First time with RCCL (Legend) and we have some questions.

[Arlendius]

We (me and my wife) are booked on the 31. July sailing from Rome on Legend of the seas, and there is a few things we are wondering about!

 

We are booked in an interior stateroom in the aft of deck 7 (category M), and we paid a little bit extra to be located at the 7th deck instead off at the 2. or 3. On the deck plan the category M staterooms looks _alot_ bigger than the other interior staterooms, but as they are not sold as "large interior", I take it they are just standard sized, so this was not a factor when we booked.

 

We are not experienced cruisers (2. cruise, first was a few years ago with Thomson), we have no idea if it is worth about $50 extra (yea I know, not much, but hey it's 10 extra beers on board ;) to be higher up, but still have to walk, as it is all the way at the back of the ship. I can still change the reservtion to deck 2 or 3, and midships. or we could go up to a large interior stateroom for about $50 more than we are paying now (but it looks to be only marginally larger..)

 

So our question after this long and meaningless rant ;): Is it worth it to be on the 7th deck, or is it in fact better to be lower and midships (We are both

in our late 20's, so the walking is not a big issue for us)? And is it worth to pay extra for the "large interior staterooms", even tho they are barely bigger?

 

We are also wondering about the dining on the ship, there are no speciality restaurants (as far as we can find out), and the Windjammer is only open at given hours. Do we have to resort to room service if we want a late night snack, or is there a place to get something to eat even when Windjammer is closed? And what about Ben and Jerry's ice cream? Can we get that on this ship (we do know it comes at an extra cost, but it's so darn good)?

 

I have also noticed that there is not much writing on these boards about Legend of the seas, is that because it has a bad reputation among "hardcore cruisers", or is it simply because it is 15 years old and newer ships is more "in"? Our last cruise was with Thomson Celebration, and that was built in 1984, and we thought it looked really good for it's age. So I am not really worried about Legend being old and beat up.

 

Any answers to our questions will be greatly appreciated, and I am sure we will have some more questions later.

 

Ragnar and Trude, from Norway

[steveru621]

We (me and my wife) are booked on the 31. July sailing from Rome on Legend of the seas, and there is a few things we are wondering about!

 

We are booked in an interior stateroom in the aft of deck 7 (category M), and we paid a little bit extra to be located at the 7th deck instead off at the 2. or 3. On the deck plan the category M staterooms looks _alot_ bigger than the other interior staterooms, but as they are not sold as "large interior", I take it they are just standard sized, so this was not a factor when we booked.

 

We are not experienced cruisers (2. cruise, first was a few years ago with Thomson), we have no idea if it is worth about $50 extra (yea I know, not much, but hey it's 10 extra beers on board ;) to be higher up, but still have to walk, as it is all the way at the back of the ship. I can still change the reservtion to deck 2 or 3, and midships. or we could go up to a large interior stateroom for about $50 more than we are paying now (but it looks to be only marginally larger..)

 

So our question after this long and meaningless rant ;): Is it worth it to be on the 7th deck, or is it in fact better to be lower and midships (We are both

in our late 20's, so the walking is not a big issue for us)? And is it worth to pay extra for the "large interior staterooms", even tho they are barely bigger?

 

We are also wondering about the dining on the ship, there are no specialty restaurants (as far as we can find out), and the Windjammer is only open at given hours. Do we have to resort to room service if we want a late night snack, or is there a place to get something to eat even when Windjammer is closed? And what about Ben and Jerry's ice cream? Can we get that on this ship (we do know it comes at an extra cost, but it's so darn good)?

 

I have also noticed that there is not much writing on these boards about Legend of the seas, is that because it has a bad reputation among "hardcore cruisers", or is it simply because it is 15 years old and newer ships is more "in"? Our last cruise was with Thomson Celebration, and that was built in 1984, and we thought it looked really good for it's age. So I am not really worried about Legend being old and beat up.

 

Any answers to our questions will be greatly appreciated, and I am sure we will have some more questions later.

 

Ragnar and Trude, from Norway

 

Try the cruise reviews.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/getreviews.cfm?action=ship&ShipID=75

 

And the virtual tour.

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/multimedia/virtualTour/ship.do;jsessionid=0000QObBJSIZcob9my-9ry5yZEw:12hdhu6tq?shipClassCode=VI

 

Most are positive, but I find the negative reviews suspect because they usually start out 'our flights' were messed up, that is not always RCI's fault. I think you see less talk because it's a smaller ship, if things were bad believe me you would hear about it. As you will also read there are marginal cabins no matter how much you pay. The extra space for me does not seem to be worth the cost.

 

I've never been on Legend but will be on June13th; I'm not expecting any problems.

 

It looks like your assessment is correct, room service is the way to go after hours. This will be our 6th RCI cruise and I've never used room service. It gets mixed reviews.

 

Good luck

[Cymro1953]

Hi Ragnar and Trude,

Like you we are on our 1st cruise with RCI on Legend on the 1st June.

I was surprised to find that Windjammer was not open 24 hours. On our last cruise the buffet was open 24 hours a day.

I work night shifts and am often up in the early hours of the morning, eg. 4 to 5 a.m.

My wife does not like to be on a low deck so we are up on deck 6 outside.

We did not spend much time in our cabin last time, only for sleeping, washing and a rest after a busy day excursion.

Apparently there is a place outside Windjammer where you can get tea and coffee if it is closed. But nowhere for food apart from room service.

If you go to the reviews part of the site you can see quite good reviews about her.

 

Berwyn

[Cymro1953]

Hi Steve,

As we're on her the 2 weeks before you we'll try and leave you some food for your cruise :-)

 

Berwyn

[steveru621]

Hi Steve,

As we're on her the 2 weeks before you we'll try and leave you some food for your cruise :-)

 

Berwyn

 

Good Luck on your cruise, save us some adult beverages too.:)

[Arlendius]

Thank you both so much for your replys!

 

We have read a lot of the reviews, but there is so much informatin that it is hard to take it all in! I have read something about a pool grill, and that on some ships this is open 24/7(?), so we where wondering if this was the case for Legend also.

 

We are really looking forward to this vacation, as our last cruise was the most relaxing vacation we have ever had (and we both became total food junkies, so we have allready started to take our precautions since this is a 12 night cruise..).

 

Any insight from more experienced cruiser than we are, concerning the stateroom. We really have no clue if it is "better" to be aft on deck 7, or midship on deck 2/3.

[cb at sea]

I would rather be in a position where I could use stairs rather than elevator for most trips. The elevators are slow, with long waits for them, most of the time. I think, for $50, I'd stay on deck 7.

Even when the WJ isn't openly serving a meal, there's usually something to eat...cookies, fruit...stuff like that. And to be honest, I've never eaten anything after dinner....just too full! But, you can take some "snacking food" to your cabin from any of the eating venues when they're open, if you want to!

[Happy ks]

We cruised this exact itinerary last October...it is awesome.

 

We were on deck 8 in a JS, our Aunt was down the hall a bit in a category M, so I did go in there a couple of times. I thought it was nice, a bit cozy but doable. If we had been thinking more along a line of budget, we would have been happy with an interior cabin on this cruise.

 

Don't worry about the location of the cabin (although I personall prefer higher decks), the ship is not that large and walking isn't a big deal like it is on a mega liner. Cabin M,N Q category are listed as 138 square feet, K and L 149 square feet and J is listed as 172 square feet. If you can swing the J category I think it would be worth the extra 34 square feet, as you are on the ship nearly 2 weeks. An extra few square feet really can make a difference on a ship, contrary to what some people will say about it. I checked the price (in US $) and the J category is $180 more, or an extra $14 per night, to me a small price to pay for extra space and comfort.

 

We chose Legend purely because of the itinerary, it cannot be beat until you get to the much higher priced cruise lines. Many of the Med cruises on the newer ships were either shorter or didn't go the the ports we wanted to see. It's nicely maintained, but don't expect all the bells and whistles of the newer ships. The food was fine, service was great, beds comfortable, we'd go back on her again, probably to do the alternate ports, Greece and Eastern Med.

 

I think the best thing I could say about this cruise is when we got off after 13 nights, we all (7 of us) wished we could turn around and do it all over again.

[Arlendius]

Hi cb at sea and Happy ks, thanks for your views!

 

138 to 149 square feet seems like a really small difference, but 138 to 172 might be worth paying for. We'll have to think real hard about spending extra for the stateroom, as there will be plenty to spend the money on elsewhere both on the ship and on land!

 

It is so nice to hear that you enjoyed Legend, and when I look at the reviews, the med cruises from last year looks to have been really good. While the Asia cruises this year looks really bad. But as pointed out, this might be for other reasons than the ship itself.

[Cymro1953]

Good Luck on your cruise, save us some adult beverages too.:)

Don't worry Steve,

The prices RCI charge for their booze we won't be drinking much on board :D

 

Berwyn

[retiring soon]

Hi! We just returned from our 1st RCI cruise on the Legend of the Seas. We had cabin 7049, a superior interior (J) & really liked it. It was only 2 doors away from the Centrum. Our friends had an inside on deck 3 & the room was quite a bit smaller than ours. We had about a 6 foot sofa, theirs was like a large chair. Our desk area was bigger plus our bathroom had more shelf space. I really liked the Legend as it's not too big. Of course, you just have the 2 places for dinner but that was enough. It does have a mini golf course, a rock climbing wall and a couple of pools.

I'm trying to attach a picture of the room but am not having much luck.

~Jo~ :) see if this works.

[Cymro1953]

We cruised this exact itinerary last October...it is awesome.

 

We chose Legend purely because of the itinerary,the best thing I could say about this cruise is when we got off after 13 nights, we all (7 of us) wished we could turn around and do it all over again.

 

Thank you Happy for that lovely post. It has really reasured us for ours on the !st June.

 

Berwyn

[Arlendius]

Hi! We just returned from our 1st RCI cruise on the Legend of the Seas. We had cabin 7049, a superior interior (J) & really liked it. It was only 2 doors away from the Centrum. Our friends had an inside on deck 3 & the room was quite a bit smaller than ours. We had about a 6 foot sofa, theirs was like a large chair. Our desk area was bigger plus our bathroom had more shelf space. I really liked the Legend as it's not too big. Of course, you just have the 2 places for dinner but that was enough. It does have a mini golf course, a rock climbing wall and a couple of pools.

I'm trying to attach a picture of the room but am not having much luck.

~Jo~ :)[ATTACH]118528[/ATTACH] see if this works.

 

Thanks for the picture! That cabin looks so much bigger than a standard interior!

[madforcruising]

The Legend does not have a 24/7 food place.

 

The Solarium cafe is the place that is open late (1am or 2am I think). After that you are limited to room service.

 

However with implementing the room service surcharge I think there was some talk about a venue serving food at night times on every ship, so maybe they have changed the Solarium cafe opening hours since then.

[Bobal]

Hi! We just returned from our 1st RCI cruise on the Legend of the Seas. We had cabin 7049

I'm trying to attach a picture of the room but am not having much luck.

~Jo~ :)[ATTACH]118528[/ATTACH] see if this works.

 

Thanks for that Jo - my sons are in that same cabin in 8 weeks time - starting to get excited now! :D

 

Please, those of you who are travelling on the Med itinerary when it launches from next week, please don't forget to come back and let us know how it went. Does anyone know how many formal nights they are planning?

[threeofus]

The ports on the Med. cruises are wonderful - so although it is a smaller ship it's worth it.

 

The solarium cafe has very good snacks and is open late.

Yes - the windjammer closed at 9 - which I thought was a little early.

The day we went to Egypt the dining room was open late and the Windjammer had a great poolside buffet.

 

The ship was lovely and it was a wonderful trip ! Enjoy it.

[retiring soon]

Hi!

You're both welcome. I'm so happy it worked. What a coincidence that your Sons will be in our room!:D I Love Med. cruises, so much to see

but I must say Asia was amazing too! Enjoy!

~Jo~ :)

[IMNiles]

I am quite sure you will enjoy your trip aboard Legend in July.. We just disembarked in Dubai after our third trip aboard Legend. As always, she is in excellent condition (especially considering her age). I did find that the crew had turned over quite a bit since my last sailing, and they did seem a bit "green," but it wasn't "bad" like some people have made it out to be. I think they had to bring on a lot of new crew that spoke Chinese for the Asian sailings, and so many of the long-time crew probably moved on. My biggest disappointment was that they had removed the craps table from the casino because Asians apparently don't play craps - no idea if it's coming back for the summer med sailings.

 

Anyway, to get to your questions about food... The buffet is open until about 9pm, and you can get burgers/hot dogs/pizza in the Solarium until about 2am. After that there is room service, though there is a charge of 3.95 if you order between about midnight and 5am (otherwise it's free). There is indeed Ben&Jerry's ice cream in Cafe Lattetudes.

 

I wouldn't pay extra for 20 or 30 square feet, but I might for more. Do be sure to check the delta to an oceanview - that light in the morning goes a long way towards telling you what time it is when you wake up. :)

 

Enjoy your trip!

[Cymro1953]

The Legend does not have a 24/7 food place.

 

The Solarium cafe is the place that is open late (1am or 2am I think). After that you are limited to room service.

 

However with implementing the room service surcharge I think there was some talk about a venue serving food at night times on every ship, so maybe they have changed the Solarium cafe opening hours since then.

 

Hi,

Thanks for the information NIles and the picture JO.

It's just the British Thomsons cruise line we'd usually use has the buffet open the full 24 hours.

It's just me, I work night shifts and after a few nights sleep I'm often up abou 4 to 5 a.m.

It was lovely to be up then, so peaceful and just a couple of others too.

And watching the colours of the dawn.

 

Berwyn

[Arlendius]

Thanks for all the great info on Legend of the seas!

The more we are told about her (and the itinerary), the more we are looking forward to our vacation.

 

I think we will stick to our category M stateroom on the 7th deck, and instead spend the money it would cost us to upgrade on the ship and in the ports. It sems like the consensus among our fellow cruisers is that there is no problem beeing high and far aft, and it would only be worth it to upgrade to a bigger room, or a outside one, for a fair bit more than we have allready paid. Thanks for all your good advice, it has all been considered carefully.

[Happy ks]

Thanks for that Jo - my sons are in that same cabin in 8 weeks time - starting to get excited now! :D

 

Please, those of you who are travelling on the Med itinerary when it launches from next week, please don't forget to come back and let us know how it went. Does anyone know how many formal nights they are planning?

 

 

There are typically 3 formal nights on a 12 night cruise.