Seven nights on the CCL Legend, western Caribbean.
 

We were in Clearwater for a wedding and decided to book a cruise as Tampa is so close so upon checking availability for the time we were there we chose the Legend for its itinerary. This was our 3rd. CCL cruise and 11th. overall.

Embarkation was a breeze. We got to the ship around 1130 from the Sunday farewell brunch after the wedding ad were in our room w/i ten minutes. Our cabin was open and was not quite ready but we locked up our valuables in the safe and took off.

To backtrack a little my first impression of the ship came from seeing the the atrium and I must say it was weird. The legend theme was ancient Greece with a huge mural of the Collosus of Rhodes which was sort of hidden really. There was a repeating pattern of about 5 ft. tall Grecian urns surrounded framed by dark wood which was in rows and columns all the way up to the top floors. The urns formed the railings and the bar stools as well and there were two overhangs into the atrium thus giving the feeling of it being closed off and dark, not like a true atrium which is open and bright. There had to be at least 150 urns in the atrium. In other parts of the ship there was wallpaper which looked like it was themed to ancient Egypt and in other places it was Medieval and even had one scene of what looked like Romeo courting Juliet on her balcony. Well I guess Joe Farcus had it all covered. :D. For me sorry to say but it was sort of a mess.

The public areas were clean and well kept. Our balcony had a few rust stops and some peeling paing but its an older ship and this was a non issue for us.

The service overall was very good. Our cabin attendant kept our room spotless, we had a towel animal every night and on the last night he made a towel into an airplane which was pretty cute.

Our waiters were great and I had no issues with them at all. The service in the MDR for breakfast was very good and I must say the coffee has improved. In the Unicorn cafe there are some machines that grind your coffee freshly into your cup. I enjoyed this especially.

The food in the MDR for dinner was just fine. My wife ordered Indian food as usual and we had a rocky start to our cruise in this regard but the chef was gracious enough to speak to us and we got it fixed and my wife really enjoyed her Indian food.

Lunch in the Unicorn was just OK. On our last cruise on the X Equinox the MDR lunch was the best we have had so in comparison the Legends offerings were disappointing. The sandwiches were pretty good but the pizza was just fair. Anyway we usually had salad for lunch so it did not bother us. I did see the fellow at the salad bar use his bare hand (YIKES!) to toss cheese cubes onto the cheese platter. I did find a supervisor and told him. He seemed totally aghast, told another worker to remove all the cheese from the salad bar and made a bee line to find this guy. I hope he did not get in trouble but this is a major violation and he needs to know proper food handling procedures.

The shows were pretty good. Their performers did shows themed to motown, epic rock, the disco era and the British invasion and we enjoyed it. They were very energetic.

They had a magician named, Ha ha, Justin Illusion and we were wowed by his performance.

I must say their tendering procedure was pretty easy. On the Equinox we had to line up the day before for tender tickets but CCL has you get the sticker as you are ready to leave and it worked very well. In Grand Cayman we did not even need stickers. We just got off when we felt like it and it did not take long at all.

The port were ok. We did like Cozumel and Grand Cayman the best as there is more to see and do. As for Roatan and Belize we stuck to the shops by the ports. We did go out into Belize City but felt it unsafe and went right back to the main port shops.

As usual I must have a local brew in every port and did so again. :D. For me the best local beer was Caybrew in GC.

We self disembarked and though we are not CCL Platinum we explained we had an early flight and we were allowed to leave with the Platinum crowd so it was very easy.

Interestingly our limo was not allowed to park by the taxis. He had to go across the street to a parking structure where we had to shlep our bags to him. I don't know why they do it this way but it was not a major issue.

Overall we had a very nice time and would go on CCL again but not on the Legend. Just did not like the decor of the ship. I would love to try one of the new CCL ships like the Dream or the Breeze however.

Any questions please ask.

Larry. :-)

I know you are talking about <B>R</B>CCL

Nope.

Nice report. Thanks for taking time to write it up. Like how you described the decor.

Glad you liked it Sass. It sure wasn't as nice as your last cruise ship! :S-

Hi. I just found this review. I'm glad you had a nice time on Carnival. I know it's a more inexpensive line, but if you have the right attitude and keep your expectations realistic, you can have a lot of fun on their ships.

I saw pictures of the urn design on the Legend and I also wondered what were they thinking. If you go on Carnival, the Liberty had more subdued design.

What did you do in Cozumel and Grand Cayman? I liked reading about your cruise because I'm so excited because we'll be going on a Princess cruise in July 2014. I can't wait.

Where are you going on your Princess cruise?

BTW CCL fired Joe Farcus whose was their designer responsible for their splashy designs. I have heard their newer ships like the Liberty are much nicer.

I've been on the Pride, Glory and Liberty on Carnival. I liked the Pride and Liberty designs. The Pride could have been scaled down but in general I liked it. I don't think I've seen any of the wild designs that Joe Farcus did. The urn design that I saw in pictures reminded me of urns at funerals. That was one reason that the Legend never appealed to me. We're going on 7/12/14 on the Caribbean Princess. I'm curious to see the difference between the cruise ship lines.

Travelenthusiast,

It is getting to be older, but Caribbean Princess has a beautiful atrium and I like the style of the theater and dining rooms. The Promenade deck is wonderful, encircles nearly the whole ship, with teak chairs, etc. One very nice thing is you can walk directly across the ship from one side to the other on the promenade deck, so as the ship turns, you can quickly see different views or catch the sunset. Also, the adult only pool is really nice, a lovely place to be at sunset, and no extra charge. It was our first cruise ship and still my favorite along with Crown Princess which is just larger. I hope you love it.

Thank you for the information. I didn't mean to hijack Jacketwatch's review which I really enjoyed reading. I'd still like to hear what you chose to do in Cozumel and Grand Cayman.

Actually we were pretty low key during our excursions. In Cozumel we just strolled along shopping and taking it easy, getting a few souvenirs and some vanilla. We found a nice restaurant for lunch where they had some aged Cuban rum, a 7 yr. old Havana Club which we don't get in the US.

In GC we took a local bus tour for $20.00 each for about 2 hrs. Very relaxing for us.

We really did not want to do too much, just chill.

In Sept. We have a Japanese cruise planned and this will be more port active.

That's very exciting. Japan will be quite an adventure.

Yep. We are looking f/w to it. The stops are smaller places, not big cities so it should be a cool look at a quieter life style.

We usually take trips out of Galveston, so always seem to stop in Cozumel.

If you search fodors for Cozumel, TC's Cozumel list is great. It is intended for folks who will spend more than a few days there but we just keep doing a little bit more from the list every time we go.

Love the cemetery, the food market and strolling the streets off the main drag.

Grand Cayman: took the bus out to the far end of Seven Mile Beach and walked back to town.