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.
Rome – Transatlantic 2009 Day 10 – Barcelona, Spain
December 4, 2009
Yesterday, we had a port of call in Barcelona, Spain. Barcelona is a busy cruise port and there may be many cruise ships in at one time. At the dock we were located at, we were sandwiched between the Grand Princess and the Azamara Journey. It was my first look at one of the new Azamara ships. It looked nice and was a relatively small size. Having been to Barcelona last year for our transatlantic cruise and having spent four or five days before the cruise, we didn’t feel like we needed to visit Barcelona again.
I arose early and watched our arrival into Barcelona from the top deck while eating some breakfast. The water was calm and the sun was out. It was a bit chilly, but still a good start to the day. I also managed to snap a few pictures. We should have a quite an album to upload upon returning home. We like to run the pictures through photoshop to resize, crop and clean them up before we upload them.
I spend the morning walking around the ship looking at the Barcelona sights once again, remembering the trip last year. I must say, while Barcelona was fun, the pre-trip cruise to Rome this year, was much more memorable.
After a quick lunch, I did a rare thing. I took a nap. I don’t take too many naps, but the time seemed right. Unfortunately, some cruise line employees were doing some work on the bow of the ship right outside our cabin so while restful – I did get some sleep – it was a bit interrupted.
After my nap, Suzanne and I spent some time topside again looking at Barcelona. The kids were enjoying the day in the Fun Factory so we had some rare quiet and alone time. The idea of taking our next cruise without the kids seems to be gaining favor. However, it has been our family vacation for the last five or six years, so don’t know what will happen.
In the evening, after our departure from Rome, Sean and I went looking for watches. I have had a bit of a hankering for a new watch and Sean has been wanting me to give him my old watch. I have never been a big jewelry guy and struggle with paying big bucks for a watch (or anything else you wear). Many years ago I bought my current watch, a Citizen, on a cruise ship and it has been the best watch I ever owned. I have put this through hell without a single issue. I love the fact it never needs a batter (EKO life of something) and has constantly kept good time. When on a cruise, the Tag Heuer watches have always caught my eye, but the price tag was always the deal break. My wife still needed to get me something for Christmas, so I thought this might be the year.
After looking at hundreds of watches, I again ruled out the higher priced watches as just not making sense for me. I liked the appearance, but just couldn’t spend that much money on a watch. The watches seem to be getting bigger and bigger too. I finally found a couple of Citizen watches that I liked. Both were made of titanium which made them very light. After dinner, I took Suzanne to the shops and got her opinion on which one she like better. So, I know have a new watch! Thanks for the Christmas gift honey! Oh, and birthday gift too!
Its broken record time again, but dinner was fantastic again. Sean had his usually shrimp cocktail appetizer while Suzanne had a seafood risotto. Savannah had a consommé while I passed on all the courses except for the main entrée course. For that, Savannah and I enjoyed a Cajun style Rib Eye steak with a baked potato. They were cooked to perfection and were very tasty. Sean had a turkey penne pasta dish that he said was the best turkey he had ever had. Suzanne had Osso Bucco for dinner.
After dinner it was again karaoke night. The kids left us. Sean went to the Fun Factory again and Savannah went to turn in for the night. She wanted to hit the Fun Factory early in the morning before we went ashore in Cartegena, Spain. I tagged along with Suzanne to hear her sing. She sang I Dreamed the Dream, Unforgettable (duet with another singer), A Liza Minelli song that I can’t remember the name of and Linda Edder song that I also cant seem to remember the name of. It was a fun night.
We returned to the room about 12:30 and called it a night. Today we will be in Cartegena, Spain. It’s a relatively short visit as we are due to dock about 10:00 am and then depart at 5:00 pm. We don’t have a tour planned, but do plan to get off the ship and walk around the small Spanish coastal town.
NOTE: I seemed to have messed up my day numbering somewhere along the line so have titled this post to get back on track (and will edit the titles of the others).
-
Subscribe via Email
Sign up to receive the latest Mr Papa's World site updates! -
Subscribe via RSS
