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To sum up my recent experience on the Celebrity Century 4 day cruise from Miami I would have to use the word "disappointing" for most every category of discussion.
The embarkation process was swift and painless and we were able to get into our stateroom almost right away which was a nice change from my last cruise when the computers malfunctioned and most Seapass cards had to be reprogrammed onboard to access the cabins. Right away we headed up to the buffet line for breakfast and we had virtually no lines which was again a great thing.
When we first got into our stateroom we were pretty disappointed at the condition and the small size and I wondered if it had been completely cleaned or was in the process of being worked on. The carpet was very worn, the ceiling panels had been screwed in place and there were several scrapes on the wall and ceiling. There was quite a bit of closet and drawer space which was nice but there was only one small chair and no sofa like we had on our Royal Caribbean cruise last spring.
The bathroom was a bit tighter than that on our Royal Caribbean cruise too but it was clean and in good shape. The main drawback was the shower curtain which was always either blowing in and sticking to you or was blowing out and allowing water to flood the bathroom.
Our room steward finally introduced himself the last day of the cruise but the level of service and attention never approached that of our cruise last year on Royal Caribbean which was disappointing seeing that Celebrity is supposed to be their higher level cruise line. We ran out of soap which was only replenished after cornering the steward in the hallway. The towels were often not swapped out either so I came back in the afternoon from excursions or the pool and had to use towels that were still damp from my morning shower.
The dining experience sadly mirrors that of our cabin service. The food was good and more than acceptable but again not exceptional which is what should have been the case. Also the service and attention to detail just wasn't there and fell far short of our experience last year on Royal Caribbean. In fact the service was generally mediocre with the exception of one waiter during our last dinner meal who could easily have set the bar for proper service. Again I expected much better based on Celebrity being the "upscale" cruise line above Royal Caribbean.
Overall the ship was nice but pretty much "old school", small and with few amenities like we had on our Royal Caribbean cruise last year (on Mariner OTS). Many of the public areas seemed underutilized but this may have been due to the large number of spring break kids on our particular cruise.
Perhaps the spring breakers being on the cruise caused much of this dysfunction but if that is the case I would feel short-changed. We picked this cruise because of scheduling issues and because Royal Caribbean's Radiance OTS was sold out when we tried to book it instead from Tampa. I also liked that the cruise had a stop in Key West although the port charges and taxes on this cruise were almost double those of the Royal Caribbean cruise.
The entertainment slate was decent but nothing really exceptional either.
So again I have to say overall I was disappointed and hopefully I expressed that successfully on my comment card. My statement there was I would give Celebrity another chance but if the next cruise weren't up to a higher standard that would be my last Celebrity cruise experience.
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