Let me start my review by saying that I have only cruised 3 times in the past...all on Carnival. I was planning an 11 day cruise with my wife and two children (9 and 11). Everyone I spoke with told me that Royal Carribean was great for kids and was much better than Carnival. So, off I went to book the Legend of the Seas for 11 nights. The highlight of the cruise were the ports of call. We went to Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada, Antigua, Barbados and St. Maarten. All of these ports were amazing and I recommend them to everyone...except on a different ship. I am going to critique the Legend of the Seas according to what area of the ship we used as well as services on board and ports of call.

Cabin- I rented two cabins (with adjoining rooms) as I have two younger children. This ship has very few adjoining rooms so we ended up on the second deck. As we entered the cabin I noticed that the decor was straight from the 1980s (or even 1970s). Stale, old, outdated. The beds were just as old and extremely hard and uncomfortable. We were kept up all night long by a rattling sound....the type of sound you get when you are hearing loose screws. I am quite certain that this was solely due to the age of the finishings. There were certainly enough closets and drawers...it was just that the cabins looked old and stale. The bathrooms were sufficiently clean but, again, old and stale. The hallways also desparately need an upgrade.

Pool area - Once again, this was a let down. The pool area was clean and useable. It just looked and felt outdated. There were also not enough lounge chairs...and this was really important as this particular cruise included 4 days of sailing. It was necessary to wake up early so that we could "reserve" chairs for me and my family. This is simply not acceptable when one is spending $2,500 per person for a cruise. The water in the pool was pure sea water which was so cold that only a few children even used the pool. Those lucky children had the fortune to find dead fish in that sea water. There were two hot tubs next to the pool which were too small to be used by more than 5 adults and the water was not "hot". When I sailed on the Carinval ships, there was always a great vibe at the pool...not so on this ship. During the day, there was a 2 piece band which was God awful. One member of the band was totally tone deaf and the other could only barely hold a tune. It was so difficult to listen to these amateurs, that my wife and I turned on our ipods full blast to drown them out. Once a day there was an excercise class that took place on the pool deck. I have no problem with that, except, that when this class took place, it forced the removal of about 20 of the already scarce deck chairs. I love to watch football. However, I would not have expected to see the big screen of the pool area dedicated to college football every night of the cruise. I would have expected music, food, drink and partying. Instead, a handful of (mostly men) watched football. As I said above, the vibe in the pool area of Carnival was fun. On this ship it was dreary and quiet. Read more