Celebrity Zenith: Great People, Good Ship
Written: Feb 03 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent crew, great entertainment.
Cons: Some desperately needed updates.
The Bottom Line: Good for those who are not seasoned cruisers and just want a fun time.
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| goldmoon's Full Review: Celebrity Zenith |
We just returned from our five night cruise on Celebrity Zenith, which was my bonus from my boss for working for the company for five years. My husband and I went on the cruise with my boss and her husband, which might sound weird to some, but my boss and I are good friends and have vacationed together before. The trip, which sailed January 28th and returned February 2nd, took us to Grand Cayman and Key West Florida. Although I won't be able to write all that well about the ports of call, I will go into some detail about the boat since we did a good bit of exploring.
Getting on the Ship
Since we were on frequent flyer tickets from Southwest, we were not able to fly into Miami, which is where the boat left from. Instead, we flew into Ft. Lauderdale and rented a car to drive to Miami. We were able to drop the car off in Miami and get a free transfer to the boat. Although it says that you will not be able to get on the boat until 2 pm, we showed up a little after noon and were able to get on at this time.
Going through embarkation was incredibly easy. We had printed off express tickets online a few days earlier (I believe it has to be at least 3 days before your cruise) and this made things go faster. We simply had to show our birth certificates and driver's licenses and were given our keys. We then waited in line for approximately 15 minutes and were then on the ship. The rooms were not available until 1 pm, but we got to explore a little and had a glass of champagne that was provided at the door.
The Room
We had an inside stateroom on the Florida Deck, deck 4. It was small, but of course we expected that. There was plenty of closet space and lots of drawers, as well as a full sized bed and a pull-down bed that you could use (my boss used it to put her luggage on). The bed was a little hard, especially for my husband who has back problems. We asked for a mattress pad and one was put on, but it didn't make a whole lot of difference. We ended up asking for extra pillows (we got eight of them total) and he used those to lay on for most of the cruise.
There really isn't room to leave your suitcases lying around, so we unpacked and stuck them in the closets.
There is a television, which is a decent size and in the corner of the stateroom. There is also a desk and two chairs as well as a small corner table.
The bathroom has an adequate sized shower and we always had good water pressure and plenty of hot water. There is lotion, shampoo and shower caps available, as well as soap. The sink has a lot of room to put things on, including a little shelf that runs the length of it, which I found helpful. What I did not find helpful was the ancient blow dryer. I didn't even know what the thing was when I first saw it as it looks like no blow dryer I've ever seen. It had barely any pressure and the hose would get so hot when you used it you would almost burn yourself. I would suggest bringing your own. The blow dryer and the phone both looked like they came from the 1980s and desperately need updated. The remote for the television is also very old looking. Speaking of the phone and phone service, our automatic wake up call service stopped working the second day. However, you can call the help desk and set one that way, which you may need to do since there is no clock and, if you have an inside stateroom, may very well sleep through the morning.
Overall, I would give the room 3 stars out of 5.
The Ship
The Zenith is the smallest of the Celebrity Line with an occupancy of 1368. I didn't mind the smallness as you saw the same people a lot and you didn't have to do a whole lot of hiking to get where you wanted to go.
The ship does need some updating as some of the decor is 1980s pastel with lots of mirrors. It didn't really bother us, but it's not up to date and posh.
There are a variety of bars on the ship, including a martini bar and dance club/bar. We did some dancing one night and found the DJ to be good and the music selection perfect for dancing. On that night, there weren't too many people dancing, but another night we went to the bar and saw it was packed.
There is a library/game room that was nice. There are tables to play cards or other games (we played checkers and backgammon--they also had Monopoly, Scrabble and a few other games). Some people brought poker chips and got a few games going. The library has a nice selection of recent 'beach reads' and you can check out any book during select times.
The pool area was okay. There are two pools (adult and kids), both filled with salt water. They were pretty small, but hardly ever packed. The area around the pool was always packed, though. The only time we could find chairs together was during the late afternoon (after 4 pm) or on the one day we came back early from our port to Key West.
Above the pool area is the sun deck. It was easier to find chairs up here, but still it was usually packed by 11 am. There were also three whirlpools on the sun deck, but those were also occupied every time we saw them. There was a walking deck here, which I utilized once, but found that it got pretty crowded and you would get stuck behind slow walkers when you were trying to jog.
The sun deck also included the gym, which is one area of the ship I found sorely lacking. The gym is tiny and has outdated and out of service equipment. There are four treadmills (three very old, one newish), two ellipticals (newish), two bikes (newish), a rowing machine (old), four stair steppers (pretty old) and a very limited amount of weight lifting equipment. When I tried to go in the morning, every piece of cardio equipment was taken and I had to go use the walking track. If you went later, there were some available. Along with the phones and hair dryers, this is another area Zenith really needs to update and expand.
The main restaurant is the Caravelle. It's a single story and not all that impressive, but we were more interested in the food, so it didn't really bother us. The buffet areas were nice and there was usually adequate seating.
I would give the ship 3 out of 5 stars.
The Food
Breakfast We went to the breakfast buffet every morning, though you had the option of going to Caravelle for a sit-down breakfast. The buffet had a nice selection of hot and cold food, including scrambled eggs, meats, hard-boiled eggs, fresh fruit, cereals, oatmeal, rolls, french toast, etc. You could also get freshly made Belgian waffles and cooked to order eggs and omelets.
Lunch Again, you had the option of the Caravelle restaurant for a sit-down lunch or the lunch buffet. We chose the buffet every day. Lunch was a good selection of fruits, meats, one special salad per day (Mexican, Oriental, etc.), lots of salad toppings, a cheese service (a selection of three fine cheeses a day), hot food (lasagnas, meats, fish ,etc.) and whatever you wanted from teh grill (wonderful hamburgers and hotdogs), along with cook to order options like stir fry and tacos.
Dinner This was our favorite! We went to the Caravelle every night for the sit down dinner, though there was an alternative option. We loved our waiter Elston and assistant Campbell. The menu each night included an appetizer (shrimp cocktail, escargot, pates,, etc), a soup (cream soups, chilled soups, broths), a salad an entree and dessert. The entree menu each night included a fish, poultry, beef, pasta and one other option. Some of the options through the cruise included quail, prime rib, scallops, shrimp, veal and LOBSTER!! You could order as many entrees as you wanted, though they did run out of lobster because everyone wanted more than one. Everything was wonderful and made even better by our waiter, who was unfailingly nice and brought us whatever we asked for (and some things we didn't). Dining at the Caravelle was one of our favorite parts of the cruise.
Other Other dining options included a nightly sushi buffet, which we tried once and found excellent. They also had midnight buffets (usually a lot of fruits and some other selections). There was usually some type of food available from sun up until bed time. You will definitely not get hungry on this cruise.
I would give the food 4 out of 5 stars.
The Entertainment
This was one aspect of the cruise I was very pleasantly surprised by. The only other cruise show I have attended was on Carnival and it was all lip-synched and not that great. The Zenith entertainment was excellent and included three nights of the Celebrity singers and dancers doing a '60s night, a Broadway medley and a medly called 'Round the World. They were so good with great voices, great dancing and great choreography. The other two nights were an amazing illusionist and a pretty funny comic. I would give this portion of the entertainment five out of five stars.
Other nightly entertainment included the Mayfair Casino, which we went to almost every night. They have Roulette ($1 min. inside, $5 outside) which I played all the time and usually came out a few bucks up. They also had blackjack ($5 min), Craps ($1 min), Three Card Poker, a few other table cames and lots of slots. Although the tables would sometimes get packed, I thought the casino was an adequate size and I appreciated the reasonable minimums.
There was usually live music in all the bars, including a pianist, a trio and a guitarist. We thought all of them were very good.
There were pool parties a few times during the cruise, but we only attended one. They showed dance steps and everyone seemed to be having a good time. The activities staff seemed wonderful, though we didn't have much interaction with them.
Our nightly entertainment usually included dinner, the show and the casino. Drinks are anywhere from $4.95 for the daily special all the way up to $10 +. We did bring some of our own liquor, even though they say this is forbidden. They don't really check you when you get on the ship, so it's pretty easy to do.
Overall, I would give the entertainment 4 out of 5 stars.
The People
The Guests We had heard that Celebrity attracted an older crowd and we definitely found this to be true on Zenith. I would say the guests were 70% 60 and older. There were a few kids, maybe 2% of the total, but we didn't notice them anywhere but the pools. We didn't have an issue with the older crowd, but we did find that many of them did not take the stairs so the elevators were always packed. There were many couples and lots of groups of friends. We rarely saw anyone alone and we didn't notice that a lot of guests seemed to want to make friends, but it could also have been that we had our own little group and didn't solicit it.
The Crew The crew was unfailingly wonderful. Everyone was very friendly whether they spoke good English or not. Many of the stateroom attendants and other crew that didn't interact all the time with the guests had limited English skills, but always had a smile and a greeting for you. The crew that did interact with the guests a lot were also fabulous, especially our waiters. We were never treated rudely and everyone really seemed to be enjoying their jobs. I would give the crew 5 out of 5 stars.
The Ports
Grand Cayman On our second day, we docked in Grand Cayman. The ships are not able to go up to the shore, so we had to tender (take smaller boats to shore), which was a pain, but not Celebrity's fault. All in all, it took about an hour to get to Grand Cayman. We had been told not to buy an excursion from the cruise line because they are overpriced and crowded, and we're glad we did! We instead bought the Stingray City and Snorkel from a company called Moby Dick's that was right off the dock when you got to Grand Cayman. This tour cost almost $50 per person from the boat and there were at least 50 people per tour. We got it for $35 per person and there were less than 20 people on our boat. I would definitely recommend this excursion. We went about half hour out to sea to a sand bar where the stingrays gather to be fed and warm themselves. We got out and got to interact with them, including feeding them and picking them up. It was amazing! We then moved on to snorkel near a reef, which provided wonderful chances to see fish, an eel and even a nurse shark that lived in the reef.
On the way back from this tour, we got off when the bus stopped at Seven Mile Beach. We swam and sunned a while, then took a van back to the ship ($3 per person).
As for Grand Cayman, we didn't find much to do in the actual town. Shopping is overpriced and touristy. If you go here, I would really recommend you take an excursion.
Key West
On the next to the last day, we ported at Key West. I have always wanted to see the Keys, but didn't find it to be as wonderful as I expected. The boat did pull right up to the dock, so we didn't have to worry about tendering. But once we got into Key West, we found it to be touristy and overpriced. We ended up walking to Ernest Hemingway's house, which I'm glad we did. Admission is $11 per person and you get to see where he did the bulk of his writing and meet descendents of his six-toed cats.
After this, we went back to the ship a few hours early and took advantage of the fact that there were plenty of chairs by the pool.
I would give our ports of call 3 1/2 stars out of 5.
Overall Overall, the Zenith is a fun ship with great crew, but it could definitely use some updates. If you're coming from a larger and newer ship, you might not like the Zenith, but we thought it was fine. I would give the Zenith 3 1/2 stars and round up to four because the crew was so wonderful. I would recommend the Zenith and would definitely recommend Moby Dick's Stingray City if you go to Grand Cayman.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
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Epinions.com ID:
goldmoon
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Member: Angie
Location: The Land of Corn and Cows
Reviews written: 166
Trusted by: 72 members
About Me:
Busy at work and being a mommy...will hopefully return some day soon!
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