trabeler

I seems ridiculous to take Michael's away from the rest of the cruisers.

I also thought it was a waste to convert this venue. I was on the Century in December and Michael's was busy for group meetings (connections party, other group meetings) and every evening it was full with piano entertainment (Jordan Peterson).

In February, after the conversion, Michael's sat pretty much empty all day and all night. At most I'd see 5-10 people in there. Our connections party was moved to the 2nd sea day and limited to only 30 minutes because they didn't have enough venues on board. Jordan Peterson was moved to Cova Cafe. Previously, they had entertainment at both Cova and Michaels, so in essence they dropped one entertainment option.

I understand that suite passengers are where Celebrity gets the largest profit, but penalizing 95+% of the passengers doesn't seem wise...

The sound level in the MDR was usually way too noisy, but it was even worse as someone kept piping music through the speakers for about 30 seconds every 10 minutes. Don't they get it that the MDR is not a performance venue, that people will be talking, and that playing any music will only increase the overall sound level in the room?

We agree that some areas of the Century MDR are just way too noisy. During our December sailing, our table was in the upper section, port side aft. We had a table for 8 and were easily able to have a conversation with folks across the table.

By contrast, on the 23 February sailing we had a 2-top on the lower level, starboard side aft (under the overhang). Conversation with DW across the 2-top was difficult and I measured 80-85 dB or so on average from my iphone app.

We met several others who complained of excessive noise in the MDR, especially those who were unfortunate enough to be seated between two serving stations (there are several rows of 2-tops in the select dining side near the entrance that have this setup).

Just back from the Century and had a stop on St Martin. No notices of anything in the daily or anywhere else we could see. Also no mentions of it on shore.

We spent the day at Orient beach and saw no mosquitos. It always seems windy there so that helps keeps the bugs away...

You can also usually find paper cups and lids at the rear of the buffet on Century in case you want an option for free coffee takeaway.

We were on the same Century back-to-back as Andy. We had dinner in Murano twice, and asked if they were featuring a lunch, anytime during our cruise. The Maitre'd got back to one of our tablemates late in the cruise and apologized for not having a lunch in Murano -- apparently, there was not enough interest. :(

Murano did have one lunch on the second 8 day cruise.

They were on the Century, 23 Feb sailing. There were 500+ elites and higher. According to the CC hostess, they tried to not use them on the previous sailing (which also had the same number of elites) but the Crystal Room was overflowing so they did the vouchers on the next sailing.

The most recent iteration of the vouchers we had on the Century last week were only good from 5-7 pm, had our name and date printed on each, and only worked for items on the captain's club menu. They put out the CC menu in the major bars on the tables as well.

If you went to the CC lounge (Crystal Room) during the happy hour, you needed to use the vouchers in there as well.

Another option is to book a Segway tour in the morning. You can store your luggage while on the tour. We did this a few years ago and it worked out well. After the tour we had lunch at a restaurant nearby and then went to the airport.

Paradise Bike rental is still open. Look for them on Tripadvisor for reviews and contact info. You can also go with a Segway tour of the city. These are not free roaming and are guided so I would look into it to see if it suits your needs.

Are they really still open? We were in port last week and went to their office on the pier (between the coffee shop and the Segway tour office). It looked abandoned. Have they moved? We wanted to rent bicycles but ended up walking instead...

Century had a 1 week drydock in February. Because the ship is presumably being moved to another Royal Caribbean brand in 2015, Celebrity opted to do Marine/technical work on the ship, and did very little (if anything) to public areas.

Andy -

We were on the 23 Feb sailing and previously on Century in December. The only cosmetic work we were able to detect was the change-out of some of the carpet around the buffet. However, during our February cruise they started reupolstering the chairs in the Crystal Room. Every day there would be a few freshly redone chairs delivered during the elite breakfast hours.

During the drydock they did do some major replacement work on the air conditioning systems... we noticed that the ship, in general, was cooler than in December.

This will probably be our last Century sailing and we're sorry to see her leave the fleet as the smaller ships have been our favorites. I also think we got lucky with an excellent MDR waiter (Canver), who was on his last cruise before going on time off.

Just there a few days ago. The cheapest beer I could find at Margaritaville was the local brew (Turks Head).

One regular size bottle was about $6.75. They include tax and 15% gratuity in the price.

We walked down to Jacks Shack but didn't get a chance to check out the prices since it started to rain so we went back to the ship.

Just spent the day on the club orient part of the beach and had zero vendors. That section is also less crowded as well.

On the Century now. No Truvia that we can find, but they do have Splenda.

Kathy, has Murrano been open during the day for any lunches on your b2b2b? We are on the upcoming 17 day PC transit and just wondered. TIA

I was on the Dec 21 PC transit on the Century and Murano was open for lunch on two days of the 15 day sailing.

Most people are very casual for boarding. The only reason to dress up a bit would be if you're interested in getting the embarkation photo that they'll take of your party just before boarding.

In general, the cancellation deadline is around 24 hours prior to port arrival. It varies, however, so you'll need to check the excursion brochure. Special private tours, such as a 'private guide for a day' excursions, require much earlier cancellation.

If Michael's club is VIP 24/7 and Jordan has been moved to Cova, have they cut back on the entertainment?

In December, Jordan was in Michaels almost every night and there was a duet in Cova as well. Have they moved the duet to a lounge or just dropped one more entertainment option?

We just did a 15 day crossing on the Century over the Christmas/New Years Holidays. There were three speakers on board for the entire cruise, plus a guest narrator on the day of the crossing that works for the Panama Canal Authority. In addition to the narration as we went through the locks, there was a short Q&A session with her while we were cruising in Gatun Lake.

The three speakers that were onboard the entire sailing held talks on sea days on a variety of topics. One of the speakers was a psychologist who gave very interesting talks on dealing with difficult people, managing stress, conflict resolution, etc. Another was a biologist that gave presentations on marine life, biodiversity, etc. The third was a generalist humanities professor that had talks on the various ports of call plus he did two talks on the canal history and future.

Hope this helps!

Andy -

Thanks for posting the latest info! Concerning general sprucing up... can you comment on the state of the chairs in the Crystal Room? These were downright horrible when we were onboard over Christmas... many frayed edges and very very worn. Several officers told us that at least those chairs would be redone in drydock. If they didn't, I would doubt they'd make it another year without falling apart!

We were on the Mercury a couple of months before it left the fleet and the soft goods were in much better shape than Century. It is sad to think that Celebrity couldn't even do some minor touches... little things, sometimes, can make a huge difference in perception.

Also... it was mentioned that Michael's is now a VIP lounge. Are they doing any entertainment in there at all? Did Jordan Peterson get moved out?

Thanks again for posting and enjoy your cruise! We'll be getting on the 23rd when you disembark...

On the Century, if you sync to the ship cell provider for time/date, you'll get GMT which will mess up any alarms. You'll need to keep the time/date in manual. This will work if you are just using the phone roaming and text messages.

I use verizon with an iphone... text messages were .05/ea to receive and .50/ea to send. Check your plan before leaving to confirm the prices, since your plan may be different.

The grilled to order meats at the buffet at night were steak, pork chop, chicken breast, or salmon.

If you're elite, there is a coupon you'll get for 20% off a photo package, so it might be better to wait to buy it on board.

On a recent 15 night Century holiday sailing, the package was $349 but was on promotion for $299 for the first week of the cruise. We waited until the sale was over since the coupon couldn't be combined with the promotional price.

We almost always sail on insides so we've spent a lot of time monitoring prices on bookings for trends.

I can confirm what a previous poster mentioned that you'll have a much better chance on a price drop for insides on the M-class as compared to the S-class. The several S-class bookings we've had only went up in price for insides.

It is even more tricky if you are a group of 3 in a cabin since on the S-class there are very few insides that can accomodate 3 people. Those fill quickly. Guarantee rates are also usually not available for a party of 3 or more.

When onboard the Century in December, I asked several of the officers what was planned during the upcoming drydock. The general answer was that it was primarily a "technical" drydock to address ship structural and mechanical issues. No major modifications are planned.

Several officers did say that there would be some upolstery replacement, which is a good thing because the chairs in the Crystal Room and Martini Bar really need some work. In general, the carpeting in the common areas looked pretty good to me and it seemed that they were changing out areas as needed (there was a section of the buffet that was changed during our sailing).

Of course, we won't know for sure until we're back onboard in February...

Typically, 10 to 10:30 am is the absolute latest you can stay on board, although you'll need to be out of your room by 9 am or so latest.

There are a few ports in Europe where they offer a late departure option (in the early afternoon) for additional cost. As far as I know, that hasn't been offered for US ports yet.