Just off the Legend

[Giantfan13]

I know there ahve beens everal threads from people on the Legend, so I just thouight I would add a few things that others might have missed.

 

We just returned from our week on the Legend. First, I have to say we are both 'older' seniors' but are avid cruisers. This was our first on Carnival in maybe 7 years so if we are new to some Carnival things that others already know, I apologize for this.

 

First I have to tell people about our cabin on the Legend. We booked an extended Balcony. I booked it thru a TA online but I picked my own cabin. I chose cabin 6232, as on the ship's deck plans it sort of looked like a larger balcony. When we got to the cabin, we had what you might refer to as a terrace and not just a balcony. It was basically 3 balconies long with 2 lounges and the usually 2 chairs. There are a few of these on this ship, all in the same place like ours 6232, 7232 etc. If you look at the deck plans you will see these and we paid nothing extra, except for what they referred to as an extended balcony.

 

We traveled from Long Island to Baltimore, about 3 1/2 hours. We had a 12:30 check in but we got there about 11:15. The ship doesn't dock in Baltimore till 10AM, so when we entered the parking area we weren't allowed to park yet. They had all the cars lined up waiting till it was time to let us in, maybe took about 1/2 hour. You drive up to where they take your luggage and then you drive thru, pay, and park. I am slightly handicapped and have a plaquard so I was able to park really just maybe 100 yards, from where you enter.

Once parked you go to the terminal and get in line outside till they call your time. First was 11:30 and Suites, then 12:00 then 12:30. Once in, they check you immunization card and then check in was a breeze. But still they weren't letting people on the ship yet, so you are ushered to an area to sit till they let you on, which occurred about 1:00 or so.

We boarded, went to the buffet. Here's where we were really surprised as we expected everyone to be sort of served, but they instead let you do whatever you did before the virus, serve yourself for everything. 

We ate, and toured the ship. We were on this ship maybe 10 years ago, but being old, I remembered nothing. Nice ship, but overall, I wasn't crazy about the decor.

 

I won't go into our everyday things as there are people on the site posting all of this. What we didn't know, even reading some of the other threads, was everything depends on the Carnival app. Whenever you want to go eat, morning, noon or night, you have to do it on the app and wait to be notified when to go to the dining room, We are NOT phone people so this was a bit annoying to us, but we got used to it. What did bother us was we cannot sit in a booth, as we need chairs, but almost every day when we checked in for dinner (we had Anytime Dining) we are assigned a table # and seems it was always a booth and we needed to have it changed. We spoke with the people there, telling them about this, but nothing changed. We also asked to be seated in a section where we really liked the waiters and they told us it can't be done unless it is available, but it never was again. We also like to see a menu. Call us old fashioned but I despise sitting in restaurants watching everyone there on their phones, looking what to order. After much asking, we did get real menus. WE are sort of vegetarians, but we do eat fish and we felt the food was above average. We enjoyed dinning very much. 

Another thing we didn't know was about the shows in the theater. The only performers are the ship's dancers and singers. No one else is on to perform except for the comediennes. The troop were very good, but it is basically same type of show evert night. I can understand why it is done, to keep the ship more secure, but I just thought I'd mention it to others. 

We attended the Punchliner almost every night (mostly for the PG shows). On the first night, and excuse me, I don't remember his name, but the Irish comedienne performed an R rated show at 8:30 with basically every other works a four letter word. I guess some one must have spoken to him, as after that when he was on again, he made a point, several times, of saying this was PG. Overall, out of the 3 comediennes, Roland was the best and it wasn't even close. Kier did the same exact show 2 times during a 7 day cruise and so many people walked out as he was performing. 

 

We ate mostly in the dining room, but we did check out the buffet for lunch. The pizza was good, the deli, where we just had tuna, was a bit lacking and I did enjoy Chopsticks a couple of times.

We also used room service for just coffee, tea and some juice most mornings. Anything hot was an additional charge. I went up to the buffet, got a couple of omelets and took them back to the room several times.

 

One thing, we are certainly not germaphobes, but we try and be extra careful, as we are older. We are vaccinated and boosted. Sorry I can't say the same for maybe 1/3 of the other passengers, who thought being on a ship relieves them of wearing masks over their mouths and noses. Their chin was a good place for it or nothing at all. On our next to last day, everyone got a notice in their mailbox that masks were now mandatory everywhere inside the ship except when eating, and mandatory outside when in large groups. Maybe that made some put masks on but for those that were determined not to wear a mask, it meant nothing. We went in the Red Frog and maybe half the people were wearing masked, in the Punchliner, you could see many people without them, same for the theater. We usually sat in the balcony and tried to stay away from others as best we could. We usually attended the 9:30 show and most times it was pretty empty, compared to the early shows. 

 

Overall, this was our first cruise back and we enjoyed the cruise very much. We had magnificent weather and fully enjoyed our 'terrace' away from many of the non maskers.

 

I can try and answer any questions if anyone has any. 

 

Cheers

Len

[sparks1093]

Thanks for your thoughts!

[Giantfan13]

your more than welcome

 

Cheers

Len

[alyssamma]

3 hours ago, Giantfan13 said:

I can try and answer any questions if anyone has any. 

Thanks for this review. We are sailing on the Legend this Sunday. A few questions if you don't mind...

 

1) A little confused when you said "no one else was performing". Do you mean the shows they normally have (e.g., Quest) weren't there and it was just the comedian and some variety shows?

 

2) Was the piano bar open?

 

3) For embarkation, are you saying if you have, say, a 12:30 boarding time, they were strict about not letting you in before that?

 

Thanks again and glad you enjoyed the cruise.

[Giantfan13]

6 minutes ago, alyssamma said:

Thanks for this review. We are sailing on the Legend this Sunday. A few questions if you don't mind...

 

1) A little confused when you said "no one else was performing". Do you mean the shows they normally have (e.g., Quest) weren't there and it was just the comedian and some variety shows?

 

2) Was the piano bar open?

 

3) For embarkation, are you saying if you have, say, a 12:30 boarding time, they were strict about not letting you in before that?

 

Thanks again and glad you enjoyed the cruise.

 

#1-- There was NO quest, no hairy man contest or anything like that. In the theater, out of the 7 nights, the dancers and singers were on for 5 of those nights. One night was the Newlywed Game or whatever they call it, and the last night were the comediennes from the Punchliner. (the 9:30 show was an R rated show.). We are NOT party people, but Carnival was always famous for having entertainment and music always by the pool. Not on this cruise. They had a couple of late nite dance themes but that was about it. 

 

#2-- Yes the Piano Bar was open and there was a lady doing the performing. We only stopped there once, and she wasn't bad. 

We spent more time in the Red Dog as they had a very good band there and it is literally, the only place to dance, if you wanted to. 

 

#3--YES, they are extremely strict on this. As I said, we had to line up outside the terminal, in no particular order, and whomever was in charge there, called out times. You had to show your boarding paper that said what time you are able to board. Just an example, while they were calling for the 12:00 people to board, a group of 4 people, who had a 2:00 time wanted to go in. They tried to be persistent but, I believe, security was called, and after a short bout of screaming by the passenger, they were still not allowed to check in. 

 

Cheers

Len

[Giantfan13]

Before disembarking, we spoke with Miguel, who, I believe is the assistant cruise director. We asked how full our cruise was and he said about 70-75%. Said the ship carries about 2200 and we had just bout 1800 or so.

 

Cheers

Len

 

 

[sparks1093]

7 hours ago, Giantfan13 said:

Before disembarking, we spoke with Miguel, who, I believe is the assistant cruise director. We asked how full our cruise was and he said about 70-75%. Said the ship carries about 2200 and we had just bout 1800 or so.

 

Cheers

Len

 

 

As I recall Miguel is the newest member of the Fun Squad.

[Giantfan13]

12 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

As I recall Miguel is the newest member of the Fun Squad.

Yes, he said he was on his first year with Carnival and he simply loves it. 

 

Cheers

Len

[sparks1093]

41 minutes ago, Giantfan13 said:

Yes, he said he was on his first year with Carnival and he simply loves it. 

 

Cheers

Len

Can't wait to see him and the rest of the Fun Squad again in February.