Rome – Transatlantic 2009 Day 15 – Atlantic Crossing Day 2
December 9, 2009
Yesterday was the 2nd day of our crossing. The weather has continued to hold nicely with at most 6 foot swells. We did run through a couple of rain showers, but the Captain explained those as necessary because of budget cuts and he need to clean the outside of the ship. It’s really nice to have a personable Captain instead of some of the old stodgies you get on some ships. The Captain said he expects the sea state to remain pretty much the same for the rest of the crossing. Woot – two crossings in a row with great weather!
I got the upper hand on my cold yesterday. Still a bit of head congestion and occasionally coughing but I am able to function and do things unlike the day before where I chose to take it easy and watch movies in the cabin, though it was very relaxing.
I spent most of the day yesterday at various vantage points around the ship just taking in the beauty of the ocean. I am kind of weird. I am quite content and happy on some sea days to just stare at the ocean. The mind wanders and clears itself. I like looking for various anomalies or variations in the ocean in the distance. I can just sit there and stare for hours on end. That’s pretty much impossible for Suzanne. She likes to be on the go. Just staring at the ocean is not her cup of tea. She would much rather be sitting with a group gabbing which does nothing for me.
Today was also a good day for ocean staring since Suzanne and her Cruise Critic friends had their cabin crawl. About 40 of them go around looking at the cabins of other Cruise Critic folks to see the different variations and options. As one of the view Family Ocean Veranda cabins on the ship, ours was on the list to be visited.
In the late afternoon, we had the Captain Clubs Celebration party. It’s a pretty good deal. They have free cocktails and food with some special entertainment. This cruise is kind of unique in that there are 1500 Captain Clubs members on the cruise. It turns out that they are pretty much equally divided between classic, select and elite. We are select members but actually make the elite level with this cruise. They gave a little award to the Captains Club members with the most cruises – a couple from Belgium who were on their 54th cruise with Celebrity! That’s living!
Prior to dinner our show tonight was a comedian, Glenn Hirsch. He was pretty good and also clean. He was perhaps not as good as the comedian we saw last year (Fred Klett) but still entertaining and enjoyable to see. The kids enjoyed him too.
After the comedian, it was time for the Celebrity Singing Star competition. That’s basically, the Celebrity version of American Idol. Based on folks singing at the various karaoke sessions, they picked four singers to compete in the Singing Star competition. Suzanne was one of the four singers selected to compete. The top two vote getters in the competition would move on to the overall Starring You competition that Celebrity does for various forms of talent. Each singer got to sing one song and then be judged by a panel like on Idol. The judging panel was comprised of two singers from the Solstice Singers and Dancers Broadway cast and one randomly selected passenger. Suzanne sang Girl in 14G and did a good performance. It was even good enough to earn her one of the top two spots in the competition (exact order wasn’t revealed) and advance to the Starring You finals. She was pretty excited.
Dinner was, well, very nice again. I opted for the prime rib. Suzanne had an orange roughy. Sean had penne pasta with prosciutto and tomatoes. Savannah had shrimp scampi. They were all very good.
After dinner, we retired to the cabin and watched a movie before turning in for the night around midnight. We once again, like every night on the crossing, had the benefit of gaining an extra hour. We wanted to be rested as tomorrow is our main wine event day. We have a Captain’s Club wine seminar just before lunch and then we have a riedel wine crystal seminar/tasting in the mid afternoon followed by a wine connoisseur dinner. That last one sounds really good. It’s a specially prepared dinner with specially selected wines matched up. I haven’t seen the final wine list, but the last one had some huge wines (ie Laffite Rothschild) on it that I normally wouldn’t get a chance to drink or even taste. The kids are on their own for dinner! We are excited.
Rome – Transatlantic 2009 Day 14 – Atlantic Crossing Day 1
December 8, 2009
Yesterday was our first day at sea as part of our transatlantic crossing. It felt very nice to be able to relax and not have to go ashore in a port. Unfortunately, a head cold and cough had taken a hold of me. I really didn’t feel like doing much of anything so a day at sea was good timing.
I decided was going to stay in the cabin most of the day taking meds and trying not to cough on folks. It would also give me a change to watch movies for most of the day. I watched four movies during the course of the day. This new ship has a pretty good electronics system with HD widescreen monitors and hooked into a central system with a library of free movies. Among the movies I watched was the new Star Trek and Terminator: Salvation.
I did run out for a quick breakfast in the morning and then lunch in the early afternoon. After lunch I took a few laps around the track on the top deck to stretch my lefts before returning to the cabin for more movies.
For dinner, it was our second formal night of the cruise, so I had to man up and get dressed up for dinner. By the time I go my tux on, I was pretty tired from battle this head cold and cough. Because of the meds, I abstained from wine again last night.
At dinner, I opted for a simple marinated and grilled chicken breast. It was quite good. Sean went for the duck and Savannah went for the lamb chops. Both were quite happy. Suzanne had the Chef’s Special Sirloin Oscar. It was a sirloin steak stuff with crab meat and cheese and then with a lobster sauce. Unfortunately, she was not happy with the dish. She thought it was remarkably tough and more like chuck steak than sirloin. It was the first bad meal we have had on this cruise. Coincidentally, the Maitre d’ picked this night to stop on by and ask how things were going.
After dinner, none of felt like a show (which was a pianist) so we retired to the room to watch a movie except for Sean who went to the Teens Club. We went lights out about 12:15 am. But, one of the advantages of the westward bound transatlantic cruise is that we will gain one hour each night of the 6 day crossing to end up on East coast time. Getting an extra hour each night is good.
So far the seas have been pretty good to us. At lunch the Captain, the comedian he is, came on the PA and said that the weather about 50 nm away included 55 mph winds and swells of 20 feet. After a brief pause where folks exchanged worried glances, he stated that the weather was 50 nm to our North and since we were tracking southwesterly, it would present no problems for us. After seeing 6 – 8 foot swells yesterday morning, they decreased to about 4 feet in the afternoon.
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