Mediterranean Cruise Ships Review – Millennium Ship

Cruising speed: 24 knots
Built in St. Nazaire, France
Registry: Bahamas
Entered Service: July, 2000
91,000 tons
Passengers: 1,950
999 crew
964 feet in length
105 feet wide
11 passenger decks

Bottom line: Millennium cruise ship is one of Celebrity cruise lines which are best for people who want to enjoy their mediterranean cruise with the feel of a luxury ship at a slightly lower price. But don’t expect to enjoy large mega-ship diversions and sport facilities.

Decor:

Enjoy your mediterranean cruise trip under Millennium ship cabins which are distinguished by elegant striped, floral, or patterned fabrics in pastel, Deco-style lighting fixtures, and marble desktops.

Celebrity's designers deserve an ovation for their ingenious fusion of contemporary, Old World, Art Deco and resort chic influences. There's tons of glorious natural light on these ships, whose lobbies' white onyx stairway, backlit with yellow neon, lined by with three-story-high mahogany pillars, surrounded by long white flowing curtains, may well make you laugh aloud with delight.

Vast expanses of glass and beech wood surround mahogany paneled walls, most adorned with notable, provocative works of art. Rich velveteen and suede, golden brocades, burled woods, and ornate topiaries are everywhere.

Onboard Experience:

This Mediterranean cruise ship offers most of the leisure and entertainment options of a mega ship in a casually elegant atmosphere of your Mediterranean cruise vacation. Overall, the ambience is warm and relaxing, with constant gentle reminders that you're aboard one of the most sophisticated ships in the mid-price class. The floor shows may be lackluster, but the spas are gorgeous, and offer treatments available on few other ships.

The special touches include martini and cigar bars, caviar and champagne bars, elegant sing-along piano bars, a computer classroom and a floral conservatory. Millennium offers an especially elegant alternative dining venue, the Olympic Restaurant, with memorabilia from the famous liner Olympia (sister ship to the Titanic) and presentation-oriented tuxedo-clad waiters.

Cuisine and Restaurants:

Millennium is one of Mediterranean cruise ship which offer elegant main dining room, with two-deck-high glass windows welcoming warm, natural light and remarkable views of the sea, is located in the stern. Its tables are widely spaced enough to permit conversation at sub-shouting levels. The Lido Café, deck 10, offers casual dining from 6:30 a.m. to half past midnight, including lunch and breakfast buffets, pizza, afternoon tea and late night snacks. Four buffet lines make for little waiting, and floor to ceiling windows and glass floor areas provide excellent views of the sea.

All Mediterranean cruise passengers can also order room service meals from the lunch and dinner menus during the hours those meals are being served. Continental Breakfast is served only except for those with Concierge-class or suite-level cabins. For an out-of-cabin continental breakfast experience, don't miss the absolutely decadent pastries at the Cova Cafe Milano.

The rear section of the cafe, the Grill, serves a casual a la carte dinner between 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. Reservations are required. Hot dogs, hamburgers and pizza are available poolside during the day, there's round-the-clock room service. You can order dinner from the menu, and simply hang a card outside your door for breakfast. You'll get a heads-up call before delivery - a splendid touch!!

In the stunning Olympic, which has the original Edwardian wood-carved wall paneling from the Olympic, sister of the Titanic, your dinner is likely to last nearly three hours. But you'll enjoy every minute, as waiters in white tie and tails start tableside fires (for flambé, you see, Celebrity having done the first tableside flambé-ing at sea) with great showmanship. Such signature dishes as Rack of Lamb en Croute and Steak Diane are served nowhere else on the ship. A remarkable wine list ranges up to $450 a bottle - and this atop the $25 you'll be charged for dinner!

Fitness/Spa:

At 25,000 square feet, the adults-only (kids should head for Riviera main pool, on the Resort Deck) AquaSpa is one of the most spacious afloat in this Mediterranean cruise ship. Treatments are by no means inexpensive ($109 for a 50-minute massage), and often administered by an inexperienced or frazzled therapist (Steiner's of London, which runs the spas, is known for working its staff hard), but usually booked solid anyway. (Get 20 percent off if you book on sailing day, and watch for specials on treatments while the ship is in port.)

At $29, the "Frangipani" treatment, a scalp, neck and shoulder massage, is by far the best value on offer. The spa includes a Spa Cafe with very light fare available for the extremely diet-conscious. There are exotic "Sensory Heaven" treatments, such as the float massage, haiku ritual facial and an "aroma stone massage". The jewel of the fitness area in this Mediterranean cruise ship is the highly atmospheric, relaxing thalassotherapy pool, a sort of saltwater Jacuzzi, in which you'll feel as though you've retreated into a different world altogether (a small fee for use all day). The Persian Garden aromatherapy oasis is a nice place to meditate for an additional charge.

Fitness buffs will be pleased with the facilities, housed in a glass-enclosed room - 14 treadmills, 12 exercise bikes, six stair-steppers, two rowers and lots of weights. Aerobics classes are scheduled throughout the day. Personal training, a body composition test, an Alpha massage capsule, and destress and detox packages are available. So if you are on fitness schedule you don’t have to worry it will be interrupted while you are in your Mediterranean cruise with this Mediterranean cruise ship.

Attire:

There are two formal nights on a seven-night Mediterranean cruise, three on longer ones. On two informal nights, gentlemen need wear only jackets. On formal nights most men turned up in dark suits rather than tuxedos, while their better halves chose dressy pantsuits or dresses. By day, don't even consider wearing anything other than shorts, sneakers, T-shirts, polo shirt, and a baseball cap.

Entertainment:

During-the-day activities include dance lessons, trivia contests, Pictionary, brain-teasers and charades, napkin-folding, and arts and crafts classes.

You'll generally hear superior singers in the various lounges. The classical guitarist who performs several times a day in the Cova Cafe di Milano coffeehouse is well worth seeking out.

The casino, located midship, is almost comically tiny for a ship this size and everything seems to be crowded together, with the result that it can get infernally hot. But you're likely to enjoy the opulent beaux arts design, with faux-marble columns and mythological Greco-Roman sculptures, rich damask curtains, mosaic floor tiling, and wall frescoes.

Service:

Millennium's service isn't as consistently sublime as on other Celebrity ships, except in the Olympic restaurant. Don't be shocked to observe waiters standing around chatting while coffee cups cry out to be refilled and trays yearn to be whisked away. On the other hand, the assistant head housekeeper is unusually visible, and vigilant about ensuring that all guests are kept happy.

Tipping:

Celebrity suggests a per person per day gratuity of $3.50 for the waiter, butler (Suites only) and stateroom attendant; $4.00 for Concierge Class stateroom attendant; $2.00 for the Assistant Waiter; and .75 for the Assistant Maitre d' and the Assistant Chief Housekeeper. Children under 12 who are the third or fourth person in the stateroom need come up with only half these amounts. A 15 percent gratuity is automatically added to all beverage tabs. Gratuities for room service, spa, casino and other staff are at your discretion. Tips may, of course, be added on request to your shipboard account.

Hope this article helps you choose Mediterranean Cruise ship which suits you. Enjoy your Mediterranean Cruise vacation!