Our first cruise on the Celebrity line was on the Century. Our departure date was June 12, 2004 from Port Everglades, Florida. We have previously cruised on RCL Enchantment of the Seas. The total embarkation process was a breeze. Friendly staff, quick entry, paperwork easily accomplished, champagne or orange juice offered as soon as onboard by white gloved staff. WOW...or so we thought. Then came the reality.
Our room was not set up properly (we were on deck nine, just below penthouse level). We had to ask our cabin steward twice to separate our queen sized bed into two doubles as we had originally requested when we booked the cruise. We were not given our complementary Celebrity tote bags, and absolutely worst of all our cabin smelled like an overflowed toilet. There was a reeking smell from the toilet in the bathroom that flushing would not remove. And it lasted for days, Uhhhhh. And the hallway smelled like an ashtray....that's right, an ashtray. Celebrity lets passengers smoke just about anywhere they please...and we mean just about ANYWHERE, except the theatre, dining room, and a few other prohibited areas. There are smokers everywhere, in the hallways, in the lounges, in the excursion lines...you name it and they're lightin' up thick and thin. We found that we paid all our money (thousands of dollars) for the use of only a little less than half the ship, the rest was given over to the smokers and their pervasive exhaust-pipe smokey smell.
On the pleasant side, our bags showed up in time to change for dinner, which with the exception of a chef that can barely cook a steak as ordered, was outstanding at every turn. Our dinner serving staff though was a little slow at first, but however, they shaped up to be outstanding for the remainder of the cruise, including the formal nights which were fabulous. In addition, the time we were late returning from shore, our assistant maitre'd accommodated us with a late seating (thank you, it was most sincerely appreciated). The softdrink service was however less than admirable at meals, with the exception of the dinner servers finally catching on that alcohol wasn't one of the dinner priorities for us.