We chose this cruise because of the Asian itinerary. Was on a Japan tour in 2017 on the Millennium and disliked the food and the weary shoddiness of the ship.. Happy to say everything is improved. The food is so much improved in the main dining room. Only quirk was that a special Captians dinner had all the favorite foods on one night--Lobster, Rack of Lamb, and Beef Wellington. How strange that the Oceanview buffet was not as good as before. The new "pods" took away from the amount of seating and it was very annoying not to find seats for breakfast. Specific stations were incomplete. Only the front fruit station had pineapple???. Only the front "bakery" had breads. The only negative I found with the "refurbishement" Activities: Beyond Trivia 2-3 times a day, there wasn't much to do. The Bingo was always scheduled at the same time as triviia. There were very few active things to do. Service both stateroom and martini bar was excellent. Read Less

I am a very frequent cruises, having been on more than 50 cruises so I am a little jaded. When I travel with younger ones Royal is my top choice, so I have been on their sister line Celebrity about 6 times including this cruise. I had been on two Millenium ships previously, including one within the past year so I can comment on the refurb. I really would give this 3 1/2 stars, not 4, but I didn't want to do 3, so 4 it was. We paid for an upgrade and ended up with a Royal Suite which was very nice. It included free unlimited laundry and free specialty dining which was very nice. The room itself was nice...you can see pics on cruise critic and the decorations are personal taste of course. Some find it nice and clean, others boring. I will say that I heard from many fellow passengers some of the things they did in the room didn't seem well thought out for a cruise ship and I will echo that sentiment. They put a glass shelf loosely attached in the shower and put big bottles of shampoos and conditioner and body wash on it and it will be breaking within the next 30 days(a few months after done). There were some other things like that, all minor really to me but things that made you wonder how it happened. The things I really liked about the cruise: 1) The service in Luminae. I really cannot say enough good things about the service in this restaurant. Kind of funny because the food is on my "bad" list. But everyone from the maitre D', to the waiters, to the bus staff, to the drink person---impeccable. 2) The itinerary which included overnights in Beijing(2) plus Kobe., and we got off the ship and were able to immerse ourselves in the culture. That was great. 3) Our state room attendant was great. I found most of the staff in the buffet to be very friendly and courteous, and most of the staff throughout the ship to be that way Things I was mixed about: 1) Entertainment. For a bigger ship, the quality of entertainment was meh at best. That applies to the specialty acts at night, their singers and dancers, and the live entertainment throughout the ship. Also the activities on board, I did enjoy some, but thought there should have been more. The lecturers were not that interesting. The DJ did some music trivia and he was hilarious. 2) The Buffet. There were parts of the buffet I quite liked---having an outdoor seating area was great, the made to order eggs in the breakfast with a reasonable line, the views from the windows, the scones in the late afternoon were fantastic, the free gelato and ice cream and extensive choice of foods. But it was overcrowded often and you had difficulty finding a seat, the food was definitely hit and miss with easily as many misses as hits if not more. 3) Qsine. Love the concept and some of the food was really good. Unfortunately some of it was not. So this one I'd put more in the pro list then the con list, but some of the food not being so good made me not be able to put it there. Things I wasn't a big fan of: 1) The food at Luminae. They only offer you a choice of 4 items for apps, and 4 for dinner. That's it. If you know enough, which I did, you can ask for something from the main dining room menu. So it was kind of limited in that way and I wasn't impressed. Also I found the food quality there to be lacking. Their Baked Alaska was just bad. Something they had 'special" for Luminae. A shame because the service really was that good. I constantly told them the food was good or fine as they kept asking....but I didn't want anything else. 2) Tuscan. It's a shame because I enjoy this restaurant. Never crowded btw. There's a reason. Food can be good, but every time I have eaten there I and every one I was with have gotten wicked heartburn after. So it has to be on the "bad list" especially with only 3 specialty restaurants and one of them is a sushi place that doesn't have cooked meats, so really kind of limited. Read Less

The itinerary was the reason we chose this cruise The upgrade has been done to a very cheap budget The staff as always ,wonderful service always smiling. Main dining room , good food and service Layout of ship because of size was a bit strange. Had to walk through casino to get to some places !! Would have loved to have seen more space for dancing Poor band and disco stuck on the floor near the bar but no room for dancing. Think they should consider moving the second bar near martini bar for dancing. It was rarely used , most were watching the entertainment and itching to dance by the railings. Enjoyed the trivia etc The theatre entertainment was very average. There were 2 standout acts, but on the other nights, it was mediocre at best One of the tours we went on was dreadful. So bad most got partial refunds. But, I got 30% others got between 40 and 100% I don't get why the different refunds!!! Such a shame. Ive never had an issue with any of my celebrity cruises before, I just feel they've dropped the ball on this one Read Less

Read Less

I chose this cruise because it sailed to countries that I had not visited before and also went to South Korea, a place I had visited 20 years ago. Celebrity Millennium cruise ship Check in experience at Hongkong Celebrity omitted to inform the prospective passengers that they would need two copies of their passport, when they checked in at the Hong Kong international cruise terminal. This caused hundreds of passengers to line up to have their passport, copied to meet the criteria.. Then when we finally made it to the check in counter, we were requested to have a visa to visit china for three days. We had already contacted the Chinese embassy prior to travelling to Hongkong to confirm if a visa was necessary. Their information was, that if we were staying less than 144 hours, we would not require a visa. We had a confirmation email from the Chinese Embassy so, after long deliberation, they let us onboard. We had only just boarded the ship when we were required to line up again and hand over our passports for the Taiwan immigration. This could easily have been done as we were boarding the ship, as we had to walk about a kilometre back and forth through the Hong Kong international terminal. They could have set up a passport station along this route, where the passengers would hand over their passport, and receive a receipt. This would have saved a lot of time and the unnecessary lining up, but they didn’t. We were supposed to be concierge passengers, which meant, we payed an additional $400aud per person for express check in and other privileges on the ship. We feel cheated as we had no special treatment other than a tray of canapés that were no larger than a twenty cent piece. When quizzed about our special privileges, we were given a bottle of Champaign. I am not convinced that the canapés and bottle of Champaign would have cost $800 Aud First stop Tiapei (Taiwan) Following a day at sea, travelling from hongkong to Tiapei, we arrived at 7.00am to a foggy morning and lots of Taiwan warships lined up along the docks. The immigration inspection went smoothly, and passengers who had not booked on the cruise ships tours, made their way 500m down the dock to the railway station where the train took us into Taipei. The station was directly under the Taipei101 building the highest building in Asia and the world, until 2012. The ships tour groups, along with the passengers doing their own thing, all travelled to the top of this building in the fastest lift in the world .Taipei 101 has 2 lifts that only takes 37 seconds to travel from the 5th floor to the 89th floor of the skyscraper. The train trip cost around $12Aud return and the building entry fee was $ 27 AUD. The tour organised by the ship was $175US to visit the same location. Admittedly, the ship tour was on a bus, and took a different route to the building, and included a lunch. Speaking to other passengers who took the ships tour, they informed us that they spent a couple of hours looking for 4 passengers who got separated from the tour, and held everybody up so their day was ruined. Next stop Busan Following another day at sea during which time the ship had some electrical equipment problems between Taiwan and Busan South Korea, which meant that they lost power to most of the ship. The ship limped along at about 2 knots and we were 4hours late arriving at Busan. There were major problems for the crew, who tried to arrange shore excursions and get passengers through the Korean immigration system. The ship blamed the immigration dept, but when we went through the system, it was working like clockwork, and there were no hold ups at all. Most passengers had been held up waiting to get off the ship for over 90 minutes only to find the immigration dept officers, waiting for passengers to come through. The ship was the hold up, not the immigration dept. During the power shortage, the kitchens were unable to cook meals, wash dishes, provide air-conditioning to the dining rooms, or boil water in the urns for tea and coffee. The staff did the best they could, but it was a major problem across the whole ship. There wasn’t any compensation offered to the passengers who had less than 2 hours of daylight to look around the city, and had endured long waiting times trying to get off the ship. Some free drinks would have gone a long way to compensate the passengers, but nothing was offered. The ship was only designated to be at Busan for 6 hours but when it did not arrive until 4 pm in the afternoon this became 2 hours to have a look around during daylight hours. I admit the electrical breakdown could not have been foreseen, but given that passengers had paid good money for the cruise, some compensation should have been offered. The ship delayed its departure until 11pm to allow the tour groups to complete their tours.This was the only concession made by the cruise line. Next stop Incheon Korea The port at Incheon is about 1.5 hours from Seoul (the advertised port of call on the itinerary) and the train stops at all stations along the way. The town of Incheon is 30 minutes from the dock. There were no money exchange establishments at the dock and as the ship only changed passengers money into US dollars, passengers ,were forced to find banks that were open ,and would change foreign currency, into Korean won.. There were no arrangements made for the passengers who found the shore excursions too expensive. The cruise line arranged a shuttle bus into Incheon and that was it. The shuttle bus dropped passengers off in the street in Incheon, and with no guide or Korean speaking interpreter available, passengers were once again left to their own devices trying to negotiate with Korean Taxi drivers, who struggled with the English language. The ship could have had a Korean interpreter available to help people, but chose to leave them all to their struggle by themselves. The ships attitude was that, if you wanted organised tours, then pay the exorbitant fees for their tours, or fend for yourself. The ship had no money changing facilities for passengers to change money for any of the countries that we were visiting. All tours arranged by the ship were charged in US dollars which were meant that Australian passengers were out of pocket by 30%, before they started. All tours were in excess of $250 US per person. Entry into china During the days at sea between Busan and Incheon the ship informed all passengers that, if you don’t have a Visa to enter china, then you won’t be allowed to leave the ship. This left over 200 passengers at the mercy of the ship, who demanded $350us for a visa that could be purchased in Australia for $169. There were passengers from Germany, Switzerland, Canada, and America as well as the Australians who had all been informed that they did not require a Visa. Following lengthy and heated discussions with all of these nationalities the guest relations Leader was called in to explain the exact meaning of the transit visa. The Guest relation leader was able to explain the Visa requirements that the Chinese embassy could not. In simple terms, to be eligible for the 144 hr visa, you must be a transit passenger, travelling from one country into China, and leaving to a third country, which cannot be the same country, that you entered from. For example when we left Jeju island, which is part of Korea and entered China at Shanghai, we had an airline ticket to a third country, being Thailand, which meant that the 144hr visa would cover this visit The visit to Beijing china coming from Incheon Korea and then returning to Jeju island Korea, meant that we did not meet the transit passenger criteria. If the Chinese embassy had have explained this rule, and passed this information on, then the 200 passengers who thought that they had checked out the visa requirements, would not have been put in this position. For many, the massive fee being charged was too much, and they chose to stay on the ship for the 3 days that we were in port. The Port of Tainjin is 1.5 hrs from the town of Tainjin which is 1.5 hrs from Beijing. Once again the ship had made no arrangements to transport passengers from the port to available public transport and they were left to negotiate with Chinese taxi drivers who had upped their fees because there were two ships in port at the same time. In contrast, the other ship, from Holland America, had 10 shuttle busses available for their passengers waiting on the dock. The ship organised tours to Beijing, visiting the great wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and Chairmen Mao’s house. These tours started at $275us per person and depending on the tour selected, the price went upwards from there ,so when converted into Australian dollars, a family of three would be up for over a thousand dollars to take the cheapest tour being offered. The tours took over twelve hours and included 8 hours of travel on a tour bus. The Port of Tainjin is too far away from Beijing making tours expensive and tiresome. If China intends for this to be their main Beijing Port for all visiting cruise ships, it will need to extend the bullet train tracks to the Port. Currently the bullet train runs from Tainjin and takes 40 minutes to reach Beijing. The battle is getting from the Tainjin port to the Tainjin station which is 1.5hrs away. Next port of call was Jeju South Korea Because the ship chose to go from Busan to Incheon, and then Beijing , passing Jeju island, along the way, and then back to Jeju island, they caused 2500 passengers to pay for a visa, that would not have been required if they had called in at Jeju island on the way to Incheon. They also have used twice as much fuel crossing the East China Sea, three times instead of once. The island of Jeju was a little bit more organised with a hop on hop off bus provided at the port to take passengers around the island. The ship had its tours available as well, but passengers were able to see most of the island for a very modest price of $16 AUD on the hop on hop off bus, instead of the $175US charged by the ship. There were many cherry blossom trees out in flower around the island and they made a great display. The bus took passengers past the international airport and around the coast rd to the far side of the island. There were 16 stops where passengers could get off or on the bus. Final port of call, back across the east China sea again, to Shanghai. The ship arrived at Shanghai at 6.00am and passengers disembarked in groups as designated by the ship. Shanghai was about an hour’s drive from the port and the taxi drivers were a much better group to deal with. There were booking agents, who organised limousine van drivers, to take passengers and their luggage to their hotels at reasonable prices. This of course was not organised by the cruise line. Entertainment The ship provided nightly shows in their theatre, many of which were very good. One group calling themselves the Aussie boys were excellent, singing songs from the 70’s 80’s and 90’s. The soul singers were also quite good and the mime duo was excellent. There ship had 6 days at sea during which time passengers had to amuse themselves. Other cruises that I have been on have had nonstop Karaoke, cooking classes for women and interested men, shuttle board courts, golf driving ranges, rock climbing walls and basket ball courts. Celebrity has very little to offer, and use art auctions, and Jewellery sales trying to make up for their lack of foresight. Conclusion Celebrity cruises appear to have one major objective. Once they have enticed you onto one of their cruises, by offering a reasonable price for your fare to get you onto their ship, then they do everything in their power, to up sell you to spend more and more money, on beverage packages, soft drink packages, tours that have hugely inflated prices, and are all charged in US dollars, photograph packages, art auctions, watch sales, jewellery sales, and the list goes on. One lady bought a painting at one of their auctions for $50us and when she went to pick it up, was told that they only had a copy for sale purposes, and that her copy would need to be posted to her, at a cost of $65us . They take your photo when you get on the ship and then want to take your photo as many times as possible at every port, charging $25US per photo. They even offer to put it in a small frame for an additional $75US. The ship has 5 additional restaurants that are not included in the price for the cruise. The crew spend every available minute during meal times in the buffet café, trying to entice you to visit these other restaurants, which cost $125US per head to eat at them. Celebrity could make their cruises much more enjoyable for their passengers, if they provided options for them to access public transport. They could have an interpreter at each Port, who would be one of their crew members, that could help passengers to negotiate with the foreign taxi drivers, overcome language barriers, and show them how to get to public transport. They could provide shuttle busses at every port to get passengers to the nearest public transport. Passengers would not mind paying a small fee for the shuttle bus, if it took them to the train stations etc. Celebrity cruises need to provide money changing services at their concierge desk, so that passengers can change money into the currency of the country that they are about to visit. Most passengers would not mind receiving a little less than the going rate for the convenience of being able to do this, in a calm organised way while the ship is at sea . The rooms on the ship were comfortable and the cabin stewards do a wonderful job. Our steward was excellent and nothing was too much trouble for him. The stateroom that I was in had an adjoining door between my room and the one next door, for a family. This door was kept locked, but the wind whistled in through the gap around the door and kept me awake at night until the cabin steward had it repaired. This is the first cruise that I have been on, that didn’t supply free bottled water in the stateroom. It was available, but at $5US per bottle. Ships such as Holland America and Royal Caribbean supply two bottles per day to each cabin, free of charge. There was no kettle, cup and saucers, or tea and coffee supplied in the room. This was provided, after requesting it from the cabin steward. We managed to have our stateroom steward arrange a jug of ice water, delivered to our stateroom each day ,to have clean, cool, drinking water available. One of the biggest complaints that I have, is the lack of security for your passport, on Celebrity cruises. The guest assistance desk made many bad mistakes regarding passports, sending messages to our room, requesting us to deliver our passports to them, while all the while they were holding our passports, in their office. They had even issued us with a receipt when we handed over our passport but they were unable to understand their own system. It was a clear that the right hand did not know, what the left hand was doing The Visa that we have paid $750US for was taken by the ship and we had nothing to show that we even had a Visa. We threatened to have our bank stop payment on the credit card if they didn’t provide us with copies of the expensive visas Celebrity appear to go out of their way to make it as hard as possible for passengers to go their own way, trying to force you to use their tours, which do not suit everybody, as they may not want to look at temples in every port. The activities on the boat leave a lot to be desired as they only have a few trivia quizzes and a few board games, plus the occasional skill completion with bow and arrow. There is the Casino when the ship is in open waters, but it is not everybody’s cup of tea. The intercom system only broadcasts into the corridors, unless there is an emergency. Most of the announcements are more than half over, by the time passengers can get their door open and get out into the corridor. The ship should have a switch in each cabin so the passengers can decide if they want the messages broadcast into their cabin or not. The emergency messages would come through, regardless of whether the switch is on or off. There is also no communication phone in the bathrooms on the ship, and should a passenger take a turn or a fall, they have no way of obtaining assistance, until the steward comes in to make their room up for the night. The ocean view café staff were excellent, and I could not speak highly enough of them. They worked long hours, always with a smile on their face, even though some passengers would have been very hard to deal with. The food was excellent, and there was plenty of variety, from Pizza and hot dogs through to roast lamb, roast beef, steak sausages, chops and a variety of vegetables. There was a salad bar and a seafood section, there was an Indian food section, and there was an Asian food section. There was fresh fruit and sweets including icecream and soft serve. The ala carte dining room was well utilised but most passengers then came down to the ocean view café, to make up for the tiny portions offered in ala carte. The beauty of the oceanview café was you had no time restrictions placed on you, and you had all the food you could eat, and all the variety you could wish for. I did not enjoy the problems endured on this cruise and would not cruise on Celebrity cruises again Read Less

This is my fourth Celebrity Cruise and my first on the M-class. The ship’s renovation gave the entire ship a fresh look. Cabin bathrooms have been redesigned and seem roomier. The drawers in the cabin are larger for more practical clothes storage. Although the desk area was smaller, there was more countertop space above the drawers and near the closet. The only criticism is that a small table is needed in front of the chair. The full size sofa is replaced with a wide chair. The beds and new mattresses were comfortable. I really like the new store/shopping arrangement, although nearly all the stores are “high end.” I think the new arrangement of food stations in the Oceanview Cafe is awkward, as the kitchen is now in the center of the room and one has to walk around it to get from one side to the other to find all the stations. I found the ice cream station 2 days before the end of the 14 day cruise. The crew service was the best I’ve ever had on any cruise. The crew seemed happy, always had a smile to share, was willing to help and our cabin steward Naresh in Aqua class was outstanding! The food on Blu was very good and the QSine menu and food were excellent! We had some excellent entertainment. The enrichment activities were okay, although we did have some interesting Behind the Podium speakers for those interested in foods, science and sea life, or Buddhism. Overall, I look forward to sailing on the Millennium again. Read Less

I have "lurked" on CC often in preparation for this cruise and others so decided to attempt to share my (and my husband's) latest experience in the hopes that it will provide some info for others. We were 6 travellers (2 have sailed Celebrity often) but for 4 of us, it was our first time on Celebrity although we have all cruised many many times over the past years. We have more often spent time on RCI, MSC, Princess, Celebrity (often for 2 of us) ships and enjoyed an Oceania Transatlantic crossing in October. After spending a week or so in fabulous Hong Kong, we reached the port on Saturday,March 16th about 3 or so hours before departure. Perhaps we should have boarded earlier as it was not an especially good first impression for me - few staff to direct passengers and a confusing process to follow to get checked in at port and on board-not the usual warm welcome on board I expected. However, things did look up as our Aqua class balcony was newly refurbished and we met our friendly and hard-working steward Efren who took wonderful care of us. As noted by others, the new decor is a bit bland but it was very clean and storage was ample although I am not sure how well it will keep up over the longer term. Luckily, there were no issues with the bathroom-the shower had strong pressure, there was lots of hot water and shelving was fine. The sofa was too really small for 2 persons to sit comfortably and one of us had to use the bed to read or relax or sit on the cold balcony! I'm hoping too that Celebrity will address the issue of not being able to hear any announcements in the room-I had to open the door and stick my head out to hear. Otherwise all good. Breakfast was A+ and dinner service in Blu was very nice (hard-working,pleasant staff) and it was great to have a smaller private dining venue. However, the menu was definitely not as exciting as expected given the hype heard from Celebrity and others. Perhaps it was just not to our taste but some combinations were just not appealing and servings were small-I counted 2 smallish scallops once on my plate. We often turned to the buffet for breakfast/lunch and even dinner. The buffet had ample choice (although sometimes repetitive and bland) but you had to search hard for veggies if you did not want salad fixings. Seats were often hard to find but the servers bustled about clearing tables and we never waited long for a drink server to find us. I realise that feeding so many people is difficult but it was often hit and miss on the serving temperature side in the buffet and even in Blu - it was more often than not just "warmish" and you were very happy when you struck a hot dish. I did send a dish back once but as we all know, sometimes it is just too much bother. And where was the exotic fruit hiding when in Asia? Dragon fruit/watermelon/cantaloupe/apples/oranges were mostly it. One final thing-the canapes offered daily to Aqua class passengers were not good to say the least-2 x 4 tiny types of cheese bites etc. I tried to stop them but they kept coming - not a great use of resources. Entertainment was ok-after all,it has to appeal to lots of people and the in-house players were enthusiastic and put on excellent shows. Lecture subjects were not at all appealing-old subjects without much fun. Wi-fi was ok - often slow but better late at night or very early. Staff were the best part of the experience as they were 100% friendly, ready to greet you with a smile or hello and very hard-working. Celebrity is fortunate to have them all. Ports were fine as travel is all about exploring although Jeju island would not be a "have-to-see again" port although to be fair, we just wandered around and shopped a bit in the city using the free short shuttle bus ride to get there. We used a private tour to spend 2 nights in Beijing - it was a packed experience and much better value even for a group of 4 persons. The other 3 ship tours which we did were predictably less fun due to group size and pace but were fine especially as we took advantage of a promotion and did not pay full-price. Visit to Busan was interesting especially the temple and fish market. Museum visit in Taipei was too crowded to really enjoy but buffet lunch at Grand Hotel was fabulous with seafood and Asian offerings. It was very fortunate that we were on a refurbished Millennium which is a good sized ship with nice public spaces and amenities. All in all, I feel it was an average cruise ship experience as my expectations were higher on food and entertainment. Celebrity offerings did not "Wow" me any more than other cruise lines such as RCI and Oceania although it may not be 100% fair to compare the latter. China and Korea were great visit experiences especially with a sea day between ports to recover. My husband and I are not sure if we would try Celebrity again as there are so many options available but remain open-minded. Hope this helped and I would be happy to answer any questions. Happy next cruising to all! Read Less

This is our 1st Celebrity cruise, but it was my 11th overall. Definitely did not live up to my expectations. Since the ship was refurbished, we expected it to be nicer, unfortunately it was such a disappointment. Cabin: we booked a concierge class. heat was broken. it was so cold. We called service desk and no one picked up the phone, so we went down to guest service desk & it took them about 1/2 day to finally send someone to our cabin to fix the heat. Our cabin steward was attentive & polite. Food: very poor menu, less than average food. Prime rib was chewy, seafood was not fresh. Self service buffet served almost same food every day. Food was either cold, too salty or tasteless. There was no service, no smiles, except the last night some of them tried to make conversation with us...then asked us to write good review. What a joke! Public restroom: We were locked in the restroom stalls twice. Thanks goodness that there were someone in the restroom, so they were able to go get the maintenance person to unlock for us. Entertainment: lack of entertainment. There was not much to do on the cruise. Ports & shore excursions: Seoul highlight excursion was OK. Shanghai highlight excursion was below average. I would not recommend Celebrity and will not be back myself. Read Less

We chose this cruise because of its itinerary and our last experience with Celebrity. Also the ship had just had a refurbishment (Revolutionised) To be frank we found the ship along with its entertainment rather bland bordering on dull. The refurbishment of the cabins were welcoming, better showers and use of space in the cabin,new flat screen tvs (although poor selection of material, also in the worst resolution i have experienced on a cruise ship,only the ships own hd cameras selling all of their products was properly watchable hmm.) The cabins were kit out in beige and autumn colours,which were fine, unfortunately the whole ship followed this trend (The exception being Al Bacio which is unchanged) which only added to the blandness. I know entertainment can be subjective but in my humble opinion cruise lines have a duty to provide modern and interesting acts not just churning out the same or tired old acts,speakers etc.Celebrity are well behind in this and need to freshen up their talent spotters. Food in the M.D.R. was poor,the menu names sounded good but when the food was served it was not the best presented or tasty, also on the warm side instead of hot.(one stringy steak dinner was served with four (yes 4) chips (french fries for our American cousins). The ocean view provided a better selection, tastier and of course a faster service. We had drink packages (I upgraded to top shelf spirits as i enjoy a makers mark bourbon) After 3-4 days (on a fourteen night cruise) the selection of cider was down to strongbow which is the cheapest, also you had to search the ship for a can of boddingtons ale. Also the pour of drinks with mixers is dreadful you have to tell virtually every bar person how to mix a drink, otherwise your glass would be full to the brim with ice an indiscriminate amount of spirit would be sloshed in and then a mixer (coke,tonic etc) from an open can or bottle would be added, this would normally would be flat from sitting for a long period.Please celebrity invest in mixer machines that keeps your drink lively and train every bar person to pour a 25 ml shot in a single, it is not rocket science. The ship in general is clean and tidy but it is boring and needs a new outlook if it is going to compete in this industry it is not enough to replace carpets and beds and chairs.It has stood still in a market that has moved forward in every aspect and i fear that there is not enough cruisers out there to sustain it. Jazz Read Less

CABIN (see below) DINING The Metropolitan Dining Room looked gorgeous, and for the most part, the food matched its elegance to such an extent that we didn't have to contemplate paying extra for specialty dining. Still, when I saw the menu the first night, I felt it was not as high-brow as I had hoped. Thankfully, the impression improved, but when they had something really decent, they put EVERYTHING I was looking forward to into that one evening (lobster tail, rack of lamb, beef Wellington). There were other blemishes: not knowing what "English cut" was for the prime rib, for example, the Béarnaise not having any tarragon in it, subbing sea bream for the advertised cod without first telling diners (only owning up to it when challenged, and thereby looking like they were passing off one fish for another), and the soup course being weak almost all around, hot or cold... For the most part, though, the food was fresh and tasty, and the service at most seatings, exquisite. It was a marvel that they kept so much food going around so hot, and that one night when a Grand Marnier soufflé was offered for dessert took the cake, so to speak. I was also amazed and thankful that our wine steward Jelena remembered my name on the second night, and even more thankful that she gave us (and everyone else?) a 20% discount off all bottled wines, making the choosing of any of the packages quite unnecessary. The mark-up was your usual restaurant-type (before the discount kicked in) - I would not recommend lugging your own and paying the $25 corkage unless you're talking about 3-figure fine wines. The buffet at the Oceanview café, too, was impressive - LOTS of variety, fresh, and most of it well-prepared (those Indian dishes!!!), intruded upon occasionally by a lack of authenticity that ranged from frustrating (cannoli not made with mascarpone, and tiramisu with no actual lady fingers in it) to ROTFL ridiculous (at the "Indian Favorites" carving station, they featured - you guessed it - roast BEEF!) But there's a dire dearth in seating to handle a ship of this size, a situation not helped by inconsiderate fellow cruisers (a couple sitting opposite each other in a square table for four...) ENRICHMENT / ENTERTAINMENT Listening to Dr. Gary Kramer talk about everything from whales to stars, as well as hold court in a wide-ranging QnA, was a pleasure - dude and wife are accomplished dancers too! Most of the entertainment was good - musical guests included an accomplished Chinese pianist/composer Jiang Tian and various great singers; the revue had its moments, with a fine young female singer leading the way, but the first show was confusing, and just average when it came to singing/dancing (the final night was a little better). EXCURSIONS & PORTS OF CALL Ship excursions were by and large pricey and not worth the money. Just by way of an example, the excursion to Beijing from the ship at the port in Tianjin comprises a bus ride there and back (3 hours each way): cost, $119 for this "self-guided tour" per person. With a little bit of planning, a couple can take a taxi to the Binhai train station ($12 each way) and take the high speed train right into Beijing ($10 per person each way), saving not only a boatload of money ($65 vs. $258) but trimming 2 hours of travel time. We loved all 3 places in South Korea - heck, all the ports of call, but felt we could easily have spent more time on land than cruising in the ocean at a slow speed. MISCELLANEOUS As mentioned, the Celebrity Millenium experience exceeded my expectations, as did "staying cooped up for 14 nights" - cuz we didn't, as we went ashore to explore at every port, and it was a great adventure. Some touches of "luxury" are appreciated (most waiters helping you place the napkin in your lap), while others are unnecessary (cloths to dry your hands in every public bathroom - in addition to paper towels). The gym is just too small for a ship this size: can't quite picture what would happen when it's not an older crowd like ours. The damn TVs did not work 95% of the time on 90% of the channels. The Solarium is beautiful, but the water in the hot tub is way not hot enough, and the number of hot tubs, inadequate. Read Less