Rome – Transatlantic 2009 Day 13 – Funchal, Madeira
December 7, 2009
Yesterday, we had our last port of call on this cruise before beginning the journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Our port of call was in Funchal, Madeira (part of Portugal). We had visited Funchal on the transatlantic last year, so we had no tours lined up and instead planned to walk around town seeing some of the local attractions and doing some shopping.
We had a slightly delayed arrival in Funchal with the gangway finally dropped about 10:30. It had been planned for 10:00, so the Captain extended our stay by one half hour with a departure of 5:30 pm. This was the first time when trying to go ashore that we tried very near the opening of the gangway and paid the price of waiting in a snaking line on stairs. Normally, unless we have a tour, we usually try to wait an hour to let the lines disappear. We should have here too.
Funchal is another hillside town on the ocean. It has about 150,000 inhabitants and is another quaint town where tourism is the number one industry. Unfortunately, we were docking in Funchal on Sunday so a bunch of the attractions, such as the Madeira wineries, were closed. Enough of the tourist souvenir shops were open that we were able to get some shopping done. I think we should have brought an extra suitcase for all the stuff Suzanne and the kids have bought. I have yet to find a souvenir (short of the watch) for me. It’s tough to find the right size shirt or sweatshirt for me. I will get a Celebrity Solstice baseball cap on the ship at some point. I have one for each of the Celebrity ships that we have sailed on.
After a couple of hours on shore, Sean and I headed back to the ship while the girls wanted to do some more shopping. The cruise ship docked fairly far from town and it was about a 2 mile walk each way to/from the ship, so we continue to get plenty of walking exercise. I am anxious for the sea days to begin!
The girls returned from shopping about 30 minutes later. The kids headed to the Fun Factory while Suzanne and I decided to take another nap (three for me if you are counting – a new record!). We enjoyed another wonderful sail away at sunset on the back of the boat while playing a bit of Bocce Ball on the lawn club.
I have to say, I was pretty spent after our four days in Rome and our 5 ports in 6 days at the start of the cruise. We had been pushing pretty hard sightseeing and staying up late. I decided that I was going to forego dinner last night and instead enjoy a light meal in the cabin while watching a couple of movies. I just wanted to begin relaxing. Plus, I was starting to feel a bit of a cough coming on.
Sean joined me for the first movie and then went to the Fun Factory for the dance party. Suzanne and Savannah used this opportunity to try one of the specialty dining restaurants where they had been wanting to eat at. The restaurant was Silk Harvest. They thoroughly enjoyed the night as did Sean and I. It was the first time I had sat in a cruise cabin and watched a movie, but I rather liked it. They have a pretty extensive list of free movies you can watch on demand on the TV. My meal was pretty simple: a bowl of soup and a chicken quesadilla.
Suzanne went and caught the show and went to another session of karaoke while I watched the second movie. Sometimes I think Savannah is the only smart one amongst us as she turned in early again a bit after 10:00. The rest of us finally hit the sack about midnight.
That evening, the ship began to move a bit. The ship was doing a bit of up and down. Being in the front, I think we might have felt it a bit more. It took a little extra time to fall asleep with the motion, but our journey across the Atlantic had begun. Looks like we won’t get a repeat of the glassy conditions we had on the crossing last year.
Rome – Transatlantic 2009 Day 12 – Our First Day At Sea
December 6, 2009
Yesterday was our first day at sea – and a fabulous one it was. With four straight port days behind us, we were certainly looking forward to a nice relaxing day at sea. They tend to be our favorite days of a cruise. This was to be a precursor or the upcoming six days at sea when we make the Atlantic crossing.
Having stayed up late the night before at the Sizzle Dance Party, we slept in until after 9. Sean and I ran up to the buffet for a quick breakfast on the stern of the ship enjoying the beauty of the vast ocean. After breakfast he disappeared to the Fun Factory. I walked the ship again checking out the various views of the ocean and the freighter traffic in the distance. The water was very calm, almost like glass. The weather was partly sunny and slightly cool so a jacket came in handy.
Suzanne had her Cruise Critic group get together at 10:30 and I chose not to go – mainly because there was a hot glass blowing demonstration at 11:00 that I wanted to see. Being the first demo of the cruise, it was a special session for the kids in the Fun Factory. Each of the kids drew a picture of something they wanted the gaffers (hot glass blowers) to make. The demo team would take two of the kids drawings to make and explain the process as they did so.
Savannah was lucky enough to get her drawing picked as the first item to be created. Savannah had drawn a guitar. The gaffer, Brenna, was excited to do the guitar because she said she had never done one before and was intrigued by trying to do it. The demo team consisted of 3 people. One was the narrator, one was the lead artist and the third assisted the leader. It was pretty fascinating to watch them work and listen to the story behind glass blowing. To make Savannah’s guitar took about 30 minutes and I got the whole thing on video. The guitar looked pretty amazing. We don’t actually get to see the finished product until the next day as it has to slowly cool in an oven for almost 24 hours. We could see pretty much what it looked like, but the color will change as it cools. The best part about Savannah’s drawing getting picked is that she gets to keep the blown glass item!
I have to say, the hot glass blowing idea seemed pretty gimmicky when I heard about it, but it was actually one of the highlights of onboard ship activities thus far. I have found it to be quite interesting – certainly more so than another climbing wall. They do two shows daily on the top deck in their little outdoor theater for two hours each. In that time, they will make about 4 items of blown glass usually taking ideas from the crowd. During the show they hand out raffle tickets and at the end of the show draw to give away the items made the previous day.
The set was pretty amazing and took two years to develop. Since its on a cruise ship, they had to design all new special electronics for their furnaces and equipment. They didn’t want any of the normal gas type furnaces since it wasn’t exactly the safest idea to have all that gas on a cruise ship. The show is done in conjunction with the Corning Museum of Glass. The Solstice was the first ship to have such a demo/theater. The Equinox was the second Celebrity ship and the upcoming Eclipse will be the third. The comment was made that five ships were planned. All because the president of Celebrity was at the Salt Lake City Olympics, saw the blown glass show and that it would be a neat feature on his cruise ships. He was right!
After lunch, I took another rare nap. That makes two on this cruise! Having been out late the night before – actually every night thus far, it felt good.
Savannah asked if she could have dinner in the Fun Factory and we agreed to let her do so. While enjoying a glass of wine in the Cellar Masters lounge, we ran into Larry, one of the wine distributors to Celebrity, once again and had some more good conversation. He doesn’t have a specific table for dinner so we asked if he wanted to join us. He agreed and brought a very nice bottle of Burgundy wine to dinner. It was a lot of fun. Larry will be helping out with several of the upcoming wine seminars and events on the ship so it was fun to talk with him.
For dinner, Suzanne and I had a Veal Cordon Bleu that was absolutely wonderful, probably the best meal thus far for me. Sean must have been hungry as he had shrimp cocktail, escargot, baked potato soup, four cheese penne and a filet mignon for dinner (plus two desserts).
After dinner, we headed up to the Sky lounge to check out the Country and Western night, but was they were concentrating mostly on teaching folks line dances instead of playing good music. Remember, in my book, there is two kinds of music – Country and Western. So, we decided to turn in early for the night.
Today will be our last port of call on the cruise before we begin the crossing of the Atlantic. We will be stopping in Funchal, Maderia which belongs to Portugal. We also stopped there last year on our transatlantic cruise, so we will likely get off the ship and just walk around town and maybe do some souvenir shopping. Then, we will have six heavenly days at sea as we trek across the Atlantic to Fort Lauderdale.
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