GTS Celebrity Millennium (formerly Millennium) is a cruise ship operated by Celebrity Cruises. She is the lead ship of her namesake class, whose ships are powered by gas turbines. Delivered in 2000, she is the oldest operating ship in Celebrity's fleet.

History

Planning and construction

In February 1998, Royal Caribbean signed a letter of intent with Chantiers de l'Atlantique to build two new ships, with an option for two more, that would make up a new class of ships, dubbed the Millennium class. Designed to be an evolution from Celebrity's Century-class ships, these new ships were originally planned to measure 85,000 GT and have a guest capacity of approximately 1,900, and be delivered in June 2000 and January 2001, respectively.

The ship was the first new-build vessel for Celebrity following the merger between it and Royal Caribbean, and also Celebrity's first new-build not built by German shipyard Meyer Werft. She was launched on 7 November 1999 from the shipyard. She set out for her first set of sea trials on 7 April 2000 and her second set on 21 April 2000. She was initially scheduled to be delivered on 31 May 2000, but her delivery was delayed to 22 June 2000. She was christened in Southampton on 26 June 2000 by Robyn Roux, wife of French celebrity chef Michel Roux. Her first port of registry was Monrovia, Liberia.

Operational career

Following her christening, Millennium sailed her maiden voyage on 1 July 2000 from Amsterdam to Baltic ports. Following an inaugural Europe season, she debuted in North America in New York in November 2000 before re-positioning in December to Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to sail cruises in the Caribbean through the winter. She sailed in the Mediterranean the following summer. Since 2001, the ship has sailed extensively throughout Europe, Australasia, and the Caribbean.

In December 2012, the ship debuted in Asia after arriving at her homeport of Singapore, where the ship has been primarily deployed through the winter; in the summer, she has primarily sailed in Alaska.

In fall 2021, Celebrity Millennium is scheduled to return to cruising in the Caribbean.

Design and specifications

Millennium's original hull livery featured a predominantly dark blue paint with yellow and white bands lining the vessel. Upon delivery, she became the world's first cruise ship to use a turbo-electric COGAS power plant. The COGAS plant consists of gas and steam turbines, with the latter being driven by steam generated using the heat from the exhaust of the gas turbines. In this way, some of the otherwise lost energy is reclaimed and the specific fuel consumption of the plant is decreased. Propulsion is provided by two "Mermaid" azimuth pod-propulsion units from Kamewa and Cegelec (now Alstom).

The ship was also built featuring the Olympic Restaurant, a specialty restaurant that contained the walnut wood panels that were used on the RMS Olympic (sister ship to the ill-fated RMS Titanic and HMHS Britannic) and removed and preserved when the ship was sold for scrap in 1935.

In early 2019, the ship was refurbished during a 35-day dry dock in Singapore at the Sembcorp Marine shipyard in Sembawang. Among the changes were 30 new passenger cabins.