Joey and David's Look at the Med

[JoeyandDavid]

Celebrity Millennium

October 29-November 10

Barcelona to Venice<]

Here is a brief recap of our Mediterranean Adventure.

A more detailed review will come later….

We left Lax on Thursday the 26th for a flight at 8:30pm from LAX to London's Heathrow where we we're scheduled to pick up an Iberia Flight to Barcelona.

The flight out of LAX was late but they made up most of the time delayed, arriving at LHR at the time the Iberia flight was scheduled, to depart.

Fortunately, the flight was delayed, so we made the connecting flight however, one of our garment bags did not make that flight, but it did show up before we had to make our way to the pier in Barcelona for our voyage of the Mediterranean.

The hotel Continental Palacete was quite beautiful as was Barcelona... a very exciting city. Our room was waiting for us upon arrival and the free 24 hour buffet was quite good, the entire staff was pleasant and very helpful we would not hesitate to recommend this location.

Our full day in Barcelona was used by taking in the sites via a tourist sightseeing bus (a bus with an open top that you could sit in if you didn’t mind the wind and cooler temperatures.

Barcelona like I said was awesome, (Pictures will follow I promise) :grin:

Sunday morning comes and we make our way via taxi to the Pier to begin the embarkation process.

Celebrity, in an attempt to ward off unhealthy situations onboard, provided all guests with a one page health questionnaire. This was used to determine if a guest MAY be suffering from a virus... if you answered yes to any of the questions they asked you were denied boarding! That was until you got a clearance from a local doctor at your expense and it was your responsibility to catch up with the ship if you were denied boarding in Barcelona.

We were thru the line quickly and on board before noon.

Once inside the stateroom we opened up our aft balcony and began to get swamped by the infamous Mediterranean fruit flies... With no warning at all by the time we sailed our stateroom was full of these pesky critters.

After expressing our displeasure firmly with the staff we were moved to another cabin while they attempted to correct the problem it took a little over 36 hours before we could be moved back into the cabin we had purchased for this adventure.

I must say that the entire staff of the Millennium did their best to turn a negative into a positive the Lead Guest relations Officer Ms. Jann Ramos could not have been more understanding of the situation and her performance in this situation reminded me of just why we chose Celebrity. I must applaud the entire staff in particular Ms Jann Ramos (Lead Guest Relations Officer) for a Job well done!

Outstanding…

After this mishap, we indeed were able to have David's Birthday Brunch on our aft veranda as planned. Score one for Celebrity.

Our first port of call was Villefranche, where we had a private tour with Dream tours. What can I say this is the most remarkable port of call Lucien did an outstanding job showing us All over the region.. David's Birthday Lunch In St Paul. De VENCE was so special.. they had a table waiting for us and treated us to a birthday toast! If you are in need of personable guides and drivers I highly recommend Dream-tours.

The next two tours we shared with others, Jackie and Tony on our tour of Tuscany Countryside and a tour of Rome that we also shared with Paul and Gail…Our driver and Guide Claudio; whose services Jackie and Tony have used before outdid himself as he navigated throughout the region showing us some of the most remarkable mid evil towns..

We were taken to the Black Rooster B&B and winery for wine tasting.. Excellent.

Metro in Athens is so EASY why would you not explore on your own!

Santorini, Croatia and Venice were just about the most exciting parts of this trip for me personally.. I loved the way you could get lost in Venice and the beauty of the coast.

I met some of the coolest people on Board Crazie Couples that were part of this group.. We frequently would meet before dinner for a drink.. it was nice to suddenly look up and see familiar faces.. Maybe that in it self added to the enjoyment of this cruise.

I realize that port of calls are subjective.. Just let it be said we had an outstanding time!!

Now to Rate the Cruise line:<]1 needs improvement - 5 Excellent

Guest Relations 5

Accommodations 4

On Board Activities 3

Food 4

Entertainment 3

Specialty Restaurant 4

Overall Cruise Experience 4.5

[DaCruzNut]

Thanks for the great report!!! Really interesting. I don't know if Celebrity's European food service differs from the Caribbean, but that's the only place I disagree with your assessment.... I rate their food as the best I've had on any ship, bar none. I rate Princess just a trifle behind, almost imperceptible, but Celebrity still #1.

[Gregswife]

Joey, I enjoyed your "mini review". I am looking forward to reading all about your trip and seeing lots more pics. Sorry about the fruit flies, though...

[cruisetarp]

I really enjoyed reading your mini review Joey. It sounds like you had a wonderful time despite the fruit flies. I'm very happy they took care of the problem for you.

[Shari2]

Joey...I really enjoyed your mini-review and the pictures! Sorry about the fruit flies.

[JoeyandDavid]

Guys as far as pictures go ... for now the best I can do is this presentation! It is in windows media format.. It is fairly long but I didn't know what else to do after taking over 600+ pictures..

If you care to view it would be our honor.

http://www.joeyanddavid.us/MediterreanenAdventure.wmv

joey

[GottaCruz]

Joey, I'm glad that you didn't allow the fruitfly incident to bother you much. You seemed to just go with the flow and that is such a great way to be. Your trip sounds amazing . I think your rating of 4.5 out of 5 is darn good. The pics are just great. Thanks for posting them. I can't wait to see the rest. Glad you had such an enjoyable atmosphere to celebrate David's birthday.

[JoeyandDavid]

Cheryl there is no way to discribe what we saw .. it's one of the most remarkable expierences of my life.. for once i am really speechless i don't know how to write it.. at least for now.

[Mebert]

JoeyandDavid,

Thank you for the quick review. Is the last in your message a picture of steps in Croatia? It looks very familiar and typical of several European towns.

[JoeyandDavid]

yes it was...