Suzi66

A lot of cruises have Milford Sound as the first one that you enter. Often the itinerary is Sydney, Sounds, Dunedin etc and so Milford is in the morning.

I'm hoping that the rain is later in the day, after we have all boarded, and not Thursday as I am flying in on a test-tube (the plane holds 30 people maximum). I am however glad we booked the flights for Thursday and not Friday with that weather forecast.

Day Light Savings FINISHES (thank goodness) on April 6. We are heading into Winter. We don't need to be getting up another hour earlier than we already are. You will get to have an extra hour to sleep if needed in the morning.

Definitely Albatrosses on the hillside. You were lucky if you saw penguins before dusk as they don't exit the water until then. The sounds are beautiful and you still have the best to go.

You should definitely be able to see them, they will be just before the lighthouse but the chicks look like white dots in the grass. This is a photo taken from the Eclipse last season. Looking forward to joining you on Friday.

At Sydney they start taking your bags very early (9.30 - 10 ish) even if they aren't allowing any one on. Just drop off your bags once you leave the hotel and go for a walk around Circular Quay, visit the Opera House etc until your check in time.

Does anyone have any idea of the menu. I have dietary restrictions and there is usually nothing I can eat so we try the buffet. In a couple of weeks we are doing E-class for the first time and I am wondering if the menu for the concierge lunch will be any different?

I was actually annoyed with Celebrity at Phuket. I purposely booked shore excursions so that we didn't have to wait for tenders and possibly miss our excursions. The meeting point was "on shore", so we still had to find our own way via the tenders. There was also no information via Captains Club so we could get early tenders as Elite, nor as we were in Aqua cabins. So we just had to go super early and wait around until the meeting time, rather than miss the meeting time. It was much more organised at Indonesia which offered priority tendering for both Captains Club and excursions

In January this year it was most definitely tender.

I have done several trips on Celebrity since being diagnosed as Coeliac. (I have always been lactose intolerant so I need to have meals catered for both now). Eclipse was last September, January and March, Solstice this January as well as the Millennium this January. Bread is very hit and miss so if you want bagels you are better off bringing your own, however I have found that I can get a good amount of food that I like. I pre-order the night before in the MDR and anything I want is altered to suit, with some exceptions. The only problem I have had recently is on the Millie which had very few options in the buffet for breakfast compared to the Soltice which I was on just beforehand (a S2S cruise). HOWEVER for some really good GF options you can go to the Spa Cafe for breakfast and lunch as they always make sure they have them and they have lovely cookies there as well.

I was on the second sailing out of Melbourne as well, and was surprised with how few passengers, but put it down to it being just before Christmas and such a short cruise. We did it just to try Virgin and were so happy we then booked more for next season as we had 3 booked with Celebrity already for this season. We were quite late booking as we didn't even realise they were coming to Australia until about a month beforehand and I wonder how many cruisers were the same. Already had this seasons plans in place, and didn't know about Virgin coming until just before they got here, but were definitely planning on sailing on them next season. I've been waxing lyrical about the food, just as someone as allergies and having GF and many other things covered easily where ever we ate, and suggesting that people try Virgin in future. Well, that won't be happening next season.

We were in Aqua and were able to have both menus for dinner as well because of the same reason. We really loved it.

I can give you the Luminae lunch hours as well. From what I have they are all at the same time.

I have all my Celebrity Today's from the Jan 16-28 cruise. This was our schedule. MDR on day 2 was 12-1.30, the same for the 24th and the 25th. Any other questions about mealtimes you want me to help with. Buffet was until 2.30 as was Sushi on 5. Spa Cafe until 2 and the Pool Grill until 6. Everything closed on the dot that they said they were going to and GF foods were often hidden away (at least at breakfast they were) and things that were marked as GF on Solstice the week before were not on the Millie. As someone who is Coeliac I notice these things, expecially when they are the foods I eat a lot of.

I have done this as with both Gluten and Lactose allergies. We let them know when booking that I had the restrictions so they were prepared. Dessert I was offered sorbet and fruit. The sauces were slightly different with the other courses that I picked but on the whole I had things very similar to my husband's meal or others.

I can possibly help as I just got off the Millennium on the 28th of January. We did the Singapore to Benoa version, and did Hong Kong to Singapore on the Solstice the 12 days previously.

I printed multiple copies as well because of the email(s - one for each cruise), but only had the one that I kept in my purse and no-one asked to look at it. No one asked to look at any government id at all when returning to ports even though we made sure we had our drivers licences with us at all time. I thought that seeing as though they have asked to see them at most AU/NZ ports and often at the South Pacific ports that it would definitely happen at these ports, but our seapass card was proof enough.

There was a lot on this cruise that was a bit 'amatuerish'. A lot we were very happy with and other things not so happy with. One thing I would never have wanted to comment on and I am going to, is how guest services and the medical centre treated someone in isolation (husband). Phone calls every few hours to see how he was which was excellent. However no extra entertainment on the TV considering he was locked up for a few days with gastro and trying to order room service for him was a bit difficult as we had to try and work out what he could eat as there wasn't an actual menu and then tell room service he was in isolation when they went to charge us. We were fully expecting to get charged for medical care as he was on a drip for two visits to the medical centre but instead we got a FCC for the days he was in isolation.

Unless they had wheels, they wouldn't take them. One of our overnight bags didn't have wheels. It was the only one we decided to drop off with our cases and was going to take the other as it had Steve's camera gear in it and my medication. We ended up taking it with us which was no big deal.

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Phase 2 Celebrity Millennium. Jan 16 -28 Singapore to Benoa. We had an arrival time of 11am but then received an email telling us not to arrive until 12.30. People everywhere as those with scheduled times of 11, 11.30, 12 and 12.30 all arrived at once as well as those who were trying to get in early. Wheelchair boarding worked well and we were one of the first to get on as this time I had someone from the port assisting, and not just my poor husband trying to wrangle everything. The ship was absolutely beautiful in all the common areas and we could see ourselves spending time in both the Rendevous Lounge which was our muster station and Cellar Masters (which is actually where we did spend most of our time). We got asked to sit and wait for a muster station demonstation and while the area filled to about 30 people some decided this was beneath them and walked off. Our room was nicely appointed but a lot smaller than any that we have had on Celebrity before, as was the bathroom, but it was still very comfortable. We tried to eat at a similar time every night in BLU so we had the same servers (just because of my allergies) but all of the staff in there were wonderful and double checked everything. We had very few complaints although I did get one very odd dessert one night (something made with sweetcorn), and that the buffet had very few options for GF and LF compared to the Soltice and previously the Eclipse. Perhaps it was because it was smaller? Who knows? It did take several days for me to find where they had hidden the GF toaster.

Just the one night. Our possum has his own social media accounts. His name is Arthur Possum if you want to look him up.

After a lot of rest and lots of fluids I was able to convince my husband to go to Gardens of the Bay. "It had better be worth it" was muttered a couple of times as we waited for the taxi as he still wasn't feeling the best. He changed his tune once we got there and told me that it would be difficult to find another garden that would be able to match it. We absolutely loved it and could have spent hours and hours there. We wished we had gone straight to The Scarlet, and then out to the Gardens. I know what the plans will be next time.

Which leads to Singapore. We originally booked an extended stay on the ship which got cancelled and then we decided to do the tour/hotel drop off that was offered. The description was "Experience the best of Singapore: enjoy a beautiful scenic drive through the Marina Bay precinct with its jaw-dropping view of Singapore's skyline; stop at Lau Pa Sat Market, the oldest foodcourt in town; get on a bumboat and glide down the Singapore River. Relax and sip on a cup of coffee in a Heritage café. " The reality was slightly different. Meet in Celebrity Central where we got our stickers and then they promptly lost us as we left to disembark. I have no idea which way everyone went, but we did end up getting out when we said we were with the tour group. Others that wanted to disembark were being held back. The rain was bucketing down so luckily we were undercover for almost everywhere. We found our bags and after getting through customs sort of found someone who directed us to where we needed to go. The shore excursions team were not the most organised at this point. Once we got to the carpark however they were very obvious and directed us to a bus. By the time the bus filled up the rain had stopped and we set off for Chinatown. No drive through the Marina Bay Precinct, or perhaps the drive was the one through the business district that we were shown getting to Chinatown, but definitely no skyline view. Hop-off the bus at Chinatown and it was already melting in temperature. A walk up and down some streets and into a cafe for breakfast - choice of coffee or tea and toast that gets dunked into the coffee. As I can't eat toast, my husband got my sample. Then back to the market for shopping or into the temple. An hour and a bit to spend here. A drive to the river and two bus worth of passengers to go on one boat. Regretfully even though we were the first ones there, the other bus got to load on the boat first and we had to sit out in the open at the back and in the heat. I quite enjoyed this part of the tour, including seeing otters in the water, but my husband didn't as he was getting heat stroke and was feeling quite ill. Not once during this excursion was water offered, unlike any other excursion that we went on, and putting two busloads of people on the one boat so that people HAD to be in the sun is very poor form. At the end of the boat ride we were dropped off at the main hotel and we caught a taxi back to The Scarlet Hotel in Chinatown, which was absolutely magnificent and if we had known their policies we would have gone there directly.

We got told there would be no lunch, but not that we would be going back to Bangkok - that was a shock to most people on the tour as we all had the impression that we were going to Pattaya. I think it was when they realised that the actual place we were visiting was nowhere near the floating market it got changed. When we got back to the ship we had a look at the new description of the tour compared to what I had printed off. Totally different descrptions. They were still selling the Floating Market tour while we were on the ship and I wish we had changed to that, but I was under the impression that we were still going there, just not getting lunch. Silly Me.