southbound on millennium - great trip, review

[cusegirl]

just returned from a southbound alaska cruise and had a fantastic time on celebrity millennium (our first time on celebrity and first time to alaska).

 

day 1 - we used celebrity's bus transfers from anchorage to seward. i'm not much of a train fan as i get car sick fairly easily and spending four hours in a train is too much for me. the bus was fine - about 2.5 hours - and a beautiful view all the way to seward. we took a very late bus 4 p.m. as we were waiting on one of our suitcases to arrive. so, when we arrived at seward there were no lines to check in and they whisked us onto the ship.

 

the boat is lovely, a perfect size in our opinion. we had stateroom 9038, concierge class, starboard side with a larger balcony than most because it is on a corner. great room. concierge class includes a bottle of champagne and fresh fruit, along with appetizers delivered daily. our stateroom attendant lorenco was fantastic, always filling up our fruit bowl with those items we had eaten. it was nice to have a slightly larger shower than most cruise ships. we found space for everything we brought on board and put suitcases under the bed so no issues on space.

 

day 2 - hubbard glacier - it was a bit chilly with a 30 mph wind and some light rain so they didn't open the heliport and very few people braved the weather to stay out on the deck as we arrived. we had brought rain gear with us so we bundled up and enjoyed the view. it was spectacular. i was told we didn't get as close to the glacier as other ships/days - not sure if that was the weather or some other reason. the ship did a 360 turn so everyone had at least one good view of the glacier.

 

day 3 - juneau - we had booked the 2-hour glacier trek with northstar trekking (through the ship) but this tour was cancelled as the ceiling was incredibly low and they didn't have a landing spot on the glacier. we were disappointed, but happy to be safe vs. flying around tyring to land blind. another helicopter company was flying but we understand they were not trying to land on the same glacier. so we wandered around juneau and saw the city's 4th of july parade. i went back to the ship and had a deep tissue massage - fantastic. i usually am very disappointed with ship massages and don't bother making appointments for that reason but this was one of the best (ever) massages i've had.

 

day 3 - skagway - booked rock climbing and rapelling and loved it. booked it through the ship; operated by an alaska adventure company. there were maybe 8 of us and we had a great time with 2-3 climbs each. afterward we had a beer at the local brewery that brews on site. spruce tip ale - awesome!

 

day 4 - icy straight point - we procrastinated and didn't book anything beforehand so we were left to wander into town. if you want to whale watch at adolphous point, book early! not much to see in town but it was a nice walk and we encountered a ton of eagles in the trees.

 

day 5 - ketchikan - finally the sun came out! we had booked the Anan Creek bear observatory tour through Michele at Island Wings Air. i read about michelle on cruise critic and was so pleased she had room for us. we were not disappointed! this tour started with a 20-25 minute flight in her floatplane after which we landed on the water at the entrance to anan creek observatory. we had a great guide who led us to the spot where the bears feed. this is protected by us forest service and you have to have a permit to enter. we encountered one bear on the trail just before we arrived at the observation point. there were 3-5 bears visible the entire time we were there, including one cub who decided to climb the nearest tree! this was the highlight of our trip and i highly recommend a floatplane ride with michelle (she also does a misty fjord trip)

 

day 6 - inside passage - beautiful, saw orcas

 

celebrity: overall really enjoyed cruising with celebrity. in fact, we already booked next year's cruise with them. that said, i had heard that celebrity was much more 'high end' compared with the other big cruise lines (we've been on carnival long ago and now we usually cruise royal caribbean), but we didn't really feel a huge difference between celebrity and royal caribbean. maybe our expectations were too high, maybe it was different because we were in alaska, i'm not sure.

 

the dining was probably the biggest disappointment. this is our 5th cruise and we've loved dining on royal (and even on carnival) so we're not expecting five-star meals. the menus had great variety and the quality of the food was excellent - the steak, the fish, etc. - all good portions and tasty main pieces of the entree. but i found the dishes to be somewhat uninventive when it came to flavors and very plain in terms of side dishes. for example, i had sea bass one night. beautiful piece of fish that was cooked perfectly. but it was done in bbq sauce and had very little flavor. one night i had a sirloin steak that was, again, cooked to perfection, but served with literally 2 carrot sticks and 2 asparagus spears with a handful of those crunchy onion pieces used in green bean cassarole. so, uninventive is the best way i can describe the dining experience.

 

on the flip side, we had excellent room service for breakfast every day. concierge class offers an expanded breakfast menu and we really look forward to having breakfast on our balcony, so that was a plus. and we really enjoyed our experience in the olympic restaurant. our general philosophy is not to pay extra to eat in the restaurant when the dining room is free. but we had such a nice experience in the specialty restaurant that we went a second time that week. everything from the food to the wine to the service was incredible!

 

the service in the bars and lounges was great; the entertainment also very good. we had an acapella group that i could have listened to all day, every day. this male quartet was phenomenal and they were asked to perform an encore after every performance.

 

disembarkation was smooth and efficient.

 

overall, we loved it and even the dining disappointment didn't outweigh what was a great vacation.

 

i'm sure i'm missing something! will be happy to answer any questions

[Cruisenouvelle]

We'll be doing this same cruise in Sept., so your review was very helpful. We've been on Millennium before (it's DH's favorite ship!), and we'll be in a cabin on the same deck, but portside.

Looking forward to the C-class smoothies and muesli for breakfast-thanks again for posting.

[vasusan]

Hmmm I think you were on the Anan Creek tour with the 4 of us! It was great! My mother was thrilled to get to go. I would love to see your photos as you had the great camera with all the lenses. Susan(susble1@yahoo.com)