Review of Millie 6/30

[berryhappy24]

We all know about the cancelled cruise we dealt with and issues there, this thread is to discuss the ship, not ports, just the ship. Besides the whole "your cruise can be cancelled" thing, this is what I learned while cruising that may help other new cruisers.

 

Check in-

 

from taxi to champagne greeting to stateroom took about 15 minutes. Everything was seamless and easy. Our luggage was all delivered in about 2 hours.

 

Stateroom-

 

We were in room 8032 (balcony), we liked where it was located, 3 rooms off the elevators. The room reminded us of an RV, not in a bad way, but the plastic walls, small bathroom, etc. felt like an RV.

 

Our balcony was decent size, 2 chairs and a small table. Enough for us. After the 3rd day in an ugly port, we didn't spend much time there anyway. The only sight was the waste and garbage trucks unloading the ship.

 

The room was clean and nothing was worn looking. The bedding was comfortable with extra pillows

 

Ice and water were replenished daily and the turndown chocolates were great.

 

The shower isn't as small as many made it seem. We have a stall shower at home and it was actually larger than our home shower. The curtain does stay in place if you keep the bathroom door closed.

 

As mentioned here, a nightlight is a lifesaver for the bathroom at night. Beware that the US plug in the bathroom isn't polarized, so you'll need an adaptor or a nightlight with straight plugs.

 

We had more than enough storage for 2 adults, the 3 suitcases fit under the bed and we had enough hangers in the closet.

 

Dining

 

While the food was overall good, we felt the variety was lacking. The buffet was mainly the same every day. I was looking forward to the sushi bar, but it wasn't that great. If you are an occasional sushi eater or new to sushi, it will be fine. If you really eat sushi, you may be disappointed.

 

We did wish that the dining room would cater to the countries we were visiting. While it Spain or Italy it would have been nice to have dishes from those cultures. We did eat lunch while in port, but usually had to be back before dinner.

 

As many have mentioned before, the desserts look better than they are. The whole time our table was just wishing for a regular peice of cake, all of the cakes are mouse-like or creamy. But, the chocolate chip cookies at the pool grill, not the buffet, were awesome as were the chocolate croissants, everyone was right. And if you like the Cova Chocolates, buy Nutella, it tastes exactly the same.

 

We didn't get to experience the Olympic, our reservation was for the night we had to leave.

 

Entertainment

 

We attended 3 of the shows in the Celebrity theater. The three we attended were great, the singers did a great job.

 

The Coverdales are a great, and good looking, group. We often looked for their show. They often performed at the Cova or the pool in the late afternoon.

 

The evenings were pretty quiet, mostly because we had early tours the next day. Cosmos would have about 20 people there, except for the chocolate buffet night, the place was packed.

 

Service

We felt that the service by the staff was great. Even though we had a lack of communication by the Captain, we felt the staff kept up their service. The only slip in service came after the cruise was cancelled and guests were leaving. We thought it was probably because many guests left without tipping. We made sure we left extra tips because of what the staff had to put up with. Many guests felt it necessary to yell at the waiters and stateroom attendants when they were angry.

 

Laundry service was good, except the last 2 days when the ship couldn't process anymore grey water in port (in port 5 days) and had to shut down laundry service. No pool towels one day.

 

Ship

 

Overall she was in good condition. The next cruise should be very clean, the staff mentioned that many were staying on through drydock to clean top to bottom.

[ATLfuzzy]

Thanks for your review. Also thanks for the updates *during* your cruise. I know the whole ordeal was amazingly disgusting and a let down, but thanks for giving what feels like a balanced review. You were open and honest without being scathing just because you could.

 

I was expecting the first review to include hair in the food! roaches everywhere! stolen wallets on board!

 

Thanks again, and I'm glad you made it home safely!

[chrismch]

I reviewed your saga as well which was concise and well written. In this review your voiced many of the same feelings I had on our January cruise. I too wished for more dining variety and definitely feel that when cruising foreign ports there should be some local dishes made to keep the "flavor" of the cruise alive.

 

I regret that you didn't get to the ports as expected and know that can be very disappointing when you have traveled all that distance and made all the plans. I can imagine the port garbage stench as there was a garbage strike in Italy since May! Supposedly it was settled the end of last week with the tourist areas the first to be cleaned up.

 

I hope you will be able to find your way to Santorini another day!!