Mason,

I can only add to the good advice that has been provided thus far that given
an inside room, Otis and his wife will get to know each other much better
over the seven days.

As long as they are not claustrophobic, they can get to know cruising
without spending big bucks. Should they choose to dress, meals are the same
as offered to those in the Penthouse, and they would not be excluded from
any activity on the ship.

IMHO four great first time ports, and I would say "go for it".
--
DG in Cherry Hill, NJ



"Mason Barge" wrote in message
...
On 29 Jul 2004 12:15:58 -0700, (Otis McNatt)
wrote:

Hi,

My wife and I have traveled many places and done many things, but
have never taken one of these things. I know that many of you here
have to be old pros when it comes to this subject, so I thought I'd
learn from your wisdom.

The cruise that I'm eyeing is one from the Celebrity Line, which
is a 7-nighter. It departs from Ft. Lauderdale on 9-18 (haha, prime
hurricane season) and returns on the 25th. The ship's name is _Century_.
It will make seven stops along the route (San Juan, St. Maarten, etc.)
and they only have some interior rooms available at this late date,
except
for the highest-end room type which we're not interested in. I think the
cruise for both of us is listed at about $1300.

I've tried to educate myself a little on this by reading reviews and
some generic advice for first-timers from a commercial site, but I'm
still a little unclear on it. We're not into flashy entertainment or
fancy dinners where you have to dress up to enter.

We're more into
working out and relaxation in an environment different from our daily
round. This ship and cruise seems to maybe be for us. But I've read
that on this ship, there are two formal dinners per week, where formal
dress is required. Now I know that I must look incredibly uninformed,
but what do the people eat who don't want to participate in such a formal
dinner? Are there other alternatives? And as far as the roughly $20/day
tipping that I've read is to be expected from us, how does this work?

On Celebrity, you can choose the option of just adding it to your on
board account. Tips for people who bring you drinks are added
automatically as a service charge. The main tips are for waiter,
assistant waiter, and you cabin steward. These are people you will
probably come to like so much you will be happy to tip them, but at
any rate, they get almost their entire income from your tips. So
about $3.50 per day per person for the steward and waiter, maybe half
that for the ass't.

Some cruise lines apparently pre-charge the customer (at booking I guess)
for the expected typical gratuities, and there was another option that
was similar. Why not just tip as you go, as we do normally on land when
we get service for something? As you can probably tell, I'm totally in
the dark on this whole thing.

I know that there are lots of differect types of cruises attracting
different types of people. Have any of you ever been on this particular
trip with this line? Just what is the dress code, or am I making too
much of this? Are there lots of hidden charges I should know about
beforehand? Do most of these lines offer shuttles to/from the Ft.
Lauderdale
airport? Anyway, I think we'd probably get a kick out of this, but I'm
just wondering if it's too much of a hassle for a vacation...
Many thanks for anyone with good advice.

Well, a big attraction of Celebrity is the dinners, which ARE flashy
and fancy. YOu can dine informally dressed in the Ocean Grill (the
buffet area on the next to top deck) any night.

I'd say, all in all, try it and see how you like it. The price is
certainly right. I would suggest you take a suit and try one of the
formal dinners, though.


Mason Barge

"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea. If this is tea, please
bring me some coffee."
-- Abraham Lincoln