Celebrity Millenium SS Alaska Help

[mackienyc]

Hi all,

 

We're booked in SS 6145 on the Millenium southbound AK. This is the only SS or RS available on the port side for our cruise, but there are some concerns over the uncovered balcony. We've never cruised AK. I need some help deciding: Port side exposed balcony or starboard SS? More concerned with missing any views than the size of the room, but am concerned with being overly exposed. Opinions welcomed, and if anyone knows if they will possibly cover the balconies with the renovation, that would solve my dilemma quite easily.

 

Thank you:)

 

M

[Cruisingmanforlife1]

Hi all,

 

We're booked in SS 6145 on the Millenium southbound AK. This is the only SS or RS available on the port side for our cruise, but there are some concerns over the uncovered balcony. We've never cruised AK. I need some help deciding: Port side exposed balcony or starboard SS? More concerned with missing any views than the size of the room, but am concerned with being overly exposed. Opinions welcomed, and if anyone knows if they will possibly cover the balconies with the renovation, that would solve my dilemma quite easily.

 

Thank you:)

 

M

 

Personally you are sailing Southbound so I would go Starboard side and look during certain times of the year for ORCA Whales and sealife. It depends on you, also I find other venues when the Millenium is doing Glaciers.

 

Olympic Restaurant – Considered as one of the ship’s exquisite restaurants. They are well known for their Rack of Lamb en Croute and Steak Diane. My personal favorite.

 

Metropolitan Restaurant – This is the ship’s main dining room. The décor and the serenity of the location is surely what you’d first notice. Their friendly waiters serve breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

AquaSpa Café - If you are health conscious, AquaSpa offers high-nutrition, yogurts, low-fat cereals and the like as an early morning meal.

 

Excellent food. We enjoyed seated dining each night but were also free to roam the . Food was excellent all over the ship - many options so everyone could find something to please them. Also, many selections changed each day so it didn't get too monotonous. Best breads and pastries I've ever had - especially the French bread and croissants. They are prepared fresh on the ship each day.

 

The stateroom was clean, surprisingly quiet, and comfortable. Our attendant took excellent care of it. Room service was free and we filled out a card each night and hung it on the cabin door to have coffee, oatmeal and danish sent each morning so we could enjoy it our room while we dressed for the day. You request the time, within a half-hour window, that you want breakfast delivered and the staff will call the cabin when it's on its way so that you can be ready for it. Sitting outside on the balcony with my coffee was great.

 

Celebrity (on the Millennium) was fantastic. The scenery for both the land and the sea portion was incredibly beautiful this time of year and the hotels, even the non-extravagant ones, were perfect. The only thing I would HIGHLY recommend is to take the southbound version with the land tour first, as opposed to beginning with the cruise portion. But either way, this is a trip of a lifetime and if you have not visited Alaska, you should.

 

We opted for the 6 p.m. seating, and never felt rushed, as some have indicated. The food was a little 'complicated' for our simple Texas & Florida lifestyle, but always presented with flare and quite enjoyable. The upper deck grill was getting quite a work-out from hamburger and hot dog lovers, and for good reason. They were fantastic! I hated to miss out on the fabulous buffet lunches, but HAD to have those hot dogs! The evening menus offered a full selection of meals which were available at every dinner, and also another full selection that changed each night. I have to say the steaks (beef) were on the thin and dry side, and not great, but there was so much to choose from, if you didn't like one thing it wasn't difficult to find another. The desserts, while great to look at, lacked a little flavor, but we decided that was due to the European flair for desserts and pastry. I'm a big chocolate lover, but I didn't have much luck choosing any of the chocolate based delights. Not to my liking. But the fruit tarts, (and the fruits in general) were to die for! In general, no complaints about food at all. (Gained about 5 lbs, so I can't complain about the food!)

 

As I said, this was our first cruise and I was all prepared for tiny, cramped staterooms with little space to move around. What a pleasant surprise! The rooms were quite ample in space, and the bathroom, in particular, was absolutely not cramped at all. The shower accommodated myself & wife! We chose to travel Concierge Class which gave us a small veranda, but honestly, it was certainly big enough. We had plenty of room to sit outside and relax, eat, read, or just enjoy the scenery, and had all the room we could possibly need. The bed was large and comfortable, as was the couch. Plenty of storage space to hold all our belongings, and the bed was raised high enough to stash our rather large suitcases underneath. Private safe inside the closet, and a mini-fridge which came stocked in case you might want a night-cap, (for a price, of course,) which was actually quite reasonable.

 

I had read the reviews about mediocre talent on the and wasn't expecting much. We were traveling with friends and basically entertained ourselves, but the shows we did see were entertaining and enjoyable. and comedy ventriloquist were great. ) I've decided that the people who complain probably enjoy complaining in general. The purpose of a cruise is to relax and enjoy being on vacation, right? If a person wants to be entertained constantly, there certainly appeared to be lot of activities onboard to chose from. The cruise director was fun and animated and worked hard at scheduling events with a wide appeal. The only thing I found a bit boorish were the . I did drop in for a visit during one of the auctions and found that perhaps I wasn't the only one who felt that way. But due to the abundance of events, activities, onboard shopping or places to hide-a-way and daydream, a person would have to struggle to be bored unless they wanted to be.

 

Due to the random or sporadic weather changes in Alaska, we opted not to purchase the flightseeing until the day we arrived in port. The day we intended to take a helicopter turned out to be overcast and rainy, but the following day was beautiful, so we were glad we had the option to fly on a different day. All the reviews I had read listed the Whitepass Yukon train excursion as a 'Do Not Miss". They were correct, and it was wonderful. Even though it rained for most of the trip, I stood outside on the little platform the entire way and took pictures. Breathtaking views. I would have to say I also was looking forward to the 'Ghosts and Goodtime Girls' walking tour in Skagway. Unfortunately, we were a bit disappointed in that one, and we sort of 'faded away' from the group about halfway through the guided tour.

 

I got the idea to do the helicopter, after a life evac was done from the ship during our day at sea! Shows how important it is to have insurance or Medijet membership. The person happened to be a guy my age in His 40s with a heart problem. The ship out to sea and before we did the Glaciers... amazing how they had a special area for the life evac helicopter and to see the services.

 

 

In Juneau the ORCA Whale trip is the best .

 

I was a little worried about disembarking in various ports, but I shouldn't have been even my wife with a bad knee was fine, That curing the land tour portion, our luggage was handled for us and delivered nightly to our hotel rooms. The only other comment I would like to make here is regarding the dining crew on board the Millennium. By the end of our cruise portion, we all wanted to adopt our waiter and assistant waiter. (If you happen to cruise on the Millennium, be sure to tell Eka and Emel that the Talleys said hello.) On the land portion, our tour director Matt, and bus driver, Emily, were simply the best. It was seamless, and not an issue at all. We were particularly glad to know . Not only were they extremely helpful and informative, but quite entertaining. Such a combination I would think hard to find, but apparently Celebrity has found this type of individual in abundance. As I've said earlier, this was our first and only cruise experience and frankly, if we do ever cruise again, I would be very hard pressed to look beyond Celebrity. I highly recommend Princess Lodges and the Domed rail cars if you are going land side and preferrably BEFORE cruise.:D

[dabear]

They will not be covering the balconies however, they are partially covered anyway. The substantial majority (including us and our friends) of pax prefer the port side of a southbound cruise from Seward so that you can see the beautiful land, glacers and animals & if you search, it sells out faster. 6145 is a great cabin. What is the date of your cruise since you may want to join the roll call?

[mackienyc]

Thanks for the great review, and for commentary. We have a pre-cruise land tour (total 13 nights), so the starboard side piqued my interest since we'll be on land so much.

Either way I'm sure we'll have an amazing time.

It's the 7/20/12 sailing, there wasn't a roll call when I checked last but I'll keep my eye out.

 

M