trabeler

Heather -

Thanks for posting. It was nice meeting you and Anthony... seemed we ran into you all over the ship! Hope to see you again on another cruise.

Gary

For us, the shareholder benefit still comes in handy often enough to keep the stock. I think it depends on the type of cabin you normally get and whether or not you're using open passage certificates.

Many of the new promotions that Celebrity has offered are for OV and above cabins. So if you sail inside cabins then 123go and other promotions usually don't apply. In that case, we take advantage of the shareholder benefit.

There have also been a few times when the shareholder benefit was combinable, for instance when they had the new deployment specials for 2013 sailings.

With the recent downgrade of the passages OBC for repositioning cruises, shareholder OBC may be the best deal for those sailings as well.

We saw the ship when in Cartagena two weeks ago. Our tour guide said that it continues to do cruises in the bay, but he made it sound like it was mostly evening dinner cruises.

Thanks for the great photos! We were on the same sailing and you got some really interesting shots. Overall, it was a great trip. We really enjoyed the Century and hope Celebrity keeps it in the fleet.

Never,ever come across the 'desert extravaganza.'

It is still offered... most recently we had it on the Century during the Christmas holiday sailing. I will say that it was NOT mentioned in the daily program... the only mention of it was by the CD during his closing remarks for the two evening shows and our waiter at dinner.

My memory is fuzzy, but I know we also had it earlier in the year on the Summit and perhaps on the Silhouette. Have others seen this recently or have we just been lucky on our sailings?

There is also an evening "dessert extravaganza" which is sometimes offered, typically around 10 pm or so (after the last evening show). It will have a variety of desserts, some nice ice sculptures, and a chocolate fountain.

On the S-class in Blu, I've been able to assemble something close by getting a toasted muffin, ham, and poached eggs all separately. I don't really miss the hollandaise since when the egg is nice and runny it provides more than enough sauce.

Princess in particular needs to offer some variations on their itinerary. For three years it has been the same Cozumel-Belize-Roatan. We live in Houston and prefer Princess over the other lines that sail from Galveston/Houston, but if they never change their itinerary, I can't see them filling ships forever...

We were just there last week and did a tour with My Friend Mario from Colon to see the Gatun Locks visitor center, San Lorenzo fort, and rainforest. Overall, it was a good tour and very reasonable at $60 per person for 6 hours.

At the beginning of the tour, we drove through the center of Colon so that our guide could buy some fruit for snacks. Colon is NOT a place to wander around... trash everywhere, very sketchy looking individuals, etc. It actually reminded me of some of the bad areas in Lagos (Nigeria) with even more trash.

I was able to set up the Segway excursion and we are very excited about it. Thank you again for the information. It was very helpful.

Glad to be able to help. Enjoy your cruise and Cartagena!

I was on the 21 Dec transit sailing and don't recall seeing this advertised. The only "special" meals I remember were two lunches in Murano ($25 pp) on sea days and two cooking classes with the executive chef (also in Murano) that included a full lunch meal and wine, plus a copy of the Celebrity cookbook.

We did run into one couple that had A/C issues, but I can't remember if it was deck 4 or 6?? Might be a great new thread question? "Did your Century Cabin have A/C Issues?" It was a problem on deck 12 for sure!!

I guess we were lucky in the A/C department. We were on Deck 5 and had to keep the thermostat at mid-range all cruise or else it got too cold!

I did notice a few days that decks 11/12 were quite warm, especially the panama canal cruising day. Perhaps the combination of very hot sun and little ship movement (no breeze) compounded the problem...

Persian Gardens on the Century is nicer than on the M-class. You can tour it on embarkation to see it in detail, but it has heated lounge beds that face a large oceanview window, two steam saunas, a dry sauna, and several "rain forest" showers.

Was just on Century last week for the eastbound 15 day transit. Cost was $119+15% for one person and I think $179 or $189+15% for a couple. DW got the one person pass and enjoyed it. I tried it on a port day using the elite coupon... it was nice, but I'm not a huge fan of sitting on the heated beds when we're on a warm weather itinerary.

Does crystallized ginger work and if so... How much do you take? I am not prone to seasickness but my partner is and he takes Bonine. However, he doesn't like it.

We use powdered ginger in capsules. It is available in health food stores in the dietary supplements section and I think also at Walmart. Each capsule is 550 mg. We've had good results with taking one capsule twice a day when the seas are moderate. In severe seas, we've had more mixed results. It has worked ok for DW and myself, but DD has to step up to bonine when things get really rocky...

Those are Bell's charges while you are at sea, but to get or send texts you would need to access the ship's network and pay the going rate.

That is correct. Not sure this information will be valid for your particular carrier, but just last week on the Century the informational text message I received from the ship's cell service stated:

Calls made/received - $2.49/min

Text message send - $0.50 each

Text message receive - $0.05 each

Data - $20.48/mb

This was on a Verizon iphone.

We are looking at doing the Segway tour as well in Columbia but wanted to know if you feel safe. I was worried about how safe you feel. Thank you for any replies regarding this.

We were just there last week and had absolutely no safety concerns. If you are doing the Segway tour, I'd highly recommend you arrange taxi transportation through them to further reduce any concerns. His driver was outside the port area holding a sign with our names on it. Very easy. There were many pushy drivers inside the port area offering transportation that you'll need to get through.

Note that it is a fairly long walk from the dock to the port exit, around 20 minutes or so. You have to weave through a shopping area, mini-zoo, etc.

We had a great time on the Segway tour and would highly recommend it. Suggest you try to setup an early tour, since it will let you see all the major sites / plazas in the old city. Then after the tour, you can wander back on foot and spend some time at the ones you liked. Cesar was able to set up the return taxi at a later time so you don't have to rush off immediately after your tour is finished.

The last Royal Caribbean trip I took added about $125.00 for port charges and Fees, but looking at Princess, it added $310.00 for fees. That seems to balance because I found somewhere online that the Panama canal charges about $134.00 per bed (person?) to the cruise line to cross the canal. Given that this includes crew as well as passengers, I can see why the huge jump in fees. We are also paying to carry the crew that serves us to cross as well. The cruise lines are generally pretty tight lipped about exactly how much those costs are, but I suspect they are not gouging us like we think they are. Sure, they're making a profit, and why shouldn't they, that's their business, but I dont' think they are making a killing like we think they are. Its a lot of work.

Just completed a transit on the Celebrity Century. The official from the Canal Authority who was on board for commentary said that the canal fees for our transit were $333,000. Century had around 1800 guests plus around 700 crew... so that's around $133 per passenger. Since the guests have to cover the crew costs, that $185 per paying passenger.

 

 

 

What's your best guess as to how big that bag is? Going on an 11 night cruise and figured I might use the laundry mid cruise.

I'd guess that the bag is maybe 18 inches wide by 24 inches long, or something like that. I think the rule is that your stuff just has to fit in the bag without tearing it.

It could easily hold several dozen pairs of socks and undies. Shirts, a lot less... maybe 12 or so plus some smaller items?

We've never done the stuff the bag deal since we've only had to wash a few shirts so it was better to pay for the few pieces.

It is still offered (was last week on the Century). Availability may vary depending on whether or not there are water restrictions on your sailing, however.

Last week it was $45 for as much as could fit in the large paper bag. It was only offered on two days... maybe once about halfway and again about 2/3rds of the way through our 15 nite sailing.

The airport is a zoo today. We did self disembarkation from the Century this morning. Fairly smooth since we were near the front of the line. Walked off after some immigration delays around 7:45 and were at the airport around 8.

However, the checkin / baggage drop off lines in the terminal were insane. There must be a lot of people needing flight rearrangements due to the winter weather up north. United had no separate lines for simple dropoff versus full service, so the lines barely moved.

We went back outside and used the curbside skycaps for the baggage instead since our boarding passes were printed on the ship last night.

I would guess that the lines inside are at least an hour, maybe two. There was even a local news station taking video today.

any idea how long these folks will be on board?

Sheldon, John and Cameron and Jonette? It would be nice to see them

all again in February!

Lois - Just off the Century this morning. Lots of crew changes coming up. I think everyone had arranged their schedules to be away for the original long dry dock. Captain left on time off today and said he'll be getting married. CD John will leave after the last transit cruise. I also think Jonette will be leaving then as well. Sheldon is also going on time off as well. Not sure about Cameron, however.

I had some trouble finding anyone who would still be there when we sail on Century again on 23 Feb.

Just completed this itinerary today on the Century. Waiting in FLL now for the flight home.

Antigua - the ships 'on your own' is the best option here. Too many risks of delay with the long ride and potential breakdowns (two buses broke down our day on the way up to Antigua, including ours). Antigua has narrow streets, some cobblestone, and you may need to navigate stairs to see some of the attractions.

Cartagena - very nice old town center... Lots of cobblestone and very hot, so be prepared.

If you have any specific questions on the ports or the canal transit, ask away.

With the number of cruise ships in and out of Miami and Fort Lauderdale there probably are a lot of cruise ship parts stored locally.

The GE LM2500 is a very common industrial engine. They maintain units in many states as part of shared exchanges / service contracts with users. When we have had emergency situations and needed an engine that we didn't have on hand, GE was able to borrow a unit from another user to meet our immediate needs.

It is likely that GE was able to locate an engine within a day's drive away, assuming that Celebrity didn't have one onshore or in a rotation at an overhaul shop.

We will be arriving in Port Everglades on Sun, 5 Jan on the Century. We are likely to dock at Pier 4 and Royal Princess will likely be at Pier 2. There are 8 total ships in port that day.

Our return flight is at 11:30. A little earlier than I would have liked but when I made all the reservations (almost a year ago), I didn't realize the port load that day and it was also before sequester, etc, etc. Back then the collective wisdom was that anything after 11 am was pretty comfortable.

Recent comments have been that the taxi stand can get backed up when ships are at both Piers 2 & 4.

Our current plan is to do self disembark as early as possible (we are supposed to arrive at 7 am) and taxi to FLL. Another option is using Celebrity transfers, which avoid the problem with taxi waits, but I don't know when we'd actually leave the ship and how long the wait would be for a bus.

What is the collective wisdom of the group here? Since the Celebrity transfer has to be bought in advance, I can't just "wait and see" how the taxi line looks when we get off. Is the taxi stand busy from the earliest departures or is the "long waits" feedback from the prime time of 9-10 am?

Which option would you choose? Yes, I know the ship could be late, and if so, we'll just stay the night and try the next day.

The M class uses LM2500 aeroderivative gas turbines made by General Electric. If they're lucky, it's something in the engine itself since the core engine can be changed out in about 12 hours. Several years ago on a tour of the Connie I was told they kept a spare engine onboard for emergency changeouts. Hopefully they still do.

Every few years the engine needs to be swapped out and sent off for inspection/rebuilding.

We use similiar gas turbines at work and there are a LOT of auxiliary systems (lube oil, etc, etc) that can also cause problems. Those can sometimes be harder to troubleshoot and they may not have parts on hand.