Boarding and Embarkation Day - new to Celebrity Cruises

[Cretia]

I'm hoping to get a few answers about the day of departure from the kind folks here on the Cruise Critic boards. My husband and I have only cruised once, on a 15-day Hawaii trip on Holland America. While I have the sensitivity of a brick wall, my husband found boarding and being herded to the buffet on HAL to be a stressful experience.

 

We're still in the process of booking (working some final details out) but we'll be in either a Royal Suite or a Celebrity Suite on the Millennium. One of the suite perks as listed is "priority check-in". What does that mean, exactly? I've also read that you can book lunch that day in the specialty restaurant or the AquaSpa Case to avoid the mess in the buffet. How hard is that to do?

[cruzeluver]

There will be separate lines for check-in for those with priority boarding, however, since so many qualify for it, it may or may not be faster. Having said that, boarding on Celebrity has always been quick and painless for us as compared to other lines we have sailed on. I don't think we've spend more than 10 minutes waiting in line.

 

AquaSpa is open for lunch, but does not accept or require reservations. The food is delicious and incurs no additional fees. It is very much for those into healthy eating, think broiled fish, lightly dressed vegetables and fruit.

[cruisestitch]

On Millie there is no specialty restaurant that serves lunch. There is, however, the Aqua Spa cafe, which is a small buffet line -- not frequented by the thundering herds. When you board, it probably will not even be mentioned. On almost all cruises, it is open on embarkation day, so that would be the place to go. Or, stay in your city of embarkation for lunch -- enjoy a nice restaurant or your hotel, and board a little later.

[dkjretired]

I'm hoping to get a few answers about the day of departure from the kind folks here on the Cruise Critic boards. My husband and I have only cruised once, on a 15-day Hawaii trip on Holland America. While I have the sensitivity of a brick wall, my husband found boarding and being herded to the buffet on HAL to be a stressful experience.

 

We're still in the process of booking (working some final details out) but we'll be in either a Royal Suite or a Celebrity Suite on the Millennium. One of the suite perks as listed is "priority check-in". What does that mean, exactly? I've also read that you can book lunch that day in the specialty restaurant or the AquaSpa Case to avoid the mess in the buffet. How hard is that to do?

 

If you are booking after April of 2012, Millennium will probably also have Bistro on Five which is a creperie, excellent for the first day as it not crowded.