Celebrity Century 12 Apr thru 16 Apr 07, Miami, Key West, and Cozumel and back. The DW and I drove to Miami from Northwest Florida to Miami, it took about 10 hours and wasn't too bad a drive since traffic on a Wednesday tends to be light. We arrived at our hotel, The Continental South Beach, which we found with little trouble despite the construction and confusing one way streets in South Beach. But the hotel was a nightmare, the not-so-helpful lady at the desk couldn't find our reservation (made 2 months ago) with a confirmation number. She told they didn't have our reservation and there was nothing she could do for us. After a bit of fussing on my part, I tried to be as polite as possible considering the 10 hour drive, so she called someone, I'm guessing the reservation folks, it was impossible to determine since she only spoke to them in spanish. She hung up the phone and said she was waiting for the reservation office (located about 50 feet from the front desk, she turned away and started speaking spanish to several people in the lobby while I waited. The reservation folks called back after about 5 minutes and again she told me they couldn't find my reservation and our confirmation number wasn't any good. She then turned to some people next to me and started registering them. I left and got the DW since she made all the reservations and she politely asked the girl what the problem was and was pretty much ignored until DW not so politely told her she needed to finish helping us unsquirrel the reservation problem. To make a long story short, after contacting our TA, our reservation magically showed up. Since the desk girl and everybody else in that hotel was so helpful(sarcasm, we decided to find another hotel which our TA got us a room at the Intercontinental downtown which was a much better hotel with absolutely superb service. The moral of this is stay away from the Continental South Beach unless you speak spanish very well and like arrogant, unhelpful, rude, disrespectful people and zero customer service. On to the cruise.

The Intercontinental is located 5 minutes from the Port of Miami and despite all the downtown construction,we were sitting at the entrance to Terminal 10 within 15 minutes, that includes parking the car and dragging bags. They immediately took our luggage at the curb and placed it in the luggage bins. That was at approx 11 am and then the sky fell with rain coming down in buckets, the weather report said 2 to 3 inches an hour. Celebrity immediately left everybody into the terminal to get out of the rain, that was just the start of some of the best customer service we were to encounter throughout the trip. At 11:30 they processed everybody that was in the terminal at the time and had us move to a large room near the gangway. We were delayed for a half hour due to the rain going down so hard they were afraid to allow us on the gangway. At about 12 to 12:15 we were allowed to embark. It was about as painless embarkation we've had since our Oceania cruise in Nov 06. The ship was very nice, the woodwork and colors as you entered gave you a warm welcome and the crew completed the welcome. We were escorted to an elevator to go to Deck 11 since our room were not ready yet. We cheated and stopped by our cabin (Sky Suite 1077) and dropped off our carry-on bag. The room was completely ready but all we saw was a trashbag that hadn't been removed yet, no big deal, after all they did tell us the room wasn't ready. We went up the the buffet for lunch and I fell in love with the food. Their pizza is some of the best I've had on a cruise since our European cruise in Aug 2005 on the Sea Princess. Since I can't turn down a decent meal, I sampled a few item off the buffet and it was excellent food for a buffet. Everything I had was hot and very tasty and not overcooked. Their desserts, the only thing I can say is, if the DW hadn't reminded of my waistline expansion problem, I'd probably just moved my suitcase up to the buffet and camped out for 4 days. My compliments to the buffet staff for making sure everything was delicious. We ate in the Main Dining room for that evening and their food for the most part was superb. The only beef (pun intended) I could think of was my New York Cut Sirloin steak(medium rare as requested) was slightly tougher than expected but it had excellent flavor. After thinking about it, I realized it did say New York Cut sirloin, which can be slightly tougher than a true New York strip. One of our table mates (late dining) said his prime rib was tough as well but I didn't see anything left on his plate so I guess it must have tasted okay. Of course we went to Murano's and had a superb 4-course ala carte meal. Something to be aware of, Murano's offers a 6-course Chef's specialty menu with wine for an additional $100 per fix, that is on top of the $30 per person. I'm not sure what "per fix" means (I haven't read Latin since 1972), but if they meant per person, they should say that. Plus they should also warn people that it could cost up to $160 (possibly $260 if the per fix is for each person). They food was well worth the extra $60 dollars but not an additional $100 per fix. We had eaten at Emeril's South Beach and the food was phenomenal. Expensive but absolutely phenomenal. We ate off ship in Cozumel and in the room on the sea day. The sea day meal was just as good as the Main Dining room, the food was not overcooked or cold till we ate. Celebrity has gone out of their way to ensure a superb dining experience on the Century, definitely one of their strong points.

My general impression of the ship. Overall the majority of the ship was well maintained. I read on the boards the carpeting on deck 12 was badly stained, well with the rains we had on Thursday, all the doorways on deck 11 were swamped and soaked through and through because of the rain. Every doorway on deck 11 was severely stained (black)a nd it looks like it is a reoccurring problem for Century. The rest of the ship was very clean and appeared well maintained. Our butler (Rommel) and Stateroom attendant and assistant (Melroy and Matsuki (sp?)) were absolutely superb. The room was always spotless and clean even if we were gone for 5 minutes. Rommel said he was fairly new (2 weeks)but he was well trained and educated. He just couldn't do enough for us and was always engaged us in conversation about our day and asking if there was anything he could do for us. I had to have my suit for formal night dewrinkled, my lousy packing job, and it was done and waiting before we got back on the ship at Key West. Any request was met with enthusiasm, done promptly and professionally. He had an uncanny ability to tell where we had been and what we had done for the day. Kind spooky actually but it wasn't intrusive or anything negative, just uncanny. Definite Kudos to Rommel for making the trip a memorable cruise. Don't ask me about the shows, the DW and I have quit going to them so I couldn't tell you anything about the entertainment. The casino was nice and we gladly donated to the crew party fund every evening and had a great time doing so! We didn't take any excursions. We wondered around Key West and Cozumel on our own. Key West was very nice, the weather was 89 degrees Fahrenheit and a slight breeze made it very comfortable. Since it was our 3rd trip to Cozumel, we just went downtown for lunch, shopping and supper. The Cabin: Excellent cabin with a huge balcony, the only negative is the small bathroom. you couldn't open the door completely because it would have hit the toilet. the DW is a tiny little thing and even she couldn't get in and out of the bathroom without hitting the door or door jamb every time. It did have a whirlpool tub which we thought was nice. The bed was comfortable and the linens were soft as well. Celebrity Century is a very nice ship with some minor problem areas (doorways carpet areas) but overall very nice and well worth taking again. The one thing the DW and I both noted was even with a full ship 1800+, the ship atmosphere seemed dull. It sounds negative but it depends on if you want a quiet, leisurely cruise without too much going on. There were kids (100+) and a large group from caterpillar onboard but you never heard them or anyone else out at night except for casino staying busy into the wee hours of the morning. It is not the cruiseline to take if you plan on partying and raising Cain. Celebrity Century is a serious contender for a return cruise for myself and the DW but I think we look for a bit more active itinerary and longer trip, four days just didn't seem long enough. Read more