Day 10: At Sea

Ahhh. The bitter sweetness of the last day of a cruise. The day to do all the things on the ship you never got around to doing.  Like...um...uh....would have liked to swim in the Solarium pool but it was still frigid. We wanted this trip to be relaxing, a chance to reconnect and enjoy being with each other again. So, we relaxed. However, the last day always has some great activities. First up was the backstage tour. I never miss these, and wish more ships did them!

Logically, it started in the theater. However, shortly after it was starting, there was another talk in the theater by ship's officers. So it felt a little rushed. This is when I learned that earlier in the cruise the one night was "so bad" for waviness, that the main cast member in the production couldn't go on--that was the one night I got seasick! So I felt better knowing that even a seasoned cruise ship cast member had trouble :)

We broke up into groups, but unfortunately, the groups were a little too large, and due to the talk happening after us, the groups departed too close together and as we toured, we actually got groups mixed up in the close quarters. It was hard to hear some of the tour leaders (they're used to microphones, or not having speaking parts LOL). 

Just some of the backstage stuff. I think these are the stand lights for the music stands. Why that interested me, I don't know. But I am a musician LOL.

Inside one of the dressing rooms. The cast members do their own hair and makeup and have pictures posted so they know what they're supposed to look like.

The wardrobe room was fascinating!

Our tour guide said she was the wardrobe mistress--and had no sewing experience! But she was learning on the job. One of the cast members knew much more than her--he had been taught by his mother. So not sure why she got the position. She was also in charge of wardrobe laundry, and apparently this is the only Celebrity ship with wardrobe laundry facilities right there.

The wig and headpiece room!

Just a map from a "crew only" zone. There is such a hidden life on the ship.  Confusing stairwells, halls, etc.

When we came back out in the theater, the ship captain's talk was going on, so we stayed for that.

I think it was about safety and navigation, but you wouldn't know from the questions people asked. It was fascinating to hear some of the stories of avoiding storms, and safety issues they've had--and avoided.

Spent some time up on the pool deck relaxing. No chairs, so we had to sit on loungers.  I don't understand why they don't have chairs!

We went to the glass charity auction. Some gorgeous pieces. I would have loved the shell. These pieces they would package up for you--but you still had to get them home. I don't see that green vase lasting very long. 

I liked this vase...but not so much how the stripes twisted at the top. Anyway, things went for large sums--the vases for more than I thought, the fish and shell for less (about $600US, I think, for the shell). 

Look! Another ship! We must be getting close to Florida now!

One little detail I saw right away at the start of the week was the carts used by the room stewards. Not the typical hotel carts, these ones looked like large suitcases. Just one of those little extras you find on Celebrity. If you care about the appearance of the hallway. I don't really, though the times it smelled like mothballs was so horrible, I wanted off the ship. And, think of this....Rob spilled much of a mug of coffee on this carpet. You couldn't even tell. What else can you not tell? 

Of course, we got the bbq Spring roll and it was delicious. I would have liked a few more LOL.

In the day planner, there was an evening show listed. I know we went but I don't recall what it was specifically. Greg London. There was a rum tasting I would have loved to gone to, but it was extra. 

Try as we might, it's never an early enough night on the last night. Room got cleaned up, luggage got put away and Rob still tried to convince me to do early walk off. There was probably one more late night trip to the buffet too LOL.

Day 9: Falmouth, Jamaica

Jamaica, mon.  Again. We have been here, at one port or another, for three out of five cruises. Eastern, Western, and now Southern have all included Jamaica. We did a fabulous off-road tour in 2007, an interesting catamaran snorkel in 2011, and now this trip. Originally, this was to be a sea day, and the last day of the trip was to Key West, FL. That changed with the hurricanes, though other ships started going back to Key West shortly before our cruise. We weren't too excited about going back to Falmouth, although now the construction would be completed. We figured it would be another rest day. I would have liked to do an excursion, but with the incidents in the news about safety...so we made Magaritaville our excursion.

Not sure why we were in this lounge at 9:16am. I think Rob needed the bathroom LOL. This is the Ensemble Lounge on Deck 5 and was where we had our Muster Drill on the first day. A nice, quiet lounge, often with acoustic music, I wish we had used it more. 

We made it off the ship and decided to walk around and get our kids' souvenirs that we hadn't gotten around to getting. What a lot of junk in those stores. A lot of drug and sex references. I get that it's Jamaica, but really, it made it hard to find things for the kids. All they really wanted was Del Sol things (for the girls; Hugh is hard to buy for!). I took this picture because there was a boy in the kindergarten class with brothers living in Jamaica and he was a huge Usain Bolt fan. We were walking around the outer parts of the port complex. There are some nice garden areas if you want a bit more quiet from the marketplace. 

We decided to find Margaritaville for some refreshments. It's on the "port shopping map" the ship provides. But do you think we could find it? We could see what looked like a pool area, but we could not find the entrance, based on what the map showed. I should have known by this time to look at a REAL map before arriving, but we didn't have a on-board wifi plan. We found another restaurant next to the potential pool, and thought about going there, but Rob wanted to stick with a name he knew. He asked the girl at the Greeter's podium. She pointed to a little path between two buildings. WTH? 

Somehow, we found the back way into Margaritaville. Totally bizarre. And for some odd reason, it didn't occur to us to bring our swimsuits either. So we sat outside for drinks. I had a really hard time getting the wifi to log in, the waitress wasn't much help. Finally logged in and it kept dropping. But nice to connect with home for a few minutes. 

I was going to have a margarita, since well, we were in Margaritaville (again). Opted instead for drinks in the souvenir glasses. And then a different drink. And then Rob insisted we have one more. I was quite buzzed by the time we finished and got our bill for $9,554.13. Jamaican Dollars! LOL! I knew ever even thought about what currency Jamaica had. We could also pay $96.89Cdn. Wow, it was about the same price as an excursion! For 46oz of slushie drinks (each!), a souvenir glass, and a good buzz. A nice way to "end" the cruise. 

 As we left, we went out the "proper" way. Through the store, of course.

 Totally applicable, since we entered in through some obscure back path.

 This was for my brother and his girl; they have an iguana.

 Well, we were younger than most on the ship (It says "Mixed drinks for those who don't blend in")

 We headed back up to our room for a rest. It bugs us that the only way to view the TV is to lay on the bed. On our first (two?) cruises, the TV was across from the couch. That's a much better set up.

Couple Selfie! Coupie?

We had seen earlier in the week during port departure, a lot of officers and cruisers on the helipad. We finally got our invite to attend for this day. It stated that we needed close toed shoes.  I swear, one of the other guests was wearing slippers. I only had my clog like shoes that I had worn down. I actually did not bring closed toe shoes for this trip because I figured we were taking it easy. Who would have thought I'd need them to go to the helipad? On this ship, you access it through a door into the crew area, and then out to their outside lounge, and then go up some stairs. So that part was kind of neat. Once up there, you get a little fizzy drink and get to mingle with the officers and staff.

 This woman had bought this shark puppet and was getting her friend to take pictures of her "eating" things in the background. They were having a great time but her husband was mortified. I added to his embarrassment by asking if I could play along! LOL.

 What's that out there?

Wow, it's a little fishing boat. And Rob is afraid to take Bob into Lake Ontario!

See, Jamaica does have police. It's a safe place! :)

THe man on the far right is the Cruise Director. I went up to him and asked him if he used to work on Royal and he said yes. I said I'm pretty certain you were the CD on our first or second cruise! He was impressed we remembered him. I don't recall him having a sock fetish back then though...

Thanks for the photo, hubby. Once again, at an angle.

Jamaica really is quite a beautiful island.

That's a shot of Margaritaville. We could see that "volcano" but could not find the entrance!

We walked around and checked out the blown glass on display. The artist had talked about how this vase didn't go as planned, but she worked with it anyway. I think the flower was supposed to be on the bottom but got stuck to the side as she put it in

Awww. Sea turtle!

Glass rods they use for various things.Love the colours!

Vase and pitcher

There is a "Whiskey House" on deck 15 (shown as "The Porch" in the Celebrity brochure of the layouts). It seemed to always be closed. It appears sometimes they have tastings (the Daily Planner lists tastings at a few bar, but they were extra). I do recall going by once and it was packed. 

 Looking down into the library

This was an interesting space on deck 7. Called "Team Earth" there was a really neat table and all these screens and posters promoting the WWF and their work with shoreline and shallow water rehabilitation. I'm not really sure what the area was for though. There was also a Card Room on deck 9.  It was very popular.

I think I took this picture because there was nothing on the menu I wanted that night. 

And our, sometimes very stinky, hallway. Can you see Rob all the way down there? He's by our door. Really, it's not that far (compared to the Allure!!), but anytime you want to go to the room...

Anderson came to bed with me :) We didn't get towel animals, so Anderson was the next best thing. Okay, maybe better.
There was a stage production show. I'm sure it was good. I have no pictures or really any recall. They tend to blend together. I see in the planner that Sean Roach played in a lounge, but I have a feeling we were tired.

























I think this was one of the few nights where I didn't want anything on the menu. I probably had a Caesar salad and the grilled New York Striploin.

Cruise 2017: Day 8, At Sea

Finally, a day to relax, right? Not quite! There's always stuff going on. I did try hard though, and I think we were fairly successful!

I have nothing highlighted in the daily planner, but I know we did stuff. Pictures don't lie!

Okay, so the only picture I have from the daytime was this one:

Taken in the Sky Lounge, I was there for the Music Trivia, Broadway edition. I did terrible! They were mainly newer shows that I haven't played the music from. Then we stayed for the Trivia Club: Afternoon Challenge. This was to be general knowledge. General, my foot. Oh well, it was fun.

Prior to this, we had gone to Celebrity Central at 3:00 for a presentation "Oceans Ahead with 2nd Engineer Giorgios: How The Ships Move". It was a good crowd. That waited, and waited, and waited. We were probably mainly Canadians, considering how long we waited. People started coming in for the 4:00 Bingo. A few staff members tried to find Giorgios, and eventually they said they'd try to reschedule and to check the planner. Never saw it listed for another time. Rob explained to me how ships move though. An engine turns a shaft which turns the propeller and the water displaced pushes the ship forward. So now you know too!

 It was "Evening Chic" night, and I wanted to get a picture of my dress that I made. So Rob posed so I could set up the self-timer

We've really slacked off on "formal" night. He didn't even wear a tie. In fact, when he was packing, he found a drink receipt in the jacket pocket from the last cruise in 2014. So, obviously, we're not dress up people. Well, I try to. Him, not so much.

 Random dining room shots. At the large table behind me was a great group. They weren't all together, and had a great time getting to know each other. I realized a few days ago (on the cruise) that "Kevin"---the taxi-driver finder from Grand Caymen--was at this table. Sounds like a fabulous guy.

 Seafood cocktail, I do believe. An appetizer.

 It was lobster night. I agreed to try lobster tail for real this time. On Royal, Rob always started with two and often got at least one more. This time, there was one lobster tail. It's pretty small once they take it out of the shell. It was okay. I wasn't crazy for it, but  I ate it. And was still hungry. Don't recall the dessert.

People always say that Celebrity is for old people and I know they're trying to appeal to younger folk too. But this was the scene in the ONE dining room every night. And there were more scooters outside the door, and of course, some guests needed them to get to their table. At least ten mobility devices were parked at the doors.

 The nice thing was though, the evenings were very quiet on the open decks. This tends to be true on other ships too, but much more so on this one. Still windy though.

 Awesome Curad bandaids I got from the Guest Relations desk before dinner (I didn't wear those shoes to dinner). I always get blisters on cruises cause I tend to get new shoes before we go LOL. Those bandaids stayed on for quite a while, even after swimming.

 The Solarium roof. We were trying to decide if these are mini-solar panels.

The evening show was a Tribute to Broadway. Well done, of course. There was another Silent Disco listed in the planner, but I don't think we went. No glass blowing show either. There was one at 3:00-5:00, but of course we went to the talk that never happened. So, it looks like it was a pretty low key day after all.