Bad Sailing on Millenium

[geoblond]

These reviews are scaring me! Hubby and I are RCI cruisers and thought this would be such a treat for our sons wedding present. They will be on the Milli Oct. 31st, Concierge Class and I pray they have a wonderful trip-of course they will be on their honeymoon!

[Blue Lagoon]

Out first cruise with Celebrity was a trans-Atlantic on Millie a few years back. It was a fiasco from the start. The ship was in drydock and wasn't at the pier for boarding in Barcelona. Thankfully, Cruise Critic had some info and saved us the horrible shock of seeing no ship at the dock.

 

The hotel that we were assigned to was out in the industrial area and far away from any sights. We were given breakfast but were on our own for the other meals. A sightseeing tour was available ..out of our pocket, but consisted mostly of picking up other passengers from hotels and the visit to Monserrat being a quick whirlwind hour event. We were phoned by a rep later that evening for feedback and I said how I sure saw my fill of area hotels and then was reimbursed 50%!

 

Rome was removed from the itinerary because of the 2 day delay and we were given a monetary compensation.

 

This was the year that the hurricane season was brisk to say the least. We ran out of English names for the hurricanes and started into the Greek alphabet and experienced some very 'exciting' weather to the point that we were instructed to remain in our cabins for a couple of days.

 

On the last evening, coloured tags for our luggage did not arrive by 11pm. Passengers were putting their cases out in the hall without the proper colour codes for pickup at the end of the trip. The captain was a no show for the Farewell Toast and no explanation was given.

 

Arrival the next morning in FLL was delayed (pod issues?) and a disaster with people walking off the ship at will to get to their flights.

 

Yet, thankfully, we gave Celebrity another try and have used the line several times since. Our next cruise after that we started in Rome and surprise, Santorini was cancelled due to extreme wind. Eventually, we will have to catch Santorini on another go around.;)

 

We've come to believe that the first commandment of travelling is ...'This isn't home'!!

[Daphne Starr]

I hope I get your room steward and omelet guy when I go in Feb. :) This will be my first with Celebrity. I've not had a bad cruise yet on the other cruiselines I've been on and I hope this won't be the exception.

 

We did Milly in Feb. and our experience was a lot like you. The staff was not friendly nor happy except our cabin stewart and the omelet guy

 

we boarded at 1pm for an 8:30 pm sailing and their was no greeting nor champagne when boarding, no one around.

 

I was very disappointed because I had read so much about Celebrity service. it just seemed disgruntled employees over untrained

 

We did select dining. did not care for the food, but this subjective .

we had terrible service, didnt receive many ordered items. now there was 2 of us , one would get an entree the other wouldnt type of thing. it was so slow we did not get dessert most nights just wanting to get out of there

mid cruise there was a survey. i complained on it. oh boy, after that we got over service. They couldnt do enough I just don't believe you should have to complain or hunt down a matre de to get good service.

 

I blame a lot of bad service due to the selective dining on these ships. I just dont think they can keep up with all the orders different times. We only do it when cruising more than 7 days out of fear of spending too many nights with same tablemates

 

I DO BELIEVE YOU CAN HAVE DIFFERENT EXPERIENCES ON EVERY SHIP

any cruise line, restaurant or land vacation.

 

I am very much looking forward to our Equinox cruise

[Starry Nights]

:)

These reviews are scaring me! Hubby and I are RCI cruisers and thought this would be such a treat for our sons wedding present. They will be on the Milli Oct. 31st, Concierge Class and I pray they have a wonderful trip-of course they will be on their honeymoon!

 

I have been on the Millie serveral times and always have had a great cruise. One thing to remind your son (as on any cruise ship), is if something isn't done to their liking, please tell them to let someone know, and every effort will be made to make things right. The staff are human, and sometimes things can be overlooked, but always feel free to bring it to the staff's attention. They do want the passengers to be happy.

 

We always sail Concierge or Aquaclass and have had terrific service. I do my research and know what to expect in terms of perks, and therefore know what I can ask for. And I always make sure to have a pleasant chat with the steward and our waiters on the first day, to build a personal connection and to get to know them a little bit as people.

 

Did you let Celebrity know that your son and daughter-in-law will be on their honeymoon? If that note is on their file, that should get some extra attention from staff. If you did, check back to see that the note IS on the file.

 

A nice touch would be a reservation for the honeymooners in the Olympic (specialty) Restaurant. That is a lovely romantic evening out.

 

Also, let your son know that they can have the same dinner served in their stateroom that is available in the MDR. Their room steward can get them the menus ahead of time. Everything comes at one time (it can be served course-by-course in suites) but this has never been a problem for us. Sometimes it is just lovely to have dinner on your balcony. Breakfast on the balcony is great too.

 

I'm sure your son and his new wife will have a wonderful cruise.

[grayjay]

Oops - hopefully the issues mentioned will be solved by Celebrity soon! As many have said that Celebrity monitors this board, some lamps should be flashing there by now, because only a happy customer is apt to be a spending customer! ;)

Our very first cruise ever was on the "Millie" to Alaska, we fell in love with cruising, the next two ones were especially memorable because we tried "Constellation" where the service was outstanding and memorable . We have been planning to book "Millie" again for 2013 - hoping that when she goes back to longer itineraries, service will pick up again.

In that context it might be interesting to discuss the question how captain and officers ( i.e. hotel manager etc.) might influence the general attitude on board.

[Miss SeaBee]

I did a 7 night Solstice sailing in April and I was blown away with how happy, friendly, and personable all the staff were! It was our first cruise on Celebrity, and I am sold! Everyone learned our names, including people bringing us drinks in the theatre. They would remember our names and drinks on consecutive nights! I had read reviews of Solstice prior to that sailing that warned of "surly" service, especially in the bars, and especially if you had a drink package. Nothing was further from the truth in our experience. We repeatedly had bartenders as well as our sommelier in the MDR assist us with finding excellent drinks and wines that would be covered by our premium packages.

 

Now we are set to sail the Millenium in March. I anticipate the same kind of service I experienced on Solstice. I am very friendly and always smile and make conversation and get to know the staff, so maybe that helps? I don't know, but I guess I'll have to just wait and see if the Millie service measures up to Solstice. Either way, I am totally looking forward to it!

[sunsfan]

Try the Century. We just returned from Hawaii and had wonderful service. Very friendly and helpful crew.

[Lsimon]

There is definitely something going wrong on the Millie. We were on the Connie for two consecutive years, then the Millie, Solstice and just recently the Infinity. ...

 

Our cruise on the Millie 2 years ago was fantastic. Service was among the best we've had on Celebrity and we had no complaints.

[geoblond]

Starry nights-Thank you for those excellent tips. I will pass them on to my son and will call Celebrity tomorrow to see if they will put a note in their file saying 'honeymoon'. :)

[Fiftiesareus]

Did you complain to the Maitre D ? The Maitre D should have fixed the problem. We have been on about 12 cruises combined (Carnival, Princess and NCL. We never had a problem getting bread or water.

[Host Anne]

RoyalDiamond ~ I was on the sailing prior to yours and unfortunately, I had some of the same experiences as you did. YES, try an S-class ship. While the experiences should not be different, they are. I wrote a detailed review of our experience on Millennium. I'm hopeful that some of the issues will be cleared up quickly.

 

A note for everyone else. This goes far beyond a good or bad waiter in the dining room. The bar service on Millennium was completely unacceptable. With the exception of our bar server in Cova for coffee drinks, it was actually difficult to get a bar server to ask you if you wanted something to drink.

 

If I had never been on a Celebrity cruise before and didn't know better, I would have been very disappointed as well.

 

Royal ~ I do hope you'll give an S-class ship a try!

[sandyh422]

We have taken three 7 day cruises on Millie, the last being in May of this year and have always been extremely happy with the overall cruise experience. This year we had only one minor problem - a lunch entree was extremely salty so we reported it to the maitre d. He immediately offered us another entree, took our room numbers and sent everyone at the table a tray of chocolate truffles. I believe if we had had a slow waiter or any thing else, he would have taken care of that also in a satisfactory way.

 

The rest of the crew was great also - we would have to give them all an A+. We purchased the soda package and wherever we went had no problem at all in getting good drink service.

 

We are taking the oct 31 five day cruise, so it will be interesting to see if the service has gone down hill since May.

[jd1966]

We were on the Millie in May and had exceptional service and great food! I guess we were "lucky".

[Host Anne]

I've never experienced the kind of service we had last week on any 7-day Celebrity cruise, including Millennium (we had sailed on her for two previous 7-day cruises). So one has to wonder if it's the shorter cruises, new staff, etc. I thought the ship itself was in great shape.

[slider728]

I just got off the Millennium on 10/17 after their 4 night cruise.

 

To be honest, I really did not have much of a problem with the staff in the MDR. I thought service was lacking a bit, but I didn't think it was terrible. My biggest complaint was that outside of wine, not one ever asked us if we wanted something to drink. It seemed I'd have to corner someone to get a soda (I didn't want alcohol as the seas were a bit rough that week).

 

I was quite disappointed in the buffet on-board though (Ocean's Buffet was it?). I found the food there quite tasteless and I would equate it to a college cafeteria.

 

The other complaint I had was that no matter where I ate, I never got a good serving of hash browns. They were always old, cold, and dried up.

 

Finally, the night before we docked on Cozumel, I called the front desk asking if I could switch my seating from the early seating to the late seating one night due to the shore excursion. I probably wasn't going to be back by 6PM. Granted, I probably should have hunted down the maitre'd at dinner that night, but it slipped my mind. I was basically told I would need to find the maitre'd at 6PM the next evening to check for 8:30 PM seating availability. I was expecting to be told no anyway, but I found it kind of odd that I told guest services I would be missing my dinner seating and wanted the later seating, but the solution to the problem was to go see the maitre'd during the early seating. I was really hoping I could catch him in the morning somewhere, but I guess that wasn't meant to be.

 

For those who are going on the Millennium, I thought it was a nice cruise, despite the nearly constant rough weather the week we went. Of the two cruises I have taken so far, I would much rather go Holland America again, but Celebrity was still nice. I will say that we probably will try another cruise line next time, but we had no regrets with this sailing!

[RoyalDiamond]

RoyalDiamond ~ I was on the sailing prior to yours and unfortunately, I had some of the same experiences as you did. YES, try an S-class ship. While the experiences should not be different, they are. I wrote a detailed review of our experience on Millennium. I'm hopeful that some of the issues will be cleared up quickly.

 

A note for everyone else. This goes far beyond a good or bad waiter in the dining room. The bar service on Millennium was completely unacceptable. With the exception of our bar server in Cova for coffee drinks, it was actually difficult to get a bar server to ask you if you wanted something to drink.

 

If I had never been on a Celebrity cruise before and didn't know better, I would have been very disappointed as well.

 

Royal ~ I do hope you'll give an S-class ship a try!

Thanks for the feedback. I was wondering if I was just being cranky...LOL. I also thought bar service was lacking. I stood at the pool bar for 10 minutes trying to get someone to serve a drink, and it never happened! Oh well. S-class it is....we will try one of those....

[tigtoo30]

Royal, first let me say it was a pleasure meeting you and your partner. Wish I hadn't been so overwhelmed and aloof since it was my first cruise.

 

Anywho, I echo your sentiments. I never went to the MDR, but the buffet was a little lacking IMO. I would have preferred different things on different nights, but overall food was OK. Bar service was really poor. It did take forever to have someone acknowledge you. But my biggest thing is that I'm not a morning coffee drinker. I prefer a cold Diet Coke in the morning. Getting a soda was always an adventure - anytime of day.

 

For my first cruise, I didn't know what to expect, so I'm glad it wasn't just me.

 

I did have a wonderful time though, especially once we got out of the stormy seas...the first three days were quite an adventure. And you were right, Tulum was fantastic. That one excursion made the entire trip worthwhile.

 

Cheers!

[mbsilk]

RoyalDiamond ~ I was on the sailing prior to yours and unfortunately, I had some of the same experiences as you did. YES, try an S-class ship. While the experiences should not be different, they are. I wrote a detailed review of our experience on Millennium. I'm hopeful that some of the issues will be cleared up quickly

 

Anne:

 

We did not drink much on this cruise but the few times we did want a drink the delays were noticeable. During one of the shows I even asked my other half whether I would ever see my room key/ID again. I am hoping that this is a one off event since we were seriously considering going for elite status on X.

[tuggers]

Royal, enjoyed chatting with you both in the Elite lounge. Sorry your dining experience did not improve. For sure I would have been talking to the matre 'd! I think you would have seen some results pronto!

I guess it was just the luck of the draw but from the first night our MDR waiter and his assistant knew our names and gave very good service. Same with the wine service.

I do agree with you that the buffet selections for dinner are much better on RCL. On one of my last Royal cruises my friend and I ate in the buffet quite a lot. We had your issues with service on that cruise plus we did not find the MDR food to our liking.

I had a few minor issues with this cruise but never having been on a 5 nighter I was not sure if that made the difference.

My interactions with Melissa were pleasant and she always seemed to have the information I was looking for.

Please give X another try. Maybe on a longer cruise. I prefer a 10 night or more because you get to know the staff and crew and I think that makes a difference in the service.

[MattInFLL]

Millie has just switched from a traditional Celebrity experience (7 day and longer cruises and a traditional Celebrity passenger) to the short cruise market out of Miami. There's a difference for the passenger, and I bet you there's a difference for the crew, too. While it is not a Carnival 3 day cruise, there's a still difference make up to the usual Celebrity passenger base, and I am guessing the crew is feeling the change, too (plus now they have at least two turn around days a week). And maybe some, being human, are not taking it to as well as others - leading to uneven service. I am sure it will smooth out, and hopefully will be at least smoother by my cruise on the 10th. Century last year was great, but Century had been doing short cruises for a while. Millie's crew is brand new to it. Let's hope the same. But I'm not that surprised to hear this.

[dmwnc1959]

Excellent post Matt. I too am hoping that eight sailings from now the service will have evened out to a more normal Celebrity experience albeit in a short-market cruise.

[phyllisrf]

We are booked on a 14 night Carribbean cruise 3/2012. After reading these posts, I am a little concerned about Millenium.

[phyllisrf]

Oops, sorry. We are booked on Constellation. Any thoughts???

[chirowedoc]

We just got off the same cruise as Tuggers on the Millie. We had a fabulous time with the staff on the ship, everyone of them we encountered new our name within a day of our arrival. The MDR was not our favorite experience, but not due to service. The wine steward saw us walk in and had our choices from the previous night in her hands when she initially approached the table. The Assistant Maitre D, Daniel, was a pleasure to talk to, and did a great job of running things on the upper level of the dining room. The menu was boring, which was the main source of our disappointment, and seemed to be the general consensus of the cruise passengers.

 

I agree that Celebrity may be trying to bring in a different crowd with the shorter cruise, I think our group was of that different crowd. Unfortunately, our only bad experiences came from fellow passengers. One that did not appreciate us having fun and "WooHoo-ing" at the pool and did not hesitate to tell us how no one liked having us on this cruise. In addition, if you are on a lower balcony, watch out for creepers above you! We looked up from sunbathing one day and a gentleman had a camera with a telephoto lens pointed at us taking photo's! That was beyond rude and a little disturbing!

 

The drink package on the Millie was the best bargain in the industry! We used ours to the max and got to know the servers well. The pool bartenders are a blast if you talk to them!

 

What we found in general, was if you gave a little extra money to any of the servers, the world was your oyster. It is amazing how a $5 tip for someone to serve you all day for free at the pool can get them to go over and above!

 

I am looking forward to my next cruise on Celebrity, although I think I may try a larger ship. I enjoy the specialty dining and it is nice to have an extra place or two to try.

[dmwnc1959]

I agree that Celebrity may be trying to bring in a different crowd with the shorter cruise, I think our group was of that different crowd. Unfortunately, our only bad experiences came from fellow passengers. One that did not appreciate us having fun and "WooHoo-ing" at the pool and did not hesitate to tell us how no one liked having us on this cruise.

 

I brought this up back in February HERE asking would the ambiance and atmosphere of the Celebrity Millennium be affected in the short-cruise market, attracting the atypical Celebrity guest. Keeping in mind that Celebrity is more of an upscale cruise line (still mass market), the type of "woohooing" that you mentioned is what most past Celebrity guest fear most. It is still your cruise vacation, but respect those around you that it is their vacation as well. Wohoo-ers are best served on Carnival and NCL, not Celebrity. Nothing personal. Just saying. :rolleyes: