Weather was horrid, unseasonably humid, not fault of cruiseline but unfortunate for us we were not prepared

Item: Celebrity Millennium
Rating: 3.9
Author: helenlopez

Celebrity Millennium Cruise Review to Other (Asia/Africa/Middle East)

helenlopez

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 2

Helpful Votes: 24

Overall rating:

3.9 out of 5

Verified Review

12 Night Best Of Japan (Yokohama Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 12, 2024

Ship: Celebrity Millennium

Cabin number: 2177

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 8 days ago

Review summary

The horrible medical staff handling of our Covid was awful and made this cruise a horror. The humidity was also terible but not the fault of cruiseline.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Fast and efficient one of the best we've experienced

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Mediocre food. Beers were not cold on Sunset bar, we heard from several staff that fridge had been "down" for last several sailings and the only beers kept cold in limited space were heinikin and Corona - not our proferences. We had to go to other bars on ship and take the to Fore Deck to see the Sail Away. Very inconvenient. And getting Ranch Dressing took an act of congress, never available at buffet or main dining without special request which took ages to fulfill, even after several complaints to officers.

Onboard Activities

2 out of 5

Not much available. Pretty boring. Good news is there was lots of shore time.

Entertainment

4 out of 5

Above average for a cruise ship. The "production" stuff wasnt great but the takent was good. Dancers werent in sync for instance but I am a Broadway buff so pretty critical

Service and Staff

4 out of 5

A mixed bag. Sunset Bar bartenders were snooty when we c/o "not cold" beer. Wait staff at main dining and Buffet were very good. medical staff was horrible. More about that later.

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Smaller ship so fewer venues and variety but nice decor.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

We loved it.

Ship tip

Don't count on Medical service. We all 4 got Covid, had home tests and tested positive so went to medical and they did SAME home tests that were negative. The nurse did not perform them properly, we know because we are retired medical personnel. They were dismissive on the phone, and when we reported to clinic the nurse (or aid?) swiped the swab ONCE for less than 2 seconds (not required 5 swabs each nostril and 15 seconds) then declared negative after waiting about 2 minutes, not required 15 min. Did not perform PCR test, even though we SHOWED her our positive home test. The result was we were not isolated, and all 4 us us came down with Covid one by one. No Paxlovid available. When we continued with symptoms we returned and insisted on a correctly administered test and were positive (duh). Very poor medical service and we not only infected each other one by one through failure to isolate but also probably infected many other passengers. We fely they were purposely avoiding having to provide free service for Covid per the ships policy.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Yokohama (Tokyo), Japan

4 out of 5

We stayed 4 days and enjoyed except for the humidity. We used our Cruises.com voucher for a tour that was advertised as "Cultural Tour of Tokyo" the ONLY one available through your outside tour company. The first thing the guide said was :this is the Tkyo Shopping Tour" which is EXACTLY what it was, walked from shop to shop with people trying to sell us stuff. Great disappointment. We had a voucher so didnt pay much but our friends did not, they paid full price to join us and were pretty angry.

Thumbs Up 0

Shimizu, Japan

3 out of 5

Too humid to enjoy

Thumbs Up 0

Osaka, Japan

3 out of 5

ditto

Thumbs Up 0

Hiroshima, Japan

3 out of 5

ditto, and Peace museum was terribly crowded could not enjoy