Live from Millennium: Thoughts and Observations

I am writing onboard our 15-night Panama Canal cruise on Celebrity Millennium from San Juan, Puerto Rico to San Diego. Presently, we are “At Sea” just off Huatulco, Mexico on our way to Acapulco from Puerto Quetzel, Guatamala. In fact, I’m sitting on the balcony right now as I write this, watching the waves, listening to the sound of the wake, and enjoying the 86 F air temperature. Here are some thoughts and observations about the cruise, in no particular order. (The “no particular order” means it would be work to organize this better, so I’m not going to bother while on vacation.)

Puerto Rico – We spent four nights in PR before our cruise. We loved it. We explored Old San Juan on foot. We drove a rental car to El Yunque rain forest, Fajardo on the NE coast, and explored the local beach scene between Pinones beach and Loiza, just east of the SJU airport. We flew on a puddle-jumper airplane to Culebra Island and visited the famous Flamenco Beach and then went sea kayaking and snorkeling. I really enjoyed visiting Puerto Rico. It has been one of the highlights of our vacation.

Cartagena – It seems that many people are hesitant to visit Cartagena. They associate Columbia with drug cartels and coffee. In contrast, we found Cartagena to be a delightful place to visit on a cruise stop. We explored Cartagena on our own for a total of $30.50 per person, including taxis and admission fees to the museums. I don’t see any reason to pay $60 for the equivalent ship excursion, unless you really prefer escorted tours. The main tourist areas are under 2 miles away from the cruise ship by taxi. We saw all the same stuff at our own pace without being herded around on someone else’s timetable. The main tourist area, Old Town Cartagena, is a wonderful place to explore on your own, just enjoying the old Spanish architecture everywhere you look. Highly recommended.

Panama – We were fortunate to have a full day stop in Colon to go on excursions, and then another full day to transit the canal. Our excursion was a boat ride on Lake Gatun. We saw monkeys, crocodiles, birds, and iguana along the way. When we got to the “houseboat”, back in a cove, we ate a wonderful Panamanian lunch, and then went kayaking through the lake to see a waterfall. Once back at the houseboat we saw the tour operator’s boa snake, toucan bird, parrots, iguana, and turtles. The weather was perfect. During our two days in Panama, we didn’t see a drop of rain or a mosquito.

Panama Canal – For me, the transit through the canal was an experience of a lifetime. I’m an engineer, so I really like seeing everything associated with the canal and the new 3rd locks project. For the canal transit, we especially enjoyed having a corner Family Ocean View cabin on the back of the ship. With its 270 degree view, we spent most of the day on our balcony in the shade. At one point during the day, I ventured out to the helipad to get a photo of the Centennial Bridge and Culebra Cut. I quickly retreated back to the shade of our balcony. With the sun directly overhead, it was too hot for this Northerner to spend much time in the open sun.

Costa Rica – We went on the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve excursion. This excursion involves a long drive up a winding mountain road from sea level to over 5000 feet. Don’t go on this if you are prone to car sickness or are afraid of heights. The road up to Monteverde is rather primitive the last few miles are dirt road and no guardrails. The views were terrific. The cloud forest is a high altitude rain forest. The abundance of vegetation is amazing. Each big tree is host to thousands of other vines, ferns, and other plants that grown on the host tree. Very amazing.

Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala – Like Cartagena, this is another place people seem to worry about visiting. We took the Lake Atitlan excursion through the cruise line. (Most people go to Antigua Guatemala.) Like the Costa Rica cloud forest excursion, this involved a long drive up a very good paved road to the town of San Lucas Toliman at an elevation of 5100 feet. At these high altitudes, the air temperature is about 25 F lower than at sea level. I would guess it was about 70 F at the lake and 95 F in port.

We really enjoyed seeing Guatemala. The towering volcanic mountains were amazing. I’ve lived around high mountains all my life (Washington Cascades, Montana Rockies and Bitterroot ranges). The Guatemala mountains are very impressive when compared to anything I’ve seen in the US or Canada. Guatemala reminds me of Costa Rica without the developed tourism infrastructure. If you want to visit a place before it is “discovered” by the hordes of tourists, go to Guatemala. I would love to visit both Guatemala and Costa Rica on a future land trip. There is way too much to see in these countries for a one-day cruise stop.

Millennium – This is my first cruise on a Millennium class ship. Needless to say, I am thrilled with this aft corner Family Ocean View cabin (8166). After final payment, I was able to “downgrade” from an aft CC1 to the FOV and even got money back under the old price change policy.

The balcony is 14 feet wide and 25 feet long. (I used a tape measure). The cabin interior is divided into two areas separated by a sliding door. The cabin is 10 foot, 8 inches wide and 29 feet, 6 inches long. The overall distance from one end of the cabin to the far end of the balcony is just under 55 feet. This cabin is huge. It was designed for families. With only two people, my wife and I have plenty of room.

My prior Celebrity cruises were all on Mercury. In general, I prefer the smaller size of Mercury. But obviously, all of the cruise lines are on a “bigger is better” new-building program. So I guess the Millennium class is now a small ship compared to any of the new builds. (I’m too cheap to go on one of the small ship cruise lines like Oceania, so I’ll just have to accept the growing ship size.)

Overall, I really like the Millennium, especially the cabin I am in. The ship appears to be maintained very well. As an example, they are in the process of replacing all of the pool deck lounge chairs and padded covers. Subjectively, I would say this ship is at 95% of its potential “newness”. You’ll see a few things here and there that shown signs of wear, tarnish, or are just plain broken. This is nothing that should detract from anyone’s cruise experience, unless you are one of those people that only like brand-new ships.

Dining – Subjectively, I don’t think the food is quite as good as I remember from my Celebrity cruises of 5 and 10 years ago. But, I’m not sure how much of that is real and how much is nostalgia. They seem to have cut back on the more expensive cuts of meat in favor of cheaper “comfort foods” like meatballs and pot roast, to use a couple of examples (described with much fancier names on the menu). But not to give the wrong impression, they still have steak, rack of lamb, fish, etc. I just seems they cut back a bit. The food is still very good, just not as good as I remember from the past. Again, I’m not sure if this is real or just remembering the past as being better than it actually was.

Olympic Restaurant – We have dined here two nights and have two more to go. I bought the three-dinner package, and then got another free night when I booked a future cruise on board. They seem to be having trouble filling the restaurant. It only appeared half full both nights we were there. They are promoting the Olympic like crazy onboard with ads in the daily program, and sales tables set up all over the ship.

The food in the Olympic is fantastic. I would recommend that any foodies try it at least once. The service is great. The ambiance is much more relaxed than the main dining room. My favorites so far are the scallop appetizer and the pan seared filet mignon. I tried the lobster thermidore the first night. I thought the “thermidore” sauce overpowered the subtle taste of the lobster. Next time, I’ll just go back to broiled lobster with butter. We dine there again tonight. I am looking forward to it.

Solsticizing (or however you spell it) – Millennium has not yet been Solsticized. Comparing the present deck layout to the newly released deck plans for Infinity, I can understand the rationale for some of the changes. On Millennium, the Platinum Club (Martini and Champagne on other ships), Cinema and Conference center, and the Extreme bar areas appear way underutilized. For example, I’ve never seen more than a couple dozen people in the voluminous Platinum Club during this cruise. If they do the same to Millennium as they did to Infinity, the Platinum Club is replaced by Bistro on Five and Cellar Masters. The Cinema and Conference center area will be scaled down to make room for additional ocean view cabins. Extreme will be replaced with Qsine. These changes all seem very sensible given the apparent underutilization of the present venues by the passengers. (I’ll defer to the other CC readers on the specific changes being planned for Millennium. I don’t want to spend all my Internet minutes researching this topic while at sea.)

On the other hand, I am less enthusiastic about the changes on Sunrise Deck 11. The Cosmos night club/observation area is being reconfigured to include the kid’s Fun Factory area. This will eliminate the views to the port side of the ship – a real disadvantage on scenery intensive cruises to Alaska. It’s hard to imagine that this will be an improvement to Cosmos. Perhaps it will work better that I can presently imagine.

The new Aqua class cabins will result in a much smaller jogging track. The jogging track on Millie is very popular on this cruise. It’s going to be much more crowded putting the same number of joggers/walkers on a track half the size. Overall, there will be more passengers and less top deck space for everyone to share.

Lastly, given the lack of customers in the Olympic, I am wondering how they are going to sell dining slots in these new extra-charge restaurants. Perhaps it is easier to fill the available dining slots on 7-day cruises.

Complaints Department – There are always people who like to complain to other passengers about the cruise. I avoid these people like the plague. One of the funniest complaints I overheard was one gentleman who complained to another, “This is the worst service I’ve ever seen.” He offered only one example. When they serve you a drink, sometimes they put down a napkin. Sometimes they don’t. Horrors! I guess some people are only happy when they have something to complain about, even if they have to fabricate a reason.

That’s all for now.

Thank you so much for your review.... Looking forward to seeing some pictures if you get a chance.

I will be on Millennium in 2 weeks and just cannot wait, as it is our first time on Celebrity....

Enjoy the rest of your vacation.

Thanks so much for the review! It was very helpful, especially the parts about the food.

Kitegirl and I are probably on the same cruise as we'll be onboard in a couple of weeks too.

We were on the cruise before you and loved it all.

Question about the Fun Factory..... You said they're moving it to Cosmos?! Can you give me any more information about that??? My 9 year old LOVED the Fun Factory and I thought the set up was perfect. I would hate to see it change.

Can you get any more information about what they are planning, and especially if the ball pit/slide set up will disappear??

Thanks and enjoy that lovely ship....

:)

We will be on board on May 13.... join the connections on here for CC.... would love to meet ....

hard to believe two weeks today we will be on the ship and heading north:D

To answer the fun factory question..

I looked at Constellation which has been solsticized and all they did was get rid of the conservatory, which was the flower shop that no one ever used. Instead it's called X-club.

Thanks for the great review- Milli was my first ever ship I sailed with X- and I loved it . Olympic is very special and unique - as the other on board the Milli- Class ships. Solstice Speciality Restaurants are nice, but almost the same on all S- Class ships.

Michael

Mercruiser, thank you so much for your input on the Millennium, I appreciate it very much. We will be doing a B2B Alaskan cruise in a few weeks --- this will be our first time on a Celebrity ship.

Can you give me a little more information about the three-dinner package, I am not familiar with that. We have already booked and paid for one dinner at the Olympic.

Thank you in advance for your response. Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

Karen

We just left Cabo an hour ago on our way to San Diego. One more sea day and the cruise is done. How time flies. It's been a great cruise.

We received a little surprise from the U.S. Immigration officials. Our cruise is the lucky winner of the enhanced full inspection. Everyone including U.S. citizens has to be interviewed by a customs official in the Celebrity Theater before anyone will be off the ship. The whole process will start around 6:15 am and end about three hours later. Our specific disembarkation time is 11:00 a.m. On every prior cruise, I've been off the ship by 8:30 a.m. Keep this in mind on your next cruise if tempted to book that A.M. flight home. We don't fly home until the following day.

Now to some questions.

Italy42 asked,

Mercruiser, thank you so much for your input on the Millennium, I appreciate it very much. We will be doing a B2B Alaskan cruise in a few weeks --- this will be our first time on a Celebrity ship.

 

Can you give me a little more information about the three-dinner package, I am not familiar with that. We have already booked and paid for one dinner at the Olympic.

 

Thank you in advance for your response. Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

Like you, I purchased my reservations on line, only to find out about this special on-board. At my request, the Olympic folks changed my price from $210 to $178 in the form of an on-board credit.

Scrapchick wrote,

Question about the Fun Factory..... You said they're moving it to Cosmos?! Can you give me any more information about that??? My 9 year old LOVED the Fun Factory and I thought the set up was perfect. I would hate to see it change.

 

Can you get any more information about what they are planning, and especially if the ball pit/slide set up will disappear??

To see the changes to the fun factory, find the posts in the cruise critic Celebrity board where someone provided a link to the new 2011 deck plans for Summit and Infinity. (If at home, I would do this for you, but Internet time is too expensive on ship.) You can see the new layout on those decks plans. That’s all I know about it for sure. On a more speculative note, the existing outdoor play area/kiddie pool looks too large for the new Cosmos space. I'm guessing the new Fun Factory area will be a bit smaller.

Now to some questions.

 

Italy42 asked,[/color][/font]

Italy42, The three dinner package is a 15% discount off three dinners. So two diners at $35 cover for three nights works out to 2 * $35 * 3 = $210 regular price. The 15% discount brings that down to $178.50.

Like you, I purchased my reservations on line, only to find out about this special on-board. At my request, the Olympic folks changed my price from $210 to $178 in the form of an on-board credit.

Thanks so much for the information, I appreciate it very much.

Karen

Thank you for the informative review. I am off to book a third dinner for that 15% discount, which is news to me. Thanks!

And, like you, I am not happy knowing that the beautiful observation lounges on the M-Class ships are being reduced in size. Without a doubt, those are my favorite public rooms of all the ships on which I have sailed. At least we are sailing on the Infinity before she is refurbished and changed, so I have one more chance to enjoy one in Alaska.

One way to score a free dinner for two at the Olympic is to book a future cruise on the day they are offering this incentive. This was advertised in the Celebrity Today insert for the second or third day of our cruise (I don't remember exactly).

Presumably, this type of offer is available on other ships assuming they have available dining slots.