Traditional Cruise with Japanese ports, and 1 Korean port
Celebrity Millennium Cruise Review to Other (Asia/Africa/Middle East)
Contributor Level:
Second Mate
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 12
Helpful Votes: 275
13 Night Best Of Japan (Yokohama Roundtrip)
Sail date: May 02, 2024
Ship: Celebrity Millennium
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 6110
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 26 days ago
Review summary
Typical cruise with stops in several Japanese ports and 1 Korean port. Little Japanese presence on board. Sushi avaiable only at the sushi dedicated Specialty restaurant - never showed up on the Main Dining Room Menu. The excursions we took were excellent. Even just walking around ashore was great, with a few exceptions.Embarkation
Our flight arrived at 5 AM Tokyo time, but the first bus to the ship wasn't until 11 AM. (Our Air reservations were done through Celebrity Flights) Once our bags were loaded onto our bus, they were delivered directly to our cabin. Although there was considerable congestion at the pier, the process of checking in and boarding went smoothly.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Main Dining Room food was very good with 3 (of the 13) dinners outstanding. The serving staff were very good, especially our Wine Steward, however, the time between ordering and receiving food was very slow (may not be the fault of the wait staff). Service seemed typical of post-COVID service on other lines.
Onboard Activities
There were few Japan oriented (no pun intended) activities on board and we did participate in some of them. Most other activities were typical of any cruise and we did participate in some of those also.
Entertainment
The singers in the production show were very good, as was the aerial artists. In general, most of the productions shows (but not all) were very good, typical of most cruises. The featured artists were all excellent. The MOBO Group, featuring Motown / Soul music, was very entertaining although while doing a song mentioning several dance types from the 60s, their version of the Mashed Potato (highstepping while pretending to mash potatoes in a bowl) is not the Mashed Potato Dance I know from SoCal in the 60s - maybe that's the way it was in England where Moma came from). The Taiko Drummers were very good. Most Taiko Drumming groups in the US are much larger (the on board group consisted of 5 drummers).
Service and Staff
The Food service staff were very good. Our room steward had to be reminded every few days that we wanted our ice bucket filled every day.
The cruise staff, including the Cruise Director, consistantly mis-pronounced Japanse words, including the names of Japanese cities, food dishes, and Japanese items. As a third generation Japanese American, I've debated my feelings about this - maybe I'm too touchy about this. However, on our RCCL cruise to the Mediterranean, the cruise staff consistantly gave us the correct pronunciation for things in France, Spain, and Italy. On our Princess cruise from New York to Quebec, the staff provided the correct pronunciation for all things Canadian, even the differences between the Canadian pronunciation and French for a given city or item. So is it asking too much for the staff to refer to the city of Kobe correctly, and not as the name of a Laker basketball player - Kobeeee (which would be spelled Kobi in Japanese)? When we spoke to staff members who were from Asia, they seemed to know the correct pronunciation of Japanese words.
The "Japan Expert" on board also used Americanized pronunciation of Japanese words (or maybe Canadian since he was from Canada) in his presentations. He confused Sushi (vinegared rice dishes) with Sashimi (raw fish, not called sushi unless put on Vinegared rice). He said the three types of Sushi were, Nigirisushi, Makesushi, and Sashimi (see above). He left out other common types of sushi such as Inarisushi (using fried bean curd sacks to hold the rice) and Chirashisushi (loosely tossed sushi rice with egg and other vegetables mixed in a bowl). His pronunciation of Onigiri (rice ball snacks) was so far off I didn't recognize it. My UCLA educated daughter told me he meant rice balls and had said it in a manner she had heard some people in Southern California use. When I mentioned this to the Japanese guides and staff, they knew it as the way "Americans" say those words (but this guy was Celebrity's "Japan Expert". Oops, sorry for the tirade, but I was expecting the same expertise as our RCCL cruise to the Mediterranean and Princess cruise to Quebec, and cruises to the Caribbean by both lines.
Ship Quality
Medium size ship, so easy to get to different places. Jogging track is about 0.1 mile (6 laps per Km) - great view of ship's surroundings. I did get scolded by one couple for running on the walking track (the ship's deck views labels it as a Jogging track - at 73 years old I didn't consider my speed as "running" anyway.
Cabin / Stateroom
Fairly typical layout. Access to the Balcony was difficult when the sofa bed was open.
Ship tip
Little valid information about Japan was provided on board. If you're interested in a traditional cruise that has some stops in Japanese ports, then this may work for you. If you are interested in Japan, its culture, and the Japanese people, then there are better options (the Diamond Princess provides much more information on Japan and Japanese culture).
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
We only explored the Haneda Airport and met with a Japanese friend for several hours there.
We took the excursion to the Bamboo Forest in Arashiyama - it was spectacular. The bus ride was a little long but well worth it. We went during "Golden Week", a Holiday week in Japan, so there were many Japanese visitors mixed in with the tourists. Although we were there only a few hours, we had time to wander on our own throughout the park and forest, and had time to visit some of the shops and eating places there. Again, it was very crowded due to the holiday crowds.
The ship stayed 2 days in the Kyoto / Osaka port. We spent one day on the Osaka Castle tour. The outside of the castle was spectacular, however, inside the Castle looked like a modern museum anywhere in the world (the Ship's entertainment Director had warned us about that). It was still "Golden Week" so there were lots of crowds. The TV mini-series "Shogun" had just aired on FX a month before our cruise and much of that story takes place in and around Osaka. There was much information on the many battles and events shown in the Shogun TV Series. After our castle tour, we were taken to a shopping area and allowed to wander for an hour or two before the bus returned to the ship. On day 2, we visited the Osaka Aquarium - very impressive. The main tank was large enough to house 2 Whale Sharks and many large Sting Rays in addition to many, many other species of fish and sea mammals. There were also dedicated tanks of fish native to specific areas all over the world, including coral reefs with the native sea inhabitants. There is also a large shopping Mall located on the pier where we docked.
We took the tour to Miyajima, an island near Hiroshima - bus ride to Hiroshima and a ferry ride to the island. The guide took us to a temple there, entry fee included in the tour price, and we were then allowed to explore the island for another 90 minutes. Very beautiful area, very aggressive deer wandering about - brought back memories of my time working at the Japanese Village and Deer Park in Southern California.
Took the provided shuttle bus to Chinatown. Not much to see there - could have been a Chinatown anywhere, but with signs all in Korean.
Walked through the town to the "Red Brick Warehouses" shopping area, passing by some fresh fish shops with tanks of swimming fish for sale (including one tank with a huge octopus). The Warehouse shops were diverse and had a wide varity of shops, but seemed pricey compared to the other ports. We considereed taking the Mt. Hakodate ropeway to the top of Mt. Hakodate, but the strong winds made us decide not to.
We walked over to the "Apple Building" shops, then came back to the ship via the shopping area streets.
Took the provided shuttle bus to the JR station, then walked back to the ship passing through the Shimizu Fish Market (mostly closed by the afternoon when we got there). We did do some shopping at the S-Pulse Dream Plaza shopping Mall located right by the ship.
Disembarkation
Very smooth.