Not the Millennium Transpacific Review ... Luminae, Suite Class, etc. ...

[Project_gal]

When I get the opportunity, I intend to write a conventional review of our Millennium Transpacific cruise 26 April - 12 May 2015 but, in the meantime, I have started this thread to provide some more specific feedback, especially on Luminae and the new Suite Class as well as the ship and OBC.

 

To start the ball rolling, I am posting the full 14 Luminae menus. On our 17-night cruise, the menus were used in the following order:

Day 1 - Menu 1

Day 2 - Menu 3

Day 3 [First Formal] - Menu 2

Day 4 - Menu 4

Day 5 - Menu 5

Day 6 [second Formal] - Menu 6

Day 7 - Menu 7

Day 8 - Menu 8

Day 9 - Menu 9

Day 10 - Menu 10

Day 11 - Menu 13

Day 12 - Menu 11

Day 13 - Menu 12

Day 14 - Menu 14

Day 15 - Menu 1

Day 16 [Third Formal] - Menu 6

Day 17 - Menu 3

 

Luminae Menu 1

 

Luminae Menu 2

 

Luminae Menu 3

 

Luminae Menu 4

 

Luminae Menu 5

 

Luminae Menu 6

 

As soon as I have time, I shall post my personal feedback on Luminae.

 

I am happy to answer any specific question but as we did not go to any of the shows, attend any Captain's Club event nor take part in any of the activities, I am unlikely to be able to address any questions about these.

[Project_gal]

OK, so my attempt to post the menus failed. I have to finish now. I shall have another attempt in the morning.

[Project_gal]

Hopefully, I'll get it right this time:

 

Menu 1

 

Menu 2

 

Menu 3

 

Menu 4

 

Menu 5

 

Menu 6

[Project_gal]

Menu 7

 

Menu 8

 

Menu 9

 

Menu 10

 

Menu 11

 

Menu 12

[Project_gal]

Menu 13

 

Menu 14

[Project_gal]

Apologies for the false start!

 

On Millennium, our cruise was the second with Luminae and the first with the new china and cutlery [flatware]. Mid cruise, we received the new cushions for the banquets leaving just the chairs and menu holders to come.

 

As far as I can remember, breakfast was served on port days and brunch on sea days but we had a few late arrivals in port and brunch, rather than breakfast, may have been served on one or two of those.

[jules57]

Thanks for posting the menus, Sue. Looking forward to trying them

[chemmo]

Sincere thanks for posting! We tried some on the Equinox just after Easter but by no means all. Gives me chance to get an appetite for our next cruise!

[Beamafar]

Really great to get a flavour of the menus in Luminae - thanks so much for posting them :)

[Project_gal]

Having been very resistant to the idea of brunch, we actually came to think it was a good idea on this cruise. Over 17-nights, we lost an hour on 9 of them. We very quickly got into a routine of having a late breakfast, around 10:30am, and dinner - just two meals a day. It is probably no bad thing to have just two meals a day on a cruise but I can understand that brunch is an issue for those who need to eat earlier than 10:30.

 

Again. much to my surprise, I actually liked the glass tables but I know that I am probably in a minority - although, on formal nights, I could not help thinking of the old photographs of debs and their escorts eating breakfast in a café after a ball. It did look incongruous. If we can believe what were told on board, the jury is still out on whether or not there should be tablecloths. What I did not like is the table mats which looked cheap. I can understand that glass tables may be too noisy without any covering. I just think that, because there is so little space between tables, tablecloths could become a hazard.

 

In my view, the biggest fault with Luminae is the lack of space not only between tables but with tables pushed close to the wall/windows. It is extremely difficult for the wait staff to serve from the correct side. As the window seats were filled first followed by the tables next to them, the two tables next to each other were always at different stages of their meals and this, also, seemed to make correct service difficult.

 

Guests in PH and RS were constantly reminded during the cruise that they could eat wherever they choose [including in Blu] at no charge and I wondered if this was an attempt to reducing the demand on Luminae.

 

We enjoyed eating in Luminae but found the first night's menu [menu 1] distinctly underwhelming and the food I chose flavourless and disappointing. The second evening [menu 3] was a little better although jetlag caught up with me that evening and I may just have been too tired. However, after that, we really enjoyed eating their and there were some truly memorable highlights: the chicken liver custard, the fois gras pate amuse bouche, the duck consume, the vegetable curries, braised short rib, beef and veal cheeks, beef and tuna tartar, meat balls starter and, surprisingly, the pizzette starter! The pain de champagne was the bets bread we have ever had on board - just a shame it was only available at dinner.

 

It was as well that we enjoyed Luminae. For many years, prior to this cruise, we had only eaten in the specialty restaurants. This cruise we had one dinner and one lunch in Olympic. Both were extremely disappointing. The food was not as good as we have had in the past and the service was below the expected standards. At one point, during lunch, two of the wait staff had an argument right in the middle of the restaurant!

 

Before we left for this cruise, there was still a question as to whether or not Bistro on Five was included in the complimentary specialty dining for PH and RS guests. We ate lunch their on embarkation [Luminae was not open] and were charged. We queried this with the Michael's Club concierge, who had to check but confirmed that it was included.

 

More to follow ...

[miched]

Thanks for taking the time to post the menus. I have been considering a few times of upgrading to a suite just to try the new restaurant but the cost for me was too much to justify. After seeing the menu I am no longer interested as it doesn't look much different than some of the items in Blu and much less appealing to me. Hopefully for those that dine there the food does make it worth the extra cost.

 

happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌞

[vtcruising]

Thanks, Sue, for taking the time to post these menus. It sounds like things are coming together nicely in Luminae - looking forward to trying some of these dishes. The vegetarian dishes look quite good too.

 

Do you have a sense of a good time to dine in Luminae to get a window table or at least able to identify quieter times to dine? Was it similar to Blu's prime times (or maybe it can't be generalized)?

 

Thanks!

[ClaudiaB]

Thank you so very much for posting this. I'm looking forward to trying it all myself in November. I hope to see some lunch menus soon, as now we know there are three meals a day. You were clearly there real early on in the honeymoon phase.

 

I'm with you, though on brunch. We quite often eat our normal breakfast (which is not a lumberjack breakfast) and just split a salad or a mast grill burger or have nothing at all for lunch. I know - only two meals on a cruise! Yep. I can't imagine in any scenario that we would eat three Luminae meals in a day.

 

Not sure what close together tables have to do with tablecloths. They use them in Blu and those are definitely close. I'll have to experience the glass tables to see. And cheap placemats. Hmmm. Need *something* to cut down on noise. Verdict is out, for sure. I don't particularly want to see my legs under the table, or anyone else's.

 

I know from eating in Blu that what the menu description says and what actually appears are two different things - in a good way. Some of the things in Blu don't sound appealing or they sound pretty foo foo but in fact are just great dishes. I sometimes think that chefs come up with the most outrageous descriptions when all I want to hear is "meatballs with red sauce."

 

I wonder if they'd be agreeable to a switch-out on the vegetable sides. They are at Blu so I assume they would be in Luminae as well. I absolutely love broccoli and spinach and I'd love to have that instead of squash and some of the others I read.

 

Also, will they be incorporating local cuisine? That would pre-empt any "menu 1" "menu 2" plan they have now. My guess is no, that that was something they said in initial advertising but in theory it's not going to be something they really do. Shame. I love to think of the chef out early in the local market, gathering fresh ingredients for Luminae. I'd be following him :D

 

Again, thank you for taking the time out to post. I have yet to figure out the photo posting here.

[Kevnzworld]

Thanks!

The menus look pretty good. I'm hoping someone posts the 14 day lunch menu rotation too soon.

[Chonga]

Thanks for mentioning Bistro. We're in a RS on Eclipse in Sept and I wondered if we would also be able to eat there. Glad to hear we can!

[miched]

Thanks for mentioning Bistro. We're in a RS on Eclipse in Sept and I wondered if we would also be able to eat there. Glad to hear we can!

 

Isn't the Bristro available to all passengers and some staff members? :confused:

 

happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌞

[tarheelmjm]

Thanks for posting! Look forward to hearing more about Millie.

[JFontaine]

How do they clean placemats? Glass tables?

[Project_gal]

Do you have a sense of a good time to dine in Luminae to get a window table or at least able to identify quieter times to dine? Was it similar to Blu's prime times (or maybe it can't be generalized)?

 

It was never really busy in Luminae. As I said, they encourage those guest who had complimentary dining elsewhere [either one or two dinners or all the time] to experience other restaurants.

 

What we did not really like is that they wanted us to say early each day where and when we wanted to eat. I can understand that if we want a specialty dining but we had hoped that we could be more spontaneous about when to eat in Luminae. Having said that, because Michael's Club was some distance from Luminae [and there were distractions on the way], we often arrived later that we said and there was no issue.

 

Not sure what close together tables have to do with tablecloths. They use them in Blu and those are definitely close. I'll have to experience the glass tables to see. And cheap placemats. Hmmm. Need *something* to cut down on noise. Verdict is out, for sure. I don't particularly want to see my legs under the table, or anyone else's.

 

It was very difficult to squeeze through between tables when seating yourself and would be impossible not to drag tablecloths with you. I usually worry more about these things than my husband - dresses are more likely to cause a problem than trousers, especially long dresses on formal nights - but even he agreed with me. We have not eaten much in Blu but the tables were definitely closer than Blu on S-class ships and, as far as I can recall, closer than on M-class ships. The tables were wider that those used in Qsine on Millennium and it may be that the tables were slightly larger than in Blu [i am not sure].

 

I know from eating in Blu that what the menu description says and what actually appears are two different things - in a good way. Some of the things in Blu don't sound appealing or they sound pretty foo foo but in fact are just great dishes. I sometimes think that chefs come up with the most outrageous descriptions when all I want to hear is "meatballs with red sauce."

 

I found that the menus in Luminae were actually a straight description of the items served rather than a fanciful name. The biggest issue we had was that the ingredients were either items we are unfamiliar with in the UK or something known by a different name.

 

I wonder if they'd be agreeable to a switch-out on the vegetable sides. They are at Blu so I assume they would be in Luminae as well. I absolutely love broccoli and spinach and I'd love to have that instead of squash and some of the others I read.

 

This was usually not an issue but the different sides would be brought on a separate plate and served "silver service". This was particularly annoying at breakfast/brunch when the eggs would arrive on one plate with potato and mushrooms in a cup of onion [seriously] and all the sides brought on separate plates. At the beginning, we were told that I could only have granola with the parfait and compote. [Not sure how this fits with the promise to serve items as we prefer?] After feeling bad about wasting so much food, we spoke to the maitre d' and, from then on, they made sure that granola [from Blu, rather than the granola used with the parfait in Luminae] and pots of yoghurt were always available for me.

 

Also, will they be incorporating local cuisine? That would pre-empt any "menu 1" "menu 2" plan they have now. My guess is no, that that was something they said in initial advertising but in theory it's not going to be something they really do. Shame. I love to think of the chef out early in the local market, gathering fresh ingredients for Luminae. I'd be following him :D

 

Every time we mentioned this, we were told that they try to bring local items on board for the buffet. There was no understanding of the promise of providing local items in Luminae.

 

How do they clean placemats? Glass tables?

 

Not sure about the tablemats because they were always taken away and replaced by fresh ones when they reset the table. The tables were thoroughly cleaned after each guest left. We could really see no issues from a hygiene perspective. The cleaning seemed thorough - better than we have seen in the buffet. The training the wait staff appear to have received appeared rigorous as, being so new, you could see on their faces that they were concentrating so much on how they were supposed to do everything.

 

Thanks for posting! Look forward to hearing more about Millie.

 

There were many threads about the condition of Millennium before we cruised, in particular the question of how well she had been maintained. Quite honestly, I do not think that there has been any skimping on maintenance. I saw one member of crew sanding the railings whilst we were docked in Petropavlovsk where is was really cold. They were painting the whole of the back of the ship in another port. Everyone on board who spoke about it, except the Hotel Director, believed that she would be sold in 2017. The Hotel Director said that there had been no decision yet and that Millennium was scheduled for a major dry dock [at some unspecified date].

 

However, the ship is now very dated and was clearly not built originally to the same high specification as Eclipse. Just because we were looking for maintenance issues [so that I could report back on Cruise Critic], we noticed that the original design and finish were just not as good. There were many annoying design features in the PH and the PH bathroom fittings are clearly very dated now. My husband, who really does not care much about these things, noticed how dated the whole ship looks. Personally, this is a bigger issue than lack of maintenance would be. Clearly original parts [e.g. door handles and bathroom plugs] are no longer available and substitutes have to be used.

 

I do not intend to list all the things we noticed because, most of the time, they are unimportant and, at others, were just humorous. Nothing stopped us having yet another great cruise.

[Project_gal]

Please bear with me if it takes a long time to respond and post new information on this thread but Cruise Critic is not behaving itself for me since we have returned. Every time I do anything, I am taken to the top of the page rather than to where I should be so I am having to do a lot of scrolling!

[uktog]

Welcome back

I am interested, did you manage to find additional wines within the premium package or did you pay extra for some even better offering

 

I have not looked at your menus because I've decided I want a surprise next week but I will be interested to compare on a 12 night trip what 2 are "dropped" after

 

I am still hoping for some Alaskan halibut that's not frozen :)

Edited May 20, 2015 by uktog

[delondin]

Isn't the Bristro available to all passengers and some staff members? :confused:

 

happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌞

 

They are referring to the complimentary speciality dining provided to suite guests and whether bistro is included. As usual everyone else can still eat there if they pay the cover charge.

[Gracie115]

Thanks for posting the menus....we LOVED Luminae on TA on Eclipse just a few weeks ago. Perhaps I am misunderstanding something but we had tablecloths on the tables every evening, or were you just referring to brunch?

 

As frequent AQ guests in the past, mostly on S class ships I do disagree that the tables in Luminae are closer together than in Blu. We ate once in Blu this cruise and remarked to each other that Blu's tables, the ones in lines by the windows, are closer together. I DO agree that the positioning is difficult for servers to serve from the correct side in Luminae but that was more about them trying to stand BETWEEN tables lined up which they've never done in Blu, always serving from behind you. Luminae offered just a bit more privacy for those tables but you could still enjoy chatting with the table next to you if you desired. In Blu the tables were SO close together that we always opted for the one or two tables that are in the middle of the room, not next to others.

 

Also we were in a CS on the Eclipse and were also told we could eat in Blu anytime we wanted so it is for all suites, not just RS & PH. We did so once but Luminae was too good to miss!!! But perhaps each ship is stating this differently as has happened in the past with other issues.

 

Thanks again for posting those menus I know many have wanted to see what was being offered. Luminae is a big plus for X and certainly makes me look forward to our next cruise!!!:)

Edited May 20, 2015 by Gracie115

[C-Dragons]

Thanks for posting the menus....we LOVED Luminae on TA on Eclipse just a few weeks ago. Perhaps I am misunderstanding something but we had tablecloths on the tables every evening, or were you just referring to brunch?

 

As frequent AQ guests in the past, mostly on S class ships I do disagree that the tables in Luminae are closer together than in Blu. We ate once in Blu this cruise and remarked to each other that Blu's tables, the ones in lines by the windows, are closer together. I DO agree that the positioning is difficult for servers to serve from the correct side in Luminae but that was more about them trying to stand BETWEEN tables lined up which they've never done in Blu, always serving from behind you. Luminae offered just a bit more privacy for those tables but you could still enjoy chatting with the table next to you if you desired. In Blu the tables were SO close together that we always opted for the one or two tables that are in the middle of the room, not next to others.

 

Also we were in a CS on the Eclipse and were also told we could eat in Blu anytime we wanted so it is for all suites, not just RS & PH. We did so once but Luminae was too good to miss!!! But perhaps each ship is stating this differently as has happened in the past with other issues.

 

Thanks again for posting those menus I know many have wanted to see what was being offered. Luminae is a big plus for X and certainly makes me look forward to our next cruise!!!:)

We were on the Summit last week and ate in Luminae. The ship is receiving the special items exclusive to Luminae, table coverings, china, glassware, etc., a little at a time. On embarkation day, the tables were covered with tablecloths for lunch. Two days later there were placemats on the glass tabletops for lunch, but at dinner the tablecloths were back. We were told that they are still waiting for the runners for the tables which will be used at dinner. The chairs being used are the old ones from the MDR because the new ones haven't arrived yet.

We thought that everything from the glassware to the pillows on the banquet seating went together tastefully. It was a pleasure to eat there. :)

Edited May 20, 2015 by C-Dragons

[Gracie115]

We were on the Summit last week and ate in Luminae. The ship is receiving the special items exclusive to Luminae, table coverings, china, glassware, etc., a little at a time. On embarkation day, the tables were covered with tablecloths for lunch. Two days later there were placemats on the glass tabletops for lunch, but at dinner the tablecloths were back. We were told that they are still waiting for the runners for the tables which will be used at dinner. The chairs being used are the old ones from the MDR because the new ones haven't arrived yet.

We thought that everything from the glassware to the pillows on the banquet seating went together tastefully. It was a pleasure to eat there. :)

 

ah....that explains it....when we were on Eclipse they had just finished constructing Luminae and received the chairs the day we embarked but everything else was in place at the end of that dry dock.......it was probably easier on Eclipse because they were able to do the majority of the work in dry dock....