Bermuda Cruise - Day 1
Sunday, May 6
Having been up all night, Shelley was ready for breakfast well before me. She brought me up a chalky unripe banana. While I appreciated the thought, I decided to go down myself. I had some oatmeal and brown sugar in a plastic cup, because I was not observant enough to locate the bowls. We were down in the lobby well in time for the 10:00 shuttle to the dock. We got to talking with our fellow travellers. The package rates for the 1-night stay, shuttle service to the dock before the trip, and shuttle from the dock to the airport after the trip came to about US$280, which seemed like way too much. Part of the problem was the fact that the shuttle cost was built into the room rate, so it was all subject to the 20% (!) state tax applicable to NJ hotel rooms. But at least the package deal kept us out of the hood, so that's a good thing.
After a delay in the arrival of the shuttle vans, we were eventually under way. We had a very authentic Jersey bus driver, who gave us a impromptu tour during the trip, pointing out such gems as the fact that when ones drives over the Verrazano bridge in the summer, it sometimes smells like farts. At the docks, we were greeted by more authentic Jersey types, chain smoking as they unloaded our luggage. I scoured the horizon for Snooki and the Situation, but they were nowhere to be seen.
One would think that Shelley, with copious amounts of free time and constantly being online, would have completed all of our pre-cruise registration well in advance. But she did not. So we had to take care of it at the dock. We were shocked to discover that my name didn't appear on the printed copy of the ship's manifest that they were working from! Shelley's name was there, but I was conspicuously absent. There were a few tense moments and a frantic call to Shauna before I was given the go-ahead to proceed. In the pre-boarding area, we looked into the ship's drink packages, and Shelley got herself a $44/day drink package allowing her to get unlimited water, pop and certain alcoholic beverages. Note to future self: $44/day is a LOT of alcohol.
Soon we were aboard the Celebrity Summit. The Summit has virtually the exact same layout as the Infinity that we sailed on back on the 2010 South America cruise. Even the restaurants and lounges have the same names. So little time was required to orient ourselves with our new surroundings. We had to kill time until 1:00 when the staterooms would be made available to passengers, so we sat on lounge chairs on the pool deck, and played some iPhone Scrabble. Despite knowing the seats were wet, and proactively laying down towels, our butts still became saturated. We were able to get into our stateroom, but our luggage hadn't been delivered yet, so I resorted to using a hairdryer to attempt to dry myself, to humourous effect.
We went for the Concierge Class room again on this cruise, with more space than a standard stateroom, and a little balcony. Our designated lackey for this cruise is Bartolome. He is very helpful and cheerful, but we have no idea what the hell he's saying. He also has a sub-lackey, Franz. Bartolome introduced Franz as a short little guy. Now, Bartolome is maybe 5' 2", so we were wondering just how short Franz would be. Turns out that, yep - Franz is even shorter.
We went to the Rendez-Vous lounge for the Scrabble group orientation and got through a few games of over-the-board Scrabble. There are 2 musical acts on the ship: Up Till 2 - an a cappella quartet, and Rythmix - a dance quartet. Up Till 2 are pretty good, and they interact well with the audience. Rythmix is pretty cheesy - they're from (I think) the Philippines, and play old American standards. Other than their ethnic background, they are the stereotypical lounge act.
In an attempt to ensure she gets her money's worth out of the $44/day drink package, Shelley had started the boozing early, soon after boarding the Summit. By around 6:30, Shelley had gained full appreciation for the amount of alcohol and other sundry drinks that constituted $44. Having not eaten since breakfast nor gotten any sleep the night before probably served to exacerbate her condition. I escorted drunkles back to our stateroom for a nap, and an opportunity to start this blog.
I let Shelley sleep right through our 8:30 dinner seating, knowing that the Oceanview Cafe buffets would be open later. I popped up there just before the last servings stopped at 9:30, and grabbed some pizza, chicken stirfry, and ice cream. I also was overjoyed to find that my favourite nectar of the gods -- pass-o-guava, was available! They renamed it "orange passionfruit guava beverage", but it's still the same thing. While I was out, Shelley woke up, got dressed, and went to the dinner seating, thinking I'd be there. She actually checked the Oceanview cafe first, but didn't find me. Despite arriving an hour late, she didn't miss much, and had a full prime rib dinner. She also paid a visit to the evil casino afterwards, and lost all of her cash on hand. Fortunately, I was carrying most of it...
Looks like we got turndown service twice tonight - double the normal allotment of 2 chocolate squares. Score!