Detailed (& long) review of Celebrity Millennium 12 Night Best of Japan 14-26th July

[Jim_Iain]

Thanks for your wonderful review.   Enjoying it much.

[hcat]

Very entertaining and informative review so far..  anice pics despite the rain...We travel with plastic ponchos..just in case!

 

Hope u will focus a bit on the ship..one of the few X ship's we never tried!

[Provence55always]

DaKahuna after reading your review we decided to book12 nights pre cruise on land as we love doing our own thing. We are lucky to be retired and don’t think we will be back this way again. Pity about the lack of Japanese meals onboard.

 

 

 

[D. B.]

6 hours ago, Lunastella said:

A very good idea indeed. I liked the deserts mostly, they were just not always what I expected!

The first time I found Appel Pie on the dessert menu and ordered it I was crest fallen at what arrived.

 My Idea of Appel Pie and Celebrities ended up being worlds apart.

 But their Cheese Cake is Fabulous.🤤

[Shiba_Lover]

Looking forward to the rest of your trip.  

[Rick&Jeannie]

We will be doing this same itinerary very soon. Looking forward to more of your review!

[STIG OF THE DUMP]

We are doing this itinerary next year. Thanks for your great review! Keep it coming. And enjoy every moment.

[debfed65]

Love your cheeky humour in your commentary 😆it is very fun to read.   We will be on Millie October 6th so we are avidly following along!   

[StopTheWorld]

Loving your review! ☺️ We’re doing the same trip in October (and the dreaded 14hr BA flight from Heathrow 😳). Hoping the rain abates for you. We’re from Glasgow and,  like you, don’t go on holiday to get rained on!! I’ve added a rain jacket to my packing list 😜 

[DaKahuna]

6 hours ago, Provence55always said:

DaKahuna after reading your review we decided to book12 nights pre cruise on land as we love doing our own thing. We are lucky to be retired and don’t think we will be back this way again. Pity about the lack of Japanese meals onboard.

 

  I hope you have a wonderfful time.  I love Japan so much that i brough a piece of it home with me in the form of my lovely bride of 51+ years and counting  😃

 There was Sushi on 5 onboard but we never went there on our cruise as we had lunch ashore everyday we were there, which is something we usually only do if it is included with an excrusion or we are in Cozumel.  

  

 I hope you treat us with a review of your pre-cruise adventures as well as those of your cruise. 

 

[Mark.Jules]

Looking forward to each days post. Thank you for taking the time to write this review.

 

[Lunastella]

18 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

@Lunastella I am really enjoying your review.  Tokyo is such a wonderful city and am glad to see you, your mom, and your sister are having a wonderful time.  

 

 As for rain proof.  Is there anything that is comfortable that is truely rain proof.  As you may have noticed the Japanese answer to rain is the umbrealla.  The umbreall is ubiquitous in Japan and is used for protection against the rain as well as from the sun.  

 

 I look forward to the remainder of your review.  

 

Thanks DaKahuna. As you will see later today, I ended up buying one of those UV umbrellas! Your review earlier in the summer was super helpful to me, thanks so much for sharing.

[Lunastella]

17 hours ago, Provence55always said:

You have us both laughing as I read your report to my husband but so much important information 👌. We booked premium economy with Air France when flights were first released now they have doubled plus in price so feeling very lucky. Your flight with BA looks very good…..we always try to avoid Heathrow. Great to get the hotel upgrade👍

 

I used to travel Business at one stage, but then I figured I would prefer to spend that money on a really good hotels and restaurants instead, so its always economy for me now. But premium economy really was a nice surprise!

[Lunastella]

17 hours ago, Susanb10567 said:

Wonderful review so far…looking forward to following along..

 

Japan is on my list to visit and trying to decide a cruise or land tour…curious if on board if they had any local entertainment or enrichment lectures from the region…

 

They were local drummers onboard in the theatre one night who were excellent, but I was really surprised by the lack of enrichment talks about Japan on the cruise, there were none as far as I know. We always go to some of these talks on previous cruises, so I missed them on this particular cruise, no idea why they were absent.  

[Lunastella]

16 hours ago, villauk said:

Thanks for this review. I was wondering if anyone was going to start one before we join Millennium in a couple of weeks. Hoping that the heat starts to drop and the rain eases before we board as I do have that Irish blood you mentioned 😁 🤞🏻. 
 

Looking forward to reading more and I may have a few questions along the way 😉.

 

Happy to answer any questions you have Villauk, there seems to be relatively fewer reviews of the Asian cruises.

[Lunastella]

16 hours ago, Chrisclaire said:

Thankyou for your fun & informative review, really enjoying it & looking forward to the next chapter!

Photos are great 

Enjoy! 😃

 

Thanks Chrisclaire. I took most of the photos but the really good ones are probably DS!

[Lunastella]

16 hours ago, cinnamon said:

Flying in Premium!  No such luck for us. I did enquire but an extra £725.00 pp per flight. No way. We’ll be slumming it in Economy I’m afraid. 
Really loving reading this with only 7 weeks till our trip. I’ll be contacting my TA to see if we can request early check-in at the ANA Intercontinental hotel. Our flight is due to land at 7.00 am so it would be a very long wait till 3.00 pm plus we haven a private guide booked for 3.00 pm so really hoping to have had a nap by then. 

Hi Cinnamon

I usually fly economy, so this was pleasant surprise for sure. But in an effort to make you feel better, there are advantages to being in economy- they offer you way less alcohol for one, hence you will feel much better when you arrive!! (unless of course you a) don’t drink or b) have great self control).  Fingers crossed for your early check in!

[Lunastella]

16 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 That is a very hard decision.  While we thoroughly enjoyed our cruise and the time we spent ashore, I think we have pretty much decided to do a land tour next time.  Travel by train from Hokaido down to Kyushu, stopping at major / interesting cities along the way and doing our own thing.  

 

 On our sailing this past May, see my live review linked in my signature, they had a Taiko Dum group come aboard for one nights entertaining.  They were fantastic.  There were lectures on Japan held in the Theater as well as printed port reviews and places to visit given to us in our staterooms.  

 

In my opinion the biggest miss was the lack for various Japanese meals in the dining rooms and buffet, or at least we did not see any. 

 

 

I agree, while I really enjoyed the cruise, what I missed was spending more time in the countryside. Most of the ports were in big cities, and we just did not have enough time to get our into the countryside (particularly when you are not on an excursion), so I feel like I dont know what the countryside is like. I would like to do some hiking and explore places outside the main cities. 

 

There was a chef's Japanese special each night in the MDR - DS tried it sometimes (with mxed results), but we preferred to eat Japanese food when out for lunch each day. 

[Lunastella]

16 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Thanks for your wonderful review.   Enjoying it much.

Thank you!

[Lunastella]

16 hours ago, hcat said:

Very entertaining and informative review so far..  anice pics despite the rain...We travel with plastic ponchos..just in case!

 

Hope u will focus a bit on the ship..one of the few X ship's we never tried!

 

 

Now that's a good idea!

 

To be honest, I dont talk too much about the ship (compared to my last review of Beyond where I had hundreds of photos of the ship) as its just 'grand' rather than 'wow' so there is not much to say about it. But I am happy to answer any questions you have!

[Lunastella]

15 hours ago, D. B. said:

The first time I found Appel Pie on the dessert menu and ordered it I was crest fallen at what arrived.

 My Idea of Appel Pie and Celebrities ended up being worlds apart.

 But their Cheese Cake is Fabulous.🤤

 

I actually quite like the apple pie!! 

[Lunastella]

15 hours ago, Shiba_Lover said:

Looking forward to the rest of your trip.  

Thanks Shiba

[Lunastella]

13 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

We will be doing this same itinerary very soon. Looking forward to more of your review!

 

If you have any specific questions, just let me know!

[Lunastella]

12 hours ago, STIG OF THE DUMP said:

We are doing this itinerary next year. Thanks for your great review! Keep it coming. And enjoy every moment.

 

You will have a fab time!

[Lunastella]

12 hours ago, debfed65 said:

Love your cheeky humour in your commentary 😆it is very fun to read.   We will be on Millie October 6th so we are avidly following along!   

 

My family think is hilarious that I am considered humorous!  But I love it!