Chantel

Age: 26
Occupation: Employment Representative
Number of Cruises: 2
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Legend
Sailing Date: April 27th, 2005
Itinerary: Eastern Caribbean

It has been said in past reviews “the ship caters to the masses of unseasoned travelers”; I am 26 and have been to 7 foreign countries. I would consider myself a season traveler, even at a young age. My grandmother worked for the Foreign Service and I have had the luxury of taking my best friend and spending summers overseas. My group consisted of 13 people: me, my husband, my mom, two of my co-workers and their families. Our ages range from 60’s to preteen.

I want to say I had a great vacation. Yes there were positives and negatives, but I would recommend this cruise to anyone!

We arranged for a charter bus, which departed from Hamburg, PA around 10:45 A.M. We arrived in NYC around 1 P.M. So I have no information about the traffic, parking, or cost. The porter’s cost was $2/per person, not bag. What a deal!

Embarkation:
I have heard horror storied about embarking in NY. It is an annoying process but not unbearable. First, there is NO place to sit; I don’t think I even saw a chair. The embarkation staff kept handing us paperwork that needed to be filled out before we registered. Make sure you have a pen and a friend or family member’s back to write on! Total process was approximately 45 minuets.

Ship and Stateroom:
The ship just came off of dry dock and was in wonderful condition. Very clean and fresh! The décor is a bit over the top but who wants something bland? I stare at blah walls everyday at work; it was refreshing to have something to look at. We had an 8A balcony stateroom (4224). What a wonderful room. I read lots of complaints about the orange colored staterooms. Every hotel I have been in was burgundy, brown, pink, or blue. I thought the orange was wonderful, I never felt like I was in a stuffy hotel room. The room fit me, my husband, my mom, all our clothes, luggage and we still had storage room. Kudos to carnival!! The cabin steward (I am so disappointed that I forgot his name) cleared out our refrigerator and we filled it up with our own soda and water. He also brought us a third chair for the balcony. The regular sized balcony was big enough for the small square table and the three chairs. I was in the extended balcony stateroom and a few suites. I do not think the extended balcony would have been worth the extra money. The suites were hit or miss. One suite had a chopped up stateroom but an enormous balcony, the other, had a wonderful stateroom but the same size balcony as an 8A. I would spend the extra money for a triple or quad suite because there seems to be more privacy; however, I would not spend that kind of money for just my husband and me.

Dining Options:
There are 3: Unicorn café, Truffles, and Golden Fleece.

Unicorn café is a buffet. You should expect the same food you are served at any other buffet. The food was always hot for hot and cold for cold. I think they had some of the best pastrami and assorted lunchmeats. I usually ate there for breakfast or lunch.

Truffles: We never ate there for breakfast or lunch but never missed a dinner. The food was fantastic but do not get on this ship and expect 5 star cuisines. It just is not going to happen. Desserts were fantastic. I do not understand what all the fuss is over the flourless chocolate cake. Least favorite dessert by far. Very friendly wait staff. I adored our server and assistant. The maitre D needs to do something about the dancing and singing the staff has to do. PLEASE stop making the staff run around. They look foolish. You could see in the embarrassment on the staff’s faces. Though the final song was quite cute. Here is my one and only comparison:

I think RCCL used less staff in the dinning room and was more efficient! I barely ever got a refill on my water or iced tea. After being in the sun and saltwater, I need some fresh water!

Golden Fleece: Why? The dinning room was fantastic! I wasn’t going to pay $25 for refills on water! I have heard it is worth the $$ but just not for me!

Sea Days: I don’t mind kids but they were everywhere. They filled the hot tubs and pools everyday! No biggie! Carnival offers an adult only area with a hot tub and pool. We stayed there most of the time. Swam, ate, and played domino’s.

I donated a few bucks to the casino. Slots were fun, no money but lots of play. This was the first cruise the casino had a poker room. I played in the poker room for about 3 hours total and the staff made so many errors; I would have to use my toes to count them all. The staff is clueless about poker room rules and so were the people playing. Very unprofessional! Oh well, nothings perfect!

San Juan: Boring Boring Boring! We got off the ship to walk around, got bored, hired a tour guide, drove around new and old San Juan, got bored. I think you get the point! Please remember, this is just my perspective, some people loved it!

St. Thomas: Booked privately with Sunny Liston. He was a good tour guide. Went shopping for 3 hours. What a waste. I could have handled an hour and a half. The entire shopping area was jewelry, liquor and cigarettes. I did buy a pretty sapphire and diamond ring. After shopping we toured the island. Went to the mountaintop and had a famous banana daiquiri. The banana daiquiri was pretty good but not worth $8. Finally we spent 2 hours swimming at Sapphire beach. Fantastic!

Tortola: I can’t say too much about the island because all we had time for was the dolphin swim. I do not recommend this tour. The staff and dolphins do not perform half the stuff they advertise and the staff is beyond rude. So bad, that Carnival refunded for half the cost. I would elaborate more but I do not want get upset, mad, and ruin this review for the people reading it!

Other staff and customer service: I have already told you that my cabin steward and dining room staff was great. So this section is for the rest. The casino staff was adequate. The casino could have gotten a few more bucks out of me is the staff was more informative and friendly. The only major problem I had was when a mistake was made in the poker room and the staff and managers made a poor decision. I play quite a bit of Poker in Atlantic City and what happened on the ship would have never happened in a casino. The photo staff was RUDE, RUDE, RUDE! Room service wasn’t rude but not overly nice. We were hung up on about 7 times and our order was never correct. Purser’s staff was very good! I applaud them. They always had a smile on their face and never once showed their annoyance. There were times I was getting annoyed at people for treating them so harshly but the kept their composure.

Overall: If I had to rate this cruise on a scale from 1 to 10. I would rate it an 8. Yes, we had some problems but doesn’t everything? Carnival tried their hardest to correct the negative situations and I hope they work on the photo, room service, and casino staff.
I would recommend this ship to anyone! Hope you enjoy my review!

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