This is where "interporting" feels a little weird. The show the night before included lots of farewell messages (though, the cruise director, Mercedes, did make a point of always acknowledge those of us not leaving for 1-2 more days, which was good); halls were cluttered with outgoing luggage (though the cabins were "grouped" so that those immediately around us were also Genoa departures), breakfast was over sooner on our Civitavecchia day (to get people up and off the ship) and the teen group had all kinds of weird turnover (though there were teens regularly going to the clubs who embarked at EVERY port, so there was no one time when they ALL left).
We hung out and had room service for breakfast, to avoid the crowds of sad, departing passengers lugging their carry ons through the dining room or buffet.
The sun was out first thing in the morning, and we thought that maybe, just maybe, it would be warm enough for our hoped for beach day--at least for wading, etc. By 9:00 it was cloudy again and temperatures were NOT warning up at all and we knew we had to scrap that plan.
We decided to have lunch at Windjammer as soon as it opened (before it was overly crowded with disoriented new passengers, with THEIR carry ons) and then head out into town for a stroll.
In the meantime, we headed up to deck 10 and amused ourselves watching new stores be brought on board, and sniffed by the drug checking dog.
It was pretty windy while we were up there. It was clearly breezy on the ground too, but we thought it would be less so--since the tall ships to tend catch a lot of wind at times.
After lunch (where we were greeted by the Welcome Aboard fruit carvings I posted earlier in the blog, an by several buffet staff workers who were welcoming us to the ship lol), Dave and I headed into Civi for a stroll (there as no getting the kids off the ship! They are so sick of that little town--we port there so often and it doesn't have all that much to offer). We quickly realized we had underestimate both the temperature and the wind--which was far WORSE on land than up on deck 10. We looked it up on Dave's iphone and it was 52 degrees and the winds were 55+ MPH. This is just not what you expect out of central Italy in late May! Even in jeans and windbreakers we were COLD. We had just missed one of the port provided free shuttles out to the town (you are not allowed to walk through portions of the dock area), and had to stand around for about 20 minutes waiting for a new one. Between the wind and the other people who were waiting smoking, it was not a particularly enjoyable wait.
Once in town, we walked around for about half an hour. Here are a few photos of the biggest waves I've seen in that area, trees blowing in the wind and a poor bride trying to get some decent photos in that wind (her veil blew off and had to be chased down the beach by one of that friend, who returned with it about 30 seconds before I snapped this).
Watching the waves crashing around the ship, we commented that we hoped it let up by sailaway--it seemed like it would be difficult to safely pull out in the weather.
We didn't really want to sit inside a cafe (none looked all that charming) and outside was simply not happening, so we ended up throwing in the towel and returning to the ship. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for the return shuttle, and were able to hop on quickly and grab real seats while the masses of new arrivals stowed luggage underneath, etc. It was a busy waiting area as two other ships were also boarding that day (and MCS and an NCL).
Back on board, we happily played games and hung out in the Solarium (most of the new cruisers did not seem to have packed their swimwear in their carry ons, so it was nice and quiet in there), etc.
We also had a note in our stateroom advising us as to the procedure for moving rooms the next day (we were unable to stay in the same rooms for both legs of our B2B). The note told us to pack and leave our bags in our room and to pick up new key cards from the security people on the gangway any time after 9:30 the next morning (there was an alternative had we wanted to go ashore earlier). Our wine for the second half of the voyage was also waiting in our room.
We had read on cruise critic that normally when you change rooms on a back to back you can pack up loose items but leave items on hangers and those will e moved from one closet to the other for you without having to pack them. This, of course, would make it MUCH easier to pack as there would be so much more space and no need to really work to get it all in--and it would leave or nicer clothes much less wrinkled. The note did not reference this AT ALL, so we stopped our stateroom hostess in the hallway to ask about it. Gladys (who was excellent all week, by the way) had not heard of this, but said she would happily work with the other hostess to make that happen for us (we were only moving 6 doors down, but it put us into a new section). So, we also took a little time in the afternoon to pack up both rooms, so we could easily switch the next morning.
In the evening, we attended the "welcome aboard" show--another slightly funny feeling! Here are the cruise director and activities manager (Mercedes, who was not stellar but was fine, an Gio, who WAS stellar) at the start of the show:
The show featured some music by the live orchestra, a couple of very nice song and dance numbers with the production show team, and a HILARIOUS comedy show by the remarkably funny Kirk Marsh. Technically a juggler, Kirk is genius at being funny without saying a word (no language barriers here). We were forutante to see him on the Splendour last year and thrilled to have him to entertain us again this year on the Legend.
Up next, our final meal of the package--dinner at Izumi. As we were headed up, the captain came on the loud speakers to announce that we had not left port yet, as planned, and would be leaving about an hour late, once the winds died down and made it safe to depart. Dave and I had an "I knew it!" moment.
Izumi was lovely, and a very relaxing place. There was only one other occupied table while we were there, it was extra quiet. We loved how the tables are arranged right on the floor to ceiling glass windows that look out over the open deck. A little bonus was that the German Championship football (soccer) game was playing on the big screen over the pool. It made it easy to glance over to see the score once in a while, without all the noise and distraction of the game interfering on dinner. The entire waitstaff was interested in the game too, and while we were never watching closely enough to see a goal made, we never missed knowing about it as they would all rush the windows when it happened--too cute. We had some good natured rivalry going--as they all routed for Dortmund and Rio and I prefer Bayern (the winners, in case you do not follow German football!).
We really loved our meal at Izumi. Although, we learned that David and Marika pretty much only want some of the vegetable tempura appetizer and then lots of lots of sushi rolls, and that Rio and I pretty much only want the tempura and then our "hot rocks." We did not regret anything we ordered, but we realized that we could return on week two and order more smartly, spend less money and have more of what we really loved.
One further note about dinner at Izumi on the Legend of the Seas: the only thing we would complain about, is that the way the ship has been remodeled the night club is right outside Izumi. There is not a real wall separating these two venues, only partitions and a large open entry area in between even that. We started dinner at 8:45--so as to see the show. So, we were not finished when the LOUD nightclub techno music started up at 10:30. We could hardly here ourselves talk and it totally killed the otherwise very relaxing atmosphere. Please do not misunderstand--Dave and I enjoy much of the newer music--we like to dance to it in the clubs, and even own about half of what was being played. But, Izumi was neither the time nor the place for it. It is really too bad that there is not a better way to separate these two venues on this small ship. To avoid this the next time around, we made sure to book an 8:00 o'clock seating (earliest possible) for the following week.
Up next--new rooms and a day in Genoa.
--Hadley
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