LIVE/ Celebrity Millennium 4/15-4/21

[pcrum]

On 4/16/2023 at 3:47 PM, MeganGC1983 said:

Bought a hat at the port. Chased some iguanas but my phone died. DH took pics I’ll have to get those from him. Got back to our cabin and guess what?! We are invited. 

We were invited to this on our Summit sailing and loved it. Do you know how they choose whom to invite? We were in a concierge class cabin, so figured that’s how we received an invitation. Maybe they know you are doing a review? 

[MeganGC1983]

5 hours ago, pcrum said:

We were invited to this on our Summit sailing and loved it. Do you know how they choose whom to invite? We were in a concierge class cabin, so figured that’s how we received an invitation. Maybe they know you are doing a review? 

I’m pretty sure it’s random, and we just got lucky. Still really appreciated it. 

[pcrum]

Really enjoyed your take on Celebrity. My DD, aged 27, and I did Summit the end of last year. This was our first Celebrity sailing. My daughter has a gluten allergy and Celebrity was very accommodating.  In the MDR, during dinner, they went over the next night’s menu with her so they could make substitutions for items she wanted to order that contained gluten. She was also given gluten free bread each night. This Easter, my daughter and her boyfriend sailed on Carnival Paradise and she indicated they were not nearly as accommodating. Her boyfriend is allergic to garlic, which is used in so many dishes, but Carnival would not substitute side dishes cooked with garlic for other sides without garlic. My DD grew up on Carnival cruises, but said after the last experience, she is done.  She had a girls cruise booked with friends on Carnival, but after her last experience, they changed to a land trip.  I have not been on Carnival since 2013. Once the kids graduated high school, we did other types of vacations and never got back on Carnival. We turned platinum and then stopped sailing them.
 

For me, the big draw to Celebrity, MSC, and NCL is the included beverage package. We would love to try Virgin, but my DH likes the good scotches and I like the real champagne, so we are not sure how far a $600 bar tab will go. We were looking at the Virgin TA in 4/24, but for a 2 week sailing, we figured $600 might get us 2 drinks each per day. 

 

I’m pretty sure we had your same cruise director. We really enjoyed her. I loved the Zumba classes!! Our sailing also had the Abba singalong which we loved.

 

For us, the food was ok.  We did the steakhouse one night and enjoyed it. There were always gluten free desserts in the buffet, which my DD appreciated. I did find the buffet pizza really lacking in toppings. And the late night buffet offerings were very scarce!   We had an aft balcony and being concierge class, we could order a full breakfast to be delivered, which was lovely to enjoy on the balcony. 

 

Would love to try the retreat, but not sure the extra cost is worth it for us.  Concierge class was just right and we loved the helipad sail away from Miami. I guess it’s a crap shoot as to who gets invited, but Celebrity is smart to invite first time cruisers with their line, because it made a great first impression for me!

 

I’m off to read your VV review now.  Am following Sid’s review too. I hope to try them someday, just for the hammock. We live in Orlando so with the Brightline train starting service, we hope to do more sailings from Miami. Maybe a short VV cruise is in order to see if it’s our thing. 
 

Thanks again for a great review!

 

Edited May 21, 2023 by pcrum

[MeganGC1983]

35 minutes ago, pcrum said:

Really enjoyed your take on Celebrity. My DD, aged 27, and I did Summit the end of last year. This was our first Celebrity sailing. My daughter has a gluten allergy and Celebrity was very accommodating.  In the MDR, during dinner, they went over the next night’s menu with her so they could make substitutions for items she wanted to order that contained gluten. She was also given gluten free bread each night. This Easter, my daughter and her boyfriend sailed on Carnival Paradise and she indicated they were not nearly as accommodating. Her boyfriend is allergic to garlic, which is used in so many dishes, but Carnival would not substitute side dishes cooked with garlic for other sides without garlic. My DD grew up on Carnival cruises, but said after the last experience, she is done.  She had a girls cruise booked with friends on Carnival, but after her last experience, they changed to a land trip.  I have not been on Carnival since 2013. Once the kids graduated high school, we did other types of vacations and never got back on Carnival. We turned platinum and then stopped sailing them.
 

For me, the big draw to Celebrity, MSC, and NCL is the included beverage package. We would love to try Virgin, but my DH likes the good scotches and I like the real champagne, so we are not sure how far a $600 bar tab will go. We were looking at the Virgin TA in 4/24, but for a 2 week sailing, we figured $600 might get us 2 drinks each per day. 

 

I’m pretty sure we had your same cruise director. We really enjoyed her. I loved the Zumba classes!! Our sailing also had the Abba singalong which we loved.

 

For us, the food was ok.  We did the steakhouse one night and enjoyed it. There were always gluten free desserts in the buffet, which my DD appreciated. I did find the buffet pizza really lacking in toppings. And the late night buffet offerings were very scarce!   We had an aft balcony and being concierge class, we could order a full breakfast to be delivered, which was lovely to enjoy on the balcony. 

 

Would love to try the retreat, but not sure the extra cost is worth it for us.  Concierge class was just right and we loved the helipad sail away from Miami. I guess it’s a crap shoot as to who gets invited, but Celebrity is smart to invite first time cruisers with their line, because it made a great first impression for me!

 

I’m off to read your VV review now.  Am following Sid’s review too. I hope to try them someday, just for the hammock. We live in Orlando so with the Brightline train starting service, we hope to do more sailings from Miami. Maybe a short VV cruise is in order to see if it’s our thing. 
 

Thanks again for a great review!

 

Thanks for reading. That’s a shame Carnival won’t do much about the garlic. It seems they are so accommodating with everything else. You should definitely give VV a try. The drink package thing is trying, but drinks are reasonably priced. Hope you’ll follow along on my Resilient Lady live coming up in a week or so. Thanks again. 

[hcat]

On 4/24/2023 at 6:33 PM, DaKahuna said:

I’ve used the ground without a building surrounding it!  Had to dig my own hole.

 

Summer cam  outing....sat on a log in the woods..ugh!

[hcat]

On 4/24/2023 at 6:33 PM, DaKahuna said:

I’ve used the ground without a building surrounding it!  Had to dig my own hole.

 

Summer camp  outing....sat on a log in the woods..ugh!

[ninjacat123]

That is interesting about the garlic issue.  I wonder how other cruise lines negotiate around such a popular ingredient.  Sorry Carnival couldn't manage the removal of garlic although I have found them excellent in other menu issues.

[MeganGC1983]

Onto the next!