Miaminice

Doable but extremely tight - too tight for my taste.

@Cool Cowie sorry, I didn’t tag you in my answer above.

Yes - and the cruise and our experiences, especially because of the fabulous guides, was amazing!

Usually I book tours between a year to 6 months before. Since I look for people on the roll calls to join us, I like to be early.

Since there is no tender port, the delay is minimal - if there’s one at all. as soon as the ship is cleared, you are good to go. Sometimes a different exit as the booked tours but at the same time.

renovated means new carpets, furniture, curtains and such. They can’t rewire staterooms. Nowadays when a ship is built, the staterooms are fixed containers prepared off site by suppliers of the shipyards. They are then delivered with all wiring and pipes. The container is then placed into the hull and the wires and pipes are connected. So the wires are where they are. Some of the newer ships have bed lights with USB and some with a 110v outlet. there are plenty of outlets in the state room. I’m asking them to bring an extension cord which they are happy to do is really not a problem. To be honest, the moment I start worrying about where the outlets are to evaluate the overall pleasure of a cruise is the moment well stop cruising. Maybe you are better off cruising with HAL in the future. We did and we certainly prefer Celebrity. Granted, the placement of outlets was a factor we definitely missed in our decision process.

On Silhouette I“d recommend Murano and the Lawn Club Grille over Tuscan. On other ships where they are not available, Tuscan is okay.

We just booked our fourth cruise to Japan - on Millennium. Two of the previous cruises were on Millennium, one on HAL Westerdam. We wouldn’t do HAL again. Didn’t like the layout and we were pretty disappointed by the food. Our last cruise to Japan was in October 2023 on Millennium and we really enjoyed the refreshed ship. Yes, she’s still a M class ship - but they did a great job. She feels fresh and modern. Review can be found here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2970853-celebrity-millennium-japan-10242023-liveish-report/ For our fourth Japan cruise we were looking at different itineraries and looked into NCL and Princess. Further investigating the different ports of their itineraries soon brought us back to Millennium. Celebrity’s ports of call offer many different opportunities - even though we have been to all of them before more than once. Some of the smaller ports visited by NCL and Princess just don’t offer a lot - with some I’d even say nothing. So in a nutshell: even though we were open to alternatives we gladly chose Millennium again. And we also prefer E class or S class - but think M class is a perfect size for the Japan cruises.

Japan is always worth a visit and cruise 👍 Maybe our reviews help... Japan Millennium 2023 https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2970853-celebrity-millennium-japan-10242023-liveish-report/ Japan Cherry Blossom Cruise HAL Westerdam 2019 https://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/HAL-Westerdam-Japan-01/hal-westerdam-japan-01.html Japan Millennium 2017 https://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/Celebrity-Millennium-Japan/celebrity-millennium-japan.html

no, not a problem at all. We always do.

Yep! Which is why the comparison to Apex is irrelevant 🤷🏻 And the question was about Constellation.

Since the question was about Constellation, your dislike of Blu on Apex does not really relate to the topic and shouldn´t unsettle the OP. That being said, we enjoyed Blu on 4 cruises on Apex. We go for service and food and not for the view. When we go to dinner it´s dark anyway. The noise in Blu is relative - since it´s always more quiet than any MDR, I can live with it.

No, my experience is that E-Class has no fixed dining times... although still a part of their IT system.

Blu is our main reason to always book Aqua. Not because we think the food is that much better, but because we like the more personal service and less rushed ambiance. Especially breakfast is a treat. You can come to Blu any time you like and you can get your prefered service team if you let them know. IMHO Blu is much nicer than the MDR - especially the unrefurbished one of Constellation. As Aqua guests you can also dine at the MDR any time you want - but in the Select Dining section, not in the fixed seating part.

You can find info on Kagoshima in our travelogues. It´s a port easy to do DIY. Part 10 of this one http://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/Celebrity-Millennium-Japan/celebrity-millennium-japan.html Beginning Post #136 of this recent one https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2970853-celebrity-millennium-japan-10242023-liveish-report/ We have also done this cruise to Japan but Kagoshima wasn't a stop. However you might still find it interesting. http://www.travelandcruise.net/travellove_en/Our-Trips/HAL-Westerdam-Japan-01/hal-westerdam-japan-01.html We absolutely love Japan - so much that we just booked our 4th cruise to Japan :-) Millennium May 2025

We also started on Royal many many years back and jumped over the fence 3 points shy of being Diamond. So we worked our way up to Elite Plus on Celebrity - because we were never really tempted to go back to Royal. I don’t think the perks are bad but tbh we don’t care for them anyway. We cruise because we enjoy cruising and the destinations. THE perk of Celebrity for us is that they are (still) our favorite cruise line and still better than others - within the same price range - which we tried. And certainly better or more grown up than Royal. Points are also not a factor for us. We are Elite Plus and we will never reach Zenith anyway in this lifetime. 🤣

you will be Elite on Celebrity but you can’t transfer the points! So you‘ll have to start your way to the next level - Elite Plus - with zero points.

M class A1s are quiet, S class A2s are quiet, the ones we had on E class were quiet. Even the A1 on M class - although I don’t like the overhang - were quiet. We have done over 20 cruises in Aqua.

not true! Some are, some aren’t… just like other staterooms. M class A1s are fabulous - nothing above. S class A2s under Spa or Persian Garden. I can’t even list all the good ones on E class. Maybe you are thinking about the A2s on M class under the overhang and pool deck. But that not all of Aqua 🤷🏻‍♂️

Enjoy your future cruises 👋

Yes!

we booked Millennium again for 5/2025. We compared X, Princess and NCL and decided to go with Millennium again. Mostly because of the itinerary.

We did one day in Bangkok and took a Grab (Asian Uber) to Pattaya on the second day. Yes, the ride to Bangkok is far - but there´s a lot to see along the way and in Bangkok. So for us it was worth the drive.

David, we also received an information - I think it was before the cruise - mentioning one copy per port. Hence the confusion. I printed a few - because it was easy - but expected to just need one single copy to show if required. It was good to have, but noone even wanted to see the single copy - except the hotel.

we had ONE in our pockets and it was enough for the entire cruise. Except for Hanoi, where we stayed overnight at a hotel, noone requested to see them. Print a few spares and save a pic on your phone and you are fine.