I sailed on Celebrity Cruises' Millennium on Aug. 17, 2007 from Barcelona to Venice. The itinerary was wonderful as were the shore excursions. I booked all of them in advance on their web site and my tickets were waiting in my room when I arrived. Since I'm talking about shore excursions, let me say that I found that the ship's Shore Excursion Department was extremely organized. We met in the Celebrity Theater for each tour. Considering there were hundreds of guests participating in various tours, there was never any mass confusion. Embarkation was a breeze. We arrived about 12:30pm and walked right up to an agent. Since we had done our on-line checkin, the process took less than 5 minutes. When we boarded, we were served champagne or a mimosa and escorted to our cabin. This was a very nice touch. In terms of the ship, I was a bit disappointed in the dEcor. There is nothing about the dEcor that is eye-popping like the ships with Royal Caribbean or Carnival. I would describe it as understated elegance, which is what I guess they want it to be. We were in an oceanview room, which was actually more spacious than I thought it would be. The room had a hair dryer, safe and mini-bar. They also have the new bedding, which was wonderful! There is a desk, small sofa and small table. Also there is plenty of closet space. The beds are high enough off of the floor that you can stash your suitcases underneath. They also have very nice phones, which have the time and also caller ID!! So when your friend is calling from their room, their name appears on the display! We were confirmed for early dining. However, prior to the cruise, we decided that because of very long touring days, we wouldn't go to the dining room every night and would just go to the buffet. I was extremely disappointed in the options at the buffet. On other cruises I've been on, I always was able to get a fully cooked meal. Here the choices were pasta and salad bar, pizza, sushi (which was excellent), hamburgers and hot dogs and ice cream (which was also excellent and FREE!). They also had an option called the Aqua Spa Cafe which was in the solarium area. It was actually a bit hidden and in my opinion was the best kept secret on the ship in terms of food. Here they had light fare, which was delicious! I found out that the same staff (cooks and servers) took care of this venue as those in the Olympic Restaurant (specialty restaurant). They also have an option called Casual Dining. This is a great alternative, however, I feel that it should be called something else, because it is not at what I would consider casual dining. It's dining very similar to the dining room, just in the Ocean Cafe (buffet area). The service personnel are in training (which I found out from a friend) and therefore, can be lacking. The food is good and you get your full courses. Reservations are required and there is a suggested $2 per person gratuity. One thing I found disturbing, however, is that our waiter here, as well as our waiter in the dining room solicited us to be sure to make comments on the comment form. I didn't think this should come from the caliber of personnel that Celebrity has. The room service was excellent. They had a lot choices, including steak and French fries, which were very good. We ordered our food about 6pm and it took a bit longer than I expected (about 45 minutes). The buffet at lunch time was much better and I found that there were a lot more choices. Another example of the great service on board a Celebrity ship is that at the lunch buffet after you make your choices, a waiter takes your tray for you and escorts you to an available table. We also had the opportunity to dine in the Olympic Restaurant. The cost is $30 per person. Although the specialty dining on cruise ships is not my thing, I found this experience to be delightful. The setting, of course, is very elegant and is great for a special occasion. At first, I thought it would be stuffy, but the staff were very friendly and interacted with us. There were more choices on the menu that I expected. You have your choice of either a 4 or 6 course meal. And if you like wine, you can choose wine pairings with each course (for an additional fee of course.) We arrived there early (6pm) so it took about 2 hours. But if you arrive later in the evening, it usually will be longer than that (about 3 hours). And needless to say, the food was outstanding.

The entertainment was very good. This is one of my favorite things on a cruise. The production shows (three of them) were fabulous. The costumes and sets were great and the dancers, the musicians and singers were very talented. On the other nights, they had singers, comedians and a virtuoso pianist, who was incredible. They also have a cinema on board where they showed movies. I was disappointed, however, that they repeated the same movies halfway through the cruise. Also around the ship, they had good entertainers. In particular, there was an a cappella group called Top Deck. This group consisted of 4 young men, who recently graduated from college and took on this venture before starting a "real" job. They were so talented and very entertaining. We tried to catch their act at every opportunity. They offered several lectures. Although I didn't attend any of them, I find that to be a nice benefit to the guests. They also offered complimentary computer classes. The internet cafe was staffed most of the time when the ship was at sea and they were very helpful with guests who weren't familiar with computers. Debarkation was also VERY organized and went very smoothly. Instead of having ALL of the guests be out of their rooms and in public lounges early in the morning, they asked guests be in an assigned public lounge at a certain time based on their colored tags. And then they came to that lounge to escort us to the gangway. This alleviated those annoying announcements and the lounges weren't as crowded as on other cruise lines I've been on. It was a great trip. I can't say enough how great a cruise line Celebrity Cruises is!!