On Board the Celebrity Millenium Headed for the Panama Canal Part I

In the port of Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala

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I somewhat recently got back from my 15 day transcontinental cruise through the Panama Canal on board the Celebrity Millennium, a ship that recently "solsticized." How I dearly wish I was still on board and on my way to yet another delicious dinner, but I'll get to that later, first the specs.

The Millennium was built in 2000 making her one of the older ships in the Celebrity fleet, but that makes her no less grand, especially since we were among the first passengers to set sail after the ships dry dock renovations. The Ship can hold up to 2,038 people and is 965 feet long with a beam of 105 feet across, which, when traveling with a group of people for 15 days, makes it just big enough for you to get lost from one another every once in awhile.

So now onto the review of whether or not this aging ship is as grandiose as it seems...

First up a tour around the quasi-new ship starting with Captain Taramas's welcoming champagne toast:

 

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Unfortunately I was an absent minded photographer and forgot to take pictures of our stateroom until it was our last night, but it does help to illustrate the slightly cramped quarters at times. The rooms however, I found to be sizable in comparison to that of the Emerald Princess, there was room to walk about and stretch just as long as the couch wasn't converted into a bed at night, that was things became a wee bit squashed to say the least. To me though the crowning glory was the size of the bathroom, as well as, the veranda. I was pleasantly surprised and most overjoyed when I saw that the shower wasn't the mere coffee sized darkness of most cruise ships with plenty of counter space for three people and that you could actually move about in the shower to boot.

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On the next blog post, I'll review the ship's fantastic dining venues.

I Think My Heart My Heart Stopped Beating: Cabo San Lucas

Sixth Port on the 15 Day Celebrity Millennium Cruise:

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Snorkeling in the Frigid Cold Waters of the Sea of Cortez

 

 

 

 Excuse the shakiness por favor. 

Remember how I said that one of the wonderful aspects of a Mexican excursion is an open bar, beautiful weather and lovely scenery? Well, that's mostly true concerning Cabo San Lucas. It is absolutely gorgeous, with a lovely open bar on board our catamaran.The weather though was a bit on the chilly side but that certainly didn't compare to the temperature of the water. I'm guessing this mainly had to do with our arriving in late May and a tropical depression south of us, but the water temperature that we were to go snorkeling in was a balmy 60 degrees. . . 

There was no easy way to get in that water. You could use a ladder, jump in or use the water slide. It didn't matter though because whichever way you chose to go, as soon as your body hit that water, it was enough to make your heart stop and produce a high pitched squeal you didn't know you were capable of doing. The few burly men in our group attempted a bit of bravado before jumping in but once their torso hit those chilled waters they were reduced to whimpering little girls; it was indeed that cold.

Although every ounce of me wanted to jump out of the salted Sea of Cortez I managed to stay in and add some new sea creatures to my snorkeling expeditions list, including some sea urchins and a needle fish. Overall it was a great excursion, minus the bone-chilling waters, and the town of Cabo San Lucas is a beautiful and fantastic place to visit. My only advice is to get ready to turn on those blinders because once you walk off your tendered boat and get off the dock there are quite a few of two-legged sharks all lined up ready to hock their own excursions.