Review: Royal Caribbean - Legend of the Seas - [September 05 , 2004]

[Net Reviews]

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Mexican Riviera (7 Nights) from San Diego, California
Sailing Date: September 5, 2004
Ship: Legend of the Seas
Ports of Call: Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta..

This was our 11th cruise with Royal Caribbean. Our 42nd cruise
overall.

This was our first time aboard the Legend of the Seas. Our first
sailing on RCI since December 3, 2000.when we sailed aboard the
Rhapsody of the Seas. The Legend of the Seas is a medium/large ship at
69,130 tons, but not huge when compared to today's mega-ships.
Although she is now nine years old the ship is overall in very good
shape. Here are our impressions:

Embarking/Disembarking

Check in was the great for Diamond Members; however we did see fairly
long lines for others. All lines were moving quickly. We arrived in
our car following a six hour drive from Las Vegas at 1:15PM. There
were plenty of porters on hand to unload our luggage from the car
trunk. We then drove to a nearby parking lot and left our car.
Returned to the terminal with our hand luggage and moved very quickly
through check-in, security and photo taking and were aboard ship quite
quickly. Total time from the parking lot to the ship we were on board
the ship about 15 minutes. For those parking in San Diego - Lots
charge by the "calendar" day, so you end up paying for eight days for
a one week cruise, a total of $96. They do accept credit cards.

Disembarking was a breeze. We disembarked and were loaded in our car
by 9:05AM.. Because of our Diamond membership, we were in Brown Group
#2, which was called shortly after we enjoyed breakfast in Dining
Room. As mentioned earlier we were in our car by 9:05AM, loaded and
ready to hit the road back to Las Vegas.

Stateroom

We had an ocean view stateroom #2564 on deck 2. The room was clean and
well kept. The stateroom steward did a fine job. Stateroom was about
138 square feet and has enough storage space for clothes for 7 days.
All of our suitcases fit under the bed for storage. We actually had a
couple unused drawers! All cabins have a sitting area and beds that
covert to double configuration. We used the double configuration and
there was not much space left around the bed. Showers were quite
small. Only things provided in the bathroom was soap and a
combination shampoo and conditioner in a wall mounted dispenser. We
felt the stateroom was very nicely decorated with great colors and
very nice artwork, better than most ships.

Food

The two-deck-high dining room has dramatic glass side wall so most
passengers both upstairs and downstairs can see both the ocean and
each other in reflection.. The Legend features only one dining room
with two seatings. We were seated at Table #24 (Main Seating) which
is an oval table for ten but we had only eight people assigned during
this sailing. This table and many more like it were crammed between
two serving stations which made it difficult for the waiters and asst.
waiters to move around the ends of the table. The noise level both
upstairs and downstairs was high and conversation was somewhat
difficult. Food is also available in the Windjammer Cafe & The Grill,
in the Solarium. We ate all evening meals, in the dining room. The
quality and variety of food was excellent. The beef dishes were all
very good. The lobster was excellent. Overall, the food was excellent.
Desserts and breads to me, were great. We ate most breakfasts &
lunches in either the Windjammer Cafe or the Grill. Breakfast was
very good, especially the omelet bar (which is located outside the
Windjammer on the pool deck). Lunch was generally quite nice with
sandwiches, as well as a fine selection of other buffet items
including made-to-order pasta daily, , the hot dogs & burgers from the
Grill were also very good. My only negative comment is that the
multiple serving lines which RCI uses on most of their ships seems to
cause congestion. I am also no fond of the large oval plastic plates
used in place of a tray and smaller dishes. Missed the china used on
Celebrity.

Shows

There were the usual mix of musical revues and guest entertainers. We
enjoy musical production shows and the tw0 presented during the trip
were excellent. The guest entertainers were all quite good.. They also
had the usual audience participation shows (newlywed game, karaoke,
etc). The theater had good sight lines and the seats were comfortable.
Seats tended to fill up early.

Entertainment

The Cruise Director, John Blair, and his staff (which includes his
wife, Katrina) worked really hard and were very friendly & pleasant.
The ship's orchestra was outstanding. Their music was sensational,
and they could play anything from country to rock to Caribbean. The
casino was quite large. However traffic to and from the theater was
forced to walk through very tight isles which became single-file lines
in some spots and created real bottlenecks.
Other

The pool areas were great especially the Solarium area. The exercise
room was more than seemed to be adequate for the amount of use it got.
The ship featured a very nice Internet Café while never seemed crowded
This probably had something to do with the .50 per minute charge!
The gift shops were well stocked and stayed open generally past 10 pm.
The photographers were around the ship but never intrusive.
Announcements over the ships intercom were kept at a minimum.

We enjoyed Lunch with the Captain on the last day at sea. This was a
very special event for Diamond Members of the Captain's Club. I was
seated next to Captain Hakan Lindegren and we had most enjoyable and
informative conversation.

Ports of Call

Since we have visited most of these ports of call we took no shore
excursions. As most of you know Cabo is a tender only port. The ship
docked at the other two ports of call. We simply wandered around on
our own shopping and enjoying the sights and of course taking digital
photos.

Captain's Club

The Diamond Member perks for those who have cruised at least 10 times
with Princess are quite nice, but not quite up to Princess yet. Along
with all the "normal" perks they include robes, two free photos (any
size), two free drinks in souvenir glasses, 40 minutes of free
internet time, and some match play coupons for the Casino Royale.

Passengers

There were a LOT of young children on this sailing. Mostly
pre-schoolers including many tiny, young babies. The demographics of
the passengers on this sailing were quite different than on our other
RCI cruises. More like a Carnival Cruise. This was probably an
effect of the very low pricing used to assure a full ship. These
demographics were not a problem for us, simply a bit of a surprise.
More tattoos, naval rings, spiked hair and motorcycle tee shirts than
I have ever seen on a cruise ship.

Overall

We feel that The Legend of the Seas was an fine "West Coast" cruise
experience and we give it a 8.4 on a scale of 10.