Carnival Legend Review
Above Average Cruise, but Some Room for Improvement
Rating by category
Additional details
This was only the second cruise we've been on having been on a princess cruise in Asia last year. The embarkation process was so much better than out previous experience, it was all so incredibly well organised, as was the disembarkation as well so full marks there.
The ship's decor in the public areas is something else altogether, the first response upon boarding is "Oh My God" .. and not in a good way. To describe the decor as tacky would be to elevate it to a standard beyond that which it deserves. I can't quite figure out if the interior designers were serious about this or were they just taking the mickey?
The food was a pretty average. The buffet for lunch and breakfast had a great selection of salads and fruits but I found the hot food to be quite disappointing, generally overcooked and dry. Dinner in the restaurant was generally okay but not outstanding, the meats tended to be overcooked but we soon learned to order a "rare" stake in order to get one that was cooked to "medium". The choice of desserts was also quite limited both in the restaurant and buffet.
Cabin Review
Extended Balcony
The cabin was superb and thankfully was rather more tastefully decorated than the public areas of the ship. The additional room afforded by the sofa (which converts to a bed for 3 people sharing) made a huge difference. The extended balcony was definitely worth the modest upgrade cost, extra room to stretch out and enjoy the sea air.. the one downside was an inconsiderate passenger from 2 levels up who insisted on cleaning out their beach gear by throwing sand and grid over their balcony, presumably into the sea but with the layout of the ship, most of their rubbish landed on out balcony (and all over me in one case).. sadly there's not much any cruise line can do about people like that,
One thing to bear in mid .. the forward cabins on level 5 are right above the theatre so you will experience the "doof-doof" of the bass and drums when shows are on and during rehearsals, now this would normally not be an issue but unfortunately I was ill for a day and while recuperating in the cabin I had to put up with this through a rehearsal and two shows. Like I said ordinarily it wouldn't have been a big deal but if you expect to spend more time in your cabin you may want to bear this in mind and select one elsewhere.
One other point about balcony cabins .. despite the regulations people DO SMOKE on balconies. On a number of occasions the smell of tobacco was very obvious on the balconies and we witnessed people smoking and did report the transgressors to guest services who acted on it straight away. Unfortunately this impossible to regulate and sadly most smokers seem to possess a distorted sense of entitlement and operate under the belief that the rules somehow don't apply to them.