Med. Cruise - Brilliance vs. Millennium (Celebrity)

[Travelalot2]

Has anyone been on both of these ships? The ports visited on the Med. cruises we are looking at are very similar, but, Celebrity is $500/pp higher. Is it worth it? (fyi - the Brilliance does not stop in Venice but instead Mykonos, Greece). We've sailed on RC several times, but always on the Voyager class so I do not have experience with the Brilliance.

[lat1]

Travelalot2 ~

 

We sailed the Med on the Millie this summer. If I had to choose between the two ships I would go with RCI. HOWEVER, Venice was one of our favorite ports so I think I would have to re-consider. All in all, the Millie is OK it is just the Brilliance is AWESOME!!!

 

One other thing to consider is that this itinerary is very port intensive so the ship is of less importance than on a trip that has much more sea time.

 

Hope this helps.

[cme]

I was just on the Brilliance Venice cruise and it was great.:D The Brilliance is a wonderful ship with an awsome crew.

 

 

Carrie:p

[Cindi314]

Just returned from the 12 nite Venice Brilliance cruise. I have never been on Celebrity, but I would highly recommend this cruise on Brilliance. It is by far the best vacation we have ever had. It is very port intensive, but you really see the highlights of the Med. The previous poster is right in that the crew is awesome. They were the best of any cruise we have been on. We feel like we've made some new friends and even exchanged email addresses with some to keep in touch. Hope this helps.

[suzyluvs2cruise]

Will you be doing a review of the cruise? Would like to know more about the ports.......did you do RCI shore excursions.......or your own?

[ddean52]

Just returned from the 12 nite Venice Brilliance cruise. I have never been on Celebrity, but I would highly recommend this cruise on Brilliance. It is by far the best vacation we have ever had. It is very port intensive, but you really see the highlights of the Med. The previous poster is right in that the crew is awesome. They were the best of any cruise we have been on. We feel like we've made some new friends and even exchanged email addresses with some to keep in touch. Hope this helps.

 

please please do a review with lots of details. we do the same cruise on brilliance june 06

dean & alice:)

[Cindi314]

Right now I'm a little jet-lagged as we just got in late last night. I promise that in the next couple of days I will respond to this thread with a review and will answer any questions that I can.

[cme]

I can answer a few questions for you. We did do all RCI excursions as this was our first time to Europe, and it was just my girlfriend and myself. We stayed overnight in Barcelona and stayed at the Majestic which was very nice. We went on an excursion of Barcelona with dinner the night before the cruise also thru RCI.

 

First port stop we did the Nice, Eze and Monaco tour which was excellent, we had a super tour guide. Lunch was served in Eze.

 

Second port stop we did Florence/Pisa tour. I personally didn't really care for Florence. pickpockiting was bad. Several people on the cruise that I talked to had watches and wallets stolen. I didn't feel that safe there as there were huge crowds everywhere. Pisa was nice, still crowded but not nearly as bad. Lunch on this tour was served in Florence.

 

Third stop was Naples and we did Capri, Sorrento and Pompeii. We loved Capri, it was beautiful. I could spend two weeks there easily. Sorrento was nice. There is a hair raising ride:eek: up the hill to get up to Sorrento once off the jetfoil. We also ate here. Next we went to Pompeii, and of course that was interesting. If my husband had been there he would of really enjoyed it.

 

The first at sea day I think the entire ship was exhausted, good time to rest up for more fun to come.

 

Venice was awsome:) We didn't do any tours. The best place to be when sailing into Venice is at the very front of the ship. You can get some really wonderful shots as you sail down the canal. You will need to buy water taxi tickets $5.00 each way to San Marco. This was our favorite port. The ship has a masquerade ball on the night you leave Venice so make sure that you buy a mask while you are out shopping. They are everywhere, so don't worry about not finding one. The ball is formal and was really neat to see all the different masks and costumes.

 

Next was Dubrovnik, we also did this on our own. If I remember right the shuttle tickets our $4.00 each way form the ship to the old town. The ship did not know until the morning we arrived if we were going to tender or be at a dock. When we woke up in the morning we were at a dock, but I think that if you get to tender you would not pay for a shuttle.

 

Corfu was our next port stop, we also did this on our own and once again you will have to buy shuttle tickets to get to town. I think that they were around the same price as all the others. We found the town to be very charming, we loved the shopping. We really loved this port.

 

Much needed seaday:D

 

Civitavecchia, Rome We did Rome the Eternal city. We had an awful tour guide on this trip. The little gal that was helping (holding the sign) was great.

We had 1 1/2 wait to get into the Vatican. It was 104 that day and it was miserable. Our tour guide told us she had to go the the bathroom and she didn't come back until we had almost made it to the front of the line. I think that you would be better off doing a private tour to Rome.

 

The lunches served on all of the tours were excellent. I loved everything and I am a very picky eater. They also serve wine and champagne at each meal and the lunches can last for quite sometime.

 

I hope this has helped you out alittle, sorry I am not good at writing but thease are just few highlights of what we did on the cruise. Let me know if I can help out with anything else.

 

Carrie:p

[jakvek]

We have sailed on the Millie and the Brilliance in the Med. The Millie in 2001 and the Brilliance in 2003. The itineraries were a tad different though...On the Millie, we started in Barcelona and ended in Istanbul, we had an overnight in Venice. The Brilliance started in Barcelona and ended in Barcelona - with a visit to Mykonos and Santorini. We liked the Brilliance over the Millie in design, however, we prefered the Millie overall in terms of service and food..Hope this helps...I don't think you can go wrong with either one. You'll have a great time.

[Cindi314]

Here is a mini-review on my cruise. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer if I can.

 

We arranged our air with the cruise line and were very happy with the results. You never know with these things, but they came through for us. We left Boston on 7/10/05 at 6:45 p.m. had a 1 hour stopover in Munich, and landed in Barcelona at 11:05 a.m. 7/11/05. Got on the bus - we were checked in and in our room by 12:30 p.m.

 

All of our shore excursions were through RCCL.

 

First port: Villefranche, France - We were supposed to do an excursion to Monaco and Grand Casino in Monte Carlo. This excursion and many others were cancelled because Prince Albert was being coronated on this day. We opted for the Scenic French Riviera instead, and it was beautiful. Our driver took a chance and drove through Monaco and Monte Carlo. Everything was closed, but we did see the outside of the palace and grand casino. We saw people setting everything up for the coronation festivities. We went to Eze and Nice - lots of pictures. We only had about an hour on our own in Eze.

 

Livorni, Italy - We did the Florence/Pisa tour. I have to say, I was not too impressed with Florence - it could be that the tour guide was pretty boring. We then went on to Pisa and had about one and a half hours on our own. I loved Pisa. When you go under the arches into Miracle Square, it just took my breath away.

 

Rome, Italy - This was by far the best tour. We did the Exclusive Rome Tour. It was more expensive than the others, but definitely worth it. You are on a small van and can get into places that a regular bus cannot. Our tour guide was absolutely wonderful!!! The longest we ever waited in line was about 20 minutes for the Vatican Museum. If we had arrived about 10 minutes earlier we would not have had to wait. For the small tours they let you right in if you arrive before 8:45 a.m. The museum and Sistine Chapel are amazing. Our guide was very informative about alot of things without being boring. She pointed out things that we never would have known about. We spent a little time in St. Peter's Square - took lots of pictures. Please be aware that on these tours, you do not have much time for shopping. You are really on the go with sightseeing - which is what we wanted to do. We then had a very nice lunch at a hotel. After lunch, we went to the Colisseum which was absolutely amazing!!!!! We then went to the Trevi Fountain. We probably spent about an hour at each place. If you can do it, I would highly recommend spending the extra money for this tour. It was worth every penny.

 

Corfu, Greece - We didn't see much of Greece. After three days of go, go, go, we decided to spend the day at a beach resort, booked through the ship.

It was very beautiful and relaxing. My husband and son even did some parasailing.

 

Dubrovnik, Croatia - We just walked around on our own here. It was very, very hot. You can walk the city wall, which is beautiful. We decided not to as it was really very hot. We spent a few hours walking around, had some drinks at a cafe and did some shopping. The linen is really beautiful - some expensive, some reasonable. I did buy some for myself and for gifts.

 

Venice, Italy - 2 days - I am in love with Venice!!! The first day we did an excursion that took us to Murano and the glass factory, San Giorgio Island and a Gondola ride. The glass factory was amazing watching this artist make vases and figurines in a matter of minutes. We had about an hour to walk around and shop. We then took the water taxi over to San Giorgio Island, there really isn't much to see here. The gondola ride was wonderful. It lasted about a half hour and took us through the canals. I would suggest doing this excursion especially if you want a gondola ride. It was not expensive and you didn't wait long. I heard from others that if you did it on your own you waited quite a while in line and it cost about 100 euros to ride.

 

The second day, we took the water shuttle to St. Mark's square. This was where we did our serious shopping. We walked a little away from the square where the prices were better. I did buy quite a bit of Murano glass. We also bought masks for that night's masquerade ball. My son got the casanova mask, my husband the joker mask and I got a cat mask. They really are beautiful and were half the price of those sold right in the square. They are a great souvenier and look wonderful on the wall. The masquerade ball that night was a blast!!! We probably spent about 6 hours in Venice today.

 

Palermo, Sicily - When we originally booked this trip, one of the ports was Naples, which we really wanted to see. For some reason, the itinerary changed and we went to Sicily instead. We did not do any excursion here. Maybe we should have. I did not like Palermo at all. Maybe if you did an excursion and went into the country, it was nice. Palermo, to me, was just a congested, not too clean, city. We walked around for about an hour, stopped for a gelato, and returned to the ship. This was the only port where we were inundated with people trying to sell their goods as soon as we got off the ship. In my opinion, I hope RCCL takes this port off of their itinerary.

 

Our sea days were spent by the pool, shopping on board, SLEEPING, seeing shows, and spending lots of time in the casino. I actually won one of the slot tournaments!!! I had quite a bit of luck in the casino - machines were much looser than any other cruise I have been on. The staff was wonderful - spent alot of time just chatting with and getting to know a few of them. The dealers are very helpful if you want to learn a new game.

 

The food was delicious and, of course, plentiful. Our waiters were terrific and never steered us wrong when making a suggestion. Amazingly, none of us gained any weight - I'm sure due to the fact that we were always on the go. We also had wonderful dinnermates, which made the experience even better.

 

Our cabin steward was great!! If we wanted anything, we asked once and it was provided for the whole cruise.

 

We really did splurge on this cruise as it was our 25th anniversary. If you can do it, get a balcony cabin on the starboard side. The views are amazing - especially when sailing into Venice.

 

This was by far the best vacation, cruise or otherwise, that we have ever had. It was worth every penny spent. The staff on this ship was, in my opinion, superb.

 

Hope this info is helpful - if you have any specific questions, I'll be happy to answer if I can.

[Snackdaddy]

Hi Cindi314

 

Have you posted your review on the Europe board as well? Your information will be most helpful there as well.