Fountain syndrome

Of all the Carnival Cruise Lines "classes," from Fantasy to Conquest, the Spirit Class is my personal favorite. Its ships are manageable, artful, well-conceived, speedy, and wide-ranging--everything a cruise liner should be.

The 2002-built, 88,500-gross-register-ton/2,124-passenger Carnival Legend is the third in the line's Spirit Class, a design that actually made its debut with 2000's Costa Atlantica (built for sister line Costa Cruises). Other ships in this series include the namesake 2001-built Carnival Spirit, the 2001-built Carnival Pride, and the 2004-built Carnival Miracle. While all share the same technical specifications, each carries its own interior theme, thanks to the fertile imagination of Carnival designer Joe Farcus.

In the case of the Carnival Legend, the motif is the great tales of history and myths. However, never one to limit him-self, Farcus let his Sharpie run free as he conjured up the various interpretations of the Carnival Legend's eclectic collection of people and places. According to Farcus, "The overall design theme of legends is realized in many different ways, both literally and figuratively."

Thus throughout the ship, passengers find themselves transported to another time and place, as Farcus immerses them in imagery that spans the ages from antiquity to the 20th century. In one room, you may find yourself among the splendor of ancient Greece; enter another and you've arrived in the castle of King Arthur. Explore further and you'll find modern-day interpretations of Louis Arm strong's New Orleans jazz haunts or Sherlock Holmes's fictional London apartment. Elsewhere there's a mythically inspired Enchanted Forest; still other rooms pay tribute to legendary singers, sports heroes, and sorcerers.

Architecturally, the Carnival Legend falls somewhere between the line's 70,000-grt Fantasy ships and its 100,000-grt Conquest vessels, in terms of not only size, but also facilities. The Carnival Legend's modern design allows for all of cruising's most modern amenities: There's a 14,500-square-foot spa, 1,800-sq.-ft. kids recreation center, internet cafe, wedding chapel, four swimming pools, and a 1,100-seat main showroom. Eighty percent of the ship's accommodations are outside cabins; of those, 80 percent (682) have private balconies, including 624 in standard outside staterooms.

In this writer's opinion, the design of the Carnival Legend (and the Spirit Class in general) represents Carnival's finest shipbuilding effort to date. Passenger flow is unimpeded throughout the vessel, and there's little of the "you can't get there from here" syndrome found on some other ships, especially the very large post-Panamax vessels (too large to fit through the locks of the Panama Canal), where the creators sometimes seem to have designed themselves into a corner. Not so on the Carnival Legend, where you can easily move from stem to stern and from the lowest to the highest decks with ease.

The nine-deck Colossus Atrium id the-ship's centerpiece, functioning as a gathering place, town square, and hub of circulation for surrounding public rooms. In the atrium bar, people may meet before heading ashore, or pull up a barstool for a drink and some friendly banter with the featured performer, oftentimes a one-man singer/guitarist. Other daytime diversions are plentiful along the Enchanted Forest (the dual-deck, starboardside indoor Promenade), where you can surf the web, stop by the sports bar to check out the latest televised events, or pause at the coffee shop for some Joe-to-go, Starbucks-style in a paper cup with plastic sippy-top.

At night, meanwhile, the promenade comes alive with the sound of slot machines, piano sing-alongs, jazzy jams, and pulsating disco rhythms. The Follies main showroom, a three-deck affair, is grandiose in every respect. Elaborate productions feature the best from Broadway to Vegas, augmented by sound-and-light systems that rival those found in any theater onshore.

Nearly half of all Carnival guests utilize the services of the shipboard spa, and on this vessel they'll find them at the Fountain of Youth. This bi-level wellness facility spans the forward portion of two upper decks on a perch directly above the bridge, providing panoramic ocean views through large picture-windows. A complete gymnasium offers stationary bikes, treadmills, stairclimbers, rowing machines, and free weights. Adjacent to the gym lies a mirrored aerobics room, where a range of exercise classes includes yoga, spinning, and stretching sessions. Ten private massage rooms offer a menu of "European-style" treatments, including aroma stone therapy, seaweed wraps, mudpacks, and other pampering indulgences.

Kids, meanwhile, have their own dedicated space, Noah's Ark--a sanctuary divided into three distinct areas: an all-ages play area stocked with games and toys; a computer center loaded with the latest educational and video-game software; and an arts-and-crafts lab complete with sand-art and candy-making machines. A series of "tunnels" connect the three areas. Other youth facilities include the high-tech Gigabytes Arcade equipped with the latest video games, and an outdoor play area and children's pool. Of course, the Carnival Legend has the line's famous twisting waterslide, 72 feet in length.

Perhaps the highlight of the ship is the reservations-only Golden Fleece supper club, an extra-charge restaurant ($30 per-person, automatically posted to guests' onboard accounts). Tucked under a canopy of red-tinted glass extending from the stack, the bi-level steakhouse is truly one of cruising's great pleasures. A full table setting of silver-ware and goblets says "this is something special." Decorative dishes are whisked away just in time for the arrival of appetizers and entrees, which take their rightful place upon white table linens. Wines are served from a special list; breads run the gamut of the baker's art. Even the butter is a cut above the norm: Carnival serves it in three varieties--regular, garlic, and paprika; I highly recommend you try them all.

Traditional dining takes place in the main Truffles Restaurant, which accommodates 1,250 passengers; tables are assigned for dinner, served in two seatings at 5:45 and 8:15 p.m.. In fact, the Carnival Legend and her sisters are the line's only ships with a single main dining room; all the others in the fleet have two, which allows a choice of four seating times.

Alternatively, the Carnival Legend offers an extensive evening Lido Deck buffet in the casual Unicorn Cafe, which includes a salad bar and several other specialty stations such as a deli, rotisserie, Asian outlet, and 24-hour pizzeria. Another buffet feature is the unique "Taste of the Nations" counter, which serves from a rotating menu that each day focuses on a different country or regional cuisine: it might be Indian one day, then Caribbean the next, followed by Italian day, German day, and so on throughout the cruise.

Accommodations are available in a multitude of categories and are universally spacious. Carnival claims its cabins are "50 percent larger than those of any other cruise line." In typical "Fun Ship" fashion, the decor is bright if somewhat austere; a little less frilly than cabin appointments aboard rivals Royal Caribbean International and Norwegian Cruise Line. As part of the company's "Today's Carnival" initiative, the line has upgraded its stateroom amenities with "The Carnival Comfort Bed Ensemble," which comprises custom pillows, duvet and cover, pillowcases, and a mattress manufactured in Europe to the line's specifications.

Additionally, bathrooms are now equipped with "high-quality fluffy bath and hand towels," terrycloth robes, and an amenities basket stocked with an always changing variety of name-brand products. Examples one might find upon entering their bathroom for the first time could include Bic razors and Crest toothpaste. (Remember the days when Carnival didn't even provide shampoo?) About the only complaint one could make about the accommodations is the design of the veranda door for those staterooms with balconies. Rather than the sliding glass door found on many ships, which may be kept open to enjoy the sound of the ocean and the fresh sea breezes, on the Carnival Legend access to the balcony is by a hinged door, which must be wedged open with a chair to enjoy the same effect.

Of course, this is a minor concern given the fine conception and execution of the ship's design overall. Last but not least in this list of the Carnival Legend's virtues is her speed: Capable of cruising at a sustained 22 knots, her swiftness contributes to the vessel's unusual itineraries. In the Eastern Caribbean, for example, the ship travels as far south as Martinique and Barbados on a deep Caribbean cruise roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale. Such an itinerary would require 10 days on most other ships, according to Carnival. Her Western Caribbean cruises, also roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale, call exclusively at Central American ports in Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama. The vessel's Fort Lauderdale schedule runs from October 24, 2005, through April 10, 2006, for this season and resumes on October 23 next year.

From New York; the Carnival Legend sails a summertime program of eight-day Caribbean cruises, beginning on April 26, 2006, and running through October 11, 2006. Two one-time sailings from New York are Carnival's only cruises to Bermuda. The vessel visits King's Wharf on six-day itineraries which also include a day in Newport, Rhode Island, departing April 20, 2006, and again on April 19, 2007.

For more information contact your travel agent or Carnival Cruise Lines (Cruise Travel Magazine), 3655 NW 87th Ave., Miami, FL 33178; or log on to www.carnival.com.

COPYRIGHT 2005 World Publishing, Co. (Illinois)
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group