Review of Millennium 11/14-11/19

My husband and I got off this cruise last Saturday. I've never done a cruise review before, and I think I'll be able to cover more details if I review it in categories. We are in our mid 30s, have cruised with Celebrity on the Century and the Eclipse, and much prefer Celebrity to other lines we've tried in the past.

Embarkation: We were on the ship by noon, within 15 minutes of getting to the port. Super quick, super smooth, one person ahead of us in our line. Quick relaxing lunch in Aqua Spa Cafe and then the rooms were ready by 1 PM.

Ship condition: I found the ship to be in great shape, clean and well maintained. It's definitely a different style of ship than the Eclipse - we spoke with several experienced cruisers who prefer the traditional style of the Millennium to the modern style of the Eclipse. While we both thought the Millennium was a beautiful ship, we prefer the Eclipse.

Public areas: We enjoyed the Martini Bar, though for some reason the bar stools there are low in relation to the bar. The atmosphere at the Martini Bar was very nice, and it was a great place for a pre-dinner drink. The staff was very friendly and accomodating.

The Cova Cafe area was very nice and well laid out. The sandwiches and pastries were a nice touch.

While on the Eclipse, we liked to have a drink at the mast bar and spend time on the lawn club. We both missed having the style and atmosphere of these venues on the Millennium - the mast bar just didn't have the appeal of the one on the Eclipse, and was always empty.

MDR: We thought the food was very good. Some of the entree highlights were the rack of lamb (table favorite), barolo braised beef, stuffed sole and short ribs. One night the featured Chef JVS recommendation was the cajun ribeye, which we both wanted to get, but our server suggested that we choose another entree, which we did. I'm curious what that was about, but have the feeling we did the right thing, since on a different night he told our table-mates not to order the stuffed quail, and after sampling it, they agreed that they should have taken his advice.

Our server, Luis, was very good and attentive. He seemed very proud of the fact that he's been with Celebrity for 20 years. The one difference I noticed between the Millennium and the Eclipse was that on the Eclipse, a bar waiter would always come up to our table as soon as we sat down to see if we wanted something from the bar, but this never happened on the Millennium. Here, were always approached by the sommelier toward the beginning of our meal, but she never returned to see if we wanted another glass (we usually didn't, but wouldn't they want to push drink sales?)

While most people adhered to the dress code in the MDR, we did see a gentleman in a baseball cap at a nearby table, several sets of sneakers, tank tops on men, sweat-style pants and shorts. I don't recall seeing such an abundance of these articles of clothing on previous cruises. On our first night, our waiter told us that the following night would be formal night, and they will have jackets for the gentlemen to put over their arms while walking into the MDR. I asked "isn't the dress code formal tomorrow?" to which he replied "It's a 5 day cruise, we don't expect everyone to get all dressed up, you're here to relax". Made me so glad that we had just paid the 50% upcharge to get my husband's suit cleaned in time for formal night :eek:

Buffet: We are not fans of buffets in general, and only used it for quick snacks if nothing else was available. I did, however, love the poached egg station - very creative - as well as the salad station, which was open all day long. I would love to see grilled chicken or shrimp as an add-on option to the ceasar salad. The sushi station left much to be desired - the one on the Eclipse wins by a mile. Much fresher-looking fish, and more variety.

Olympic: As wonderful as everyone says it is. The decor is truly something to admire, and the service is impeccable. The food was creative and delicious. Definitely an experience I would recommend.

Activities: We did trivia once in the Rendez-vous lounge. It was fun, but again, I enjoyed the trivia activities on the Eclipse more, since many of them were held in the outside aft bar area. Just more cruise-like that way - who wants to sit in a dark empty room during the day?

We went to karaoke two nights, and had a lot of fun! I loved that they had three karaoke nights on a 5 night cruise - we're both big fans and the more karaoke, the better, as far as we're concerned :D

We LOVED the comedian on board. Trey something, very funny guy had the crowd laughing. Definitely, definitely recommend making it to his show.

The only other show we tried to go to was the Boogie-something, but we walked in after it has started, watched for a minute and left. We didn't see the staff talent show (didn't realize we missed it) but heard that it was fun.

Gymnasium: Very nice, very good size, never a wait for any of the machines, plenty of towels, nice, new, well-maintained exercise equipment.

Now, the negatives:

Our room: We felt very fortunate to have booked a corner FV on the 9th deck. We were wrong. While the room itself was very nice and spacious, and the balcony just as enormous as pictured, the scraping noise from the deck above was awful and constant. Before I get flamed for not doing my research, I did, and I even posted my concerns over the noise vs. amazing balcony. The consensus was that the balcony was worth a little scraping, which i agreed with. This would have been bearable, had the FV room next door not been assigned to a group of 20-30 something guys, who seemed to be celebrating a bachelor party. All night long. They would get in around 2 AM, full of energy and alcohol, and stay up talking and laughing and ordering room service until about 5 AM, at which point I would finally be able to fall back asleep, only to be woken up by scraping chairs above me at 7 AM. Now, I have sleep issues - I am a VERY light sleeper, and have a lot of trouble falling back asleep once woken up. I thought I came prepared with ear plugs. They were not enough. It's not even that the guys were screaming - it was just the fact that it was four or five men's voices, talking and laughing at the same time, and the wall separating our rooms was very thin - at one point we could even hear one of them snoring (apparently we were not the only ones, since one of the snorer's cabin mates proceeded to slam the wall and scream at the offender). I know I could have called guest services, but I didn't want to come off as a perpetual complainer, and wanted them to pay attention to my main problem with this cruise, which was:

SMOKING: Another personal caveat - I have a severe smoke allergy. I don't just find it unpleasant, I have a painful sinus reaction to it. The cabins next door to us, to the left around the corner from us, and below us were all smoking. My constant calls to guest services made me feel like I was the smoke police on this cruise, and this is not the reason I cruise. This was actually the first cruise where I voiced a single complaint. Now, in defense of the cabins to the right and left of us, they stopped as soon as guest services notified them of the rule. The cabin below us wasn't as gracious. I finally had to take a photograph of the passenger smoking on the balcony, as well as a close-up photo of the glass they were using as an ashtray, filled almost to the top with used cigarette butts, and march down to guest services. Guest services then came up to my room, looked down and confirmed the smoking taking place. She assured me that they take their no-smoking policy very seriously, and always send a letter to the offender, notifying them of Celebrity's no-smoking policy as soon as they have a report of smoking. I then asked her why passengers were informed of this policy only AFTER the infraction? Why not before? I pointed out that unlike the Eclipse, the Millennium did not have a no smoking sign on the Sea Pass card, on the door to the room, OR the sliding balcony door. As a matter of fact, the only place where I found mention of this policy was in the "About the ship" section in the blue binder containing the room service menu. I know there's something about this policy in the passage contract, but can we honestly say that cruisers pay such close attention to it? Basically, if you don't look for it, you won't know until someone complains. The guest services representative didn't have an answer, but told me that they have the ability to fine the offenders $250. That's great for Celebrity, but pointless for people like me, who could not step outside on their balcony for hours after the cabin near them smoked.

Overview: The Millennium is a wonderful ship, with great Celebrity-style food and service. My cruise, however, was tainted by the unfortunate combination of noise from above, next door, and the smoking. Maybe if I wasn't as excited as I was about the amazing cabin we scored, and hadn't planned on spending the majority of the cruise relaxing on our balcony, I could have rolled with the punches, but the combination of all three issues made my amazing cabin a place I didn't enjoy spending time in. I definitely feel that the extra money we spent on it was wasted. While I would definitely sail Celebrity again, I will only book cabins that are located between cabin-only decks, and I personally would not sail the Millennium again until I heard reports of more no-smoking signs in the cabins.

I hope that this review didn't come off too negative because of personal issues with the sailing. I will be happy to answer any questions about the cruise or fill in any categories I may have missed.

Thanks for posting your review.

Thank you for taking the time to post your review! We have a FV corner aft booked on Millie in December, and I too plan on spending a lot of time on my balcony. I will be very upset if people spoil my balcony experience with their smoke! I don't want to be the "smoke police" but will be if my balcony enjoyment is compromised by their unsafe practices!

Glad to hear the food was good (there seem to have been mixed reviews lately)

Thanks again for posting!

We were on the Millie 3 weeks ago, and loved everything about the cruise... said we'd love to go back someday.

Well... this morning Celebrity sent us an offer we couldn't refuse...so we're doing the same cruise again in 6 DAYS!!!!!:D:D

So much to do..... so little time!!!!!:)

He was our waiter on Millie 2008 NZ/Australia. Looks like Richard Gere and an excellent waiter.

He was our waiter on Millie 2008 NZ/Australia. Looks like Richard Gere and an excellent waiter.

 

Yup, that's him! Didn't even notice the Richard Gere resemblance until now :p

Thank you for taking the time to write and post this thorough review.

Keith

Awesome review!!

I'm sailing on MILLENNIUM on December 3 and your review certainly enhances the excitement!

Ernie

So very sorry you had to deal with the scrapping and smoking. Especially the latter. I do hope they fined the guests that you busted?

Part of the reason I stuck with an ocean view cabin this trip was the increased possibility of what you experienced. I have a similar sensitivity to cigarette smoke and just didn't want to take that chance. I'm happy with the cabin I have and had the chance numerous times to upgrade to a balcony for one portion of the B2B or the other, or both. I think the memory of my last balcony on Celebrity Mercury is a bit more special.

Still concerned about the demographics these short cruises tend to attract, especially when it comes to atypical Celebrity guests. I do realize its 'their' vacation too but ball caps and tank tops in the MDR for dinner just doesn't seem appropriate on Celebrity. Carnival maybe, but not Celebrity. Same goes for the 2am-5am party next door. I would have been on the phone to Guest Services in a second. I also remember reading a funny thread a while back of how to 'pay back' inconsiderate guests like that, maybe with several wake-up calls during the day while they were trying to sleep? ;)

Depending on how this goes, and I am hoping for the best but trying to be open minded at the same time, I most likely won't do another short-market cruise with Celebrity. I had been looking at my vacation options for next year and wanted to try the Celebrity Constellation but it's too close to Christmas Break for my tastes.

I do appreciate such a detailed review. Lots of great information. I did print out the Celebrity Today Daily's so kindly posted by John (Johnnyczdc) and will be reading them over the next few days and comparing them to your comments to get ready for my cruise this coming Monday. Need to read them to also find out who that comedian is you mentioned! Sounds like a fun dose of what I need.

I'll also be on the same cruise as Ernie (eroller) and some new friends from another chat board, and although none of us have ever met we already have a lot in common from years of online conversations.

I hope to come back with plenty of pictures and a review as a way to pay forward all the great help everyone here on Cruise Critic has been.

I am on the Dec. 3 sailing as well; my wife and I are first timers. I promise to leave my ball cap and tank top at home! ;)

I am on the Dec. 3 sailing as well; my wife and I are first timers. I promise to leave my ball cap and tank top at home! ;)

I'm pretty sure as first timers you'll have a superb time! Just that some of us 'old salts' (me) have a fondness for the old days when (don't say it) dress codes (sorry, had to go there) were more adhered to in the MDR. ;)

But as many have said, including myself, it's your cruise. Have a good time! And PLEASE don't forget to come back and write a review. Since we are on the same cruise I would love to 'see' it through your eyes.

I do see you have joined the Roll Call HERE. I promise I'm a much nicer person than I come off here sometimes. Come up around 5pm at the aft bar on Resort Deck 10 around 5pm and meet with a bunch of us Cruise Critic folks. Should be a fun sail away!

See you there. :D

Was the comedian you mentioned named Troy Thirdquill? That's the closest name I found in the Celebrity Today daily's under Celebrity Showtime playing in the Celebrity Theater Deck 4 at 9pm.

Was the comedian you mentioned named Troy Thirdquill? That's the closest name I found in the Celebrity Today daily's under Celebrity Showtime playing in the Celebrity Theater Deck 4 at 9pm.

Yes, that's his name! Very funny guy.

Almost forgot - we did Ziplining in Roatan and it was INCREDIBLE. We went with South Shore zipline and I could not imagine a company that could have had better equipment, guides or views. I would highly, highly recommend this exhilarating experience. Also, it doesn't hurt that it's significantly cheaper on this island than most others :D

Nice review, thanks for sharing.

Hi Anna glad you enjoyed the sailing for the most part. We were onboard the same sailing in Cabin (Balcony) 9054 and ran into one instance of smoking, I had no problem at all calling guest services about the incident and it was handled immediately. Here is a copy of my Sea Pass and it does indeed have a NO SMOKING symbol on the lower left corner. Not sure why your's did not.

Yes, that's his name! Very funny guy.

Added Troy to my list of must see's based on your recommendation. :)

Thanks for the review - sailing nov 28. Hope the noise isn't doesn't affect the 8th fl Concierge cabins -- I'm a light sleeper and also affected by smoke. But from past experiences I'll will speak up if there is a problem. One thing, though- the baseball cap & picture t-shirt crowd was in evidence on Eclipse last yr even on formal night and there was no enforcement - on a 7-day although I agree that maybe even more don't get dressed up on shorter cruises. Hope you have a great experience on your NEXT cruise.

Great review! We just returned from the Millie yesterday and yes, Troy was outstanding. Also, I wish my server had recommended not getting the Ribeye. It was not good at all. I had to order another dish. Also, I was in room 8082 and noticed very little noise from above.

wow can u at least wear a ball cap at the pool? i dont wear hats to dinner.