#but i am another year older today. much like Venezuela I guess

[im-still-a-robot]

I'm birthday!!!!!!!!! Here's a 🍰 slice of cake if you want it!

[deladane]

Day 11: Sunday, March 11 ~ Sea Day #3

Day 11: Sunday, March 11 ~ Sea Day #3

Today was a much-needed sea day sandwiched between 2 sets of 4 port days in a row.  Even though we did not set an alarm this morning, we still woke up at 8:15am.  At least we got over 8 hours of sleep!  We took our time getting ready, then went to the Oceanview Buffet for breakfast.  It was nice to add some variety after eating basically the same thing for breakfast for the last 5 days (how ironic considering I eat the exact same thing for breakfast every morning at home! Haha)

We spent 2 hours relaxing on our balcony, watching the waves go by, with me writing in my trip journal while DH read a book. Since our cabin is on the starboard side of the ship, we were facing north for today’s journey west.  We had shade all day on our balcony, which was great! There was nothing else to see but water because there aren’t any islands in this part of the Caribbean Sea, but maybe people on the port side balconies could see Venezuela?

At noon, DH wanted to get some coffee from Café al Bacio, so I joined him for a walk downstairs.  While there, I noticed they were playing archery in the Grand Foyer.  It was really a neat set up- they had an inflatable target area and 4 cone-shaped nozzles blowing air straight up so there was a ball hovering mid-air.  The contestants had to knock the ball down, either by hitting the ball directly with their arrow, or by hitting the cone so the air stream was blocked and the ball would fall.  It was fun to watch, and the players were actually pretty good at it!

Eddy was hosting a game of music trivia name that tune at the pool, so we went upstairs to give it a go.  Today’s theme was “Names” so every song title had a name in it and we had to guess both the song title and the artist.  They played 15 songs for a total of 30 points.  We only got an 18 out of 30, so we didn’t stand a chance because the winner scored a perfect 30!  I did think it was fun that they picked songs from the 50’s through the 90’s to appeal to a wider audience, but that also means we are less likely to win because we don’t know most of the older songs.

It had been several hours since our last feeding, so we went upstairs to get something to eat for lunch from the buffet.  The theme of the day was Mediterranean food, and they had a specialty station with made to order schwarma.  I wasn’t in the mood for that, so I opted for a random assortment of carbs (as usual!).  The dumplings from the Asian station were delicious!

For dessert, I went over to the Slush Bar and ordered the Mint Cookie drink.  This is by far my favorite drink from this bar, but it is very filling so I only let myself have it one time on this cruise.  It’s totally worth it though!

Watching the wake on a lazy sea day

We spent some more time relaxing on the balcony until 2:45pm when we made our way up to the Sky Lounge for another round of music trivia with the CLA staff.  Today’s theme was songs from movies, and we had to guess the title of the movie, not the actual song name.  They had 20 songs for this game, and some of them were much harder than others!  We teamed up with a pair of ladies which did help because we knew the answers to different movies from them, but we still only scored 14 out of 20.  I think the winners scored a 17 or 18, so again, we didn’t win, but that’s okay because we made some new friends and we had fun trying!  

Next, we went down to the World Class Bar for the mixology class.  DH had a great experience with this class on the Equinox, so he wanted to do it again as long as the bartender was teaching about different drinks.  The class was taught by one of the World Class Bar bartenders named Marius, and we ended up having a private lesson because we were the only people that showed up!

The class was very different from 2 years ago because instead of DH going behind the bar to actually make the drinks, Marius just talked about the process of how to make each drink, and why they use certain shakers or strainers or whatever other supplies.  Last time, we learned about 3 categories of cocktails (a Collins, a Swizzle, and a mojito), whereas this time, Marius taught us how to make 4 specific drinks from the World Class Bar menu.  Last time, the class cost $35, but it was only $25 this time (plus a mandatory 18% gratuity).  We learned a few new pointers and it did give us an appreciation for the art behind making cocktails, but we weren’t sure how useful it was since it’s not like we will ever make these specific cocktails at home.  The drinks he taught us were the Kentucky Calling, Celebrity No. Ten, Ketel One Strawberry Fields, and Zacapa Above the Clouds.  For the last one, Marius pulled out the fancy smoker machine, which is always fun to watch.

The class was about an hour long, and then we went back to the cabin to get ready for our second Elegant Chic night.

Random side thought that I am going to talk about now because this was when I took this photo… Sometimes it can be a bit disorienting when you get off the mid-ship elevators on your deck to go back to your cabin.  If you didn’t pay attention when you got on the elevator, then you may not know if you are on the port or starboard side of the ship, and then you don’t know if you need to turn left or right out of the elevator and where you need to go to get back to your cabin.  Today I had an epiphany!  There are different pieces of art hanging on the walls opposite the elevators, and it is different on every deck as well as on the port vs. starboard side.  If you take note of which piece of art is on your side of the ship on your deck, then you will know that you are on the correct side if you see that piece of art when stepping off the elevator (and if you do not see that piece of art, then you are on the opposite side of the ship!). This slice of a tree trunk was the art on deck 10, starboard side:

If we stepped off the elevator on deck 10 and saw this, we knew we were on our side of the ship.  On top of that, if we saw this tree trunk, we knew we had to turn towards the left to walk in the direction of our cabin.  If we got off the elevator and did not see the tree trunk, that meant we were on the port side and needed to turn towards the right and cut through the library to get back to our cabin.  It sounds silly, but it really made a huge difference in feeling like we were “home” and knowing our way around the ship!  Thank you Celebrity for posting so many different pieces of art to make this solution possible!

It became a game for us to seek out spots around the ship that gave a nice background for a photo when we were all dressed up for the evening.  Elegant Chic nights are even harder than casual nights because there are more ship photographers to contend with, but we got creative tonight and took some photos in the library.

When we arrived at the hostess stand for dinner, Cervine greeted us by name and knew our cabin number and preferred table number without us even speaking a word!  I think this is one of the (many) benefits of a 14 night cruise.  We spend such a long time on the ship that the staff really gets a chance to know us, whereas on a 7 night cruise, the cruise is over before you get a chance to form a routine and know the staff.  Dinner was delicious as always, especially since we were seated with our favorite waiters, Pinto and Jose!

Dinner menu

Wild Mushroom Vol-Au-Vent

Traditional Steak Tartare

Classic Chateaubriand

Moroccan Spiced Ahi Tuna Steak

Dessert Menu

Dessert Drinks Menu

Tonight, we decided to try some dessert wines, and we both liked them so much that we asked the sommelier to bring us the bottles so we could take a photo in hopes of buying a bottle to drink at home!

Frosty Ice “Bombe”

Tonight’s show in the main theater was called Amade. There was no real plot to this show, but the best way to describe it is a combination of Lady Gaga and Mozart. The costumes were incredible, and we really enjoyed the dance numbers to modern music.  Personally, the highlight for me is always when the aerialists perform because they are extremely talented, especially considering they perform on a moving cruise ship!

I apologize that these photos are so blurry. We always preferred to sit at the back of the theater so we could make a quick escape as soon as the show ended, but that meant I had to zoom in a lot to take my photos and they always came out blurry.

After a full third sea day, we went to bed early tonight, excited to finally arrive at the ABC islands tomorrow!

Step Tracker Daily Total:  6,003 steps; 2.38 miles; 7 flights of stairs

[joshuazev]

On the day the city sleeps:

It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it sure is a sight to see.  There are indeed times when The Big Apple, the so-called “City that Never Sleeps,” takes a rest and catches some Zs.  It’s surreal.  I asked my roommate about it, who casually noticed it as well, and he told me that it was because the city was in a Game of Thrones coma.  I thought that was funny, but it seemed to give me a bigger shock, I guess.  Could it have been that it was a Monday?  Had the Monday affect really draped a summer cold over the five boroughs?  What could it have been?  Was it the news?  I checked to see if I had missed anything drastic and wasn’t surprised that nothing crazy had happened since I last looked.  “North Korea warns that U.S. will pay.”  Venezuela.  Google.  Putin.  The Bachelorette.  Caribana.  This was just another 21st century day.

I began to observe what felt off.  For one, it was quiet outside.  Someone had taken the remote control on my neighborhood and damn near pressed mute.  Normally there were cars rolling back and forth blasting their music with the bass following the lyrics like a runt and his older brothers.  None to speak of.  No ice cream truck.  It was a little cool for an August summer day in the city.  70 degrees.  And rainy.  There just wasn’t anybody in the street.  The shops had closed early.  It was almost as if the city was on a curfew and everyone rushed to bed to avoid the punishment of an annoyingly wet ground and unbearably moist air.

I figure everyone needs a day off in the year.  I guess I just didn’t know that today was gonna be that day.  I wondered if there were representatives from every neighborhood who gathered together at the beginning of the year to sit at the round table in front of a big crystal ball that showed the 365 day forecast and after narrowing it down to a couple they all agreed that a Monday in early August was a perfect way to decompress.  This place has a way of feeling like a freshly coiled spring that’s just waiting to jump out of the box every day.  It’s nice to know that the city isn’t alone in feeling like somedays we’d rather not put the spring back in the proverbial box and that we’d like to just leave it alone once every blue moon.

How else could I describe it?  There have been a couple of times where I’ve arrived at a New York airport too late at night and resorted to taking a taxi home.  (This was when I was much younger and didn’t know that any taxi that drives you anywhere at that time of night will play you no matter how nice and understanding they pretend to be).  When you come in from Newark you don’t touch down in the city for about 15 minutes after getting through the tunnel and despite the midtown lights at 2 or 3 in the morning, there is little life to speak of.  Sometimes I wonder if it was different in the 90’s when Midtown and Hell’s Kitchen and such were a little more infamous for nightly extracurriculars.  That presence seems to have all but vanished from that section of town.  

You know what you do hear, actually?  The periodic garbage trucks.  I guess in someways they make up for the lack of sounds during this time because a garbage truck only has one noise: high, loud, and way too drawn out.  

I’ve begun to understand that being in a tired environment like today has a very curious affect on everyone, me included.  Then, oddly enough, I saw part of a Maya Angelou quote that read, “I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas lights.”  I thought to myself, “Damn Maya!  Why you gotta get on me for acting a little mellow?  Can’t I get a mulligan?”

As I look outside my window I can see that literally every single room in the apartments within a couple blocks are turned off.  12:16 AM, the clock reads.  

August 7, 2017.  The day the city went dark.