Quick review..millennium in the southern Caribbean

[Lialovestotravel]

Hi, back from a lovely week on the Millennium and thought I’d share a few pics and such.  Going to add posts from a day or two rather than one long posts, just to keep it manageable.  

[Lialovestotravel]

We flew into San Juan from Newark on Thursday night.  Both to see Old San Juan and to avoid flight issues.  Stayed at Fortaleza Suites, nice but small, and had a fabulous late dinner (my boyfriend can’t stop talking about the duck & mushroom quesadillas, lol) and drinks at Le Madre.  The beautiful little bar behind Le Madre makes the best margaritas and it was such a nice way to start vacation!

[hcat]

Following..looks like you are off to a great start with the review..

What  was the itin?

[RichYak]

It's 9am where I am and now I want a margarita. 🍸😊

[Lialovestotravel]

Friday we set out to see as much of Old San Juan as possible.  It is beautiful!  We headed towards the port first to get oriented and also to see if there was a water taxi to the Pan American port (didn’t find one).  In the first five minutes had an American guy asking if we spoke English with an elaborate story about being mugged and needing money.  It was very frustrating, this was clearly a man who has skills and prefers to just grift.  Really not a good way to start the day, it just made me angry.  But, we tried to shake it off and enjoy the city.  Walked up & down a bunch of streets and tried to follow a great tour from here but there was a lot of construction that made it difficult to follow, and it was super hot & humid.  We had a good time checking a lot of the city out and the history here is amazing.  Had stuffed avocados for lunch (good, not great) and Mofongo from Barrachina (great food but the restaurant lacked atmosphere) for dinner.  There was a shower and nap midday to deal with the heat, and it was so nice to have a hotel right in the middle of everything.  It was quiet & cool!

[Lialovestotravel]

10 minutes ago, hcat said:

Following..looks like you are off to a great start with the review..

What  was the itin?

It was leaving PR, st Thomas, st Kitt, Antigua, St Lucia & Barbados.  

[Lialovestotravel]

I am tried to go back to my first post and add a bit of background info but it appears to not have worked..

 

First time on Celebrity, but I have taken 4 cruises in the past 20 years.  Both in our 50’s (nurse & engineer) and from north NJ near NYC.  Not married but dating for 2 years.  So, apparently we are typical Celebrity customers, lol.

[Lialovestotravel]

Saturday morning we slept in (perhaps a few too many pina colada & margaritas)and got ready for the cruise.  As a side note, we used Uber 4 times in PR and every time was easy, the driver was good, and it was inexpensive.  So..ship, yay!

 

We had a balcony on the 10th floor (the new rooms added a few years ago).  We loved it, but some might not..you can definitely hear the music from the sky lounge above and it’s high & forward so movement might be a problem for some.  Neither bothered us, actually it was fun to have the music lol.  But if being able to hear Pitbull at midnight would bother you this would not be the room for you.  It is an awesome location tho..small hallway with no traffic &  the solarium pool, gym, elevators, stairs are all steps away.  The room is pristine, I noticed no wear & tear at all, and the balcony has just a bit of shade.  Loved it.  We watched sailing school and enjoyed our balcony after lunch & unpacking.

[EatonDoolittle]

That guy who asked if you can speak English is famous here on Cruise Critic. I cannot remember on which line the post lives, but he has been at it for about a dozen years. People still report when they are approached by him, have told him they know he is a famous scammer! 

 

There are even photos of him - it's kind of like a Bigfoot sighting . How fortunate for you 😆

[Lialovestotravel]

17 minutes ago, EatonDoolittle said:

That guy who asked if you can speak English is famous here on Cruise Critic. I cannot remember on which line the post lives, but he has been at it for about a dozen years. People still report when they are approached by him, have told him they know he is a famous scammer! 

 

There are even photos of him - it's kind of like a Bigfoot sighting . How fortunate for you 😆

Fortunate was not how I was feeling after meeting him but wasn’t letting it ruin my day lol.  We offered to walk him to the closest police station to get help.  Shockingly enough he declined.  I had not seen the post about him on here but have a pretty good bs detector, either from being a nurse or having survived 3 teenagers.

Edited November 7, 2022 by Lialovestotravel

[RichYak]

Here's the thread about the scammer... started in 2009!

 

 

[Lialovestotravel]

So, our ship left San Juan in the dark..nice view of the fort btw.  Before I forget..food in Oceanview cafe was good but for us it was definitely worth going to the dining room.  I don’t think I had one thing I had there I didn’t like and the service was impeccable. I wish I had taken more pics, but I didn’t lol. We did anytime dining and never had to wait, although that could be because the ship was 1/2 full.  We made friends with 2 couples they were often seated next to us & they were delightful too!

[sweep2907]

Saw your ship on 2nd November, must have been St Lucia as we were moored opposite on Britannia. Was it a quiet cruise as we didn't see many up on deck at all as you sailed away?

[Lialovestotravel]

4 minutes ago, sweep2907 said:

Saw your ship on 2nd November, must have been St Lucia as we were moored opposite on Britannia. Was it a quiet cruise as we didn't see many up on deck at all as you sailed away?

Yes, it was only about 1/2 full.  Super easy to find a deck chair and no queuing..we were wondering how you find 1/2 full cruises after enjoying this one lol.  Perhaps Barbados?  Britannia looked beautiful, hope you had a good trip!

Edited November 7, 2022 by Lialovestotravel

[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.

[Lialovestotravel]

20 minutes ago, cyntil8ing said:

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.

Hope you enjoy the review & have a great trip.  Highly recommend spending a day in OSJ before the cruise if you can.  Loved the Millennium and the southern Caribbean!

Edited November 7, 2022 by Lialovestotravel

[Lialovestotravel]

So we took a very long time to cover a very short distance to StThomas, lol.  Saw the comedy show that first night and felt sorry for him, there were less than 100 people in the theater.  He kinda floundered when he didn’t get much of a response from the audience.  I think about 1/2 of the guests on this cruise were primarily Spanish speaking and there were definitely times where the language barrier was an issue.  The comedy shows were one of them.  We also saw times where Spanish speaking guests were confused and the staff wasn’t able to help them well.  My little bit of hospital Spanish wasn’t much help either.  It’s good motivation to learn more Spanish. Fell to sleep to club music, lol.

 

Pulling into St Thomas was cool..I always love seeing a bit of the land as you come in.  We had decided to go to Water Island and it was the best day!  Highly recommend it.  The water taxi is right in the port and it was less than $100 for water taxi, shuttle to Honeymoon beach, chairs & some excellent drinks (Paddlewhacker is a must if you go) There were turtles and it’s super calm, warm water & a nice quiet beach.  Lots of shade too..a must for the pale people.  We stayed for about 4 hours and then rain helped us decide to catch the 215 back instead of the 315.  We kind of developed a pattern this day of breakfast before getting off the ship, getting something on land to drink/eat to support the local economy, late light snack, pool, shower, dinner, show that working really well for us.  Tonight was “chic” but the dress code was definitely not enforced..saw a guy at dinner in tshirt/shorts.  I’m sorry..I don’t know why a couple of pics are upside down.  Anyway..definitely go to Water Island!

[Lialovestotravel]

Our 2nd stop was St Kitts & our original excursion, a cruise to Nevis was cancelled due to low numbers, so we chose to do a rainforest hike excursion instead.  We both enjoy hiking although way more used to temperate weather.  I was always looking for shade lol.  It was fun & informative.  Learned a lot about medicinal plants, saw some monkeys & learned some about the sad history of sugar/rum plantations on the islands.  Not gonna lie..hot & tired after, lol. But I’m fifty and marginally fit, so you can take that with a grain of salt.  Our tour guide was very good & it’s a beautiful island.

 

Went to the shows last night and this night and have to say they seem like bad Las Vegas lounge acts.  But, the last time I was on a cruise it had a very good Rock of Ages show & cirque de soleil dinner.  I attribute the difference possibly to it being a much smaller ship & I’m withholding judgement due to that.  Not a deal breaker for me anyway and the aerialists were beautiful to watch.

[Lialovestotravel]

Our 3rd day was Antigua and it started out with a large band as we pulled in, turned out it was their Independence Day and there was a large party happening at the parade grounds.  I think they were practicing..it sounded like Mardi Gras at 7am.  Tempting to go try to find the party, but also no idea if we’d be welcome or where to go, so we stuck to our original plan of a walk about and rest day.  Everything was pretty much closed since it was a holiday but we found St John’s church open with a volunteer who was very informative.  It was also HOT so we headed back to the ship after a few hours.  We had felt like 5 port days in a row was a lot, so we had decided to declare this our own sea day anyway.  Sorry about the upside down pics..is there a way to fix that?  The water was a beautiful bright turquoise!

[tompeter]

Great report so far!

[Lialovestotravel]

3 hours ago, tompeter said:

Great report so far!

Thx, I was wondering if anyone was reading it or if I was just wasting my time lol.

[Lialovestotravel]

St Lucia!  (Aka 4th port day)..what a beautiful island!  Originally I had wanted to climb a piton but I got cold feet.  I bit afraid I might have to turn around I guess.  Hike a lot in NJ, but it’s NJ🤷🏻‍♀️.  So, after some deliberation we decided to do a waterfall/anse la raye/beach excursion.  The waterfall was awesome, we had cloudbursts & crossed rivers that were running very fast.  Felt a bit “Indiana Jones” lol.  Our tour guide was very informative.  You don’t have to be in great shape to do this tour but I wouldn’t recommend this one though for anyone not to steady on their feet, those rocks are slippery.  And take the walking stick when they offer you one, it’s good for figuring out what water is waist deep and what is knee level when you are crossing rivers.  I’d do it again tho..how often do you go waterfall hunting in a tropical jungle?!?

[Texed]

Thanks for posting your review.  😊

[cyntil8ing]

23 hours ago, Lialovestotravel said:

Hope you enjoy the review & have a great trip.  Highly recommend spending a day in OSJ before the cruise if you can.  Loved the Millennium and the southern Caribbean!

 

Thanks. This is our 5th time leaving from San Juan, not to mention a handful of port stop days. We love Puerto Rico and when we can, leave San Juan, with past stays in Fajardo and Ponce. Next time we have extra days, we will head west to Rincon, or maybe really east to Vieques. This trip we are time limited, so just coming in the day before and staying in Condado area. We have a reservation at one of my favorites, Jose Enrique, for dinner. 

[tartana]

Following along...we do the same cruise later this month! We stayed at the 352 Guest House in Old San Juan Pre Covid when we did a similar cruise on Summit.  Loved that experience and can't wait for the next one! Just curious who the captain and Cruise Director are on Millennium currently?  Thanks!