Carnival Legend turned out to be a pretty good vacation. Wasn't sure what to expect when we booked with Carnival. Have heard very mixed reviews on them and went in with baited breath. Overall we were very happy with our cruise and would use them again if the right cruise came along. I will give our opinion on the usual categories and you can take it or leave it. We are new cruisers and have only been on RCL "Serenade". These are very similar sized ships and should be very comparable.
-Embarkation took us about an hour due the fact we showed up about the same time as the rest of the ship. We arrived at 11:45 and it was orderly but with the short boarding time they had, it was to be expected.
-Ship itself was in pretty good shape other than some signs of wear and the need for some good window washing and general paint touch ups. Our balcony had some rust and the outside needed some tlc. Interior was in good shape and the decor was a little gaudy and overdone. The bare-breasted artwork in the elevators would not have been appreciated if our 2 young boys were along. It seemed like every square inch of surface was decorated with something. Ship layout was good except for the buffet area. they had multiple stations to try and keep the variety and crowds down, but for some reason there were always lines. The flow of the stations seemed to always clog up areas. The lines usually weren't long lasting but we had almost no lines on the Serenade. Maybe that is fairly normal but we hadn't experienced that yet.