I cruised on this ship over Christmas and New Year during the dates 21 December - 4 January 2015 around Asia. I have to say, I was so disappointed with the service, the cruise ship itself and with the entertainment the ship had to offer.
The Celebrity Millennium: Key Facts
- 11 decks
- 2138 occupancy
- 3 specialty restaurants
- 3 swimming pools (1 indoor)
- 7 bars
- Casino
- Library
- Children's programs
These are just a selection of facts about this particular ship.
Itinerary
Day 1 - Hong Kong, China
Day 2 - Hong Kong, China
Day 3 - At Sea
Day 4 - Hanoi (Halong Bay), Vietnam
Day 5 - Hanoi (Halong Bay), Vietnam
Day 6 - Hue/Danang(Chan May),Vietnam
Day 7 - At Sea
Day 8 - Ho Chi Minh(Phu My), Vietnam
Day 9 - At Sea
Day 10 - Bangkok/Laemchabang,Thailand
Day 11 - Bangkok/Laemchabang,Thailand
Day 12 - At Sea
Day 13 - At Sea
Day 14 - Singapore
Day 15 - Singapore
My Cruising Experience - Other Cruise Lines
Before anyone starts to say oh she's got really high expectations or she doesn't appreciate what Celebrity has to offer, let me start by saying that I have been on many cruises before. I have cruised on Princess four times, each lasting two weeks long. I have also been on Royal Caribbean twice for a duration of two weeks each time and finally, I've been on P&O cruises once.
The above shows that I have been on many cruises, therefore I had to compare Celebrity Cruises with the cruises I have been on before.
My Experience With Celebrity Cruises
I was really looking forward to this cruise because so many people have been raving on about how good Celebrity Cruises are with it being a 5* cruise line. Also, I had never been on a cruise around Asia so I was excited to travel around and see what the destinations are like.
The Condition of the Ship
Please note that this ship was refurbished in 2012.
There was nothing but disappointment with this cruise ship. I knew the ship was old because it's called the Millennium therefore it was built in 2000, but I did not expect it to be in the condition it was in. I did actually vlog this cruise but because I was not enjoying the cruise at all, the footage was all very negative except for when I was actually off the ship! I haven't actually looked through the footage yet but I did film the holes in the floors on the deck we were staying on and basically everything that would not have passed health and safety. I was shocked the ship set sail in the state it was in. There were so many holes in the floors and when I say holes, I don't mean literally a great giant hole but a dip in the floor that was so bad I fell over twice and nearly twisted my ankle on so many occasions. I just want to mention that on a cruise, there are usually a a few formal nights on a cruise that lasts for 14 days. I love to dress up so of course I would be wearing a long gown on those nights and on the casual / smart nights, I would dress up and wear heels. Therefore, wearing heels on the uneven floor was dangerous and stupid but I did not want to have to change my footwear because of the ships conditions. I was not the only one who noticed the huge dips in the floors and complained to the front desk. I spent so much time voicing my concerns to the front desk yet nothing seemed to be done immediately even though it was a breach of health and safety. It took them one week to even put signs on all the dips in the flooring on the decks that had issues and it was ME who put forward the idea of putting signs by them so people would not trip!
The ship was very tired looking and the elevators failed many times and when I say failed, I mean we got stuck in the lift a few times, the door didn't close properly and the elevators were shaking and this was not because the ship was moving. During dinner one night, we were experiencing some really rocky waves on our sail towards Thailand. The ship started making some really loud noise like grinding sort of noise which was not normal. We have experienced really rocky waves on other cruise ships before but we never heard this scary noise before so I am not sure if the noise was due to the ship being really old! Anyway, there were lots of very concerned faces and people were beginning to get scared because they did not want a repeat of what happened to Costa Concordia with it sinking.
I did question how the ship was in so bad condition considering the ship was refurbished in 2012. I raised this question to the front desk especially because the flooring of the ship was so uneven and the elevators were not working. I heard people around the ship complaining saying how disappointed they were and I am not surprised because it was a shock to see how bad this ship really was.
The Ship's Service
We had a set dining time (20:30) on the cruise so that we would have the same waiters throughout the cruise as this is the best way to dine as the waiters get to know you and they know what drinks you like etc. So you would expect from any sort of cruise whether it is a 3* cruise line or a 5* cruise line to carry out cleaning in our cabins. Our cabin attendants, yes there were two cabin attendants, failed to clean our room on the first night of our stay even though we requested more towels to be put in our room as they had not given us enough. I could not believe they could not even do their job properly when passengers pay thousands to go on this cruise so of course I immediately went to voice my concerns, anger and disappointment to the front desk to ask them why our cabin was not cleaned and they gave a pathetic excuse of not sure. This is a 5* cruise line so of course we were extremely disappointed and this was the first day! You would not expect a 5* hotel to 'forget' to clean your room so you would not expect this from a 5* cruise line either! We eventually had our towels delivered to us at midnight because it was so late by then as we only noticed our cabin hadn't been cleaned after dinner.
I was really disappointed on the dining service of the ship. On several occasions, we were waiting half an hour before being poured water into our glasses and by then, we were so thirsty. On many occasions, we waited over 45 minutes for our starter course to be served even though the restaurant was really quiet and I do question why that was seeing as the ship requires all guests to pay gratuity fees which total around £140 per guest for a two week cruise.
My mum and I experienced a shocking moment during a breakfast meal with my dad and brother when a waiter dropped baked beans all over my leg and all over my mum's trousers and feet when trying to serve the food. He did not know how to cope with the incident and I understand mistakes happen but what he did was absolutely unbelievable. He did not apologise, his response to dropping food over us was oh I'll get you another one. He did not even attempt to try and clean up his mess by offering us napkins and wiping the floor. He simply ran away and hid until he came back and served the baked beans he dropped. I was absolutely livid and it was very lucky that the baked beans were not steaming hot or I would have had burns on my bare legs. It was simply a shock and I cannot believe a cruise line which claims it is 5* can get away with this. It shows just how under-trained its staff are and how disappointing it is. I eventually asked a different waiter if we could move tables because it was just one big mess now. Thankfully, the waiter helped us move and breakfast was fine after that.
The service at the front desk was absolutely appalling. The queue at front desk was very long during the first three days of the cruise, probably because of people complaining or having issues with their cards! Anyway, one lady who was incredibly unhelpful and rude kept saying to us after only speaking to her for a few minutes that there was a long queue and she needed to move on to the next person even though we queued for over 30 minutes. We were clearly bringing up a very serious issue regarding the health and safety on board the ship. It was absolutely shocking. During the beginning of the second week of the cruise, we decided enough was enough because front desk were not dealing with the issues we bought up seriously so we requested to speak to the hotel manager. The hotel manger's attitude was appalling and we got the impression that we were wasting his time even though we were bringing up our concerns. The concerns we bought up were the lack of entertainment, the service we were receiving and the incidents we experienced such as at dinner. He wanted us to name names of people that were making these mistakes which we did not believe was fair as the reason mistakes were being made is due to a lack of training. This is evident from the number of issues that occurred such as our uncleaned cabin and at breakfast with the waiter dropping food over us and not knowing how to deal with the aftermath.
I spoke to quite a few guests on the ship and all of them mentioned how disappointed they were with the ship's service. They were saying how they waited 45 minutes to get served in the bar and waited an additional 20 minutes or longer for the drink to arrive. I think it is absolutely ridiculous how long they had to wait for a drink seeing as the bars were mostly empty yet the staff just stood with their trays and chatted among themselves and not caring about the guests.
The Ship's Entertainment
What entertainment? That's the question most people were asking. People were bored on the cruise because of such little entertainment going on. Previous cruises I've been on have been so fun because of how great the entertainment is and because there was so much of it! I cannot say the same for Celebrity Cruises. The shows they had on in the theatre each night were boring. They were 60s, 70s and broadway shows which were very boring and awful. Most people were cringing at the shows and leaving during the show which shows how bad they really were. The only decent shows were the ones where Celebrity flew in guest performers which included a lady playing the electric violin, a couple who did acrobatics and the lady was actually a gold medalist in gymnastics during the olympic games. There was also a comedy / magician act from England who I thought was very entertaining but other than that, the entertainment was incredibly bad throughout the cruise.
During sea days, there was not much going on except for a couple of occasions where they played water volleyball and a did a dance class for half an hour. According to the hotel manager, Celebrity Cruises are known for the great quality food and the ship is catered more towards the elderly rather than families. I knew Celebrity Cruises cater more towards the elderly but the cruise we were on was a Christmas and New Year cruise which of course would be filled with families. I do not understand why Celebrity Cruises did not add more entertainment during the festive season. There was a lack of Christmas celebrations and this according to the hotel director was because they have many people of different religions on the cruise and not everyone likes to celebrate Christmas. I think that this is ridiculous because most people celebrate Christmas and if they did not want to celebrate Christmas, they don't have to attend the event. The teens and kids on board were so bored so they decided to cause havoc because they had nothing else to do.
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| New Years Eve |
I also have to mention the cruise director. He was nothing but boring and hardly anyone recognised him because he did not make much effort to get himself known. Also, due to the quality of the shows, not many people attended therefore did not know who the cruise director was throughout the cruise.
Definition of a cruise director: A cruise director is a high-ranking or senior officer of a cruise ship with responsibility for all onboard hospitality, entertainment and social events, who acts as the public face of the company. The cruise director reports to the hotel director, has a deputy or assistant cruise director, and is supported by a team of entertainment staff.
Hmmmm yeah.... what was the point in having a cruise director on the cruise when most people didn't even know who he was! The past cruises I have been on, the cruise directors interact with the guests but I cannot say the same for this cruise director. I barely even saw this cruise director around the cruise!
On a sea day, the ship decided to 'clean out' the main pool when it was a really hot day. I do not understand why they decided to choose a sea day instead of a port day. They knew the deck would be filled with guests sunbathing and kids wanting to play in the pool or adults who just want a dip in the pool. It goes to show that the staff simply do not care about guests and their level of judgement is really poor! I can definitely say that they had many complaints that day.
The Food
The food was good but I didn't think it was anything that spectacular! They had sushi which lots of cruise ships don't have but I don't like sushi so I didn't really care if they had it or not. I admit the food selection was pretty large so that is always good! They had a section in the buffet where two chefs make fresh pasta for everyone so you can put your toppings in a bowl and choose the pasta you want and they cook it for you. Breakfast was good too as they had a pretty large selection which included porridge, pastries, full english breakfast, full american breakfast and breakfast for asians who like to eat rice for breakfast with meat!
I was disappointed there wasn't a pizza area on the cruise that did freshly made mini pizzas like they have on the other cruise ships I have been on. The pizza was pretty poor on this chip but I guess they had a huge selection of food so it didn't matter too much.
The disappointing thing about the food is that the chefs in the main dining room seem to not know how to cook fish and steak. I ordered so many steaks during the cruise as it is my favourite and on numerous occasions, I was presented with a steak which was really rare when I asked for medium. When I say rare, I mean the steak was basically in a pool of blood instead of having red in the centre of the steak!
Overall
I am not sure if I traveled on Celebrity Cruises at the wrong time and on the wrong ship but this holiday was an absolute disaster. I never want to experience going on this ship again and never want to go on an old ship again whether it is Celebrity Cruises or another cruise ship!! I was so looking forward to this ship and after the first few days of the ship, I could not wait to get off the ship. The only thing I was looking forward to on the ship were the port calls and tanning but everything else was just horrendous. I usually love cruises but this was a cruise from hell. I really think Celebrity Cruises are now at the stage where they need to drastically improve their customer service of face customers never returning having experienced such a bad service. A holiday should be stress free and be relaxing but my whole family were stressed throughout and thinking how much money we have wasted by going on this cruise.
If you've made to the end of this review be aware that Celebrity is most definitely not a premium cruise line infact very mediocre. How it is classed as superior to P&O, Royal Caribbean and Princess I cannot understand. This cruise line does not even come close to being as good as P&O and Princess with Royal Caribbean being in a different league compared to this cruise line.
This ship was just disappointment after disappointment. Save your money and book a cruise on a ship you know you will enjoy, especially if you are cruising with your family.
I would rate this cruise line and cruise ship 1/10. I highly recommend you AVOID Celebrity Cruises and travel on Royal Caribbean!
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