Monday – At Sea but Not AT Sea

So you probably know that AAC CPA and I love traveling by ship and what we especially like are sea days. Our friend, Kurt, invited us to join him on Celebrity Silhouette for this 7-day cruise round-trip from and to Ft. Lauderdale and visiting 3 ports in the Caribbean. The best part for us is those sea days: 3 of them, in fact. Today is the first of them, and it’s been delightful. Nothing to do and all day to do it!

Here’s what I saw from our veranda first thing this morning:
Celebrity AM Shot
  Aren’t sea days the best?

We started with a lovely breakfast at our designated restaurant, Luminae. Everyone there is so friendly and eager to please. Of course, there is way too much food. I thought I’d just have a couple of eggs (over medium) but how did it happen that out from the kitchen came home fries, hash browns, a broiled tomato, sautéed mushrooms, corned beef hash and rye toast? I haven’t even mentioned the pastry cart, from which this nuclear Danish leapt onto my plate.

From there, we went to visit our concierge, Jola (from Belgium), who’s been amazing. AAC CPA and I have decided that we want to host our group (there are 8 of us altogether) for a Thanksgiving dinner in our cabin. It looks like that’s going to happen, so now we’re determining the logistics. Stay tuned, as I think it’s going to be a fun experience.

On the way back to the cabin from Michael’s Club, we passed by the Molecular Bar and vowed to have a cocktail there this evening.

Celebrity Molecular
  Wouldn’t you want to drink at this watering hole?

Then back to the cabin, as we like lolling around the suite. We have a wonderful butler, Alex, who’s taking excellent care of us. The cabin was all made up and we could just set up with some nice morning music (Duke Ellington) and some light reading on the veranda.

Celebrity AAC on Veranda
   AAC CPA peruses the Sunday NY Times on Monday.

Before we knew it, it was time to eat again. We exercised some restraint, because we have great dinner plans tonight – the 1st of our specialty restaurants: Qsine, which has a really cool dining concept. Here’s how they describe the food: “Flavours originate from around the world to fuse in delighting ways at Qsine. Sushi lollipops, lobster escargot and popcorn fish and chips all feature on a menu designed to evoke your senses.” Who wouldn’t want to try that?

Celebrity Qsine1
And here’s the entrance to Qsine

Celebrity Qsine2
And here’s some of the wacky innovative Qsine cuisine

After lunch, it was time for a stroll up on decks 14 and 15, where the pools and other fun things are. Did you know that there’s a real grass lawn up on deck 15? And that’s where the Lawn Club Grill is located and where we’ll be having dinner on Tuesday evening. They also have some funny furniture up there:

Celebrity AAC Chair
AAC CPA channels Edith Ann, “and that’s the truth!”

Later, it was time for AAC CPA to try out the veranda Jacuzzi, for real this time. You may recall that Kurt photoshopped AAC CPA into the Jacuzzi, which appeared in a recent blog entry. Here’s the real deal:

Celebrity Jacuzzi.jpg
Isn’t he a cutie?

And here’s a late day view from the veranda, much like this morning’s but yet different:

Celebrity PM Shot
   Watching the world go by

Now it’s time for a little nappy and then it’s a dress-up night. We’re going to try and have that cocktail at the Molecular Bar and then off to Qsine.

Oh, and yes, tomorrow mid-afternoon we make our first post, San Juan.

San Juan
Lovely San Juan

Watch this space for more schmoozin’ and cruisin’. Buh-bye for now.

 

 

 

 

Sunday: Heading Out to Sea

Greetings from somewhere in the Atlantic between Ft. Lauderdale and San Juan, P.R. This will be a quick entry, but I wanted you all to know that we arrived safely and are now ensconced in our lovely Royal Suite aboard Celebrity Silhouette.

Our day began in Ft. Lauderdale under threatening skies:

Celebrity Ft Lauderdale   Overcast Ft. Lauderdale – where’s the sun??

We boarded the ship around 12:00 noon – an easy and fairly quick process. And here’s our intrepid AAC CPA checking out the atrium just around the corner from our cabin:

Celebrity AAC Atrium     AAC CPA gets acclimated to his new surroundings

We’re traveling with some friends and we all convened in the Sky Observation Lounge forward on deck 14 for our departure – it’s been raining on and off all day, so we didn’t want to get wet.

Celebrity Sky Observation
   Sky Observation Lounge up on Deck 14

In brief, the ship is gorgeous – and very large for us who are used to traveling on mid-sized ships (our QM2 crossing in September notwithstanding). We have a designated restaurant called Luminae, but there are also 4 specialty restaurants that look very yummy, and we already have reservations at each of them over the next few nights.

There are also a lot of bars all over the ship that we must check out: the Molecular Bar, the Martini Bar, amongst others. We also have a dedicated lounge – Michael’s Club – just for us. How lucky are we??

Here are a few pix of the ship:

Celebrity Molecular Bar
   The Molecular Bar for wacky cocktails

Celebrity Cocktail
   Martini, anyone?

Celebrity Luminae.jpeg
   Our dedicated restaurant, Luminae

That’s all for today – have to head up to Michael’s Club for the 1st Negroni of the cruise. See y’all later!!