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Cruise Review - Carnival Legend, October 26
It has been a while since I posted a true "cruise review" so this one is
three times as long to make up for the absence. vbg We did a group cruise on the Carnival Legend, October 26 sailing and here are some of the things that happened..... Group Background - The "Sleazy" cruises were actually started when we did a group out of New Orleans and someone said they were going to "get sleazy in the Big Easy". The name stuck and this was the fifth Sleazy group. When Katrina hit New Orleans, the cruise was moved to Galveston... then to Tampa. Somehow, this group and the usual Halloween group got combined when the port changed so this was a Sleazy and a Halloween group cruise. Confused? I don't blame you so I think we won't be doing another Sleazy cruise until we get a good ship doing a 7 night cruise from New Orleans on a regular basis. The Ship - We chose the Carnival Legend for a few reasons... the first being price. We try to do one "bargain" cruise a year and the fares were good on this one. Also, the Carnival Legend was the only Spirit Class ship that we hadn't done a group cruise on. It is my opinion that the Spirit class ships are the best that Carnival has to offer and that entered into the decision, as well as the fact that sailing from Tampa is much preferable to sailing from Miami. The people - 72 group members from all over the US, Canada and one couple from England. About 20 people were new to group cruising. This was the first cruise for 12 people. The weather - What can I say... it sucked. We had 40+ mph winds a couple of nights and moderately heaving seas the entire week. Barf bags were taped to the walls in strategic locations on most nights. Intermittent rain throughout the week including what I can only describe as a deluge while we were in Roatan. The Hotel - We arrived in Tampa the afternoon before the cruise and about 50 of our group stayed at the Holiday Inn Express at Rocky Point. We were quoted "group rates" of $119 per night, but about 3 weeks before the cruise, the HI lowered their online booking rate to $72 a night. When they didn't want to change the group rates, I advised people to cancel their group booking and re-book at the online rates. Most people did. (The hotel management wasn't pleased... too bad). The Holiday Inn Express is a good pre-cruise hotel. Depending on your room rate, they will include transfers to the ship or if you get the cheap rate, they will arrange transfers for $10 pp one-way. If you are driving, they also have a rate that will include parking during the cruise and r/t transfers. The hotel is in good shape, clean and pretty efficient. Free internet, free breakfast buffet. It was a good deal at $119... it was an outstanding deal at $72. Port of Tampa - Unlike places like Miami, it is a pleasure to cruise out of Tampa. We drove to the cruise terminal and dropped off our bags, drove across the street and parked the car in the parking garage. Entering the terminal, we saw the Carnival VIP Check-In sign and went to that area where after a wait of about 3 minutes, were escorted to a check-in desk. Handed them our passports, FunPass and a credit card and within 5 minutes we were holding our Platinum Sail and Sign cards and boarding the ship. The Cruise............... I liked the Carnival Legend. The decor isn't as "over the top" as some of Farcus' other designs. In fact, with the stained glass and medieval themes throughout the ship, a few mentioned that it was almost like being in a cathedral. OK... so maybe that is an overstatement, but compared to other Carnival ships, the decor on the Legend is pretty muted. At the last minute, we were moved to cabin 5238... a category 7A, obstructed view, balcony, handicapped accessible cabin. OK... so it was an improvement from what we had booked, but this cabin has problems. First, it is right next to a major staging area for the cabin stewards. All cleaning supplies, carts, laundry, vacuums, etc were stored and worked on in the space next to this cabin. The banging started every morning around 5 AM. The balcony is about 30 feet long... but only about 3 feet deep. Sitting with a chair facing the ocean is pretty much impossible. Plus, the lip over the threshold to the balcony is VERY high.... too high for a wheelchair. You have to be ambulatory to use this balcony. Other than that, the cabin was spacious and clean and the cabin steward did an excellent job. The bathroom was a roll-in with no lips so it would be fully accessible for someone in a wheelchair. KUDOS TO CARNIVAL - the cabin has numerous "panic buttons" that alert the Purser's desk if you have an emergency. One of these switches is positioned right over the headboard and one night at 3 AM, I accidentally hit it. An alarm went off and the phone started ringing. By the time I found my glasses, got out of bed and over to the phone it had stopped ringing, but the alarm was flashing. Then comes the knock on the door. I opened it to find a ship's officer and a crew member asking me if I needed assistance. I told them what had happened and that I was unaware of how to turn the alarm off. They were great about this, showed me the reset button (duh!) and left. The remarkable thing about this is that from the time I accidentally set off the alarm to the time they knocked on the door, less than 2 minutes had passed. If this had been a real emergency, it was very reassuring to know that the response time is so fast. Needless to say, I was paranoid the rest of the cruise about not hitting the button. ENTERTAINMENT - I was surprised and disappointed with the production shows. The first one had a Jazz theme and the only memorable songs were "It's Raining Men" and a Sonny and Cher number.... neither of which had anything to do with Jazz. The singers were just average, the dancers and the band looked like they were just phoning it in. I'm not sure what is going on, but there must be a shortage of dance tights because many of the dancer's tights were either ripped or showed signs of having been mended. Very strange. One bright note during the week was a comedian named Thomas Brown http://www.thomasbrown.com His "adult" set was one of the best comedy shows I have ever seen on a cruise ship. FOOD - Ok... a few years ago when I said that Carnival has the best food of any mass-market cruise line, people scoffed. They aren't scoffing any more. While not every dish is a masterpiece, Carnival does a real good job, both in the dining room and in the buffets. Plusses: The Deli still serves the best corned beef and pastrami on the seven seas. Even people from NY and New Jersey where Deli can be an art form are usually impressed. I don't know how Carnival consistently serves the best Prime Rib, but they do. It was on the menu twice and you could cut it with a fork both times. Chocolate Melting Cake. Every Night. A new dish (for me) was Braised Short Ribs... again, fork tender. Misses - Carnival has a new "Flat Iron Steak" that is available every night. Two people in our group would have needed a chain saw to cut theirs... but some of the others were pretty good including the one time I ordered it. Some of the desserts looked better than they tasted. HINT - the Children's menu lists a banana split for dessert every night... and you don't have to be a kid to order it. Carnival keeps adding new dishes to their menu, trying new things. Special requests - I am gluten intolerant (shouldn't have anything with wheat - especially white flour). Every night the Assistant Waiter brought me a plate of gluten-free bread. Other people at the table had dietary needs and each night the assistant Maitre 'd came over and discussed the next night's menu. Very agreeable to needs and requests. NORLANDER BREAD - ??? On the breakfast buffet every morning was something called Norlander Bread. As far as I could tell, it was made with all kinds of whole grains and seeds (and maybe tree bark for all I know) but it was dark, chewy and delicious. I tried a piece one morning and when it didn't bother me, I enjoyed it the rest of the week. It was so good that the Assistant Waiter started bringing it to our table every night. If you are on a Carnival ship and like good bread, look for this. Service - Fast check-in, excellent cabin and table service. People with Platinum status get free "wash and fold" laundry service and anything we turned in was returned the next day. I ordered room service one night and a Reuben sandwich and salad was delivered in 10 minutes. Hot, freshly made. Disembarkation - Again, a Platinum perk is early disembarkation. We did the "walk-off" thing, met in a lounge at 7:15 AM and by 7:30 were through customs and at our car. The Customs office in Miami should send their people to Tampa for some training in how to move people quickly while being polite and friendly. The Customs man who looked at my passport and took my declaration smiled and said "Welcome home, Mr. Leppla... have a safe trip.". Conclusion - In spite of the weather, it was a great cruise. The group met, splintered, re-formed, splintered again... you get the idea. We had a Halloween Party that was a lot of fun but mostly, it was just the opportunity to sail with friends that made it great. Carnival provided us with what I feel was an excellent value for the money we paid and the feedback I have gotten from group members has been uniformly good. It was a whole lot of fun! George Leppla http://www.CruiseMaster.com Feb. 8, 2009 Solstice Valentine http://www.cruisemaster.com/solstice.htm May 10, 2009 ALASKA http://www.cruisemaster.com/moagc4.htm October 16, 2010 OASIS http://www.motherofallgroupcruises.com |
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Cruise Review - Carnival Legend, October 26
Great review George!
sometimes the ones that are less expensive are more fun and Hey I can have fun in a mud puddle so no matter the weather..... I think the carnival food is pretty good too a great Buffet and wonderful pizza... Deli is great... and I am not a big Carnival sailer... My DSM from this area Kim G just got a promo and losing her here and guess where she is going? TAMPA . She will head that cruise port! Yoru in for a treat she is wonderful! Glad you made it home safe too. and I am not even going to ask about the 3 AM hitting the headboard remark hahahahahaha |
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Cruise Review - Carnival Legend, October 26
My September cruise on the Legend was my 4th on Carnival and the only
Carnival cruise that I felt truly comfortable on. The other Carnival ships I had been on were garish and glitzy, which is not my taste. I attributed my dislike partially to the fact the first 3 were short cruises and the Legend was a 7 day cruise. I enjoyed your review, George and agree with you about Tampa. I only wish we had a little more variety on cruise lines there. I will be on B2B on the RCI Grandeur in December out of Tampa. Nice for us since we are only about 50 miles from the port. ~~DORIS~~ **________*/*/___/*/___/*/_________ *\::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::/ *~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RCCL Grandeur 12-8-22, 2008 Oceania Regatta 2-25-2009 Tahitian Princess 6-25-2009 http://community.webtv.net/DorisIs/AROUNDTHEHORN |
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Cruise Review - Carnival Legend, October 26
I love the chocolate melting cake....they would bring me 3 a night, lol....
Jeff |
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Cruise Review - Carnival Legend, October 26
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Cruise Review - Carnival Legend, October 26
George Leppla wrote: The weather - What can I say... it sucked. We had 40+ mph winds a couple of nights and moderately heaving seas the entire week. Barf bags were taped to the walls in strategic locations on most nights. Intermittent rain throughout the week including what I can only describe as a deluge while we were in Roatan. The weather was the worst we ever had, but our group still had a very good time. If Kevin and I had been traveling alone, it would not of been as much fun. I really felt sorry for any newbies on the ship. The balcony is about 30 feet long... but only about 3 feet deep. Sitting with a chair facing the ocean is pretty much impossible. Plus, the lip over the threshold to the balcony is VERY high.... too high for a wheelchair. You have to be ambulatory to use this balcony. On the Infinity the cabin next to ours was a handicapped cabin and they had a ramp they could use to access the balcony. I would hope that Carnival would also have a ramp available. Special requests - I am gluten intolerant (shouldn't have anything with wheat - especially white flour). Every night the Assistant Waiter brought me a plate of gluten-free bread. Other people at the table had dietary needs and each night the assistant Maitre 'd came over and discussed the next night's menu. Very agreeable to needs and requests. Oana the social hostess(according to her name tag) took excellent care of Kevin, I think better then on any previous cruise. Kevin wanted veal parmesean, but it normally has flour and bread crumbs that he can't have. Oana had them make it for him without the flour and bread crumbs and Kevin said it was very good. NORLANDER BREAD - ??? On the breakfast buffet every morning was something called Norlander Bread. As far as I could tell, it was made with all kinds of whole grains and seeds (and maybe tree bark for all I know) but it was dark, chewy and delicious. Kevin asked what Norlander bread was made from and wasn't sure it was ok for him or not. Five or ten minutles later without being asked, Oana came back with all the ingredient written on her pad for Kevin. I hope to write a review of my own soon, but we are both sick right now. Kevin has a sinus infections and cough and I have a lousy head cold. We will also have pictures to post once we both feel better. George, thanks for another great group cruise!! sue |
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Cruise Review - Carnival Legend, October 26
Jeff Gersten wrote: (Jeff) wrote: I love the chocolate melting cake....they would bring me 3 a night, lol.... Jeff From another Jeff, I agree about chocolate melting cake; I thought it was the best thing about our only Carnival cruise. I guess Halifax was pretty good too. Our group of friends were the only thing better then the chocolate melting cake........yum!! sue |
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Cruise Review - Carnival Legend, October 26
SUE;
Join the group,we also caught colds on our cruise,this was the first cruise i can honestly say was the worse,they kept the show room so cold everyone had coats and sweaters on,the beds were like sleeping on wooden boards,and the pillows were hard and lumpy. Did not get a good nights sleep for 14 nights until we came home to our own comfortable bed. going to post more later cruise lover(~~~~~) .. |
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Cruise Review - Carnival Legend, October 26
Kevin caught his when he went back to work, everyone in his office was
sick. I of course caught it from him. Sorry you didn't have a good cruise. sue Surfer E2468 wrote: SUE; Join the group,we also caught colds on our cruise,this was the first cruise i can honestly say was the worse,they kept the show room so cold everyone had coats and sweaters on,the beds were like sleeping on wooden boards,and the pillows were hard and lumpy. Did not get a good nights sleep for 14 nights until we came home to our own comfortable bed. going to post more later cruise lover(~~~~~) . |
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Cruise Review - Carnival Legend, October 26
On Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:22:40 GMT, Jeff
wrote: I love the chocolate melting cake....they would bring me 3 a night, lol.... Jeff How was your CMC on your cruise? On the Freedom last January, the "doneness" of the cake varied from night to night. On some nights, there was more cake than melting. Still good though, and the kids really didn't notice. -- Neal Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. |
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