mazza

11 hours ago, FlorenceItaly said:

Really enjoying your live posting.  Thank you so much!

Thank you!

Yes. I was glad to have read about a similar event on a recent cruise, so I wasn’t too worried, but it’s a worry that it’s happening at all.

Power went out on the Millennium this morning as we are sailing from Seoul to Tianjin - at about 11.30am local time for around 10 minutes. We had an announcement from Captain Alex saying that the engineers and electricians were troubleshooting and power would be back on in a few minutes and it was. At that time he said not to worry as we were sailing in safe waters. 😳 At a Captain’s Club event 30 minutes later, Captain Alex joked around, pulling out his phone and asking ‘did you pay the bill?’ After the event when he was talking with people his phone rang, and he turned away to talk, spoke to an officer and left the room. Hmmm.

The Internet has just come back on about 3.15pm. 

A few things about the cabin I forgot. There is a place to hang the bath mat over the shower door - I realised that just now when I had a shower. When I looked on Day 1, I didn't look hard enough obviously! There is also a bar for shaving legs and I agree its positioning is a little weird as your head ends up against the taps but it really couldn't go anywhere else. There a grab rail too and an extendable clothes line. 

There looks like you could store smallish things above the wardrobe too, and our two large and one small pieces of luggage went under the bed without any trouble. The air conditioning is working well for us, so earlier problems with it seem to have been fixed. And I really like the magnetic door and the big 'DEEP SLEEP' sign that you can whack on the outside of the door so you aren't disturbed.

And as an aside, the app is working well for me on board - a few of us arrived at 7am for breakfast in Blu this morning, and I pulled out my phone and confirmed it was actually 7.30am. Finding places on the ship is also easy using the app, and it has been working consistently since we boarded. 

A little more about the cabin beyond my initial thoughts. We are in 9106, and I am happy with the new style and decor generally, although some like Alan will baulk at the 'faux finishes'. The feeling I'm getting is more like being cocooned in this a comfortable yet not 'loud' space. It's just there and it's good to be in it - my view anyway. There is noise from above but it's incidental, background noise almost and certainly not enough to upset me (and excessive noise upsets me).

Now for some details. I am writing this at the desk which is long and narrow, and is now home for our electronics for charging. Two US and one European here and two USBs, so plenty of room and connections. That's not include the two US and four USBs in the bedside lamp, although once you put an adaptor plug in it's hard to get access to the USB points. The desk chair is comfortable and fits under the desk. The four drawers are unused, and the mirror over the desk is perfect when lit for makeup etc. 

What I'm calling the 'mini couch' is now home for our day bags and clothing waiting to be worn again. You could fit two people on here at a pinch and I don't miss the little table because we never have room service. The upside of smaller couch and no table is that it feels roomy in the space between the bed and the veranda door.

The balcony furniture is good, but it's been too cold to sit out there so far. It looks longer and narrower than the standard balcony on the S class. I don't think they did much to the underside of the overhang because it's got signs of rust.

As mentioned already the mattress on the bed is firm, but not so firm as to inflict hip pain and one firm mattress I had did. The pillows are way too soft for me but I love the new doona/quilt. Very snuggly. The bedside tables are fine and like others, I've put the phone on the shelf below. There's one shelf here I'm not using.

The safe is smaller - we are using it for our wallets and passports while our electronics are on the desk where we charge them when we go out. We've never had any problems leaving them out like this. We aren't using the cupboards above the well stocked fridge at all, and the four drawers next to the fridge we have used for pants, tops etc. The wardrobe is fine for what we brought - I've got the low hanging left hand side (no dresses) and Alan has the left hand side. I'm using the shelves for shoes and bags, and the space under Alan's clothes is for dirty clothes. We have only had one door clash with the bathroom door - I was standing at the wardrobe and Alan came out the bathroom, but it was no big deal.

The bathroom is small and perfectly formed. The open shelves work well, they are quite large, and the things we have put there have not moved one inch since we left Shanghai. There is some space too next to the sink and a good sized shelf under the sink which is where we put our toiletry bags. The shower is big, and the water does pool on the shower floor but there's no flooding of the room. The towels are nice and plush and for once Celebrity is following its long espoused environmental policy and not replacing towels if you hang them up. Not having somewhere to hang the bath mat is annoying, so we just leave it on the floor. Here too, there are signs on rust at some points on the door frame which appears to have a new cover over the old frame. There's also an adhesive covering on the door which still has air bubbles. I can't help but try and squish them out, but no success.

I won't include photos because there's been lots of them already but if you have any questions, or want a photo of something, let me know. I'll post on the next sea day about food and dining generally, after we've been to some more speciality restaurants. 

1 hour ago, Silkroad said:

Following. I’m enjoying your live review very much. We sailed on Millie for our first cruise (2006) and we’re to sail her again in 2021. I wish DH and I could go on a cruise with my siblings. We’re very close, though we’re separated by many miles. It’s lovely to see you all together🙂

I think we as a family are very lucky that we have always had a good relationship while our parents were alive even thought we too live miles (well kilometres for us) apart, but after our parents were no longer with us, that relationship actually got stronger and we agreed to holiday together once a year. It's really lovely being together in person again, and cruising is perfect for such reunions! 🙂

Seoul, South Korea

The sunrise this morning was quite good:

Incheon Sunrise

This was an early start as we had to be in the Theatre at 7.30am. I'll post the information we got about the Immigration process for the cruise when I've finished this post, but basically we had to go through South Korean immigration either independently or as part of your tour group this morning between 7.15-9.15am. You surrender your passport so the ship can process our arrival in Beijing, then at some stage we get our passports back because we have to have them with us while we are doing the multi-day tours. You can come back on board at night while the ship is docked in Tianjin but you can't go ashore between 10pm and 6am. We hand back passports so the ship can manage the Tianjin departure. It's a bit convoluted, but it seemed to work okay this morning.

It was freezing cold this morning when we we escorted out on the deck to get to the Rendezvous Lounge from the Theatre and avoid the queue, and it remained cold whenever we were in the open air - very cold, especially in the wind. Our tour guide, Joanne, said it was unusual for it to be this cold at this time of the year.

I booked the Art of Seoul tour because I wanted some history, as well as some down time to do your own thing (AKA shopping). Our bus ride to Seoul was about 90 minutes, with a fair bit of traffic in places and Joanne provided lots of information about Seoul and life/culture in South Korea. Our first stop was the National Palace Museum of Korea which is interesting because the palace had been demolished in 1993 because someone didn't like the architecture - more or less. It is a good place to immerse yourself in Korean history and learn of the kings and emperors, invasions and treaties that have marked Korea's history. It has artefacts from the Josean dynasty and for those of us interested in history, it was a great place to visit.

King's Placenta Jar, kept for posterity

Royal Throne

Formal dress

Gate to Gyeongbokgung Place

Joanne is a school teacher so she lined us up in two rows to walk to the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History across Gyeongbokgung Place, quite a large square where we got our first of many glimpses of young Koreans dressed up in rented national dress to have their photos taken at various historical places we went to in Seoul. 

National dress rental store

The Contemporary Museum focused on history from the early 19th century and took us through to the modern day. It too was an interesting and useful way to get a snapshot about Korean history in an hour, including the invasions, resistance movements and treaties that have marked Korea's history.

Leaving Gyeongbokgung Place

An early resistance newspaper

The start of the 38th parallel border

Next stop was an old street with modern stores where we had free time (eg shopping). Alan and I stayed in Starbucks because he wasn't 100% with aches and a fever. Although he's been taking paracetamol to keep it in check, he's feeling tired and isn't in the mood for shopping and neither am I. There weren't two seats together when we walked in I ordered as Alan worked to get two chairs together. Just as he finished, three nice South Korean men reorganised themselves so that we could sit at a table. That was nice. We sit by chance next to a Canadian couple visiting their daughter and son-in-law in Seoul, both cruisers too, so we had a nice chat before they left. Not long after Jenny and Elizabeth arrived to pick us up and we were back to the bus and off to lunch.

Lunch was Korean BBQ at the Maple Tree House (part of the tour). Joanne asked for volunteers to sit up the stairs (imagine her counting many stairs upwards as though it was a long climb) and we did along with two either. As it turned out another Celebrity bus arrived and downstairs was chaos Joanne told us when whe came to visit along with two other people. Lunch was wonderful - cooked at the table with rice and a range of sides. There were two servings of the beef, which we helped cook ourselves. Yummy.

Steak cooking

Steak eaten

Maple Tree restaurant entrance

Back on the bus, we headed to our last stop - Buckchon Hanok Traditional Village - an enclave of old traditional houses in the centre of Seoul. There was a particular street where we walked up a steepish hill to get a view across Seoul from the top and then to take a closer look at the houses and alleys from the outside. People live here so there were signs everywhere saying to be quiet, as Joanne had alerted us to, and one man who, as you walked gently shussed us as we passed as a reminded. One of our group got her photo taken with the young people in traditional dress, so I took a photo of them too. There was a little wait here till the bus arrived and AL tried some local green tea ice cream which he proclaimed as delicious.

Up we come

Traditional houses and streets

An example of young people in traditional dress

We then were off back to the port and after Joanne provided a little summary and some more information, she gave us 'nap time' which I think we all took advantage of. As we arrived in Incheon (meaning kind river), she gave some more info about the area and then we were back at the ship, earlier than usual by 30 minutes because the traffic was lighter than expected. A good tour despite the bus with a group of 40 with the Korean BBQ lunch as the highlight. Seoul is a very modern city, built up from Incheon to Seoul, busy vehicle and people wise, and very clean. It feels like a safe city that would be good to visit again.

There were several stalls on the pier with traditional South Korean arts, dress, craft and food, music and cute creatures waiting for us. That was nice. I got pulled up at security here because I'd left my phone in my pocket after taking a photo of the cute creatures so had to be screened again, but I don't mind that at all. Being able to tap your card is much quicker that having to hand it over to the security person to scan it too. 

South Korean wares

Cute creatures

We regathered in the Rendezvous Lounge for a pre-dinner drink, listening to the four person group with a female singer who sang 70s and 80s songs (matching the demographic of course!) before heading to Blu for dinner. We asked for Daniel again but it was quickly clear they were VERY busy tonight, as though something had gone wrong.I asked Daniel and he said yes he was busy but he was learning to cope with being busy with the help of his boss, all with a smile on his face. The filet mignon was the highlight here, beautiful, tender, melt in your mouth. Of course, my first attempt to take a food photo failed, but I've posed it anyway.

Bad photo of filet mignon

Dessert was had, even though it was unnecessary, and we left the others at the table to retreat to the cabin and another failed attempt to upload this post, so I went to bed. 

A few comments on the ship. From my perspective, the revolution has created a ship that is just . I may not have a fine eye for design though, but I didn’t see any glaring issues as I walked around today. There is a bit of a lack of attention in some places, like the wall finishes in Tuscan Grill entry where the tiling doesn’t seem to have been finished, but generally everything ticks boxes for me. My sister says the new staterooms are great, and she really likes the new colour tones and the more modern decor. She has sailed on Solstice before.

Alan hates the new OceanView Cafe but I don’t mind it. The circular nature of the serving areas means until you find out where everything you want is, you can walk in circles for a while. I like the mixture of furniture styles, although today at lunch when it was really busy - about 1-2pm, there were still people wandering around looking for a table, but it seemed like there was a lot more seating than before.

But the gym is way smaller that the gyms on other ships. It was crowded this morning when I up there and it feels claustrophobic. There’s no lack of equipment but it’s clustered close together in some places and finding floor space for mat work was a bit tricky today, but then it was a sea day.

As others have said, and we all agree, that the staff is wonderful. Friendly, smiling, nothing too much trouble. 

I’ll post other comments as they come to me, so I’ll finish for now.

On 3/28/2019 at 9:40 AM, musik07 said:

Looking forward to hearing about the revolution. I would love your opinion on the mattresses. I had posted on the revolution thread and got iffy answers. We have never had an issue on Celebrity with mattresses but on Royal my parents lug a topper to make it bearable, even after the revolution. I would love not to lug a topper to Alaska this summer so looking forward to an opinion! 

I checked this morning with everyone in our group (a grand total 6 people) and we all agreed we thought the mattresses are okay. I am a bit sensitive to firm mattresses but the one on our bed is fine - not too soft, not too hard. The pillows though are way to soft for my liking.

Day 3: Shanghai Part 2

Taking Portia’s advice, I had tried to arrange a later pick up time for our evening boat tour as it was now 4.15pm and our pickup was set for 5pm. I got a text message saying okay, but as it turned out it wasn’t. We were luckily ready at 5pm, Jenny and AL who had gone down to the lobby at 5pm sent a message saying we need to come ASAP as the tour guide was worried that the Friday afternoon traffic was going to make us late for the boat. We manged to get away about 20 minutes late and arrived at the dock about 15 minutes later. 

Zan was our tour guide, and he was lively! Full of information and so much energy. He was relieved that the traffic was light and we had plenty of time. He was telling us that he had tried to pre-book the tickets but was told he couldn’t, so he had rung a ‘friend’ who organised the tickets for us. The word ‘money’ was mentioned in this sentence too and I figure the time when he disappeared from our view (about 10 minutes) had something to do with finalising some sort of transaction! We joined the queue to board the ship and waited for the gate to open. 

Our tickets were checked, and we had our first experience of what I can only call a ‘Chinese rush’. The pace was on to get a position early at the next barrier where we had to wait again. At this area, a man and his family who had been ahead of us at the first barrier but whom we passed, appeared in the queue, literally pushing people out out the way to get ahead in the queue. He tried to push ahead of two women in front of us but they weren’t having any of it, giving him the evil eye, and telling him to stop. He got just ahead of us, with his family queued up beside us. The second barrier went down and the race was on. It was apparently to get the best position for the views but as it turned out, there was plenty of standing room on the top deck where we were headed. 

It was chilly but okay with three layers on including a down jacket, and better than last night where it was freezing and raining. The boat tour shows you the Huangpu riverside in all its glory - and here the difference between 1984 and today was stark. The side of the hotel opposite the Peace Hotel was mudflats and fields in 1984 and now it is a symbol of Shanghai’s growth and development as a city and business centre.  We sailed up one side of the river and then along the other side, with a lightshow of flickering and changing lights along the bund. Spectacular. 

Looking back towards the Bund

Monument to People’s Heroes

Looking back towards the Bund with Light Show - the darker river boats were everywhere along the river, transporting coal, among other things.

Oriental World Tower

The trip was about 45 minutes and we walked along the waterfront to the agreed meeting place for the van who was picked us up. Five minutes later we were on our way to the restaurant for dinner on the opposite side the river, the newer part of Shanghai. Traffice was heavy - it was around 7.30pm - and we had some experience of what driving in Shanghai was like — interesting. We arrived at the restaurant - a small frontage but it went on forever. We had a private room which was great and again, we were the only Westeners there.

Here Zan ordered for us again, and what a meal was had! The dishes kept coming. This was all halal food, and it was delicious. Every dish was superb, and when Zan asked us what our favourite was - we all agreed it was the chilli chicken - he ordered some more. There was a belly dancing performance which was good too, although I have to say the costumues were more modest than the ones I have seen in Australia. And as the universe usually decides, the bottle of red wind that Zan ordered was from a Geelong winery just near Melbourne - that always happens/ At one stage, the fight for control of the lazy susan got too much, and a bowl clipped a beer bottle right in front of me, and splashed over my iPhone, the table and my leg before I got stop it no harm was done.

It was a great night. It was back to the hotel then, a long drive back across the river and up to our hotel further north, but we were soon back in our room and bed.

Day 3: Shanghai: Part 1

Dodgy internet stopped me from posting on the day it happened, and then there was embarkation yesterday. So I’m playing catchup with my posts. This one is long and is in two parts.

A good night’s sleep was had, despite waking at 4am for a short while (7am in Australia). Breakfast on the Executive floor was quite nice, a reasonable selection including toast (important for me). Service here and generally is fantastic, and most times the language barrier is non-existent. I videoed our path from our room to the lifts to show how windy it was. There are signs everywhere but I managed to get lost once by not paying attention. I ended up in this lobby type area wtih a grand piano and a very elegant double stairway. 

After breakfast, AC, AL, Tom and me walked three blocks to the Apple Store because AC had forgotten his Apple Watch charger. He was going to leave the watch behind until I reminded him that somewhere in Shanghai there will be a tech store that will sell him an Apple Watch charger. Turns out it was down the street from the hotel. This was the biggest Apple store I’ve ever seen, upstairs and downstairs and connected to a shopping mall. I think they do everything big in China.

Big Apple Store

We regathered in the lobby to meet our guide Portia, from Jenny’s Shanghai Tours, who was a delightful, bubbly and informative guide - perfect for us. We set off for the metro station to go the Confucius Temple. We paid for Portia’s ticket as well, and she gave us a lesson in how to buy tickets. We lined up at the door to wait for the train and piled on when it arrived. She said we were all young so we should stand together and not look for a seat. 

Shanghai Metro 

We exited the metro station one stop later, and walked to the Temple via a tour of local food being sold in street front shops and via and older area of Shanghai. This reminded me of areas we had seen when we were here in 1984 but modernised. Still the tiny laneways, the tiny, tiny houses with so little room for a single family. We learned that windows in these buildings indicated the number of families living there and the number was always astounding. The land is owned by the government and people lease the building space. It is a community though and Portia told us about everyone knows each other and looks out for each other, so doors aren’t locked. Because this area is in central Shanghai though, Portia said that it would be demolished int the future. It was an eye opener in a good way for us, and reminded us to be grateful for what we have in Australia. 

Old Shanghai

We then exited a rather narrow laneway, past people sitting on stools, and burning money in honour of their ancestors (so we couldn’t take any photos), past a low roof used a shoe airing space - all the shoes lined up in a row. Very funny, and a very clever space of ever inch available to them. The Confucius Temple was a few steps away. We waited while Portia bought tickets learned again about the purpose of the lion statues, and then went inside. Apart from learning about the school and the temple here, we learned that architechurally, an opening leading on to an opening was bad luck, so statues or sculptures were places in between. There were some lovely gardens here with a photo opportunity (Portia knew them all) and we spent some time here. 

Confucius Temple View

Us at Confucius Temple

Our final stop here was a tea ceremony, which was good fun, and even I learned a bit more about tea. The bundle of wrapped leaves that turned into a flower when allowed to steep was pretty impressive, and we were instructed in how to prepare tea properly - of course, I ended up buying some Oolong tea!

The tea in ‘raw’ form that when steeped for about five minutes gave us the ‘flower’ in th photo above.

We then decided to have lunch since it 2pm and we’d been going since 10am. We had a dumpling restaurant lunch included in the tour, but Portia suggested a local restaurant that had a broader menu, and that sounded much better so we walked a little more and found two seats at the back. Portia asked us about the food we liked and ordered for us and did a good job. As promised, we were the only Westerners there, and we weren’t disappointed. We had dumplings, steamed buns, a chicken and rice dish, noodles and ..... topped off by beer and cokes. We chatted to Portia and learned more about her childhood and her life today which was great, but it made us a bit late leaving for our last stop, the YuYuan gardens. 

We walked for about 25 minutes at a steady pace, and wound our way through a very big shopping centre that was also very old - the buildings were 300-400 years old and the entrance to the gardens was at one end of them. we passed the first Starbuck’s in China and lots and lots of shops and people till we arrived a pond/lake. This was filled with giant koi and a zig zag bridge that was designed to leave our stresses behind. By looking forward and not looking back while we dodged people and got to the other side, we were in a new, fresher mindset, no longer stressed by the past - I have to admit, I liked that. 

We waited for Portia to buy our tickets which were very carefully checked and we were counted by the security guard as we entered. I remembered parts of the Gardens from 1984, but essentially it was all new. It is a stunning place, built by a son for his father who was very old in 1559 in the Ming Dynasty. The son wanted his father to be able to experience nature close by rather than having to travel to the countryside. It had buildings and spaces, and landscapes that were so very detailed. Next was the Dragon Wall, with a 3D giant dragon’s head at one end, with a seated frog underneath, and a long, long tail atop the wall stretching out behind it. Our final stop was the Jade Rock which like all the rocks and the rest of the sculptures, lakes and landscapes was impressive.

Yu Gardens

Dragon Wall

Jade Rock

We were now a bit over our tour time, so we headed straight for the metro to get a train back to the hotel. It was crowded all the way as the station was attached to a shopping centre, and Portia was setting a brisk pace. At one point we lost her, and the three husbands, ahead of us, led us into a shopping centre. At this point, they said they had lost her, so off we went together, figuring that the best place to go was outside which we could see from where we were. We stopped there and a few second later a panting Portia arrived, frantic but happy we were reunited. We were back at the hotel very quickly, and saw Portia off with our many thanks for a wonderful tour.

Continued in Part 2.

10 hours ago, Rina155 said:

Quick question:  Who is the Captain on board?  Thanks!

It’s Captain Alex. His announcement yesterday after muster was entertaining 🙂

Hello everyone

I will catch up on posting pre-cruise Shanghai, but the good news is we are now on the Millennium. We were picked up from our hotel at 1.30pm and after the one hour drive to the port, we were on board by 2pm. The embarkation process works fine, although it's spread over three locations. Because we have to provide a copy of our passport pages as well, there are two photocopiers as you come into the check in area, where copies can be made if you have forgotten yours. Next is security and then immigration - don't lose the departure card you get when you first arrive at the airport - they take it from you here. Alan told me he thought he'd throw his out and I had visions of him trudging away from the cruise terminal, and the rest of us cruising 🙂 Luckily, he had it in his bag - phew! Your sea pass card is now swiped like you do with tapping your credit card when you buy something but otherwise all is business as usual. One thing, because everyone was boarding after 2.30pm, we were all provided with packed lunches as we missed the usual embarkation day lunch. And the signs as you walk to the ship saying have your Chinese permit ready is only for Chinese citizens.

I said I'd tell you my first reactions of the cabin. I wasn't wowed, but I don't hate it either. The space between the bed and the veranda door is bigger than I remember, but I haven't been on Millennium for 11 years. The mini couch is a bit weird but it will be good for putting things on! Alan said they should have made the arm rests fatter so you could sit on them but that would take up more room. The veranda is longer and thinner than the S class but lots of room. I don't mind the decor at all, and the worst I'd call it is boring. I'm not offended by the brown tones at all and for me, the bathroom layout is much better, with a bigger shower than is on the S class. Alan, however, when I asked him what he thought, said it looked cheap and that they were trying to make it look modern. I'll ask my sisters for their feedback. Ultimately, I am on a cruise, and I'm very happy.

Also, one of our two bags were outside the cabin when we arrived - for all three of us - that's half an hour roughly from drop off to being outside the room. That was nice. I will post photos soon, but I have to go and have a welcome on board drink with Jenny and Elizabeth.

Day 2: Sydney to Shanghai

I tried to post this last night but it was late and I got too tired. So here are yesterday’s events. 

Sydney Airport has a curfew from 11pm to 6am so I had a pretty good sleep, awaking at my usually time of 5.30am, but I refused to get up then, eventually surfacing at about 7.30am. I read email, replacked everything, had a cup of tea and a biscuit from the minibar to keep me going until breakfast, followed by a shower and we were ready to meet everyone else. 

A very quick walk to the terminal where after showing Elizabeth how to use the check in kiosks to scan your passport, Alan and I headed to the First Class check in area. At the end I mentioned that we were travelling with my sisters and she said that everyone in the group could check in at First Class so we'll remember that for the return trip. The person checking us in then gave us six express passes for security and immigration which was nice, but there was still a queue to be faced.

Tom was the last once coming through immigration and the passport gates, and he was apparently stopped for a random check. Of course, Elizabeth was had his boarding pass which he needed, so it was a little tense till it was sorted out. A bit unnerving as was being stopped after a body scan for a pat down, but it turned out to be my belt, which the first security guard told me to leave on when I asked him if I should take if off. Ah well. Eventually, we are all through and safe. 🙂 AC and AL head off to the First Class Lounge for breakfast and we walk to the food court and stop at the first restaurant that has a big BREAKFAST sign at the front of it.

We paid for our expensive airport food and then had a bathroom visit to clean teeth etc. Tom wanted to take a look at duty free so we stopped there for a few minutes and then both Jenny and I got messages telling us that AC and AL were at the gate and waiting for us. Off we went and met up. Here we had to part ways, as we joined the Business boarding queue and they headed for Economy. The queue was actually stationary as boarding hadn't started so we stood for about 15 minutes until it opened.

Waiting, waiting to board the plane

It turned out that I didn't have to have my economy meal, and the trip was uneventful. We left late and arrived early, but it was raining in Shanghai and we were parked on the tarmac so had to walk down stairs and then across the tarmac to the bus. The flight attendant said that it happens often, because Chinese airlines get priority for the gates. We are in the first bus but everyone else were well behind us. 

The process is first to go to the Advance fingerprint machines where your fingerprints are taken - all automated, and you get a slip with OK written on it. Then we head to the immigration counters and stand in a queue for a while, but as queues go, ours moved relatively quickly. You have to rescan some of your fingerprints to match up with the original scan, and they appear to take a photo as well - the people here are dressed in impeccable uniforms, all very official or all well groomed. Then it's on to baggage claim which is the same as everywhere else. There are directional signs in English and it's easy enough to follow the process through.

We collected everyone's bags and waited for them to arrive, then went outside and found our driver. He didn't speak English and there was a mix up with the hotel they had on their booking, so Jenny had to have a talk to someone on the phone to sort it out. Then to the parking area - we have a small van and our luggage fits perfectly. We are off then on the hour drive into the city - mostly on freeway, and only one little patch of traffic - it was 8pm by this time and I'm not sure I'd like to be driving this road in peak hour. Some of the buildings are quite stunning at night so look forward to seeing them in the daylight.

When we turned on the the Bund, I knew we were close to our hotel, and a few minutes later we at the Peace Hotel, complete with the same front door that was there in 1984. AL is taken with the uniform of the door man that required a photo, and then we had to work out how paying for breakfast suddenly turned into a package including happy hour drinks and a few other things. In the end we figured it was okay, and we are off to our rooms. Now, it took a little time to find our rooms because this is not a building with a one long corridor, or a couple of wings on each floor - there are at least two buildings connected, so you walk down one corridor, around a corner in to another lobby type area, down another corridor, around another corner, and down the corridor where are room is located. We are not at all sure we'll find our way out in the morning! 

Alan and the Peace Hotel door man.

The hotel is 5 star rated, and has all the extra touches like slippers by the bed and the rooms are quite big with a separate closet area and bar with tea/coffee making facilities and a small fridge. By the time we get our bags delivered, it is almost midnight Melbourne time, so we get ready for bed. Alan is watching TV and I'm typing this. Tomorrow we have our walking tour, boat ride and restaurant dinner. 

13 hours ago, musik07 said:

Looking forward to hearing about the revolution. I would love your opinion on the mattresses.

Sure thing. I don't like firm mattresses (after having one for a few years that gave me hip pain) so I hope the ones onboard are okay.

7 hours ago, sippican said:

Hello Maree, hope we get to meet you on the cruise! (FYI, we are boarding Saturday, not Friday, lol! You must really have priority boarding!)

Ha! Yes of course, I keep forgetting we have this day in Shanghai before boarding. Your trip sounds great. See you on Saturday :)

Day 1: Melbourne to Sydney

We caught an Uber to the airport, not much traffic so 20 minutes later we were pulling up outside the Qantas terminal. We had managed to coincide with the start of the business people crowd heading out of Melbourne, so the airport was busy.  We went to the bag drop area to check in our bags, only to find the baggage system had stopped. Staff had already rung the engineering area to fix it, and it took about 10 minutes before it started again which is good because the last time this happened some years ago, it lasted for a few hours. Then through the security checkpoint where I stacked up all the plastic tubs that at least 10 people in front of me had left on the conveyer belt, blocking other tubs from coming out, and walked away. I get annoyed at things like that. Next stop was the Qantas Lounge which had just been redesigned and refurbished, and I said to Alan as we walked in that the new furniture looked remarkably like that on the Millennium, although here there was more colour - blue chairs for example. Interesting though that similar styles have just been introduced here - I should have taken a photo!! 

We only had about 30 minutes here, so had a cup of tea (for me) and coffee (for Alan) and some cake before heading to the gate for our short flight to Sydney (1 hour 30 minutes). I had a good mini-meal - chilli chicken and rice - and Alan had a cheese platter. I should have taken photos here too - I will do better! :) We landed on time, our bags came out quickly and we headed outside to find the TBus, a free bus that provides a transfer from the Domestic to the International Terminal where we are leaving from tomorrow. While we waited I sent a message to Jenny and Elizabeth to say we had landed since they flew in from Brisbane about 40 minutes earlier since I assumed they were at th hotel by now. I looked to the left a few minutes later and they were approaching the stop - their flight had been delayed.

We waited another 10 minutes until a bus came, and 10 minutes later we were on the other side of the airport and at Rydges Hotel. I am a member of the Rydges loyalty scheme and we got an upgraded room - from Queen to King which was nice - it’s a reasonable sized room, with an interesting arrangement with the bathroom sink, toilet and shower alll in separate areas, and the sink being open to the rest of the room. It’s a comfortable room and perfectly fine for an overnight stay. The airport has an overnight curfew starting at 11pm, so there should be no problem sleeping.

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View from our hotel room of the airport and Sydney CBD in the background.

We met up after dropping off our luggage and went to the rather small roof top bar for a pre-dinner drink where we had our first photo together of the trip taken by the waiter there.

From left to right: Tom, Elizabeth, Jenny, my Alan (AC), me and Jenny’s Alan (AL).

We went down to the hotel restaurant to see if we could have dinner but they were busy and on their advice we made a booking for 30 minutes later when they would have a table. We set off for the downstairs pub-style bar to wait and kept catching up. The restaurant was quite large and really busy - but I guess they have a captive audience being the only hotel at the International Terminal and some way from the city. Hotel restaurants are always hit and miss but here the food was very good and we spent some time here continuing to catch up.

We agreed to meet the next morning and have breakfast at the airport. AC is taking AL to the First Class Lounge for breakfast since he is a Platinum frequent flyer but can only take one guest. The rest of us will find somewhere to eat and meet them at the gate. It’s getting late now by my standards,  so it’s time for some sleep before we head for Shanghai tomorrow.

4 hours ago, Bfb832cc said:

Look forward to reading about your experiences...especially any great tours/tour companies! Thank you fir spending part of your holiday time taking us on your journey.

I will for sure be reporting on the tours and our experience of the companies. Stay tuned.

4 hours ago, Rina155 said:

I can’t wait to “be along” for your journey!  As you disembark I will be embarking on the April 13 sailing!  I do agree with you: one cannot go to Tokyo without going to Tokyo Disney Sea and Disney Resort.  That is what we are doing post cruise! 

Bon Voyage!

I just have to convince five other people to trust me that they will have a good time at Disney, but I'm trying my best. We can wave to each other on 13 April :)

3 hours ago, Cruiser about said:

I’m really looking forward to hearing about your trip. We were meant to be getting off Milly on Saturday, (was booked to go China, South Korea and Taiwan) but due to ill health, on Dr’s advice we had to cancel,, the day before we were to travel. We Did Millenium last year Vietnam and Thailand was a lovely ship and we were looking forward to seeing upgrades and the ports, so I look forward to reading your blog.Enjoy, I am sure you will live it!

I hope you are well now, and never have to cancel a cruise that close to sailing again. I can't imagine what that must have been like. We sailed on the Millennium in 2008 so it will be quite a different ship this time around I am sure.

• a ship tour in Seoul (Art of Seoul); 
• a two day overnight tour of Bejing, and a rest day on the ship for our third day docked at Beijing;
• a five hour tour of JeJu Island main sights, 
• Day 1 in Kobe, I've booked a Shinkasen (bullet) train ride to Kyoto where we meet our guide at the station for a half day tour - the train ride will be short but it was on our list of 'must dos';
• Day 2 in Kobe we have a full day walk tour;
• in Shimizu (Mt Fuji) we have nothing planned and will decide once we are on the cruise;
• the final stop is Yokohama where again we have nothing planned, but I am a bit of a Disney fan so I suggested Tokyo Disneyland but the others aren't convinced;
• we have three days in Tokyo post-cruise and again, nothing planned, although I have a list of possible places and things to do!

I'm aiming to post the pre-cruise part of my live blog from the Millennium when we leave on Wednesday (boarding Friday) this week, and I'm going to make a point of checking every nook and cranny of our Aqua Class stateroom to provide my perceptions of the new decor and furniture - as I open the door for the first time, I will trust my first reactions and report that. I have to say I don't think I will care very much about the colour scheme of the cabin because I'm actually on a cruise (finally!), but I would never not accept someone else's view because it's a valid as what mine might be on Friday. So I'm prepared to not like it, but I will see what my gut tells me when I open the door! Stay tuned for the first post of the 'not yet quite live' blog on Wednesday.🙂

We used a visa service arranged by the travel agent. I got my photo at the local post office whcih had a software program on their computer especially for visas, and it produced the printed photo to the Chinese requirements. The travel agent completed the forms online and emailed a record of it to us. That record plus our passports went in a sealed envelope which then went in a courier bag for which I received a receipt. It went to a visa processing service and a week later, the passports were returned by courier. I looked up the Chinese consulate requirements and what I needed to provide was pretty clear, so I could have taken it myself to the consulate here in Melbourne, or mailed it, but it is China (horror stories come to mind), and I wasn't sure about a couple of questions so figured it was better to get someone to do who knows what they are doing. It did cost more than the visa cost alone but it sure was a better use of my time and energy. I live in Australia though, so my experience might be totally irrelevant! 🙂

The only thing I've noticed that annoyed me was the lack of drinks service in the OceanView Cafe. Our cruise last year saw a change in how they did things, and instead of a waiter getting your order, going to the bar and coming straight back, they got several orders and had them all filled at the same time. Once, when we ordered as we sat down, our drinks didn't arrive until we were on our feet walking out the door. I'd never seen that before. Apart from that, things have changed over the years - it was our 11th cruise with Celebrity - and there is more stress on the staff that's quite obvious, but 99.9% of them still greet you with a warm smile and a 'hello'. Tipping is baffling for we Australians but I have started tipping our room steward extra because I think they do an extraordinary job under great time pressure. Ultimately though, I'm on a cruise and that's what matters for me. 🙂

1 hour ago, broberts said:

 

While some may use WiFi calling, ships do offer CSM, UMTS,  LTE, and 4G-LTE support. Some cellular providers offer fairly reasonable call and text rates aboard cruise ships, although data remains rather expensive.

Our phone provider offers a 'use your phone as you would at home' service for $5 each day that you use your phone. No use, no charge. So no hidden surprises anymore - for either calls or data.