New to Celebrity/Questions

We have booked a first time 15-day Celebrity cruise on the Millennium for May of 2007. We have a 2A balcony cabin. I have a lot of questions but will limit them for now.

How do you rate the food quality in the buffet and MDR?

Given the type of cabin we have, which specialty restaurants are we eligible to use?

Cost?

Value?

What about doing laundry? Princess (with which we are most familiar) has self-service washers and dryers on almost every deck. What about Celebrity? Are there any? If not, what is the alternative?

I await your feedback. Thanks in advance.

We have booked a first time 15-day Celebrity cruise on the Millennium for May of 2007. We have a 2A balcony cabin. I have a lot of questions but will limit them for now.

 

How do you rate the food quality in the buffet and MDR?

 

Given the type of cabin we have, which specialty restaurants are we eligible to use?

Cost?

Value?

 

What about doing laundry? Princess (with which we are most familiar) has self-service washers and dryers on almost every deck. What about Celebrity? Are there any? If not, what is the alternative?

 

I await your feedback. Thanks in advance.

I rate food pretty similar to Princess.

You can use any specialty restaurants, but not Blu. I think Celebrity are too expensive for Murano. Just my opinion.

No self serve laundry on Celebrity but like Princess they do have a send out service.

Forgot to say, in my opinion the two lines are more alike than different.

About as much difference as between two Princess ships.

Celebrity have a slightly younger demographic.

Did you mean May 2016 and not May 2007 for your cruise booking?

I don't know if you mean 2016 or 2017. We get off Millennium Apr 26 2016 and she goes into drydock after that. I think by the time you sail, the Olympic restaurant $50pp (Millennium's Murano) will be gone and replaced by Tuscan Grill which I think is now $45pp. Sometimes you can get a discount if they are not heavily booked.

We think the food at the buffet is mostly good but we often go to the Aqua Spa cafe (free and open to all passengers) for a lighter lunch. The hamburgers and fries at the poolside grill are wonderful also.

There is no self service laundry on any celebrity ship. You send out your clothes to be done. In the shower on the M class ships (Millennium etc) there is a pull out clothes line. It doesn't really take long to wash out a few undies and hang them there to dry.

We have sailed on Millennium more days than any other Celebrity ship and we are booked for 44 more.

I think Celebrity targets an older population currently than Princess. They have few to no children on most of the cruises I have been on, only in the Caribbean do you see a small group of children. However, I try to cruise when there are NOT a number of childen onboard. Generally the longer the cruise the older the group.

Celebrity is changing the M class ships next year - adding different specialty restaurants and adding an outdoor movie screen - making them more like Princess. You may want to check out their recent announcements.

I liked the variety of food offered on my 5 Princess cruises - however my stomach didn't. Not sure why - but Celebrity food agrees with my stomach!

We have booked a first time 15-day Celebrity cruise on the Millennium for May of 2007. We have a 2A balcony cabin. I have a lot of questions but will limit them for now.

 

How do you rate the food quality in the buffet and MDR?

Our last Princess was on the Ruby in 2012. Celebrity is heads above in both venues

 

Given the type of cabin we have, which specialty restaurants are we eligible to use? Any of the specialties you want to try. There are private DR's for the Suite & Aqua cabin pax

Cost? $35-$55 per person or a 3 dinner pkg for $98.00 pp

Value? very subject, we are all different. On the Ruby the Crown Grill was a drill, but the Ultimate Balcony dinner was fantastic.

 

What about doing laundry? Princess (with which we are most familiar) has self-service washers and dryers on almost every deck. What about Celebrity? Are there any? If not, what is the alternative?

No self service on any Celebrity ship, alternative is the ship laundry svc, or taking a zip line for the bathroom, doing and hanging to dry your own

 

I await your feedback. Thanks in advance.

Our 1st Princess was in 1992, 1st Celebrity in 1994. We give Celebrity first look to book, even when Princess is cheaper. Since Carnival bought them the quality has dropped.

On that long a cruise, I suggest doubling up on clothes. In other words, bring a pair of black slacks, skirt - and wear different things on the top and repeat things. Our first two cruises I brought an entirely different outfit for every evening and then decided that was silly. So on a 15 night cruise you'll see me in the same slacks or skirt many times with different tops that mix match (I usually do a general color scheme so tanks and shirts and jackets, etc. "go"). No one will remember on night 13 that you wore the same basic thing on night 2.

They do a great job on laundry. I don't send out delicates but things that can be washed and dried. A few things I hand wash. We get free laundry now with our loyalty perks, but even before we did we sent out a bag on a long cruise about day 8.

You will love the food on Celebrity. One of the latest cruise surveys rated Celebrity's cuisine as the best. Of course you may have a different opinion. We

eat in all the specialty restaurants on every cruise because we feel like that's part of the whole cruise experience.

We also do independent excursions with very very few exceptions.

Have fun. Maybe we'll see you on that cruise.

We prefer Celebrity over Princess. We definitely prefer the layout of the Celebrity ships compared to Princess. Celebrity entertainment may be a little lower key than Princess but there is usually enough going on to keep us entertained.

The buffet overall is pretty good. Walk around the entire buffet so you can see what is offered. So many people stop at the first few stations and miss the good stuff in the back. MDR - per usual, there are different offerings every night and we never went hungry. When you board, you can check out the specialty restaurants...they sometimes offer a slightly reduced rate if you book on boarding day...however...it can be for an evening later in the cruise. I think we got $10 off the rate. We absolutely loved Murano's! The service was over the top and the food was very very good!

As noted, no self service laundry...personally..I am not going to spend my time doing laundry. I have heard that some people dry their bathing suits that are coated with suntan oil in the dryers and the oil residue is left in the dryers and the next person has oil coated clothing! I totally agree that doubling up clothing is the way to go! You are clean and presentable and if someone has a problem...are you going to see them again? Do what works best for you in terms of limiting the amount of clothing that you need to pack.

Hope you have a great cruise and that you enjoy your time on Celebrity!

Did you mean May 2016 and not May 2007 for your cruise booking?

May 2017.

We have booked a first time 15-day Celebrity cruise on the Millennium for May of 2007. We have a 2A balcony cabin. I have a lot of questions but will limit them for now.

 

How do you rate the food quality in the buffet and MDR?

 

Given the type of cabin we have, which specialty restaurants are we eligible to use?

Cost?

Value?

 

What about doing laundry? Princess (with which we are most familiar) has self-service washers and dryers on almost every deck. What about Celebrity? Are there any? If not, what is the alternative?

 

I await your feedback. Thanks in advance.

I think the food is much better on Celebriry than on Princess. It's subjective. I am lactose intolerant and both lines do a good job with my meals but Celebrity is far superior to Princess in preparing delicious meals than I can eat.

Thanks everybody. It appears that the MDR and buffet food is equal to, if not better than Princess. I'm not happy with the lack of self-service laundry facilities. Washing socks & underwear in the bathroom seems a little bit like indoor camping. But, it is what it is and I'll have to deal with it.

We are also new to Celebrity.

I am wondering about the laundry service as our cruise is 18 days long.

On another cruise line they would do a bag of laundry for us.

Do they do that on Celebrity ships or is it individual items? :confused:

It was amazing as to how much I could manage to fit into one of their bags!!

We are also new to Celebrity.

 

I am wondering about the laundry service as our cruise is 18 days long.

 

On another cruise line they would do a bag of laundry for us.

 

Do they do that on Celebrity ships or is it individual items? :confused:

 

It was amazing as to how much I could manage to fit into one of their bags!!

They will wash anything you want, for a fee of course.

Celebrity does have a little older demographic, but Celebrity is now wooing a younger demographic as a lot of us are not able to travel as we did over the last 10-15 years.

Also, just for reference, Royal Caribbean, corporate entity tried to buy Princess and lost to Carnival, so that if they did purchase Princess, they would have most likely positioned Princess between Royal and Celebrity.

We like Princess and Princess is our 3rd choice and have no problem with Princess or even HAL which we view as more like Celebrity.

Our first choice all things being equal is Celebrity! When we seek a more active cruise, we look at Royal first, then Princess.

We do like Princess for longer cruises due to the self service laundry onboard and can take less clothes. We have used 'fee' based services on Celebrity and Royal and due to our status, typically get free laundry offers and free pressing offers.

And never have I thought; Darn, I can't do my own laundry while on vacation.

LOL....I'm just joking around. Everyone is different and that's what makes life great.

Happy Cruising!!

I haven't been on Princess but mostly concur with the others. The food on Celebrity was very good in the MDR and buffet.

The laundry is a different matter, with no self service, you only have the option of paying and Celebrity's laundry prices seem a LOT more expensive to me than other cruise lines. On Holland America we got the all inclusive laundry so you can send out as much as you like. It's $7 per day per cabin times the number of days in the cruise. I so wish Celebrity would do this!

All the cruise lines do a nice job it just depends on what your personal preferences are. I like Celebrity better than Princess and think the food is better. Celebrity is not as good as it used to be and I think their food and service have dropped a notch due to RCCL wanting to make more profits. Their stock is worth more today than it ever has so I guess their executives are happy.

You will love the Millennium.

Marion

I do NOT mind throwing clothes in a machine, and letting the machine wash them for me!!!

Dining. We have always enjoyed the Food on Cel. Have always had good food in Murano , Tuscan & Qsine ( at least 4 times in each)

Not at all impressed with Luminae and Blu was 'Ok'.

Not that fussed about laundry . as we have usually had to fly to get on boat I send my shirts for ironing and use the vouchers near the end for washing sicks etc. if we have accommodation post cruise with a laundry ( which we have next ) then we will give the vouchers to a new found friend [emoji41]