Carnival Legend 1/3 (1/4) Review (long)

[tektron]

Carnival Legend 1/4/07 Review

 

My Grading Scale:

 

A = Exceeds Expectations

B = Meets/Sometimes Exceeds Expectations

C = Meets Expectations

D = Needs Improvement

F = Fails to Meet Expectation

 

Executive Summary: C+

 

A shortened cruise on a clean ship with very friendly staff; albeit with mediocre food and a very rocky, nauseating ride.

 

Pre-Cruise Drama: B+

 

We found out on the evening of 1/2/07 that the Legend would be delayed by a day due to coming in late to port. Carnival sent me an e-mail from Vicki L. Freed, SVP Sales/Marketing that “… the Carnival Legend was delayed returning to Fort Lauderdale from the previous cruise. The ship was forced to make a significant route deviation in order to facilitate a special medical emergency evacuation.” The letter went on to say that Belize was dropped from the itinerary, and we would be sailing to Panama on 1/7 and Costa Rica on 1/8.

 

Normally, one would be disappointed. However, the B+ grade comes from the next paragraph of the same letter: “Carnival will provide you with a 15% refund of cruise fare and a 20% discount on a future 3 to 8 day cruise departing prior to December 15, 2008 (excluding Holiday cruises)”. They additionally offered “for guests with air transportation scheduled for January 3, 207, we will reimburse you up to $200 per person to cover additional air costs or one night of hotel accommodations.” We found this quite reasonable.

 

I had booked a reservation with cave-tubing.com in Belize; I sent a copy of the Carnival letter to Yhony and asked him to cancel my reservation – he responded back, no problem.

 

Our group decided to fly down from STL to FLL anyway on the 3rd. Several of us stayed at the Hard Rock Resort on US-441 for one night. I went on this trip with my mom, and either I looked older (mid-30’s) or she looked younger (mid-50’s) but for some odd reason they upgraded us into one of their plush honeymoon suites with a balcony, a large 2-person tub and a 9-head spa shower for two. That was easily the most interesting shower experience I’ve ever had (it felt like going through a car wash). (No, we didn't do anything together, you pervs!!)

 

1/4 Embarkation: C+

 

On 1/4 our group managed to cram 12 suitcases and 8 bodies into a Ford Expedition ‘limo’ contracted by the Hard Rock to take us to Port Everglades. The ride was painless, the driver gave us stories about celebrities he’s driven to and from the Hard Rock such as Britney Spears (he swears “those photos” were not taken in his limo!!) and Hulk Hogan, and we made it to Port Everglades around noonish. From there, we got into several different lines to handle check-in issues, receive our sail and sign cards and get our initial pictures taken, and it was very efficiently managed. We were on the boat and in our balcony stateroom in the Panorama deck (cabin 8205) by 1PM. Luggage showed up before the ship took off. We had lunch upstairs on the Lido deck and walked around the boat for a while. The muster drill took place around 3:50 p.m. – nothing unusual.

 

The ship took off around 4:15 p.m. and we sailed south and viewed a spectacular sunset over Miami. Had dinner (steak), dessert (the "melting chocolate cake" was overly melted and tasted more like pudding) noted quite a large number of people wearing blue jeans or shorts (oh fellow cruise critics, just *where* have you failed me on fashion tips?!? :rolleyes: ), met our head waiter Gabor and his assistant Anna, and then back up to our cabin to meet our room steward Heru. The capors announced “ship-wide” internet access – but I was unable to get a wireless signal at all in my cabin. (Note to Carnival: Beta-test!) Just before retiring for the night, I was getting concerned that the ship was not making the expected turn to the west south of the Keys.

 

1/5 Sea Day #1: C-

 

Turned on the monitor the next morning to discover we were going the long way around Cuba – to the east. Initially this didn’t make much sense, until I opened up my laptop, did a map plot and discovered that getting to Panama around the Windward Passage (between Cuba and Haiti) was actually 300 less miles than via the Yucatan Channel. Went up to lido, had breakfast – nothing out of the ordinary. Winds out of the east at 35-45 knots made the voyage increasingly rocky. Went to the ports of call talk – the cruise director, Brent Mitchell, basically did a description of the various shore excursions one could go on in Panama and “Costa” Rica (note to Brent: It’s “Coast-uh”, as in Coast deodorant soap; and not “Cost-uh” as in Costco). Realized in the cabin afterwards that I could of saved lots of time by just watching it on TV afterwards – they aired it repeatedly on one of the internal channels.

 

Lots of people sunning and swimming in the hot tubs and pools, but there were plenty of chairs to go around. Spent much of the afternoon being very lazy in my balcony room, either napping or reading a book. Towards late afternoon we weren’t very far at all from the mountains of eastern Cuba and took some pictures. First formal night – decided to skip the cocktail party (not an alcohol drinker and not much into social parties). Most people at dinner dressed up in suits, tuxedos and dresses – very formal. Another steak -- tough and not all that edible. Finally got an internet account ($100 for 250 minutes) and spent some time with my laptop catching up with e-mail up on lido deck where the wireless signal was better.

 

1/6 Sea Day #2: B+

 

The ship had made it through the windward passage and was going straight SSW towards Panama. The temperature and humidity both were rising throughout the day. The ship rocked pretty good throughout the day. Slept in through lunch (yawn), had a cheeseburger + fries up on lido, watched some of the various shows + events going on, walked the ship more, we passed a few other freighters off in the distance. We booked the supper club for this night – nearly 3 hours long. The food here is impeccable and very well worth the extra $30/person cover charge. Had the porterhouse, and it was so tender it just about melted in your mouth. The entertainment was pretty good as well, an Asian duo singing everything from Barry Manilow to the Beatles.

 

1/7 Panama: A

 

We arrived in port about 6:45 a.m. We booked the Panama Canal shore excursion. The tickets said to meet in the Follies lounge at 7AM. Got there early and were initially amazed at how many other people booked this $175/person excursion – looked like easily 250+ people. We were told around 7:15AM that debarking was being delayed due to a medical emergency – someone getting off the boat and going to the hospital. :eek: But we were cleared around 7:30. Getting off the boat is relatively painless – down the steps to “A” deck, punch out with your sail-and-sign card and out to the pier.

 

Carnival chartered quite a number of busses for the Panama Canal tour. Got in one, and the tour guide started giving an introduction to Panama. Going through Colon was quite the eye-opener … everything is so different. From everything in Spanish (as expected) to the different types and colors of the houses, to the wide variety of houses from the lush to the extreme shantys, to amount of trash laying around everywhere (note to Waste Management’s CEO: *BIG* business opportunity here!!), it’s nothing you’ll ever see in the States. A two hour bus ride over a bumpy 2-lane highway took us further south to Panama City (at just under 9 degrees north latitude, it’s the farthest south I will probably ever get), where we got off the bus and into one of two chartered ferries. The ferry continued south, passing underneath the Bridge of the Americas and briefly into the Pacific side; it then turned around and headed back north into the canal proper. We proceeded towards the first set of 3 locks – the Miraflores double-locks. Had to wait for ships in front of us to clear, then both ferries entered one of the locks.

 

At this point, I found out that a Carnival videographer was on our ferry taking video for the shore excursions DVD. (note to self: must go on a diet!!) It took over an hour to clear the locks, but it was fascinating – as the ferry tied off to the side of the lock wall, many people reached over to touch the canal walls. Then the back lock doors closed, water came in, we rose to the top level, untied off, front canal doors opened, and we proceeded on. After clearing the locks, we went on to … (bong) …. another lock: the Pedro Miguel lock. More waiting. Then into the lock, and up to the elevation of 85 feet. And about that time, we realized, boy is it hot out. (Low 90’s.) We continued on in the canal, underneath the cable-stayed Centennial Bridge, through the Culebra cut (Continental Divide), lots of canal construction going on (odd for a Sunday?) and all the way to Gamboa (just before Gatun lake) – about 20 miles of canal total. We exited the ferry at Gamboa, got back onto busses, and back to Colon. Different tour guide this time, and I swear that she sounded just like Joan Rivers. (Can we tawk?) Had about 20 minutes to souvenir shop before having to get back on the ship for the 5PM departure.

 

Back to the dining room for dinner, again noting the large number of people wearing either shorts or blue jeans to dinner (sigh). Getting tired of steak...but at least the "melting chocolate cake" wasn't melting so much anymore. Spent the evening downloading over 600 photos to my laptop. None of the north American channels were coming in at all (probably too far south to get the north American satellite feeds) and egads, I had to miss “Desperate Housewives”. (sigh)

 

1/8 Costa Rica: C+

 

Sailed into Costa Rica just before 7AM. Cloudy, warm and muggy. We elected to go on the “Treetops” excursion, which was a combination of a treetop canopy tour and a canal tour. Got off the boat and into another tour bus – this time we only filled half a tour bus and no Carnival videographer. Limon is a much smaller town than Colon – seemed like we were in and out in no time. Another bumpy two-lane road. The tour guide gave a great description of Costa Rica – he sounded just like Ricky Ricardo. The bus ride was longer – went practically all the way back to the central Costa Rica mountains. Went to a private reserve at the border of a national park, and another short bus ride and a short walk took us to the canopy ride. It was pretty much a straight-through loop cut through a hilly forest, looping low on the way out and high on the way back in, and stopping periodically so we could take pictures of the widely various flora and fauna (finding very few of the latter).

 

After that, back on the bus and all the way back to Limon by 1:45PM before we made it to the canal portion of the tour which was just north of Limon. More photos and more fauna this time – iguanas, butterflies, bats and even a snapping crocodile who thought we just might make a tasty lunch. :eek: Didn’t find this excursion anywhere near as interesting as the Panama Canal (admittedly though, that one’s pretty tough to top). Made it back to the boat around 2:50PM and back just in time for the 3PM departure. Took a nap, down to the dining room, got sick of steak so ordered a pasta dish instead, and geeze-louise, nobody on our cruise apparently kept up with cruise critic’s all-knowing fashion gurus since everyone was wearing blue jeans again.

 

1/9 Sea Day D-

 

The ship proceeded north along the Mosquito Coast and into the west-central Carribean towards the Yucatan Channel. I had the theme to “Gilligans Island” in my head most of the day…particularly the part about how “the weather started getting rough”. Even though the winds were light, the ship was rocking and lots of people were feeling it. We found out from several Carnival staff that the ship stabilizers were intentionally turned off to save gas. :mad: (note to self: Avoid Spirit-class ships in the future.) Apparently nobody who made that decision realized just how many people were nauseous from it. Spent more time on the balcony, noticed it got cooler as the day progressed. Second formal night – notably less so than the first one. Noted they were *still* airing the shore excursion talk on one of the internal channels. Did more e-mails in the internet café, and listened to the horribly off-key singing show going on next door in the follies lounge.

 

1/10 Sea Day D

 

Winds were back up, cloudy most of the day, and the ship rocked just as bad as ever. Almost too cool to go swimming (guessing around 70 degrees… everyone repeat after me, “WAH!”), the ship turned ENE around the western end of Cuba and continued on to south Florida. Went to the debarkation talk where the cruise director described in about an hour’s time how to get off the ship. And of course they aired that on TV afterwards (sometimes one just never learns). Mainly took it real easy today – reading a book on the balcony. Another very casual night at the dining room, blue jeans were very common. Gave extra cash tips to Gabor and Anna (wait room team) and Heru (room steward) for jobs very well done. Spent 20 minutes packing, put bags outside the door just before midnight; noted 20 minutes later (when I realized I packed my sail and sign card that was still in my shorts pocket) that they were already picked up. :eek:

 

1/11 Return to Port Everglades: C+

 

We pulled into Port Everglades just before 7AM. Went down to the pursers desk to get another sail and sign card. Had breakfast up on Lido, waited for our color tag to be called around 9AM, got in line to debark (woof). The line was considerable, and at one point stopped (security issue ahead of us), but once it moved it went pretty quick, one line to check out with the sail and sign card, off the boat and back into the Port Everglades facility, one line to report to Customs (basically, show them your passport), another line to pick up your baggage (sorted by color tag), third line to hand in your Customs declaration form, and then out the door – no more than 45 minutes total. We booked a flight from MIA to STL leaving at 2:30PM, and bought a Miami transfer which was on a Greyhound bus. We were at MIA by 11:30AM.

 

Summary: My first cruise turned out to be very interesting and a lot of fun. Particularly enjoyed the Panama Canal tour and found the $175 price tag reasonable. However, the constant rocking of the ship in spite of the good weather, the continual nausea and finding out that the stabilizers were intentionally shut off has really tempered my future interest on cruising again with Carnival.

[vilwil]

:) Thank you for the awesome review! I really enjoyed reading it.

 

Since we are cruising on the Legend soon- it worries me that the ship rocks and rolls so much ! I totally agree with you, finding out that the stabilizers were intentionally shut off would have me heated !!:mad:

[I Luv Crusin]

Tektron,

Thanks for the review. I enjoyed it!

 

Couple of things. On our Glory cruise I had the Chocolate Melting Cake almost every night!:eek: It varied from very "melting" to almost well-done. As long at it was warm I preferred it more "melting" than not but that's personal preference.

 

As for the rocking, on the Glory I noticed a lot of movement too. They said we had "moderate" seas (up to 7ft) and rocked a lot more than we did on a previous cruise with 12ft seas. I guess it may be the stabilizers.

[TexanCrew]

Went to the ports of call talk – the cruise director, Brent Mitchell, basically did a description of the various shore excursions one could go on in Panama and “Costa” Rica (note to Brent: It’s “Coast-uh”, as in Coast deodorant soap; and not “Cost-uh” as in Costco).

 

Actually...

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source Cos·ta Ri·ca (kŏs'tə rē'kə, kô'stə, kō'-)

 

but your review was very informative! Thanks for going to all the trouble...

[Knights on the Beach]

(the "melting chocolate cake" was overly melted and tasted more like pudding)

My thoughts exactly. I was really looking forward to trying it and have read several good comments about it, but I wasn't all that impressed. It reminded me of Sweet Tomatoes' warm chocolate lava cake.

 

(note to self: Avoid Spirit-class ships in the future.)

Again, pretty much what we thought. We enjoyed our cruise on the Legend last month (after all, we were on vacation together), but we'll go back to the other classes of Carnival ships that we know and love.

 

Sorry to hear about the mediocre food. It was probably the most disappointing aspect of our Legend cruise, but had improved by the end of the week. I was hoping they'd gotten their act together since I read great comments about the food from people on the Christmas cruise. We had pretty much the same experience with some of the beef entrees.

[Knights on the Beach]

(the "melting chocolate cake" was overly melted and tasted more like pudding)

My thoughts exactly. I was really looking forward to trying it and have read several good comments about it, but I wasn't all that impressed. It reminded me of Sweet Tomatoes' warm chocolate lava cake.

 

(note to self: Avoid Spirit-class ships in the future.)

Again, pretty much what we thought. We enjoyed our cruise on the Legend last month (after all, we were on vacation together), but we'll go back to the other classes of Carnival ships that we know and love.

 

Sorry to hear about the mediocre food. It was probably the most disappointing aspect of our Legend cruise, but had improved by the end of the week. I was hoping they'd gotten their act together since I read great comments about the food from people on the Christmas cruise. We had pretty much the same experience with some of the beef entrees.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

1/9 Sea Day D-

 

... Even though the winds were light, the ship was rocking and lots of people were feeling it. We found out from several Carnival staff that the ship stabilizers were intentionally turned off to save gas. :mad: (note to self: Avoid Spirit-class ships in the future.) Apparently nobody who made that decision realized just how many people were nauseous from it. ...

 

 

 

One of your main gripes with Carnival may not have as much basis to it as you might think:

 

Although some employee (or multiple employees) may have said this. I seriously doubt that they would do that simply to save gas. I have heard that they do it occasionally to make up (make better) time - this may RESULT in a savings on fuel, but not reason #1. Carnival has deep enough pockets - but you never know!

 

One of our rougher rides was on a Spirit class ship (Miracle) - but there was Hurricane Cindy and Dennis to thank for that...:eek:

 

Our main beef with the Legend was their lack attention to detail regarding those in the concierge club. Nonetheless, we are heading back in March (we don't care for the port in Ft. Lauderdale) and July (the port in Tampa typically runs more smoothly).

 

You appear pretty tough on your grading - I have had teachers like you... lol ;)

 

I am glad to hear that you had an interesting/fun cruise!

 

Tom

[DqALEX]

Im glad Carnival took very good care of you guys for the missed port, and day. I was on the New Years cruise before you and we got the extra day.

[tektron]

Thanks for the comments. This is what makes Cruise Critic great! :D

 

Couple of things. On our Glory cruise I had the Chocolate Melting Cake almost every night!:eek: It varied from very "melting" to almost well-done. As long at it was warm I preferred it more "melting" than not but that's personal preference.

The "chocolate melting cake" on our cruise varied widely throughout the week... from too melted at the start (tasted too much like pudding), to not melted enough at the end (tasted a bit stale). I preferred it about in the middle.

Cos·ta Ri·ca (kŏs'tə rē'kə, kô'stə, kō'-)

It's probably one of those "you say toe-may-toe, I say toe-mah-toe" things, but I'll take the natives' pronounciation of "Coast-uh" Rica as authentic. :D

Again, pretty much what we thought. We enjoyed our cruise on the Legend last month (after all, we were on vacation together), but we'll go back to the other classes of Carnival ships that we know and love.

My mom was on the Victory last May and raved about it -- excellent food and no rocking at all. She thought the Legend stunk in comparison. So, if we decide to cruise with Carnival again, I'll look more towards the Destiny class for guidance.

Although some employee (or multiple employees) may have said this. I seriously doubt that they would do that simply to save gas. I have heard that they do it occasionally to make up (make better) time - this may RESULT in a savings on fuel, but not reason #1. Carnival has deep enough pockets - but you never know!

 

One of our rougher rides was on a Spirit class ship (Miracle) - but there was Hurricane Cindy and Dennis to thank for that...

I don't even want to think about being on that boat during a hurricane. :eek:

I can understand that perspective, particularly when considering that Carnival had two 4-day private charters to fulfill on the Legend right after our cruise, making it vital that the Legend return to Port Everglades on time (which we did). The thing that makes it a bit odd though was, we weren't sailing full-speed on the way back from Costa Rica...only between 15 and 19 knots. (We were doing 22 knots most of the way from Port Everglades to Panama.)

Im glad Carnival took very good care of you guys for the missed port, and day. I was on the New Years cruise before you and we got the extra day.

The previous New Years cruise was a big topic of discussion, at least within my little group. At one point there were rumors floating around of "a murder" on the New Years Cruise, but I figure that was dreamed up by someone wanting to hatch a new "CSI: Carnival" television series or something. :D Even though we missed a day and a port, we figured we had the better end of the deal considering everyone on the New Years cruise had to rebook flights home and we heard stories that it wasn't pretty for some folks.

[popcorngal]

I'm really sorry to hear that the Legend is still going without stabilizers, as we are on her next week. When we were on her two years ago, we were told that they leave them off to save fuel, and thus the Captain gets a bonus. I didn't want to believe it, since soooo many people (including me:() are affected by the rough seas, but it sure sounds like the trend is continuing. I've got my patches and ginger ready to go. I was just hoping they wouldn't be so necessary this time...