Europe for 05 on the Millie- past cruisers questions

[JanMD]

Hi there, I have been on 16 plus cruises and when they changed over my posts went down to 0, I had to start over again. I was up to 2,300 or so!

 

We were on the Millie on 3/03 down in the Caribbean. We just loved it. We have been on Princess, Royal Caribbean and since 3/02, Radisson. When we came home we told everyone that Celebrity was one step down from Radisson! We really fell in love with the Celebity class! And won't return to Princess.

These are some questions for past cruisers from this past summer, and I have read some of the reviews, not all them, they have all helped alot. Thus, we have picked this cruise for next summer but have not confirmed anything yet. I did a very long review from our Radisson Cruise this past summer for the CC board. Here are our questions:

 

1. We are used to Radisson and our first cruise on Celebrity was Millie and it was an AFT cabin. We are looking at getting 2 cabins on the CS level. Will we be disipointed? There will be 4 of us going.

 

2. Regarding food: (tons of food questions) As I read the reviews, it looks like in Barcelona, Venice and any night tha the ship is in port during dinner, it is open sitting, is that correct?? We are used to open sitting.

 

3. I know that the Olympic Rest is there, what do they serve?

 

4. Is there an Italian Rest. on board? I can't remember these things..

4a. Was there a pizza bar? I remember the pasta bar.

4b. There was a sandwich area also, correct?

 

5. Upstairs, at night after doing the trips can you eat upstairs??? we loved the breakfasts, lunches up there!

 

6. Which ports did you have to tender into?

 

7. With the captains club, can you go down at anytime to get the tender, when you have it seat up with private tours?

 

8. We have always done our own air? How was the air coming from the east coast for those of you that did do Celebrity air?

 

9. Can you take wine on board?? We know you can't take on liquor. Because of the travels, we will be going to some of the wine country and would like to know if we can bring that up with us to the cabin?

 

10. On the CS level, can someone give us idea regarding the tipping now on Celebrity. Is is automatic charged to your account? Do you have to pay for anything beside the room steward, sometimes his supervisor, waiter, ass't waiter?? We have always given some money up front to make sure everything will be okay. And it always is. What is the bill for the tipping per day now? you can tell, Radisson- no tipping.

 

We all love the iternary and we love the ship. I know that the prices, etc has changed in the past few weeks...

 

We would appreciate all input positive and negative.

thanks,

Jan

[angelpug]

:D Hi Jan!!

 

Let's see if I can answer some of your questions......

 

First by CS, do you mean Celebrity Suite, or Concierge Class? Both of those have priority tendering..Captain's Club doesn't. In fact, when we cruised out of Baltimore, Suites, and CC even boarded before Captain's Club.

 

No Italian Restaurant, but pizza is available quite often.

 

There's no 24 hour buffet, but they do have a few nice selections for room service.

 

Celebrity is trying adding tips to your onboard account on some ships, or you can still use envelopes.

 

:D :D :D School starts in 5 days....I'll be FREE again for lunch then!! My cruise countdown will speed up once the kids are outa my hair, and they have me running to school stuff!

 

Take Care!!!

Jaime

[hajekfam]

 

 

3. I know that the Olympic Rest is there, what do they serve?

 

4. Is there an Italian Rest. on board? I can't remember these things..

4a. Was there a pizza bar? I remember the pasta bar.

4b. There was a sandwich area also, correct?

 

5. Upstairs, at night after doing the trips can you eat upstairs??? we loved the breakfasts, lunches up there!

10. On the CS level, can someone give us idea regarding the tipping now on Celebrity. Is is automatic charged to your account? Do you have to pay for anything beside the room steward, sometimes his supervisor, waiter, ass't waiter?? We have always given some money up front to make sure everything will be okay. And it always is. What is the bill for the tipping per day now? you can tell, Radisson- no tipping.

Jan

Hi Jan - we are doing a back to back next year - Millie Med and transatlantic in the fall 05.

We were on the Millie for the trans last year - to answer a few of your questions-

3. The Olympic restaruant is the specialty restaurant - it a 4 course meal that takes about 3 hours. You have your choice of soup, salad, or appetizer. The goat cheese souffle is very good. Then you have your main course - the steak diane was my choice - a lot of the main courses are prepared tableside. Then comes the cheese course - various French cheeses of your choice served with apples, celery, grapes, crackers, etc. The desert completes the dinner - the chocolate souffle is to die for. A wine (additional charge) is suggested for each food selection - however, you do not have to have wine or you can choose your favorite. The service is spectacular - there is a waiter for every two people. When I got up to go to the washroom, I was escorted out of the room. When I came back, I was escorted back to my table and my napkin had been replaced. There are two rooms - one made of wood from the original Olympic ship, the other is decorated in the same manor as the first class dining room on the Olympic. Reservations are required and cost is $30 per person which covers the gratuity.

4a. There is no Italian restaurant on board - however, at lunchtime there is a pasta station by the buffet. And the dinner menu ususally contains a pasta selection. Usually one day the buffet does italian at lunch.

4b. There is a pizza bar and pizza is also available from room service 24 hours.

4c. There is a specialty sandwich bar at lunch in the buffet area aft.

Just a note- there is also the aqua spa cafe that serves healthy selections for breakfast and lunch to late afternoon and sushi is available in the evenings.

5. There is alternative casual dining in the buffet area during the evening dining hours. However, you have to make reservations by 5pm. Also during the dining hours, the dining room menu is available by room service

10. Tipping can be charged to your account or you can tip in cash. If you want to add the tips to your account, you must let them know before the last full day. For a suite, you have the normal tips that you mentioned - the waiter, asst. waiter, maitre'd, room steward, chief housekeeper plus the butler. Recommended amounts per person per day are: waiter: 3.50, asst waiter: 2.00, maitre'd:.75, room steward (cabin attendant): 3.50, chief housekeeper: .50, and butler: 3.50.

Here is a great web site to see how much you need to tip for the minimum:

http://members.aol.com/CruiseTip/

Hope this answers a few of your questions.

[cruisintwinsmom]

I'll try to answer what I can. We had an regular aft room. Were on in June, Barcelona to Venice.

 

2. We had no open seating nights.

 

4. It seemed pizza was available most of the day. Never had sandwiches, but thought there was a station at lunch.

 

5. Never ate upstairs in the evening. I think it is considered casual dining and you tip $2.00 there. Someone else may have better info.

 

6. We tendered into Villefranche, Santorini, and Dubrovnik.

 

7. No early tendering for Captain Club members (that would be most of the people on the ship:eek: , or so it would seem).

 

8. We used X air and going over was fine, but coming back was a charter flight and it was a mess.

 

10. For a regular room it was $10.75/day/person. Someone had a tip calculator linked at one time, but don't remember what it was. For the suite you would have to add the butler. Celebrity has the recommended amounts on its website. You can put them on your room as long as you pay at least the recommended amount. On another thread someone mentioned that if you carried a passport other than US, then they automatically put the tip on for you.

 

Happy Sailing! Wish I could go back again next summer.:D

 

BTW, the prices for the Med for the Aft room went up 50% from when we booked to when we sailed! The inside rooms remained the same.

 

PS: Someone posted while I was typing, sorry for any duplication.

[hajekfam]

7. No early tendering for Captain Club members (that would be most of the people on the ship:eek: , or so it would seem).

Captain's club elite (over 10 cruises) should receive priorty tendering as that is one of their perks or at least it was when we received a list of new benefits with our elite membership cards a couple of months ago.

[JanMD]

Thanks to everyone for such great detail. Keep it coming.

 

That is funny Jaime that you respond the first thing.

 

We are staying in CC room.

 

How about the wine bringing that aboard? Anyone out there???

 

Anyone done the air through Celebrity from the east coast?

 

Thanks,

Jan

[Jacqueline]

This is what makes NO sense to me on this European cruise... The point is really the ports, and it is not always possible to gage ones time back on the ship 100% -

Also keep in mind that someone has to get early seating. And with early port calls and long days late seating has its own set of drawbacks-

So WHY would they require reservations at the buffet by 5pm ? How impracticle is that ? No other cruiselines makes it so hard for a passenger to eat outside their fixed time in the main DR. Most people who choose Celebrity are only going to opt out of the dining room sporadically anyway.

[cruisintwinsmom]

Captain's club elite (over 10 cruises) should receive priorty tendering as that is one of their perks or at least it was when we received a list of new benefits with our elite membership cards a couple of months ago.

Sorry, misspoke. Not to the elite level and wasn't aware of that perk!:o

[Amy G]

I was just on the Millie in late July and we only had to tender in to Villefranche and Santorini. Dubrovnik has a port now.

 

We never had open seating. But, the early seating was flexible in the sense that you could at 7pm, even though dinner started at 6:30.

[hajekfam]

So WHY would they require reservations at the buffet by 5pm ? How impracticle is that ? No other cruiselines makes it so hard for a passenger to eat outside their fixed time in the main DR. Most people who choose Celebrity are only going to opt out of the dining room sporadically anyway.

The casual dinner option is not a buffet - it is served by the buffet so there is a limited number of tables. There are two menus that alternate each day. Tables are set with tablecloths just like the dining room tables and you have a waiter who brings out your entree (I'm not sure if they bring out all courses not - in the early days of casual alternative dining, the salad course was buffet). They really need to know how many will be attending to make sure that there are tables and waitstaff for all.

If by some chance you come in past your dining time if early seating, you can always order room service from the dining room menu.

In all our times of cruising since they started the alternative dining, we very seldom had tablemates who did not make dinner in the dining room. And those few that did opt out - opted for a night at the Olympic (specialty restaurant) on the Millie or had dinner in the cabin due to illness.

[JanMD]

Amy, Thanks for the updated information regarding the tenders.

 

And to everyone else. Thanks. It has all been very infomative! I think we can bring our wine from the wineries on board.

 

Another question is which tours did you all do From Venice down around the Greek islands?

Jan

[greygypsy]

I've cruised Europe many times on Celebrity. There's no problem bringing wine on board (or alcohol, for that matter) from the European ports. The only time that it's an issue, is when the it's a duty free port. The corkage fee in both the dining room and specialty restaurant is now $15.00.

[JanMD]

Thanks for all your help. We booked the adjoining cabins, with the Con. Class. Celebrity actually called this morning to make sure everything was okay and was on the phone for 15 minutes! Thanks again. We can't wait!!

Next is airfare!! Not fun. I think we will do it on our own.

Jan

[hajekfam]

Jan - you might find that Celebrity's fare is cheaper if you are sailing from one port and disembarking from another - (2 one way tickets - I would be leary of trying to by round trip tickets and not use the other half in Europe). Our TA usually books our cruise with air and then we look elsewhere. According to her, we can cancel the air anytime prior to final payment with no penalty. And if Celebrity runs an air special (on our 2003 trans, they had a $200 air special after we booked), and we got our cruise price reduced to reflect the lower air. There was no way we could beat that airfare.