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

[Lunastella]

17 hours ago, Pushka said:

You are a gym junkie like my husband. He is a much better person if he goes regularly. And the gym at sea is his favourite place on the ship. 😂
 

So gym question. Do they supply the hand towels still? Or do we need to bring one. He works out Hard! 

 

Hi Pushka,

There are loads of hand towels available, as well as chilled face towels. Going to the gym is way easier when the views are this good. 

[Lunastella]

17 hours ago, Barwick Cruiser said:

We were on the Silhouette in June and there were plenty of towels provided in the gym! I would’ve wished for more open floor space for mat work but was thankful for other gym goers not tripping over me 😂 

 

I agree, there was also not alot of floor space for mat work on Milly. There was space for maybe 4 people, but some people just used the studio space when the gym floor was full.

[Lunastella]

9 hours ago, little britain said:

@villauk - looking forward to your thoughts and recommendations!!

 

 

@Lunastella fabulous start! I’ve downloaded Suica and done a trial top up of Y1000. We also stay in Shinjuku so  the lemon 🍋 drink place is now on the list in addition to the Albatross bar which appears in your photo! 
 

This trip is totally out of my comfort zone lol!!

You will have an amazing time Little Britain, don't worry! Just have lots of Lemon 'Soda'!

[Rick&Jeannie]

Amazing review!!! We are *so* looking forward to boarding the ship in about a week!

[lettrich]

I agree about the Spa cafe.  Oceanview cafe was always very crowded in the am, so difficult to get seats.  I much preferred getting avocado toast and fruit at the Spa cafe.  Loved the mint that was added - gave it a nice touch.   I found the gym to be quite crowded so unfortunately did not work out as often as I should have.  I think I remember seeing you and your family at the trivias in the afternoon.  If I remember correctly, you were seated right near us on the last day.  My husband and I always sat at the bar region.  You definitely had quite a day in Kyoto.  We stayed in Kobe - went to an animal park earlier in the day and out for Kobe steak at night.  On this cruise I really did not utilize the balcony much.  I found the door would "stick" so had to keep it open a bit which would fill the cabin with humidity. Looking forward to reading the rest of your review - Laura

[hcat]

if anyone knows, where do they serve the Cap Club Elite bkfast.. used to be in Tuscan?  .. plated or buffet?

[villauk]

Thanks for the information and photo of the monorail, @Lunastella; could you confirm if that is the Port Liner as our guide has told me to take that to reach Sanomiya Station, before taking the train to Himeji? Do all the trains have AC? 

[hxhbk]

< Our plan was to take the monorail from right outside the terminal building to the Sannomiya train station (10 mins), then take the JR Shinkansen to Kyoto station (50 minutes), then a metro from Kyoto station to Kyoto city hall (20 mins), to arrive at 10.30am, just as the festival procession would be passing.>

 

You did the right thing.

We took the complementary shuttle bus to Chinatown, and then walk for about 10 min to Sannomiya Station for our trip to Kyoto via Shinkansen.

Revers routing on the return in the afternoon.

I wish I had known about the monorail routing.

[DaKahuna]

6 hours ago, hcat said:

if anyone knows, where do they serve the Cap Club Elite bkfast.. used to be in Tuscan?  .. plated or buffet?

 

In May it was Tuscan and plated. 

 

It will only be buffet style when they can set up the serving area on non-carpeted flooring.  Since that is not available in Tuscan they have menus and wait staff to take and deliver your orders.   We enjoyed it. 

 

 

Edited August 10 by DaKahuna

[Miaminice]

16 hours ago, Lunastella said:

JR Shinkansen to Kyoto station (50 minutes),

Are you sure you took the Shinkansen Bullet Train?
🤔 the regular JR train takes around 50 minutes to an hour.

The real Shinkansen takes 23 to 25 minutes. 

Just for reference for others following along.
 

We last took the Shinkansen from Osaka - just on the other side of the bay from Kobe - to Kyoto and it took under 15 minutes. It’s amazing! 

[hcat]

7 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

In May it was Tuscan and plated. 

 

It will only be buffet style when they can set up the serving area on non-carpeted flooring.  Since that is not available in Tuscan they have menus and wait staff to take and deliver your orders.   We enjoyed it. 

 

 

thanks.. we prefer the  plated served option,  and Tuscan has a great aft location. 

 

Recently on E Class,  it was held in the Bistro on 5..also very nice although we liked it better  previously in the Tuscan mdr

[billc23]

3 hours ago, hcat said:

thanks.. we prefer the  plated served option,  and Tuscan has a great aft location. 

 

Recently on E Class,  it was held in the Bistro on 5..also very nice although we liked it better  previously in the Tuscan mdr

Just to clarify - Tuscan on the Millennium, the ship the OP is sailing on, is on the third floor - not aft like it is on the S Class ships. On my recent Solstice sailing, we occasionally went to the CC Elite breakfast and it was always buffet style with beverage service. I enquired about it and was told that they determine served vs self serve by the number of CC Elite and above passengers.

 

As John said, it is plated on the Millennium.

 

[patty1955]

30 minutes ago, billc23 said:

Just to clarify - Tuscan on the Millennium, the ship the OP is sailing on, is on the third floor - not aft like it is on the S Class ships. On my recent Solstice sailing, we occasionally went to the CC Elite breakfast and it was always buffet style with beverage service. I enquired about it and was told that they determine served vs self serve by the number of CC Elite and above passengers.

 

As John said, it is plated on the Millennium.

 

I've heard that they have to plate the food if they have a carpet. Only hard surface floors can have a buffet.

[Lunastella]

Day 5: Osaka

 

Today we had a short day in Osaka – the ship arrived at 7am and we had to be back onboard by 2.15pm. Not much time to see the second largest city in Japan, so we decided to not even try, and instead immersed ourselves in food with a Japanese food tour. We booked the tour in advance with Secret Food Tours. (www.secretfoodtours.com/osaka/food-tours-osaka/)

 

But first the gym. I woke at 6.30am and headed straight there for a warm-up run and a deload week weights session (i.e. just an easy 30 min workout). When I got back to the cabin, DS and DM were up and ready to go. Again we parted ways, DS and I went to the Spa Café, while DM went to Oceanview as she wanted some proper carbs.

 

Gym view of Osaka

 

 

I had pretty such the same breakfast as yesterday, but with the additional of a banana, peanut butter, apple, bagel type thing.  And coffee, always coffee.

 

Second Spa Café breakfast

 

 

The tour was due to start at 10.45am, so we considered visiting Osaka Castle beforehand, but the Castle didn’t open until 9am, and what with having to make our way to the food tour meeting point and how large the castle looked, we decided against it.

 

There is a massive Ferris wheel beside the port. Actually, I am sensing a trend, there has been Ferris wheels in every port so far….weird.

 

Another Ferris wheel (the biggest one yet...maybe!)

 

 

The walk from the ship to the metro stop that will bring you straight into Osaka city is only a 5-8 min walk (depending on how fast you walk). From there, we should have taken the metro (with one change) to the starting point of the food tour, however, I messed up (I will admit it!), and inadvertently got on a metro going in the wrong direction! Whoops. So back on the metro in the other direction. By the time we got to the meeting point, DM needed a break, so we went to a coffee shop to cool off. The menu was entirely in Japanese, and while I successfully managed to order a hot coffee, DS ended up with iced milk instead of an iced ‘hot’ chocolate! It was pretty amusing.  She was less amused.

 

A less amused DS

 

 

At 10.30am we made our way to the metro entrance to meet our tour guide. It was a very sunny and hot day, so I got my money’s worth from the UV umbrella. That said, much of the tour was in a covered market which saved us from the heat. The tour was supposed to be 3 hours long but as we needed to be back onboard by 2.15pm, we told the guide we had to leave about 1.30pm at the latest…just in case….don’t want to miss the ship and try to make our own way to Hiroshima!

 

There was one other couple of the tour with us, so 5 people in total. In sum, the food we experienced was great, but the tour itself less so. The tour took place around Tenjinbashi street. While Donburi is the main foody area in Osaka, it’s very touristy, Tenjinbashi street has a more local food market kinda vibe.

 

Outside Tenjinbashi street market

 

 

Inside Tenjinbashi street market

 

 

The organisation of the tour was lacking, for example, the tour started at 10.45am but the first restaurant we were supposed to visit did not open until 11.30am so the guide said ‘we just needed to fill in time’ so he brought us to a nearby shrine and a knife shop and then we still had to wait outside the restaurant for quite a while. It would be better to plan the tour based on the opening times of the restaurants. Also, while the guide was lovely and answered any questions we had, he didn’t really tell us anything about food culture in Japan (unless we specifically asked him a particular question). Overall, I would not recommend this specific food tour.

 

But, as I said, the food itself was very good. We started with okonomiyaki, which is like an omelette/pancake made with eggs, cabbage, pork, and seafood. We sat at kotatsu seating (without shoes) which was a first for me. The okonomiyaki was cooked on a hot plate at our table. It was really different, savoury but also sweet. It was my first time trying it, so that was good. Also, there was beer, so that was good too!

 

Kotatsu seating

 

 

Okonomiyaki

 

 

After that, we walked further into the market to have a sweet pastry in the shape of a fish (a carp, which is the only fish Japanese people will not eat as it’s considered sacred). I had one filled with custard. It was very tasty, also very unhealthy! DS and DM had ice cream with a red bean filling.

 

Custard filled fish pastry

 

 

Chef who made custard filled fish pastry

 

 

Next we wandered further down the street/market and went into an restaurant where they make their own noodles. It was really busy, packed full of locals enjoying lunch so it must be good! We had to wait for a table (again lack of organisation, most food tours I have been reserve an area for the food tour people). But it was well worth the wait, the udon noodles were delicious, better than Tokyo! Plus we had our choice of tempura, I had the vegetable mix.

 

Best noodles yet

 

 

Chef making the best noodles yet

 

 

This was the first food tour I’ve been on where the guide ate the food too; this would not have been an issue had he not proceeded to some  eat most of our noodles!!! We wanted to eat those!

 

There was one more stop, something involving octopus, however I was the only person willing to to try it! It wasn’t great to be honest.

 

Octopus stop

 

 

The guide was very keen for us to leave, even though it was only 1pm and we still had lots of time before we needed to head back to the ship, but we had enough food at that point so we were happy to leave.  Overall, I am glad we did the tour, but it was not worth the expense (about $130 each), however it was great to try some Japanese food which was new to me.

 

After the tour, we took the metro (with 1 change) back to the ship, where I insisted DS take some photos of the Ferris wheel and me. When we got to the terminal, there were huge queues to board, I am not sure why exactly, but it was hot, hot, hot waiting in that queue. People did not look too happy. I was relieved to back to the air conditioned confines of the ship.

 

At this point, I was very behind in writing his review so I headed straight down to Café Al Bacio to catch up. When I seek out a proper table to write, I am down for some serious writing!  I had a coffee and cookie (more food!), and I was there for several hours (so much to catch up on!).  While there, I  got to enjoy the Japanese drummers on the pier marking our departure at 3pm. I sipped my coffee, wrote some lines, and really enjoyed the views as we sailed out of Osaka port.

 

Drummers

 

 

Osaka port views

 

 

 

DS joined me in Café Al Bacio for a while. She passed by Future Cruises on her way and picked up lots of material. She is trying to convince me to go back on Beyond or Ascent in the Med next summer! While I am looking at New Zealand or Argentina at Chrismas…..

 

We headed back to the cabin at about 6pm to get ready for an evening of entertainment and food (more food!). We went to ‘Hollywood Cabaret (I think?? )’ in the theatre at 7pm. This show only involved the singers, but it was still very good.

 

Celebrity singers

 

 

We left a little early to beat the buzzer rush at MDR. It kinda worked, kinda didn’t, we still have to wait maybe 20 mins which isn’t too bad. We got a cocktail and rendezvous’d in the Rendezvous lounge. The previous day, the sommelier in MDR mentioned that it was better value if we ordered a bottle of wine rather than just ordering a glass of wine (as we has been doing so far), as we get a 10% discount on bottles of wine. So this evening I perused the list, and choose a malbac. The idea being that we can drink it over multiple nights…yeah right…lets see how long one bottle lasts between 3 of us!

 

Interesting wines from women wine makers

 

 

The malbec

 

 

Despite not being hungry after all the food from this morning, I still managed to eat a salad, Christmas dinner (turkey) and sacher torte! It went very well with the malbac. We didn’t finish malbec (yay), so we could have it tomorrow night in the Tuscan Grille, very excited for Tuscan Grille!

 

Salad

 

 

Christmas dinner

 

 

Extra veg (of course)

 

 

Sacher Torte

 

 

DM and me feeling very full after the Christmas dinner..or maybe this was before....

 

 

I am pretty sure we headed straight to bed after dinner. On the bed situation, DS and I have been alternating in the bunk bed, and it’s fine now, I am pretty much back to sleeping normally regardless of where I lay my head. Good Night, food coma.

 

Very late non deck non sunset outfit post

 

 

[Lunastella]

22 hours ago, lettrich said:

I agree about the Spa cafe.  Oceanview cafe was always very crowded in the am, so difficult to get seats.  I much preferred getting avocado toast and fruit at the Spa cafe.  Loved the mint that was added - gave it a nice touch.   I found the gym to be quite crowded so unfortunately did not work out as often as I should have.  I think I remember seeing you and your family at the trivias in the afternoon.  If I remember correctly, you were seated right near us on the last day.  My husband and I always sat at the bar region.  You definitely had quite a day in Kyoto.  We stayed in Kobe - went to an animal park earlier in the day and out for Kobe steak at night.  On this cruise I really did not utilize the balcony much.  I found the door would "stick" so had to keep it open a bit which would fill the cabin with humidity. Looking forward to reading the rest of your review - Laura

 

Hi Laura, we also didn't use the balcony as much as normal. The outdoor furniture was always wet from condensation, and when we left the door open everything inside would fog up!

 

Jealous of your Kobe beef experience. We didn't have any...but after the day out in Kyoto we just couldn't go out again! 

 

Spa cafe is the best! But as you will see, somehow I get dragged back into Oceanview over the next few days, nothing to do with the pain au chocolat!

[billc23]

1 hour ago, patty1955 said:

I've heard that they have to plate the food if they have a carpet. Only hard surface floors can have a buffet.

That is correct as far as I know. The entrance to Tuscan on the Solstice is a hard surface and that is where they set up the buffet if they are not having table service.

[Lunastella]

17 hours ago, villauk said:

Thanks for the information and photo of the monorail, @Lunastella; could you confirm if that is the Port Liner as our guide has told me to take that to reach Sanomiya Station, before taking the train to Himeji? Do all the trains have AC? 

 

Yes the monorail is the Port Liner. And every train we were on had air con!

[Lunastella]

16 hours ago, hxhbk said:

< Our plan was to take the monorail from right outside the terminal building to the Sannomiya train station (10 mins), then take the JR Shinkansen to Kyoto station (50 minutes), then a metro from Kyoto station to Kyoto city hall (20 mins), to arrive at 10.30am, just as the festival procession would be passing.>

 

You did the right thing.

We took the complementary shuttle bus to Chinatown, and then walk for about 10 min to Sannomiya Station for our trip to Kyoto via Shinkansen.

Revers routing on the return in the afternoon.

I wish I had known about the monorail routing.

 

We made a good decision for once!!! Yay.

[Lunastella]

6 hours ago, Miaminice said:

Are you sure you took the Shinkansen Bullet Train?
🤔 the regular JR train takes around 50 minutes to an hour.

The real Shinkansen takes 23 to 25 minutes. 

Just for reference for others following along.
 

We last took the Shinkansen from Osaka - just on the other side of the bay from Kobe - to Kyoto and it took under 15 minutes. It’s amazing! 

 

Ah Miaminice, you might be right, out train took 50 minutes so it must have been the JR train. 

[villauk]

57 minutes ago, Lunastella said:

 

Yes the monorail is the Port Liner. And every train we were on had air con!

 

Great, thank you 👍.

[hcat]

2 hours ago, billc23 said:

Just to clarify - Tuscan on the Millennium, the ship the OP is sailing on, is on the third floor - not aft like it is on the S Class ships. On my recent Solstice sailing, we occasionally went to the CC Elite breakfast and it was always buffet style with beverage service. I enquired about it and was told that they determine served vs self serve by the number of CC Elite and above passengers.

 

As John said, it is plated on the Millennium.

 

yes, it can be confusing . 

There is a  difference between.. Tuscan MDR on E Class ships, and the Tuscan Specialty Rest  located aft on non E Class.. 

 

We have had Elite bkfst at both as well as recently at the Bistro on E Class..  Our fav  was Tuscan MDR with the Fellini Decor, & Italian Opera music ...but it is a nice experience.  

 

lite breakfast..no cooked meals..but great coffee and Mimosas!

[billc23]

56 minutes ago, hcat said:

Tuscan Specialty Rest  located aft on non E Class.. 

Aft on S class, but as I said above on deck 3 (Port side) on the Millennium and most other M class ships. 

[Travelexpert35]

Loving your review. We were on the Millenium in 2019 Transpacific to Japan from Vancouver just after she got renovated. We really enjoyed the layout of the ship and the extra elevators. Was on the Edge in 2020 and prefer the real balcony vs the Infinite. We’re looking forward to travelling back to Japan in the next couple of years. Enjoy the rest of your cruise!!

[Miaminice]

1 hour ago, Travelexpert35 said:

We’re looking forward to travelling back to Japan in the next couple of years. Enjoy the rest of your cruise!!

 We have done three cruises to Japan so far - and we are looking forward to another one in May 2025.

 

We think they did a great job renovation Millennium. Yes, she‘s still an M class ship, but she feels fresh and modern compared to some of her sisters. We have been on Infinity before our last trip on Millennium and it was like day and night.

Edited August 10 by Miaminice

[DaKahuna]

3 hours ago, Lunastella said:

There was one more stop, something involving octopus, however I was the only person willing to to try it! It wasn’t great to be honest.

 

It's called takoyaki and Osaka is famous for it.  Am surprised you did not notice a lot of shops selling it.  My DW purchased some in the mall next to the ship there in Osaka and was disappointed that they had run out of the sauce that goes on it and did not like it.  She later bought some with the sauce and was happy.  I have never liked it so did not eat any.