We returned a couple of days ago from our cruise on Celebrity's Century. Ours was a seven day Eastern Caribbean itinerary. Our ports of call were San Juan, St. Thomas, Sint Marteen and Nassau. According to several crew members we were the first cruise in several weeks to have a 'normal cruise' and make all our ports when we were supposed to. Several previous cruise had been disrupted, due to all the hurricanes in the area, during recent weeks.

Our pre-cruise plans were complicated by the hurricanes which were targeting Florida in the weeks preceding this cruise; nevertheless we did manage to spend two lovely days at Jupiter Beach before embarking. There was some minor damage to the Jupiter Reef Club, where we stayed, and the pool was inoperative due to all the sand which the hurricane had dumped into it, but as this resort is located right on the beach, we were quite happy just to swim in the ocean.

The Ship
At about 70,000 tons the Century is a little smaller than the other ships I have been on. I liked the size of the ship. There was plenty of space and plenty of different places to go, but nothing ever seemed to be too far away. I don't know if it was a result of this size, or just coincidence, but we seemed to run across the same people more often on this ship and to strike up conversations and form shipboard friend ships more often than on the larger ships.

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Embarkation/Debarkation:
Both of these went super smoothly. We drove to the port and followed Celebrity's instructions for dropping off bags and parking. We arrived at the port at about 11:15 and were aboard the ship with champagne in hand by 12:15. Our only delay was caused by the fact that we are Canadian citizens and so had to wait briefly in a 'non-US' line to have our passports checked.
On the last day of the cruise we waited in our cabin till about 8:30 then spent 15 minutes in one of the lounges and were off the ship by about 9. Collecting our luggage and our parked car took about half an hour and we were on our way home by about 9:30.
I don't think it made much difference to the embarkation process but our debarkation might have been speeded up slightly, by the fact that we had booked a suite, and so were in the first group to disembark.

Cabin:
We had booked a 'sky suite on deck 12.
At 244 sq.ft., this cabin was maybe a little smaller than some would expect for accommodation marketed as a 'suite'. In my opinion however, the extra large balcony more than compensated for the somewhat underwhelming size of the actual cabin. The bathroom was also a good size with a full bath and lots of shelves etc. for storage.
The ship is showing it's age somewhat with the carpet looking a little threadbare and stained in some areas, the bathtub chipped and some issues with the bathtub plug mechanism. The room was always kept nice and clean however. All the daily housekeeping functions seemed to be kept up to high standard but I think the cabin is about ready for a major refurbishment. Our room attendant, Judith, and butler, Arvind, did a great job.

Food and Dinning:
I found the food on this ship very good. There are a lot of different places to eat throughout the ship. As well as the main dinning room and a well stocked buffet, a couple of stations near the pool provide omelets/waffles at breakfast as well as burgers, hot dogs, fries, pizza, pasta and made to order sandwiches at lunch. In the suite, the butler also comes by at about 3 or 4pm with a tea trolley offering a choice of tiny sandwiches, cookies etc. I believe similar fare is offered at the buffet around that time each day. Around 5 or 6 pm he comes by again with a small plate of hors d'oeuvres. There was also a sushi bar offered around this time every day, somewhere near the buffet. The food was generally of good quality, to my taste, not perhaps quite the caliber one would expect of a fine restaurant but certainly acceptable, and of good variety. I could not begin to take advantage of all the opportunities for eating that this ship offered.
Service in the main dinning room was attentive and prompt. I never waited long to have a glass refilled and never had to request any item twice. Our wait staff ( Marcos and Jorge) went out of their way to please and dinner in the main dinning room was an enjoyable experience every night.

The one area that seems to need a bit of work is the 'Elegant Tea' which was served one afternoon in the main dinning room. Although there was a good assortment of sandwiches and sweets, the wait staff on duty seemed to be at a loss as to how to conduct this whole procedure, offering the cakes and cookies before the sandwiches and walking around with pots of 'hot' water on trays but not actually delivering them to your table until they were much below the temperature needed to make a decent cup of tea. Hopefully this is a new idea which will improve with practice (and some sharp notes on the comment cards?).

Shore Excursions:
I only took advantage of one shore excursion, the Rainbow Reef snorkel trip in Nassau. The trip was fun and, I thought, good value for the money, although the organization to get us from the ship to the snorkel boat was a little rocky. In the other ports we were content to just walk around on our own (and yes, to the detriment of my Visa, do a little shopping.). Time in ports was a little short, we often tended to arrive after, but leave before, other ships in the same ports. I think some onboard felt that that limited the things they were able to do ashore. We went on this cruise mostly for the cruise experience so any time in these ports was just like a nice bonus for me. We were also blessed with great weather throughout the cruise which made anything we did more enjoyable.

Needs Improvement:

Muster drill; this seemed more chaotic and disorganized than on other ships I have sailed. I was glad we didn't actually have to evacuate the ship in an emergency.

Cabin fixtures; Not a biggy, but I do think carpets, tubs etc. are about due for replacement.

Elegant Tea: Again, with so many great eating opportunities on this ship, I'm not going to get very upset about this, but if Celebrity want to make a feature of this they need to do some major training. ( From what I hear both HAL and Cunard could give them lessons in this area.)

My Favorite Things:

The Martini Bar at the back of the Crystal Room. This is a small area ideal for Martini sipping and conversation, presided over by bartender Ryan from South Africa ( be sure to ask for his wonderful hand stuffed blue cheese olives!)

Being served breakfast on my balcony ( complete with white linen table cloth). It felt wonderfully decadent to sit there in my bathrobe gazing out at the ocean and enjoying a full breakfast that I hadn't cooked.

Enjoying dinner each night with our lovely table companions and attentive wait staff. This is one cruise where traditional style cruise dinning worked really well for us.

The band that played on the pool deck (Voltz?) seemed to have a nice mix of Caribbean music and some more modern stuff. They did make me feel a little guilty one afternoon, when they played the favorite song of my 17 year old son. He was at home going to school, while I was cruising the Caribbean Sea. A nice cold BBC took my mind off that pretty soon though.

Saint Marteen, I have to go back there again some day and spend more time.

Well there you have it, I had a great time on this cruise, this was due in large part to the ship and the wonderful crew and a lot was also due to the lovely, interesting, friendly people we meet. I could write more but don't want to make this too long.