Millennium Best of Japan April, 9,2024

[Ocdublin]

I am starting to get very concern about this cruise!  I have checked all ports that we will be visiting in Japan by dates and it does not show any Celebrity ship in port.   They do show starting April 21, 2024 and all ports show Millennium in port.  The last cruise Millennium has is February 21, 2024 to India after that there is not any activity until April 21, 2024. Does anyone know who we can contact to get an honest answer if this cruise is going to take place.  Since this would be my 3rd cancellation on the best of Japan I would like to know so we don’t go all through additional travel arrangements.

[cruisestitch]

This has come up in earlier thread which I will try to find for you but right now the search is not being very effective form. The basic summary is that this cruise has been unable to be booked for several weeks now and is in “Code Red”.  I have asked several members of the future cruise staff what that means and no one has been able to tell me other than they know that it can’t be booked. Other Cruises are simply listed as sold out but this one is listed as “Code Red”.

 

Other posters here have noted, as you did, that the ship does not appear on any port schedules. Various posters have proposed that this is because the port schedules, themselves, have not been updated.  Maybe so.

 

But I am very suspicious that this cruise will not happen, and have booked a back up for the following year, with a refundable deposit, as my plan B.

 

I have not been able to find anyone who can tell us any more information at this time, nor has my travel agent.

Edited March 17, 2023 by cruisestitch

[Ocdublin]

Thank you, I totally agree.  They should let us know asap, so we can book another date.  I tried a few and several of them are pretty much booked.  I wanted the 🌸 blossoms. Very sad!

[Northern Aurora]

We are also booked for the April 9th cruise as the second leg of a B2B so are also following.

[sherylc]

We are on the March 28 Best of Japan cruise and also watching closely. 

[Jim_Iain]

In the past when a ship went Code Red for a long time there was a good chance they were working on a Full Ship Charter.   Japan is a big market for full charters.   Fingers crossed for you.

[sherylc]

I spoke with Celebrity just now asking to add on another couple to my reservation in March. They said the ship is completely full (which makes sense since it was the only option when people lifted and shifted from Spring 2023). We shall see. 

[Northern Aurora]

19 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

In the past when a ship went Code Red for a long time there was a good chance they were working on a Full Ship Charter.   Japan is a big market for full charters.   Fingers crossed for you.

We had been booked for a Japan B2B in 2015, and the entire ship was chartered by a Chinese firm.  This is actually starting to “smell” similar to that experience.  In 2015  the charter was confirmed just prior to the ability to purchase air.

[cruisestitch]

And when would that typically be?  Roughly May 9, perhaps or am I figuring that wrong?

[Northern Aurora]

1 minute ago, cruisestitch said:

And when would that typically be?  Roughly May 9, perhaps or am I figuring that wrong?

Hello K:  The time frame is eleven months.  
 

In our situation Celebrity did offer several other Asian itineraries roughly during our time frame.  These substitutes were offered at a the same daily prices (same price per day) as the chartered cruise, but none of them were appealing.  We ended up on a B2B2B in Europe.

[jmlh]

Where did you find the code red information?  obviously this is very concerning.

[vickykay]

Wow!  We were booked ( as were so many others) on the April Best of Japan for 2022 and 2023, both were cancelled.  We decided not to book for April 2024 ( cruising Hawaii instead) as we decided we were done with trying to cruise Japan for awhile.  That would be awful if Celebrity cancels again for a charter knowing so many booked this trip for a third time.  Fingers crossed everyone gets to go next April

[cruisestitch]

20 hours ago, jmlh said:

Where did you find the code red information?  obviously this is very concerning.

It was the term used by the future cruise staff on board.  I tried to find out if that meant it was simply sold out and was told that it was “more than that” but no one could give me any insight as to the difference between “code red” and “sold out”.

[Northern Aurora]

We are presently on a  Celebrity ship and I asked a future cruise sales person about the status of this cruise.  She took my stateroom number and supposedly will call me if she receives any information.  I am not holding my breath.  But if I do receive any info will certainly share.

[cruisestitch]

Just now, Northern Aurora said:

We are presently on a  Celebrity ship and I asked a future cruise sales person about the status of this cruise.  She took my stateroom number and supposedly will call me if she receives any information.  I am not holding my breath.  But if I do receive any info will certainly share.

Please do… 😳

[Northern Aurora]

K — This ship will have some new future cruise personnel on the next leg (we are on until April 19th) so I will also check with another future cruise person.  If I learn anything I most certainly post.  We are also looking at contingency plans.  G.

[carolerwo]

Any update on this?

We have been trying for this itinerary since 2021 - preferably with the transpacific. 
Soon time to think about flight and hotel reservations-hope there is some good news soon.

[Cruise Gopher]

Sailings are still marked as "Closed" in the system which is not a good sign.  It means the itinerary is under review (typically meaning the ship is either going to be re-deployed or chartered).

 

 

 

Whereas if the ship was truly just sold out for the sailing it would not have the "Closed" designator, but would just appear with all categories sold out, such as these upcoming Liberty of the Seas sailings.

 

[Ocdublin]

The sad thing is they won’t let us know so that we can book another cruise.  Most of best of Japan cruise will be booked.  So much for the customer!

[cruisestitch]

So now there are four cruises in the “twilight zone”, not just April 9.

 

it is making me very nervous…..

[emmas gran]

Just searched on UK site nothing showing for March this is the link April 21st only suites available the rest are sold out. I didn't check May availability

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/gb/itinerary-search?sailStartDate=2024-04-01&sailEndDate=2024-05-31&destinations=FAR.E&feature=off&dateToggle=M

[Cruise Gopher]

6 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

So now there are four cruises in the “twilight zone”, not just April 9.

 

it is making me very nervous…..

These four have been like this for awhile. There is another much longer thread somewhere on here. 

[Ocdublin]

I checked on this last year when I noticed that the Millennium ship was not listed in any of the ports for March and April 9, 2024.  But they did show April 21, 2024.  This when they started the new program of Japan in summer months.  I called and literally they did not know what was going on!  So they say!  

[Captain-John]

Booked on the 27/05/24 sailing so looks to be OK so far, touch wood, but I feel sorry for those of you in limbo.

 

But if not a charter, would they redeploy the ship elsewhere in the region for only a few cycles? Perhaps they would, I really don't know. This is about the time people will be thinking about airfare so it really is not fair there is no clarity.

[Arubamoose]