I've been on ten cruises now, and two stand out as extraordinary. Our trip on Carnival's Legend last week is certainly one of them. And the other was a five-night on RCCL's Navigator of the Seas. Each stands out for different reasons, but for simplicity sake, let's say Navigator stands out for the shear magnificence of the ship itself and the fantastic crew. The Legend trip stands out primarily due to its fantastic itinerary.

Yes, Legend it a wonderful ship. It actually seems much larger than it really is. In fact, it "felt" almost as large as the 139,000 ton Navigator. Our room was what you might expect...a typical balcony room. It was not the essence of luxury, but was certainly more than adequate. I have only one issue with our room. I paid the extra for a balcony so that we might actually be able to use it! This was made virtually impossible by the multitude of people in neighboring cabins that were apparently chain-smokers. We literally spent a grand total of maybe forty-five minutes on our balcony due to the almost constant stench emanating from the surrounding balconies. In fact, I'm seriously considering taking this same cruise again this fall with a group, and if so, will definitely not book a balcony room...shame though.

The food was what I've come to expect. It was extremely plentiful, widely varied, and pretty tasty overall. I loved the layout of the buffet areas, and the separation of buffets based on type of food. It made lunch seem much less like a "cattle call". The dining room is beautiful, and the food is quite good. The thing that stood out the most with regard to dining on this cruise was the Maitre d'. He has a fantastic signing voice, puts on quite a show, and is very engaging. He is the most memorable Maitre d' in my cruise history. Read more