A little late, but Home from the Century....

sailinglisa · January 14, 2007

And after batttling a cold cought on board, work problems and life in general, I finally have a few minutes to quickly report about my trip on the "new" Century.

I love ships of this size.........easy to get around, doesn't take forever to get from point A to point B. The recent renovations to the ship are magnificent.....Murano's (specialty restaurant), the Martini Bar with the ice and changing colors....my favorite place to hang out after I finally found it!!! :cool2: The new bedding is really nice (I thought the mattress was slightly hard for my taste) and the pushed together bed did not seperate when I tossed and turned a couple of nights.

Food was very good.......in the main dining room and the buffet....the Spa Cafe was very good also....the pizza was to die for and the burgers at the grill were very good too. Room service was good and pretty quickly delivered. My wait staff (Melwyn from Indian and Carlos from Peru) was fantastic and my room steward (Miguel) and his team were very good too. Futu in the Martini Bar is a friend and neighbor of the recently departed Sudi (the master bartender - the best Celebrity ever had, imho) was great in the Martini Bar. Everywhere I was greeted with a smile and hello, how are you? Once someone served you, they knew your name - at least this was my experience. One of my good friends was on this cruise but on another deck and a different table in the dining room and her experience was the exact opposite of mine. She was amazed when we met up in the Martini Bar and all the staff there knew my name and what I would order before I did! She and another friend did stay on for the 2 day to Nassau after the New Years cruise and she told me that if she had the waitstaff for the first 5 days as she did the last 2 days, her opinion of Celebrity would have been much different.

Just a quick story - on 1/2 (the second last night of the cruise) I ended up being the only person at my waiters three tables. Talk about service!!!! The Restaurant Manager, the Asst Maitre'd, the Sommelier and my wait staff and those from a couple of other tables all stopped by to talk with me....not just for a second or two, but for minutes on end! I was very impressed - I went to Murano's the night before and everyone else was in the dining room........the next night it was reversed. I felt like a Queen! I learned why my sommelier who didn't grow up in European "wine country" became a lover of wine and how he is expanding his knowledge and his enthusiam for wine.

The Century does show her age in the pool area.........no steps into the pools and no T-pool in the Spa area (removed to make the Persian Garden area which is a total waste of space, IMHO.)

I had an inside cabin on deck 4 and it was actually more spacious than the new balcony cabins that were added in the refit! We had 150 people in our group and we inspected all grades of cabins (man, I wish I could afford the Penthouse suite!!!!!!) We all were convinced that the regular inside and outside cabins have more cabin space than the regular and Concierge Class balcony cabins - it seems the balcony that was added to those cabins does take up some of the inside cabin space.

I had a great time on the Century.......I would cruise on her again, but she did show her age in some areas (I like a seasoned ship.............but others don't.) Celebrity isn't my first choice in a cruise line but I would cruise with them again for the right itinerary at the right price. I'm just sad that they are going even bigger than the Millie class with the Solstice class. Oh well, they say bigger is better, but give me mid-size!

Embarkation and Debarkation were a breeze on a ship this size. Reinforces my desire not to sail on anything bigger than 100,000 GRT. Through no effort of my own, I ended up being the third person to embark the Century on 12/30.........I made it up to the buffet before it even opened!! :laugh:

cruisetarp · January 14, 2007

Welcome back Lisa - It sounds like you had a great cruise on the Century. Thanks for reporting back to us.

JoeyandDavid · January 14, 2007

Lisa thanks for your impressions.. NOW more than ever I want to sail the New Century..

Shari2 · January 14, 2007

Hi Lisa...

Welcome back! I'm so glad you had a good cruise. Thanks for the great review of the "New Century." I was considering going on this cruise...a friend of ours was on it, but we decided it wasn't the right time for us. I would love to sail on the "Century" at another time...especially after hearing your review.

DaCruzNut · January 15, 2007

Thanks for the review, Lisa. Glad you had a nice cruise. I agree with you!! I oce the Century, the Zenith and Carnival's Holiday. Great size ships! Big enough to have evrything and small enough to be cozy.

mercedes · January 15, 2007

Welcome back Lisa and thanks for the review.

GottaCruz · January 15, 2007

Welcome home, Lisa, and welcome back to CruiseCrazies. We missed you here. So glad you enjoyed yourself. Thanks for sharing your review with us. Hugs, Cheryl

KeithnRita · January 15, 2007

Very nice review, Lisa. The great service you received is one of the many reason we like Celebrity. As you stated, once they serve you they remember your name. That was true for us on the Zenith.