celebrity millenium september 11 2015 vancouver to shanghai

Hi cruisers...we're Lee and Nobo from Ft. Lauderdale, a recently married couple that has been together for 43 years. We've lived in Asia on and off for the past 25 years and are looking forward to going back to the motherland (Nobo is Japanese) and I'm looking forward to xia long bao (soup dumplings)in Shanghai. Anyone else onboard who enjoys trivia?

Hi Lee and Nobo!

We are Dave and Wes from Toronto and although we booked a while ago, we are just now seriously planning our itinerary both for the ports of call and some land travel in China after the cruise. What have you got planned? We both enjoy onboard trivia. Congrats on the recent nuptials!

Dave and Wes

Hi Dave and Wes...glad you joined this forum and look forward to meeting you. Happy to hear we might have some trivia mates. Have you been to Asia before? Actually, we plan to do it pretty much on our own since Nobo is Japanese and I speak enough to get into trouble. Dutch Harbor looks interesting in its not being a typical tourist destination. So our big mission there is to eat King Crab! If you need some suggestions or thoughts very happy to give the benefits of our years of knocking about Asia.

Lee

I have been to Japan several times in the 80's and 90's using my best tourist Japanese which I haven't retained much of. Wes has never been so it will be all new for him. We are wading our way through all the posts in the main roll call for the cruise. We are also trying to decide whether we should hook up with other passengers who have arranged local tours or whether we can d-i-y it from the ports. I notice you have done the reverse Trans-Pacific cruise. How did you enjoy it and how different were the ports of call?

Also, from going through most of the roll call posts, there seem to be several other LGBT couples on our cruise.

Dave

Ohayo, Dave. Be fun to compare stories of Japan of years ago. I was actually living there in the late 60's to early 70's when I was a wee child...trying not to age myself :-) The reverse cruise is why we are taking this one. We really like the Millenium. The ports of call in Japan were interesting. We did not get off the ship in the Russian port due to weather and several comments by people who had been to (can't think or even spell the name). Other than that it's just the mind set of cruising the Bering Sea and of course the entrance to Vancouver.

We are off on Monday on a TA from Miami to the Baltics..so we may not be checking emails for a week till we hit a port with free wifi.

One suggestion that we plan on having an LGBT lunch on the second day out in the dining room. We've done that before with great success. Some people seem more relaxed meeting socially over lunch than over cocktails (your truly). Of course, this will depend on when the Meet and Greet, Cabin Crawl etc. takes place. We can always plan this later. Let me know your thoughts.

Lee

Hi Lee,

The dining room lunch is a great idea. We often arrange them on sea days when everyone is in a more relaxed mood. However, we usually recruit from barflies at FOD or LGBT bar meets.

Hope you both are having lots of fun on your TA cruise!

Dave

Hi Dave,

Hope you and Wes are doing well.

Just back from our NCL TA and the Baltics. Great trip. Through this forum met several guys and our group ended up being about 32 gay men. Lots of laughs, eating, drinking and socializing. Hope we can replicate on our TP cruise. We had a second day at sea lunch which drew about 20 of us and on the final night we booked about 4 tables (ten each) for an FOD Farewell Dinner, complete with

LGBT and friends. The dining room staff were incredibly supportive and joined the fun.

Hope others join us on this site.

Lee

Hi Dave and Wes,

It's been a while...hope you guys are having a fun summer. Can't believe sail time is almost here. How are your plans shaping up. Other than trying to find a restaurant in Dutch Harbor to have king crab, we've pretty much left everything open.

See you onboard...Lee and Noboru

Hey Lee and Nobo,

Good to hear from you! Wes and I are at our cabin where we spend 2 months during the summer. All of Wes' 5 siblings also have cabins nearby so it turns into a family reunion of sorts through the summer. We haven't latched onto any of the pivately-arranged tours on the Japanese ports from the main Cruisecritic thread and will try to muddle on on our own. When we dock in Shanghai, we are joining up with a Canadian tour company that is taking us on a 14-day China land tour/Yangtze River cruise. The tour drops us off in Hong Kong where we will stay another 11 days on our own. Have you been sharpening up your trivia pencils?

Dave & Wes

Hi Guys

My name is Mike and I am sailing on the September Millennium cruise from Vancouver. I am retired, single and traveling alone. I have done many cruises and am Elite ( Diamond Plus) so will be using the lounge in the evening.

I hope to meet you on board - although the ships notice board usually shows the GBLT meetings at some difficult time and in a bar which isn't very conducive to meeting as a group. We may even have met before.

Anyway, nice to know there are some "friends": on board.

Hi Mike and welcome aboard our posting...happy you contacted us. My thought is to get together for lunch in the dining room on the second day of the cruise, Saturday, Sept. 12. Meet in the area around the sign in desk at noon. How does this sound to you, Dave and Wes? Open invite, so if you meet others in the LGBT gathering in the bar bring them along.

And for those who are visiting this site (apparently a lot) but have not joined in, please come to lunch on Saturday.

Lee

Hi Lee and Nobu and Mike,

Lunch on Saturday sounds like a great plan. We will mention it to all Members of The Club we run across!

Dave & Wes

Flavio ,single guy sailing from Vancouver to Asia in September looking to meet other gay guys

Hi Flavio, glad you've joined us. I'm sure you've read the thread and know we are planning a lunch meet at the dining room at noon on Saturday, Sept. 12.

Look forward to meeting you.

Lee

Hi folks,

We're Mark and Stuart Kelvin from Glasgow and have just fortuitously found this thread having searched for 'Celebrity Millenium'. We've been chatting away on the Roll Call so may have seen you there. We've joined a couple of tours through the roll call - one is with a tour guide for 3 or 4 hours for a quick tour of Dutch Harbour before being left to our own devices and the second is post cruise in Shanghai - a visit to Suzhou gardens organised by Matthew and Mimi. We've booked on to the Celebrity Inohea trekking tour and we considering the 'Shanghai with hotel drop off' tour as this apparently works out a good deal cheaper than taxi to the Bund. We usually go it alone in port and are hoping to visit the Sky Tree in Tokyo but other than that would welcome suggestions from your previous experiences :)

Count us in for lunch and thanks for organising. I'm pretty sure there's nothing else planned that we've committed to on the roll call so will see you there. Other than that you'll likely find us at the martini bar in the evenings, please say hello if you see us.

The group have organised pre cruise drinks at the Steamworks at 18:30 if anybody fancies joining us?

Mark and Stuart

Hi Mark and Stewart, glad you also found us. Our group is slowly growing. Actually I have been following the roll call but am not on it. Nobo and I are not overly large group focused and enjoy meeting people at our own pace. Probably a bit selfish as we are benefiting by the incredible conversations and information passed along in that thread. Now that I have confessed...really pleased to see you are on Mark and Mimi's Suzhou tour as we are too! I'm waiting to hear from Mark on time, place, cost, booking train tickets online, etc. So if you have any additional info would appreciate hearing from you leemil2003@yahoo.com

Regarding the lunch on Saturday, Sept 12 my thought was to meet at noon in the small lobby in front of the check in for the dining room on Deck 4.

If others are reading this please let me know if this interests you as well. Last cruise we had about 24 people signed up and I was able to get the dining room captain to reserve tables for us.

We are getting in pretty late in the 10th and are staying at a hotel near the airport.

So we'll be looking out for you....kilts and all :-)

Lee

Sorry for the late reply...love to have lunch on Saturday. I will be there and look forward to meeting you all.

I am in Vancouver nights of the 9th and 10th and will be staying in Shanghai for 4 nights when we arrive, then fly to Beijing and 4 nights there before returning home to Toronto.

I got a student tour guide in Shanghai - not sure yet of the itinerary but it helps the student out financially and is a lot cheaper than a professional tour guide.

Anyway, hope to see you all on Saturday.... MIKE

Hi Dave, Wes, Mike, Flavio, Mark and Stuart....wish you all a pleasant journey to the ship. Nobo and I are looking forward to meeting you all at lunch on Saturday, if not before.

Cheers, Lee