Legend of the Sea/ Western Caribbean 12/3/05 Review

[ZPOOD@AOL.COM]

Legend of the Seas 12/3/05

 

I will try not to make this too wordy. Please write if you have a specific questions. This was our 10th cruise. Our 4th on RCL.

 

Flew in a day early and stayed at the Sailport Inn Resort on Old Tampa Bay. Very reasonable rates. Great view from most rooms. Hotel has a van to pick you up at Airport. They offer a cruise package/Transportation to port and pick up from port when you return. They charge $35.00 for this. My advice is take a cab unless you like waiting a long time. Its a great idea if they had more then one hotel van. The simply cannot handle picking up people from hotel, airport and port with one vehicle early on sat. morning.

 

Embarkation: This was the nicest and most organized ship terminal we have ever experienced. I would not hesitate to cruise out of Tampa again.

 

Ship: I must first say I did not want to take this particular ship due to its age. I usually never cruise on a ship more then 5 years of age. My sister in law chose this ship and then canceled her booking. We decided to stay due to ports. DH and I truly enjoyed every aspect of this ship. We had plenty to do. We were not bored. It was so clean and well kept. It was nicer then some of the newer ships we have sailed. Art work and color scheme was very tasteful. Dinning room was beautiful.

 

Grand Cayman : We have been her before. We went Snuba diving. We dove on the wreck of the Calli. In 2000 we scuba dove this wreck as well. I must say I was surprised at the amount of trash and debris down there. If I was the tour operator I would clean it up. I realize the storms have caused it, because this island is super clean. But if you make your money from this excursion it should not have trash down there. We also noticed the storms have drove away a lot of the fish. It was wonderful but just not as spectacular as before. Weather was wonderful. It was a great day.

 

Costa Maya : This was my favorite port of the week by far. The cruise ship port was beautiful. It just looked like paradise as we pulled in. There was plenty of shopping to do, there was a beach, two pools a few bars and restaurants. Lots of lounge chairs & umbrellas and a area the had local dancers and singers come in and entertain everyone. There was no charge for any of this. We took a cab into town (10 min or less ride) There was shanty type shacks that lined the road in the town and you were approched / some what harrased to shop in each establishment. But we expected this and just kept walking. We got to the center of town and was approched by a lady dressed in white who wanted to give us massages for 40 min at $20.00 per person. We bartered the price for $18.00 per person and climbed the stairs to a elevated platform that overlooked the beach, palms and beauty of the area. It was wonderful. After we had our massages and then we sat a table there and ordered lunch. The people were super nice and it sits right on the water. Music is playing in the background and there were lounge chairs for you use as well. There is a bar there that instead of bar stools they have swings hanging from the roof. Great idea. Great day. After lunch took cab back to port and enjoyed the free dancers and beach chairs.

 

Belize : We took an excursion thru the ship. We did the Canopy Zip Line and Cave tubing tour. What a blast this day was. The Zip Line is a must if you go to Belize. Its quite a long drive there but worth every minute of it. My advise on Belize. This is not a port you just want to go and hang out at. There are no beaches.Take a excursion for the day or you will be bored.

 

Cozumel : We went shopping in town, bought some jewelry then took a cab to Paradise beach. The damage is very evident all over town and worse as you get further from town. But the people are working so hard to restore this island and doing as wonderful job. Paradise Beach is a wonderful place. It is next to Playa Mia (I had been there on my last cruise to Cozumel) BUT better. It is free and they have loungers instead of those plastic scoop chairs. We could have stayed there all day. After a few very strong Margaritas my DH decided I must Parasail. It was awesome. The beauty is incredible. Everyone must experience this. Awesome Day.

 

Ship and Sea Days: DH climbed the rock wall. Having never done this before I was very impressed. He made it to the top so quickly then tried the next level with ease as well. Bingo, I must say I hate this game but try it at least once every cruise. Still hate it. May change my mind if I ever get to yell BINGO. We went to every show except the Gymnast. Production shows were wonderful. There was a accident with one of the male dancers and they had to stop the show. But everyone handled it well and in a few moments they resumed. We missed the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet and I was disappointed in myself for forgetting all about it. We also were preoccupied with other activities when they had the Crown and Anchor Past Guests Reception. Our room Stewart did give us some very nice shower caddies one evening when she turned down our bed. The only negative thing I can say about this cruise is so minor its really not worth mentioning, but I will. The food that was available in the Solarium Cafe was awful. It was the same every day. Hotdog's, Hamburgers, fries and the worst Pizza I have ever tried to eat. And I am not usually that picky of pizza. But it was bad. I would give this ship a rating of "9 " out of a 10. It was very nice.

 

Cabin/Stateroom : We had a AFT CABIN room #7634 dead center in the back. Loved the space. Enjoyed the view. Expect some dirt and soot from the smoke stacks from the ship. The last two days it was very bad. Feet looked as if we walked in a fire pit.

 

Debarking. Went very well. Like I said, this port is far the best we have ever experienced.

 

Write if you have any specific questions. You will enjoy this cruise.

 

Now I have 128 days to wait to Serenade of the Sea/ Southern Caribbean

 

Bon Voyage

[JerseyGirl23]

Thanks for the review. We were actually thinking of booking a cruise next December on the Legend, also out of Tampa with the same beautiful ports.

[imatarb]

Thanks for your review...sorry we didn't get to meet up at the M & M, but glad you had a great time! We were on the same deck...we were in 7544. :)

[megsterl]

You dont by chance have a picture of Costa Maya port do you?

[stacybbb]

I'm sailing in a couple weeks in aft cabins 6630 and 6632. Do you suppose the aft cabins are bigger? Are the balcony's bigger? My cabins are in the D1 category. This might be different than yours on the 7th deck.

 

Thanks for your review. We are doing similar things in ports.

stacy

[Jarronwood]

Hi Susan

 

Many thanks for taking the time to write your review. I am really glad you had a good time.

 

I have booked 7630 and I presume it should roughly be the same size as yours, being 2 cabins across. Would you say you could put a couple of loungers as against upright chairs on the balcony and still be comfortable. Or something similar, I am desparate to be able to sit and recline on our aft next June/July and most posters have said there is room but one or two say no.

 

What is your opinion?

[ZPOOD@AOL.COM]

The aft cabin balconies are HUGE. It will be difficult to go back to standard size on our next cruise. (we are on the Bump ) It had plenty of room for loungers but there were none. Our Cabin cat. was D1 . It had a medium size table and two chairs. NO Loungers, Boo Hoo. I offered $20.00 to our room stewart to get me at least one lounger. She said they took them off the aft cabins a few months ago due to the soot from the smoke stacks. She said she would have to get permission from her supervisior first. On day three she said he still had not responded to her. I did not push it. I also don't understand why taking the loungers off helped. The soot covered the whole deck. So the other chairs and table were covered too and they left those. Just dust your out door seating off before you sit. Even if you cannot see ash. Its there.

 

Would I not book a aft cabin again due to soot, you may ask...... Heck yeah. We enjoyed it, would I pay a premium for it? Prob. not.

 

I will post a picture of the port, soon. I need DH help for this one.

 

Susan

[sherin65]

Susan: Thanks for such a great review. We'll be on LOS in March.

 

Did you book your Belize tours on your own or through RCCI? If you went on your own which tour companies did you use?

 

 

Sher

[imatarb]

Here are a few pics of Costa Maya at the pier area:

 

This is the area to the right of the ships pier. I'm not sure how one goes about getting to this beach area, but it sure looked beautiful! I think there were signs directing folks, though.

 

 

 

This is the cruise ship pier area that everyone talks about. While it was 'okay', we would have preferred to take a cab to a different beach. It was very crowded. But, when one travels with children, it's important to go with the flow, and our son was a bit tired that day. We opted to hang here:

 

 

[cruiser_carol]

Susan, Thanks so much for your review on the Legend of the Seas. I am so pleased that you had such a wonderful time and found the ship as lovely as we did when we sailed on her in the summer. We were on for 14 days to the Med out of the UK. and had a fantastic time. We enjoyed every minute. I agree about the snacks in the solarium being very poor. Like yourself, I am not fussy. As you say, very trivial complaint, compared to all the rest on offer. We absolutely loved the ship and its' captain and crew and have been recommending it ever since.

 

It is great to have someone new tell people how well looked after and how enjoyable The Legend of the Seas is. We had so many people before and after our cruise trying to downgrade the Legend because of being 10 years old and not a mega liner. So many posters, including myself, that were booked on her were very worried. It is a tremendous reasurance to have return cruisers give such a positive review. Thanks very much. It was Very enjoyable reading..brings back lots of happy memories. Carol

[ZPOOD@AOL.COM]

I booked it through the cruise line for two reasons. The tour takes all day. The resort is quite a distance drive. If for some chance you are delayed they will hold the ship for you if you book thru RCL. If you book on you own and dont make it back in time, your in trouble.

 

Also they take you off the ship first to tender over. It may have been difficult to find and meet up with a private tour. There is a private tour (Nacho and Cynthia) but from what I found the price was the same. I just didn't want to risk it.

 

Hope this helps. You will love it,