I am a recently retired travel manager of 3 large agencies. I have cruised a lot and done many ship inspections in the last 20 years. Back when I was an agent, I always felt it was my responsibility to listen to what my clients desired in a cruise and then to use my experience to guide them to the proper choice whether they wanted an intimate experience or parades down Main Street. My main reason for writing this review is to refute some of the reviews I had read prior to our recent cruise about the Celebrity Millenium. We are currently in our winter home in Cabarete, Dominican Republic on the North Coast so we had a driver take us on the 4 hour journey to Santo Domingo. From there we took an hour flight to San Juan where we embarked the Celebrity Millenium for a 15 night cruise to eleven Caribbean ports on December 18, 2009. There were 6 of us and we got a van to take all of us from the airport to the port with luggage for $27 plus tip. We had sailed on the Millenium years ago when we did Scandinavia/Russia. The ship was still in excellent shape and we enjoyed our CC Concierge balcony stateroom. The balcony was not as large as I had hoped but the room was well laid out and there was ample storage. I would strongly recommend upgrading to a balcony, especially on a longer cruise. It makes all the difference. Our friends who had booked an inside stateroom had "cabin fever" by the time they debarked. We chose the Concierge level since it came with pre-paid gratuities on the internet site we used. But it had a few other perks such as champagne waiting for us in our stateroom, more square feet, fresh flowers and daily canapEs, and thicker bathrobes. My husband has breathing difficulties and a wheelchair was provided to us free of charge the entire trip. The staff was so helpful on the few occasions where we used it in port. The main disagreement I had with CruiseCritic reviews of this ship were the comments on the quality of the food. The food was fabulous!!! Believe me....I know my food and this was as good as I have had on any comparable ship. We had escargot every night. The Prime Rib came medium rare exactly as ordered. If we couldn't make up our mind and wanted multiples of things to try...no problem. I am writing this review because I can simply not allow those negative reviews to go unchallenged. (And...no...I do not work for Celebrity Cruise Lines!) This was a holiday cruise over Christmas and New Years so the ship had every age demographic. I cannot comment on the childrens' programs except to say that they seemed content and busy with scavenger hunts and teen movies, etc. Celebrity is a more refined experience. You won't find blaring announcements every hour hawking Snowball bingo jackpots. No drunken rowdiness poolside. If this is your type of thing this is NOT your ship. I heard some people grumbling that there was not enough to do and that the ship was deserted after 11pm. For us, it was exactly the relaxation we were looking for! There is a real Cinema which I enjoy although I would have enjoyed more of a variety of movies. The dining room was lovely but not over-the-top. Celebrity is understated elegance at a premium price rather than a luxury-ship price tag. I have cruised Crystal, Windstar and Seabourn which were fabulous experiences but also came with fabulous price tags! I felt Celebrity incorporated many of their strong features at a more affordable price. If there was one area for improvement, it would be the entertainment. I only attended the headliner shows. There was a comedian who was very funny the first night and not funny the second night. There was a Liberace-style pianist who was really good and played everything from Rachmaninoff to Jerry Lee Lewis. He was excellent both nights. There was a good magician and a concert violinist. We enjoyed them but I must admit that entertainment on their sister line, Royal Caribbean, is much better! One particular disappointment to me was the church service on Christmas Eve. It was pitiful. Held in the main theater, they didn't even come up with a piano for singing and the priest that did the Interdenominational service was about the worst speaker I have ever had the misfortune to listen to! But I guess if I was looking for a touching religious experience I should have stayed home, right? The ports were wonderful and we only did one excursion from the ship in Dominica. Other than that, we hired vans at the tourist authority and got 3 hour tours for between $20 to $25 per person. In Barbados we took a taxi to Harbor Lights beach (no fee to enter but $25 for two chaises and an umbrella). In Aruba, you can take a local bus to Eagle Beach for $2 pp right outside the ship terminal or a van for $3pp. Guadeloupe was horrible. They wanted $50 pp for a ride around the island and wouldn't even accept anything but Euros. It was almost like Guadeloupe didn't want you there...seriously. Ah, the French..... It was a wonderful holiday and happy cruising to all of you!