Century Review - 1/23 - 1/28

[Kre8tiv1]

Background

I’m 47 and a Marketing/PR Professional. I traveled with my mom who is 70 and retired. This trip was my Christmas gift to her…just us girls, we left the guys home. I chose this cruise because of the size of the ship, length of cruise and itinerary. Mom has emphysema and COPD and this suited her needs. We had a forward inside cabin (1043), port side on Penthouse Deck 10.

I am well traveled, tho take more land vacations. This was my 6th cruise. My last cruise was this past May on another line. This was Mom’s 9th cruise. We both have sailed X before, however it’s been a while (six years). We both agree that this was by far the most disappointing cruise we’ve ever taken. Our sentiments stem from the overall poor service and lack of attention to detail. Our experience leaves me to wonder if, during training, the service staff is instructed to ignore guests and avoid eye contact at all cost.

I’ll start with a brief overview:

Embarkation

We arrived at the pier at about 11:30am. No lines. Were offered champagne/orange juice as we walked on. We went to Islands Café to eat lunch and await the announcement that the cabins were ready.

Note: The guys taking the luggage at the curb actually asked for a tip, which really, really annoyed me (they are Port of Miami workers and not employees of Celebrity).

Overall Condition of Ship

As we all know, Century is not new. But it is clean, no real obvious signs of wear and tear. About mid-way thru the cruise, there were plumbing and leaking issues on our floor. There were also plumbing issues on debarkation day – no running water at all, which resulted in the restrooms being closed while there were many passengers still onboard waiting their turn to leave. It was a very unpleasant situation, to say the least.

Cabin

I was pleasantly surprised as to the size of the cabin. It was definitely roomy enough for us and it was laid out quite well. I’m glad I am a frequent reader of these boards, as I knew that the safe was located behind the mirror. There was a mini bar. I didn’t open it so I don’t know if there would have been room to put our own items, should we have wanted to.

Pool Area

Padded lounge chairs go quickly. Lots of chair hogs on this cruise. Pool butlers did nothing to try to control the chair hogs and didn’t do a great job of keeping the pool area tidy.

Entertainment

Just about the only thing I can say was excellent. Normally, I don’t really care for the entertainment…I think the song/dance stuff is kinda hokey. But I was pleasantly surprised. And the comedian, Louis Johnson, was hilarious. Tho his PG 13 performance was actually funnier than his Adult Only show a few nights later.

Spa

Uki was great. Nice massage, facial, foot and ankle massage and 30 minutes in the Persian Gardens. Def was worth the $109 Ladies Night Special.

And now for the reasons why we will not be sailing Celebrity in the future…

· While at the pool, I never once was offered a drink by a waiter. If I wanted a drink, I had to get up and get it myself. On the first sea day, I never even saw waiters walking around the pool taking orders.

· Although the pool bar was never very crowded, it took quite a while to be acknowledged, despite my best efforts at deliberately trying to make eye contact. I understand that there are only 2 or 3 bartenders serving many however, a simple ‘I’ll be right with you” would have been appreciated. This didn’t happen just once, it was each time I stood waiting to be served at the pool bar. For those who want to know, the bartender was Paul Bennet.

· No live entertainment at pool during the day, other than when we sailed from each port of call.

· On first day, a dinner menu was placed on a table on the pool deck near the elevators. It sort of looked as if it was just tossed there. The second day, the same menu was still there, as it was again on the 3rd day. By the 4th day, they changed the menu and put it on an easel.

· Cabin Attendant – Efrem. I saw him on our first day when he delivered our luggage. I never saw him again the entire trip. Not even in the hallway in the morning or evening when the other cabin attendants were out and about. Our room was made up every morning and turned down each night, water/ice refilled however, our toiletries were never replenished.

· Room Service – filled out the slip each night for coffee/Danish to be delivered the next morning. Always got a phone call to let us know the food was on its way up. However, I only ordered room service one time during the day. I was told it would take 30 – 40 minutes. It arrived an hour later and was ice cold.

· Housekeeping – Called for extra towels and toiletries so that we could shower and go to dinner. It took 50 minutes for two towels and shampoo to arrive.

· Food – I won’t go on and on, as this topic is subjective but I will make some comments.

Islands Café

Breakfast – Eggs benedict were very good…and that’s about all that was good on the buffet.

Lunch – We found the lunch food here so unappetizing, our lunch usually consisted of cheese, bread and fruit.

Dinner – We didn’t eat here but, it was not a full buffet. There was a stir fry station and pasta station.

Destinations Casual Dining “restaurant” – This is actually a partitioned section in the aft of the Islands Café and is only open for dinner. We had originally intended to eat at Islands, but found Destinations. Most people on the ship did not know it existed, as there is no mention of it by name anywhere. Despite the restaurant being 2/3 empty, the maitre d gave us a hard time about not having a reservation. He gave us the run around until we kept pointing out that the restaurant was nearly empty. He said he had 20 people with reservations…where they were, we still don’t know! Even if those 20 people arrived, the restaurant would have still been ½ empty! In any case, we managed to get seated and I’m glad we did. I had the best meal and service here…a chilled mango soup for appetizer and grilled red snapper for the entrée. There is a $2 charge to eat here. Unfortunately, we found it on the 4th night of the cruise. Had we found it earlier, we would have gladly paid the 2 bucks to eat there every night.

MDR – here’s where things really deteriorated.

Breakfast was never very crowded when we were there, but the service was consistently horrible.

· Had to ask several times for coffee. Then had to ask several times for a refill. When I finally did get a refill, the waiter never bothered to ask anyone else at the table if they would like a refill.

· The salt grinder wasn’t working. Our table mate tried six times to call out to a passing waiter. She finally had to get up from her seat and tap someone on the shoulder to get a working salt grinder.

· In general, if you needed something, you had to ask an average of 3 times before you actually got it…whether it was a utensil, juice, creamer, etc.

· There was a nice Brunch Buffet on our last sea day. It was open seating, therefore you could sit anywhere you choose. As we ate and accumulated dirty dishes, the dishes weren’t cleared from the table. We were served cold coffee. When we requested hot coffee, the waiter poured the hot coffee right into the cup of cold coffee.

· The Formal Night that wasn’t –There was nothing extraordinary or special about this night other than everyone was dressed up. No special dinner menu (and no Lobster, which was very disappointing to many people on the cruise). It was really just a big disappointment all the way around.

· In all fairness, I have to note that we had Select Dining and we discovered that this was the very first time on the Century that Select Dining was being offered. Never the less, I spoke with Lorenzo, the Restaurant Manager regarding the food quality/service issues. He was very nice, took notes and seemed genuinely concerned. The next day, he had chocolates sent to our cabin and the next night, he came to our table and told us that he had spoken with the Head Chef, and he (Chef) wanted to meet us and buy us a bottle of wine. Miraculously, our dinner and dessert was perfect that night…unfortunately tho, it was the last night of the cruise.

· Dessert Gala Buffet – held in the Crystal Lounge. Lots of nice looking desserts. Specialty coffee drinks were available for purchase, but there was no regular coffee/tea set up. I don’t know about you but, most folks I know enjoy a cup of coffee or tea with dessert. Again, it’s the little attentions to detail…

There were waiters and waitresses walking around to take drink orders however, I never saw them approach any of the guests. I deliberately watched as they walked around, tray in hand, without taking a drink order.

And last but not least…

I pre-paid gratuities so that we could have Select Dining. I had checked our account a few times, but it wasn’t until the last night that I saw gratuities had been charged again.

I went to Guest Relations to resolve the issue, and was told that there was no record of my gratuities being pre-paid and there was nothing that could be done since it was the last night and there was a cut off for disputing charges. I continued to stand my ground, requesting a reversal. The Assistant Manager was brought in. I told her that in order to even get Select Dining, I had to prepay the gratuities (they already checked the Select Dining list and we were on it). Again she said it was too late to credit my account, as the accounting had already been done, etc.…unless I could produce an invoice that showed that I paid the gratuities. Now this is not making any sense to me. I am being told that under no uncertain terms the charges can be reversed because the accounting dept. has already closed and it’s impossible. However, if I can prove that I pre-paid, then suddenly the accounting dept. can re-open and my charges could be reversed. Yeah…I don’t think so. When the Asst Guest Relations Manager saw that there was no way I was budging, she called Cameron, The Guest Relations Manager. By then, I had been trying to resolve this for an hour and a half. It was the last night of an already sub-par vacation and I was in no mood. Poor Cameron didn’t know what he was up against. I am a fair and reasonable person, but I am a fierce negotiator and I was not going to pay twice for poor service! In the end, the charges reversed and I gave Cameron an earful about our onboard experience.

I had a frank conversation with one of the more senior wait staff. He indicated that the more experienced staff were being transferred to the newer, mega ships and that the smaller ships were being staffed by employees with little or no experience. That is quite unfortunate. I’m a marketer by trade. Every employee on every ship is an ambassador of the Celebrity brand/reputation…regardless of ship size. It seems to me that Celebrity is using Century as the sacrificial lamb, so to speak. I observed that many of the guests on the Century were “mature”. The smaller ship is appealing to them. And they are the ones with the most time to travel and most disposable income. I think Celebrity should pay a bit more attention to the demographics of the guests and which ships they are choosing. Having bad cruise is not like having a bad dinner at a restaurant that normally has a good reputation. If one spends $100 or so on a dinner that is not great, but the restaurant has a wonderful reputation, they might go back. But when one spends $2,000 on a cruise, it’s not likely that they would be willing to spend another $2000 the give the cruise line a second chance!

For those who are curious, I did indeed fill out the questionnaire…and wrote an additional two pages. In speaking with my fellow cruisers, I would say about 2/3 were displeased overall. However, it is my experience that very few will actually take the time to let anyone know. Which is really too bad.

[Smartcookie]

Thanks for posting your detailed review, I feel better about our upcoming cruise now as many of the issues you had would not be an issue for us.

 

Luggage - we'll only have carry-ons and will take them with us, plus we won't arrive until after 3:00

 

No entertainment on pool deck - Thank god! I don't like it. ;)

 

No padded loungers - we don't sit by the pool, we use our balcony or find a secluded spot far from the maddening crowds.

 

Waiter service - We don't mind going up to the bar but I can see how it would be annoying not to be offered drinks. That actually seems odd, they're losing revenue! :confused:

 

cabin attendant - I don't care if I see them, but if my toiletries weren't being replenished I would call housekeeping ASAP and ask for some. As for the towels? Yes, 50 minutes is way to long to wait for them. I would have called back after 10 minutes but I'm demanding. ;)

 

The service in the MDR does sound like a real bummer. I hope things improve! I for one appreciate people like you who give feedback to Celebrity.

 

I'm glad you gave Cameron an earful, hopefully they will take your concerns to heart. Even though it's an older, smaller ship it's still a Celebrity ship and should maintain the same level of service as the rest of the fleet.

 

Thanks again for your detailed review, I hope X got your message.

[jimbug]

Although this is a fairly negative review, I have to say that at least you attempted to get your issues resolved WHILE ONBOARD, which is huge. You made it a point to meet with those capable of making changes, and it seems they may have taken your words to heart. Let's just hope that there are others like you who are not afraid to speak up when they have an inadequate experience. (And I don't mean by audibly complaining to their fellow passengers or on CruiseCritic or to just anyone who will listen...I mean by actually speaking with or writing those in charge, who have the authority to do something about the issue...)

 

Thanks for your review!

 

(And, no offense meant by calling your review negative. I'm just one of those people who pretty much has a great cruise, no matter what, as long as the ship doesn't sink!) :)

[ellbon]

iwas on this ship for 5 days and had no problems in Dec. guess i was lucky. oh i had great service too.

[Kre8tiv1]

Thank you, SmartCookie.

Your comments are exactly why I take the time to write lengthy reviews about each aspect of my experience…not everything pertains to every person and one can pick and choose what might be important to them. Some folks want an attentive Cabin Attendant, which is why I mentioned that we never saw him. It really didn’t bother us that we never saw him…but it would have been nice to have the toiletries replenished and the soap dish cleaned (forgot about that one). If someone were to write in their review that they had a bad experience in the casino, it wouldn’t bother me, as I don’t like to gamble.

I think that some folks who read my review incorrectly assumed that we didn’t have fun. On the contrary, we did. It takes an awful lot for me to not enjoy my vacation! While on the cruise, we certainly didn't dwell on the things that we found unsatisfactory. My review is simply pointing out things that we felt were not up to par based on our likes/dislikes and previous vacation experiences. None of the incidents alone were deal breakers, but when you put them all together, they are the reason why we will choose another cruise line in the future.

[twoeights]

Good review, I know that feels better now. It is sad when sometimes we focus on the small things that matter so much to us. Most of the things you spoke about was very fixable by Century. It makes you think that the basics are not covered or they need a lesson from Disney on customer service. Either way, I am looking forward to my cruise next Thursday. Don't sweat the small stuff when you are on vacation because it is all small stuff.

 

Eric :)

[diligaf51]

Sorry you had such a terrible time. I was on the Century in early January and everything was fine.

[Beaches n cream]

I'll be on Century in 2 weeks, so thanks for the heads up. I'll have to try the $2 restaurant. I think you gave a great review that shows how little things add up. I've had a similar experience with NCL so I figured I'd try X. The price was right so I figured lets give the older ship a try. Still everything should be as good as possible. That's why we cruise. Anyhow, I alway's have a great time overall, So I know it'll be just fine. One more thing, If I get charged wrong for anything, I would never go back, this is one area for no excuses.

[JanMD]

So-- the bottom line is that Celebrity is DOUBLE charging for grats. I have never paid ahead of time for grats- but we are having to do it in June. Princess doesn't require it.

I bet you there are going to be a ton of bills that need to be redone.

Thanks for the heads up! TAKE your receipt of the bill with you on the ship- that shows you have paid for the grats.

[jerseygirl3]

So-- the bottom line is that Celebrity is DOUBLE charging for grats. I have never paid ahead of time for grats- but we are having to do it in June. Princess doesn't require it.

I bet you there are going to be a ton of bills that need to be redone.

Thanks for the heads up! TAKE your receipt of the bill with you on the ship- that shows you have paid for the grats.

 

You know, I'm not really sure how bringing the bill with you would work. I know Celebrity asked the OP for proof. But when looking over my invoice, it shows that I've prepaid my tips, but I had to call Celebrity because it also showed a charge on my invoice for Murano, the specialty restaurant. It was added into the total cost of the cruise. I called Celebrity and told them I paid for Murano separately on my credit card, so why was it showing that I owed that money for final payment? She said to ignore what was on the invoice, they just list everything, even shore excursions, regardless of how it was paid. So if I did what the OP was told to do, how would that actually prove I paid it since Celebrity says it doesn't mean anything just because it's on the invoice.

 

I really feel for the OP...the things she experienced are inexcusable and if we experience the same on Century in April, I will have to rethink our January 2011 Constellation cruise.

 

Jo-Annb

[Solstice23]

Although I think this review is not reflective of the other comments I have read considering the Century over the past weeks, I thank you for posting as I find some peoples views very entertaining!

[Margarita Jane]

We were on Century in the summer of 2008. We did a variation of a B2B...we were on Azamara Journey for 2 weeks and debarked in Barcelona. Then we spent 2 nights in Barcelona and got on the Century for another 2 week cruise. We were very disappointed in Century. We had trouble with room service, they screwed up our specialty restaurant reservations, we had a terrible ships tour in Marrakesh, we had issues with our computer minutes, etc. We did complain while onboard, and although they went through the motions, they did not listen to what I was telling them. For example, when they lost our reservation to the specialty restaurant, the specialty restaurant manager called to see if we could reschedule for the next day. However, I said that wouldn't work as the next day was a long port day, I think it was Marrakesh, and we would not be returning to the ship until very late. The next day, after returning to the ship very late, we had a message from the specialty restaurant manager telling us he had called us all day and saved a table for us. That did not make me feel better - but made me realize he did not listen to what I told him. The same situation with our room service - they sent the housekeeping supervisor to our room to talk to me. Our room service did not get better, so what good did it do to send the housekeeping supervisor? BTW, we are elite and had a concierge cabin.

 

These events did not ruin our vacation, because our vacation was also about the ports. However, we did use the ships tour for Marrakesh and everyone that I spoke to, that took the tour that we took, was disappointed. We did not visit the sights we were promised, as well as other issues. I believe we did all the other ports independently, and the other ports are what made our vacation.

 

We had a wonderful cruise on Azamara Journey and service, food, everything was top notch without one hiccup. The Captain shook each passenger's hand as we disembarked!

 

I did complete the survey and detailed all the service issues on the ship. I was wondering if the crew on Century somehow is not trained as well as the crew on other X ships.

 

I am not demanding or forceful - just not my personality - but I think I did everything I was suppose to do to bring these issues to the attention of X.

 

I will cruise X again, but probably not on Century, unless it is an itinerary I can't find elsewhere. However, our last couple of cruises have been on Princess, and we have been very pleased with their products.

 

~ Jane

[Solstice23]

We were on the Caribbean Princess in August, and talk about everything that could go wrong or was wrong YUK! But we will still try Princess again. Way to many people and nothing like any of our Celebrity sailing's. Princess has a very Basic Product nothing amazing in Ship Design or service overall we would cruise RCCL over Princess, but Celebrity is still our first pick of large ship cruiselines. After many cruises and my mothers over like 80 we tend to find older ships have a hard time living up to the overall expectation of cruisers compared to newer ones, Esp when ones have shorter Itineraries. People complain on any cruise on any given day even on the best of lines, Just try to make the best of the vacation is what try to do, and we have been on a few cruises that has much worse then what some seem to consider awful!

[ehrlichpuppy]

Hi Lin

You know, you could have checked the charges on your TV in your room & if you saw they were charging you for the tips you had pre-paid, you could have said something right away instead of waiting until the last day. We had a possible issue with bar charges in the theater & wanted to make sure it was posted correctly (it was) We noticed that the tips were entered daily, rather than a lump sum at the end.

[Texed]

Thanks for posting. :)

[Kre8tiv1]

Hi Lin

You know, you could have checked the charges on your TV in your room & if you saw they were charging you for the tips you had pre-paid, you could have said something right away instead of waiting until the last day. We had a possible issue with bar charges in the theater & wanted to make sure it was posted correctly (it was) We noticed that the tips were entered daily, rather than a lump sum at the end.

 

Hi Illene,

I did check -- but not everyday. There were no gratuities added when I checked the first two times. However, when I checked again on the last sea day, that's when I found that we had been charged for gratuities...AGAIN.

[Kre8tiv1]

We were on the Caribbean Princess in August, and talk about everything that could go wrong or was wrong YUK! But we will still try Princess again. Way to many people and nothing like any of our Celebrity sailing's. Princess has a very Basic Product nothing amazing in Ship Design or service overall we would cruise RCCL over Princess, but Celebrity is still our first pick of large ship cruiselines. After many cruises and my mothers over like 80 we tend to find older ships have a hard time living up to the overall expectation of cruisers compared to newer ones, Esp when ones have shorter Itineraries. People complain on any cruise on any given day even on the best of lines, Just try to make the best of the vacation is what try to do, and we have been on a few cruises that has much worse then what some seem to consider awful!

 

Interesting. We were on the Caribbean Princess in May and had no problems whatsoever.

Although I think this review is not reflective of the other comments I have read considering the Caribbean Princess over the past weeks, I thank you for posting as I find some peoples views very entertaining!

[teajak]

Excellant post.I read your post before anyone had replied and just now read it again with all of the replies. Don't understand why people are talking about Caribbean Princess when the discussion is about Celebrity Century.

At first reading I thought what an intelligent person,a very unbiased review of your situation. The problems didn't ruin your cruise or your time with your Mom but all of the annoying events taook some of the sparkle off.You seemed to handle it well in a ladylike fashion. I probably would not have kept my cool as well as you did.LOL

[teajak]

To the OP:I think I made a big mistake. I assumed you were female and we all know what happens when we assume.If an apology is in order please accept this.

[fgc15527]

I was quite surprised when I received a call from Celebrity regarding the questionaire I filled out on the ship that is given at the end of the cruise. They were especially interested in my experience with Select Dining. This was my 7th cruise and the first time I used Select. We like to eat early and have always chosen early seating. When we arrived early in Select I felt rushed. Finished a 4 course meal in less than an hour. My advice to all is fill out the questionaires. Management will then know your concerns and try to correct problems.

[boomonster]

We just got off of the Century on Monday. I have never sailed Celebrity before so didnt know what to expect.We also had some issues with the staff.Our first night in the dining room our waiter was relatively new . The issue was that he could speak enough English for us to understand him but he couldnt comprehend everything we were saying to him. Like couldyou leave this or that out of the meal (which I know is a pain in itself but some things I just cant eat).Needless to say I just picked them out .But that was pretty much how the rest of the servers throughout the boat were also.Basically we just dealt with it.Defineatley didnt ruin the quality of the food. Which was sssoooooo good.Have the extra poundage to show for it. We also ate at the casual dining restaurant. The service and food was excellent and so nice not having to put on a dress. Not to knock the whole staff we did have a couple excellent waiters but you could pick out the newbies. I actually enjoyed the buffet for breakfast and lunch. The pizza was good, stirfry was excellent and hubby enjoyed the sushi .The boat was relatively clean . I always saw people around picking stuff up.We are in our late 30's and actually really enjoyed the lack of activities.They have a cinema and library with games which we enjoyed. Only saw the comedian as far as shows go.And he was extremely funny.The bands around the boat were also good.So all in all a great cruise. Even with all the newbies on board training I would defineately sail Celebrity again.

[Kre8tiv1]

To the OP:I think I made a big mistake. I assumed you were female and we all know what happens when we assume.If an apology is in order please accept this.

 

ROTFLOL :D I am a lady...well, most of the time...unless I get really angry :mad:, then I can sound like a sailor!!!

[Kre8tiv1]

I was quite surprised when I received a call from Celebrity regarding the questionaire I filled out on the ship that is given at the end of the cruise. They were especially interested in my experience with Select Dining. This was my 7th cruise and the first time I used Select. We like to eat early and have always chosen early seating. When we arrived early in Select I felt rushed. Finished a 4 course meal in less than an hour. My advice to all is fill out the questionaires. Management will then know your concerns and try to correct problems.

 

What ship were you on and when did you sail?

As I mentioned in my lengthy post, we had Select Dining as well. Unfortunately for us, it was the first cruise that Select was offered on the Century. It was a fiasco. But I didn't feel it was right to focus on that aspect in my review, as it was the first sailing and they really had to work out the kinks. However, that is no excuse for the poor service we received in the MDR for breakfast and brunch.

[kannna]

Our tablemates thought they had select dining. They showed up at 6:30 on one day and 6:45 the next. We were halfway through our meal by then. THe first day they didn't show up at all.

[fgc15527]

We were on Century 1/23 cruise. We were a party of 4. Had dinner at a table for 4 on 3 nights. First evening Ace our waiter was one of the best I encountered when sailing. Last evening had Silva. He asked what we thought of Select. I told him that I felt rushed and he made an effort to slow the process down. One night sat with a lovely couple who started dinner with us. Another evening we sat down with a mother and child who were half done with their meal. If you join a table the experience is similar to breakfast or lunch in the mdr when table mates have already ordered.