Thanks to posters on Cruise Critic, we found out that embarkation in Hong Kong was delayed as the ship required deep cleaning. This was because some passengers on the previous cruise had Norovirus. It should be noted that despite booking directly with Celebrity, we did not receive an e-mail from them informing us of this delay. I suggest that passengers check Cruise Critic and the roll call for your cruise before you leave for the port.

We arrived at the port around 2:30 p.m. and, although it was fairly busy, the line moved quite quickly. However, there was paperwork to be completed for both China and Japan before we could go through security. Initially, this was easy to fill out as there were many seats with tables in the waiting area. Shortly after we began to fill out the forms, an alarm went off. All waiting passengers were told to go through security and not to panic. Once we cleared security, there was not enough counter space and/or chairs for more than a few people and this made filling out the forms more difficult. After the forms were filled out, we quickly finished the rest of the formalities and boarded the ship. Our cabins were ready so we went directly to the cabins.

As I had read the reviews on Cruise Critic, I was ready for the older ship. If one did not look too closely, most of the public areas appeared to be in fairly good shape. Our cabin was not. The balcony windows were encrusted with salt and rust. The windows themselves were quite dirty. The balcony was in poor shape with rust, damaged flooring, and furniture that was salt encrusted and dirty. Inside the cabin, the carpet along the balcony needed to be replaced. The sink in our bathroom barely drained and could not be fixed. The Millennium is definitely ready for drydock. Read more