Millennium - Venice - Barcelona

[rannoch]

My wife and I were on the Millennium 5th aug to 17th Aug., and this is a personal review of the air travel, cruise, and ports visited. Our previous cruise was on the NCL Spirit Hopefully some of it will be helpful.

 

Travel Glasgow => Amsterdam => Venice

I had reserved the seats on the KLM website (up to 30 hours before departure time), and had a boarding sheet, and the luggage check-in was smooth with no problems.

I was really concerned with the little time which seemed to be available between flights at Amsterdam, and although being assured and re-assured by travel agent amd KLM (KLM customer services advised that

the arrival and departure gates were very close to each other, and we wouldn't have to go through security - both incorrect) we made the connection flight with 10 minutes to spare.

Both flights were KLM City Hoppers and offered the same snacks - nothing hot apart from tea or coffee.

Baggage uplift at Venice was fine, but a bit disconcerting to see the queue of passengers waiting in line (for up to two hours) to report lost luggage. Celebrity personnel waiting to direct us to the transfer coach - quick and easy.

Embarkation was quick and easy because we had registered all required personal details on the internet, and were fasttracked to the ship - took about 30 minutes from checking-in to being greeted on board with a glass of champaigne - then straight to cabin. Unfortunataly, the same can't be said for our luggage which took 5 1/2 hours to get to the cabin - too late to change for 6.15 dinner.

 

The Cabin

Size OK decor dull - nothing special, but the bathroom was in need of a complete refurbishment (cracked tiles on the floor, cigarette burns on the sink and worktop, didn't look clean).

The cabin (decor and furnishings) just looks tired.

 

Meals

Breakfast - usual facilities, and plenty of them. The choice of food was good - quality OK.

Lunch - same facilites as breakfast, but limited choice, and on a couple of occassions the quality of some chosen items was poor. Sweet choice poor.

Snacks - limited opening times (e.g. patisseria)

Dinner - 6.15 sitting. The menu choice appeared to be good, but what the descriptions said, and what was served could be very different. For example, I ordered a salmon something which had a fancy

description, and turned out to be a mini-pizza. They don't serve the best cuts of meat - on at least three occasions I was served steak which was reduced in size by half after I cut away the grisle and fat.

Presentation and service good, quality OK.

 

Entertainment

The theatre shows were on the whole excellent with a variety of acts, and themes - considerably better than NCL

The same can't be said for the lounges. The lounges we visited were - Michael's bar, Cosmos Nightclub, Poolside, and Rendez-Vous.

Michael's Bar hosted a pianist/singer called John Owen, and although he was good the sound level in such a small area was far too high to be relaxing, or comfortable. On the two occassions we visted here we

left after one drink.

we visited the Cosmos Nightclub only once - supposed to be for a formal dance evening. Turned out to be a group and the formal dance bit were recordings during the intervals. The place was empty.

Pool side hosted a couple of late night events, but seating is almost non-existant.

Rendez-Vous was our main watering hole mainly by process of elimination. The two groups (Great Ideas and Coco Band) were OK but with a very limited repertoire - if I hear "It's raining men" ...

Biggest issue with the lounge entertainment was that there were three karaoke nights (one on a formal night) which went on until midnight when a teen-karaoke started. Celebrity must have assumed the oldies

were off to bed. Bad planning.

 

The ship

When we arrived on the NCL Spirit we found a real WOW factor on a really elegant and beautiful ship. Millennium is neither elegant nor beautiful - it's OK. It desperately needs a major refurbishment. The

deck layouts are poorly designed.

 

Ports of Call

Venice - Venice is crowded. St Marks Square is jam packed, and should be called the square of queues. We sat down at the restaurant where the quartet was playing, and when eventually the waiter came with a

menu, he pointed out the cover charge for the music. The prices were rip-off, and we left. We spent our cash on a couple glasses of wine on desk 10 aft dring the sail away from venice - wonderful.

Dubrovnick - Interesting to see, but not a place I'd go back to. It's the perfect kind of destination for a cruise.

Athens - well the only thing I wanted to see was the building site called the Acropolis. Took the early morning tour and the heat was not unbearable. There is a lot of walking and being in the sun.

Santorini - very crowded. Went up and down in the cable car.

Naples - Although we had decided before the cruise to stay on board, because of the lack of activities we went to Capri. Cost on the ferry is 32 euros return. There is a lot of confusion at the ticket booth, and when we eventually got up to the window, the cashier decided to take a 5 minutes break. When he came back we had to wait to see if there were any seats left on the ferry - with 3 minutes to go we got our tickets. Three levels - Capri port, capri, and Anacapri. Capri was extremely crowded - very unpleasent. Anacapri was less crowded, and the single seat cable car to the top of the mountain is very relaxing.

Florence / Pisa - It rained in Florence in the morning, but brightened up and was pleasant. Pisa was much better than I expected, but don't expect to go up the tower. We went to the ticket office around 2:30 and the next tour of the tower was 21.00, and people were already queueing.

Rome - didn't go to Rome, but if you decide to go, it's best to go with a tour as you miss the queues going into the Vatican (up to 2 hours)

Nice - went on the train to Monaco. get off the train and go up the escalator, turn left and to your right there is an information kiosk - get a free map. We went to the palace, and did the tour which was really nice. Then went to the Grand Casino, but as we didn't have our passports we were not allowed in.

Barcelona - there is a city tour prior to going to the airport. we re-arranged our flights (at a cost of £100) to be able to do the tour. Unless you have a late flight (after 14:30) don't bother to re-arrange flight times, the tour is not particular good, and only concentrates on the spires and the old cathedral.

 

Travel Barcelona => Heathrow => Glasgow

Well, this was really awful.

We thought we were travelling BA, but after walking up and down all the check-in desks in Barcelona airport there was not one for BA. We eventually found someone who said BA used Iberia (which must be the worst airline in Europe), and pointed us to elecronic check-in machines. The machine spewed out the luggage labels, but not the boarding passes. When I tried to get back into the systenm the ref no was not recognised. We eventually found a very helpful lady who printed off our boarding passes, and checked-in our luggage.

We then found that Iberia do not provide any food unless you pay.

We arrived in Heathrow late only to find our flight to Glasgow was delayed by 2 hours - such is life, but when we eventually arrived in Glasgow our luggage was still at Heathrow.

 

Summary

we were very disappointed with the level of "luxury" on Millennium. Celebrity are touted as 5 star - definitely not. No WOW factor anywhere. An OK cruise, but not great.

In hindsight it was a bad idea to go in the high season as the ports are crowded

Based on our previous experience, NCL are better, and the Spirit was a WOW factor ship. Millennium is a very tired lady.

NCL senior staff were visible, and friendly - celebrity senior staff were only visible at the welcome aboard and thanks for coming slots in the theatre.

Theatre entertainment was excellent - far superior to NCL, but the lounge entertainers were not as good as NCL.

 

Would we sail with Celebrity again - no.

[Susan-M]

That's unfortunate to come back from a cruise feeling as disappointed as you are ... and it seems rare with this cruise as so many come back with glowing reports. I was one of them two years ago and although I've only been on six cruises....Millennium in the Med tops our list so far.

 

We went in September, had a balcony cabin which we really enjoyed, thought all of the ports were very interesting (I had done extensive research beforehand so that we could expore on our own and make the most of our time in each port). We enjoyed the ship, food and entertainment (although we were pretty exhausted from our active port days to take in much of the entertainment.)

 

Better luck on your next cruise. :)

[Califonria cruiser]

Thank you for taking the time to write a review, all angles are appreciated : )

 

Did you tender or dock at Dubrovnik? Did you take the paid Celebrity shuttle or town or did you think it was needed?

 

Jenn

[llbiopoet]

Wow. I was on the same cruise but loved it. I will agree with you that the staterooms are *very* tired.

 

Did you happen to hear the acapella group in Rendez-Vous? I quite liked them....

 

L

[amagar]

Isn't it interesting to read how one person can be "wowed" while another person disappointed?

 

Neither is wrong.

 

How would you like to design a ship (hotel, etc) trying to appeal to all?

 

We recently returned from MGM in Vegas. I had the same disapppointment as rannoch expressed with celebrity. no wow. actually, it was anti-wow. it was blech. And I was roundly berated for stating such on another travel board.

 

Thanks, rannoch, for offering your view.

[llbiopoet]

Um, I'm not insinuating he was wrong. Only stating I had a different view and agreeing with him about the staterooms.

 

??

[packed&ready!]

Your photos are beautiful and I am looking forward to my cruise soon. Thanks.

[rannoch]

Let me try to put some of my comments into some sort of perspective as having re-read the original posting I sound a bit like Victor Meldrew (for non-UK residents he was a grumpy character in a sitcom).

 

The cabin was big enough for two, had a balcony with two plastic chairs and a table, and was after all only a bedroom and bathroom, but should be nicely furnished to a higher level, and comfortable. I feel it was comfortable, but not well furnished.

 

On the final Wednesday there was a midnight buffet, and had the quality on offer at that buffet been available throughout the cruise at the evening meal it would truely have been 5 star.

 

Theatre entertainment was excellent with Doug Cameron, Pearl Kaufman, and Adrian Walsh outstanding. Not so the lounge entertainers - didn't hear the acapella group in Rendez-Vous.

 

We had visited many of the ports of call before, and perhaps there was a bit of "never the same the second time". At high season everywhere is packed, and we can't complain about that as we were also contributing - but we will choose more carefully in future.

My three main highlights were the tour of the palace at Monaco, the single chair lift at Ana Capri, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

The cruise is perfect for visiting those places which are of interest, but where (IMHO) a day is adequate to get a taste. My comments regarding Dubrovnik (the ship docked and we joined the city panoramic/old town tour) meant that I enjoyed what I saw, but not a destination I would re-visit. The Acropolis was the same.

 

The staff (cabin attendents, bar waiters - especially Claudia, table waiters, etc) are definitely 5 star. Nothing too much trouble.

 

Did we enjoy the cruise? well we didn't sit brooding in the cabin as there was never a night where we were in bed before 2.00am

 

Yes we did enjoy the cruise, but Celebrity are touted as 5 star, and didn't live up to that status.

 

Rannoch

[Pontius Navigator]

Rannoch, your views coincide with many views of Constellation although she is a newer ship and in no way tired, apart from the Edge of The Earth. You had the compensation of good theatre entertainment but we didn't!