Just Back from Eastern Carib on Millennium

[reader2]

My friend and I just returned from a 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise aboard the Millennium. My first time on this ship but have been on the Century 6 times and loved it.

 

My overall impression of the Millennium was wow big! A beatiful ship with a great crew. I was however disappointed in the food in the main dining room. We did not try the Olympic Restaurant but our dining companions raved about the food and service in this speciality restaurant.

 

One night my friend was served lobster which was on the menu and said it was good but she only had on her plate one piece of broccoli and what looked like a reheated potatoe. The accompanying vegetables on every plate were very sparse. Desserts were okay but not outstanding. I am not a fussy eater but having dined on the Century I felt the food quality and preparation and presentation were not on par with the Century.

 

I am booked on the Millennium to the Med in September 2005 so I sure hope the food improves. One of the crew told me that the Executive Chef had resigned just prior to the ship sailing so perhaps this had something to do with the disappointment in the food.

 

I try not be negative however we were also disturbed by the extremely rude people that we encountered on this cruise (eg. pushing, shoving, shouting, argumentative etc.etc.). Apparently a fight broke out between two guests during the Midnite Buffet and security had to be called.

 

The rudeness of the majority of the guests noted by other guests at various times so it was not just us that were complaining.

 

Sure hope the trip to the Med will be a lot better.

[JTSpitfire]

Were the meals uniformly disappointing or just a dinner or two? The reason I ask is that a very recent posting on another board did nothing but rave about the food.

 

Are there other recent Eastern Caribbean Millie cruisers who would be willing to offer their thoughts on meal quality?

[Ships R Great]

Can you give me any information on the cruise director and the social hostess? Thanks.

[gwrod]

......And I thought it was just me!!!!! You are so right. These "people" were the rudest group I have ever seen!!Always cutting in front of you in line and so pushy(I think they thought the food would run out) I personally witnessed a verbal fight break out in the theater over a saved seat...Wow the language that came out of that 75-80 year old woman...made me blush. But, they were not just mean to fellow cruisers, but amongst themselves also.

[Bisous3]

The thing thats been getting to me on the last few cruises is the lack of elevator etiquette. Let everyone OUT before you get IN. Also there seems to be no regard for who is waiting the longest and therefore should get into the next elevator....

Suzanne

[Two@Sea]

If you're referring to the 12/5 cruise, count us in with your complaints about the two extremely large "groups" that were on this sailing. I have never experienced such a lack of social etiquette anywhere, nevermind a cruise. Wow, what a bunch! We enjoyed ourselves despite the "distractions" however. I have posted pics at http://community.webshots.com/user/Ladyputt for anyone who is interested.

 

Marsha

[Bisous3]

Marsha

Great pictures! Like postcards!

Suzanne

[Two@Sea]

Thanks, Suzanne. Ain't digital cameras fun? Got mine a few months ago. Take a pic, look it over for errors, delete, make reframe corrections, and click! TaDa!

 

Marsha

[nhwwdebbi]

Hi all, we were also on that sailing and would agree l00% about the rudeness. I particularly enjoyed the shoving match at the craps table one evening between the two elderly gentlemen. Kind of reminded me of my old college days:) Beautiful ship, great service, so-so entertainment and a bit inconsistent in the meals. Had a very nice, relaxing week. Deb & John

[RECPILOT6]

I Am On The Jan 2 Sailing And Hopefully The Food, Service And People In General Will Be A Bit Better, I Wont Hold My Breath I Think No Matter What Cruise You Go On There Are Always People Who Think They Are The Only Ones On Board.

[detroitcruiser]

I think that celebrity does an outstanding job on food and service........ at least sometimes. This was what bothered me the most about my Summit cruise after a wonderful experience on the Mercury. The food in the specialty resturant was outstanding the dining room was good, but the casual dining especially brekfast and lunch were awful in my opinon. The only notable exception was the aqua spa food which was very good.

[Sea Island Lady]

Let's just hope that the problems you encountered were temporary. If the chef left the week prior, the kitchen could really be thrown off. As for the rude passengers, sounds like a chartered group.

We encountered an older group of women on our Millennium cruise in 2003 and they acted like they had never been away from home! Pushing and shoving (or should I say shoveling :D ).

 

I can't imagine the food going down that much since we cruised as the food was the best we have ever had on all our cruises. We are scheduled to cruise the Millie again in October, so I am looking for things to change.

 

How was the ship's condition overall? What type of stateroom did you stay in?

 

PS - Just took a look at your photo's. I see you were in the aft. Your pics are very good. You have a winner in the photo "View of El Morro Seaside (Taken from Ladies Room Turret!)". That is a very unusual shot that I have yet to see. I bet it would look great in Black&White.

[Fang]

My Sister was also on this cruise. She does not use a computer much so I really doubt that she will reply to this post.

 

She told me that the cruise itself was very nice however, there was a large group of people on the ship and they were very rude. It did effect her cruise because of the fellow passengers.

 

She told me that not only were they rude to fellow passengers, crew but also amoung themselves.

 

She asked her waiter if she recieved "Combat Pay" for this weeks cruise. Her waiter told her that they had a staff meeting and were told that there was no way to make these people happy, to do the best they could and that the review forms would not be taken into account for thier performance.

 

I guess this was a very large group that took up a large portion of the ship.

 

One good thing about it, she told me that many of these people would not pay for the spa services so by the end of the cruise the Spa was running many specials at deep discounts. I guess there is always a silver lining in everything.

[trcori]

for Ships R -- CD is Derek somebody (Haberman? I am sorry to say he is pretty bland and his name just doesn't stick in my mind) and Captain's Club hostess (they don't seem to be using "social hostess") is Josephine someone (young, dark hair, also rather forgettable, but we are not big social types) -- both were at our CC party. As for the food -- nothing bad to report here -- the beef is better, the pasta's decent, the bread baskets have survived :) -- definitely new menu items, changes from our other four X cruises in past two years, and the menus are now in heavy leather bindings, and in elegant script (more upscale appearance from those tacky paper-with-orchid-on-cover ones on all our previous cruises). Some other changes too which I will mention in the review when we come back -- burning off a card at Soapy's dockside in St. Thomas (good price for online access, we used them in AK a year ago while on Infinity) -- gotta get back on board :) -- P.S. Tomorrow night they're debuting a new production show, "the scenery just arrived in San Juan yesterday" according to the CD -- it's called "I Love the Night Life" -- TR

[Sparkle 123]

We liked the cruise director Derek Harbrikan. We found him to be very personable and easy to talk to. Didn't see the social hostess though.

[lindajeff]

First cruise ever for us 50-somethings was the 11/28-12/5 Eastern Caribbean on Millennium. Everything on the ship was great. (Now, for some of the ports, that is whole other story.) Food was generally excellent, occasionally fantastic, only rarely slightly disappointing. Service, especially from our stateroom attendant, waiter, assistant waiter and wine steward were OUTSTANDING. Casino was active but not overcrowded and I even saw people winning. Live music, particularly poolside and in Cosmos was also excellent. Entertainment wasn't Broadway or Vegas (although some of the singers and dancers should be there), but was genuinely entertaining. The illusionist was better (IMHO) than David Copperfield and the ventrilogist was hysterical. We also had a large "special interest group" on our cruise but no rudeness, issues or problems that we noticed or were aware of. All in all a great vacation - can't wait to book the next one.

[Neake]

We were on the 12/05 cruise. Had late seating for dinner at 8:30. The first 2 nights there was complete confusion. We were not seated until 8:50. We had great dinner guests at our table for 10 & were able to laugh it off. Food was O.K. but on two nights my waiter served everyone but me & told me he had to send my dinner back to the kitchen. Didn't say why. The shows were good but the casino was very crowded at night. Some fought over the nickel machines.Still enjoyed the rest of the cruise.

[folger]

Hi,

Read you are going on Millenium Jan2. We are on Feb 13 but wanted to ask you to say hi to our daughter Melissa who is a casino dealer on that ship currently. She is from Canada and loves to hear hi's from home from cruise critic people I have contacted. Jusy look for Melissa from Canada at the tables if you are in the casino and say hi from her mom. If anyone else sees this please do the same when you are onboard.

 

Thanks

We are looking forward toseeing her onboard in February

Mom from Canada

[folger]

Hi if you happen to still be on the Millenium cruise when you see this say hi to our daughter Melissa who works in the casino on the tables. She loves to hear hi's from home. Just say Hi from your mom in Canada

Thanks

folger

[emcee207]

Just returned from the Constellation southern caribbean 12/11 thru 18th, you should read the posts from our group about that crowd!!!

[SisZ]

Folger,

We will be on that cruise on Sunday, will your daughter be there, then?

Sis

[folger]

Yes My daughter is working now on the milleniem. Do look for her and say hi and Merry Christmas from her parents-- she will miss the snow here in Canada this year.

 

Thanks for dong us the favour. we will be on the ship in February tosee her.

 

Folger

[SisZ]

It will be the second thing I do, once on the ship..!

 

Right after I make the reservations for the restaurant everyone talks about!!

[65Cardinal]

Ladyputt -

 

Great photos of your trip. We are on the March 6 sailing so this group of pics really is getting us excited.

 

How did you like the aft CC room?

 

Jack

[eeniemeenie]

everyone takes to things differently and i guess cruising is no different. we also were on the 12/12 sailing on the millenium. although i am new to cruising i have done four in the past year. two on royal caribbean...serenade of the seas and the voyager, on on caribbean princess and this on the millennium. comparisons are hard. some things are better on one ship and other things better on another. i expected more however of the millie because i thought celebrity was more of an upscale line so perhaps therein lies my disappointment. a pleasure not to hear loud speaker announcers calling for bingo and horse racing every fifteen minutes. this was a plus. food was a definate disappointment and i was not the only one who thought so. all our table mates agreed it was very mediocre. we haad wonderful tablemates by the way...lucky i guess. on one occassion we were served a seafood pasta dish at dinner that was all mushy and stuck together with hardly any sauce...something i would trash at home. when the head waiter stopped at our table after the meal and politely asked how dinner was before i could think about it i told him how dissappointed i was with the sticky pasta dish. instead of an apology he went on to tell me how other people thought it was very good. this made me feel just awful. i was glad when he left and my other table mates applauded me for telling him saying they felt the same way. not a very "upscale" way of handling a complaint at any restaurant. the olympic restaurant was terrific. we went on both the first night (open seating night ) and the last night of our cruise. the food was wonderful..the service sublime. worth every cent in my opinion. except for the new spectacular show production which was really terrific the entertainment was not up to the other ships. bert stratton on princess and the comedian on princess...top notch. we saw marty allen on rci another real great entertainer. no comediens here....except some asian juggler sort of funny guy. not to funny to us. concierge service definately not worth the extra bucks. cabin is same size. and the bedding comforter and down pillow choice was real nice. that's where it ends. towels robes hairdryer flowers canapes....all didn't add up to anything special or even worthwhile. save your money and spend it in the olympic restaurant. or order flowers and canapes...it will come out cheaper and better.stella our steward was sweet...very pleasant and helpful. we enjoyed the stops. took the water taxi all over fort lauderdale and stayed at the hyat pier 66....really nice.took the excursion to catalina island on casa de campo and it was lovely. visited caneel bay in st.john...took ferry from st. thomas.had a marvelous outdoor lunch buffet...then snorkeled and swam. has to be the most spectacular beaches anywhere. visited old san juan on foot...toured el moro and the museum and had a drink in the courtyard of the el convento hotel...very old san juan feeling. had lunch in a local very neighborhood restaurant...no tourists. felt very part of the experience. in nassau taxied to the ocean club for lunch...walked the beach and then stopped off to see the atlantis to see what all the fuss was about. felt like opening day at the barnun and bailey circus. overcrowed and very plastic feeling. over the top if you will but not in an exclusive way like caneel bay or the ocean club. cou;dn't get out of there fast enough. again every cruise is great. the thalossopy pool..i know i didn't spell that right was a delight. very unique. so all in all we delighted in being away had a great time didn't love it all.....perhaps others will disagree. but as my mother always reminds me "that's why they make chocolate and vanilla"