Millie 6/20/05 (Med.) for our Honeymoon....

[jennytsk]

We've booked the Millenium for our honeymoon, June 2004 (Venice to Barcelona). My fiance and I are both first-time cruisers (my first time out of the US!). We booked Concierge Class, as we'd assumed (without doing our homework) that this would be "better" than a regular veranda cabin. Since reading on this board and others, I'm starting to wonder if we should have just saved our $$ and gone with a "regular" room (though rumor has it that class of room will all be CC by the time of our sailing).

 

Anyways, as this is to be our most special vacation, we're wondering if we'll be recipients of any special treatment (upgrades, etc.) because it's our honeymoon, or whether most people have some sort of special occasion and we'll just be another couple? Any advice for us? We're hoping for some pampering after long months of planning (and paying) for our wedding while working full-time!

 

Any tips are appreciated! :)

Also - question - we booked our air through Celebrity too (by way of cruise.com). Will we find out far in advance which airline/flights we're on? I'm hoping to find a way to upgrade us from whatever Celebrity books us, to first class or business class and wanted to know how long before the actual flight date we'd have to work our magic/pay the difference. What airlines do they typically use, or does it vary? (We're flying from Boston, MA, if that factors in at all).

[Jack1]

Hi

We are booked on the July 16, 2005 Millie and we received our flight arrangements last month. We are using Celebrity air arrangements and we asked for a different gateway city than was offered. Celebrity came back with flights for us (from Edmonton, Alberta) and there was no extra charge. The original gateway city was Toronto and we would have had to find our way to Toronto by ourselves. But Celebrity got us flights out of Edmonton(not too bad connections either) for the same price as the flight from Toronto. Saved us about $1000 Cdn.

We found Celebrity used Air Canada, Lufthansa, American and British Airways for our flights. Should be interesting! But it will be an adventure that's for sure.

We are also booked into a CC cabin. Not sure if it will be worth the extra $ or not but I like the cabin location. (8046).

We are doing the 3 night precruise tour before hand so we fly into Milan first then train to Venice. Either way you go, it should be fun. Happy planning. Faye.

[jennytsk]

I wonder why we haven't gotten ours yet. Did you book directly through Celebrity or through a travel agent?

 

Thanks for the info!

[jennytsk]

I just called cruise.com, and they said Celebrity won't give us our flight arrangements until 70 days before sailing. I also found out that our TA screwed up and put us for early dining, instead of late. We're now on the wait list - hopefully there will be a lot of cancellations and we'll be all set.

 

PS In CC we get free espresso/capuccino from Cova Cafe? The Celebrity site lists it under the CC room description, but I thought that was only for suites? (Or is CC considered a suite?)

[kjfbw]

Sorry--the free cappucino and expresso is only in the room for suites--I don't know about CC

[MariahJ]

I did the same cruise (but in reverse) for my honeymoon in May of 2004. You're going to have so much fun! The only freebie we got was a free bottle of wine in our room after we won the Newlywed game. We won a bottle of champaigne for winning the game but I guess that was how they found out we were on our honeymoon and sent us the wine also.Have fun!

[jennytsk]

MariahJ - Oooh when/where was the Newlywed game? That sounds like TONS of fun!

 

 

kjfbw - I wonder if we'll be able to get it anyways. On the Celebrity site, the Concierge Class lists free espresso and cappucino, here: http://*****.com/3vqs9

 

Hmm..

[MariahJ]

jennytsk - The newlywed game was towards the middle of the cruise at night. It will be on the itinerary. There weren't many honeymooning couples onboard so we had no trouble being selected. Just speak up and try to act funny and outgoing and they'll pick you. Just be warned- you will have at least 10 people per day approaching you to ask about the show because they will play it over and over again on the tv. We did it before a day at sea when everyone was watching tv so they all knew us.

Santorini and Dubrovnik were my favorite ports. You won't need shore excursions at either of these because there's plenty to do just watching around and taking everything in. I recommend the Venetian Nights shore excursion in Venice- very romantic! Have fun!

[jennytsk]

I'm so excited! Thanks! :)

[Jack1]

We booked through a TA. She told me last June when we booked that we would probably have our air in Nov. And when she checked with Celebrity about the different gateway city (Edmonton) the air department came up with the flight arrangements that they did. They are acceptable. Not the best, but definitely they could be worse. Faye

[Petert]

Hi Jennytsk,

 

Congratulations on your upcoming nuptuals and honeymoon cruise. The Millennium is a beautiful ship with excellent food and great service. The itinerary is exceptional, and you are going to have some very memorable experiences. You will have no choice or little notice if you accept the cruiseline air arrangements. The cost of upgrading your flights can be very expensive and usually not worth the expense. I would strongly advise you to have your TA make a Celebrity air deviation request for your flight arrangements. This will cost you about $100, but you don't have to wait for the cruise line to make last minute arrangements for your itinerary. You can tell your TA when you want to leave, what airline you want (make frequent flyer application to recieve mileage), and make any connection requests you may have. This way Celebrity makes your reservations ahead of time, and confirms it with you at a time early enough to get seat assignments where you can sit together.

 

There are very few things that can be as upsetting as having schedule problems when you have a cruise ship waiting for your arrival. It is really a big advantage to arrive a day or two ahead of your cruise as you get a chance to; 1) Shake off the jet lag 2) Relax and not worry about flight delays or rescheduling 3) Get a chance to enjoy all that Venice has to offer. While a delay in Barcelona would be nice, but the extra day or two in Venice is very important. Hope you have a great cruise.

 

Peter