Just Returned From CENTURY East Caribbean

[polodad]

Walked off the Century this morning having returned from the 4/17/2004 sailing to the Eastern Caribbean. It was a wonderful experience. I'll try to post a full review after I get some sleep, do the weigh-in and run the dog. In brief, everyone seemed to agree that the food, service and facilities onboard the Century were excellent however the itinerary has a lot of room for improvement.

 

Norway 11/85

SS Independence 7/91

Star Princess 10/02

 

4/17 Celebrity CENTURY

[momrox1]

Welcome home!

Looking forward to the review.

 

Judy -

Horizon

Zenith

Grandeur of Seas

Nordic Empress

Constellation

Zuiderdam

Millenium

Zaandam

Century- 5/22/04

[Princess-of-Quite-alot]

WELCOME HOME POLODAD!!!

Thanks for posting while on your trip...we have all been eager to hear from you! The Eastern itinerary was not my favorite so that was why I booked the Western. I like lots of ports, especially Barbados and St. Maarten, and really enjoyed my 2 Southern Caribbean trips I sailed on.

Anyways, looking forward to hearing your comments!!

 

Celebrity Century 5/8/04 -Western Caribbean

 

Carnival Ecstasy 2/04 - Baja

Tahitian Princess 2/03- French Polynesia

Sea Princess 7/02 - Alaska

Carnival Ecstasy 5/02 - Baja

Royal Caribbean Monarch 10/00 - Southern Caribbean

Carnival Elation 10/99 - Mexican Riviera

Royal Caribbean Monarch 1/97 - Southern Caribbean

[deb18]

Welcome home. It sounds like you thoroughly enjoyed your trip. Hope you get your land legs soon, but better than that, I hope you are on another ship sooner. deb

[polodad]

Hi Momrox & Princess thanks for the greeting. I'm still on Century time (they wake you at 5:30 am, kidding I'm on E. time in SF so it's EARLY.)

 

The trip. We caught a morning flight out of Oakland on American the Fri before our cruise. Changed planes in DFW and headed for FLL with a plane full of cruisers. Got into Lauderdale about 7:30 and checked into the Renaissance on 17th after a short cab ride. Had a great dinner at the BIMINI BOATYARD next door to the Renaissance. Next morning grabbed a small bite and out walking for last minute items. Able to shop at the Publix & liquor store across the street. Good idea to bring wine on board.

Took a shuttle to the ship (taxi would have been more convenient & less cost). Fellow cruisers in the shuttle had been on the Century 4 times previously & this was a theme we heard repeatedly throughout the trip. Everyone loves this ship & feels Celebrity does a good job. Got to the pier for embarcation around 11:15, There were people waiting around and lines inside without movement. Saw a sign for Captain's Club members & headed for the doorway. Said Princess sent me & they started throwing rose petals. Seriously, we were on the ship by 11:30 with champagne in hand and our cabin was available. We had a midship outside 8th deck category 5. Cabin 8116. The cabin had lots of storage & a BIG shower (compared to the mini shower on Strar Princess). We thought the furniture in the room was ill conceived for the space. Example. There is a small glass cocktail table that makes it difficult to get to that side of the bed. You can't open the mini fridge door without moving a chair or that table. We immediately met our cabin steward Raymundo. He was fabulous. Always smiling and couldn't help enough. It seems like every crew member (with the exception of the casino) has a

positive attitude and can't help enough.

Ok, now that we are onboard let's get some food. Up to the Islands Cafe for lunch. Pizza & burgers available outside on the 11th fl deck by the pool or a great buffet at the Islands cafe. We chose the buffet. Great servers, great food. It seemed to us it was the small niceties like having staff carry your tray to the table & having staff walk around pouring coffee, and linen on the trays that differentiated this from Princess. Extensive fire drill & then bon voyage.

Dinner was in the grand restaurant. We were seated in the upstairs on deck 6 at a window table for 8 with the main seating at 6:15. Our waiter was Nevyl (from India) and busboy was Jorge. They both were friendly, extremely professional, and great servers. If there were cutbacks in the food area I can't even imagine what it used to be like because we thought the food was excellent. There were usually 5 entrees & I could have been happy with 2 picks at any meal. Only disappointment was the 1st night both prime rib & veal piccatta were on the menu. I really like both. I ordered the prime rib. It was tasty, but a really thin piece & 25 percent fat (no comparison to Outback or Black Angus). My easy solution was to finish it and order the veal piccata as well. The veal was excellent. Every dinner featured a choice of appetizers, soups, salad, entree and dessert. The appetizers were universally excellent; especially any with puff pastry, yum. All of the soups were great, but the cold fruit type soups were souper (pun).

After dinner off to the Celebrity theater for a show. The production numbers were good and THE LADDER GUY is wonderful. It is a really nicely designed room with comfortable bench seating throughout. Aside from the rafters on the sides there do not seem to be any bad seats.

The bad news. Shortly after we left port on Sat eve right through Monday afternoon we had horrid sea conditions. Veteran cruisers said it was the worst seas they had ever experienced. It was real windy & the ship was going full speed. Everyone looked druink as we staggered around the ship. I heard that the medical office had 143 passengers visit during that first 1 1/2 days. The first set of formal pictures on Sun eve were a waste, everybodys' face was green. I knock on wood don't seem to get seasick, but the girlfriend couldn't leave the bed.

To make matters worse, supposedly due to sea conditions (wind) we were 1 1/2 hrs late getting to the first port, San Juan. They cancelled all three shore excursions. The bio bay kayak tour was the only one we had signed up for on the trip. A major disappointment. No one aboard seemed to understand why we stopped at San Juan at all. By the time we arrived all the shops were closed.

Sorry, I digressed from food. Breakfast was wonderful. The Islands Cafe (with the exception of limp bacon) was great. We quickly found out our preference was to visit the outside waffle bar for the BEST WAFFLES & then proceed inside for eggs & other stuff. Around 9 we could head down to the Cova Cafe for almond croissants. Sorry, the dog is whining & it's time for his run. To be continued. If there are any questions I'll try to answer them.

 

Norway 11/85

SS Independence 7/91

Star Princess 10/02

 

4/17 Celebrity CENTURY

[Princess-of-Quite-alot]

My mouth is watering....more, more!!!!

 

Celebrity Century 5/8/04 -Western Caribbean

 

Carnival Ecstasy 2/04 - Baja

Tahitian Princess 2/03- French Polynesia

Sea Princess 7/02 - Alaska

Carnival Ecstasy 5/02 - Baja

Royal Caribbean Monarch 10/00 - Southern Caribbean

Carnival Elation 10/99 - Mexican Riviera

Royal Caribbean Monarch 1/97 - Southern Caribbean

[cfk2439]

Polodad, thanks for the summary. We leave this Saturday on the same route. I hope the winds will have calmed down by then. The food sounds wonderful and we are sooooo excited. Looking forward to reading more when you have time.

 

Carol

[teedee]

Polodad - Thanks for the great review. Princess is not the only one salivating! I also loved the waffles at breakfast from the buffet. They were wonderful.

 

The ladder guy has been on both our previous Century cruises, he is so awesome, I hope he's on our September cruise.

 

We're at a little less than 5 months before our next Century cruise and we can't wait.

 

I do have one question, how did you like the Renaissance Hotel? We're booked there the night before our cruise. It looks nice, but I like to hear from people who have actually stayed there.

 

 

Terri

 

Skyward - 1989

Carnivale - 1991

Holiday - 1994

Fantasy - 1998

Century - 2002

Century - 2003

Jubilee - 7/04

Century - 9/04

Coral Princess 3/05

[CLSmith]

I have to agree with Polodad,the waffles on the Century are the best.Glad to hear you had a good time on the Century.Looking forward in hearing more.CLSmith

[gkm]

Now I'm really getting excited. June 5 can't come soon enough! Thanks for a wonderful review. We are all anxiously waiting for more!

 

Garry

 

click <a href="mailto:gkm278@comcast.net">here</a href> to send me an email

[polodad]

I'm back folks. Grandma has been driven home & the grandog has been run. He is not ecstatic that I'm home.

Teedee, the RENAISSANCE was okay. If I had paid more then the $75 on priceline I'm not sure how happy I would be. It has a great location & the room is okay. The staff is mediocre and there is not complimentary (read free) shuttle.

 

Back to the Century. I think I was on breakfast. We had breakfast in the Grand restaurant twice. The bacon was crisp there. The eggs benedict were excellent, the salmon was good and all of the coffee on board is great. Did I mention I doubled my dosage of Lipitor while on board. Breakfast service starts at 7:30. In order to increase our shore time at one port we ordered room service for breakfast. They called before they came and were on time and delivered a full breakfast, eggs, bacon, etc.

Be careful of wakeup calls. You can try an automatic feature thru the phone or actually talk to the desk. I talked to the desk and we got our wakeup call at 6:25 on Tues morn. They also called on Thursday morn at 6:25 (even tho we hadn't asked for it) and called at 6 am on Sat morn which we think was meant for another room.

We had lunch one time in the Grand restaurant and it was okay, but certainly not better then the Islands cafe. Dinners were just flat out great. I ate mostly beef (prime rib twice and filet three times, the rack of lamb was also great). I'm a dessert guy and I can't say enough about how good they were. They probably served creme brulee (otherwise known as flan) three times. At least once in the original yellow type and twice more in other flavors. They served some kind of blueberry flambe that was good and the baked alaska was a major production. Cheescake probably appeared 3 times. For me 2 dessert nights really stand out. We had crepe suzettes one night and they were memorable. The last night we had a choice of 4 desserts. The first was a sort of Napoleon with sponge cake & raspberry jam. The second was a super yummy chocolate sacher torte type cake. I don't remember the fourth, but the third was called Paris Brest and was basically a mocha flavored cremepuff. Jerry next to me ordered the Brest and wanted to know if he was getting the right one or left one. The gals ordered the boob. Our very proper and straight waiter, Nevyl cracked up the table when he presented Jerry with BOTH the right and left Brest(s). I had the brest & the Napoleon. It killed me that I could't even think of ordering the chocolate cake cause I was that full.

Formal night was less formal for me then anticipated, I was wearing my brand new tuxedo that was starting to not fit by the 2nd formal night (I wonder why?), I would guess only about 20-25% of the men wore tuxedos. On the other hand on informal nights men always seemed to wear jackets. Shorts are never worn by either sex at dinner in the Grand. It is sometimes a mad race to return from port with sufficient time to change for dinner.

Other stuff. We really enjoyed the Tpool. It is a great oppoertunity for spending quality time together & also you can't (thank god) eat in there. The cost is $66 for the week per person. It is open until 11 & we would frequent it before bedtime. The bingo jackpot $3038 was won on Fri nite by Tina (nice young gal) from Calif.

I'm sure I'll think of more stuff. Oh, we really liked the tunes by an island band called Vibes in the Crystal Room. Unfortunately we discovered them late in the cruise.

We were really impressed with how easy and orderly debarkation was as compared to the Princess experience in LA. Here they staggered times for meeting in the theater and once you left the theater you were off the ship in 5 minutes and then picked up your bags & breezed thru customs.

I was also favorably impressed with how detailed the Celebrity post cruise questionaires were done.

A great vacation and I feel like I'm bringing part of the ship back with me. I am, 5 lbs worth. I wasn't kidding about the Lipitor, they use 4,000 dozen eggs and 15,400 lbs of beef per 7 day sailing, and that's just for the early sitting. Kidding, actiually those are the correct numbers for the entire ship for 7 days.

 

Norway 11/85

SS Independence 7/91

Star Princess 10/02

 

4/17 Celebrity CENTURY

[gkm]

Wonderful review. Hmmmm. I think I'll take some slacks that are loose on me! I'm hungry right now for some of those desserts!

 

Garry

 

click <a href="mailto:gkm278@comcast.net">here</a href> to send me an email

[Princess-of-Quite-alot]

What an awesome review Polodad! Thanks so much for sharing. I especially liked the story of the 2 "brests" appearing on the plate. Sounds like you had fun with your tablemates! Thanks also for mentioning when the T-pool closed. I think that's what we'll do too, go before sleep, as it sounds like there is just too much to do during the day!! Is it possible for me to withold food now for these last 2 weeks???

 

Celebrity Century 5/8/04 -Western Caribbean

 

Carnival Ecstasy 2/04 - Baja

Tahitian Princess 2/03- French Polynesia

Sea Princess 7/02 - Alaska

Carnival Ecstasy 5/02 - Baja

Royal Caribbean Monarch 10/00 - Southern Caribbean

Carnival Elation 10/99 - Mexican Riviera

Royal Caribbean Monarch 1/97 - Southern Caribbean

[teedee]

Thanks again for the review. We also got the Renaissance on Priceline for about what you paid, I think we'll be ok. It's only for one night anyway.

 

The price for the T pool has gone up a little bit, it was $60 on our last cruise, but well worth it at either price. The best sleep we had was after we hit the pool at night before bed. Sometimes it was WAY before bed, but I still had the most relaxed feeling after getting out of there. I am so ready to get back on that ship!

 

Terri

 

Skyward - 1989

Carnivale - 1991

Holiday - 1994

Fantasy - 1998

Century - 2002

Century - 2003

Jubilee - 7/04

Century - 9/04

Coral Princess 3/05

[nctxmix]

Polodad,

Your review is excellent. Now I know why we've chosen the Century as our second cruise, because

I loved it so much last year.

 

We are on the Eastern cruise also. Hope I won't be too disappointed on the ports. Loved the Western ports.

 

Please let us know if you did any excursions at St Thomas or St Maartin. We are still trying to decide what to do.

 

Until 6/12.........

 

 

Johnnita

[RodPat]

Polodad, thanks for the great review. My DH and I will be on the Century in November for back to back cruises. I have heard so many good things about this ship and now so many yummy things to eat. This will be our 5th and 6th cruise on Celebrity and we have loved them all. Pat

[1stimekruiser]

Glad you had a great time!! I'll be on this same cruise in October so I appreciate the review.

How are the tips for ordering drinks and such handled? Do they automatically charge the tip to your card?

 

Until the Celebrity Century!!!

 

Carnival Legend 10/2003

Carnival Sensation 11/2002

 

 

[cfk2439]

Polodad, thanks for the comprehensive review. Can't wait until Saturday. Going on a very strict diet until then - water only!! How did the double lipitor work - my sister is worried about all the sugar on our cruise. Once again, we appreciate your comments.

 

Carol

[Princess-of-Quite-alot]

Carol...

I was thinking about the same diet for my last 2 weeks!!! It's gonna be a loooong 2 weeks!!!!

 

Celebrity Century 5/8/04 -Western Caribbean

 

Carnival Ecstasy 2/04 - Baja

Tahitian Princess 2/03- French Polynesia

Sea Princess 7/02 - Alaska

Carnival Ecstasy 5/02 - Baja

Royal Caribbean Monarch 10/00 - Southern Caribbean

Carnival Elation 10/99 - Mexican Riviera

Royal Caribbean Monarch 1/97 - Southern Caribbean

[polodad]

I'm baaaack. Being home sucks. Dinner was sauteed mushrooms, steamed asparagus & carrots over rice pilaf. I want my prime rib!!! Damn the Lipitor. And did I mention I had to cook it and cleanup?

Answers. I don't think the T Pool fee has gone up. It is still $60, but there is a cute little 10% service charge for aquaspa services. Voila $66.

Shore excursions. We were late into San Juan so kayaking and the rest of the excursions were cancelled. Too late to see the fort or shop. You can walk around old San Juan for an hour & have a Pina.

St. Martin. Again, I think the port time was like 8:30-3:00. We got an informal group together at the taxi stand and did a 3 hr tour that took 4 1/2 hrs. It went all over the island & spent 2o mins at Orient beach & 45 mins shopping in Marigot. The driver thought he was doing us a favor by taking extra time but he burnt our shopping time in Phillipsburg. Cost was $25 per person w/o tip.

St. Thomas we opted to do our own tour. Got off the ship at 8 am caught a taxi to Red Hook then waited a half hour and took the 9 am ferry to Cruz Bay on St. John. Taxi from Cruz Bay past Hawksnest Bay to Trunk Bay. Snorkeled there for awhile then caught a cab to visit nearby Cinammon Bay. I think Cinamon was the prettiest. It was too windy & the waves were too rough to snorkel at Cinamon so taxi back to Trunk Bay for awhile. Taxi back to Cruz Bay and caught the 2:15 ferry to Charlotte Amalie for some shopping. Cab back to the ship at 5:30.

Wonderful day. I don't think we saved any money over doing the ships tour of St. John but I think we got more beach time & certainly retaioned flexibility over our own schedule.

Some tips on shopping in St. Thomas. Maybe because it was Bluebeard's home but what most people shop for is liquor & jewels. I bought a couple of 1.14 liter bottles of Bacardi for $6.95 with no tax. Its about $18 a bottle at our supermarket for this size with tax. Women you may not like this, but I figured out you don't have to spend thousands to get a nice jewelery keepsake of the trip. Bought my girlfriend a nice birthstone ring in 14kt at Diamonds Intl. and it seemed really nice to us and fun for me to secretly shop for without breaking the bank. I was able to get it sized the next day at St. Marten at Diamonds Intl there. Funny how the water on the ship makes you retain water & your fingers get bigger. Sure.

Nassau we got in at 2 pm and left at 8 pm and I understand we left behind 2 tardy passengers. We walked downtown & shopped for about 40 mins, which was a waste. Higher prices & big city feel. Caught a cab to Paradise Island. Did the free walk around Atlantis checking out the casino & aquarium then accessed the beach at the causeway next to the Sheraton. Walked up the stairs at the Sheraton, had a drink at the pool & borrowed a couple of beach chairs & inhaled probably the prettiest beach of the trip (Cabbage Beach?). White sand & turquoise water. I would recommend doing your own thing here.

The too limited time in ports seemed to be the only thing we could fault on the cruise.

Oh Yeah CASINO WARNING. Stay away from the slot machine that seems to balance loads of quarter in it. It is a ripoff. It is aptly named the Pirate. There are some chips & paper money scattered in with the quarters & you keep thinking they wil fall. If you visit the casino at approx 9:15 am daily you will observe ship's personnel "servicing" this machine by rearranging the display. Seems to me that is tinkering with the physics and probability of payoff. No wonder you won't see the Nevada gaming commission allowing this machine. Shame on you RCL & Celebrity!! It is on RCL ships also.

 

Norway 11/85

SS Independence 7/91

Star Princess 10/02

 

4/17 Celebrity CENTURY

[Princess-of-Quite-alot]

What a guy to buy your girl a ring!! Awwwww!

 

Celebrity Century 5/8/04 -Western Caribbean

 

Carnival Ecstasy 2/04 - Baja

Tahitian Princess 2/03- French Polynesia

Sea Princess 7/02 - Alaska

Carnival Ecstasy 5/02 - Baja

Royal Caribbean Monarch 10/00 - Southern Caribbean

Carnival Elation 10/99 - Mexican Riviera

Royal Caribbean Monarch 1/97 - Southern Caribbean

[polodad]

I was kidding about the double Lipitor. I'll just lie to my doc & tell him I was on the Atkins diet & that's why my choleserol went thru the roof.

 

1st timer. The Century is a "cash free ship". Once you give them your credit card at embarcation you get a cabin key that is also used for onboard charges such as drinks, aspirin, etc. Gratuities are automatically added to drinks. Only cash necessary is for the casino. Kind of scary, but when returning a locker key the Aquaspa staff accidentally gave us someone elses key instead of mine. So when I went to open my cabin it didn't work & I realized I was holding a key with the name Mary Ellen ... on it. we immediately raced to the gift ship and .... Actually back to the aquaspa to get the right key so we could get into the cabin.

 

Norway 11/85

SS Independence 7/91

Star Princess 10/02

 

4/17 Celebrity CENTURY

[momrox1]

Polodad

Thanks for the review-can't wait till May 22. I know you were kidding when you mentioned the lipitor and Atkins-but email me because it's off-topic and I'll explain how my doc wanted me to take Lipitor but instead I reduced my cholesterol 100 points by doing Atkins!!

Judy momrox1@hotmail.com

[polodad]

I just wanted to add that I have posted a full review of this cruise which includes formal ratings at Cruise Critic but I'm sure it will take awhile to work it's way thru the system.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask them here & I'll try to answer them.

 

Norway 11/85

SS Independence 7/91

Star Princess 10/02

 

4/17 Celebrity CENTURY

[autumnsea]

Who was the CD on the ship?