Celebrity Millennium - Chartered on March 28, 2020, and April 11, 2020

FYI - we received notice last night that Celebrity Millennium has been chartered for the 3/28/2020 and 4/11/2020 sailings. They've offered various re-booking opportunities, OBC, fare protection, etc. No allowance for airfare as it's way too early. Not sure if it was chartered or chartered/sold? It's interesting to note that these are/were the last two cruises currently bookable on Millennium. We're currently looking at options. This is the first time this has happened to us. Oh well.....

FYI - we received notice last night that Celebrity Millennium has been chartered for the 3/28/2020 and 4/11/2020 sailings. They've offered various re-booking opportunities, OBC, fare protection, etc. No allowance for airfare as it's way too early. Not sure if it was chartered or chartered/sold? It's interesting to note that these are/were the last two cruises currently bookable on Millennium. We're currently looking at options. This is the first time this has happened to us. Oh well.....

We those cruises in Asia? When we tried to book an Around Japan cruise in 2015, both of the Around Japan cruises were cancelled due to charter.

Very odd. I am booked on April 11. My travel agent got the call last night and returned the call this morning and was told that the ship has been chartered in May and in order to make that work, they were having to re-arrange the April sailings. I was offered March 28, or April 10 (11 night cruise) or April 21 (11 night cruise). That doesn't quite match up with what you were told.

My travel agent is contacting the deployment desk for further clarification.

These are Asia cruises. The April 11 cruise was Around Japan.

Update from my travel agent. Both the April 10 and April 21 are 11night Around Japan cruises.

The problem here is that I wanted to do the last Japan followed by the Transpacific. If they have inserted a charter in there, I won't be able to do that. :(

I hope these photos come through

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Hello and many thanks for the photos, They came through just fine. This info definitely helps us understand the changes a bit more. Does anyone know what the charter is or will be to/for?

Thank you- this is very helpful. It looks like they have also shortened the time in port on for several ports. Frankly I don't think that a $200comp for completely changing the itinerary to eliminate all the distant ports (Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Hakodate) is very reasonable. We were always planning to add some time to the beginning of the trip to do some land tours of our own. But getting all the way to the other end of the country and other islands may destroy the whole point of doing this by cruise ship. We may as well do a land-only tour.

We will watch this thread to see what others find out and we will contact our TA and she what further information she picks up.

Thanks everyone

Thank you- this is very helpful. It looks like they have also shortened the time in port on for several ports. Frankly I don't think that a $200comp for completely changing the itinerary to eliminate all the distant ports (Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Hakodate) is very reasonable. We were always planning to add some time to the beginning of the trip to do some land tours of our own. But getting all the way to the other end of the country and other islands may destroy the whole point of doing this by cruise ship. We may as well do a land-only tour.

 

We will watch this thread to see what others find out and we will contact our TA and she what further information she picks up.

 

Thanks everyone

Huh? You've received notice about changes nearly two years in advance. Disappointing, certainly. But it Sounds pretty fair to me.

There are other mainstream cruise lines that go to Japan - Princess, HAL, maybe others. And if you were paying for a suite or higher on X, have a look at Viking Ocean. Heck, it might even be cheaper.

When our Around Japan cruise was cancelled in 2015, we had to option to pick four other cruises on Millie at the same price. We picked a great one, it was Japan and China, which included four Japanese ports on the main islands, Shanghai, Okinawa and two days in Taiwan, ended in Hong Kong.

When I researched other cruise lines for Japan cruises, the Princess cruises were in the Summer, which anyone will tell you not to visit Japan in the Summer and for the Fall of 2015, there were no HAL cruises. Perhaps that has changed.

I think the chartering of Millie for those cruises is by the Chinese. Someone told us that.

Update from my travel agent. Both the April 10 and April 21 are 11night Around Japan cruises.

 

The problem here is that I wanted to do the last Japan followed by the Transpacific. If they have inserted a charter in there, I won't be able to do that. :(

We too got the BOOT! Booked this itinerary to sail in 2014 and again the Millennium was chartered out so ended up switching to 2016 when the Millennium did the southern route from Hong Kong to Vancouver ... that was a wonderful itinerary and cruise ... if they ever do that itinerary again I will be aboard... However for 2020 I will jsut opt for a totally different itinerary...

As my whole reason (as have done China - Japan - Korea ) was to have a wonderful cruise that ended in Vancouver and I love the Millennium and its fabulous crew! So will ahve to see what they offer in 2021...

 

I think the chartering of Millie for those cruises is by the Chinese. Someone told us that.

Can someone explain to me what the ramifications of the cruise being one day shorter but more or less the same cruise ( at a cheaper price) when the ship is 'chartered' ??? we are booked on the March 28 departure 2020 from Shanghai. many thanks

I honk that the OP’s Title for this thread is misleading. The charter is not until May. but in order to charter the ship for the days when whatever company has arranged to take the ship during that time, they had to move the preceding cruises so your cruise will be shortened as will the two “around Japan” cruises. There used to be 114 day around Japan cruise and now there are 211 day around Japan cruises and your cruise was also apparently affected by shortening it a little bit to make this new schedule work.

Update from my travel agent. Both the April 10 and April 21 are 11night Around Japan cruises.

 

The problem here is that I wanted to do the last Japan followed by the Transpacific. If they have inserted a charter in there, I won't be able to do that. :(

Welcome to the club. All the sailings in September 2019 got changed/moved/cancelled in order to make room for a charter directly after the transpacific. That's a mistake in my opinion, it discourages the B2B crowd from booking anything. HAL has better transpacific itineraries, and we were quite impressed with the food, service, cabins, and design of their ships.

We took the $200 OBC offer and booked Hawaii, just in time for discounts.

Many thanks Cruisestitch ! Now I understand. We are going ahead with it as the changes are not deal breakers for us. We did have to look at the details though as there are minor time changes even when ports are the same.

If your Japan cruise is cancelled, you can still visit the country. We did 8 days in Japan prior to our cruise. I booked tours through Viator, including a three day tour to Kyoto and Nara that was great. You don't need a land tour, make your own arrangements and take the bullet train and/or Viator tours.