At long last, Celebrity Apex has had her maiden voyage.

The newest cruise ship in Celebrity Cruises' fleet pulled out of the Port of Athens today, to begin her maiden voyage and first summer season in the Aegean.

Apex was originally scheduled to sail in March 2020, but delays from the global health crisis required delays until now.

Celebrity Cruises announced it has hired a new Chief Marketing Officer, who's background comes from Tommy Hilfiger, Abercrombie & Fitch and more.

Michael Scheiner will step in as the new Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Celebrity.

Reporting to President and CEO Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, Scheiner will join Celebrity on July 12, and will oversee all aspects of driving new customer acquisition, brand loyalty and e-commerce globally.

I'm sad to report that it's now the eighth day, disembarkation day, which means I'm no longer onboard Celebrity Millennium.

Disembarkation

Today, day seven, is our last day onboard. It's a sea day, and that presents an opportunity to share a bit about the people with whom I'm sailing. How seasoned are the crew? What was the service like? Are the passengers avid cruisers, and why did they choose this sailing?

Day six has been eventful. We spent it in Curacao, and because it's one of the ports that's allowing passengers to wander around on their own, I booked an independent, third-party shore excursion.

Now, back on the ship, I'm in quarantine (but more about that in a minute).

Carnival Cruise Line announced more ships that will restart sailings, including its newest cruise ship.

Following up on Carnival's previously announced restart plans from Seattle and Galveston, the cruise line revealed its next phase of restart, including the first cruise for Mardi Gras and the return of additional ships in August.  

Here is a breakdown of which ships will sail and when:

If you are looking for the live blog for the positive Covid tests, read about my experience here.

I've just finished my fifth day, and I'm happily exhausted. I know vacations are supposed to be relaxing, but I've been busy trying to take in everything I've missed about cruising.

Day four was another sea day, with activities like educational talks, gameshows, dance classes and rooftop movies. Although the scheduled diversions are fun, you already know what those are like, so I figured that, today, I'd cover something that's on most cruisers' minds these days: cleaning procedures and social distancing.

As the U.S. starts its slow return to normal, keeping track of which U.S. homeports are open and hosting cruise ships is getting increasingly difficult. Some ports are technically open, but have no sailings planned; others are provisioning ships and processing crew members for vaccinations, but are not yet welcoming passengers.

To make sense of it all, we compiled a list of the major U.S. cruise homeports and their current cruise status.

Baltimore