Barcelona and Transatlantic Cruise 2008 – Day 8 – Day at Sea
December 3, 2008
Today we enjoyed another day at sea after having visited Malagal, Spain yesterday. During the night, the seas picked up a bit. At the noon time update, the Captain reported that we would be experiencing a sea state with about 10 – 12 foot swells. The ship did a fair bit of moving, but we enjoyed the day.
Having stayed up late again the night before, it was 10:00 before we arose for the day. The kids headed to the Fun Factory for some more kid time, while Suzanne and I relaxed in one of the lounges chit chatting and watching the ocean go by.
As usual and actually required, we enjoyed another family lunch together around 1:00 pm. While we let the kids spend pretty much as much time as they want on days at sea in the Fun Factory, we still require that they eat their meals with us and the spend the evenings with us too. It’s a policy that has worked out well for us. We’ve seen some families that essentially drop their kids off at the Fun Factory and pick them up at the end of the cruise. That’s not our idea of a family vacation.
In the afternoon, Suzanne and I attended an Around the World Wine Tasting. It was a special event with the cellar master and his sommeliers where they had 12 wines from around the World available for tasting. We enjoyed the event with our English friends Roy and Jennifer that we have met on the ship. We tasted some good wines and some not so good wines. It was interesting to ask our sommelier after the event what he thought about the wines and compare notes. It was refreshing to hear what he thought were the bad wines. He didn’t pull any punches either. I would say in all our cruising on Celebrity, he has been our favorite/best sommelier.
The kids spent some time in the afternoon working on a couple of the school projects that they needed to be working on for missing two weeks of school. They might get to miss some school for the cruise, but they don’t get a free ride. I figure we have maybe one more year where we can take them out of school if needed for a cruise. When Sean hits high school, we will have to match our cruise schedule to the school schedule.
The evening entertainment was supposed to be one of the song and dance production numbers from the Celebrity Singers and Dancers, but due to the unpredictability of the current sea state, the show was postponed. Instead, Jack Walker, the singer from the second night gave another performance. On the way into the theater, the Cruise Director joked to Suzanne that they almost called her to see if she could do a show. The staff and the other passengers were still complementing her on her singing at the karaoke show the night before.
Broken Record Alert! Dinner was again fabulous. Savannah opted for the vegetable penne pasta while the rest of us enjoyed a Veal Cordon Blue. Actually, Suzanne wasn’t nearly as impressed as I was. She thought it was a bit mass produced (which all food on a ship kind of is). Sean and I both thought it was wonderful, so not sure what we saw differently. Dessert was tiramisu which we all enjoyed except for Suzanne who went with her standard mixed berries for dessert. That is one way she tries not to put on a bunch of weight on a cruise – she foregoes the dessert on most nights – definitely more will power than I.
After dinner, we headed straight for the cabin to get to bed at a decent hour for a change. In addition, we gained an extra hour of sleep due to a time change during the night. Tomorrow we will make a port of call at the island of Madera, Portugal. We will be visiting the capital city of Funchal and have some tourist activities planned.
Barcelona and Transatlantic Cruise 2008 – Day 6 – Day at Sea
December 1, 2008
Today was a day at sea as the Celebrity Summit begin its journey toward San Juan, Puerto Rico. Days at see tend to be our favorite parts of the cruise which is one of the reasons why we chose a transatlantic cruise for this years vacation.
The day at sea provided us a great opportunity to relax and somewhat recover from our hard pushed tours of Barcelona. The kids spent a good portion of the day in the Kids Club Fun Factory. They really like being in there and the counselors do a fantastic job of keeping the kids having a good time.
In the AM, I attended a cooking demonstration by the head chef of the Summit. He prepared a paella dish and some sangria. The chef, hailing from Canada, had a good sense of humor and stage presence which added to the demonstration. I also spent on hour on the balcony just staring at the ocean and the Spanish shoreline as we made our way towards Malaga, Spain. I love just sitting there and relaxing.
In the meantime, Suzanne attended her Cruise Critic Roll Call event. Cruise Critic is a popular cruising forum site where folks gather. About 100 people had gathered on that site for the past year and discussed the upcoming cruise. This was their ship sponsored party to meet and greet each other. I did not go as the cooking demonstration appealed to me more.
After lunch, Suzanne took about a three hour nap while I walked the ship a bit getting some exercise. I also enjoyed the scenery for hours in several different locations including our balcony. It was quite a relaxing and enjoyable afternoon. It definitely makes me long for more cruises.
Tonight was a formal night so I cleared out of the room early and headed to a lounge to enjoy a Belvedere on the rocks and some music while the girls prepped and primped. I returned to the cabin about 30 minutes before Suzanne’s arranged meeting time in the lounge with some of the Cruise Critic folks to get myself showered and dressed in my Tux. We enjoyed a nice glass of wine and conversation with those folks before dinner.
Dinner was again outstanding. I had a very nice traditional French Onion soup to start as did Suzanne while the kids enjoyed a Cream Chicken Dame soup. Sean must have been feeling hungry from his time in the kids club because he went for two shrimp cocktails at the beginning and Suzanne enjoyed a crab cocktail. Suzanne loves her salads and also had a very traditional Caesar Salad. I like their Caesar Salads here too but haven’t had one yet since I am still trying to avoid too many courses.
For our entrees, Sean chose the Beef Tournedos while Savannah, Suzanne and myself opted for the Roasted Pork Loin stuffed with apples and prunes. All of them were very delicious as usual with Celebrity. Suzanne closed with her traditional mixed berries. Sean had a Napoleon and I had the Cherries Jubilee. Savannah, having had ice cream a bit before dinner, passed on dessert. The Cherries Jubilee was very good. I wish they still made it at your table like some of our early cruises but certainly understand the safety issue for not doing that anymore.
After dinner we attended the musical performance of Jack Walker. He does a wide variety of music in his review of songs from both sides of the pond. When he sang his opera songs, he was just outstanding. I thought a lot less of his more pop style songs though Suzanne still enjoyed them more than I. Overall it was an enjoyable performance.
After the show, which ended about midnight, we switched venues to the Champagne Bar for a night cap. Savannah hung with us for about 15 minutes but called it a night and went to bed. We ended up hooking up with a English couple and talking to them. Eventually most of the activities staff, the Celebrity singers and dancers, the Celebrity Orchestra and the Cruise Director ended up partying with us until about 2:30 am.
It’s always nice to talk to the performers on the cruise and getting their perspectives on the upcoming shows. Suzanne even chatted with Jack Walker for a bit. There is a magician that will be performing on the ship a couple of times and he wants to use the kids in his show. Sean is excited about this. He managed to stick with us the whole way until we headed for the cabin calling it a night about 2:30 am.
Tomorrow we make a port of call in Malaga, Spain. Given the late night today, it is unknown if we will even venture off the ship.
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