Quick Trip Report of my Millenium trip to Alaska!

[Travel-and-See]

A couple of weeks ago I jumped on a last-minute deal to sail from Seward Alaska to Vancover on the Millenium. Last year I did an Alaska cruise on the Solstice and loved it so I was excited to return.  I'll try to keep this quick but please feel free to ask any questions and I'll go into more details. 

 

I flew into Anchorage and took Alaska Railroad down to Seward on the day of the cruise, I've visited Seward before so I had lunch and coffee in the town before I walked over to the cruise terminal. I was the only passenger checking in at the time so it was very quick and easy to get on the ship.  Once onboard I checked in at my Muster station (I watched the safety videos at the coffee shop earlier) and then settled in and explored the ship.  

 

CABIN - I really like Celebrity Cabins. I had an inside cabin on deck 2 (cause it was cheap $)  and I thought it was very well designed and functional. Smaller than inside cabins I've had on other Celebrity and Virgin ships, but still very well laid out and functional. The Cabin was serviced twice a day. I also really like the high quality soap that Celebriy provides. Little details like that really add up. 

 

BUFFET - The buffet is well designed with a good mix of seatings. It feels modern, but it also feels a little "modern nursing home" if that makes sense? I don't know... it seemed like it was designed to be both modern and for old people. There was a nice variety of food but the quality varied quite a bit. I felt the quality of buffet itmes was definitely a step down from my trip on the Solstice last year. The "Chef Special" station always had a long line. They used some sort of liquid egg to make scrambled eggs and omlettes, and there were no baked potatoes available except on the last day of the cruise. After being on a few Virgin cruises it did kinda gross me out to go back to self-serve buffets... I'm sad that cruise lines went back to that post-covid. 

 

Main Dining Room - I had most of my dinners in the main dining room and I thought the food was a step-up from last years Solstice. The hostess, waiter, and assistant waiter were all exceptional - pretty much perfect. I loved having "Anytime Dining" - it was so nice to have dinner whenever I wanted and still get the same waiter each night. 

 

Ship Design - Millenium Class is definitely smaller than Solstice Class but is a decent size. I like the glass elevators that look out over the ocean. The theatre is large and comfortable, nice size casino. The MDR is very nicely designed as well. On Solstice it seemed like the lounges were a bit more unique, on the Millenium most of the spaces looked the same just with different types of seats. The Solstice design seemed a little more intuitve, easier to find everything. The shops on Millenium were small, basic, and flet like an afterthought.  The main atrium was also pretty small, and it was hard to find a place to sit and enjoy the bands that played there. 

 

Entertainment - Probably the worst entertainment line-up I've ever had on a cruise ship. Granted, I've been spoiled by Virgin, but this was pretty low-bar.

Cheaza was the guest singer - she performed 2 nights of the 7 night cruise. She does tribute acts to Tina Turner and Whitney Houston. She's a lively and energetic performer but 2 nights was a bit much, especially when most of the other shows were music based shows. 

AJ Jamal was the comedian - he was great! Very funny. 

Duo VVO was the Acrobatic Duo performing in the ships production shows - they performed their own 2-person show one of the nights and it was INCREDIBLE. 

The rest of the nights we had the ship production shows Boogie Wonderland, Broadway, and Hollywood. - These shows were the quality of 6 Flags theme park shows. They were not very good at all.  The sets and lighting were well done but that's about all I can say. 

Entertainment around the ship was OK.... there was a duo from Brazil that was very good, and the Dixieland Night performed by the ships band was very good as well but everyone else was just average. The strings duo was actually very bad, not sure how they got the job. I was surprised there was not more variety like a juggler, magic show, etc. 

 

Lectures - Milos was the on-board naturalist.  He was great but they only let him do 2 presentations on a 7 night cruise. He said he wanted to do more. He was always hanging out up in the Sky-Lounge and was a fascinating person to talk to. Not sure why Celebrity wouldn't let him give more presentations.  Same thing with the on-board historian, she said she had hoped to give an extra talk as well.  Last year on the Solstice there were several presenations. I hope Celebrity isn't trying to phase these out. 

 

Kids - There were quite a few kids on the ship, specifically teens and pre-teens that were running around unsupervised. I'm quite surprised that Celebrity didn't put a stop to this, as they were definiely affecting the overall mood of the ship.  I love to just wander around the ship, especially at night, but I would often turn the corner and it felt like I walked into a middle school hang-out and it made me feel very awkward. They would wander in and out of the shows in the theatre, the comedian even said "hey who brought their kids along to ruin everyone else's vacation?" and lots of people applauded.  

 

Ports - Weather was great! There's nothing like sailing through Alaska with such beatiful scenery everywhere you look. Our first day we sailed past Hubbard Glacier - we were able to get very close and the captain let us out on the Hellapad! It was a sunny day so we could watch the glacier calve.. WOW.  We spent lots of time at the Glacier, he slowly spun the boat 3 or 4 times giving everyone multiple views. Seals were on the chunks of Ice.  Just a perfect day and honestly worth the price of the cruise alone!  Next day in Junea I took the city bus to Mendenhall Glacier - hiked to the waterfall and back.  AMAZING.  Next day in Skagway I attendned the Soapy Smith Vaudeville Show (very fun!) and rode the White Pass & Yukon train (which I HIGHLY reccomend). Icy Straight Point was a new port for me, I walked around and paid for the aerial tram.  At $50 - the aerial tram is WAY overpriced but it was a nice clear day with lovely views so I'm glad I did it.  Still feels like a rip-off though especially since they act like there are things to do up on the mountain and it's just a big gravel parking lot. In Ketchikan I took a city bus to the Totem Pole Park... very cool to see all of those poles (and WAY better than the Totem Heritage Center I visited last year).  Afterwards I walked around the boardwalk and along the Salmon stream. 

 

After we arrived in Vancouver I finished my trip by transfering to the VIA Rail train which I rode from Vancouver to Edmonton.  Fantastic train ride with the old dome cars.  I bought a coach ticket for under $200 - that's a tenth of the price of the Rocky Mountaineer and the same scenery. 

 

This was my first time back with celebrity after taking multiple cruises with Virgin - definitely things I like about both. I prefer the rooms on Celebrity (better designed), and the service is much better and more consistent. But the entertainment is much better on Virgin, drinks are better priced, and the food is certainly better quality over all. I also like how on Virgin there are lots of places to just chill and relax where on Celebrity there was always some activity happening in all different areas of the ship. 

 

I really want to travel on the Edge class of ships and see how Celebrity has designed the newest ships. 

[D. B.]

41 minutes ago, Travel-and-See said:

A couple of weeks ago I jumped on a last-minute deal to sail from Seward Alaska to Vancover on the Millenium. Last year I did an Alaska cruise on the Solstice and loved it so I was excited to return.  I'll try to keep this quick but please feel free to ask any questions and I'll go into more details. 

 

I flew into Anchorage and took Alaska Railroad down to Seward on the day of the cruise, I've visited Seward before so I had lunch and coffee in the town before I walked over to the cruise terminal. I was the only passenger checking in at the time so it was very quick and easy to get on the ship.  Once onboard I checked in at my Muster station (I watched the safety videos at the coffee shop earlier) and then settled in and explored the ship.  

 

CABIN - I really like Celebrity Cabins. I had an inside cabin on deck 2 (cause it was cheap $)  and I thought it was very well designed and functional. Smaller than inside cabins I've had on other Celebrity and Virgin ships, but still very well laid out and functional. The Cabin was serviced twice a day. I also really like the high quality soap that Celebriy provides. Little details like that really add up. 

 

BUFFET - The buffet is well designed with a good mix of seatings. It feels modern, but it also feels a little "modern nursing home" if that makes sense? I don't know... it seemed like it was designed to be both modern and for old people. There was a nice variety of food but the quality varied quite a bit. I felt the quality of buffet itmes was definitely a step down from my trip on the Solstice last year. The "Chef Special" station always had a long line. They used some sort of liquid egg to make scrambled eggs and omlettes, and there were no baked potatoes available except on the last day of the cruise. After being on a few Virgin cruises it did kinda gross me out to go back to self-serve buffets... I'm sad that cruise lines went back to that post-covid. 

 

Main Dining Room - I had most of my dinners in the main dining room and I thought the food was a step-up from last years Solstice. The hostess, waiter, and assistant waiter were all exceptional - pretty much perfect. I loved having "Anytime Dining" - it was so nice to have dinner whenever I wanted and still get the same waiter each night. 

 

Ship Design - Millenium Class is definitely smaller than Solstice Class but is a decent size. I like the glass elevators that look out over the ocean. The theatre is large and comfortable, nice size casino. The MDR is very nicely designed as well. On Solstice it seemed like the lounges were a bit more unique, on the Millenium most of the spaces looked the same just with different types of seats. The Solstice design seemed a little more intuitve, easier to find everything. The shops on Millenium were small, basic, and flet like an afterthought.  The main atrium was also pretty small, and it was hard to find a place to sit and enjoy the bands that played there. 

 

Entertainment - Probably the worst entertainment line-up I've ever had on a cruise ship. Granted, I've been spoiled by Virgin, but this was pretty low-bar.

Cheaza was the guest singer - she performed 2 nights of the 7 night cruise. She does tribute acts to Tina Turner and Whitney Houston. She's a lively and energetic performer but 2 nights was a bit much, especially when most of the other shows were music based shows. 

AJ Jamal was the comedian - he was great! Very funny. 

Duo VVO was the Acrobatic Duo performing in the ships production shows - they performed their own 2-person show one of the nights and it was INCREDIBLE. 

The rest of the nights we had the ship production shows Boogie Wonderland, Broadway, and Hollywood. - These shows were the quality of 6 Flags theme park shows. They were not very good at all.  The sets and lighting were well done but that's about all I can say. 

Entertainment around the ship was OK.... there was a duo from Brazil that was very good, and the Dixieland Night performed by the ships band was very good as well but everyone else was just average. The strings duo was actually very bad, not sure how they got the job. I was surprised there was not more variety like a juggler, magic show, etc. 

 

Lectures - Milos was the on-board naturalist.  He was great but they only let him do 2 presentations on a 7 night cruise. He said he wanted to do more. He was always hanging out up in the Sky-Lounge and was a fascinating person to talk to. Not sure why Celebrity wouldn't let him give more presentations.  Same thing with the on-board historian, she said she had hoped to give an extra talk as well.  Last year on the Solstice there were several presenations. I hope Celebrity isn't trying to phase these out. 

 

Kids - There were quite a few kids on the ship, specifically teens and pre-teens that were running around unsupervised. I'm quite surprised that Celebrity didn't put a stop to this, as they were definiely affecting the overall mood of the ship.  I love to just wander around the ship, especially at night, but I would often turn the corner and it felt like I walked into a middle school hang-out and it made me feel very awkward. They would wander in and out of the shows in the theatre, the comedian even said "hey who brought their kids along to ruin everyone else's vacation?" and lots of people applauded.  

 

Ports - Weather was great! There's nothing like sailing through Alaska with such beatiful scenery everywhere you look. Our first day we sailed past Hubbard Glacier - we were able to get very close and the captain let us out on the Hellapad! It was a sunny day so we could watch the glacier calve.. WOW.  We spent lots of time at the Glacier, he slowly spun the boat 3 or 4 times giving everyone multiple views. Seals were on the chunks of Ice.  Just a perfect day and honestly worth the price of the cruise alone!  Next day in Junea I took the city bus to Mendenhall Glacier - hiked to the waterfall and back.  AMAZING.  Next day in Skagway I attendned the Soapy Smith Vaudeville Show (very fun!) and rode the White Pass & Yukon train (which I HIGHLY reccomend). Icy Straight Point was a new port for me, I walked around and paid for the aerial tram.  At $50 - the aerial tram is WAY overpriced but it was a nice clear day with lovely views so I'm glad I did it.  Still feels like a rip-off though especially since they act like there are things to do up on the mountain and it's just a big gravel parking lot. In Ketchikan I took a city bus to the Totem Pole Park... very cool to see all of those poles (and WAY better than the Totem Heritage Center I visited last year).  Afterwards I walked around the boardwalk and along the Salmon stream. 

 

After we arrived in Vancouver I finished my trip by transfering to the VIA Rail train which I rode from Vancouver to Edmonton.  Fantastic train ride with the old dome cars.  I bought a coach ticket for under $200 - that's a tenth of the price of the Rocky Mountaineer and the same scenery. 

 

This was my first time back with celebrity after taking multiple cruises with Virgin - definitely things I like about both. I prefer the rooms on Celebrity (better designed), and the service is much better and more consistent. But the entertainment is much better on Virgin, drinks are better priced, and the food is certainly better quality over all. I also like how on Virgin there are lots of places to just chill and relax where on Celebrity there was always some activity happening in all different areas of the ship. 

 

I really want to travel on the Edge class of ships and see how Celebrity has designed the newest ships. 

That was a real Bargain and I thought seriously about doing it as I live in California and the flights were cheap and short.

 The end of the cruise was too close to our Next long Med cruise so I decided not to.

 When you describe the kids onboard I'm glad we didn't go.

[neverlaysup]

1 hour ago, Travel-and-See said:

A couple of weeks ago I jumped on a last-minute deal to sail from Seward Alaska to Vancover on the Millenium

On Saturday, we snagged one of the last two cabins on Millie departing Vancouver this Friday. Killer cheap deal, even with the All Included added on. I am curious to see how full the ship feels knowing that the occupancy will be 100%. 

[Travel-and-See]

58 minutes ago, D. B. said:

When you describe the kids onboard I'm glad we didn't go.

Yeah. It was all over the ship too. At the buffet, basketball courts, ping pong tables, Solarium, even at the bars - apparently they let kids sit at the bars and order soft drinks. I was suprised how many pre-teens and teens were on board. 

26 minutes ago, neverlaysup said:

On Saturday, we snagged one of the last two cabins on Millie departing Vancouver this Friday. Killer cheap deal, even with the All Included added on. 

All Included is a terrible deal for Solo Passengers and they gave me $200 OBC which was enough to pay the daily gratuities and still have some leftover for a couple of zero proof drinks.  The first day I ordered a iced latte with 2 shots of espresso and they charged me $8.25 with the tip.  (same thing on Virgin is $4.00 and they use a better espresso). From then on I just made iced coffee in the buffet. I had enough leftover at the end to pick up $39 worth of souveniers from the gift shop. 

 

All said, yes this was an INSANE deal - felt like they gave me the cruise! haha.  

[neverlaysup]

17 minutes ago, Travel-and-See said:

All Included is a terrible deal for Solo Passengers

I would agree with that but luckily my wife will be with me. We ended up with the same $200 OBC and this will be the first time that I have never had a Premium Drink package. We will use that OBC for any uncharges and add it up at the end of the cruise. I just can't justify another $40 a day for the both of us because I don't think we will drink that much extra.

[Travel-and-See]

12 minutes ago, neverlaysup said:

I would agree with that but luckily my wife will be with me. 

Oh sorry.. I meant that's why I didn't buy all-included, cause I was traveling solo.  It used to be a decent value for Solo passengers as well. 

[Tinknock50]

6 hours ago, Travel-and-See said:

A couple of weeks ago I jumped on a last-minute deal to sail from Seward Alaska to Vancover on the Millenium. Last year I did an Alaska cruise on the Solstice and loved it so I was excited to return.  I'll try to keep this quick but please feel free to ask any questions and I'll go into more details. 

 

I flew into Anchorage and took Alaska Railroad down to Seward on the day of the cruise, I've visited Seward before so I had lunch and coffee in the town before I walked over to the cruise terminal. I was the only passenger checking in at the time so it was very quick and easy to get on the ship.  Once onboard I checked in at my Muster station (I watched the safety videos at the coffee shop earlier) and then settled in and explored the ship.  

 

CABIN - I really like Celebrity Cabins. I had an inside cabin on deck 2 (cause it was cheap $)  and I thought it was very well designed and functional. Smaller than inside cabins I've had on other Celebrity and Virgin ships, but still very well laid out and functional. The Cabin was serviced twice a day. I also really like the high quality soap that Celebriy provides. Little details like that really add up. 

 

BUFFET - The buffet is well designed with a good mix of seatings. It feels modern, but it also feels a little "modern nursing home" if that makes sense? I don't know... it seemed like it was designed to be both modern and for old people. There was a nice variety of food but the quality varied quite a bit. I felt the quality of buffet itmes was definitely a step down from my trip on the Solstice last year. The "Chef Special" station always had a long line. They used some sort of liquid egg to make scrambled eggs and omlettes, and there were no baked potatoes available except on the last day of the cruise. After being on a few Virgin cruises it did kinda gross me out to go back to self-serve buffets... I'm sad that cruise lines went back to that post-covid. 

 

Main Dining Room - I had most of my dinners in the main dining room and I thought the food was a step-up from last years Solstice. The hostess, waiter, and assistant waiter were all exceptional - pretty much perfect. I loved having "Anytime Dining" - it was so nice to have dinner whenever I wanted and still get the same waiter each night. 

 

Ship Design - Millenium Class is definitely smaller than Solstice Class but is a decent size. I like the glass elevators that look out over the ocean. The theatre is large and comfortable, nice size casino. The MDR is very nicely designed as well. On Solstice it seemed like the lounges were a bit more unique, on the Millenium most of the spaces looked the same just with different types of seats. The Solstice design seemed a little more intuitve, easier to find everything. The shops on Millenium were small, basic, and flet like an afterthought.  The main atrium was also pretty small, and it was hard to find a place to sit and enjoy the bands that played there. 

 

Entertainment - Probably the worst entertainment line-up I've ever had on a cruise ship. Granted, I've been spoiled by Virgin, but this was pretty low-bar.

Cheaza was the guest singer - she performed 2 nights of the 7 night cruise. She does tribute acts to Tina Turner and Whitney Houston. She's a lively and energetic performer but 2 nights was a bit much, especially when most of the other shows were music based shows. 

AJ Jamal was the comedian - he was great! Very funny. 

Duo VVO was the Acrobatic Duo performing in the ships production shows - they performed their own 2-person show one of the nights and it was INCREDIBLE. 

The rest of the nights we had the ship production shows Boogie Wonderland, Broadway, and Hollywood. - These shows were the quality of 6 Flags theme park shows. They were not very good at all.  The sets and lighting were well done but that's about all I can say. 

Entertainment around the ship was OK.... there was a duo from Brazil that was very good, and the Dixieland Night performed by the ships band was very good as well but everyone else was just average. The strings duo was actually very bad, not sure how they got the job. I was surprised there was not more variety like a juggler, magic show, etc. 

 

Lectures - Milos was the on-board naturalist.  He was great but they only let him do 2 presentations on a 7 night cruise. He said he wanted to do more. He was always hanging out up in the Sky-Lounge and was a fascinating person to talk to. Not sure why Celebrity wouldn't let him give more presentations.  Same thing with the on-board historian, she said she had hoped to give an extra talk as well.  Last year on the Solstice there were several presenations. I hope Celebrity isn't trying to phase these out. 

 

Kids - There were quite a few kids on the ship, specifically teens and pre-teens that were running around unsupervised. I'm quite surprised that Celebrity didn't put a stop to this, as they were definiely affecting the overall mood of the ship.  I love to just wander around the ship, especially at night, but I would often turn the corner and it felt like I walked into a middle school hang-out and it made me feel very awkward. They would wander in and out of the shows in the theatre, the comedian even said "hey who brought their kids along to ruin everyone else's vacation?" and lots of people applauded.  

 

Ports - Weather was great! There's nothing like sailing through Alaska with such beatiful scenery everywhere you look. Our first day we sailed past Hubbard Glacier - we were able to get very close and the captain let us out on the Hellapad! It was a sunny day so we could watch the glacier calve.. WOW.  We spent lots of time at the Glacier, he slowly spun the boat 3 or 4 times giving everyone multiple views. Seals were on the chunks of Ice.  Just a perfect day and honestly worth the price of the cruise alone!  Next day in Junea I took the city bus to Mendenhall Glacier - hiked to the waterfall and back.  AMAZING.  Next day in Skagway I attendned the Soapy Smith Vaudeville Show (very fun!) and rode the White Pass & Yukon train (which I HIGHLY reccomend). Icy Straight Point was a new port for me, I walked around and paid for the aerial tram.  At $50 - the aerial tram is WAY overpriced but it was a nice clear day with lovely views so I'm glad I did it.  Still feels like a rip-off though especially since they act like there are things to do up on the mountain and it's just a big gravel parking lot. In Ketchikan I took a city bus to the Totem Pole Park... very cool to see all of those poles (and WAY better than the Totem Heritage Center I visited last year).  Afterwards I walked around the boardwalk and along the Salmon stream. 

 

After we arrived in Vancouver I finished my trip by transfering to the VIA Rail train which I rode from Vancouver to Edmonton.  Fantastic train ride with the old dome cars.  I bought a coach ticket for under $200 - that's a tenth of the price of the Rocky Mountaineer and the same scenery. 

 

This was my first time back with celebrity after taking multiple cruises with Virgin - definitely things I like about both. I prefer the rooms on Celebrity (better designed), and the service is much better and more consistent. But the entertainment is much better on Virgin, drinks are better priced, and the food is certainly better quality over all. I also like how on Virgin there are lots of places to just chill and relax where on Celebrity there was always some activity happening in all different areas of the ship. 

 

I really want to travel on the Edge class of ships and see how Celebrity has designed the newest ships. 

Wow….. I thought the strings were fantastic. There was one piece where they did a long staccato in perfect unison…. It was awesome!

 

I listened to them whenever possible.

 

 

[Envelope21]

10 hours ago, Travel-and-See said:

 

BUFFET - The buffet is well designed with a good mix of seatings. It feels modern, but it also feels a little "modern nursing home"

 

Wow! Now there's a description I've never heard before!🤪

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

8 hours ago, Travel-and-See said:

Oh sorry.. I meant that's why I didn't buy all-included, cause I was traveling solo.  It used to be a decent value for Solo passengers as well. 

 

The only time it is a good deal is in a solo IV on an E-Class ship. Otherwise yes, you get charged twice.

[AnnetteSC]

Thanks for the trip review. My friend and I jumped on the July 4th sale and booked the last sailing in Alaska for the season on Millie’s September 8, 2023 sailing.

My daughter and her family just got back from a Mediterranean cruise on the newest Celebrity ship, the Beyond, and absolutely LOVED it! She said food, shows, service, etc was perfect! 
I’ve cruised on Celebrity and Azamara (and many other cruise lines) and have always been pleased. I hope this cruise will not disappoint, especially since it’s my first Alaska trip.

Did you eat at any specialty restaurants? Would love to hear about that if you have any info. 
thanks! 

[Dancing Shoes]

We really enjoyed our southbound from Seward to Vancouver Millennium Aug 2022.  The ship was not full.  Didn't see any unruly kids, and not very many on board.  Entertainment and MDR were good.  We had one meal in the Pinnacle, no complaints.  We manly cruise on HAL and Celebrity in ocean view cabins, because they tend to be on the lower decks.  

[Dancing Shoes]

Too late to edit.  Tuscan Grill was the name.  Pinnacle is on HAL.  Getting my restaurants mixed up.  Too many vacations.

[Travel-and-See]

4 hours ago, AnnetteSC said:

Did you eat at any specialty restaurants? Would love to hear about that if you have any info. 
thanks! 

I didn't get around to any specialty restaurants on this cruise. I'd like to try some next time. 

2 hours ago, Dancing Shoes said:

We really enjoyed our southbound from Seward to Vancouver Millennium Aug 2022.  The ship was not full.  Didn't see any unruly kids, and not very many on board.

That was my experience on the Solstice last year around the same time. I guess in June the kids have just gotten out of school so there are more people on summer trips. It may have been a pretty unique situation on Celebrity - I just hit one of the few weeks there are lots of families with teens. 

[TheRinaldis]

@Travel-and-See

 

Thanks for the review! We will be on the Millie in a couple of months. Question, were there any themed dress evenings on your cruise, like 70's night, or white night? 

 

Thanks!

[Travel-and-See]

16 hours ago, TheRinaldis said:

@Travel-and-See

 

Thanks for the review! We will be on the Millie in a couple of months. Question, were there any themed dress evenings on your cruise, like 70's night, or white night? 

 

Thanks!

There was a white night "Moon Party" in the sky lounge but it was also the PRIDE party as well so it was a mix of people wearing white and pride outfits.  The other big party in the sky-lounge was mo-town music  and I don't remember lots of people dressing up for it but it was fun because the band, singers, and dancers were all parts of it. 

 

 

[SoloAlaska]

On 7/4/2023 at 8:30 PM, Travel-and-See said:

A couple of weeks ago I jumped on a last-minute deal to sail from Seward Alaska to Vancover on the Millenium. Last year I did an Alaska cruise on the Solstice and loved it so I was excited to return.  I'll try to keep this quick but please feel free to ask any questions and I'll go into more details. 

 

I flew into Anchorage and took Alaska Railroad down to Seward on the day of the cruise, I've visited Seward before so I had lunch and coffee in the town before I walked over to the cruise terminal. I was the only passenger checking in at the time so it was very quick and easy to get on the ship.  Once onboard I checked in at my Muster station (I watched the safety videos at the coffee shop earlier) and then settled in and explored the ship.  

 

CABIN - I really like Celebrity Cabins. I had an inside cabin on deck 2 (cause it was cheap $)  and I thought it was very well designed and functional. Smaller than inside cabins I've had on other Celebrity and Virgin ships, but still very well laid out and functional. The Cabin was serviced twice a day. I also really like the high quality soap that Celebriy provides. Little details like that really add up. 

 

BUFFET - The buffet is well designed with a good mix of seatings. It feels modern, but it also feels a little "modern nursing home" if that makes sense? I don't know... it seemed like it was designed to be both modern and for old people. There was a nice variety of food but the quality varied quite a bit. I felt the quality of buffet itmes was definitely a step down from my trip on the Solstice last year. The "Chef Special" station always had a long line. They used some sort of liquid egg to make scrambled eggs and omlettes, and there were no baked potatoes available except on the last day of the cruise. After being on a few Virgin cruises it did kinda gross me out to go back to self-serve buffets... I'm sad that cruise lines went back to that post-covid. 

 

Main Dining Room - I had most of my dinners in the main dining room and I thought the food was a step-up from last years Solstice. The hostess, waiter, and assistant waiter were all exceptional - pretty much perfect. I loved having "Anytime Dining" - it was so nice to have dinner whenever I wanted and still get the same waiter each night. 

 

Ship Design - Millenium Class is definitely smaller than Solstice Class but is a decent size. I like the glass elevators that look out over the ocean. The theatre is large and comfortable, nice size casino. The MDR is very nicely designed as well. On Solstice it seemed like the lounges were a bit more unique, on the Millenium most of the spaces looked the same just with different types of seats. The Solstice design seemed a little more intuitve, easier to find everything. The shops on Millenium were small, basic, and flet like an afterthought.  The main atrium was also pretty small, and it was hard to find a place to sit and enjoy the bands that played there. 

 

Entertainment - Probably the worst entertainment line-up I've ever had on a cruise ship. Granted, I've been spoiled by Virgin, but this was pretty low-bar.

Cheaza was the guest singer - she performed 2 nights of the 7 night cruise. She does tribute acts to Tina Turner and Whitney Houston. She's a lively and energetic performer but 2 nights was a bit much, especially when most of the other shows were music based shows. 

AJ Jamal was the comedian - he was great! Very funny. 

Duo VVO was the Acrobatic Duo performing in the ships production shows - they performed their own 2-person show one of the nights and it was INCREDIBLE. 

The rest of the nights we had the ship production shows Boogie Wonderland, Broadway, and Hollywood. - These shows were the quality of 6 Flags theme park shows. They were not very good at all.  The sets and lighting were well done but that's about all I can say. 

Entertainment around the ship was OK.... there was a duo from Brazil that was very good, and the Dixieland Night performed by the ships band was very good as well but everyone else was just average. The strings duo was actually very bad, not sure how they got the job. I was surprised there was not more variety like a juggler, magic show, etc. 

 

Lectures - Milos was the on-board naturalist.  He was great but they only let him do 2 presentations on a 7 night cruise. He said he wanted to do more. He was always hanging out up in the Sky-Lounge and was a fascinating person to talk to. Not sure why Celebrity wouldn't let him give more presentations.  Same thing with the on-board historian, she said she had hoped to give an extra talk as well.  Last year on the Solstice there were several presenations. I hope Celebrity isn't trying to phase these out. 

 

Kids - There were quite a few kids on the ship, specifically teens and pre-teens that were running around unsupervised. I'm quite surprised that Celebrity didn't put a stop to this, as they were definiely affecting the overall mood of the ship.  I love to just wander around the ship, especially at night, but I would often turn the corner and it felt like I walked into a middle school hang-out and it made me feel very awkward. They would wander in and out of the shows in the theatre, the comedian even said "hey who brought their kids along to ruin everyone else's vacation?" and lots of people applauded.  

 

Ports - Weather was great! There's nothing like sailing through Alaska with such beatiful scenery everywhere you look. Our first day we sailed past Hubbard Glacier - we were able to get very close and the captain let us out on the Hellapad! It was a sunny day so we could watch the glacier calve.. WOW.  We spent lots of time at the Glacier, he slowly spun the boat 3 or 4 times giving everyone multiple views. Seals were on the chunks of Ice.  Just a perfect day and honestly worth the price of the cruise alone!  Next day in Junea I took the city bus to Mendenhall Glacier - hiked to the waterfall and back.  AMAZING.  Next day in Skagway I attendned the Soapy Smith Vaudeville Show (very fun!) and rode the White Pass & Yukon train (which I HIGHLY reccomend). Icy Straight Point was a new port for me, I walked around and paid for the aerial tram.  At $50 - the aerial tram is WAY overpriced but it was a nice clear day with lovely views so I'm glad I did it.  Still feels like a rip-off though especially since they act like there are things to do up on the mountain and it's just a big gravel parking lot. In Ketchikan I took a city bus to the Totem Pole Park... very cool to see all of those poles (and WAY better than the Totem Heritage Center I visited last year).  Afterwards I walked around the boardwalk and along the Salmon stream. 

 

After we arrived in Vancouver I finished my trip by transfering to the VIA Rail train which I rode from Vancouver to Edmonton.  Fantastic train ride with the old dome cars.  I bought a coach ticket for under $200 - that's a tenth of the price of the Rocky Mountaineer and the same scenery. 

 

This was my first time back with celebrity after taking multiple cruises with Virgin - definitely things I like about both. I prefer the rooms on Celebrity (better designed), and the service is much better and more consistent. But the entertainment is much better on Virgin, drinks are better priced, and the food is certainly better quality over all. I also like how on Virgin there are lots of places to just chill and relax where on Celebrity there was always some activity happening in all different areas of the ship. 

 

I really want to travel on the Edge class of ships and see how Celebrity has designed the newest ships. 

Thanks for the recent review. I was on Millie last year and returning this year. The shows were about the same level as my high school shows (I went to an art school) and I was incredibly unimpressed. Sad to hear it hasn’t improved dramatically.

 

Hopefully there will be more than 2 sessions by the naturalist on our September sailing. Can’t wait to see Celia again, she was my favorite part of last years cruise.