Condition of the Millenum

[Kamloops50]

Booked a Shanghai to Vancouver cruise for April 2015 . I have some questions about the ship and other things.

 

1 - Are there any issues with the crew on this cruise . Most of the reviews have been very negative .

 

2 - What is the overall condition of the ship . Would it be better to chose a different ship/cruise?

 

Thanks in advance.:)

[gblotter]

Booked a Shanghai to Vancouver cruise for April 2015 . I have some questions about the ship and other things.

 

1 - Are there any issues with the crew on this cruise . Most of the reviews have been very negative .

 

2 - What is the overall condition of the ship . Would it be better to chose a different ship/cruise?

 

Thanks in advance.:)

I may get flamed for saying this, but I would avoid the Millennium class ships in the future. After reading here on cruisecritic about the long history of propulsion/pod problems with the Millennium class ships, I just don't think it is worth taking the chance - especially if you have a choice to book an alternate cruise on one of the newer S-class ships.

 

We were on the ill-fated August 16 cruise of Millennium.

 

I see no reason to be concerned about the quality of the crew. The Millennium CREW was outstanding in almost every regard. However, the communication from Celebrity MANAGEMENT in conducting the ship evacuation was badly mishandled.

 

April 2015 is far out in the future - normal rotations of crew makes it difficult to predict what future experience you might have. Also, many of the existing crew left Millennium along with the passengers on August 22nd.

 

Aside from the propulsion problems, the overall condition of Millennium was very good (the entire ship was refreshed in May 2012).

 

We are not sour on Celebrity, but we are fearful of the Millennium ship. Our next cruise has already been scheduled - but this time on Solstice.

[ghstudio]

If you could tell us the names of the officers and crew that will be on board in 2015, we might be able to help you on your first question.

 

The ship will have a new pod and will have over a year of operation before your cruise. I think that's probably long enough to see if the new pod is working correctly.

[h20cruzer]

I was on the Millie 05/24/13 7night to Alaska. The crew was fantastic, The engine problem is unfortunate. however they are replacing the whole thing. This would not stop me from going on the Millie again.

I have been on 3 of the S class stips, but for me I love the M class ships.

Norma

[patty1955]

We were on the Shanghai to Alaska cruise this last April and the crew was amazing. The cruise was excellent, but I wouldn't do it again. Losing an hour almost every night was really tough on our bodies. There was noro onboard and a lot of coughing.

Be warned, the air in parts of China (including Shanghai) is horrible. My husband has COPD and it was months before the cough died down.

[lara68]

While I love the size of the M Class ships, personally I would avoid going on the Millenium again if possible. We were on her around 2007 when she also had propeller problems and our cruise was cut short in the Mediterrean. We also sailed on her this past January to Asia. The crew was fantastic and the service on Celebrity was wonderful as always but despite the recent refurbishment, she seems worn and tired.

 

If you have a choice, I would choose a Soltice class ship, but if the choice was the Millenium or another cruise line, I would stick with Celebrity. These are only my opinion and I'm sure others would disagree.

[Veronda817]

I too was on the August 16 Millennium stranded in Ketchikan, and I would absolutely book Millie again, and just may with our cruise credit. We are new to cruising, so I don't have much personal experience to base this on, but I know that I could have been unhappy on a lesser ship. In fact, I was nervous about whether my husband would enjoy cruising, but I had a hard time getting him off the ship even when we weren't going anywhere! The crew was FABULOUS, even with all the craziness going on with being stuck in port. I can't think of a moment when I didn't like a crew member. I didn't particularly care for the cruise director Paul (just a personality thing, he's still great), but I loved his activities director counterpart, and they were usually together, so no biggie. We were in Aqua on deck 9, and while I loved the cabin, there were a few minor issues I'd like to have handled. The biggest is that the shower and sink drains were always backed up...not sure if this is a normal ship thing, but it was annoying to shower in a few inches of water. I found the bed linens to be quite nice, especially when a lot of picture online of ship cabins show outdated bedspreads and whatnot. I didn't notice a bit of wear in common areas. It seldom seemed like there were many people on the ship, so there's a good space to passenger ratio. There was some confusion with the disembarkment, but seriously, I wouldn't expect them to be well practiced at this isolated kind of incident. That said, my aunt and cousins are RCI folks, so I'm sure those are nice too!