Mercury5-29-04 Part II of VI

[transactionchick]

5-30-04

Our first day at sea. Unfortunately the weather is overcast and VERY cool. NOT the optimum weather to enjoy our spacious balcony.

Our phone rings promptly at 7:00 am to announce the arrival of our breakfast. Stanley must be standing right outside our door when he calls because two seconds later he was knocking on our door.

He swiftly set up two places outside on the balcony while we donned robes. Despite the fact that we were shivering, we were determined to eat breakfast on that balcony! The robes are plush, but only reach your knees so our nether regions were a little chilly – fortunately there are thick woolen blankets on the balcony as well!

I had ordered fried eggs and they were cooked within an inch of their lives (a trend that was to continue throughout the cruise). I think they were worried about illness with eggs – it was nigh impossible to get a runny egg. Did see in the Celebrity Today a note about how to not contract the Norwalk Virus – wash hands frequently, etc, so maybe it was something to do with that. The smoked salmon and coffee were good, though.

Another word here about the CC versus suite perks – we were given only regular breakfast menus to order from…I did ask for (and receive), later in the cruise the special CC breakfast menu which included a lot of other dishes. But I was NOT offered it – I had to request it, and it was like pulling teeth. And I never did get that pillow menu…..

Anyway, we happily ate cold and overdone eggs on our huge balcony in the cool mist and dressed to begin enjoying the vast array of activities offered by Celebrity on a sea day. You MUST read your Celebrity Today as there are NO announcements save a couple of positional announcements a day or two later and announcements of wildlife spotting.

I left Kelsy sleeping and attended my first exercise class – a Pilates class. A real disappointment…so beginner as to be largely useless. Not sure the instructor really knows pilates as all as he never calls one position I know. Oh well. I have signed up for the plan and will use the classes! Hopefully others are better. Immediately after I am supposed to have my body composition analysis (booked yesterday) but they have booked someone else in my place. I never did really warm up to the gym staff but thought the spa staff were lovely and friendly.

Next it is two miles on the jogging track on deck 12. Now this is nice. How lovely to run with a sea view. The track is padded and similar to running on a treadmill. A note about the gym….it is beautiful, large and well equipped. I did not use the equipment much as I was so enamoured of the jogging track. There are a lot of over weight people on this trip! As I don’t wish to join them, I work especially hard. It is SO easy to overindulge on a cruise!

I go back to the cabin and wake Kelsy as she had expressed an interest in attending a ballroom dancing class at 10:30. Surprisingly, she is up in time! I do the guy’s part as Rob declines to attend. Guess what, Celebrity has two dance hosts on this ship! Remember that movie with Walter Mattheau? (I forget the name). More on this later as I meet one of them and have an opportunity to find out about this lifestyle!

We generally suck at the dancing ( a mambo) so decide to try our luck at bingo instead. We buy 6 cards (3 each) for $30. Unfortunately our luck holds and we suck at this too, not even coming close to winning. Kelsy learns a valuable lesson about gambling as I make her pay the $15 for her 3 cards out of her own pocket J

We had decided to meet for lunch in the dining room at 1pm (we wanted to eat late as our dinner was late seating at 8:30pm) so I had a couple hours to kill as it were. (I find the concept of “killing” time to be pretty bizarre…it does a fine job of disappearing on it’s own, I’ve noticed), but that is the expression. Also I am starving! Those eggs at 7am just aren’t sticking with me. Fortunately there is no problem with finding food on the ship! The Palm Springs Café serves breakfast till noon, when they start serving lunch, so Kelsy and I go for a second breakfast of eggs, bacon and hashbrowns. Our waitress, Stana, is working the buffet line. We also run into our tablemates, the mother and daughter from SF and I think (imagine as it turns out) that she is looking at me balefully for not appearing to be too enthusiastic about dining with an infant. The food is quite good and I feel I might just make it till that 1pm lunch.

Later, we had a lovely lunch in the dining room (as a rule I like to eat lunch in the DR versus the buffet lunch as I like to be waited on – I can get my own food at home! And we are lucky enough to have Stana as our waitress. I ask her if she is following me and she says smilingly, “No, it is you who are following me, Madame”.

A fun part of lunch in the dining room is getting seated with other people and finding out a little about them. During this cruise we met a lot of interesting people this way – people that were from Ireland, people that were on their 63rd cruise (no, NOT a typo!), an Asian lady who claimed to be 70 and looked about 30 (either she was a liar, had a great plastic surgeon or had lived an exceedingly clean life, I vote for the plastic surgeon explanation, and a lady who had the worst teeth I have ever seen, I kid you not. They were all interesting and made our trip more enjoyable.

After a short nap, we went to a wine tasting which was very well done (we sampled 5 wines, including a very nice champagne) and introduced us to some new wines. It was hosted by the head sommelier – our sommelier was also in attendance. A quick word here – no one at our table liked our sommelier – he was condescending. We brought all our own wine from home…some of it was quite nice. He tasted everything we brought and had something disparaging to say about each. Now I do understand that wine is a matter of personal taste but I found this unnecessary. I thought perhaps that he was upset that we had brought our own, thus “stiffing” him as to a tip, although we planned to tip him at the end of the cruise. We found out that the $12 corkage fee charged by Celebrity is as follows - $8 corkage and $4 tip for the sommelier. So there was no reason for his attitude. And as it was extended to everyone at our table, we decided it had nothing to do with us and enjoyed our wines despite him.

Next I decide to try out the Thassolotherapy Pool while Kelsy goes to the teen center. Folks, it is great. A huge big whirlpool with various stations around the pool to massage various parts of your body with water jets. The best part is a reclining bench that puts jets all along your back and legs. There is room for 4-5 people to use this at once. The movement of the ship also allows the water to slosh around so you get double action. The idea is to move around to the various stations and get a full body massage. There is a nice dressing room attached with a sauna (I did not use as I don’t like ‘em) and robes and towels are also provided. If you don’t have a suite there is a $20 per day or $70 per voyage charge to use the pool. No kids are allowed. It feels great after working out, I will probably be here every day.

As soon as I get back, here comes Stanley with a huge tea tray that he pushes down the hall. As if we might be hungry. It is well stocked with sandwiches and goodies as well as any kind of tea you might like. We take a few things just to be polite. J

At 5pm he brings canapés again. Different ones each day. We end up not really eating these as sushi starts at 6pm! I have been waiting for this all day!

The sushi area is a small part of the Palm Springs Café that is sectioned off with Japanese screens and highly decorated with fans and paper lanterns. Very nicely done. There is a reasonable selection of sushi…no sashimi. I plan to take the sushi and not eat the rice, thus creating my own sashimi. I am behind a lady in line who is dressed to kill (for formal night)…when she gets to the raw fish section she starts picking the fish off the rice balls with the tongs and leaving the rice balls behind on the buffet!! The server asks her “Don’t you like the rice?” She says No. I point out gently that it might be preferable to take the entire piece of sushi to her table and denude it there. She agrees that this might be more polite.

There is a supercilious British waiter gliding around asking everyone if they wouldn’t like ‘some lovely sake to go with that lovely sushi’. He is very Austin Powerish. Bad teeth, slicked back hair, flirting with the young girls. Quite entertaining.

Tonight is formal night so we all dress up, what fun. We get some pictures made before dinner. Everyone at our table loosens up considerably and we start having some fun and getting to know each other better. Nancy, Karen and Paul from Phili and Detroit and Naomi and Jennifer from SF. We shut down the restaurant at 10:30 – I think we were the last table out of there, a trend we were to continue each night. The baby is awake this evening and charms everyone. I never did hear that baby (Benjamin) make a peep. He smiles, laughs and coos. Everyone except me ends up holding him and he seems to enjoy playing musical baby.

Rob and I head to the Navigator lounge for some dancing and I meet one of the dance hosts. It is disco and many of he ladies are dancing together either because there are not men with them or they (like me) have worn their guys out, so the dance host jumps in and dances with us all. Doesn’t bother me to dance with the other ladies. My mantra on a trip is “I’ll never see these people again”.

Kelsy keeps another late night at the teen center while we old fogies collapse about midnight. As we do not have a shore excursion planned tomorrow in Victoria we will sleep in a little and head into town a little later.

I order a breakfast parfait from the CC breakfast menu (given to me earlier by Stanley) and head to bed. What a great, full day. And we still have four more to go J

Goodnight and sweet dreams.

Happy Sailing!

Cyndi Wagner, AKA Transaction Chick
Carnival Celebration - 5/98
RCI Rhapsody - 5/00
Carnival Sprit - 10/01
Celebtrity Mercury - 5/04

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