Though much traveled, this is a report of the first cruise my wife and I have ever taken, five days in the Caribbean on the Celebrity Century. We have a 14 day cruise to Hawaii on the Celebrity Summit booked for September and having done so we decided to do this five day cruise as a winter break and trial run to ensure we liked it and that days at sea would not be a problem. Well, we loved it, preferred being at sea to in port and booked on board for another Caribbean cruise next January on the Constellation!

We sailed from Miami on January 22 to Key West, Grand Cayman and back. As we were coming from New York in winter we decide to arrive a day early, as it happens, our so far non event winter caused us no problems and arrival in Miami was uneventfully on time. The hotel we chose was at the airport and a brand we had no experience of, Summerfield Suites. The accommodation turned out to be excellent with two large bedrooms a living room and kitchen and complimentary hot breakfast. This would be a good choice for a family although somewhat excessive for the two of us. A taxi to the ship was about $30 and to South Beach about $40.

We were amazed by the ease of boarding, arriving at the rather ugly terminal just before noon, there was an abundance of helpful, pleasant staff and almost no other passengers, allowing us to dispose of our luggage, complete formalities and be on board with a glass of Champagne in hand in about ten minutes. At this point we became somewhat baffled, having been politely guided every step of the way we were now left to our own devices with no idea where we could go or where we should go. However we quickly found our way to the pool area where there were already many more experienced souls sunning themselves or availing themselves of food and beverages. Read more