Christmas at sea
Written: Jan 17 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great ship, great crew, the Panama Canal
Cons: Nothing really. Food was middle of the road, but was as we expected.
The Bottom Line: Probably not the best ship for families with children. Great trip for adults and seniors.
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| dalepar's Full Review: Royal Caribbean Legend of the Seas |
This was my first cruise, so I will give you my viewpoint as a novice. I have read all of the reviews for the Legend, and many others for other ships, so have some idea of the likes and dislikes even very experienced cruisers have. I will try to address some of those points. I am not going to go into detail about the ports of call, as that is really a destination review.
ITINERARY: This was a 2 week Panama Canal cruise leaving San Diego on December 12, 2004.
Day 1 Depart San Diego 8PM
Day 2 At sea
Day 3 Cabo San Lucas, Mexico 9AM to 6PM
Day 4 At sea
Day 5 Acapulco, Mexico 8AM to 9PM
Day 6 Huatulco, Mexico 10AM to 5PM
Day 7 At sea
Day 8 Puntarenas, Costa Rica 7AM to 7PM
Day 9 At sea
Day 10 Panama Canal, Cristobal Pier, Panama 6PM to 11PM
Day 11 At sea
Day 12 Oranjestad, Aruba 8AM to 1AM next day
Day 13 At sea (This was Christmas Day)
Day 14 Arrive Ft. Lauderdale 8:30AM
The Panama Canal was something I have always wanted to do, and did want to do the entire transit. That and Christmas at sea is what sold us on this trip. The canal was an awesome day.
DEPARTURE: This cruise is usually scheduled to depart at 5PM, but for whatever reason, we were scheduled for 8PM. We went to San Diego a day early. We live in Denver, and I certainly did not want to be stressed in case of flight delays by flying to San Diego on the day of departure. We had lunch and browsed around in San Diego with a friend there. We really did not need to hurry to the ship with an 8PM departure. We were told we could board after 4PM, but did not go to the ship until about 5PM. Boarding was a breeze. Absolutely NO lines at any of the check in points. We were greeted by a very friendly staff, and exploring our cabin in a matter of minutes. We knew our bags would take a while, so dropped off our carry ons and went exploring. Bags did take a good while to get to the room, but that is to be expected. We did not depart until after 10PM, but that is no big deal.
OUR CABIN: Many people who write reviews talk about getting a bargain or wanting to save some money. We do not have a huge amount of vacation time to travel every year, so we really want to be comfortable and happy during our trips. We opted for the junior suite. It was well worth the extra money when you consider that this was a two week cruise. We had ample sitting area and a very nice balcony with room for two chairs, a table, and two chaises. I would not want any less room for that amount of time, but each person should make their choice as to how to spend their money. The cabin was kept perfectly clean and ice supplied twice daily, etc.. Our room steward always asked if everything was okay and if we needed anything more any time we saw her.
THE SHIP: As we all know, the Legend is not a very new ship. I was amazed at how well maintained and clean it is kept. Maintenance was going on every day, but did not interfere with passengers. An example was the painters working, yet they only blocked off small areas of where they were painting. Cleaning was ongoing, and the ship was spotless. I like the size of the Legend. It is not too big. It has a capacity of slightly over 2,000. We were told that there were 1,800+ people on our trip. That was not a problem as there is enough room and enough to do that the only time it felt crowded was at peak breakfast and lunch times in the buffet.
The spa and gym were adequate in size for most times. The gym got a little crowded on the one day of bad wind that we had. Everyone wanted to be indoors. The indoor pool was popular, but did not appeal to me. I was air conditioned, but still seemed hot and humid in there for me. The outdoor pool was busy, but chairs were always available. I am sure that a younger crown would have used them up, but many people were in the shady areas. The chairs would be in shorter supply in the late morning, but as the day got hotter, more people moved to the shade. The lounges, bars, shops, theaters, etc. were all more than adequate for the crowd. There was always somewhere more secluded to relax or have a drink if that is what you wanted. The buffet area is poorly designed (more later on that) and not enough tables available during the rush times. The centrum and the main dining room are very beautiful. The decorations for Christmas were being added to every day for the first few days, and really were great.
THE CROWD: Being that this was a two week cruise and started while most schools were still in session, the crowd was expected to be an older crowd. This was very true, and at 55, I was not really in the middle of the age chart. I was actually surprised at the number of families on board, even though it was a very small number. A few families with teen agers and a few families with toddlers. There was a large group from Mexico that had older family members and about 12 younger people that seemed to be about 19 or 20 years old. They were great fun to see and be around. Overall, the kids were busy and we did not see them much. It was a very diverse crowd, with people from many different countries. It really made it fun to visit with people from Italy, Ireland, France, Canada, etc. The crowd was exactly what I would want, as we are not kid people.
THE FOOD: Royal Caribbean is not known for EXCELLENT food, but everything was fine. We would go to breakfast buffet, and it was very much the same every day. It was good and had enough variety to please anyone and did not seem the same if you ate something different each day. As we did not really want a big breakfast, we started going to the buffet and getting one plate of fruit, pastries, cereal, or whatever and some coffee. We would take this back to the room and enjoy on our balcony. Could have ordered room service, but this was fast and easy and we did not have to name a time on the preorder form or wait after we had ordered. The lunch buffet was bland and rather boring, but was okay. One day the outdoor buffet had Mexican food that was really pretty good. We are not big eaters, so unlike many on a cruise, we were not obsessed about the food. The biggest problem in the main buffet is the traffic flow is terrible. To get your beverage was a separate area with people milling around and hard to get up to. The buzz on board was that this room would be remodeled next time in dry dock. There was a group measuring the room and making designs on the last day.
There is a real shortage of tables during peak breakfast and lunch. We solved this by not going to lunch until a little later, or just have a burger, etc. As with all cruised, there is food available at all times. The burger, pizza bar in the atrium was a little slow, but not bad. They made a good burger there! Other food was always available from afternoon snack buffet to cookies, ice cream, etc.
We had the second dinner seating at 8PM, which was what we wanted. Many people, especially the older ones really prefer the early seating. We were placed at a table of eight persons. We were VERY lucky in that everyone at our table was a true delight to have dinner with every night. We had some others tell us some stories of the rude, crabby, whatever dinner partners they had been assigned. By the end of the first week, many had been moved around to get a more congenial group. Our group was great fun and aged from 49 to 87. Dinner was always very good, but not real outstanding. Formal nights were of course the best meals. Christmas eve we had an excellent prime rib, and requested a lobster tail to share between us also. It was brought as requested and was very good. Anything not to your liking was replaced promptly. The portions were not real large, but as each evening included appetizers and desserts, we did not leave hungry. The service in the dining room was excellent, with each person who served us remembering all of our wants and needs. The cocktail lady remembered how we liked our drinks made after being told only once. The dining staff was very entertaining, and would sing, dance, joke with us every evening. Several of the evenings the entire staff would sing and entertain the whole room at once. We really looked forward to going to dinner.
Early appetizers and late snacks were available in the bar areas, but we did not eat any of them. They did look good.
SMOKING: I am always amazed that some reviewers will say that wherever they went it was TOO smoky. But that is their prerogative. Smoking on the Legend is allowed on the outside areas only on the starboard side. If you want to leave the dining room and then smoke, you must go outside starboard. Same is true at the pool, you must go to the far starboard side of the pool area. The bars have a smoking area, and the one that seemed to be a problem was the Schooner Bar. It is really too small to even allow smoking at all. The Viking Crown lounge is large and did allow cigar smoking in one area. It was a little strong if you went near that area, but was separated enough that is was not bad most of the time. The casino had a non smoking area, but it seemed rather small. Smoking in the casino was rather a hit and miss problem. Sometimes there was no one smoking, and the next time one or two smokers seemed to really fill the air with smoke. The Anchors Aweigh lounge did allow smoking on the starboard side and at the bar, but we very rarely saw anyone smoking there. My partner and I both smoke, but we are very considerate. Seemed most people on board who did smoke were very considerate and we usually stepped outside even if we were in a smoking area inside. I did not smoke in the casino as it seems a little too cramped. One couple we met even commented about being comfortable with the smoking on board even though they are very sensitive to it.
CHARGE ACCOUNT: When I read other reviews, many people are surprised at the quick rate they can rack up charges to their account. Well, you are not forced to spend that money, but be prepared to spend what you will be comfortable with. The photographers soon realized that we were not interested, and left us alone the rest of the trip. Drinks in the bars can be very expensive. The Viking Crown lounge did have good prices for a happy hour every day. We would also check for drink specials in the other bars. The Schooner Bar always had a martini special that suited us perfectly. Liquor can be purchased on board, but if you want to take it to your cabin, there is a $10 per bottle fee for onboard consumption. That still worked out cheaper than buying very many drinks at the bar as the on board prices for bottled liquor are duty free. Even with the $10 charge, the bottles were about what we would pay for a bottle at home. You are not allowed to bring liquor on board at the ports. It will be taken from you and returned to you the last day of the cruise. I am not sure, but I think you could bring on a small amount of wine when in port. Some people we talked to had brought a small amount of wine on board and were not bothered. The other items in the ship's shops were not a real bargain but they had sales going on that were not bad. We did buy some sweat shirts and tee shirts on sale that were very nice quality and not a bad price. Bingo is fun and a great way to be entertained, but it can add up to a fair amount of money. It costs $35 to buy in for five bingo games and you get six cards for each game. We put our tips on the account and bought anything else we felt we wanted and it came to $100 per day for the two of us. That was exactly where I thought it should be.
SHORE EXCURSIONS: We only bought one shore excursion (actually bought two, but one was canceled) and it was fine. You can usually do better by just getting a taxi or bus when you go ashore. This is optional and you should consider how important that port and the things to see are to you.
CASINO: The casino is small and was not really ever very busy on our trip. Maybe it was busier while we were at dinner each evening. We enjoy casinos, but that was not a real interest with so much else to do. I made $175 profit the first night out, so only spent that when I would go back to the casino. I came out even on the casino gambling.
SHOWS: The shows were fun and cute, but not something you would do if you had to pay extra for them. The Christmas eve show was great with the staff doing Christmas songs and Santa Claus and all. I don't do movies, but my partner did enjoy some afternoon movies. It was hot in the afternoons, so a movie was a great place to be.
DISEMBARKING: Everyone says this is always the bad part of the trip. Well, they are right. We pulled into FT. Lauderdale on December 26, 2004. It was a very busy day there for cruise ships. We did not get a cruise pier, but were put in at the freight docks. They had a bunch of busses waiting there early to take us to a customs set up at the convention center. That sounded reasonable. We were to be out of our cabin by 7AM. We actually left ours at more like 7:30AM and went for some breakfast. Well, they kept announcing that we would start the immigration clearing and start disembarking soon. Well it did not happen soon. We walked off of the ship at 12:25 and still had to take the bus to customs. The persons with early flights did not start disembarking until 11:30. We sat around and drank coffee all morning and many people missed flights due to the delay. The reason given was that customs was so busy and had set up a temporary site for us and some other ships, but did not have enough people to clear us through. They also had to bring motorcycle police to escort the busses as we had not cleared customs yet. I can not imagine that RC is to blame for the delay in getting us off the ship. After all, the ship was due to sail at 5PM and they sure didn't want us in the way. We had a mid afternoon flight, so we were fine as to getting to the airport. Getting our flights and connections home was another story. Don't get me started!!
OVERALL IMPRESSION: Royal Caribbean and the Legend of the Sea both lived up to any expectations we had. The ship is beautiful, not too large, and very well maintained. The crew is unbelievable. Everyone we encountered would remember us the entire trip, and always ask how we were doing and how we were enjoying our day. Every member of the staff was friendly and eager to make sure everything was going well. We are already booking for next fall on RC.
I rarely give a five star rating. Things have to be above my expectations to get that, but I give the Legend five stars.
I think I rambled on a bit here. I am anxious to here from some seasoned cruisers as to my impressions of cruising.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dalepar
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Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
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