Just off the Millennium, Jan 13th sailing

[rollie]

One thing to add. I felt the food in the MDR was very good. I never had to order off menu, as there was alway something offered that caught my eye. My DW did order the steak and it was very good. Our last 2 cruises were on RCCL and NCL, and we were dissapointed in the dining fare to say the least. I, for one, feel Celebrities new menu is a hit.

 

Rollie

[Gabrielle R.]

We are also going 10 days on Millennium in April. We have never been to Tortola, St. Lucia, Barbados or Curacao. So any information on those islands would be appreciated!

 

What nights were the formal nights?

 

Thermo Pool still open for all?

 

I am so excited....it has been a bad winter for us in Minnesota.

Yup, Living in MN is fun! (We had -33 Near Brainerd MN a week ago.)

I did a cruise over Christmas and had a terrific time in St. Lucia- Book with Cosol Tours! WE had a terrific time $65 per person- we were gone from 7:30-3:00, Swam between the Pitons.. Saw and ATE and Drank A LOT of good local foods and drinks. Truly a great time. Just google him or check out the boards here.

Curacao we did a snorkeling adventure though a HAL ship we were on- That was nice. The downtown is a pretty area.

Barbados, we did a rum & beer tour through RCCL- that was fun... I also did a beach day there once too.

Hope that gives you some ideas!

Gabrielle

[djhsolara]

Did anyone on this sailing have a Royal Suite? We just booked one on Millennium for the fall and have been looking for recent photos that anyone would be willing to share.

 

Thanks!!

[catty]

Gabrielle I saw the -33 on the news and thought I was seeing things...wow, I hope things warm up soon for you. Fortunately our winter is not as cold as last year's but still can't wait for our Millennium cruise March 18...

[DanishDonut]

rollie,

 

We're considering the Millie for our first Celebrity cruise and have a few questions about the following ports:

 

Tortola, B.v.i.

St. George''s, Grenada

Oranjestad, Aruba

Willemstad, Curacao

 

1) What you did at each port, which excursions, which beaches did you visit?

 

2) Do you know which of these offer the best snorkeling?

 

Many thanks for your time :)

[fleckle]

We're considering the Millie for our first Celebrity cruise and have a few questions about the following ports:

 

Tortola, B.v.i.

St. George''s, Grenada

Oranjestad, Aruba

Willemstad, Curacao

Here are the links to the boards for each of those ports, great resources for information about each of them from other cruisers. Enjoy!

 

Tortola

 

Grenada

 

Aruba

 

Curacao

[rollie]

DanishDonut, on Tortola we went to Cane Garden Bay. It's a 6 dollar open air taxi ride there. It was one of the prettiest beachest we've been to. It was a bit crowded there, as we were one of 3 ships in port.

 

Grenada. We did a Island and Spice Plantation tour with Mandoo Tours. I can't recommend this tour more. He has is own web page, check it out.

 

Curacao. We went to Playa Porta Mari beach. Great snorkling, and a very nice beach, but a bit pricey to get to. We were able to group together and get a ride for 20 dollars round trip. Up to four in a cab would be 40 dollars round trip. In the afternoon we walked into town. This is truely a not to be missed town. Beautiful, clean, and very European. A lot of picture spots. Oh, and make sure to try out the Chocolate Curacao. Very tasty, and 20 dollars a bottle.

 

Aruba, we just walked into town here.

 

Rollie

[Redtravel]

Everyday we had our cabin made up late. The last day was the xception. We got up at 6. When we went to breakfast we put our carryons, totebags, etc. on the bed. We locked our door and returned at 7 to find that the cabin steward had entered the room and made up the bed. He moved all of our stuff off the bed. In the process he misplaced a separate carrying strap that we use on a tote bag. We hunted him down. We then had to pick through all the bags of dirty linen to find the strap. Yuck. He yelled at us for putting our stuff on the bed. By everything that we were told, on disembarkment day, we were supposed to have the use of the cabin until 8 am. He had no right to enter our cabin and move our stuff. The do not disturb sign was posted.

[klam_chowder]

rollie, thx for entertaining questions from your recent cruise...

 

Just curious if Millie has a foosball table?

 

For some reason, DH rates the foosball table as a highlight activity even tho we only play a game or two over several days. If there is one, I want to be sure I walk him by it; happy DH means more cruises for me :D

 

cheers,

:)

[rollie]

Klam chowder, I don't think there is a foosball table aboard.

 

Rollie

[MartinsCruise]

DanishDonut, on Tortola we went to Cane Garden Bay. It's a 6 dollar open air taxi ride there. It was one of the prettiest beachest we've been to. It was a bit crowded there, as we were one of 3 ships in port.

 

Grenada. We did a Island and Spice Plantation tour with Mandoo Tours. I can't recommend this tour more. He has is own web page, check it out.

Curacao. We went to Playa Porta Mari beach. Great snorkling, and a very nice beach, but a bit pricey to get to. We were able to group together and get a ride for 20 dollars round trip. Up to four in a cab would be 40 dollars round trip. In the afternoon we walked into town. This is truely a not to be missed town. Beautiful, clean, and very European. A lot of picture spots. Oh, and make sure to try out the Chocolate Curacao. Very tasty, and 20 dollars a bottle.

 

Aruba, we just walked into town here.

 

Rollie

 

We used Mandoo in 2009 on the final sailing of the Galaxy. He was great, very informative and an advocate of his Island. Below is a pic of him and one of the monkeys he be-friended on one of the tour stops.

 

 

 

Doug

[rollie]

Wow Doug, I thought that was one of my pictures. lol At least the monkey looks related. lol

 

Rollie

[MajorDeegan]

Hi I am going on the 4/8/11 cruise with you. Are you going to the Cruise Critic Party. I am from Wisconsin and just recieved 17" of this white stuff.

[Mary Ellen]

Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

[klam_chowder]

rollie, thx a mint for the reply. Also good to know not to spend time looking for that foosball table. :rolleyes:

 

cheers,

:)

[LPLee]

Hi,

My husband and I are going on the 2/25/11 cruise as well. We've cruised many times but only recently joined CC. How does everyone meet up? Do you need to join the roll call?

 

Lee

[Can'tstopcruising]

Hi,

My husband and I are going on the 2/25/11 cruise as well. We've cruised many times but only recently joined CC. How does everyone meet up? Do you need to join the roll call?

 

Lee

 

Join the roll call. At the top of the page, there should be a link to the Cruise Critic party.

[Gabrielle R.]

Gabrielle I saw the -33 on the news and thought I was seeing things...wow, I hope things warm up soon for you. Fortunately our winter is not as cold as last year's but still can't wait for our Millennium cruise March 18...

 

Thanks Catty for the thoughts!

I saw you did the Serenade of the Seas! We just did the Serenade this Christmas!

Yeah.... This winter wasn't the nicest anywhere. I felt bad for everyone that gets hit with the big storms... Guess this board helps a bunch!! Helps me to start planning!

I am looking at the Millennium next!

[catty]

We went on the Serenade in Sept. and loved it. This will be our first Celebrity Cruise. So excited!

[SoBe2010]

If this is the January 14 sailing, we were also on it. Overall, a good experience, although we were not nearly as enamored with CD Steve as other posters appear to be. We found his near constant blathering about how incredibly WOMDERFUL every single Celebrity employee was tiresome...Truly, Steve explained to us that every entertainer was the "Best in the World", every cook was the "Best in the World", etc. It got old, fast.

 

The food was, overall, quite good. We were particularly impressed with the chocolate desserts (on HAL, desserts often look lovely but taste like nothing) and the asian dishes (the dal was wonderfully spicy!) The service in the Olympic was silly and pretentious, but the food was, mostly, interesting and well prepared (again, a big wow was was the dark chocolate soufle).

 

The ship was clean and well maintained. And pretty, we enjoyed the decor. We never had an unkind word from any of the staff. Our C2 balcony room was fine-- with the exception of a poor closet/bath door design issue that others have mentioned elsewhere. Oddly, our mini bar was not unlocked until we finally asked on day 3-- It was then never replenished-- apparently it was one mini fridge diet coke per cruise. Also, the fridge had no cooling capacity- the beverages were room temperature.

 

The biggest disappointment was the entertainment and activities-- I had been expecting a big step up from HAL in these areas but found them to be, instead, a big step down. The "Celebrity Life" activities were run by staffers who were well meaning but, frankly, unable to even correctly read aloud the trivia questions! Much less engage people in them in an enjoyable way. A substantial number of the 'activities" consisted of one semi english speaking staffer leading passengers in a group playing wii games like "Deal or No Deal" and "English Pub Trivia". The theater entertainment wasn't entertaining to us, we left the "Ballroom Dance" show, the comedian and an extremely odd piano show after a few minutes each. I heard from a friend that one of the musical shows was quite good, but by then I had given up checking them out.

 

The late night parties were nicely done, but the house band was pretty bad. I must note, the guitar player in the cova was talented and a pleasure to listen to. There was also a fairly good acapella group on board.

 

Again, overall, a good experience with the food exceeding expectations and the entertainment falling short.

 

Hi,

 

thanks for sharing. Do you remember the name of the house band?

[rollie]

SoBe2010, sorry I'm so late getting back to you. I can't remember the name of the band, but they were very, very, good, and a pleasant suprise. They wern't your tipical steal band playing loud music at the pool. They were a very good band that played a lot of different music. A lot of 60s, 70s, and 80s stuff. They wern't too loud. I was on this board a few months ago, ranting about the loud pool bands, and this was a nice change.

 

Rollie

[Minoushka]

I was on Millie in Nov and also really enjoyed it

Curacao is a great WALKING town . I do loads of shopping here.CHECK OUT THE WILD SHOES EVERYWHERE .I love them because they are cute funky and flat .After a brokn ankle no more heels for me They also have designer shirts ...lotsof stuff I usually walk across the floating bridge to the floating market and just go up and down the streets .I LOVE Curacao ...very friendly place and people

In Tortola IF you have the time grab a ferry ...building to the left facing the island .with red roof ..about 10 minute walk Go to ViRGIN GORDA and the Baths ...Very unique Place ...not to miss ..Check it out on Google

Go to National Park go left to Devils Bay much bigger than other side .It is a 15 minute walk down to the water but MAGNIFICENT Bring snorkeling gear.

If you are limited in time go to BREWERS BAY BEACH IN TORTOLA ..picture postcard perfect beach..much quieter than Cane Bay

In Barbados swimming with Turtles on FLYING MONKEY crane beach and CARLYSLE BAY for snorkeling over wrecks

Coki Beach in St Thomas

On Dominica Champagne Reef is a must WEAR SHOES

 

You will love these islands

 

Michele

[MajorDeegan]

Hi I am also from Wisconsin by Fond du Lac. I like to know what areas are free and where do we have to pay. Is the adult pool Aquaspa free if not at what cost? This way I do not spend the first 5 days figuring this out. I feel we pay enough for the cruise so why do we have to pay for more onboard except drinks. How is the Disco? On my last cruise the dancing area were very slow. I like 50 - 60's music that is why I am trying this type of cruise instead of my normal. This will be my 10th so I know a little about cruising. Just never on Celbrity.

 

Thanks Shorty

[MajorDeegan]

I don't think the expectation of having your cabin cleaned while you are at breakfast has a thing in the world to do with modern politics or a "microwave mentality".

Instead, it is the direct result of the cruise industry providing exactly that level of service for many years and now cutting back on staff while pretending to still provide the same level of service..... 15 years ago, my cabin was cleaned while I was at breakfast and again while I was at dinner. Heck, sometimes the steward even slipped in for an afternoon tidy. Every time I poked my head out into the hall, it seemed he was there to take care of anything I needed. But, back then I think the steward had half as many rooms to clean.

 

The problem is the result of the cruiseline creating certain expectations of service (based on past experience, advertising, etc) and then failing to meet those expectations.

 

That is why I was not in favor of paying ahead or paying from my sea pass. I knew the service would change. I am wondering if the Passenger to crew ratio changes since the ship first set sail?

[MajorDeegan]

SoBe2010, sorry I'm so late getting back to you. I can't remember the name of the band, but they were very, very, good, and a pleasant suprise. They wern't your tipical steal band playing loud music at the pool. They were a very good band that played a lot of different music. A lot of 60s, 70s, and 80s stuff. They wern't too loud. I was on this board a few months ago, ranting about the loud pool bands, and this was a nice change.

 

Rollie

 

Hi Please read Wisconsin (Fond du Lac) questions. New to this process.

 

Thanks Shorty