New to Celebrity

[E91]

Greetings to all:

 

My family (including my 5 year old son) will be taking a cruise aboard the refurbished Century in April.

 

My son is so excited about it as he knows that mom/dad take a cruise together each year and leave him with the grandparents. This time he is coming along, as well as the grandparents.

 

My wife and I have tried every line from Cunard to Windjammer and everything in between. We always try to scrape enough money together to do a suite category with balcony.

 

Our favorite line thus far is HAL. We are revisiting the Zuiderdam in December. We love her aft Verandah suites. Actually the aft balcony location is our favorite regardless of ship.

 

We aren't into glitz and glamor. We don't care about the size of the ship or age either. We are into a class act experience. We figured that trying the redone Century on a short voyage would be a good way for us to get the feeling for Celebrity; while at the same time ensuring that our son likes cruising.

 

We have booked a Sky Suite on the Sky Deck.

 

Give us some advice on how this experience will be versus our very positive experience on HAL.

 

Thanks in advance.

[beauxdammit]

I can not speak to the aft cabins, never been in one, but did sail on both HAL and Celebrity in the last year. (Summit and Oosterdam) We found them to be comparable in cabin accomadations, the food on Celebrity was a little better, the service, (CC class) was a little better on Celebrity. Entertainment, especially for the little one seemed to be better on HAL. This is by observation only since we did not have any kids with us. Boarding and disembarkation were better on HAL. The average age of PAX was somewhat older on X. We felt the degree of professionalism of the service staff was a little higher on X. Overall, they were quite comparable.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[Arubalisa]

We were in a Sky Suite aboard the Century's sister ship the Galaxy last December. It was wonderful, butler service an added bonus :) We were on Sky Deck so also had an amazing balcony!

 

Our daughter is 10. I cannot even begin to tell you how much MORE she enjoyed the Kid's Club on Celebrity over that on the Zaandam. Both were Christmas cruises, so pretty comparable on the number of children. Overall also found Celebrity to be much more kid friendly. Not so much the staff and crew, but...

 

I have some kid's club info as well as dailies here. Use the drop down box for other days.

[ASue]

If you liked HAL you will love Celebrity. I've only been on one cruise with Celebrity and 5 with HAL. We just got home from a 11 day cruise aboard the Zaandam. Wasn't a happy camper at all on that cruise. Used to be if there was nothing on the dinner menu you could order a steak, salmon or chicken. You can't do that anymore. I'm not a really picky eater but there were two nights there wasn't anything at all I wanted to eat on the menu. Was disappointed I couldn't get something else. I found the service lacking in several areas compared to the last time we sailed with HAL two years ago. Seems that now it is auto tipping the crew doesn't really go out of their way on service except for the last two days to get a extra tip. We are booked on the Summitt for March and can't wait.

[espmass]

You used the term "class act" in your posting. That's how I always feel when on a Celebrity cruise. I can't pinpoint exactly why, just a combination of everything I guess. Just a class act.

[Arubalisa]

I have to agree with the term "class act". Celebrity it seems to me went the extra mile.

As ASue said, our family too was not all that impressed overall with Zaandam. Dining room service on the Zaandam was especially the pits, and secondary items such as a terrible cabin steward and other maintenance issues (with 3 of 4 cabins which our family booked) only detracted from our opinion.

My parents have since sailed the Westerdam transatlantic and loved it. After 5+ cruises with them, X is still their overall favorite.