The cruise ship was launched in 1994 and it was refurbished recently. This was the first trip right after the renovation. I found out during the trip that they renovated The Centrum area (the middle part of the ship with grand staircases, panoramic elevator with small stage for performance and a bar), and added 3 new specialty restaurants (Chef's Table, Chops Grille, and Izumi). There were about 1200 guests on board during this trip, with 700++ Singaporeans, 300++ Indians, and 100++ Indonesians made up the majority.
Embarkation and disembarkation were handled smoothly. Luggage was tagged accordingly and collected right after we stepped out from our cab. As we had done our homework of online check-in earlier, we were only required to fill in a short health questionnaire before having our SetSail passes exchanged to SeaPass cards that would be used throughout the cruise.
We stayed in room #8034 which was located in Deck 8. It was conveniently located right behind the elevator in the middle of the ship, but the not-so-good side was that the sounds from the activities going on in The Centrum could be quite loud. The room itself was great: spotless, with decent size, sofa and balcony with table and chairs. The bathroom was not too crammed either, even with bath tub inside. Shampoo, soap bars and lotions were provided. There's no toothbrush, though; thankfully I brought ours. Oh, and somehow the room attendant forgot to prepare our towels. Another thing that I found annoying was that the hot water could not really flow to the shower head.. what a bummer, especially when having a very late shower.
In general, the quality of food on board was fantastic. Upon boarding, we were directed to Windjammer Cafe at Deck 9 for buffet lunch. However, since we were slightly late due to difficulties in finding a cab, we were not among the first to board and therefore the restaurant was already crowded. Unable to find any empty table, we were told by a friendly waiter that another cafe was also serving. So we went to Park Cafe inside the Solarium instead. Unlike Windjammer, the cafe was almost empty, saved for a few tables. They served snacks actually but it was sufficient for us. We ordered burger, soup, quesadilla, salad and lemon cake. Since the staff were free some of them approached us for a chat and even brought us drinks. Top notch service.
However we still wanted to try Windjammer so we went there for tea break :p It was a large buffet restaurant with great variety of food that kept changing. Its nature was casual and noisy so we could come and go as we please. Unlike the food, variety of drinks were not that good. They offered apple and orange juice for breakfast; lemonade and ice tea for lunch and dinner. Throughout the day there were plain water, milk, coffee and tea.
To bad we did not have a chance to try Romeo & Juliet and the specialty restaurants, courtesy of traveling with a toddler :p Just to note, dining at Windjammer, Park Cafe, and Romeo & Juliet are included in the fare. Romeo & Juliet are located in Deck 4 and 5. Tables in Deck 5 are reserved for those opting for My Time Dining, where they will attempt to seat every group separately, served by waiter assigned to those particular tables. Whereas tables in Deck 4 are for those who come as and when they feel like it, therefore tables are assigned up to the restaurant's discretion and tables are shared. For the specialty restaurants, a certain fee plus booking are required ($95 for Chef's Table, $30 for Chops Grille and $3/5 for Izumi).
Service in all areas is generally good, and on top of it they all looked cheerful and happy to help. It might be part of the job description, but still.
There were enough facilities to occupy us during the cruise but I'm not so sure about longer trips. Throughout the day there were various activities going on in one place or another. List of activities were distributed daily in a pamphlet called The Cruise Compass. There were several bars, some shops, casino, theatre, spa, rock-climbing wall, mini golf course, jogging track, a really small arcade, shelves with books that I supposed meant as library, and a nursery. We loved the toy lending program at Royal Babies & Tots Nursery, where we could get a complimentary bag of Fisher Price toys for the duration of the cruise. There were not many bags around, though, and we were lucky to be the first one to borrow them, given the large number of babies and toddlers on board.
Our boarding time was 11.30am, and the ship set sail only at 5pm. In the morning of the second day we reached Malacca and we chose not to go for the organized excursions. Instead we took our own sweet time in the morning and then decided to go to Malacca anyway by taking the tender boat that shuttled between the ship and the port. Managed to walk around for a bit, bought some snacks and had a bowl of refreshing chendol. By the time we get back the ship we had our late lunch followed by another dip in the pool :)
During disembarkation we chose the express option - handling our own luggage to be one of the firsts to leave the ship. The other option of having our luggage taken care of was not as appealing as they would need to collect our luggage by 11pm the night before, which meant we would end up bringing extra stuff only for an extra 15 minutes or so on the ship.
Unlike cruises in the past, we embarked and disembarked from Marina Bay Cruise Centre, the newly built pier supposedly able to accommodate large cruise ships. Unlike HarbourFront, there was no other shops and amenities there. It's still surrounded by constructions, tall cranes were all we could see. Consequently, transport out was not easy. The staff there made an effort to broadcast the need for cabs but all we could see were cabs coming in with on-call sign. So we took the only bus out there to Marina Bay station, followed by a train ride.
Enjoyable trip, all in all; however I could not help but to compare this trip with my previous experiences on board Star Cruises' Superstar Virgo. Contrary to what I heard, I personally felt that Superstar Virgo was better, in terms of amenities, food availability and variety of activities. It might be because I went with low expectation back then to Superstar Virgo, not to mention that it was a free cruise the first time round =p However I knew that Legend of the Seas was a slightly smaller ship compared to Superstar Virgo. Thus the absence of cinema and library, and the small swimming pools. However, the pre-cruise experience with Royal Caribbean was better as all information was provided in advance, so we knew what to expect. Check-in, booking of tables at restaurants, booking of spa and excursions could be done online, up to 3 days prior to sail date.
Some tips for cruising on Legend of the Seas:
- In case they forget to prepare your towels, you can check underneath the bed
- Bring toothbrush
- Bring water container for water supply in the room. You won't get thirsty without it but it may come handy, especially if you prefer to spend more time in the room. You can always request for room service if you prefer.
- Bring a carry-on bag with enough things to last you about half a day before your luggage is delivered to your room
No comments:
Post a Comment