In the past 3 to 4 years, many avid cruisers have felt that the quality, selection, and availability of the complimentary food options on board ships has diminished. Aside from inflation being the major cause, it is believed that cruise lines are using the opportunity to drive cruisers to their specialty dining restaurants. Since Celebrity advertises as being being the more premium option to Royal Caribbean, one would expect their food to be far superior and there to be less of a need to seek out specialty dining options while on board. We wanted to see if this was true as well.
Our 12-night cruise on board Celebrity Millennium was only our second cruise with Celebrity. Our first cruise was on the Celebrity Beyond, which is one of their newer ships, so we knew that our experience on the Celebrity Millennium, Celebrity’s oldest ship, might be different. We decided to book the 3-night dining package for our cruise because it was reasonably priced, there were only 3 specialty dining restaurants available to the non-suite guests, and we figured that 12 nights would be a long time to eat in the same dining room night after night.
Even with our 3-nights in the specialty restaurants and 4-nights excursion off of the ship due to the tsunami, we still were able to eat in the main dining room 5 nights and experience everything that they had to offer. When evaluating their complimentary food options, I looked at three different areas: the eating spaces, the food and the service
The Complimentary Eating Spaces
The entire ship including the two-story dining room and buffet area got a major refresh in 2019, and since then they have a done an extremely good job of keeping these spaces looking nice. Their buffet, which they call the Oceanview Cafe, is a nice, clean, well-lit area with a variety of tables and seating. You can even take your meal to an open outdoor area where there is a bar and bartender ready to make your next drink. Also, up on the pool deck you will find the Mast Grill, which serves burgers and fries and provides a nice and convenient space near the pool. In The Solarium (the adults only area), the spa cafe offers some light bites to go with some extra cost juices and smoothies. On Deck 5, you will find Café Al Bacio where you can find complimentary pasties and savory items. There is a seating area near there where they will serve you, which comes with a wonderful view. Finally, the two-story main dining room located on decks 4 and 5 boasts views on three sides as well as a beautiful chandelier and modern yet elegant design. We were very impressed with the upkeep and cleanliness of all of these highly trafficked areas.
The Complimentary Food
While I would say that the quality of the food was on par with what we had experienced on Royal Caribbean ships, which we actually enjoy in spite of what many are saying, the big stand out for us was the variety and options we had each day. For example, in the buffet at breakfast there were omelette stations, an eggs benedict station and even a toast station. Aside from that, there were a variety of other options geared towards different nationalities and food styles. At lunch, you could get a panini made to order, as well as a pizza made with your choice of toppings, and could also pick out ice cream flavors and toppings for it before heading out to the pool. Most days we ate lunch off of the ship but the burger we had a the mast grill was very tasty. Most mornings, we would get a coffee and pastry down at the cafe before heading up to the buffet for something a bit heavier. The pastries always tasted fresh and were a good way to start our day. As stated, the food in the main dining room was good but what made the experience better is that there were some great standard options each night as well as a good variety of other dishes that would change out each day. The food in the main dining room was good but certainly not incredibly elevated over what we have found on Royal Caribbean ships.
The Service
By far, the shining star amongst all of this was the service on board the Celebrity Millennium. We experienced some of the best service amongst all of the cruises we have gone on. Whether in the buffet, by the pool, down at the cafe or in the main dining room, every single interaction that we had with the crew was positive and went above and beyond our expectations. In the main dining room, our head waiter made spot on recommendations every night. If a dish had not received the highest reviews, she would tell us to skip it and get something else instead. She would inform us that the next night would be fish night so to wait and order the fish tomorrow. Our head waiter and assistant waiter got to know what we liked and were able to anticipate this for us. Because we had the drink package, the sommelier that we had assigned to our table learned what wines we preferred and would make sure to keep our glasses full. The great service certainly added to our enjoyment of all of our meals while on board the Celebrity Millennium.
We did pre-purchase the 3-night dining package so we did get to eat at Le Petit Chef, the Tuscan Grille (their Italian Steak House), and Sushi on 5. Probably the best argument for eating at the specialty dining restaurants on the Celebrity Millennium is that on a 12-night itinerary you are bound to want a change of pace from the main dining room each night for almost two weeks. And, we grabbed the dining pack during Black Friday and got a great deal. I do recommend purchasing the dining package, especially if it is another long itinerary like the one we went on, but between eating dinner in the main dining room or at the buffet you could find enough variety, quality and could enjoy the service from those venues enough to leave the ship feeling satisfied.
If wanting to get on board a ship and sail around East Asia as we did, I would love to help you book that next dream cruise.