This was our first cruise ever as usually we ski at this time of the year however after the longest UK winter ever we decided to do something different. We found a cruise deal on Celebrity Millennium which covered our birthday and anniversary but were told by our agent that they couldn't work the flights with Virgin Atlantic around it so we had to sail a week later but they could give us a really good deal. As we are first time cruisers, we didn't do any research and just booked it and THEN did our research (its an English thing! and if we didn't like it we wouldn't complain anyway, we will just roll our eyes and tut!). We did our research and read tons of reviews and then started to worry that we had made a huge mistake. What we took from the reviews (not just on Cruise Critic, I will add) is that the ship is old and tired, its full of old people, nothing is open past eight o'clock, the shows are bad, the food is not as good as it was, staff are unhappy, service is lacking and the ship needs a good clean! (its like Bournemouth on a Saturday night really then!). Oh and one more thing which will explain things - its not really a cruise for a gay couple! - bit of a problem!! So we went on holiday with a mixture of trepidation and excitement but if it goes pear-shaped we can just stay in the cabin and order room service. We flew with Virgin Atlantic as always and were informed before-hand that there would be a short touch down in Antigua. This ended up as nearly two hours where we were shuttled around the plane like cattle, so security checks could be done, but not allowed off. But that's Virgin's issue, i am taking that up with them.

We had two nights to start in San Juan which has shot to number one as our favorite city in the world. It has great charm, shopping, colour and feels like a safe city. - Three words of caution though - 1) if you stay at the Condado Plaza, ask to be moved to another hotel, it will save the complaint process (noisy casino, only one lift, no view and the only thing to do is stare longingly across the bay at the Caribe and wish you had booked in there). 2) the thing that looks like a fort by the Caribe, isn't a fort and does not correspond with the fort on the local map. We found this out after walking to Old San Juan which was in fact about two miles away. Not our best idea on a first day in hot temperatures. 3) in future spend only one night in San Juan - that way if you decide not to buy something in the Ralph Lauren outlet, you cannot go back. If you have two days, you can go back and the bank manager starts to panic!

And now to the ship. We embarked at about 4pm and there were no queues, got straight onto the ship and luggage arrived an hour or so later. Greeted by our steward Lawrence who was welcoming and remained efficient and discreet throughout our cruise. Read more