Millennium Christmas Cruise Review December 23 - 27 2021

[weacat]

At the last minute, we decided to book a four day Christmas cruise on the Millennium from December 23rd - 27th.  I usually do not get any time off from work this time of year, but since I am changing jobs internally, I was allowed to take my accumulated vacation the last 2 weeks of December.  Plus our 8 year old daughter is finally fully vaxed.  We initially booked flights from Worcester, MA to FLL right away to be able to see my father and maybe take a few days to go to Orlando to see additional family and go to Sea World.  But then a short cruise came to mind and it worked in perfectly within our time in South Florida.

 

Since it was last minute, there were very few cabins left for 3 people, but we were able to book an inside cabin.  Not what we really wanted in these times, but figured that since we were all vaxed, and boosted, we would be ok.

 

We all took at home covid tests the night before our flight to make sure we were negative before boarding the plane in the early morning.

 

We flew down to FLL on the 21st early AM and scheduled tests at 3 different places.  The first was at a Quest drive thru at a local Walmart grocery store in Boynton Beach.  (We were staying at my fathers place in Delray Beach). Unfortunately it would have been a rush to get there from  FLL so we had to cancel.  The next set of tests were at CVS the early afternoon of the 21st.  Somehow my husband scheduled me and our daughter at one CVS and him at a different one?  Luckily they took us at the different times at the different CVS’s.  Since it was a PCR test, we weren’t sure we would receive the results in time.  As one more backup, we scheduled Walgreens (rapid) for the next morning.  We went to Walgreens on the morning of the 22nd and received results in 1 hour.  The CVS results came in late afternoon and both were negative for all three of us.

 

We didn’t rent a car on this trip and had a driver from my fathers community scheduled for our many trips back and forth from the airport to my fathers place and to the port as well.  It worked out perfectly and we could use my fathers car once at his house.

 

We had a 1:30pm boarding time for the cruise.  We arrived at 1:45PM and walked right into the terminal.  There was a separate checkin area for our daughter to verify her vaccination status.  If she wasn’t vaccinated, I assume she would have been tested again.

 

Once upstairs and after the x-ray machines, we waited behind one other couple to complete the check in process.  Once again the had to check our daughter vaccine card and took a picture of it with the negative test print out.  The last step to board the ship was to verify our information once again and once again, double check our daughters vaccine card with some senior agents.  In all it wasn’t long and we boarded the ship much quicker that in previous trips.

 

Once we boarded we went right to our cabin and dropped our our carry-ons and saw how tiny the inside cabin was.  If it was just me and my husband it would have been fine, but since the bed for our daughter was the small couch, it would have been hard to walk around her at night.  We had hoped it would have been one of the cabins with the pull down bed from the ceiling.  My mistake for not look at the deck plans closely.  We then decided to visit guest relations and ask for a possible upgrade.  They took our information and said they would call us once the boat set sail.  At that point, we decided not to unpack too much and continue with making our other arrangements on board.  We completed the muster/safety check and then visited the maitre de to change our dining time.  They gave us 8:30pm since we had booked so late.  Luckily they were able to change us to 6pm.  We also visited Camp at Sea to register our daughter and received the information for the protocols they were following.  Supposedly there were about 200 children on board.  Since the max children per age group was 10 at any time in the camp, they split up the sessions to 90 minute blocks so that all the children could participate.  It was possible that they might be full and we would have to come back for the next 90 minute block.  That never happened and she was always admitted when we showed up.  Masks were required for all children no matter of vaccination status.  It wasn’t a problem since she is used to wearing a mask all day at school.  Plus we decided as a family to wear a mask anytime we were inside.  While wandering around the ship, security tracked us down and asked to see DD’s vaccine card.  Since it was in our cabin, they followed me and took another picture of her card.

 

After dinner in the main dining room, we dropped off our daughter at the camp and went back to our inside cabin and called guest relations to see if there was any update on our upgrade request.  They called back within 20 minutes and we were able to move to a veranda on the same deck.  It worked out perfectly.  We were able to move all of our luggage ourselves and the new cabin steward met us there and set up our daughters pull down bed.  It was nice to have fresh air from the veranda and to have room to move in the cabin.  By the time we had to pick up out daughter at closing time for camp, we were all unpacked.

 

The next day (Christmas Eve) we were in Bimini.  We decided to get off the ship and take a look around having never visited this island before.  They stopped us as we were exiting the ship to ask if we were on a ship excursion.  Since we weren’t, they had to verify our DD vaccination card once again.  It was a quick process as they took another picture of her card and then they let us depart.  We quickly realized that we needed to rent a golf cart.  We had a good time driving around the island and went to both ends of the island.  Luckily my phone had google maps and was receiving a signal.  We even made it to the far north-eastern end of the island looking for the “Fountain of Youth” but we couldn’t get that far with the cart.  We did walk quite a bit on beach past where the road ends and found some beautiful conch shells.  We were the only ones there and it was nice to have our own private beach.

 

As a special treat, we went to Le Petit Chef for dinner that night.  It was a surprise for our daughter and she enjoyed the show very much.  The meal was delicious as we all had the menu that comes with regular show.  Yes, even our 8 year old.  She is a great eater and will try most anything.  The filet wasn’t very tender, but the rest of the meal was wonderful.  After dinner, DD went to camp and my husband and I went to the Martini Bar.  We upgraded to the premium drink package and decided we were going to try all the premium brands we always wanted to try without buying the entire bottle at home.  Plus my husband is a bourbon fan so he was able to try anything he wanted.  The bars were very busy this cruise as there were supposedly about 1700 guests on board.  I think the bartenders were a bit overwhelmed since they haven’t had to serve this size crowd in awhile.  After the first day, it seemed like they got their routine back and sped up the service a bit more.

 

Christmas Day - at sea.  Santa arrived via a lifeboat and climbed onboard the Millennium.  Marched down to the awaiting crowd on the pool deck and danced with all the children.  Then Santa and all the children had a parade through the Oceanview and then down to deck 4.  There, he sat in his chair and gave out presents to all the children.  It was a nice show and I’m glad they did something special for the kids.  Unfortunately the choice of “presents” probably needs some revising.  All the children from age 0-8 received a tiny plastic sand bucket and tools.  Ages 9-17 received wireless ear buds.  Our daughter was disappointed, but she had a stocking from us that we brought with us and we left the “Santa” present for our cabin steward with hopes he could somehow give to his children.

 

The rest of the day was filled with pool time and a great buffet at the Oceanview which included a chocolate fountain.  There was a special show in the theatre for the families that afternoon and afterwards the camp ran a family carnival in the afternoon that was a lot of fun and gave out “prizes” that most children won at least one.  The evening was “Chic” night and a special dinner which was done very well.  Our sommelier poured us some better wines understanding that we wanted to try the more expensive brands even if they went over our premium package.  That evening DD went to camp and they had the silent disco for the kids in the sky lounge.  We enjoyed the aerial show and a few martini’s while she was in camp.

 

The last day we arrived at Nassau.  Having been at this port many times I really didn’t want to get off the ship, but I had read about the John Watling’s distillery and that the location was in one of the Bond films.  My husband is a huge fan, so we decided to take a walk and visit the site.  It was a short, interesting tour and we ended up getting a drink while there and picking up a couple of bottles to bring home.  After a quick walk through the straw market, we went back to the ship to have lunch and enjoy the pool.  It was much quieter and enjoyed that there weren’t a lot of people on board.  DD played in the pool with new friends and we went into the solarium during family hours.  The windows were open which made us feel better.  That evening we went to the Metropolitan dining room for the last time for dinner and after DD went to camp,  They went to the the outdoor theatre for a showing of the movie of Polar Express.  We finished packing that night and went to the 9pm show before picking up DD at 10pm.

 

We were group 15 to depart the ship.  It was very quick and short wait to go through customs.  We had our driver ready and picked us up within 5 mins of exiting the terminal.  He drove us to my fathers place since we were staying there for another 4 days.  My father was able to score some at home rapid tests and we quickly took the tests before removing our masks - luckily all negative.

 

In all we had a good time.  I was a bit shocked how many people weren’t social distancing and the elevators were full.  Most of the time we waited for another elevator or just used the stairs.  I was happy that they required all children in camp to wear a mask.  I think there were a lot of cancellations because it never felt like there were 200 children on board.  As I said earlier, we wore our masks inside unless we were eating or drinking and tried not to stay in one place for too long with less than 6 feet of social distance.  Since the sailing, we have been wearing our kn95 masks anytime outside the house.  We will give our DD another at home test Sunday night before she goes back to school on Monday just to make sure she is still negative.

 

Feel free to ask any questions.

[kwokpot]

Happy new year and thank you for a great detailed writeup. A couple of questions. How did you feel the ship looked with all the upgrades? Was the cabin upgrade complementary or did you pay an upgrade fee?

[dgoz]

Thanks for this detailed review. Loved reading about the thinks they did for the kids especially.

[weacat]

The ship is beautiful and both the inside cabin and Veranda was updated nicely.  The inside cabin had USB and outlets on both night tables which was not true in the Veranda (only one side)

 

The cabin upgrade was complimentary.  I believe the Veranda cabin was originally assigned to a no show.

6 hours ago, kwokpot said:

Happy new year and thank you for a great detailed writeup. A couple of questions. How did you feel the ship looked with all the upgrades? Was the cabin upgrade complementary or did you pay an upgrade fee?

 

[weacat]

6 hours ago, dgoz said:

Thanks for this detailed review. Loved reading about the thinks they did for the kids especially.

Thank you.  There are so few reviews with members traveling with children.  We are an older couple that met and married later in life and have a young child.  Celebrity matches our personality but we have to plan for cruises in which DD will have some company in camp.  

[Dave Judy]

Yes, thanks for the review and all of the little details. It was great to hear that it’s not all, “Doom & Gloom.”  We we’re on the Millennium in September and the Apex in October - took precautions and had a wonderful time. 

So glad you were able to get the upgrade.