Celebrity Century Cruise Overview
Well - the Transatlantic cruise from Barcelona to Miami on board the MV Century is now history.

We left Barcelona, Spain on October 27, 2006 and stopped at Villefranche France, Malaga Spain and the island of Madeira (Portugal) arriving at Miami, Florida on November 9th.

We had some "excitement" on the cruise - had to back track three times which was going to cause a delay of over a day in our arrival at Miami. But as we go day by day, you will see how the captain made up time and the intervention that made an almost on time arrival possible.

We met up with Barbie and John from the last Celebrity cruise as well as Frank and others that really made the cruise enjoyable. We also made new friends with Deb and Don from California. Interacting with friends, both old and new, on a cruise adds a whole new enjoyable dimension.

The wait staff was great - thanks to Jesus (Philippines), Ladislau (Romania) and Michael (Honduras) - and the food was superb - at least until it started to run out! But I am getting ahead of myself so you will have to wait until day 11.

You may remember that we took the Century on the Transatlantic cruise from Miami to Barcelona last April. This was its last cruise before going into dry dock in Sicily. For the next 30 days the Century underwent a $55 million renovation. The April cruise to Barcelona had elements of a nightmare as the ship was literally dismantled under our feet enroute to Barcelona. Celebrity refuses to admit that this occurred, but there were about 1,800 witnesses - all the passengers. Because of this, and the friends we made on that cruise, many of us decided to have a reunion cruise back to see all the wondrous things wrought on the Century.

It did not take long to see that most of the $55 million was spent on converting 314 state rooms to verandas. Now this makes sense, as you can charge more for a veranda in Concierge Class than you can for an ordinary Ocean View room with a jumbo port hole. The rest of the rooms received new carpet, new LCD televisions and new mattresses. The mattresses were sorely needed and I do mean SORELY. On the April cruise I had to put folded towels under the mattress to raise the middle so it would be level. New carpet in most of the public areas except the theater (which needed it) and new upholstered furniture in all the public areas was needed.

We all felt that doing such an upgrade in only 30 days was aggressive to say the least but we were only customers - what did we know?  However, this proved prophetic. The November cruise back was about 5 months AFTER the work was scheduled to be completed. On the return cruise they were still finishing staterooms. Many of the passengers were complaining of leaking verandas with water coming in through the doors and ceilings. Several passengers mentioned that the veranda doors were actually installed crooked and that the rug was not big enough to reach the newly installed outer wall/door of the veranda. One crew member confided that there was concern that the ship would not pass the US Coast Guard inspection because of the problems.

Many light bulbs were burned out in the theater and Hemisphere Lounge as well as other locations. When brought to a crew member's attention I was told that lights are replaced every other day and that they burn out frequently. However, the same lights were burned out every day for the entire cruise so I really didn't buy that story. The sagging bulkhead over the pool grill was fixed overnight when that was called to the attention of an officer - now that had to be a major job! There were areas of rust all over which is so unusual as the crew is usually engaged in ongoing painting so the ship does not rust away. The brass railing on the grand staircase was beautifully polished - too bad they never got around to polishing the brass railings in the theater. And while in the theater, I would like to mention that the new red upholstery was nice. However, the ugly dark blue with yellow suns rug was never replaced. And the mildew smell in the second balcony port side was still there. I guess it was in the rug. I had complained of this smell last April both verbally and in writing - obviously to no avail.

One persistent problem haunted us the entire cruise. The air conditioning in the cabin was problematic. We woke up about 2 AM the first night because the temperature had climbed above comfortable. We had to throw off the new duvets to try to cool down. Around 5 AM the temperature started to lower again so we could get back to sleep. No matter how many times we complained, the ship's staff was unable to correct this annoying problem. Night after night this same problem occurred about the same time. We met an attractive woman on the cruise who identified herself as the girlfriend of the Chief Engineer. When she heard about our problem she said her boyfriend was very upset because his sleep was constantly interrupted between 2 AM and 3 AM because of our complaint. She said he told her that a part was needed to fix the problem, but the part could not be obtained until we reached Miami. Now, I would have thought that such information should be communicated to us. It may not have made the cruise any better, but at least we would have not wasted any more time and energy complaining and having crew members in the room in the early hours of the morning feeling the air with their hands to verify that indeed the air was not cold. The first night the air diffuser was removed and placed under the desk as the first attempt to correct the problem.

The new LCD televisions had a wee problem also. Our's decided it would not turn on several times during the cruise. A crew member had to come to the cabin and take the TV apart and manually press a reset button - or some such cure all. Additionally, a new interactive TV system was added. However, for the first several days we would turn on the shore excursion previews and be greeted with the message that this feature was temporarily not available and to try again later. We presumed that it was just another upgrade that was not yet completed. Imagine our surprise when we mentioned it to Barbie who said that they had been watching the previews from day one and to add insult to injury, mentioned that their room was so cold that they had to turn the heat up. Of course we complained (several times) and only two days later, they figured out how to fix the interactive problem. Unfortunately, we missed the preview of the one excursion that we were really curious about - and thus missed the excursion. 

One of the pleasant features of a Westbound Transatlantic cruise is gaining 6 hours (7 with the change from Daylight Savings Time) over the 14 days of the cruise. This was most enjoyable. The opposite occurs going Eastbound. Losing an hour night after night 6 times can be most exhausting for the guests as well as the crew who don't get lot's of free time to begin with.

Excursions

Because of the difficulties with the interactive television we were not able to view any of the shore excursions offered by the cruise line.  Hence, we did not take any of the organized shore excursions.  We did go ashore and did enjoy ourselves. 

The first port of call was Villefranche, France.  Going against my previous advice to only use excursions sanctioned by the cruise line, we set off on our own.  We teamed up with Barbie & John and caught a train to Monte-Carlo in the Principality of Monoco.  We walked all over; climbed the steps to the Prince's castle/home overlooking Monoco.  At noon there is the changing of the guard ceremony.  Unfortunately, we arrived at the end of the ceremony.  We walked the narrow and picturesque streets of the old town within the walls of the castle.  At one point a line of black State cars with flags waving speeded by - perhaps the Prince returning from a little trip?

We made our way to the Casino of Monte-Carlo.  There is an admission fee (10 Euros) and a dress code to enter the grand salon of the casino.  However, tourists can enter a side room at the which has with only slot machines.  It turns out that you also need original identification (photocopy of your passport is not sufficient) to enter the main casino.  Barbie only took a copy so was denied entrance.  Upset, she went to the tourist slots.  In usual Grand Barbie fashion, she won 100 Euros (about $130 USD at that time).  The casino would have faired better taking 10 Euros admission from her instead of giving her 100 Euros in winnings.  Leaving the casino was a treat for John with all the expensive cars parked in front of the casino and Barbie treated all of us to $15 glasses of beer at the open air bar on the casino's square.  Salut!  An end to a perfect day.  Actually, the end was getting back to the ship on time.

The next port of call was Malaga, Spain.  A relatively large but quaint old city, Malaga was a very confusing city to navigate on foot.  Most of the streets curved around and angled throughout the city producing confusion in this normally unconfused brain of mine.  A GPS unit would have come in handy here just as in Cadiz, Spain with its curving and meandering streets. (I actually purchased the Europe chip from Garmin fo my Nuvi 360 (I love it), but the first one was defective and the replacement arrived an hour after we had to check in at the airport. I am looking forward to using it in Amsterdam this May.)  The cathedral was huge, ornate and worth the admission price.  The ancient Roman ruins were interesting, and the special fortified wine named after the city was sweet, potent and flavorful (and relatively cheap.)  Most parts of the city were within walking distance from the ship.

After Malaga, we passed through the Straits of Gibraltar - at night of course.  The Captain said he has never seen Gibraltar in daylight.

Enroute to the next port of call a passenger had a medical emergency that required surgery.  Cadiz, Spain was the closest hospital.  An evacuation helicopter was dispatched to the ship, but because of the distance the ship had to turn around and meet the helicopter half way.  They lifted the passenger into the helicopter (no place for it to land).  Can you imagine being lifted into the air with a ruptured appendix!

The next port of call before crossing the Atlantic was the island of Madeira, Portugal.  In Madeira the 4 of us rented a cab and driver and went all around the island.  The main tourist attraction was the wicker basket sledding through the streets.  However, it started to get foggy soon after arriving so the funicular was shut down and then the rain came shutting down the basket sleds.  Our cab stopped at lots of beautiful sights - not that you could see them in the fog, mist and rain - but no one can be blamed for that.  We had a marvelous time and it cost us about 160 Euros for the 4 of us for the whole day including the tip.

We left port and began the Transatlantic crossing.  That evening during late seating dinner (and the early seating show) we were interrupted by a series of intercom announcements that continued well into the night looking for a particular passenger, followed by a door to door search.  It seems that the passenger was last seen before Gibralter.  He put a do not disturb sign on the door.  After 2 days the cabin steward decided to check in on him.  The passenger was not in his cabin but his door key was .  It was presumed he had fallen overboard so the ship turned around and started retracing our path back.  The passenger was from Scotland so the British authorities were notified, as well as the FBI because we were enroute to Miami and the Bahamian authorities because of the country of registry of the Century.  After reversing path for quite a few hours, the British authorities notified the Captain that they had gone to his home in Scotland and found a suicide note.  His wife had died about 20 years earlier and he was just tired and didn't want to go on any more.  So his cabin was sealed and we turned around and headed for Miami "full speed ahead" to try to make up the many lost hours.

The next evening an elderly passenger fell down the steps and fractured his clavicle.  Barbie happened to be there and rendered aid.  Because he had a heart condition and was on a blood thinner, this open fracture was another medical emergency requiring surgery.  Once again the Captain turned the ship around and started to head for the nearest land which was the Azores about 300 miles away.  I remember sitting in the hot tub when the almost full moon started swinging in the sky and went from the bow to the stern.  Of course it was the ship that was turning and indicated that our trip towards the Azores was abandoned.  The Captain confirmed that, after about 6 hours of heading away from  our course to Miami, we were diverting to rendezvous with the USS Wasp.  The Wasp was returning to Norfolk, VA.  The sailors were going to be reunited with their families after a 4 month deployment on a humanitarian mission to Lebonon.  The Pentagon agreed to divert the USS Wasp in order to evacuate the injured man and take him to the nearest hospital in the Azores.  We woke up two days later to the sight of the assault ship USS Wasp off our starboard side.  The next several hours all eyes were on the evacuation.  It turned out that three passengers in the infirmary were evacuated to the Wasp along with their families and luggage.  During the last hour of the operation the deck of the Wasp was lined on the bow, stern and port side with the crew of the Wasp.  Upon completion of the operation, the passengers of the Century broke into cheers and applause.  The crew of the Wasp all saluted then broke into applause also.  It was the most moving thing I had witnessed in a long time.  It still brings tears to my eyes just writing about it. Proud to be an American and to see the US Navy in action. Click here for pictures.

Once again we set sail for Miami - with no further delays.  The repeated reversals of course, resulted in delays.  If we had to divert to the Azores, we would have arrived into the Port of Miami up to 2 days late.  The captain headed to Miami at full speed and as a result we only arrived 2.5 hours late. You know it cost Celebrity a bundle for all the extra fuel that was burned.

The rest of the cruise was uneventful - except for running out of food.  Three days out of Miami we ran out of escargots (no big deal), cream, then milk, skim milk and obviously ice cream. Then next we ran out of shrimp, eggs, green peppers and tomatoes.  And that is what we know of - who knows what others asked for that they were out of.  At first people were blaming it on constantly diverting, but we arrived only 2.5 hours late - so that had no bearing on it.  Then we were told that there was a dock strike at the last port, but there was no sign of a strike.

Grades for this cruise - A+ for strange events that lend themselves to years of stories. C- for the makeover of the Century.  Considering the sleepless nights because of the air conditioning - D over all.

We are taking the Century one more time in April, 2007.  We will see if they have completed the makeover by then (one year later) and if they have corrected all the problems.  Check back for the results of that cruise.

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