Celebrity Millennium Singapore to Hong Kong - March 3, 2013

[hinterlandboyz2@gmail.com]

Our Stateroom # is 7033

[CruisinMaterial]

Hey Guys!

 

I don't have an assigned stateroom as of yet. I know I will be somewhere inside on Deck 2 from the looks of it but since our cruise is now sold out I wonder why my cabin hasn't been assigned. Dealing with a middle person between me and the cruise line makes me very uneasy. I've been burned too many times!

 

I have been caught up in work related matters and political crap in the USA so that I was busy but now that politics are done (for now) I can resume looking forward to vacation. Oh yeah, that pesky Christmas holiday is in the middle too! The FUN never ends!! :rolleyes::D:eek:

 

I know I get a comp'd dinner in the Olympic dining room for booking the trip through PP. I am not sure if it's an assigned night though.

 

Less than 4 months to go!!!

[hinterlandboyz2@gmail.com]

My partner and I will look forward to meeting any other gay guys on the cruise who may like want to meet up with us. :)

[CruisinMaterial]

Just a head's up... since we're approaching the final payment time period there have been some rooms which have freed up. If you can afford an upgrade, you may want to check to see if any of the rooms would be available for what you're looking for! Still hoping I sell the other berth in my cabin so I CAN upgrade! :D

[tiggerman101]

I am keeping a look out. We have one of those odd shaped cabins on the front of deck 7. I picked it because it is supposed to be larger then a normal OV room. I also figured we would upgrade when the prices dropped (I had no idea these cruises would sell like they are). I think the room will be interesting, but it is pretty far from my morning coffee.

[minmi]

Hello, I'm Sharon. First time user of this forum. My hubbie, son and a friend are doing this cruise as well. Have book a sky suite and friend has a cabin. we are from Australia. Very excited about this holiday. Having a week in Singapore before cruise and a week in Hong Kong after

[hinterlandboyz2@gmail.com]

Hi Sharon and welcome to the site and all its goings on. My male partner and I, live on the Susnhine Coast, Qld, originally from Auckland but don't hold that against us,are also looking forward very much to this particular cruise from Singapore to Hong Kong

[minmi]

Nice to meet you. we are very excited about our holiday. Its our first big overseas holiday together. i travelled pre marriage but since settling down I have mostly travelled within Australia. We have a week in Singapore and also in Hong Kong, booked all out tours for that part of trip. Still looking at shore excursions. Look forward to more chats with you guys,, Sister in law is a Kiwi, so could not hold that against you at all. We live in Newcastle ( Minmi)

[hinterlandboyz2@gmail.com]

Well every good aussie family need to have at least 1 or 2 kiwi's relations :)

 

We usually cruise once a year would like to cruise more however we have a small home business which we can't be months on end away from it. The gentleman who rents our cottage on our property has his kiwi sister living in Newcastle with her husband and family, well actually Port MacQuirie not too sure if that's how's it spelt! You and your family will really enjoy the cruise. Who knows we could ever 'bump' into each other on board.

Ashley and Paolo-Andrea

[CruisinMaterial]

I am keeping a look out. We have one of those odd shaped cabins on the front of deck 7. I picked it because it is supposed to be larger then a normal OV room. I also figured we would upgrade when the prices dropped (I had no idea these cruises would sell like they are). I think the room will be interesting, but it is pretty far from my morning coffee.

 

Wherever I am in the hold of the ship will be a long walk to any food. It will be down low and forward! There's no way I'm doing that many stairs to get to the buffet... not with all day long tours!! :eek: Maybe I'll bump into you when I'm doing a half awake jaunt up the elevators! :D

 

Just think you'll get to see when the ship pulls in the morning and when it leaves at night without leaving your cabin. I have to leave my cabin to see that or turn on the window!!! :D

[CruisinMaterial]

Hello, I'm Sharon. First time user of this forum. My hubbie, son and a friend are doing this cruise as well. Have book a sky suite and friend has a cabin. we are from Australia. Very excited about this holiday. Having a week in Singapore before cruise and a week in Hong Kong after

 

Hi Sharon!

 

Welcome aboard! Are you a first time cruiser as well as new to this website? Glad that you have your entire family along! It's going to be an awesome trip! I think a good part of the vessel will be from Australia with a small US contingent onboard. I am jealous of your pre and post cruise stays! I will I had the time to do more.

 

Again welcome to you and your family! :)

[minmi]

:cool:I have had the most wonderful day. The Celebrity Millenium came into our harbour ( Newcastle, Australia) this morning so we went in to watch it arrive and its leaving in about 40 mins so I am heading back in to wacth it leave.

I have cruised before a couple of times and hubbie and son have done a short 2 night cruise to test the waters so to speak.

I am so excited about this holiday as we normally travel around Australia. I have been to Singapore and Hong Kong before but not Thailand or Vietnam. I chose this cruise because of the variety and the chance to rest up between cointries. Mitchell is 15 and had Down Syndrome, while he travels well and enjoys meeting people and seeing new things I was not sure how he and hubbie would handle full on days each day.

 

uote=CruisinMaterial;36071761]Hi Sharon!

 

Welcome aboard! Are you a first time cruiser as well as new to this website? Glad that you have your entire family along! It's going to be an awesome trip! I think a good part of the vessel will be from Australia with a small US contingent onboard. I am jealous of your pre and post cruise stays! I will I had the time to do more.

 

Again welcome to you and your family! :)

[Big Timber]

Hello, I'm Sharon. First time user of this forum. My hubbie, son and a friend are doing this cruise as well. Have book a sky suite and friend has a cabin. we are from Australia. Very excited about this holiday. Having a week in Singapore before cruise and a week in Hong Kong after

 

Hi Sharon:

I have noted your entries with interest for several reasons. I see that your teen age son has Downe Syndrome. I am a retired Social Worker having been with an agency in California for 28 years serving people with Developmental Special Needs. It sounds like your son will have a wonderful experience on this cruise. In addition you are in a Sky Suite (6099 I believe). My travel agent site indicates that Sky Suite 6146 is currently vacant. I have read lots of comments indicating that it is one of the best Sky Suites on this ship. You might want to check with your travel agent about switching. For one thing, 6146 has a much larger balcony and I understand the decor is also better. I look forward to meeting you and your family on board. Tom.

[minmi]

Thank you for your suggestion. We looked at that suite when we booked but chose middle of ship for safety in case any one gets sick. Hoping that middle of ship might be better than back. I watched the ship sail in and out of our harbour yeaterday and it looks beutiful, Its the largest cruise ship to come into Newcastle.

My only other dilemma is drinks packages. To buy or not to buy. I am getting Mitchell a soada package but not sure what to do about hubbie and myself. We like a drink but not sure what to do, any suggestions apart from smuggling duty free on board. HaHa only joking.:cool:

[Big Timber]

Thank you for your suggestion. We looked at that suite when we booked but chose middle of ship for safety in case any one gets sick. Hoping that middle of ship might be better than back. I watched the ship sail in and out of our harbour yeaterday and it looks beutiful, Its the largest cruise ship to come into Newcastle.

My only other dilemma is drinks packages. To buy or not to buy. I am getting Mitchell a soada package but not sure what to do about hubbie and myself. We like a drink but not sure what to do, any suggestions apart from smuggling duty free on board. HaHa only joking.:cool:

 

Sounds like you have been doing your homework so I imagine you have checked out the Celebrity Board here. There are a lot of opinions there about the drink package. I have been on one Celebrity cruise before and I got the premium drink package. It was worth it, but I also drank more than I would have otherwise. I've decided, as this trip is pretty port intensive, not to get it and see how my bar bill compares to what a drink package would have been. There is still a chance that Celebrity will offer a 10% reduction on the packages before we sail and that might change my mind.

[CruisinMaterial]

:cool:I have had the most wonderful day. The Celebrity Millenium came into our harbour ( Newcastle, Australia) this morning so we went in to watch it arrive and its leaving in about 40 mins so I am heading back in to wacth it leave.

I have cruised before a couple of times and hubbie and son have done a short 2 night cruise to test the waters so to speak.

I am so excited about this holiday as we normally travel around Australia. I have been to Singapore and Hong Kong before but not Thailand or Vietnam. I chose this cruise because of the variety and the chance to rest up between cointries. Mitchell is 15 and had Down Syndrome, while he travels well and enjoys meeting people and seeing new things I was not sure how he and hubbie would handle full on days each day.

 

I love watching cruise ships come into and out of Boston harbor when its our season to have them. This year was crazy with the amount of last minute port calls at the end of the season due to Hurricane Sandy hitting NYC area ports pretty badly. I've never had the Millennium here that I can remember. Boston has a dedicated NCL ship (largely a North American brand although Star Cruises their half owner does service the Asian market) and this season we had a Carnival ship home port here. I can imagine you must be super excited after seeing the very ship you're sailing on twice in the same day!

 

Cruising is the best way to go for ports. It gives you a sampling of a place to see if it's worth it to return back to immerse yourself there or not. Cruising allows me a place to unpack once but see the world! If I should win our big lotto I'm going to do a cruise around the world! :)

 

I'm sure your son and hubby will enjoy the cruise immensely! It's going to be port intensive so the sea days will be a big help. I'm guessing you are not doing the overland Cambodia tour? :cool: It's sold out for singles and the couples is gone too from last check, even with people cancelling off the cruise. I have yet to meet a person on any forum that's doing it!

 

About the packages on Celebrity, the soda is always a good way to go if you like soda mixers for any smuggled hooch! I will not be drinking much this cruise so I will be passing on the alcohol packages. I am looking seriously at the bottled water ones though since going ashore and trusting water sources in some places is not advisable. I might tank up on bottled water in Singapore before embarkation though.

[CruisinMaterial]

Sounds like you have been doing your homework so I imagine you have checked out the Celebrity Board here. There are a lot of opinions there about the drink package. I have been on one Celebrity cruise before and I got the premium drink package. It was worth it, but I also drank more than I would have otherwise. I've decided, as this trip is pretty port intensive, not to get it and see how my bar bill compares to what a drink package would have been. There is still a chance that Celebrity will offer a 10% reduction on the packages before we sail and that might change my mind.

 

This may sound like an odd question but on NCL I know the answer by heart! How much does a Grey Goose mixed drink cost on Celebrity? I would be grateful if you know the answer and would share!

[Big Timber]

This may sound like an odd question but on NCL I know the answer by heart! How much does a Grey Goose mixed drink cost on Celebrity? I would be grateful if you know the answer and would share!

 

Sorry, I don't know as I had the premium drink package and had several Grey Goose Martini's every night! However, I never checked to see what the cost would be if I had paid per drink. However, as I said before, I got my monies worth.:rolleyes:

[CruisinMaterial]

Sorry, I don't know as I had the premium drink package and had several Grey Goose Martini's every night! However, I never checked to see what the cost would be if I had paid per drink. However, as I said before, I got my monies worth.:rolleyes:

 

With being off the ship so much I'm not sure I'm going to have time to be ON the ship and drink! I'll probably just be eating and sleeping there and some nights I won't even be doing that! :eek: Thanks for replying though! :)

[CruisersSFO]

Hi Everyone -

 

Been busy lately, so haven't been able to check this thread. If you haven't noticed, this cruise is now SOLD OUT! They ended up raising the prices $1,000 (and more) per person before all was said and done! So glad we booked early...

 

For those of you thinking of flying to Angkor Wat while in BKK or SGN, it is something that should be on everyone's "Bucket List"! However, if you do that then you will miss BKK and SGN (sorry for using my airline terminology...hope you are all following!) which are both great and exciting cities!

 

We are planning on booking private tours in BKK, SGN and Hanoi. I've learned that you get to see more, go places the big tour operators can't, and in general it's just a lot more fun! I am going to start looking in January for private tour operators, and I'll let you know what we find...

 

Since Adrian has limited time for this vacation, we are arriving in SIN on Saturday, March 2...just in time to board the ship. SIN is a great city...with FANTASTIC food...and fun to explore. We plan on having drinks at Raffles Hotel (they invented the "Singapore Sling"...ahem...) A friend who lives in HKG is meeting us there and we are going to do a private tour of HKG at the end of the cruise before flying back to SFO.

 

So looking forward to seeing everyone onboard - and at the FOD nights (most likely a the Martini Bar?) - and in the gym! We weren't sure we were going to be able to go, but Adrian just got the "green light" for his time off in March, so we are READY!

 

Can't wait!

 

Thom & Adrian

[CruisersSFO]

Wow, lucky you to have a FV Aft Corner stateroom. On my last cruise I had a FV Aft next to the corner and that was great. I tried to get one for this trip but they never opened up to a solo traveler. I'm on this cruise with Pied Piper group. Does anyone have hotel recommendations for Singapore?

See you all aboard.

 

Hey Big Timber - We're staying at the Carlton Hotel, right next to Raffles Hotel. I've stayed there before while in SIN on business, and it's a nice hotel and they have good rates if you book and pay in advance (they are giving me a good corporate rate). It's NOT Raffles by any stretch...but then it's a lot less expensive, too!

 

Thom

[Big Timber]

Hey Big Timber - We're staying at the Carlton Hotel, right next to Raffles Hotel. I've stayed there before while in SIN on business, and it's a nice hotel and they have good rates if you book and pay in advance (they are giving me a good corporate rate). It's NOT Raffles by any stretch...but then it's a lot less expensive, too!

 

Thom

 

Hi Thom, Thanks for the recommendation. I have booked with the Intercontinental in Singapore as have a couple of other guys whom I met on my last cruise with Pied Piper. Tom.

[CruisinMaterial]

For those of you thinking of flying to Angkor Wat while in BKK or SGN, it is something that should be on everyone's "Bucket List"! However, if you do that then you will miss BKK and SGN (sorry for using my airline terminology...hope you are all following!) which are both great and exciting cities!

 

Thom & Adrian

 

Congrats on getting approval for the time off!

 

I have a bucket list of things to do but a limited time to do them in which is why I'm doing the Cambodian tour during the cruise. It's costly yes but I will get every minute out of the tour as possible. I am also doing tours on the first Bangkok day and the second day in Saigon so I will get to see as much of those places as I can. I agree going on smaller tours is a better idea. I have to become comfortable with the locations first to try something like that. I know of too many horror stories where people failed to make it back due to one thing or other. At least with a ship sponsored tour they have to wait for you! Being a half a world away from what I know (which is Caribbean destinations) I am not going to chance it. I give props to all of you doing independent tours! I wish you all safe and awesome experiences!!

 

Don't worry about airport codes... I know my fair share of them thanks to my travels! :) I'm flying in the same day as you... I'm guessing you're going West to get SIN? I'm going EAST to get there since for me it's as broad as it is long... I may as well just take the airline I like with a connection on what I heard is one of the BEST in that region!! :D

 

In HK I have a huge wait before my flight at 11PM so if your friend could be of help on what to do with my luggage and what's close to the airport to explore, that'd be really really appreciated! THANKS!

[minmi]

Final payment made, now it feels real. So excited for this holiday. Still looking at shore excursions, decisions, decisions. Sharon:rolleyes:

[CruisinMaterial]

Final payment made, now it feels real. So excited for this holiday. Still looking at shore excursions, decisions, decisions. Sharon:rolleyes:

 

I'm still waiting for word on final payment here! I've never done this before through what is otherwise a travel agent. I'm still waiting for my invoice to pay it. I guess they like to pull it close to the time.

 

Don't wait too long on the shore excursions! You might get shut out of the ones you really want to go on. I know there's been some cancellations lately and that usually happens prior to final payment but after final payment people are going to get serious about the trip and those excursions will go! My advice: BOOK NOW! :D