Celebrity Millennium
Sail date:
Celebrity advertises itself as "Simply the Best." From my recent experience, this is simply untrue. In fact, out of four cruises on Princess, Royal Caribbean and Carnival, I would consider the Millennium and the Celebrity cruise line far below the ones I previously mentioned. I had booked this cruise about nine months in advance for my wife's birthday. My wife and I were traveling with our 2-year-old son. When we got to the ship, we were told that someone would take us to our room, that never happened and we had to go to the room ourselves. When we got to the room, there was someone taking a shower in the bathroom and there was a Celebrity coverall outfit hanging on the hook outside the bathroom door. Also, there was an open suitcase on the bed. Unbelievable. We had to go to the Guest Relations desk to let them know that someone was in our room. I told them that I thought it was a Celebrity crewmember due to the coverall outfit and they said that it couldn't be. Then, they called the Chief Housekeeper for that deck and told us to meet him at the room so that he could verify our story. We met him there and sure enough, the person was still in the shower. The housekeeper called guest relations to let them know and then they started looking for another room to put us in. We requested an upgrade due to the inconvenience and they put us in a room with more mirrors, what a joke. Later, we had to go back to guest relations so that they could issue us new room keys/ID cards. The room itself was no big deal. I thought it was quite small compared to other ships we've sailed on. The carpet had stains on it and the bathroom wasn't very clean. Next, our cabin steward, another major let down. She was by far the worst we've ever experienced. On all the other cruises we've been on, every cabin steward we've ever had went out of their way to service us (the customer/guest). They always came and introduced themselves and told us that if we needed anything to give them a call. On the Millennium, our room steward never showed her face. After two hours, I called cabin services to let them know we'd need a crib for our baby. She showed up after 20 minutes. She never introduced herself nor offered any services. One of the days our baby had thrown up on the carpet in the room because he got sick. We had told and showed her the mess, yet after three hours it wasn't cleaned. The room smelled so bad we cleaned it ourselves. At this point, I was extremely upset. I then called cabin services and yelled at them to send someone right away to spray some freshener on the carpet. They sent someone other than our cabin steward/assistant to freshen the carpet. The cabin smelled bad for two days. If the mess were cleaned right away, it wouldn't have gotten a chance to soak into the carpet as much as it did. Our cabin steward tried to half-heartedly apologize the next day. As far as the ship goes, it was okay and really no big deal. On a positive note, the dining staff was outstanding. We had an excellent waiter and assistant waiter. The food was good, but not great. The entertainment was average. The Broadway-style shows couldn't match Carnival's, by far. Most of the crew was very courteous, but on some parts of the ship, some were unfriendly. One time at the Aqua Spa, I was completely ignored after asking a crewmember a question. For the size of ship this was, the gym was small. The gym on Carnival's Victory was about three times the size. Also, none of the other ships we've been on charged $10 or anything to use their steam room each time, like Celebrity.Overall, I was very disappointed with this vacation/cruise/cruise line. We paid more for this cruise than any other we've been on, and frankly it was not worth it. We will not cruise with, or recommend Celebrity, to anyone.