David Carlson

Age: 41 to 50
Occupation: Attorney
Number of Cruises: 2nd Cruise
Ship: Century
Sailing Date: June 10th, 2000
Itinerary: Western Caribbean

        My wife and I devoted the second week of our honeymoon to Century's Western Caribbean cruise departing Fort Lauderdale on June 10, 2000. We booked a sky suite on deck 12(Cabin 1218) and don't regret a dime we spent.

        As we spent the first week of our honeymoon at the beach, we drove to the port from Pompano Beach Saturday morning and therefore cannot comment on how Celebrity handled folks at the airport. We can comment that they handled everything else in a first class fashion. Embarkation was painless and fast-we were in our cabin by 12:45 p.m. and having lunch in the Islands Café by 1:00.

         The food was great. The service was excellent. The ship was spotless. We had butler service that came with our suite and what a treat this was. Our butler,  Lawrence Fernandez from India, attended to our every need. - breakfast served tableside in our suite at the precise time we requested, reserving and delivering to our suite tickets for our requested shore excursions, summons the ship tailor to our cabin when my tuxedo was a little too long in the sleeves, and even arranging a private visit with the crew on the navigational bridge of the ship. On the evenings we opted to have dinner in our suite Lawrence served our meals in the same manner as in the restaurant – one course at a time instead of the typical room service treatment of bringing all of the food at the same time.

        We enjoyed all of the shore excursions. In Ocho Rios we took the ‘San-San’ yacht cruise to Dunn’s River Falls where we climbed the Falls – after the climb time was allotted for snorkeling and partying on the boat before we returned to the dock.

        In Grand Cayman we of course tried the Stingray City snorkeling and what an incredible experience this was. We took the 10:30 trip but if we had to do again we would recommend the 7:30 departure because there are fewer crowds and the stingrays are more active because they are hungry earlier in the day.

        In Cozumel we rode on the Mermaid glass bottom boat and this turned out to be quite an enjoyable experience. This is a new boat that is comfortably air-conditioned and the underwater views are breathtaking. Cozumel is the port where we did the most shopping. Prices and selection were both very good. Celebrity did a great job in briefing the passengers on where and where not to shop here and in all of the ports. In fact, I recall while we were in Jamaica my wife and I were looking at a tanzanite bracelet in a local jewelry store and looked up to find a Celebrity representative on hand to advise us on the jewelry piece as well the reputation of the jeweler.

         At Key West we rode the Conch Train and visited the Aquarium and the shipwreck museum. This was ok but if we returned I think we would skip the excursions and just stroll around on our own – there are lots of places to party in Key West.

        One word to the wise on all of these shore excursions: take some petty cash along because all of these guides expect to be tipped for helping you have a good time. No one was pushy about the tipping but I pass this along because we weren’t advised about this ahead of time and fortunately we had some small cash on us when we took our first shore excursion in Ocho Rios.

        If you want a cruise with class and prefer to be pampered in a royal manner, go with Celebrity. We won't be cruising with any other line now that we've been spoiled.

Ask a Question About Celebrity Cruise Lines