Volendam versus Millennium

My husband and I and another couple are going to book a 14 day cruise to Asia. For those of you who have sailed the Holland America Volendam or the Celebrity Millennium, what are you thoughts on which is better to book. The ports of call are very similar but Celebrity has more overnights.

We would be booking this trip for December 2017. Volendam sails December 6 from Singapore and the Millennium sails December 10.

One of my major concerns is our stop in Halong Bay. Volendam is for one day and the Millennium is overnight.

We will be staying in Bangkok and Ko Samui for 5 days before the start of the cruise.

Any thoughts and suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I always respect the opinions of cruise critic cruisers.

I can't help but have a similar question for these ships around Japan in 2018. Leaning towards Volendam ATM.

We have sailed on various HAL ships, however never on Volendam. In general we love HAL and always had great cruises.

In December we sailed Millenium (after also sailing some X ships). We had a great cruise, the condition of the ship was good, service excellent, meals also always good etc.

Our tablewaiter Santosa happened to come from Bali, great guy, we loved him.

Staff on Celebrity comes from various countries, on HAL most of them from Indonesia or Philipines.

Difficult to tell the difference, but I think we still prefer HAL a little over Celebrity.

Thank you for this answer regarding the ships. I also like to cruise on Holland America having been on two great cruises with them but I think that an overnight in Halong Bay, Vietnam is swaying me towards the Millennium. It was reassuring to hear that you enjoyed the Millennium after reading so many negative reviews. Now we have to decide between Concierge or Aqua Balcony rooms. My husband and I and the other couple joining us have never sailed on a Celebrity ship.

I have managed both vessels at different points in my career.

Both have advantages and disadvantages.

But Volendam has now passed her "use by" date.

Systems are failing; there are frequent toilet problems, water leaks, and air con failures.

HAL will sell the ship relatively soon, and is reluctant to pay for necessary maintenance.

I advise playing it safe on Millenium.

The Millenium itinerary is better as well.

We sailed twice on the Volendam in 2016. Had no problems at all with the cabins or anything else. It's still maintained nicely but it's definitely not an active ship with lots of actions. Excellent food and service. Been on a couple of Celebrity ships and loved those also but it had been a while back. To me, going on any cruise is good. :D

We have done 9 cruises on Celebrity and 6 on NCL and Celebrity is our favorite. Never done a cruise on HAL, for two reasons. I like to book early and HAL always seems to have high prices in the beginning, then discounting heavily at the end. The main reason we never did HAL was their smoking policy. Last September, we were in Denali after our NCL cruise and on the bus for the Wildlife tour. About 40 HAL passengers got on the bus and you could smell the odor of cigarette smoke that was on their clothes.

HAL has changed their smoking policy to be more like the other cruise lines, but I wonder if all the smokers are still attracted to HAL with their smelly clothes.

Here is my review of our Japan and China cruise on Millennium, which was wonderful.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=518503&et_cid=2531924&et_rid=17221689&et_referrer=Boards

We are waiting for the release of HAL Volendam itineraries for Christmas 2018. That's our first choice because we have been to Halong Bay and don't want an overnight there. Unless you take the multi hour bus ride to Hanoi, nothing to do in Halong Bay but the junks. Been there, done that.

As to travelers tales about HAL passengers' clothes reeking of cigarette smoke, our three most recent cruises have been on HAL and we have not smelled any. But, then, we don't go around sniffing fellow passengers.

A better argument for the Millennium would be all the balcony cabinets, whereas the Volendam's are few and expensive.

Thank you for this answer regarding the ships. I also like to cruise on Holland America having been on two great cruises with them but I think that an overnight in Halong Bay, Vietnam is swaying me towards the Millennium. It was reassuring to hear that you enjoyed the Millennium after reading so many negative reviews. Now we have to decide between Concierge or Aqua Balcony rooms. My husband and I and the other couple joining us have never sailed on a Celebrity ship.

In my opinion, Concierge Class benefits are not of much value, might as well save the $ and book a regular balcony. Now, Aqua Class is another story. The ability to eat Breakfast and Dinner daily is Blu is a big benefit. The staff really goes out of their way in Blu to make your dining experience special. It would be hard for us to go back to the MDR after our Blu experience. AQ class also gives you access to the Persian Garden in the Spa.

Joe

Not sure about Millenium but I don't like the location of the Aqua cabins. Blu was great.

We are doing this cruise Dec 2017 with Azamara and have been told boyfriends and family having done this to take the longest cruise in Halong. The reason for this is the 4 hr cruises on the bay can only see the crowded touristy part, the longer times go to coves and bays further reached. Therefore an overnight even if you do not go to Hanoi ( which we are not going to do) is the best choice to make the most of the bay.

Also have been on Millenium many times and they are constantly updating like (Solstcsizing) it.

We sailed on C.M in Dec (2016) from Singapore the same day we disembarked Diamond Princess . We enjoyed the C.M.The cabin we had is in need of an update but other than that it was a good cruise ending in Hon Kong.

We sailed on the Vol a few years ago so hard to compare , but maybe enjoyed it more ,pretty equal overall as we remember it

We just booked Volendam for a 2 week cruise. Is it safe?

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