Supplement to Travel Trade
October 2002

Carnival Legend:

A Fantasy World at Sea

By Marilyn Green

Carnival’s new Legend should have no trouble living up to its name. The $375-million tour de force, designed by Joe Farcus, uses mythical and historical legends to create a fantasy world where anyone can play.

Because the ship was built in Finland rather than Italy, there are special touches: Finnish granite and Scandinavian craftsmanship.

Passengers are introduced to the myths immediately upon boarding via the Legend’s lobby, complete with a nine-deck high atrium named after the Colossus of Rhodes, with a huge mural of the legendary statue on the wall.

Indeed, day and night, the atrium space is in use by groups talking, enjoying drinks from the bar, waiting for friends, reading and just watching other passengers. The various service desks along the walls were designed to keep their business focused away from the seating areas.

There are plenty of other bars and lounges on the ship. Some passengers favor pub crawls; others choose a base of operations and basically stick with it. By day, the medieval Avalon Bar on the Lido deck did a lively business with people enjoying tropical based drinks after a dip in either the Camelot Pool, with its medieval castle sculpture, the Avalon Pool, with an armored knight, and the Unicorn Pool, dominated by the mythological creature.

The medieval theme continues in Merlin’s realm. Club Merlin Casino is decorated with scenes from the days of chivalry and has a castle-like ambiance.

Follies, the main show lounge, is designed after the legendary movie palaces of the 1920s, giving the illusion that the audience is in the courtyard of a Mediterranean villa — a fantasy with turrets and stained glass. The shows are exceptionally good, leaving New Yorkers, often skeptical on entry, impressed and surprised.

Guests gravitated to the New Orleans style Satchmo’s Club for mellow dance music and drinks among wrought iron, ceiling fans and black and white photos of Louis Armstrong. The false skylight and very comfortable knotty pine benches evoke the ambience of the Big Easy. Guests tend to linger here, but manage to find time to crowd the Dream Team Bar to argue about sports and stop in Billie’s piano bar for singalongs.

The word spread quickly about Medusa’s Lair. Far from turning people to stone, it’s a dance club decorated with large Medusa heads. Extending from the walls are the snakes that form their hair. These can be manipulated, and the lighted eyes point in any direction, to the delight of passengers.

The Firebird Lounge, which comes into its own for late night comedy, is one of the loveliest spaces on the ship. Created like a Russian enameled box, there are rich images from the Russian story of a seamstress turned into a firebird by an evil sorcerer. The room has stimulated interest in Russian enameled boxes sold in the boutiques. The boxes had originally been stocked for the first Baltic sailing, but since sales were far beyond anything projected, they are available on every journey now.

For quieter pleasures, the enclosed Enchanted Forest is on the Atlantic Deck Promenade, with tree trunks lining the walls and a luminous ceiling casting a gentle light. And passengers pulled one another into the Holmes Library to see the English-style room fashioned after Sherlock Holmes’ Baker Street lodgings.

There is seldom any sense of crowding among the various public rooms, and people move freely from one center of entertainment to another.

The most daring design decision for a ship the size of the Carnival Legend was having one dining room, with two levels.

What makes it work is that the galley is actually under the restaurant. The waiters serve from escalators. Waiters have much shorter horizontal walks and delivery time is shorter.

The unique layout and design of the restaurants works very well. Truffles, the 1,250-seat formal dining room, manages to convey warmth and intimacy despite its size by changing ceiling levels, clever lighting and organization of the tables. Guests choose among seven main courses, with a range of starters, soups and seductive desserts. There are vegetarian and Spa Fare choices among them, along with sugar-free dessert options.

The Unicorn Café, also two levels, is remarkably organized, minimizing lines and spreading the seating among tables for two or more with open views and stations for hot and cold breakfast selections, fruit, cereals, cheeses, meats and pancakes, coffees and juices.

Lunch includes ethnic choices: Asian Corner; Taste of the Nation with different national cuisines daily; The Rotisserie, with broiled and roasted chicken and steak; a New York-style deli; pizza, salads and pastas, plus sinful desserts and a very popular ice cream station. In the evenings, the restaurants become the Seaview Bistro.

Agents on our cruise who had not been on a Carnival ship in years were surprised and impressed by the linen napkins and silverware at every table in the various self-service venues.

“This is the first time I haven’t had to go back and get a spoon,” one remarked. “It’s really a good touch not to have to pick them up; even the luxury lines could learn from that.”

The queen of the onboard restaurants is the elegant Golden Fleece Supper Club, at the top of the atrium under a red tinted glass dome. Surrounded by gold and black images from the tale of Jason and the Argonauts, it is beautifully lit and features very well chosen seafood (including the legendary Joe’s Stone Crabs) and beef, attractively presented and accompanied by excellent entertainment. For dancing, listening and fine dining, it is worth the $25 fee several times over.

For those who might be feeling peckish despite the continuous avalanche of food — or in need of a caffeine fix for partying late — the ship’s patisserie does a lively business in lattes, cappuccinos and espressos, washing down the likes of chocolate covered strawberries, Black Forest cake and banana splits. And, of course, there are late night buffets and 24-hour room service for the perpetually hungry.

Fortunately, the cumulative effects of all this can be taken care of at another legend, the 14,500 square foot Fountain of Youth Spa, with cutting edge exercise equipment, spinning, yoga and aerobics classes, Pilates and stretch classes.

Spa treatments extend to sybaritic scalp and full body massages, wraps, mudpacks, slimming and toning therapies and aroma stone therapy. Nutrition and health training sessions are intermingled with beauty demonstrations from the full salon. A padded jogging track encircles the Sports Deck.

If all this weren’t enough, the ship’s golf program includes a shipboard “practice range,” clinics and lessons, plus teaching computers that offer sophisticated video analysis and a take-home instructional component. All-inclusive golf excursions to courses including the Club de Golf Royal Quebec and the Sable Oaks Golf Club feature pro escorts, priority tee times, roundtrip transport to and from the course, and cart and greens fees. Golfers can rent Calloway clubs and Adidas shoes on the ship.

Golf widows — as well as other non-golfers — have a tremendous number of entertainment options. The variety of shore options is also very generous.

Staterooms on the Legend range from the 185-square foot standard inside cabin and the 225-square foot outside cabin with balcony up through 360-square foot suites and 415-square foot penthouse suites. Among the choicest staterooms are the corner 465-square foot suites with wraparound balconies. Categories 4A-6D have twin beds that can be combined to a king size bed, and some of the staterooms are adjoining for families. In addition, there are quad staterooms on most decks. The décor in cabins tends to be restful and neutral, a pleasant contrast to the colorful, exciting public rooms.

The Carnival Legend’s Gothic wedding chapel features stained glass windows, and even has a dressing room for the bride. Guests can be married onboard during embarkation day while the ship is docked in Ft. Lauderdale, and the line offers three levels of wedding packages from $695. Shoreside ceremonies can be arranged in Barbados and St. Maarten when the Legend starts sailing in the Caribbean in November.

Carnival pulled out the stops on family amenities on this ship, from the Gigabytes Arcade, a high-tech game room, to a ship-shaped playhouse, jungle gyms, a corkscrew water slide and educational and video game software. Noah’s Ark, an 1,800-square foot recreation center, contains an array of toys and games, a computer center and an arts and crafts lab, all connected by tunnels. Younger and older teens have their own activities, and supervised fun includes jewelry-making, photography workshops, talent shows and scavenger hunts from 9 in the morning until 10 at night. From 10 p.m. to 3 a.m, babysitting in a slumber party format is available at $6 per hour for one child and $4 per hour for each additional child from the same family.

Agents, commenting on the number of family and multi-generational groups cruising these days, were pleased with the facilities.

Carnival Legend is a true city at sea, with something for everyone. After its New York season this year, the Legend is scheduled for 6-day sailings to Bermuda, from Philadelphia on Oct. 23 and Baltimore Oct. 30. Starting Nov. 10 and continuing to April 19, 2003, the ship is scheduled for departures from Ft. Lauderdale for 8-day cruises of the Western and “exotic” Southern Caribbean, visiting St. Maarten, Barbados and Martinique to the south and Belize City, Limon and Colon on the western route. Then New York will have an innovation: 8-day roundtrip cruises from May 13-October 12, 2003, with calls in San Juan, St. Thomas/St. John and Tortola/Virgin Gorda.