On Millennium 6 Aug Alaska Sailing - Any Questions?

[trabeler]

Hi All... finally returned to cruising after such a long wait.  We boarded the Millenium yesterday in Seattle and frankly it was one of the smoothest we've ever experienced.  This was the first sailing to enforce the pre-cruise testing requirement.  Our assigned check-in time was 12:30 to 1:00.  We took an Uber to the port and arrived about 12:25 pm.  Upon arrival, you check in your luggage at a porter desk (where they also checked your name off a list of all passengers) and then were directed to a line based on when your assigned time was.  There was a growing line outside of what appeared to be early arrivals, however we were sent straight into the terminal since it was our time.  

 

Inside the terminal we were directed to a specific line in a row of maybe 10 agents, each with a small line of 2-3 people.  This agent checked your vaccination card and PCR/Antigen test results.  Everything was photographed using a touchpad device they had.  For the vaccine cards, name and birthdate were checked against the passports.  For the test paperwork, all the agent looked for was the testing date.  We sailed 6 Aug (Saturday) so anything 3 Aug (Tuesday) or later was ok (our testing was done on Tuesday afternoon so we were just within the 72 hrs but comfortably within a "3 day" requirements).  We then had to confirm that there were no changes to the health questionnaire that we filled out on the app the day before.

 

We then went upstairs to go through security and were then directed to another agent who scanned our boarding pass and took scans of our passports.  Then over to the ship where they did one more scan of our boarding pass at the gangway and we were done!  We then went to our cabin and our room keys were in an envelope on the door.  Maybe 15 minutes total time from arrival to in our cabin.

 

I didn't notice any special lines throughout the process for different captain's club status or suite/aqua, but frankly we moved through so quickly I didn't get much time to investigate!

 

We're in one of the new mid-ship inside cabins that were added in the 2019 retrofit.  We mostly sail in inside cabins and this is one of the better ones in design, storage, and layout.  Definitely don't miss the shower curtains they used to have!  We haven't been on any of the Millennium class ships in years and were impressed with all the upgrades... it definitely feels more Solstice-like now.

 

Heard from one of the staff that there are around 1000 passengers on this sailing.  Definitely feels less crowded than normal, which is nice.  No masks on board for passengers other than a few people here and there.  All the staff still wear masks at all times.  They did provide two nice fabric Celebrity branded masks in our cabin for use in ports.

 

Ask away if there are any questions.  Kind of a grey foggy sea day today, so hopefully things will clear up before we get to Ketchikan tomorrow.

[TeeRick]

Thanks!  Following your thread.  We go on Sept 24th.

[zaxanon6]

Thank you so much for your detailed report, and have a great vacation!

Questions if you have time:

- What's the Thalassotherapy pool like? Previous reports made it sound cold and the water level was low.

- Did they give out tracelets or wrist ribbons?

- Are there any restrictions on the fitness center?

 

Thanks again

[Locobill49]

It’s good to hear that the time limit for tests was 3 days instead of the 72hour limit. We sail on Aug 20 and Loki g forward to it. 

[cruisemom42]

We're also on the Aug 20th sailing, appointments made two days ago for our tests.

 

I'd love to hear any insights on dining as your week goes on:  How is the Oceanview Cafe?  All served to you?  Any items/areas that are particularly good?

 

Are you doing any specialty dining?

 

[maggie.1008]

We sail on Aug 27th. Do you have many children on board ?

[Silkroad]

Following. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. I’m happy to see that check in was smooth. 

[trabeler]

2 hours ago, zaxanon6 said:

- What's the Thalassotherapy pool like? Previous reports made it sound cold and the water level was low.

- Did they give out tracelets or wrist ribbons?

- Are there any restrictions on the fitness center?

The T-pool is open but there are no bubbles on the lie-down sections.  I asked an attendant about it and he didn't know why but would check.  The water temp was on the cool side this morning but another couple we talked with said it was warmer yesterday.  Will check it again tomorrow.,

 

No tracelets or wrist ribbons.  The fitness center is pretty much like normal, other than a few exercise machines are out of service for social distancing.

 

[trabeler]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

I'd love to hear any insights on dining as your week goes on:  How is the Oceanview Cafe?  All served to you?  Any items/areas that are particularly good?

 

Are you doing any specialty dining?

 

Everything is served by staff in the buffet.  Only water/coffee is self-serve.  So far the food and selection has been good.  There has been a dedicated indian food section yesterday lunch/dinner so will be interesting to see if that continues or if they rotate the cuisines.

 

We did Tuscan last night to take advantage of the first day 30% off special.  Food was excellent and restaurant was never more than about 30% full.

[NevadaJo]

Your experience from Pier 91 sounds much better than ours (July 30) from Pier 66. Darn. Wish we had opened the two masks packets. We had plenty of our own so we never opened them. Just an FYI. Our Celebrity Suite still had a shower curtain. 

[ryansmousehouse]

Thanks for the info.. We cruise on the 27th.... Did you happen to notice if test results on your phone is ok or are they looking for paper... We will be getting are antigen test on the way to Seattle and won't have access to a printer😀

[NevadaJo]

2 minutes ago, trabeler said:

Everything is served by staff in the buffet.  Only water/coffee is self-serve.  So far the food and selection has been good.  There has been a dedicated indian food section yesterday lunch/dinner so will be interesting to see if that continues or if they rotate the cuisines.

 

We did Tuscan last night to take advantage of the first day 30% off special.  Food was excellent and restaurant was never more than about 30% full.

It stays Indian all week. If they have Panang Chicken try it. Awesome

[midwestlady]

2 hours ago, NevadaJo said:

Your experience from Pier 91 sounds much better than ours (July 30) from Pier 66. Darn. Wish we had opened the two masks packets. We had plenty of our own so we never opened them. Just an FYI. Our Celebrity Suite still had a shower curtain. 

Double checking here - your comment confused me.  My boarding documents for August 20th sailing says Pier 66 not 91.   Did Trabeler board Millie from Pier 91?   I didn't see that in the original comments.

Thanks!

[paulabr]

4 hours ago, Locobill49 said:

It’s good to hear that the time limit for tests was 3 days instead of the 72hour limit. We sail on Aug 20 and Loki g forward to it. 

Aug 20 th also, agree 3 days better than 72 hours.

[schittenden]

24 minutes ago, midwestlady said:

Double checking here - your comment confused me.  My boarding documents for August 20th sailing says Pier 66 not 91.   Did Trabeler board Millie from Pier 91?   I didn't see that in the original comments.

Thanks!

We’re Pier 66 for 8/13 too

[Fly and Sail]

39 minutes ago, midwestlady said:

Double checking here - your comment confused me.  My boarding documents for August 20th sailing says Pier 66 not 91.   Did Trabeler board Millie from Pier 91?   I didn't see that in the original comments.

Thanks!

 

Pier 91 is an outlier as we docked there yesterday so the Millie leaves from there as well. I believe from next week on it's back to Pier 66.

[trabeler]

1 hour ago, midwestlady said:

Did Trabeler board Millie from Pier 91?   I didn't see that in the original comments.

 

Correct... we boarded Pier 91 for the 6 August sailing but we will return to Pier 66 at the end of the cruise.  Celebrity has advised that they will provide free transportation from Pier 66 to Pier 91 for anyone who parked at 91.  It seems that this was a one-off since there looked to be another ship docked at Pier 66 on the 6th for a day stop in Seattle.

[trabeler]

3 hours ago, NevadaJo said:

It stays Indian all week. If they have Panang Chicken try it. Awesome

Thanks... will definitely keep an eye out for the Panang Chicken.  They had masala mushrooms today which were exceptional.  Some of the buffet food has been a bit heavy on the salt for us, but we tend to be more sensitive to salt than most.

[trabeler]

3 hours ago, ryansmousehouse said:

We cruise on the 27th.... Did you happen to notice if test results on your phone is ok or are they looking for paper... We will be getting are antigen test on the way to Seattle and won't have access to a printer😀

Sorry - didn't happen to notice if anyone used their phone.  The group in front of us and in the lines to the right and left all had paper copies.  They took photos of everything so it might make it a bit hard for them to get a good picture of the entire results from your phone screen.  They definitely did want to see the original vaccine card, however.

[briguy1314]

Thank you so much for the updates! We too are on the 27th and find anything you can share about the “new way of sailing” (aka any changes or things that are different) super helpful!

for the note on the piers - they are using 66 for the majority of the season with the exception of one or two out of 91. We had to call and clarify as it was very confusing!

 

 

[cruisemom42]

23 hours ago, trabeler said:

We did Tuscan last night to take advantage of the first day 30% off special.  Food was excellent and restaurant was never more than about 30% full.

 

What did you have (if you don't mind me asking, lol)?

 

And have you noticed whether they are offering discounts on any specialty dining onboard?

[NevadaJo]

On 8/7/2021 at 1:43 PM, midwestlady said:

Double checking here - your comment confused me.  My boarding documents for August 20th sailing says Pier 66 not 91.   Did Trabeler board Millie from Pier 91?   I didn't see that in the original comments.

Thanks!

Yes.  We left from Pier 66 and arrived back to Pier 91. Doublecheck your pier numbers.

 

 

[phoenix_dream]

A question more generic to current Celebrity procedures in general.  The email we got for our Sept cruise talks about getting testing ahead of time and so on, and then there is a section which describes how they are going to handle children unable to be vaccinated.  Right below that wording is a button that says "Register Here" and right below that is our name and some kind of reference ID.

 

So my question is - is the 'Register Here" button for people to register their unvaccinated kids, or is this a registration we are supposed to complete?  So confusing the way Celebrity words things!

[Peteymil]

14 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

A question more generic to current Celebrity procedures in general.  The email we got for our Sept cruise talks about getting testing ahead of time and so on, and then there is a section which describes how they are going to handle children unable to be vaccinated.  Right below that wording is a button that says "Register Here" and right below that is our name and some kind of reference ID.

 

So my question is - is the 'Register Here" button for people to register their unvaccinated kids, or is this a registration we are supposed to complete?  So confusing the way Celebrity words things!

My take was that the register here it was for people who needed to register their unvaccinated kids, so they could be tested. 

[jgmorgan]

Definitely for unvaccinated kids.  I misunderstood and registered a few days back, but when speaking later to Celebrity it was made clear to me.  So, we unregistered.😬