Review Legend of the Seas Repositioning Asia to Med

[lilybob]

Thought I would share some info of my recent experience on Legend of the Seas as it repositioned from Asia to the Mediterranean as I know I searched for any tidbits pre-cruise. We have cruised other lines and this was our second with RCI in this part of the world. We embarked in Singapore and sailed 14 nights to Dubai where the ship continued on for another 14 nights to Rome.

 

Embarkation-the new cruise terminal in Singapore was very nice and baggage drop-off and security was smooth. As we had four India port stops the majority of passengers required a visa. A copy of this visa with a copy of your passport bio page was also needed and most people didn't bring a copy which caused delays. Two hours later we were onboard and our luggage was already in our cabin:)

 

Ship-After its dry-dock the ship looks great! The new R Bar in the centrum is beautiful and was the hive of activities including live music, aerial entertainment, food demos, dancing etc. This attracted many people that otherwise might not have joined in if the shows were in a far off lounge or theater. The addition of the two specialty restaurants was a plus as was the Diamond Lounge if you qualify.

 

Demographics-There were 1700 people on board. Almost half were Americans, many from Canada, UK, Australia, Singapore, Japan, China, South America, Europe so it was a mini UN. There were no chair hogs and everyone respected the queue. Only nine children. A quarter of the people continued on to Rome.

 

Cabin-We were in our first aft cabin on deck seven and can now agree with all of you that encouraged this decision:D Two lounge chairs and no soot! Hope my link works to show a picture

 

http://s1283.photobucket.com/user/lilybob24/media/IMG_7310_zps7f2d5096.jpg.html

 

Food & Beverage-always subjective, I know. We did My Time Dining and except for the first night always had our requested table for two or four and in the same section without waiting. We thought they could have used more smaller tables on this level as we experienced on Brilliance.

 

MDR-We always ate late (8:30) and it was not as busy. Service was excellent and the food tasty, especially the Indian dishes. We also ate here a few times for breakfast and lunch. Breakfast was ok but lunch very good, especially the "build your own salad" with many selections

 

Chops-excellent food and excellent service

Izumi-a fun time cooking on the hot rocks but we were the only ones there at the time!

 

Chef's Table-A must do! It was the ship highlight for us. It was offered more than the first night and we were a group of six the night we dined there. We booked pre-cruise for $105 and it included a night in Chops and Izumi as well which you had to reserve once onboard but got priority. Others have posted pictures and the food looked identical so won't repost. The chef and sommelier were also entertaining while explaining their dishes/choice of wine and a nice hard-cover cookbook was complimentary

 

Park Cafe Though I liked sitting here to eat I was disappointed in the food. Breakfast sandwich's that they would heat up for you or yogurt with hugh pieces of melon were not to my taste. The beef kummelwik sandwiches were yummy though:) As there is no game room, people would later fill the tables to play Mahjong or bridge. This didn't bother me but some commented that it took away from the serenity of the Solarium

 

Library-Slim pickings...load your e-reader

 

Latitudes-If you go for the Grande size, get a double shot of espresso as I found it to be more like hot milk. Ben & Jerry's also available here for a fee

 

Wine PackageWe were not able to purchase this online pre-cruise. Onboard the package was available by the number of bottles. After only four nights many wines on the list were no longer available and would not be restocked until reaching Dubai at the end of this leg. This disappointed us. We were looking for mid-range wines but had to pay the higher price for alternatives. We wished they would have just re-printed the wine list as it would have been less annoying. Cocktail of the day was $6.75 plus the glass if you wanted it. Most drinks were in the $7.25-$9.25 range. Beer averaged around $6.25 for Stella or Heineken

 

Entertainment-We thought the shows we attended were pretty good, especially the Invitation to Dance starring a Russian couple who also taught the dance lessons. The aerial show was also very good-especially if you watched it from deck six as you were at their level. There were also a lot of activities going on from Hindi lessons, scrap-booking, water-color, cupcaking decorating, enlightenment lectures (both good and boring)

 

-News ShortageOnce we left Phuket we no longer had satellite coverage. The ship kept apologizing blah, blah, blah but when we still didn't have coverage when we reached Dubai that was hard to believe! Some felt they just didn't pay for band width or however that works as the ship was leaving the region. The lack of CNN or BBC was troubling as many people were looking for information about the Boston Marathon bombing and had to rely on their smart phones or BBerry

 

Ports-We did mostly private tours and all were great. We did one ship tour on a house boat through the backwaters of Kerala in Cochin. We were a group of six and though pricey, well worth the experience.

 

Legend is a great ship, has a great crew many from Asia and Eastern Europe, and a nice size for port intensive itineraries. Asia is a great destination so check out her sister ships Mariner and Voyager that are now sailing the region. Happy to answer questions or provide info for port stops Singapore, KL, Phuket, Sri Lanka, India, Muscat or Dubai. Enjoy your next cruise!

[Keith1010]

Thanks for taking the time to post this very well written review.

 

Keith

[I-Cruiser]

Thank you for an informative review.

We are sailing on the Legend at the end of May.

[DonnaK]

Wonderful review! WE don't hear very much about this ship, or these more "exotic" itineraries!

 

Who was your Cruise Director?

[lilybob]

Thanks all for positive responses!

 

CD was Dan Whitney

[Bobal]

Many thanks for this review - we're boarding Legend on Saturday and really pleased to hear you speak so well of the ship :)

[PCWalton1]

Thank you for the review. We will be riding Legend for a Panama Canal cruise in November and it is nice to hear about the ship since the upgrades.

Bill

[lilybob]

Ooops.......there is always something you forget when you finish a review. Here are a few more things from me......

 

In-room safes still require a card with a magnetic strip to lock. We tried an insurance card but it did not work so we had to use one of our credit cards

 

Aside from the over night in Dubai, there were a few ports that were scheduled for later departures. On these nights the Windjammer was kept open longer than usual for a bite when you returned from port

 

There were interactive touch screens by the elevators for a ship directory but the restaurant reservations were not integrated through the system in your cabin and you could not view your bill on the TV. I thought I had read that in other threads but perhaps it was for the larger newer ships.

 

Shows were scheduled with a lot of flexibility so it accommodated both early and late dining at different times throughout the cruise as were the movies by the pool. No WOW cards for the staff. Lots of hangers for your stuff.

[Scotland01]

We were on same cruise and confirm most of your points. However you were obviously lucky with your my time dining We a group of 4 had selected 7pm dining many months ago and had the time confirmed at embarcation. However on the first night we had to wait 1 hour before being served. The second night it was 8 50 before bring served. We were at a table of 8 and might as well been invisable!! The only thing which finally got our order taken was a visit to Guest Services and an e mail being sent to Rodriquo in charge of deck 5 dining room. He was very sorry and explained that too many people had booked my time and asked the 4 0f us to consider changing to 8pm dining. We agreed to do this but eating that late was not our choice.Being D+ and always using my time this was a disappointment.

We used the Diamond lounge which was full with overflow upstairs in Viking Lounge. Andrew the Diamond conceirge is extremely pleasant and helpful if needed. There was rarely enough nibbles as the ran out soon after 5pm!! Being on a later dining slot meant we found it difficult to get seats together.

Word of warning anyone booking the new balcony cabins on deck 6 should be aware that there is no fridge and very poor storage, We were lucky enough to get an upgrade to a JS so had a lucky escape.

Overall it was a wonderful cruise better than usual food, great entertainment and met some extemely nice cruisers.

[Cshgrand]

This is an itinerary we would love to do.

How far out did you book?

[Scotland01]

We booked last July. It was fabulous and spending 3 days in Singapore before boarding was the icing on the cake!!

[PCWalton1]

We were on same cruise and confirm most of your points. However you were obviously lucky with your my time dining We a group of 4 had selected 7pm dining many months ago and had the time confirmed at embarcation. However on the first night we had to wait 1 hour before being served. The second night it was 8 50 before bring served. We were at a table of 8 and might as well been invisable!! The only thing which finally got our order taken was a visit to Guest Services and an e mail being sent to Rodriquo in charge of deck 5 dining room. He was very sorry and explained that too many people had booked my time and asked the 4 0f us to consider changing to 8pm dining. We agreed to do this but eating that late was not our choice.Being D+ and always using my time this was a disappointment.

We used the Diamond lounge which was full with overflow upstairs in Viking Lounge. Andrew the Diamond conceirge is extremely pleasant and helpful if needed. There was rarely enough nibbles as the ran out soon after 5pm!! Being on a later dining slot meant we found it difficult to get seats together.

Word of warning anyone booking the new balcony cabins on deck 6 should be aware that there is no fridge and very poor storage, We were lucky enough to get an upgrade to a JS so had a lucky escape.

Overall it was a wonderful cruise better than usual food, great entertainment and met some extemely nice cruisers.

 

Thanks for your inputs too. Good thing I read to the last line or I might have thought you had a bad time instead of a wonderful cruise. :)

 

 

Sent from my Droid RAZR M using Tapatalk 2

[HokiePoq]

Thanks for your inputs too. Good thing I read to the last line or I might have thought you had a bad time instead of a wonderful cruise. :)

 

 

Sent from my Droid RAZR M using Tapatalk 2

 

We were also on this cruise. The itinerary is fabulous and makes for a wonderful cruise no matter the ship. My review is in the works pending publication. I imagine one's perspective varies depending on past cruise experiences on other ships.