We had a three generation cruise to Alaska on the Century in August 2013. My wife and I travelled with my parents, veterans of many cruises, and our three kids aged 10, 13 and 15. For us it was our third cruise, the first two being Caribbean cruises on the NCL Jewel and the Royal Caribbean Jewel of the Seas.

We set out from Victoria the morning of the cruise arriving at Canada Place around 10:30. We had prepaid for parking to obtain a discount and had some confusion figuring out how to obtain our ticket and where the best place to park was, but the parking garage did have plenty of people around to help. Embarkation was the fastest we have ever done despite the extra step of preclearing USA customs. We were on the ship by 11. My parents arrived about 30 minutes later than we did and got caught in much longer lines but still got through in decent time.

Of course, most of our opinions are compared with our experiences on two other ships. This was the smallest and oldest ship we have sailed on. Our impression from the beginning to the end of the cruise was that the ship itself looks quite worn and in desperate need of a cosmetic makeover. On the other hand,it was very clean and well maintained. The ship certainly did not have all the bells and whistles of other ships, however they kept a busy schedule of activities throughout the cruise so that you could keep busy. I would say that we generally preferred the other ships we have sailed on. That being said, the service level and food on this ship were better that Royal Caribbean and much better than Norwegian (cruises we both really enjoyed). Read more