Millennium Review (May 27)

[seafood]

This is my review of my Alaska Seward to Vancouver cruise on Millennium.

Our (DH and I) first cruise was on Celebrity Infinity, but that was back in 2001. I just remember being in awe of the ship and the cruise experience. We since have sailed mostly on Princess (we’re platinum), a few on Carnival, and one on Royal Caribbean.

Ship: Millennium is a beautiful ship. The crew works hard to maintain the ship at a near brand new level. There is new carpet throughout the ship. We would sail again on this ship with no hesitation.

Cabin: We had Concierge mid-ship cabin 8095. The cabin was lovely and a nice size with ample storage space. The cabin is relatively close to the elevator/stairs, but not noisy. We could not hear any noise from our neighbors. There were great views from the balcony; however, DH thought the balcony was small (it was fine to me). I loved the leather sofa. The bathroom was smaller than the ones we’ve had on Carnival, but the shower was huge for a cruise ship (bigger than any we’ve had on any ship). The shower curtain did cling, but I fixed that by putting clothes pins on the bottom (a trick I learned on Cruise Critic). I loved, loved the removable showerhead. I’ve attached a few cabin pictures.

Service: Our room stewards were excellent. They were very friendly and hardworking. We had select dining so we had different servers, but all were friendly and helpful. The staff throughout the ship were mostly friendly and helpful; however, I must say that the service was no better than the service we’ve had on any of our other cruises. We really enjoyed not been bugged to take photos and loved, loved not hearing announcements throughout the day.

We did not purchase any beverage package. We took water and two bottles of wine onboard. We also took Starbucks Via coffee. We bought a few beers onboard.

Food: The buffet was very crowded during lunchtime, but we were always able to find a vacant table. The food was pretty good, but I like Carnival’s buffet food better. I did enjoy having a chance to eat fish and chips everyday! DH really enjoyed being able to eat ice cream everyday, and there were so many different kinds to choose from.

The main dining room food was very good, but I think Carnival’s dining room food is better. However, the lobster we had on the Millennium couldn’t be beat; it was delicious and probably my favorite main dining room dinner.

Room Service: Celebrity has this right. DH loved being able to order a full breakfast and being able to enjoy it either on the balcony or in the cabin. The pancakes were DELICIOUS; we didn’t even have to put syrup on them! We also loved that we could order the dining room dinner and we did just that on two of the nights.

Entertainment: We only went to one production show and it was awesome. We also enjoyed the Fiore String Trio, A Cappella, and the guitar/vocal group who played at Cova Cafe. Cosmos is beautiful, but we mostly enjoyed it during the day for the beautiful views as the dance music in the evenings was not too much to our liking (mostly disco). I’ve read lots of comments about the lack of entertainment in the evenings on Celebrity, but we felt there was plenty of entertainment, just not the type we’re interested in.

Disembarkation in Vancouver was smooth and we were off the ship by 8 a.m. We chose the Express Walk Off program, and used Quick Coach to get to Seattle.

We had a wonderful time on Millennium. My opinion is the mass-market cruise lines are more alike than different; they are just different experiences and none better or worse. We will be cruising again with Celebrity in March on the Eclipse.

[seafood]

We just loved not having to worry about smoke on this cruise. Even though I like each experience I've had on the different cruise lines, this is a BIG positive in considering Celebrity for future cruises. :)

[Carhut]

I cruised on the Millennium, my first Celebrity cruise Mar. 28-Apr. 8 in the Caribbean. This was my 18th ocean cruise (not counting the 7 river cruises) so I'm not new to cruising. We got a good price on a CC cabin and wasn't until after we booked we discovered it had a partially obstructed view. First strike against Celebrity. Actually it wasn't a problem as we could see fine straight out and toward the back of the ship. But looking forward there was this big window washing contraption parked there. I'd really been upset if my cabin had been two up from us where the thing was parked. Is this really necessary? Surely they can find a better way to wash windows or someplace else to park that thing instead of in front of balcony cabins.

We liked the chilled sparkling wine in our room. The robes never came out of the closet. Never used the umbrella. Tried the cheap binoculars and they were worthless. We had oversized Egyptian towels for the first few days and then they reverted to the cheap smaller worn towels. The 6 hors d'oeuvres that were delivered to our room every day about 4 p.m. weren't great. The breads they were on were either slightly toasted or just dried out. Couldn't eat them most of the time because they had things on them that I'm allergic to. But my room mate did eat them.

Ordering breakfast for eating on our balcony was the rare treat of the cruise. This we did like. Fresh fruit was okay. The flowers were nice touch but they soon withered. They were replaced about the end of our cruise. The celebrity tote bag was nice, but my room mate and I wondered how the two of us were going to split it. I asked the room steward if we could have another since we were two ladies. He said he was only supposed to leave one per room. But later that evening we did find another one left in our room. That pretty much covers the amenities for the Concierge Balcony Room. Our room steward did a fine job. Really no complaints there.

Next we went to dinner. We were assigned to early seating. I had previously emailed and requested a table with no more than 6-8 and preferred a table by a window. Well they took us to our table, not by a window way in the back of the dining room. They showed us the table and it had 6 place settings and 6 chairs. Five of them were taken. There stood the two of us. Awkward situation. They said, "no problem". They would just bring another chair and squeeze us in, which is what they did. So we sat 7 people where 6 would sit comfortably. We weren't happy about this, and planned to go see about getting changed after dinner. But we enjoyed the table mates and decided to stick it out for 10 more nights. But that was poor planning on somebody's part.

As the person posted ahead of me, that the Millennium had new carpet. Might have but I wonder what the floor looked like underneath. There were places where you stepped in like a hole or else hit your toe on an area that was raised under that carpet. I almost tripped more than once. This was especially noticeable in the entrance to the dining room.

I thought the decor was rather boring. Their artwork (?) on the walls were pretty awful.

Okay, the gripes are over. I did appreciate a couple of times when they met you as you came aboard with some nice cool drink and cool cloths. Nice touch. The shows were okay. I'd say on par with other cruise lines.

Casino slot machines were stingy. Until the last two days I found one that I could actually win some money on. Not telling which one it is. :o

The food was fine. Especially liked having breakfast on our balcony. Also we went to the buffet a few times. It was laid out kind of strange. Had different stations and it took a few days to find out where everything was located. Lunch was usually the hamburg station outside. The FF onions were good. I looked forward to the ice cream cones and they did have lots of interesting flavors. But the ice cream was so soft that it melted too fast. Couldn't hardly eat it fast enough. So only tried the ice cream a couple of times. The dining room food was okay except for a couple of dishes. My room mate had one dish with meatballs that she said tasted awful. Just happened that the head chef and maitre'd came to our table that night looking for compliments. She had to tell them she didn't like that dish. Wasn't what they wanted to hear. :(

We're not giving up on Celebrity, but certainly didn't find much to rave about on our cruise. We loved the itinerary and we were anxious to try Celebrity as so many rave about them. We'll go again, but probably not on the Millie. Will try another ship, a newer one perhaps.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for writing and posting the review.

 

Keith

[djhsolara]

Thank you for the nice reviews...they made me even more anxious for our Millennium sailing in October.

 

Has anyone reading this been in a Royal Suite recently (since the redo last year)? Any photos? I've been looking for photos of them since the redo with new carpeting, etc and cannot seem to locate any.

 

Thank you!!

 

:) :)

[portofrome]

Thanks for the reviews.