DaKahuna

I had a nice laugh when I saw this as we were walking past Cellar Masters on Millennium this morning after breakfast.

The seas have been smooth and it almost appears as we are barely moving. Someone up above must be Celebrity fans .. As nice of an X as I remember seeing.

Color me jealous - Have not had any good photo opportunities from our balcony. We are in the Aqua Sky Suite next to the Penthouse on deck 6. The seas have been relative calm and we are traveling with the waves so it seems like we are hardly moving along at all. It’s bright and sunny outside but no interesting cloud formations begging to be photographed in sight. I am about to post a couple on my live review, one of which is interesting, IMHO>

Millennium is the same. People I have spoken with that are sailing in those cabins seem to like them but some have expressed concern about the impact of the outdoor theater that is up there.

My DW won $10 on one of the machines she did not do well on last cruise. As we were leaving a lady asked us if we had won on that machine, and I said yes. Can’t remember the name but it’s the $0.01 machine with the dollar bills on the starboard side of the ship. I plan to hit the Dragon Lights machine while she’s in the SPA in about an hour.

You and your wife should consider yourselves very luck to have experienced a green flash twice. I did had 7 years of shipboard life in the Navy and have been on around 40 cruises and in all that time, I have witnessed only one green flash and that was off the coast of Vietnam in 1972.

Celebrity is doing a must better job of keeping us informed about the ports we are visiting on this cruise than we have experienced in the past. This was waiting for us in our stateroom when we returned before lunch. This is the first time either of us can remember receiving this type of information.

We just finished the food and wine pairing and we thought it was done quite well. The sommelier conducting the event is from the MDR on deck 4 and did a good job of explaining everything. My wife was quite taken with the Riesling and I, which may be no surprise, favorited the Elegance Cabernet Sauvignon, which no longer falls under the premium package. The wines featured, with the exception of the Reisling were Kendel Jackson wines. Included both the Elegances that are exclusive to Celebrity. The food: The grape varietals I just noticed I did not get a picture of the Sauvignon Blanc .. Sorry. The event was held in Blu. I have read a lot of comments on CC about how close the tables are to each other in Blu but they did not see that way to us. We easily walked between the tables.

We just signed up for a sake tasting on 8th of May at 2 pm. The one today is sold out and they are only accepting a limited number of reservations for this one, so if you are interested ask your sommelier first chance you get.

Since I did not do it yesterday, let me post a few photo’s of our Aqua Sky Suite. We are in one of the Aqua Sky Suites next to the Penthouse Suite which is wider than our Sky Suite we were in on our last Millennium cruise. There is only a single door leading to the balcony but the balcony is much wider than a regular sky suite and has a two loungers, two chairs, a small table, as well as a bench seat. The chairs, table, and bench seat was all that would fit on our Sky Suite Balcony. The two round white foot stools are also new to us. In our last Sky Suite there was only the small brown table next to the couch. My biggest complaint about the revolutionized Sky Suites, including this one is the lack of storage — there are no shelves in the bathroom — only a long one under the sink. Two drawers in the one cabinet, along with a couple of shelves. Two cabinets to the left of the desk and a double cabinet under the TV (on the left, the right side is the mini-Fridge).

Following breakfast we walked deck 5 looking at all the shops while they were closed. My DW has plans of going back after they open on her own. we then spent a little time in the Casino where she proceeded to win $11.00 before cashing out. Then it was off to the lounge for a tea for her and diet soda for me. Here is the ‘continental breakfast’ offering in the Retreat Lounge. We just relaxed while we waited for the 1015 Beyond the Podium presentation. It was a very informative presentation. He mentioned he would be doing another later on in the cruise 45 minutes on ramen. I already have it added to my onboard schedule.

Breakfast this morning in Luminae was pretty standard. We both started with pastries. Mine being the very delicious pistachio roll. These have replaced the elusive almond croissant as my favorite pastry. My DW had scrambled eggs, bacon, and wheat toast i went with ham, cheese, onion, and green pepper omelette, with chicken sausage, and english muffin. A very good meal to start the day.

We’ll try and take good care of her.

Edited after looking at the menu .. The Bourbon and Peaches is showing as $12 on the lunch menu for today!

I had already decided to skip dessert but asked our waiter about it when he brought our coffee and was informed it was available every night. Guess what’s for dessert tonight? I will be sure and post pictures so all you old time cruisers can be jealous!

That is starting to make sense. We boarded Millennium yesterday and already she’s in high spirits.

@Jim_Iain I was surprised to see the old Daniel Boulud Signatures menu on the Luminae menu still. Apparently Luminae on Millennium has not transitioned to the new menu and the Daniel Boulud menu with the Raspberry pistachio vecherin is still available. I asked our waiter and it said it is available every night. I know what’s for dessert tomorrow.

I know that the majority of passengers on Celebrity do not travel in the Retreat and I hope that some of you that are on this cruise are willing to share your observations as I am sure they are different than mine. However, I will continue to report on my experiences both with the Retreat and outside the Retreat. After dinner, my DW was feeling the effects of a long day and we came back to the room. After making sure she was settled for the evening I went down to the Retreat Lounge for a night cap. With the exception of one or two folks who stopped by, I was the only customer so I stood at the bar and made friends with the night time bartender. Since our last sailing on Millennium, a year ago, they have instituted a “menu” in the Retreat Lounge. Here it is. On our last sailing, there were no liquors on display at the bar — that has certainly changed and I am really surprised at the offerings. Unlike last year, Ron Zacapa seems to be everywhere. They even had my “go to” Zacapa Solario 23 as well as Zacapa XO at the Sunset bar. Also some rare finds are Woodford Double Oaked, Eagle Rare, Angels Envy, Whistle Pig, etc.. Quite a nice selection if I do say so myself. In any case, my pillow is calling my name so I am going to sign off for the evening.

We are back in the room and I think I am going to go and grab a night cap and make it an early night. We’ve been up and on the go since around 0430 this morning and working on only a few hours sleep before that. Here’s tomorrow’s Daily Planner - not going to waste space/bandwidth with the advertisements unless someone specifically ask for something from one of them. I do plan to attend the Beyond the Podium presentation - Discovering Japan. Other than that, I think it is going to be a relaxing day.

Dinner in Luminae was great as always. Being embarkation day steak was on the menu. The amuse-bouche was a ham and cheese croquet We both ordered starters from the MDR that has been shown over and over again so I did not bother taking pictures — She had the French Onion Soup and I had the Wedge Salad. For her main course, she had the Roasted Turbot I had the Grilled Filet Mignon. The flavor was great but the cut was a little tougher than I like. We split the Seared Duck Breast We both ordered a black coffee with Bailey’s and my DW decided she wanted the Almond Cake for dessert. She said he was good but a little too suite for her taste.

Thanks. It was a very smooth start. The only irritation so far was the constant repeating announcements, in multiple languages, for people to complete the muster drill and report to their muster stations. A comment was made by someone on this threat that they should just lock their stateroom doors and when they came to complain throw them overboard. It was very annoying to have the standard sounding of the emergency alarm in the middle of dinner.

You are correct. This time last year on Millennium is the first time we ever thought about ordering off the Blu menu in Luminae and it was prompted by a report here on Cruise Critic that it could be done. The Luminae Maitre’d was swamped tonight when we went to eat so I did not bother him. I’ll try and ask tomorrow. Just a point of interest, it is the same Maitre’d that said no last year.

The biggest difference is the food in Luminae is prepared to order where as the meals in the MDR are pre-plated. We really enjoy Luminae and I can honestly say that while we have had an occasional dish that was not to our liking, we’ve never had a bad meal and I cannot speak too highly about the service we received there. Full disclosure — we have not dined in the MDR since a year before the COVID shutdown so while things may have improved, we cannot report first hand observations.

@miched I never said it did not happen to you, I simple stated that it is not a 100% certainty that it can be done. @Liao Similar things have happened to us. We were given a bottle of wine that was supposed to be charged to our account but never was. My whole point is that while people have been able to order off the Blu menu in Luminae it is come that may continue to happen, but it is not something that someone should count on as a certainty.

Jim — I hope you know you are getting me into trouble. I have been sharing your review, especially the photo’s with my wife and I may have to spring for an Australian to Canada cruise in the next year or so .. We have both really enjoyed all your commentary and beautiful pictures. The warm blue skies are making us envious as it has been over cast, chilly, and rain almost every day since we arrived but thankfully there are clear skies for our sail away here in the next hour or so.