Review 12-16-2007 Eastern Caribbean including links to Celebrity Today & Menus LONG

[larronry]

This is my long review of our 12/16/2007 Eastern Caribbean sailing on the Millennium. I was sailing with my husband, 2 year old son, and our friends whom we met on our 2004 Century sailing. I will focus this review for adults. I will post another review focusing on family/children issues in the family forum.

 

Embarkation

 

Embarkation was a bit of a nightmare when we arrived and I was surprised. I have arrived at about the same time at Port Everglades for my previous two cruises (between 12 & 1) and usually find embarkation to be easy and quick. This time I arrived to find a zoo. I later found out that the Millie had to undergo a Coast Guard inspection and every crew member had to go through immigration due to the transatlantic crossing and the ship being out of the country for over 6 months. Also, there had been an incident at the port causing the port to close down for about an hour. The Cruise Director mentioned at our CC gathering that the port also needed to adjust to loading the ship since it was the first time the ship had been at the port in such a long time. Heck the person at the gate to the port told us the wrong pier to go to, luckily I had already looked up the correct one and had informed our roll call because some of them said that the sign for the correct pier didn’t have a ship listed at the gate they came in. So I believe the ship should be at the same pier for this entire season and that is 25. Upon entering the building we were handed a paper stating that the rooms wouldn’t be ready until 1pm. Being that I had my 2 year old son with me I got through everything easier then some other did. Our friends arrived before we did but didn’t board until after 3pm. They were put in a room and had to sit for hours and have no idea why. Our hardest issue was trying to figure out what line to go in. When we asked someone who had on a Celebrity name tag they asked us if we were in the Captains Club we said yes and they told us to go into this line. I walked through the line and then waited pulled out my paperwork and realized that it wasn’t for the level of Captains Club I’m at. I went out and asked someone else who saw the stroller and gear and said that’s OK go ahead and use the line. Once checked in we were escorted back out security so that we could use the elevators. Best part about this was we got to avoid the boarding pictures which I have to say used the most boring background I’ve every seen for a boarding shot (standard photo blue background). We then met up with the line for the gangway to board the ship. By the time we boarded it was after 1pm and we were given our champagne and taken to our cabin.

 

Cabin

 

After having had our cruise cancelled last year and ending up on the Caribbean Princess Deck 9 all the way forward and the seas being extremely rough and we were bruised from being tossed about in our cabin (the crew was getting sea sick so you know the seas were rough) we took Deck 2 Mid Ship towards Aft. The carpeting was worn but I was expecting that from reading previous post. The power button on the TV was broken so it could only be turned off and on by the remote and the batteries were probably low and therefore you had to point the remote perfectly at the TV. There was some mold in the shower

The room was always cleaned by the time we came back after breakfast and the cabin steward always open the door for us if she saw us in the hallway, but she never called us by name. First time that has ever happened to me since I have been sailing with my husband. When I used to travel with friends it might not have happened but they might not of known who was who.

There were a few issues though one was my son didn’t count. The sofa bed wasn’t pulled out for him and he didn’t deserve or maybe pay for a piece of chocolate for his pillow. Since this was a free cruise for my husband and myself (well sort of since we upgraded to an outside) we paid nearly $500 for him so financially he deserved more service then we did. Another incident was that we were given the wrong luggage tags. This might seem trivial but when I discuss debarkation you will see that it became an important issue.

 

Dining

 

We found the Buffet to be limited and there were a lot of repeat foods served. I of course expect this during breakfast but I don’t expect this during lunch. We got fairly bored and as the week progressed I started eating salad for lunch and then skipping lunch although I still fed my son. I know that the buffet area is smaller then Princess but I remember looking forward to lunch on Century and really enjoying it and I just could not say that about the Millie on this sailing. I am a vegetarian and although I certainly didn’t expect the same service I got on the Century (our waiter and Asst. Maitre D’ there went above and beyond) I didn’t expect the complete opposite. They still had the separate vegetarian menu and the Asst. Maitre’ D had promised to bring the next days menu every night but it never happened. I didn’t like most of the food that I had and was eating only until I was no longer hungry. We had to have the slowest waiter on the ship. The group behind us would sit down after us and order more courses and be done way before we were. Some nights it would take 10 to 15 minutes to get our rolls. He also had no personality and wouldn’t remember who ordered what. My husband found the meat rather tough especially since they expect you to cut it with butter knives and they served the same dish on more then one night which we‘ve never seen on a 7 night cruise. We only ate in the dining room for dinner. There also seemed to be language issues throughout the week causing a lot of misunderstandings, wrong orders, and things that were ordered to never arrive.

Breakfast in the buffet was ok. We loved the waffles. I always got some sort of cheese omelet as well (everything I got I shared with my son) and thought it was weird that they would put the cheese in and then dump it on the plate like the heat of the omelet is supposed to melt the cheese. I let the stove melt the cheese when I make omelets so of course my son wouldn’t eat it. My husband had problems because he would ask for 3 sausages and either they didn’t like that he was asking for more then the standard . This was an issue at lunch as well (he didn’t like a particular piece of meat because it was too fatty but when he asked for them to switch the pieces of meat they gave him a new plate and then I guess he was supposed to start all over with everything he had already put on his plate).

 

Activities

 

My husband participated in Karaoke and this was real popular and they would stop allowing people to sign up. People would come up and would be disappointed. My husband overheard on girl talk them into to allowing her to sing after they had already turned down several people which he thought was unfair. Also, the movies were old and in fact one of the movies shown was the same one shown on our Princess cruise last year.

 

Entertainment

 

We enjoyed the entertainment most nights and found the Singers and Dancers to be very good.

 

Itinerary/Ports

 

Here it was definitely lacking. So that you understand where I am coming from since we live in South Florida we don’t go cruising to go to a beach and we can certainly golf pretty much year round. That said the itinerary is pretty boring. San Juan is the most interesting port with the most to do, see, and shop in. The only thing is it reminds me more of an American city than a Caribbean island. Next stop Tortola, BVI. Although according to the ships website we were supposed to dock we ended up being tendered. We waited until the bulk of those getting off were off so we could go straight to the tenders and not have to wait. Although this was a quaint island and nice to walk around there wasn’t much here to see. There were only 5 stores listed in the Discover Shopping Ashore guide so that should give you an idea.

Next we arrived at Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic. Here we docked and took a $5 shuttle downtown. Don’t do that. They drop you off at a park in which they are playing music and dancing and selling crafts. But, to get back to the ship you need to walk through slums to another park to catch the shuttle. Our cruise next year also goes here and we will take the $7 shuttle to Altos de Chavon. Here the shopping guide lists 1 store but at least the area is beautiful. You can also take a Taxi to the Marina for about $15. There is one store listed there as well.

Our last stop was Labadee, Haiti which was a nice private beach. Tendering was the worst experience I have ever had in tendering. After having been there for two hours they were still having people go to the theater to get tickets. So we finally went. It was empty so we thought good, short wait. We were there for a good half hour. Finally we are called to go downstairs and they are collecting tickets but they are letting people through whether they have a ticket or not. This must be an explanation as to why we had to wait so long. The shopping here had great deals if you can tolerate they aggressive venders (we didn’t bother). This is one of the larger private island beaches which is nice. Maybe it’s built for the larger RCCL crowd but there was plenty of chairs and room for a Celebrity crowd.

 

Debarkation

 

We were given Purple 2 and I looked at the sheet and saw last to debark at 10:20 and thought nothing of it and thought it would be great because my father wouldn’t have to get to the port too early to get us. That morning I mentioned to my husband that we can spend time with our son on 10 before going to Celebrity Theater to wait to be called to Disembark. Sounds perfect. Except I’m getting the carry offs out of the room (toys and medical equipment and DVD, and bed bars, and boy it’s a lot of stuff) and the 2 year old wants out so my husband decides to walk him in the hallway. I didn’t know they were going to disappear. I’m ready to go and they are no where in sight. I start screaming down the hallway for them and nothing. I can’t go in the direction they are in because I have the bed bars underneath the stroller sticking out and there is a cart in the hallway so I can’t get by. I have no choice but to go in the opposite direction so now I have to push a stroller and pull a suitcase on wheels. Not easy so I go straight to the theater. Now I am using the Aft elevator and have to go all the way Forward.

My husband eventually realizes I’m gone and goes up on 10 looking for me. He never heard me say Celebrity Theater and never read the paperwork. So he goes to guest relations and they look up the room number and tell him Rendez-Vous Lounge (had to walk through there to get to Celebrity Theater so when I later discover what I discover I get pissed). When I’m not there he goes back to guest relations to try and get them to page me but they refuse. Now I’ve already tried to page him and the people running the Celebrity Theater disembarkation know I’m looking for my husband and son. Guest relations refuses to help my husband any further and of course he has left his cell phone at home. Had guest relations just contacted the other locations by radio they would have found out where I was but here we are with a Celebrity Customer Relations issue.

Another guest on the ship finally loaned my husband a cell and he called me and I told him where I was. When he told me everything I looked more closely at the disembarkation packed and realized that we were given the luggage tags for deck 2 forward and not deck 2 aft and had we been given the right luggage tags my husband would have found me faster and I wouldn’t have had as far to walk with all the stuff. However getting off the ship was a breeze.

 

Dinner Dress Code:

Sunday: Casual

Monday: Formal

Tuesday: Casual

Wednesday: Informal

Thursday: Casual

Friday: Formal

Saturday: Casual

 

Celebrity Todays: http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/sharonrj/cruise%20critic/CelebrityToday/

 

Menus: http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/sharonrj/cruise%20critic/Menus/

 

Kids Program: http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/sharonrj/cruise%20critic/CelebrityKidsPrograms/

[MEcruzr]

Excellent review and THANK you for the menus and dailies. Much appreciated.

[FinelyCruising]

Wow....what to say after reading that. Guessing it was just a plain miserable cruise since there was no mention of any joy.

[larronry]

There was mention of the joy of WAFFLES. I miss those. :D That and spending time with our friends whom we met on the Century and 2004 and have kept in touch with and have visited with since. Oh yeah and mommy/wife didn't cook or clean for a whole week and there was no stress about driving places so that I loved as well.

 

I also enjoyed the thalosotherapy pool but the one on the Century (before refurb) was better and I was warned about that.

 

I would have thought it was me dealing with bringing a child on a cruise for the first time that made things bother me, but our friends were bothered by a lot of the things too and our son didn't bother them. At the end of the cruise they said that they would have been miserable had we not been along with them. Considering this is the first time since we met that have actually been able to cruise together (after 2 previous attempts) I'd say that is saying a lot for the enjoyment of the cruise (they usually travel alone).

 

It will be interesting to see if some of the issues get smoothed out as the Caribbean sailing season progresses.

[Coco Creek]

Wow....what to say after reading that. Guessing it was just a plain miserable cruise since there was no mention of any joy.

 

Many other passengers found joy on this trip. I guess service is situational since my waiters and housekeepers could not have anticpated our needs better. They were conversant in English and contributed to the happiness my party experienced on the cruise.

 

I did not eat lunch so no comment on the lunch menu. The dinners were good (appetizers and soups were gourmet quality). The Olympic Restaurant was a simply great meal and the harpist played happy birthday on the harp--a first for me.

 

The excursions in Tortola and Campos de Campo were fun and added to my cruise enjoyment. The excursion in San Juan was cancelled and I just played in the water at Labadee and that was fun. I am not a shopper, so no comment on the shopping.

 

Embarkation was slowed by bureaucracy, but I was on the ship in about 90 minutes and fortunately the camera was not working, which speeded up things.. Getting off was a breeze.

 

Any gripes? I wish customer service would answer the phone more often and the constant taking photos was wearing.

 

I had a relaxing, happy, hassle free cruise.

[MisterBill99]

Thanks for posting the menus! We're on Galaxy 10 night next month and have wanted to see current menus. Someone just posted a 10 night Mediterranean set, not clear which is more representative.

 

The shopping at Labidee is good (I love getting them to lower their prices and then walk away anyway) but the folks doing the hair braiding are definitely not good deals. I got ripped off there because I had left my daughter's braiding until there and it was the last stop on our RCI cruise a couple of years ago. They simply would NOT bargain. I suspect that RCI runs the concession (or else they knew that it was the last stop and you had no choice but to use them).

[Xcruiser]

Thanks for the review. Are they now charging for the bus ride to Altos on Casa de Campo?

Last time I was there a few years ago on Infinity the bus ride to Altos was free. Thanks for posting the menus.

 

Happy New Years:)

[MEcruzr]

"...the constant taking photos was wearing."

 

Just an FYI for you and anyone else reading this, you do NOT have to allow them to take your photo. Just go around the whole long line and bypass them. We do this at embarkation and at each port when they're set up on the gangway. Just smile and say no thanks, we don't do photos. Then walk around and keep on going. We do the same thing on formal nights in the diningroom... they come around and want you go get up, pose with your table, etc. We just say no thank you (table for two or just your family makes it much easier to do this) and they move on to the next table. I know I won't buy them... so why waste my time and theirs?

[Dougie Cruise]

My DW and I have cruised 12 times, including X (and the Millie before), HAL, Princess, Cunard. This was a fun, relaxing week for us. We had very good service from our cabin stewards, and waiter. The ship was in good shape. We have gone on 8 Carib cruises, so we looked at the "new" ports threads here to decide what to do. The weather was SUPER. Labadee is a great private beach. Our dinner table mates were interesting, and dinners were fun. The spa pool was a great break for us. The gym is quite nice. The food was good to very good. We brought four bottles of wine onboard, no hassle. The spa buffet had healthy options, but you need to know that a small buffet area is in there.

 

Note: The ship looks older then our first sailing on her 4 & 1/2 years ago. The buffet could have had more options, in particular, the sushi should have been open for lumch, not at 5:30pm. HAL, we think, does a better job of ongoing, constant upkeep on their ships.

 

All that said, we go on the TransAtlantic cruise on the Connie in April. I'm practising my bad French for the port stops. We can't wait!:)

[MisterBill99]

"...the constant taking photos was wearing."

 

Just an FYI for you and anyone else reading this, you do NOT have to allow them to take your photo. Just go around the whole long line and bypass them. We do this at embarkation and at each port when they're set up on the gangway. Just smile and say no thanks, we don't do photos. Then walk around and keep on going.

That's true, but when the photographers cause a line of people that you have trouble getting around, it can be annoying, to say the least. When I am getting off the ship, I want to get to my car/tour/bus. I don't want to have to wait in yet another line for something that makes money for the cruise line.

[MisterBill99]

The buffet could have had more options, in particular, the sushi should have been open for lumch, not at 5:30pm.

Does any cruise line have sushi at lunch? When I was on NCLA, they only opened for dinner, except for the last day.

[Cruisenouvelle]

We're on this cruise 02/03/08, so your observations were very timely. It's a shame other posters have to berate you for failing to include lots of "joy". It's YOUR review. If others want to spread the joy, have at it. Your review was honest, and bottom line - they were YOUR comments. Also thanks for the menus and dailies (DH will especially like to peruse the menus!! :D )

Thx for the heads up on certain issues you encountered.

[CruisingChick]

Thank you for your review and posting the links.

 

In looking over the Celebrity Today it seems the Metropolitan Dining room was closed for lunch most of the cruise. Is this a new trend on Celebrity? During our cruise in October on Constellation we also noticed the dining room was closed allot for lunch. I guess another "cost saving" measure. We were not happy about this as we like to eat all our meals either in the dining room or Specialty Restaurant. I wrote to Celebrity after our cruise and relayed this to them.

 

The only time we go up to the buffet is to get waffles in the morning.

[MEcruzr]

We don't like the buffet, either... lunch is always room service on the balcony... or a burger by the pool. We'll go for b'fast in the cafe on sea days... just because we don't know what time we'll want to get up. I don't like it, though. LOL

[LustforLife]

Thanks so much for posting the menus and daily sheets. For some reason I was able to view them yesterday but getting a page not found today. Maybe the site is just having issues. Anyhow, thanks again for posting them and I look forward to drooling again when the site is working.

 

Cheers,

Tammy

[larronry]

Thanks so much for posting the menus and daily sheets. For some reason I was able to view them yesterday but getting a page not found today. Maybe the site is just having issues. Anyhow, thanks again for posting them and I look forward to drooling again when the site is working.

 

Cheers,

Tammy

I just checked and was able to see them so hopefully just a temporary problem.

[LustforLife]

I checked again with this original URL posted and the page didn't come up.

http://s45.photobucket.com/albums/f86/sharonrj/cruise%20critic/Menus/

 

Check to see if they are still under that URL. I wonder sometimes if these sites move stuff without telling the people that post the photos to them.

I couldn't get back to the dailies either. Bummer if the site is still not working... maybe if you have time and don't mind, you could just email the menus and dailies to me??? If so, please do so at your leisure and thanks again!

tlbesser@aol.com

 

Thanks!

Tammy

[FinelyCruising]

We're on this cruise 02/03/08, so your observations were very timely. It's a shame other posters have to berate you for failing to include lots of "joy". It's YOUR review. If others want to spread the joy, have at it. Your review was honest, and bottom line - they were YOUR comments. Also thanks for the menus and dailies (DH will especially like to peruse the menus!! :D )

Thx for the heads up on certain issues you encountered.

 

 

When I find the first sentences of important paragraphs to be negatives, I'm going with the lack of joy factor, since in school I learned the opening sentences are the ones that frame the rest of the paragraph, and often skip the obviously lenghty balance to support the opener.

 

Yes, do write YOUR comments about cruising.... since I may also have the same opportunity to classify what I encounter in what I am reading as MY comments on that reading experience...;)

[shirljean]

Sharon, thanks for taking the time to do the menus. I couldn't get in there last night, but this morning I could. But it only shows a small photo of the menus - how could I enlarge them so they can be read? We are sailing in April and your review helped us a lot.

[KnoxvilleSam]

My DW, DD and I were also on this cruise, and we had a great time. Our cabin attendant and butler were great (very prompt in responding to any request), brought our tea and hors d'oevres every afternoon, with cranberry juice for my DW's cosmopolitans. Set up our breakfasts on our balcony (we were in Sky Suite 6132 with a larger than average balcony, a great find).

 

The weather was fantastic - the only rain we had was a brief downpour just after we embarked (around 12:00) in Port Everglades. The embarkation did take a while (even for those in suites) due to the inspections that Sharon noted above, but we also walked past and avoided the picture taking line to reduce the time getting on board.

 

The wait staff in the Metropolitan was not the greatest - but we're pretty sure that Celebrity has downsized the wait staff there, meaning that each waiter and assistant waiter had more tables to serve. Our waiter was pleasant, but his personality was not exactly engaging? But, we did understand each other perfectly (no mistaken orders), and we certainly were able to enjoy our dinners there. As noted, breakfasts on our balcony, and lunches either at the Aqua Spa Cafe or the buffet - food was ho hum. Did enjoy the sushi as our third snack between lunch and dinner each day.

 

We had the wine pairings dinner at the Olympic one night and that was spectacular. The service was incredible, the presentation was really cool, the wines very good, and food was much better than yummy.

 

As an aside, we ran into our assistant waiter (Roy) from our 2006 Mediterranean Millie cruise, and he stopped and chatted with us each night and when we saw him elsewhere around the ship. He's angling for a headwaiter job in a couple of months, and he's really deserving - a real charmer.

 

Our take on the ports - I was sick (respiratory thing) when we were in San Juan, so DW and DD strolled, window shopped, etc. while I played with Medical (very accommodating). Tortola was our swimming with dolphins excursion and we all had a great time, followed by DW and DD shopping while I found and occupied a comfortable chair in the air conditioned shops. For DR, I played golf at Teeth of the Dog (beautiful and challenging for this duffer) while DW and DD took the Bayahibe (sp?) Beach Break (said they enjoyed very much, but somewhat brief). For Labadee, we took the Malhini (sp?) Castaway excursion and really enjoyed that (a small beach with chairs, snorkeling with your own equipment, float rafts, fruit punch drinks with or without rum - just very very relaxing); after that excursion we just went to the lunch at the regular RCCI/Celebrity beach, walked around the other beaches, walked through the shopping area (very aggressive, so we walked quickly) and then watched people doing the zip line.

 

As you can tell from this, our experience was different from Sharon's. It's too bad that not all parts of the ship and not all crew are uniformly great - luck of the draw I guess. And I'm not sure when we'll take our next cruise or whether it will be with Celebrity. DW and DD are now angling for Scandinavia and St. Petersburg cruise on the Azamara in 2009, so we'll see. Maybe by then we'll have saved enough money to pay for it - if not, there's always our DD's inheritance!

 

Happy cruising,

 

Sam

[MEcruzr]

Sam... my FIL is on an extended road trip (6 months) and wrote home to tell us he was learning to SKI. I was confused since he went south out of Maine to avoid the snow, cold and winter storms. Then he told me that SKI means "spending kids' inheritence". LOL So maybe YOU should learn to SKI!

 

Shirl... when you get the page to open with the little pictures, double click on one of them and they will enlarge. Up in the right hand corner you will find back/forward buttons so you can scroll through them like a slideshow. Hope this helps.

[tom5178]

Your review seems to complain about things that are in your control.

 

You picked the itinerary so if it was boring that is your problem.

 

Your husband and you mis communicated about debarkation. What would you like Celebrity to do about that?

 

Why go to the Carribean if you have no interest in beach?

 

I am confident that there were many others who enjoyed their cruise at the same time. Please keep your reviews to things that Celebrity can do.

 

sounds like afiction novel if you ask me

[shirljean]

 

Shirl... when you get the page to open with the little pictures, double click on one of them and they will enlarge. Up in the right hand corner you will find back/forward buttons so you can scroll through them like a slideshow. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks, I just knew there must be a way. That worked!

[EditorMom]

This thread is a perfect example of the vast discrepancies between what various people look for in a vacation. I'm going to be on Millennium in a few weeks (THANK YOU for the dailies, Sharon!) and I expect to have a wonderful vacation, because virtually none of the negatives that Sharon mentioned apply to me. I absolutely despise shopping and will go out of my way to avoid it (on vacation AND at home, which is why my house looks basically the same as it did 10 years ago, and my closet is so outdated that some my clothes have actually come back INTO style!). So the lack of "good" shopping (to me, there is no such thing) doesn't bother me a bit.

 

I'm also not crazy about being fussed over -- in fact, it makes me somewhat uncomfortable -- so the service would have to be extraordinarly dismal for me to be bothered by it. And if it's that bad, I'll save money by cutting back on tips! So there's a silver lining right there!

 

The two things I'm really hoping for on this vacation are things that Celebrity can't charge me for and really can't mess up -- sunshine and sleep! (Yes, I'm bringing earplugs even though I'm on a quiet part of the ship). Coming from single-digit temperatures and a snow-covered landscape, I'm not going to let much of anything bother me as long as I'm there and not here!

-Sarah

[TRadle]

EditorMom, I think just like you!!!! I hate shopping and would never consider that to be a vacation activity! I also don't like waiters that are constantly interrupting me at dinner. Nor do I want the same beverage delivered to me every night at dinner. Just because I'm in the mood for it the first night does not mean that I want it every night!!!

 

For me there was nothing in the review that would have a negative impact on my cruise. For others, those things might be important which is why CC is great! :D

 

What has me a tad concerned is that it sounds like housekeeping in the cabins can be hit or miss. I don't mind wear and tear....but I do expect it to be clean. I've yet to see a dirty ship.