Goodby to Century - last Alaska cruise, hits and misses

[Nancyquilts]

There are many opinions of any cruise. These are mine. YMMV.

HITS – It was the Century, our favorite X ship, out of San Francisco. She was in great shape and kept spiffy.

We lived it up and booked a Sky Suite, which was a large room and had a deep balcony, although I would have preferred that the TV be opposite the couch instead of overhead. There was lots of storage, and the bed was really comfortable. The balcony had two loungers and a full overhang, which would have been great in the rain except that when it rained in Ketchikan there was a leak the width of the balcony, so we had to be careful with positioning the furniture.

We enjoyed the New York Times that was delivered daily.

Embarkation – We arrived at the port at 11:40 and were having lunch in the Spa Café at 12:30.

Debarkation – Very easy as we had gone through immigration in Astoria.

Immigration in Astoria – Fine once it started to move, but we had to join the line in the front of the ship at the Princess Theater to go to the back of the Crystal room way aft. The line started half an hour late, so was a bit of a MISS. I don’t know why X and RCCL are the only ships we take that require standing in a long line on the ship for immigration.

We didn’t go to all the entertainment, but were delighted by the juggler, something I rarely see, and Nancy and Marshall doing improv.

Some of the food was excellent – the lamb shank and beef short ribs in the MDR, as well as the French fries, hamburgers and hot dogs at the Pool Grill, and the eggs benedict.

MISSES – Some of the food was inedible, such as the prime rib near the end of the cruise and the pork chop the last night. I couldn’t even cut them. The rest was good to acceptable. We have said for years that X had better food than Princess, but that was no longer true. We generally had breakfast and lunch in the MDR if we weren’t in port. I found the lunch menu in the MDR to be very heavy, consisting of dinner entrees. I usually like to choose an entrée salad for lunch, but these were available only twice. On the other hand, I didn’t have to plan the meals, shop for them, bring them home, put them away, cook, serve, and clean up after them, so I can’t complain that much.

I enjoy seeing movies when on a ship, but unless you knew something about the movie from the name only, it was difficult to plan. It would have been great to have a line naming a few of the actors, and another line about the subject of the film in the daily schedule, or a printed notice by the cinema so you could get more information on what was going to be shown.

The library – In early 2013 the Century had an outstanding library, one where I could exchange books every few days and find something else enjoyable to read. Now the fiction section has been taken over by the Future Cruise Sales, and there are only a few sparse shelves in the card room with any books. I hope this isn’t an X-wide problem.

The biggest MISS was in Tracy Arm Fiord, where the captain decided to abort the short distance of the trip to Sawyer Glacier from the time when you can just see the top of the glacier from the ship. :mad: His excuse was that he wanted to be on time to Skagway. Well, we were 30 minutes early leaving Tracy Arm and in Skagway over an hour early. I understand that earlier in the year there may be too much ice to get there, and then ships traditionally turn around in that same place, but there was hardly any ice that day, and no large bergs.

This disturbs me both as a passenger, as I’d been telling some Australians at our dinner table how great the glacier was, and as a stockholder, as I want people to choose to sail X.

For some reason we had a strange schedule and assignment of docks, each dock in Alaska being the farthest from town.

In Juneau we were there early in the morning and had to be back to the ship by 12:45. There was a dock right in the center of town that was unused the whole time we were there.

In Ketchikan we were so far from town that you couldn’t even see it from the ship, and it was about a mile walk. There were supposed to be shuttles every 15 minutes, but the first one came by in 20 minutes and didn’t even stop, as it was full, and the next was 20 minutes later. Since we were physically unable to walk to the ship from town, and the schedule didn’t work, we didn’t dare get off where we wanted but rode it around. Fortunately, we’ve been able to take a number of Alaska cruises and have been there before.

In Skagway we were the farthest away again, but there was a little 6-person shuttle that would take us to where we could get a shuttle to town.

At Icy Straight Point in mid-afternoon we were told that the first tender back would be at 5:30, and since we had dinner at 6:00, that didn’t work. I planned to go after dinner, but the tide had gone out so far it would have been dangerous to use the steep ramp relying on a walker.

When we booked, the ship was going to Sitka, our favorite Alaska port, but this was scrapped in favor of Astoria.

So would we take another Alaska cruise on X? As it happens, we’re booked on Infinity this same time next year. She’s scheduled to go to Sitka.:D

Edited September 19, 2014 by Nancyquilts

[CruisinCindy]

We were also on this cruise and you're right about the dock positions. It got to be a running joke with DH and I that Century was getting the furthest possible parking spot in every port! We needed to get our exercise anyway, and we walked all the way into Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Victoria and Astoria, plus all around town. My Fitbit tracked 13,000 - 17,000 steps each of those days! After enjoying all those wonderful meals, wines and cocktails, at least I didn't bring any souvenir pounds home, lol.

 

 

 

We'll also be on Infinity next year, along with several other people we met who will do it all again!

 

Sent from my RM-860_nam_usa_100 using Tapatalk

[fitzwest]

The immigration at Astoria were late. That caused everyone to backup. I was one of the first in line. It was the only time I can recall being a non-us citizen let me beat my wife (us citizen) by several minutes. Princess also make passengers line up to do immigration before getting off the ship when returning to SF. This may change with the new terminal opening this week. First ship docked on Friday.

 

I've never been any closer to the Sawyer glacier than where we turned around on this trip. I knew going we wouldn't get very close to glacier from past experience and wasn't disappointed.

 

We had a great trip, we did get the worst ship docks. We were also the smallest ship in each of the ports, so it's easier to transport 1800 passengers into town than 3000 on one of the big ships.

 

I would also say that the captain was the most visible we've seen on any of our previous cruises. We bumped into him in two ports and around the ship. He did hook my wife with a story of his "Rose garden" on deck 12. For the second straight cruise we got a last minute invite to the Captains table. Although this was the first time it was the actual captain.

[Chunky2219]

............. It got to be a running joke with DH and I that Century was getting the furthest possible parking spot in every port! .............

 

Some 15 years ago, on our first ever cruise we followed a ship with a big X on the funnel around the Caribbean aboard a Carnival ship. The Celebrity Galaxy (or possibly Mercury) always got the best berth in town. If memory serves me right, Jane McDonald was the entertainment as part of one of the early reality docu-shows.

 

We decided we were going to try X when we could get around to it and have never set foot on a Carnival boat again.

 

How times change.

 

.

Edited September 21, 2014 by Chunky2219

[Andy]

Hi Nancyquilts,

 

Thank you for your insights. Glad you had a nice time on Century.

 

It's funny that you mentioned the poor berthing assignments. We've often noticed the same thing happening in the Caribbean. It's puzzling that a line the size of Celebrity cannot do better. I've heard that such decisions are often made at the last minute, but something doesn't add up. Someone out there, with decision making powers must not like Celebrity very much ! :)

 

Welcome Home !

Edited September 21, 2014 by Host Andy

[upwarduk]

The Celebrity Galaxy (or possibly Mercury) always got the best berth in town. If memory serves me right, Jane McDonald was the entertainment as part of one of the early reality docu-shows.

 

Jane was the singer on Galaxy.

That Docusoap introduced us to Celebrity Cruises.

[tangerinebunny]

Since Princess and HAL were early Alaska cruisers, they pretty much tied up the prime docking spots with long-term contracts.

 

That also explains their prime access to Glacier Bay.

Edited September 21, 2014 by tangerinebunny

[Nancyquilts]

Since Princess and HAL were early Alaska cruisers, they pretty much tied up the prime docking spots with long-term contracts.

 

That also explains their prime access to Glacier Bay.

 

And Norwegian had the best dock at Skagway.

[ghstudio]

Hi Nancyquilts,

 

Thank you for your insights. Glad you had a nice time on Century.

 

It's funny that you mentioned the poor berthing assignments. We've often noticed the same thing happening in the Caribbean. It's puzzling that a line the size of Celebrity cannot do better. I've heard that such decisions are often made at the last minute, but something doesn't add up. Someone out there, with decision making powers must not like Celebrity very much ! :)

 

Welcome Home !

 

While of course it sounds cynical, my hunch is that $$$'s/gifts are involved in some of those decisions around the world.

Edited September 22, 2014 by ghstudio