toontown

We are planning a trip to the Mediterranean and it looks like it will come down to choosing between the Grand Princess or the Celebrity Millenium. I always thought that the Celbrity ships were upscale, especially compared to the Princess line, however, the travel websites that I have looked at rate the Grand higher than the Millenium? Should I believe these ratings?

Also, when comparing the Grand with the Millenium, there are less ports on the 12 day cruise on the Millenium compared to the 12 day cruise on the Grand, but the time spent at the port is longer (so there are more at sea days). What is better?

Thanks for any information you can provide.

spur

I sailed Grand, but not Millenium, and not surprised the Grand rates higher. Princess is a very good quality line and based on what I know, stands very close to Celebrity. The only edge (may be) Celebrity holds over Princess is food. Keep in mind that rates are based on judgmental reviews. Of the same cruise, you'll find from "terrible" to "great" opinions. The bottom line is you can't go wrong with either one. As for ports, I think less ports and more time in each is better, since all stops are very interesting and some are pretty far from pier, so Millenium would be better. Moneywise, you may find a better deal on Grand as Celebrity does not allow any price discount. On a 12-day cruise in a balcony or suite the difference can be significant. Just decide what's more important for you.

traveller333

Not sure why you're limiting your choices to just those two ships. IMO, the best cruises we've had in the Mediterranean were on much smaller ships. They go to lesser known ports where the large mega ships could never go. You may want to consider Seabourn, Silversea, Radisson and Oceania lines. The entire experience is so much better than when we've gone on the large ships. If the exact itineraries don't suit your needs, you can also do what we did and go on a back to back to extend it to 14 days. My favorite Med port is probably Istanbul.

ParrotMom

My original comments were eaten up.. We just came back from a 15 day Celebrity Century to West. Med. to Ft. Lauderdale..Large ships are not our thing and the most important to us were the ports.. Starting from Barcelona we went to Nice, Rome, Porta Delardo, Nassau, Corsica and Malaga. At our funky hotel we met several people doing the Millenium...First the food.. the food, especialy the meats (we are fish eaters) was to die for as was their desserts...fish was not their strong point.. Instead of going to Rome we met up with other people on the board and went to Tuscany.. Tuscany was the highlight of the trip..Orvieto, Montepulciano and Pienza, Malaga.. second best stop... Corsica I could live without Porta Delardo interesting and Nassau.. couldn't wait to get back on the ship.. Nice was lovely, wish we had planned our day better.. This taste of cruising and visiting p orts in Europe has me captivated. Next trip I hope to do a route that includes Florence... so I can visit more of Tuscany.. The best part is that we went mid-October after most of the tourists were gone and only the cruise ships were visiting before they came back.

xpi6tiva

My husband and I just sailed on Millie this last October. It was the best trip we have ever been on. The service was amazing, the food was good.

The main reason we booked with Celebrity was because of the generous time in port. We really got to enjoy each port to it's fullest. We had private tours set up in Villefranche, Livorno, Civatavecchia, and Naples. We did Barcelona, Athens, Mykonos(omited from next years cruise), Santorini, Dubrovnik, and Venice. This was a sampler trip, simply to see where we would like to do a land trip to. Our favorites were the Cote d'azur, Florence, Rome, and Venice. We are actually planning a return trip to Italy in '07.
We have friends who say Princess is a great cruise line too. So I would say pick the one that visits all the ports you want to see with enough time to really explore.

jacketwatch

According to passenger reviews on cruise critic, the Mill is rated 4.9 and the Grand is 4.5. As these are both very good marks then go with what itinerary suits you the best.
I don't think you can say the OP has "limited" himself or herself to these two choices until you know what other lines were considered and ruled out. Bon voyage!

toontown

Thanks for your replies, your responses are very helpful. I agree that I like the long port times in places like Santorini and Athens which is pushing me towards choosing Celebrity, but aren't the meal times fairly rigid on the Millenium? I went on a Princess cruise earlier this year and liked the flexible dining option. On the flip side, the longer port times give you an opportunity to find a nice restaurant in places like Santorini or Athens. For those of you who have cruised the Med on Celebrity, did you come back to the ship to grab a quick dinner, then go back touring or did you stay in town?

sailawaytoday

There is a Celebrity Mediterranean Cruise Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Medite...Celebrity/join

vivienleigh

check out Monica's review of her Mille cruise http://www.luvtotravel.homestead.com/Cruise03.html

and John & Betty's review of their Mille cruise http://home.mchsi.com/~jbglenn3/cruz.html

lindam

You don't HAVE to eat in the dining room on Celebrity. We had late seating, which gave us more than enough time to visit the ports. I would not recommend early seating on this type of cruise. Millenium offered a buffet dinner many evenings. Also, you can have a "healthy" dinner in the spa. The pasta/pizza bar is open every night. Some nights, we would eat at those places instead of the dining room.

Have you been to Athens? Most people aren't crazy about that port. If you choose to stay longer, make sure you know how you are getting back to the ship! You will LOVE Santorini and Mykonos! Dubrovnik is a definite highlight!

mba

10 years ago my husband and i cruised the med on MSC. they have grown since then but we found it was a great cruise. smaller ships more european quests, they didnot have the fancy casinos that the bigger lines have and the foo foo drinks, but they sure know how to show everyone a wonderful time by really letting us see all the wonderful ports of call, suppling us with wonderful guides, and great italian food. its an italian liner. we loved it and would use them again.