Zenith 14-day Nov 2006 Caribbean: Part I - Precruise

[CaribbeanBound]

Celebrity Zenith

November 3—November 17, 2006

“Special” Caribbean

 

Part I - Precruise

A. Inception

We chose Celebrity due to our prior experience. We chose Zenith due to it’s smaller, more intimate size which makes it easier to meet fellow cruisers.

 

B. Cruise Critic

Cruisecritic.com was very helpful in securing key information for all of our ports of call and getting to know some of our fellow travelers before the cruise.

 

C. Choice of Route

We have cruised the Western Caribbean and the Eastern Caribbean. We have found the Eastern ports have the best beaches and are generally more hospitable. This itinerary was “special” in that it included 9 ports in the Western and Eastern Caribbean. The route began and concluded in Tampa and included Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Isle Catalina, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Antigua, St. Maarten, Tortola, and Key West.

 

D. Choice of cabin

We booked this cruise about nine months before departure, and then rebooked during a Celebrity Tuesday "Happy Hour" Sale less than 30 days before the cruise. We ended up with an outside cabin on the Bahamas Deck (Deck 9) with a 60% obstructed view due to a life boat outside our window. Each cabin has 172 square feet of space. Our cabin (9028) was spacious. It is also in a great location, sandwiched between a deck full of cabins above and a foyer below. In addition, it was just two decks up or down to the restaurants and most of the activity rooms.

 

E. Price

We originally paid about $1480 per person ($107/day/person) including port fees and taxes (but not including tips and incidentals) and booked an outside unobstructed view cabin on the Caribbean Deck (Deck 6). When the Happy Hour pricing came out, we opted to forego our cabin and agreed to a “Outside Guarantee” at a new price of $1000 per person ($71/day/person). We were assigned a partially obstructed outside cabin which we felt was a reasonable sacrifice in return for almost $1000 in savings! Note: I only include price information because it was requested by fellow travelers following my previous reviews.

 

F. Passports

We brought our passports which we got four years ago.

 

G. Insurance

I insured the trip through Travelex, opting for their TraveLite product, which I concluded was a good choice due to: relative cost comparisons, ease of access and booking, good disclosures, excellent coverage for what I needed, and especially because their insurance is "primary", meaning that I do not have to involve any other insurance in the claims process. I had no interest in proprietary insurance offered by a travel agency or cruise companies because if either goes under your insurance is worthless and defeats the purpose. We bought the insurance within 14 days of our booking to assure their would be no questions about "existing medical conditions", although I am not aware we have any. Thankfully we never had a need for the insurance.

 

H. Prebooking Excursions

All of our port excursions were arranged privately. We have never had a problem with our well-researched excursions, and find they are always less crowed, less expensive, and more rewarding than excursions booked on the ship. More details below.

 

I. Packing

Packing hints came from this board. We packed for 3 Formal nights (black tux / fine dinner dress), 4 Semi-Formal nights (aloha shirt with dinner jacket / dinner dress), and 7 Casual nights (aloha shirts and Dockers, blouses and skirts), in addition to enough clothing to cover us for 14 days. Among the most helpful "extra items" we packed were battery powered alarm clock, shoe rack, rounded scissors (under 6"), bottled water, cards, film, sunscreen, binoculars, highlighters, collapsible dirty clothes bag, and a new water camera. We also made seven 8x10 posters for our cabin door (one for each day, "If this is Sunday, it must be Grand Cayman!" and the like) and mentioning Cruise Critic in hopes that someone else on the boards would notice and strike up a conversation. The cabin doors and walls are metal. We held up our signs with little magnets.

 

J. Water Camera

I had been looking for a reasonably priced digital water camera for months. I found exactly what I wanted at Costco. I paid $269 for the Pentax Optio W10 digital camera. It features a 6 megapixel, 3x optical zoom, 4x digital zoom, rated JIS Class 8 waterproof (to 5 feet), JIS Class 5 dustproof, and a large 2.5-inch LCD screen. I paid another $40 for a 1GB memory card. It even has a built-in image editor. This was a great camera for snorkeling and beach use as well as all of our land and ship shots. Note: I understand Pentax has recently released a newer version of this camera. We were very pleased with the quality of the pictures. We took all of our shots in the highest quality mode. A 1GB memory card will hold about 300 images.

 

Part II - Embarkation to follow

 

The complete review can be found at: http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/zenith14.html