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Comparison between
the Celebrity Century and the Holland America Veendam. |
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Category |
Century |
Veendam |
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Ship features |
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Rooms in general |
Overall B- The standard
outside rooms in the Century were comfortable but not quite as large as
those in the Veendam. The rooms really need more electrical plugs,
there is only a shower, and the step up into the bathroom takes a bit of
getting used to. Overall, the bathroom is very well laid out and
while cramped is very functional. The space under the bed to store the
luggage is a great idea. The bar space is wasted. |
Overall B Rooms are small
but definitely bigger than the Century. A full (small) couch
instead of just a chair. The overall furniture is not quite as
nice as the Century. The bathroom is definitely bigger with a full
(small) bath instead of just a shower. We ended up storing our
suitcases in the bottom of the closet since there was no room under the
bed. More electrical plugs would be nice. |
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Our room |
B Everything was in great
shape although there was a slight sag in the bed. It was still
very comfortable. The chair and end table are just the wrong size
for the corner that they are in. We ended up placing the table
over the arm of the chair to give us an additional foot of walking
space. Carpet was a bit worn but it was barely noticeable.
Window was not as clean as that of the Veendam which was surprising
since we were several levels higher and should have gotten less spray.
The room was very comfortable. |
B The only real complaint
was the sofa. It should have been a step up in fabric to conform
with the rest of the ship. There was a smidgen of rust on one of
the screws in the window, but the window was clean! |
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Cabin Attendant |
A Fantastic! |
A Ditto! |
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Common areas |
B- My only real complaint
on the common areas was the glass in the Hemisphere lounge was dirty.
This would not have been so bad but it was a prime spot for viewing and
taking pictures and as you can tell, I like to take pictures. The
library on the Century was definitely a step up from the Veendam both in
number and types of material. The lounges were all nice and a bit
better defined than the Veendam (of course it is a bigger ship).
Lots of nooks and crannies to escape from everyone and the deck areas
under the lifeboats reminded me of the old time sailing ships. The
casino was a bit of an obstruction and took up the full breadth of the
deck. So, to get around the casino we had to go up or down a
floor. This would not have been so bad, except the noise and
flashing lights had a tendency to give my wife headaches forcing us to
find creative detours.
Smoking was more prevalent on the Century than
on the Veendam although it was not debilitating for those of us with
severe tobacco allergies. Smoking in front of the Grand Restaurant
was definitely excessive. On the other hand, the view from the
Grand Restaurant was magnificent. |
B The library was the
only real disappointment on the Veendam. The number of books made it
seem that the library was more of an afterthought than a real area of
interest. The lido deck did not have all the excitement of the Century
but it more than made up for it with the sliding glass roof and the
pool. Not that many people used the pool which was just as well
since the waves were an art form in themselves. Watching the waves
form in the shallow lip of the pool and in the area around the dolphin
statues was one of the most restful parts of the cruise.
I like the
major theater in the Veendam a bit better than the Century only because
it was more like a coffee house with chairs and couches around
mini-tables, rather than row after row of seating.
Overall, I prefer the layout of the Veendam a bit more than the
layout of the Century. |
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Overall ship ride and handling |
A- Minor rocking at night
(boy was it restful!) There was a little turbulence two days at sea but
the ship handled beautifully. This is not really a fair comparison
since the water was so peaceful! |
B- We were chasing a
hurricane most of the trip and the ship movement reflected this.
One morning we woke to the ship having a significant list to one side.
The automatic levelers were not functioning and it took a few hours for
the manual adjustments to take place. |
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Activities |
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Main Entertainment- ship performers and
musicians |
A- The ship dancers and
singers had three big performances ranging from very good to excellent.
Lots of energy, good special effects, and quality performances.
The singers did a very good job on most of the songs (the Tina Turner
segment was nailed perfectly) but were only fair on some of the other
numbers. The dancers were great.
We spoke to two of the performers after the
last show and discovered that some of our major concerns were being
addressed. The shows are being updated and refreshed. For
example, the show on Rock glossed over some areas and stopped in the
late seventies. The Broadway show had one number from Phantom (I
am a bit spoiled but the singer was not suited for that song!) but did
not have anything more current.
The ship band was great performing at all the
shows. A minor complaint with the piano player who worked with the
passenger variety show.
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B- The dancers were good, the shows
were interesting, but the quality was more the level of a major theme
park rather than Vegas. Also consider that the Veendam is quite a
bit smaller than the Century and with fewer guests, the show will
naturally be a little less flasher, a bit rougher around the edges, and
a little less professional. All-in-all, though, all the big
performances were well worth going to and lots of fun provided one does
not expect to see Broadway or Vegas level shows. |
| Main Entertainment- Headline
acts |
B The "ladder guy" had an act
that had to be seen to be believed. He actually gave two
performances one on the ladder, the other on unicycles. The other
name act was Mark Preston. He gave a very good Las Vegas style
performance but as my wife said, he used every trick in the book to
minimize the actual time he had to sing (Similar to what Cher has done
on her farewell performance). He spent a great deal of time on
video clips and having an audience member sing while he assisted (all of
which was fun) but he did not really do that much serious singing. |
A- A comic, a juggler,
and another act that I can't remember right now! |
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Lounges |
B The piano player (whose name I did
not get) who performed at Tastings was very good. If we had had
more time to sit and listen to him perform, we probably would have. |
A- One lounge had a performer who was
only fair. We never stayed around more than a few seconds when he
was performing. The reason why this score is so high is because of
the Rosario Strings. They are amazing. If the group could be
cloned and perform on every cruise ship, I would be ecstatic. |
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Dancing |
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Other entertainers |
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Movies |
C Yes, people do not go on cruises to
see movies, but at least the movies should be ones that are not yet out
on video. Lord of the Rings 2, Harry Potter 2, and several other
movies of similar vintage. For the two we have not seen, we
decided to decided to forgo in favor of renting them when we got home.
The theater is far superior to the one on the Veendam and is used for
seminars as well as movies. Another minor complaint. Movies
are only shown one day and repeated throughout that day. So, if
you missed a movie on a specific day, you could not see it on a later
showing. |
B- Once again, older movies although
these were not yet out on video. An interesting selection and one
that we really wanted to go see (The Princess Diaries). The movie
theater on the Veendam needs some major renovation and some better
seating but the free hot popcorn before the movie was a definite plus. |
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Other entertainment |
B- the talent show was okay but could
have used more rehearsal and a better accompanist. The bingo was
well attended but not one of my interests. |
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Parties |
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The staff |
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Waiter |
A+ Srgen, our waiter was
spectacular. Anything we wanted, he got for us. When I
was having a difficult time with the duck, he quickly deboned it.
When others were having lobster problems he neatly removed the meat from
the shell. If we couldn't decide between two items on the menu, he
would insist on bringing both. If something was not on the menu he
would try to get it. A lively conversationalist and a fascinating
person to talk to. I was impressed. Our assistant waiter was very
good filling in perfectly whenever Srgen was doing other things.
Our assistant matre de was also excellent. He was able to get a
set of menus for me as well as fill me in on various ship activities.
Excellent job. |
B We were really disappointed in our
waiter and wine steward. Part of the problem was that we were only
at a table for six with two empty seats and I suspect that much of his
time was spent with his other, larger tables. Our table mates did
spend a lot of time fussing about the food which I am sure kept him a
bit further away so he would not have to receive so much flack.
The wine steward did not seem that interested in us once he discovered
that we were not wine drinkers and that my wife really wanted Dr.
Pepper. No effort was made to find it or even to suggest how to
get it (If we had arrived at formal dining and there had been a can of
Dr. Pepper waiting for he, he would have gotten a lot of praise and a
large tip) As it was he did not appear to be concerned.
On the other hand, the assistant waiter (who also did duty as the
yum-yum boy) was excellent. He did everything the waiter was
supposed to do, kept us entertained, and was very helpful. |
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Cruise director and staff |
B+ We did not see much of the cruise
directors (we had an emergency substitute fill in for two days while the regular
cruise director was taking care of personal business) other than at the
main shows but we did see most of the staff around all of the time.
Guest services were almost always able to give us exactly what we needed
when we needed. The only real problem we had was finding a time
when shore excursions were open to try to straighten out our departure.
A few minor annoyances. We were off the ship and halfway up the
docks in the Bahamas before we found out that our tour was cancelled.
This lead to a bit of confusion and since it took so long to figure out
what was happening, we lost the opportunity to go on any other tour. |
B+ We did not see much of the cruise
director on the Veendam either, but we did get to meet the staff, all of
whom were excellent- especially Crystal, who we met as we were
boarding the ship and whose home town was only 5 miles from ours.
I much prefer the Holland America method of all tour groups gathering in
the main showroom before leaving the ship on the tours. It
definitely prevents confusion and simplifies things if there is a
problem. |
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The Captain |
A- We did not see as much
of the captain on the Century as we did on the Veendam. My wife
would definitely give him a A+ but as she said several times "He was
built like a Greek god with long curly black hair....." His accent
took a bit getting used to, but he was friendly and was very gracious at
the reception. He also gave a running commentary each day
describing our next port |
A The captain was
gracious, witty, and more than willing to speak to passengers. He
is the only non Dutch captain on the Holland America fleet. He
commented on that saying that it gave him a chance to show the other
captains how the British do things. Great reply. |
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Food |
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Dining Experience |
A |
A |
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Main dining |
A |
A- |
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Buffet |
B- |
A |
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Other dining experiences |
B |
B |
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Pre-Cruise |
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Paperwork |
C The information from
Celebrity came in a spiral bound document, obviously customized to our
trip. It contained everything we needed to know in a concise
manner and included shore excursions specific to our cruise. On
the negative side, it really was just a plain set of documents with no
indication that this was an upscale cruise.
There was only one set for
my wife and I, unlike Holland America where we each had our own set of
documentation. |
B+ The Veendam easily
wins this category with the fancy document holder. Yes, it is
plastic, but it gives you a great place to store all the important
papers in an elegant fashion. It reminded us of an old time boarding
document into which we could add our passport and ship information. This
was our first exposure to cruising and it gave us a great impression
that this was to be an upscale vacation. |
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Customer relations |
A- Before our cruise we
decided to call to double check on things like drink cards, Dr. Pepper
availability, and a few other totally trivial points that were important
to us. The Celebrity folk were knowledgeable and when they did not
have the answers, they apologized, put us on hold and found out the
information. A definite class act. |
B- We did not call
Holland America before our cruise since we did everything through our
travel agent. After the cruise I had some questions, however and
was able to get the information from a very friendly PR person. My
only negative was the evaluation we filled out the last day of the
cruise. There were several questions and not enough space to give
full answers, so I added a comment to have them call me to further
discuss the items that needed clarification. They never did. |
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Overall Impression |
A Our second cruise
which meant that we had something to compare against. The Century
is different than the Veendam but just as enjoyable for totally
different reasons. Main dining and theater productions definitely
favored the Century but in other areas that we expected to see
greatness, we did not. A nice ship with a great crew. |
A A few minor complaints
but most were just that- minor. The Veendam is more intimate than
the Century which is to be expected based on the sizes of the two ships.
The areas where you would expect to see better quality based on the
numbers being served (main theater, types of activities) the Century did
better. The litmus test is would we go on the Veendam again to
which we give a resounding "Yes!" |
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