BettyCruiser

This is the old Michael's Lounge, now this the Zenith and Suite lounge.

The theater, we aren't show people so we didn't spend much time here.

Some casino pictures

The slots still use coins.

Keep them coming. We are going to be on the fabulous Century in a mere 3 weeks and we cannot wait. We were on her a couple years ago for Alaska and were very impressed.:)

 

My wife has one pressing question for you: Has the Century been CARNIVALIZED ? :confused: It is a topic of concern on the board these days.

3 weeks, is that the first 7 day out of LA? Can you come back after and let me know which nights are formal nights? I have a guess, but would like to know for sure.

I only read the first few posts on the Carnivalized thread and it seemed they were primarily concerned with loud music, is that what your asking about? I thought the music in the martini bar was kind of loud, made it difficult to carry on a conversation at times. We also thought that when there was live music in the Rendez-Vous Lounge it was loud. I liked volume of the music in the Crystal Room, but there you have the option to sit to the side and back if you want less music. I didn't spend time at Cova when there was live music and on this past trip I never entered Hemisphere so I can't comment on those venues. I don't remember ever having a DJ at the pool, just a solo singer that was entertaining but never too loud.

I'll be posting more Century photos today and continue with my review this evening.

Saturday February 15, 2014 embarkation day

We have friends, which we met on a cruise, that live near the hotel. They picked us up at the hotel in the morning and we had breakfast together at one of their favorite breakfast spots. We also stopped at Publix for a forgotten item. Then they dropped us at the ship by noon. Check in had already opened, there was a small line for the x-ray, no line to pick up our cruise cards, a quick stop for the security photo, then we were on the ship sipping a welcoming sparkling wine. A very quick and easy embarkation process.

Since this was our fourth cruise on the Century we didn’t need to explore the ship. We knew exactly where we wanted to go, the Sunset Bar. The Sunset Bar is a wonderful open air bar at the aft of the ship all the way back through the buffet. The wake view is great and there are several tables.

I didn't take a bunch of pictures around the ship this time but will post some from previous trips on the Century.

The Cova Cafe seating area, there weren't any table cloths this trip when we stopped in the afternoon.

The Rendez-Vous Lounge, the sofa seating is burgandy colored now, the chairs are still green.

More Rendez-Vous Lounge, maybe I was just thinking of these burgandy sofas??

The Crystal Room, I love this venue, nice large room but also has some nice little semi private alcoves.

Sometimes I pick a cruise based on the itinerary, sometimes I pick a cruise based on the ship and sometimes I pick a cruise to cruise with friends. This cruise happened to involve all three criteria.

The Century is my favorite ship currently sailing. This sailing was part of a redeployment of the Century after Celebrity decided to reduce the previously announced ‘solsticization’ dry dock down to a shorter technical dry dock, no doubt due to plans to sell or transfer the ship out of the Celebrity fleet. I usually book my cruises years in advance, this cruise was offered only about eight months prior to its sailing, that meant I had to rearrange my cruise schedule for the year when I booked this one, but it also meant another sailing on my favorite ship before she was gone.

I was also drawn to the itinerary, which included a port that we had never visited in our previous thirty plus Caribbean cruises. St. Bart’s was a completely new port for us. We had been to St. Croix only once before more than a decade ago. We had a bad experience there and I wanted to give it another try. San Juan was the only port we weren’t excited about, but that was okay, we’d use it as a ship day. Grand Turk is a new favorite port that we had been to only twice before.

But the deciding factor was probably an email was a cruise friend prodding us to cruise together once more. We have met so many great folks while cruising; it’s always fun to reconnect on another cruise.

A little about us, we’re in our late 40’s and have been cruising for 15 years. In that time we’ve taken nearly 40 cruises, on 6 different cruise lines, most of which were in the Caribbean, our primary motivation is an escape from our Minnesota winter.

We flew to Fort Lauderdale the evening before the cruise via Southwest with a plane change at Chicago Midway. I had kept an eye on the weather forecast for Chicago all week. The weekend before we had a diversion and delay flying through Midway I was hoping that wouldn’t happen again. This winter the weather has been extra crazy all over making travel tricky. It turns out the weather was fine in Chicago on Valentines Day, but I failed to check the originating city of our flight. The plane was coming from NY via Milwaukee and had a delayed arrival of about an hour. Our two hour layover turned into one hour but we still had time for a drink at the airport since this time we were lucky enough to fly into and out of the same gate. We have been flying on Southwest for only about a year. I like the flexibility they allow to change or reprice flights that have gone down in price. We have also had good luck getting good seats by purchasing the early bird option. On this trip we would take advantage of the free alcoholic beverage offered on holidays when flying Southwest. This year there was a full moon on Valentine’s Day.

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale on time at 11:35 PM on Valentines Day. We spent the night at the Renaissance in Plantation. We had never stayed at this hotel before. We always stay in the 17th Street area or the beach area of Fort Lauderdale. But since we booked only eight months out, it was Valentine’s Day, and President’s Day weekend, the only hotels in those areas were pretty spendy. Since we were arriving late I didn’t want to spend too much, but I also prefer at least a 3* hotel. I was able to reserve a room at the Renaissance in Plantaion with a AAA discount for $160, which was much cheaper than anything I could find in our usual areas. The cab ride there was about $26 plus tip. We didn’t explore the hotel much, but I can say the mattresses were incredibly comfortable.

I've always had great steaks at Tuscan Grille. We got rained out of the Lawn Club

Grill so I can't comment on that one.

We were on the Connie feb 3rd cruise I was surprised to see shorts In the dining room and Tuscan grille for dinner, definitely a lot more casual than I'm used to on celebrity.

There are sticky threads at the top of this forum that for both M-class and S-class that should help to answer these questions regarding a specific room.

The forward three I think are inside the hull, we were in one of those, more protected and covered but the balcony above is in the hull too, kind of looking over the bigger balcony. If I were to get one again, I'd get a more open one.

The small martini glasses were not just for classic pkg drinkers, us premium pkg drinkers were served the small glasses most of the time. It seems like they are phasing out the bigger glasses, they only had about half a dozen big glasses available to them. We asked about the shortage of big glasses and the bartenders didn't really have an answer, just shrugged and said that's all they have.

If you are talking strictly ship WOW factor, the Connie would beat the Century since it's a bit bigger and has more venues and options. Both ships have great service although I give the edge to the Century staff as they are a tighter community.

IMO none of the Celebrity ships are designed to WOW. After experiencing the Promenade or Centrum on RCI, the Piazza on Princess, the Atrium on Carnival and the Grand Lobby on Disney I'm not Wowed by any Celebrity ship.

We did regular disembarkation off the Constellation yesterday, had #18 which was called about 8:30, got our luggage, through customs and cabbed to the airport by 9:00AM, which was too early to check luggage for our 11:30 SW flight. At 9:20 we checked our bags and went through security in plenty of time for our flight.

The pricing for the cruise I am looking at on Breeze is $984 per person balcony!! And that is the price for 4 people. It is for 02/14/15. That is crazy high. Is it because it is Valentine's Day? I love the itinerary and love that out of 8 days there are only 3 ports of call but the price stinks...

Part of it is the fuel to go all the way to Aruba, but I think most of the higher prioce is due to it being President's week, most of the East coast has that week off school, expect a lot of kids on that sailing.

I like the Breeze better then the Dream.

When I decided to cruise for this New Years Eve I assumed Carnival would be the cheapest. But after comparing prices of between 20 and 30 options I found a six night cruise on Independence of the Seas won with a good price and I'd been wanting to sail that class of ship again. I was surprised but I'm happy with my choice.

If your comfortable with the current price then book it, but I wouldn't book it hoping that the price will go down.

One time I found switch flops and straps in a ship store, I love these, they are great for cruising, one pair of shoes to switch up to match all outfits. I would love to be able to buy new straps on board.

Also most of the clothes they sell won't fit me, another vote for larger sizes.

I'm also not into fine jewelry any more I would like to buy some affordable jewelry on board.

Also anyone try the cover balconys?

I loved our cove, I will always book a cove when possible:)

Everybody here speculating I suggest you write to John Heald on his facebook page for the correct info.

I'm not speculating, I'm reporting what has happened on two different Carnival ships when formal night was held the same night as the Super Bowl.

Our sea days are on different days in April. I hope that CC folks are right about that sailing.

 

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I was on the Grand Turk, Ochos Rios, Nassau itinerary, and yes our formal nights were the two sea days, because the second sea day isn't the last night Nassau is.

Hi there.... Sailing on Breeze Feb 1st 8 nights.

I know that on normal 8 nighters... the elegant night are on Sunday and Thursday. Does anybody if they change the night from Sunday for the SuperBowl? Can't miss the big game but would also hate to miss an elegant night? Do they do anything special for SuperBowl? Where can we watch?

 

Thanks

My experience is that they did not change formal night, it was held the same night as the Super Bowl, we chose not to dress and stayed casual on deck to watch on the big screen.

I did a northbound pacific coastal on the Century in May 2012 and loved it, so have now booked a LA round trip for this April it hits a few different ports than the north bound. I don't think the LA round trip itineraries start until March so I'm not sure anyone has done one.

It won't be both sea days, because they wouldn't have a formal night on the last night. For sure the first sea day, then probably Grand Cayman.

I thought food and service on Disney was the best of all my cruises. Of course there are a lot of kids on Disney, but they also do a good job at keeping some areas adult only.

As far as the drink package that depends on how much you drink. There are drink prices and information posted on these boards so that you can figure whether one of the drink packages is right for you.

Hi Becky, Great review so far! Great pictures!