Live from Celebrity Ascent Rome to Barcelona August 10, 2024.

[txtechmk]

1 hour ago, Stockjock said:

 Fixed it.
 

This dude is staring at me in the bathroom on Celebrity Ascent. How I fixed it. 

https://youtu.be/l4jFIlskg94

As Mick Jagger would say:  I think your dude is a lady!

[hmcrn]

40 minutes ago, txtechmk said:

As Mick Jagger would say:  I think your dude is a lady!

  

Ha ha - I was thinking the same thing!  

Not Mick Jagger though - Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.  🙂 

Edited August 11 by hmcrn

[Jim_Iain]

Enjoying your Live post...  I have to say... I enjoyed your video preview of your room also. 

[hcat]

Could not find this item in the Ascent Art book... There are similar type prints in the E Class bathrooms..... not very calming or spa like.

 

While there are some lovely works of art on ASCENT,  the collection  on board was our least fav so far..(not yet been on APEX)

[Stockjock]

Dinner in the Tuscan Restaurant on Celebrity Ascent.  Far away the best food I’ve had recently on Celebrity Cruises.

[Stockjock]

I am not a sommelier, but I probably know more about Wine than 90%or 95% of the general population. This guy Jose is the first sommelier that I’ve had on a cruise ship who really knows his stuff and studies the topic. I was impressed.
 

by the way, here are a couple of tips when it comes to dinner. Even though you can go to whatever restaurant you like, it’s not a terrible idea to have a reservation in place and you can do that by dialing extension 7000 on the ship. Also, if you get there earlier, you will probably get a table pretty quickly or later, but if you show up around 8:30 PM, you’re gonna have a really big line so be aware of that. 

[vickykay]

What was your dinner entree?  Looks yummy 

[Stockjock]

1 hour ago, vickykay said:

What was your dinner entree?  Looks yummy 

These were the entrées that we ordered.

[txtechmk]

4 hours ago, hmcrn said:

  

Ha ha - I was thinking the same thing!  

Not Mick Jagger though - Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.  🙂 

Yes, Steven Tyler!  Duh....

[Stockjock]

Just off the coast of Portofino Italy this morning. We slept in till about 10 AM, which we had not intended on doing, but we’ve been to Portofino before. It’s very pretty and quaint, but there’s not a massive amount of things to do there. So I guess we’ll just have lunch and then take a tender into the town for a little bit.

Edited August 12 by Stockjock

[Stockjock]

Looks like we also have Celebrity Equinox off the coast of Portofino.

[Stockjock]

A little bit of dessert before we leave the ship. Just what the doctor did not order.

[Stockjock]

Portofino is beautiful, but it is so incredibly crowded and it was so incredibly hot and humid today. I don’t advise doing this in early August. It’s pretty ridiculous.

[Stockjock]

So I showed you the pretty picture from Portofino, but since my girlfriend is not around, I will talk about prices a little bit because she hates that.
 

First of all, there were incredible sweaty throngs as we got off the ship as you can see from the pictures. And they didn’t want to get out of the way so we could get into the small town of Portofino, so I almost had to push my way past them. 

 

We stopped at a restaurant, and we had two Aperol spritz, 1 L of water, and a burrata starter, which is basically just cheese (shown), as well as a bowl of vanilla gelato.

Anyone want to guess the price?

Edited August 12 by Stockjock

[hcat]

21 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

Portofino is beautiful, but it is so incredibly crowded and it was so incredibly hot and humid today. I don’t advise doing this in early August. It’s pretty ridiculous.

beautiful..like a painting!

 

I guess the  restaurant. was  overpriced, but if it had A/C and no crowds, maybe  worth it!

Edited August 12 by hcat

[Stockjock]

1 hour ago, hcat said:

beautiful..like a painting!

 

I guess the  restaurant. was  overpriced, but if it had A/C and no crowds, maybe  worth it!

No air-conditioning, unfortunately. There was a little bit of shade, but that’s about it.  Bill was 115 Euro or roughly $126 USD.

[Jim_Iain]

1 hour ago, Stockjock said:

No air-conditioning, unfortunately. There was a little bit of shade, but that’s about it.  Bill was 115 Euro or roughly $126 USD.

 

Yikes... did you know that when ordering?  

[Ciaranaman]

Oh wow - that is way too many people for my liking!  I'd be high-tailing it back to the ship lickety-split!  

~Bernadette

[Stockjock]

31 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

Yikes... did you know that when ordering?  

No but she doesn’t like to discuss the cost of things.

[Stockjock]

Just a couple quick comments about the wines.  We have the premium drink package and I normally order the Decoy but they’re out of that, so they are substituting the Elegance by Kendall Jackson Cabernet, which is normally a six dollar upcharge, but they’re not charging that since they’re out of the other one. And it’s a pretty good wine.  I don’t think it’s worth an extra six dollars, but it’s good and I think it’s a worthy substitute, especially since they aren’t charging extra for it right now.
 

In terms of the Chardonnay, big fans of Grgich Hills, but I think this was an eight dollar upcharge and I have got to tell you it’s absolutely not worth it, so don’t waste your money on that one. Grgich makes some great wines, but this isn’t one of them.

Edited August 12 by Stockjock

[Stockjock]

We are finishing up dinner in the Cosmopolitan restaurant. I’m not sure why, but we are so far almost almost 3 1/2 hours past our departure time so we’re not sure why we’re just sitting here. They haven’t made any announcements and the waiters have no idea as to the reason for the delay.
 

This is my third Celebrity cruise in approximately one year I would say overall the food is far and away the best. Tonight’s dinner wasn’t quite as good, but it was still pretty solid. Last night at Tuscany was excellent.  The service has been very good throughout the entire trip. When I did my Athens and Venice cruise on Infinity last year, they really had the Anytime dining screwed up to the point that they had my girlfriend crying and she doesn’t cry easily. But things have gone smoothly so far on Ascent.

Edited August 12 by Stockjock

[Stockjock]

Went for a walk outside, but unfortunately, the weather is so hot and humid that it’s miserable. And we’re talking 10 o’clock at night and you can’t even stay outside for a few minutes without feeling like you’re sweating up a storm.
 

The weather has been clear and sunny, but just so miserably hot. I don’t think I’ll come here in early August again, lol.

 

I just called guest services and asked them why we’re not moving. They said we are now moving but just extremely slowly. I asked him why the windows are locked and they said it’s because we are moving so slowly. I guess Portofino is pretty close La Spezia so they just crawl over there overnight.

Edited August 12 by Stockjock

[Stockjock]

Good morning from La Spezia, Italy, gateway to Cinque Terre and Florence.  
 

Today we visit Cinque Terre on a fairly long tour, and I’m a little bit apprehensive because it’s been so very hot lately. But I know that it’s beautiful, because we were here once before, maybe eight years ago. 
 

I added the second picture so you can see what it looks like when you’re seated in front of the so-called infinite veranda, which Celebrity actually refers to as a window on the controls next to the so-called veranda (see photo).

 

As you can see, the view is blocked a bit from a seated position by the bar in the center. Bear in mind that our original cabin was a panoramic ocean view.  I think that would’ve been fine, with the weather being so warm, because the window has mostly been shut during this trip. I paid $30 per person to upgrade due to a price drop, and that was a very good deal. I don’t know if it would’ve been worth $400 per person to upgrade, which I think was the normal price difference when I booked.  as I mentioned earlier, my girlfriend seems to like this set up, but I prefer a more traditional veranda.

[Stockjock]

A few photos from our tour to Cinque Terre. I think it’s a really good tour, you go to three of the different towns by sort of a minibus, and then I think we will be taking the train back in about an hour. As I’ve mentioned all along, it’s oppressively hot, so that’s the only bad thing about it. But the tour itself is very nice and of course Cinque Terre is beautiful.

 

The tour did sell out pretty quickly, so if if it’s something you want to do, book it fairly soon. We got it on one of the sales so I think it was 40% off or something like that.

 

 

[hawkesbaynz]

Enjoying the review. We are on the Ascent out of Barcelona in a fortnight and am appreciating the information. I will know what wine to order if Decoy is still unavailable.

 

Glad we booked a Sunset Verandah. My DW avoids the communla sun beds and tends to relax on the balcony. She may not have appreciated the IV.

 

We tender to Santa Margherita. I had planned to walk to Portofino. May stay in Santa Margherita although hopefully a little cooler. 

 

Enjoy the cruise