Don't sail the Millennium if....

[Tos]

Don’t cruise on Celebrity’s Millennium if… is a strange way to start a review, but read on for just a taste of what I have to say, then decide if the rest is worth your while.

Don’t go on the Millennium…

..if your spouse is an average or above average cleaner of your home.

..if you can’t stand mold and mildew in the bathroom.

..if you are sensitive to the occasional smell of sewage.

...if you won’t walk on a sticky, matted stateroom carpet in bare feet.

 

If you these things don’t bother you, don’t waste your time reading any further, because some of the other things that I’m going to talk about will seem like real minutia to you. Also, if you are a first or second time cruiser you probably don’t have enough personal data to compare my comments to and should enjoy the excitement of a cruise vacation without worrying about this kind of commentary anyway. This is written more for someone that is used to the finer points of traveling in general.

 

For those of you still with me, I am a very seasoned domestic traveler with 30+ years of domestic on the road sales under my belt and still counting. In most of those years, I spent more than 100 nights per year in a bed other than my own. So whether it’s an airline, car rental, hotel, ship or train, I believe I have a fairly good handle on what is standard, above standard and below standard. The entire purpose of this review is to give my point of view and for the reader to take my comments simply as another data point to add to the knowledge they have gathered already.

 

So on with the review. The good side is that I thought the staff in general was very friendly and certainly met an acceptable standard for a cruise ship in this price range. Of course there was the occasional crabby buffet line attendant or security staff member. On this particular sailing, it was the toast lady. I’m certain that the malfunctioning toaster was the root cause for her irritability, but don’t take it out on passengers. But out of a crew of 900+ one or two bad apples should be expected. (You’ll hear more about the toaster later on).

 

Keeping on with the good things, the food was standard or slightly better than standard. I’ve had better on other ships. Even on a previous sailing on the Millennium, the food had been better…but not by enough that it would bother the average cruiser. Unfortunately, this is where my positive comments end. The rest of these may appear to be knit-picky, but worth mentioning if someone is deciding to take Ship A or Ship B.

 

I sailed the Millennium when she was about a year and now again at an aging 8 years old. I’ve sailed on ships older than this one, so I know some of what I am going to address are things that could have/should have been addressed. The ship is old and worn and some things should be expected and accepted. But it is also dirty and in disrepair. Our stateroom, a veranda balcony on the 7th deck, was embarrassingly filthy. The carpet was so matted and sticky, my wife would not walk on it without shoes on. If anything clothing touched the floor, it went into the dirty clothes bag. By day 2 it was unbearable, maintenance did install new carpeting for us. I would have been happy with just having it cleaned, but even they said it was beyond that. Family members along on the trip with us were in the cabin next to ours and had similar looking carpets, but got by with some sort of cleaning process they have.

 

The bathrooms were the most disgusting part of the entire cabin. Black mold and mildew in the shower stall, 8 years of crud built up in every corner of the bathroom floor and sink area. No shampoo in the dispenser even after several requests. It took a call to Guest Relations to get that taken care of. This kind of housekeeping can not be attributed to the age of the ship, but rather to the level of commitment of the cruise line and the management of the ship itself. We took a large container of sani-wipes from one of the public areas and cleaned the room from top to bottom by ourselves just to have some degree of protection from those cruise diseases that pop up now and then. These two factors alone will be enough to keep me off the Millennium even after she goes for her much needed refurbishing. Speaking of sanitary protocol, I would estimate that 15% to 20% of the hand sanitation stations were either malfunctioning or empty when we tried to use them. Some places had sani-wipes where the liquid sanitizing station didn’t work. That’s where we got our room cleaning supplies.

 

Another little amenity that I’ve always enjoyed was having our cabin steward call us by name. Any cruise where we had that recognition always resulted in a 25% to 75% increase in their gratuity. Even the small little gesture of asking if we needed more ice or an extra towel was missing from this cruise. That only happens across the board if the “culture” of service ….of doing the right thing is part of the ships mantra.

 

Other things that didn’t work on the ship included at least one of the hot tubs being inoperatable for most of the cruise. Maintenance did make an attempt to get it fixed, but it was obvious that the rubber seals that were meant to prevent water from getting into the on/off switch had deteriorated and were no longer providing their designed function. Probably a $5.00 part, but no one with the sense of ownership on board to fix it before it got to this point. I mentioned the toaster earlier. You know the kind that has a conveyor in it that you put the bread in one side and it comes out the other side perfectly toasted. Well the conveyor was broken (and according to one of the gentlemen behind the buffet, has been that way for months) and you either got toast that was burnt or just barely warm based on the ability and dexterity of the operator to use a set of serving tongs to move the bread around inside the toaster. Not a big deal…but I enjoy toast in the morning, a habit I picked up during my many stays at Hampton Inns across the country.

 

The black mastic caulk between the wooden planks around the pool has broken down from the UV sun rays. So if you sit next to the pool in your new expensive light colored bathing suit, plan on having black lines across your butt. I was able to get the stains out, but you’d think that someone on board must know that this is happening. About ½ the deck chairs have cushions and blue covers… many of which have seen their better days. Our first sailing on the Millie..all the chairs had them. Probably another one of the things that is being phased out to save money and increase profits. As I look around the pool area I see masking tape on the wall where a sign must have once been. It would take all of 10 minutes for someone to soak off the now baked on tape. But I guess it doesn’t bother the pool staff. Even if they would just rip off the loose ends that flap around in the wind. I told you that some of these were knit picky things, but what I want to show is the culture that has taken hold on this once beautiful ship.

 

I’ve counted at least a dozen ceiling panels that are missing around the ship. Apparently, someone was fixing something…but didn’t quite finish the job. Today is Friday…I’ve had all the fun I could take at the private island, so I re-walked the ship and found only 1 of the access panels has been replaced. Maybe by the time you get on the ship they’ll have them back up. While looking up at the ceilings, you will also find more than the average amount of dirt. I know that in the short term, its much more profitable having staff pushing drinks around the pool, than putting a dust mop in their hand and run it up and down the hallway ceilings. Long term however, (some) people will stop sailing on dirty ships and profits will be affected.

 

There were age related things like the worn out walking track. Not dirty, not out of repair, just worn out. I walked on it and didn’t get any more or any less satisfaction trying to offset my additional caloric intake. While walking, you will see 2 out of the 8 shuffle board pucks are broken. I didn’t see anyone playing shuffleboard the entire cruise, but at least get rid of the bad pucks. Guys like me wouldn’t know if there should be 6, 8, or 10 of them. All I knew was that 2 were broken. Above the shuffleboard area was the sports deck. Once again, rope netting that would have taken 15 minutes for someone to repair was flapping in the wind making that entire area look dilapidated.

 

Some other small things that have faded away from the Millie. Remember how they would come around with the pepper grinder after serving your salad. A great touch in making you feel special. Well that practice is gone along with the dessert tray display that would be brought to your table by the waiter after your main course dishes had been removed. Now you just have to guess which one is going to taste the best and not stick to your hips. It didn’t make the food taste any better, it just added something special to the cruise experience that some time efficiency expert figured out that they could save X dollars or have the waiter handle one more table by cutting out that little special touch. In fact, one of the feelings you get on the Millie is that they are looking for newer and ways to squeeze more money out of you every time you turn around. I’m not against paying a premium for a specialty restaurant…but $30 per person to get food that isn’t that much better than your getting in the regular restaurant is excessive. I’ve taken my wife to the Olympic because it’s special for her. It was nice….but not $60 nicer than the main dining room. What really spoiled the night was the aroma of sewage as we left the restaurant. It was somewhere out in the hallway. It wasn’t overwhelming, but strong enough to notice. We did get this same aroma in several other parts of the ship. It was not always in the same place, it was not always every day, but it was something that you don’t like to experience as regularly as we did on the Millie. One more little amenity that has been removed were the little daily shampoo, conditioner, mouthwash and lotion bottles. My wife brings her own shampoo and conditioner, but my head of hair is trained to use whatever shampoo and conditioner the hotel is promoting. Some of it is pretty nice stuff. But on the Millie…no conditioner…just shampoo if they remember to fill your dispenser.

 

Another thing to remember, don’t take glasses out of your stateroom. They won’t replace them. I found that out on Monday when I returned to my cabin to find I had no glasses. I asked the assistant room steward who told me that they are short of glasses and I would need to go to guest relations to ask for more. So I drank my manhattans out of plastic water glasses from the buffet line. I would walk up to the 10th deck for breakfast and always bring back 2 glasses. Again, not the worst thing in the world, but not something I would have expected from Celebrity.

 

I hope this helped some of you. I’ll be looking in another direction for our fall cruise. I’m not suggesting that you cancel your reservation. I’m still an avid believer that the worst day at sea is better than the best day at work. I plan on writing an abbreviated version of this to Celebrity. I know that my 2 or 3 cruises a year are not going to make or break Celebrity’s bottom line…but I’ve always appreciated and weighed comments from other serious contributors to the Cruise Critic. For a cruise line that touts that it is one of the best, this ship needs to have it’s management team’s commitment reviewed.

[cpgrneyes]

Thanks for the review, Tos. We're sailing on Millie this July and it will be the first Celebrity cruise for my husband and me, and the first cruise for our grown kids. I'm hoping we won't notice the deterioration you talk about, but I wouldn't walk on sticky carpet either.

 

sigh.

[TRadle]

I just got off of the Millenium today and didn't notice any of the things the OP mentioned. I had a Sky Suite on deck 6 and while our carpet was obviously not new it was not sticky. Our cabin was spotless the entire cruise and our room attendants addresses us by name.

 

We also ate at the speciality restaurant and felt it was worth every penny.

 

I'm not questioning the OP's experience or point of view here; I just don't think anyone should cancel their cruise or take the Millie out of the running because of these one experience.

[amanda blake]

we sailed on the millie in december and I posted here that the food was the best we have had in all of our 25 cruises with Celebrity...

 

we also thought it was the cleanest ship we have been on...our door handle constantly wiped, constant cleaning everywhere by the staff...

 

this just goes to show how different an experience can be...and what a difference a few months can make as well...

 

when I wrote a lengthy review of our terrible experience with the food on the Constellation last fall, I had people who wrote that their experience was wonderful a few months earlier....

 

so what makes such vast differences in what we experience aboard these ships? why are there such inconsistencies in opinion? and where is the quality control so that there are no variations between where your cabin is located, what month you sail in?

[chrismch]

Wow, that was a harsh review! I don't doubt that you were justifiably perturbed with your cruise experience from your cabin & dining experience. However, looking at your profile it doesn't look like you cruise all that often or post that often either so it is hard to understand how you feel about cruising overall.

 

Unfortunately, cruiselines have done some cost cutting measures through the years. I've noticed this with each new cruise I have been on with Celebrity. I loved my first one on Summit in 2004 and thought Celebrity would be "our cruiseline." However, the on-ship management has proven problematic on subsequent cruises.

 

We've had both good and bad cabin attendants but have never had the cabin experience you have described. My biggest concern has been with management's response to complaints. When you get no response from the front desk and you aren't given access to supervisors with other than promises and no results; this is not good PR. On our last cruise it took 5 days to get a visit from a supervisor to visually see and hear (it was sound related) the nature of our complaint. It was finally resolved at the end of the cruise. So we are trying one more Celebrity cruise.

 

Any customer service company who is truly concerned about their PR will address problems and handle them promptly. However, if they have mass appeal and just consider their company as a standard commodity they will let problems go unaddressed until there is a landslide exodus. Hopefully that will not be the case with Celebrity. If it is the other cruiselines will happily pick up the business.

[Tos]

I just don't think anyone should cancel their cruise or take the Millie out of the running because of these one experience.

 

I fully agree TRadle that one shouldn't cancel their trip. In fact, I made that exact point when I did the review. I too got off the Millie this morning. I'm glad your stateroom was nicer than mine. But you must have seen the masking tape in several places flapping in the wind next to the pool. The hot tub near the Pool Grill was not working most of the cruise. It had water, but the blower for the bubbles was not functioning. The other things that I pointed out were there and not an exaggerated. Maybe you didn't use the hand sanitizers or order toast in the buffet line. My point was that the overall ship lacked the attention to cleanliness and maintenance one should expect from Celebrity.

 

For my information, did they supply the sky suites with the individual shampoo, conditioner and mouthwash bottles?

[bilgeboyPa]

What Cabin # were you in? I am booked in a cabin on deck 7. Hopefully it isn't the same that you had

Thanks

Jeff

[LustforLife]

I just came back from a 3/16 sailing on Millie and didn't notice any of the things that the OP did. I noticed a couple of wear issues around the ship but nothing major. Maybe you really need to look for it to notice it.

 

One thing for certain...I think some of these things can vary depending on who your cabin attendant is and who your wait staff is. I was always offered pepper on my salad and in my soup (after the first night which I'll explain). Our waiter and assistant waiter were fantastic. Carlos and Jorge. I can't say enough wonderful things about them. They always brought the dessert tray over to the table as well.

 

Our cabin attendant always kept our cabin clean. Carpet looked new as did the other fabrics. Bathroom was clean and mold free. One day we came by to pick something up from our cabin and they were wiping the whole bathroom down with cleaning products.

 

To the OP, I'm sorry that the staff you encountered were clearly not up to standards. I must say, the first night we were seated at a table for 6 and we were the only three there. The waiter at that table and his assistant were awful. We asked to be moved and the following night, we were moved. Thank goodness. After that like I said the service couldn't have been better. I know that bad service can potentially put a big damper on a cruise. Hopefully next cruise you'll have a better experience.

[Tos]

However, looking at your profile it doesn't look like you cruise all that often or post that often either so it is hard to understand how you feel about cruising overall.

 

Great comments on the state of the cruise industry Chrismch. I spend a great deal of time reading on the Cruise Critic. I don't post much at all because usually I much more interested in learning what others have to say than to just post for the heck of it. My cruising goes back to the mid-70's when we would take a vacation every 2 or 3 years as the kids were growing up. Back then, we didn't take our kids on the cruise. As our kids grew up we started taking a spring and a fall cruise every year. Once in a while in a good year we even squeezed in a 3rd cruise. We've been fortunate to be related to family that have worked in the cruise industry and have been able to cruise at reduced rates many times.

 

You indicated that you went back to look at my profile. You may have notices some very kind comments about the Millie that I wrote the year I broke my foot and ankle walking up her gangway. The compound fracture led to a serious infection that kept me in a wheel chair and hooked up to an IV twice a day for 2 hours each. The antibiotics required that I keep out of the sun and nothing stronger than soda pop to drink. I had a great time, great food and a very clean ship.

 

If I sounded harsh, it was because the bulk of what I saw would take just a small effort to fix. I know what a grand ship the Millie was and it hurt to see her in such disrepair. I jotted a note to the Hotel Director on Wednesday and he invited me to email him my concerns. I am preparing that email along with the all pictures that I took detailing my comments. (He'll have to take my word on the toaster).

 

Again thanks for your critique on my review.

[richsea]

Thanks for your review. I sense that there will be those that will say that they sailed this ship & did not experience the things that you detail, & they may be correct in THEIR assessment, based upon their experience.

 

But what I find disturbing is that there seems to be more & more comments regading the maintainence (or lack thereof) of Celebrity's ships as well as the lack of Celebrity's attention to detail, which is what used to set Celebrity apart from other cruise lines. I have seen many reports from cruisers relating comments from crew members alluding to cost cutting measures. The lack of a dessert tray, the absence of the pepper mill. There just seems to be more & more comments like this. This is certainly a disturbing trend.

 

I hope that you detailed your experience to Celebrity management. In fact, you should forward this review to them. Surely if enough people comment, someone in corporate will hopefully listen. If not, Celebrity will, before long, be sailing with less than full ships.

 

For myself, I will make my own observations on our upcoming Galaxy cruise in May, & then decide if I wish to continue cruising with Celebrity.

[Tos]

What Cabin # were you in? I am booked in a cabin on deck 7. Hopefully it isn't the same that you had

Thanks

Jeff

 

 

I was in 7176. It has brand new carpeting now, but you'll gag if you look in the shower. Our son and his family was in 7178. When you step in that shower, dirty water actually comes up between the tiles. You can actually hear the water sloshing under the tiles.

 

Hopefully, these are the only bad cabins on deck 7.

[rebeccalouise]

I am sorry that you were disappointed in the condition of the ship.

 

I was on Millenium twice (5/05 and 7/07) and both times the ship was lovely. The pool did need attention- some of the mosaic tiles were loose or missing.

As for the hot tubs- if they were warm then the bubbles wouldn't have really made much of a difference. This is really a small complaint. If they were non operational and cold- that would be a big complaint.

 

As for my stateroom- it was lovely and clean but I agree that the bathrooms look dated and there is mold. I can attest to that. Nothing major- just not as nice as they could be.

 

The main diningroom food is definitely mass produced but better than Cunard (which I just got off). Celebrity desserts are flavorless. I usually don't bother (and my hips thank me).

 

The Olympic food and service is fantastic. It is a big step up from the main diningroom. I still like going to the main diningroom though. I like sitting with my new tablemates and have always had a wonderful time in the main diningroom. It is more about the ambiance than the food for me. In fact, I really go for the experience. I really am sick of eating by day two. But the food is really good on Celebrity- no complaints.

 

For anyone sailing her for the first time- fear not. You are going to love the ship, the crew, and the experience.

 

A cruise is the sum of all its parts. I think that Celebrity still delivers a great product.

[harry0]

A family member just got off the Millie today and he posted on our family message board that they had a great time but the ship could use a good cleaning. I was on the Summit last month and noticed many areas that were in need of repair and deep cleaning. Seems like Celebrity needs to clean up there act.

[Tos]

But what I find disturbing is that there seems to be more & more comments regading the maintainence (or lack thereof) of Celebrity's ships as well as the lack of Celebrity's attention to detail, which is what used to set Celebrity apart from other cruise lines. I have seen many reports from cruisers relating comments from crew members alluding to cost cutting measures. The lack of a dessert tray, the absence of the pepper mill. There just seems to be more & more comments like this. This is certainly a disturbing trend.

 

Your right Richsea. I know that our waiter was not happy with the lack of the desert tray. He told us that they stopped with taking it from table to table over a year ago. I was surprised to hear that someone who was on the cruise 2 weeks ago got to see one. We were on the upper level of the Metropolitan at table 525. I could see about 60 of the upstairs and none of those tables had the ammenities I discussed in my review. I think it is a cost cutting issue and its no secret that the fuel costs have to be significantly hitting the cruiseline's bottom line.

 

I would rather have them charge me a few hundred more and keep the Celebrity difference than let the service slide

[Duanerice1]

WOW is all I can say. Sorry to hear the ship wasn't up to standards. I know it probably shows some wear by now. But seriously. I probably wouldn't have noticed half of what you brought up. Just your comment about "Today is Friday…I’ve had all the fun I could take at the private island, so I re-walked the ship" shows the difference right there. I wouldn't do that. There is too much to do to walk around looking for things that aren't fixed.

 

The yucky carpet - I agree, that is pretty gross. I actually try not to go barefoot in any hotel room :)

 

I am sure she is worn a bit by now and I hope they take the Millennium back in for a makeover. Actually I just posted about this earlier, trying to find out which ships are do for a makeover.

 

I guess I am just lucky. I have never had a bad vacation or a cruise and we take a few vacations a year. Have a few things gone wrong, you bet, but not enough to spoil a trip. Heck not enough to spoil a day of a trip actually.

 

Again, I am sorry to hear things weren't up to standard. Not sure what I would do if I ever noticed all that stuff. We pay too much money and time nowadays to not have a good vacation.

enjoy,

Duane

[gatorbaby1]

My family and I were on the 3/9 sailing of the mille. Prior to cruising I had stalked the boards, and was almost scared to board after hearing of the mille's decline. Our stateroom was well kept as were most public areas. Sure the mille showed that it wasn't straight out of the shipyard, but it was hardly in the dire straights that some claimed. However the service and food were not up to par, and as a rsult we will not sail celebrity in the future.

[d&a Delaware]

I have just returned home from a fantastic cruise on the Millennium this past week -- and it appears to be the very same cruise that is the subject of the review by the OP. I am dumbfounded that reviews posted by passengers who, for various reasons that obviously reflect their honest and unvarnished experiences and perceptions, feel that their dissatisfaction with a particular experience empowers them to condemn the ship and cruise line for all other passengers. The experience of the OP is entirely opposite of my experience on the same cruise, and none of the others I met during our cruise (actually quite a lot of fellow cruisers) mentioned any experiences remotely resembling the OP's experience.

 

I was in an aft CC cabin on deck 7. It was clearly a cabin on an 8 year old ship, but it was clean and very well maintained, and our cabin attendant was excellent, extremely attentive to our every request and provided many tips for us which helped us enjoy our cruise. As an example, we had friends visit our cabin for a wine and cheese party on the last sea day, and Merlin (our cabin attendant) provided extra glasses, made suggestions about ordering our cheese platters, and actually came up with a couple of bottles of wine to augment what we and our friends already had. WAY above the call of duty. He also knew our names and addressed us by name from day 1.

 

At dinner (late seating), we were at table 509 of the Metropolitan Restaurant. Our waiter was Boni and asst. waiter was Jorge. Both were excellent, and made our cruise dinners truely memorable. Yes, no pepper grinder with the salad course, but that does not ruin a wonderful dinner. I agree with the OP that the food/service in Olympic was not $30 per person better than Metropolitan, and since we were enjoying our table mates so much we never went to the specialty restaurant -- but some of our table mates did and enjoyed it very much. None of us were so egotistical that we thought our personal experiences entitled us to advise the others as to what was "good" or "bad" or what our fellow passengers should be doing.

 

I don't dispute that this was a bad cruise experience for the OP for whatever reasons he percieved, but to expect that those perceptions and that experience must have been shared by others on that cruise is (at best) very unrealisitic. The March 23 sailing of Millennium was, for Allen and me, an exceptionally good and enjoyable cruise, as it seemed to be for everyone else we met on the cruise.

 

David

 

PS -- Hi, Teresa. Glad to know you're home safely and enjoyed the cruise as well. Hope you got home to melted snow.

[Texed]

The March 23 sailing of Millennium was, for Allen and me, an exceptionally good and enjoyable cruise, as it seemed to be for everyone else we met on the cruise.

David.

 

Thanks David.:)

[lvz2cruz]

We were on the Millie 2 weeks prior and experienced none of the OP probl ems. The desert tray was brought every night except for the night of the baked Alaska. In addition, the maitre'd came to suggest sugar free deserts for my diabetic son.

I always read on here about moldy showers and look. Ours on deck 2 oceanview was mold free. I think that can be attributed to the room steward. Some are not as good as others. Ours was fantastic; maybe that is why our room was so well kept.

I did notice throughout the week guys in shirts with a company logo--not Celebrity employees--working on the ceiling and removing ceiling tiles throughout the ship. It seems like they worked while we were in port and disappeared on sea days.

We have tried another line and from disappointments on it appreciate the food, service, and cleanliness on Celebrity more than ever.

[TRadle]

I have just returned home from a fantastic cruise on the Millennium this past week -- and it appears to be the very same cruise that is the subject of the review by the OP. I am dumbfounded that reviews posted by passengers who, for various reasons that obviously reflect their honest and unvarnished experiences and perceptions, feel that their dissatisfaction with a particular experience empowers them to condemn the ship and cruise line for all other passengers. The experience of the OP is entirely opposite of my experience on the same cruise, and none of the others I met during our cruise (actually quite a lot of fellow cruisers) mentioned any experiences remotely resembling the OP's experience.

 

I was in an aft CC cabin on deck 7. It was clearly a cabin on an 8 year old ship, but it was clean and very well maintained, and our cabin attendant was excellent, extremely attentive to our every request and provided many tips for us which helped us enjoy our cruise. As an example, we had friends visit our cabin for a wine and cheese party on the last sea day, and Merlin (our cabin attendant) provided extra glasses, made suggestions about ordering our cheese platters, and actually came up with a couple of bottles of wine to augment what we and our friends already had. WAY above the call of duty. He also knew our names and addressed us by name from day 1.

 

At dinner (late seating), we were at table 509 of the Metropolitan Restaurant. Our waiter was Boni and asst. waiter was Jorge. Both were excellent, and made our cruise dinners truely memorable. Yes, no pepper grinder with the salad course, but that does not ruin a wonderful dinner. I agree with the OP that the food/service in Olympic was not $30 per person better than Metropolitan, and since we were enjoying our table mates so much we never went to the specialty restaurant -- but some of our table mates did and enjoyed it very much. None of us were so egotistical that we thought our personal experiences entitled us to advise the others as to what was "good" or "bad" or what our fellow passengers should be doing.

 

I don't dispute that this was a bad cruise experience for the OP for whatever reasons he percieved, but to expect that those perceptions and that experience must have been shared by others on that cruise is (at best) very unrealisitic. The March 23 sailing of Millennium was, for Allen and me, an exceptionally good and enjoyable cruise, as it seemed to be for everyone else we met on the cruise.

 

David

 

PS -- Hi, Teresa. Glad to know you're home safely and enjoyed the cruise as well. Hope you got home to melted snow.

 

Hi David....the snow has melted but it cold and raining.

 

We were in SS 6115 and we had shampoo and conditioner; shower caps; body lotion; and fabulous terry bathrobes.

 

There were two cracked tiles on our bathroom floor. Somehow this didn't bother me at all. :rolleyes:

 

We stayed at the Hyatt Pier Sixty Six before the cruise....a very pricey resort just to check it out. It is in the process of being refurbished and I'm sure will be up to 5 star quality at some point it is not there yet. My bathroom on the Millie, cracked tiles and all, was more up to date with fixtures then was this $273 per night Hyatt hotel room. Come on folks; this ship is only 8 years old. She does need new carpet and new mattresses and box springs....but she is not a bad ship. Nor was she dirty.

 

As for the hot tub near the pool I never noticed it empty. There are white buttons that you have to push to turn the spa on. Could it just have been turned off? Even if that was a problem there were other hot tubs.

 

And how can you have too much Labadee?:eek:

[aarontgd]

TOS - I agree with you on almost all your points.

 

Please keep in mind while reading this we did have a great time with my wife's parent's and people we met on the cruise and daysail. My wife and I are in no way "nit-picky" people but just things we noticed walking around or had happen to us. Every cruiser's experience is different for each.

 

Positives about our cruise/excursions:

 

• Great waiter and assitant waiter in main dining room, great food and service. Not having the desert tray didnt bother us, if we didnt like the desert we received we just asked for another.
  
• The assitant maitre'd stopped by every night to make sure things were going smoothly, we also saw him many time in the buffet on deck 10 to make sure this was running smoothly also.
  
• We were on deck eight with concierge class, our stateroom attendant was the best we have ever had. Also we had a very clean room, I think our stateroom attendant takes pride in his rooms being very clean. The last night of the cruise we asked for some paper to wrap some alcohol we bought during the cruise, instead he found bubble wrapped and he wrapped each individual bottle and taped them up. He figured out my wife likes an extra blanket when she sleeps and made it up for her every night while we were at dinner, he had great attention to detail and went above and beyond.
  
• I liked the layout/theme of the ship. Easy to navigate and the seperated public areas made the ship never feel that crowded.
  
• Great entertainment, my in-laws were on the cruise and they have been on 5 Royal Caribbean cruises and said that the entertainment on Millie was better than any they've had on Royal.
  
• We had a great time on our tour of the caves at the Dominican Republic, great tour guides and caves themselves were great to visit.
  
• We did a day sail in St. Thomas not associated with the cruise line, a daysail with Capt Max to St. John, the highlight of the trip. Snorkeled and saw many different fish, as well as turtles, stingrays and depending on how you feel I was lucky/unlucky to have a 10-12 ft shark swim directly under me on my swim back to the sailboat.
  
• One thing I greatly disagree with you on TOS - The Olympic Restaurant was by far one of the best restaurants I have ever ate at, the place has 3 Michelin stars, no easy accomplishment. If you are reading this and going on Millie, make sure to make a reservation for the Olympic Restaurant, it will be one of the highlights of your cruise!
  
• The free Aqua spa pool area was extremely nice, no kids and very relaxing....also a great morning cafe, HUGE strawberries.
  
• Embarkation/Disembarkation - extremely smooth and no stress

Negatives:

• In-laws were on same floor as us with a concierge class room also but on other side of same floor. Their stateroom attendant would forget to do all the concierge class extra aminities you were to receive, fresh fruit/flowers/small gifts, etc. They had to complain close to three times to guest relations before being able to speak with a hotel manager.
  
• The carpet in the hallway to our in-laws was soaked and smelled like spoiled eggs for close to three days, there was a leak in a storage type room across the hall....the staff worked hard to fix the leak but the carpet was left to stink...it was only fixed after my in-laws practicall had to scream at guest relations, when a manger for the hotel finally walked the hallway and noticed the smell...suddenly the next day the carpet was cleaned and the smell was gone.
  
• TOS I agree completely that I feel mgmt and Celebrity in general is getting very lazy, just small cleaning and maintenance would have made our cruise experience so much better.
  
• In the main dining room many parts of the carpet were stuck done with clear packing tape that was not doing what they hoped it would do.
  
• Buttons were missing from the elevators, buttons were covered in oil/grease or who knows what and many times the lights would not come on after pushing a button so you had no idea if the elevator was not working, many times we used the stairs instead(healthier anyway).
  
• One thing that drove my wife and I nuts....there were a few times we could not make the sit-down dinner due to excursions or other things we were doing, we would go to deck 10 hoping for a nice buffet that related to the sit-down dinner as many other cruise lines do this, instead EVERY SINGLE night was exactly the same stations with variety...pasta station MAY have different sauces or pasta types, that was it.
  
• The main thing that is making me write a letter to Celebrity is the cleaning procedues the ship follows. We had at leat 4 times were glasses we grabbed on deck 10 for iced tea/milk were dirty and semmed to have dirt inside them. I also noticed the staff checks the plates 2-3 times before putting food on them as I think they also do not trust the dishwashers the ship is using.
  
• TOS I also noticed ceiling pannels missing, carpet matted, wet or sticky.
  
• We did the shore excursion in San Juan for a tour of the rainforest, tour guide was horrible and we did nothing described in the description, if you want details let me know.

While I hate to sound negative about a cruise, I was so dissappointed with the product Celebrity pushes then does not live up to it. Thankfully we had a great stateroom attendant and service in the dining area as well as two great excursions and friends we made that it saved our cruise from being very disappointing. As some others have wrote, I think Celebrity is slipping and I hope with their new ships they take better care of them, I know many say an eight year old ship is old, but Celebrity is supposed to be a higher end cruise line so no excuses. I head many people saying they felt the ship needed to be dry-docked just to be cleaned. I hope Celebrity really cleans up its act and gets itself back to the level that would make me want to sail with them again. While the staff/service was great a dirty ship with lazy repairs is hard to ignore.

[Studley]

I'm curious about the Manhattan mixing in your cabin. How did you obtain the alcohol for personal use in your cabin? Were you able to buy this on the ship or did you bring it on board? Would you like to give us some tips?

[cruiseyguy]

An 8 year old cruise ship is the same as an 8 year old hotel. Same issues; same expectations. Reviews of the Millie and its sister ships should reflect this.

[Sky Sweet]

An 8 year old cruise ship is the same as an 8 year old hotel. Same issues; same expectations. Reviews of the Millie and its sister ships should reflect this.

 

Hi Cruiseguy :)

 

I can't speak for the current condition of Millennium because she was only two years old when we were on that ship.

 

However, we were on Century in December 2003 when she was 8 years old. Prior to that cruise, I was a little bit concerned about sailing on an eight year old ship because I had previously sailed on Infinity during the summer of 2001, when she had only been in service for a few months, and then on Millennium the following year.

 

At the time, our travel agent reassured me that on some cruise lines I would have had reason to be concerned but Celebrity was very good about keeping their ships in excellent condition. It turned out she was right.

 

I realize that it is almost impossible to keep a ship that is more than a few years old in perfect condition at all times, but it is disappointing to hear that Celebrity is not maintaining Millennium, which was beautiful when we sailed on her in 2002, the same way that it maintained Century when she was the same age..

[hajekfam]

Your right Richsea. I know that our waiter was not happy with the lack of the desert tray. He told us that they stopped with taking it from table to table over a year ago. I was surprised to hear that someone who was on the cruise 2 weeks ago got to see one. We were on the upper level of the Metropolitan at table 525. I could see about 60 of the upstairs and none of those tables had the ammenities I discussed in my review. I think it is a cost cutting issue and its no secret that the fuel costs have to be significantly hitting the cruiseline's bottom line.

 

I would rather have them charge me a few hundred more and keep the Celebrity difference than let the service slide

 

Evidently you had a lazy waiter who didn't want to bring the dessert tray around. We had one brought to our table on our back to back Millie cruises this past Nov & Dec. And on the first cruise we sat on the upper level and on the second cruise we sat on the lower level and both waiters brought the dessert tray.

We were also on deck 7 in cabin 7164 for the first cruise and 7166 for the second. We had friends in 7180 for both cruises. All of our cabins were clean and our steward was very attentive - evidently his contract ended or he was assigned a different set of cabins for your cruise becasue he did a terrrific job of cleaning our cabin(s).

However, we did notice that around your cabin number they were working on the plumbing for the bathroom several days (the door to the plumbing is in the hall) and had cleaning equipement outside the room.