Millennium Northbound May 12 Review

[BAMA_BOY]

We sailed on the Millennium after a 3-day stay in Vancouver which we loved. We did not use any Celebrity transfers or arrangements so those areas are reviewed elsewhere. We also arranged all our shore excursions and there are excellent operators at all the Alaska ports to choose from. Also, we did not dine in any specialty restaurants on this cruise.

 

When the Millennium made its debut in 2000, it was a first-in-class flagship for Celebrity. She went through a major overhaul in 2012 in an attempt to Solticize her, adding AquaSpa cabins, a Persian Garden Spa, etc. Some of this requires a little imagination as the ship has no "Blu" restaurant, instead they have AquaClass diners use the port side of the 5th (upper) deck of the dining room. The "Healthy Style" dining room is a very small bar area in the covered pool area of the ship. Q-Sine takes a small area of the 11th deck and the Tuscan Grill resides in a small area of the 3rd deck next to the Guest Relations area.

 

The ship had been in dry dock for a week or more at nearby Victoria Island so we were expecting a "refreshed" ship upon boarding. The major accomplishment of the dry dock was to install an outdoor movie screen on the aft area of the 12th deck. This is now a very nice area with small cabana style privacy screens, etc and a great place for viewing the glaciers or relaxing away from crowds. They also did some work on suites located on the aft of the ship. What they did not do was clean the very large windows in the public areas like the Cosmos Lounge (front of the ship) or in the Oceanside Cafe (buffet area aft) area where the windows presented a streaked and chalky view of the outside world. I heard many complaints about the windows and we saw Holland America cleaning their large windows in Ketchikan while ours went wanting the entire cruise! We felt this was a major oversight on the part of Celebrity! Overall the ship is looking a little "old."

 

Boarding the Millennium at Canada Place was a breeze. The day we left the Millennium was the only ship on the pier thus there were no lines of traffic waiting to get to the unloading area. Our taxi backed into a spot right in front of baggage handlers and we didn't have to touch them, proceeded to walk through security and customs and had our ship's cards and were on-board within 20 minutes of arrival at the port. It was a surprise that rooms were not ready as there were no previous passengers but it wasn't long, perhaps an hour or so and maybe two hours before our bags were in our room. We had a veranda room located starboard abeam the aft elevator on deck 8. I "guessed" that starboard would be the appropriate side of the ship for a northbound cruise and indeed we seemed to be on the dockside for most ports. The elevator made some noise but didn't keep us awake (we travel with a white noise machine).It was handy to use these aft elevators as those "outside" elevators at midships were always busy. In fact, you could walk up the two decks to the buffet or walk down three decks to hit the coffee shop which we did often.

 

We had all the usual "perks" for the cruise, free unlimited internet, premium drink package, gratuities and $400 credit. Used our on-board credit for a spa day which was as always very nice. I spent an hour of "complimentary time" in the Persian Garden which I like (aroma therapy, sauna, etc). The premium drink package continues to change/evolve with Celebrity - and not in a good way. Now the limit is $13/drink ($16 last year) but hard liquors are no problem: Hendricks, Single Malts, Chopin etc are all covered. Only place you can really get a decent or full size martini was the Martini Bar or at any other bar let the waiter/bartender know you're on the premium plan and they can find a "full size" martini glass! Wine lists, in my opinion, continue to deteriorate and are very short indeed. Your only choice is to find a decent sommelier on the ship and have them recommend a red or white within the price boundaries and then stick with that at dinner or in the wine bar. These wines won't appear on any lists or menus, it's simply a bit of cost savings process???

The internet was, as previously experienced on all cruise ships, hit or miss. I found the only reliable method of taking advantage of our "Free" WiFi was to take my phone/tablet to the coffee shop or the buffet area as access points appeared the strongest in those locations. You could get email in your cabin but it was unreliable. I did have voice/data for Canada and roaming in all the ports so this wasn't a problem.

 

Staff on the Millennium all seemed to be trying very hard to make us happy, the problem, in our opinion is that the ship is understaffed or at least has problems giving staff breaks. Cabin stewards certainly didn't have time for towel monkeys or even making sure you had ice or fresh towels at times. A couple of evenings at the martini bar if waiters were on break you could wait 20 minutes for a drink, or sometimes you had to go to the bar just to place an order. The Cafe Al Bacio (coffee shop) did a better job as staffing there seemed up to the task, always able to get a Latte or Cafe Americano or bottled water at will, it was a pleasant area of the ship.

 

Menus in the Metropolitan (main dining room) were pretty average in our opinion when compared to previous Celebrity cruises. Menus on "Chic" nights (replacing formal nights) were better. Food was generally good to excellent depending on choices. Wait staff was good, we were "anytime" diners but we never waited to be seated, we might have waited 10 minutes at the table to fill before service started. Wine waiters and drink waiters found us immediately or recognized us from previous visits as we tended to dine at the same time each evening.

The buffet area of the Millennium seemed small when compared to the Solstice class ships of Celebrity. Of course the ship is smaller than the new ships but it is noticeable in the crowding at breakfast hours, with limited seating and selections available. Still, the buffet cooks seemed to keep up with omelette requests, fried eggs and so on. Coffee at the crowded urns was above average. We did not experience any of the up-charge dining on this cruise. The Sushi area was virtually a ghost town every time I walked by?

 

Entertainment in the various lounges and the main theater was good. Several of the lounge singers and musicians were excellent. Rotating comedians and impressionists were well-suited to the typical Alaskan cruise crowd. No tenders were necessary on this itinerary as we were able to dock at each port of call and we were always on-time and able to depart on schedule.

 

Hubbard Glacier (cruising). We were all hoping for good weather for the trip to the massive Hubbard Glacier (6 miles across) and we weren't disappointed. I was up early and on the veranda with my camera on the tripod as I had no idea of how close we might be able to cruise toward the glacier. It turns out that we just continued to slowly glide through the ice fields until we were just about 1/2 mile from the glacier! Although we were originally on the "right side" of the entry to the glacier when the captain finally reached the point where he could go no further he turned the ship through perhaps two complete 360s so that anyone who chose to stay in their cabin could get a view. We positioned ourselves on the 12th deck where the movie screen was installed and this was an excellent point to have nearly an unobstructed view of the glacier from every angle. The captain also opened the helideck on deck 5 for those who wanted to view from that point. We were close enough to hear the thunder cracks of the calving glacier and saw many, many exhibitions of ice falling into the sea. We stayed about an hour and as the sun kept rising (8-9am) the views and pictures were that much better. This really was the highlight of our northbound cruise.

We left the ship at Seward, a very easy place to end your cruisel and did our own 10-day Alaska land tour. Loved the itinerary and that's the primary reason we chose the Millennium in addition to our preference for Celebrity as a cruise operator.

[TeaBag]

Thank you for the great and positive review. I'm amazed they didn't clean those dirty windows. We noticed them on the cruises prior to refit. BTW, It's Vancouver Island, Victoria is the main city there. Very confusing for people who don't live here.

[bhughey]

Thank you for the review. The max for premium drink has always been $13, with the exception of I believe, were some itineraries originating in the UK.

[BAMA_BOY]

Sorry for the mistake about prices, must have been thinking of another company.

[portofrome]

Thank you for the review.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[ArubaGal]

Did you need to convert to Canadian dollars in Vancouver or were US dollars accepted everywhere

[atlgants]

Thank you for the info! Heading NB on May 26th!