Cabin Crawl!

We had volunteered our cabin for the cabin crawl which was scheduled for today at 2pm. A cabin crawl is where a group of people volunteer their cabins of different types (and there are many!) and someone arranges everyone to walk between the cabins on different decks so you can get an idea of what they look like. It usually ends at the largest cabins, in this case our royal suite. The crawl was well organized by our new friend Sarah (I've done it before, it's like herding cats!!!) and Allano had set up some snacks and sparkling wine in our cabin for our friends!

 

Overall, the cabin crawl was a huge success - we had about 40 people overall coming through, and everyone enjoyed the snacks and sparkling wine in our room, and pretty much just enjoyed our room (it's a very nice room, if I do say so myself!!!) Most asked question - have you used the jaccuzi tub on the balcony (no) - next most asked question - you have 2 bathrooms (yes, a half bath and a full bath) It's funny what people focus on when they are looking around!!!

Tonight is formal night, we will be eating in the dining room about 7pm, so we are looking forward to that!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Bridge Tour!

After our beautiful sail away from Curacao last night, we then had dinner in the dining room, which was quite good, and then spent some time chatting with friends in the Martini Bar.

This morning we were lucky enough to be invited to a bridge tour because of our association with the Cruise Critic group on board. We needed to arrive at 10:05am at the forward stairs on deck 10. Our cabin is on deck 10, but at the rear stairs, so it was a little bit of a hike up to there! After we arrived and checked in, we were searched by security (to ensure we had no crazy weapons or anything) and then led forward to the bridge for a quick tour. This was our first bridge tour on Celebrity, and the majority of the information/layout was the same, but the bridge itself was a little smaller than some of the other ships we have been on. They control the ship with this little tiny joystick (about 2 inches tall!!! not kidding) and computers. They have a path plotted on the electronic charts, and the computers will automatically keep everything going along that line if directed. The ship had just deviated from that line to stay a comfortable distance from a cargo ship, so the guy steering the ship was getting us back to the standard path

Here is the bridge overall

And heres me sitting in the Captain's chair!

This is the bottle that was smashed on the hull when the ship was christened in 2010

And here are the totals of who is onboard this voyage! Only 14 children and a large group of non-US citizens on board as well.

This final shot shows from the forward wing back towards our cabin. The wings hang out over the sides of the ship so the bridge crew can see the sides of the ship when docking. Our cabin is right on the place where the side of the ship humps outward.

 

After the bridge tour we headed back to our cabin to straighten up a bit, we had the Cruise Critic Cabin Crawl at 2pm, and needed to get it cleaned up so Allano our butler could set up the food and sparkling wine for the end of the tour. :)

 

Posted with Blogsy

Curaçao!!!!

Last night we had some delicious dinner, and then headed for the martini bar (yes Jeffrey, you are correct!)

Today, we sailed into Curaçao, and got off the ship to walk around today, with no specific plans. The walk is quite nice, as there is a floating bridge in between the 2 halves of the town of Willemstad. As we were walking over the bridge, they started opening the bridge, so we went for a little ride. That's our ship in the background.

The ferry boats you see in the below photo start running if the bridge is going to be open for any length of time.

We crossed over to the other side and spent a few hours walking around.

 

The bridge opened again as we were walking back, and this time they were running the ferries, so this one might be a while. We had made it to the other side, so we were ok.

There was a Starbucks in the Rif Fort, so we stopped and checked our emails and I finished this post before we went back to the ship!

Tomorrow is a day at sea on our way to Barbados! We have a bridge tour in the morning, and a cabin crawl in the afternoon, so that should be fun!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Aruba!!!!

This morning we sailed into Aruba - the weather looked like it was going to be fantastic, and we were up early so that we could get to our fun activity on time. We have been here once before, but the last time it was pouring down rain so we barely got off the ship. This looked to be a different experience. We were the only ship in port today, although we did find out there were 3 yesterday and 3 planned for tomorrow. The port area is pretty nice, there is a big open building you walk through to get to the main drag. It's the white roof at the bottom of the below photo.

We had some breakfast, and met our friends Pam, Michael, Sarah and Anthony at 8am to all head off the ship together. We were ready for some Trike riding!!!!! We had to take 2 cabs over, due to the fact that legally, a cab can only carry 5 passengers (although they can hold 7.....) and arrived about 830am. The trikes are all parked outside, so we got our first viewing of them as we pulled up.

Inside the building, we all signed our lives away and paid for our tour. 2 other couples have shown up as well meaning we'll be taking all 5 Trikes out for the tour this morning. Chris and the other drivers each got a brief lesson on how to drive them - as they were a manual transmission vehicle. After that, it was off for our tour.

We actually had 4 stops, and ended up driving around almost the entire time. At each stop, we'd all get off, take some photos and wander around for a few minutes and then get back on, and the trike at the front would become the tail of our little parade. That way everyone got to enjoy each space in line.

Our first stop was an old lighthouse up on a hill. We snapped a few pictures, waved at the army men standing around and then drove off down the hill.

The next stop was some big rock outcroping, I'm not sure what it was called but we all climbed (carefully) to the top, where we could see most of the island. And took some photos, of course.

Stop #3 was Baby Beach, which was beautiful! Lots of good snorkeling here, according to our guides, and there were quite a few people there as well. Looked like a good beach spot.

 

Last stop was another pretty beach/bay, just a quick photo op before we headed for Oranjestad, where ouship was docked.

We did a little parade thought the downtown area, waving to everyone as we went. It seemed like every 3rd person was taking our picture, so I'm sure it was quite a show! Pam is having a good time

Back to the starting point we went. It was definately getting REALLY hot outside now, and we were all thankful for the liberal application of sunscreen throughout the trip. We caught a cab back to the port (he squeezed the 6th person in!) and then we got back on the ship to grab some lunch. And then a siesta, as it had been a long day already.

We've got dinner plans at 630pm, and then who knows what will happen after that!!!!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Day 2 at sea!

Today was the day we were waiting for! The weather was amazing, and the sea was smooth sailing. We turned into the channel between Cuba and Hispaniola last night, and headed south into the Caribbean Sea. The activities for today included, sitting by the pool, sitting in the pool, and eating lunch by the pool. Oh, and drinking by the pool as well. So far, the pool deck had been crowded but we've always been able to find a nice place to sit without too much effort!.

We spent most of the day out by the pool, then retired to the room when it got too warm. After I was getting ready for dinner I realized I'd managed to sunburn my eyelids. Awesome. At least they don't hurt too much, but they look pretty red!!! A new clever sunburn feat I'd never managed before.......... :) Let's hope they look better for tomorrow when we do Trikes Aruba.

Dinner was very good, we had yet another waiter but this guy was on top of it, so we asked for him again tomorrow, so we'll see what happens there........!!!!

I know today was super boring, but I didn't take any pictures and we didn't really do anything, so other than my sunburned eyelids, there is very little to talk about........

 

Posted with Blogsy

Dinner, and then some!

In case you somehow missed our invite for dinner at the Captain's table, hosted by the Chief Engineer, here it is.

We RSVP'd, and the needed to show up at Cellar Masters at 5:45pm as requested! Guess who were the youngest people there......but everyone was super nice! Here's the photo from dinner

Ha! That's 3 cruises on Celebrity, and 2 Captain's tables. That's pretty good odds I think!!!! Dinner was quite good, and after we were finished (and got our photo to prove it!) we went to see the show. Hmmmm. Well, it wasn't terrible, but we lost interest after about 30 minutes, so we left and headed for the martini bar to meet some friends a little later.

Everyone had a good evening chatting, and we had a few nice drinks. Nicola, the bartender, did this pouring of several martinis.

Pretty impressive really! Not quite as good as our last cruise, when one of the bartenders did 20 martinis at once (and THAT was incredible!!!!)

We soon got tired and headed for bed, as we had to crank our clocks forward an hour (so 4 hours ahead of PST) and would be losing an hour of sleep.

 

Posted with Blogsy

First Day at Sea

This morning was beautiful, we had very calm seas and some sunshine this morning to wake us up. We tried the Captain's Club breakfast in the Tuscan Grill, but it was a little thin, quite a few rolls and carbs, but not much else. So we had a snack, then went up to the Oceanview Cafe for a real breakfast. Which was awesome!!!! Waffles, bacon, sausage, hash browns, you name it, it was there. Chris had some over medium eggs, whatever that is......since I don't eat eggs and all....

We went to the Cruise Critic meet and greet at 11:15am for about 15 minutes, then decided to go outside and sit by the pool (way more interesting!)

The pool was pretty quiet, not too much excitement, but had a nice day and then retired to our cabin to get ready for dinner.

 

Posted with Blogsy