Celebrity Cruises
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Asian Allure Christmas/New year cruise. Dec 14 to Jan 15
Celebrity Millennium, 20th Dec Hongkong via Vietnam, Thailand to Singapore on 4th Jan 2015 A well time and planned cruise, in a large, clean ship with good facilities, excellent staff and great entertainment. A good overall experience spoilt by a sense that Company policy is to make an exhorbitant profit on all basic extras, such as Wifi, laundry and shore excursions. I would not choose to travel on the Celebrity Line again, nor to recommend to others unless they are able to afford or ignore serious overpricing! The good things.... A beautiful, clean and hygienic ship in all public areas, with good facilities and a wide variety of food and drink outlets. Excellent casino - not too intrusive to other passengers. Fantastic free entertainment, with great shows, generally good bands etc. Good variety of different foods in 'free' dining areas, BUT... Excellent staff in all areas, clean, helpful, cheerful and efficient! 2 nights stay in first and last port. Daily communication of information was good. Embarkation and disembarkation at all ports was smooth, tightly controlled and secure. The Bad things... Poor port location selection - Hongkong - start of cruise experience, Kai Tak cruise terminal, very modern, purpose built terminal facilities BUT difficult and expensive to get to from the airport! No public transport anywhere near the cruise terminal! Halong bay (Hanoi) the only visit which used tenders to shore and first visit to Vietnam - for those not willing to undertake the 4 hour bus ride in each direction to visit Hanoi, this was a good and interesting experience with typical, local and cultural experiences readily available. Hue/Danang, the ship docked at an undeveloped port some 20 minutes drive from the nearest roadside shops and 1 hour bus ride to Danang and 1.5 hours to Hoi An. Saigon, the ship docked at a small, new container port with no local facilities again some 20 minutes drive to the nearest local shops and 2 hours drive to Saigon. Bangkok, the ship docked at the huge container port of Laem Chabang, again no local facilities, but only 45 minutes drive to Pattaya or 2 hours drive to Bangkok No complimentary touches like bottled water in the cabin. Exhorbitant overpricing of what are normally basic services expected by all passengers! viz: Wifi/internet, this was provided, but at US $0.79 per minute, or $20 per hour or $99 for 24 hours with the added limitation of remote desktop, VPN & VOIP (Skype and facebook) being disabled, plus slow speeds, this was clearly designed to squeeze users towards the ship's expensive satellite telephone system. Laundry, clearly priced to dissuade guest from using the ship's facilities. i.e US$49 for just 2 shirts, 1 tee and 9 underwear! Shore excursions in Vietnam were an average of $89 for a 5 - 6 hour bus ride with lunch, which is at least 3 times the cost of local guides for the same trip. Onboard Spa club and health services were priced for the wealthy rather than those on a budget, or pensioners. Quality of food served in all dining rooms was averag e to poor overall.. The open Buffet style cafe provided a wide and reasonable variety of choices, some of which, the deserts and salads were good, however the hot foods were too often dried up or tough, whilst the main roasts were too rare or undercooked! The carvers were u0nderskilled in providing a presentable serving The main dining room, again agood variety of choice, but spoilt by the need to return main courses that were, mostly, overcooked. The srrvice staff in the dining areas were excellent throughout the ship. Dissappointing that for a "Christmas/New Year cruise" that no special menu was provided for Christmas lunch or dinner! The New Year's eve celebrations were clearly aimed at the younger generation and was fun and well controlled, but, with a significant element of the over 60's a more raditional dinner/dance celebration could have been included as well. Finally, A modern cruise ship of the size of the Millennium should have the capability and willingness to provide a smooth passage in even quite rough seas, yet on this occasion no effort was made to ease or prevent the ship rolling in even moderate seas, which meant that for some of the passengers up to 4 days of enjoyable relaxation were lost. Regarding my comments on the serious overpricing of some services please understand that I did not expect them to be free, but was not happy at the perceived 'Rip off' charges!