Thanksgiving Cruise to Bimini on Celebrity Millennium
After taking a couple years off of cruising during the pandemic, I decided to test the waters (pun intended) with a short Thanksgiving cruise on the Celebrity Millennium to Bimini. My parents had made other plans for the holiday, so it was a perfect excuse to get away and take my first Celebrity cruise.
Embarking on Thanksgiving Day
The cruise embarked on Thanksgiving Day, which is also a big day for football games. I boarded the ship and was able to go straight to my room to unpack. Afterwards, I went up to the Rooftop Terrace on the top deck aft where they had the games on the movie screen. They even set up a bit of a tailgate for lunch with hotdogs and fries and a makeshift bar for the sail away.
For this cruise, I had Celebrity’s Anytime Dining, which is my strong preference when it’s an option. Most of the time I’d rather eat by myself instead of a group of strangers, unless I’m certain they are all other solo travelers, and even then, I’d usually prefer to eat on my own. More than that though, I just like being able to go to the dining room when I’m ready. I can schedule dinner around other things I want to do rather than scheduling other things around dinner.
For Thanksgiving Dinner, the dining room had traditional options on the menu for both the entree and dessert. I’m not a huge fan of Thanksgiving food personally, but tried it anyway, and it was very good. I think my favorite thing the whole trip though was the bread and different flavors of compound butter they served each night.
A Relaxing Day at Sea
The first full day of this cruise was a Sea Day. This was also my first cruise with a balcony cabin, which I immediately fell in love with. I spent a lot of time on the sea day out in the sun either on the Rooftop Terrace or on my balcony. It was a wonderful, relaxing day.
Exploring Bimini
On day two, we were in Bimini. This was my first time visiting this westernmost district of the Bahamas. The North Bimini island is where you’ll find the cruise port. Once you leave the pier, if you go to the left, you’ll head towards the Hilton owned Resorts World. Head right, and you’ll head towards Alice Town and the less developed beaches. Many people rent golf carts to explore the island, but I chose to walk. It was a long day of walking, but I made it all the way down to the famous Radio Beach. The water was just the most gorgeous shade of turquoise.
On my way to the beach, I passed a small gift shop. I try to collect Christmas ornaments from every place I travel, so I stopped at Ms. Antoinette’s Variety Store and they were just the nicest people. I was able to buy a couple of ornaments and then one of Ms. Antoinette’s family members offered to show me around town a bit. I highly recommend stopping by when you are in Bimini.
Watching College Football on Celebrity
I’m a big (American) football fan, and my experience with watching games on cruise ships has been quite mixed. I find Norwegian will only show the national NFL games and no college games except for the playoff games, which they are also conveniently selling squares for in the casino. I’ve found Royal Caribbean and Celebrity to offer more games, and on this particular Saturday night was able to watch my team from the comfort of my cabin. They didn’t have every game, but some are better than none!
Last Stop, Nassau
The last full day of this cruise was in Nassau. If you’ve been reading along on all of my posts, this would be my third time in Nassau. I did leave the ship for a bit of a walk around town, but quickly returned to enjoy the amenities of the ship.
Overall, I really enjoyed my first cruise on Celebrity, and I am looking forward to my next opportunity whenever that works out.
