Legend of the Seas Review 4/1-4/8 - Really Long!!

[jsol1979]

Ok, well, this was my first cruise, so this is my first review also, so hopefully it will not be too horribly long or boring!! To start off, I cruised with my fiance and his two daughters, ages 16 and 13. None of us had ever been on one before, and we had been planning it for about a year.

We flew down to Tampa on Friday morning out of Chicago. Relatively smooth flight, went by quick. We originally had reservations at a Best Western, but I had read about another hotel with shuttle service, and I figured the extra money would cancel out any cab fares, so we changed to the Doubletree. Excellent choice. They picked us up from the airport, later when we went to dinner, they took us and picked us up, and also took us to the pier the following day. Very clean hotel, nice pool, nice restaurant. Definitely recommend the Doubletree to anyone going in the day before (which of course, I had read was the best thing to do from this site)!!

We got up on Saturday morning and ate breakfast and got ready to go. SO EXCITED!! The shuttle picked us up at 11:30, and another family of four on the same ship. We got to the piers, they took our luggage and we went to check in. Very nice process of that. There was no waiting, got our seapass cards and then got in line to get on the ship. We were on the ship by probably 12:15 or so to take our first look around. The Legend is a wonderful ship. I know that there are bigger ships but this one was great for our first cruise. Never had any trouble finding anything, just the right amount of places to go and things to do. The Centrum was a lovely area, very pretty. We walked around just checking things out, the pool, the spa, the excersize room, all that good stuff. Our rooms were ready at 1 pm, so we went down to deck two, for rooms 2745 and 2747. For two people, I thought these were a nice size. All of our luggage fit under the bed, used all the hangers in the closet and there were plenty of drawers for the rest of the clothes. I did not have any problems with the size of the shower, being that I am only 5 feet tall and barely a hundred pounds, it was a completely fine space, however my DF, he sometimes had the issue of the curtain sticking to him!! Nothing to fret about though.

Our cabin steward was Giselle. She did a great job. I had her get the foam mattresses for the girls on the first night so they would be comfy. She made towel animals for us on 3 of the nights, which was so cute, they always brought a smile to your face after coming back from dinner. She would always fill our ice bucket, even though we never used it, and each night she would give us 4 new pool towels for the next day. DF tipped her one time about 5 dollars and then we gave her extra at the end with the prepaid tips. (I know there were other people on this site in room 2745 - the mirror still has the chip in it, nothing to worry about though.) Oh yeah, by the way, those TV's on the swivel thing - make sure your hands are ON THE SIDE when you swivel it!!!! I almost lost some fingers the first night!! I know I read that darn tip somewhere, and then I forgot about it in all the excitement, but I never forgot after that!!

The first thing we had to do, was go to the dining hall and change tables though. As we got on the ship I noticed the girls had a different dining table than us, and we should have been altogether. Easy change though, only took a couple minutes. We went and laid out in the sun and went swimming after checking out the rooms and going to the dining room. I wanted this to be a relaxing vacation, since we are normally hitting amusement parks and whatnot and are usually always doing something, so I just wanted to park myself in the sun most of the time this time. We went and checked to see if our luggage had arrived yet after awhile, and we had all pieces by the time the muster drill was over. Muster was fine, quite hot standing out there in the sun and I had a hard time hearing the chick yelling out instructions, but, hey, I figured enough people could hear her and I could follow them in case of an emergency!!

Finally!!!! Time to get cruisin'!!! Nothing spectacular leaving the port, a few small boats waving at us, I could see a Carnival ship in front of us. Just nice to finally be on your way. We all changed and got ready for the Welcome Aboard show at 7:45 where we got to see the dancers and singers and met the cruise director Gavin Brown. He was a nice guy, he liked Austin Powers a bit much, and had a little kick he gave every time he said goodbye, but he did a good job all week, as did the rest of the crew. Al Romas was the comedian for about 15 minutes, pretty funny, he came back for the adult comedy show later in the week. Time for our first dinner!! I had read so much about the food so I was excited. Our waiter was Joe from the Phillipines and the assistant waiter was Ronnie from Peru. Both of them did an excellent job all week, absolutely no complaints. Ronnie kept the diet cokes coming every night for the youngest during dinner which she liked alot. The first night we had prime rib. Not the best I've ever had honestly. My DF was not impressed at all, so I was just hoping it would get better!! After dinner the girls went exploring and we did also, got a few drinks, checked some places out.

At sea day, beautiful weather, laid out most of the day, reading and relaxing. Girls finding a few friends, the youngest in the pool just about all day. I went to the Discover Shopping show to see what it was all about, seemed like RCI telling you to only go to the shops they recommend, but I would expect that. As for chair hogs, the RCI staff was going around early in the day picking up some towels and belongings of chairs that were empty for quite a while. They did this on the last sea day also. I think they didn't do it so much during the afternoon, just early in the mornings. My DF is an early riser, so he was just about the first one out there every morning, and would only save one for me, and i wasn't too far behind him. We would eat or get up in shifts as to not have people think we were deserting our chairs. No problems throughout the week though for us at least.

When we had changed tables, we ended up being the only 4 at an 8 person table. I was a little disappointed by this, as I would have liked to meet some new people, but I will say, we always got our food first and that was nice!! The people at the table next to us would chat a little bit, but next time I'll try and make sure we can have others sitting there.

Tonight was formal night and we all got dolled up and had some pictures taken, took quite a while for that and there was still a long line and I'm sure these people had to get to dinner, I hope everyone got all the pics they wanted though. Everyone looked great, I think everyone was dressed up to some degree, I did not see one pair of jeans in the dining room at all (I was in the back, on the second level, so I know I didn't see everyone, but you know what I mean!!!) For dinner, we had shrimp cocktail, seabass and duck and cherries jubilee for dessert. MUCH better tonight. More of what I had expected to be eating. After dinner, the show tonight was Film to Footlights with the Royal Caribbean dancers and singers. They did a great job. I don't get to see shows like that very often, so I found it very entertaining, and I give kudos to the performers, they have quite a few routines to get down for the shows per week. We also went to the Viking Crown Lounge, which barely had any people in it. Supposed to be dance music, but it wasn't good dancing music. The eldest DD said the kids teen club was very lame, and no-one really liked it. The 18 year olds who couldn't drink were coming in there because they really had no where else to go. So, neither DD went back there. The oldest would hang out with the people she met by the pool or in someones room, and the youngest would just go back to the room after dinner.

The next day was Grand Cayman day!! We had to get tender tickets to get off here if you didn't have a RCI excursion. I booked my own with Captain Bryan's Buccaneer for the Stingray and Snorkel. So, I went to wait in line for tender tickets. Not an organized process at all. It ended up with all of sitting in the lounge and then they put a table out so all of us who were waiting first were going to be pushed to the back of a line at at the table, but some of us just kinda muscled our way to the table since we had been there first!! Everyone lined up on Deck Two to get off, and we ended up not even needing the tickets, they never asked for them at all. We basically got inbetween two RCI excursions, so it all worked out. We walked down to the office of Captain Bryan and did our Stingray and Snorkel tour. It was a really good time - I will be posting in the Cayman ports board for more details on it!! Had some time to shop afterwards for a couple things and then got back on the boat. Tonight, the entertainment was Johnny Thunder. I know that a lot of people liked him, however we left after two songs. We just were not into it at all. I like Motown and older songs, but we were not entertained. For dinner tonight, we had the tomato and cheese salad, roasted garlic soup, risotto, lamb, rigatoni and shrimp, and tiramisu for desert. (I never actually made it to dessert each night, waaaaayyyyy tooo fulllllll!!!) I love trying new foods, and each night it kept getting better!! After dinner tonight was the Love and Marriage Game Show which was pretty entertaining and then the pool party with a huge buffet - still too full to eat!!

The next day was Costa Maya. The youngest DD had her hair braided, they said it was 35 and I told them they would come back, but the lady came after me and said she would do it for only 20, so went ahead and got it done. Most of the shops, they would barter with you, but I thought their prices were high in the first place, got much better deals in Belize and Cozumel. We went to the town of Mahajual, and I will have to say, I found that a little seedy if thats the right word. I know that are just developing this area, but other than the beach, I don't know why else to go there, I felt too pressured to shop. Some of the men would leer and follow you around if you walked by yourself especially. A co-worker on another cruise said they were offered women and pot. The beach was beautiful though, rented a few chairs and some snorkel equipment. I love the color of the water, so clear and blue. I also liked here that we just docked and it was nice to walk off the boat. We hung out at the beach for a few hours, then went back to the pier area for a little bit more shopping, got a few shirts and then got back on the boat. The show tonight was Soul Mystique a latin dance and magic duo, they were fabulous. They did a small skit where the lady would change her outfit in about 3 seconds - he would wave something over her and she'd be in something else, it was pretty neat. Also, there was a magician - Martin Lewis. He was extremely entertaining and had some good tricks. For dinner tonight it was crabcake, clam chowder, salmon, risotto and the best bleu cheese tortellini I have ever had, I would eat that every night if possible (I'm sure it would have been!! I didn't ask though). For desert, tried the Baked Alaska, which I had heard of but never had, that was yummy. Also had a nice bottle of red wine tonight.

Day 5 was Belize. I was worried in the morning because I had scheduled an independent excursion and we needed to make sure we got off the boat quick and since we were tendering, I didn't know how it would work, but it ended up great, we got in a line for seperate excursions and we ended up getting off on the first tender!! Belize was beautiful and we did the BEST excursion ever. It was the Zip-Line and Cave Tubing with X-tream. Our tour guide Travis was excellent. He knew everything about Belize since he lived there all his life, and we were the only four in the group, so it was very relaxing and intimate. Again, I will do a better review on the Belize boards, just know that it is not to be missed, best thing we did. Did some shopping outside the pier area for about an hour then got back on the boat. The show tonight was Swing City with the Royal Caribbean dancers and singers, and again a wonderful job by them, everyone was very entertained. For dinner we had the shrimp bisque, spring roll, seafood salad, seafood pasta, veal parmisan, red snapper and jerk chicken, with coffee creme brulee and banana cream pie for dessert. If you can't tell, we would order quite a bit, but we would all share. The oldest DD had a teen dinner two nights so, she wasn't there for those times, but we ate together all the other times. I would say from what I saw, 85-90 percent of people were dressed up, it was a nice relaxing atmosphere every night, and again, Joe and Ronnie were great. DF would tip them each a couple bucks each night, and we also gave them a little extra in their envelopes with the prepaid gratuitites. Tonight was the Quest after dinner, however, DF didn't feel so well, so we ended up just hanging out in the room. Its ok though, I figure it will just make me go on another cruise to see it!!!

Last stop, day 6, Cozumel. We actually got to dock here, which was so nice (Yay Captain). Still a lot of devestation, but a lot of rebuilding going on. We ended up listening to a talk at one of the resorts for about 45 minutes (hey, they gave us free tequila) which was interesting. Then we went to Paradise Beach. I really liked that place. It was very clean, very warm, food was good, beer was cold. We got the girls the bracelets, to use the water toys for a while. We also rented jetski's for about 1/2 hour, and that was really fun. We had an extra hour here, I'm assuming since we got to dock, so we spent a while shopping also. Got some really good deals here, and saw something I bought in Costa Maya (where apparently I paid more!!) (oh well). It was a good day. The show tonight was comedian Freddie Roman. I thought his humor was more adult than what I had expected, and I only say that because I could tell that anyone under 20 in the audience, really didn't get a lot of his jokes. I thought it was funny though. Tonight was the next formal night. We all got dressed up again, but didn't get the ship's pictures this time, just took some with our camera. Tonight was lobster and prime rib, sooo yummy, and another bottle of wine. I think we ate too much to even try dessert!! After dinner, we went to the solarium to maybe take a dip in the hot tub, but they were being cleaned, so we sat and read in there, I fell asleep though and missed the midnight buffet!! Again, something else I have to cruise again for!!

The last sea day, last full day. This entire day just about was spent at the pool. Mainly reading and relaxing. Had to pack before dinner so we could go see the adult comedian after dinner. So sad to pack!! The show tonight was Soul Mystique again and they did dances that they had won championships with, very lovely. And then the farewell by the CD and crew. Dinner was New York Strip, shrimp cocktail and mahi mahi. Again, all excellent, and we had to say goodbye to Joe and Ronnie and snap a pic of them. We went to see Al Romas, the adult comedy, it was good, it was only 1/2 an hour though, we wished it would have been longer. Karaoke Idol finals were after that, I watched a few people sing and then went to bed.

Getting off the ship was fine, we were the last color called so we had to wait in the theatre for about an hour, but once we were called, going through customs and getting the luggage was a breeze. We got a shuttle for $9 pp to the airport, where we rented a car and went to Busch Gardens. We didn't have a flight unfortunately until 9 at night so we wanted to do something other than sit!! It was fun though, neat to see all the animals they have and ride the rides, even though we were all pretty tired.

Oh yeah, I forgot, the only problem we had with anything the whole time on our seapass, was the fact that we got a bill on thursday morning, and there was a charge for 180.00 at the pool bar. Well, I might like to have a drink or two (but not 40), and at first i thought maybe they just combined all our drinks for the whole week, but there were other charges on there for seperate drinks. So I went immediately up to the purser's desk, where they promptly said it was a mistake and took care of it. So, no issues with that, they were very nice about it. I thought that everyone on the ship was pretty friendly, it was definitely spring break, but nothing out of hand and not a ton of kids overrunning the ship or anything. It seemed most of the time it was faster to walk instead of taking the elevators, so thats what we would do, and its probably better for you.

Overall, this was a wonderful trip. We had a lot of fun. I think the girls maybe expected a little bit more stuff to do, and it seemed like the younger kids were having more fun with Adventure Ocean, I never heard too much good about the teen club, just that it was "lame", but i'm sure its what you put into it, to get your fun out of it. My DF and I didn't have to hard of a time finding something to do, whether it was just laying out or having a drink or a little gambling in the casino, wine tasting or reading. We would have liked to do some more dancing, but it didn't seem to be happening on this ship for some reason. The oldest made about 40 friends to possibly stay in touch with, which was nice for her. I was sooooo happy to have warm weather, abundunt sunshine, no rain. I felt it was truly a relaxing vacation finally!! The excursions we did gave us some really good memories. We also had gone to a few of the art auctions, and actually won a nice piece and we got a few smaller pieces to frame, which are very nice also. And now, I can officially say we are addicted - looking for our next cruise, most likely to the eastern or southern caribbean (and probably without the kids)!! I find it a little funny, because my DF was all not into the tipping and stuff when i told him about it, and he ended up being the one who wanted to give more and he had some complaints about having to dress up, but once he went to the dining room, he had no problem with it at all and thanked me for wanting to do this, he had probably more fun that me if possible! I want to thank everyone who gave advice on these boards, you don't know how helpful you have been, I never would have been able to do all the planning I did without these boards. Now I feel I can answer other questions since I have been there, done that. The Legend was a lovely ship, and I know they are going back to the Mediterranean after this week, but it was a good size for us for the first one, it didn't seem too big at all. Hopefully, in the next few weeks or so when I post, I'll have a new countdown clock!!! So, thank you, and I'll be happy to answer any questions at all. I assume with this long of a review, I don't think I forgot anything, and I'll probably post on the Cayman and Belize sites tomorrow, so watch for those also!!

[wolfcathorse]

If you can remember, who was your captain?

[texancruzer]

jsol1979: Thanks for the lovely review.....

 

As you can see from my signature I am sailing the Legend in Nov.

 

This will be my third cruise. First was on Rhapsody which is the same class/size as Legend and I agree - it is perfect for your first cruise (not too overwhelming). My daughter is treating her Mom to this cruise (it will be her first) and I think she will feel the same way....good size for 1st.

 

Serenade was amazing..... we sailed Southern route from San Juan. If you can swing the airfare - I highly recommend the ship and the itinerary. It is port intensive - new one each day except last day is sea day so hard to get alot of pool/just sitting around time.... but oh it was GOOD ! We had an oceanview for our first- but had balcony on Serenade. We loved it.

 

Anyway, thanks for your observations re: Legend.... I can barely wait to get my daughter addicted :D

 

P.S. Have you checked out the Meet & Mingle site ? If you go on another RCI cruise - do try that. We had 88 people registered for ours on the Serenade and was fun to talk to others months before and then to meet them on the ship.... also would run into them in the elevator etc. and say Hi and chit chat. We had a great party and even did some extra stuff on our own like a small gift exchange where everyone brought a small thing that represented where they were from.... was fun ! Some people even did excursions together when they needed more people to have enough (if there was a minimum).

[cruiser_carol]

Jsol1979... thank you so much for a very enjoyable review. My husband and I sailed on the Legend to the Med. Last summer...our first cruise together..and we had a fabulous time. You will find me singing the praises of the Legend of the Seas...all over these boards. We loved the ship, and also found her to be just the right size. We are booked again for this August out of southampton... and are taking our daughters along for their first cruise. Hope your next ship is just as great! regards, Carol

 

 

 

 

Hello to Texan cruiser...hope you are well.

[OliverTheCat]

jsol1979 - I am the one that preceeded you in #2745 that gave you the tips on the room and Giselle! : ) I am sooo glad she was still there to assist you. We loved her so much. I am surprised the crack in mirror/medicine cabinet is still there. The wrong way running hand across is COULD potentially be dangerous. I am sorry you had to find out hard way about tv tray. That thing is scary!!!

 

The tender ticket system in Grand Cayman was ridiculously unorganized for us too. We will never get off the ship right away again if there is a tender ticket system on any future cruise. You are lucky you got to stop in Costa Maya. We had to miss it due to swells by pier. We even brushed up on the pier and damaged it actually!!! Pretty adventurous.

 

You had completely different entertainers than us...except for Sol Mystique. Funny how often they change them up. We had the funniest comedian, and I regret every day I didnt buy his cd of stand up after the show. SO funny.

 

Thanks so much for your review. I am really glad to see you had a great time on your first cruise. Legend IS a great ship!!!

[jsol1979]

your kind replies. Our captain was Tor Olsen, however, I never ever saw him at any point and time. He was amusing when he would give his daily reports over the loud speaker and he seemed to run a nice ship. We left early from one port because everyone was on already, and we ended up early in a couple other ports.

 

Luckily the chipped glass was not somewhere where you used it all the time and the opening to grab it and open it was above it - that happened to be the girl's room, and I dont think they even used it at all, they mostly kept their stuff in their suitcases or in the bathroom.

 

I forgot to mention also, that we never did the rock wall or the golf course. We were just to busy I guess laying around - lol - or off the ship. Again, another excuse to cruise!!!

 

Thanks everyone!!

[rubrrick]

My DW and I are also Legend fans, as Carol will attest to. She is a great ship. It's great to be addicted to cruising.

 

Rick