Just back from 11/5/05 on Zenith, questions?

[Luckyroot]

I'm back! Got home at 7pm last night and had to return to work this morning (UGH!) So please ask specific questions and I'll do my best to answer.

 

Ship was great (but then, I'm partial, Zenith was my first :) ) There was all new furniture in the Rondeveux Lounge (well, same uncomfortable seats but all new fabric). Lots of new carpeting in the hallways. Deck 12 had all new indoor/outdoor carpet, as did the pool deck. Lots of fresh paint everywhere.

 

Our cabin was on Europa Deck (deck 5). The carpeting in our cabin had NOT been changed, and the bedspread didn't appear to be new either. Not stained or anything but it didn't have that "crisp" feeling of a new bedspread, and it looked familiar, I think it was the same as from July 2004.

 

However, the hallway had new carpeting and while we were docked in Key West, they actually emptied one of the cabins and were installing new carpeting (and Thursday morning before disembarkation, they were recarpeting a room 2 doors down from us) so I guess this upgrade is still a work in progress.

 

We found the food to be very good but not outstanding. There was no lobster dinner, and no midnight buffet. I'm not saying the food wasn't very, very good. It was! There wasn't a single thing I ordered that wasn't absolutely delicious. It just didn't scream "wonderful....exotic....extra special" from the menu. I didn't try any of the fish dishes, but someone at our table did and literally scraped the plate clean it was so good.

 

There was the usual Duck ala orange (VERY good) lots of fish dishes, some pasta/seafood, lots of beef. The usual fruit soups (didn't try any this time around) Soups were all generally very good. Had a cold squash curry soup that was very thin & watery, not at all what I expected. Thinking back that's probably the only dish that I didn't finish.

 

Dress code was as follows:

 

Saturday: Casual

Sunday: Formal (Sea Day)

Monday: Casual (Grand Cayman)

Tuesday: Informal (Sea Day)

Wednesday: Casual (Key West)

 

Shows were okay. The 60s show was actually the same show we saw in July of 2004 (But we still enjoyed it) The illusionist, Jamie Allen, was great as was the comedian Joe Mulligan.

 

The CD is a young man from Canada named Rob LeForest. Very nice, and did a great job.

 

There were 2 theme nights "Island Night Celebration" was celebrated Monday evening with a fruit and sherbert buffet around the pool. Then there was a "50's Sock Hop" on the last night (Wednesday) in the Rainbow Room.

 

Unfortunately for me, I had to come back to work today.......so for those leaving last minute, please post specific questions and I"ll try to respond before you go.

[SUENDAN]

Luckyroot,

 

I was just wondering if you knew, or your kids knew, if they had a teen program and how was the youth counselors. I have two teenage daughters and I know that they would like to know about that. Also, how was the disembarkation process, as we are catching an 11:30 flight out of FLL.

 

Thanks,

Sue n Dan

[rucruisn2]

Luckyroot, Thank you so much for your update. We all were waiting with baited breath for some word on the Zenith. You must be exhausted!!! Any idea what was done on concierge cabins? Thanks also for the dress code, lets me know what to plan on packing.

[CarnyMan]

Hello, Luckyroot: I too have been anxiously waiting for any info on the Zenith since dry dock. Thank you for making yourself available to answer our questions. I am on the 11/19 sailing.

Did you eat at the Windsurf cafe and, if so, did it look like they had refurbished it?

How were the mattresses? Did they 'feel' new?

Did any of the furniture in the main dining room look new or with new upholstery?

Did the carpet in the lobby look new?

 

Thanks again

Randy

[crossingfan]

Welcome back!!

 

Could you tell me who the Captains Club hostess was on the Zenith? We are sailing on this coming Monday.

 

Thanks

Rick

[Luckyroot]

Suendan: My daughter and her friend were both 17 on this cruise. They went to the Teen Disco at midnight on Sunday, but no one showed up. There weren't a lot of teens on this cruise (presumably because most are in school.....our district had the week off which allowed us to cruise). They spent most of their time just hanging out by the pool on sea days or on the islands on port days. The activities team did interact with the girls, and they were a lot of fun. We went to the 50's Sock Hop and they asked the girls to dance (they were thrilled to be asked and had a great time!)

 

rucruisn2: don't know what, if anything, was done to the CC cabins. We were onboard by 11:20 am, and walked up and down some of the halls. The CC Cabin doors were open (but suite doors were not) and the rooms looked to be very nice. (Sofa instead of just the little table and one chair that we had in our Oceanview Cabin).

 

CarnyMan: Yes we had several meals in the Windsurf Cafe. It did not appear to have been refurbished in anyway, but I thought it looked nice and clean. Mattresses? UGH mine was definitely NOT new, it had a depression in the middle which is where I wound up every morning. Main dining room looked the same as I remembered it, but everything looked fresh and clean (didn't see any stains or signs of wear and tear). The lobby area had a tiled floor but the hallways nearby had been replaced with a dark blue carpet.

 

rchambon: Sorry, but for the life of me I cannot remember her name! I even met her at the Captains Club reception on Tuesday evening. She was very nice (Tall, dark hair) but her name escapes me. Sorry

[crossingfan]

Thank you....I suspect the Captains Club hostess was Camilla Sullivan. She is a delightful person!!!

 

Rick

[Luckyroot]

Camilla!! Yes that's her name! (Thank you)

[constantcruiser]

Thanks much for the update -- sorry you had to return to the real world so quickly. How is Key West coping with the aftermath of Katrina? We're supposed to go there on the 11/24 sailing.

[DebCatLady]

Thanks for updating us. We've all been waiting to hear about the drydock changes.

 

We're booked on the 11/14 sailing, reportedly going to Key West, Cozumel and Costa Maya. It seems that everyone who calls X regarding this itinerary gets a different response as to whether or not it's going to change. Did you, by any chance, hear about possible changes to future cruises?

 

I'm a vegetarian, so the lack of lobster won't bother me in the least. But it's certainly going to disappoint my husband and the other couple sailing with us.

 

Sounds like you had a good time. Thanks again for the review.

 

Deb

[deb18]

Thank you for the review. We also are traveling on 11/14. I hope they finish all the rooms by then. My TA said it is definatley key west, cozumel and costa maya. they are letting in one cruise ship in coz. from each line and ours is it, from my understanding. Debcatlady, come join us on our roll calls.

deb (another cat lady too, I have 3)

[patrioticgirl]

Welcome home, Ruth, and thank you for the the update on Zenith! I sail for the first time on Zenith next month, and I keep wondering if the experience will feel a little like deja vu-ish :eek: since I've sailed Horizon previously and she is now retired. I appreciate the info on the dress code for the five nighter; having that update will make packing easy. I hope you have a good day at work... it is always a little tough coming home after being spoiled on Celebrity! :D It's happened to me a couple of times....you see one of those "come be treated famously" commercials on TV and just sigh as you do the mental calculation to figure out how long until the next voyage! ;) :)

[rbpjr]

thanks lucky for all the info, I'm glad you had a good time. We are going on the 11/14 I have a few Questions. (1) What's the earliest you can board the ship? (2)How's the coffee is it strong and do they have Natural raw sugar? (3) Was the pool packed with ppl could you find chairs?

[Luckyroot]

How is Key West coping with the aftermath of Katrina? We're supposed to go there on the 11/24 sailing.

 

Key West was still showing signs of cleanup a full 2+ weeks after Wilma's visit. Nearly every home had HUGE piles of trash out front, which included refrigerators, washing machines, clothes dryings and more. The marker for Southernmost point had all the lettering washed off (90 miles to cuba), and half the paint on the ocean side was missing as well. Smather's Beach was inaccessable, as the road was still closed. The boardwalk by the pier....or maybe you'd call it the dock? (The wooden boards) was completely missing, they were working on replacing all the boards. Still saw some windows boarded up, but there were repairs going on everywhere and other than Smathers, we didn't find anything inaccessable.

[Luckyroot]

thanks lucky for all the info, I'm glad you had a good time. We are going on the 11/14 I have a few Questions. (1) What's the earliest you can board the ship? (2)How's the coffee is it strong and do they have Natural raw sugar? (3) Was the pool packed with ppl could you find chairs?

 

1) since the Ship had just come back into service from drydock, they didn't have to clear any previous passengers. We ordered an 11am taxi from our hotel near the airport and we were onboard at 11:20 am. I'm not sure if this will be different now that they'll have to disembark passengers but this is my 3rd cruise with X and all 3 times they started embarkation around 11am.

 

2) Coffee was good, not too strong (in my opinion only) but I cannot remember if they had raw sugar packets.

 

3) pool deck was generally busy during the day, but we could always find a deck chair (although never in the first row). Pools themselves were not packed, I don't think I ever saw more than 10-20 people in the pools.

[Airb330]

Thanks Luckyroot. I certainly hope they finish all the cabins. That seems to be pretty important, having a comfortable room. The upgrade around the pool sounds nice, as I know I'll be spending a lot of time there. Glad you had fun! Welcome back to the cold northeast, but just think...no more nasty Corzine/Forrester ads on TV!! :)

[rbpjr]

Thanks for the fast reply. About question (1) the ship embarkation time is at 2:00 pm isn't that late to start bring ppl in? only a 3 hour window. Our plane lands at miami at 10:45am so i guess they won't let us on until 2pm. Maybe they still have work to do around the ship before letting them in.

[bsdmhutch]

Thanks for the fast reply. About question (1) the ship embarkation time is at 2:00 pm isn't that late to start bring ppl in? only a 3 hour window. Our plane lands at miami at 10:45am so i guess they won't let us on until 2pm. Maybe they still have work to do around the ship before letting them in.

 

I sometimes think the docs say that to keep people from all coming early. Mom and I plan to be there early. Mom says we'll just be the official greeters:D to anyone coming after us (yes she is a little excited).

 

Luckyroot - thanks for the review - I have been patiently (not) waiting for information. Glad you had a good cruise. I watched her in port yesterday until I had to leave work to go home. Was hoping to see her sail.

[Luckyroot]

Thanks for the fast reply. About question (1) the ship embarkation time is at 2:00 pm isn't that late to start bring ppl in? only a 3 hour window. Our plane lands at miami at 10:45am so i guess they won't let us on until 2pm. Maybe they still have work to do around the ship before letting them in.

 

If I were arriving at 10:45 I would go directly to the pier. By the time you collect your luggage, find a taxi and drive to the pier, it would be at least 11:30 and I'm sure if they aren't boarding yet, they would be VERY soon.

 

One more thing.........EXPRESS PASS is the way to go! We did the express pass and they literally scan your express pass sheet (that you printed out at home), run your credit card thru the machine and hand you your boarding cards. Max 5 minutes. We left our hotel at 11:00am (near the airport) and were onboard by 11:20. Not bad!

[Ships R Great]

Thanks, Luckyroot for the info. New upholstry will not help those lounge chairs! I am so sorry they did not replace them. Oh well, that won't spoil our trip. I do hope they have refurbished the mattresses and linens, however. But that wouldn't spoil our trip, either. As long as we actually get on the ship, NOTHING can spoil our trip!

[my3kids]

Hi

 

Thanks for all your info! We are SO looking forward to this vacation in Jan!

 

Did you happen to get any of the menus or pics of them you could post here? Do you have any information on the kids clubs?

 

Thanks

 

Robin

[Amazon Princess]

Hi Luckyroot,

Thank you for the reviews and answering questions.

 

Was everyone "formal" for the formal night?

 

Did they have any type of guest talent show?

 

What type of games/activites did they do?

 

What time were you off the ship by? I am concerned since my 5pm departure flight has now been changed to 1pm!

 

Any good shopping tips/deals you noticed?

 

much thanks again!

[Luckyroot]

my3kids: No info on kids club as my girls were 17. I only noticed one day a child with an activity staffer, they were in the Windsurf Cafe and they were coloring. Not a lot of children on this cruise though so that might have been why.

 

Amazon Princess: For the most part, everyone was dressed nicely on Formal night. There are always some who think the rules don't apply to them (there was a woman at the early seating show in shorts and a sloppy tee shirt and flip flops UGH)

 

They did have a talent show, but we didn't attend. I saw some clips on the cruise CD that is played on the big screen the last night. Some really talented singers and some children performing.

 

There were a lot of activities, as you would expect on any cruise. Some were Pillow Pole Pool Fight, lots of Trivia games, they had the Newlywed and Not so Newlywed game one night. There was Ice Carving Demonstration. They had seminars on so many things. I attended one on Jewelry (they gave out a raffle ticket to win a pendant worth $300 but I missed it by ONE number! Rats!) The spa had seminars on diet and excercise, make up application; There was wine tasting, culinary demonstrations, fruit and vegetable carving. Free booze sampling in the liquor store one evening.

 

You should have NO problem catching a 1:00 flight. That was the time we booked our flight and we COULD have caught the 11:00 flight had we not checked luggage (the gate attendant said he couldn't put us on the flight if we had checked luggage for the 1:00 flight because of security reasons).

 

Shopping.......OMG I did so much shopping this trip! They had some really great deals in the ship's botiques. Love the $10 jewelry sets (necklace and earrings) I received many compliments on them, including from the Captain's Club Hostess (she was shocked to learn I bought it onboard for only $10 lol) They had some faux pashmina shawls on sale for $5 each......lots of marked down items as well (shirts, jackets etc). In Grand Cayman, we did all our souvenir shopping at the Blue Iguana which is just to the right as you come off the tender dock.

 

<sigh> I wish I was going again, instead of sitting here at my desk! LOL

[trophywife]

Luckyroot-

Thank you for letting us take up so much of your time. I really appreciate the information.

 

I want to go back to the formal night question - what do you mean by "very nicely"? How many men were wearing tuxes? I've heard its usually around 50%.

How many women were wearing formal dresses? Cocktail dresses? Were there any nice pants suits?

 

We are sailing on 11/19, and I am starting to worry about my planned attire.

[marshabear]

hi! we are new to Celebrity but not to cruising....we have sailed royal caribbean, princess and carnival...

 

booked a 4 nighter on this ship for next month...dec 8th sailing to be exact...

 

any thoughts, tips, suggestions???

 

we are flying into FLL so we'll need transportation to / from Miami port...any ideas??? prices???

 

 

thanks!

Marsha