Celebrity Century Review

3.5 / 5.0
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Celebrity Century was our Lucky Number 10!

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Celebrity Century
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tjsalyer
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Apr 2009

I am 41 and my partner is 53.  This wonderful trip on Celebrity Century was our 10th cruise.  We have sailed 4 Holland America (the last one not being up to par), 4 Royal Caribbean(Radiance of the Seas twice, Jewel of the Seas and Enchantment of the Seas) and 1 terrible Princess Cruise.  Our best cruises have been both Radiance of the Seas cruises and our Memorial Day week 2005 cruise on HAL Zuiderdam.  Now we will add Celebrity Century to that list!  Just wish it would have been a full week and headed to the Eastern Caribbean, but the ship is really the destination for us.  We live 15 minutes from Port Everglades and 1 hour from Port of Miami, so finding a good Caribbean cruise deal is a great vacation for us since we don't have to fly.  Unfortunately, both ports are getting HUGE ships from Princess, Celebrity and especially Royal Caribbean that are too big for us.  We are yet to be convinced that we should pay almost double the price to be ona huge ship with too much focus inward and with "gimmicks" to attract families.  We want the focus to be on the ocean and to feel pampered and almost never crowded.  The Celebrity Century was a perfect ship for us.The revitalization that she underwent in 2005 was a thing of beauty.  I had hoped that they would do the same to the Galaxy and Mercury to attract those of us who love this size of ship, but that seems extremely unlikely now.  We found the ship to be absolutely lovely with very rich, warm tones with pleasing colors and fabrics and comfortable, engaging lounges with good lighting and music volume.  We spent a lot of time in Rendez-Vous Square which was very comfortable.  We thought the Crystal Room was beautiful but underutilized (why do so many ships use a great second performance venue for Karaoke?) and the Hemisphere Lounge was lovely.  The Celebrity Theatre was a very nice room with good sight lines and The Grand Restaurant was absolutely beautiful and made us feel like being on a classic Ocean Liner.  I also really enjoyed watching the wake from the Sunset Bar and was very pleased that it was covered by an awning and very pleasant music wasplayed there.  On occasion, we had a good guitarist/vocalist, and another we had dance club music that we never expected on a ship.  We loved it.  There were lots of little nooks and crannies on the ship, especially little places on the back of the ship.  Embarkation:  It was breeze.  We were on the ship by 11:30 a.m. and greeted warmly by every crew member we encountered.  We were directed to the Islands Cafe for lunch, but unfortunately they had a surprise health inspection and were behind schedule.  Both the server in our section and an Officer came by and explained and apologized for the delay.  When the buffet open at 12:20, there were long lines and it was chaotic.  Fortunately, this was the only time we ever felt crowded the rest of the week.Cabin:  We were in an outside mid-ship cabin on the lowest deck which was great since it was a windy week.  This ship did have movement, but like the two other German built ships on which we have sailed, she handled the conditions with ease and stabilizers worked well.  The cabin was very attractive and had lots of storage both in closet space and drawers.  We liked the flow of the cabin with the wall mounted, large flat screen TV and two chairs that were not in the way.  The bathroom was very well laid out with a large shower, good toilet placement (no sitting at an angle) and a vessel sink.  We had nice amenities such as a container of Q-tips and cotton balls, nice conditioning shampoo, soap and lotion.  The lotion was not heavy and overpoweringly scented like it has been on other ships.  Window had a nice, colorful shade instead of curtains and it did a great job of blocking out the morning sun.  One special touch we really liked was having areal silver pitcher of cold water next to the ice bucket in our cabin.  We have not had that on any other ship and it was much appreciated.  Our Stateroom Attendant, Saturnino from India, always greeted us by name with a warm smile, and he did an outstanding job keeping our stateroom very clean.  The first time on a cruise I have not turned the TV on, but partner did briefly and we were pleased that there were music stations that played pop and adult/comtemporary music which was nice background when getting ready for dinner.  Ship Layout:  We thought the ship was very easy to navigate.  Performance venues were a bit more spread out than Royal Caribbean, but the ship was small enough to easily move from venue to venue if you had your daily program with you.  My only wish would have been that the nice teak decked, exterior promenade would have had loungers, but with the wind on this cruise we probably could not have used them anyway.  We usually like to sit and read on this deck so we can hear the ship cutting through the water and the waves hitting the side of the ship.  The pool deck was lovely with two pools surrounded by teak and padded loungers.  We enjoyed lounging poolside with new friends on both sea days.  I had a good swim.  Most thought the pools were too cold and they could have been a couple of degrees warmer, but I still enjoyed it.  Volume of music, poolside band and poolside games were all enjoyable and not intrusive.  We really enjoyed that there werefour rows of loungers on each side of the pool with two rows in the sun and two in the shade.  On Holland America, loungers are just in the sun and there are just tables in the shade.  We much prefer this arrangement.Dining:  Islands Cafe  If I had it to do over, I could do a much better job with my choices in this restaurant.  Look around and see all your choices before deciding.  I usually enjoy eating fish, chicken and vegetables for lunch on a ship and the fish here was dried out and bland and the chicken entrees were always chicken legs.  I certainly did not go hungry, but I wish I would have looked around more the first couple of days.  By day three, I found a good Mahi-Mahi fish cake, a delicious noodle dish at the Asian section and wonderful chicken satay that I added pickled ginger to and it was yummy!  This day I also couldn't resist the ice cream and had wonderful cinnamon ice cream.   The pizza was always hot, fresh and tasty.  I knew there was a create your own pasta bar and a stir fry bar, but they were usually busy and I did not see many people with anything other than pasta and sauce.  I discovered later that the pasta bar had LOTS ofchoices and I had pasta with chicken, fresh basil, sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts tossed in garlic and olive oil and topped with parmesan that was delicious.  If I sail here again, I will pay much more attention to these three areas at the back of the ship.  I don't like sushi, but they offered sushi starting at 5:30 p.m. and it was very popular with a lot of passengers.  They also had a Casual Dining Option that we did not use, but it looked appealing.  It had a completely different menu from the dining room, but you were waited on by a server with a $2 gratuity.  We would have used this option for formal night if The Grand Restaurant had not been so fabulous.  Breakfast is no contest.  Holland America clearly has the best breakfast buffet.  Partner had rubbery omelets.  Fortunately, I was not tempted by bacon and yummy pastries the way I am on HAL, so I ate fruit (usually watermelon and/or pineapple), yogurt and cheerios for breakfast.  Unlike our other cruises, cereal was in a big tube and you turned a knob to get a portion in your bowl.  Clearly this is a cost cutting measure as the cereal was clearly generic and not nearly as fresh as the individual boxes.  The Grill:  This area was very popular with passengers, but not all that impressive to me.  It was a windy cruise and it was hard to get away from the grease smell.  Hands down Holland America makes a better burger and has a wonderful taco/nacho bar.  I had nachos that were okay and partner had burger, but they were just passable.  They could definitely use a better quality meat here.The Grand Restaurant:  This was truly a special experience.  We had second seating at table for 10 at the very back at the lower level.  I get really nervous with these big tables, but I was assured that it was a good table.  Luckily, it was very good and just one table away from the Captain's table and from my seat I had a great view of the ship's wake (which I love).   It turned out to be just eight of us, we had great tablemates and EXCEPTIONAL service provided by our Waiter Eka and Assistant Waiter Ronald, both from the Philippines.  Our table was very lively with no stuffy people and we had no problems sharing a taste of a good food item with our tablemates.  We have read so many complaints about Celebrity food going downhill.  Since this was our first Celebrity cruise we can't comment, but we thought the food was very good to exceptional and a little better than Holland America.  Fish dishes:  Loved the Herb Crusted Merluza with Quinoaand Ratatouille, Grilled Halibut, tablemate gave me a piece of her Salmon Teriyaki that was good and partner had Olive Crusted Atlantic Ling Cod on the last night that was very good.  The only miss was the Salmon and Crab Stuffed Flounder.  Our Waiter told me it was too salty, but he brought for me to try, he was correct about the salt, he whisked it away and I had an excellent replacement entree in about 3 minutes.  Note to Vegetarians:  I only tried on Vegetarian dish on this trip but it was Divine.  It was Vegetable Stuffed Shells, Confit Tomatoes and Herb Nage.  This dish tasted like it had been passed down through multiple generations of Italian Grandmothers and could be easily on the menu of a nice Italian restaurant for $25.  Also, most entrees come with little or no vegetables, so be sure to ask for the daily vegetable selection.  Our server brought around plates of fresh broccoli, cauliflower and carrots and served us with tongs as much as we wanted.I had two very good beef dishes, but tablemates thought other beef dishes such as Prime Rib, New York Steak and Roast Sirloin of Beef were just okay or "passable".  I had the Tournedos Rossini-Filet Mignon-I had mine without the goose liver pate and it was very good.  Good flavor but not overly tender which I think was more about not very sharp steak knives than the beef itself.  One of my favorite entrees was Burgundy Braised Beef Short Ribs with Truffle Polenta and Red Onion Marmalade.  This dish had very little fat, was extremely tender, and the combination of the tender beef with the polenta and the sweet,tangy marmalade was a real winner.  Desserts were too tasty and not good for my waistline.  I particularly enjoyed the Creme Brulee, the Hazelnut Rice Crispy Biscuit with Dark Chocolate Ganache and especially the Warm Apple Tart Tatin with Caramel Sauce and Vanilla Ice Cream.  YUM!  We also had a surprisingly good dessert called Warm Anjou Pear Gratin with Honey Sabayon. It was nice pear and custard pudding with a thin layer of dark chocolate on the bottom that was a pleasant surprise.Overall dining experience in The Grand Restaurant was Exceptional.   We were greeted with a warm smile and a friendly greeting from every crew member we encountered.  It was wonderful.Entertainment:Production Shows:  Royal Caribbean is the clear winner in this department..  The male lead and female lead singer had good voices, but the second male and second female were off key often.  Where were the sets?  The shows had such minimal sets it was almost laughable.  Also, the dancers need to decide either we are all going to lip synch or none of us are.  This is so well done on Royal Caribbean, but there was no consistency here.  They did an entire number from "The Producers" in the Broadway show with a dancer lip synching.  ugh.   We did really like the "Cabaret" section of the first show and thought the lead female did a great job as Sally Bowles.  Other Entertainment:  We were so pleasantly surprised to have such high quality and diverse musical choices throughout the ship.  We enjoyed the pool band, the recorded music at the pool was always nice, one day it was even a steel drum band.  We loved listening to dance music while watching the wake at the Sunset Bar.  We enjoyed listening to the 9 piece Celebrity Orchestra on two different occasions.  Most of all, we loved a band called "The Sensations" who performed in different venues but frequently in Rendez-vous Square. The Asian lead female singer was outstanding and she was supported by great musicians and a fun to watch piano/keyboard player.We really liked that the ship had an astronomer on board and they darkened the back of the top deck of the ship at night and he had this nifty pointer and vast knowledge to show up the stars.  This was a highlight of the cruise for us.  Conclusion:  We loved Celebrity Century and hope she sails in the Caribbean for many years to come. We felt like we fit in well with the other passengers on board.  We met a wonderful retired couple from Hobe Sound, Florida and we had a wonderful time with them at the pool on both sea days and together in Grand Cayman at Sea Grape Beach.   The crew appear to be treated with respect and they are so warm, friendly and professional.  Newer and Bigger are not always better.  I hope Celebrity and Royal Caribbean realize that soon.  Celebrity Century is a very special ship and I highly recommend her.

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