This was our 12th cruise with Celebrity; we have been very satisfied customers and have developed a fondness for what was our first cruise line. Our previous cruise with Celebrity had been on the Silhouette in October 2012, although the continual trimming of many of the niceties from earlier cruises was evident, the essentials were still sound and we rated it as one of our best cruises. With this background we were totally unprepared for the experience of the Millennium – our feelings ran through shock, horror, disgust and sadness, mixed with complete bafflement at what Celebrity was trying to achieve. If this had been our first cruise with Celebrity it would have been our last, with the benefit of past experiences we will use Celebrity again, but another experience similar to the Millennium would probably be our last.

First impressions at embarkation were not good, the decor as we entered the ship was dour and tired and in need of replacement. On further exploration we could see that various parts of the ship had been updated – those where additional charges applied – but these jarred with the shabby state of the “free” areas and gave the impression of a two “classes” ship.

Our stateroom was fine and we were well looked after by our stateroom attendants, unfortunately the corridor in which we were situated had a permanent smell of blocked drains and seemed to form a “rat run” for some of our less desirable travelling companions – more on that issue follows. Read more