Zenith Trip Report, 3/6/06

[ONEANNM]

Keep the reviews coming Dawne....

Loving all your reviews...

We are booked on the Zenith for 6-3 to Bermuda.

At 1st I was unsure about cruising on the Zenith, but am starting

to feel more confident about it.

Still unsure about our cabins, but don't really have a choice

Florida Deck....

 

Thanks again for the very detailed reviews

 

Andrea

[dawne577]

DAY TWO: KEY WEST, cont….

After snorkeling, we did what a lot of people do in Key West: shopped and went to a bar. Our destination was the Hog’s Breath Saloon, whose motto is a “hog’s breath is better than no breath at all.”

 

We entered the bar through its souvenir shop. This is located near a small square called Kino Plaza. It includes a jewelry store, a cigar store, a clothing store and, of course, Kino Sandals. It also includes free roaming roosters and chickens, proving that most everyone in Key West is a free spirit, including the livestock.

 

Before the boys even noticed that we were gone, we were able to buy a shirt, a pair of sandals from Kino’s (where you can watch them making the sandals), put a purse on reserve, and go to the bathroom. Talent is talent.

 

Hog’s Breath has both an interior bar/restaurant as well as a covered patio bar. There are web cameras everywhere, so you can tell your friends/family to watch at a particular time and they will be able to see you. The food is also good there. We had Conch Fritters (Key West is known as the Conch Republic). These were very tasty and definitely filled with conchs (cost was about $7). Our friends had fish sandwich platters—the sandwiches were made of large fillets of Mahi-Mahi.

 

After taking pictures in the “Hog blocks,” we took a pleasant walk down Duval to Mallory Square and back to the ship. Aside from Hog’s Breath, we can also recommend Sloppy Joe’s (especially good at night if you like things on the raucous side and like to sing along with the band) and Schooner’s Wharf—our favorite.

 

We spent the rest of the afternoon on 10 aft sunning ourselves. We also made our first of many trips to Cova Café. More on this wonderful coffee bar later.

 

Returning to our stateroom, we were pleasantly surprised by the appearance of our confiscated champagne. Bless our room steward.

 

This was formal night. We didn’t notice anybody dressed down at the Caravelle Restaurant, a few even wore tuxes. Especially good was the shrimp. Also tasty was the beef tenderloin. Most in our party had the spinach salad (very good) and DH and I had the escargot—something we first tried on Disney. Good—but not as good as our previous experience. This was the only night that we ordered wine, a California Merlot that was good (sorry, don’t remember the vintner’s name). For dessert, we had chocolate mousse—a little disappointing.

 

The theater performance that night was preceded by the Captain’s Welcome and, of course, free champagne. The performance was “Thoroughly Broadway,” and it was excellent, especially the numbers revolving around the play “Chicago.” The cruise director was Jeff Potts—who was pleasant and congenial.

 

This was our first night of pub crawling. Almost everything is located on decks 7 and 8. In the Rendez-Vous Room we saw guitarist Ron Thompson. Then we made our way to the Rainbow Room where we saw Changez, and then finished the night in the beautiful, intimate Michael’s Club Piano Bar dancing to Sugar Duo.

 

Wednesday would be another port day—Cozumel.

 

Below is a picture of Louis, our head waiter.

[jessemon]

Dawne577,

If you like deserts make sure you have one (if offered) called a "Blue Mountian Coffee" something or other. NO...it is not a drink...it is wonderful...:) By the way..nice review so far.

Jeff

[dawne577]

Jeff,

I usually take extensive notes before sailing and I had heard about the "Blue Mountain coffee". You got it in Cova Cafe? I can't believe I missed it. Maybe next time.

Dawn

[jessemon]

Jeff,

I usually take extensive notes before sailing and I had heard about the "Blue Mountain coffee". You got it in Cova Cafe? I can't believe I missed it. Maybe next time.

Dawn

Hey Dawn,

Nope...got it in the diningroom...after dinner. It was wonderful.:D

Get 2 of these deserts every time we cruise and it is on the menu...:eek:

Jeff

[dawne577]

DAY THREE: COZUMEL

This was a day to sleep in a little; we weren’t scheduled to arrive at Cozumel until 11 a.m. But even before this, we could see what we assumed was the Mexican mainland, specifically the Yucatan Peninsula. One of the things we had never done before was visit a Mayan ruin. But we had plans to do that in Costa Maya. Today, we planned to go to Paradise Beach. It was sunny and warm.

 

Breakfast was the usual—Windsurf Café. By 11, we were in the theatre (aptly called the Celebrity Show Lounge because of the previously described tables and ample leg room) and were given a slip of paper with our tender number—12. At 12:05, they began calling numbers to go to the tender. This, like most tendering, was a very controlled procedure. This is also why almost no one likes tendering—the freedom of just walking off the ship is gone. And the ship was only to be in port until 7, with the last tender back to the ship at 6:30.

 

Our number wasn’t called until 12:55. The tenders were huge, much bigger than the few we had been on previously. On this tender, they had a bar, they sold T-shirts and they came around hawking car rental agencies. But it was a quick trip to the island and as we stepped off the ship, Celebrity workers offered us punch and water.

 

The ruins of the old docks—pre-hurricane—were there. Workers with jackhammers chipped away at the rubble while the sparks of welders flew into the air. There were the usual attempts to direct the tourists through shops, but if you kept generally to the left, you could avoid most of the hard sell.

 

Getting a taxi was easy. For us, it was $12 to Paradise Beach. (12 was to be our number all this day.) Our driver slipped in a tape of Mexican music and we were on our way. On his dash was a statue of the Virgin Mary, which no doubt kept us safe as we passed scooters and trucks on the two-lane highway (he really was a good driver, though). The tops of all the trees were broken and hanging dead from the hurricane. The countryside here seemed wild and uninhabited, swampy. We passed two crude looking horse back riding “stables” on the left side of the road.

 

Paradise Beach is run by Tom, from Montreal, Quebec, and his wife. Within 10 minutes, we were pulling into his property, which even from the road looked nicely landscaped and green. We were met at the steps leading to the bar by a greeter who told us to make ourselves at home on the beach. Entrance and use of loungers and umbrellas is free; Tom only asks that you spend at least $10 per person during the day. You can also buy a “water bracelet,” which gives you all day access to snorkeling equipment, kayaks, a water trampoline and a climbing “iceberg.” The cost for this is $8. We chose to just kick back on the beach. We bought a bucket of beer (a Mexican brand called Sol—very good): 5 beers for the price of 4 (total $12—normally $3 each). Later in the day, we had a few more beers and an order of nachos that came with a side order of hot peppers. It, too, was excellent ($6).

 

Waiters take your order and bring it to the beach. The bucket was packed with ice and kept the beers cold. You run a tab and pay when you leave. The restrooms were immaculate. We saw Tom feeding his parrot, which sits on a perch under the thatched-roofed, open sided bar.

 

When it was time to leave, the greeter got us a cab and we drove back to the International Cruise Terminal. This driver had a picture of the Virgin Mary, instead of a statue, and was more talkative. He heard us talking, looked into his rearview mirror, and popped in a tape that played American music, starting with “YMCA.” He told us how the hurricane had hung over the island for 60 hours, but no one was killed. Surely it pays to have religion and carry icons in your cab if you live on a Caribbean island where hurricanes howl and destroy trees and concrete.

 

When we got out of the cab, Arrowsmith was playing. Celebrity employees offered us cold towels as we prepared to board the tender. It was a quick ride back.

 

We had first dining and tonight the Caravelle Restaurant had quite a few empty tables. No doubt many people had decided not to rush back from Cozumel and so had made arrangements for informal dining. The show this night featured magician Jamie Allan. He was good—some great illusions—but magic shows aren’t really our cup of tea.

 

This was also the night of a great deck party, Island Night Celebration, starting around 10:45 p.m. There was a fun conga line and some less than dignified attempts at the Macarana (sp?). But great fun. The party also included a midnight buffet that really didn’t start at midnight and featured the march of the melons. What else do we need to say!

 

Tomorrow—Costa Maya. Or so we thought.

 

Some of the destruction at the International Cruise Terminal, Cozumel.

[Lois R]

Hi Dawne, thank you for the Paradise Beach information:)

I think a few of us are going there this time (sailing Zenith again

next month).

Nice to know it was a good as I have read over on the ports board.

[DGF]

Thank you for the detail review.

 

Question- how do you post the picture wth your review

 

Thanks

 

DEAN

[dawne577]

Thank you for the detail review.

 

Question- how do you post the picture wth your review

 

Thanks

 

DEAN

 

 

Just below the reply box, there is an "additional options" box. One of the buttons says, "Manage Attachments." Click on that. Hit the browse button to find the picture on your computer, then the upload.

 

The important thing is the size. You will have to reduce your picture to 280 pixels (heighth) by 620 (width). We use a free program, XNView, to do this.

Below, for instance, is a picture of the rough seas through our cabin window on Costa Maya day.

[nautilus2]

Hi Dawne, thank you for the Paradise Beach information:)

I think a few of us are going there this time (sailing Zenith again

next month).

Nice to know it was a good as I have read over on the ports board.

 

Another good thing about Paradise beach, there is no booking necessary--just show up. And there is no enterance fee, unlike most of the private beaches on Cozumel.

[Marobarb]

Dawne, I have enjoyed your review (and pictures) - please continue!

[tomatopa]

Dawne, i also have enjoyed your review and pictures...are your pictures on any photo web sites..club photo? kodak gallery? i would really like to look at them...thanks, Judy

[dawne577]

DAYS FOUR AND FIVE: MY NAME IS FREDDIE

Early Thursday morning, we felt the usual vibrations, signifying that the ship was maneuvering to dock. But then there was something new.

 

We felt a sudden lurch to the left, as if the ship were turning back out to sea. Soon there was an announcement on the PA confirming our suspicions. The ship was unable to dock at Costa Maya. There were 10-foot seas and because of the way that the docks are configured, it was unsafe to put into port.

 

We were disappointed, but not in the same way that some people were. Rumors abounded that we were cutting the cruise short and returning to Miami that very day (wrong, of course). Some people were angry with Celebrity. But for us, this just meant another sea day—a very pleasant experience in itself. The rumor that interested us the most was the one coming from the crew that Celebrity was considering dropping Costa Maya as a port: it was too unreliable and this was not the first time a stop there had been scratched.

 

We have no problem with a change in ports, if that’s what Celebrity should decide. But our personal view is that being on a ship in the middle of the ocean is not like taking a ride on a bicycle. You are dealing with forces of nature that are incredibly powerful. It is part of what makes being at sea, simply put, beautiful and—at the risk of sounding overly romantic—sublime. Either you like that blue water, the wake of the ship, the sun beating down on you, the breeze across the decks—or you don’t. It is a pleasure in itself.

 

Here is our summary of life during two sea days on the Zenith. Because we were just kicking back, enjoying ourselves, events seem to blur together in our memories.

 

Decks. The first impulse of many passengers on sea days is to grab a deck chair. So if you want one, either get it early—or wait until later in the day. We found some lounge chairs on deck 12 aft (the Sun deck), near the whirlpool at about 10 a.m. This homeward bound trip puts the port side in the shade during the morning, so people were dragging chairs from that side of the ship (left) into the sun. 12 aft is also where the gym is located. The guys used it and found it not too crowded—a decent amount of machines along with a steam room. This is also the deck where passengers jog. We made use on both days of the hot tubs. As has been mentioned in other posts, “hot” is not quite accurate. Warm tubs is more accurate. Still, they were enjoyable.

 

Activities. On Thursday, the staff quickly redid the activities schedule since we wouldn’t be in port. On this trip, we didn’t take part in many shipboard activities during the day (other than eating). But the staff set up trivia games, bridge games, shuffleboard, a movie in the afternoon, ping pong, etc. There was only one dance lesson during the entire week. Celebrity could have provided more of these. Despite the fact that we didn’t partake in many of these activities, it still seemed like there weren’t enough hours in the day.

 

Food. Several people have mentioned the two grills located to the rear of the Windsurf Café, one inside and one outside. These were the source for most of our casual meals. The inside featured pasta dishes and pizza. The pizza was excellent. The outside grill featured hamburgers and hot dogs. At certain times they also had tacos and stir fry dishes. In the morning, this grill cooked made-to-order omelets. Drinks available (without a soda card) included lemonade, ice tea, coffee (better than on either Disney or Princess), apple juice and a tropical punch. In the morning they had orange juice, as well. In the afternoons, soft ice cream was available on the starboard side of Windsurf. Thursday was lobster night, and the food, as usual, was excellent. For dessert this night, they had baked Alaska and the dinner included everyone in the restaurant singing “Auld Lang Syne”—sentimental, but fitting. For dinner on Friday, everyone went with the chef’s recommendation of turkey and stuffing.

 

Cova Café. This was one of our favorite spots. The décor is great and those free pastries and tea cookies were great. We tried both the lattes and the espresso, both $2.50 (cheaper than our local Starbuck’s) and both were excellent. Our favorite was the latte.

 

Library and game room. One of the things we wanted to do—but didn’t—was check out an iPod from the library. Supposedly, you can download your choice of song lists. If anyone has used this, please let us know about it. We did use the game room on Friday and played a viscous game of spades—guys against the girls.

 

Entertainment. Thursday night’s show was “That 60’s Show.” Broadway night was good, but this show may have had the best singing and dancing of the week. The compactness and intimacy of the ship may have been at its best during nighttime entertainment. Thursday we had our first chance to see the Alhambre Trio in the Cova Café. They had a nice, tight harmony and played ballads, songs from the Platters, the Lettermen, the BGs, etc. On Friday night, we had our first chance to hear the lovely piano playing of Kelly Kay in the Fleet Bar. Every night we would end the evening listening to SugarDuo in Michael’s Club Piano Bar. The duo includes a piano player and a singer who play in a jazzy, easy to listen to style.

 

Thursday night, in the Cova Café, was our first introduction to the great Freddie (Host Anne has great things to say about him in her review of Zenith). Freddie is both a waiter and an entertainer. He carried around a silver platter of finger foods and desserts, which were great in themselves. Freddie, as he told us, loves American movies and specializes in sound effects. He had us in stitches as he did his airplane and train sounds.

 

Friday night’s show featured comedian Louis Johnson (very, very funny). We took the occasion of this last night on our trip to drink our restored bottle of champagne. The waiters in the Celebrity Show Lounge graciously provided us with four glasses and we toasted to our great voyage and to the dear friends who shared it with us.

 

Tomorrow, debarkation.

 

My name is Freddie.

[Joanandjoe]

Keep the review coming, Freddie. It's helping us prepare for our 5/13 Bermuda cruise. Thanks.

[jessemon]

I think you are doing great on your review. To bad you missed Costa Maya. We have bbeen there three or four times and never had a problem docking. I have heard many stories that if the wind comes from a certian direction (I think from the SE) it gets bad. Just ask the Captian of the "Grandeaur of the Sea". Last year they slammed the pier and put a 20' + gash in the hull just above the waterline near the bow. It can get very tricky their to dock.

We are like you though. Damn...another sea day ?:D I love it. We get off the ship most of the time anymore to stretch our legs and that's about it. Unless it is a port we haven't been to before. My motto on the ship is simple if we have to do another sea day..."Keep the beers cold and keep them coming!":p Jeff

[dawne577]

Dawne, i also have enjoyed your review and pictures...are your pictures on any photo web sites..club photo? kodak gallery? i would really like to look at them...thanks, Judy

 

Judy,

We don't have them on any web site, though we did consider creating a web site of our own. But we just haven't had the time.

 

For this cruise, we took over 350 pictures. Each evening we would download the day's pictures from the camera to our laptop.

[redheadskier]

This was our first cruise and one thing we were really looking forward to was a ruins tour in Costa Maya. Not being able to dock was a major disappointment for us:( When the boat lurched it felt as tho we hit something (I was thinking it was the pilot boat). I fully understand them not being able to tender us ashore (no way would I have gotten on one with those waves and wind). I/we were very disappointed they did not head back to Cozumel - or even the fact that they had headed to Costa Maya from Cozumel - they must of been able to radio ahead to assess the sea conditions!!! The lack of a backup plan was really disappointing. Since we are not bingo players or real activity people the revised daily activities were not very interesting to us. I guess we are not "sea day people" and the prospect of spending 2 days to cover a 1 day return was not a happy thing for us.

 

On the bright side - That morning we had decided to be a room service breakfast - we were extremely pleased!!!!!!! The eggs and asparagras was excellent:p

 

When it was apparent we would be a sea I decided to go up and snag a few pool towels - with such a full ship there were never enough towels (and I didn't want to loose those $35 towels in my room!!) I was amazed at the number of people on Deck 12 along the sides and at the back. It was hard but we eventually found 2 chairs on the back deck

 

You didn't mention the "wave pool" - my gosh that was amazing!!! I thought I was at 6 Flags! We also spent most of our time in the "warm tubs" - got a real sunburn that rock and rolly day. That day I bought the soda card and made good use of it - coke, diet coke, ginger ale!!!

 

We also were very grateful to have the seasick patches!!! I started on Day 1 (just in case) - my husband who is a sea captain and commercial fisherman (really) let me put one on him - once it kicked in late morning he was much better. We could see on the TV the course we were on heading back to Miami and knew we were going to be "in for it" for a while!

 

Everyone was there for lobster that night - although many people ended up leaving the table (we were at the late sitting). I had the Prime Rib (we get lobster 4-5 days a week in the summer - believe me you can get "sick of it" but every year we do endulge in our local "maine lobsters" when we start catching in June (after a couple of days we start to sell them and eat hamburgers - lobsters paid for alot of our trip)

 

The baked alaska was pretty good. The march of the waiters was a hoot.

 

That night we went to the Rainbow room hoping for some dancing, but we crashed around 11:30 - it was amusing to watch the herds of college kids (girls and boys) circling each other and trying to merge. Ah - youth:D

[dawne577]

DEBARKATION

Time to get off and return to world of work and everyday problems. We packed most of our bags the night before, being sure that we both had a complete wardrobe to get off the ship (one of us forgot a pair of shoes to wear off the ship on another cruise—sigh).

 

We were up early packing our remaining items went up for breakfast at about 8:30. Our “color” was purple, so we were in the last group to get off the ship. We decided not to be huddled up in our debarkation waiting area (Rainbow Room). Instead, we spent time sitting on a deck lounger looking at the skyline we had looked at 5 days earlier. When we did go inside, we found the Rainbow Room not very crowded.

 

Debarkation was quick and painless. It was a little confusing finding some of our baggage—but not nearly as bad as our experience on the Caribbean Princess. Our friends waited for us in the parking garage. We both drove onto the expressway—I had my head out the window yelling good bye to people who could not possibly hear me; they headed north onto 95, we headed towards 75 north.

 

Another great adventure was ending with the next already a blip on the horizon. We thought that Celebrity was the perfect fit and we were trying to find an itinerary that appealed to us onboard the Zenith.

 

We found a 9-day March 2007 that made us both smile. Especially since this may be the Zenith’s second to last sailing with Celebrity if all the rumors are true. But then, like always the kids got in the way. As soon as we arrived home, our oldest son announced his engagement and stated that he wants to be married on a Carribean island during a cruise.

 

“Mom can you look into this for us?” he asked.

 

After much research I realized that the best way to amuse the mid-twenties crowd was to book a vovager class ship with RCCL. And so we did. Of course I have to find a sample cruise to test the waters (much to my husband’s surprise).

 

Celebrity, we will be back! And here’s why: Freddie, the waffles, the intimacy of the ship, the two inch-thick hamburgers, the entertainment, the chocolates on the pillows, the Cova Café, the room steward who rescued our bon voyage champagne toast, our waiters who talked to us whenever we saw them and shared their feelings with us, the lobsters, the sea days on deck 12, the crew who cracked bad jokes with us….

 

Observation: On sea days as I dozed off, I would wake myself and remember where I was. Then I would tell myself: Nap at home – stay awake and absorb paradise.

[jessemon]

DEBARKATION

Celebrity, we will be back! And here’s why: Freddie, the waffles, the intimacy of the ship, the two inch-thick hamburgers, the entertainment, the chocolates on the pillows, the Cova Café, the room steward who rescued our bon voyage champagne toast, our waiters who talked to us whenever we saw them and shared their feelings with us, the lobsters, the sea days on deck 12, the crew who cracked bad jokes with us….

 

Observation: On sea days as I dozed off, I would wake myself and remember where I was. Then I would tell myself: Nap at home – stay awake and absorb paradise.

Dawn,

Again...very nice review. After the past few weeks on the boards (very negaative) it is nice to see some people can still enjoy themselves on a cruise. You did a wonderful job.:)

On your paragraph "Celebrity...we'll be back" I'm sure you will. I am also sure they will be glad to have you.

Jeff/Jessemon

PS: Why not take a Christmas cruise before she's gone? 12/18/06. I'm sure the family would forego the presents for a cruise.:cool:

[Marobarb]

Thanks for the review - it was so enjoyable to read! - and the great pictures!

Good luck with the planning for the wedding cruise - you have to admit, an island in the Caribbean certainly makes for a great wedding location!

[mahdnc]

Excellent review--pictures and all. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience.....

[Coolcruise02]

Great review. We were on the Grandeur of the Seas after she had slammed into the pier at Costa Maya while trying to dock. Left a nice "scar". :)