This was only our second cruise as the first one was on a Carnival cruise to the Mexican Riviera with a party of 12. This cruise was to be a special 25th wedding anniversary cruise for just the two of us. I researched the internet for about a month before booking this cruise about 6 months in advance. I decided to pay a little extra for the Concierge class cabin on the Millie based on reviews here on CC. Our first cruise we were on the lower inside rooms and it was just miserable. I say that because I'm a fairly light sleeper and all I heard at night was the engines. So this time I decided it was going to be an outside balcony room at least. My wife and I where both happy we did. It made all the difference. We feel the extras that come with the Concierge class are also money well spent. Daily fresh flowers, fruit and cheese & crackers are just some of the niceties. We got to FLL the evening before and spent the night at the Hyatt in an area called Plantation. It's about a 20 minute ride from the airport. Free shuttle service from airport, but beware because the next day we could only get free shuttle back to airport then had to grab a taxi to the Cruise Port. Taxi fare was about $12.00. The reason is because the Hyatt does not have a permit to stop at the cruise port. We picked this hotel because of the amenities like new special pillow top mattresses and 32" flat panel tvs. After a cross country flight from California we needed something comfortable. The Hyatt did not disappoint. Embarkation was very easy and quick compared to our only previous experience. It probably took only 20-30 minutes total. Upon boarding we were greeted by the shipmates with Champagne. Nice touch. We worked our way to our room and were quite pleased that it was ready. As a side note, the directions from Celebrity said not to show up until 1:00pm but we got there a little after 11:00 and people were already boarding. We found the room to be very clean and presentable. Enough room to stretch out with a couch & table next to the bed. The best part was the balcony with a full slider. The bathroom was clean and shower large enough. As a side note, I had ordered my Tuxedo from the Celebrity web site and it was there waiting for me. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it fit to the tee. We had made previous plans to meet some people from CC at sail away onboard at the Mast Bar. Great time to meet some new friends. We met some of the nicest people there (PJ & Linda, Barney & Donna) and had a great time. At the time we did not know it, but we now had great cruise mates to share the rest of the trip!! Well, on to the rest of this review. Let me share my thoughts on the food and service onboard. I had read countless reviews but the one constant theme seemed that the food & service on the Mille was rated above average. We were not disappointed!! We found the food overall to be above average and the specialty restaurant "Olympic" was exquisite. It is must! One word of advice, do not let some negative reviews sway your judgement. There will always be some people that are not happy or was not their cup of tea. The entertainment we found to be above average. The singers were great and we loved the ventriloquist!! The ports were fun with Labadee our favorite. We did the snorkel excursions in both St. Thomas and Casa De Campo. Looking back, we would probably only do one snorkel excursion next time as it takes up the whole day.

The overall ship condition we found to be average to good. This is an older ship and does have some minor deferred maintenance. That's an appraisal term for "it could use a little sprucing up"! Yes, I'm an appraiser. But in no way was this a problem or issue. If you stay in an older hotel you could find the same issues if you looked hard enough. We had better things to do than to nit pick about the small stuff!!

Overall, this was one great trip that was made possible by Cruise Critic, because we met some awesome travel friends, Celebrity cruise Lines because they lived up to their reputation and reviewers that give honest reviews!! We would definitely book another cruise with Celebrity!!