Millennium Amazing Asian Adventure 2014

That is a stunning picture. Glad to hear you are having a good time, and look forward to hearing about your elephant trek.

A few people have reported on other ships better than expected food, maybe it's a trend.

About that balcony issue...sorry to hear, pretty crazy not to be able to use that big beautiful balcony.

Tendering went pretty well this morning.

We visited a few lookout points

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"Trekked with the elephants" which was ok. A tourist thing for sure which I'd give a 3 out of 10 overall.

Then to see the big Buddha.

Some great views.

To be continued...

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Then onto the Chalong temple, a "must see" in Phuket.

We saw s beautiful bride and her new husband come to the temple to make a wish.

Then onto lunch, beautiful view.

Amazing feast.

This afternoon we're heading to the old town of Phuket and then maybe a beach for a bit.

Happy sailing,

Jenna

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Wonderful photos that bring back memories of past trips. Thank you!

The diving shot of that purple starfish reminded me of seeing one while snorkeling at an island near Komodo in 1989. At first I thought a diver lost a neoprene glove, and then realized it was alive. Never seen one before or since until I saw your photo today.

So glad you made it back to the ship safely and made lemonade from the lemon experience of the ship being denied entry into Indonesia for whatever reasons.

Wonderful pictures- almost breathtakeing! We are on board Milli in the first two weeks of march! So it is great to get a " sneak peak" ! thanks for shareing!

Michael

After lunch in Phucket we bustier the market and old town.

Phuket was a lot like southern Bali in many ways.

Back to the ship.

And another wonderful sunset.

Happy sailing,

Jenna

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Yesterday was Langkawi and probable the biggest surprise of the trip.

We woke to a beautiful sunrise.

The newly converted Windstar cruises star was in port.

After finding the guide, the challenge of which seems to be a theme for the cruise we drove around a bit of the island and then on to an Ecco cruise through the mangroves. Lots of wildlife and beautiful scenery.

A typical beach.

The mangroves

To be continued . . .

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To be continued . . .

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On the way back I asked to stop and swim at one of the beautiful beaches.

Today we visited Kuala Lumpur, I'll update tomorrow once we have Internet.

Happy sailing,

Jenna

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Are you off the ship now ? Wonderful pictures.

Are you off the ship now ? Wonderful pictures.

Not quite yet, we're on our last night, it's nearly 2am and I am just finishing packing, ugh! I figured I would use up my internet.

I'll update on Kuala Lumpur once I have real internet in the airport or at the hotel in Cambodia. I'll also try and do a summary, or as much of a summary as I can do remember about the ship. I also have nearly every daily, minus the days we were gone, but I asked to have those saved for me, so we'll see if I can grab them in the morning.

I will say, that given the circumstances, Celebrity treated us fairly and we're happy with the compensation we received. I believe they treated compensation on a case by case basis for extenuating circumstances. We had a wonderful cruise, even if the ship is a bit older and has some of the challenges that are commonly discussed on cruise critic, though those are not a whole lot different than other ships of her age. In general they work hard to maintain her, do major maintenance on the fly such as the T-pool was closed when we first boarded and was completely refinished which took about 2 days.

Happy sailing,

Jenna

Port Klang is about an our or so to Kuala Lumpur (KL). It was our last day,and we had a lot of packing to do with no sea days before getting off, so we kept it pretty mellow. We did some Pewter shopping at Royal Selangor Pewter. Great gifts and some unique pieces. It made it our most expensive stop.

We drove by the sites like the iconic Petronas Towers

If you look closely you can almost see Sean and Katherine.

Then off to a local lunch at Top Hat , and on to Independence Square.

Almost no waking today. We got back to the ship, had some time to relax and prep our extra tips before a massage. All the relaxation from the massage was undone when the bomb exploded in our cabin as we tried to back, UGH. We brought WAY too much stuff, in bags that were too packed, but thankfully we fit almost everything we wanted. We sent one bag home with Toni, and then checked the rest (somehow for free) on our way to Siem Reap Cambodia. From here I'm not worried about bags and weight as we have plenty of allowance in first class.

Being escorted off the ship from Michael's Club is nice, but though customs is even better. It makes the disembarkation experience very different from the long lines we saw (and we waited until well after the last numbers were called).

I'll work on the cruise summary, and in the meantime if anyone is interested I plan to include our final stop in Siem Reap and our 32 hour trip home as well.

Happy sailing,

Jenna

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One more sunset and sunrise.

Hello Singapore.

Happy sailing,

Jenna

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Happy that I came upon your thread. We began our trip in Tokyo on October 23 and boarded the Millenium in Yokohama on October 26. We received emails announcing that our boarding time would be delayed 2 hours. The ship was going to undergo a deep cleaning because of many cases of intestinal bugs. We boarded around 2 pm in record time. We were very impressed by the speed of embarkation. Our only complaint at that point was the difficulty of obtaining correct information on the need for a China visa for our one day in Shanghai. We would have been happy to stay on the ship as we had been to China. In the end we purchased the $140 visa (totaled about $320 for us). Found out after that we could have skipped it and stayed on the ship. Celebrity customer service gave us a different story everytime we called. The first cruise had a great itinerary. I recommend it - 4 ports in Japan, Okinawa, shanghai and an overnight in Taiwan. We thought the service on the ship was great. We had a cabin in Concierge. When we got to Hong Kong we switched to Aqua Class on 9. The cabin was pretty much the same but the view was restricted by the deck 10 over hang. You could not see the sky. Moving to the cabin was easy. All of our hanging stuff was moved on the hangers. Cruise 2 started and we immediately noticed that the cruisers were different. Our first cruise had a large Asian population. They seemed to disappear on the second cruise.

The new arrivals were perhaps a bit younger and there were more Americans on the second cruise. The service in the dining room declined. The person that did the seating on the first cruise had left - it was the end of her contract. Her replacement was not as good. The service in Blu varied - sometimes it was very good and sometimes not so good. The main dining room was also much warmer. I would attribute this to the much hotter weather. When you are on a cruise for 4 weeks you have to expect that the menu would repeat and it did. We had friends join us on the second cruise so we alternated between the main dining room and Blu. The entertainment was excellent on both cruises. The ship performers were terrific and we didn't mind repeating the shows. Both cruises had performers that were flown in for their shows so here was a lot of variety.

I mentioned the decline in service to a crew member in the spa and was told that she had heard it from several people. She told me that a number of workers were fired at the end of the first cruise. She also said that 9 people were fired before they got to Bangkok. New crew members would join the cruise in Singapore. This explained a lot to me. I think that the service decline in the dining room was due to being short handed.

On the whole, we loved both itineraries and enjoyed the cruise. I don't know if I would sail with Celebrity again - I think that the Millenium is an old ship -I understand it is going into dry dock again for some work. We have booked a cruise on the Constellation in 2016 in Aqua Class. I am not sure if we will do it since it is also an older ship. I am not sure that Aqua Class is worth it on these ships. Blu is nice and the spa perks are nice but if you have a really packed itinerary like we had, you don't really get a chance to sit in the Persian Garden.

As far as sickness - my husband was sick on the first cruise - a very bad sore throat and cough. I had it on the 2nd cruise. Fortunately we came with strong antibiotics and both recovered with out too much discomfort. By the time I got it, it seemed like the whole ship was coughing.

We did some 14 private tours, beginning in Tokyo. If anyone wants recommendations I would recommend all of the companies that we used. We had anywhere from 4 to 11 people and they went off with out a hitch.

This was a truly memorable trip. We actually thought about trying to book on the Singapore to Bali cruise but wanted to get home for Thanksgiving. Guess it was a good thing we didn't.

Ella from Las Vegas

Great review Jenna. Thank you for your time & effort to share your experience with us all. Your pictures were great!

Did you have any safety concerns in any of the ports you visited (especially in Bali)? Thanks!

Great review Jenna. Thank you for your time & effort to share your experience with us all. Your pictures were great!

 

Did you have any safety concerns in any of the ports you visited (especially in Bali)? Thanks!

We felt no less safe than traveling anywhere else. Everyone was very gracious. We were careful to not carry a lot of cash and used pre-arranged, private guides so they made sure we were never really in unsafe areas, not scammed when bargaining, etc, In the end, I don't think there would have been any issues. Private guides are not that much more, or sometimes less than the ships tours and in some ports, if you didn't have a pre-planned tour, there were no taxis. We had many guides arranged months in advance.

In Bali, we contacted the hotel and they said a Taxi was fine from the airport, official taxi drivers are in uniform, and there is a bit of a push there to be more tourist friendly though it reminded me a bit like the solicitation zone in Cancun. We had a tour guide arranged in advance, which was very, very cheap $50 from 10am - 5pm! Some ports were more expensive, a lot more.

The hotel had a double gate. All autos were inspected between the gates with dogs, mirrors, all closed compartments were opened (hood, trunk) and all bags are scanned each time into our hotel and metal detectors are in use 24/7. The extra security made me feel more unsafe than the conditions on the street as we freely walked off hotel property to the beach and felt safe. I would have been willing to run on the beach on my own.

Hello from Cambodia, tomorrow we start touring Angkor Wat

Happy sailing,

Jenna

OK, a quick summary, of our cruise overall from the airport in Newark. It has certainly been an amazing trip. Being off the ship 6 days out of the 28 definitely made the cruise feel shorter. My favorite stop was Halong Bay, then Langkawi. My least favorite? None, well, it can't be none, so I guess I would probably say Ho Chi Min, but it was still a very interesting stop. We loved Hong Kong and Singapore, and many other stops but Halong Bay and Langkawi were beautiful and relaxing, many of the other stops left us tired with so much touring, and we didn't do a lot of walking.

Overall, like most cruises, this was a great cruise.

In general, areas we expect to be good, were. Cafe Al Baccio, Olympic, Martini Bar, Casino, Cabin Staff, were all great. Since the "hardware" is all pretty similar, at least in theory, the staff in general make the difference. Sure, there are always a few blips, but we except those as they happen on ships, in hotels and life in general.

Things that exceeded our expectations:

Main Dining room. This was probably due in part to a GREAT server both sailings, and AMAZING table mates. They all know who they are.

Wonderful, new, amazing places to see, great guides (all privately booked) and GREAT new friends. Meeting new people, seeing new places, and not unpacking (often) are definitely highlights.

Lots of great staff.

Areas we think Celebrity could just do a bit better:

Cabin maintenance in general, both cabins had lots of little things we requested to be fixed from shades to nightlights to drawer runners

Eliminating smells on starboard side :(

Being proactive, instead of reactive to issues that are certainly preventable.

Treating the spa, more like a spa, especially the reception desk. I can't believe they're Canyon Ranch trained. "Sit over there and someone will get you for your appointment"

Crowded pool on sea days, thought I am not sure if there is much they can do, except enforce the chair hogging (or not) and on the new ship, re-design this area

Overall staff training / consistency. I think this is a common theme, though there are many great staff.

As far as the itinerary change goes, and the smell making our balcony nearly unusable, we do feel Celebrity dealt with the situation as best as possible, provided fair compensation and we left very happy.

Overall this was a great cruise and an amazing trip and I'm happy to answer questions.

I tried to post the above sooner, but it took getting better internet to post all of the Celebrity Todays online. There are two LARGE PDFs with all of them, though neither is in totally the right order. If I had known they would be this large, I would have done it differently, but by the time I knew, I had thrown all of the originals away. Here you go:

Hong Kong to Singapore 11/9 (86 Megabytes)

Singapore Round Trip ("Gems of Indonesia") (66 Megabytes)

I was not going to post about our post cruise trip, but since this has been offered as a Celebrity Excursion between Ho Chi Min and Bangkok and because it was so amazing, I am going to follow-up with a few posts on Siem Reap and the Angkor Wat "complex"

Happy sailing,

Jenna

A few more post about our post cruise trip to follow up. We flew direct on Silk Air which is a regional airline owned by Singapore. 2.5 hours we were there, and down the stairs, no jetway. Customs and VISA on arrival took a bit but Dee was on crutches since she bruised her heel so she was in a wheelchair which helped get our VISAs faster (but we were the last ones off the plane).

We met the hotel provided car right out of the airport and immediately were well taken care of. We stay at the "Privilege Floor" which is listed as a separate hotel from the Borei Angkor but it's just the top floor with its own restaurant and lounge. All rooms on this floor include breakfast and drinks from 5pm to 7pm. We booked a sunset package with a bigger balcony and private tour guide and driver for wherever we wanted to go.

Sunsets didn't disappoint.

Since we had 4 days we decided to work out our tour schedule with our guide in the morning. We met our guide at 9am after breakfast and decided to start with the main Angkor Wat Temple. While it was a bit crowded, it was amazing.

Dee's heel wasn't feeling great so she didn't walk in and do all the steps.

To be continued . . .

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After a break out of the sun, as it was HOT and sunny for a drink with this little guy, we headed back to the car.

Most people use Tuk-tuks or slightly modified version, but having a car an AC was nice. Instead of splitting up our day we decided to visit Ta Prohm, another beautiful temple complex best know as the site of the filing of Tomb Raider. Picture really don't do any justice, but I'll share a few.

To be continued . . .

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We intended to spend a bit of the afternoon by the pool, but ended up taking a nap after lunch. The next morning we met our guide at 5am for sunrise at Angkor Wat. Simply amazing, and the size of the crowd proves it. 4-6 deep all around the pond, looking for the perfect image with a reflection of the temple.

Since we already explored the main Angkor Wat temple we headed over to Bayon before the crowds. This was my favorite temple.

To be continued . . .

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From there we headed for a drive into the country side for Banteay Srei, which is a also known as the Ladies Temple, bit older, smaller and built from pink sandstone.

Dee with out guide, Siluth

To be continued . . .

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After spending some time relaxing by the pool' we visited the National Museum. No pictures were allowed inside. Tonight was Tuesday and we had dinner at a "cultural event" at the hotel that included tradition dance. Food, as usual was better than we expected, and honestly better than the ship, some dances were a bit slow (maybe boring?) but still interesting, others were really neat.

To be continued . . .

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Wednesday morning we decided to sleep in late and enjoy a picnic lunch we had as part of our package with the hotel, at the restaurant instead of out and about. We met up with Siluth (our guide) and drive at 1pm to head to Ton Lesap which is a large lake about 20 min south of Siem Reap. A river runs from the city, down to the lake, and then from the large lake, down to the Mekong River. the size of the lake and the river ways vary greatly by the season. We were there after the rainy season, at the beginning of the dry season, but the water level was still high, and the locals still considered the water clean :eek:

Floating villages, bot most residents were from Vietnam. Locals lived in houses on stilts, these houses were actually moved down the river and into the lake when the river dried up.

To be continued . . .

We'd been asked for money before, but this was the first time by little kids in a boat.

Traffic on the river was busy, boats passed by close, and I wouldn't consider many of these boats safe, but we were willing to risk it :rolleyes:

This gives you a good idea about where water levels could be:

As we left, Dee made a friend:

Until this afternoon, we hadn't really realized how big the city was as we had been visiting ancient structures. While there are no high rises, and it doesn't seem well developed, it is sprawling and has neighborhoods. Pub street is what it says with many Euro night clubs and bars, roaming tourists, etc. There are many hotels, lots of shops and restaurants, and everything is REALLY REALLY inexpensive. Main dishes at the top rated restaurant on trop adviser start at $3 and go up to maybe $11. There are places that are slightly more pricey. While we had dinner out on Monday, it was not "in town" so it was nice to enjoy dinner "in town" this evening. We didn't head out for a drink after.

To be continued, one more post . . .

For our final day in Siem Reap, we decided to wake up late, sit by the pool.

We also enjoyed a message (also included in the package, though a 60 minute massage was only $35), and pack. Our flight on Asiana to Seoul wasn't scheduled to depart until 11:50p. The hotel was nice enough to let us checkout at 1pm and use a different room (right next door) until 6:30pm. We enjoyed our last night of drinks, and then dinner at the hotel before heading to the airport.

The airport had a unique Christmas tree made from wicker baskets:

For those that like airplane travel, almost as much as cruising, the lounge at Siem Reap isn't much to speak of, there is generally enough sitting in the airport which remained bust until well after we boarded. The 5.5 hour flight from Siem Reap to Seoul was pretty uneventful, except it was just Dee and me in first class, so we each took a window seat so we could use it to lean against to try and sleep.

While the lounge in Seoul was very, very nice, we were so tired, we basically had a bagel with smoke salmon and some tea, we didn't even use the showers as we had planned. We were escorted to the gate at about 9:20, boarded just a few minutes later to find really nice seats.

The seat:

The TV (37 inches, an OK selection of movies):

Dee seems pretty happy that it will convert to a full size bed, complete with lots of pillows and a duvet, but I don't have any sleeping pictures.

To be continued . . .