Cruise Like a Celebrity

There is truly nothing like the anticipation of an upcoming vacation.  I remember as a child how excited we would all get the night before we left for Colorado or Oregon or even the Mexican boarder.  It was so exciting to us.  You know that feeling when you are so excited that you can't stop smiling and you kind of shake a little bit and then you have to rub your hands together in glee?  That was the way my brothers and I would get the night before we left on a vacation as kids.  That's where I'm at right now.

I really need this trip, if for no other reason, just to be around other humans.  Don't get me wrong, I will feel guilt at leaving the cats at home alone for a week with only daily visits from a cat sitter.  But it is going to be so nice to sleep in a bed by myself with no furry little creature laying across my neck.  And if I decide to sit in front of a computer all day long working on something it is very unlikely that my travel companion or anybody else on the cruise ship for that matter, will lay across my keyboard or start meowing incessantly until I get up to allow them to lead me to whatever it is that they want me to do.  I really think that this vacation will be good for me AND the cats (probably me more so than the cats).

You may have noticed a new picture to the right of my blog today.  It was taken in from a restaurant in Ft Lauderdale called The Big Kahuna on November 13, 2010.  It was just a few weeks before Allure of the seas was scheduled to set sail on her maiden Caribbean voyage.  Royal Caribbean had planned a little celebration / photo op between Allure and Oasis on Saturday night as Oasis set sail on her weekly run to the Caribbean.  As we sat at the Big Kahuna we were able to see the fire boats spraying Allure with water as I am sure a party ensued on board.  I would imagine that the captain and crew aboard the Allure were as excited that night as I am today a mere 12 days before I set sail on the less impressive Mariner of the Seas.

I have gone through a number of photos in the last day or two.  It started out yesterday when I was working on this blog and started looking for bad weather I had experienced on board cruise ships.  Then it lead to just remembering various cruises and the fun I had while on each of them.  Then I found that picture of Oasis and Allure which was taken the night before we set sail on Celebrity's Solstice of the Seas.  By the way, for adults with no kids on the trip....  Celebrity.... GREATNESS!!!!!!  Anyway, then after going through all of those pictures, one thing lead to another and now I am in a near state of frenzy with anticipation.

As a result of my inability to contain my excitement, I will now share with you some photos of that Celebrity cruise in 2010...  Ready?  Here we go....

Here I am in Ft. Lauderdale just before we left to go board the ship rating my first Bloody Mary of the trip.  It's a little bit of schtick we did on this cruise, I rated Bloody Mary's and Jenny rated Mimosas.

 The top deck of the ship had a beautiful lawn on it and there was nothing better than kicking back up there with a glass of wine with your barefeet in the grass.  The picture to the left was taken as we left Ft Lauderdale.  Just a little bit of relaxation was taking place at that point....

As I said Jenny was rating Mimosas so here she is with what was apparently a pretty good one in the dining room at a champagne breakfast.  Celebrity offers drink packages on board their ships.  So for a flat fee that you pay up front you can drink whatever you like and as much of it as you can put away.  We did that on this cruise and I think we got our money's worth out of it.  It sure was nice not to get a big surprise bill at the end of the cruise.  I understand that other cruise lines are starting to add drink packages that include alcohol.  I read this morning that Carnival is adding something.

The photo below was taken as we arrived at San Juan.  That is the Old Fort in the background behind me.  I didn't expect to like San Juan as much as I did. It's like a European city except that it is part of the US.  Kind of cool.  While there we did the Bacardi tour.  I don't recommend that.  It was lame. If I were going back, I'd spend my time in Old Town.  The ship didn't leave until 10 or 11 p.m. that night.  So we spent some time in Old Town after our tour was over.  It was great.

The Solstice is a huge ship for Celebrity, but it is sort of small when compared to a lot of the ships that RCI (Celebrity's sister company) sails.  I enjoy a smaller ship.  But that's just a personal preference.  I have friends who think that when it comes to ships, the bigger the better.


Our next stop was St. Thomas.  I love it there. This was actually my first Eastern Caribbean cruise and I found out that I really love the Eastern Caribbean.  I sure wish someone would start an Eastern Caribbean itinerary out of Galveston.  Even if they had to make it a 10 night cruise just a few times a year, it would so be worth it!

The photo below was taken as we arrived in St. Thomas.  Our excursion there was a Castaway Girl Snorkel and Sail.  It was tons of fun and we went to Buck Island for the snorkeling.  The water was wonderful and the Parrot fish eating the coral were so loud it was just crazy!

 The photo to the right was taken in about 8 feet of water on the reef at Buck Island.  They had taken a sunken ship over there a number of years ago to build the reef.  The island is a wildlife sanctuary, so you are not allowed to get out of the water on the island.  You just jump off your boat into the water, snorkel and then climb back on board.

In the photo below, I'm enjoying post snorkel rum punch that was a part of the excursion.  I must warn you that free rum punches aren't all that good, but they do the trick.....

 After our snorkel trip we went back to the ship, changed clothes and then took the skyride thing up the mountain.  Some of our dinner mates promised us that at the top we would find the best ice cream drink of our lives so we tried it.  The Bushwhacker lived up to it's reputation.  Thanks Stan and Jane.  Much better than complimentary rum punch.  Below is the view that we had to endure as we waited for our Bushwhackers.  Just a miserable place to spend an afternoon, right?

 The picture on the right was taken as we made port at St. Maarten.  This was, by far, my favorite stop.  I LOVED it.  We did one of the best excursions of my life there too.  This is where we crewed on an America's Cup boat.  I was a "wench witch".  My job was to take rope up on this wench and let it back out each time the captain who is pictured below holding the rope (on a sailboat that's called a "line", matey) directed me to.  Jenny got to hold the main sail rope.  That looked like a fun job too.  Apparently, taking in and letting out the rope on my wench turned the boat.  We won our race against two other America's Cup boats that day, no doubt due to my mad wenching skills....

I don't think I realized before that Jenny was apparently taking a picture of me while I was taking this picture of her and the captain....

I'm at the very back of the boat on the right side behind the guy in the red shirt.  

The photo to the right is my wench.  That line coiled around that wench....  I did that.... Those hairy legs are not mine.  I think they belonged to the guy next to me in the blue long sleeve shirt.  If you ever get a chance to do this, don't pass it up!  They have an America's Cup excursion in Cozumel now.  So you should be able to do it on almost any cruise out of Galveston.

St. Maarten was our final stop of this cruise.  I would say that this was in my top 3 cruises of all time.  I loved the ship.  I loved the cruiseline.  I loved the itinerary.  We had one of the funnest dinner tables ever.  Cruising out of Ft. Lauderdale is greatness.  We had the best ships captain ever!  He was Greek, pretty hot and hysterical!  His brother was the 1st Mate.  The first couple of days when the captain did his daily announcement, he finished by saying "This is your Greek captain... Over and out".  By the end of the cruise, he was finishing that announcement simply by saying.... "Greek........ OUT!"  If you had been on his ship before, you would be laughing sooooo hard right now remembering that.

Well, make today a great day.  I'm attending a WOB networking coffee this evening.  Woohoo!!!!  Humans outside of my house!!!!  Talk to you tomorrow....

American...... OUT!