To say I was impressed was an understatement. Here was a man who not only understood the economic be

I first met Barry Penner almost two years ago to the day, when he was Attorney online airline ticket General of British Columbia and Member of the Legislative Assembly online airline ticket for the Chilliwack-Hope region online airline ticket in the Province's Fraser Valley. I had travelled to Esquimalt, north of Victoria, to see Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas undergo her multimillion-dollar refurbishment , and there Barry spoke passionately about cruising and the importance of securing online airline ticket these types of refurbishment contracts for the Province of British Columbia. As it turned out, he was a frequent cruiser.
online airline ticket To say I was impressed was an understatement. Here was a man who not only understood the economic benefits of having such work carried out here, but who was also familiar with Royal Caribbean's product and the overall goals and economic factors that affected online airline ticket the cruise industry.
I kept in touch with Barry, and he was kind enough to provide me with an overview of his Panama Canal cruise aboard Celebrity's Millennium last fall; a trip he made with his wife, his then-18-month old daughter, and several members of his family and friends. He was also fortunate to snag one of the best staterooms aboard online airline ticket the ship and it is one that may surprise you.
In the fall of 2011, my family and I enjoyed online airline ticket a 10 day coastal cruise on Celebrity Cruises ' Celebrity Millennium online airline ticket . Leaving from Vancouver in glorious September sunshine, we visited Nanaimo, Victoria, Seattle, San Francisco, Monterey, and Catalina Island (this was our most memorable port visit, as we hadn't been there before) prior to disembarking in San Diego.
I was curious to see what impact these changes had on the ship, and was able to find out thanks to a Panama Canal cruise in mid-September, 2012. Overall, the ship has been noticeably improved although much of the $50 million was evidently spent on adding 60 cabins to the ship and providing more dining venues.
For this Panama Canal cruise, we took a bit of a gamble and flew from Vancouver, Canada to the port of departure (San Diego) on the same day as the cruise started. This saved money on accommodations and avoided the hassle of unpacking/packing at the hotel, but if our flight online airline ticket had been delayed we would have missed the ship s departure.
Check-in was not so good. Perhaps we arrived at the busiest time, but there were very long lines and some confusion amongst staff. It was very hot and humid with no air circulation in the barn-like buildings on the pier. Combined with the lengthy (hour plus) check-in process, while standing on a concrete floor, this made for a very uncomfortable and potentially dangerous process for seniors. For people with young children (our then-18 online airline ticket month-old daughter was with us) it was a true test of endurance and parenting skills.
We got on board by about 1:30pm and felt exhausted from the check-in process and early start to our day in Vancouver about eight hours earlier. However, from that point forward most of our trip was very positive, as I will discuss below.
But first, I must say that the muster drill seemed like a confusing waste of time, as throngs of people tried to crowd into a lounge in an unsuccessful attempt to hear instructions. It is very surprising that not long after the sinking of the Costa Concordia , cruise lines have not gone back to requiring passengers to find their actual life boat station as part of the safety drill.
( Editor's online airline ticket Note: Barry raises an excellent point about the lifeboat drills post-Concordia, and one that I keep hearing from readers: rather than becoming more streamlined, they seem to take longer and provide less effective information.)
However, things improved once we saw our stateroom, 7199, a fantastic Family Veranda ( Category FV ) at the back corner of the ship on Vista Deck 7. These rooms are huge (270 square feet) and the balconies are an amazing 240 square feet.
The very large balcony had recently been resurfaced with a sand-like anti-slip substance, which meant some of it would end up on our carpet inside the cabin from us walking in and out. However, our stateroom attendant did a great job of looking after us and cleaning our room.
Our balcony also had its own pool, of sorts. We purchased an inflatable kids wading pool for about $12 from Wal-Mart during a port visit to Puerto Vallarta, which our daughter thoroughly enjoyed. And thankfully, our room attendant didn't object to this innovation.
Overall, the changes are positive. Yes, there are more ways to separate you from your money in the form of new speciality restaurants but that helps keep the basic cruising price down. The children s area was also good.
The gym was nice, although Royal Caribbean's Radiance-class ships devote online airline ticket much more space to fitness facilities. With all the warm weather, we made plenty of use of the main outdoor pool. At the risk of sounding old, we appreciated that the outdoor music wasn t too loud and that while popular, the pool wasn t too crowded.
We participated in a Cruise Critic sponsored cabin crawl for the first time and enjoyed it. We met some great people. The evening shows were a challenge for us to attend due to our daughter s bedtime, but from what we did see, some performances were better than others. The main show room theatre is impressive and offers a good viewing experience.
We ate at the Olympic and Q-Sine speciality restaurants, but did not pay full price. There was a promotion early on in the cruise, and we were offered 50% off the listed $40 price per person. If we had booked the restaurants online prior to departure, we would have had to pay full price; something to consider if you're slated to sail aboard Millennium. The Olympic is classy, and Q-Sine is a bit crazy, but both are recommended. It is worth noting that the Olympic contains panelling from the 1911 RMS Olympic , sister-ship to the ill-fated RMS Titanic.
In the Main Dining Room, our large group of 13 was all at one table and dinners were a lot of fun (we had an early sitting). The food was good, and so was the service until the last couple of nights when it seemed as though the ship was short on staff I'm still not sure where they went.
The actual transit online airline ticket of the Panama Canal takes more than eight hours. It is interesting to observe the process whereby the series of locks lifts the ship up and then brings it back down once the other ocean is in sight. Also interesting is watching the ongoing mega project known as the Panama Canal expansion, which you can observe a short distance away.
The biggest puzzle is why Celebrity bothers stopping at Colon . As someone said, it lives up to its name. It would be nice if the ship could instead stop at Panama City or Puerto Limon, with more time spent cruising (at slower speed) on beautiful Lake Gatun. This is the lake which was created as part of the canal project about one hundred years ago.
The most enjoyable port stop was in Antigua, Guatemala . We took a basic bus ride to the funky old city of Antigua, and our entire group had a great day wandering around. We found a great local restaurant and generally enjoyed ourselves.
In Costa Rica , we booked a tour using a company not associated with the cruise line (called Shore Excursions Group ) and were not impressed. The guide seemed determined to convince us that he was the only person who really cared about the environment and the real Costa Rica but then stopped to receive a commission for bringing us to see tame monkeys being hand-fed behind someone s house. Dozens of other tourists were already there. The van we were in had a broken seat belt and the guide refused to let us stop and get out at a beach we drove past (he said he didn't like how the town had developed). We were very disappointed with the tour guide.
Cartagena, Columbia was interesting, and a thorough work-out. We walked right from the cruise terminal to the old fort on the hill top. Route finding was a challenge, as was the stinging perspiration in our eyes (can you say hot humid?) but it was a good adventure.
We were somewhat apprehensive about how people would react to us bringing an 18 month-old child on this cruise, but it was not a problem. Our daughter was a hit, and there was another girl the same age staying one deck up from us.
This was the second online airline ticket time we have been lucky enough to stay in a Family Veranda suite on a Millennium -class ship. Warning it will make other rooms seem tiny! The staff was terrific, our room was neat and tidy and we felt we received good value for our vacation dollar.
As for the Millennium , while it still isn t new, it has been significantly online airline ticket refreshed and unlike its Solstice -class counterparts, offers the very large yet affordable aft-facing Family Veranda cabins.
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