Question:

My wife and I visited the Carnival Legend today as part of the SSHSA. This is only our second visit to the NYC ports this year, the other visit was a few weeks earlier when we boarded, toured, and had a luncheon aboard the MS Rotterdam VI. It was a good day in the port as the Golden Princess was also docked as well as our old friend, the Zenith. For me, the Zenith was the best looking ship at port being a manageable size, having the most interesting paint scheme and seeming the most freshly painted, having her rakish look. The Legend is pretty slab-sided, plenty balconies, mostly white. The Golden looks like the Grand, lots of balconies, huge size, shopping cart handle at the stern. I’ll say the Golden/Grand are distinctive enough and definitely have a certain "presence" (that curiously the Voyager class lacks). So, the Legend is the second Carnival ship we’ve toured. The first was the Paradise, the final version of Carnival’s proven Fantasy class. We’ve not been aboard the big Destiny class, and the 86,000 or ton Legend is the 3rd of the Spirit class ships. I met up with rtc regular Joyce Rachelson and shared a table with her and others for lunch, and it was also was nice to meet up with some SSHSA/WSS regulars. Some of the SSHSA/WSS regulars are sailing aboard her right now on a 2 nighter to nowhere. The nature of a visit is somewhat similar to visiting a port on a cruise. You get a taste of the ship, an idea of the scenery, a flavor of some of the inhabitants. It’s  impossible to tell what the ship is like to sail aboard for a few days, so I can only give some impressions of a few hours onboard, and whatever comments I make about pax boarding were on for a 2 nighter, and not Carnival’s usual 7 night cruise. The Legend has made some progress over the Paradise. We saw one stateroom, an inside room. It didn’t seem to be much bigger than, say, 155 or so sq ft, but it was pleasant enough, and definitely upgraded over the Paradise staterooms. One of my observations about Carnival is that they play music in public areas louder than RCI and NCL and considerably louder than Celebrity and HAL and what I remember of Princess. Is it always this way? Can’t say. The Legend also has quite low ceilings in most public rooms. The atrium is about 10 or 11 decks, I’m guessing, and more rectangular than the rounded atrium of the Fantasy ships. The specialty restaurant sits at the top, in the funnel, and I was rather startled by how low the railings in the restaurant, overlooking the atrium, came up to the open area spanning 10 or so decks below. I seriously wondered if anyone could go over the railings and crash onto the bottom of the atrium in the event of a sudden lurch caused by rough seas. There’s also a plexiglass winding stairway that’s set at the highest point of the atrium that goes down one deck, connecting the levels of the restaurant. Walking on that was quite an experience, disconcerting to me, maybe panic evoking to someone with vertigo. The lunch was in the main dining room which is located in the stern of the ship and is two levels. It’s that way in many new ships, but the Legend doesn’t have the big open windows affording views that some of the other ships have. I guess HAL’s version will have more open windows and will have a different layout. As for the food, I’m not a big foodie, and it seemed fresh and well prepared. My wife’s comments were that they used the same garnishing for everything, the presentation wasn’t on HAL or Celebrity level, but neither one of us can say that we judged it as high a quality as what we had on HAL or Celebrity. But, this is just one lunch, and how representative it was, or how perhaps other entrees are, we don’t know. Carnival used Rosenthal China, Joyce noticed it right away, and I noticed they have a glass for white wine, a glass for red wine, and a water glass, just like Celebrity. HAL didn’t have particular glasses for particular wine on our luncheon. Later in the day the buffet was served in the lido area and we noticed a wide variety of food. We didn’t sample any but there seemed to be plenty of it and an outstanding variety of it, there were some lines but not any really long ones, though the area did seem crowded. And that’s a sense that we got while we were aboard, that the ship seemed crowded in the public areas. I think the ceiling height had something to do with it, or maybe it is just a concentration of the guests in mostly the atrium and surrounding areas and the lido area. I think an improvement over the Fantasy class is the gym area. It’s tiered now, so exercise equipment is on different levels, there are a few areas to relax. The massage rooms were very private, and one of the rooms had a very calming scent coming from it so I guess it was one of the aromatherapy rooms. There’s also plenty of massage rooms. Also, the gym area is located near the bow, and high up, like on most new ships, so pax can get nice views of the sea while working out. And there’s a fair amount of glass so you can look in many different directions and see your surroundings. Some similar areas to the Fantasy are the piano bar, the room is in the same layout, but the sports bar/lounge is different, the library is also an internet library and is quite small, there are actually more faux books in it that real books. There’s a small chapel, there’s an alleyway in an enchanted garden theme, a jazz club called Satchmo’s (after the legendary trumpeter) with pics of Armstrong around, a two deck or 3 deck show lounge at the bow like most new ships, so it has the features that one expects in Carnival. Deck areas were mostly on top but nicely divided, there are some plastic chairs that rock which my wife and I liked, the slide, aft pool, and there’s a teak promenade under the lifeboats and I’m not sure if it wraps fully around the ship or not. The atrium has a piano trio that welcomes in the passengers and pax are not escorted to their rooms (at least none that I observed). There’s also a table out with meat cuts placed on it, not sure if it was related to cooking or what it was. Most of the rooms in the ship have similar treatments and I found that it got monotonous after awhile. As expected from Carnival the ship areas are either very decorated, or over decorated, according to one’s tastes. I think only the show lounge, Satchmo, the disco, in some ways the dining room, don’t repeat the treatments but most of the rooms on the Carnival way street use the same elements. The ship is Millennium-sized, maybe a tick smaller, so I’m not sure if it is a size I feel comfortable with. The ship doesn’t really invite relaxation, I certainly didn’t feel that with the combination of the surroundings and loud music played everywhere, it feels designed to stimulate. I usually end up feeling inspired to sail aboard or not. So, this one is a unequivocal pass for my wife and me–far away from our style.  This is a winner for Carnival, it is an upgraded Carnival ship, this Spirit class. They can make as many of these as they’d like and I think they’ll be well received. For my wife and me it is not an alternative to a HAL, Celebrity, or Princess ship, nor does it feel as inviting to me as some RCI ships. And I have to say, though there are fun elements on the ship, and I’m sure it has the activities and entertainment to make it an entertaining cruise experience, with lots of choices for food of good quality and fine spa facilities, the ship’s a bit dull in its monotony from room to room creating for me a mono-mood feel, and was not as entertaining to tour as the Paradise. Ben S.

Response:

>Dinner at Bahrs in >Highlands and then back home again.

Having grown up in Middletown, I remember eating at Bahr’s many times.  Didn’t know they were still there.  Is it still wonderful? Jo-Ann

Response:

Moby’s is still there too…

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->Dinner at Bahrs in >Highlands and then back home again. > Having grown up in Middletown, I remember eating at Bahr’s many times. Didn’t > know they were still there.  Is it still wonderful? > Jo-Ann

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– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->>Dinner at Bahrs in >>Highlands and then back home again. >Having grown up in Middletown, I remember eating at Bahr’s many times.  Didn’t >know they were still there.  Is it still wonderful? >Jo-Ann > I was surprised at what a nice meal we had last night, Jo-Ann! > Everything fresh and delicious. We were going to drive up to another > place in Bergen county that we frequent for dinner on Saturdays, but > saw Bahrs on our drive off Sandy Hook and decided to try them.  I’m > glad we did :-) > They have a web site with a "Bahrs Cam", too: http://www.bahrs.com/ > Karen

Boy, does this bring back memories!  We lived just a block away from there in Highlands, when we assigned to Sandy Hook in the late 50’s! We went back to visit on an auto vacation in the late 90’s and ate there! Jean<~~~full of nostalgia after viewing the website~thanks Karen!

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is the clam hut still there?  remember eating there with my dad! — Sheree Join us on the SGC2003 to Bermuda http://www.hometown.aol.com/sgc2003 remove nospam to email

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Moby’s is still there too… > >Dinner at Bahrs in > >Highlands and then back home again. > Having grown up in Middletown, I remember eating at Bahr’s many times. > Didn’t > know they were still there.  Is it still wonderful? > Jo-Ann

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