Let me start by saying that I have always been a Carnival fan, and started sailing on their ships 24 years ago. We have sailed on other cruise lines, and always end up coming back to Carnival. That being said, we are now seriously considering switching our allegiance after the disappointing experiences of this cruise.

This was a repositioning cruise, Carnival was switching the Legend from sailing Australia to Alaska cruises. My honest opinion is that cruising Hawaii was a last-minute thought which was merely a way to cover the expense of moving the ship. We flew to Honolulu, boarded the ship, sailed around the islands for six days, then had five days at sea sailing to Vancouver, B.C.

The bad experience started with embarkation, which was a nightmare. The ship was spending two days in Honolulu, with no excursions on the first day. A number of our fellow Cruise Critic members took advantage of this to book a luau, which was picking them up at the dock at 3:30 that day. Although I really wanted to go to a luau, our plane wasn't landing until 1:15 p.m., and I was afraid we would be too tired (we were dealing with a six-hour time change). Instead, we planned to board the ship, drop off our carry-ons, and walk the few blocks over to Chinatown, where I wanted to obtain a flower lei. The Carnival representative who met us at the airport said we would be given flower leis at the pier. That was a lie. In fact, there were no flower leis for sale anywhere on or around the ship during the entire cruise. Read more