Musings of a First Time Cruiser...Legend

[In2why]

As a first time cruiser and a reader and poster here, I thought about how to write a review. Instead of a day by day, I decided to focus on the things I questioned and I see others question the most and give my impressions and experience.

　

Seasick worries- I worried about being seasick and miserable while cruising. The ship really moved and swayed. We went through very high winds but only one of our group felt a little ill. Not bad, but she took ginger and felt better later that night. Other than that none of us took anything ahead of the cruise or had any problems. If anything the only problem was the location of the dining room. Since it is on the lower decks, Aft, the vibration is pretty intense and dinner time wasn’t as comfortable as it could have been. My husband really didn’t like eating there because it bothered his appetite.

　

Food- The food was wonderful. There was always food if you wanted it, and there was a large selection. There was always something different to choose and the only thing we ate that we didn’t care for was the taste of the hot dog they use, and the black forest cake on the buffet. But that was a personal taste issue, not bad food. The other thing that surprised me was that the buffet is not how I thought a buffet would be. I think of buffets more like The Golden Corral, where the food is brought out in the middle of the area, and replaced as emptied. I was surprised at how clean they kept everything, and feel it was more sanitary than I expected because of the set up. The dining room was a mixture of styles of dress, and I really didn’t notice what other people were wearing. Except on Elegant night. Maybe we had a elegant cruise population, but everyone looked wonderful, and before dinner before I had changed, I felt very underdressed just near the dining room looking at pictures. If we hadn’t dressed for dinner those nights I think it would stick out like a sore thumb, and for me would have been inappropriate. But I also understand weight restrictions and why people might choose not to dress and I don’t think you miss anything by eating upstairs on the Lido, since they have most of the same food on the buffet on those night.

 

Service and the ship--The Legend is scheduled for dry dock next year, but she is beautiful! There was always someone cleaning everything. The only thing I ever noticed was that some idiot scratched their name into the elevator door. But that can’t be blamed on the crew or Carnival. The crew was friendly and yes, they knew our names and used them. We used the center Lido pool area as the family meeting place to check in and the drink server there took very good care of us, and we took care of him. It made a difference in our drinks, and we never had a hard time getting sodas for the kids. He felt comfortable joking and giving us a hard time. I ordered a Virgin Margarita one night, and he kept saying he would get me lemonade for free.

 

Kids- There were 5 in our group. The oldest was 11 and the youngest was 3. They made friends at sail away when I checked out a basketball and most of the boys on the ship wound up on the court. Camp Carnival was excellent and had great activities. The first night my 7 y/o told me he didn’t like it because he didn’t understand what they were telling him to do because of the accents and I explained he just needed to listen more carefully. My 4 y/o grandson woke up in the morning asking to go to Camp. The only one who didn’t like it was the 3 y/o, but he had never been taken care of by anyone but family. We did leave him a couple of times anyway, and waited in the hall watching the video monitor to see how the staff handled it and to make sure he would calm down and start having fun. After a few tears he did. Confession time….. I LET OUR KIDS IN THE HOT TUB. Where we met, there usually wasn’t anyone but our group early in the morning and late at night. So at those times, we let them get in. It wasn’t hot, and there is an adult pool and tub on aft. The one time someone came to sit in that area I told them that if they wanted to use the tub, to please let me know and I would make them get out. They laughed and said the kids were fine. Another confession…..My 7y/o had a major meltdown and behaved like an alien child once while on the ship. I was shocked, but once I thought about it, I can understand why normally well behaved children can behave like heathens on the ship. He stayed up late at camp, woke early for a long sun filled day in port, was over stimulated and overwhelmed. I took him to the cabin, we cuddled o my bed and he took a nap, which he seriously needed. I think the kids who do not behave are likely in the same condition, and it is up to the adults to help them when they get like that.

 

Smoking---I really do not understand the smoking complaints. At least not on the Legend. Very few of the indoor areas are smoking, and Medusa’s lair where you can smoke has the smokers upstairs and the non smokers downstairs. The smoke gets sucked up into the vents. None of the shows allow smoking, or the dining rooms. The casino does have the most smoke, but the non smoking areas seem well ventilated. At least the slot areas. If you want to play the tables it could be a problem, but it isn’t like a small smoked filled room or anything. As for the balconies…..mornings are the problem times for non smokers. You can hear all the smokers coming out with their coffee, lighting up, and coughing to wake up their lungs. Me included. It was also the most social time on the balconies. I enjoyed chatting with our neighbors and getting to know them. Luckily they smoked too, so I didn’t have any problems. But if there were non smokers in between us it could have been a problem in the morning.

　

Packing--I packed too many dressy clothes and not enough warm clothes. The nights got chilly. The doors were not magnetic, but our dollar store dry erase boards were put in the door mail slot and we enjoyed writing each other little messages. Others wrote on them too and we liked seeing what they would say when we came back to the cabin. The storage areas in the cabins were fabulous and I can’t see anyone having problems. Even with 4 people in our cabin we didn’t use up all the space. We didn’t need a handing shoe thingy for the bathroom since there were lots of shelves. The one thing we forget and REALLY needed was a power strip. There is only one working plug since the one in the bathroom only takes special shaver plugs.

 

Smuggling-- We ordered from Bon voyage and it was in the cabin waiting. We brought on a case of Miller light without any problems, although people in line with us did comment that we really liked Diet Dr. Pepper hehe. I also forgot to give my oldest son his bottle of Parrot Bay the night before at the hotel and wasn’t trying to smuggle it, but it made it with the luggage. Our neighbors on the other hand were called to the naughty room so I think it is hit and miss.

 

Cruise Critic--Almost everyone we talked to either had posted, or were readers, very few had never heard of CC. The VERY best advice we used was about the porters when getting off the ship. We snagged a porter and by then my daughter and her son were with us to ride home, so there were 6 of us and half the house in luggage. Since this was our first cruise having a porter was AWESOME. He loaded up all of our luggage, knew exactly where the zones were, told us what we really needed in our hands to get through customs, had the port worker open a new line for us, wheeled our luggage to where our shuttle picks up and told us where to tell the shuttle driver we were. We tipped him $25 and if we had more cash we would have paid more. Worth EVERY penny. The advice I thought was the least valuable…..The melting chocolate cake. I am not sure why everyone loves it. It is not to my taste and I do not understand the raves it gets. To me it tasted like uncooked cake batter, which I like to lick off the beaters once in a while but not as an entire desert.

Those are my musings and I am going to write a review of our trip soon, but if anyone has any questions I am here. Love to all

[bluesjack]

nice job...I'll be taking my first cruise in Jan on the Triumph and I always read the first time cruiser posts.

 

I'll be getting a porter when i disembark !!

[GWoman8920]

Another confession…..My 7y/o had a major meltdown and behaved like an alien child once while on the ship. I was shocked, but once I thought about it, I can understand why normally well behaved children can behave like heathens on the ship. He stayed up late at camp, woke early for a long sun filled day in port, was over stimulated and overwhelmed. I took him to the cabin, we cuddled o my bed and he took a nap, which he seriously needed. I think the kids who do not behave are likely in the same condition, and it is up to the adults to help them when they get like that.

 

Smoking-- You can hear all the smokers coming out with their coffee, lighting up, and coughing to wake up their lungs. Me included. It was also the most social time on the balconies. I enjoyed chatting with our neighbors and getting to know them. Luckily they smoked too, so I didn’t have any problems. But if there were non smokers in between us it could have been a problem in the morning.

　

 

OMG you had me rolling with these two! Alien Child! A recent nonsmoker here, it's funny to remember waking up and going out on the balcony to "wake up the lungs" Thanks for a great musing!

[mykiddiewinks]

Thanks for your review, I am so excited we leave on the Legend on Sunday :D.

 

What nights were formal nights? Trying to figure out what I need to pack (hubby and kids are packed just me left to sort out) I am hoping that one of them will fall on Chrsitmas Eve thus eliminates an additional smart outfit.

 

Did Camp Carnival have the late night party for the kids? and do you know what night it was on? Thanks.

[In2why]

Thanks for your review, I am so excited we leave on the Legend on Sunday :D.

 

What nights were formal nights? Trying to figure out what I need to pack (hubby and kids are packed just me left to sort out) I am hoping that one of them will fall on Chrsitmas Eve thus eliminates an additional smart outfit.

 

Did Camp Carnival have the late night party for the kids? and do you know what night it was on? Thanks.

 

 

You are going to have a fabulous time! Don't be surprised though when they switch your Cozumel and Roatan ports. They have for the last 4-5 sailings and they are making it permanent in 2011. I don't know why the secrecy.....instead of updating it on Carnival's website they hand you a slip of paper once on board, which makes it a hassle if you need to get in contact with private excursions.

The first sea day (Monday) and then Thursday were our elegant nights. But perhaps they will switch it to Christmas eve since you are sailing during the holiday. They had the 9-11 year old late night on Friday night and my 11 y/o had a wonderful time staying up till 3:30 am. I believe the 6-8 was the night before, but only till 1am and we missed it.

[mykiddiewinks]

Thanks for the info, Carnival actually e-mailed us last week to inform us of the change in ports, I actually prefer it now as it means we have a beach day, 2 busy days and then another beach day.

[In2why]

Thanks for the info, Carnival actually e-mailed us last week to inform us of the change in ports, I actually prefer it now as it means we have a beach day, 2 busy days and then another beach day.

 

 

Very cool! We had to call a couple of times before we got an answer since different people were reporting different things, even the PVPs didn't know for sure. We renewed our vows at Nachi Cocom in Cozumel and we only got confirmation 2 days before we left Tampa. I scrambled to make sure that everything that needed adjusting was taken care of before we left, and everything was wonderful.

[cjkumbaya]

Great review - glad that you had such a nice trip. The Legend is one of our very favorite ships!

[cb at sea]

I do agree with you about the Chocolate Melting Cake....don't know what the fuss is about!

[SkyMaster]

HEY! I like the chocolate melting cake. Like you said,,,kind of takes me back to my childhood when Mom would let me lick the beaters when she'd make a cake! ;)

Thanks for posting. I agree with 95% of your observations. Our last cruise aboard "Legend" wasn't quite as good as some others aboard her have been, but it was still OUTSTANDING! Great food, wonderful service, fantastic entertainment, and just a great cruise overall.

 

"SKY"

[hotlipss]

Thanks for the review!!!We are on the Legend feb 27 and so far they have not changed the ports..i guess we will see....I was wondering about the entertainment was there any thing that was a must see?Also it looks like the camp carnival age 9-11 room is in a different location then on our last ship was it hard to get to?Thanks so much!!!!:)

[LBumb]

thanks for posting

[CruisinCT]

Loved that the review was from a first-timer's perspective, thanks for that!!

 

Did you deviate from the pre-paid gratuities at all?

[Lady_Jag]

Thanks for the review! You covered some great points! :)

 

Just one question about the hot tub, since I'm a little confused on this: why the guilt for allowing your kids in the hot tub? Were the hot tubs marked "adult only" or something?

 

Also, I agree with you on the melting cake. I love, love, LOVE chocolate, but am just not a fan of WCMC.

[marshhawk]

We sailed the Legend earlier this year. Loved that ship! I still love the chocolate melting cake, but prefer the Bitter and Blanc. I took the shaved chocolate pieces from the side and smushed them into the bread pudding. Yummy!!!!:D

[In2why]

Thanks for the review!!!We are on the Legend feb 27 and so far they have not changed the ports..i guess we will see....I was wondering about the entertainment was there any thing that was a must see?Also it looks like the camp carnival age 9-11 room is in a different location then on our last ship was it hard to get to?Thanks so much!!!!:)

 

 

The Ventriliquist Comedian!!!! I laughed till I cried. When I heard about it, I didn't think much about it, but he was funnier than anyone I have ever seen.

 

The 9-11 year old room was right next to the 6-8's. All 3 age groups are in a row and after 10pm they open the dividers and all the kids are basically in one large room. They are all in the very front of the ship on the 5th deck.

[In2why]

Loved that the review was from a first-timer's perspective, thanks for that!!

 

Did you deviate from the pre-paid gratuities at all?

 

 

So far as tips....we prepaid our tips so they wouldn't be added to our sign and sail. I am not a huge pre-tipping fan and went into this with the understanding that if we got bad service I wouldn't hesitate to lower them. We work hard for our money and I believe that charity is charity and tips are for service, so the fact that they are "poor" and hard working wasn't a factor. With that said we left all of our tips on, and think that it was worth every penny. We also kept extra dollars for room service and anytime we asked for anything special. I added to our stewards standard tips twice. Once when I asked for him to fill up our cooler with ice, I gave him $5. Then our 7 y/o (shhh don't tell him I told) wet the bed once, and I bundled up his sheets and the matress cover so that he wouldn't miss it and put a $10 on top of the bundle with a flower (just so it wasn't as crass, but he probably didn't care about the flower:rolleyes:) I did see the room steward hanging around our hall the last night more than any other time and I believe that was in case anyone wanted to give him extra, but I felt that we were pretty easy people to care for since I am extra tidy while on vacation and the standard is covered in our suggested tips prepaid.

I had a soda card and tips are included in the purchase, but I also gave our server a dollar or 2 every so often for bringing sodas for the kids. Even though I was the only one that had a soda card, he would bring the kids shirley temples gratis, and ask them what they would like without charging or asking for our card. Our whole party usually gave him $5-10 each night when we left the Lido area for the day above the included 15% on each drink. But it was worth it because he made sure the drinks were strong, and cleaned up after all of us most of the time since it was "our" meeting spot for the entire voyage. I also tipped the Camp Carnival crew each night they kept the kids after hours. $5 per child. Some people say $15 per child, but that is too rich for my blood and I believe too much. We didn't tip out the Maitre D, and I don't see any reason to do so. The only other person on ship we tipped was the towel person. We had kids and I appreciated getting clean dry towels at Lido without having to go back to our cabin each time. We used them a lot and rarely used our towels in our room. It is easier to use your Sign and Sail to check out the towels you need, then turn them back in for free. I gave her a couple of dollars a few times and she was thrilled to get it. I don't think many people do that and I was almost embarrassed, by how appreciative she was at the time. So that was how we handled it, and it felt right at the time.

 

Off ship we think the porters getting on the ship are only worth a dollar a bag, but getting off the ship was so confusing and overwhelming and lots of extra work. The porter was excellent and we might have overtipped, but he was worth every penny of the $25 we tipped him. Our shuttle driver we gave $10 each way for all of us. Our tour operator in Grand Caymans for Stingray City and Snorkeling we tipped $20 for 6 of us, because they were great and really worked with our kids to make sure they had a good time. I figured in $100 for extra tipping just in case and we spent just a bit more than that.

[seashell36]

They are all in the very front of the ship on the 5th deck.

 

This was the only thing that I didn't like about the layout of the ship. We had one night of rough seas and most of the kids in the club ended up sick. We had kids in all three of the age groups so it made it handy to pick them all up at one time.

 

I loved your musings. We really enjoyed our cruise on the Legend, I want to book another cruise on it. I can't wait to read your review!

[natonboard]

Thank you for all your comments on your Legend experience! We are sailing on her this Sunday - 4 more sleeps :D - with DSs 14 and 16 yo.

 

I hope that comedian is still on board next week!

 

This will be our first cruise on Carnival so I'm trying to figure out the ways- you were very helpful.

 

Congrats on renewing your vows :)

[mykiddiewinks]

Thank you for all your comments on your Legend experience! We are sailing on her this Sunday - 4 more sleeps :D - with DSs 14 and 16 yo.

 

I hope that comedian is still on board next week!

 

This will be our first cruise on Carnival so I'm trying to figure out the ways- you were very helpful.

 

Congrats on renewing your vows :)

 

Hi natonboard, have you joined our roll call? http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1116476 Some of the kids are already getting to know each other on facebook, there is a link to the facebook page on the roll call.

[In2why]

Thanks for the review! You covered some great points! :)

 

Just one question about the hot tub, since I'm a little confused on this: why the guilt for allowing your kids in the hot tub? Were the hot tubs marked "adult only" or something?

 

Also, I agree with you on the melting cake. I love, love, LOVE chocolate, but am just not a fan of WCMC.

 

 

Sorry I missed this earlier....The hot tubs are confusing. One sign says "For Adults Only" and above it there is another that says "Children must be supervised by an adult". There are plenty of complaints on Cruise Critic about kids in the hot tubs. I see both sides. I wouldn't let the kids get in if there were other people already in the hot tub, because I understand wanting to relax kids free. Also for health reasons it isn't a good idea when the hot tub is at the appropriate temperature. Yet the hot tub where we hung out remained empty 95% of the time and were not hot. Because of that I decided on the 3rd day when the kids asked that they could get in. I also told them that if any adults came in that they had to get out. I was right there, and would have enforced it if adults had come. I also made the decision because the hot tub is chlorinated. The pools are not, and reports said that the hot tubs weren't but they are...you can smell it, and I watched them open it after adding the chlorine.

 

If we cruise during summer when the pools aren't penguin cold, and there are more people outside on the Lido, I wouldn't let them. But then they wouldn't want to. They liked the hot tub because it was warm and the bubbles were fun. No children should ever be in the Adults only AFT pool or hot tub, and Carnival should enforce it. I think that everyone needs to work together......if I wanted to get in the hot tub, kids free, I would ask them to get out, and if there were any problems I would speak to their parents. If the parents were not polite in return....well I can get a case of the arse and don't intimidate easily, and we could take it from there. :rolleyes: