Cruise Reviews | Millenium to Alaska| Cruises.co.uk

Thursday 21st August 2008

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Millenium to Alaska
Reviewed By: Shepherd, Caldicot on 5th Jun 2008
Cruise Line: Celebrity Cruises	Times cruised before: 3-5
Cruise Ship: Millenium	Sailed: May, 2008
Destination: Alaska	Age: 56-65

This was a repositional cruise starting in San Francisco and finishing in Vancouver. Millenium is a nice looking and clean ship with the staff friendly, helpful and efficient at all times. There is the odd sign of wear and tear if you really look for it but nothing to spoil your enjoyment. We were on second sitting which is at 8.30 (first at 7pm).Service is good although the food at the evening meal could have been a bit warmer, our table was 502 and we were right at the back of the ship so it was the furthest to go from the kitchens. Presentation of the food is excellent with a wide and varied choice, there was always something you could find that you liked. We did use room service a lot especially for breakfast it arrived on time and reasonably hot. The portion size on the card is not very clear ie we ordered toast and only got 1 slice but ordered pancakes and got 2 so some mornings we ended up with virtually 2 breakfasts. Some mornings things were missing but a quick call got them delivered promptly. Afternoon club sandwich was delicious as were the cookies. The Ocean cafe is help your self style but there is a break from 3 till 4 when they change from dinner to afternoon tea and that was sometimes a nusiance as it was about then that we wanted to eat. We also used the Spa cafe (closed at 3) and that was excellent for a light meal. We did not go to the other restaurants so I cannot comment. We had cabin 9067 which was a congierge cabin. It is not worth paying a lot more for it, we had express checkin, a bottle of champers in the cabin, horduevers every day and the use of binoculars, all of which we could have managed quite well without. We did only pay about £30 each more on this cruise and in our case it was nice to have a bit extra for that amount of money. There was plenty of room in the cabin with mirrors used to effect, the shower was the biggest we have had on a cruise ship. There was a hairdryer in the bathroom and also one in the cabin. Shampoo and soap are provided but no conditioner or shower gel. There is a large overhang from the above decks so we did not get any sun in the cabin at all, this did not bother us in Alaska but if you like to sunbathe on the balcony in say the caribbean I would go at least 2 decks down from us, we also had a bit of noise from above but of course people were not using loungers on deck in Alaska. We did 2 trips with millenium and 2 with other companies. Both sets were very good I had already booked the trips not using millenium and they gave us instructions on how to get to them from the ship. You just have to search the web before you go. We used the Thalassapool a lot it is very warm sea water with beds of jet you can lie on. Beware is made my silver ring black (I cleaned it with toothpaste) but the gold was OK. We bought a package for the Persian Garden and a Rasul Mud at the beginning, I don't think I would bother with this in hotter climes and had I known we were going to be in hot sunshine most of the time I would not have bothered anyway. The Persian Garden is very relaxing with a hot room and two steam rooms. A lot of the treatments came on offer during the cruise especially on port days so if you really want something keep an eye out for it. The last day the knocked $49 off every treatment over $100. Entertainment was good. We had the celebrity troup as well as two singers (male and female) performing along with a commedian and a pianist so there was something to suit everybody. Some of the shows were predinner at 7pm and some after dinner at 10.45pm Disembarkation was the usual nightmare. We were in the Michaels Club as concierge passengers with refreshments but of course not enough seats. When we were called the getting off the ship was fairly quick but the queue for a taxi took about 50 mins. I would go with Celebrity again but I must admit I tend to book a ship that is doing the itinerary that I want at a price I think is a good deal rather than being loyal to a cruise line.
Quality of Food
Very good we ate in the Metropolitan for evening meals everynight and room service for most of the other meals
Entertainment
All the shows were excellent
Shore Excursions

Staff
All staff were pleasant and helpful
Children's Facilities	n/a

Onboard Activities	n/a

Cabins
excellent size and kept well by our cabin boy
Overall Rating

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Opinion: Agree Comment by Rushton, Cannock (10 Jun 08 01:10) about this REVIEW.

i agree mostly with the review Millenium is now starting to show her age a little and perhaps a major re fit may sort this out. We found our main dissapointment was the lack of formal dress by people especially as Celebrity is a formal dress type cruise company and not freestyle. I did make a comment on my "attention to detail" card and indeed i did get a call to purvey there apologies and our maitre d also apologised but said he was now unable to stop people from entering the restaurant if there were not suitable clothed as he could before seems Celebrity are relaxing there standards for volume of customers. Having sailed on Celebrity Millenium class ships 8 times now i feel the overall standard has dropped slightly possibly due to fierce competition in the cruise market and although i have already booked Equinox next september we are looking to try Cunard to see if there Formality is still there

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Opinion: Disagree Comment by Dolan, Harrogate (10 Jul 08 22:49) about a COMMENT by Rushton (10 Jun 08 01:10)

I too also have cruised on X many times and will be on Summit in August in the Med and then in November I am going to Auckland for the NZ/OZ cruise. Comment on Cunard I have sailed on QM2 3 times in the past 10 months last in March this year and yes they still keep the formal code alive. 6 night T/A 3 formal 2 informal and 1 smart casual. Caribbean 10 nights 4 night formal and I think informal 3 smart casual. I loved it and I feel sure that you would enjoy it. QM2 is a beautiful liner and I hope to make my next cruise on her.

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