By Tom Treimel

Celebrity Cruise Lines Millennium February 13th, 2005 Off to the airport: Friday I drove five of our group from home to the airport. Dropped everyone off then over to and left the car in long term parking. It's a drive around to get there at Newark airport. Then back on the shuttle bus. Continental leaving Newark at about 4:00pm. The airports have reduced the id checks to those needed. At check in for baggage, to get to the security area and through the security gate area. We were on the plane to go at about 3:30pm. After a 25 minute wait in line to take off we did so and made good time arriving at 7:00pm. For the first time we - my wife Barbara, Sister in Law Julie and I - flew into Florida a few days early. Into West Palm Beach. Nice airport. A bit busy at that time of the day - but that is Florida. Getting real crowded in that area. My friends, Ray and Jill, picked us up and we stayed at their house in Port St. Lucie for the two days before the cruise. They live in a gated community in Port St. Lucie called Ballentre. There is an 18 hole golf course that is on their property. Nice if you are a golf lover. They're not. But I got up early both mornings and ran around the course. What were those eyes in the ponds? I think they were watching me. Hmmmmm...

Maybe I was on the breakfast menu if I made a misstep. They live on a street near a wild life preserve. Not on the golf course. They have a beautiful Florida home with some real great extras they put in themselves. There is also a huge lanai area. They did not have much damage from the set of hurricanes last year. But they are putting in the storm shutters just in case. Saturday we went around to some of the trendy shopping areas in Stewart. After a quick lunch we drove across the river to see some of the newer planned - gated communities going up in the area. Just the property started at $400,000. A little out of my range. We also did some shopping for some of the cruise extras I bring along. Champagne and other things. On Sunday morning we drove down from Port St. Lucie to the pier at about 10 AM or so, and arrived there about 11:30 am just in time to start boarding. We met some of our travel group of 9 there as we had pulled up. So we had 5 of the total 9 in the group boarding at one time. Our friends, Jim and Carole, had flown out of Newark at about the same time we did. So they would be in early also. They were stayed in the Ft. Lauderdale area at a bead and breakfast. They said this was on or near the hotel strip area just north of the pier. They had walked around the area at night to see what was up. And there were some clubs in the area near the large hotels up near the beach area. Read more