ZENITH REVIEW April 8

[brianl_s]

My girlfriend and I cruised on the Celebrity Zenith departing April 8. I have been on a cruise before (Carnival Inspiration) and she had not. We were both looking forward to an enjoyable week (almost a week). Note that this cruise was a suprise to her (mostly) as she did not know where we were flying to (Miami) nor did she know what ship we were on or where we were going. So she was very excited. On with the review.....

Embarkation: Very easy. We were staying at the Fortune House (great condo/suite for the money-ould stay again) which is only a five minute cab ride to the port. $12 for the cab and $15 to the porter (she had a LOT of luggage, what can I say?) and before we knew it we were inside the Celebrity cruise terminal in Miami. I printed out the Xpress pass a few days before and had both of them in this folder I had given my girlfriend at the airport when she "found out". An older Celebrity gentleman inquired about whether we had the Xpress pass, so when I showed him my folder with the passes, he directed us to the Xpress pass line and called me "amazing"! this was a joke for the remainder of our cruise. After that we walked directly to the counter and were on the ship within 5 minutes. We were on board by 12:30PM with our first drink (second if you include the champagne). I believe the people handed me a little card stating the room would not be reay until 2PM, but since they also saod something about not being able to get onboard until that time I figured there was a good chance the were just "discouraging" us from checking it out. Curiosity got the best of us and we proceeded aft to find out room (5143) ready and the stateroom attendant hanging around ready to great us. Actually, all the stateroom workers and helpers seemed extremely freindly...I likened them to prairie dogs because everytime we walked down a passageway they all seemed to pop there heads out and say hi. So far so good.

Stateroom: The stateroom was an inside cabin double bed with a bunk that forlded up. This provided a great picture for the owner of an iDog that I borrowed for the cruise. I made it the iDog's "bed". The room was plenty big for the two of us and had enough storage for all of the luggage that we brought with left over room. Only thing that struggled was the shower curtain...sort of flimsy and could have been cleaner. No big deal, we survived. The stateroom attendant was always efficient and seemed to never "be there". Did his thing, we saw him in the passageways but never walked in on him in the room or anything.

Ship Info: The Zenith is a smaller ship without the glitz and glamour of the newer ships. This was perfect for my girlfriend to experience her first cruise. We found the ship to be in good shape. Nothing we saw was noticably in bad shape. Granted some of the room did seem a bit outdated. I read somewhere that the elbowroom factor was "cozy" and I think that definition was on the money. The ship was completely booked and other than the normal complaint of pool chairs, we always felt comfortable and not crowded. We did feel the ship move around quite a bit, especially 10-15' seas leaving the Cayman Islands. Activities on the ship were sufficient. We expected what they provided and at times even felt overwhelmed with the amount of things that we could do as well as relaxing in the sun.

Food: The main dining room was average. Service was excellent. Food was above average. We were seated at a table for two next to the kitchen (someone has to sit there I guess) so we weren't thrilled with that but didn't complain. We actually ordered wine the first day, didn't like it, didn't complain, but the wine stewrd kept bringing it to the table night afater night until finally the third night she said something about it and finally credited the full amount. I thought that was above required service since again we never complained, she took it upon herself to see there was a problem. The casual resturant had exceptional service as well. My girlfriend liked to do many things at once while carrying her tray and more than twice someone came from nowhere and took her tray for her and followed me to the table. Room service was fast and effecient, however, the servings seemed a bit skimpy.

Entertainment: We saw only one show which was very entertaining. It was the broadway show which had little bits from things like Chicago and Mamma Mia. I had a hard time because one of the main guys in the show was also the same guy trying to get us to apply for PW credit at the art auction.

Shore Excursions: We only did one shore excursion in Cayman (horseback Riding). I have been many times and my girlfriend has never been on a horse. It was fun, very hot, and the tour guide was not friendly. Example...she asked if the horses had names and his answer - Some of them. Not...yours does and its name is xxxxx...or your horse does not but his does and its name is xxxx. Sea Grape beach in Cayman is a highly recommended beach to hang out and swim/have a drink. We were there for three hours and had a lot of fun. Key West we spent just walking around. The Butterfly Conservatory is a must visit. $10 per person and worth every penny!

Disembarkation: We had a 1:15PM flight out of FLL so we were off the ship by 8:30AM. Very easy. Overall we both had an EXCELLENT time on the Zenith. We were a bit land wobbly for a few days because off the ships movement but overall were fine and would do it all again. Hope I didn't ramble to much...submitted an "official" review but firgured I would post on the boards. Feel free to ask me any questions...

[slotaddict]

Thanks for the review, I think the Zenith is a wonderful ship, we were on her in January and had a great time. Is your girlfriend hooked on cruising now?

[BrooklynGirl2]

Thanks for the great review.

 

What a wonderful surprise for your girlfriend! I'm so glad you both had a good time on Zenith. We will be taking our 3rd cruise on Zenith in June. We think she's a perfect size. Big enough to have your own space but small enough to navigate easily.

[meme']

Nice review. We were on the Zenith 3/30/06 and had a wonderful time. My review was just printed. It takes a few weeks:)

[brianl_s]

My GF does love cruising now and we will be taking a longer cruise for the next one...the 5 day introductory cruise is to make sure that the person can get over the X factor...the sea. She did fine!

 

I forgot to mention a few things in my review...I'm sure things will continue to come to me and I will continue to add them.

 

When we got onboard my GF decided tht in Key West she would like to take the Catamaran/Snorkle excursion. She actually would have preferred to dive as she is certified but I am not....anyway, we booked the tour. The night before we started our drink celebrations pretty early in the day and continued until about 3AM (not the best idea the night before Kew West?). About 6PM while we were still going through some pretty rough seas we realized a couple of things:

1-The tour is riding on the Catamaran one hour each way

2-The rough seas we were presently going through gave us second thougts about whethr or not we would be able to handle the catamaran ride...plus, drinking.

So we made the decision to cancel the tour to be safe, however, when we went to the excursion desk to inquire about cancelling we were told we missed the deadline to receive a refund. The nice gentleman did offer to try and "sell" our tickets. So, before we headed up to dinner we stopped by and gave him our tickets and he told us that he had already spread the word to his coworkers to help out. My GF and I made the decision that it would be a bonus if we could get our money back because either way, we were not going on the tour. To sum up this story, after a great night of entertaining, dancing, etc. we woke up about 7AM to do the customs business, stopped by the excursion desk and the same gentleman gave us a smile and informed us that he had in fact sold our tickets!

 

My experience with the guest relations folks was very similar. My GF is a stickler about her receipts/money. If I let her she could spend hours staring at the account on the TV, consolidating receipts and budgeting and thinking about what she bought and what has shown up and what hasn't. So, needless to say we were regulars at the guest relations desk because they would print out our account and that way she could walk around with it and we wouldn't have to sit in the room and stare at the TV. I give her a hard time but she meant really well and is very good with her money. I also had to go to guest relation for a few other things including a screw driver to open the battery compartment for the iDog that I brought. When I opened the compartment the woman even offered me new batteries! All the people who helped us at both guest relations and the excursions desk were professional, courtious, and went the extra mile to assist always.

[Lois R]

Hi, glad you both enjoyed yourselves...though next time if you

are unhappy with that dinner table......go see the Maitr'd. They

are usually very accomodating!

I would never want a table right by the kitchen doors either!

 

I just got back from the following week...April 13th and had

a fantastic time:D I was on deck 5 too! Gabriel was my cabin

steward and he was excellent!