Celebrity Millennium

Fort Lauderdale

Celebrity is my favorite cruise line, but they don’t offer many short sailings so when Ron found a 4-day cruise on Millennium over Presidents’ Day weekend, we jumped on it. The itinerary was great (full days in Key West and Nassau), and our booking included drinks, tips, internet service and even some onboard credit.

We hit the road early to get to Port Everglades for our assigned check-in time. There was no line at all to get through security, and we practically walked right on the ship. Once we were onboard, it was easy to find our way around since we’d sailed on Constellation and Summit, Millennium’s sister ships, before. Although Millennium was built in 2000 and is the oldest in Celebrity’s fleet, you wouldn’t know it. It had been “Revolutionized” in 2019 and everything looked updated and fresh. The dark woods and warm reds and golds had been replaced with more muted tones – grays, soft blues and blush. I was afraid there would be too much “greige”, but it looked nice. The biggest changes I noticed were in our cabin, which had new bedding, a large flat screen TV, lots of open shelving, a lighted vanity mirror and USB ports by the bed. The bathroom even had a glass shower door! I don’t think I’ve ever been on a ship with a glass shower door. Much better than those “friendly” shower curtains.

the Grand Foyer

Solarium

Sunset Bar

After we dropped our bags off in the cabin, we hung out on deck, watching the huge yachts riding up and down the Intracoastal Waterway. Celebrity Infinity, which was being used as a crew quarantine ship, circled offshore. Next to us there was a Coast Guard cutter unloading one billion (that’s billion with a B) dollars’ worth of cocaine and marijuana that had been seized at sea. So that’s what one billion dollars looks like! A water taxi went by, and we could hear the tour guide talking about how cruise ships were sailing at only 50% capacity right now. He said, “In my opinion, this is the best time to go on a cruise. It’s much less crowded.” I agree. It’s great not to have to fight for a pool chair or a spot in the elevators. You just have to remember that the cruise lines are struggling with the same staffing and supply problems as everyone else, so there might be a few hiccups.

We watched the sail away from the Sunset Bar, then went to dinner in the Metropolitan Restaurant, the ship’s main dining room. The restaurant looked great after its makeover, with bright white pillars and a new, modern chandelier. The tables by the windows had funky, high-backed chairs that reminded me of something out of Alice in Wonderland. For my dinner, I ordered escargot, roasted carrot salad and seared salmon. Ron had the prime rib but was disappointed that there was no horseradish. Later, one of the chefs told us that they hadn’t had a delivery of horseradish the last three sailings. The horseradish must be floating somewhere off the coast of California, along with all the computer chips and cat food.  #supplychainproblems

Service that night was slow and a bit chaotic. Ron ordered coffee with dessert and I asked for a cappuccino. The assistant waiter brought my cappuccino and brought Ron an empty coffee cup but didn’t fill it. The next time we caught his attention to ask about Ron’s coffee, he said, “it’s coming” as he ran by. Ron never did get his coffee. Oh well. It’s not unusual for the first night’s dining service to be a little off, as the wait staff adjusts to a new group of passengers.

Metropolitan Restaurant

At 9 o’clock there was a comedy show in the main theater. I liked the comedian, Cathy Ladman, who had been on the Tonight Show and several TV comedies, including Modern Family, Caroline in the City and Everyone Loves Raymond. I could relate when she talked about having Face ID on her phone. She said one morning right after waking up, she checked her phone and it dialed 911. :-)  “911. What is your emergency?”  “My hair!!” There was a Motown show after the comedy act, but Ron and I were both sleepy from our early morning, so we called it a night.

Key West

We weren’t sure if we were going to make it to Key West or not. In November of 2020, the city passed a referendum banning ships carrying more than 1500 passengers. With cruise lines sailing at reduced capacity, a few ships had been able to dock (greeted by protestors), but others had rerouted to Bimini. Before the cruise, Ron and I researched Bimini, just in case. I was actually kind of excited about Bimini since we’d never been there, but either port was fine with me.

We woke up in the morning to a view of Sunset Key. We’d made it to Key West after all! We didn’t see any protestors, but there was a large banner across the dock saying, “Welcome to Key West, Cruise Ship Passengers!” After breakfast at the Oceanview Café, we headed off the ship and wandered into town, trying not to look too cruiser-ish. We had an 11 o’clock tour at the Papa’s Pilar Rum Distillery. Papa’s Pilar Rum was named after Ernest “Papa” Hemingway’s fishing boat, “Pilar”, which was also the nickname of Hemingway’s second wife. Since apparently everyone had to have a nickname, our tour guide Mathias went by “Mo”. The distillery had a wall of historic photos highlighting Hemingway’s life and adventurous spirit, including pictures of Hemingway as a child, with his friend “Sloppy” Joe Russell and, of course, fishing on the Pilar. Hemingway’s family was involved in developing the rum and it showed in the details. Even the rum bottles were designed in the shape of Hemingway’s water canteen. Mo walked us through the process of distilling rum, explaining that rum got its color by aging in charred wooden barrels. He said that people thought pirates drank dark rum, but it takes at least three years to age rum. He joked, “Do you think pirates waited three years? No, they drank the clear stuff.” :-)  We got to taste some of the rum ourselves and ended up buying a bottle of the blond rum, which had a buttery taste, almost like butterscotch candy.

Papa's Pilar Rum Distillery

We had lunch at the Conch Republic Seafood Company, went back to the ship to drop off our rum, and then walked to the lighthouse at the southern end of the island. We’d visited the lighthouse before, so Ron opted to stay on the ground this time while I climbed the 88 steps to the top of the tower. From the lighthouse gallery, there was a beautiful view of Old Town and of our ship. By that time we were done at the lighthouse, we were both tired, and the walk back to the pier seemed very looooong. I  wished I had thought to ask if we could borrow a couple of Chris’s bikes. We had to stop at Caroline’s Café on Duval Street for a mojito while we rested our feet. :-)

Key West Lighthouse

Back on the ship, we napped in our cabin until 5 o’clock, then went to the Sunset Bar for the sail away, but the ship showed no signs of leaving port. After a while we heard an announcement that we were waiting on two missing passengers. We watched the officers milling around the gangway until finally at almost 5:30, we saw a couple slowly sauntering up the pier, totally clueless that they were holding up the whole ship. A crew member ran out to meet them and then they walked slightly faster the rest of the way. As soon as they were onboard, the gangway was pulled up and we were on our way. I don’t think we would have waited for them much longer. If Key Westers were already unhappy with cruise ships, I could imagine the outcry if we had blocked the sunset.

It was a beautiful sail away. As we pulled away from the pier, we could see the crowd of people at Mallory Square and the sailboats out for their sunset sails. We passed the Sand Key Lighthouse just as the sun was setting. There is nothing like a Key West sunset.

That night at dinner, we were seated at one of the tables with the Alice in Wonderland chairs. Unfortunately, the service was just as slow as the first night and our waiter brought an appetizer I didn’t order. We decided not to bother with dessert and went to the casino for some Blackjack. Because of COVID precautions, the casino manager was only allowing four players per table, and with just two open Blackjack tables, it was a challenge to get a seat. Eventually Ron nabbed a spot at the single deck table, and I got a seat at the regular table. We played for a long time, and I lost about $40 but we had fun. When we turned in our chips, the cashier told us that half of the dealers were out on COVID quarantine. No wonder there were only two tables open. Before going back to the cabin, we stopped at the Martini Bar, where the high-energy bartenders were putting on a show, juggling bottles and pouring multiple drinks at one time.

Sea Day

I woke up at 3:30 to people yelling in the hallway. Grrr! :-(  Eventually I fell back asleep and when I woke up again, it was almost 7. We spent the morning at the pool deck where the activities staff were giving dance lessons and a Boy Band cover group performed a mini concert by the pool. It was a beautiful day. While Ron and I were soaking up vitamin D and looking out at the ocean, a large sport fishing boat came speeding towards us and crossed directly in front on the ship’s bow! Our captain blasted the horn. I couldn’t believe that had happened! With all that ocean, how does someone almost run into a cruise ship? Ron guessed that the fishing boat’s captain had put his boat on autopilot and gone below to fix a drink.

Main Pool

When we’d had enough sun, we went down to the cabin and hung out on our balcony. On our last cruise in November, we had two sea days and I thought we would spend a lot of time on the balcony, but we always seemed to be busy doing other things. This cruise, I really wanted to enjoy the balcony. We stood at the railing for a long time, just watching the flying fish leaping away from the ship’s wake and skipping across the water.

That night was Chic Night, so we dressed up and went to the Grand Foyer to get our pictures taken before dinner. Since we hadn’t been very excited about our main dining room experience so far, I thought we could use some of our onboard credit to pay for dinner at Tuscan Grill, the Italian steakhouse specialty restaurant. I had called to make reservations, but there weren’t any tables available until the next night. I ended up being glad that we couldn’t get reservations that night because the main dining room was like a different restaurant. All the courses came out quickly and the menu was great. We ordered almost everything – scallops Rockefeller, prosciutto and arugula salad, blue cheese soufflé (it was very rich), lobster and Beef Wellington. Yum!

The evening’s entertainment included Touch of Shine, an excellent aerial/acrobat duo, followed by the Totally 80s Gameshow, which was held in the Sky Lounge. Like on our Serenade of the Seas cruise, I’d made it a goal to have a drink at every bar on the ship, and we hadn’t made it to the Sky Lounge yet. Perfect - I could check a bar off my list and listen to 80s music at the same time! :-)  The game involved two teams, Team Awesome and Team Gnarly, competing against each other to name the title and artist of songs as quickly as possible. Team Awesome was winning until we got to the rock portion of the show when Team Gnarly picked a new captain who clearly knew his 80s rock. There was a lot of singing along from the audience too. I ended up a little tipsy from the drink I’d ordered, so Ron picked up pizza for us at the Oceanview Café, which we ate in our cabin before going to bed. What a fun night.

Nassau

When I woke up the next morning, we were docking in Nassau. Ron was still sleeping so I crept out onto the balcony. There was a Carnival ship docked next to us, and when I pulled up marinetraffic.com on my phone to see which ship it was, the radar showed a second Carnival ship pulling into the harbor and two more ships already docked on our other side. Five ships! It was going to be a busy day in Nassau.

reflection of our smokestack in Celebrity Apex's windows

We didn’t have any specific plans for the day except to revisit our favorite places and have some Sky Juice and good Bahamian food. The area around the port was a bit of a mess. The old Festival Place had been bulldozed to build a new cruise terminal and marina. We made our way through the construction zone and down Bay Street, stopping to take a picture of the British Colonial Hilton while we still could. I was sad that the beautiful old hotel had closed for good. What a loss of history.

Next, we headed up the hill to the Graycliff Hotel to buy some chocolates at the chocolate shop. A Christmas tree, made out of wine bottles, was still up in Graycliff’s lobby. Across the street from Graycliff, there was a winery, a couple of colorful bars and the Heritage Museum which was formerly the summer home of Lord Mountbatten. An umbrella art display was strung over the road. As we walked along, I took pictures of some of the unique and brightly painted doorways. John Watling’s rum distillery was nearby, so we stopped there for a rum and Coke. Since our last visit, the distillery had turned into a major tourist stop. It was packed! 

British Colonial Hilton

West Hill Street

National Art Gallery

After we made our way back to Bay Street, we flagged down a #10 bus to go to the Fish Fry for lunch. The Fish Fry is a row of little restaurants about a mile outside of town. We’d eaten at Goldie’s and Twin Brothers before, so this time we chose Oh Andros. It was one of the smaller restaurants, but it always seemed to get great reviews from both locals and tourists. While we chatted with the other customers, Ron and I shared a fish sandwich, conch salad and a massive dish of rice and peas. I was bummed we couldn’t take the leftover rice and peas home with us. It was so good. The sun was out, and it was windy and cool, so we decided to walk back to the port, enjoying the views of the beautiful, turquoise water and the ships lined up in port. We stopped briefly at the new Margaritaville Beach Resort to see what it was like. It looked like a fun place to spend a day sometime, but there was really nothing Bahamian about it. It could have been in Florida or Vegas or anywhere. I wished they had tried to incorporate more of the local culture and character.

conch salad

When we got back onboard, we watched from our balcony as, one-by-one, the other cruise ships pulled away from the dock and sailed away. We were the last to leave. Our reservations for Tuscan Grill were at 6 o’clock and we were seated at a table by a window so we could see the darkening sky as we left Nassau behind. We shared an antipasti plate, and I ordered beef carpaccio and creamy burrata, which was kind of like a Caprese salad except the cheese was softer than mozzarella. For our main courses, Ron had the rib eye with a side of lobster rigatoni, and I had the short rib pappardelle. You could order the pastas in full or half portions or even as a side. I got the half portion, which was more than enough. We both had tiramisu for dessert. While we ate, the Chef’s Table dinner was taking place at a large table next to us. I thought our Chef’s Table on Serenade of the Seas looked nicer since we’d had our own private dining room. That was such a memorable experience. I hope we can do another Chef’s Table dinner someday.

Tuscan Grill

We still had some onboard credit that we needed to use up before the end of the cruise. We’d planned to spend it in the gift shop, but then we found out that we could use it to buy casino chips. Cool! We split up the chips and went in search of seats. We found two open seats at the single deck table, but I immediately lost half my chips and decided to leave Ron to find another table. A couple of new dealers had arrived that day, fresh out of quarantine, but even with a third table opened up, I had to wait a while for a seat. At first I didn’t do much better at the new table, but every time I got down to my last hand I would win. That went on for a while, and I heard the lady standing behind me say to her husband, “She’s like a phoenix that keeps rising from the ashes!” :-)  Finally my luck turned for good and I made back all my money. When the dealer stopped to shuffle, it seemed like a good time to quit and let someone else have a chance to play.

On our way back to the cabin, Ron and I walked through the Grand Foyer where the Silent Disco was taking place. The Silent Disco was a dance party where music was played through headphones instead of over a speaker system. To someone watching, it looked like everyone was dancing to nothing. To make it even funnier, the headphones had three music channels to choose from, so people were listening and dancing to totally different songs. In one corner, a group of girls was singing aloud to “We Are Family” while another group suddenly started doing to steps to “the Cha Cha Slide”. It was hilarious. I hope our next cruise has a Silent Disco. It looked like so much fun. Before going to bed, I sat out on the balcony for a little while, listening to the sound of the waves against the ship's hull.

In the morning as we finished packing, we watched a cute goodbye video playing on the cruise line TV channel. Crew members from all the different departments were saying that they hoped we’d had a great cruise and that we would be sailing on Celebrity again soon. We did and we will!