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 and have a guest capacity of approximately 1,900, and be delivered in June 2000 and January 2001, respectively. She was launched on 7 November 1999 from the shipyard. 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. before re-positioning in December to
Port Everglades in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida to sail cruises in the
Caribbean through the winter.
Australasia, and the Caribbean. In May 2011, a female passenger in her sixties was declared missing when she failed to disembark at a port call in
San Diego. Security cameras on the ship showed that she had jumped off the ship into the waters between
Cabo San Lucas and San Diego. 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. Because of the
COVID-19 pandemic, in February 2020, Celebrity cancelled all Asia cruises on
Celebrity Millennium and re-deployed her to
Los Angeles to sail complimentary cruises in March and April 2020 for
first responders and military personnel. However, all sailings were cancelled after the company halted operations on 13 March 2020. The ship was berthed or anchored offshore near San Diego throughout much of the pandemic; after months of difficulty repatriating crew members, up to 480 crew members still remained on board the ship in May 2020. In summer 2021,
Celebrity Millennium joined Celebrity Edge in becoming the second ship in its fleet to re-start North American Operations, offering few sailings out of St. Maarten prior to being repositioned to Seattle were in July 23 she became the 2nd ship worldwide to resume Alaska sailings. == Design and specifications ==