Some of my thoughts on the Feb 3rd Sailing on the Millenium.

[Amlee]

This was my 10th cruise and my 4th on Celebrity since Sept. Just my mother (her 11th cruise, but 1st Celebrity cruise) and myself this time around. Left the rest of the family back home.

 

We flew into FLL on the 2nd and stayed at the Spring Hill Suites. While not on the beach, this hotel was extremely nice. With a shopping center across the street and a Burger King out front. They proved free shuttle from the airport. A taxi to the port is about $20.

 

On the 3rd we arrived at the port around 10:30 an was some of the first to get on the ship. As soon as we stepped on board my mother turned to me and said this ship has Norwalk! I told her I hadn't heard anything. She repeated the statement again. We go upstairs and have lunch. I directed her toward the burgers and fries around the pool. This is the one constant thing I have found on the Celebrity ships. The pool grill has been great on all of the Celebrity ships I have been on.

 

At one we head down to our cabin. Much to my mother's despair we were booked in an inside cabin. This was her first and last inside cabin. Me I don't mind them. My mother starts to sit down on her bed, when she notices something on her bed. She pulls her coverlet back and stained food is on it. GROSS!! I called the steward and he came in a bit to change it out. I asked for the beds to be separated out (one on each wall with the night stands in the middle), he said that would be done before we went to bed. Great no problem. I also asked for our fridge to be cleaned out. He said he would do it. We went up top to walk around and for me to show my mother the ship. After dinner that night we go back to the cabin to find the beds done as requested. But the fridge hadn't been touched. Add to the fact there was left over food in the floor that must have been under the bed, plus a safety pin.

 

The next morning, I left a note on my bed. I again asked about getting my fridge cleaned out, enough towels and wash clothes for 2, and a re cleaning of the cabin floor. We didn't get the fridge clean out until half through the cruise. Some days we did get the extra towels and wash clothes, but most days it was forgot about and we didn't get them. It was on the 3rd day before the pin, peanuts, and bread crumbs were removed from the floor. By that time, my mother wasn't impressed with Celebrity at all.

 

Earlier during the evening it had been confirmed to me that the ship had in fact had a small out break of Norwalk. That the ship was under a code red status. (this was confirmed later in a galley tour where the code red was clearly posted around the galley, along with notice to all crew members that their crew activities had been canceled due to the code red). Through out the cruise the crew was cleaning with bleach. There was allot of talk from people who had leaned up against a railing that had been sprayed with bleach, only to have their clothes bleached white.

 

I had meetings the whole day of the first sea day, so I was blah about missing all the great activities that I had enjoyed on the Journey and the Constellation. I looked anyway and to my surprise there wasn't as many as I had in the past. Later in the afternoon was the battle of the sexes, but not a full day of trivia, name that tune, or varies other type things. Which was interesting as the current activity director was on the Constellation while I was on there. I heard this topic come up many times through out the ship from varies people. What games they did have was fun and the staff was truly great to be around.

 

Because of my meetings that first morning, I was at the buffet when the doors opened, and went straight to waffle/pancake station. I was really not happy that at 3 minutes after the doors open, the griddles hadn't even been turned on, the batter wasn't ready to be put on and nothing was out on the steam table (at that station). There was about 4 of us there, and we had to wait for the griddles to get hot and our pancakes and waffles to be cooked. It was funny to a point, as I ordered pancakes, while the others settled for waffles. There fore they got their's before me. So I was standing there watching the 4 cooks stand around the pancake griddle watching the batter bubble. Like standing there staring at it would make it cook faster. I never did trying them again. As it seemed the pattern repeated it's self every morning. When I did finally get my pancakes, the bacon and potatoes that was put on my plate was cold. I found the food hit or miss up in the buffet and mostly stayed with the pool grill.

 

I will say this about the pool grill and this became a HUGE pet peeve of mine. The tables were taken over by card players. You couldn't get a meal and eat out there. One day two ladies pushed two table together, piled all of their pool stuff on one, and played cards on the other. While in Tortola, we went to eat and all the tables were covered in dirty plates and trays. I'm talking piled high. We went inside to eat. I did flag down a matri'd to let him know what was going on. He took off like a bottle rocket and you could hear him giving orders. I thought OOPS! Never saw the tray problem again and someone was out there the rest of the cruise.

 

We loved the islands and my mother wants to come back and bring my dad with her. We shopped in San Juan, and was surprised to find the best jewelry deals there. In Casa De Campa, we went to the artist village. We grap a taxi and beat the masses there. It was $15 for the 2 of us. $5 each to enter the area. It's a beautiful location, the landscape is amazing. We went back via taxi, but not with out a twist. I asked him before hand how much and he told me $50 to take us back to the ship. Ha! Not happening! This guy didn't speak very good English and my Spanish is very limited. I did finally manage to get him to understand nothing more than $15 for the 2 of us. He tried repeatedly to sell us an island tour or a hotel tour. I finally pulled out my ship card, pointed to it and told him here! He got the hint. In Tortola we did the town and country through the ship. Now this was another trip with a twist. On the first day, we went down and requested the island tour with the shopping stops. I had spotted it on the website, and it was the only thing I was interested in. The shore excursion person, said there was no such excursion. That they offered nothing with shopping. OK, so we settled for the coast to coast excursion. In my meeting the first day, the shore excursion manager came to talk to us. He passed out all booklet with all of the excursions in it. Browsing through it, I spotted the Town and Country excursion. After he was done talking, I went outside and explained what had happened the day before. By that afternoon he had tickets for the Town and Country sent up to our room. We very much enjoyed this excursion and I would tell anyone to do it.

 

We did enjoy Ladabee(sp). I have never in my life found something named so perfect. The FLEA Market! Those people come after you like fleas to a dog. I have read other reviews, and seen the reports about how bad the country is, but this was so overwhelming. They would get you into their booths and then block you in trying to sell you something. You then had to fight your way out. At one point I got separated from my mother at one point. One minute she was there and the next she was gone. I circled and fought my way around several times, never seeing her. I finally went out side and just sat down. The thought of sitting down in the middle of the road, screaming at the tops of my lungs "I've lost my MOMMY!!", but then I saw her through the masses. Just be prepared when you start that way. It's really heart breaking!

 

I enjoyed the dining room and all that it offered. They were trying out the new menu's. Also they had grass growing on the ship. When I asked about it, I was told that Celebrity had been testing to see how the grass would react to the different climates.

 

The ship is very much showing it's age. Our hall way had an awful smell to it. HUGE stains in the flooring. Not just little stains, but huge stains. Busted lights in Cosmos, and in the theater the carpet was coming up where it was seamed together. This was another big topic I heard among the pax.

 

All and all we had a great cruise and enjoyed ourself greatly. But getting off the ship was a whole different story.

 

On the first day, we received the Valet disembarkation form. The form stated that your flight had to be after 11:30. Our flight left at 11:25, but I filled it out any way. When I went to guest services, I pointed it out to the women, but was told that was fine. But she needed to see our flight plans. I told her I didn't have it with me, but I would bring it back to her. She said that was fine. A few days later I went back down there with the information(even though it was all filled out on the form.) Again I asked if there would be a problem with the time. Again I was told it was fine. Our day in Haiti, I went back to confirm that everything was still fine, and was told that they would check us in tomorrow. If they had any problems they would let us know. So around lunch time, I again went back to confirm that it was all good and was told yes, everything had been processed and that forms were in our cabin. Sure enough, our boarding pass had been printed out and we had luggage tags. Both of us were excited about the ease of it all. We were to report to the theater no later than 8:30.

 

We attached the tags to the bags, and sat them outside our door before 11pm and went to bed thinking how great it was going to be the next morning. Breakfast was early and was standing at the door when they opened the doors to theater. Around 8am they started paging people who hadn't shown up to immigration. By 8:15 the theater was starting to fill up with people. But there was NO crew member to be seen at all. At 8:30 people were standing and stepping all over each other. Again NO crew member to be found at all. At 8:45 people had started getting up and walking out of the theater. I went to the photo area and asked the guy if they had called any tags. He assured me they hadn't, that there would be an announcement made over the ship when things started. Now I know that was BULL as the papers clearly stated that wouldn't happen, it didn't happen on the other ships and it wasn't going to happen on this one. I finally tracked down someone with a walkie talkie. He assured me that no tags had been called and it would be about 5 more minutes. So I went back to the theater.

 

I wasn't happy at all by this time. I sat down for about 10 more minutes and people were getting upset all around us. We didn't know anything. At 9am I was done. I told my mother to follow me and I went in search again. By that time, those crew members in the photo/Micheal's club area had pulled a magic act and was gone. It was then that our group had ran into a group coming off the 5th deck of the theater, as they had the same idea that we did. We start herding toward the lobby area of the ship and people were getting off. NOBODY had been in the theater to tell us anything. You talk about some pissed off people. It was a mad rush for the door. We finally make it to the luggage area, through customs and start to give out luggage to the airline people. Notice I said start. It was at that point we are told, that we can't do the service, that we should have NEVER been allowed to take part in the service. OMG! You could seen the steam coming out of my ears. I was beyond mad! To make it worse surprise! surprise! there was NOBODY from Celebrity out there!! They had $40 of our money! We now had to pay the price of a taxi on top of it all. We get to the airport, out driver dumps our luggage out in the middle of the street and drives off after getting his money. No let me help you get this to the curb or anything. I pull it over to the kiosk(sp), and explain it to the man out there. He is arguing with me that I wasn't flying Delta, but American Airlines. HUH!? WTH? No, it would be Delta! He then said we couldn't check our luggage as the ship was suppose to have done that and he couldn't do it. He suggested that we go back to the ship and check our luggage. At this point I'm past being the happy cruiser! We go inside and stand in line. The guy at the counter was GREAT! He looked at our tags and our boarding pass, I explain all that had gone on and his exact words were "What the H"ll?" He had me point out the man outside that I dealt with. Not sure what happened with that. But he couldn't believe the run around we got.

 

This blew any chance that Celebrity had with my mother. We got home late last night and I haven't had a chance to contact Celebrity yet, but I will. I want my money BACK!!

 

Fort Lauderdale airport is another thing. I will NEVER fly back into or out of that airport again. They have the rudest TSA's of any airport. I have to have extra screening due to my leg and foot brace. I can't take my shoes off at all. You would have thought it was a cardinal sin. The TSA was yelling at me for going through the detector with my shoes on. I told the TSA at the front of security about my brace. I told the TSA who handed me the basket to put my things in. I told the TSA who was standing at the detector about my brace. But this women came around the corner yelling "what is with the shoes!?" "Get those shoes off NOW!" I lifted my pants leg up and said I can't. She huffed a big breath out and rolled her eyes at me. She then proceeded to the second screening. If I had it to do over again, I would have requested someone besides her and I'll remember to do that next time I run into someone like her. By that time, my things had come through the screener and my mother was trying to gather it all up. A TSA was yelling at her to move. I asked a TSA if someone could help her with my stuff. She looked over at my mother and said, so looks to be handling it and walked off. By this time I'm shaking I am so mad.

 

The TSA had me to hold my arms straight out while she patted me down. Which is normal, but they usually go over me twice and I'm good to put my arms down. This wasn't the case. My mother said later, the only place they didn't put that wand was up my butt. I finally told the TSA I had to put my arms down. She rolled her eyes at me and ignored me. I repeated it again and was again ignored. I finally just put my arms down. She yelled at me, to put my arms up. At which point, I yelled back I can't that my back was starting to hurt. I then asked for each and every name to everyone I had come into contact with. I told them I needed to know the names of the TSA's I would be reporting to Washington. At that point, I was told I was cleared. I don't make ideal threats either. I do know someone in Washington who I can't report their actions to. I also wasn't the only person who was being treated this way. There was a great of non-Americans who were being yelled at and the TSA's had got in their face screaming at them. NEVER AGAIN will I fly into Fort Lauderdale!!

[preb]

Wow.:confused:

[Amlee]

Wow.:confused:

 

Can I help with the confusion?

[Xcruiser]

Sounds like a very bad ending to a less then stellar cruise. We got off Millie January 27th and had a delayed disembarkation by about an hour but didn’t have a flight to catch. I don’t know why they announce all the names to settle accounts or Immigrations issues but not the color or number being called to disembark. There were many waiting pax with us in the photo center outside the theater without any idea of what colors or numbers had been called.

 

Hope you get your money back for the express baggage check in.