Celebrity Century July 6-13. 2014

[crazytomatoes]

Alaskan Cruise Celebrity Century July 6-13, 2014

 

This cruise was the second for my husband and I and the first for our children ages 20 and 17. We also travelled with my parents who have cruised often. We live about a day’s drive from Vancouver so we arrived the day before the cruise and stayed at an Accent Inn, in Burnaby. This is a great place to stay before a cruise as you are able to leave your vehicle there for the week and it is an easy 5 minute walk to the sky train, which takes you to Canada place.

 

We arrived at Canada place and quickly and easily dropped our luggage and went through customs. The only annoyance was the overly aggressive porter that actually asked for a tip while we were placing our luggage on the cart. He may have received a tip but he certainly did not once he asked for one!! We were early but only waited 5 minutes in chairs before we were allowed to board. We went for lunch at the ocean view café and then checked to make sure our dinner table was as requested (which it was). It wasn’t long before we were allowed to head to our rooms.

 

We had three inside rooms 1051, 1053, and 1059. They were all great. Our room attendant Edy was fabulous and went out of his way to amuse the kids with fantastic towel animals every day. There was ample storage and we were very comfortable. We were on the penthouse deck which was very conveniently located one deck below the Island Café. I will try to attach some photos. Stay tuned

[crazytomatoes]

I have tried unsuccessfully to add pictures to this but I can't figure it out, so I will just have to make due without them...

 

The ship is beautiful and although some have complained about the shape of it we still think it has classic beauty and are saddened that the Century is leaving. After the muster drill we went up on deck and grabbed a few beverages for sail away. Vancouver is a beautiful City and we really enjoyed the views as we sailed away from Canada place.

 

Day five we were in Juneau we went up the Mt Roberts Tramway and hiked the trails up top. The views were breathtaking, after that we shopped and wandered around.

 

We had received an invitation to join the Captain at dinner this day but we ended up passing because it was formal night and wanted to have dinner with our children instead. They were really excited about formal night and that was more important to us. We encouraged my parents to attend instead and they did. They had a great time and said that was very special. They meet with the others joining the captain for dinner along with the captain’s club hostess for a beverage and appetizers before being escorted to the MDR. They really enjoyed the experience.

 

We ended the day at the evening show and we all enjoyed it very much. Since we all had beverage packages, the adults with the classic alcohol package and the young adults with the premium non-alcohol package we have been enjoying without guilt various drinks throughout the day. This is the first time we have had the package and we all agree we would not want to go without it next time.

 

Day two was a sea day and we spent time exploring the ship and finding our favourite locations to relax. We all love the Cova café and are working our way through trying all of the specialty coffee and teas. We again attended the evening show.

 

Day three we tendered into Icy Strait Point. The weather was a little rainy but that didn’t stop us from exploring. We had no excursion booked so we wandered around the museum before taking a nice walk through the forest. We returned to the ship for dinner and then watched the evening show in the theatre.

 

Day four we saw Hubbard glacier, it was spectacular, the weather cleared and we all enjoyed the impressive sights.The kids participated in the polar bear plunge and we enjoyed watching them! Overall it was a relaxing day at sea!

 

Day five was in Ketchikan. Again we had no excursions booked as we like to do our own thing. We walked around the town and did a little shopping. It was also our 22nd wedding anniversary and we received a bottle of wine from the captain’s club hostess. It was a very special day.

 

Day six was a sea day and we received an invitation to tour the bridge. It was very interesting and we really enjoyed it. We were served a special baklava and it was delicious.

 

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and enjoying our last day at sea.

In the morning we headed off the ship without a hitch, it was quick and painless getting through customs. A great vacation was had by all.

Oh and did I mention we are doing it all again next year? We booked another cruise on board!

 

Overall we had an amazing trip, food was great, service was amazing and the overall treatment we received from all of the crew really made it a special experience.

Edited July 17, 2014 by crazytomatoes

[Phxazzcruisers]

I am so glad you had a great cruise. Century will always be special to us. We love traveling on her and will miss her when she leaves the fleet. She was our first cruise and got us addicted to cruising.

Edited July 17, 2014 by Phxazzcruisers

[MikeC1610]

Thanks for the review Crazytomatoes. We are going on the Century in October to the South Pacific and were unsure of what to expect given we have read some pretty nasty reviews.

 

Your comments have reassured us that the ship is in fact in much better shape and provides for a much better cruise experience than some others (that I now suspect have way too high expectations) have experienced.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[BCRose]

Thank-you for the great review, and Congratulations on your Anniversary.

 

I have a couple of questions, if you don't mind.

 

We sail July 27th (can you hear my excitement...:D).

 

We are traveling with my 16 (will turn 17 on board) year old daughter, and wondered if your 17 year old participated in any of the teen activities and if he/she did, what did she think about it?

 

Also, what time did you arrive for boarding and when was the 2nd formal night?

[crazytomatoes]

Thank-you for the great review, and Congratulations on your Anniversary.

 

I have a couple of questions, if you don't mind.

 

We sail July 27th (can you hear my excitement...:D).

 

We are traveling with my 16 (will turn 17 on board) year old daughter, and wondered if your 17 year old participated in any of the teen activities and if he/she did, what did she think about it?

 

Also, what time did you arrive for boarding and when was the 2nd formal night?

 

Thank you, it's a wonderful way to celebrate an anniversary!

 

My daughter did initially visit the teen area with a little nudging from us and found that most of the teens were way younger than she was. She did try and wander by a few times with the same result each time. She is however going to be 18 in a few weeks. Having said that there were a lot of teens on board, much more than we saw last time we visited Alaska. My son who is 20 had no problem meeting people around the ship and they both would just disappear for a time and reappear when they where hungry :D. This was a first cruise for both of them and they had a great time. They did participate in a few activities such as the polar bear plunge on the hubbard glacier day. Each day my daughter received her own daily outlining the activities for the teen club. I guess it greatly depends on what your teen is wanting to do. I would encourage her to at least check it out.

 

We arrived around 10:00ish and by the time we dropped luggage, went through customs and checked in we only waited in a holding area for around 10-15 minutes, we were one of the first 20 people aboard.

 

The second formal night was the day we were in Juneau, so day 5.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[BCRose]

Thank-you for the quick response to my questions. My Dd is pretty outgoing and makes friends easily, so I am not too worried about her finding someone to hang out with, but I hope there are few older teens around for her to "find" LOL.

 

And yes we will enjoy our cruise, actually it is getting a bit hard to concentrate on work....:o

[portofrome]

Thanks for the review.

[Keith1010]

Glad you had a wonderful trip and thanks for taking the time to write and share this review.

 

Keith

[fatbaldbloke]

Great read thanks for sharing.

[kenevenpar]

Thank you for the report.

 

Should you want to post pictures going forward, here is a thread that tells how to do so.

 

Ken

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1714741