New to Celebrity - Century Questions...

[waterloogirl]

Hi all,

I am considering the Century 5 day western next month (over Royal and Norweigan) - great deal on an SS suite. I have only sailed Princess (6 times) and am used to the monster ships. I note that Century is quite a bit smaller - do you find issue with motion sickness? Is there any comparison (restaurants, entertainment, facilities) between Princess and Celebrity?

Any comparison notes would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks in advance!!

[waterloogirl]

Sorry, should also mention we're a group in our mid-30's....is this an appropriate line (ship) for our age group? Again, thank you in advance!!

[benbess]

I think Celebrity would be a good choice for your age group. It's hard to generalize, but I think the passengers tend to be maybe a little bit younger than Princess, depending on the cruise. The food is supposed to be a bit better on Celebrity, but your results may vary. Welcome aboard. I think someone with experience on Century will chime in soon...

[robtulipe]

We did a 14 night TA last month on Century and found the ship to be in good condition. It was completely refurbished in 2006. Also the service from the staff was excellent and we found the food onboard to be very good. IMO it compared very well to the Princess service we have gotten on our past cruises

On our cruise we found most passenger to be older retired type crowd but that is to be expected on a longer TA cruise that left on a weekday since most people would have to take more than two weeks vacation to do such a cruise. We have found this to be the case for most longer cruises.

On a week or less Caribbean cruise we usually have seen a younger, still working type crowd.

Size and feel wise it was similar to the Sea Princess class of ship. I would highly recommend this ship. Go to the roll call for the sailing you are considering to see what type of crowd you can expect to meet on board.

[hylasgirl]

Sorry, should also mention we're a group in our mid-30's....is this an appropriate line (ship) for our age group? Again, thank you in advance!!

 

 

The Century is a very nice ship. I am 39 and sailed the Century last July and was very impressed with the overall decor of the ship. It's in great shape and has a fantastic crew. The food was good. A step above Royal and many above Princess. (that is just my opinion, of course):)

 

I still would probably pick Royal over Celebrity if there was a good deal. Just because I like a little more going on. We definitely loved most everything about the Century, but if we had to travel for a cruise, we wouldn't sail the 5 day itinerary.

[Sky Sweet]

Sorry, should also mention we're a group in our mid-30's....is this an appropriate line (ship) for our age group? Again, thank you in advance!!

 

Hi waterloogirl :)

 

Celebrity is more laid back than most of the other mass market cruise lines, and attracts an older demographic, but that shouldn't be the deciding factor. What matters is the type of ambiance you prefer on a ship.

 

There are some people in their thirties who love Celebrity, while some people in their sixties that think Celebrity is not lively enough for them.

 

If you enjoy an energetic ambiance with a lot of activities on sea days, Celebrity is probably not a good fit for you. However, if you like a relaxing ambiance it will be.

[Jen&Rich06]

If your looking for some nightlife...I wouldnt go with Century..while its a great ship and crew the nightlife is pretty much non existant. (im 26 and my DH is 39)

Though when we are during spring break in 2006 it was better.

The food is better then princess (in my opionion)

We actually prefer the smaller ships to the larger ones...we were on the carib.princess and thought the crew was awful, the food just ok, and the crowd HORRIBLE! the buffet was so busy all the time and trying to find a good spot at the pool? FORGET IT:mad:

 

Give Celebrity a try! And I am prone to motion sickness and both times on Century I found it to be quite a smooth ride..though we did have our sea legs for a day or two afterwards which was something I hadnt experienced before..not sure why..but anywho GO FOR IT!!! :)

[rob1748]

Just returned from Jan 3 sailing. We (party of 5 from 14 - 78) noticed very little motion on the ship. We all enjoyed it very much.

 

Ship's crew was exceptionally friendly! Food was quite good in main dining room. Most of the buffet food was above average for buffets although with the made to order items, service was slow.

 

As mentioned above, if you like "laid back" this is for you. If you're a party animal - definitely not. This was the first cruise I've been on that you could walk right up to any bar and not have to wait for service. On Carnival last year people were bellied up 2 and 3 deep!

 

We found it odd that the buffet was not open during dinner. In that area at dinner was a smaller sit down menu.

 

We will definitely sail with Celebrity again!

[ghstudio]

Hi all,

I am considering the Century 5 day western next month (over Royal and Norweigan) - great deal on an SS suite. I have only sailed Princess (6 times) and am used to the monster ships. I note that Century is quite a bit smaller - do you find issue with motion sickness? Is there any comparison (restaurants, entertainment, facilities) between Princess and Celebrity?

Any comparison notes would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks in advance!!

 

My guess is that one sail on the century and you will never get on a monster ship again. I can assure you that the century is still a big ship and worrying about motion sickness is unwarranted. On the century, you will enjoy spending time without hearing the PA announcing events all day, you will not be hustled for drinks and your food will be both better and better presented.

 

We have been on RCL (never again), Princess (very good), NCL (used to be better) but we return to Celebrity because it's a relaxing cruise. We don't dance the night away, but we aren't in wheel chairs either. I guess if you value a climbing wall or a miniature golf course then you are locked into the monsters...but imagine a cruise where there aren't lines everywhere....or people everywhere and you have the century.

 

You won't regret this trip...other than it may ruin you for the monsters....

[geoherb]

I generally prefer mid-size ships such as Century. But I was pleasantly surprised when we sailed on the Emerald Princess, which is nearly twice the size. It never felt crowded--and we were on a cruise that included Christmas.

 

I enjoy that with Celebrity I know we'll be getting traditional dining in the evening. There is no "Personal Choice" dining. But there is a nice specialty restaurant if you're into that and casual meals available in the Islands Cafe.

 

The last full day of our cruise, there was some rocking of the ship. It wasn't a big storm--just enough to get the ship moving a bit. But I've felt just as much motion on the Grand-class ships of Princess.

[JennAngel9]

Waterloogirl,

 

Having sailed with Princess a few times, my husband and I (both in our late 20s) cruised on the Celebrity Century last year on a short cruise to try out Celebrity. We also ended up in a sky suite-- the bathroom was comparable to a princess mini suite (although be wary of the jets in the tub) but the balcony was incredibly large. The room itself did not seem significantly better than the average balcony cabin.

 

As far as the ships facilities goes, the two big dining improvements I feel Celebrity has over Princess are: a) Murano's (the specialty dining restaurant is better than those on Princess- and we enjoy Sabatinis) and b) the pasta bar (where you can select your own pasta ingredients in the buffet). On our shorter Century cruise, I did not feel the food was much better than Princess in the MDR and we were seated under a low seating and it was very loud. However, on our subsequent Celebrity cruises on the larger M-class ships, we did feel the food in the main dining rooms was much better than our average Princess experience. The main thing I dislike about Celebrity dining is that the main dining room is not open for lunch on embarkation day or port days.

 

The entertainment facilities on Century will probably seem limited compared to all of Princess ships, but there are still enough bars and lounges to find something to do. The main difference I noticed was that there were fewer pool/lounging options on Century (which meant it was hard to find a quiet public lounger in the sun, although we may have missed some)-- this was OK with us, since we spent most of our time on the balcony of our SS.

 

Finally, as far as motion of the ship goes, even with more than 10 cruises I still can get seasick relatively easily and I found the Century to be as stable and smooth as the larger Princess ships-- but I believe our stateroom was fairly central.

 

Those are the main impressions that stuck with me from our Century cruise.

[waterloogirl]

Thank you all for your great responses. We decided to go for it and booked the SS stateroom for the Feb 14th sailing with Celebrity. Thanks again all !!!