By and large we had an enjoyable cruise on Millennium travelling from Hong Kong and visiting Taiwan, China and Japan. Though the ship is showing signs of wear and tear it is kept spotlessly clean.

The itinerary was excellent and we enjoyed it immensely apart from missing the port of Nagasaki due to fog (we were unable to offload the Chinese pilot after leaving Shanghai) which led to three consecutive days at sea – something we normally try to avoid. Luckily we were on a Celebrity trip the day we were due to visit so at least we got our money back! The missed port unfortunately had a knock on effect in Kobe which was too small to cope with the immigration process for a vessel entering Japan from China resulting in huge delays of up to three hours. We spoke to several people on private tours who did not make their trips. We lost our reserved seats on the bullet train to Kyoto but otherwise managed to proceed as scheduled albeit an hour or so later than planned.

We found the entertainment in the theatre to be a bit hit and miss. We were underwhelmed by the Cruise director who seemed to think wearing different odd coloured shoes each evening was somehow funny! The shows we attended were OK but we preferred to go to the rendezvous Lounge to listen (and dance) to the excellent ensemble “Inner Mood”. Read more