Celebrity
Century
5-Night Western Caribbean
Nov 13, 2010
by Robindebbieusa
Details:
Departure port: Miami
Days at sea: two
Islands visited: Jamaica (1 day) & Grand Cayman (1 day)
Ship
Celebrity Century is dated and definitely in need of refurbishment.
Accommodation
In need of refurbishment. Cabin carpets and soft furnishings were
quite shabby. Bathroom was tiny and there was a terrible sewage
smell in our bathroom which I reported to the Assistant Guest
Relations Manager as soon as we boarded. Bathroom was then
disinfected but when disinfectant wore off, smell reappeared and
lingered for remainder of trip. Coincidentally, our relations who
were next door in cabin 9165 also had a sewage smell in their
bathroom and when we walked down some of the corridors leading to
other cabins, there was also a sewage smell. The first night onboard
ship, water was off from midnight until 5 am as emergency work was
carried out so I suspect there are some plumbing issues on this
ship. I was also surprised at how small our cabin was and Guest
Relations pointed out to me that the size of the cabin is detailed
on the website, which is true, but if the website is being used as a
point of reference, the cabin looked SO much better on the website
than in reality. I don't suffer from claustrophobia but found the
cabin to be very claustrophobic and had my balcony doors open the
whole time including during the night. I dread to think what it
would have been like without the balcony doors.
Staff
On a day to day basis, all the employees were
friendly and helpful.
Food
Standard of food in the cafeteria and dining room
was pretty good. Little niggles in the cafeteria like having only
very hot glasses and plates on hand for cold drinks and desserts
which meant desserts started to melt! Restaurant service was very
slow at breakfast but better at dinner. I was the only one in our
party to eat fish and on the 3rd night, suffered immediately from
terrible diarrhea which I then suffered with each evening
thereafter.
Dress code
My husband and I prefer to dress smart casually but as we were told
the formal evening would be dressy and definitely required a dinner
suit or lounge suit for men, we packed appropriate clothing which
turned out to be a complete waste of time and effort as the dress
code wasn't enforced and many diners were quite casual. I just wish
we had been given accurate information as I had taken the time to
double check the dress code.
Entertainment
Seating in the Celebrity theatre was hard and
uncomfortable and even though shows only lasted 45 minutes, the 4 of
us found them noticeably uncomfortable. Standard of entertainment
was mixed. Comedy juggler was excellent. Some of the groups were
good including the new acapella group. Comedian was good although
our English relations missed a lot of the humor because his act was
very American. For his act, it was also necessary to see TV screens
which we couldn't even see properly from our seats at the back of
the theatre. Broadway show and in particular female singers and
dancers were very poor with endless off key notes. Overall,
entertainment was disappointing.
Facilities
Poor. One pool which was very noisy with sun
loungers packed in like sardines. Shopping very poor, not that we
intended to shop on board ship, but I expected better. No internet
access in cabins. As for sport, there were 2 boxing matches (one was
Manny Pacquiao and the other was David Haye) on November 13th ,
which we felt sure we would be able to watch onboard ship on HBO or
Sky but on checking, there were no facilities available to see
either match.
Ports
Very disappointing. In Jamaica, we were able to walk
off the ship but I am so glad we booked a tour as the port is very
run down and we definitely wouldn't have felt safe if we hadn't
booked an organized tour. On arriving at Grand Cayman, there were 4
other cruise liners there the same day so the port was very busy and
we were surprised to find it was necessary to take a tender from our
ship to shore. I was looking forward to visiting Grand Cayman but
was disappointed as port is just full of duty free shops so we
organized a car to take us around the island.
Conclusion
Very disappointing experience which was supposed to
be an enjoyable break with family who travelled all the way from
England to celebrate my husband's birthday.
This was our first cruise and there was a limited choice of cruise
lines departing from Miami for a short cruise. I chose Celebrity
rather than Carnival because of its advertising which I now consider
to be misleading as Celebrity markets itself (in their own words) as
a "comfortably sophisticated upscale cruise experience with
personalized service, fine dining, revitalizing spa programs, and
exciting entertainment". I remembered their TV adverts along the
lines of "returning to your normal life is quite an adjustment" and
"prepare to be treated famously" but the reality is far removed from
their advertising and I felt like I was at a 'Butlins' or 'Pontins'
holiday camp.
I couldn't wait to return to my normal life and after boarding the
ship, when I complained to the Assistant Guest Relations Manager
about our accommodation and asked if we could pay to upgrade, I was
told that, in spite of the sewage smell, there was no alternative
accommodation available. If I hadn't been with our family from
England, I would have got off the ship even before it left the port
of Miami but as we had our English visitors to consider, we had no
choice but to continue and I can honestly say I couldn't wait for
the cruise to end.
My purpose for writing this review is to try to help someone else
who is in a similar position to me, having travelled extensively and
stayed in very nice hotels but considering giving a short cruise a
try. If you are determined to try, my recommendation is to go with a
much newer ship with better facilities and to reserve a large cabin
with balcony.
Cruising tips/information
Finally, I am noting some tips/information which are
not a direct criticism of Celebrity as I would think all cruise
liners are the same but they caught us by surprise and might be
useful for anyone who is new to cruising.
When booking your cruise, the price doesn't include tips (which are
obligatory), drinks, or tours, which have to be paid for separately
and I found the online check-in process and organizing of
tips/drinks/tours very time consuming. Incidentally, paying our tips
in advance meant we qualified for Celebrity Select Dining and could
therefore choose the time of our dinner reservation each day. If we
hadn't prepaid, there would have been no choice other than early or
late dining which I think is 6.30 pm and 8.30 pm respectively.
Since I was a child, I have spent a lot of time on motor and sail
boats but I definitely felt queasy the first night resulting in only
2 hours sleep. My sister-in-law had brought some Kwells (a travel
sickness pill) which I took the next day and immediately felt much
better so I definitely recommend taking travel sickness medication
just in case as we didn't find a general store onboard.
I'm used to the facilities of good hotels (minimum 4 star) and want
to point out that irons/steamers are not allowed on board ship which
I would think is the same for all cruise ships due to safety. I
believe there may be a pressing service but can't comment as I
didn't use this.
Be aware you have to give up your luggage by midnight the evening
before you disembark and just keep hand luggage for getting ready
the next morning and of course, you disembark early morning so it is
a very early start the day of disembarkation.
I hope the time I've taken to write this review helps someone else
avoid the awful experience we've had :)
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