cgolf1

After supper Uptown put on another excellent performance. We swam a bit and then we went to Eden to play cards and Johnny was playing again, so we were excited about that. He didn't disappoint and my notes say he was awesome again:)

Supper I had the creamy smoked tomato bisque, this was insanely good with the smoky aroma, and the slow roasted leg of lamb, also excellent, and the broiled lobster tail. The lobster tail was as predicted but good as a second to the lamb. My wife had the double baked blue cheese soufflé, really liked it, and the grilled chicken breast. Unfortunately this was very dry and overcooked, but 1 not so great dish is ok.

Day 10 At Sea Today was a big day as we did our rescheduled behind the scenes tour. First we did the beyond the podium on americats that was really good. A little before noon, the captain came over the loudspeakers to announce that Covid was around the ship and KN95 masks were available at guest relations. This didn't surprise us at all. At times we did where a mask, depending on the situation and the proximity of people that were coughing. The behind the scenes tour was amazing, especially the engineering section. They didn't show us the bridge wing, or the ER, expected with the Covid numbers. I would highly recommend this and the food storage and the crew spaces were really interesting.

Supper I did the Steak Tartare and traditional Moroccan Spiced Ahi Tuna Steak and my wife had the Hot melted cheese Saganaki and the roasted chicken breast. Definitely a good meal tonight. After the dinner we went to the show. The main act was replaced due to a family emergency by someone that mimics singers voices. She started out singing a song and it was amazing and then for us it went sideways and she started talking during the song, and then jumping around to different voices. If she would have done 1 song in one voice and then the next in another we would have stuck around. Perhaps she did that eventually, but it was such an odd start that we along with a few others didn't stay. We ended up swimming in the outdoor pool which was really warm and playing cards in Eden. It is so awesome to be able to use Eden this trip.

Now there have been more and more people that have been coughing and as best we can we try to avoid sitting near these people knowing that we soon had to go back to work soon. Well my wife went to sit in the solarium and someone had a really nasty cough and the person sitting next to them commented about their cough to them. The person said that their spouse had tested positive, and they tested negative at the same time. They followed up if they had tested again and they said no because they only brought two tests and that their significant other was up sitting out on an open deck. The person told them they should get tested and everyone in the area that overheard this vacated the area very quickly. Overall I wasn't surprised and it is too bad that this happened. hopefully the husband and wife are doing fine now and hopefully nobody got sick from it. This will tie into tomorrows post though. I don't know what the right answer is to this but you don't want to see a lot of people get sick on a cruise.

Day 9 Colombia This was a surprise port for us. While we never left the port area, the wildlife display they have is worth getting off the ship for. The parrots especially are really cool The do a little show and when it finished the walk back a group of flamingos to the area they stay. Well they almost ran me over. The picture was a little late because my wife had to prod me to take the picture. I was too shocked initially to get a picture. The gift shop also had good prices as well on some stuff. I got a nice hat for under 10 bucks.

I do want to add that we saw Ralph Harris again for a 10:30 show on Bonaire day. It was an awesome show and he was hilarious. Highly recommend his shows.

Supper I did the New England style clam chowder and traditional Coq Au Vin and my wife had the Hot melted cheese Saganaki and the Homade Kordella Pasta. This was one main that my wife didn't finish. The pasta flavor was very one note, likely needing something to balance it out. The one not was good, but she only ate about half. Tommy Green Jr was in the theatre tonight and we decided to take a pass on his second show. We did go to the Celebrity Rox in the club done by the theatre cast. Overall this was good, some of the issues we noticed in the shows did show up here on some songs. For a show like this it is a bummer they didn't change up the songs to suit the singers voices, but yes I am being a bit picky again.

Day 8 Panama Canal Well it finally arrived. We were to enter the breakwater around 6, so we were up by like 5:15 and up at our spot on the front most seat on the port side of the sunset bar by 5:45 AM where one of us stayed at all times until 4 in the afternoon. I used the seat thing to stand on to get pictures down the side of the ship. It was an amazing experience and now we want to do a full transit on a smaller ship to see the original locks. We did have a medical emergency evac at the middle lock, but this person was in a wheelchair, so I hope it was for a more minor issue and that they are doing fine now. I will have 2-3 posts of pictures to follow. One thing we thought was pretty cool was that the workers all took some time out to catch the view as we were going through the locks, and even better their superiors didn't seem to mind. Nice to see the crew get to enjoy the experience as well.

Day 7 At Sea Today we attended anothe beyond the podium about slow motion sloths and it was very interesting. Then we attended the Secrets of ships navigation and Panama information. The attendance for this was insane. All the sears were taken and people were sitting in the aisles and standing where they could. This was one point we couldn't avoid people coughing, so we just hoped for the best. It was an interesting presentation that was a little lighter than I expected on the Panama canal. The Q&A was interesting and someone asked about the lack of forward facing views. Brief rant here. For the people that sail retreat this is not aimed at you. The biggest fail on the E-Class is that it doesn't have a forward view that is available to everyone. The E-Class is the only mainstream line of ships I know of that doesn't offer everyone on the ship a forward lookout spot. For Supper I had the smoked ham and split pea soup and the crispy chicken roulade. My wife had the Hot melted cheese Saganaki and the crispy chicken roulade. Supper again was very tasty. Tonight's show was a Hot Summer Night's dream which was a favorite from our first Edge cruise and it was again very good. Went to play cards in Eden expecting more Johnny singing, and nope they change it up every night and to my knowledge he doesn't play solo anywhere else. We had our fingers crossed we get to hear him again. We wrote him into the end of cruise survey as he should be one of the regular daily singers around the ship and my wife was bold in saying they should give him a shot in the main theater. This guy was just that good across many genres of music.

So last night the Edge woke up musically for me listening to Johnny sing, and Uptown bought it tonight and it felt like we were back on our first Edge cruise. Great singing and performance. The deck party was supposed to happen that night and I also wanted to try out the monopod with my DSLR camera to get used to it for the canal day so I got some night shots. They moved the deck party to the club and we were going to go see what it was about, but hearing the crowd from 3 floors up we decided to not go.

For supper I did the Oven roasted Chicken Saltimbocca and Escargot. Both were excellent and the escargot does double duty because I dip my gluten free bread in what I hope is butter, but whatever it is tastes awesome. My wife did the Hot melted cheese Saganaki and the Oven roasted Chicken Saltimbocca. You are probably noticing the pattern that we are finding that we like all the food, as we always have on Celebrity:) Sorry about the blurry picture, this one just didn't want to take.

Day 6 Curacao The excursion for the day was the Seaworld Explorer. This is a boat that has the underside protruding out of the bottom of the boat with windows out both sides. The bench seats were pulled down and you could sit side by side. You left from a resort and went over a coral reef. The water was really rough which I thought was a blast, but one person did get sick. The water was super clear and there were a lot of fish including a squid and some octopus. The guide also scuba dived to feed the fish at one point. Seeing the drop off from the shallows to very deep water was really cool and kind of takes your breath away. When you are on the ship you never really think about the depth of the water that you read on what was our favorite and only channel we watched, the navigation channel.

The show was colors of life and the show and songs were really good, but for me the singing wasn't clicking. Still really enjoyed the show though. We had started to play cards at night in eden on the ramp towards the back of the ship. It was a nice and quite spot and we would be away from people, because the number of people coughing that cough was increasing. The bonus was we finally found an amazing vocalist, Johnny doing the Acoustic experience. This guy was incredible and it was a nice way to end the night.

For supper I had the spiced Gumbo and the gluten free version of the Hot melted cheese Saganaki and the salted Tiliapia filet. My wife also had the Gumbo and the oven roasted turkey. All food was excellent especially the oven roasted turkey. At this point we had moved all of our reservations to Cyprus to keep the same serving team and to make the gluten free preorder much easier. The hostess Gypso, was fantastic helping us out and just a very nice person. Our service team and sommelier are pictured below on the table card. All were tremendous. Terry always saw us in the buffet and said hi. This was the first time I did wine pairings at night and all the wines selected for me were very good. We ended up tipping Gypso at the end as well and she seemed very surprised, I am guessing that position must not get tipped often. We definitely called out all 4 in the end of cruise survey, as the service was top notch.

On this island we did the 4x4 Arawak Off Road Safari excursion. This was a blast and our guide was awesome. we mostly saw the end of the island opposite the salt flat. The ride was a lot of fun and you do catch air in the seats when we were light off roading. I would not recommend this for people with mobility issues, as you essentially need to climb up and down a ladder like tailgate in to the Uni Mog. The sites were nice and the guide we had was great and made it fun and informative.

Day 5 Bonaire

We travel insides The prices per person per night for the 2025 10 night beyond cruise with no perks we booked and have since canceled, based on the final number with taxes applied was 127 and change. The prices per person per night for the 2025 10 night eclipse cruise with no perks we booked in place of the beyond cruise, based on the final number with taxes applied was 120 and change. This cruise includes a 550 OBC. Those numbers are lower or similar to what we have paid in the past. The difference was in the past we did the math prior to taxes and stuff, so Celebrity is probably cheaper now than what we paid in say 2011. If Celebrity was cheaper than this we really missed out on some deals.

Having just got off the edge, we really only had minor comments/observations about the food changes. Otherwise it was a great cruise. Staff was awesome, never had to wait more than 2 minutes for a drink order to be taken which was impressive with all the slushy drinks going out. Things were way better than I was lead to believe from reading here and on another social media site!

The evening entertainment was Reuel, who is a classical crossover musician and composer that plays the piano. We sat second level behind him and was really cool to watch him play. Seeing how fast his hands move to play give you a greater appreciation for his playing. He mixed in both classical and a bon jovi and some Queen songs. It was a very good performance. We did also watch the Frisky Fued and it was entertaining. That was pretty much it for the day. We have started to venture back to Eden some and that icky smell that used to be there is gone and the wife can now enjoy the space.