Forget Times Square One New Year’s Eve 1999, You’ll Need To Celebrate On A Once-Every-Thousand-Years Scale
How will you ring in the year 2000?
Where will you be celebrating?
If you haven’t already booked a castle, boat or jet, you will find that your options for a memorable millennium celebration are swiftly narrowing. For those who are still procrastinating or simply lack ideas, here are a few venues that are guaranteed to be hot spots to greet the millennium - especially if you have a few thousand dollars that you don’t mind blowing for the occasion.
The Concorde
Born with a latent tendency toward extravagance? Have $70,000 to spare? If so, high-end tour operators who have charted Concorde supersonic jets for around-the-world tours would like to hear from you.
Depart from New York or London, fly through the time zones and land in style in Hong Kong, Sydney, London or New York just in time for the big bash. Riveting in-flight entertainment is promised - but, then, at that price, wouldn’t you expect it?
Cruises
Travelers who prefer to party at sea and and sail into the new millennium aboard a luxurious floating hotel face a difficult choice: Cruise lines are falling over themselves to come up with the most original, most memorable routes and destinations.
If the Galapagos, Antarctica, Indonesia, Acapulco, the Holy Land, the South Pacific or the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World inspire a “what-the-hell-it’s-once-in-a-thousand-years” attitude, close your eyes and sign that advance-booking form.
Kiribati
There was considerable media interest in the South Pacific island paradise of Tonga, supposedly the site of the first sunrise of the year 2000.
That was before Kiribati’s government managed to have the International Date Line shifted in order to be the first to catch the new millennium, at 5:43 a.m. GMT - 102 minutes earlier than its rival island, Tonga.
But much to the dismay of the South Pacific Nations Millennium Consortium, both Kiribati and Tonga were mistaken: A report produced by the Royal Greenwich Observatory claims that the first place to see the sun rise in a new millennium will be the Balleny Islands in Antarctica, where the sun is below the horizon for only one hour a night in January.
Greenwich, England
Greenwich is the home of Greenwich Mean Time or GMT, to which all time across the world is still keyed. And with the eyes of the world directed towards this leafy London suburb during the millennium celebrations, it is small wonder that Greenwich is throwing a gigantic party on New Year’s Eve, 1999.
Crowds of tourists and Londoners are expected to flood the Millennium Exhibition, which is to be erected on the currently uninhabitable 300-acre Greenwich Peninsula site.
The exhibition’s centerpiece will be a 50-meter-high Millennium Dome, the largest of its kind in the world. A “Circle of Time,” a huge circular clock as big as a football stadium, will tick off the millennial year.
Amidst this orgy of construction, the local residents are already celebrating: Property prices in Greenwich are rising swiftly, after a decade of decline.
The Millennium Train
You can go underground to celebrate the countdown in the Chunnel - the English Channel Tunnel - aboard the Millennium Train.
The trip is part of a chic millennial package offered by the London-based Millennium Train Company. It includes stays at five-star hotels both before the trip, to warm you up for the big party, and after, to help you recover.
Note: Prices are millennial, too, starting at $4,000 and running as high as $14,000.
Times Square
The options in New York City are sure to please even the wildest party animal. The Waldorf Astoria and the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center are reportedly sold out, but there are still many places busily taking reservations.
Unexpectedly, some locations - such as the Empire State Building - are keeping their plans under wraps until 1999.
At least a million people are likely to join Dick Clark in Times Square for a New Year’s Eve bash that is expected to be the biggest rave in North America. Another 250 million will join in via television to watch the ball drop and kick off the new millennium.
Rio, Brazil
Rio de Janeiro, the sun-seekers’ and partygoers’ paradise, is mysteriously quiet about its millennium plans. Still, travel agents claim that Rio is going to be a hot destination for New Year’s Eve, 1999.
And, when you think about it, can you possibly go wrong in joining the bronzed bodies sipping margaritas on Rio’s tropical beaches before disappearing for a night dip or indulging in samba, one of the most contagiously sensual beats ever invented?
Even if you’re not “tall and tan and young and lovely” like the girl from Ipanema, don’t despair - in Rio, anything goes.
Rome
Approximately 13 million people are expected to be in Rome to celebrate the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ. Another 12 million tourists reportedly will visit Rome during the year 2000.
Yet, not every road leads to Rome: Local residents are getting out of the city to accommodate paying visitors in their homes. Even the Vatican has joined in millennium frenzy and, according to USA Today, is offering “rooms with a view of the millennium.”
Sydney, Australia
Australians have a worldwide reputation for throwing great parties, so it comes as no surprise that Sydney is promising a millennium party to rave about: a huge masquerade gala, a “boat ballet” in its spectacular harbor and five tons of fireworks shot from 25 locations.
And the party is going to be a yearlong affair, since Sydney has the privilege of hosting the 27th Olympic Games in 2000.
Newfoundland
St. John’s, Newfoundland, the oldest city in North America, currently celebrating its 500th anniversary, will also be the first North American city to welcome the new millennium.
People here know how to party. If you’re lucky, you might be asked to join in for a scoff and a scuff - which, for the uninitiated, are respectively a hearty meal consisting of the fish’n’brewis, scrunchions and cod tongues, and a dance based on Irish folk songs.