TheSkipper

As a frequent traveler, flyer, cruiser, I loved them all.

Hi James, Enjoyed your pictures of the Jewel. A lot more glitz than the Legend. Looked great.

Joey, That's Carey Biel singing "That Spot Right There". Glad you like the presentation. I took 485 pictures on this cruise, so limited the posting to shipboard pictures only. One day I'll do one of the Ports of Call, but that will be a monster.

Hi Gang, Below is the link to shipboard pictures of the Legend of the Seas. Just follow it and click on Legend of the Seas Cruise. http://www.photoshow.com/members/edwynn/ Enjoy

What kind of accomodations are we talking about here? Balcony? Inside?? I have not seen any general price increases in the last couple of years, so my first guess is that it's the time of year or ship selection. As a point of interest, our January group cruise on the Carnival Spirit out of SD has lowered the group pricing twice since we first booked. For an 8 nite cruise you can now get a balcony cabin for less than $760 or an inside for about $500. BTW, I am not a Travel Agent, just an avid cruiser.

My review is posted under the title May 31, 2007 below.

Title<] :: May 31, 2007 Author<] :: The Skipper Category<] :: Legend Of The Seas Information<] :: [*]I would rate the Legend of the Seas a 8.5 on a scale of 1 to 10. The overall experience was very nice, but not outstanding. I have deducted for the food. [*] Description<] :: Eastern Mediterranean Cruise Review Legend of the Seas May 31, 2007 – April 12, 2007 Ports of Call: Rome; Italy, Genoa, Lovorno, Split, Croatia, Venice, Dubrovnik, Croatia, Naples, Messina, Sicily. Cruise Experiences: This was our 14th cruise with Royal Caribbean and our 49th cruise overall. This was our second time aboard the Legend of the Seas. Embarking/Disembarking: We flew into Rome a day before our cruise and spent a night in a hotel recommended by travel advisor Rick Steves. Great hotel in an excellent location. We had arranged for a car to pick us up at the hotel at 10 AM and he was right on the dot. We arrived at the port at 11:15 and enjoyed the fastest, most pleasant check in that we have ever experienced on any of our cruises. We were on the ship in no time flat; however, the water-tight doors to the stateroom areas were closed and we were not permitted to go to our room until 1:00 PM. No problem really, grabbed some lunch and then found a comfortable place to sit on Deck 6 and waited until the appointed time. Disembarkation was one of the best we have experienced in all of our cruises. Our disembarkation color was called as scheduled at 7:45 AM and we were on our bus to the Rome airport shortly thereafter. Stateroom: We had an ocean view stateroom, #6026 on Deck 6. The room was a very nice size and well equipped. We had the queen bed configuration upon arrival, but had it switched to twin beds after the first night to give us more floor space. Bathroom was small. Shower was the small but very functional I experienced no change in water temp. Supplied amenities for Diamond Members were excellent. Restaurants and Food: There is a single dining room aboard the Legend: The Romeo and Juliet is made up of two levels on Decks 4 and 5. Open seating breakfast and lunch were served in the Romeo and Juliet Dining Room and in the Buffet (Deck #9 forward). The quality and variety of the food was no more than average throughout the cruise. We ate most all of our dinners in the Romeo and Juliet. Our breakfasts and lunches were split between the buffet and the dining room. The food was our only disappointment of this cruise. I would rate the selections, presentation, and taste only cruise line average. On recent cruises we have found that Carnival and Princess food better than the food aboard the Legend. Entertainment: There were the usual mix of musical revues and guest entertainers spread throughout this 12 day cruise. Only the production shows were truly outstanding.. I felt the Legend Singers and Dancers did an outstanding job. The Theater had excellent sight lines with no obstructions and it functioned well. Cruise Director “Javier†did a good job, although his heavy accent was sometimes a little tough to understand. The Legend Orchestra was very good. Shore Excursions: This was a very port intensive cruise with only two days at sea. Will not go into details of the various excursions except to say they were well run and went off like clockwork. They are however, quite expensive. The dollar is very weak against the Euro, so an all day tour costing $124 per person was pretty much the norm. Other: The gift shops were well stocked and stayed open most nights past 10 PM. The photographers were around the ship constantly. Speakers in staterooms have been disconnected even though they are equipped with volume controls, so you hear no announcements in your stateroom. Overall: I would rate the Legend of the Seas a 8.5 on a scale of 1 to 10. The overall experience was very nice, but not outstanding. I have deducted for the food. As mentioned earlier this was a very “port intensive†trip with new ports almost every day. So, it was quite tiring which caused us to miss a couple of the shows through sheer exhaustion. View Review

Click here to view the cruise review

Review is almost complete. Will most likely get it posted tomorrow (friday). Great to be home.

Hello All, Happy to report we have arrived safely home after 26 hours of travel from Rome to Las Vegas. Got in last night and are up to our eyeballs in unpacking today. Never sailed with so many "Brits" on a ship. Very interesting. Will do a review when I get back down to earth and caught up on my emails.

Over 40 booked now. Prices have dipped again! You can now get a balcony for eight days for less that $800.

Welcome Aboard. We have sailed on Royal Caribbean about a dozen times and twice on the Rhapsody of the Seas. Most of your questions have been answered already so will not repeat those answers. RCI is a little upscale of Carnival, but not much because Carnival has really moved up in the cruising world. As someone else said most anything will work in the dining room for dinner except shorts and jeans. During the day, breakfast and lunch shorts are permitted. The Rhapsody is a pretty ship and I'm sure you will enjoy your trip. Last time we had an aft (that's the back of the ship) balcony and it was great with the exception that it was a real hike from the nearest elevator. Don't sweat hurricane season. Can't think of a better place to be, because the ship can track and move away from the storm. You may vist an unplanned port, but that's about it. We will be on RC this week. Sailing the Legend of the Seas out of Rome. We were in Cozumel about a month ago and went to a "day pass" resort which included the use of their beautiful pool, fantastic beach and all drinks and food for $40 per person. We did both breakfast and lunch there. There is even a inflatable "rock climbing" mountain in the water. Keeping busy on sea days should not be a problem. Doing everything you want to do will be the problem. And remember the only time better than today to book your cruise, was yesterday.

Well we are now down to one sleep and an early wake up call. My bag is packed and weighed in at 48.3 lbs, not too bad with a 50 lb limit on American Airlines. Have to admit we did pack a third bag (small duffle) with camera tripod, panchos, umbrella and shoes, so that helped. Add my daypack and her roll on and we are good to go. Later,

Looking forward to you pictures. Know how they kind of sit in the camera waiting to get out. Taking a 2GB card plus two 1GB cards on our Italy cruise next week. I'll never take that many pictures and if I did they would be in the camera one heck of a long time. Think I'll use one card for shipboard stuff and another for shore excursions, that way at least they will be somewhat sorted upon our return.

Based on our cruising experience we rank them as follows: 1. Silver Seas 2. Celebrity 3. Princess 4. Carnival 5. RCI 6. NCL 7. All the others. We have not sailed HAL, so can't comment on their food. However, we just got off The Glory a month ago and thought the food was fine. Go figure.

We too use the TSA locks. No problems so far. Don't know about overseas customs, but USA custom officer told me they had a key to every lock. It's called a "Crow Bar." If they want in they are gonna get in.

Gregswife, Sleeps and a wake up comes from my military days and so is too short to sweat it. We are down to three sleeps and a wake up call now. Guess I better get the suitcases out and get started with the packing. Been loading stuff into the Guest Room, but now it is time to get serious. Jacketwatch, Will not skimp of anything resembling food or drink in Italy. I promise you. Shari2, Thanks for you good wishes. Have not been on RCI in a couple of years and are looking forward to it. Our Dawn Princess in October will be to celebrate our 15th anniversary and 50th cruise. Now that will be a biggie!!

No Problem. We are now down to five sleeps and a wake up call. Getting too short to sweat it.

I'd give the switch some serious consideration. Those chairs above start getting moved around very early in the mornings. When selecting a cabin I spend a lot of time checking the decks above and below to be sure we have no surprises.

SDM stands for Single Digit Midget or someone who has less than 10 days to wait for thier next cruise.

Fly to Rome a week from Tuesday, so it's crunch time for us. I have to teach an AARP class all day tomorrow and then I can get serious about getting my act together. Have already received confirmation from our hotel in Rome and from the driver who will take us from our hotel to the ship. Time to load up on Euros, charge all the batteries, buy some extra video tapes. Just downloaded a couple of good audio books to my MP3 player to listen two on the flights. I also have s small but powerful set of speakers that I take along to use in the Stateroom to listen to our MP3 music. Oh yea, gotta do the haircut thing one day this week. Been laying stuff out in our guest room. After 48 cruises you wold think the anticipation would lessen, but never has for us.

I think I'll still opt for the old way. Why waste my time, paper, and colored ink?? I guess you will have to staple the luggage tags to you bags?

Thanks for the post. I have a large group going on the Spirit in January. Don't think anyone has booked a suite, but will pass your post on to the TA for this trip.

Just received reduced rates for this cruise. You can do a balcony cabin for $806.13 Total for this eight day cruise. Or, you can do an inside for $606.13. This includes all port charge and taxes. Drop me a line if you would like to join us.