My husband and I sailed on Celebrity's Millennium March 30-April 6. This was our 5th cruise and first with the Celebrity cruise line. The past four cruises have been with Royal Caribbean and we've loved every one of them. We thought we'd step it up a notch and experience an upscale cruise line. We booked the cruise through Celebrity's website and what a mess that was. Supposedly, Celebrity just updated their site and several things were not working properly. We made several calls to Celebrity's customer service and no one we spoke to could even resolve the issues we were having. We even kept getting transferred to the wrong help. After about a month or so of continuously calling Celebrity, the problem was finally resolved and our cruise documents arrived to us with no problem. What a relief.

We flew into Ft. Lauderdale the morning of the 30th on Delta from Atlanta. We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale around 9:00. We did not purchase transfers through the cruise line knowing the port was only about 10 minutes from the airport. It was too early to head on over to the port so we just sat and relaxed for a couple of hours down in the baggage claim/ground transportation area. It got pretty crowded when all the passengers with transfers for all the cruise lines began gathering around. We spoke to one of the agents for Celebrity and she was telling us that we couldn't get to the port any earlier than 11:30. My husband asked what time the transfers were heading over there and she said 11:00. It was now 10:45am and that was our cue to beat the bus loads of passengers to the port. My husband and I got to the port within 10 minutes and cost us only $15-16 without tip. Once at port we handed the porters our luggage and tipped them $1 per luggage. We walked into the cruise terminal and noticed they had not started embarking so we grabbed a seat. It was maybe 11:15 am when the lines to go through security began moving. We walked right up to a counter checked in, received our sea pass card, and walked on board. Just as we walked in we were greeted with a glass of champagne. The grand atrium was different than the other ships we had sailed on. There were no elevators, but a beautiful grand staircase in the atrium. We enjoyed the lunch buffet on deck 10. After lunch we explored the ship. We recommend doing this because it will take you a few days to familiarize yourself with the layout. It's so much easier to walk around before the crowds arrive. Our stateroom was ready around 12:30pm. We booked cabin 8179 which had an ocean view with verandah. The room was at the end of the hall on deck 8 aft. It was a beautiful room. Ceiling to floor mirrors on the entire wall, comfortable bed, and a good size verandah. The room was large enough for the two of us. We were happy with the bathroom, the vanity and shower were good size. There is only one thing I would update in the stateroom and that would be the TV. On the right side of the TV you could see how the color was turning purple which is usually a sign of a TV getting old. The remote to the TV had seen better days. It was taped up.

Muster drill took place at 3:15pm. The drill was performed differently. Instead of walking directly to the lifeboats (which we were used to), we had to meet in a lounge (learn to put on a life vest), walk to the lifeboats, and then stand at the lifeboats until the drill commenced. My husband was timing the entire drill and it took about 25 minutes. Read more