Tos

Thank you all for the great feedback.  I'm more than convinced that any kind of biking for our senior group would not be in the best interest of having a happy ending to our 1 day cruise stop in Amsterdam.  I think we'll stick with trams and our good ol' feet to get us around.  I'm sure our wive's will find plenty of things to spend the money on!!!

4 hours ago, harola said:

The port (tram station: muziekgebouw/Bimhuis) is the first stop from the train station. You take the same tram back to the train station. You can pay with a contactless creditcard or debit card. Just scan the card when entering and leaving the tram. Check in and check out as we say. 

Do you know the cost?  Also, I see that you are from the area.  Any suggestions on electric bike rentals near the port.  We are family group of 6 (65 to 75) and still capable of biking safely.  It may be a good idea to have a guide for our small group, but would also entertain doing a self tour.  Appreciate any local advice.

10 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Both times I took a river cruise from Amsterdam we flew in the day of.  But only because we couldn't fly the day before for personal reasons, and we felt somewhat safe because the river ship was docked right at Centraal Station and was staying there overnight.  In general, and more so as we age, I would never fly in the day of a cruise – even if all goes according to plan we still need at least one full day to overcome jet lag.

 

IF your ship is docked near Centraal Station, there is no need to take a ship transfer:  there is a train direct from Schiphol Airport to Centraal Station and the docks are an easy walk (or you can take a taxi).  BUT sometimes river ships get sent to a location far from Centraal Station [and my impression is that this happens to Viking more often than other lines], in which case their transfer would be a blessing.

 

But wait!  "Antwerp to Amsterdam or vice-versa" – is your cruise starting in Antwerp?  In that case, (a) I don't have any experience to base advice on, but (b) I personally would take a ship transfer because it definitely isn't going to be as easy as Schiphol to Centraal Station.

Thanks for the great advice

10 hours ago, Host Kat said:

 

Howdy @Tos 

 

Your post has been split out from the Roll Call thread where originally posted and moved to the River Cruising forum where it will be on topic. Browse through the thread titles here on this forum and l👀k for titles of interest. You will probably find your fellow Cruise Critic members have already posted questions and received answers that will be of interest to you.

 

I suggest you use the Follow feature on this thread or any other thread where you are interested in the new replies. Then you will not have to go l👀king to see if there are new replies because they will all be l👀king for you as notifications!  If you need more info on how to do it, please click the following: How to: Follow Topics & Forums (Subscribed Threads/Forums Info)

 

And don't forget, after your cruise be sure to submit your review for publication by Cruise Critic. Many cruisers will benefit from your experience!  See How To: Submit a Member Review.

 

Hope this will be helpful and glad to have you aboard Cruise Critic! 

 

Happy sails,

 

Host Kat 

Thank you!

Hello Informed River Cruisers.

I am planning my first trip to Europe to take a Viking River Cruise.  I have traveled all my working life (all in the US, Mexico and Caribbean).  I've been on 25+ cruises (Caribbean and Alaska) but never to Europe.  Just a few questions.  Is it a good idea to get to Amsterdam a day or two before the cruise, or is it safe to arrive on the day of departure?  We are doing our own flights on Delta (non-stop from Orlando) so is it a good idea to arrange transfers to the port with Viking or just do our own?  What is the biggest mistake(s) first time River Cruisers make?  Is September a good time to do a River Cruise (Antwerp to Amsterdam or vice-versa?  Thanks for whatever help you can offer.

Yes,  We were booked on the Bliss and changed to the Encore for the August 28th sailing to Alaska.  We have our same cabin.

On 6/2/2021 at 5:51 PM, chefchick said:

I am booked September 11 so haven’t seen anything yet....for those of you who have received confirmation of the Encore change did you also receive the same stateroom you originally booked? 

Well, today I found this thread that I started almost 11 years ago while posting on another thread for the Celebrity Edge that I will be on later this year.  I never did read all of the continuing comments to my original post until today most likely because I had to head back to work right after I returned.  It was interesting to see how varied the responses were both for and against what I had posted. I have remained a supporter and customer of X and continue to enjoy cruising on their ships. My correspondence with Celebrity was very worthwhile for both of us and I do think some of my comments about Celebrity management's level of concern for passenger experience were not correct.  I apologize if I offended any of the other contributors to the thread and never had any intention of persuading anyone from booking their cruise on Celebrity.  Case in point....look at all the very negative comments on the "windowed verandas" on the Edge.  Many said they would never book on them again.   I'm not changing my booking!  Thank you all!!

Linda is at the entrance, she will ask your stateroom # and many times will seat you. So no need to ask to talk with her.

Thanks. I look forward to meeting her.

I spoke with Linda last night and she is scheduled to be on the Equinox until November 16. She will take a short 3 week vacation and return to the Equinox on Dec 9

We will be on the Equinox Sept 14th sailing to the ABC's. We have an AquaClass room and of course will be dining at the Blu. Is it a good thing to introduce ourselves to Linda or ask to talk to her. Other than being cordial, is there any benefit in knowing her (or any restaurant manager)? I hope this doesn't come off as a shallow question.

Just off Equinox 10 day Southern carribean Cruise,Grand This was one of our best cruises,we are going back to Equinox in September..

Anyway Equinox was great,can’t wait to go back.

We booked the ABC in September. Glad to hear you had a good time.

Neither, and I Am not on one of their payrolls. Know any who are hiring? In a heartbeat! LOL Thank you for the compliment though.

 

I read, digest and respond based on what I perceive as being applicable to the experience and expectation.

 

If I believe the expectations are out of line for the experience, I will speak up and say so, if the experience is out of line for the minimum expectations, I will speak up and say so, regardless of what anyone else may believe at the time.

 

Yes, there a few posts where I have come back to CC (and other forums), after a lashing, and apologized for what I thought and wrote at the time.

 

I trust that I Am defending reasonableness, rather than any cruise line in particular. It just so happens that my current line of choice has been X, thus my presence on this board often.

 

No malice aforethought or afterthought concerning any post or poster.... hopefully reasoned and somewhat thought out or about? :evilsmile:

 

My spouse (and others) might differ with my reasoning at any given time... I tell them to go have another drink and then come back to discuss further... :p Sometimes I convince, sometimes it is not convincing at all... but I go for it regardless. As many posters that appear around here is just about as many ideas and thoughts that will abound regardless.

 

 

I may not like some of them, yet I do respect the right to post and the right to respond accordingly.

 

Thank you and bon voyage

I enjoy reading responses from experienced cruisers. I remember back when I was a newbie and would get nervous about a cruise decision I made after reading a post that said XYZ is a terrible ship. Had it not been for replies like yours, I would have been worrying about things unnecessarily. There is nothing wrong posting events that didn't go right....but surely doesn't rise to the level to condemn the entire cruise line.

I remember a comment that someone made to me right when I began to cruise. He said "The worst day on a cruise ship is still better than a good day when your not cruising". I agree and plan on spending my time figuring out where I'm cruising next now that I am fully retired!!

For those that have rented them before, how easy is it to find parking if you just want to get out and snap a few pictures? We want to tour and get out at points of interest. Also, it seems like electric over gas is the best option. Will the battery last for 4 hours?

We've sailed NCL, RCL, Princess, Holland America, Disney, Carnival and of course my favorite, Celebrity. Each cruise line and each cruise ship has a little different personality. Just like some people prefer Ford over Chevy, there are those that swear NCL or Princess or Disney is the best. My suggestion is whatever ship your on...make it the best cruise ever. We were concerned on our first Holland America cruise. Someone said it was like a geriatric ward. While there were definitely a large number of passengers that were older than us, we made a point to meet and talk with them throughout the cruise. One of our favorites was a retired high level judge and his wife from Canada. We still talk about them everytime cruise discussions come up.

But what I find disturbing is that there seems to be more & more comments regading the maintainence (or lack thereof) of Celebrity's ships as well as the lack of Celebrity's attention to detail, which is what used to set Celebrity apart from other cruise lines. I have seen many reports from cruisers relating comments from crew members alluding to cost cutting measures. The lack of a dessert tray, the absence of the pepper mill. There just seems to be more & more comments like this. This is certainly a disturbing trend.

Your right Richsea. I know that our waiter was not happy with the lack of the desert tray. He told us that they stopped with taking it from table to table over a year ago. I was surprised to hear that someone who was on the cruise 2 weeks ago got to see one. We were on the upper level of the Metropolitan at table 525. I could see about 60 of the upstairs and none of those tables had the ammenities I discussed in my review. I think it is a cost cutting issue and its no secret that the fuel costs have to be significantly hitting the cruiseline's bottom line.

I would rather have them charge me a few hundred more and keep the Celebrity difference than let the service slide

What Cabin # were you in? I am booked in a cabin on deck 7. Hopefully it isn't the same that you had

Thanks

Jeff

I was in 7176. It has brand new carpeting now, but you'll gag if you look in the shower. Our son and his family was in 7178. When you step in that shower, dirty water actually comes up between the tiles. You can actually hear the water sloshing under the tiles.

Hopefully, these are the only bad cabins on deck 7.

However, looking at your profile it doesn't look like you cruise all that often or post that often either so it is hard to understand how you feel about cruising overall.

Great comments on the state of the cruise industry Chrismch. I spend a great deal of time reading on the Cruise Critic. I don't post much at all because usually I much more interested in learning what others have to say than to just post for the heck of it. My cruising goes back to the mid-70's when we would take a vacation every 2 or 3 years as the kids were growing up. Back then, we didn't take our kids on the cruise. As our kids grew up we started taking a spring and a fall cruise every year. Once in a while in a good year we even squeezed in a 3rd cruise. We've been fortunate to be related to family that have worked in the cruise industry and have been able to cruise at reduced rates many times.

You indicated that you went back to look at my profile. You may have notices some very kind comments about the Millie that I wrote the year I broke my foot and ankle walking up her gangway. The compound fracture led to a serious infection that kept me in a wheel chair and hooked up to an IV twice a day for 2 hours each. The antibiotics required that I keep out of the sun and nothing stronger than soda pop to drink. I had a great time, great food and a very clean ship.

If I sounded harsh, it was because the bulk of what I saw would take just a small effort to fix. I know what a grand ship the Millie was and it hurt to see her in such disrepair. I jotted a note to the Hotel Director on Wednesday and he invited me to email him my concerns. I am preparing that email along with the all pictures that I took detailing my comments. (He'll have to take my word on the toaster).

Again thanks for your critique on my review.

I just don't think anyone should cancel their cruise or take the Millie out of the running because of these one experience.

I fully agree TRadle that one shouldn't cancel their trip. In fact, I made that exact point when I did the review. I too got off the Millie this morning. I'm glad your stateroom was nicer than mine. But you must have seen the masking tape in several places flapping in the wind next to the pool. The hot tub near the Pool Grill was not working most of the cruise. It had water, but the blower for the bubbles was not functioning. The other things that I pointed out were there and not an exaggerated. Maybe you didn't use the hand sanitizers or order toast in the buffet line. My point was that the overall ship lacked the attention to cleanliness and maintenance one should expect from Celebrity.

For my information, did they supply the sky suites with the individual shampoo, conditioner and mouthwash bottles?

Don’t cruise on Celebrity’s Millennium if… is a strange way to start a review, but read on for just a taste of what I have to say, then decide if the rest is worth your while.

Don’t go on the Millennium…

..if your spouse is an average or above average cleaner of your home.

..if you can’t stand mold and mildew in the bathroom.

..if you are sensitive to the occasional smell of sewage.

...if you won’t walk on a sticky, matted stateroom carpet in bare feet.

If you these things don’t bother you, don’t waste your time reading any further, because some of the other things that I’m going to talk about will seem like real minutia to you. Also, if you are a first or second time cruiser you probably don’t have enough personal data to compare my comments to and should enjoy the excitement of a cruise vacation without worrying about this kind of commentary anyway. This is written more for someone that is used to the finer points of traveling in general.

For those of you still with me, I am a very seasoned domestic traveler with 30+ years of domestic on the road sales under my belt and still counting. In most of those years, I spent more than 100 nights per year in a bed other than my own. So whether it’s an airline, car rental, hotel, ship or train, I believe I have a fairly good handle on what is standard, above standard and below standard. The entire purpose of this review is to give my point of view and for the reader to take my comments simply as another data point to add to the knowledge they have gathered already.

So on with the review. The good side is that I thought the staff in general was very friendly and certainly met an acceptable standard for a cruise ship in this price range. Of course there was the occasional crabby buffet line attendant or security staff member. On this particular sailing, it was the toast lady. I’m certain that the malfunctioning toaster was the root cause for her irritability, but don’t take it out on passengers. But out of a crew of 900+ one or two bad apples should be expected. (You’ll hear more about the toaster later on).

Keeping on with the good things, the food was standard or slightly better than standard. I’ve had better on other ships. Even on a previous sailing on the Millennium, the food had been better…but not by enough that it would bother the average cruiser. Unfortunately, this is where my positive comments end. The rest of these may appear to be knit-picky, but worth mentioning if someone is deciding to take Ship A or Ship B.

I sailed the Millennium when she was about a year and now again at an aging 8 years old. I’ve sailed on ships older than this one, so I know some of what I am going to address are things that could have/should have been addressed. The ship is old and worn and some things should be expected and accepted. But it is also dirty and in disrepair. Our stateroom, a veranda balcony on the 7th deck, was embarrassingly filthy. The carpet was so matted and sticky, my wife would not walk on it without shoes on. If anything clothing touched the floor, it went into the dirty clothes bag. By day 2 it was unbearable, maintenance did install new carpeting for us. I would have been happy with just having it cleaned, but even they said it was beyond that. Family members along on the trip with us were in the cabin next to ours and had similar looking carpets, but got by with some sort of cleaning process they have.

The bathrooms were the most disgusting part of the entire cabin. Black mold and mildew in the shower stall, 8 years of crud built up in every corner of the bathroom floor and sink area. No shampoo in the dispenser even after several requests. It took a call to Guest Relations to get that taken care of. This kind of housekeeping can not be attributed to the age of the ship, but rather to the level of commitment of the cruise line and the management of the ship itself. We took a large container of sani-wipes from one of the public areas and cleaned the room from top to bottom by ourselves just to have some degree of protection from those cruise diseases that pop up now and then. These two factors alone will be enough to keep me off the Millennium even after she goes for her much needed refurbishing. Speaking of sanitary protocol, I would estimate that 15% to 20% of the hand sanitation stations were either malfunctioning or empty when we tried to use them. Some places had sani-wipes where the liquid sanitizing station didn’t work. That’s where we got our room cleaning supplies.

Another little amenity that I’ve always enjoyed was having our cabin steward call us by name. Any cruise where we had that recognition always resulted in a 25% to 75% increase in their gratuity. Even the small little gesture of asking if we needed more ice or an extra towel was missing from this cruise. That only happens across the board if the “culture” of service ….of doing the right thing is part of the ships mantra.

Other things that didn’t work on the ship included at least one of the hot tubs being inoperatable for most of the cruise. Maintenance did make an attempt to get it fixed, but it was obvious that the rubber seals that were meant to prevent water from getting into the on/off switch had deteriorated and were no longer providing their designed function. Probably a $5.00 part, but no one with the sense of ownership on board to fix it before it got to this point. I mentioned the toaster earlier. You know the kind that has a conveyor in it that you put the bread in one side and it comes out the other side perfectly toasted. Well the conveyor was broken (and according to one of the gentlemen behind the buffet, has been that way for months) and you either got toast that was burnt or just barely warm based on the ability and dexterity of the operator to use a set of serving tongs to move the bread around inside the toaster. Not a big deal…but I enjoy toast in the morning, a habit I picked up during my many stays at Hampton Inns across the country.

The black mastic caulk between the wooden planks around the pool has broken down from the UV sun rays. So if you sit next to the pool in your new expensive light colored bathing suit, plan on having black lines across your butt. I was able to get the stains out, but you’d think that someone on board must know that this is happening. About ½ the deck chairs have cushions and blue covers… many of which have seen their better days. Our first sailing on the Millie..all the chairs had them. Probably another one of the things that is being phased out to save money and increase profits. As I look around the pool area I see masking tape on the wall where a sign must have once been. It would take all of 10 minutes for someone to soak off the now baked on tape. But I guess it doesn’t bother the pool staff. Even if they would just rip off the loose ends that flap around in the wind. I told you that some of these were knit picky things, but what I want to show is the culture that has taken hold on this once beautiful ship.

I’ve counted at least a dozen ceiling panels that are missing around the ship. Apparently, someone was fixing something…but didn’t quite finish the job. Today is Friday…I’ve had all the fun I could take at the private island, so I re-walked the ship and found only 1 of the access panels has been replaced. Maybe by the time you get on the ship they’ll have them back up. While looking up at the ceilings, you will also find more than the average amount of dirt. I know that in the short term, its much more profitable having staff pushing drinks around the pool, than putting a dust mop in their hand and run it up and down the hallway ceilings. Long term however, (some) people will stop sailing on dirty ships and profits will be affected.

There were age related things like the worn out walking track. Not dirty, not out of repair, just worn out. I walked on it and didn’t get any more or any less satisfaction trying to offset my additional caloric intake. While walking, you will see 2 out of the 8 shuffle board pucks are broken. I didn’t see anyone playing shuffleboard the entire cruise, but at least get rid of the bad pucks. Guys like me wouldn’t know if there should be 6, 8, or 10 of them. All I knew was that 2 were broken. Above the shuffleboard area was the sports deck. Once again, rope netting that would have taken 15 minutes for someone to repair was flapping in the wind making that entire area look dilapidated.

Some other small things that have faded away from the Millie. Remember how they would come around with the pepper grinder after serving your salad. A great touch in making you feel special. Well that practice is gone along with the dessert tray display that would be brought to your table by the waiter after your main course dishes had been removed. Now you just have to guess which one is going to taste the best and not stick to your hips. It didn’t make the food taste any better, it just added something special to the cruise experience that some time efficiency expert figured out that they could save X dollars or have the waiter handle one more table by cutting out that little special touch. In fact, one of the feelings you get on the Millie is that they are looking for newer and ways to squeeze more money out of you every time you turn around. I’m not against paying a premium for a specialty restaurant…but $30 per person to get food that isn’t that much better than your getting in the regular restaurant is excessive. I’ve taken my wife to the Olympic because it’s special for her. It was nice….but not $60 nicer than the main dining room. What really spoiled the night was the aroma of sewage as we left the restaurant. It was somewhere out in the hallway. It wasn’t overwhelming, but strong enough to notice. We did get this same aroma in several other parts of the ship. It was not always in the same place, it was not always every day, but it was something that you don’t like to experience as regularly as we did on the Millie. One more little amenity that has been removed were the little daily shampoo, conditioner, mouthwash and lotion bottles. My wife brings her own shampoo and conditioner, but my head of hair is trained to use whatever shampoo and conditioner the hotel is promoting. Some of it is pretty nice stuff. But on the Millie…no conditioner…just shampoo if they remember to fill your dispenser.

Another thing to remember, don’t take glasses out of your stateroom. They won’t replace them. I found that out on Monday when I returned to my cabin to find I had no glasses. I asked the assistant room steward who told me that they are short of glasses and I would need to go to guest relations to ask for more. So I drank my manhattans out of plastic water glasses from the buffet line. I would walk up to the 10th deck for breakfast and always bring back 2 glasses. Again, not the worst thing in the world, but not something I would have expected from Celebrity.

I hope this helped some of you. I’ll be looking in another direction for our fall cruise. I’m not suggesting that you cancel your reservation. I’m still an avid believer that the worst day at sea is better than the best day at work. I plan on writing an abbreviated version of this to Celebrity. I know that my 2 or 3 cruises a year are not going to make or break Celebrity’s bottom line…but I’ve always appreciated and weighed comments from other serious contributors to the Cruise Critic. For a cruise line that touts that it is one of the best, this ship needs to have it’s management team’s commitment reviewed.