Another beautiful day – breakfast in the garden….
…then shower and wander over to Coop for more supplies. Then it’s rearranging and packing and getting organized for our short hop over to the ship.
We check out around 10:45 and grab our bags, troop them up and over the bridge, then hook them together and head off to the people mover (oh yeah, in all the excitement of the Richmond-HHI-remodeling move, we’ve managed to misplace the add a bag strap for Ed’s suitcase and forgot to bring the bungy cord for mine! Oy – we found a perfect bungy cord in London, but there was only one – so we bought clothes line at the Coop (25 meters!) and wound that around Ed’s bag for his carry on – hey – we’re nothing if not creative!).
It’s a 5 minute walk to the people mover – 1 Euro each, then another 5 minutes walk to the terminal. We check our bags and proceed to check ourselves in! Smooth as silk, they let us right on the ship – of course the rooms aren’t ready, but we’re prepared for that – the norm on Celebrity (even though HAL lets you go directly to your staterooms…ok…stop comparing!).
First impressions? WOW. This ship is incredibly gorgeous. Atrium that reaches to the stars (not really, but it’s huge), trendy art work, leather and tile everywhere, bars, lounges, odd little sitting areas like “the hideaway” that sort of looks like tree houses with odd wooden accessories. It’s just huge and incredible and incredibly well decorated.
There are lots of different extra cost dining venues – the oddest of all we think is the Lawn Club where for $40 per person you have the pleasure of grilling your own steak on a grill. Yep, ladies and gents, that’s right, you can pay to cook your own food! You can opt to have the chef prepare it for you, but then what is the point? Now, it is on the very top deck, with real grass and a cool outdoor setting, but, really? Hey – whatever floats your boat…literally!
It is nice up there – with bocce ball courts, giant lawn chairs and goofy cabanas you can rent for $99 a day – the best thing about it is the sunset bar which is at the back of the boat and you can sit next to the real lawn and just soak up the sun and the atmosphere – not to mention the booze!
The buffet is huge and well stocked (free food is never a problem on Celebrity!) and after lunch we explore the ship – finding the library, the iLounge (yeah, they’ve partnered with Mac), the specialty restaurants, the bars and lounges as well as the wine bar where you can buy a “wine” card and self serve your own wine. Hmmmmm….there’s a catch (the glasses are smaller), but you also pay less and you don’t pay a gratuity – plus you can try all sorts of different wines since they are all served through a pneumatic machine where you just punch in the amount you want (taste, 1/2 glass, full glass). I’m game! it’s a minimum of $2.50 less per glass and they have discounted the cards 25%. Ok – done! I’m set for wine this cruise. yay!
Now it’s off to the cabin, which is really nicely done. Large, nice fixtures, well decorated.
But here’s the thing, while they ship is fabulous, there are bizarre little things that they just blew. Take for instance 3 drawers in the cabin. Kid you not. 3 deep drawers, but only 3 – unless you want to stack everything you own on top of each other and dig through the drawers, they’re fairly worthless. Large closet but with no shelf – you only have hanging space. Where do the clothes go? Because you know they don’t give you enough hangers to hang everything. Fortunately we found a shelving unit over the bed – so that’s where all our shirts and shorts and things are stacked. But if you’re short? forget it – you’re climbing on the bed for everything!
The other bizarre thing is that the cabin door opens outward. And the next door neighbor’s door is right there – so eventually, someone is going to get smacked in the face with that door, for sure. When we had breakfast delivered, I had to slowly, slowly open the door – even though I knew the cabin steward wouldn’t be standing close enough, still…bizarre!
Ok – so, we organized, then went out walking again. Just getting outside for a while. We wandered past the train station, down the main avenue just looking at the trinkets and trash for sale. Found a restaurant on one of the squares that had free wi-fi so we sat for a while with beer and wine. BIG BEER….
As it turned out, the city of Venice is giving everyone free wi-fi until 3pm on 5/31 to help people communicate because of the earthquake. So we sat and burned up some free internet time until we decided to wander back to the ship for dinner.
As we returned, the Solstice sailed in. How fun! Both ships together. It was cool to see our “ride” for 30 days in New Zealand, Bali and Australia 7 months from now.
Washed up, dinner (excellent as always), filled my wine glass from the machine, then we headed up to one of the bars where we met the most adorable, funny bartender who kept us in stitches the whole night as we listened to an acapella group, an acoustic guitarist and a jazz quartet (as we were leaving). Ah…..music….
Tomorrow, our last day in Venice (more of a sea day for us really!). Then…well…the blog may be an issue. 11 ports in 12 days will not leave much time for writing…so…we’ll see how we do. Keep checking back!
