Mercury Travelogue, March 27 Mexican Riviera

[Mercruiser]

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Tomorrow, my wife and I leave for San Diego. We will be cruising on the 11 Night Mexican Riviera Cruise on-board the Celebrity Mercury sailing on March 27 – April 7, 2006.

The weather here in Eastern Washington has been rainy and cold with temperatures in the high 30s (F). This is making the tropical eastern pacific weather sound real appealing (80s).

There was a lot of news this week in the cruise industry. But, the news that had the most meaning to me was the sinking of the BC Ferry Queen of the North on the morning of March 22, 2005

“The Queen of the North apparently struck a submerged rock about 12:25 a.m. PST near Gil Island, about 120 km south of Prince Rupert as it sailed though the Inside Passage on the northwest coast of British Columbia.”

Ninety-nine people escaped the mortally wounded ship on lifeboats during the middle of the night. Two other people are still missing. Witnesses say that the ship sunk about an hour after the accident. Imagine being woken up in the middle of the night and having to abandon ship.

The Queen of the North holds fond memories for me. This was the first “cruise” I ever went on. I was a young teenager accompanying my parents on a camping trip through British Columbia. We took our car and travel trailer on the Queen of the North from Port Hardy on Vancouver Island to Prince Rupert on the mainland. We slept in our camping trailer on the car deck during the overnight trip. It seems really strange to think that the first ship I sailed on now sits submerged in about 365m of water. This recent news will bring added significance to the muster drill Monday on the Mercury.

Tomorrow morning, we will get up bright and early for our 6:40 a.m. flight. I will make future reports on our trip as time and Internet access permits.

[teedee]

I'm looking forward to your reports from Mercury. I'm on the April 28 sailing. I've never been to any of the ports on this cruise and am interested in hearing your impressions.

 

I hope you have a wonderful cruise. If you see Tuggers tell her hello from me!

 

Terri

[Mercruiser]

 

There was a lot of news this week in the cruise industry. But, the news that had the most meaning to me was the sinking of the BC Ferry Queen of the North on the morning of March 22, 2005.

 

The correct date is March 22, 2006.

I entered the wrong year!

[rubrrick]

Looking forward to hearing about your adventure. My DW and I did the 11 night Mexican Riviera on Valentines day. Second year in a row, and we are booked again for next year. It's a feel good trip!!:D

 

Rick

[Buckeye Geo]

Looking forward to your review. I will be on the April 17th sailing. Have a great cruise.

[johnsfo]

Mercruiser--Thank you for your post about the Queen of the North. How sad! Our prayers go out to the family of the two people who are presumed dead. Our interest in cruising stemmed from a trip from Price Rupert to Twasseen (sp) on the Queen of the North in late September or early October for their repositioning end-of-season trip in 2003. We had a cabin on the Queen and spent overnight in Port Hardy. Our first time to sail thru the incredibly beautiful Inside Passage. Our first cruise after that was a 7 day Mercury California Coastal 7 day RT San Francisco. Mercury is a beautiful ship and is not too large. We loved the food; however, after several days, we decided that we did not have to order all the courses just because they were available. I am sure that you and your wife will enjoy Mercury and the Mexican Riveria. We look forward to your posts.

[glenna1]

I too will be on the 04/28 sailing with Teedee. I will be also watching for your posts, it will be a virtual, and then a real vacation. Have a great time, and keep the ship safe for the Mercury Movers. Thanks for your efforts.

 

Glenna

[Mercruiser]

Sunday, March 26, 2006

 

From yesterday:

Tomorrow morning, we will get up bright and early for our 6:40 a.m. flight. I will make future reports on our trip as time and Internet access permits.

 

Well, I hardly slept Saturday night. The anticipation of the trip kept me from being able to doze off. This is the good type of sleeplessness. It’s kind of like being a kid trying to sleep on Christmas Eve night.

 

Getting up at 5:00 a.m. was no problem. Flight check in and boarding was uneventful. We got on the Horizon Air Q200, took off at 6:50 am and arrived at Sea-Tac at 8:00 a.m. As soon as we got off the plane, my wife immediately spotted a shopping opportunity in South concourse of the airport. Off she went while I tended to the carry on luggage.

 

After the initial bout of shopping, we traversed the Sea-Tac subway trains to the North concourse from which our Alaska flight to San Diego would depart. More shopping opportunities were found in the North concourse. Boarding started early. By 9:15 am, everyone was on board for a 9:40 a.m. departure. We waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, the Captain got on the P.A. system and announced that there was a hydraulic issue with the rudder on our MD-80. Maintenance would have to come over and inspect. Finally, after a total of an hour delay, we took off at 10:40 a.m. While waiting for maintenance and contemplating a flight cancellation, I was very glad that I didn’t try to fly to San Diego on the day of the cruise. It was a lot lower stress knowing that a late or cancelled flight would not put our cruise at risk.

 

Our flight arrived in San Diego at 1:15 p.m. On the way to baggage claim, my wife noticed someone from Celebrity holding a sign for arriving passengers. We made independent air and hotel arrangements. So the Celebrity person was not there for us.

 

We had too much luggage for us to carry by ourselves. (11 – night cruise plus over-packing). So I rented one of the carts for $2. Our luggage arrived at the carousel by 1:30 p.m. – only 15 minutes after touchdown! Very good!

 

To get to the taxi stands at San Diego, you have to take an escalator or elevator up to a skywalk. We took the elevator with our luggage cart. At the far end of the skywalk are the courtesy buses and the taxis. We were in our taxi by 1:37 p.m. and on our way to the Embassy Suites by Seaport Village. I chose the Embassy Suites because I had a free night courtesy of the Hilton frequent guest program. If I were paying for a hotel, I would have chosen the Holiday Inn across from the cruise ship terminal.

 

The taxi fare was $9.20. The San Diego airport is so close to the cruise ship terminal that I wouldn’t bother with shuttle busses or the like. A taxi is so convenient and inexpensive in San Diego. We checked in right away and were in our room by 1:50 p.m. That’s just 35 minutes from touchdown. It doesn’t get any easier than this.

 

After dropping off our luggage, we immediately went out for a late lunch at the Fish Market right next door to the Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. The Fish Market is in a great location right on the waterfront between the fishing boats and the Midway. I had scallops and my wife had shrimp. The food was very good.

 

Next, we went to the Midway and paid our $15 each for admission. This was the second time I had been in the Midway museum. I’m the kind of person that reads every sign on every display in a museum like this. I could spend several hours here. Fortunately for my wife, I had already been there and we only had an hour and a half before the museum would close. Our first stop was the engine room. This is a newly opened area since my last visit. There is a picture of me standing by the engine room control board on my web photo site. I’ve seen a picture of the Mercury engine room. The diesel engine room of the Mercury looks a lot cleaner and simpler than the steam turbine engine rooms of the Midway. If you cannot tell, I really like the Midway and would recommend it to anyone interested in ships, aircraft, or the navy. It’s located about a half a mile south of the cruise ship terminal – an easy walk.

 

After touring the Midway, we went back to the hotel room and called the kids. (We left them at home with grandparents.) We then found out Celebrity has left a message about the Mercury embarkation being delayed. This has to do with the Gastrointestinal Illness problem that has been affecting Mercury since the 3/6/2006 cruise. I immediately fired up my computer and got on the Internet ($9.95 per day at the Embassy Suites!). I downloaded my email and had one from rccl.com about this same problem. Read the thread Mercury Passengers Ill if you want the whole story.

 

I called the 800 number that was given in the phone message to my family. Unfortunately, Celebrity shuts down their phone center at 8:00 p.m. EST on Sundays. I called after 7:00 p.m. PST. I’ll have to call Celebrity first thing on Monday morning and find out about the embarkation delay.

 

After our phone call, we walked across the street to Seaport Village for more shopping. We spent about two hours walking though the shops. We only bought a few post cards to send to the kids.

 

All in all, it was a very nice enjoyable day. We’ve been to San Diego many times, so we didn’t feel the need to try to see everything in one day. The only thing left unsettled from this day is wondering what tomorrow holds for the embarkation delay and the prospect of boarding a ship with GI illness.

 

I would like to offer my thanks for all the nice comments and words of encouragement several of you have offered. I will make future reports on our trip as time and Internet access permit. In the mean time, check out the photos I posted from today.

[Fblack]

I am on the April 17th Mercury cruise. I was on this same itinerary several years ago and had a great cruise. I am looking forward to your regular reports on the Norovirus issue and general condition of the ship.

[Joe Beach]

Merc,

Please advise what the "options" are in the letter as to whether to take the cruise or not. Won't help much after one has taken a flight there.

 

If you see any uniforms on board that look like the officers but are in black pants, they would be the CDC staff. Check for different type nametags in case they are wearing their summer whites.

 

Thanks for the updates.

[Buckeye Geo]

I am on the April 17th Mercury cruise. I was on this same itinerary several years ago and had a great cruise. .

 

Hi Fblack: We have a nice group going on Mercury on the 17th. I would like to invite you to join us on our thread.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=6205586#post6205586

 

The CDC went onboard in PV on the 24th. I am sure that the problem will be cleaned up by the 17th, but just in case I will have my Lysol spray, hand wipes and plenty of Imodium. I am hoping it would be like the old wife's tale, "If you carry an Umbrella it will not rain"

[hardingk]

The CDC went onboard in PV on the 24th. I am sure that the problem will be cleaned up by the 17th, but just in case I will have my Lysol spray, hand wipes and plenty of Imodium. I am hoping it would be like the old wife's tale, "If you carry an Umbrella it will not rain"

We are sailing on the next sailing on the 7th. I too am bringing Lysol, Clorox wipes, Purell for the trip. I am going by the same therory as you. I am big on washing my hands all the time and not touching elevator butons. I work on a live trading floor with over 1,000 people on this floor alone and illnesses spread fast here as well, so I try to take as many precations as I can!

[Buckeye Geo]

We are sailing on the next sailing on the 7th. I too am bringing Lysol, Clorox wipes, Purell for the trip. I am going by the same therory as you. I am big on washing my hands all the time and not touching elevator butons. I work on a live trading floor with over 1,000 people on this floor alone and illnesses spread fast here as well, so I try to take as many precations as I can!

 

Well I guess the famous SF Detective Adrian Monk is not that crazy after all. LOL

[Mercruiser]

Monday, March 28, 2006

From yesterday:

The only thing left unsettled from this day is wondering what tomorrow holds for the embarkation delay and the prospect of boarding a ship with GI illness.

When I woke up on Monday morning, the first thing I did was to call the Celebrity phone number listed in the email. After being transferred to another number, the person on the phone read me the exact text from the email I had already received. This person admitted they worked for RCCL, but could offer no information that was in the email Mind you, the email said to call this number for more information.

I then called the ever-helpful CDC Vessel Sanitation Program (VSP). These people are great. They provided a lot of helpful information that I have already covered in the Mercury Illness thread. After talking to the CDC people, I was reasonably comfortable going on the cruise. 2 gold stars for VSP.

After having the buffet breakfast at the Embassy Suites, my wife and I decided to go over to the cruise ship terminal to see what we could find out about the embarkation time. We got there at 10:00 a.m. The security guards would not let us in the terminal. They indicated that we would have to come back later for check in. I asked one of the guards to go get a Celebrity Customer service person to come over and answer some questions. There were lots of check-in agents clearly visible through the window. I don’t know if any of them are actual Celebrity employees. Eventually the guard came back and said embarkation would be at 2:00 p.m. There was no one available representing Celebrity to answer questions.

Since we had time to kill, we decided to visit the maritime museum next to the cruise ship terminal. On the way over, we passed a TV news crew that was filming the Mercury. They were obviously doing a story for the evening news.

The maritime museum was a lot of fun. They have five ships you can visit for the $15 admission price: Star of India – an iron hulled cargo sailing ship, Rose – the reproduction ship used for the filming of the movie Master and Commander, a Soviet Foxtrot class diesel electric submarine, a steam power ferry, and one other ship we did not go on. I recommend going on through this museum – especially if you have booked a small cabin on your cruise ship. Even the “first-class” accommodations from the 1800’s make even the smallest inside cabin look luxurious.

The weather in San Diego was clear with temperatures in the mid 50s (F). It was a gorgeous day.

At about 12:30 p.m., we went back to the hotel and checked out. The staff at the Embassy Suites (ES) was wonderful. I travel a lot for business and stay at a lot of hotels. This staff was in the top 5% of what I have seen at other hotels. We took the ES van over to the cruise ship terminal at 1:00 p.m. The van drove right on to the pier. A longshoreman took our luggage right away. The line to get in the terminal took 10 minutes. Security guards were checking cruise documents and photo ID.

Once inside, we found no line for the Concierge class (in which were are booked). The lines for regular PAX were quite long. We also found a terminal full of people waiting to board. As warned by the email, embarkation would be delayed.

As you entered the terminal, everyone was given a letter explaining the situation. It was similar to the email, but it had some new information. Anyone who did not want to go could get a credit for a future cruise. A refund was not offered as an option. The second paper had questions for each person to answer about recent illness, where you stayed in San Diego. This had to be filled out and signed.

The check-in process was quite easy. We were given boarding group “1”. The agent told us embarkation was expected to start between 2:00 and 2:30. (In the end, it turned out to be more like 3:00 p.m.)

Instead of waiting in the terminal, we decided to get some lunch. You are allowed to leave the terminal after check-in. You just have to show them you Celebrity room cards and photo-id. We each had a bowl of chowder at Anthony’s next door to the cruise ship terminal. San Diego is such a wonderful city. There are so many things to do within walking distance of the pier.

We got back to the cruise terminal at 2:00 p.m. No signs of boarding. The terminal was very full. It looked like most people had checked in. There were no check-in lines, but there was also no-place to sit. The cruise ship terminal is not large enough for 1700 people to all have a place to sit. Fortunately, the temperature was cool and there was a nice breeze going through.

At about 2:45 p.m., they started boarding the “P” boarding group. Looking at their luggage tags, these were all people booked in Suites. At about 3:00 p.m., they called the “1” boarding group. That was us. They took the customary boarding photo. We then went through security – just like at the airport except we didn’t have to take off our shoes. On the way up the gangplank, we saw staff wiping down the handrails with sprayer bottles and a rag. At the top of the gangplank, there were two hand-sanitizer stations. I felt the tension of the cruise ship terminal crowds fall away as we went up the gangplank. I was starting to enjoy myself again. Waiting in the terminal wasn’t much fun.

After getting your hands sanitized, the next stop was to get you photo taken for the ID cards. After that we were on-board. We went to the spa to make reservations for my wife. “At-sea” day appointments fill up fast. We then went to the maitre d’ to confirm our table assignment.

Weird/Funny passenger incident of the day: The lady in front of us in the line for the maitre d’ explained that she wanted to make sure that her cabin had not been occupied by someone who got sick on the prior cruise. She insisted that if it was they change her to a cabin that had not been occupied. The mater d’ explained that there was no way for him to know which tables had been occupied by sick passengers. The maitre’d offered to change here table. The two of them still did not realize that she was talking about cabin assignments and the maitre d’ was talking about tables. Finally, the maitre figured it out and explained he was the restaurant manager and had nothing to do with cabin assignments. I found this amusing in two ways. The misunderstanding of the two and the lady’s expectation of having her cabin changed. What did she think they would do? Eject someone else from their cabin and move her to a previously occupied “un-sick” cabin.

Conditions on the Ship

The smell of chlorine bleach had dissipated by the time we boarded. All of the surfaces had been wiped down by everyone multiple times. By everyone I mean they conscripted all staff to do cleaning. Even the spa people had to help clean the rest of the ship even though their employment contract says they only work in the spa.

The windows, mirrors, and all other vertical surfaces of the ship are covered with a dried bleach residue. It’s most noticeable on windows and shiny surfaces. But, if you look closely you can see it on other surfaces such as wood paneling. They have left this on a preventative measure. It makes it look like the windows are dirty. This is the most visible reminder of the ship’s problems.

The other visible reminder is the hand sanitization stations at all entrances to the food areas. Celebrity staff make sure that everyone used the hand sanitizer. Lastly, there are staff members constantly sanitizing areas of the ship such as handrails.

Conditions of this cruise

Other than all of the sanitization activities, this seems like a “normal” cruise. All the normal activities and programs are underway. Some things like tuxes and flowers were not delivered until the next day, but nothing critical. The staff was helpful and friendly, as you would expect, even though they were probably tired from cleaning all day. We left port at 5:50, 50 minutes later than scheduled, which is amazing considering all the extra work the crew had to do to get ready.

Conditions of the last cruise

By now, I’m sure the CC board readers have heard many stories from PAX on the last cruise. I have not been on the Internet so I don’t know what was said. But, I will tell you what some of the crew has said about the last cruise.

The last cruise was awful. The staff had to put in hours and hours and hours of time bleaching and sanitizing the ship. This was in addition to their normal duties. Some of the PAX were gracious and thankful about what the crew was doing to rectify the situation and even commented what a good cruise they had. Other PAX were belligerent and even swore at them.

Postscript, Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Sorry about this really long post, but Monday was a long day. Tuesday was a full day at sea. We had a lot of fun and were very busy. (I’ll write about Tuesday later.) As I write this, we are about 15 miles from Cabo (I have a GPS). I am sending this via Mercury’s satellite Internet.

[vince4]

What a great review so far of your trip. We will be on the Mercury on April 17. Keep us posted on the current situation onboard the Mercury, it's greatly appreciated. I'm already feeling better that our cruise should be fine.

 

Vince4

[cruisieparker]

Mercruise,

Thank you so much for your posts. Please continue to keep us informed of your cruise and the health of the PAX. We expect you to leave the ship germ free when you get off.:D We are on the April 7th sail. ;)

Sherry

[hardingk]

Thanks so much for this! You are making me feel better as we leave on the next sailing!! The posts from the previous sailing were not good at all.

 

Thanks!

 

PS - Could you tell me about the internet packages on board? Can you get internet access in your cabin and how much it costs?

 

Thanks again!

[Andy]

Hi Mercruiser !

 

Thanks for your great comments so far. We hope to hear from you soon. Have a great time on Mercury !

[Buckeye Geo]

Thank you, thank you thank you.....You make me feel better about the conditions on Mercury. We are looking forward to your future posts.

[teedee]

Thanks for the update Mercruiser! I appreciate you taking the time to post. I'm looking forward to your next update.

 

Terri

[stinsowm]

Thank you for keeping us updated. I am on the April 28th sailing with Terri and many other great cruise critics. It is good to know that things on this sailing are going far better. Have a great cruise and will be looking forward to hearing about your adventures as I anticipate to soon have my own.

 

Walter

[MLT53]

Thank you from me, too, Mercruiser. Between your post and Dave's posts, I am feeling much more comfortable about going on the April 17th cruise.

 

I hope the rest of your cruise is fantastic!

[Buckeye Geo]

Thank you from me, too, Mercruiser. Between your post and Dave's posts, I am feeling much more comfortable about going on the April 17th cruise......

 

MLT53: Please come join your fellow cruisers on the Mercury April 17th Thread. We have a pretty good group and I am sure all will be well.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=6211470#post6211470

[wave412]

Hi all.

 

Glad to hear that the Mar 28th Mercury sailing is going well. I was on the Mar 17th trip, and I'm hoping the staff gets to rest this time around. They were so overworked and tired by the end of the cruise. It was sad! The jeweler almost burst into tears the last time I saw him because he had gotten a message that his Dad was dying in India, and they weren't sure whether he could get off the ship to go home because of the virus stuff.

 

Though I've never been on a cruise or vacation where something like this happened, I'm never going to be without hand sanitizer again. I brought it with me because I was getting over a chest cold, and it ended up being my safety net. So far, I'm still virus-free, but my husband contracted the virus on the last night, and he got sick a few days later. Our cruising partners also got sick, as did their 10 month old, but she only had mild diarrhea.

 

Let's hope everything continues to be good, and FYI: seek out the activities that Quentin, the activities manager, hosts. They're really a blast and he's such a cutie! =)

[Mercruiser]

Tuesday, March 29, 2006 – A Full Day at Sea

I slept like a baby Monday night. The seas were very calm - just a gentle swell traveling in the same direction as the ship. This gave the ship a very slow rocking motion that I really enjoyed. It was like being rocked to sleep.

When I woke up on Tuesday morning, I checked the position of the ship using my GPS. (I’m a gadget fanatic.) Our position at 8:00 a.m. was 279 miles out of San Diego and 559 miles from Cabo. The ships speed was 22 mph. This turned out to be the normal cruising speed for the entire trip down to Cabo. There was no land in sight. We were traveling about 70 miles off the coast.

The sky was partly cloudy. The seas were calm with no white caps. This was about as smooth of a sea as I could imagine in for the open ocean. The ship had a very gentle rolling motion.

We are staying in a Concierge Class balcony cabin on Deck 12. I went down one flight of stairs to the Palm Springs Café on Deck 11 to get my morning coffee. The price of admission is getting your hands sanitized! The coffee is made by one of the automatic machines you see a lot of in Europe. The coffee has a very strong taste that I don’t like so much. Being a coffee-holic and Northwesterner (the two often go hand-in-hand), I was prepared for this very situation. I had brought my own Starbucks coffee, a Mellitta filter cone, and a thermal mug. I made my own coffee and found it much more to my liking. My wife ordered the strawberry smoothie off the Concierge Class room service menu. This was very, very good. I’m sure we will be ordering more of these.

At 9:00 a.m., my wife and I went to the salon. She had a pedicure and I a haircut. I meant to get a haircut back home but ran out of time. This was one of the most expensive haircuts I have ever had, $25 plus 10% tip. The hair salon on Mercury has a terrific port side view. While getting my haircut, I spotted three dolphins or porpoises (I cannot tell the difference) leaping out of the water along side the ship. I guess $25 for a haircut and dolphin-watching trip isn’t so bad.

At 10:00 a.m. we went to the Cruise Critic meeting in the embarkation lounge. It was fun to get to meet everyone that had been corresponding on the roll-call board. I also liked hearing about everyone’s past cruising experience. One of the Celebrity staff members hosted the event (sorry, but I didn’t write down his name). He answered many questions about the virus problem on the last cruise, Celebrity’s sale of the Horizon, the new ship under construction, etc. The meeting was interesting up to that point. He then opened it up for questions. It then turned into a gripe session in which a couple of the Cruise Critics expressed their dissatisfaction, at length, with the fact that the complimentary embarkation champagne was skipped. Apparently, the champagne was one of the things the crew did not have time and/or staffing to deal with given all that had to be done on turn-around day. Personally, I am just amazed and thankful that the departure was only delayed 50 minutes.

For lunch, we decided to sit at a table by the pool and listen to the band. My wife had a slice of pizza and I a virgin pina coloda. I was still very full from dinner the night before.

Tonight would be the first formal night. I rented a tuxedo from via the Celebrity endorsed company, Cruiseline Formalwear. By mid afternoon, my tux had still not shown up in my room. I talked to my cabin attendant and he said I should check with guest relations. I went to guest relations and was relived to find that they had me on their tux rental list. The person at guest relations sent a message to my cabin attendant to deliver the tux. Later on in the afternoon, my cabin attendant was delivering flowers, a Concierge Class perk, and asked if my tux had been delivered. I told him that it hadn’t and told him what the guest relations desk had done. He said he would get my tux, (There was a wasted step or two in here somewhere.)

After my nap, we went to a free class in the computer center on downloading and organizing digital photographs. The instructor was a retired schoolteacher and principal from Canada. He explained that he and his wife “sing for their supper” meaning they taught these classes for Celebrity at Sea in exchange for passage. He said that if anyone else was interested, and qualified, they should contact Celebrity at Sea. When I got back to my cabin, my tux was laying on the bed.

Dinner on Tuesday was the first formal night. The majority of the men wore dark suites. Less than half wore tuxedos. I went for a tux this time because it was one less thing to pack for an 11-night cruise. You pay the same, $85, for an 11-night rental as you do for any other length cruise. With three formal nights, it seemed like a better deal. Most of the women were dressed very nicely. They seemed to be wearing fairly practical dresses that you might actually use when not on a cruise. This is in contrast to the cruise brochures that often show women dressed in highly sequined evening gowns that most people would never wear off the ship.

I had the halibut (fish) and my wife had shrimp. The halibut was fine, but not the best I’ve had. My wife had shrimp and absolutely loved it. A lesson learned from the first night is to ask to see the dessert tray before ordering dessert. Some of the desserts have very unfamiliar names that you might not order. One of the strange names on this night’s menu was “Paris Brest”. Once the waiter brought the tray over and explained the desserts, we ended up ordering the Paris Brest. It was a pastry with a praline filling – I never could have figured that one out from the name!

Our waiter and assistant waiter are a study in contrasts. The waiter is very efficient but does not make any small talk or offer to describe the menu items. I think he is uncomfortable with his English. At the other extreme, the assistant waiter is very personable and talkative. He wants to know how your day was and wishes that you have a “happy evening”. These two make kind of an “Odd Couple” pair.

After dinner we went to the Cova Café to listen to the Prelude String Quartet. Cova Café is one of my favorite places on the ship. It is a nice and relaxing place to stay a while at any time of day. Cova Café is used every night for music between dinner and the evening show.

At 8:15 p.m. we headed to the Celebrity Theater (show lounge) for the Captain’s Gala Toast. As you entered the theater, the waiters were handing out free champagne and wine. Of course, this meant that everyone showed up. There was standing room only. They had to set up extra chairs. Following the toast was the evening performance, “And the Winner Is…” starring the Celebrity Singer’s & Dancers and featuring the “Fabulous Celebrity Orchestra”. This was your typical Broadway revue program with singing and dancing to show tunes. It was actually very good if not original. I really like the orchestra. After the show, we went to the Pavilion Nightclub for dancing with the “Party Band Headlines”. This is the same group that plays poolside for the sail-aways.

When we went back to our room, the bed had been turned down, as is done every night. On the bed were two “Priority Tender Tickets”, a Concierge Class perk. Also, we found a small package of Cova Café Milano chocolates, courtesy of Captains Club.

Tomorrow, we will anchor at Cabo San Lucas.

Typical cruiser

 

I have seen a number of questions on the CC forum asking what kind of passenger demographics to expect on this cruise. I am 43 and would say that most of the people on the cruise are older than me. Additionally, most are Americans. There are families with children, but not as many as we saw on our 7-night Alaska cruise. We are right in the middle of spring break season. Thankfully, this cruise does not attract the college spring break crowd. I think the itinerary is too long.

Internet

 

Hardingk asked, “Could you tell me about the internet packages on board? Can you get internet access in your cabin and how much it costs?” Internet access cost $0.75 per minute without a package. It gets as low as $0.50 with the biggest package. See www.celebrityatsea.com for details. There is no Internet access in the cabins. You have two choices for Internet access. 1) Use one of the ships computers. They are located in several areas around the ship. Use of the computer is free, e.g. running MS-Office or Photoshop. They charge by the minute when using Internet Explorer. 2) Bring you own computer with Wi-Fi (wireless Ethernet). For either option, go to the computer center after you board to set up an account.

Wi-Fi access is available in Rendez-Vous Square and Michael’s Club. I am using my notebook computer with Wi-Fi. I compose this travelogue in MS-Word in my cabin. Additionally, I have Outlook express set up as my Gmail client for exchanging emails with our children. My wife is handling the email. She composes the messages in the “Work Offline” mode. When I am ready to send, I go the Rendez-Vous and turn on my wireless card. I then login to the Celebrity Internet system (the meter starts running at this point). I send-receive my email using Outlook Express. Finally, I go to my bookmark for this thread and copy-and-paste the text of this post into the CC forum. The whole operation requires 3-minutes of connect time. One quirk I’ve noticed is that if you cannot get a Wi-Fi signal, just move over to the next table and try again. At the next table I get great signal strenght.

Postscript – Thursday, March 30, 2006

It’s 7:40 p.m. local time and we are on our way between Mazatlan and Cabo. We’ve had a great time the last two days. As a result, I’m getting behind on this travelogue. I will send in my Cabo and Mazatlan reports as time and fun permit.