Celebrity Does it Again!
Celebrity Millennium Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 18
7 Night Southern Caribbean (San Juan Roundtrip)
Sail date: March 18, 2023
Ship: Celebrity Millennium
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 7023
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
This was a great southern Caribbean cruise. The ports were all great to visit and beautiful in their own way. The ship was beautiful, clean, and well-maintained, the food was amazing throughout the cruise in all of the dining areas and overall the service was great. We had a full ship but it never felt crowded and there were plenty of areas to enjoy every day that it never got stale. In fact, we wish we had a few more days to go back and re-visit several. Can't wait for the next time!Embarkation
Boarding this ship is by far the best expereince I have ever had. You need to download and use the Celebrity app as you can upload all of your preboarding info well in advance. When we arrived, we dropped luggage, went through security, they scanned the bar code from the app and we headed onboard. Once on the ship, they scanned again and pointed us toward our muster station. If you watched the 3 minute video in the app ahead of time on how to put on your life jacket, they scanned your app again and sent straight to your room. That's it, no safety briefing or sitting in the theater for 30 minutes waiting. We never stood in line more that a couple of minutes behind maybe 4 or 5 people and this was a full cruise of almost 3,000 passengers. Great job Celebrity!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
We visited almost all of the dining areas. The buffet was massive and had food from all nations prepared perfectly. It was very impressive. The main dining room had standard items as well as new items on the menu every night. Everything there was presented beautifully and the flavors were wonderful. Creative combinations and fresh ingredients. I have been on several cruises over the years and typically we visit the main dining room once or twice as it is often generic and sometimes bland. Not at all the case here. We were surprised at the quality given the volume of food they put out during dining hours. We also visited the Tuscan restaurant which was also a great stop. It was a small menu and several items cost extra on top of the already premium charge to visit, so that wasn't great. but overall a good experience. We also tried the Sushi on 5 restaurant. Also a wonderful experience as far as the food. Fresh preparations (as they should be) and great flavor combinations. Also recommend. Finally the burgers poolside. You could smell them cooking every time you were on deck 10 or 11 outside. They smelled wonderful and tasted just as good and are included with your meals.
Onboard Activities
The activities were OK., We didn't participate in many of them as many seemed to be either casino stuff, art auctions, jewelry and goods sales, or short trivia games in the pubs. We tried to get to a couple of these but they were packed and lasted about 15 minutes. We didn't see or hear about any fun or educational events while on board. On other cruises, they have had short talks about the places we're visiting (not selling excursions) or classes on playing the steel drums or cooking. They did have plenty of events like line dancing poolside too, which we aren't into, and a couple of nights of silent disco. I highly recommend checking that out if you get a chance. It's as much fun to watch as it is to participate. Otherwise, the pools were nice and lots of hot tubs to soak in, but they were usually very busy during our cruise.
Entertainment
We attended a few shows while on board. The comic did two nights and he was fantastic. They had a magician perform, but to be honest the show itself wasn't as spectacular as the lights and music had you hoping. He made a few minor mistakes a couple of times that kind of gave away the trick and did a couple of close-up card tricks that have been on Instagram for quite a while so that missed the mark. On-board performers around the ship in the various bars and restaurant locations were all great and we enjoyed listening to all of them.
Service and Staff
Service and staff were a little hit-and-miss. This is where they really have some opportunities for improvement. Some staff appeared happy and welcoming to guests. Quick to provide great service and tend to anything you needed. Others seemed like they were going through the motions. I can only imagine how hard it is working for months at a time on a ship like this can be so every day isn't sunshine and roses, but it's not great when it comes through to the guests. In some areas, it seemed as though they were short-handed and the few staff they had were running like crazy just trying to keep up. There was attention to detail missed more often than it should for a "Luxury" brand. For example, our steward removed the shower towels we had left to be replaced but didn't leave any fresh ones. We ordered room service one morning and I called the order in the night before telling them we had an excursion in the morning and needed the food no later than 7:30. They put down a 7:30-8 delivery window and it arrived at 8:10 as we were leaving. There were several other examples along the way but not enough room here to cover them all, but you get the idea. Individually, none were major, but altogether there were enough that added up to be noticed.
It was still overall a great experience, but there is room for improvement.
Ship Quality
This ship is the oldest in the Celebrity fleet starting its journey in 2000. (thus the name) but you wouldn't know it. They refurbish every ship every four years and the Millennium is due again next year in 2024. She does not show her age at all. To us, she looked as new and fresh as any ship we have been on and better than many. All of the common areas were very clean and in good order. Even the carpets still look new. They did a great job of keeping her spotless.
Cabin / Stateroom
The cabin itself was clean and comfortable. Space was average for a typical cruise ship. We had plenty of room for all of our things and were very comfortable. The veranda was nice though had we dropped down one level, they were twice the depth, so ours didn't look straight down the side of the ship, it looked down on half of our neighbor's veranda below. If I were to go again, I would also pick a room 2 or 3 aft of ours as the two forward of ours had partial views because of the ship structure and this partially affected our view as well. We did love the fact that the shower was actually a fairly large shower for a cruise ship, not a little corner box. Overall, everything was clean, looked new and fresh, and well maintained.
Ports of call
Disembarkation
Getting off the ship was as easy as getting on. Only compaint was that they were not clear on what time we had to be out of our cabins, which caused a little last-minute rush clearinfg our final items out. We got down to our assigned waiting area where there were only a few people. (They did a great job of disbursing people throughout the ship to wait for thei assigned disembarkation time). Once our group was called, we walked straight off of the ship, zipped right through customs, grabbed our luggage at it's assigned spot and we were off. Again almost no lines or waiting. Probably 10 minutes start to finish.
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