Celebrity Millennium Review

Great ports, disappointing ship

Review for Asia Cruise on Celebrity Millennium
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MRDIAL
10+ Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Apr 2017
Cabin: Ocean View 7

I was part of a group of 36 traveling together with a travel agent and I chose this cruise because I had never been to Asia before. I am a 69 year old widow and often travel with friends. My experience with the ship's tours was excellent and that part of the cruise exceeded my expectations. Some in our group thought that the excursions were mis-rated as to strenuousness but I did not find that so. To be fair, we live in Florida where it is very flat and one does not get much of a chance to climb stairs or hills. I am a hobby hiker so I found even the one I took marked strenuous easily doable.

This was my 11th cruise but my first time on Celebrity. I had heard that Celebrity was a cut above the others (i've cruised NCL, Royal Caribbean, Princess and Holland America). I was pretty disappointed by that. My roommate is subject to sea sickness so we were in cabin 2134 because lower decks, mid-ship tend to be more stable. This was the smallest cabin I had been in and that may have been because of the layout -- the beds were perpendicular to the window rather than under it-- which was awkward at best. The bathroom was larger than in my last RC ship but about the same on the NCL Jade. Our cabin steward, Joe, was excellent. In fact the best part of the ship was the staff with the exception of the cruise director Mark (I'll address that later). As two single women traveling together, we often go our own ways and at our first encounter with Joe we requested two copies of the Dailies and ice every day. He never missed, was always friendly without being intrusive and made sure we had our pillow chocolate every night. Thank you, Millenium, for not doing the towel animals; they get a little overdone after several cruises. Our TA had us all eating at the 6:00 dinner and in the same section on deck 5 which was good. Our waiter Ernanie, assistant waiter Alex and the wine steward Conrad were attentive and friendly. One night several of our group took an evening tour so we mixed up the seating and even asked to add an additional chair to our table. Our guys seemed more than happy to accommodate our messy, on the spot, intermittent dining group. The food in the main dining room was mediocre and, seriously, not as good as the buffet sometimes. I did not try any of the specialty restaurants because I found the cover charges way too high. On a couple of port days where we had early excursions we ordered room service breakfast. It was easy to do on the TV and the breakfasts came promptly and were very good.

I bought the Persian Garden access at the beginning of the cruise but in retrospect, would not do it again. The Persian Garden is a dark area where there are hot stone benches and two steam rooms. The smaller steam room is the Grotto and supposed to have scented oil but half the time there was no scent. The best area was the indoor pool which is actually a huge hot tub (though not really hot) filled with mineral water. It and the sauna are complementary and are much nicer. The women's changing room is on the other side of the elevator lobby which makes getting to the Persian Garden awkward -- really, couldn't you guys do better at arranging that! How I just loved parading through that area with my wet towel, hair, etc.

Cabin Review

Ocean View 7

Cabin 07

There was plenty of storage and the bathroom was well laid out. We liked the night light in the bathroom and the decent sized shower. The cabin showed wear; I had heard that the ship had undergone an overhaul but that was not obvious in our cabin. The cabin seemed small but that may have been due to the layout. There was a hair dryer supplied but I wish I had brought my own because this one was not very powerful (I have long hair). The only outlets are on the desk and two of the four are international so I would recommend bringing an extension cord and a converter or two. There are no USB chargers in the cabin. The TV worked well and under it in a shallow drawer there was a complementary tote bag and an umbrella (not complementary). Two robes were provided. There was a refrigerator but it wasn't cool so we didn't use it. The cabin had a single pull out chair that showed serious wear and a small coffee table.

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