Review - March 20th Legend 10 day sailing

[birdylady]

Hi all. Have now been back for a week (boo) from an amazing cruise. Finally gone through our photos and have working on my review. In the meantime, I see that Claudio (Hoopster95) has already startedhis review with some excellent photos. So, because of that, I won't be posting that many photos myself. Of course if there's a photo you want and Claudio didn't post it, let me know and I'll be happy to post what I have. For your convenience, I've included the link to Claudio's review.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2190500&highlight=legend

 

I'll post this in pieces to give folks a chance to read with breathers in between. :)

 

So, to start I will let you know that it was hubby and myself on our first cruise as Diamond. Prior to this, the longest sailing we've ever done were 7 days. We were really excited to take this cruise as it would have 2 sea days at the beginning and ed of the cruise. There were 5 ports, 3 of which we hadn't done yet. About a month before the sailing, RCI swapped out Tortola for St Thomas. So in reality, we only had 2 new ports to go to, St Kitts and Dominica.

 

Our trip began with us flying to Fort Lauderdale airport on Thursday. We had made reservations at the Best Western Plus on State Road/84. One nice amenity the offer is a free shuttle ride from the airport. Once we got our luggage, I called the hotel to let them know we were there. We waited about 10 minutes and they were there. We were at the hotel about 10 minutes after pickup. And in our room probably 10 minutes after arrival. This hotel was very nice. They also offer a free hot breakfast. There is a shopping center on the next block that has a Big Lots, Dollar Tree, Liquor Store and Winn Dixie. So we walked over and got a 24 case of water. We went to dinner at Old Heidelberg, an excellent German restaurant that was across the street from the Winn Dixie. Also across the street was the Holiday Inn Express which another member of our Roll Call was staying at. She arrived after dinner, but we met her at a sports bar next to the Dollar Tree for her to grab something to eat.

 

Thanx,

Erika

[birdylady]

The morning of the cruise -

 

 

Best Western provided breakfast. They had cereal, waffles, fruit, bacon, cheese omelets, coffee, juice, etc. After we had breakfast, we checked out and caught the first shuttle the hotel offers ($8pp) at 10:30. The shuttle also offered pick up from the dock for a return to the airport (or a number of hotels) for $30 for the 2 of us. We prepaid, got a sticker (so they could find us)and a receipt (which they said was the most important part) and we were set for the return (obviously not wanting to think about that at this point).

 

 

 

We arrived at the pier to see our wonderful ship waiting patiently for us. We got in line to go through security which was a little weird as this is the same pier that we used for when we sailed the Allure. There are signs to get in line based by your deck. But since the Legend is so much smaller, they only had one side open for everyone, regardless of the deck you were on. From the time we got in line to the time we got our sea pass was probably less than 30 minutes. We then took the escalator upstairs to where we assumed we would have to wait to board. Nope. We were able to go straight to the ship. This was the fastest and easiest boarding yet. YEAH!

 

Thanx

Erika

[birdylady]

I went straight to the spa to make appointment for a mani/pedi. The earliest I could schedule was 4pm due to the muster drill. We wandered around taking pictures and had a light lunch at the Windjammer before heading to our cabin just before 1. Sadly, the doors were closed and people said they changed the time till 2. No announcement was made till about 1:10 saying that the cabins should be available by 1:45. Victor, the deck manager started coming out and releasing blocks of rooms.

 

 

 

2 of my favorites-

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We were in our cabin (7060) by 1:45. Our cabin was the first on the hall from the centrum. We loved our cabin, location and cabin attendant, Dixon. BUT the noise from the events in the centrum at night were LOUD. They didn’t stop playing until exactly at midnight. Unless you don’t mind noise or like to stay up late, this would not be a good location for you. Also, there were some cabins next to ours that were ‘sort of’ off the centrum. These were ocean view cabins where there used to be a lounge. I will say the windows were nice and the rooms were roomy. But the people I knew staying there were also not happy with the noise.

 

 

Thanx,

Erika

Edited April 7, 2015 by birdylady

[birdylady]

After the muster drill I went straight back to the spa. I was there by almost 3:50. The nail technician didn’t get there till almost 4:20. I was told she was held up by the muster drill. I told her right off I had 5:30 dining. She felt we could get done by then. She did a beautiful job, but I ended up being about 15 minutes late to dinner. On top of that, being diamond (finally, yeah), she said she ran my charge with my discount. Being in a hurry, I noticed the discount, but didn’t realize till we were going to bed that it was not the correct percentage. I had to go back in the morning to get that corrected.

 

 

Dining- 5:30- Livia and Sreeyesh. We couldn't believe that this was Sreeyesh’s second sailing as an assistant waiter. He was excellent. We never waited for our sodas any night. He was right on top of things. Livia was a sweetheart. I swear I hurt her feelings a couple times during the week when I didn’t want an appetizer or dessert.

 

 

 

 

 

We went to the Welcome Aboard show after dinner. Just barely made that. Paul Rutter was our CD and CiCi was our activities manager. Both were really good and we enjoyed them. The guest that night was the comedian John Wing. He was pretty good and we looked forward to going to his adult comedy show later in the week. After the show, we had to make the obligatory visit to donate money to the casino.

 

That will be it for tonight. The real world, work and 5am comes awfully early.

I'll post more tomorrow.

 

Thanx,

Erika

[birdylady]

I thought I would sneak in a quick post while I'm at work (wishing I was back on the ship).

 

The next two days were sea days. We had a very active Roll Call so we had a number of events planned. The morning of the first sea day we had our Meet & Mingle where they raffled off some nice gifts like lunch at chops and such. Right after we did our hometown gift swap. All enjoyed getting to know each other. The next day we did a Slot Pull where sadly we were only good at turning $15 into about $5 per person. As an fyi for anyone planning a slot pull on the Legend, they have no Wheel of Fortune machines. And interestingly enough, only a handful of $1 machines.

Right after the Slot Pull, we did a cabin crawl. We had cabins from interior, handicap, connecting cabins, aft balcony and a Junior Suite. Everyone really enjoyed it. And thanks to DrDestructo, we were able to end the crawl at their Grand Suite. Very nice.

I was also very happy when the Oompa random bonus on Willy Wonka was nice enough to give me a $166 win. :) Don't worry, I'm sure over the weak I gave it back and then some. :confused:

Oh well, back to work.

Erika

[birdylady]

First stop was St Thomas (but was supposed to have been Tortola)- We had booked a tour with Godfrey Tours- Hadji (sp?) was our tour guide. He was very nice and very accommodating. First stop – shopping in downtown followed by a ride around the island and stops at different locations, with great information. We then stopped at The MountainTop where we got a free banana daiquiri and got a few minutes to shop at their huge gift shop. Then we went on to The Greathouse Botanical Gardens. That night after dinner, for our towel animal we got a birds in nest with 2 little birds in it, with our diamond pins.

 

Erika

Edited April 9, 2015 by birdylady

[birdylady]

Next Stop - St Kitts- - We had booked an excursion for the Heritage tour and beach with Kittitian Taxi & Tours – Akimba was our tour guide. Originally it was just going to be us, but friends on the ship asked the night before what we were doing and they joined us.

 

 

 

First stop was the Palm Courtyard and Garden. The place was beautiful.

 

From there we headed to Brimstone Hill. Hubby said he could have spent hours there (not me though, LOL) .

 

 

 

We then went to Romney house, home of Carrabelle Batik. They have a great shop there to buy everything Batik.

 

 

Next up was a basic tourist stop where you could get your pictures taken with a monkey. Or in this case a monkey riding a donkey.

 

 

Lastly we headed to the beach. This was a great placeto see wild monkeys and mongeese (mongoose?). Our friends wanted to stay for a while and we didn’t. So Akimba scheduled to pick them back up in about 2 hours. In the meantime, he had to pick a client up to take him to the airport. He offered us options. We opted to have the client get picked up with us and we dropped him at the airport on the way to bringing us back to town. When we got back to town, we were hungry and stopped at a small store and had Roti for lunch. Never having any before, we didn’t know what to expect. It was delicious, but spicy. The chicken roti was made with curry. The shrimp with spices that had my mouth on fire by the time I was done.

 

 

 

 

[url="http://boards.cruisecritic.com/"] [/url]

[Hoopster95]

I thought I would sneak in a quick post while I'm at work (wishing I was back on the ship).

 

Hey hey Erica!!! Ya, this work stuff SUCKS don't it?!?! :p:D:D:D

 

p.s. Congrats on reaching Diamond. Hope your travels home from the airport went well

[JamesEM]

Following along....

[birdylady]

The next day we stopped in Dominica. I had read some great reviews on My Sister Tours. Helen was all that and more. We were supposed to have a 5 hour tour. It turned into almost a 7 hour tour.

 

 

 

Helen was exactly where she said she would be, straight past the end of the pier, on the street, holding her sign. I even asked someone that asked if I wanted a tour and they knew who she was and pointed to where I would find her. And presto, there she was. I say this as Helen asked about another couple when we got there. I had no idea who they were. As it started raining, she brought us to the bus to wait. She then went to wait on that other couple. Finally she decided to get on with our tour and left an associate waiting on that other couple.

 

About 30 minutes into our tour, the other couple called and asked where she was. She suggested they tour with her associate. Nope, they wanted Helen. She said she would be back but not till after our first stop.

 

 

 

Our first stop was where we could stand right between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean. WOW! As we left that stop, the other couple called and decided they were tired and going back to the ship. Our tour marched on.

 

 

 

We then went on to the Parrot Conservation Research Center and Botanical Gardens. There we saw the bus crushed by a GIANT tree, a HUGE aviary with Red Necked Amazons and the 'Bamboo House', which was a grouping of bamboo treese with a huge opening in the center.

 

 

 

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b101/birdylady/Legend%202015/th_IMG_3579.jpg"]

We went to the Emerald Pool. That was a heck of a walk (so I’m told, LOL) but the pictures were beautiful. We also had lunch while were there (extra cost). The menu had lots of options, BUT only one main item per day. They had grilled blue marlin. I had a veggie plate of local veggies. Their sweet potatoes (not orange like the yams we’re used to), Dashins and another root type vegetable along with plantains.

 

 

http://s18.photobucket.com/user/birdylady/media/Legend%202015/IMG_3641.jpg.html

 

After that we stopped at Mr. Nice's fruit stand. We got to sample a variety of FRESH fruit. I also go to help press fresh sugar cane into juice. That was not easy. But it was a tasty result.

 

Let me finish this day by saying anyone looking for a first class tour of Dominica only needs to reach out to Helen. She is a wonderful hostess who, like the rest of the people we saw, has pride in this beautiful island.

 

Erika

Edited April 10, 2015 by birdylady

[birdylady]

Hey all, sorry about thaat last picture. I have no idea why it's not showing up, but if you click on it, it should open the picture for you.

 

 

Antigua- As we had done this before we slept late and just walked around the port. There were coupons in the shopping coupon book and using your sea pass to get free play at the casino at the pier. I walked out $20 ahead. Did a little misc. shopping and came back to call it a quiet ship day.

 

 

Thanx,

Erika

[newfiegirl4]

Next Stop - St Kitts- - We had booked an excursion for the Heritage tour and beach with Kittitian Taxi & Tours – Akimba was our tour guide. Originally it was just going to be us, but friends on the ship asked the night before what we were doing and they joined us.

 

 

 

First stop was the Palm Courtyard and Garden. The place was beautiful.

 

From there we headed to Brimstone Hill. Hubby said he could have spent hours there (not me though, LOL) .

 

 

 

We then went to Romney house, home of Carrabelle Batik. They have a great shop there to buy everything Batik.

 

 

Next up was a basic tourist stop where you could get your pictures taken with a monkey. Or in this case a monkey riding a donkey.

 

 

Lastly we headed to the beach. This was a great placeto see wild monkeys and mongeese (mongoose?). Our friends wanted to stay for a while and we didn’t. So Akimba scheduled to pick them back up in about 2 hours. In the meantime, he had to pick a client up to take him to the airport. He offered us options. We opted to have the client get picked up with us and we dropped him at the airport on the way to bringing us back to town. When we got back to town, we were hungry and stopped at a small store and had Roti for lunch. Never having any before, we didn’t know what to expect. It was delicious, but spicy. The chicken roti was made with curry. The shrimp with spices that had my mouth on fire by the time I was done.

 

 

 

 

[url="http://boards.cruisecritic.com/"] [/url]

 

 

Hey, thanks for including us on the tour. We had a great time.

[birdylady]

Hey, thanks for including us on the tour. We had a great time.

Glad you could join us. We had a great time with you guys too. Sadly, I can't post from work if I want to include pictures as Photobucket is blocked from here. (Can never see pictures from there either.:( ).

 

Erika

[birdylady]

St Martin- Another island we’ve done before. We took the water taxi over to downtown. They took us to the farthest dock. As kept looking at the shopping map saying, this doesn’t match.. Note, there is a closer one near the main shopping. Wish we knew that as we walked back to the pier we were dropped off at. But they taxi came very quickly so it wasn’t a problem.

 

 

 

On a sad note, I accidentally left a ring on the counter in the ladies room at the McDonalds. I ran back about 15 minutes later and asked if anyone turned a ring in. They all said no. About 10 minutes later I ran into the lady that had been in line behind me to use the restroom. She said she saw the ring and turned it into an employee behind the counter. She even came back to tell the employees. The cashiers asked who she turned it into, otherwise she was just ‘ACCUSING’ them. Another customer commented that they had security cameras. I spoke with the manager (Michel) and he said they have video but he wasn’t able to look at it. Their security person would have to and he wasn’t here. SUPPOSEDLY he is supposed to get back to me. I told him, if that’s how the employees treat customers, what are they doing to the employer? We exchanged email addresses. Needless to say I haven't heard from him. And when I sent him an email, it came back as invalid. Surprise! For anyone that goes to St Maartin from now on and you feel like having fun, stop in the McDonalds on Front street and ask for Michel. If you get to speak with him, tell him you're looking for the silver and black ring for your friend. IF by some chance (yeah, fat chance) he actually got it back, get it from him. Feel free to keep it. I would rather anyone else, but one of the employee's there to have it.

 

 

After I resolved that the ring was gone (as I told hubby, that's why I won't travel with my good jewelry), we went on our way. We stopped at 'The Yoda Guy's Movie Exhibit.

 

 

 

 

Erika

[birdylady]

We did Chops on Friday night with Dr Destructo and his lovely wife. We had a great time. But to be honest, this was the first time we left there not raving about everything. The shrimp cocktail was amazing, but the onion soup didn’t wow us. I ordered goat cheese salad and that was enjoyable. I was the only one at the table that didn’t order a Filet. But I guess that didn’t matter as that’s what the waiter brought me. I commented that it was the tallest NY strip I’ve ever seen. He looked like a deer in headlights when he realized that’s not what I ordered. I had the right steak in front of me in less than 5 minutes. Sadly it was not an impressive tasting steak. One thing I’ve read about on the CC boards were the new ‘tater tot’s being served. Yes they are LARGE. You get 4 of them on a serving. And they have gruyere in them. Let me tell you, we loved them so much we got a second order. And the red velvet cake was not as large a serving as I remember, which is a good thing, as that used to be HUGE. It’s still a good sized slice of cake that can easily be shared. It was very good and the first one I’ve ever had that had a layers of chocolate in it. I believe this is what the CD’s cake decorating contest was making. This must have been made by the professional baker. Paul’s version was so full of rum that it was ‘leaking’. My piece had no rum. :(

 

 

 

Erika

[birdylady]

Sunday night was the Karaoke finals. Noelle won. And she deserved to she was phenomenal. Had I closed my eyes I would have bet anything that it was Judy Garland singing ‘Over the Rainbow’.

 

 

 

Monday came and we had to leave. We actually did self-assist disembarkation. This was supposed to occur between 7:20-7:50. We got downstairs around 7:30 or so. We came down the elevators and got in line, which didn’t seem too bad. TILL we realized that we had to walk through the casino, past the other elevators, back through the casino again and all the way past eh elevators we came down to go out on the deck to get off the ship. Funniest part was we saw some people waiting in the casino to get in line whenever it ended. By the time we go to the terminal to head through customs, I saw the family that was waiting in the casino was probably less than 20 people behind us. Oh well. Got through customs in about 15 seconds, walked outside and saw the shuttle pulling up. We were on the shuttle and out of the parking lot in less than 10 minutes. We stopped at 2 other docks and were off to the airport. We were checking in by 8:40. Then we had plenty of time to kill. We ended up running into some folks from the cruise and we sat and chatted till boarding time.

 

 

I'll leave you with one other picture. For those that wonder where service dogs 'go', I think we found the answer.

 

 

 

 

Erika