Cruise Line: Celebrity Cruises
Cruise Ship: Celebrity Century
Cruise Destination: Western Mediterranean and Morocco
Cruise Dates: October 22 - November 2, 2007
Guest Contributor: Kaye
We did not have a happy experience with Celebrity Century for a number of reasons. Firstly and most important, the itinerary, which was supposed to include stops in Tangier and Casablanca, was changed at the last minute to exclude the Moroccan ports and substitute Gibraltar and Malaga.


We received notification of this by email 3 days before the cruise was due to leave - we were already in Barcelona where it was to leave from - but we know of other passengers who knew nothing of the itinerary change until they were on board the ship!

When we got to our room we expected some sort of explanation and apology to be waiting for us, but we got nothing at all - a big fat zero. Rumors about the reason for the change were rife, but everyone we spoke to about it was most unhappy as they too had chosen the cruise especially to go to Morocco - the cruises that do the Western Med are a dime a dozen, but very few go to Morocco. And neither does Celebrity. And of course the company reserves the right to change the itinerary (read the fine print).

The food was excellent in general, and the crew efficient and friendly. Our stateroom was fine, no complaints there, but be warned, there are a lot of areas on the ship where smoking is allowed, including staterooms and on balconies, so if you are a non-smoker with a room next to smokers, the smoke drifts onto your balcony and there is no way to avoid it.

It's about time Celebrity came into the 21st century and showed some awareness that smokers are very much the minority, and should only be able to pursue their habit in very restricted areas. And yet, despite smoking being widespread, no irons are available (or laundries) because of the fire danger! It's a bit hard to see the logic in that really. We had previously used other cruise lines and not been charged for port transfers into the town if required, but Celebrity does charge for them, and overall there seemed to be a lot of extras that were virtually compulsory, or more expensive than on other ships. We are extremely unlikely to cruise with Celebrity again.