Legend Review 9/7 Sailing (No Frills)

[FMCowboy]

My wife, 6 yr old daughter, and I were on the Legend 9/7 thru 9/14. I'll give you our not so short & sweet, no so quick & dirty, no holds barred, review. This was our first Carnival Cruise. Let me know if you have any questions. Here goes:

 

Port of Tampa: On day one, we arrived around 11am and check in was a breeze, were were in group #10 and at 11:30am they started to board. We were on the ship by 11:45am. Parking isn't cheap at $12/day or $100/wk for valet parking, which we did, but it would be nice if they offered some off site parking or economy lot like the airports do.

 

 

The Legend: The ship is beautiful. The decor is very elegant and the ship was immaculately clean. The ships layout is easy to navigate and we found the staff to be very friendly, lots of smiles and hellos as you passed by. The limited dining options were disappointing as you really only had the Buffet or the one Dining Room. There was also the Golden Fleece Supper Club, but that is only for dinner and is an additional charge of $30 a person. Even on the old Sovereign of the Seas they had a Johnny Rockets and Sorrento's Pizzeria besides the dining room and buffet. More on the food in the food section review. The shopping was also disappointing. They called it Rodeo drive, but it was really only 2 shops, so not much to shop at. The pools were nice and I like the layout of the pools and the design where there is like a 3-4" deep deck of water leading into the pool where you can lay and relax and sun bathe. It was cool when the boat rock a bit as the "tide" of the pool would go in and out. LOL. We really didn't take in any shows so I won't comment about the shows, but the theaters were nice enough. We spent some good time in the casino and it was a pretty nice casino with a good layout and choice of gaming. We found the Enchanted Forrest which was as secluded and beautiful as folks here said it was and we said we were going to spend sometime there and never did. I think this area isn't used because there are no nearby services, IE: place to get a drink or snack to enjoy while sitting in the there. I passed through there about 4 times during our stay and never did see anyone else.

The room. We had a balcony stateroom, #7156, and were very impressed. The room was very nice, had a good layout and plenty of closet space. All of our luggage fit under the bed.

 

The Dining:

I'll review the buffet, the dining room, room service, Sushi Bar, coffee/dessert cafe, and the Supper Club. The buffet layout was lousy, here's where our first disappointment came in. The buffet is so chopped up and covers like half the ship if you want to hit all stations. Way too spread out, it took to the third day before we even realized where all the stations were. Too much travel distance if you wanted to sample all of the stations at one meal. People were constantly asking others, "where did you get that". So you'd settle in on what you had on your plate because thats all you knew about until you saw someone else with something and said " I wish I knew they had that, I would have got that instead" etc... Besides the crummy layout, the food just wasn't that good. Neither of us said at anytime that, " wow this is good honey, you gotta try this". Also the variety was minimal, the food stations hardly ever changed menus through out the cruise. The Pool deck grill (which is part of the stretched out buffet layout) had the same items every day, as did the hot sandwich station, the cold sandwich and salad station, pizza station etc... The Chinese station had some different items each day but all tasted the same. The dessert station switched it up a bit, but not much and the flavor of desserts were pretty bland. The only station that changed each day was the International station, each day had a different theme. And that food wasn't good either. All in all, very disappointed with the buffet's layout, food selection, and taste. The dining room, the ONLY dining room was also a major disappointment. Most of the problem was our service. We had better service at a Denny's than we had in this dining room. The problem was our waiters. Our head waiter was "Alwyn", that's what his name tag said,but my wife swears he said his name was Adrian. His assistant was Steve. Where to start with this lousy service. He'd never look at us, he was always looking elsewhere like he had to be somewhere else. We always felt rushed by him. Our drinks were always empty and had to ask several times to get our water or tea refilled, EVERY night. Had to ask for more bread, asked for more butter one night 3 times and never got it at all. Same with steak sauce one night, never got it.We saw service at nearby tables and that looked as it should be. We saw other waiters coming to the tables offering baked potatoes, we were never offered those. We had the Caesar salad a couple of times and were never offered fresh cracked pepper or fresh shredded cheese as we saw other waiters doing at other tables. He never stopped by to see how things were doing, etc... We finally got the courage to inform the Maitre'd on the 2nd to last night (he by the way NEVER stopped by tables) on RCCL she had stopped by every night. Anyway, we told him about the service and he apologized and offered to sit us at another table for the last night but we told him we were so turned off by the lousy service, we booked the Supper Club for the last night ( we had already ate at the supper club once and knew that was good). The food in the dining room wasn't much to write home about either. The presentation was poor and the flavor wasn't that good. We did try the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake and it was pretty good, but not the greatest thing we ever had, but the best of the rest on terms of what else was offered. The Supper Club. This costs $30 a person extra and like everyone else says on these boards, it's worth every penny. The food is awesome and the service is great. great steaks, and lobster and awesome desserts. Even the Caesar salad was prepared table side and the lobster bisque is great. We dined there twice, each time with 4 or 5 other people we knew. Overall a great experience. The only negative was that on the 2nd time we went, getting our water or tea refilled, we had to keep asking. Others in our party made the same comment. The Sushi Bar. This is a little station set-up on deck 2 from like 5pm-8pm nightly and the guy makes 3 types of sushi a night and that' sit, but they were all very good. Rice was a bit overcooked, but otherwise pretty good. It's a good pre-dinner snack. The coffee/dessert cafe, also on Deck 2 near the sushi bar. They have an assortment of fancier desserts for a charge of $2 each. We had the white chocolate cake or torte thing and it was awesome, had like raspberry jam in the center or something but was really good. The large slice of carrot cake was fair. Room Service was another disappointment. The selection was ok, and the food was ok, but the service lacked. We had room service every morning (danish, bagels, milk, cereal, etc..) Each time they forgot something. One day it was the milk for the kids cereal, another day it was the bananas we ordered, another day the apple juice and cream cheese for the bagels, etc...Again the taste of teh room service food and selection was good, but service stunk. Ok, I think that's it for the food review.

 

Camp Carnival: Ok yet another disappointment. They lacked the planned activities that were on our last cruise with RCCL. Carnival had a lot of "free play" times where the kids just do what they want, but that led to boredom. The biggest problem was that there was too many "closed" times at Camp Carnival. It really limited us on some things. Everyday at seas they were closed over lunch AND every day were closed for dinner for 2 hours, and some days they had family events that if you didn't want to participate, they were closed for like 4 hours. My daughter enjoyed going to the Camp which is good, and she didn't like that she had to leave for lunch as during port days she got to eat with the counselors and liked that. We gave her the option every day to eat dinner with us and go to islands with us, but she wanted to go to Camp Carnival, so that was good.

 

Ports of Call:

Grand Cayman: skipped due to Hurricane Ike

Roatan: We made our own excursion. We had arranged for Victor Bodden to take us the the Mayan Princess for a cruiser day pass to use their resort. The Mayan Princess was fabulous. We loved their fresh water pool layout, kind of lagoon style, it was awesome. The beach was great too. Oh and the food and drink there is really good. The Bacardi 151 Pina Coladas for only $4 were awesome and so was the Mayan Burger. That thing was HUGE, even had ham & cheese on it. It was great!! Our friend even asked for the Chimichurri sauce recipe and got it, albeit, w/o the measurements.

Belize: Went on the Best by Boat Snorkel tour thru Ecological Tours and we snorkeled the reef, then went and snorkeled with the sting rays and had lunch on Caye Caulker, all in all a great day

Cozumel: We just went ashore and did some shopping and had a couple of 1/2 yard drinks at Senor Frogs.

 

 

Disembarkation: Really easy and smooth, no issues.

 

 

Overall:

 

The Good: Port of Tampa, Beautiful Ship, the Supper Club, great ports of call, the Mayan Princess, nice staterooms

The Bad: limited dining options, too much Camp Carnival down time, room service accuracy, buffet layout, subpar buffet variety and taste, so-so taste of dining room food

The Ugly: the dining room service

 

Final thoughts: Cruises are a lot about the food and this one disappointed. For our first Carnival experience this was a bit subpar. Would we go on Carnival again, probably, but it wouldn't be our first choice based upon our experience. You are supposed to be catered to on a cruise but Carnival let us down on service and food.

 

Well, that's all I have for now. Let me know if you have any questions.

[johnlcruise]

Thanks for taking the time to post about your trip.

Other then the food it sounds like you had a good time.

A cruise is better then a day at work. And you make it what you want it to be.

[Snorkel2Much]

Thanks for sharing your honest impressions about your cruise.

[FMCowboy]

I agree, better than a day of work any time. LOL We did have a good time, just not the "greatest" vacation as we were hoping for. If the service picks up and the food is improved, it would be awesome!

 

FM

[Payd]

Thanks for posting your review

[cuyahoga11]

So sorry you had these issues on a long awaited vacation. I didnt have any problems my first time on the Legend 2 years ago, will see how it is in 2 weeks. Personally I love the layout at the buffet, no long lines because there are so many stations.

[BettyPC]

Thanks for your review. I know what you mean about the buffet - I always wanted something I saw go by on someone else's tray.:rolleyes:

 

I enjoyed the Indian buffet on the Valor a LOT and also enjoyed the choc.

chip cookies on the dessert cart on buffet.

 

Valor room service was fabulous -we did breakfast also - my husband is still wanting someone to bring him coffee & croissants each morning......

 

Appreciate you sharing your thoughts.

[bakechef]

Thanks for your review.

 

It does sound like you got a terrible dining staff. I found the food in the main dining room quite good on my trip a couple of weeks ago.

 

I wouldn't really call the dining options "limited" in comparison to RCI, because even though RCI has Sorrentos, the legend had a pizza station and the pizza was far better than my last RCI cruise(although RCI may have improved it since then). There is no Johnny Rockets, but there is the poolside grill, and the burgers, Chicken tenders etc.. were quite good and you didn't have to pay extra for them (johnny rockets offers the same menu every day). I like the dedicated deli section.

 

When I sailed, the asian station had a different menu every day, as did the rotisserie. The pizza, deli, and salad bar had a set munu every day. I liked the set up of the lido buffet quite a lot, it really kept the lines down. On cruises with the traditional setup like on the RCI Voyager, the line usually stretched out the door. With the broken up setup on the Legend, it usually took me all of 2-3 minutes to cruise all of the lines to read the menu sign, then I would decide what sounded good to me. Granted the buffet food wasn't fantastic by any stretch, but I have found that on most lines that I have been on. Luckily, between the deli's ruebens, the carved meat in the rotisserie, pizza and grill, I had lots of tasty options.

 

MAC

[calicruise74]

limited dining options were disappointing as you really only had the Buffet or the one Dining Room

 

When I read this part of your post, my exact thoughts were what Bakechef posted above....

 

Thank you for your descriptive review. :)

[halos]

Thanks for your review. I'm sorry you weren't 'wowed' and extremely sorry you had poor service in the dining room. I know that makes a big difference. We just had less than stellar service on our first RCI cruise in the dining room. It isn't a big deal but I know how it can leave you feeling disappointed.

PLEASE take the time to write Carnival. It is important that they know everyone's opinion.

 

While I agree that the buffet area is difficult in that everything is spread out, I see that as a problem because there is so much more selection offered. I found that Royal's buffet was easier to manuever because there was far les selection. We've learned to browse the entire buffet, then make a selection before grabbing a tray. ;)

Thanks again for taking the time to post. :)

[Ken076]

Thanks for your sincere review. Suggest you write an equally sincere lteer to Carnival Guest Relations particularly emphasizing the Buffet and the Dining Room Service comments; if nothing else, Carnival seems to have a rep for thorough, friendly Dining room service (that's always been our experience) and this IS something the Company can correct. ken

[Snorkel2Much]

Thanks for your sincere review. Suggest you write an equally sincere lteer to Carnival Guest Relations particularly emphasizing the Buffet and the Dining Room Service comments; if nothing else, Carnival seems to have a rep for thorough, friendly Dining room service (that's always been our experience) and this IS something the Company can correct. ken

+1 on this suggestion. Save time and just copy/paste the relevant section of your review. ;)

[Froufie]

thanks for the review - esp of the Mayan princess as we are hoping to visit here when in Roatan (and will definitely have the pina colada and burger!)

 

I agree that you should definitely write Carnival about the poor service you had in the dining room - there is really no excuse for that and I would hope that in future by the 2nd or 3rd night of such poor service you might want to talk to the maitre d - I would!

[FMCowboy]

Does anyone have the email address for Carnival, so I can do as suggested. I tried their website, but their form only allows 1000 characters which wasn't even enough for the dining room feedback I listed in my post. So I need to find a normal email that I can send them.

 

thanks

[Wennfred]

Thanks for taking your time to write a great review about your cruise, as far as the Waiter, he was totally unsatisfactory by far. You need to write Carnival about this waiter today and mail it out tomorrow because the last thing I need is to land this same person as my waiter on another cruise.

 

This is not the way a Carnival Waiter is suppose to behave. So far I have been so lucky to have only run into one of these types and he was removed from our table on day 3, I guess this waiter had problems with late seating as well and someone said something to the Maitre'D.

 

All thats needed is the name of the ship, booking number, table number and dining time.

 

Write and also call Carnival Guest Relations tomorrow:

 

Guest Relations

Carnival Cruise Lines

Carnival Place

3655 NW 87 Avenue

Miami, Fl. 33178-2428

305-599-2600

 

 

Fred

[FMCowboy]

is there no email for them?

[Snorkel2Much]

is there no email for them?

Tribal knowledge around here says it's usually worth it to snail-mail. :)

[tess2cruz]

Thanks for your review. I'm sorry you weren't 'wowed' and extremely sorry you had poor service in the dining room. I know that makes a big difference. We just had less than stellar service on our first RCI cruise in the dining room. It isn't a big deal but I know how it can leave you feeling disappointed.

PLEASE take the time to write Carnival. It is important that they know everyone's opinion.

 

While I agree that the buffet area is difficult in that everything is spread out, I see that as a problem because there is so much more selection offered. I found that Royal's buffet was easier to manuever because there was far les selection. We've learned to browse the entire buffet, then make a selection before grabbing a tray. ;)

Thanks again for taking the time to post. :)

 

Thanks for your review, I am on the Legend in 2 weeks so I appriciate it. I am a tad confused about something though. If Legend has only 1 Dining room, but are now doing Anytime Dining, how do the do that?? A section of that restaurant is designated for this? So you might still get the same waiter each night? Just curious how it works. I opted for early dining, like having same waiter thingy, but not if he is like yours!!! I am glad you posted this, I will know to say something to the Maitre'd early on in the cruise. I may not have thought to do it otherwise.

 

Funny, on the Pride, sister ship, we had GREAT wait staff in the DR, but wasn't impressed in the supper club. Goes to show, differant ships, differant sailings, differant expericences. I had a bad service experience on RCCL, and even though I wouldn't say I would never sail them, I would not make it my firt choice because of this. Customer service is very important to repeat business that is for sure. Again thanks for the review

[Snorkel2Much]

Thanks for your review, I am on the Legend in 2 weeks so I appriciate it. I am a tad confused about something though. If Legend has only 1 Dining room, but are now doing Anytime Dining, how do the do that?? A section of that restaurant is designated for this? So you might still get the same waiter each night? Just curious how it works. I opted for early dining, like having same waiter thingy, but not if he is like yours!!! I am glad you posted this, I will know to say something to the Maitre'd early on in the cruise. I may not have thought to do it otherwise.

 

Funny, on the Pride, sister ship, we had GREAT wait staff in the DR, but wasn't impressed in the supper club. Goes to show, differant ships, differant sailings, differant expericences. I had a bad service experience on RCCL, and even though I wouldn't say I would never sail them, I would not make it my firt choice because of this. Customer service is very important to repeat business that is for sure. Again thanks for the review

You'll probably be interested in xtntric1 's recent Legend review discussing Open Dining. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=841647