Review of Legend Behind the Fun Tour!!

[myangel]

Let me first start out by saying it was truly FANTASTIC! If you are a cruise addict like myself, or are just curious as to how a ship runs, this tour is for you!. All ships are different, like there is no jail on the Legend) so I can only write about the Legend.....

 

I went to the guest services desk when I first got on the ship and they tried to book it for me but said the system was not updated to start issuing reservations, so she sent me to the Shore Excursions Desk. They were able to reserve me a space, and I was excited to be going!! It is on the last sea day, so I had 6 days to wait!!! I got up early, showered and got ready, trying not to disturb my husband and 2 sons. They were thrilled by the way, that I was going on this tour so they could sleep in and not be bothered by me wanting them all to get up early all the time, ha. I went to the Buffet to eat, then it was time to go!

 

We all met at the Trump Card Room at 8:45am. We registered (gave our ticket and cabin number and were issued a "behind the Fun" pass attached to a lanyard) and a hand out about the legend, including a listing of quantities of food and beverage items that are consumed on a 7 day cruise. Examples are 45,000 eggs, 1,500 lbs of coffee, 35,000 slices of bacon, 8,850 lbs of flour, etc. On the back of the hand out was the recipe for the warm chocolate melting cake that was scaled down to 4 servings. If anyone who does not have the recipe, and wants it I will be glad to post it, just let me know.They had coffee, teas, juices,& pastries while we waited until all 16 of us arrived. I was so ready for the tour to start! One lady did not wear closed toe shoes, so she went to grab some some sneakers. There were two corporate trainers, and they were doing two groups. They asked for volunteers to be in the 2nd group because there were some cancellations the night before due to sickness. Me and another passenger volunteered to go on the second group which went at 9:30. There were 14 in the first group which left at 9:00 and 11 in the group I was in that left at 9:30. I spend the 30 minutes waiting, sipping tea and pastries because I never seem to get enough to eat on this ship..;).

at 9:30 we were ready to go!! I was excited! There was so much information, I may not get the stops in exact order, but I will sure try!!!

We were wanded by security and had to turn over our cell phones and camera's if we had them on us. Security was with us on the tour

 

First stop was the MDR Galley, where we met the head Souis Chef. Ordering all the food for the ship is one of his MANY responsibilities, and he told us how much food is consumed in a week. He showed us around the HUGE galley, explaining how the food is ordered by the waiters. All main courses (except cold items like shrimp cocktail, salads, etc are made to order ( i never knew that, I thought they had "warming" cabinets). He explained that is why they take all the ordering at once, so by the time all your starters, soups, salads are finished, your main course will be ready.

 

He next took us to the "Artists" (there are 2) who make really neat things out of fruit/veggies/bread/etc. Us ladies got to make a flower out of carrots, thin slices of turnips, radishes, etc. That was fun. We dipped the flower we made into food coloring and they turned out so pretty. Next to us was a cook carving swans out of soap was busy working on them.(which we recieved later!!) he said it took 15 minutes to carve each one! AMAZING!. The phohographer took a group photoof all of us with the Souis Chef.

 

Next stop was the Engine Control room. The head engineer explained about all about it, but this wasn't as interesting to me as all the other stops. It was still informative tho! Security was REALLY with us here, lol.

 

We toured and walked through the HUGE freezers where meats, poultry, seafood, etc were all stored separately, the HUGE beverage room, prep room, Garbage room (no, not one bad smell!!) they put the left over fruits and veggies through a machine that makes fish food which is let out for the fish to eat. They can only do this 4 miles out to sea. The human waste is put through a processing, mixed with bleach, etc and dumped 12 miles out to sea. I hope I got this part right, but they said it was eco friendly whatever process they did!

 

Next stop was the crew galley. There, they have a 27 day menu, which means a meal you were served on day 1 is not served again until day 28. There are 45-50 different nationalities, so they spotlight a different country each day to make the crew members feel at home. They have many different meal times, to accodomate all crew hours, but they always have food available 24 hours a day, and there are always pizza, burgers, soups, sandwiches available 24 hours a day. The crew dining room looked really nice, we looked inside and waved, but it was really too busy for us to actually move around. They do not eat the MDR food that we eat each day, but they eat really well. The knives in the galley are controlled and signed in and out as no crew member can bring a knife in their cabin. (understandable!!)

 

Laundry room. WOW is all I can say!!! They have a folding machine for the sheets and pillow cases where 2 people feed each end of the sheets and it comes out ironed, and folded! They have a special folding machine for the blue beach towels. They feed them through where the outline of the ship is and it comes out folded, with the Carnival logo facing out, just like they are in your cabin! The cabin stewards do fold, by hand, the towels that are in our cabins each day. On a 7 day cruise, the bed sheets are changed 2 times a week. (once when you embark and another during the week. WOW, I change our sheets at home, if they are lucky once every 10 days lol. They had linens and towels EVERYWHERE stacked up. The company takes care of all crew uniforms, but they have to do their street clothes themselves(free of charge). They are located on their cabin decks.The crew cabins are cleaned by the people in them and their sheets must be changed once a week.

 

Crew area. On the legend, there are 3 crew decks BELOW water line. The bottom deck is 26 feet below the line. The huge laundry room is also in this area. The crew have 2 people in each, no more then that. I had heard stories that there were 4 in each cabin, but that is not true. The ships officers, have solo rooms.If you are married, you can request a cabin to share, (I hope so, lol) We did not go into a crew cabin, but we walked past them. We then went to the crew lounge, wher it looks like one of the lounges on the ship, just smaller. Bar, DJ booth, etc. They have table tents on the tables that say "crew members don't let crew members sail drunk" thought that was cute. We went there for a bathroom break, and they had juices and water for us. After that we went to the training room, where we had the opportunity to ask questions. Some I can remember is: yes, they pay for the crew flight home. There is a morgue onboard with "three benches" as she described it. We were shown the door where it was (no marking) they do not have a jail, she said some of the smaller ships do have them tho. If you do a "naughy, naughty" thing as our tour guide put it, you were placed in a cabin with 24 hour security, until the ship docks back at the home port.

 

If you are hired as a crew member, and you find that ship life is not a good fit for you, after a week, they try to council you to just take a little longer to get adjusted and if you just think it is not for you, after the ship docks when the cruise is over, they escort you out and pay for your flight home. Ships crew is divided into many groups. Serving/housekeeping, salaried, like entertainment, staff, and officers. Staff members may go to MDR for dinner if the are on break, if they e-mail the matri'd to see if there is room, and they must tip the waiter serving them. They may also eat in the steak house, but they must pay the same $30 we pay. No crew member gets entire days off. More on that later.

 

Next we went to behind the stage and the dance captain was there to greet us. it was very interesting how they put on a show, dance, move around, etc. The wordrobe dept was big, all items on the hangers are unbuttoned, unzipped, etc to allow a faster costume change. It looked like a messy closet, but it really was not! We were greeted by the technical manager, who told us all aobut the lighting sound, satelite for the ship etc.

 

We stopped by the photo area just for a minute. It seems like there were 2,000 photographers onboard but there were only EIGHT!!! Our tour guide said they know where they are supposed to be all the time!!

 

We passed by the "paymaster" it looked like a little one teller bank, lol. The crew is paid every two weeks, on the ship, in that room, from US funds, in cash, or they can download it to your "crew card" which is kind of like our sail and sign card. The have internet services with discounted rates for crew members...... $20 for 200 minutes.

I will finish up with the bridge and the steakhouse in a little while, I am still doing laundry(ugh) and I actually had to make our bed today!!! :(:(

[Tedro1]

Thanks for the review! I wanted to do this, but was too busy, if that makes any sense!

[mykiddiewinks]

I would love to do this next week but our last day at sea is Christmas day so not sure if they will still do it or if it will mean the kids will miss some Christmas stuff as we would have to have them go to camp carnival for the morning.

 

What was the cost?

[deeluvs2cruise]

Very interesting.....can"t wait to hear more. Very well written.

[myangel]

............. next stop was the bridge........ we passed by the Captains office right near the door to the the bridge (the door was open) it was quite a big office. The captain geeeted each of us and was very gracious! He explained alot of the operations on the bridge. The view was BEAUTIFUL!!! He answered any questions we had, was pretty easy to understand him, he did a very good job on his english!!! The bridge is manned 24 hours a day. He is in charge of EVERYONE and really has a busy busy job.. after we were finished asking questions, the photographer took a group shot and individual shots with the captain.

 

Last stop was the Golden Fleece Steakhouse. We had dined here on the first night, so I was familiar with it. We went in the gally there and the head chef of the steakhouse led us around. when we were done, they presented us with the pretty carved swans, in a cellophane bag with ribbon tied on it. We then were taken to the dining area and in our seats were our back packs with a hat, bracelet with the behind the fun logo on it. We were served orange juice and then they came around with champagne. I poured my chamagne in my orange juice! We then filled out a survey about our tour. It was a very fun 4 hours, and I recommmend it highly! Smaller ships are cheaper, the Legend was $95.

 

In our cabin when I returned was a plate of chocolate tuxedo strawberries, with 2 muffins and some cookies!!! They were delicious. After we returned from dinner, the photo's that were taken along the tour were in the cabin.

 

I learned alot about the ship and ship life. The crew work very hard, but they all seem really happy and Carnival seems to take really good care of the crew. They schedule activities for the crew, have parties, they have employee of the month in the 7 different departments, feed them well, and really try very hard to make them feel like family. They do work 10 hours a day, 7 days a week. They get breaks during the day. The cabin stewards work from 7:30am-1:30pm then from 5-9pm. Their contracts last 6 months sometimes 7 or more if YOU choose to stay longer. Entry level (serving/housekeeping) do not get to choose which ships they get to go on. They are very happy to be working there as many of them are from poor countries.

 

They handle disipline like any other job, they reward when a job is done well also.

If anyone has any questions about the tour I will be happy to answer. Such a great time!!!

[myangel]

Tedro1,

 

I know what you mean, I scheduled myself not to return to work until Wednesday, so if I had waited it would have never gotten done!!:)

[myangel]

deeluves to cruise,

It was sooooo interesting! I loved it as you can read lol

[augusta78]

I am going on the Legend December 26. I would LOVE to do this! Do you mind me asking how much it costs to do this? Can you sign up ahead or only when you are onboard?

[forwardcabin]

We did the Behind the Fun tour on Carnival Ecstasy on our August cruise. It was so interesting and so worth it. DW wants one of those folding machines. She got to feed towels into it and was very impressed. The engine control room and bridge navigation was interesting to me. All in all, we enjoyed the tour. Thanks for your wonderful detailed account--it just makes us want to do this tour all over again.

 

Here's hoping your next cruise is just as great. Bon Voyage!

=Bob=

[augusta78]

oops never mind I just saw it was $95. I didnt read thoroughly :D

[KCTravel]

Wow--great detail about the tour! We did the Behind the Fun tour on the Miracle in May and sounds the same as your tour. I didn't know about the closed-toe shoes until we signed up. I only had sandals and flip flops so borrowed water shoes from my tablemate at dinner.

Thanks for a great review!

Karen

[myangel]

Thanks all! I was going to do a review of the Legend also, but could not do both (takes alot of time) so did one on the tour instead! Plus.......... the last Legend review from the cute couple ( I forget their names, I think the husbands name might have been Sergio), was soooo good, I could not possible top that!!!:)

[rtw68]

Thanks for posting the review! DW and I are hoping to do the tour on the Fantasy. Its $55/person so that's not too bad. :D

[bguppies]

I did it on our Fascination cruise last month and the tour was great.....

 

I just don't understand why they charge $55 on the Fantasy class ships, but $95 on the larger class ships?

 

Was looking forward to doing it on our Legend cruise in September, but I don't know if it wqrth almost double to see alot of the same things.

 

Bill

[Thestral]

Thanks for a really great review! I did the galley tour on the Imagination on my first cruise and it was wonderful! I'll have to look into it on the Spirit when I'm there next Feb.

 

Were you allowed to take pictures? I'm guessing not since you didn't post any or mention it. Wonderful that they took some and gave them to you as mementos! I've done the "Key to the Kingdom" tour at Disney World and it sounds like it was a very similar style tour. I adore all the 'behind the scenes' things! I love to know how all the magic happens!

[navybaby1113]

Thanks for the review. I'm interested in doing this sometime.

[myangel]

Thestral:

 

No, we were not allowed camera's or cell phones. They were turned in before the tour ansd returned right after.

[myangel]

bguppies:

 

Ships are different, I think if you liked the first one you did, you would like it on a different ship. :)

[spencercoop]

I did it on our Fascination cruise last month and the tour was great.....

 

I just don't understand why they charge $55 on the Fantasy class ships, but $95 on the larger class ships?

 

Was looking forward to doing it on our Legend cruise in September, but I don't know if it wqrth almost double to see alot of the same things.

 

Bill

 

On the ships doing shorter cruises (3,4,5 day) they have a shorter tour, then the ships doing (7,8,9 day) they have the longer tour. I don't know what category 6 day cruises fall under.

 

So that is why there is the price difference.

[halterk]

I did the "Behind the Fun" tour once, and Security checked all of us with a metal detector before the tour started to make sure no one had any cameras/phones/weapons, since you are going to see "secure" places on the ship (bridge, engine room, etc).