Millennium Alaska June 16, 2017 LONG Trip Report photos - menus - schedules

[Tweedy]

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your post. We board on September 1 and I can't wait!

 

 

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[luckybecky]

Cellar masters:

 

 

Part of the martini bar:

 

 

Here's another picture of the martini bar taken at a later time. The bartender was showing a passenger how to pour many drinks at once, and was mopping his brow in mock nervousness.

 

 

As we walked around the ship, they were really, REALLY pushing the drink package. I mean, over and over and over. It was relentless. There were also people here and there who were selling dining packages and the spa, but the drink thing was ridiculous. When we said we already had the drink package, they tried to upsell us to the premium package. It grew old very quickly. This continued for the first couple of days.

The martini bar looked really cool. Paul tried to order a martini but they refused to serve him as part of his classic drink package. The bartenders repeatedly tried to upsell us. But when Paul tried to order a standard martini, they said they could not make him one. We questioned this, because "martinis" are clearly listed on the menu included with our package. But the bartender we spoke to said he could not make us a martini on our package.

I think this was very poor service -- to refuse us service for a drink that was clearly included in our package. I mean, it is explicitly a "martini" bar, but they would not make him a martini unless we upgraded to the premium package or paid the extra price for whatever kind of special martini they wanted to make. Not cool. But it was OK, we just went elsewhere to get our drinks. There were bars everywhere and never a problem to get alcohol!

[luckybecky]

Rendezvous Lounge:

 

 

 

 

Sushi on Five:

 

 

 

The entrance to the Tuscan Grille

 

 

[luckybecky]

The gym:

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

At 1:15 they announced that rooms were ready. We dropped off our hand luggage. Our larger bags were delivered around 3:30 so we were able to unpack before dinner.

My impressions of the room: it was one of the smaller rooms we have had. But the balcony might have been a little larger than we have had on other ships. It didn't seem quite as tight a fit as I recall on other ships.

The bathroom in our kids' inside stateroom was smaller than ours, with one less cabinet and several inches less of counter space. Our bathroom was the one place I noticed on the ship that was showing some age. Some of the tiles were cracked, and the grout was dirty and just looked gross. However, our stateroom attendant Marites did a great job of keeping our room clean with twice daily service.

Another observation: there were only 2 electrical outlets in our room. Right by the desk, there was a double American outlet and a double European outlet. That was it. There was not any outlet of any kind in the bathroom, which is odd. We asked Marites if they offer any kind of adapter and she said they only offer extension cords to people who have CPAP machines. So if you have lots of devices, it's a problem.

Nowadays, people have so many devices - everything from electric toothbrushes, to phones, laptops, electric razor, digital camera, and more. It's hard to keep everything charged. We even pulled out the bed to see if we could use the plug where the bedside lamps were plugged in. We couldn't. They were not US style outlets.

We use a white noise machine when we sleep which took up one of the two outlets, so we could only charge one phone at at time overnight. This is a problem in a technological world. Next time we will take a power strip.

A very minor detail: every hotel or cruise ship we have ever used has had a note pad and pen in the room. Not here. And we needed it, so we could leave notes for our kids in each other's doors as we went about our day, when to meet up, or whatever. Not a big deal by any means, but we noticed it.

Also, looking at the TV, we noticed that they charge $14.98 each for in-room movies. WOW! That price seemed exorbitant. We don't use this service so it didn't matter to us, but it can add up fast if you use it often.

Here is the inside stateroom. We asked Marites to separate the bed into two twins. This was taken care of while we were at dinner.

 

 

A couple of points about choosing a stateroom:

Regarding port vs. starboard: I theorized that the view might be better from our balcony if we were on the port side, because as we travelled south the land would be on our left. And I wonder if others thought the same, because the port side of the ship was much more fully booked when we made our reservation and made it tricky to get rooms close to each other. But in the end it really made no difference. When we had scenic cruising through the inside passage, there were beautiful scenes on both sides of the ship, and when we were at sea, it was ocean as far as you could see. And when we were docked, the dock was usually on the starboard side.

Regarding balconies: We noticed that on this ship, many of the balconies did not seem very private. For example, nearly all the balconies on deck nine, from midship all the way aft, could be easily viewed from the Oceanview Cafe just above. And the midship elevators, which are glass, offer a clear view onto the nearby balconies, literally from just a few feet away. So if you desire privacy on your balcony this is something to consider.

Here's an example, looking down from Oceanview Café. These must be suite balconies because our standard balcony did not have room for loungers. We just had 2 chairs.

[Zoedokey]

Cellar masters:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part of the martini bar:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's another picture of the martini bar taken at a later time. The bartender was showing a passenger how to pour many drinks at once, and was mopping his brow in mock nervousness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The martini bar looked really cool. Paul tried to order a martini but they refused to serve him as part of his classic drink package. The bartenders repeatedly tried to upsell us. But when Paul tried to order a standard martini, they said they could not make him one. We questioned this, because "martinis" are clearly listed on the menu included with our package. But the bartender we spoke to said he could not make us a martini on our package.

 

 

 

I think this was very poor service -- to refuse us service for a drink that was clearly included in our package. I mean, it is explicitly a "martini" bar, but they would not make him a martini unless we upgraded to the premium package or paid the extra price for whatever kind of special martini they wanted to make. Not cool. But it was OK, we just went elsewhere to get our drinks. There were bars everywhere and never a problem to get alcohol!

 

 

 

The Martini bar uses only top shelf liquor to make martinis so they do not have the ingredients to make classic martini drinks. But they are delicious. For us, the martini bar alone was worth the upgrade to premium. Not for everyone though.

 

 

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[Sandtrap328]

Good review of the land portion. It would have been informative if you had prices for the hotel/condo units and for the dinners.

 

The ship review is a good beginning. No, you cannot take power strips.

 

Looking forward to the conclusion.

[luckybecky]

The Martini bar uses only top shelf liquor to make martinis so they do not have the ingredients to make classic martini drinks. But they are delicious. For us, the martini bar alone was worth the upgrade to premium. Not for everyone though.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Thanks for the explanation. That makes sense, but it seems it would not be that difficult for them to have one bottle of less expensive gin to make a standard martini. But, like I said, there was plenty of alcohol and no problem to get a drink elsewhere.

 

Good review of the land portion. It would have been informative if you had prices for the hotel/condo units and for the dinners.

 

The ship review is a good beginning. No, you cannot take power strips.

 

Looking forward to the conclusion.

 

You're right. Here's some pricing:

 

49th State restaurant in Healy: $80

The Bake in Denali: $ 124

Seward Brewing Company: $ 100

Jack Sprat in Girdwood: $113

 

Those are the totals including tip. I think we had a couple of glasses of wine at The Bake, and no alcohol at the others, if I remember correctly. And we rarely order appetizers or dessert. So at these prices to feed our family at each meal, you can see why we ate breakfast at our condo, made picnic lunches, and picked up some prepared meals at Costco.

 

I'd hate to think how much it would have cost if we had eaten out three meals a day for a week!

 

Hotels:

 

Denali Lakeview Inn (Healy) $574 for 2 nights, included breakfast

Girdwood 2 bedroom Condo $392 for 2 nights

Seward 2 bedroom condo $650 for 2 nights

Quality Suites downtown Anchorage $182 for 1 night

Palmer motel $135 for one night

 

Those prices are the total including all taxes.

[luckybecky]

We usually eat supper early. We had anytime dining. During this cruise we usually went to the dining room around 6 - 6:30 and it usually took about 1.5 hours to complete our meal. We thought the food was consistently good and the service was usually good.

Occasionally there would be a bit of a delay between courses. Once we waited more than 20 minutes after our entrees were cleared before we were presented with a dessert menu, and coffee didn't arrive until 30 minutes after we ordered it, but that was not the norm and overall the service was fine.

The table settings were elaborate and they did have tablecloths at every meal. I know Carnival has been roundly criticized for eliminating tablecloths. It is another seemingly minor detail, but a tablecloth does lend a sense of elegance to a table. The table setting on our first two days included no less than nine pieces of silverware. Far more than needed. The number went down to about six for the remainder of the cruise.

On this first night, I had arugula salad, French onion soup and prime rib. Everything was excellent. The French onion soup was the best thing on the "timeless" menu, which has items that are served every night. The chicken breast and steak from the timeless menu were not as impressive -- but my son who has Asperger's syndrome and is not an adventurous eater loved them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know why I don't have pictures of my food, but here is the salmon that Paul or Tara enjoyed:

 

 

Here is the dessert menu. Sorry for the off color of my photo.

 

 

 

If you are interested in room service, here are the menus

 

First the standard menu of items available at no charge:

 

 

 

And this is the specialty menu which has items available for an additional charge:

 

[luckybecky]

This is the daily schedule that was in our room at check-in. We would receive a new one each evening with the schedule for the next day.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's our pilot boat that came along in the evening:

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

Muster was at 7:45pm. It took almost half an hour. There were several lengthy delays while apparently missing passengers were being sought out. We had arrived early enough to get seats in our muster station, Michael's Club, but quite a lot of people had to stand while waiting and some opted to just sit on the floor.

After this, we went to the 9pm show. It was a fun intro to the cruise. Steve, our cruise director hosted the show and told some jokes. There was a short performance by the Gold Art Duo who would be doing a full show later in the cruise. They were amazing! Naturalist Milos Radakovich also spoke for a little while. He is an excellent speaker, very funny, and we looked forward to seeing him again.

At one point, an announcement interrupted the show. It said "Starcode Deck 5 Blu Restaurant." We had no idea what this meant and Steve proceeded with the show. Later, we googled and found out that Starcode means a medical emergency. We never heard what happened.

We saw the evening show every night except one and loved them all. The theater was beautiful and all the shows were excellent.

I was surprised to read a thread here just a day or two ago about the shows, and how many people think they are not worth seeing. To each his own, of course, but we thought the shows were great. Very high-energy, upbeat and fun. Especially for such a small venue as a cruise ship. I mean, it's not Broadway, but the performers and musicians all did a great job, in our opinion. We love live entertainment so we made a point to see the shows as often as possible.

[luckybecky]

Finally, we checked out the casino. It was larger than I expected. We tried craps, slots, roulette, and video poker by the end of our cruise. The video poker pay tables were very poor, but this has been the case on other cruise lines as well. We didn't have much luck, but we aren’t high rollers so we didn’t break the bank. We gamble small sums, but did enjoy the casino almost every night on this cruise.

Well it has been a long day! We finally retired to our cabin very late. We had a notice about a Celebrity Connections party, arranged by the cruise line for Cruise Critic members. It was to be held at 9:30am the next morning.

I have to admit, we are not morning people. We typically stay up very late and don't rise early. We were exhausted after a very busy week in Alaska and looked forward to sleeping late on this upcoming sea day. I was surprised that the Cruise Critic party would be held so early, and to be perfectly honest, I didn't want to have to be up and presentable that early.

I had tried to be active on our roll call, but it stayed pretty quiet and I didn't feel much of a connection to the people on our roll call. So we went to bed late and didn't set an alarm to be up and at 'em in time for the party.

I felt bad missing it, but really had not expected it to be a morning event. I figured that if I woke up in time, then that's great, I'd go to the party. But we needed rest and did not wake up in time to be dressed, made up, and ready for a party by that time.

 

 

By the way, if you enjoy watching TV in your room, you may be disappointed by this message on your TV screen:

 

 

This was the case for a large part of our cruise. It wasn't a big deal for us because we are always out doing something and hardly ever watch TV in our room.

[luckybecky]

Saturday June 17 Sea Day with Hubbard Glacier scenic cruising

 

So as mentioned, we were very tired and we did not wake in time to make our Celebrity Connections morning party. To my fellow roll call members, I'm so sorry I missed meeting you, but we desperately needed the rest. Maybe Celebrity could schedule the party later in the future?

We did make it up and out of our room in time to catch the Heartbeat of the Operation Galley Tour at 10:45am. It was a very popular event. There were LOTS of people there. They started by shepherding us into the Metropolitan restaurant on deck 4. As we entered, we were given a slip of paper with a number on it. The head of food operations spent some time describing the operation and answering questions. Then they started calling us by group number, according to the number on the paper we were given when we came in.

Each group was pretty large and was led by one of the chefs. I was lucky to be at the front of our group, but I could see how the people bringing up the rear could not hear the leader at all. Still, it was kind of cool to see. I just wish they could do it with smaller groups. This was a popular event with lots of people wanting to participate and the groups were too big.

[luckybecky]

Here is the brochure that was handed out for the galley tour

 

 

 

 

 

[luckybecky]

I almost forgot... here is today's schedule:

 

 

[luckybecky]

We finished the tour just in time to catch Milos Radakovich doing a talk about Alaska wildlife in the theater. If he is on your ship, you should definitely try to see him. He has a great sense of humor.

Next, lunch. My daughter loves to go to the dining room for full service lunch, but my son just wants a burger with unlimited fries. So we split up. My daughter and I went to the dining room, while my husband and son hit the buffet. My son loved the burgers at the pool grill. They were thick, juicy burgers and you could get as much bacon and grilled onions as you want.

After lunch we were arriving at Hubbard Glacier. What an awesome experience! There was a lot of ice in the water, which prevented us from approaching as close as we would like. The captain had to make the approach very slowly due to large icebergs.

Our cruise director announced that we weren't able to get as close to the glacier as desired due to the amount of ice, which required us to proceed slowly and created time constraints. But it was still beautiful.

They opened up the helicopter pad for viewing, which is reached through the front of the theater. We also walked from side to side on the outside decks and spent some time viewing the glacier from our balcony, as the captain turned the ship to allow viewing from any direction. We did not see any calving.

It was cold! Brrrr

 

[luckybecky]

Here are people viewing the glacier from the helicopter pad. They were serving hot chocolate as you entered the area.

 

[luckybecky]

Later, we went to the pool. It is really nice that they have an indoor pool on this ship! The area is beautifully decorated. We loved the hot tub and it wasn’t too crowded. It was kind of cool to put on our swimsuits and go to the pool after freezing our __ off while viewing the glacier! :p

This was an evening chic night and most people did dress up. Ladies were wearing sparkly things and many men had ties, but we did not see anyone in a formal gown or tux.

We went to dinner fairly early as we usually do. Sometimes the staff seemed to have trouble finding our table. The routine is when you walk up to the restaurant, a hostess takes your room number and assigns you a table. She then hands a slip of paper with your table number to wait staff who escort you there. A couple of times, they seemed unsure where to go, even consulting a little map they held in their hand. Once, we had quite a tour through the dining room. It reminded me of those old Family Circle cartoons (I'm showing my age, but I know some of you remember this too!) and we had a laugh about it.

We had a great table tonight!

 

 

One night, my daughter asked the hostess for a table by a window. The hostess replied that those tables were already taken. We then proceeded to walk past several empty window tables to be seated inside. Actually, it happened a few times that we were seated at tables away from the window, when much more desirable locations sat empty. Once, the four of us were given a six-top table, right next to a four top that remained empty for a long time. Why they gave us the larger table, who knows?

[luckybecky]

Anyway, tonight I had the spinach salad, corn soup, and beef tournedos. Everything was excellent. Here is the menu:

I'm trying to remember, and match my photos with our meals. I think this was the beef tournedo:

 

Crispy frog legs:

 

 

 

Baby spinach and Treviso salad:

 

 

[luckybecky]

Still trying to make sense of my photos.

This might be the leg of lamb? (With the Timeless Entrée chicken breast in the background)

 

 

 

This is probably the salmon tartare:

 

 

 

Tomato watermelon salad:

 

 

 

Pan seared rock fish

 

 

Sorry, I wish I had taken notes so I could remember what everything is! :p

[luckybecky]

We went to the 9pm show with Jesse Hamilton Jr. He was excellent. His show was very entertaining. Every show we saw was great. Jesse remained on board until the end of the cruise, and we often saw him hanging out in the martini bar in the evenings, but this was the only show he did during the entire cruise. We really enjoyed the show.

We went to the casino pretty much every night late. A bartender there, Marco from Montenegro, got to know us very quickly and learned our drink preferences. He was great! As soon as he saw us walk up he would greet us by name and start pouring our favorite drink. He worked the pool bar during the day and the casino at night. He gave us outstanding service and we tipped him generously.

So we closed out our day in the casino. Tomorrow: Juneau!

[jpcello]

Can't wait to hear/sea the rest of your review. We sail on Mille (but in reverse order) on August 18th. Finally starting to get excited by seeing your pictures!

[Hatteras51]

I'm loving your review. We've cruised to Alaska twice. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I'm so happy to hear that Milos is on your cruise. He was on our last Alaska cruise, and we loved him. He often brings his wife along. I'm looking forward to hearing about your adventures. It's wonderful that you got to share this with your family.

[baronessk]

Your review is MOST helpful as I'm taking my first X / first Alaskan cruise on Infinity mid August. THANK YOU!!! Saving pics and taking notes!!!

[Goodtime Cruizin]

Really enjoying the review. We're on Millie Aug 25th Southbound so this review is really nice and timely. Thank you for taking the time to post it for all to enjoy.