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Sort of LIVE Celebrity Millennium Nov. 28 and Dec. 3rd B2B's


dmwnc1959

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I've never done a LIVE thread before and know of at least one other Cruise Critic member bbdqsony also doing a LIVE thread for this sailing, so hopefully together we'll cover all aspects and highlights of this specific cruise and the following Dec. 3rd sailing. I loved the LIVE threads recently posted by KagarooCruiser and Tuggers, both brilliant, and I'm sure my meager offerings will pale in comparison.

 

I awoke just before 3:30am this morning unable to sleep. I work midnight shifts, have so for at least the last year and a half, and it was very difficult trying to flip my hours in just one day to try and get ready for the cruise Monday.

 

I have sort of started packing, the bulk of it I'll be doing this morning. Did'nt see the point in having the clothes sit there for two days getting all wrinkled and waiting for me to board the ship. I'm going to cram everything into a single 28" rolling suitcase and carry-on. I'll be on vacation (land and sea) for 17 days total so this will be a bit of a challenge.

 

Last year I cruised the Celebrity Mercury from Baltimore and took the Greyhound bus over from Pittsburgh. I haven't flown in an airplane since 2004. I'll be leaving from a small regional airport (Clarksburg) mid-afternoon and flying non-stop to Dulles outside of DC, then early evening on wards to Miami arriving around 10pm. I'm staying in the Intercontinental downtown. I see by our Roll call there are others already en route from the west coast. People from all over the country converging on Miami!

 

A little bit about me: I'm 52 years old, enjoy quiet setttings and am a bit reserved (introvert, shy?) in my manner. Born and raised in the deep south, I have engrained into my personality all sorts of mannerisms and traits you would expect when you meet me 'face to face'. I have a roommate and two cats, and he has a dog which stays over at his girlfriends house most of the time since she has a very big yard. I have no yard. I have lived in north central West Virginia for the last six years, before that it was North Carolina (the NC part of my screen name), and spent 12 years in the US Navy. Before that I lived in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, which accounts for my favorite College Football teams.

 

Monday morning pre-cruise I plan on hitting the CVS for a case of water and some sunscreen, the latter was impossible to find in WV this time of year. Afterwards I have a ticket for the Hop-on Hop-off Open Top tour bus and plan on doing the 90 minute tour loop around Miami Beach. Then it's basically a toss up what to do, but I'll probably just check out of the hotel and head over to the ship sometim around 11am.

 

For this cruise I am booked into a standard ocean view cabin. I know of one CC member (momto3gr8boys) who has my exact cabin (on the Dec. 12th cruise) so I'll post details regarding this specific category.

 

Any others on this same cruise or B2B cruise who may not be doing a LIVE thread and want to add onto this thread with comments, experiences, and or pictures please fell free to do so. The more the merrier.

 

More to come later as I get closer to the destination: Celebrity MIllennium!

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Hi

We are sailing in Feb and will be staying in Miami pre cruise,

can you post the link to the Hop on Hop off tour bus.

That sounds like just the thing for us,

Have a great cruise, looking forward to your live posts.

Thanks:cool:

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Hi

Just realised you are visiting Roataan would be really grateful

for as much info regarding tours/taxis to the beaches etc.

Also what is it like where the ship docks, is there a beach in

walking distance etc.

Thanks

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Have a wonderful experience and continue to surprise and delight us!

 

Note that we enjoyed very much your pictures from the Celebrity's Mercury last year (you completed the sailing before our Holiday cruise on the same Celebrity ship)!

 

bon_voyage_card-p137245410070924330tdn0_210.jpg Happy sailings and enjoy yourself!

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Hi

We are sailing in Feb and will be staying in Miami pre cruise,

can you post the link to the Hop on Hop off tour bus.

That sounds like just the thing for us,

Have a great cruise, looking forward to your live posts.

Thanks:cool:

 

HERE is the link for the Hop on Hop off Bus Tours. I hope to have good weather Monday morning as it will be my only chance to get some good pictures of Miami Beach and the Art Deco district. I read over on the Florida Departures board of a CC member who recently did this and said it was well worth every penny. Looking forward to it!

 

Hi

Just realised you are visiting Roataan would be really grateful

for as much info regarding tours/taxis to the beaches etc.

Also what is it like where the ship docks, is there a beach in

walking distance etc.

Thanks

 

As far as Roatan, I haven't ever been there myself and really don't plan on straying too far from the ship, maybe some pier side shopping or close by. I'll get details of the facilities close by but as far as best tours and beaches I'd probably recommend heading over HERE to the Roatan Forum and maybe do a little reading. LOTS of great info there and I have been monitoring that board for several months. Like I said, I'm not straying past the front street of town here.

 

One thing I forgot to mention in the intro is that several months ago I contracted what they have tentatively diagnosed as IBS. This will make eating on the ship a new experience from last time where I indulged at every corner. I did fax the ship special dietary requests and confirmed with them by phone that they received it. Should be interesting how meals go in the MDR. I do plan on eating healthier and trying the offerings in the AquaSpa Cafe. The menu there looked quite nice.

 

All done now with the packing. The hardest part is just waiting to go to the airport for check-in there. I am flying United Airlines, did the on line check-in yesterday and printed out my boarding passes. I also have printed out from the cruise line confirmations of my OBC purchases through Celebrity Gifts as well as my Xpress Pass for embarkation, my hotel confirmation from LMT for the Intercontinental, and my Hop on Hop off Bus Tours vouchers.

 

Let the countdown begin! :D

 

.

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Have a wonderful experience and continue to surprise and delight us!

 

Note that we enjoyed very much your pictures from the Celebrity's Mercury last year (you completed the sailing before our Holiday cruise on the same Celebrity ship)!

 

Thanks for all the well wishes! :D Much appreciated!!!!

 

Daliflor, THANKS for the kind comments regarding my pictures, and yes the Celebrity Mercury will always have a special place in my heart. If anyone missed them here is a link to the albums taken during last years cruise vacation on her including my pre-cruise in Baltimore and a guided tour of the Nuclear Ship SAVANNAH. It was a vacation to top all vacations.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/57377062@N04/sets/

 

.

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Invested 7$ for a small luggage scale and man was it worth it. My single piece of checked luggage weighed exactly 49.5 pounds, 1/2 pound under limit. The poor lady that checked in after me, her suitcase weighed 65 pounds. They extracted 15 pounds of stuff then just ran out to buy a small carry-on to avoid the overage charges! Good thing it's a small local airport in a small town and K-Mart is three miles from here. Also love the free parking here. Saved a ton of money over driving to Pittsburgh, but then too I could have caught a non-stop flight. Bought my ticket back in January and it was $284 r/t. Not too shabby!

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The 1-hour flight from Clarksburg to Washington Dulles was uneventful despite some turbulence (felt like freakin bumper cars up there) and the fact that it was in a twin-turboprop puddle-jumper. You know you're on a small plane when they ask for volunteers to move to the front to even out the weight distribution.

 

We were also two passengers over booked (over the weight limit) even though there were an additional two empty seats. Volunteers got the next flight and $400 worth of vouchers. If I weren't heading for a cruise I'd been right up there!

 

The weather started out quiet messy but about 20 minutes into the flight the skies opened up and the rolling foothills below us were very pleasant.

 

Landing at IAD there was an Air France Airbus A-380 which was VERY VERY impressive!

 

4086476a-a411-cf34.jpg

 

4086476a-a431-5416.jpg

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After savoring just about one of the tastiest turkey burgers ever to cross my lips courtesy of Fuddruckers, I watched the Airbus A-380 leave then tried to figure out how to get from one terminal to another. Each terminal here is like an island to itself, and after descending down an escalator the size of a four-story building, taking a subway train from Terminal A, waking several miles, and ascending another 4-story escalator it was a 6 mile hike through a sea of humanity to terminal D. This place is huge.

 

Getting real sleepy having been up since 3:30am. That'll teach me. Can't wait to get to the Intercontinental and crash. Early start to the morning tomorrow!

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Looking forward to your "LIVE" postings. We will be on our first Celebrity cruise on the Millie on the Feb. 6 sailing. We are so looking forward to sailing on Celebrity. You will love the Intercontinental. We stayed there last year and enjoyed it. Thanks again for taking us along on your cruise.

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Thanks again for the comments. As far as keeping up this pace once aboard I'll try and update twice a day. I plan on buying the 90 minute package being non-Elite getting no real freebees. Tomorrow before I lose my AT&T signal I'll update as much as possible as well.

 

Have just boarded the plane to Miami. We walked out to the tarmac, were freed of our carry-on luggage (Captain wants it stowed in back, not in the cabin with us), then up a ramp to the plane. What's up with not letting us have carry-on's? This is the second time, both legs of the flight, no carry-on's. Had to take out my Netbook and digital camera. A bit of an inconvenience.

 

Flight time 2 hours and 20 minutes.

 

The worst part about travelling this time of year is its dark by 5pm. Not much to see out of my window.

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Engine problems. Pulling back into the gate. This is why you fly in the day before, and not the day of, the cruise. Hopefully we'll know shortly if they are cancelling the flight, changing equipment, or whatever. Argh.... :(

 

Oh, NOOOO! Good luck! Yes, day before is always good. Wishing you the best!

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After pulling back up to the gate everyone deplaned and collected our 'not-carry-on' carry-on's off of the luggage trolley and non-ceremoniously marched up the ramp stairs back into the terminal. Maintenance retrieved a replacement engine part and after an hour delay we...waited, and waited, and waited some more. Then we were switched to another terminal, and 66 passengers (yes, the plane was fully booked) marched down to the new gate a football field length away.

 

Finally our originally scheduled departure 7:20pm flight re-boarded a totally different replacement aircraft and left Dulles at 10pm, arriving into Miami (yea!) at 12:15am. An OJ style dash through to baggage claim and retrieval of my checked luggage, a 100+ deep queue of people waiting on taxi's (went pretty quick) and a 20 minute $23 + $5 tip taxi ride and VOILA.....

 

...all checked in and in the room at 1:10am.

 

I need some rest!!! ;)

 

.

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Hi there!! Just saw your post. Looking forward to see u onboard. It's 3am and I can't sleep lol

 

Just woke up for no reason, looked at the clok and bolted to the window like a kid on Christmas Day, and there is the Celebrity Millennium entering the turning basin! Wow. Now I'll never get back to sleep!!! ;)

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Just woke up for no reason, looked at the clok and bolted to the window like a kid on Christmas Day, and there is the Celebrity Millennium entering the turning basin! Wow. Now I'll never get back to sleep!!! ;)

 

Must be beautiful sight. I woke up cuz I couldn't sleep. I might will take nap in car going down to Miami. I'm from fort lauderdale.

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