Mary Ann Amstutz

Age: 46
Occupation: Housewife
Number of Cruises: 3
Cruise Line: Celebrity
Ship: Century
Sailing Date: July 3rd, 2004
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

Let me just start off this review with the following comments from my two young adults boys. The 17-year-old said it was “the best vacation ever!” And the 20-year old said it exceeded his strong expectations! There were10 of us all together-- three adult couples on this trip as well as two 17 year-old boys and two 20-year old male college students. Everyone agreed our vacation was a success. But now I will go over the pluses and minuses and give any hints that I think might help someone planning such a trip.

Negatives-I will start here since there are very few.

-Pool area small but makes it nice to find someone. Since there were only 1,750 people on the ship, there were plenty of comfy lounge chairs to sit on.

-Pool closes too early, 8 PM for the pool, 9 PM for the hot tubs

-The drink dispensers in the pool area are closed down in the evening and you have to walk all the way back to the island buffet for drink

-The ship makes a concerted effort to not have many announcements and this can make it difficult to find out what activities are going on.

-Our waiter was not the most talkative, but it was understandable since he was going home at the end of the week after not seeing his family for 8 months.

-The activities staff needs to be more entertaining. For example, the Bingo callers did not make the game fun. Also the Bingo is all about the coverall and only once did they play other games. Not worth the big bucks here.

-Bars are beautiful but everywhere. The goal is to increase their profit margins.

Positives—

--Starts with the champagne welcome.

--The ship is so beautiful and tasteful. There were areas I never visited and wished I had, but I needed more time.

--Cleanliness, workers never stopped vacuuming and cleaning up

--Staff serves you even in the buffet so there is no piles of food on people’s plate to get wasted. They even help you to your seat with the tray.

--Trays never sit around the pool, someone always comes by shortly to pick up any dishes

--Food was fantastic, especially the formal tea! Didn’t discover the sushi until the last day! Everyone loved the hot dog/hamburger station and the delicious sandwich/salad station by the pool. Not your typical buffet!

--Fantastic entertainment. The first night’s show was not that great, but everything went up from there.

-Room had so much storage space. We have 4 boy/men in one room and they had plenty of room to put all their clothes and toiletries.
-Ice and water pitcher always full in room.

Excursions-

--This made this trip especially memorable. The ports were all so different.

--Jamaica was very beautiful. We used Phil Lafayette to tour us to Dunn’s River and tubing as well as show us around the island. We were with him 6 hours! Although I enjoyed Jamaica, I am in no hurry to get back. But the young people in our group thought it was the best!

-Grand Caymens-swimming with the string rays is not to be missed. Although it was crowded and hot getting there, it was great in our little area of the sand bar when the giant rays swam all over us.

Cozumel-we took a taxi to a free beach, Paradise, where they just want you to eat and drink. Very nice but crowded. There were 6 cruise ships in that day! The chips & salsa and beer were very good. No waves but floats were provided as well as kayaks and a water trampoline. Then it was off to town for shopping and the bar “Carlos and Charlies”. Once again, the young people had more fun watching everyone than the adults did.

Key West—so hot and humid! But a cute town. We took the Liberty sailing clipper excursion through the cruise line. Don’t expect any narration. It is just a two-hour sailing trip. The crew was nice and informative if you asked questions, but I would have like to see more information provided on the Key West harbor and history.

Helpful hints

-Bring an insulated mug to take to the pool area to fill up on ice and tea or lemonade. The plastic glasses provided are very small.

-Be aware that after arriving in Key West, everyone has to clear immigration before any one can get off the ship. This delayed us a great deal and we weren’t able to take the conch train around town.

-Go to breakfast and/or lunch in the Grand Restaurant once in a while and sit with other people and mingle. It is so fun to meet people from all over.

In summary, this cruise line is a step above Royal Caribbean, which we took three years ago. The size of the ship makes it conducive to seeing the same people and meeting and talking to fellow passengers. It is an easy walk to go from one end of the ship to the other. If you are on a budget, be careful since the bingo, gambling and drinks can add substantially to the bill they slip under your door at the end of the cruise! But we are already thinking about where we want to go next. Maybe Bermuda or Europe! We would travel Celebrity again in a heartbeat. They make you feel special!