Celebrity Millennium Cruise Reviews - Reviews

love this ship. 1st selling with Celebrity and it won't be the last. Friendly staff and food was amazing. Our bartender "Boom Boom" was the best.!!

Three days in Bali was a little much and 8 hours in Phucket was too short. A better solution would be 2 days in Bali and make the other day available for Phucket

never again will we ever sail on an old ship with Celeberty.the sewage back ups permeated the entire ship as well as the tap water. The cleaning of the Buffett area with bleach every day made you I'll when breakfast time and lunch time approached. The staff was tired and reduced in size which resulted in dirty tables,no drink orders,and just not interested in chatting..not the Celberty we have enjoyed on over 15 trips with them.

but to us what was most dissapointing was the lack of thinking out the entire trips schedule. Bad tours and guides were paid for and regretted. We learned little since the trips to get to the sights took 8 hours in some cases and we arrived at dusk to see little. Our ship arrived in Hong Kong on a weekend and with millions of Chinese  off on the weekend it took over 45 minutes just to get into the museum.Shangi was wonderful,except we bought a visa for hundreds of dollars to get into Shangi (directed by the cruise line to buy before we left home) and we were only there for nine hours only to sail toOkanowa where only candy stores were open...no one at home base planned this trip well....added to a dirty old ship with sewage problems...it was a waste of time and Monet for sure...SHAME ON CELEBERTY ...ASK GOOD CLIENTS TO GO HALF WAY AROUND TBE WORLD,BASED ON WHAT WAS A GOID REPUTATION IS. ,AND WAS....UNACCEPTABEL...

We were aboard the Celebrity Millennium 8/7 to 8/14. We had a great exerience on the ship.  Crew treated us very well and the service was great. We loved the whole dining experience, enjoyed the entertainment activities. We enjoyed sitting in the hot pool.

I have taken 4 cruise vacations, Norwegian in 2010, Carnival in 2013, Princess in 2014 and this one, Celebrity in 2015. I have to say the Celebrity is the worst among all!

The experience at the Guest Service desk gave me the first bad feeling. The ladies on the other side of the desk never had a smile on their faces, no greetings and no “thanks” and “good buys”. They kept the same way all over the entire sail.

I booked a balcony stateroom and an internal cabin. To my big surprise, people of internal cabin can NOT eat in the same dining room with the people who purchased balcony staterooms. If I and my wife want to dine with my daughter, we have to eat in the lower level dining room! My daughter said this is just like Tantalic, the poor cannot seat together with the rich!

I purchased a 7-day un-limited on board internet access for $198. Over the 7 days, 75% of the time I couldn’t log into the account. If I was lucky enough gained access to the server, the speed was very slow.

The breakfast and lunch options in the buffet dining room were never changed over the 7 days sail, 90% of the foods were horribly salty. The after hour food had very limited choices. There was no food after 1:00 AM. A good comparison to other cruise ships.

The ship is badly maintained. We experienced at least 5 times of elevator malfunctions. The elevator doesn’t stop at the desired level or skip the level or travel up/down without stop. One evening a loud noise came to the stateroom that we had to be moved to an empty room to get a peace of sleep. The next day we were given an option to sleep in a different room because they could not find the source of the noise.

The crew is badly trained that the room service people opened our room without knocking 3 times when we were still inside. Twice my wife was still in bed. There was no “no disturbing” door tag in the room. After I asked, the room service gave me one to avoid further embarrassing.

Not like other cruise ships, there were no free movies. You need to pay for the newer movies. The satellite TV for the free news channels was badly served. Program was frequently interrupted. The satellite tracking system is so common and less expensive nowadays. I don’t know why Celebrity cannot afford to install a better system.

If I have to say something good for this cruise experience, it is the stateroom furniture. It is nicely designed and well maintained.

Overall, this was a bad experience with Celebrity. I’ll definitely not take any cruise trip with Celebrity and not recommend to friends.

Well, this was my first cruise.  I was definitely impressed with the level of service that was displayed at all times, from everyone working the ship!  I have heard fellow cruisers comparing this ship to others, and the recurring theme, was the level of service was best here.  What a treat to have that on my first cruise, but now I would be a little nervous about cruising anywhere else!

The food was amazing, although that was not the reason for taking the cruise, although I can see how it would be a foodie vacation for some. My sister was into the vegetarian menu quite a bit. I was at their spa cafe quite a bit to get healthy bites, yummy smoothies and fruit infused water.  We did splurge one afternoon and went to one of the upscale restaurants for lunch.  Definitely well worth it!

We used the gym, theater and pools (loved sitting in a hot tub in the cool Alaskan rain).  the gym was well run, and had the equipment we needed.  The shows in the theater were wonderful!  great performances and great performers.

Definitely get the drink package, you wont be sorry you did!

We were in state room 9193:

At Vancouver terminal, staff that took the luggage didn't write our room # or last name, which they said they will. Bag had all my medications including insulin, talked to everyone from room attendant to supervisor to  customer service and guest services. From my description of bag, it was retrieved late night.

Phone was screwed up in our room, 2 people came to fix it still  morning of 7/18 alarm went off at 6:00 a.m.

Toilets were very smelly.  Also, toilets weren't flushing for over half a day.

Our bathroom light wasn't working, but it's like how many things can you complain about?

Night of 7/17 dinner service on 5th floor was very poor. The servers couldn't even understand our requests and finally upon my request with Guest Director Touche, our table was switched.

Every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner there was Indian food, not a single day food was cooked to perfection. There was way too much salt in everything. Chapatis(Indian Bread) weren't even cooked enough.

Most of all entertainment was very lousy, same dancers 3 days was terrible. Comedians couldn't have been worst. Acrobat show was good. I think you should compare your entertainment with Carnival & Royal Caribbean, there is day & night difference. There was no "Vow" factor in anything. The foyer on 3rd floor wasn't as lighted and grand as some of the other ships we have been to.

The ship was refurbished as there was lots of rust and signs of aging of the ship.

There was hardly any group activity during the day.

Alex in Spa was conducting a group discussion but was only focusing on 2-3 guests, rest of us just stared at him the whole time. These are some of the basic courtesy and behavior that should be addressed with the staff. 

Lastly, Mexican food should be incorporated for couple of days in Ocean view Cafe.

Thanks,

Although the Celebrity Millennium cruise was enjoyable overall, I thought that the cabins were a bit small. We were paying almost a 100 dollars per night for a room that had two very small beds and an even smaller sofa bed. Even so, room service was great and came by a couple times per day to make the beds and clean everything. I think the chocolate and towels shaped like animals was a nice touch, for anyone traveling with children. What I didn't like about the cruise's activities was that the 12-17 room, the X Club contained mostly games and gaming systems. My teenage daughter and her friends had nothing to do most of the time, and tried to join in on adult classes only to be kicked out because they were underage. Too many places were off-limits to them, and because of my daughter's poor eyesight and dislike of gaming she was not able to enjoy the cruise as much. Please add some other things for teens to do, or make more adult activities available for them! I felt the shore excursions were fun, and we went on multiple bus tours as well as going shopping in several places. The staff were friendly and helpful, always smiling at us and greeting us every day. The waiters and waitresses at the Metropolitan restaurant were especially great, explaining all the dishes and periodically coming to refill drinks and take away plates. The 7:00 and 9:00 shows were generally fun, but could have been more diverse. For example, we had a comedian for two nights and then dancing and singing for several more. The husband and wife duo, Yulia and Alan Reva was the best and most creative act, in my opinion. Although there were a few things I wish to correct, this cruise certainly was exciting and worth every penny.  

A tired and sad knockoff of a formerly great Cruise Line.  Many misses including food quality, service and staff morale.  A few good people surrounded by mediocre staffers or should I say "Slackers" at all levels.  Top management disregarded specific examples of cruise deficiencies.  All they were interested in was in collecting your prepaid gratuities and then they had no interest in you the passenger.  Would not recommend the new and substandard Celebrity Cruise Line as it is just a poor example of it's former self.  All that is left is bad management, corporate greed and bottom line profits and to hell with the passengers!

Celebrity did a great job; the staff was outstanding; entertainment was very good and food for aqua group was outstanding

the problem is that the locations are so commercialized that takes away the beauty of Alaska

if you like outdoors, i wouldn't take a cruise; but if you have difficulty moving or want to take it easy then i think the cruise is perfect

The cruise was a major disappointed and we all just came to laugh at how bad it was. The beds were uncomfortable, the boat was dirty, the couch was even ripped! The ports made you feel like the ship was trying to suck the money out of you with their excursions and some of the places we visited were not typical or what I hoped to see from Alaska. I always looked forward to visiting Alaska but experiencing it through cruising with celebrity drained all the excitement I felt for Alaska. 

ok but should have had a free party the last night like many cruise lines.

more info on ports so people have more actual knowledge of how to do on their own.

a very nice cruise....  Had heard stories of the Millennium being run down and in need of a face lift but I did not find that to be true. Main dining room was quite good and service was always very good. Specialty restaurants were very good. Ship was clean and well run. When you spend 14days on any ship, you can find things you like and things you don't.  IE: I don't know if this is the same on other cruise lines but on the two cruises we have taken on Celrbrity over the last year, the pastries you get in the morning all taste like cardboard. They taste like there is a giant sack in the back that they bought somewhere full of old croissants and they pull a few out every morning and pass them around.  So i don't bother with them. I found the drinks and bar personnel to be very good.  The wine was surprisingly good. We stayed in a PH1 suite because we wanted the extra room.  I think it is worth the cost if you are not too worried about the extra expense.  We were on the 9th deck toward the back and never had a problem with soot as has been previously reported. A very nice experience.

The ship was ok.

Simple but dated; uneven walking surface that could cause one to trip Adult Pool Only - management made an exception for a very small percentage of the cruising passengers (pool was open for Family from 5PM-7PM)

Ship was more than adequate. We don't understand why some people post negative comments about its condition.

My husband and I took an Alaska cruise with Celebrity Millennium early this September from Seward to Vancouver, and we had a wonderful time on the cruise until we disembarked the ship in Vancouver on Friday morning.  At the customs area in Vancouver, I found I had left my down jacket in the stateroom, and I immediately talked to a Celebrity Cruises representative there about going back to the ship to pick ups my jacket.  When this person noticed we had signed up for a local excursion, he asked us to go on with the excursion and to call the Celebrity Cruises Lost & Found department on the following Monday, and they would mail it to me at my expense.  Since this is one of my most comfortable down jackets, I double-checked with another lady from Celebrity Cruises, and I was given the same information by the lady to "call the Lost & Found department on Monday and they will mail it to you".  I felt they both wanted to rush us to get on to the excursion bus ASAP and not to cause delay to the excursion. At the end of the excursion, the bus driver dropped us off at the Vancouver airport around noon.  I found there were Celebrity customer reps at the airport, and I talked to one lady about my lost jacket.  This lady was kind enough to make several phone calls to the staffs on Millennium, and at one point she told us the cruise staffs had found the jacket and they could deliver it to me by taxi.  With my agreement to pay the transportation fee, she asked us to wait for 40-50 minutes for the delivery.  After we waited for 40 minutes, she received another phone call from the cruise staffs, and they told her the delivery was held up by their high management staff for unknown reasons.  She finally gave up and asked my to call Lost & Found on Monday, and told me they would deliver the jacket to me if they had it. On Monday afternoon, I called Lost & Found of Celebrity Cruises, and the customer rep gathered the detail information about my lost jacket.  She then told me that Celebrity Cruises does not and will not process this kind of lost items, and I would have to claim it if I purchased the travel insurance.  She said the jacket was considered lost when we disembarked the ship.  We were totally surprised that this was completely different than the instructions given to us from the previous three Celebrity Cruises personnel.  I asked the lady to transfer me to Customer Relation so I could file a complaint.  After talking to Tammy at Customer Relations, Tammy was surprised and disbelieved about the information I received from Lost & Found, and Tammy told me she would find out more from Lost & Found.  Tammy called and told me that it is Celebrity Cruises policy that they do not keep and will throw away any clothing and garments when customers left behind on the ship and will not process the search.  After I complained about getting the inconsistent information from different Celebrity personnel, Tammy requested Lost & Found to check with the cruise staffs again.  A week later, Corian from Lost & Found emailed and informed me that they were not able to find my jacket. How could a jacket just disappear?  We could have cancelled our excursion right at the port and gotten back on to the ship to retrieve the jacket that I loved most if Celebrity Cruises personnel had told us the accurate information of how they handle the lost & found items. We definitely will not plan our future cruise tours with Celebrity Cruises because they really have no idea of how to take care of their customers.  The mistake of handling customer lost properties just wiped out the entire effort that they had been trying to make its customer satisfactory.  We felt that Celebrity Cruises had robbed us.

On the land part of our trip, the first 2 nights at Pike's Waterfront Lodge in Fairbanks were wonderful.  Accommodations were nice and the dining room had a wonderful breakfast and dinner buffet.  We enjoyed our activities which included the Gold Dredge,  Riverboat Discovery Cruise and Alaska Salmon Bake.  My only complaint about the Gold Dredge tour was that we could not be reimbursed monetarily for what the gold we panned for was worth..  We had to purchase a piece of jewelry, etc to put it in or just take it home in a plastic container.  The Wilderness Express dome train to Denali was a very pleasant experience.  The tour guide was very informative and the bartender was excellent at serving drinks to everyone.  The next two two nights we stayed at McKinley Village Lodge aka Denali Park village and the accommodations were HORRIBLE.  Our rooms were not ready when we arrived because they were not quite finished getting them cleaned and ready for our stay since they had just been redecorated.  We spent two nights without a MIRROR.  We were told they were on their way from Anchorage and we would have one the first night.  We never saw a mirror.  The room lighting was extremely dim.  Lighting was never improved.  The restaurant food was good, but a little pricey.  We enjoyed the Tundra Wilderness Tour seeing all the beauty Alaska has to offer.  Our bus driver was extremely knowledgable about the park.  All activities aboard the ship were OK and the excursions we signed up for were very enjoyable.  My favorite was petting the puppies and learning about dog sledding in Alaska.  My husband's favorites were Halibut fishing in Juneau and the Bering Sea Crab Boat in Ketchikan.  As for the cruise ship, we had one big complaint.  Ours and several other rooms on the  8th deck smelled like SEWAGE the entire week.  A few of us complained, but nothing was resolved. 

We three families had great time in this trip. Free upgrade room. Saw eagle, whale and bear. Rooms were clean, meals are good. Very lucky to have a sunny day in Cruise Hubbard Glacier. Everything was better than we expected.

Celebrity Pre-Cruise Tour 2CB Canadian Rockies 5/17/14 and Alaska Inside Passage Cruise on Celebrity Millennium 5/23/14

This was my third cruise and my first on Celebrity.  I was interested in an Alaskan cruise and, following homework, expected an upscale cruise with Celebrity – upscale over many other cruise lines while not in the high-end, all-inclusive spectrum of options.  I was more than disappointed and, based on my experience, would not sail with Celebrity in the future. 

I booked the Canadian Rockies pre-cruise tour along with the cruise which was on the Millennium.  I will address the land tour at the end of this review since most are interested in the cruise only.  I was not sent luggage tags from Celebrity even though they were requested as soon as they were available.  This caused an unnecessary hassle when getting from my pre-cruise tour to the cruise.  During the check-in process for the cruise portion, it was noted that my name was misspelled on my sea pass which necessitated my going to Guest Relations to have a new card made before I could complete the check-in process.  I note this only because of the number of times I had to return to Guest Relations for a new card because the one I had did not work for my stateroom (several times) or did not have the beverage package on the card.  Each time I stood in a long line to reach someone who could rectify the problem. 

I was in an Aqua Class stateroom which was set with 1 bed, in spite of requesting 2 beds (since I was traveling with a friend) in advance of the cruise. There were no robes (an amenity for Aqua Class), the balcony door did not function properly, and the bathroom and balcony were not clean.  The bathroom clearly had not been thoroughly cleaned in some time as evidenced by the dirt in the corners and around the shower stall.  The balcony door handle was dirty and sticky, and the balcony chairs were too dirty to sit on without my cleaning them beforehand.  The carpet was discolored and threadbare in places.  There was limited storage compared to similar accommodations on ships operated by other cruise lines.  There was champagne but without a bucket and ice.  The pillows were way beyond their useful life.  The cabin steward seemed annoyed more than anything else that the bed needed to be converted to two beds and said he would have to take care of it at a later time.  I did the necessary cleaning myself.

An Aqua Class amenity is being able to eat breakfast in dinner in the Blu Restaurant.  This restaurant left much to be desired as far as the service and the food were concerned.  For breakfast one morning prior to a port excursion, I was the first to arrive, but the restaurant opened late, and it took 30 minutes for my order to arrive.  When it arrived, I had cold scrambled eggs and cold, burnt toast.  Dinner in Blu was limited, there was no visible  crab in the “lump crab” entrée, and a New York strip steak was tough and had a significant amount of gristle.  Overall, neither the food or the service was acceptable in Blu (much less better as advertised), and I ended up eating most meals in the Café (buffet) during my cruise.  When going to the Café, it was difficult to find a seat if it was a busy time or an at sea day.  I ventured out to the fantail with breakfast one morning only to find that it had not been cleaned from the night before.

With regard to the public areas on the ship, the ship was dirty and dusty throughout.  All glass was in dire need of cleaning.  Numerous elevator call buttons were sticky and not functioning.  The ship crew was not friendly, and it seemed like an imposition to converse with them, even if you weren’t addressing a problem.  Actually, they were rude at times.  While there were designated smoking areas, the smoking policy was no enforced and there was a smell of heavy smoke throughout outside areas.

Beverage packages – the classic package (which I had) vs. the premium package limits you to certain brands of liquor.  Since I drink either wine or vodka brands listed for the classic package, I was led to believe this package would be more than sufficient for my needs.  However, what is not addressed in the differences between these two packages is that, with the classic package, you will be served a “mini” drink – one that is half the size of a normal drink.  While this may not be a major issue for some passengers, it certainly may be for others and is a petty issue on the part of Celebrity, leaving a “penny pinching” impression with the passenger.  The bartenders also tended to be rude about what you were “entitled” to with this package, especially at the Martini Bar.  However, Celebrity would do well to make passengers interested in beverage packages aware of this information when they are making a decision about which package they wish to purchase.

With regard to entertainment on the ship, there are very limited entertainment options, perhaps due to the fact that this is a mid-size ship.

Port and excursion advisors were not at their desks and available for the posted/advertised times.  Additionally, there was total disorganization on the crew’s part in distributing materials at seminars.

Pre-cruise tour comments:

I had been advised that when I arrived in Calgary for the land tour portion of my trip, I should go to the “Celebrity desk” for my transfer to the hotel (the Fairmont) in downtown Calgary.  There was no desk, and there seemed to be no one in the airport who knew about the tour I had booked.  It took almost an hour to find someone who had some idea of what I was talking about.  At that point, I was given a transfer to use for a taxi to the hotel.  Clearly, I should have been given better information before departing, and the transfer should have been sent to me in advance.  I also was not provided with a detailed itinerary prior to my departure that would have made me aware of what was involved in the land tour.  This was provided by a Brewster Vacations representative at the first hotel on the evening of my arrival in Calgary – at a meeting with tour participants which I only found out about by accident.  This meeting also provided participants with all of the tickets and transfers that would be needed.  The details and the transfers should have been provided by Celebrity well in advance of departure. 

Overall, this clearly was a terrible experience with Celebrity which I thought would be an upscale vacation.  Even though the Millennium was refurbished in 2012, it does not appear to have been maintained or cleaned on a regular basis.  After this experience and in view of the cost of this trip, I truly could not give Celebrity a second chance to improve my impression of what they have to offer.  I sailed on NCL in March of this year, which I actually expected to be a step-down from Celebrity, but I would not hesitate to sail with them again.  NCL provided a wonderful cruise experience, and I’m glad I sailed with them first or I might never have gone on a second cruise.