up to our rooms I was noticing that they had left most of the remaining luggage by the elevators. When we got up to our floor there was our luggage, by the elevators. We then helped ourselves, so did everyone else. We did get a few weird looks pulling our luggage down the hallway, but I was happy that we had them. However I don’t know if they should leave them there. As much as I was glad to help myself to the luggage, by the time my husband went back to get the third bag he said it was crazy. I would think it would be easy for someone to grab a wrong bag. I was very very happy to get my bags no matter once.

 

Truffles Restaurant: I thought the food was good, with the exception of the above noted things. We also at lunch there twice and breakfast once. We enjoyed the restaurant.

 

The Golden Fleece- We went there the night we were in Tortolla. I cannot say enough for this restaurant. The food was unbelievable. I had the surf and turf and Bernie had the 9oz filet minion. If we had booked this early in the cruise I would have made another reservation to go again. Though I would have gained 15lbs instead of 10. It was well worth the additional charge. In fact my husband thought that it was $50.00 a person(doesn’t listen) and he thought that was worth it. He was very happy when I told him the correct price.

 

The Shows: We saw the production show Act I and the last one. We miss the Sammy Davis JR one. I am very sorry we missed it, I heard it was great. The shows that we saw were good. We also saw the welcome aboard show, the Cruise Director show (Chris) and the newlywed game. The newlywed game was so funny. I enjoyed everything; my husband said the shows were ok. So they must have great because this is not my husband’s thing…. I also went to the backstage tour and found it very interesting.

 

 

 

Bars: We spent one night up at the piano bar (Duane). He was pretty good. We seemed to end up in Satchmo’s. The have a band called the music zone. They are very good. I loved listening to them, they were very fun.

 

The Cruise director- I thought he did a good job, he trained under Corry. He seemed to like what he was doing and was very friendly. As I said before he got engaged this cruise to the head dancer (Katharine). We met her on the backstage tour; she was also very nice and also British. The captain announced their engagement at the embarkation tour. Don’t worry if you miss this talk. Like the shopping tour it gets repeated over and over again on the TV.

 

The Ship- The ship was beautiful everywhere you looked they were cleaning everything and it was laid out really well. Most of the activity’s and shops were on the 2nd and 3rd floors. The rest of the stuff was on the lido deck. The only hard part was deciding witch side of the ship your room was on when you got off of the elevator. I always walked to the wrong side…. It was a little rough the first day and half on the ship. We took Boninne and it never seemed to bother me. It was funny not being able to walk in the hallway in a straight line, and not have any drinks yet.

 

The Ports- In San Juan we walked up to the fort. On our way back we walked around Old San Juan, and called Bernie’s mom and talked to our daughter. I used an ATT calling card that worked fine on the pay phone we had. We found the Walgreen’s and picked up 2 twelve packs of Diet Pepsi and brought them back to the ship. Even though we drink many sodas at home I did not think it was work it to buy the $44.00 soda card for both of us. I had packed one twelve pack in my luggage and with the soda we bought in San Juan it worked out fine. The water and iced tea was great.

We walked back to the ship went and ate upstairs on the Lido deck. After taking a shower we went back in San Juan and went to Senor Frogs. This was fun… We had one of those yard drinks that went down to fast and then drank beer after that. We hung out at the bar for a while, just observing everyone… and then went back to the ship.

 

St. Thomas- We ended up tendering in St. Thomas. I never thought I would be riding in a lifeboat. The way they worked getting of the ship was as follows… If you were on a Carnival tour you can get off first. They were going to give out tickets starting at 9AM to everyone else. We had signed up with Godfry’s tours and he had emailed me early the previous week that we were tendering directly to downtown and the he would met us by the post office at 11Am. I wanted to be at Sanchos to pick up a tender ticket at 9AM. Well we must have closed the curtain on our balcony, I kept waking up think that is must be still early. When I finally looked at the clock it was 9:20AM. Well I ran into the shower and got my husband out of bed. We were getting dress and Chris was making an announcement that you didn’t need tickets anymore to get on the tender. We quickly went upstairs and grabbed something to eat. We walked right on the tender and ended by Diamonds International downtown (Dangerous). We walked around and meet Godfry who told us to be back by 11:30. I did some damage on my Credit card and meet back up with Godfry. He drove us up the mountain and stopped a couple of times so that we could take pictures. We then went to Sapphire beach. He had us back to the tender by 4:15PM. It was a great tour and well worth the $20.00 per person. I loved this Island and would love to come back and stay longer.

 

Tortola - We took the Carnival Virgin Gorda Tour. It was $85.00 per person. I would not do this on your own. We left at 8:30 and got back on the ship a little after 2PM. The trip was well worth it. Make sure you climb through the rocks to the other side. If I can do it anyone can. It was a challenge but I am so glad that we did it. When we were coming back a storm blew in. They unloaded most of the boat next to the pier. The wind picked and they decide that it was too dangerous to unload us there. They brought us to their ferry terminal and bused us over to the ship. It was a little unnerving to hear the ship whistle blow and us still getting out of the busses. The guy’s were like don’t rush they will wait, and they did. We were one of last people on board.

 

Debarkation- We decided to put our luggage outside our door the nice before. Many people decided to take the self-assist. We had to wait for the non-US citizens to clear customs. They ended up call one name over the PA for her to get down there because she was holding up the ship. I think they let the people that were carrying off their luggage around 9:30. We were the second floor that was called and we were off the ship around 10:45am. They tell you to wait in the Follies lounge or on the Lido deck. The don’t want you waiting on the 2nd floor were you get out. We however went down to the third floor and waited in the corner by the atrium, and went down the stairs as soon as they called our deck.

 

 

We had a great time on a great ship. I can not wait to start planning our next cruise.

Please let me know if you have any more questions.

Thanks

Patti

[AllenF]

Thanks for the review

 

11/02/03 Carnival Inspiration

03/20/04 Carnival Glory

12/13/04 Carnival Legend

04/17/05 Carnival Spirit

 

Till the Legend Sails

 

 

Taking the Spirit West Aloha style

[cruisingsaw]

Thanks for the great review. Only 2 weeks to go until our Legend trip begins.

[MACDADDY]

Thanks for the review. You mentoned in St Thomas you met Godfrey at 11:30. Did the ship dock at 7:00 like the schedule says or was it later? Also could you have met Godfrey earlier than 11:00?Thanks Mark

 

7/18/2004 Carnival Legend

 

Carnival Imagination2003

Carnival Imagination2002

Nordic Empress 2001

Carnival Paradise 1999

Carnival Fantasy 1997

[ckpan]

Patti ~

We want to eat at the Golden Fleece twice. Which two nights do you recommend? I've booked Godfrey for St. Thomas but haven't decided on a Tortola excursion yet. These excursions get pretty pricey with a family of 5.

 

Carnival Festival 5/1985

Carnival Legend 8/2004

[bnbcruisers]

Patti - thanks my wife and i just read your review and agree with everything you said. we were also on the cruise in room 8145 wish we had known that we were neighbors sooner!

 

Bill

[PattiD]

Hi Bill

That's funny better late then never. You were just down the hall.

Patti

[PattiD]

Hi

Godfrey emailed us about a week before our trip that we were tendering directly to downtown. If we had docked in St. Thomas I think he would have picked us either at 8:30, 9:30 or 10:30. I know we had him picking us up at 9:30 on the pier. When you email him he will give you the time options. We met up with him at 11:30 for the tour.

They were not letting us go on a tender before 9AM because we did not book a Carnivel tour. We didn't get downtown until around 10:30 that morning because we overslept. Go figure the one time we didn't wake up at 8 or earler had to be that day. O well I did some damaged to on my CC anyway.

 

We at at the Golden Fleece on the day we were at Totola. We had early seeting so it was nice to come back from Virgin Gorda and take a nap and go up to eat. We had reservations for 6:30PM. If I had to do it again I would do two nights up there too. I think I would choose the second day at sea(first full day was formal night).