Oh dear. Maybe reading reviews isn't such a good idea.

[delily]

Thinking about booking the Asian Allure cruise on the Millenium for next January. It goes to Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam. The reviews of this ship and cruise are mostly pretty bad. I realize that disgruntled people are more likely to write bad reviews than others are to write good ones. But is there anyone out there who enjoyed their cruise through southeast Asia?

[Shake]

I agree.

 

I've never learned anything useful from a review and especially don't like negativity and whining. :cool:

[just_looking]

We will be on the Millennium in 3 weeks. I *really* hope the reviews are overblown. I think there were quite a few problems with ports of call, and sickness outbreaks, so maybe that left the reviewers with strong negative feelings that carried throughout the cruise?

[MVPinBoynton]

We loved our SE Asia cruise. Great ports and a wonderful experience. You can see our review with lots of photos on our website www.thepreismans.com.

[MicCanberra]

I think reviews are only worth noting when they discuss things that are not subjective, facts are so much better. Things like food and entertainment are not worth listening to unless the facts bear out the opinion.:D

[Project_gal]

Thinking about booking the Asian Allure cruise on the Millenium for next January. It goes to Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam. The reviews of this ship and cruise are mostly pretty bad. I realize that disgruntled people are more likely to write bad reviews than others are to write good ones. But is there anyone out there who enjoyed their cruise through southeast Asia?

 

If you search out the reviews of the Transpacific relocation cruise of Millennium from Shanghai to Seward you will find many completely opposite reviews!

 

The thing to remember about Asian cruises is that they take place during the winter month. No matter which cruise company and which ship, there is a much greater chance of illness on board and the weather/tides/etc are not always favourable. If these things happen, the crew may be too busy to carry out the normal, ongoing maintenance and officers may not be as visible because they are handling problems behind the scenes.

 

It often takes very little to make people switch from being happy to seeing every possible fault. This is compounded if they have not done their homework and, for example, have only packed warm weather clothes when there is the chance of cold weather. The weather can be unpredictable. [We did a land tour of Hong Kong over Christmas one year. Christmas Day we spent on a local beach in 80 degrees F. The next day, they had frost and parents were taking their children to see this for the first time in their lives.]

 

Very many people prepare properly and are more than happy to go with the flow and enjoy a different part of the world.

 

Only you can really know what type of person you are and if you are flexible enough to be happy on this type of cruise. Hope that this helps.

 

Sue

[Maligator]

Consider the following when reading reviews:

• The Goldilocks Effect; some people simply cannot be pleased
  
• One person's negative experience - while it might have occurred - may be isolated
  
• Some people have their expectations too high
  
• A satisfied customer will tell a hundred people. A dissatisfied customer will tell a million on Cruise Critic. :D
  
• Some people are not happy unless they're unhappy and everyone knows about it
  
• Bad stuff does happen, but not as often as you'd think by reading some reviews
  

 

I take all reviews - good, bad and neutral - with the proverbial grain. I remember a valuable lesson taught by years of police work: there is one side of the story, the other side and the truth. A reviewer may knock their bartender for being rude without mentioning the reviewer was fall-on-the-floor intoxicated and caused a commotion. Also, what irritates the fire out of my wife may not even raise an eyebrow with me.

 

The worst effect is that you go into your cruise with the preconceived notion that you're going to have a bad experience. The power of suggestion is a powerful force. For instance, if I were to suggest that Morgan Freeman wrote this post, you're suddenly reading this in his voice. ;)

 

All that to say you should go into it with an blank-slate mindset.

[Oville]

Please do not let others ruin the excitement of your cruise. We made that mistake this past winter about the Reflection. An extremely experienced Celebrity cruiser did a blog and was on the ship for many weeks. For the most part the posts had complaint after complaint about the ship. We had two cruises booked on the Reflection and canceled the second one (Febuary 2013) do to all the negative reporting. Our other cruise on this ship was a b2b in December and were so pleased with the ship we have another cruise booked on Reflection next year.

 

As you said in your OP, people who are disgruntled are more apt to post reviews and often are not helpful. Ignore them please and have a wonderful cruise.

[MicCanberra]

Consider the following when reading reviews:

• The Goldilocks Effect; some people simply cannot be pleased
  
• One person's negative experience - while it might have occurred - may be isolated
  
• Some people have their expectations too high
  
• A satisfied customer will tell a hundred people. A dissatisfied customer will tell a million on Cruise Critic. :D
  
• Some people are not happy unless they're unhappy and everyone knows about it
  
• Bad stuff does happen, but not as often as you'd think by reading some reviews
  

I take all reviews - good, bad and neutral - with the proverbial grain. I remember a valuable lesson taught by years of police work: there is one side of the story, the other side and the truth. A reviewer may knock their bartender for being rude without mentioning the reviewer was fall-on-the-floor intoxicated and caused a commotion. Also, what irritates the fire out of my wife may not even raise an eyebrow with me.

 

The worst effect is that you go into your cruise with the preconceived notion that you're going to have a bad experience. The power of suggestion is a powerful force. For instance, if I were to suggest that Morgan Freeman wrote this post, you're suddenly reading this in his voice. ;)

 

All that to say you should go into it with an blank-slate mindset.

"Nice response Matt", just sayin' :D

[drarill]

Consider the following when reading reviews:

• The Goldilocks Effect; some people simply cannot be pleased
  
• One person's negative experience - while it might have occurred - may be isolated
  
• Some people have their expectations too high
  
• A satisfied customer will tell a hundred people. A dissatisfied customer will tell a million on Cruise Critic. :D
  
• Some people are not happy unless they're unhappy and everyone knows about it
  
• Bad stuff does happen, but not as often as you'd think by reading some reviews
  

 

I take all reviews - good, bad and neutral - with the proverbial grain. I remember a valuable lesson taught by years of police work: there is one side of the story, the other side and the truth. A reviewer may knock their bartender for being rude without mentioning the reviewer was fall-on-the-floor intoxicated and caused a commotion. Also, what irritates the fire out of my wife may not even raise an eyebrow with me.

 

The worst effect is that you go into your cruise with the preconceived notion that you're going to have a bad experience. The power of suggestion is a powerful force. For instance, if I were to suggest that Morgan Freeman wrote this post, you're suddenly reading this in his voice. ;)

 

All that to say you should go into it with an blank-slate mindset.

 

Perfect!! :):) I also prefer the reviews on the cruise line boards better. Those give others on the same sailing the opportunity to give a completely opposite and sometimes more realistic view of the cruise.

[justcrusn]

And many folks take that to heart,missing the big picture.

If you are a negative attitude person you zone in on every little shortcoming, and overlook the thousands of things done VERY WELL on a cruise.

Take a review with a grain of salt, and ENJOY your cruise!

[wallie5446]

2000 plus pax on a sailing, 25 or 15 know anything about CC or any other 'chat board' where a 'review' can be posted. You get a higher turn out for an election to pick the dog catcher. Take em with a grain of salt.

[chill6x6]

1. Several kinds of "reviews." Many, such as no-accountability one-hit wonders really offer no real value. BUT, those reviews written by folks that have been here a while and have a good record of no real bias ARE an excellent source of information.

2. The ship deserves a chance to correct problems. Aboard the Norwegian Star during the CC meet and greet, we met with most, if not ALL of the ships top officers. One thing the hotel director mentioned that I agree with. If you have a problem while on a ship, CONTACT someone that can DO something about it! Why wait to say anything about a problem once back at home writing your "review" on CC?

3. Know your "reviewer." For instance...someone that has cruised 8 times with one cruise line may not be objective to their 9th cruise line. On the other hand...someone that has cruised the same 8 cruises but with three or more different cruise lines will have a more well-rounded perspective for that same 9th cruise.

[ghstudio]

Lots of things change in a year....today's review about the staff, the food, the sickness, the ports may be entirely different next year. This years outstanding cruise may be a disaster next year.

 

I did an ongoing blog here on our 28 days on the Millennium this past Jan/Feb...it was, I think, balanced. We had no tendering issues and no sickness issues, but, yes, we had a fair number of food issues in Blu....but Blu changed quite a bit from the first cruise to the second because the maitre d' changed (for the better).

 

Always add the time element to reading any review....how much of what you are reading will be the same when you get on the ship.

[techwatcher]

Delily,

 

I wouldn't worry about the reviews; it's not too uncommon for two reviewers to have been on the same cruise but to write vastly different reviews. Much of the cruising experience is subjective and there are some for whom cruise lines can do no wrong and others who come away disappointed.

 

I read an interview with the guy who runs THE big review site, the one which starts with 'Trip'. His advice was to ignore the 'outliers' - those with five stars+ and those with one star and focus on the reviews with middle ratings; good advice I think.

[vermonter16]

I was just reading some reviews on the cruise I was on....the same ship. Holy heck - they got one star....I gave it 5.... Totally different views for sure. I experienced some of the same that the low raters had but to me it wasn't THAT big of a deal, certainly not a 'ruined my cruise experience' event.

[cruiserny]

I took this cruise this past March and loved it. I had read a couple of reviews before my cruise (it was a new itinerary so there were only a few) and they were mostly bad. However, I could not have disagreed more.

[ghstudio]

Thinking about booking the Asian Allure cruise on the Millenium for next January. It goes to Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam.

 

But is there anyone out there who enjoyed their cruise through southeast Asia?

 

This cruise visits a fascinating part of the world. Singapore, Bangkok, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. Three of the ports (Bangkok, Siagon and Hanoi) are overnight stops. We did the B2b which visited indonesia and malaysia, and I highly recommend that if you are going to fly all the way to singapore, you do both cruises, if possible.

 

Yes, we enjoyed the cruise....we stayed overnight in Saigon on Tet eve (fireworks...it's their new years eve) and in Hanoi where the drive from the ship to Hanoi is a minimum of 3 hours over some of the worst roads with the worst drivers in the world). We've been to bangkok, singapore and Hong Kong before and if you do the trip, plan on at least two extra days in singapore and hong kong...and stay in Bangkok overnight because it's a fascinating city at night (perhaps more for men than women). It is a wonderful trip.

 

As I said in my earlier post, you can find my blog on the trips in a thread here.

[Dunelm]

Thanks for all the excellent comments and advice. I, too, have been concerned about all the negative reviews of the Millie. On my recommendation, friends are accompanying me and my husband on a Millie cruise later in the year. They have never cruised with Celebrity before, and I was becoming a tad worried .

[calgal729]

I was on the first Celebrity Southeast Asia cruise on the Millennium this past December from Singapore to Bangkok, Vietnam and ending in Hong Kong. It was my 3rd Celebrity cruise and my 7th overall. Yes, there were a few glitches, mostly because we were their first cruise to this region, but we loved the cruise. I went with lowered expectations, knowing that the Millennium would not match up to the ships were sailed in the S class, and that was fine with me because the important thing was to visit this part of the world, and the itinerary was fabulous. I wasn't disappointed with any of the ports. It is important, though, to realize that some of the ports are hours away from the cities you will visit, and traffic adds to the travel time. So when you have an overnight, stay at a hotel in that city to maximize your sightseeing time. The people that tried to go back and forth to the ship didn't see everything they hoped to and were the most frustrated and disappointed with this cruise.

[travelberlin]

Thinking about booking the Asian Allure cruise on the Millenium for next January. It goes to Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam. The reviews of this ship and cruise are mostly pretty bad. I realize that disgruntled people are more likely to write bad reviews than others are to write good ones. But is there anyone out there who enjoyed their cruise through southeast Asia?

I do think that reading reviews is a good idea, because it can lower your expectations. I am amazed by the people who think that if you post a not so good review you must be a negative person. Actually nobody knows how your experience would be when booking the trip you mentioned.

We were on the transpacific from Shanghai to Seward and then from Seward to Vancouver. I have read a very positive review on the Alaska part of it. I am glad that the poster had such a good cruise. What us is concerned if we knew now how the transpacific was going to be (substandard in Comparison with other Celebrity cruises) we would have not booked that cruise.

Reasons: too expensive to flight to Asia to take a cruise only to be in Japan (We were not able to disembark in South Corea and The Russian port), several ingredients for food were missing so that the quality of food was substandard, health issues on board (first norovirus which started already in Hongkong and the respiratory problems starting in Seward), and tired ship arriving with the last strenght in Vancouver.

Do we like Celebrity? We do. Would we cruise again with them yes only not anymore on the transpacific.

[Umbarger]

We were on the Millie in November. Loved it so much we are cruising on her again. I agree that you can read too many reviews.

[neverbeenhere]

We love to know how you got to the ship, what you had for dinner and how the seas were rough. Because the experience will be the exact same as our experience.

[delily]

Thanks everyone for all your good advice. I always read everything I can find about a cruise knowing that it has to be taken with a grain of salt. I was just getting concerned that these reviews seemed particularly worse than the usual grumblings. I haven't decided on that cruise yet; there are two others I am also considering, but it does appear to have a winning itinerary which is always my first priority and the "at sea" days seem to be fewer than other cruises (I hate at sea days for the most part) and they are well placed to allow you some rest between heavy port days. For those of you who have blogs and trip reports, I will be sure to check them out. Thank you for the links!

[tiggerman101]

I was on the March 3rd Northbound cruise to Singapore, Bangkok, Vietnam and Hong Kong. It was a great cruise and an outstanding itinerary. It is, however, a different type of cruise. There are the overnights and the cities are a distance from the ports (we stayed in a hotel in Bangkok and Saigon). It takes some planning, but it can be very rewarding. Surprisingly, I think some people didn't do their research and were caught off guard. The complaints I heard seemed to all come from this simple detail. They did little planning and really didn't realize what they signed up for. When we cruised into Halong Bay I met a lady who was completely upset because Celebrity did not stress to her this was a beautiful port to sail into and she hadn't prepared to be on deck all morning for the sceanery. I mean, come on, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site and there were details about it on the front of the daily. Good Grief.

 

That was my first Celebrity cruise and I loved it and the ship. I will say that I have never heard so many trivial and nit picky complaints in my life. I chalk it up to people becoming jaded the more they travel. Quite sad actually.