cyntil8ing

Following along. We are doing (sort of) this cruise in six weeks. Our's starts in San Juan, but ends in Ft. Lauderdale on Christmas Eve. I've done the Southern Caribbean on Summit a couple of times before, but this will be our first time on Millennium.

Cruise passengers always go through Customs and Immigration at the first US port after visiting a foreign port. We learned the hard way to look at itineraries carefully after taking a cruise where Key West was a stop at the end of the cruise instead of at the beginning. In the handful of times we've had to do it, the customs officers were onboard and we had to wait in a huge line that wrapped the length of the ship. One would think in Miami, they'd have the process down to a science. Sorry it was such a mess.

I haven't done either yet, but just went through the same decision making process for our upcoming December cruise. We usually just walk to Junkanoo and have a great time, but this time we have some OBC to burn, so we booked an excursion. We ended up choosing Blue Lagoon. Mostly because of the video below.

If you have onboard internet access and want to make/receive calls, before the cruise make sure wi-fi calling is enabled. If you have an iPhone, it's in the Phone settings. Once onboard, put the phone into airplane mode. If you want to use the Celebrity app, connect to the ship's wi-fi. You do not have to have an internet package to do that.

On the top row of the app, click on the Ship icon. You'll see a screen like the following. Click on Dining. At the top, select Main Dining Select Blu Restaurant Click on Menu. Scroll through days at the bottom.

I didn't say it was totally untrue, just that my personal experience is the opposite, which is why it amuses me.

I always get such a kick out of the number of mentions of fights when Carnival vs Celebrity comes up. The one and only brawl I have ever witnessed onboard was on Celebrity. It was in the upper level of the dining room on a Bermuda cruise. I thought for sure someone was going to get pitched over the railing. It took security forever to show up. That would not be the case on Carnival. That said, I've been on 15-ish of either line and honestly, they're not hugely different when comparing like-for-like (departure port, cruise length). Yes, Carnival has more active fun and an upbeat vibe with outgoing (and often loud) passengers, but there are tons of friendly folks on Celebrity too. The biggest difference is the number of children onboard. I like the energy kids bring, and honestly, their misbehavior bothers me less than badly behaved adults. I've seen more of that, yelling at crew especially, on Celebrity.

Yes, of course. They will always sell you an upgrade as long as cabins are available. I assume once the MoveUp process begins, the cabins are no longer available. We have a SS on our December cruise. Since it's DH's birthday, I've quietly had my TA check for a "surprise" RS upgrade. It came back as $7,500. Too much for me! I made a MoveUp offer of significantly less than that, but still higher than the minimum (which was $800pp). I keep watching prices and availability daily. I'll have my TA check again if the price drops.

Maybe? We did it this summer.That day, I was pretty stressed about time management, and the only thing we got to do was go to the top of the Eiffel Tower (which required pre-planning a month ahead for tickets). No coffee at a nice little cafe, or lunch at a nice restaurant. Instead, we bought a baguette from a convenience store. That said, it was quite an experience, and looking back now, a few months later, I am glad we went. But no, I would not do it again on a second visit to Le Havre. Review with more here, including our four days in London pre-cruise:

Is this a serious question? Plates and bowls are plastic. Silverware is rolled in cloth napkins. Oh, but Guys Burgers are served on a metal plate with a paper liner. They're delicious!

I am not a buffet fan on any line, but I think Carnival is way ahead of Celebrity in choices for free dining -- Guy's Burgers, Carnival Deli, Blue Iguana Cantina, Pig & Anchor BBQ, Shaq's Chicken, Captain's Pasta Bar, Mongolian Wok, etc. Their pizza is very good and it's always available (almost 24 hours)! You didn't mention which ship, but I assume an older one. We haven't cruised anything newer than Carnival Vista (2017), so we haven't had Shaq's Chicken yet, but the others are prepared to order and served hot. The only time we visit Lido is for a quick breakfast. We've been on over a dozen each on Celebrity and Carnival and are Elite/Platinum respectively. Our 12 day Europe cruise on Carnival Pride this summer was excellent. I joked that it felt very Celebrity-like as our fellow cruisers were generally older, there weren't tons of kids, and the ship's activity pretty much ended at midnight. We are coming back to Celebrity for our December cruise, but we'll continue to enjoy both.

The final night of a cruise, we accidentally packed my son's shoes and set out the luggage. Thankfully, we had these for him to wear off the ship. He was too embarrassed to go to breakfast. By the time we got to the airport, he decided he was fashionable and didn't want to change.

It's a hike, especially when it's hot, but really not that terribly far. We've walked it many times. Here's my six year old (at the time) there in 2013. This was before Margaritaville. Having watched my then four year old tumble to the floor in a taxi when my parents insisted we ride without car seats, I never put my kids in that position again.

Ship: Millennium Length of Cruise: 7 nights Cruise Sail Date: December 17, 2022 Date email offer received: October 4, 2022 Captain’s Club Tier: ELITE Booked through Celebrity Direct OR via TA: TA Current Cabin: Sky Suite S1 Bid? Yes/No: Yes General Comments (offer details, etc.): This is our first time using MoveUp. We usually travel as a family in two cabins and we want to stay together. But this is our first time in seven years traveling without the kids plus it is the spouse's birthday. Shhh, the change would be a surprise! I put in "fair" bids on Penthouse (none show available) and Royal Suite (2 available), but passed on the Celebrity Suite. We have never stayed in an upper suite. Move Up Minimum bid amounts on offer: Penthouse $1,500 pp Royal Suite $800 pp Celebrity Suite $600 pp

At least from the photos, they seem to have improved a bit since we were served this monstrosity way back in 2015. We have not been back! 😀

We were on the Pride in 2017. We saw so many ugly Christmas sweaters, suits and jammies! There was a family who wore the Christmas Story bunny suit all day long. There was a couple who dressed as Santa and Mrs. Claus and went around handing out lollipops. They were passengers. They'd pop up out of nowhere and ask families if they wanted a photo. It takes all kinds I guess! The day after Christmas, everyone pretty much went back to normal. The ship was beautifully decorated. There was a very large gingerbread village.

We were in Lisbon last month as a port day. We arranged a private excursion with Spain Day Tours. The cost for four of us was €436 for about 8 hours. Great driver, Manuel, in a brand new Mercedes mini-man. https://www.spaindaytours.com/lisbon-tours/

Just off the 12-day Northern Europe 7/31/22 sailing of the Pride. In short, all went well and we had a fantastic time on our first ever trip to Europe. I would do it again in a heartbeat. We are a family of four, mom, dad and two older teens, one of whom celebrated a birthday onboard. We flew into London Heathrow four days ahead of boarding and stayed at the Clermont, Charing Cross. It was a great hotel in a fantastic central location. We pre-purchased London Passes and Oyster cards for our stay. There was a train strike scheduled the day before our transfer to Dover. We had purchased train tickets before this announcement, so wanted to have a backup plan, so I also purchased Carnival bus transfers. By two days beforehand, we decided to stick with the train. We tried to cancel the Carnival transfers, but it was already too late. I was going to fight that onboard, but then promptly forgot about it. Anyway, our train ended up being canceled because of a mechanical issue, and we briefly thought of a mad dash across London to get the bus, but instead waited an hour for the next train. That one ran as scheduled and we arrived in Dover about 12:30. There were shuttles running from the train station to the port for $5 or €5 or £5, whichever one you have. We had so much luggage for the four of us that it wouldn't all fit on the first bus. So, we split and two of us went on the bus with half of our luggage and the other two waited with the remaining luggage for the next bus. Since we tagged our bags while waiting in line for the bus, we didn't really have to do this. Our luggage was taken right off the shuttle and we didn't see it again until it arrived at our cabins. Embarkation, our first as new Platinum cruisers, was quick and painless. We had no issues with Verify and walked right onboard. This was our fourth time on the Pride. It's familiar and comfortable. I was annoyed with the automatic doors on deck 9 no longer working, but got used to it within a day. Our cabin door lock was temperamental and sometimes hard to open from inside the cabin, but it wasn't awful enough or consistent enough to mention it to anyone. We had to leave our bathroom light on all the time because it took 15 seconds or more to turn on after hitting the switch. All-in-all, inconveniences, not rising to the level of issues. We had an extended balcony and it was lovely, though this trip was so port-intensive we didn't make a lot of use of it. Debarkation was simple. We booked the Carnival transfers to Heathrow with a stop at Windsor Castle. The bus we were on didn't have enough compartment space to hold all the luggage, but there were only 27 of us on the excursion, so we just put the extra luggage on the bus itself. There was an initial a/c issue (and the day was hot!) but it was fixed while we took a break at a rest stop. We were delivered back to Heathrow in plenty of time for our flight. We didn't do a lot onboard. Our evenings were generally whatever was going on in the Taj Mahal at 7:30, then dinner, then the two adult comedy shows at 10:30 and 11:15. I was a bit disappointed that all the bars, except the Casino Bar, closed at midnight. All of our ports were docking ports, so other than a half hour delay with a ramp at our Amsterdam port, we never had any issues. I'll detail our port days later, but wanted to get the review started for questions.