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We just returned from our third Carnival Cruise. This time we did not choose the ship, only the cruise, as it was a special Beach Music Cruise, which involved about 450 guests along with several beach bands & DJ's. I read many reviews, & there were a lot of negatives. However, I feel as though if one looks for only the negatives, that is all you will see. The Legend is one of the older ships, I believe was built in 2002. So, I will mentioned some of the items first that could probably be improved upon: 1). The balcony windows were somewhat dirty, even after they were "cleaned". It did not obstruct our view, but just made it a little fuzzy to look through them. 2). The in-room speakers for overhead announcements did not work, & we would have to open the door to listen. 3). I believe the ship may be up for refurbishing this year, which is good, as various upgrades need to be done~need flat screen TV's in the room & could use the large screen movie projector out front.4). The water slide is kind of out of the way, & it doesn't go into a pool. That could be reworked a little better. 5). I would LOVE for there to be more than 1 plug in!! Next time I will remember & bring an extension. That's essentially all of the negatives for the ship.
I will say that the food was wonderful! We only ate in the dining room once, & chose to utilize the buffet & grills for the rest of the time. Sometimes the food did not look like it would be good, but it always was! There is not one thing I can say about the food! There are enough choices that everyone should be able to find what they like. It was always hot & fresh, or cold & crisp. I will also say that overall the ship was kept very clean. Someone was always right there to take your dirty dishes & wipe everything down. We could see them all throughout the night scrubbing down the grills & cleaning up spills & such. The pools were sparkling.
We only saw one show in the Follies lounge & that was Justin Illusion & it was great! We also did not visit any of the bars/clubs, as we had something special going on with the beach music crowd each evening. The staff was always very attentive & courteous.
We had no trouble at all with embarkation & debarkation. We actually arrived before 12pm, & only waited a few minutes before we were able to go in, & our room was ready! On debarkation, we did the self assist. We docked at 8am, and we were off of the ship by 10am & all went smoothly.
I am not a fan of the tendering process. Unfortunately there is no good answer to this, except to only go to ports that don't require it. I would also say that it is a good idea to do your research about the various ports & what there is to do there~mostly by reading Trip Advisor, so that you at least have a plan, even if you don't do an excursion. If you aren't prepared, you really have no idea which way to go, who to trust, or what to do & you will ramble around.
For future cruises, I will continue to do my research on the ships & ports. I would probably not choose the Legend again, as I have been on more updated ships & did prefer more of what they had to offer & the layout, but otherwise, this was a great cruise & we had a wonderful experience! Carnival is known for it's lesser costs, but I feel that they still give it their all to make sure you are happy, well fed, and have a great time.
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