Just off the 8 night Legend out of Baltimore…

[1stTimeRoyal]

Any questions - fire away.

 

Overall an excellent cruise.  Friendly crowd, super staff and service on board, food was pretty good in most venues all week.  Entertainment was so-so in the main theater, but the variety of musicians (Alter Jamm!) around the ship more than made up for it.

 

Probably the best thing, IMO, outside of a ridiculous line to get off the ship in Grand Turk, nothing ever felt crowded all week.  Comedy shows were tight, but that’s always the case.  Buffet lines never that bad, deck chairs easy to get, pools fairly quiet all week.   Embarkation and Debarkation were about as fast as possible - again, just everything easy and relaxed.
 

And again, the service.  If you are fortunate to have Alvin, Sherwin and Jess in the main dining room, or Sherin in the Lobby Bar, or just about anyone else on this ship who work so hard, so quick, to make you have a great cruise, you will have a great time.

 

Weather was good all week.  We loved Amber Cove and this itinerary.  Not many complaints at all.  Sure, you can see some of the differences if you want to find them, some of the cutbacks (bacon on the buffet every other day etc) - but it’s still a cruise, and it was a great time.

 

 

[csm5986142]

5 minutes ago, 1stTimeRoyal said:

Probably the best thing, IMO, outside of a ridiculous line to get off the ship in Grand Turk, nothing ever felt crowded all week.  Comedy shows were tight, but that’s always the case.  Buffet lines never that bad, deck chairs easy to get, pools fairly quiet all week.   Embarkation and Debarkation were about as fast as possible - again, just everything easy and relaxed.

 

I agree - I'm on a spirit class ship now (Miracle) and they never feel as crowded to me. When we first went to Dream class (after being on the Spirit) I hated it... the common areas always seemed so crowdwd with lines for everything. I've gotten used to it now, but still really appreciate the Spirit class for a nice relaxing, not overwhelmingly packed ship.

[Kellyann]

Thanks for posting about your Legend cruise.  We're booked on it 10/1 and I picked this itinerary mainly so we don't have to fly and because I wanted to sail down the Chesapeake.  Anything memorable about this long trip down the bay.  Any tips about how to snag a decent spot and lounge chair on the islands.  How was the ocean if you managed to get to a beach?  I might continue to pick your brain as we draw closer but I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise.

 

[1stTimeRoyal]

4 minutes ago, Kellyann said:

Thanks for posting about your Legend cruise.  We're booked on it 10/1 and I picked this itinerary mainly so we don't have to fly and because I wanted to sail down the Chesapeake.  Anything memorable about this long trip down the bay.  Any tips about how to snag a decent spot and lounge chair on the islands.  How was the ocean if you managed to get to a beach?  I might continue to pick your brain as we draw closer but I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise.

 

On Half Moon Cay, with the size of this ship, there are no bad spots at the beach.  Again, super easy to get chairs.  On Grand Turk, we rented a golf cart and just explored the island. In Amber Cove, we stayed at the pool complex which was awesome.  Zip lines, huge pools, big water slides.   That was a fun day.  
 

The 2 things we did on this cruise which I will now do on every cruise:

 

1) Carry on bags.  We were off the ship so early, and if you pick the 1:30 embarkation time, you can just drop your bags off when you get on.  No lugging bags up to the buffet etc.

 

2) Late dining.  We had an awesome wait staff, and it’s so nice to have the same people each night.  But even better - between like 4 and 6, every day, the pools, Serenity, bars etc - all

empty.  It was like the magic hours.  With early dining, I feel like you are always scrambling to get ready, especially on port days.

 

 

also, one other recommendation - at least on the food.  The meats, soups, and pastas in the main dining room are almost always very good.  We didn’t do steakhouse, but a nice thing is just to order a steakhouse entree in the dining room.  It’s like a $30 savings, and you get the apps and desserts from main dining which were always pretty good.  I got the steakhouse lobster last night and it was really good.  

[jimrebholz]

Happy to hear this, going on that same cruise on 7/23, first time on the legend.

[tdggal1980]

10 hours ago, jimrebholz said:

Happy to hear this, going on that same cruise on 7/23, first time on the legend.

We will be on this cruise as well; see you onboard!

[theanoy]

We will be on the July 23rd cruise on Legend.  What nights were the elegant nights?  Thanks.

[Gari]

I am also taking this sailing in a few weeks. Wondering if there was a platinum party ?

[1stTimeRoyal]

13 hours ago, theanoy said:

We will be on the July 23rd cruise on Legend.  What nights were the elegant nights?  Thanks.

Second night and Seventh Night.  I actually enjoyed the second formal night more - filet was excellent. 

[Abr155]

On 7/3/2022 at 7:05 PM, 1stTimeRoyal said:

Any questions - fire away.

 

Overall an excellent cruise.  Friendly crowd, super staff and service on board, food was pretty good in most venues all week.  Entertainment was so-so in the main theater, but the variety of musicians (Alter Jamm!) around the ship more than made up for it.

 

Probably the best thing, IMO, outside of a ridiculous line to get off the ship in Grand Turk, nothing ever felt crowded all week.  Comedy shows were tight, but that’s always the case.  Buffet lines never that bad, deck chairs easy to get, pools fairly quiet all week.   Embarkation and Debarkation were about as fast as possible - again, just everything easy and relaxed.
 

And again, the service.  If you are fortunate to have Alvin, Sherwin and Jess in the main dining room, or Sherin in the Lobby Bar, or just about anyone else on this ship who work so hard, so quick, to make you have a great cruise, you will have a great time.

 

Weather was good all week.  We loved Amber Cove and this itinerary.  Not many complaints at all.  Sure, you can see some of the differences if you want to find them, some of the cutbacks (bacon on the buffet every other day etc) - but it’s still a cruise, and it was a great time.

 

 

Thank you for sharing!  We're on the Legend Oct. 9.  We've sailed a handful of times across several cruise lines (including Carnival), but this will be our first time with a toddler in tow.  Picked the Legend for her first cruise because wanted a smaller ship / less people, so VERY happy to hear about how it didn't feel crowded!

 

We're headed to Bermuda, so different itinerary but includes 3 sea days.  Did you do Sea Day Brunch?  Was it every sea day?

 

We did Your Time dining because - toddlers need flexibility.  Hope we don't regret it!

 

We're in an extended balcony...ALMOST switched to a premium balcony that opened up today, but it was $500 more 😞

[mjayp]

On 7/3/2022 at 7:05 PM, 1stTimeRoyal said:

Any questions - fire away.

 

Overall an excellent cruise.  Friendly crowd, super staff and service on board, food was pretty good in most venues all week.  Entertainment was so-so in the main theater, but the variety of musicians (Alter Jamm!) around the ship more than made up for it.

 

Probably the best thing, IMO, outside of a ridiculous line to get off the ship in Grand Turk, nothing ever felt crowded all week.  Comedy shows were tight, but that’s always the case.  Buffet lines never that bad, deck chairs easy to get, pools fairly quiet all week.   Embarkation and Debarkation were about as fast as possible - again, just everything easy and relaxed.
 

And again, the service.  If you are fortunate to have Alvin, Sherwin and Jess in the main dining room, or Sherin in the Lobby Bar, or just about anyone else on this ship who work so hard, so quick, to make you have a great cruise, you will have a great time.

 

Weather was good all week.  We loved Amber Cove and this itinerary.  Not many complaints at all.  Sure, you can see some of the differences if you want to find them, some of the cutbacks (bacon on the buffet every other day etc) - but it’s still a cruise, and it was a great time.

 

 

Thanks for the report!  Did you notice/experience any long lines at Pizza Pirate?  This was cited in other threads, but am encouraged to hear your feedback!

[cyrrwa]

1 hour ago, mjayp said:

Thanks for the report!  Did you notice/experience any long lines at Pizza Pirate?  This was cited in other threads, but am encouraged to hear your feedback!

I was on this sailing and was really impressed with the staff at Pizza Pirate. There was a bit of a line at peak times but they were friendly, efficient and handled the crowds (and occasional stupidity) well. The pizza was great by Carnival standards. This is relative to recent cruises on Vista, Horizon, Panorama and Mardi Gras where the lines were consistently long and slow moving, and the quality was all over the place but usually really lacking.

 

I’ll echo OP on the MDR food as well – it was by far the best I’ve had since restart.

[Laurab23]

How was the condition of the ship? People have complained about her sister ship being in rough shape. Any thing really in bad shape on Legend?

 

Laura

[1stTimeRoyal]

17 hours ago, Abr155 said:

Thank you for sharing!  We're on the Legend Oct. 9.  We've sailed a handful of times across several cruise lines (including Carnival), but this will be our first time with a toddler in tow.  Picked the Legend for her first cruise because wanted a smaller ship / less people, so VERY happy to hear about how it didn't feel crowded!

 

We're headed to Bermuda, so different itinerary but includes 3 sea days.  Did you do Sea Day Brunch?  Was it every sea day?

 

We did Your Time dining because - toddlers need flexibility.  Hope we don't regret it!

 

We're in an extended balcony...ALMOST switched to a premium balcony that opened up today, but it was $500 more 😞

We did not do sea day brunch, but yes, offered every sea day.  We did breakfast in the dining room before Half Moon Cay, it was pretty good.  Service was prompt.  In and out in about 30 min.

 

Lunch for us was usually Lido Buffet, BI Cantina, Chopsticks (the Asian food was good all week on the buffet) or Guys Burgers.  The cakes were great all week too.

[1stTimeRoyal]

8 hours ago, Laurab23 said:

How was the condition of the ship? People have complained about her sister ship being in rough shape. Any thing really in bad shape on Legend?

 

Laura

Didn’t notice anything in disrepair.  Ship looked good to me.

[1stTimeRoyal]

16 hours ago, mjayp said:

Thanks for the report!  Did you notice/experience any long lines at Pizza Pirate?  This was cited in other threads, but am encouraged to hear your feedback!

No, not really.  Pizza, coffee bars…I mean, sometimes there was a line but nothing crazy. Longest food lines probably breakfast at like 10AM on buffet or maybe Guys Burgers when they open, but again, maybe like 10-15 min max.

[1stTimeRoyal]

15 hours ago, cyrrwa said:

I was on this sailing and was really impressed with the staff at Pizza Pirate. There was a bit of a line at peak times but they were friendly, efficient and handled the crowds (and occasional stupidity) well. The pizza was great by Carnival standards. This is relative to recent cruises on Vista, Horizon, Panorama and Mardi Gras where the lines were consistently long and slow moving, and the quality was all over the place but usually really lacking.

 

I’ll echo OP on the MDR food as well – it was by far the best I’ve had since restart.

Yea, we found the pizza quality very good.  The 4 cheese one in particular was just made well each time it seemed like.   People also seemed to like the Caesar salads there.
 

We never really do cheers, but did this time, and the coffee bar next to pizza in the AM was great too.  You could get a latte, and then get a Gatorade or something to take out to the pool. And again, maybe 2-3 people in front of you, max?

[Abr155]

20 minutes ago, 1stTimeRoyal said:

We did not do sea day brunch, but yes, offered every sea day.  We did breakfast in the dining room before Half Moon Cay, it was pretty good.  Service was prompt.  In and out in about 30 min.

 

Lunch for us was usually Lido Buffet, BI Cantina, Chopsticks (the Asian food was good all week on the buffet) or Guys Burgers.  The cakes were great all week too.

Thank you! And last questions because I keep seeing Spirit class posts. How is the ship? I understand she’s older and likely in need of a facelift-but did you find her dirty or overly depreciated??

[Abr155]

Just now, Abr155 said:

Thank you! And last questions because I keep seeing Spirit class posts. How is the ship? I understand she’s older and likely in need of a facelift-but did you find her dirty or overly depreciated??

Disregard! Just saw someone asked same question above!!

[Bernardo62]

On 7/3/2022 at 7:05 PM, 1stTimeRoyal said:

Any questions - fire away.

 

Overall an excellent cruise.  Friendly crowd, super staff and service on board, food was pretty good in most venues all week.  Entertainment was so-so in the main theater, but the variety of musicians (Alter Jamm!) around the ship more than made up for it.

 

Probably the best thing, IMO, outside of a ridiculous line to get off the ship in Grand Turk, nothing ever felt crowded all week.  Comedy shows were tight, but that’s always the case.  Buffet lines never that bad, deck chairs easy to get, pools fairly quiet all week.   Embarkation and Debarkation were about as fast as possible - again, just everything easy and relaxed.
 

And again, the service.  If you are fortunate to have Alvin, Sherwin and Jess in the main dining room, or Sherin in the Lobby Bar, or just about anyone else on this ship who work so hard, so quick, to make you have a great cruise, you will have a great time.

 

Weather was good all week.  We loved Amber Cove and this itinerary.  Not many complaints at all.  Sure, you can see some of the differences if you want to find them, some of the cutbacks (bacon on the buffet every other day etc) - but it’s still a cruise, and it was a great time.

 

 

Hmmmm...... guess everyone has different OPINIONS. I'm on vacation and never complain. If so why go?!?!?!?!?!?

[PelicanBill]

Were any of your ports a different time zone than EDT, and did the ship's time change to match the port, or were you warned about the difference in local time?

[Delcocruiser]

We too were on this cruise.  My family, we had 11, enjoyed themselves very much. Best vacation in recent memory.  Agree with everything mentioned.  If I had a complaint, it was the line to get off in GT. Only one gangway.  Staff was friendly and hardworking.  Always smiling.  Legend was in great shape and clean.  Would do it over again tomorrow if I could.  Loved the 2 back to back sea days between the 3 port days.  First 8 day cruise and it really did feel longer than one more day.

[Ilovesailaway]

On 7/7/2022 at 6:03 AM, 1stTimeRoyal said:

Didn’t notice anything in disrepair.  Ship looked good to me.

Did you spend any time in the gym? I was on Legend in November and the equipment definitely needed to be replaced. Other than that I thought the ship was in great shape.

I'm looking forward to my next Legend cruise this Feb

[PA Dutchman]

Who is the CD right now ?

[Gari]

And is Ken still the Maitre D.?