Celebrity Millennium, November 2022
For those that would rather watch the video version of this post, it’s linked below:
I chose this adventure at this time of year primarily for two reasons:
- I wanted to get away from the hubbub that would be the midterm elections, and
- I wanted to celebrate my birthday
This cruise allowed me to accomplish both of my goals.
Day 1 – Travel and Embarkation
I spent the previous night at a hotel near my local airport (Detroit – DTW). The next morning I made the short drive to the parking lot where my car would sit for the next week. I was then shuttled to DTW to begin my adventure.
The first pleasant surprise of this cruise was when United informed me that the seat on my flight to Newark was upgraded to business class. The seat in row 1 was nice, even though the seat on the aisle wasn’t my preference.
We arrived on time, but it took us about 45 minutes to get off the plane. Long story. I went to the United Club that was nearest to the gate of the flight that would take me to San Juan. Food that I cared to eat was hard to come by, so let me share a photo of what I finally chose:
I needed those extra calories those pound cakes provided, because while I was here, United changed the gate of my flight to San Juan back to near where we got off two hours earlier. Groan, another 15 minute journey.
Finally we were up, up, and away. We landed a little early to find San Juan in the middle of an all day soak – lots of rain that didn’t stop. I got in a taxi for the first time since I was last in San Juan and they took me to the terminal. Once I got to the terminal, it was only 15 minutes to get on board – a new record fast time for me. It would have been even faster if I didn’t have to pull out my electronic boarding pass every three minutes and show it off. The terminal was nearly empty except for me and the employees. I only encountered a few other passengers trying to check in at this time.
Once I made it on board, I got another surprise when the officer who greeted me decided to take pity on me (or something) and escort me directly to the muster station. In my case the muster station was the second level of the main theater, which was not a long walk from where we were. I checked in there and was finally able to get to my cabin and unpack.
After unpacking, meeting my cabin steward Neves, and reviewing most of the paperwork that was provided for me, I went to the Oceanview Cafe for dinner in the ship’s buffet. Unlike my other cruises since the restart, no one greeted me and asked me to wash my hands in the nearby sinks. I guess they figured we didn’t need the reminder at this point.
Another change is that I was able to grab all the food I wanted myself except for the cake. The meal that I built was up to the high standards I had set for Celebrity.
The ship eventually set sail and headed for St. Thomas.
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