Century 11/18 & Sunset Veranda Photo link

As promised here is my trip report for our 11/18 Century cruise including a link to the photos of the Sunset Verandas and some interesting shots of Grand Cayman on a very rough day on 11/21. Photos can be found at http://family.webshots.com/album/556111496kFleOn?vhost=family

We were an extended family group of 30 adults and kids from Pittsburgh, Maryland, and New York ranging in age from 3 - 82. We all flew in to Ft. Lauderdale on Friday 11/17 and spent the night at the Stirling Suites near the airport. It is under extensive renovation and will be a Fairfield Inn again soon. They offered free shuttle from the airport to the hotel and we found the rooms to be newly renovated and very clean. We only paid $69 a night. Very pleased. I had Miami Supershuttle pick us up at 10:30 am the next day. Each 11 passenger van was $81 plus tip. They were prompt and courteous, dropping us at the pier shortly after 11 am.

Porters efficiently took our bags on arrival and we went into a waiting area in the registration hall. Registration began at 11:30 AM. One of our travelers was my 81 year old aunt who is in a wheelchair and had booked one of the new handicapped sky suites on the sports deck, deck 12. Another family member was booked right next door. When registration began there was no line at all for suite registration, but the crew working registration refused to allow them to enter this area to register insisting that there are no suites on the sports deck!! Hello??? Have their own staff members reviewed the deck plans since the Century refurb? It didn’t delay us much but it was irritating. By right around noon all 30 of us were on our way to Islands Café for lunch.

Between all of us we had quite a variety of cabins. We had two of the new sunset verandas on the aft of deck 12, directly above the Sunset Bar. As you can read in my other post specifically about the Sunset Veranadas, these cabins were OK. The awning over the bar below really prevented the panoramic view that we have had in aft cabins before. Noise from the bar below wasn’t an issue, and in fact the live music from the bar below was kind of nice. Noise between the cabins was bad. There was one outlet in the whole room. Bring an extension cord!

The handicapped sky suite,1201 was a beautiful cabin graciously tended by Paul the butler. He was terrific. Cabin 1203 next door, for a sky suite, I didn’t think was anything to write home about. It wasn’t very large and the balcony wasn’t that large, either. The best perk was Paul the Butler who managed to come up with 30 priority tender tickets for our whole family for Grand Cayman. (Hope that doesn’t get him in trouble!)

I don’t remember the exact cabin numbers but we also had family members in two of the family cabins on the aft on deck 9 and 8. These were GREAT cabins for families. They were a little longer in depth and there was a sliding partition between the queen bed and the area with the sofa bed and the bunk bed. Not a lot of privacy but at least a little. A good option for families with small kids, which was the situation of the family members who had these. Balconies were niced sized. The one on deck 9 was bigger than deck 8.

We also had a concierge balcony, which didn’t seem different from the regular balcony, a couple of regular balconies, an oceanview, and an inside. We had four teens in the inside across from the SV on deck 12 and it was well laid out and seemed "spacious" compared to inside cabins we’ve had in the past.

Century, and our group TA, managed to get our dinner seatings right and we were at 4 tables on deck 5 for early seating. We didn’t have common waiters so we didn’t move between tables much. This was my first Century cruise and I did feel the food was a small step above Royal Caribbean which we usually cruise. Appetizers and desserts were particularly good. Dinners were slow. They took 2 full hours and with a number of kids with us, it got a bit long. We had lots of good comments on how well behaved our kids were.

Speaking of kids… if you were looking for a romantic or adult getaway this was NOT the cruise to be on. Dru the Cruise Director (who was unobtrusive and OK as a CD) announced that the 11/18 sailing had set a new record for Century with 450 passengers under the age of 18 on board. YIKES! Still, the kids, especially young teens, didn’t seem as unruly as we have experienced in the past, particularly on summer cruises. I think there were a lot of family groups like ours traveling together who hung out together which maybe encourages better behavior.

Entertainment – the weather wasn’t great on this cruise so pool activities were limited. Bar service at the pool was laid back and didn't seem as personable as on RCCL. Some of the family participated in spa stuff and enjoyed it. One complaint… as the family organizer of the cruise my family had pitched in and bought me spa credits before the cruise. Well I never got the notice of this until Night 4 of the cruise and then couldn’t use them so they were simply applied to my account. There seemed to be lots of mishaps like that. We went to a couple of the shows and they were just OK. I’d give them a C for effort. The casino wasn’t very generous at all. We enjoyed the piano player at Michael’s and the guitarist who performed around the ship. There was a young barbershop type group that performed in various locations. They were fun and entertaining. Cats Pajamas, I think they were called. We enjoyed the atmosphere in the Martini Bar.

We did not experience air conditioning problems, but the toilets did stop flushing a couple of times. The seas were quite rough on two nights.

Excursions: I had booked private excursions for our whole family. In Ochos Rios we used Peat Taylor. The day in Ochos seemed very short and rushed and the weather of course wasn’t great. I don’t think we were able to get off the ship till about 10 am and we needed to be all aboard at 3:45 I believe. We were able to climb the falls. The 3 year old made it and just loved it. Some of the 7 & 8 year olds were scared and took the stairs with the seniors. Our wheelchair passenger did just fine at the falls, watching from an observation platform. After the falls we went to the Ruins for lunch. It is a pretty location but it was crowded and the food was just OK in my opinion. It probably did save us time from getting back on the ship for lunch or going to Margaritaville. It was $15 per person. From there we had about 45 minutes to shop downtown. We hit the market and the grocery store and picked up some coffee and rum and a few trinkets. I would not say that we were in any way harassed, but we were approached and asked to visit various booths, and nearly all of the adults in the group were offered “a little doobie.”

Our second port was Georgetown, Grand Cayman. As rough as the water was I was surprised to learn we were still going ashore. We were in the first tender off (and the crew did a great job of completely lifting my Aunt in her wheelchair in and out of the bouncing tender) but we went into a remote location, not the usual one downtown. My link to the photos include some shots of what the downtown pier looked like that day. I had reserved the Reefs, Rays & Rum tour with Nativeway. They met us promprtly, loaded us on our own bus, and took us to the marina where we boarded our own boat. (27 of us participated.) I understand that all of the ship’s water based excursions were cancelled on 11/21 but we had a great day and at no time did I feel unsafe, although it was rough. I’m lousy with names but we had two young men who were the crew with Nativeway and we were also offered the services of Ziggy the videographer. Since we were a private group the price for him to go along was $300 and would include 5 DVD’s. We decided to go for it and split it up. I’m so glad we did. We haven’t seen the video yet but he was such a big help with the kids and helped us all to feel safe. Because of the rough waters when we stopped at the reef the crew suggested everyone wear flotation devices to snorkel. They threw a life preserver on a rope tied to the boat out a little ways and encouraged all of the kids and weaker swimmers to hold onto the rope and slide their way along to look at the reef. This worked really well, even in choppy water. If one of the kids let go, Ziggy was right there to get them back on the rope. We didn’t know at the time of all of the cancellations, and knowing now what we didn’t know then I’m not sure we would have gone ahead with the excursion… but as I said, Nativeway took very good care of us, including lifting the wheelchair passenger in and out of a bouncing boat. At stingray city they made a large circle with rope and again told the kids to stay in the circle. It was calmer there, but still choppy. There were only about 3 other boats there visiting so we had lots of rays to visit with. The kids really enjoyed it, despite some Steve Irwin anxiety on the part of some. I have included some photos in the folder referenced above to show that the water was relatively calm considering the conditions of the day.

From there the crew radioed ahead to rum point to make sure we could land. They got the green light and they radioed in our lunch order. Docking was an adventure with lots of bouncing and bumping. I actually suspect some damage was done to the boat during one very hard bounce. The food at Rum Point was great and the water at the beach relatively calm despite the weather. The original plan was for them to take us back to the marina on the boat, but given the rough conditions they offered to bring a bus for us and we took them up on the offer rather than reloading the wheelchair into the boat. They took most of the group back to the tender point and dropped a few of us downtown for an hour of shopping. We rode back to the tender point in a taxi with the shopping guide and she told us that we were one of 3 ships allowed to tender in that day out of 6 that were scheduled. All things considered we had a great day that the whole family will remember forever. I was a bit surprised at the seeming lack of provisions for getting handicapped passengers in and out of the tenders. My aunt is in a lightweight travel chair and is able to take a couple of steps with assistance. If she was in a heavy motorized chair I'm really not sure she could have used the tenders.

Disembarkation was very smooth. Suggested tips for those 10 and under were half price. I was surprised by that. This cruise had so many kids on board and the crew certainly worked as hard as they ever do, but it may have been a low tip week for many given the large number of kids. I think most of our family went ahead and did full tips. A few family members flying home that day (Thanksgiving morning) and did the self carry program with their bags and were off the ship by 8 am. The rest of us took private Miami Supershuttles once again, ($50 per van) this time to what used to be the Fairfield Inn on Collins Ave. in Miami Beach. It is now the Atlantic Oceanfront Hotel but in a month or so it will be a Best Western. We found it to be clean, on a nice stretch of beach, at the reasonable price of $99 per night including breakfast. The pool was small and not heated, however, and the water was cold. We had thanksgiving dinner at Don Shula’s restaurant and it was lousy for the $39.95 set menu. We enjoyed two more days there in Miami before heading home.

All in all, I think this was the perfect cruise for our thanksgiving together. It was laid back, family oriented, adequate in service, reasonable in price, and full of great memories.

Cheers!

Lisa D

Pittsburgh, PA

Thanks Lisa, very nice. :)

Lisa, thanks for the pictures of the SV cabins. It sure is difficult to get photos of them without actually booking one first.

Nicki

Thanks Lisa!

A little clarification, please. One of the pictures is labled as SV1245. I believe that 1245 is an inside cabin. So, is the picture actually the inside 1245 or one of the SV's? Which # SV is the balcony picture of? It looks like there is only a railing with no plexiglass barrier at the edge of the balcony. Is this correct or are there bars AND plexiglass? If only bars, isn't there a possibility of losing things over the balcony?

Inquiring minds want to know! :p Glad you had a good time in spite of the rough weather.

Very nice review, I enjoyed the Century on 11/13, there were very few children on board.

I'm so sorry! We had 1245 as an inside cabin and 1246 as the Sunset Veranda. I kept getting confused and clearly I still am! These photos are of the Sunset Veranda. No, there was not plexiglass on the railing. The tarp stretched immediately below the balcony looks quite sturdy and would catch anything that was dropped. In fact (while I'm sure Celebrity would frown on this!) I suspect the tarp is sturdy enough that in an emergency it could be walked upon. Those with small children, however, may want to make note of the open balcony rails.

Lisa, thanks for posting pictures of the mystery sunset veranda. One more question--you said you had both an interior and an sv. According to the Celebrity website the sunset verandas are larger than the concierge class cabins which are about the same size (actually a bit smaller!) than the interior cabins. How would you compare the size and layout of the cabins you had? Thanks for all the information!

Very interesting. I hadn't realized that the CC class was actually smaller than the inside cabins. I was only in the cousin's cabin in CC class for a matter of minutes, but I don't remember noting that it was any different than th regular balcony cabins. Sorry! I don't remember it seeming smaller than our Sunset Veranda -- which actually seemed quite small to me. There was only about maybe a foot and a half of clearance between the foot of the bed and the wall. Still, storage was well designed. I spent much more time in my kids' inside cabin across the hall from us. I do remember that out of all of our cabins (except the sky suite handicapped!) when I walked into this one I thought, "Wow - this is nice." It was definitely a nice layout for an inside. You entered in a little "hallway" with all closets on the right and the rectangular bathroom to the left. The shower was a rectangular shower, I'm guessing about 42 inches wide? From this "hallway" the room opened up with angled walls on the left of which was a desk mirror combo and on the right was a chair and a small table. Because this room was to be for the kids the beds were separated and up against the walls. The area between the two beds was probably four feet wide. You know, that might be the key. I always feel like when I walk into a cabin with the beds separated with some space in the middle of the floor that it is more spacious than the beds pushed together and only having a few inches to navigate around the bed!

I'd say that unless CC was pretty much the same price as a regular balcony that you're not missing anything!

Lisa

I agree that sometimes the interior cabins with the beds seperated seem larger than when the beds are together.

Right now we have two Sunset Veranda cabins booked and I'm beginning to wonder if they really are what we want. There are some decent CC cabins available and so-so (based on location) regular balcony cabins. Guess it's decision time...

Thanks for the pictures. The SV's look fine. The seas look a bit too rough for me though. Hope they are smoother in April. ;)

Getting cold here. -10 wind chill today.

Melissa

Hi Everyone !

I was on Century last week. I did get a chance to see 2 of the SV Cabins. The SV cabins looked to be virtually the same as a 2A Balcony or CC Class Cabin. While there may be some very minor differences, I did not notice any major difference in size or layout.

After all of the hype regarding SV Cabins, if given the choice, I would rather go with either a category 2A or CC Class cabin that was located midship.

I did take a few photos of the SV's, but Lisa's photos tell the story. I hope this helps a bit.

Thanks for the photos! We are staying in one of the SV in January and I am looking forward to it!

Thanks for the great photos! We snagged an aft FV for the two of us. You mentioned that you had family in a couple of them. Did you happen to get pictures? Are the balconies of the FV about the same size as the photos? Is there any privacy on the balconies or does the bar overlook them?