Seabourn Legend rides off into the sunrise

Legend is calling on Madeira today (3/31st) but alas, two giant ships blocking the Funchal live webcam view of the Legend!:confused:

We did not enjoy Tug-of-War game last fall crossing on the Legend even thought the Atlantic was smooth as a lake ~Cruise Director informed us "it's too dangerous ~too many crew members are hurt"~~in 15 years being aboard crossings I've never known of one crew member really hurt ~a few with hand burns, etc but no one breaking a leg or arm ~I do know the winners were always given free massages by the Spa team.

Martita

Unfortunately we are sharing the port with monstrosities from Aida, MSC and Costa.

Did Seabourn offer complimentary "Tea at Reid's Palace?" We use to laugh at the CD announcement: "ladies, remember, no open toe shoes allowed during tea time at the hotel!" Of course, men were coat and tie only ~~ohh, those were the 'good ole days.

Will watch your Legend sail from Funchal ~~hopefully and wishing you better weather:D

Martita

Unfortunately the Reids Palace Tea is no longer a complimentary event. It's now a pay excursion with a high cancellation rate. Best to book it on your own.

We met the enemy today and he was haze. You could see Gibraltar but I don't have much hope for quality images of it.

We are now in Barcelona having arrived by TGV from Paris. If we get ambitious we just might wander down to the World Trade Center early Sat to watch you sail in. Sorry about you Gibraltar haze -- we have never had a clear view either. Can't wait to board !

Disappointing less than honest end to the cruise*. Corporate will do what they will do.

Hopefully for those embarking in BCN they bring on more Champagne, better beer and a better future cruise consultant. Also it would be nice if they would admit that the duo contracts are over after BCN-CIT.

* the last Herald wishes cruisers well and see you next cruise from David E and [crew members that don't have their contracts renewed]. To me that's dishonest as they/corporate know they haven't invited the other entertainers back.

Emperor Norton: I totally agree with you - a sad way to end your cruise. I for one will really miss the duos - especially Speedy and Christina who are so talented and added so much to my Seabourn cruises. Thanks for sharing information as you finished the crossing. Do you know if David E. is staying with Seabourn?

Once again unsupervised kid in the hot tubs (mom was reading a book looking in the opposite direction...)

 

We now also have consume in the SkyBar becuase a passenger swore up and down that Seabourn and Regent used to have such a thing (I've never seen it on either - a past Seabourn cruiser with 14+ years hasn't seen it either) so :confused: A lot of people expecting coffee were very surprised:eek:

The past cruiser that had not seen bouillon aboard Seabourn is mistaken; it was served daily at the Sky Bar for many years.

Hot bouillon was served daily about midway across the Atlantic on Spirit's crossing last week. Weather had turned cooler (and VERY windy at times) so it was most welcome, especially with a shot of Tio Pepe! Coffee was still available at 10:00AM at the Sky Bar as I am sure it was on Legend.

PS: why did no one report the hot tub jumping youngster?

We just had a tug of war on the final Spirit crossing. And no dearth of anything. I equivocated between the two final crossings. So glad I chose the Spirit.

I have wondered if Seabourn gave each passenger on the Spirit & Legends final voyages their brass door "letter holders" as a goodbye token. These were given on the Pride's last crossing.

Martita B

We didn't get them on the Spirit. That would have been great. We got commemorative wine bottle coasters and on the last day we got to draw for either one of the charts from the bridge or a charger from the dining room.

We are just finishing up a most perfect farewell cruise to the Legend. No tears yet -- saving them all for tomorrow. More details in a week when we return home.

Is Dag Captain on this last cruise? And does anyone know whether he will be with SB or another line in the near future?

Captain "Dag" is now mastering one of the Holland America ships.

Not sure as to the ship he's on ~

Martita B.

Yes, Dag is gone. And we had the wonderful Captain Pedder who will be next going to a P&O ship.

Yes, Dag is gone. And we had the wonderful Captain Pedder who will be next going to a P&O ship.

This makes me wonder what's going to happen to the now "excess" chefs. :(

As usual before the cruise I imbibed some beverages to ward off the wee beasties (spoiler they failed at the end of the cruise:mad:). This time there was another reason: I would be onboard for St. Patricks day and knew that I wouldn't be seeing either a Guinness on tap or a good Irish coffee.

My how things have changed, you can't even get an American pint anymore, let alone a proper Imperial pint.

Good luck charm (failed)

IMO the world's best Bloody Mary. I still can't get them to share the recipe.

A proper Irish Coffee.

After finishing these it was time to finish packing and then head to the airport. With TSA-pre I breezed through security and found myself riding the elevator up to the new American Express Centurion lounge (not very well located for anyone not travelling United domestic).

Well I can tell you that that wonderful chef John Pugh from our final Legend cruise at present does not know if he has a job on Seabourn. It really is heartbreaking. Most of the crew I spoke with in our cruise will be moving on to the Odyssey and the Soujourn. And I was especially relieved to to find out that our Hotel Manager, Laurent Lalouer, with whom we have been lucky enough to cruise for the last 10 years, will be moving to one of the big ships.

The Centurion lounge is a somewhat newish addition to San Francisco airport. I found there were a few problems with it. As they say in real estate: Location, location, location. The lounge is located near the United domestic terminal but nowhere near most gates. While it is on the correct side of security (past it) it's not close enough to most gates so that you'd want to wait till just before departure time to leave. Another issue is the size. While Platinum and above members get in free (Just like everything on Regent is "free" rather than included in the fare:rolleyes:) other members can pay to play as it were. This created a rather obnoxious situation where there was a wait for table seats and a much longer wait for bar seats. It didn't help that people were parking themselves at one table and their luggage at another.

The seating itself (at least in the dining/bar area) seemed less comfortable than the traditional airline lounges. The upside was the beer/wine/liquor choices were better than most of the US carriers lounges. The food menu while limited seemed at first blush to be better than the packaged snacks/crackers/cookies that some carriers seem to think constitutes food.

As I had about a mile or so to go on my gimped leg to my gate I dined and dashed. I tried their fried chicken. Sadly the chicken had a Jeckyll/Hyde personality complex. Some pieces were moist, tender, crispy and flavorful. Others were like chunks of glued together saw dust. YUM.

After spending all night trying unsuccessfully to sleep I landed in Newark. I was expecting to fly out of the same gate as last year which had an excellent view of the Freedom Tower. Alas it was not to be and I had an excellent view of I think a wall. The flight from Newark to St. Thomas seemed to go by faster this year. The downside to having Dish network on jets: Once you leave the CONUS thats it, just a tiny portion of pre-saved shows/movies.

Once landed on St. Thomas you still have to walk around the exterior perimeter of the airport and past the rum slingers to reach baggage claim. It seemed to take far less time to for the baggage to reach the belt this year. Then all that was left was grabbing a taxi an heading to my hotel for the next night, the Marriott Frenchmans Reef. NB: While the taxi prices to most hotels are clearly listed I was charged a different amount.

I thought I was supposed to have an early check in and a late check out and a room upgrade. Guess which of the three happened? NONE. Ah well, I'm in a nice looking resort with nothing to do for the next twenty four hours or so. All I have to do is wait until 4pm to check in. Thankfully there was a bar nearby so I hobbled down to that.

Before sitting at the bar I wandered around the main building a bit.

The infinity pool and view from it looked quite nice.

Perhaps I should have taken more time off work so I could go for a sail on their cat.

After very briefly exploring part of the property my leg decided it was time to sit. Over to the bar I went, followed along by my new best fried in the whole wide world.

At least until he realized that I wasn't going to feed him.

Upon taking a seat at the bar I noticed there was something amiss, can you tell what it is?

We seemed to be short a bartender.

Found one!

While they had Guinness, they forgot to mention it wasn't on tap.:eek:

Shortly after taking my first sip I was savagely attacked by a blood sucking pest. No, not an attorney, a mosquito. It seems that there was no abatement program in place (or it was failing miserably).

While enjoying a local brew (and hoping the $@$@# mosquitos would die of alcohol poisoning) I amused myself by trying to figure out without asking who would be joining me the next day on the Legend.

After a bit more blood donation than I cared for I was finally able to check in. While my room wasn't anything spectacular the A/C worked and it was mosquito free. Something I hadn't done before this trip was make dinner reservations. Oops. Thankfully that didn't exactly come around and bite me (or maybe it did - If I'd research the different dining options I may have ordered pizza delivery).

I took the resorts people mover down to Havana Blue for dinner. I only had to wait a few minutes to be seated. Thankfully even though there were no windows (just large open spaces in the wall) they seemed to be mosquito free.

This blue lighting is what I guess made it Blue Havana

The prices on the menu were a bit sketchy. While I wouldn't mind paying some of the prices they were asking in a known good establishment I was less than thrilled with paying to be a Guinea pig. The waiter was in my mind terrible. I'm very much not a fan of the little "here are the specials - no I won't mention the price" game. After querying the waiter I found out that I could get the best lobster on the island for only ~$70. For another ~$40-50 I could add a steak.:eek: Gee for half the price of a 9 course meal at the French Laundry I could have a surf and turf with frozen beef and lobster. Where do I sign up.:rolleyes:

Instead I had some of the regular menu items. The lobster bisque tasted nothing like any lobster bisque I've had before. It was creamy and umm... that was about it. I had some very small tacos and freshly made tortillas. The masa excellent but fell apart easily. The toppings were very intense and flavorful but overall I thought a bit overpriced. The steak was about 25% sinew. No dessert I was dead tired.

IMO - the tacos were the best part of the meal but still overpriced.

Catching the people mover back to the main property was amusing as the family I was sharing the ride with had just finished a time share presentation. They were mumbling and grumbling about how much of their time it took, how they didn't want to buy anything (but they did). They were amazed that I avoided getting sucked into a timeshare demo. Sometimes a lack of a poker face can be an advantage.

The next day I had some time to kill while waiting for a reasonable departure time for the port (I didn't want to get to the ship while they were still disembarking people and have to wait outside on the road for several hours) and wound up at the bar.

This time around I knew the drinks were small and the prices were large so I went for the silliest thing I could find. Their bucket of rum punch. I think I've had 3.2 beer with more alcohol in it. It did satisfy the desire for a single drink that I could reasonably nurse for a long time however.

While sitting at the bar I again met more Seabourn passengers. This worked out quite well as I was able to share a ride to the port with them. On the way to the port it started to rain:(

Thankfully it stopped about minute after we exited the vehicle.

We were some of the first to board and as such the sign in/registration line only took about 20 minutes. After checking in I let myself be escorted to my room. Normally at this point I'd head up to the Skybar as I don't like cooling my heels watching the safety video loop for an hour waiting for the stewardess to arrive. This time however the stewardess arrived with a few minutes of me entering the room. That was a nice change. After a brief introduction it was off to the Skybar.

The first thing I saw I thought about liberating as I knew it wouldn't be going to either another Seabourn ship or to Windstar. However that would've been rather problematic for the staff for the next few cruises.

There's something special about this phone that marks the end of an era.

After imbibing an ice cold beverage it was time for the muster drill. I'm still not certain why they don't remove those on cell phones from the ship as they have done to those that hide out from the drill. While the drill isn't overly long ours was cut short due to rain which magically stopped once most people had migrated up to the Skybar.

I'd used my ninja skills to arrange to have Sangria available for sail away and the bar staff did not disappoint:D

Cool, fruity, refreshing Sangria

What would a sailaway be without music?

or people at the Sky Bar?

Dropping off the pilot

Heading out to turn in circles before reaching our next destination

Our first stop was Marigot. Before being injured I'd planned to visit a nice French bakery and sample their wares. However in limp mode that seemed like a bad idea.

Instead I stayed on board and got to listen to excuses about the Marina not being deployed due to the seas and that we'd never have a chance during the cruise to use it again (odd that SeaDream had zero problem using their marina. Frustratingly bad to claim that we wouldn't use it the rest of the cruise as in Terre de Haute the seas were as calm as when the Pride used its marina last year. Foreshadowing - it seems either SeaDream or WindStar had zero problems with their marinas throughout the cruise yet something or someone on the Legend was saying "no" - at no point was mechanical failure mentioned:mad:).

Whats that Lassie, you say Timmys on SeaDream:confused:

You're also saying that SeaDream can use their marina in these "rough" seas:o

At least we have nice looking tenders

St. Johns was one of my quickest port calls ever. I limped to the end of the pier, saw the crowd of shoulder to shoulder people (oh yes, there were three ships in port with us, I think they ranged from 2500-4000 people each:eek:) turned around and limped back to the ship.

A fun game to play in a crowded port is match the passenger to the ship.

I thought this was an interesting little boat

The quaint waterfront

A little size difference and playing a game of match the passenger to the ship.