Two sea days, not much to report, same schedule – except it’s warm enough now to go see the Hot Glass show on Deck 15. We went to the night show right after Madeira when it was nice and warm – really cool watching Ryan, Bob and Brandon create their art at night. You really see the glass glow and move so much more at night. We keep trying to go see other shows, but its been too windy or cold or we’re doing something else.
We’ve sailed with Ryan and Bob on the Eclipse coming across in April, so we feel like we know them. And while Brandon is new (to us), he is a great addition with an easy-going personality too.
So, anyway, on the last sea day we go to the auction in the Grand Foyer. Here the team auctions off some of their bigger pieces to get money for the Corning Glass Blowing school scholarships. This allows people to go to Corning for 2 weeks to learn glass blowing techniques – pays for tuition, room and board. They also always do one piece that supports breast cancer research (a Celebrity charitable focus). This cruise is a special cruise because the godmother of the ship, Emma Pontin (yeah, we’ll not forget that name, from Amazing Race, will we??) is onboard and sailing with us. She is a Yacht captain (who knew) who has had breast cancer and while traveling along with us, is also teaching a sailing course with the proceeds going to charity.
The auction gets off to a great start with a glass turtle going for $1,000. Too rich for our blood! On the last cruise, a few pieces went very cheaply and I thought if there was something we liked, we might bid. But fortunately, we’re not excited about any of the pieces so we just watch the fun for a while ($600 and $400 for other pieces) and then we go back upstairs to pack. We’ll probably end up with an extra empty suitcase, the way its looking.
But before we finish packing, it is time for the show. This is Bob’s last cruise until May, so he goes first and makes a really great tea kettle goblet (he loves tea kettles and have made 2 or 3 this trip – not usable, just art!). Brandon goes next with a fabulous vase that is technical and difficult and turns out perfect. Then at the end of the show, they hand out raffle tickets to give away some of the pieces they have made. Well cool. We’ll hang for this.
It takes almost 10 minutes to give out the tickets – there are so many people there – maybe 300 Ed estimated. We’re the last few to get ours, but whatever, we never win anything. But of course we dream, so we’ve already discussed which one of the 5 pieces on display we would like. You want to talk about surprised when the very first ticket number they call is mine!!! Cannot believe it – so exciting! I go up and claim this lovely purple vase – and still cannot believe that we won!
We stayed a bit longer, and then they decided that they would give away more pieces – “makes more room on the ship”! Ok. So the first number for the new batch is Ed’s number! No way! We are NEVER this lucky. So we add a bowl to the collection. How cool is that???
Guess we don’t need to worry about that empty suitcase now, do we? We’re ecstatic as we go down to rearrange the clothes and the packing to fit our new hand blown glassware!
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