GenerationX

You know if I could just stop having these extravagant avocado toast breakfasts (with Cuban mimosas featuring a passion fruit liqueur), I could probably afford to sail Silversea. lol We are all dressed and on our way to port!

Here we are! After 6 months of waiting it’s finally Seascape embarkation day! Last night my very well dressed dinner dates and I tried a restaurant I hadn’t been to before for dinner called The Rusty Pelican. A few cruises back I met a really nice Miami-based AA flight attendant on my trip and she mentioned how much she enjoys brunches there and suggested checking it out. The restaurant is in a marina on Key Biscayne so it’s a short but a little more pricey (thanks to the toll charges the drivers incur) drive from Brickell. The views of the ocean and Miami alone are totally worth it though. From certain areas of the restaurant there’s also a great view of the Miami cruise port. I kind of wished we’d reserved our dinner a little earlier so we could’ve sat on the patio and watched the cruise ships sail off while we ate. You’re also definitely paying a location tax on the menu prices, but they do give you your money’s worth on the portions. Gen Z had a kids salmon plate (which I missed getting pic of as she dove into devouring it before the server had even set it on the table good) and I had lobster and shrimp risotto with a “side” broccoli and broccolini plate. Sometimes with seafood risottos they skimp you on the actual seafood meat, but this one came with a whole lobster tail and several very juicy and flavorful jumbo shrimp. For dessert, Gen Z had cookies and cream ice cream and I had the chef’s special dessert of the night: an absurdly rich and decadent bread pudding which turned out to be the size of Gen Z’s head, topped with caramel ice cream and smothered in a warm brandy caramel sauce. By about bite #7 I knew I’d be having no trouble sleeping. Service was great when we started our meal a little before 7, but as the restaurant filled for the main dinner rush our server was clearly overextended and just getting our from placing our dessert order to getting the check took over an hour. Next time I’ll definitely plan for early dinner there. I just checked the port of Miami schedule and it looks like Seascape is at Terminal C today. There are only 2 other ships scheduled but both are on the bigger side (Carnival Celebration and NCL Escape) so I can see potential for the port to be busy. In a little bit we’ll pull ourselves out of these comfy beds (hey it’s Sunday and we’re on vacation) dress and head to the hotel restaurant for some breakfast, then we’ll get all packed up and get ready to head to port.

Jeremy’s response when I floated this idea on our goodnight call last night…”YOU and YOUR mother trying to go and do ANYTHING with low expectations??? Yeah good luck with that, Norwegian. Count me out for that cruise!” 🤣

We made it to Miami after a smooth, on time flight! For some reason, every single cruise transfer rep for the Disney Magic in baggage claim approached Gen Z and I and asked if we were going with them…can’t imagine why they would think we’re sailing Disney. 🤔😂 Anyway, we just checked into our hotel, the Hyatt Centric Miami Brickell. This is my go to hotel for pre-cruise when sailing out of Miami. It’s not really budget but way cheaper than south beach and still in a cool neighborhood. Rooms are clean, beds good, great rooftop pool and the restaurant onsite makes surprisingly good Cuban food and cocktails. Pro tip on booking Hyatt properties in Miami: be sure to recheck prices regularly. I reserved our room a few weeks before final payment on our cruise was due and when I checked just after final payment, the rate had dropped $75. Then I checked again on Wednesday (a day before the free cancellation deadline for my rate) and it had dropped another $60. I promptly canceled and rebooked again at the lower rate. We’ll be spending a night here post cruise as well. I got a little nervous after that whole fiasco in the port a few weeks ago and I’ve heard MSC can have occasional disembarkation delays anyway. Since I had a Hyatt award night to burn and Gen Z doesn’t have to rush back for school, I decided to book us a night post cruise so we don’t have to end vacation stressing about making a flight. I also saved over $400 on airfare booking a Monday late morning return flight rather than a Sunday afternoon one. I paid $50 when booking for guaranteed 11am early check in and had no trouble getting in our room at 10am. I’m going to check in with Jeremy and send a couple of emails then we’re going to head up to the pool for a couple of hours before hitting the restaurant for lunch. I’m really hoping my child will agree to nap time before our dinner reservation tonight, but she’s already asking about what sightseeing we can do this afternoon. I’m going to try and really wear her out in the pool then stuff her with empanadas at lunch…that ought to drum up some doziness!

Aloha! Funny you should ask. My mother is terrified of being on open water but has said she’d be willing to put her fear aside and try a cruise if we were to go to Alaska or Hawaii. What are your thoughts on doing Hawaii via cruise? I’ve always thought of it as more of a land trip, but if it gets my mom out to sea that’s a big plus in my book. Any thoughts on which cruise lines do it well? The reviews I’ve read about NCL’s Hawaii cruises have not been the best.

We are at the STL airport bright and early and our flight is boarding on time! While waiting in the gate area, I noticed that my travel journaling has started to rub off on the next generation. Hopefully all stays going smoothly and 3 hours from now we’ll be in Miami!

Thank you! I will be stealing this motto for the agonizing stretch from July till my next cruise in October! I’m hoping that many people have late summer and early fall cruises planned that they’ll be reporting on…preferably with gratuitous food and cocktail pics.

Sigh…you would think that after I’ve lost track of how many cruises, I might have become more concise in my packing. And yet, here we are with 5 suitcases of clothes, handbags and shoes for 1.5 ladies. Apparently all I’ve actually learned is that packing is a lot easier and faster when I travel solo and tonight I briefly considered cutting my husband and child out of my future cruising plans entirely for the sake of both cost and time efficiency. I blame this third glass of packing Chianti for my selfish thoughts. Cheers to being all ready for our early morning flight to Miami!

Hi Everyone! I just wanted to introduce myself and share that I’ll be doing a live review of my upcoming cruise on Seascape in case anyone is interested in following along. A bit about me and my travel companion: I’m Charla, 40 years old and from the US midwest (St. Louis, MO area). My cruising addiction is funded via my day job as an advertising and entertainment law attorney. I enjoy writing as a hobby (sadly contract drafting doesn’t leave much room for self-expression) and I’ve kept a travel journal since I was a kid so that I can read back and remember my vacation experiences in detail decades later. (You should see some of the stuff I wrote on my England and Ireland trip when I was 17, boy did I think I was grown and knew it all back then. 🤦🏾‍♀️) When I discovered cruise critic years back while planning a cruise, I got so much good information from the live reviews others were doing and reading along virtually was a huge help to pass the time till it was my time to sail. So since I knew I’d be writing and taking pics anyway, I decided to pay it forward and also start live reviewing my trips. Celebrity has been my go to cruise line (enough to have hit elite plus status), and while I’ve sailed in almost every category, I tend to sail their aqua and suite classes most. This will be only my second MSC cruise, booked (sitting in the yacht club lounge with a warm scone and espresso martini in hand) while onboard a quick but excellent 4 night solo sailing on Divina earlier this year. I typically either sail solo, with my husband Jeremy or with our 10 year old daughter who I’ll refer to as Gen Z or Mini Me. Jeremy (who coincidentally isn’t the one who has to make our annual cruising budget) is struggling to consider breaking his firm allegiance to Celebrity. Gen Z on the other hand, was onboard to try something new from the moment I said “Lego kids club” and sent her a video from Ocean Cay of a sea turtle swimming in the channel. Plus, I’m not ashamed to admit that I did engage in some minor bribery via some well chosen selections from the Divina gift shop upon my return. This little lady loves animals, art, and music theatre and is currently going through a growth spurt feeding frenzy that may put the chefs onboard Seascape through their paces. Gen Z is neurodiverse and can quickly become overstimulated, so we’ve avoided the massive ships with whole theme parks, character parades and lots of loud music/announcements. I’m thinking that perhaps Seascape in yacht club will give us a good balance of a ship with more kid activities (not that Gen Z has ever been bored or unhappy on Celebrity) but also still having our accommodations in a less crowded, more elevated and peaceful service area that we can retreat (sorry Celebrity) to when we need a break. I’m going into this cruise with an open mind to new things but also with somewhat tempered expectations. On Divina, I had a particularly amazing butler and, according to what MSC regulars that I met onboard told me, I happened to be on one of the last sailings with one of the best yacht club managers and best yacht club concierges before they went home to rest before new contracts. I was also warned repeatedly that Divina is generally one of the best yacht clubs in the fleet in terms of service and that the newer ships aren’t as good because the yacht club is bigger and service isn’t as personalized as a result. I guess the next week will tell how things shake out in comparison! If anyone has any questions or tips for us while we’re onboard, please feel free to jump in and ask/share. Looking forward to taking you along!

Hi CC! Long time no see! I think I may be about to medal in tardy completion of a cruise review. I am so so sorry I’m just now coming back to finish this one up. It turns out, when you put all of non-urgent work and life on hold while you go on a 3 month cruising binge, when said binge ends the real world hits long and hard and with vengeance. Fortunately, I’ve now gotten myself caught up on things just in time to start prepping for another, long awaited cruise…but more about that in a minute. First, for anyone still around and interested, I know I still owe a hefty bill in the form of the tale of how Cozumel got the better of me. So here we go: The Salsa y Sala excursion was sold as a “small group” tour which I’ve found can be a somewhat relative term with Celebrity. This time I felt like it delivered on the promise as we were a group of about 7 couples plus me as a solo. The description indicated we would start the excursion with a trip to a local market to buy ingredients for our cooking class later. This was slight false advertising as when we got to the market we all just stood and watched while our guide bought like 2 avocados and a tomato from the first vendor stall (nowhere near enough supplies for all our participants). But after he finished paying for the small bag of produce he took us on a full walking tour of the market and shared some info on how different meat and vegetables are grown and sourced in Mexico. It was clear that this was a real, local, working market and not a tourist spot. In spite of the oversell of the “shopping for ingredients”, it was very cool to get a glimpse of day to day local life in Cozumel in a location I probably wouldn’t have felt comfortable just wandering around exploring solo. After the market tour we got back on the bus and had a short drive to Playa Mia park for our cooking and dance class. The class was held outside under a pavilion with fans. It wasn’t a super hot day so I was fine but I could see the excursion being uncomfortable in heat of later summer. The chef talked us through how to make authentic salsa, guacamole and pico de gallo with our own set of ingredients (pre set out so again clearly not from our “shopping trip”) and utensils at each of our places. While we cooked, servers came around liberally to bring cold bottled water, beer, margaritas, mojitos and tequila shots…good tequila shots…smooth tequila shots…too darn smooth tequila shots. With a smaller group, the chef really had time to go around and observe everyones techniques and answer questions. As we finished making our dips, we were each delivered a small tray of more Mexican snacks to enjoy with our chips and dips as well as, you guessed it, even more delicious margaritas and tequila shots. Right about the time I started feeling like I could dance a lead in Chicago (the kind of false confidence only tequila can deliver) it was time to start the salsa and merengue dance class. Wouldn’t you know it, the young, attractive private chef who led our cooking class was also our dance instructor and since I was solo, I was designated to be his partner/assistant in demonstrating the steps…my life is so hard sometimes. After about 20 minutes of dance (which was about as much as we could all take outdoors on stomachs full of Mexican food and cocktails) the class wrapped up and we we had about an hour and a half of free time to enjoy all the other amenities of playa mia at no additional charge. There were pools and a kids water park as well as a complimentary buffet lunch restaurant and loungers with umbrellas on the beach. Towels weren’t provided so I was glad I brought one from the ship. I decided to get in some ocean time so I found a lounger under shade of a palm tree and took a sip in the sea. When I got back to my chair to relax an in seat drink server arrived and I ordered just a bottle of water to try and dry up a bit. By then it was a hot day and these guys were trudging around with very heavy looking full trays of free drinks, so I tipped him well when he came back quickly with my water. In fact, I think I tipped a little too well because about 10 minutes later he was back at my side holding a big margarita and saying “I thought you might need some Mexican water too, senorita!” Not wanting to be rude, I quickly drank the margarita before it had time to melt and get watery…and did the same with the 2 additional unordered margaritas that appeared when my cup would get down under half full. I think my total margarita consumption for the day was somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-10, but I don’t go on vacation to do math. By the time we had to back up and head back to our bus to the pier, I was contemplating crawling through the sand rather than walking. When I got back to to my suite and got on wifi I vaguely remember FaceTiming Jeremy just to say hello and tell him all about my wonderful day. He says it was one of the more amusing calls he’s gotten from me because “you were giggling and speaking Spanish half the time and trying to show me your salsa moves even though the camera only shows you from the chest up”. Sharing some pics from all the Mexico fun as well as a few with the crew who took such good care of me all week below. Ok, so yes, about future cruise plans! First, in just 48 hours my Mini Me and I will be flying to Miami to board MSC Seascape for a 7 night sailing in their yacht club club! I’ll be starting a live review on the MSC board most likely tomorrow if anyone is interested in coming along on a different cruise line. I’m actually a little nervous about writing on a new board with lots of strangers. This will also be only my second MSC cruise, and first with a child in tow, so I won’t be able to share anywhere near as many pro tips as I can when I’m on Celebrity. After we return, I’ll be staying on land until Fall to prep for a big bucket list cruise…In mid October, Jeremy and I will take our first trip to Italy to do a 10-night sailing on Beyond to Italy, Greece, Montenegro and Croatia! We’re also considering spending Christmas or New Years this year at sea, but it will likely be a last minute booking depending on just how much money we end up spending in the homeland of Versace, Gucci and Super Tuscans. Thanks as always to everyone who read along on my last solo cruise of the year and for anyone who won’t be coming along on Seascape, talk to you guys in October when it’s time to reunite with Beyond across the pond!

Sigh, all I regretfully write to you this morning from a much less pleasant place than where I last left you… Yes, my 3 month marathon of bi-weekly cruising has officially come to an end.😭 I can’t believe I actually have to wait months, MONTHS before I sail again (I know, your sympathy for me is minimal). This morning as I was sulking on my veranda I saw the walkoff disembarks start at around 7:15. I was in no rush to catch my flight so after saying final goodbyes and thank you’s to my butler and stateroom attendant and giving them their envelopes, I went to one last breakfast in Luminae then headed down to the gangway. I didn’t think a Retreat concierge escort would be necessary leaving later in the morning and I was right. There was almost no line to get off at 8:45. I didn’t get an offer of luggage valet service, even though I have a later flight, and no one else I spoke to last night did either, so I don’t think it was available yet. It would’ve been nice since according to my husband I allegedly travel with my entire summer wardrobe in tow. Instead when I got to the terminal, I found a porter to assist with my cargo and was through facial recognition customs in less than 5 minutes. There were 4 ships in port this morning including Odyssey of the Seas so I wasn’t surprised to see Uber on surge pricing. When I checked my bags for the flight, the AA agent checked to see if there were any earlier flights to STL I could jump on since I made it to the airport so early. There was also an 11am flight through LGA that I could have booked, but I try to avoid booking flights that leave before noon on disembarkation day. Especially if I’m going over to MIA from port Everglades. You never know what disembarkation and traffic will be like. A few weeks ago my social media blew up about a disembarkation for MSC in Miami that was delayed almost 3 hours with no passengers even allowed off the ship till almost 11am. Unfortunately today the ticket agent said that everything going to or through STL is completely sold out. He said domestic departures have been particularly busy the past few days thanks to to rebooks from the 4 day FLL closure. Oh well, at least I’ll have a nonstop and I’ve got the bartenders at the D30 Admirals club (who at this point recognize me, remembered my name, and asked where I cruised to THIS time, yikes 😬) to keep me company till my flight boards at 2pm. In the meantime, let’s also take a step back and talk about my second dinner in Eden last night, which was every bit as good as the first. For my starters I had the crab cake and risotto. That crab cake is my kinda crab cake. 100% blue crab meat with just a little layer of crispy panko on top for crunch, with a slightly spicy chipotle Mayo and pickled peppers and onions on the side. The risotto was also just as good as I remembered from Red and I’s November cruise. Cheese and mushroom lovers, this is your dish. This time for the main I had the lobster casserole. For my southerners and midwesterners following “casserole” is a total misnomer for this dish. You’re actually getting a whole, fresh Canadian lobster (I’ve been told they’re brought on the ship live) served over a delicious sweet corn sauce with little chunks of thick pancetta and like 4 baby potatoes in it. Far better than any casserole I’ve ever made! The couple at the table next to me saw mine come to the table next to me saw it come to the table and commented how they should’ve waited for Eden to have lobster because they’d ordered it in the main dining room the night before and what they got was “a piece of lobster slightly bigger than my husband’s thumb”. For dessert I also switched it up and had a deceptively rich lemon tart and Adrian the sommelier poured me a complimentary glass of 20 year tawny port to drink with it as I watched Beyond leave my week of Caribbean fun behind. I’m going to head to the bar for a back to reality Bloody Mary, then will work on my catch up posts on my Cozumel excursion and specialty lunches onboard and a final thoughts post. If there’s anything else I’m forgetting or questions folks have about things I haven’t mentioned, please feel free to jump in!

Quick suggestion for a best life ending to your cruise day when sailing Retreat on E class: If you dine in Eden, after you order your dessert course they give you a little tower of sweet canapés and chocolates that, if you’re like me, is just too much to really appreciate right then after a full meal with your actual dessert coming too. Instead of letting it go to waste, ask your server to wrap the sweet canapés tower to go. Then you can enjoy them a little later on in a nice bubble bath (my go to is a French lavender foam) with a good book and a glass of wine before bed. Not only will you feel like Marie Antoinette (pre-Revolution of course) during said bath, but you’ll also sleep like a baby after.

Awe thank you! I mean I would cheerfully empty our savings account and blow 5 figures on an inside stateroom just to see that particular performance of Defying Gravity. 😂

Ugh…the bags are packed and put out. The tip envelopes are made. While I sit here salty drinking a passion fruit martini, sharing some info from my room on general and retreat disembarkation. You may need to zoom in on the pics to read it properly but wanted to make sure I got the whole thing in one shot. Interesting that they don’t have the suites/zenith luggage tags and are just doing suites in the first set of tag numbers. I guess it doesn’t really matter much. Also sharing some info from the theatre last night about the principal cast of Celebrity’s entertainment team. It’s no wonder the shows have been so good. These folks have some impressive resumes. At least to a woman whose greatest personal theatrical achievement was being cast as a tree in my ballet school’s production of Swan Lake. After dinner I think I’ll make one last attempt to force the casino to pay off (yes, I’m familiar with the definition of insanity, thank you, now isn’t the time to try me, trust me) then perhaps see the last Eden show and take one last in suite bubble bath before bed. More to come later from my last night on Beyond!

Well there’s good news and there’s bad news… The good news is after a good lunch and a much needed second nap I am back in cruise fighting shape. The bad news is, after lunch I could tell that the last thing my body was going to tolerate yet was the taste and smell of more alcohol, so I skipped the premium wine tasting event. I also regret to report that Captain D seems quite adamant about continuing to make knotts back towards port Everglades and kicking me off the ship tomorrow. I’m recovered enough to have one more seaside margarita, my last for quite a few months, before I head down to make tipping envelopes and pack. When Herbert brought me my drink he mentioned that tomorrow’s cruise is expected to be a sell out full capacity. He and several other crew members who we’re supposed to head home at the end of this cruise have been asked to stay one more week to help with the workload. Which reminds me, an interesting note on the crew to share: Most crew members I’ve talked to are scheduled to either go home in the next few cruises or end their contracts sometime in June/July. Counting back the months that makes sense as the hundreds of brand new crew members who joined the ship with my early November sailing would have their 9 month contracts wrapping up sometime in July. To me this suggests if you’re planning to sail Beyond in late summer/early fall, you may want to pack patience and somewhat adjusted expectations for service levels, as many of the crew may be new to the ship, replacing this well seasoned crew that is heading home. While I’m enjoying my last few hours of paradise (yay!) and checking in for my flight home (boo hiss!) sharing about the rest of my night last night. So before I started behaving like I’m half my age, I started the evening with a pre-dinner rye old fashioned at world class bar, then headed to the theatre for the last production show, Stage Door. This one is a performance of numbers from popular Broadway musicals both new and classic, and I kind of went into it hesitantly. But it turned out to be so much better than just another corny Broadway revue. Celebrity definitely took it above and beyond (ha!) To start, the musical accompaniment for the show was done by the London Palladium orchestra. The music track was recorded live especially for this Celebrity show and the video of the orchestra playing for the score recording plays behind the singers and dancers on the big screen at many points (if you look close in the video, on some of the musicians music stands, you can actually see the cover of the music sheet that says Celebrity Cruises on it, kinda cool). But wait, there’s more. In between numbers, there are interview videos that play of members of the Broadway cast for the shows the next song comes from talking about why they feel the show and their character is special. The music theatre nerd in me had tears in my eyes. I don’t want to spoil one of the best parts of the show for anyone but I’ll also just drop the hint that the show includes one of the coolest duet performances I’ve ever seen. After seeing all the performances, I’m thinking that another place where Beyond beats out S and M class (and even to some extent her older E class sisters) for me is the production shows. I am DYING to see how they plan to top these acts on Ascent. I mean are they going to like resurrect Siegfried and Roy (rest their souls) and fly in Idina Menzel to sing while a white tiger does an aerial act? Then again, to afford something like that they’d have to start charging non-Retreat guests to use the aft elevators or something. (Let me hush, I don’t want to give them any ideas.) After the great show I headed to Luminae for dinner. If you’ll be in Luminae on Beyond and are lucky enough to have Adash as your server, his ordering recommendations are on point. I was thinking of a different order, but then I remembered what my stepdad always taught me: “A big part of being an intelligent person is being smart enough to know when someone else probably knows better than you.” Adash KNOWS the Luminae menu and takes the time to get to know your personal dietary needs and preferences. I trusted the man and he did not steer me wrong. I had an excellent Tuscan kale and sausage soup followed by a surf and turf of those (tiny but delicious) Celebrity micro scallops and the herb crusted lamb chops. I’m normally a more rare lamb person but Adash suggested these have more flavor at chefs suggested medium and I had no complaints. The only thing underwhelming on the plate was the olive oil mashed potatoes which were underseasoned and a little dry. But I’ve had more than enough yummy carbs in my life this week so skipping one scoop of potatoes didn’t bother me too much. For dessert I had the good but very rich chocolate bars which were served with an even richer peanut butter gelato. Needless to say I plan to be generous in Adash’s thank you envelope. Well, looks like it’s about time for me to go down and accept the reality of my impending departure. At least I’ll have Elaine’s afternoon delivery to cheer me up while I pack. Then it’ll be time to get ready for one last decadent dinner in Eden!

Yikes! I insisted that the bartender “extinguish” my shot before I took it because I don’t have super quick reflexes and I rather like having eyebrows. 😂 For that tower drink the couple who ordered it did drink it while it was still flaming with long straws the bartender gave them. I was so scared the man’s hat was going to catch fire! I was also surprised that a flame like that was allowed. But the bartenders had several of those cooking torches behind the bar like it was something that happens on the regular and is stocked for, and there were at least 2 ship security guards in the club at the time who didn’t seem at all concerned. Maybe they’re hiding a bunch of fire extinguishers behind the bar or something.

Yes that is a very good point. The prices for everything at the turtle center were in US dollars, but it can definitely vary around the island. I know some of the bars and restaurants around 7 mile beach do prices in Cayman dollars so if the menu or price tag doesn’t specify it’s definitely a good idea to ask and confirm.

It’s funny, it was just yesterday morning that I was thinking back on this cruise and congratulating myself for my considerable late night partying restraint. I spoke entirely too soon. Ship time jumping forward an hour this morning has also helped matters precisely not at all. Fortunately my Retreat team has really set me up for recovery success. When I finally crawled out of my room after 9am this morning both Elaine and Randall my stateroom attendant like popped out of a wall or something immediately to wish me good morning and ask if there was anything I needed. I asked Elaine to try and switch my lunch reservation today from Le grand bistro to Raw on 5 (because miso soup and kakiage sounds like a better recovery meal than French cuisine) and Randal got to work on cleaning my room right away so that I can come back and lay down in a freshly made bed before said lunch if I need to. (I will probably need to.) In the meantime I’m rehydrating and taking in fresh air on the retreat deck with Ashok and Christine keeping me in nonstop ice cold bottled waters. In case you were wondering how I came to this sorry state, if you ask me the blame lies entirely with the Jazz Club speakeasy show, cruise director Luigi’s Latin dance party and the late night DJ and bartenders in the Club. Full report on the earlier part of my late night to come, but sharing some pics from the hours between 11pm and 3am when the most damage was done. They must have amped up the fire suppression systems on Beyond because this is the first time I’ve seen fire bartending at sea. We called these the bravo bravo bravo shots. Today’s Beyond pro-tip: don’t miss that Jazz show in The Club and get there early to get a seat near the front. It’s a very cool immersive show/party hybrid experience and the Eden cast really puts on a performance. In my case it was especially immersive as I was delivered a rose by a simply gorgeous pair of acrobats who dropped from the ceiling on bunge cords. More to come once my Tylenol kicks in.

Hello from happy hour on my veranda as we sail away from Grand Cayman! I mentioned to Elaine this morning that I’d be starting to enjoy my wine brought onboard from home to night and she brought me a proper Reidel glass for it as well as a nice snack. I had such a lovely day today in Grand Cayman! My excursion was the Turtle Conservation Center tour booked through Celebrity. After our tour tendered together to port, it was a bit of chaos in the port area figuring out which excursions were assembling where. They didn’t have the tall signs with the excursion names that Celebrity usually has to tell you where to go. I saw people stand in long lines to get wrist bands for one tour only to find out the person was doing wrist bands for a completely different one. I managed to spot someone with a polo on that had the conservation center logo on it and figured that was my best bet on where to head and I was right. After about 10 minutes waiting we were loaded onto a van for about a 15 minute drive. There is sooo much development going on on Grand Cayman these days. Other than the shuttered margaritaville resort building, you wouldn’t know there was a travel recession at all. Everywhere you look there’s hotels and condos being built. At the sanctuary we were introduced to our guide Benny who showed us around the various turtle tanks and told us about the center’s work with breeding and releasing Green Sea Turtles into the ocean. He said that since the center’s opening they’ve released over 35,000 turtles into the ocean and turtles hatched at the conservation center have been tracked to as far away as Venezuela. He also conveyed the ho so important message of the effect that plastic waste is having on the wild turtle population, as these turtles will often eat the plastic trash that ends up in the sea thinking it’s a jelly fish and get fatally ill as a result. The center seems to take the plastic message very seriously as no plastic products are used anywhere in the gift shop or restaurant. The conservation center also has a pool, playground, water slide, snorkeling area with fish and turtles, aviary and a sit-down bar and restaurant. After our tour ended, we had about 2.5 hours to use any of those facilities free of charge (except for the food and drink at the restaurant) which was extra charge with a 15% gratuity included. I took a quick dip in the pool then air dried while checking out the aviary and then went to check out lunch at the restaurant. I decided to go local with my order and had some conch fritters and a Caribbean mahi-mahi plate. The beans and rice that came with my fish were kind of bland, but other than that everything was good. I love a nice sweet heat sauce on fish. They also had a kids menu with chicken tenders, burgers, plain buttered noodles, etc. Total cost for my 2 course meal including a can of spring water (remember no plastic) and frozen margarita (in a compostable cup) was $54. I paid that for 2 hot dogs, a soda and a can of Michelob ultra at Universal Studios. After lunch I went to the gift shop to get something for Gen Z and finished shopping with about 20 minutes to kill till our bus pick up time. I decided to sit outside and look at the ocean but then bumped into one of the other tour guides for the center. He told me I was welcome to go just across the street to the dolphin encounter center and that with our admission to the turtle center there was no charge to just go in and look at the dolphins. There was a small bar there where I grabbed one more beer and watched the dolphins train for a bit before I headed back to meet the bus. I don’t recall seeing it in the tour description but on our way back to the ship we also made a 20 minute stop at Grand Cayman’s famous Hell. Really, 20 minutes is all anyone every needs there. You could probably do it in 10. Tourist trap level: Zenith. I didn’t mind the stop as I’ve always thought the place sounded amusing (but not amusing enough to make a dedicated trip out of the way there). I got my obligatory selfie with the rock formation, stamped my passport (so that one day health and budget willing I can prove I really have traveled everywhere, hell included) made a few jokes about how “exit through the gift shop” is still a thing once you go to Hell (even the Prince of Darkness wants your tourist money!), then promptly purchased Jeremy and my retired Marine stepdad (the two biggest “h bomb” droppers in casual conversation that I know) overpriced t-shirts and shot glasses that I know they’ll get a kick out of. We got back to the port around 4pm and I cooled off on the retreat deck with a glass of bubbly to relax and enjoy anchor raise. Or tried to relax. Pro tip from Beyond: if you’re on the Retreat pool deck right as sail away is scheduled to start, be prepared to cover your ears quickly. Being at the very front of the ship and just below the ship’s horn, when Captain D announces his departure, the noise is loud and sudden. I almost ended up with a Chandon shower. My fight or flight probably wont fully settle back till dinner time. Speaking of which, I suppose I should finish my glass of wine and start getting ready for this evening’s show and second chic night dinner. TTYL friends!

They are crispy like bacon! was expecting the jerky texture but actually ended up loving the crunch!

Sigh, another day, another Luminae breakfast on the sail into a tropical island… This morning I sent Jeremy a text that said: “I understand FLL airport is closed due to flooding. I may not be able to make it home on Sunday. Please send funds for an additional week on Beyond.” The response I received was: “You don’t fly home for 2 more days and you told me you fly out of Miami not FLL. We have Rome flights and a new washer to pay for. I’ll see you at baggage claim in St. Louis THIS. SUNDAY. Love you!” Hey, it was worth a try. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Captain D hadn’t even dropped his anchor yet and there were already 3 local tender boats making their way towards Beyond to get our tourism spending going today as soon as possible. It’s about 9:20 and I just heard an announcement that for non-retreat guests, tender tickets are now being passed out in the World Class bar. My excursion doesn’t rendezvous to tender in until 11am so I’m relaxing on the retreat pool deck. While I’m hanging out, a back in time report on Costa Maya evening. Before dinner I went to the Elements production show. I thought it was every bit as entertaining as Arte. It’s themed on the powers and elements of earth (fire, wind, water, lightening, volcanoes, etc.) Once again the pics don’t really do justice to the beauty of it and I highly recommend checking it out if you’ll be on Beyond. After a standing ovation for the cast I made my way to dinner at Le Voyage. This is the priciest specialty restaurant on Beyond but to me it’s well worth the cost. When Jeremy and I looked at going to Chef Boulud’s Le Pavillion restaurant in New York pre-Bermuda cruise, it was going to be over $400 for a set tasting menu, not including wine or tips. Le Voyage is a steal compared to that and based on the photos I’ve seen online, the food is every bit as beautifully presented and every detail meticulously thought out. Right down to the French sea salted butter served slightly softened with the bread. As you can see from my pics, every dish I ordered was like art on a plate and almost too pretty to eat. Emphasis on ALMOST. I definitely ate 100% of everything. When I arrived at the restaurant I was poured a complimentary welcome glass of veuve, which the sommelier gladly refilled for me while I was waiting for my wine bottle order to come from the cellar. The wine list at Le Voyage is more like a wine Bible with almost 20 pages of options for every budget, and I mean every budget…peep the price on that Petrus. Do people who can afford to pay that for one bottle of wine seriously sail on Celebrity? As much as I love Celebrity, if I’m ever blessed enough to have “drink a Retreat Alaska cruise for 2 over dinner tonight” wine money, I plan to be sailing on a private yacht. But maybe that’d just be my new money (unabashedly) showing. 😂 I went for a bottle a bit more “we have car payments and a mortgage” friendly, but still very nice. I really enjoy Au Bon Climat and have rarely seen it on Celebrity wine lists. The 20% discount from the premium beverage package made it about the same as what it goes for in restaurants in STL. For dinner I started with the prawns then was torn between the lamb chops and loupe de mer. My server offered to bring a smaller portion of the fish as a second course and then follow it with the lamb course which I took him up on. Both dishes were perfectly cooked and fabulous. When eating them, be sure to take the time to make that “perfect bite” on your fork that picks up bits of all the garnishes, sauce and accompaniment along with the protein. Especially with the lamb. The combination of the earthy meat, crunch of pistachios, tzatziki, red pepper pesto and carmelized eggplant strips in my mouth all at the same time made me mad I didn’t think to book 2 nights in Le voyage. For dessert, I had the lime & berry pavlova which I noticed was smaller than it was in November and was garnished with silver flakes this time instead of gold flakes (will these Celebrity cutbacks never cease????) The smaller size was a perk though because it left me with a little stomach room to enjoy a few of the warm orange Madeleines that are delivered complimentary as the final course. This time served with a couple of little courvosier and salted caramel chocolates. Did I mention yet how mad I am that this restaurant was sold out for the rest of the cruise? After dinner I stopped by the world class bar for a very well made rye old fashioned before my early bed time to prep for my 8am Cozumel excursion. Later today: a report on said excursion before I have one more mimosa and head out do some shopping and see some sea turtles! Good morning from Grand Cayman!

Quick Update from Beyond: Full report to come, but my excursion today was excellent. Perhaps too excellent. I believe the final score is Mexico: 1 Charla: 0 There’s a private silent disco party for the Retreat guests tonight but it doesn’t start until 9:30…and I just almost dozed off at 8:15 while sipping a glass of Pinot and laying across a couch star gazing outside the Sunset Bar. It’s a good thing my dinner tonight was at Rooftop Grill, where having on sunglasses at the table didn’t look out of place and everyone looks slightly wind blown anyway. The service and food were both very good (especially those lamb chops and that cookie dessert!) and really hit the post-beach day spot. I think I may start planning to book this restaurant regularly on E class for dinner after a planned rigorous/hot excursion day. I promise I won’t forget to catch up on reports, but for now, I’m putting myself to bed early so that I can reenergize for my day in Grand Cayman tomorrow. I have a Celebrity excursion booked so our tender process will be different, but sharing the info that was on my bed tonight about Retreat priority tendering. Sweet dreams from a delightfully exhausted woman on the Beyond.

Good morning from Cozumel! Looks like another beautiful weather day! I have an early meeting time for my excursion so Elaine brought breakfast that I ordered on the hang tag the night before. She also dropped off extra bottled water and beach towels for my day in port. I swear I put on the tag that 1 person was dining for breakfast, but the kitchen gave me enough bagels (warm and toasted per my write in request), fruit and breakfast meat to feed at least 3 people. Posting will be slow today as I’ll be in port till early afternoon for my Mexican cooking and salsa dance class excursion followed by some beach time. When I get back to writing I’ll share all about my best life night last night. I hope you all have as good a day as I think I’m going to!

Good afternoon from the Magic Carpet! I was on my way back to the Retreat lounge to relax in the afternoon sea air when I realized I’m falling into the trap of spending my whole retreat cruise hiding out in suite areas. Today is the warmest weather we’ve had yet on the cruise and the sun has been pretty intense at times. On my walk around decks 14 and 15 I’ve seen a couple of people stumbling back to their cabins showing signs of being overheated. If you’re sailing the Caribbean soon and are, like me, coming from an area where summer weather hasn’t hit yet, remember that your body isn’t used to this yet and be sure to hydrate and seek shade and a/c regularly. I was actually feeling a little bit overheated around lunch time too so I decided to hold on the cocktails and wine today and slam ice waters instead, then spend early afternoon in my cabin with the A/C blasting. I’m feeling much better now and ready for a big night! This morning on the Retreat deck I had a nice shady lounger for the morning until Captain Dimitrios flipped the ship around to dock and threw me right into the sun. The nerve of this guy. The deck did clear out quickly with people heading into port though, so I was able to relocate back to shade without much trouble. For some reason I thought that my lunch reservation today was at 12:30, but when I climbed out of the retreat pool soaking wet at 11:55 and looked at my phone, there was a push notification from the Celebrity app reminding me I had lunch plans at noon! It was a super fast rush down to my room to change out of my wet swimsuit and head to lunch. I’ll report on said lunch (and my prior day lunch at Raw on 5) shortly. But first, about last night: Cindy wasn’t able to get me an earlier reservation at Fine Cut but suggested I just go to the restaurant around 8:40 and they would probably be able to take me early. She was right! I was still a bit drowsy from my veuve afternoon, so before dinner I made my first martini bar trip of the cruise for a pick me up espresso martini. The martini bar on Beyond is another improvement upon her older sister E class ships. It’s positioned in the center of the grand foyer rather than against the back wall, so there’s much more seating at the bar. On the flip side, as an avid espresso martini drinker, I don’t really like that on E class, the espresso martinis are poured “on tap” from a kettle one martini machine rather than made and shaken for you from scratch like on S and M class. The machine martinis come out just a little sweeter than I like. But back to positives! When I sat down at the bar I saw something that made my heart very happy. I’ll preface this by saying that I do believe Celebrity when they say that they are committed to crew diversity and advancement opportunities for women. That said, I’ve noticed over my many cruises that there are some positions onboard where, despite being a significant percentage of the crew work force, I have rarely, if ever, seen a woman and/or person from an African country in the role. Last night I was so excited to see a woman behind the martini bar for the first time! If you’ll be on Beyond soon, be sure to go see Maelyn for a cocktail! I think she may be one of the friendliest people I’ve ever met and her service was quick and attentive. Her smile is also downright infectious. You can tell she’s new to her position and still training but she’s clearly working very hard at it and I get the sense she’s a natural. Every time she had a couple of minutes between serving customers she was practicing her flare skills. I have to think that martini bartending is one of the most lucrative non-officer/management positions on the ship considering the additional tipping levels at that bar. I really hope that she sticks with the role and is still here when I sail again. I can’t wait to see what tricks she’s pulling off by fall. As for dinner at Fine Cut, I didn’t do this restaurant last time I was on Beyond but Red did and her assessment was that she wasn’t impressed with it. I wasn’t going to this cruise, but then after we had such a great dinner at Fine Cut on Apex I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, while the service was every bit as great as it was on Apex, the food was not as impressive. I had the gnocchi starter which was really good, I daresay it could’ve been amazing if it had been served hot, but it came to the table barely warm. For my main I had the ribeye with truffle butter, Parmesan fries and sautéed spinach. My steak had good flavor especially with that awesome truffle butter, but it was nowhere near as tender as on Apex. The fries are big thick wedge style, and some of them hadn’t fully cooked through all the way. The spinach on the flip side was vastly improved from the inedible spinach on Apex though. For dessert I tried the apple walnut crumble with vanilla ice cream instead of cinnamon. The dish had real potential if it’d actually been served warm, but my crumble was room temperature and a little dry and as a result kind of tasted like a buffet breakfast apple muffin with ice cream on top. I’ve certainly eaten worse meals and Im glad I gave it a try, but I’m thinking going forward when it comes to upcharge dining on Beyond, I’ll focus my investments elsewhere. I think my plan for the rest of the afternoon will be to head back to the cabin for Elaine’s afternoon canapé delivery and perhaps enjoy it in a pre-dinner bubble bath. Then I’ll dress and head to the 7:30 production show followed by dinner at Le Voyage. For late night diversion I’m so torn!!!! There are soooo many options on the schedule: -A disco party in the grand foyer -Pool deck dance party -Rock Violinist in the Club -Accoustic Duo in Eden -And I still need to get to the awesome World Class bar I have an 8:15 excursion meeting time in Cozumel tomorrow so I’ll really only have time to hit one thing before I need to head to bed. We’ll see which vibe hits me right after all the French food. Soon to come: a report on my specialty lunches thus far. IMG_3954.MOV

It’s another beautiful morning on the sail into Costa Maya (aka my bonus sea day). I think Luminae’s design and location on this ship is another place where after 2 ships in the class Celebrity finally hit the nail right on the head. Having this beautiful floor to ceiling view of the ocean out of the front of the ship makes the coffee and warm pistachio danish taste even better. The seas last night were calm and the wall groaning and bangs from the night before were gone, so I slept like a baby. Just when I thought making snack chips out of meat was the most delightfully extra thing that the Retreat culinary team could possibly do, my server Adash sits a plate of peach cobbler French toast in front of me this morning. I think I’m going to need to swim some laps or something to work an appetite back up for my lunch reservation at Le Grand Bistro today. Tonight is also my much anticipated dinner reservation at Le Voyage. I’m a little sad to be missing the Luminae dinner menu tonight because it’s one of my favorites, but Le Voyage is completely booked up for the entire cruise so there’s no moving my reservation and I’m definitely not missing that restaurant. After breakfast I’m going to waddle down to Al Bacio for some green tea and to work for an hour or 2, then will hit the pool until lunch time. While I’m chilling poolside I’ll fill everyone in on last night. BTW, with regard to wifi, much as it was in November the premium wifi has worked great thus far. I’ve had no problems using my vpn or remoting into my office computer and have been able to use Teams/Zoom and stream Netflix without any freezing. I wonder what magic our accountant could work so that I could just establish Beyond as my home office and make cruising a tax write off? 🤔 😂