On Board the Celebrity Millenium Headed for the Panama Canal Part 2

 Now onto the wonderful world of cruise dining and food comas...

The Metropolitan

The Metropolitan restaurant is where you come for your daily evening food coma and entertainment via our wonderful waiters Zahari and Soner. It's also the place, unless you're an Aqua Class passenger, where you'll come for your formal dining every night unless you chose to visit a specialty restaurant ($$). Included in the price of your ticket, the food here will not disappoint as you are served four courses that will satisfy everyone from the meat eaters to the vegetarians. 

The Ocean View

The Oceanview Cafe is the often bustling buffet, that is unless of course you go during rough seas then it's usually a quasi ghost town, my favorite time to go. There is a wide selection of food available here during the breakfast and lunch hours and with the exception of the scrambled eggs (they were on the runny side, which is not quite my cup of tea) there was something always delicious to chose from.

Something I wish I knew sooner on in the cruise is that the Oceanview turns in a sushi bar at night with all you can eat freshly made sushi that is entirely delicious!

The Olympic Dining Room

A quick bit of back story on the beautiful and elegant Olympic Dining room, its decor you see comes from the dining room of the RMS Olympic, sister ship to the RMS Titanic, which were designed identically with only alteration made on the Olympic. All the beautiful wood work you see and paneling came from the same place where Charlie Chaplin had dinner while making a transatlantic voyage over 100 years ago.

The presentation alone is worth dining at the Olympic, which is artfully prepared right in front of you. I have to admit though that I did feel a little out of my league with the extreme refinement of the dining room which was complete with even a cheese course. Be prepared for a bit of a show as well since they prepare your food before you eyes. When dining here you'll be replete with his a touch of history and some of the most delicious food on board the Celebrity Millennium.

**This is one of three specialty dining areas where you do have to an extra $40.

Cafe Al Bacio & Gelateria

One of my favorite places on board the ship has to be Cafe Al Bacio, complete with large green chairs that you can just sink into and enjoy a good book, specialty coffee ($) small pot of tea ($) and/or finger sandwiches, cookies or small dessert items like some yummy tiramisu or some other delightful concoction that you can either take on the go or eat at your leisure.

Oh and if some peanut butter cookies and tea wasn't enough to satisfy your sweet tooth, you could always stop over at the Gelateria ($), and if you're like me and would have a love affair with gelato if you could, you would stop there often. The mango was definitely the best flavor there in my humble opinion.  

Bistro on Five was also a delicious stop that you must make, but due to the effects of the amazing food there I forgot to take pictures there. Another specialty restaurant you can chose from a wide aray of crepes and soups that are to die for and only for $5. My favorite was definitely the Italian crepe, but fret not you can have all the crepes on the menu in one sitting if you'd like, although I'm not sure if your stomach could handle it.  

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On the next blog post, I'll review the ship's bar service and entertainment.

On Board the Celebrity Millenium Headed for the Panama Canal Part I

In the port of Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala

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I somewhat recently got back from my 15 day transcontinental cruise through the Panama Canal on board the Celebrity Millennium, a ship that recently "solsticized." How I dearly wish I was still on board and on my way to yet another delicious dinner, but I'll get to that later, first the specs.

The Millennium was built in 2000 making her one of the older ships in the Celebrity fleet, but that makes her no less grand, especially since we were among the first passengers to set sail after the ships dry dock renovations. The Ship can hold up to 2,038 people and is 965 feet long with a beam of 105 feet across, which, when traveling with a group of people for 15 days, makes it just big enough for you to get lost from one another every once in awhile.

So now onto the review of whether or not this aging ship is as grandiose as it seems...

First up a tour around the quasi-new ship starting with Captain Taramas's welcoming champagne toast:

 

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Unfortunately I was an absent minded photographer and forgot to take pictures of our stateroom until it was our last night, but it does help to illustrate the slightly cramped quarters at times. The rooms however, I found to be sizable in comparison to that of the Emerald Princess, there was room to walk about and stretch just as long as the couch wasn't converted into a bed at night, that was things became a wee bit squashed to say the least. To me though the crowning glory was the size of the bathroom, as well as, the veranda. I was pleasantly surprised and most overjoyed when I saw that the shower wasn't the mere coffee sized darkness of most cruise ships with plenty of counter space for three people and that you could actually move about in the shower to boot.

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On the next blog post, I'll review the ship's fantastic dining venues.