Celebrity Cruise Line
Millennium Cruise Review
Eastern Caribbean

Kevin
Age: 46
Occupation: Attorney
Number of Cruises: 12
Sailing Date: January 28th, 2007

Just returned from a one week cruise in the Easter Caribbean. Mostly wanted to comment on the ship but will make one comment about the itinerary.

The Millennium is a nice ship, a little long in the tooth. It doesn’t have that grand foyer look but there are nice touches through out. Lots of contemporary art that I hoped was not overlooked by my fellow passengers since they tended to be an older group.

Overall, Celebrity is really no longer a luxury cruise line. Sort of like Princess when it was bought by Carnival, Celebrity, bought by RC, is more just above average. My favorite for the price. Most of their activities and offerings are an attempt to earn money. Cannot begrudge them since they need to turn a profit, but just know this going in. The ship has ocean view elevators, very neat.

Food: average. Nothing exciting. Trying to eat is a little complicated. No dinner buffet, but you can make reservations for casual dining. Room service is on the TV and we couldn’t figure out how to order dining room food since we were told it was doable. Sushi was great but as said by others, it is offered during the dinner time for main dining hours so if you eat Sushi you ruin your dinner.

Rooms: fine. We had a balcony and everything seemed average. Don’t do the concierge class. No choices in pillows. The concierge knew less and was less helpful than the guest relations desk, which was very helpful. Our room steward was virtually non-existent, but he made up the room so I cannot complain. Speaking of concierge: class rooms-don’t bother. There was no benefit and you don’t get on or off that much faster.

Service: it was fine. To be fair, these folks work 7 days a week for as much as 8 months straight. Not terribly friendly but not rude either. I found the passengers a very complaining group of people. I am unsure where they got their expectations but nothing ever seemed good enough as you heard people speaking in the elevators, etc. Considering the price of the cruise, the service was satisfactory.

Passengers: they tended to be older. Therefore, the activities were pretty much non-existent. As I said above, a lot of complaining, crowding you if you were in their way, etc. I had more issues with impolite passengers than anything else, except one of the ports.

Entertainment: very good. More shows than any other ship I have been on. Lots of dancers and singers too. They have spent money for performers and the productions. Very, very good. While some of the shows are missing a little (you cannot write concert quality numbers and ask cruise quality performers to hit all the notes), this was one of the cruise line’s successes. As stated elsewhere, the activities are greatly lacking and mostly are focused on generating revenue (art auctions, wine tasting, make-up, etc.).

Casino: very nice. Looks like a miniature Las Vegas casino. Dealers (who are contracted out) are not the nicest but if you have been to a casino, you know what to expect. Blackjack is 3:2 or 6:5. Sorry, this is for the fun of gambling, not for serious play.

Ports: everything was fine (if you know what you are in for at all these very frequently used ports).

Dominican Republic: let me put it this way, either you will take my advice and not bother to get off the ship or have the worst day of your curse. Seriously, you don’t want to leave the ship. This was echoed by everyone that got off the ship. This is where the cruise made their biggest error (after choosing to stop at DR), they have land based people running the busses and shuttling the passengers. Bad information and just a very bad job of getting people back and forth. As I said above, you can either trust me and not get off or you will be writing this same report upon your return.

Overall: a good ship for the money. This is NOT a luxury cruise line. More in tune with a Royal Caribbean than anything else. If they make Conde Nasts top big lines again, it was likely due to the lack of competition.



 

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