12/18 Century cruise report

[Michtom]

:mad: Just back from 12/18 Century cruise. I was a diehard Celebrity fan...not anymore. Ship was very clean. Dining room experience excellent. Cabin attendant/service excellent. Everything was typical Celebrity top notch until we reached Grand Cayman. We sat waiting in the theatre for our tender to be called for 1 hour with no communication from the staff whatsoever. Finally they announced that due to high seas tendering was very slow. The seas were not rough...the wind was blowing from the Grand Cayman direction and being that we were less than a 1/2 mile from shore we were very protected. Then it was announced after about 2 hours that the Captain was going to turn the ship to protect the tender from the waves. What took them so long to figure that out? All this time not 1 tender was called for boarding. After no tenders being called for 2 1/2 hours they finally started calling them again and then within a 1/2 hour all tenders were called. I don't know what they were doing but it was ridiculous. So after having less than 3 hours ashore, we get back onboard and hear that there was a mechanical problem with the ship, that we would have to skip Cozumel, and limp back to Ft. Lauderdale. So we get to dinner that night and the asst maitre d' comes over and starts giving us the "company line"...prop shaft problem..we're very sorry...we have to head back at a reduced speed. I understand that mechanical problems can occur. However, the maitre d' tells us that the ship almost did not go to Grand Cayman. Now I was really irritated....1st we had the tendering fiasco. If they had just told us about the prop shaft problem and that there was a chance that we would not go to Cozumel when they knew about it, we would have planned our few hours at Grand Cayman differently and went to a beach even if only for 2 hours. Grand Cayman was supposed to be split between shopping and 7 mile beach. Having less than 3 hours on Grand Cayman we opted for shopping with Cozumel as our beach day. My daughters were very disappointed that they never set foot on a beach. So then we head back to port...and of course they want to get us back early so they can fix the problem and set sail again on their Holiday cruise. We got into port about 10 hours early at a speed about 1/2 what we would normally be going. So the way I figure we should have spent the last day at sea at a much nicer climate which would have been 300-400 miles south of where we actually were. I was very disappointed in Celebrity's actions. Mechanical problems happen..I don't fault them for that. Their lousy and late communication, their lousy tendering.. I do fault them for. Oh by the way, Celebrity gave us a $50/person credit to make it all better. Celebrity really blew this one. Actually we still had a pretty good time. However, I cruise with Celebrity for a great time not a pretty good one.

[DinaB]

So sorry you had such a lousy time. We were on the same ship the Dec. 4 sailing....made all the ports but also had trouble tendering. That time, at Cozumel -- there were huge delays because there were so many ships at port.

 

So sorry you missed both Cozumel and Key West, which I really enjoyed, and that you limped back. If you check through the threads, this ship had mechanical problems in late November, as well. I guess we were just lucky on the Dec 4 cruise.

 

Check out the Roll Call thread on Century Dec. 4 sailing.

[hdawson]

It seems easier to second guess the ship's captain. From what you wrote, it seems that the issue at GC was in a state of flux where the bridge was trying to get the pax to shore safely making changes. Until something is definitive, it's just not prudent to make announcements. It creates more confusion.

[JUST ADD WATER]

I was not on this cruise (we leave in 33 days for Century), but I have been in similar situations on other ships. I am sorry you had such a rough time :( .

 

Sometimes I just wish they would tell us what's going on so we can make our own choices of how to proceed with our plans. If you knew you were not going to be called to the tender for a while (even if they just said come back in an hour), you could have napped, ate, played a game of ping pong, something besides sit there and get madder by the minute.

 

I know they cannot control the weather or that sometimes things break, but they do control what is conveyed to the guests. Most people are reasonable if you keep them informed when there are problems. Most people are angry if there are problems and they are kept in the dark (unless it is a security matter of course).

 

It is not just a problem with Celebrity, we have experienced this on other lines as well. We just roll with the punches anyways, but we would like to be informed. We have found RCL to be the best at letting guests know if there is a change in plans or problems on our cruises. Anyone else feel like the lines sometimes treat us like kids when there is a problem?

[Goonhilly]

We were also on the 12/18 Celebrity Century cruise and experienced the problems noted above.

 

:)Service was excellent. The restaurant wait staff , the room attendants, the cruise director, and the entertainment were all superb and cannot be praised too highly.

 

:)Our Ochos Rios tour was excellent, even though it did rain all day.

 

Some maintenance problems were evident such as balky elevator controls.

 

On the Grand Cayman call, besides the tendering delay, many of the shore excursions were cancelled. Even though the Century cancelled most of the ship booked shore excursions to Stingray City, local vendors were still operating those trips on shore.

 

:)Our ship booked excursion on the glass bottom boat did operate and was well worth it.

 

We observed that the Century stopped much further out than the other cruise ships, which made tendering more difficult for the Century than for the other ships.

 

After reboarding at Grand Cayman we were notified that there was a propellor shaft problem which would reduce cruise speed and would make our Cozumel call impossible. My spot checks of our cruise speed on my GPS was 22.5 mph before Grand Cayman and 14-15 mph after the shaft problem developed.

 

We limped back to port and arrived early into to Fort Lauderdale just before 10pm on Thursday, and were maneuvered into port by tug. We were dining when the tug attached to the rear, so we had a close up view of the tug though the dining room window. We were not allowed off the ship as customs and immigration was closed, so we spent the night in our cabin overlooking a container loading operation. In port, the Century was met by a crew from Miami Diver, who immediately sent down divers to repair the ship. It was fascinating to watch. They were still working the next morning. I hope someone can report if the ship was able to sail on its next cruise.

 

On the Friday morning there were delays getting off the ship, so we were not off until after 10am 12 hours after arrival.

[Charles4515]

Because Cayman is a tender port it is cancelled often. I have had it cancelled about one third of the seven times it was on my itinerary. Plus one time we had to divert and tender from the other side and all excursions were cancelled. By the way it is the port authoritys who make the decisions.

[tidelover]

Also on this 12/18 cruise. We were looking out of our window when we were coming into Jamaica and wife saw sand blowing up. The Captain made a mistake. He got the ship in to shallow of water & broke the shaft. From my view point the Captain of this ship is a GOOF BALL. My family has elected not to cruise anymore dueto this trip. We like to control what we do on vacation, Not a GOOF BALL CAPTAIN.

 

We also waited 2-1/2 hours for a tender. We missed our planned shore excursions with captain bryan on the Buccaneer, I only hope to get my deposit & hope thay don't charge me. I have e-mailed them and am waiting for a reply.

 

The Century is a very nice ship thats starting to show a lot of wear. We had same elevator problems, stairways had several weak spots that bounced when you stepped on it. several barstool footrest broken. the varnish on alot of the handrails/steps wore off.

 

Service from waiter & stateroom attendant was the best.

 

We also was eating dinner when we arrived. We were looking out & my yonugest son got up and walked over to the window to see what was going on. Thats when the closed the curtains to hide what was going on.

 

Finally, we will not be cruising anytime soon. not worth the price to me.

Could have had a full week on the beach in a 4 bedroom condo at the prices we spent vs. 1-1/2 hours on the beach that we had in Grand Cayman.

 

Mike

[JJPNYC]

Hearing about the shaft problem is no new news. I was on Century in August of 2003 and coming back from St. Maarten en route to Nassau that shaft ended up causing some trouble which made us 3 hours late into Nassau. You would think that in the 16 months since then that they would have fixed this.

 

But I guess I see how it works. It's OK to reposition the ship to Europe for the summer to make a few extra bucks off of the higher European fares but it's not OK to get the ship in to dry dock to fix a propulsion problem that continually reeks havoc to schedules.

 

Jeff

[Goonhilly]

Did anyone else notice that in the two Duty Free shops on the Atrium Deck 7, that the larger shop had one (out of three) of its exit doors permanently locked and blocked with merchandise, and the smaller had one of its two doors locked, even though each of the locked doors had an illuminated emergency exit sign. (The shops are glass walled by the way)

 

On Deck 6 the corresponding shop had all three entrance/exits open, but one of the three was blocked with a merchandise display case.

 

None of this would be observed in a port inspection since the stores would be closed at port side.

 

It did not give me much confidence in whether other emergency exits on the ship would really be open if needed.

[Boo's Mom]

I am very sorry to hear of the problems that several of you have had on the Century!

 

The $50.00 credit seems silly to me.

 

Is that the equivalent of the Cozumel port fees?

 

In this type of business, when things don't go well.....and that Dec. cruise did not..... the corporate office really needs to step up and take care of the people.

 

I think all of the passengers should have gotten a voucher of $100 - $200 off of another cruise. ....or something.

[leerobbs]

Goonhilly, honestly do you think those blocked doors in those shops would make any difference in any type of emergency? I have been on many cruises and have never been in a shop where there was a real crowd. Your observation is ridiculous to even mention. It is similar to the comment about someone having young children at dinner and wanting them served food before anyone else because they were becoming antsy. If you dare bring young children on cruises you should be prepared to eat pizza, hamburgers, or make alternative reservations in the sky bar or whatever. I am amazed at the comments people make on these boards.

[leerobbs]

JJPNYC, let me see here, it have been a year of so since the prior shaft problem. The Century engines have been running for approximately 10 years without being shut down much at all. From what I have read the shaft problem was the result of a pilot steering the ship into shallow waters while porting in Jamaica, and having one of the props hit a sand bar or something. Once again folks make statements about how Celebrity should have been able to foresee this problem and head it off. Have you ever had a problem with your car while you were traveling? Give me a break people...Do you think everything can be avoided and taken care in a moments notice...get real.

[leerobbs]

Titleover, sorry to keep replying to each post but I must. Wahh, wahhh, wahhh. Your list of problems on the ship were so nit picky it made me laugh. I guess you did not like the toilet paper either. Goof ball captains don't bring ships into port, Goof ball pilots do. If a little varnish off a hand rail will cause your vacation to be a dud then I suggest you don't cruise in the future. You can take all inclusive vacations and gripe about the bugs, bad food, watered down drinks, luggage being lost, planes being delayed, sidewalks not being swept completely clean etc. I think some peoples expectations cannot be fulfilled on this earth.

[tlm]

leerobbs

 

You made my day! :D

 

Toni

[AnthonyF]

I was more then happy staying on board during our cruise..... Our beach excursions were 2-3 hours at best and that was plenty. I was shocked how much there was to do on board and thus there was little to interest on the islands.....

 

People are just so nit-picky....... Always something not just right......

[bilgeboyPa]

HI Lee,

You are my HERO.I have been saying the same thing on different threads as well. It is so nice to know that there are other rational and common sense people on the boards. I have had several boat throughout the years. From 17ft to 30ft. I have hit bottom a few times where I haven't hit before. Tides, winds and shifting sea bottoms cause constant change. The nit picky things written about on the boards drive me to distraction!! If I have a good time,good food and service, the minor things just don't matter.

There are legitamite grips like shortened cruises without being properly compensated among other things. But if I see more "stained carpets on deck 8 in the corner and seagull poop by the rust stains" , I think I will go sreaming into the night :-).

 

Have a Happy New Years all

 

Jeff

[tbelian]

Missing Grand Cayman is not uncommon. We have missed it twice.

[Dreamer58]

leerobbs - you made my day - I love it!!! Been on the Century before myself and you have overlook certain things or you make a trip unbearable for your fellow cruisers and yourself. Goonhilly actually posted to our thread we have started for our 2/26/05 cruise on the Century and wanted me to read these posts. LOLOLOL

[sammiedawg]

I guess those of you with blind loyalty to Celebrity do not mind roaches in the Century meat cutters and unpotable water per the citations in the CDC report. I maintain the dirty carpets and other maintenance issues are symptomatic of neglect.

[bilgeboyPa]

Sammiedawg: You are a BROKEN record.Bugs are very high in protein. WE LIKE STAINS IN OUR CARPET! CDC report....CDC report......CDC report...Polly wanna cracker!!! WHHHAAAAA. Enough already!!! Please..DON'T sail on Celebrity any more. You don't like Celebrity and especially the Century.... we get it!!

[tbelian]

I guess those of you with blind loyalty to Celebrity do not mind roaches in the Century meat cutters and unpotable water per the citations in the CDC report. I maintain the dirty carpets and other maintenance issues are symptomatic of neglect.

 

When was the last time anyone checked the health department reports on their local dining establishments? Roaches? Good lord! Dontcha already know about these little 'buggers'? Unfortunately they are everywhere. A nuclear blast would not wipe them out. I just try (read 'try') not to think about it, and if they aren't crawling on my plate ... move on. Chinese anyone? (Now don't flame me for that, Chinese Restaurants are notorious for cleanliness problems). The fact of the matter is , you don't have 1700+ people dining in these establishments at one time.

 

Whaddya wan't, rubber biscuit? This is not blind loyalty, this is a realization of reality. If my cruise was gonna be spoiled by some dirty carpet, I would only cruise on new ships. I've been on the century 5 times over the last 7 years. Granted, nothing recently, but, I don't think a company is going to 'neglect' a significant multi million dollar asset and money maker.

[DinaB]

You are my HERO.I have been saying the same thing on different threads as well. It is so nice to know that there are other rational and common sense people on the boards. , , , if I see more "stained carpets on deck 8 in the corner and seagull poop by the rust stains" , I think I will go sreaming into the night :-).

 

Jeff. you crack me up.

[sammiedawg]

I'm sorry your cruise did not meet expectations but try another line or a newer ship before you totally give up on cruising. You should receive a partial refund on what you paid for your cruise, your concerns are very legitimate as were mine on the December 4 cruise.

On this thread in general and other threads critical of Celebrity, I still do not understand the intolerance of dissent. Supposedly cruise line management reads Cruisecritic and hopefully will improve their product which is far from perfect.

[dkjretired]

It think the one point being made by someone is valid. You blamed the Captain for running on the sandbar when it probably was the pilot. When going into a port the pilot has full control of the ship and supercedes the Captain so that may not have been a goof ball Captain on the ship.

 

Don

[Bisous3]

I was on the cruise that left on 12/24. In the program for the day it said we were going to leave late because they were fixing the mechanical problem- which I think they fixed in time- we wound up leaving late because there were plane loads of passengers that were delayed.

We had rough seas and for the first time I was seasick. I heard from an X employee that the captain doesn't like to activate the stabilizers on the ship because its too expensive- it causes the ship to use more fuel. I really hope that isn't true! Does anyone have further info on this?

Suzanne