Month: November 2015

Today we slept in and barely made breakfast at 10:00am. But it felt good. The wind was calmer so we were able to leave our veranda door open all night. The sound of the sea outside is calming. We walked some more on various decks and joined Hinks for a sit down lunch at 12:30. They had had a strenuous workout spinning and using machines and had skipped breakfast so they were very hungry. We attended an IOS refresher course taught in the iLounge on deck 9 that was well done. He focused on apps that aren’t as visible but still useful – like Spotlight search. We again joined Hink’s for the PM trivia as it finished. Tried to watch the sunset once more – but clouds intervened. Dressed again for dinner and checked out the various pictures taken by the crew photographers. Janet and Janelle called it a night – but Rick and I checked out the 9:00 theater show by a Billy Joel look alike that performed well – but the backup band was too loud. Tomorrow we anchor near St. Barths. Rick and Janelle are going on a Catamaran excursion and we are just going to walk around the town.

We took it easy on our first full day at sea. There were all kinds of activities to do and several we wanted to do but missed. We had a leisurely breakfast after walking some on the track on deck 10. We changed to swimsuits and hung out by the pool also on deck 10. Since we couldn’t go to the buffet in our swim suits we had lunch at the burger grill near the pool. Janet tried out the hot tub. We went back to the room – showered – and got dressed for our first “formal” night where all the guests have to dress up for the seated dining. We joined Hink’s late for the afternoon trivia session, then had appetizers and wine in their stateroom while we watched the sunset, and then went to dinner at 6:30. Food was again excellent. Afterwards we went to the 9:00pm theater tribute to Hollywood performance which was quite good. The captain and his lead officers introduced themselves before the performance and communicated quite a lot of information. He is the youngest captain in the Celebrity fleet at 36 years and had quite a sense of humor. Tomorrow is our 3rd day at sea and then we start visiting ports nearly every day starting with St. Barths.

Based on the recommendation of the staff at the Courtyard Marriott – we used Lyft to get to the Moonlight Diner at a nearby shopping center. The food was good as they said, since we have the option to bring two bottles of wine onboard the ship – we asked where in the shopping center we could buy wine and they pointed to the K-Mart next door. Have never done that before. The selection was actually quite reasonable. We then Lyfted back to our hotel and got ready for the shuttle that would take us to the Celebrity Constellation – a Millenium class ship that has been “Solticisized.” We took the noon shuttle so we would be settled before setting sail at 4:00pm.

The boarding process was very interesting – similar in a lot of ways to boarding an airplane – but more rigorous in some ways and not in others. We were issued keys to our cabin right away and went to check them out – but had to wait a while for our luggage to be delivered. So we had a quick lunch in the ships buffet area and went exploring to see where everything is located. We had our ship safety drill and left port exactly on schedule. We enjoyed watching the departure from the aft deck. The view of the shore as we gradually left it behind was great.

We have signed up for the flexible meal schedule – but we still have to make reservations for the “sit-down” restaurant we will mostly dine in. The food was great and afterwards we listened to music at a nearby night club and danced a little. There was one couple who showed everyone else how to do the cha-cha. While they were dancing everyone else in the venue was watching them.

I had hoped to go to a late theater event but they had to postpone it because the boat was rocking too much to get the stage set up. Tomorrow – first full day at sea.

We got up early to catch the Greenride to DIA. With most of our packing for warm weather – it seemed incongruous to be out in 17 degree weather with snow and wind. We made it fine – but with less time before our boarding time than I am usually comfortable with. We checked with Hink’s and they were on schedule too.
The first leg to Austin was uneventfull and we really enjoyed our Root Down Cobb salads enroute. The second leg to Fort Lauderdale was similar. Southwest continues to do an excellent job. We think we landed within a minute of Hink’s and ended up on the same shuttle to the nearby Courtyard Marriott even though our airlines were in different terminals. We had a nice dinner at a nearby seafood restaurant and retired for the night. Tomorrow is boarding day!