We sailed on a 12-night cruise through the Mediterranean on Celebrity Century in September 2010. If you do not like reading long reviews you may wish to move on because there is much to say. All in all it was a great trip with Celebrity delivering a great product and our memories mostly sensational. Some things that went wrong were probably beyond Celebrity's control. Read on for the (very) good, the(not so) bad and the (very little that was) ugly.

THE SHIP: We were a bit concerned before we arrived with several reviews about Century pointing out the age of the ship. This is somewhat subjective because people will react differently to evidence of aging, which is not hard to spot. We found this (for us) to be an unfair if not overblown criticism. The 98% of the shop that is dedicated to the cruise experience was remodeled in 2006 and it continues to look brand new. The engines are old, of course, and if you have an aft room you are likely to experience roaring and shaking, we hear. Our room was exactly in the middle of the ship and it was the smoothest of the four cruises that I have been on. These engines are also less "green" and environmentally friendly than the newer ships. One of the Celebrity employees on board told us that Celebrity will likely do less refurbishing and more building of new ships in the future because "no matter how much you renovate and old ship is still an old ship." I think this is true in the case of the pool deck but not of the rest of the ship and I am surprised that this employee said it (though I appreciate the honesty).We noticed no engine smells or other such problems that others have reported. The pool deck is terribly old in design and not very inviting. One thing that I kept returning to again and again in my mind, though, was that the problems we encountered were usually not from anything Celebrity did or did not do, but from the insensitivity and occasional boorishness of some of the passengers. For example, the legendary (on Celebrity ships) "saving of deck chairs" on the pool deck by phantom passengers was a real problem. I feel Celebrity's pain because they can lose a customer for life by enforcing their "no-savings" rule. That said, they should enforce it, especially because they say that they will. We sat in a plastic chair while 6-10 of the comfortable padded chairs in front of us were inhabited by pillows for over an hour! If the chairs are so important to someone then they ought to use it! If they are going to be somewhere else, why deny it to another passenger? On second thought, "boorishness" is too genteel to describe this kind of selfishness—"pig-ishness" is somehow more accurate and satisfying. Other examples of passengers gone wild include the lack of hand-washing and the occasional use of the buffets by shirtless passengers in swim trunks. I think we will steer clear of the buffet on future cruises.

We had a concierge class balcony on Deck 9 and this was one our best decisions. The room was gorgeous and a model of efficient design. Century has more storage space than most ships and this was fantastic! Celebrity, we noticed! Especially on a 12-night cruise this is crucial. The bathroom also had excellent shelf space. Some disagree and complain. Remember, it is a cruise ship and the bathroom is going to be smaller than a hotel room's. The question is whether they have clever ways to store items that need to be used. The answer is, yes, definitely, with several rows of small shelves on the left. The room was 173 square feet but the space saving design (flat screen TV, recessed magazine racks, shelves above the bed, etc), made it seem much larger. The sliding glass door was easy to maneuver and very quiet. The temperature was warm upon boarding but maintenance fixed it in ten minutes. The problem turned out to be that the previous room occupants were "cold people" and must have asked that it be disabled! So, you may need to be observant and do not hesitate to let Celebrity know immediately of any climate issue. Conceirge class provided a free bottle of champagne, occasional flower refreshes, a fruit bowl refreshed with whatever you used through the cruise, priority tender tickets and disembarkation and an extensive room service menu that beats almost every other cruise line for sheer variety. We surprised ourselves by using almost every one of these features. It is well worth it and if you book early you can get concierge class for less than a non-concierge room would cost closer to the date of sail. Read more