At the end of 1999, most cruise ships embarked on millennium cruises scheduled around New Year's Eve celebrations of the end of the millennium and the beginning of 2000.
Although nominally like any other cruise, these trips were expected to be much in demand, not only as a novel venue for a one-in-a-lifetime event, but as a response to Y2K fears; ships being a self-contained and controlled environment, although modern vessels are heavily dependent on computers to operate. Many ships started booking passengers for these cruises several years in advance, and required sizeable nonrefundable deposits.
The ships generally celebrated the New Year's Eve out to sea, which gave them an opportunity to launch fireworks safely. Meanwhile, modern ships also being well-connected via satellite networks, it was possible for passengers to see the televised celebrations as local midnight moved around the globe.
Famous quotes containing the words millennium and/or cruise:
“At the end of one millennium and nine centuries of Christianity, it remains an unshakable assumption of the law in all Christian countries and of the moral judgment of Christians everywhere that if a man and a woman, entering a room together, close the door behind them, the man will come out sadder and the woman wiser.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“Irishness is not primarily a question of birth or blood or language; it is the condition of being involved in the Irish situation, and usually of being mauled by it.”
—Conor Cruise O’Brien (b. 1917)