I arrived in Florida on the 2nd December 2011, put up in the Hilton overnight close to the port in Fort Lauderdale by Celebrity Cruises. Unfortunately, my room was on the ground floor so I was unable to see anything. My Facebook friend, Ken MacLean, who I had met up with for the first time when I arrived the night before, picked me up at 3.15am and we went to the hotel he had booked so we could see the ships arrive. First was my gorgeous Constellation, fresh from the repositioning from Barcelona. But as we awaited her to make her grand entrance, we could see Carnival Freedom heading our way as well as Norwegian Epic, en route to Miami. After Connie came the Carnival then Oasis of the Seas, Grand Princess, Eurodam, Crown Princess and finally, Celebrity Infinity, which had just been 'Solsticized' in Freeport, Bahamas. Infinity was the last of the Millennium class I needed to photograph (though it would be better in Southampton like the other three) and had more work than Connie. She had new balcony cabins on Deck 11 as well as squeezing Blu, the Aqua class restaurant, into a corner of the main dining room. She was the second of the Millennium class, debuting in March 2001. |
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| It was a mini-reunion of ships around Southampton! Oasis had loitered in the Solent off Portsmouth dropping off shipyard workers while Connie, Grand Princess and Crown Princess had turnarounds from Southampton while the Eurodam called brand new en route to Rotterdam for naming. Ken then drove us to many locations to get photos, including the top of the bridge. |
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| By 12.40pm I was on the bus to the port. My Constellation was docked in berth 29, which was farthest back, meaning we passed the other ships to get there. Maybe the angle, but Oasis still didn't look that huge to me. I expect it's very different alongside. |
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| Once I was aboard Constellation, I took a few photos of the other ships. It's a shame they didn't halve the annoying windscreen during her last refit when she was 'Solsticized', to bring her lack of glass into line with the Solstice class. |
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