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Name: Mark & Cheryl Zelek
Email: zelek@mindspring.com
Age: 36/43
Occupation: Computer engineer/Teacher
NumberOfCruises: 1
TravelAgent: No
Ship: Celebrity-Century
SailingDate: June 13, 1998
Itinerary: Western Carribean
FoodDiningRoom: 98
CruiseDirector: 89
CabinComfort: 93
FoodRoomService:
CruiseStaff: 95
CabinAmenities: 90
FoodLidoDeck:
DiningRoomService: 99
CabinQuietness: 99
FoodMidnightBuffets: 95
CabinSteward: 90
ShoreExcVariety: 85
FoodVariety: 95
DeckService: 95
ShoreExcValue: 85
GoodForHoneymoon:
CasinoStaff:
PrivateIsland:
GoodForFamilies:
LoungeService: 93
TenderService: 90
GoodForSeniors:
BeautySalonStaff: 90
EntertainmentLounges: 95
WheelchairAccess:
ExerciseFacilities: 90
EntertShowLounge: 90
OverallPortsofCall: 90
BeautySalon: 90
EntertainmentPoolside: 95
CruiseActivities: 95
Casino:
AirSeaProgram:
MedicalFacilities:
ShipCleanliness: 99
EmbarkDisembark: 97
DiscoNightclubs: 95
DeckSpace: 90
Stabilization: 85
ShopsOnBoard: 89
SpaceRatio: 95
OverallCruiseValue: 95
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 23 Jun 1998
Time: 22:27:40
Remote Name: 209.86.175.110
Remote User:
Comments
This was our first cruise and I did a lot of research in choosing the correct cruise for
us. This site was very helpful in making that decision. I will try to
address all points, good and bad, and maybe some things that were not mentioned earlier.
Embarkation & Disembarkation: Our tickets listed our time of embarkation as 2:30 pm.
We arranged our own travel and stayed Friday night with family in
the Fort Lauderdale area. They brought us to Pier 18 at 2:30. Imagine our surprise to find
NO lines. We walked up to each counter, presented the
necessary paperwork and preceded to the next checkpoint. Apparently we missed all of the
lines. If you do not like lines, wait until after 2:00 to board teh
ship. You enter the ship on deck 5 in the Grand Foyer. Next to the three-story spiral
staircase a string quartet plays for your listening pleasure. We were
shown to our cabin by a white-gloved stewardess. She must have been new becasue she didn't
know how to get to our cabin (8060) and was redirected
by another steward. We joined the Captain's Club ($35 lifetime membership) and were given
a disembarkation number of 3. We were off the ship at 8:45
am. It was a pain waiting to leave. You need to be out of your cabin by 8 am (you and 1748
other people) and their is not enought seats in the lobby
areas for this many people. We ended sitting on the edge of the fountain across from Guest
Relations on deck 5. This did have its benefits: we were less
than 100 feet from the ramp to disembark!
Cabin/Cabin Steward: Our cabin steward, Ravi, and his assistant, Jose, seemed invisible
after the first meeting. That does not mean that he was not
around. Our room was always neat and tidy- there were always clean towels, ice in the ice
bucket and cold water in the pitcher. The room itself was a
great surprise. There is ample closet/drawer space. Most of the drawers in the nightstands
(4 total) and the vanity (6 total) went unused. The bathroom
is quite spacious, also. There were two glass shelves with little rails for all of your
stuff. The waste basket is in the cabinet- just pull and there it is. The
counter top is also quite spacious. People complained about the hair dryer and I could not
imagine what sort of contraption would get so hot. Let me
describe it to you. The hose is like the hose that connects your dryer to the outside
vents in your home. At the end is a rectangular plastic box with an
opening for the warm air to pass. If you held the barrel of your hair dryer instead of the
handle, your hand would also get hot. If your hair is short and
easy to dry, this dryer is not a problem. If you need more than 5 minutes to dry your
hair, bring your own. On the dryer itself, I found an additional outlet.
It has a picture of a man's face with a razor. It accepts both US and Eurpopean plugs. The
location of the other electrical outlet is on the vanity to your
right under the mirror. There is also a light switch that controls the vanity lights next
to the outlet. Our beds were pushed together to make a King bed;
the bed itself was not uncomfortable but I hated those pillows. If you don't like big,
firm pillows, bring your own. There were two closets for long things and
one closet that consisted of shelves and drawers. The TV is located on a corner cabinet
and is easily viewed from the bed. Under the TV is a pull-out tray
for your use and under that is the mini-bar. We never did find the key to the mini-bar so
we did not use it at all. There were three lightswitches that
controlled the ceiling fixtures: one at the door as you enter, one at the head of the bed,
and one on the wall by the TV. The switch for the bathroom was
located on the wall outside the bathroom. At night, when all the lights are off, it is
total darkness. I did bring a nightlight, but it would not fit in the outlets
properly. We left the bathroom light on and left the door open slightly ajar and this
worked perfectly. Even if the door to the bathroom closed, there was
enough light comming out from the bottom that you could at least see where you were
walking. A battery/wind-up alarm clock is also helpful. We did use
their wake-up service and found it quite satisfactory. The shower was wonderful! There was
plenty of pressure. After a long day in town with
temperatures at 95 degrees and humidity levels near 100%, I would have loved a tepid
shower and that was not possible. Even the cold water is warm. If
hot showers are for you then you will be in hog heaven!
Food and Food Service: The food was simply awesome! I have never seen such wonderful
presentations. Kaya, our water, and Sinisha, our busboy, were
great. Kaya always made two recommendations for each course and he was never wrong. He had
a table for two at main seating. The tables for two are
quite close together and we got to know the other four diners near us; it might as well
have been a table for 6. Kaya made sure that your food was
exactly as you ordered. One night, I ordered rare rack of lamb. As he started to serve the
plate he abruptly said that it was not rare and immediately
took it back to the kitchen and brought back a rare rack of lamb. Another day, one of the
other diners asked for sour cream for her potato. The busboy
was not sucessful in getting sour cream. Apparently, if the kitchen staff does not feel
that sour cream is needed for the meal then none is available. But
Kaya went to the kitchen and returned with a large pitcher of sour cream for her potato. I
also wsa impressed with our bar waiter, Paul and our wine
steward, Jullian. Both remembered from night to night what we were drinking. Jose, the
maite'd was always visible and even congratulated me on my new
teaching position on Friday night (we discussed this on Monday). I tried so many new food
and enjoyed them all- I especially enjoyed the cold soups. The
Black Cherry soup, Chilled Strawberry Soup and the Pear-Ginger soup were outstanding. I
tried the Escargot and loved them. I did find the NY Strip
tough, though. We ate at the first midnight buffet (Italian) and it was OK. We viewed the
Fruit Buffet, the Tex-Mex buffet and the Grand Buffet.
Presentation was incredible. It was worth it just to see them. Incredible ice sculptures!
If you went away hungry, it was your own fault. There was food
being served on this ship from 6:30am until 1:00am every day. We chose to eat breakfast
and lunch in the Islands Cafe. Coffee is available starting at
6:60 in the Island Cafe. The Breakfast Buffet is from 7:15 -10:00 and lunch is from
12:00noon until 2:00 pm in the Island Cafe. The Grand Restaurant is
open for breakfast from 7:30-9:00 am and for lunch from 12 noon until 1:30. Tastings has
croissants, danish and muffins from 9:00-11:00am. From
2:30-7:00pm pizza is served at the grill near the pool. The two pool grills also serve hot
dogs, hamburgers, sausages, chicken, french fries and all the
trimmings from about 12:00 noon until 2:30pm. From 3:00-5:00, pastries are available at
the grill. Tea time is from 4:00-5:00 pm and that means
sandwiches, fruit and desserts. From 4:00-6:00pm at Island cafe soft serve ice
cream/yougurt is served. Dinner in the Grand Restaurant is at 6:00pm for
main seating and 8:30 pm for late seating. Pizza is also available from 10:00pm-1:00am at
the Grill. The Midnight buffets usually began around midnight
either in the Islands Cafe, Pool deck or the Grand Restaurant. Room service was always
available. NO complaints here.
Entertainment: All the shows were quite enjoyable. I really enjoyed the juggler, Barry
John, and comedian, Jeff Kerner on Wednesday. The show on
Thursday, ON BROADWAY, was spectatular. The dancers and singers were great. This week's
movies included, 'The Wedding Singer', 'The Apostle',
'Good Will Hunting' and 'Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil'. Every day a copy of
Century Daily is delivered to your door. It lets you know what is
happening on ship each day. If yo purchase excursions, it also lets you know where to meet
for disembarkation (important at Grand Cayman Island). We
enjoyed Prodigy on the pool deck during the day and the Hemisphere Lounge at night, Mirage
in the Crystal Room and Class Duo Poland in the
Rendez-Vous Square. All in all, very good!
Excursions: We were very disapointed with two of the three excursions we booked through
Celebrity. At Ocho Rios, we booked the Ocho Rios
Highlights/Dunn River Falls Excursion. My advice to you is to stay on the ship! The
poverty is overwhelming but the locals are so agressive that they
border on violent. I had items thrust into my face with pleas to 'see my doll-buy my doll'
and 'gimme tip, mon'. If you are taking your children on this tour:
these people seem to be obsessed with male and female genitals and sex acts. Our guide,
Dwayne, drove us past a large carved wood man with atwo
food erection. I saw more erotic souveniers than I care to remember and all of it is
tacky. The Shaw Botanical Gardens Dunn River Falls were OK. Bring
your own rubber shoes to the falls- the ones that were rented were nothing more than
plastic bags. Also, bring water on this tour. There is a stand at
Shaw Botanical and at the Falls but they are overpriced and you are a captive audience.
After you brave those falls, yiou must brave yet another
onslaught of vendors hawking their wares. Much of the stuff is erotic and/or cheaply made.
They are a persistant bunch and I was followed through the
bazaar even as I firmly told them 'no, thank you'. The last stop on this tour is the Taj
Mahal (Jamaican for please leave your American dollars). You can
get Tanzanite jewelry, t-shirts, Blue Mountain coffee, Cuban cigars, liquor, etc. On Grand
Cayman, we tendered to the port. we took the Sting Ray City
Snorkling tour (with 180 other passengers). When we finally got to the reef there was
three other boats already there (with about 200 more people).
There were way too many people on that reef and it was difficult to view the sting rays
because of the people. Also people were screaming and shrieking.
I did not enjoy it but my husband did. We walked through the dock area and ate at a little
grill. The meat pies were delicious! Cozumel was our favorite.
We took the San Gervasio Ruins/Play de Sol tour. Our guide, Barbara, was most imformative
and very pleasant. She told us the entire history of that area
and made it come alive! Play De Sol was a beautiful beach and there was not enough time to
really enjoy it. The bus driver, Jose, dropped us off in the
downtown area (saving us $4)and we walked through the stores. The town is clean and did
not seem that crowded even though 6 cruise ships were in
port. We would go back to Cozumel. We opted to stay on the cruise ship at Key West. We
have already visited this town and it gave us time to unwind
before coming home.
Misc: Staying on the ship at Key West allowed me to watch the crew go through their
Emergency and Lifeboat Drill. It wa impressive. They actually launch
the lifeboats as if in a real emergency. The guests would be placed in the boats and the
crew would use life rafts located on deck 3. I felt safer after
seeing this. Overall, we would book another Celebrity cruise. We did decide that we would
not book excursions through the ship. It was really confining
time-wise. Late seating for dinner gives you a bit more time but the shows seem to be
geared for main seating guests. Yes, you do feel the ship move but
most of the time it is not bad. One night we really began to pitch back and forth and I
did get a little sea sick. I was fine the next morning. My husband
rented the tuxedo but a dark suit would have been fine. Ravi delivered it and picked it
up. Bring a water bottle for excursions and save $ on bottled
water. Bring larger mugs/cups for drinks during the day. I did have my hair done on each
formal night ($30 +15% tip) and a manicure on Thursday
($35 + 15% tip). I also had a facial ($69). I would schedule the hair but not the nailsand
facial. They were really out of line price-wise. You also had to
listen to a hard sell presentation after it all. I would cross the Aqua Spa off my to do
list in the future. Would we go again? You bet!
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