Live from Century 02/09/09 sailing

[Host Walt]

Just a thought.

 

The enjoyment of a Canal transit is best experienced on a public deck where you can see everything. Even if you are on the balcony of a port side cabin for the transit you will still miss all the action on the starboard side. In addition the photo ops are rather limited from a balcony especially when some of the best activity can be seen only from the aft.

 

Finally, the Canal operators will assign locks based on demand and availability, not on a left/right protocol, so it can lead to disappointment if one chooses a cabin based on that aspect.

 

Trivia time. When a ship is transiting from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea is it heading east or west? North or south? Is the Panama City (Balboa/Pacific) entrance east or west of the Gatun (Caribbean) locks?

 

 

Trivia question #2 - which city is longitudinally further west, Miami or Panama City?

[Lois R]

Nice to see you:)

I am going to guess the #2 and say Miami just because

its obvious Panama City is so far west on the Panhandle that

Miami is probably more west on the Longitude Scale;)

[Host Walt]

Nice to see you:)

I am going to guess the #2 and say Miami just because

its obvious Panama City is so far west on the Panhandle that

Miami is probably more west on the Longitude Scale;)

 

Yes, Miami is west of Panama City, Panama (the Pacific Ocean gateway to the Canal).

 

My problem is that, in my mind, Panama is south of us in Los Angeles when, in fact, it's southeast.

 

BTW, Panama time is GMT-5 (the same as the US Eastern Standard Time).

[nancyox]

joel:

 

we are on the 3/19 sailing of the century...after just returning on 2/1 from the solstice, aqua class, this one is a last minute splurge....we booked an inside cabin on the penthouse deck....having never sailed in an inside cabin before, will we be terribly disappointed??? i inquired about possibly adding a 3rd to our cabin...the assigned cabin does not have a pull down berth, but i was told they would bring in a rollaway bed...is there any room for one? it looks as if it would be almost impossible to fit one in...thanks for the info...

 

nancy

[Shirley and Les]

Yes, Miami is west of Panama City, Panama (the Pacific Ocean gateway to the Canal).

 

My problem is that, in my mind, Panama is south of us in Los Angeles when, in fact, it's southeast.

 

BTW, Panama time is GMT-5 (the same as the US Eastern Standard Time).

I knew that traversing the Canal from the Pacific to Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico was generally in a south to north direction.

 

However, I had real problems with the Panama City vs Miami orientation. I finally had to look at a map and check the lat-lon coordinates of both cities. Here they are:

Miami 25° 48' N 80° 16' W

Panama City 8° 59’ N 79° 31’ W

 

I guess that's why I take my hand-held GPS on cruises. :confused:

[Lois R]

joel:

 

we are on the 3/19 sailing of the century...after just returning on 2/1 from the solstice, aqua class, this one is a last minute splurge....we booked an inside cabin on the penthouse deck....having never sailed in an inside cabin before, will we be terribly disappointed??? i inquired about possibly adding a 3rd to our cabin...the assigned cabin does not have a pull down berth, but i was told they would bring in a rollaway bed...is there any room for one? it looks as if it would be almost impossible to fit one in...thanks for the info...

 

nancy

 

Hi Nancy:) I am not Joel;) but can say I have had many

inside cabins. Now, suffice to say I sail solo so all the room

is fine for just me.

As for being disappointed, I have had a window and the ocassional

balcony but my normal cabin is usually an inside and I am always

just fine:D

Of course, the AC cabin is much newer and probably much

larger but for this short cruise hopefully ya'll be AOK.:).

Trying to think...they could fit a rollaway in front of your bed...

put it out to sleep and roll it up first thing in the morning.

[knitpurl]

Hi Joel,

 

We are going to be on Century for the 4/20 to 4/25 sailing. We have been on many RCCL and NCL cruises but never Celebrity. We are going to see our son as he will be one of the new singers with the entertainment staff. He joins the ship on April 16th. Were you able to get to any of the production shows? He received music from Liverpool Knights and a Broadway show. I have heard that Celebrity shows are a notch below the RCCL shows, but hope he will like them somewhat.

 

Thanks so much,

Michele

 

we were a group of 17 and we so enjoyed the production shows, amazed at the energy and talent and costume changing of this group,,we particularily liked the last one that they did at 5 PM on the last day as an extra,,,and the couple that joins the show for the acrobatics were great...

[PetalMel]

I'm so glad I found this site as it is great reading about the ship we will be on on March 14th. It is amazing how reassuring it is to get answers and insight to things you would never even think to ask before going.

 

 

We booked CC 9168 to celebrate our anniversary. I had been told that mid ship rooms were better as you tend to feel less of the ship's motion if the waters are choppy. Now I'm reading that aft is usually better. Oh well, I guess we'll need to take another cruise to check out that theory, huh?

 

 

I do have a question about taking on soda. I understand that you can, but is there a limit to how much? Can we take 12 packs or only a few cans? Since we will be flying into Miami and grabbing stuff as we go, I would hate to have to leave it after just buying it.

 

Also, any thoughts on our cabin choice would also be welcomed.

 

 

Thanks again for the on-board and after-cruise reviews. I was excited to go prior to joining this board, now I'm SUPER excited and can't wait!

[Xcruiser]

joel:

 

we are on the 3/19 sailing of the century...after just returning on 2/1 from the solstice, aqua class, this one is a last minute splurge....we booked an inside cabin on the penthouse deck....having never sailed in an inside cabin before, will we be terribly disappointed??? i inquired about possibly adding a 3rd to our cabin...the assigned cabin does not have a pull down berth, but i was told they would bring in a rollaway bed...is there any room for one? it looks as if it would be almost impossible to fit one in...thanks for the info...

 

nancy

 

Hi Nancy,

 

I am Joel ;) and glad you asked about an inside cabin. The last two sailings on Century have been sort of last minute bookings when we couldn’t pass up the price. Last year we booked our very first inside cabin on the Penthouse deck aft #1120 to see if we could handle it, normally we book CC balcony cabins. We were very pleased with the insides on Century and the amount of storage they have so this year we booked another on the same deck #1143. Since the refurb of Century a couple of years ago the cabins are actually more updated in décor and have large flat panel TV’s vs. the CC class cabins we’ve had on the M-Class ships.

 

We over packed for our 5 night sailing (normal for us:rolleyes:) and didn’t come close to filling all the draws and cubby holes you find in these cabins. I can say however that I don’t think I would pick these insides without upper berths if we were sailing with more than two adults. The only place I could see them putting a small rollaway is in between the two beds if they were positioned apart. The end of the bed really doesn’t have enough room for a rollaway unless you block all access to the forward cabin and bathroom.

 

Last year there was a family of four in the cabin next to us without the upper berths and I don’t know how they handled it but did. All I know was when it was time for them to go to bed we would hear a lot of things being moved around in their cabin but not so much it bothered us.

 

We always prefer cabins towards the aft of the ship and we didn’t feel much movement in ether locations on Century. The cabins are normally very quiet and the only thing we have felt is the rattling and shaking for about 5 minutes or less when the ship slows going into port and we’ve never really been bothered by it…it’s a ship and not a fixed land based hotel, I personally like to be reminded of that.:)

 

Another great thing about the location we had is the easy access to our “public veranda” known to most as the Sunset bar on the aft. On the Century class ships you have an outside stairwell that is rarely used that makes it a snap to be out on deck enjoying my favorite place on the ship.

 

All in all I can say after trying an inside on Century we would do it again in a heartbeat. Hope you enjoy your upcoming sailing on Century.:)

 

Joel

[Xcruiser]

I'm so glad I found this site as it is great reading about the ship we will be on on March 14th. It is amazing how reassuring it is to get answers and insight to things you would never even think to ask before going.

 

 

We booked CC 9168 to celebrate our anniversary. I had been told that mid ship rooms were better as you tend to feel less of the ship's motion if the waters are choppy. Now I'm reading that aft is usually better. Oh well, I guess we'll need to take another cruise to check out that theory, huh?

 

 

I do have a question about taking on soda. I understand that you can, but is there a limit to how much? Can we take 12 packs or only a few cans? Since we will be flying into Miami and grabbing stuff as we go, I would hate to have to leave it after just buying it.

 

Also, any thoughts on our cabin choice would also be welcomed.

 

 

Thanks again for the on-board and after-cruise reviews. I was excited to go prior to joining this board, now I'm SUPER excited and can't wait!

 

We’ve never had a problem bringing soda onboard and I personally prefer diet Pepsi to the diet Coke they sell onboard. We brought two 8 packs of soda with our carryon’s and had no problem at embarkation.

 

As for your cabin it’s in a good location so I would not expect to have any problems with movement mid ship. Enjoy your sailing!:)

 

Joel

[PetalMel]

thanks again for the information! I just was pulling out my summer clothes to begin to see what I have, what still fits (YIKES!!! I need to get busy on the treadmill....), and what I may need to get before we take off.

 

 

Another reason we want to take soda is like you said--we are kind of snobby with it and don't really care for fountain soda if we can avoid it. I'm glad we can take it on without problems.

 

Thanks for the insight on the room as well. I'm excited to have a balcony and can't wait just to relax there and maybe have breakfast there as well. With two days at sea, I thought it would be a nice luxury that we would enjoy.

[gaggaandbj]

I've not been on Celebrity before. How far is the port from the airport & are there taxis available on disembarkation day?

 

Thanks!

[Lois R]

I've not been on Celebrity before. How far is the port from the airport & are there taxis available on disembarkation day?

 

Thanks!

 

Hi, Celebrity sails from both the Port of Miami and Port

Everglades up in FLL.

Miami to the Miami Airport is probably 15-20 minutes and there

are plenty cabs available.

 

Port Everglades to FLL airport is closer to 10-15 minutes

and plenty of cabs are available there too.

 

Now, if you flying into one airport and sailing from the

opposite city...give yourself an hour. It might only take

30-40 minutes but if you hit traffic then it might be more than

an hour.

[nancyox]

joel and lois:

 

thanks for all the info....from looking at pics of the refurbished cabins last night, i believe we will be just fine...what could be bad about being on a cruise????

 

joel, i agree with you about choosing a cabin with an upper berth if my daughter decides to join us...now it's just deciding what deck to choose. the agent said he had one on the sports deck or on vista......i am leaning to the sports deck, cuz i prefer being close to the daytime action and like the ability to take the stairs to the pool, buffet, etc.....

 

can you tell me which night is formal night? (i can't believe they even have one on such a short trip!) we want to make reservations at murano and can't quite decide which night to do it.

 

thanks again for all your input......

 

nancy

[Lois R]

Nancy, 4 and 5 night cruises both have formal nights.

I know on the 4 night cruise it is the 2nd evening.

I think Joel posted below it was on the 2nd night on his cruise

too:)

quote:

"2nd night: (Formal and the dress code was very well respected, I was surprised)

Encrusted rack of lamb – very good"

 

There you go:D

[ROYALBOY]

Partner and I are sailing on the Century for the 5 night on Monday... The excitement is growing!

[nancyox]

Lois:

 

Thanks for the info....i think i'll book murano for saturday (3rd nite)....i would rather do sunday based on joel's opinion of the meal in the mdr that night, but i don't like looking like i'm skipping out on a tip on the last night....

 

Anyway, my daughter decided to get her own cabin, so the rollaway/upper berth is not a concern any longer....this will work out much better for everyone....

 

Just booked yesterday...already getting very excited!!!

 

Nancy