Max Apo

Age: 24
Occupation: Television Producer
Number of Cruises: 3
Cruise Line: Carnival
Ship: Legend
Sailing Date: February 23rd, 2005
Itinerary: Southern Caribbean

My girlfriend and I just returned from a fabulous cruise on the Legend. It was our second cruise on carnival (Triumph 2003) and I have to say it was even better than we imagined. Since we both work in the television industry we can not plan our vacation months in advance. We called our travel agent (cruisetravel) just days before the cruise and they did a wonderful job.

Our trip started in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) were we travelled on Martinair, the second big airliner in our country. We arrived in Miami one day before the cruise and had booked a hotel in Fort Lauderdale called the Sheraton Yankee Clipper Hotel. We would not recommend this hotel to anyone.

One of the beds in our room was soaking wet, there was dust everywhere in the bathroom and the air-conditioning made a horrible sound. We were not pleased with the way the front desk handled the problem. Since this is a review of the cruise we will not go in to the details of our stay at this hotel.

Embarkation Day

After having a great breakfast in the hotel, we spent some time next to pool and walked around the beach for a while. We took a cab from the hotel together with two fellow passengers who came from Canada. The trip was only $5.00 each so that was relatively cheap. We arrived at the port around noon and where shocked by the long line of passengers waiting. The man who took our baggage was very helpful and since we had a 8a guarantee cabin he gave us our cabin number. We joined the other waiting passengers and after the line started to move it went rather quick. We boarded the ship and where amazed by the beauty and elegance of the decorations. It was far more classy than the Triumph. Since we had to wait for a few hours to check our cabin, we toured the ship. We went to the main dining room and checked our seating arrangements. Since we went on a romantic cruise we asked the assistant Maitre D’ for a smaller table. They rearranged us to a intimate table on the balcony and made us extremely happy we enjoyed this the rest of the cruise. After that we had a great lunch on the lido deck and enjoyed the view and the warm temperature. As soon as we could go to our cabin we went down to deck 8 and checked out our balcony stateroom.

Cabin
We had cabin 8101 and it was great, our room had a great view and we could even see the interior of the bridge from our balcony. The decoration of the cabin was good, it was clean and the use of wood and glass made it also very elegant. The bathroom was well equipped with lots of storage space and a nice shower. It’s a pity carnival uses a blue plastic for the sink this was the only thing that made it look just a little cheap. We used our balcony a lot during sea days to read a book or just to look out over the sea. If your budget allows you to book a balcony stateroom it is really worth the extra money

The Ship
As said the legend is really an elegant ship and although the exterior looks very star trek the interior is very chic. Carnival used a lot of nice artwork, glass and wood that makes the ship look and feel like a real ship instead of a Las Vegas Hotel. Before taking our cruise on the legend we checked a few reviews on the internet. There were some people complaining about art with nudity. We laughed about those comments because we could not find anything. Maybe because we are young or maybe because we are from the Netherlands we can’t imagine anyone feeling offended by the theme of drawings on the ship. The lobby was nice, the truffles dining room always looked pretty. The only things that caught our attention were the doors to the kitchen always being open and revealing the stainless steel interior with nasty lighting. Also the green lighting in parts of the ship was not very elegant. The theatre was very beautiful and we loved sitting there. Most of the other bars were nice as well and so was Medusa’s Lair the disco.

Food
We remembered our food on the triumph to be surprisingly good with lots of flavour and incredible variety. On the Legend we were a little disappointed about the quality of the food in the main dining room. Although the plates all looked wonderful the taste was not always as good as the presentation. Pasta overcooked, soup already a little cold, medium steaks were more than well done etc.

The desserts also looked great but tasted rather…..uhm….simple. On the other hand the waiting staff was very nice and we met our waiter from our previous cruise on the lido dek. Maria was still as charming and hard working as on our last cruise. According to my girlfriend and me she was the sweetest on the ship. The food in the unicorn café was great especially the Asian section and the pizzeria. They were visited frequently by us. The grill restaurant with French fries always made great tasting burgers and chicken breasts.

Days at Sea
Although we are young we did not participate in any of the activities. We relaxed in the sun, enjoyed the wonderful and every day surprising lunch in the unicorn café. We read a lot of books and almost always found enough lounge chairs to relax on. On sea days there was a special Sunday ice-cream buffet on the lido deck. Although the ice-cream itself was a little grainy the toppings were great. During the evenings we had a lot of fun at the comedy shows, we looked forward to seeing them every evening there was one. Also our cruise director Brent was very nice. On the ship there were a lot of things to do and the shops also had nice clothing, cigars and other stuff. The only thing that we found rather strange was a Christmas tree still standing in one of the shops.

St.Maarten/St.Martin
Our favorite port on this cruise and because we are Dutch it was fun to speak in our own language while being so far from home. We took the water taxi to the centre of town where the majority of the shops were. We did some shopping and found great real looking designer bags for a great price. (not that we bought any ofcourse……lol) We took a Dutch speaking cabdriver who showed us around the island and found the French side very beautiful and elegant but the Dutch side more cosy.

The rest of the shops had either jewels or electronic equipment. We went to a small beach but returned to the ship a little later to relax there.

Barbados
We arrived in a industrial part of the port. Almost everything was closed except at the cruise terminal. We did not book a tour through the ship and again hired a cab to show us around. We went to the Barbados caves and were amazed by its beauty. We looked at the luxury part of the island and also had a glimpse of the less fortunate inhabitants. It was a nice trip and we had a lot of fun looking around. Pity almost everything was closed.

Martinique
A beautiful Island with great nature and parks. We again had the taxi and got to see a lot of the Island. Although we did not like the people a lot the nature was overwhelming. We went to a natural park and had a great time exploring the botanical gardens. Since we speak a little French and brought our Euro’s we had no problem exploring the centre and sightseeing the island.

We had a great holiday and would cruise on carnival again. Actually I can’t wait to get back on a ship.

If you are looking for a cruise on a fun ship that has a nice and calm atmosphere with extremely nice people we would recommend choosing the legend.

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