Cruise Line: Celebrity
Ship: Millennium
Cruise Destination: Western Europe Captain's Club Reunion
Date of Cruise: September 9 - 22, 2000
By: Wayne and Tommie Dobrowski
luv2cruz@pacbell.net
Itinerary
Amsterdam, Sea Day, Zeebrugge, Le Havre, Sea Day, Vigo, Lisbon, Malaga, Sea Day, Barcelona, Villefranche, Civitavecchia, Livorno, Genoa
Ship's Personnel
Several posters on a few cruise bulletin boards have suggested that reports include the names of key ship personnel if possible to assist others who may be interested in finding specific people or tracing their movements from ship to ship. So here are the pertinent individuals from this sailing of the Millennium:
Master - Captain George Panagiotakis
Chief Engineer - Pithagoras Tatanis
Hotel Manager - Angelos Adamopoulos
Cruise Director - Jim Cannon
Assistant Cruise Director - Janine Jackson
Executive Chef - Thomas Pfennings
Restaurant Manager - Niyazi Korkmaz
Olympic Maître D' - Jean-Pierre Hervio
Guest Relations Manager - Nicole Stephen-Hassard
Social Hostess - Amanda Reid
Background
My wife Tommie and I are in our late 40's and early 50's, reside in Southern California, and both work full time at fairly stressful jobs. Thus we prefer relaxing vacations and have found cruising to be the most enjoyable and worry free form of travel. We are both fortunate enough to have 5 weeks of annual vacation and typically take 2 or 3 cruises each year, varying in length from 10 to 16+ days. This was our 27thcruise in 11 years and our 2ndwith Celebrity (1stwas on the Mercury in Alaska this past May). We have previously sailed on 8 different cruise lines (RCL, NCL, HAL, Princess, Carnival, Renaissance, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity) in ships as small as 112 passengers (Renaissance V) and as large as 2600 (Grand Princess), and over the years have experienced cabins varying from lowest category outside to balcony staterooms and finally suites. It's amazing just how much larger accommodations with such amenities as butler service and priority treatment can enhance the overall cruise experience! We have also had the good fortune to visit–and revisit–many parts of the world in our travels, and this was our 7thcruise in Europe. Thus we feel reasonably experienced enough to make comparisons where applicable (especially inasmuch as our previous Celebrity cruise is concerned), and offer opinions and comments.
The Ship and Public Areas
The Millennium, at just over 91,000 tons and carrying 1950 guests (double occupancy), is a gorgeous ship inside and out. The decor, artwork, paneling, and carpeting throughout is quite stunning, and fresh flower arrangements can be found everywhere. In fact there is a florist shop on board with personnel who are constantly keeping all the various arrangements fresh. An incredible amount of artwork can also be found everywhere you turn on this ship, and some of it is very unusual (for example the mannequin hanging from the ceiling near the Cosmos Lounge and the sculpted figures on each deck in all three stairways). For a relatively large ship there is a very high space ratio (47%) and this translates into ample public places for the passengers, and many intimate areas where a few chairs or a sofa can be found. The glass elevators that look out onto the sea are also pleasant to ride. The ship has no dead end hallways and all 3 stairways–and associated elevators–go from top to bottom, so it was very easy to find our way around after the first day. Our only complaint with the design of the Millennium was that the attractive and aesthetically pleasing exterior look of the ship, with its curved glass columns housing the glass elevator on one side and Celebrity Suites on the other, and the staggered decks and wider bow and stern sections on decks 6 through 9, was NOT at all attractive from WITHIN many of the staterooms that occupy those decks - but more on that topic in our next section on Accommodations. Let's take a quick tour of the Millennium passenger areas starting from the lowest deck and heading up.
Deck 1 contains the Medical facilities, and is where the tenders are boarded when in a tender port. We had one tender port (Villefranche) and have included information about the tender service under the Villefranche port description near the end of this report. This deck was occasionally used to disembark and embark the ship in a few other ports, but this was mainly done from Deck 3.
Deck 2 (Continental Deck) contains only passenger staterooms.
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