LEGEND Dec 23/13 Holiday Cruise Long Review (with Disney comparisons)

[1stcarnivalcruise]

Ship Decorations

The Centrum had a large tree and the railings were nicely decorated, the rest of the common areas had a few things here and there. I know I don't need to do a Disney comparison here, Disney really knows how to decorate for Christmas. I did like the feel of the Legend though. But I did hear on a couple of occasions other cruisers say to the staff that there were less decorations this year and they were disappointed but I cannot really comment on this.

 

Our Cabin Decorations

As you can see in the photos we brought a small tree, decorations and battery operated lights that we attached with tape. We also hung 2 stockings on the wall over the couch using those easy to come off hooks.

 

 

 

 

On our door we hung a large red bow, really weird it was stolen on the last day, I guess someone really wanted to take it home. I would estimate about 30% of the doors were decorated. Just a side note a few doors down they put on "squishy sparkly gel" letters that spelled Merry Christmas. Every time Ken passed their door he had to fight the urge to spell different words. But when they removed the letters to make way for New Years decorations the letters seemed to have left a permanent stain on the door. So I learned 2 things from this one don't use gel letters and two what a great idea to switch your door to New Years, I will definitely do this next year!

 

As for Christmas presents we brought small things for the girls stockings and they each got 3 small presents under the tree. Also, we drew names and we each had a budget of $10 to spend in Target. It is amazing how creative you can be!

 

Ship Christmas Activities

 

I will list the various Christmas themed activities and will comment on the things we did.

Much to my disappointment, I have all Cruise Compasses, except Christmas Eve so going by memory!

 

Christmas Eve

 

This was the first formal night of the cruise. See the beautiful Centrum with the chandelier for the aerial display in the background.

 

 

Christmas Carolling

-this was in the centrum and they provided really nice song books, was very festive

-we only sang a few songs, I should probably blame myself, I made my family listen to 24 hrs of Christmas music on the way down

-the Christmas music on the ship was very tasteful, not annoying at all (well for me anyways!!!)

 

There was a midnight Mass (Catholic) in the Theatre (we did not attend, I know I should have after all I teach in a Catholic school). Sorry I am sure there were more activities but remember I said I’m in my 40’s so my memory is not so great (really I only remembered Mass because of the “guilt” of not going!!!!).

 

Christmas Day

 

I am looking right at the Cruise Compass so here we go….

 

Santa’s Arrival (9:00-9:15)

-we didn’t attend (are you kidding we are lucky if we can get Cailtyn out of bed by noon most days!!)

-but I saw it on the “video” that Royal takes of the whole cruise (we didn’t need to buy a copy because as I said we are not very “social” we were nowhere in the video!!)

-back to Santa, very cute he walked around the pool deck down to the Centrum with a parade of children behind

 

Santa’s Gift Giving and Egg Nog Party (9:15-11:00)

-we got there at 10:45!!!

-the girls received a watch from Santa (nice touch)

-there was "real" egg nog, not the artificial stuff we are all used to, very yummy

 

Waiting to meet Santa….

 

 

 

Notice our Christmas themed tops! And in case you were wondering YES I made Ken wear his all day, he was lucky I didn’t get matching outfits. And YES I am one of those crazy women that used to make my girls wear matching outfits when we went to Disney. I will look for some photos of these, remind me if I forget!

 

 

 

Happy Holidays Theatre Christmas Show (3:30)

-they had a special afternoon Christmas show that starred Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers

-it was very well done, highly recommend

-it was well attended

 

Other Christmas themed activities that were on (we did not attend)….

Balloon Creations & Face Painting with a guest artist

Santa’s Adult Belly Flop Competition

Christmas Services (Interdenominational at 9:30 and Catholic at 10:30)

Family Christmas Trivia

Showed Christmas movies on poolside screen

Candy Cane Red and White Ball (dance party)

 

Christmas Dinner

-the dinner dress suggestion was red & white

-there was not a specific special menu, they did offer a traditional turkey and ham dinner, both were great

-there was no pumpkin pie (I only mention this because an irate fellow cruiser was very angry) I would have eaten pumpkin pie but really didn't miss it.

 

Next up Dining on the Legend

[Realtor at Sea]

I had to laugh when you wrote about dressing your girls alike. I have three young men in their early thirties and they still complain about my dressing them alike when we went to theme parks. If one got lost, We had only one outfit to remember. However, apparently I scarred their little psyches forever!!!

[Realtor at Sea]

Oh...I forgot to tell you how much I am enjoying your review! Thank you for taking the time to take us all along.

[1stcarnivalcruise]

Sorry this section is all text (I will put some smilies in:)), but I know there are other great reviews of the Legend that have photos, I will give you my thoughts and suggestions.

 

Soda (or pop in Canada) Card

I had pre ordered one for my husband and one for my daughter, my husband hated :mad: the fountain soda (we tried at a few different spots on the first day), they refunded the soda card cost as a credit to our account with no hassles. My daughter on the other hand loved her coke (we don't drink a lot of pop at home so it was a real treat). When my husband needed his pop fix he would order a can.

 

I drank mostly water and my other daughter lived on lemonade.

 

Disney Comparison - on a Disney cruise all soda, anywhere, any time is complementary, but I will use the term "free" with a grain of salt. The cost of a Disney cruise is well quite shocking! Let's put it this way our 5 day Disney cruise was about the same as our 11 day Legend cruise. So I guess the Disney soda card is around $1500 :eek:

 

Not sure who wins here, Royal or Disney??

 

 

Windjammer

We ate here for lunches, last morning breakfast and one "sort of dinner" but there is a story here that will come later in my report. Food varied daily, lots of choices and always hot and fresh. The set up of the food in stations was excellent, no real lines at all. We never had to wait very long to get a table, most times right away. If you have a soda card you need to ask a crew member to get it for you. Lemonade, ice tea and water are self-serve. As for clearing tables (I know that has come up before) we found that dirty plates that we just used were not picked up too often, but when you finished with your table the crew did quickly clear the tables. So overall pretty great service ;)

 

Disney Comparison - the buffet restaurant on Disney is set up more as a long buffet therefore long lines. The crew or "cast member" as they say on Disney, were numerous and plates were whisked away sometimes I had to fight to keep my plate :D

 

In the end, I thought the food and definitely the set up was much better on the Legend.

 

But Disney has a hot dog/hamburger/fries/sandwich/salad concession type stands by the pools that are open all day until late into the night, this was a really nice option that the Legend misses. I know the Legend has Park Cafe but not quite the same.

 

 

Park Cafe

Because of the location of our cabin this often felt like our own private restaurant.

 

Breakfast - Lots of fast choices, muffins, bagels, fruit, yogurt, breakfast sandwiches.

I had yummy oatmeal most mornings, husband had bagel with salmon, we brought the girls breakfast in bed. They had the breakfast English muffins and you can ask to personalize them, for example no egg, just cheese and Canadian bacon.

 

Lunch - We usually had a late lunch/snack when getting back from a port. There were pre made sandwiches/salads, hot panini sandwiches, soups, a salad bar. There were the famous roast beef sandwiches, I never tried the bun, I am not a big bread eater. So I ate the roast beef and usually it was very tender and yummy. A suggestion for the salad bar, we would get a bowl with just tomatoes and bocchini cheese (the small white balls of cheese) and then in another bowl would mix oil and vinegar (you need to ask them for this because it is not with the other salad dressings). Then dip the tomatoes/cheese in, very fresh and yummy!!!

 

Late Night Snack - Park Cafe, other than room service is the only place to have a late snack and they offered the same thing night after night after night. As they say variety is the spice of life, but not in the Park Cafe......Cheese or Pepperoni pizza / hot dogs (but we didn't go near them after our 2:00 am experience) / soups (usually the rejects from dinner) and pastry type desserts (again rejecty feeling).

Two tips - cookies are fantastic (especially double chocolate chip and coconut)

We love milk with our cookies but the milk they offer by the drinks is in a big container and usually warm, but guess what you can ask for cartons of milk which are ice cold.

Who knew :confused:

 

We found the staff here to be on two extremes, very friendly or very grumpy.

 

More Dining coming up....

[1stcarnivalcruise]

Room Service

We ordered 3 times for late night snacks……turkey panini (great), fries, cheese plate (just so so) and cookies (yummy). You can ask for lemonade and they will bring it.

Tipped every time.

 

So here is where one very small problem happened but I was very impressed with how Royal handled it. We had one after midnight order so of course had the $3.95 charge. When the order came they forgot our cookies (not the cookies you say) so we called back and they sent them up right away. Later in the week I was checking our room bill and there were 2 charges for the room service delivery, I informed guest services and she said leave it with us and the charge will be removed. The $ was not the issue, what is another $3.95 after spending thousands, as they say it was the principle. Well a few hours later, there was a knock at the door, room service delivered a plate of chocolate covered strawberries, this small gesture was very much noticed and appreciated.

 

Disney Comparison - Disney' s room service choices were similar but no service charge at any time, but I don't think I need to bring up the cost difference again!

 

 

Izumi Restaurant

We tried Izumi on our last sea day as a special treat. My husband and daughters love sushi, me not so much but we do eat Japanese often. We also needed a reprieve from buffet dining. It is a pretty little restaurant overlooking the pool.

 

Some thoughts....

 

- for lunch there is a $3.00 pp cover charge but you get complementary edamame, but I shall digress a little……the edamame which are soy beans came out in a bowl with an extra bowl with it, usually you get edamame in pods, you eat the beans and then discard the pod in the extra bowl, but at Izumi you just get the beans, for the life of us we could not figure out why the extra bowl, any ideas (I know we have too much time on our hands) but really try the edamame you will love it

 

-miso soup was also complementary, our girls loved it, we found it a little too salty

 

-an important note I went in thinking I was going to try their famous hot rock but they don't offer this for lunch (I probably should have known this) but I rebounded fast and ordered 2 appetizers, Chicken Kara-Age, crispy nuggets with a spicy sauce, very good & vegetable tempura, as I said I don't eat sushi so I eat a lot of tempura, it was pretty good, not the flaky crisp coating, more thicker, but the vegetables were well cooked, and the sauce was excellent

 

-as for the sushi here is Ken’s opinion, the sushi was middle of the road, not top grade (he feels the best sushi can be found in Vancouver, I said duh what about Japan) and it was not supermarket sushi, $8.00 for a sushi combo plate is very good value

 

-also in the combo you can ask to substitute cucumber rolls for tuna rolls

 

-they also ordered California rolls and they were very good

 

-staff was great but food was a little slow getting out to us (but then again we had no place to get to so why rush)

 

We would absolutely eat at Izumi again, but dinner next time!

[1stcarnivalcruise]

Main Dining Room

 

Sorry for the delay in posting, don’t you hate when work gets in the way of pleasure!

 

So I have a lot of mixed feelings about the Romeo & Juliet restaurant on the Legend. We had My Time Dining which basically means you can choose your own time to dine. My Time dinners sit on the second floor. On the bottom floor are the “set” times, Main Seating is listed in the Compass as 6:00 – 6:45 and Second Seating as 8:30 – 9:15. The restaurant itself is beautiful; I loved the floor to ceiling windows.

 

My Time Dining

We liked my time dining! I had reserved times on line (I know you are shocked I was so organized). We had 6:00 most days and late days in port we had 8:00. But there was flexibility to come later or earlier. We had only one major problem with my time which needs a post all on its own…..a hint New Years Eve. You can request to sit at the same table/same servers every night.

 

Which nicely leads me to……..

 

The Best Servers Ever!

So our servers were absolutely the highlight to our cruise experience on the Legend. Our waiter was Luis from Peru and his assistant server was Yogendra. Luis was so professional, we looked forward to his daily “picks”. Yogendra would entertain us with “tricks”. We had table 159, ask for it!!! Tell them “Mrs Allison and Mr Kenneth (that’s what they called us) said hi. I can’t stress enough how welcome they made us feel, we looked forward to seeing them as much as eating (even more than eating sometimes).

 

On the last day we gave them an extra tip and I wrote them both a letter, we gave it to them at the end of dinner. Luis pulled out a handwritten card with a little gift (a flag ribbon from Peru) to give us, I started to cry, I must have looked so foolish, but it really touched me!

 

With my time dining you need to pre pay your gratuities, I know people were worried that the service might go down, no fear at all!

 

The Food

So now on to the food, please take my opinions as my opinions only, everyone has totally different palates. A quick note escargots was available throughout the cruise, I found them salty but Caitlyn loved them!

 

I am going to highlight just a few memorable dishes…..

 

Great Dishes

Appetizers

-Royal shrimp cocktail (very consistent, this was our stand by appetizer; at least one of us had each night)

-mozzarella salad & caprese salad (we love the combination of tomatoes and cheese)

- cold soups, I loved the mango/pineapple, watermelon/raspberry, strawberry, honeydew melon, peach, pineapple/lychee (stay away from the apple soup, think baby food and the cold potato soup, think yucky)

 

Main Courses

-prime rib (had the medium rare twice and very tasty)

 

Desserts

-all the soufflés with yummy vanilla sauce

-baked Alaska (a classic)

-low fat angel cake (who knew low fat could taste so good)

-bananas foster

-traditional English trifle

 

But our all time favourite dish was not even on the menu. Luis quickly picked up that we always ordered anything with curry. So on the very last night he brought out 2 dishes of chicken curry with roti (like naan bread). WOW it was spicy, so yummy, we cleaned our plates. Luis had special ordered this for us and explained this curry used to be on the old menu but can still be special ordered. Again who knew! So you see why I cried, they were so thoughtful!!!!

 

Not Bad Dishes

Appetizers

-Cesar salad (sometimes good, sometimes tasteless)

 

Main Courses

-linguini pomodoro (this is the pasta that is available every night on the “classics” menus, a good stand by)

-chicken marsala

-beef stroganoff

 

Wow What Were They Thinking Dishes

Appetizers

-Clam chowder (I don’t like fish, Ken who is from Nerfoundland tried this and said it was not a clam chowder at all)

 

Main Courses

-chicken coq au vin (not sure they have on each cruise, and I suggest not having, very unappealing, both Ken and I sent it back)

-the various steaks (just not great quality and always overdone for us)

 

But having said all this, the food did not make or break our cruise. I still managed to gain weight!

 

 

Disney Comparison – Disney only offers traditional seating (main and late). They have the really interesting concept of having three different themed restaurants, you rotate through these 3 restaurants but keep your same waiters.

 

As for food, as I stated earlier, in my humble opinion, Carnival’s main dining room has the most consistent food, followed by Disney then unfortunately Royal.

 

Next up Legend’s Entertainment

[rubrrick]

I'm thoroughly enjoying your wonderful review. We disembarked on the 23rd, the day that you boarded, and so reading your take on the Legend is so much like what we felt, and I applaud you for such an honest opinion.

 

There are some things that Royal Caribbean can learn from other lines, but, unless you want to branch out to a 5 or 6 star line, for our money, we love to continue to cruise on what we consider the best ships at sea.

 

We wish we could have been with you and continued on, but other family obligations, including having our grandchildren come down to be with us at Christmas time, that had been planned for the past year, so are living vicariously for the Christmas and New Years holiday thru you!

 

Great review, wonderful pictures, and God bless you and your family, and a very Happy New Year!

 

I look forward to reading the continuation of your journey!;)

 

Rick

[1stcarnivalcruise]

I'm thoroughly enjoying your wonderful review. We disembarked on the 23rd, the day that you boarded, and so reading your take on the Legend is so much like what we felt, and I applaud you for such an honest opinion.

 

There are some things that Royal Caribbean can learn from other lines, but, unless you want to branch out to a 5 or 6 star line, for our money, we love to continue to cruise on what we consider the best ships at sea.

 

We wish we could have been with you and continued on, but other family obligations, including having our grandchildren come down to be with us at Christmas time, that had been planned for the past year, so are living vicariously for the Christmas and New Years holiday thru you!

 

Great review, wonderful pictures, and God bless you and your family, and a very Happy New Year!

 

I look forward to reading the continuation of your journey!;)

 

Rick

 

ahhh thanks Rick for your very kind words, it means a lot! I have been a member of this board for a long time and have learned so much so I am glad to give back. My family and friends at work are all following a long with this review too, they get my humour, especially because they know Ken and I so well!

[1stcarnivalcruise]

Sorry text heavy again…..in this section I am going to put various forms of entertainment on the Legend that we participated in, as you all know cruise ships offer so much you need to pick and choose. You will notice we especially liked activities that allowed us to watch not participate (well Ken really participated in one of these, read on…..)!

 

So let’s get started….

 

Centrum

I really love how the Legend is structured around the Centrum. For those not familiar with this concept there is a big hole in the middle of the ship, on the bottom deck (deck 4) is the music/dance floor/bars, then each deck above surrounds this, you look down or up to see the entertainment. As I said before Ken is a musician he was not thrilled with all the music being played, I am not very musical and liked the background music. One suggestion, if Royal is listening, people really like to sit on decks 5 and 6, so add more chairs. We found that often people would move the chairs from Café Latte-tudes/Library over to the ledge.

 

This leads nicely to……

 

Café Latte-tudes/Library

I would have to say this spot, as tiny as it was, was our favorite area of the ship. During the day on sea days and after dinner, while waiting for the shows, we would sit here to play a family game. They had a cabinet with various games (cards, Scrabble, chess, checkers, dominoes, Apples to Apples, Othello) and a daily trivia & Sudoku sheet. There is also a library here, where you can get, you guessed it a book! It is a great spot to hear the music and to people watch!

 

 

Centrum Aerial Shows

The “Seasons” aerial show was about 20 minutes and was performed at 8:00 pm and 10:00 pm. It was beautifully done and should not be missed. I suggest deck 6 or 7 have the best viewing spots.

 

 

That’s Entertainment Theatre Headliner Shows

We attended all shows and overall was really impressed with the entertainment. Generally, the show times were 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm.

 

The “Royal Caribbean Singers & Dancers” did four shows, a special holiday show, “Invitation to Dance”, “Swing City” and “Absolutely Fab”. These were typical singing and dancing production shows, fun and entertaining. Caitlyn in particular enjoyed these. She is a singer and was so inspired she sees herself as a future “Royal Caribbean singer”. We enjoyed the Q&A with the singers and dancers later in the week.

 

Headliners – each nightly show was varied, in particular we loved Los Pampas Gauchos (a combination of comedy, drumming and traditional folk dancing from Argentina); Spectrum (four singers who do an amazing tribute to Motown music), Stephen Thomas (a very funny comedian) and Jerry Goodspeed (a comedy ventriloquist). A little story about the ventriloquist, if you were on this sailing of the Legend, my Ken was “the Ken” that made out with the sexy female puppet. Ken just loved being in the spotlight! But seriously if any of these 4 acts are on your cruise GO, you will love them!

 

Disney Comparison – As expected Disney has outstanding production shows, how could they not they have a huge catalogue to draw from. But overall we thought Royal’s entertainment more well rounded and more entertaining.

 

 

Love & Marriage Game Show

Think the Newlywed Game and you have the picture. I have never laughed so much, everyone must go and see it. The best line of the night…..so what special thing does your wife wear to get you in the mood (not the exact wording but you get the idea)…..husband # 1 “nothing”, husband #2 “high heels”, husband #3 answers “a cloth over her face” I am not kidding!!!! I am not sure if Disney (doubt it too risky) or Carnival does a similar show, we didn’t go if they did.

 

 

Bingo

Ok when did they stop using Bingo daubers (yes I know a weird spelling, I had to google it) and when did Bingo get so expensive! I know this is not really entertainment, but people do take their bingo very seriously and we found that very entertaining! We tried this one day and was amazed at the “nifty” Bingo computer machines that basically do everything for you (they were I think $55 for the 4 game machine). We went old fashioned, paper with pop out numbers for $32 for 4 games. Take your kids they get a free card for each game. This was offered on sea days at 3:00 with Kacy (who is very funny). We got down to one number, 2 times, but did not win. A fun family activity.

 

Next up New Year’s Eve on the Legend

[notsomadhatter]

I am not sure if Disney (doubt it too risky) or Carnival does a similar show, we didn’t go if they did.

 

Disney does, actually. It is called Match Your Mate (check your Navigator, late night for 18+) and it can be just as adult as the RC version I have seen.

Edited January 8, 2014 by notsomadhatter
Typo

[Stu K]

Thanks for this review we booked for next Christmas and new year! I know you missed it but how did Santa arrive did he come by tender?

 

thanks again

Stu K

[georgiacrzr]

Ken as a puppet was hysterical!!!!! That was the funniest thing ever!!!!

 

Those gauchos were awesome too!

[telecruiser]

Ship Decorations

-there was no pumpkin pie (I only mention this because an irate fellow cruiser was very angry) I would have eaten pumpkin pie but really didn't miss it.

 

Next up Dining on the Legend

 

This cracked me up. We were just on the Panama Canal cruise on Legend over Thanksgiving. They had a Turkey dinner and of course pumpkin pie. At least that is what the menu called it. It was awful and didn't even look like pumpkin. It became a running joke through the whole ship throughout the cruise. Keith, the CD made jokes about it and the chef even apologized at the last night's show. I think you didn't miss much.

[1stcarnivalcruise]

Disney does, actually. It is called Match Your Mate (check your Navigator, late night for 18+) and it can be just as adult as the RC version I have seen.

 

I did not know this, thanks for sharing, I can't help but laugh to think about how they could add Mickey and Minnie to one of the questions (could be 18+ for sure)!

[1stcarnivalcruise]

Thanks for this review we booked for next Christmas and new year! I know you missed it but how did Santa arrive did he come by tender?

 

thanks again

Stu K

 

 

Sorry no his arrival was not in the video. Hopefully someone else who was on this cruise knows?

[1stcarnivalcruise]

Ken as a puppet was hysterical!!!!! That was the funniest thing ever!!!!

 

Those gauchos were awesome too!

 

 

Funny you mention the gauchos, Ken was picked on in that show too, he was the "lawyer" the....."immigration lawyer" (really an inside joke to those who saw the show)

 

I kept telling Ken it was his new look, the vest, suspenders and tie, he looked way too professional, later on in the “ports” section of my review you will see Ken with his shirt off (wow that sounds really bad) but so true ;)

[1stcarnivalcruise]

This cracked me up. We were just on the Panama Canal cruise on Legend over Thanksgiving. They had a Turkey dinner and of course pumpkin pie. At least that is what the menu called it. It was awful and didn't even look like pumpkin. It became a running joke through the whole ship throughout the cruise. Keith, the CD made jokes about it and the chef even apologized at the last night's show. I think you didn't miss much.

 

 

Well then sounds like a good thing that we missed it!

 

Going now to start writing my "New Years" post, hopefully done soon.....

[notsomadhatter]

I did not know this, thanks for sharing, I can't help but laugh to think about how they could add Mickey and Minnie to one of the questions (could be 18+ for sure)!

 

One of the questions is "Where is the most interesting place you have 'Discovered the Magic'" aka RC's "Made Whoopie" - lots of Disney themed answers that maybe we'd all be better off not knowing. :eek:

[1stcarnivalcruise]

Well as they say “time helps to heal all wounds” if I had written this part of my review on January 1st, 2015 it would have been rather nasty. But as I start to think about New Years Eve on the Legend, who am I kidding I was away with my family, healthy, in the Caribbean, on a cruise, really nothing to complain about.

 

Enough with the buildup let’s get started…..

 

The day was amazing, a wonderful stop in St. Maarten, our first time there (I will do an in depth review in my ports section).

 

It was a formal night…..

 

 

 

The Table

We headed down to dinner, remember how much I love our servers, we get to the My Time Dining check in desk, the hostess looks upset, “oh no I just sat a family of four at your table I thought you were coming at another time and we needed a table for them.” But then she took us in and sat us at another table for four. You are probably saying to yourself why didn’t she just sit this other family of four here in the first place and then our regular table would have been ours. To say the least I was mad, Luis and Yogendra, rushed over, actually shaking, apologizing saying there was mistake. They brought us over our hats and horns for New Years, a couple minutes later they brought us our usual drinks, and even the bread…..all this before we even met our new servers. All night we kept looking over at “our table & our servers” like longing puppies!!! I just love them! To make a long story short, a mistake was made, the maître’d apologized, brought us 2 complementary glasses of champagne, life goes on.

 

Our table for the night....

 

 

 

The Food

So tonight was the famous shrimp and lobster meal, it was ½ a lobster tail and just ok, a letdown. For dessert we ordered the soufflé with Bailey’s sauce, the server brings vanilla sauce, “oh they are out of that sauce”, what? it is only 7:30, half the ship still needs to eat. We went to Windjammer to have a little top up dinner before going to the show. We were not the only ones to find this dinner disappointing; in the “Bingo” line we talked to 2 other couples. Apparently for their late seating, they also had lobster and they had to wait for almost 2 hours for their meal and guess what they got a “quarter” of a lobster tail. The table beside them left before their food even came.

 

The Party

The night’s festivities started in the Theatre for the headliner show, the entertainment tonight was mediocre, and to be honest the only night we wished we missed. We then headed to see a 5 minute aerial show. It was great.

 

 

 

We now headed to the Centrum with about 2000 of my new closest friends, for those of you who know this class of ship, we were squished in and unfortunately you can’t see the entertainment, but everyone was in great spirits. They handed out champagne, we counted down and balloons fell. We then headed up to the pool, the DJ was playing, and we stayed for about 20 minutes. Our tummies started grumbling we make our way to Park Café, it’s really crowded, there is a line, we are excited there must be something new to eat, ah no, hot dogs and pizza. Oh well, we head to the cabin, order room service and head to bed.

 

Disney Comparison – Disney surpasses the Legend here…..

On the Dream the countdown and party was on the pool deck, they cover all the pools with decking so it becomes a really huge space. They built a stage under the jumbo screen and only in Disney style there are dancers, singers coordinated with a movie on the screen. As this is all happening, servers hand out alcoholic and non alcoholic champagne (nice touch for children) and numerous (I mean numerous) very tasty hors d’oeuvres. Then after midnight there is a fireworks display out in the middle of the ocean. A pretty “magical” night!

 

A couple of photos to share….

 

 

 

I think this panoramic photo sums up the party….

 

 

 

Next up “odds and ends” before moving on to the ports

[LadyStone50]

Allison, you are FUNNY!

 

Loved all your tips - like yours, my husband is very tall - I will pass along the shower advice (cruise showers drive him crazy ... and my husband takes a LOT of showers)

 

We are Disney fanatics also and I am so jealous you have cruised with them. We never have but its on our short list of great vacation ideas.

[1stcarnivalcruise]

Allison, you are FUNNY!

 

Loved all your tips - like yours, my husband is very tall - I will pass along the shower advice (cruise showers drive him crazy ... and my husband takes a LOT of showers)

 

We are Disney fanatics also and I am so jealous you have cruised with them. We never have but its on our short list of great vacation ideas.

 

 

A Disney cruise is amazing and I highly encourage everyone to try at least once, even a 4 day. Only because of the high cost our Disney cruise days are probably over.

 

LadyStone50 is our future cruise buddy, this leads nicely into my next post (unfortunately work is in the way again) so you will need to wait in anticipation for my announcement.......

[1stcarnivalcruise]

Loyalty and Cruise Sales Desk

Like, I am sure so many of you, when on a cruise you are dreaming of your next cruise. I waited until the last 2 sea days to go by the Sales Desk and so did apparently everybody else. It was very busy, always a few people waiting. So I kept walking by to see if the line went down, finally stepped in and realized there is a “sign up” sheet. The times are in ½ hour allotments. But you do not need to sign up (nice option though), often people do not use the whole time so you can sit and wait for a time to talk to one of the two crew members. As we had already booked our next Christmas on NCL and Royal does not have summer 2015 out yet we decided to get an “open booking certificate”.

 

Digressing here……

But I got home and there was nagging feeling that came over me, I couldn’t resist just looking to see what was available in 2015. So guess what I did, yesterday I booked an amazing cruise on NCL’s Jade…..14 days, July, 2015 in the Mediterranean leaving from Venice, we go to Athens, Kusadasi (Turkey), Santorini, Rome, Florence/Pisa, Cannes (France), Valletta (Malta) and Sicily. I know, I know pretty amazing huh! Ken and I went to Santorini, for our honeymoon, 17 years ago and we promised one day we would return to this absolutely stunning place. The girls are growing up so fast they will be 13 and 15 on this cruise and we would like to introduce them to Europe.

 

This thought brings me back to this cruise. I think some of you can relate, sometimes when you are so unbelievably happy, which I was on this cruise, you become teary and sad. I was looking at my two beautiful daughters and realizing they are growing up so fast. Caitlyn started high school this year and now it seems University is just around the corner. I had a few of these “melt downs” as my family lovingly called them. Ken would quickly use that dreaded three letter word during these times, “PMS” and that would instantly snap me out of these melt downs!

 

Laundry

So about ½ way through the cruise your room steward will leave a bag and an invitation to fill the bag for $30.00. You can fit quite a lot in the bag. Just to note these are the only things that you can put in the bag…pajamas, socks, shorts, swimwear, t-shirts and underwear. I took a photo of the laundry form because you had to send this form with the bag and I wanted a copy.

 

 

So another example of Royal’s excellent service…..I receive a call from the laundry department, the conversation went like this…..Royal “we are so sorry we can’t find the 1 pair of shorts” me “oh no the shorts, are you sure” I look over to Caitlyn her face is panicked, they are her 1 pair of Nike volleyball shorts that are ridiculously expensive $50 (Canadian mind you). These shorts are worth more than everything else in the bag. The 8 t-shirts in there are Ken’s famous “Target” white shirts (if you have not read all of my trip review, you have no clue what I am talking about). I actually remained very calm and asked him to bring me the bag so I could check. Good news, they were there, these shorts are so tiny they must have misunderstood them as underwear. He apologized and said we will not be charging you the $30 fee for the inconvenience, wow what amazing service!

 

Optix Teen Club

So this I must say is the only real disappointment of this cruise. The girls tried going, early on in the cruise, on three different occasions, for specific activities. They would come back and say that the Royal “counselors” stayed in their office and did not speak with the kids. So the kids sat around chatting. I knew it must be really bad because on our Disney cruise we hardly saw the girls. The Disney cruise’s teen program is outstanding. We did not push the idea of going to the club because this cruise was very port heavy and the girls ended up doing their own thing when on the ship. In retrospect, I really should have spoken to the counselors and if no change their supervisor. I think other teens found the same because we would often see groups of teens hanging around the ship.

 

On the topic of children, there really was not a lot on the ship which was surprising considering the holidays. As expected the Disney cruise had way many more children of all ages.

 

Vitality Spa and Fitness Centre

We did not use any of the spa services while on board. Ken as I explained loved the showers, he used the fitness centre and thought it had everything you need to work out. We did discover a great outdoor deck behind the spa, you can access it through the spa/fitness centre or there is a spiral staircase from the upper deck. We loved it here, you could find a chair easier then by the pool. Also, you can easily get the “tan” towels from the spa to use here.

 

Pool

We sat by the pool a few times, when we could get a seat, yes people really love to save chairs for hours at a time. I really enjoyed the live “calypso” music.

 

Football

I know you really don’t know me but I would not be considered an athletic person by any stretch of the imagination, so when friends or colleagues hear that I LOVE watching football there is usually a shocked look followed by a chuckle. I have many fond memories of watching football with my dad as a child. His favorite team was the Oakland Raiders (the 70’s/80s version). I never really followed college football, but this cruise changed all that, there were numerous “bowl” games on the poolside screen and on the stateroom television. I am not sure if this was a particular great season for bowl games but it was great football (I didn’t know teams could score that high!!!). My family does not share my football enthusiasm (sorry dad).

 

So you know, if you cruise during this time period expect to see a lot of football!

 

Diamonds International

Anyone who has ever stepped off of a ship in the Caribbean has heard of Diamonds International! So veteran cruisers feel free to skip to the next section. During the cruise, Shirrelle (fantastic by the way) holds 2 “Port Shopping Presentations” during the day. She provides a lot of useful information and gives away prizes. But here is my tip, especially if you have daughters. You can get a coupon from Shirrelle (or they hand them out everywhere in the towns) for the EFFY Jewelry store. You can get a free pendent necklace for everyone in your family. We collected a record 20 necklaces (St. Maarten alone has 4 stores and you get one at each store). The gemstones are all different colours. For $10 you can buy matching earrings. The girls gave the necklaces away to all their friends when they returned!

 

 

 

Next up Aruba , our first port….

[prekteacher]

I am really enjoying your trip report and detailed review. Your daughters remind me of my own DD's who are 14 and 11. I am also a kindergarten teacher so we cruise at Thanksgiving when we all have common days off. I am really looking forward to reading about all the ports you went to. My family loves the bells and whistles of a ship so we are going on Allure this year but you never know i might be able to get on a more port intensive cruise in the future. Really enjoying your comparisons of the other cruise lines also.

 

Have a great New Year!

 

Barb

[LadyStone50]

Diamonds International

Anyone who has ever stepped off of a ship in the Caribbean has heard of Diamonds International! So veteran cruisers feel free to skip to the next section. During the cruise, Shirrelle (fantastic by the way) holds 2 “Port Shopping Presentations” during the day. She provides a lot of useful information and gives away prizes. But here is my tip, especially if you have daughters. You can get a coupon from Shirrelle (or they hand them out everywhere in the towns) for the EFFY Jewelry store. You can get a free pendent necklace for everyone in your family. We collected a record 20 necklaces (St. Maarten alone has 4 stores and you get one at each store). The gemstones are all different colours. For $10 you can buy matching earrings. The girls gave the necklaces away to all their friends when they returned!

 

When my oldest was really young, we went to the Caribbean on a cruise and walked into one of these Diamonds International stores. In the middle of the showroom, they had this giant clamshell filled with semiprecious (and very shiny) gemstones. My daughter runs over and says in this awed whisper ... "treasure!"

 

Then she buries her hands in the gems and starts running them through her fingers. It was amazing how fast every single sales person in the store converged. hehehehehehehe

[1stcarnivalcruise]

I am really enjoying your trip report and detailed review. Your daughters remind me of my own DD's who are 14 and 11. I am also a kindergarten teacher so we cruise at Thanksgiving when we all have common days off. I am really looking forward to reading about all the ports you went to. My family loves the bells and whistles of a ship so we are going on Allure this year but you never know i might be able to get on a more port intensive cruise in the future. Really enjoying your comparisons of the other cruise lines also.

 

Have a great New Year!

 

Barb

 

Thanks and have a great New Year too!

 

I (try) to run an inquiry based Kindergarten program, I am really trying to convince my students to "inquiry" about cruises but no interest yet!