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

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

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

I love the chocolate melting cake....they would bring me 3 a night, lol....

Jeff

(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.

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

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

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(~~~~~)






..

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(~~~~~)






.

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.