Millennium 5/17 food travellogue plus more

[Mack704]

Hello fellow CCer's. My turn to give back. Currently sitting in the Vancouver Airport. Will be boarding in about 1/2 hr. I'll probably write this review in a couple of installments. I'll entertain any and all questions along the way.

 

First, some observations. This is my perception of what I saw and experienced. YMMV.

 

Each and every staff member or crew member was smiling, engaging, friendly, and talkative. From the MDR staff, the buffet staff, any officer or crew member walking the halls, everyone. I'm convinced any reviewers that reported less than stellar treatment was due to their own poor behavior. (You snob cruisers, sour pusses, and malcontents know who you are).

 

We chose Celebrity Select Dining. We ate every night in the MDR. We had reservations 2 or 3 nights, and just walked up to the non-res. podium the other nights. Never waited more than 60 seconds, tops. Hostesses were very friendly and engaging. We had 4 different waitstaffs over the 7 nights. All went over the top with service. Anyone who reported less than stellar service, well, see above.

 

Our stateroom team went out of their way to make our cruise special. Of course, they knew we chose select dining. Our prepaid tips in no way diminished their service. They couldn't seem to do enough. Always cheerful. Knew our first names the first day. We tipped them an extra 20 a piece at the end of the cruise.

 

Plane is about to board. More later.

 

Harvey

[phillie gal]

Thank you, can't wait to read more! We will be sailing the same on June 14.

[Mack704]

DW and I have been on approximately 20 or so weeks of cruising in the 10 years we've been together, including four different lines: *X; RCCL; HAL; and Carnival. *X is our line of choice, with RCL a close second. *Plus, I'm an avid reader of Cruise Critic.

 

So with a wealth of experience and information, we made the conscious decisions of 1) eating as many meals as possible in the MDR. *2) no specialty restaurants this time, and 3) as little as possible in the buffet. *We have found the X MDR to be quite good and even excellent at times. *Conversely, we don't care much for the buffet and don't need the specialty restaurants.

 

We are elite members of the Captains Club, but didn't attend any loyalty events. *Our roll call didn't even have 25 signed up, but we don't care for those get togethers either. *We like to keep pretty much to ourselves.

 

Our cruising has morphed into very sedate sea days. *Our most exiting activities on sea days are the evening shows in the main theater and listening to the singers we like in the coffee café. *

 

On the other hand, we are very active in port. *And this cruise, we booked all our excursions on our own. *The Alaskan ports are amazing, but more on that later.

 

Harvey

[d4m]

Thanks so much Harvey - great start!

[JacknShelby]

Thank you for sharing. Looking forward to seeing more.

 

Carla :)

[Mack704]

We stayed in downtown Vancouver for 3 days prior to the cruise. *Our hotel was on Burrard St, about 10 minutes from the port. *On embarkation day, we took a cab to the ship and 10 minutes turned into over 1/2 hour. *Traffic! *

 

Then, over 2 hours to board the ship. *Here's why: *two cruises before ours on the Millennium, over 100 people had contracted noro. *So the ship was put on quarantine. *The quarantine continued on the cruise immediately prior to ours. *That meant after all passengers debarked, they had to sanitize the ship before boarding.

 

So we arrived at the port around 11:00, but boarding didn't start 'til after 1:00. *Our lunch options included the Oceanview buffet, the aqua spa, and Bistro on Five. *We opted for the buffet. *

 

As has been reported before by others, it was "hell to pay" finding a empty table. Especially since practically everyone was boarding at the same time.*We finally found one in the aft area. *(At least it was inside. *People were sitting outside in the aft area and it was chilly out there).

 

Walking around the back to the sandwich area, by chance we found the relocated hamburger/hotdog grill, which was moved inside. *Good move! *By then, we were so hungry, the dogs and burgers were better than ever.

 

By the way, my intention all along was to to purchase a soda package. *It was taken right care of by the first staff member I saw after being seated.

 

More later

 

Harvey

[TommyD3]

We were on the Millennium for 37 days prior to your getting on. Even though there were 1200 B2B passengers for the previous cruise, there were 0 when you got on.

 

Were they still on Code Red - where they serve you the drinks in the buffet and the bread, butter, sweetener, etc in the MDR?

 

Tom

[Mack704]

Yes, they were still on code red, but just for the first day or two. Then they loosened up. DW and I thought it was strange that they wouldn't let us sprinkle our own salt and pepper in the MDR. It wasn't on the table in the Oceanview either. We didn't hear of anyone getting sick on our 7 days.

 

More later.

 

Harvey

[Mack704]

In my research, every set of menus I looked at for any Celebrity ship's MDR showed prime rib offered on the first night. And it was. Since PR is one of my favorite foods, I always order two pieces. And true to form, they were both delicious.

 

My DW, as a rule, orders whatever fish is offered on the MDR menus. However, on our last cruise, (the Summit to New England and Canada, in the fall of 2011), she was less than pleased most nights. So instead of the haddock offered, she chose the everyday salmon.

 

Well, it looked good but was not. She claimed it didn't have that fresh salmon taste. More like canned salmon, even a little fishy. It went back and she reluctantly tried the haddock. And lo and behold, it was very good. I even tasted it and agreed.

 

We hit the sack early the first night. All that waiting earlier in the day was tiring. Early to bed, early to rise. We tried the buffet for breakfast.

 

At the omelet station, I got two fried eggs, toast right next door, and bacon just a few steps down for my self-made bacon and egg sandwich. DW got a delicious looking omelet with bacon on the side. Everything was good. At this point, there was no salt and pepper on the table because of the carry over code red, but we made do.

 

Day two was a sea day, so lunch was in the MDR. The pork knuckle fontina cheese panini was tasty. It was like a cheesy pulled pork sandwich. I also had the sesame skirt steak. They cooked it med/rare as requested, and it also was tasty. DW had the orccetti w/shrimp and reported it was good.

 

In the MDR for dinner, I had just about the best roast duck I have ever tasted. Absolutely scrumptious. The rack of lamb was also good, but that duck was superb! DW had the filet medallions, (the only steak she likes), and said it was teriffic. A note here: Celebrity used to include foie gras in their filet medallion dish. If that were still the case, she wouldn't have ordered it. But X no longer serves foie gras.

 

More later.

 

Harvey

[librarylady19]

Enjoying your review; do you have any photos of the food you are describing?

[Mack704]

Sorry Sandi, no. DW is the photographer in our family. And she took a book of pictures in port and by the Hubbard Glacier, but no food porn. Again, sorry. Next cruise I will remember to do food porn.

 

Harvey