Celebrity Millennium Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,741 reviews

The ABCs of our July 17th Millennium Voyage

Review for Alaska Cruise on Celebrity Millennium
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cvpends
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Jul 2009
Traveled with children

A is for a cappella, and in particular the Sea Sharps, one of the highlights of our stay on the Millennium.  The Sea Sharps are a amazingly versatile and entertaining a cappella group!   My only complaint about the Sea Sharps is that they were SO popular on our cruise, we could hardly find a place to sit in any of the lounges where they performed! B is for Bratislav, our accommodating, perfection-seeking assistant waiter.  Bratislav made sure that every dinner experience was a perfect one, and regularly offered to go way out of his way to make sure that we were pleased.  Whenever we saw Bratislav elsewhere on the ship during the day, he called us by name and offered to do something to help us.  Bratislav is a true gem. C could either be for our amazingly comfortable cabin (forward-facing 7002) or for the flakey and delicious croissants on the Millennium.  We had croissants sent to our room most mornings and found them on all the buffets.  They are homemade by the expert pastry chefs on board and are delightful!  My favorite was the almond croissant. D is for diamond stores, more diamond stores and yet more diamond stores.  Whenever we left the ship the first thing we saw were diamond stores, and there were a bunch of diamond-buying opportunities on-board.  Seriously, do people really buy diamonds from stores they don't even know?  I prefer to do business with the jewelers in my own community.  I wish that more other types of stores were available both on the ship and on shore.  E is for Eggs Benedict.  Near the back of deck 10 we found a food station that will make Eggs Benedict however you want them.  With Canadian bacon (of course), with smoked salmon, with crab cakes, the list goes on.  And there were a number of types of Hollandaise sauces to choose from  The best thing was the way the eggs were poached - each one was perfectly cooked on the outside but soft on the inside. F is for fish, which was abundantly available on every menu and on every buffet.  I've never had so much delicious salmon, smoked salmon, sea bass, halibut, lobster, etc. in my life.  Each way the Millennium's chef's cooked fish seamed better than the previous way! G is for gum, or perhaps I should say no gum.  My 13-year-old judges restaurants by the cleanliness of the underside of the tables, and she reported that the Millennium's tables had no gum stuck under them, so they passed her test with flying colors! H is for hand sanitizer, which we were offered every time we boarded the ship and every time we went into a restaurant.  The good news is, we stayed healthy, but I got a bit sick of sanitizing my hands even though I always washed them before going to eat.  I is for insufficient time in a day to do all I wanted to do on our cruise.  There is so much to do on the Millennium that it is not possible to fit it all in.  I think the only solution to this problem may be to take a year-long cruise! J is for James Calhoun, our animated and expert cruise director.  I think that the only way James can be happy is if each and every passenger on his ship has the cruise of a lifetime! K is for the kids program, which I'm not sure what to say about.  The activites for my junior teen looked fun, but it didn't seem like that many kids participated.  My daughter reported that many of the young teens who went to the activities left early.  Since parents weren't involved, I'm not sure if the problem was that the activities weren't interesting to the kids or the kids just wanted to go off on their own.  The end result for our daughter was that she was disappointed that she didn't connect with the other kids on board. L is for line dancing, which took nightly in the Rendez-Vous Lounge, and in particular for the band that inspired the line dancing, the Carl William Quartet.  The most amazing thing about this quartet was their drummer - I have never been so mesmerized by a drummer's expertise before!  The lead singer was also  pleasant to listen to, and when he let the guitar players sing it was cute to watch him dance with the guests in the lounge.  My only complaint about the Carl William Quartet is that they use a computer program that makes the sounds of various instruments not in their quartet, such as violins or pianos.  I would much rather hear their own instruments than listen to a computer synthesis music. M is for the Millennium, a cruise ship extraordinaire!    We loved her lay-out, she is in excellent condition, and every time we turned around she offered some new and unexpected delight. N is for Norovirus and Norwalk Virus, which affected our cruise in a variety of ways:  We had to sanitize our hands whenever we went into a restaurant, there was disinfecting spray on the elevator buttons and railings, we could not serve our own drinks or buffet items, we had to be served bread at meals rather than have a bread basket on the table, and more.  We didn't actually see any sick people, but one person had to be medevaced out for gastrointestinal reasons in Icy Strait Point.  The good news is, the measures that Celebrity took apparently were effective, because no one I know was sick. O is for Olympic, which may well be the best restaurant on water!  Prior to this experience, I had never had a salad served like a bouquet!  My husband was impressed by the elegance and my daughter reported that her strawberry crepe (prepared tableside) was the best thing she's ever eaten!  One of the coolest thing about the Olympic is that their food is prepared in a demonstration kitchen, meaning that the kitchen has a glass wall between it and the restaurant, so you can watch the chefs prepare all the food.  What fun! P is for Pinto, our nonintrusive, thoughtful and efficient cabin steward.  Pinto made sure that everything in our cabin was always perfect.  I especially loved the fresh ice and water he brought us twice a day.  Q is for our comfortable queen sized bed.  Or maybe it was king sized.  Anyway, I had more room there than we do at home on our king sized bed with the dog in it! R is for room service, which I had each and every morning.  Nothing like waking up to hot coffee and freshly baked pastries!  My daughter had room service for lunch one day also, and loved that also. S is for Santos, our amazingly knowledgeable and accommodating head waiter.  Santos knows everything there is to know about the menu, and made sure that we adored our food and insisted on changing out anything we didn't adore.  When we saw Santos outside the dining room, he always called us by name and asked about our well-being. T is for the Thalassotherapy pool, which is to die for!  It's as warm as a whirlpool, is bubbly, and is full of salt water!  A half hour in that pool was so relaxing! U is for unparalleled hamburgers, which my husband claims the Riviera Grill has.  He had one each and every day, and claims them to be the best in the world.  V is for vegetarian entrees, which were fabulous in the Metropolitan Restaurant!  My daughter and I both love vegetarian food, and we loved the creativity and flavor of the vegetarian entrees. W is for Adirondack style wooden deck chairs, which are available on deck 10 in the covered areas.  So much more comfortable than vinyl! X is for Celebrity, a cruise line that strives to make sure that each guest has an excellent experience - and succeeds! Y is for YES, I want to sail on the Millennium again! Z is for zesty and delicious, which the food on the Millennium is.  Especially zesty and delicious was the Asian food available near the back of deck 10.  Yum!

Cabin Review

Cabin 4

Large cabin, forward facing window, bath in separate entry area.  Very quiet except when the anchor was being lowered.

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