flagger Posted September 23, 2004 #1 Share Posted September 23, 2004 [font=Comic Sans MS][u][i][size=3]DAY ONE[/size][/i][/u] Let me start this review by saying we are a 30-something couple with a 15-½ month old daughter. This was our 10th anniversary trip and our first cruise. We arrived at Canada Place at 10:30AM Sunday morning. We gave our bags to a porter for the Port of Vancouver and headed inside the terminal. There were three ships disgorging their passengers and embarking new passengers that day. A HAL ship (not sure which one) which had already started allowing their passengers through security and had begun check-in, [i]Norwegian Sun[/i] which would begin allowing passengers through security at noon, and [i]Infinity[/i] which had us lined up and through security starting at 11AM. We were lead to check-in desks by decks. We had arrived so early, it honestly wouldn’t have mattered which queue we had used to check-in. As soon as we had given our credit card to use for our SeaPass cards, Jennifer, the social hostess on [i]Infinity[/i], greeted us. She informed us that we were VIP guests of Jack Williams who sent his greetings as well as wishing us happy anniversary. We were asked if we would be interested in dining with the captain. She looked at our daughter and as she started to grimace and hem and haw a bit, we informed her that we had already planned on utilizing the in-cabin babysitting offered by Celebrity. We made plans with Jennifer to dine at the captain’s table at the second seating on Friday, the second formal night. We were then given our SeaPass cards and here was the first time that Celebrity, well, at least their ground staff, had dropped the ball. We were not given a numbered coloured card that we would later learn would be needed once they began calling for people to go through customs. We had been so into talking with Jennifer that the counter agent failed to give us our coloured number. I discovered that fact when they began calling by colour and was able to get one of those and were on our way through immigration. With a quick scan of our passports, we were through immigration on our journey towards the gangway. Along the way the obligatory embarkation photo stopped our progression. We were on board by 12:15. It was a little early for them to be offering escorts to our cabin, but there was champagne available. An officer inquired about our stateroom number and then told us it was ready and we could proceed up to our cabin. We walked through the casino and got onto the elevators to take us to the Sky Deck where we would find our Concierge Class stateroom 9125. As I had requested, the stateroom was decorated with the “Special Occasion” decorations and the card to my wife wished her Happy 10th Anniversary. I also purchased the small rolling bag filled with a colouring book and crayons for my daughter. I will have to say here that while nice for boarding, the decorations came down by the second day as they were more in the way than anything else. [/font][font=Comic Sans MS]At this point, I met our stateroom attendant, Marivic from the Philipines, who introduced herself and said my rented tuxedo was in the closet and had me sign for the delivery of the decorations as well as the small rolling bag. We dropped off our bags, picked up the card with our assigned table (#586), grabbed my camera, and began to explore the ship. Being on so early, it felt like we were one of the only ones on board. Several places we went were completely devoid of other passengers. (Even later in the week, we would never feel crowded almost everywhere on board) We would learn later that this was a completely full sailing including a group of over 900 members from a mutuals and annuities company as well as several passengers from the cancelled [i]Summit[/i] northbound sailing. I have to say that I enjoyed our proximity to the 10th deck our stateroom afforded. Several times during the week, we would dash up the stairs to the outdoor grill for pizza or hotdogs for our little one. However, I am getting ahead of myself and need to continue our tour of the ship. One of our first stops was the specialty restaurant [i]SS United States[/i] to make reservations for dinner. We had planned on dining there on Wednesday night after we had visited Hubbard Glacier. However, all of the reservations were taken for that night. We were offered quite a few other options. Ismail, the man taking reservations, did notice our daughter with us, but we immediately explained that we were going to be heading to guest relations to arrange for in-cabin babysitting. He said he had a friend in the Youth Program who could assist us and placed a phone call to her. She was not scheduled to come on duty until 3pm, but we could arrange our needed babysitting through her or go down to guest relations. We chose to come back at 3pm. We ended up getting a table for 7:30pm on Tuesday night. At 3pm we met Jody, the youth program co-ordinator, who met us in the [i]SS United States[/i]. Shetook our names and stateroom number, and said she would work with either her staff or guest relations to arrange for our in-cabin babysitter. She was a good friend with Ismail and was happy to do him and us the favour. Our next journey took us to various points around the ship to take more pictures. We had wanted to take pictures of the Trellis restaurant, but the dining room was closed. As we were walking back through the Rendezvous club, I saw the Maitre’d/Restaurant manager set up at a table. I walked over to inquire as to the location of our table and was shown a map were #586 was located. Finally it was time to head to the Oceanview Café for some lunch. We found a table outside on the far aft of the ship. It was a beautiful day so we elected to dine outdoors. I ordered Ms. Flagger a much-needed can of Coke. $2.24 with the included 15% service charge. We had made a goal of attempting to keep some semblance of a nap schedule with our daughter, so after lunch we headed back to our stateroom. Held in the doorplate on our door held two envelopes as well as a new table reservations card. It had our stateroom number but a new table number, #444. It also had a note that reads “New Table, Better location – window”. We didn’t ask for any type of switch at all. One of the notes in the envelopes invited us to a VIP tour of the ship that evening at 8pm and the other was an invitation to the Anniversary/Honeymoon party at 11AM on Monday. The lifeboat drill was scheduled for 4:45PM before sail away. Having found our lifejackets, we slowly headed down the stairs to our muster station (D) – the Rendezvous Lounge. Thanks to the advice on Cruise Critic, when they took us outside to start lining us up at different lifeboat stations, we ended up being late enough to be standing right in front of the rows and rows of people lined back to the wall. A cashier from the casino named Lynette was just delightful as she kept our daughter (who refused to keep her vest on) entertained for the next 15 minutes until the all clear was sounded. It was then back to our stateroom where our luggage was found waiting outside our door (5 pm). We had early seating for this cruise. We are from Texas and late seating would have been too late for us body time and with our daughter to handle. As we were about to get ready for dinner, we received a call from a friend we had met on the roll call board. On the board, we had been invited to the Penthouse Suite for Sail away. She had tried to call, but there had been no answer. She also rang the bell, but there had been no answer. I guess we got hosed on that offer. We decided to go on to the restaurant. After leaving a note for our stateroom attendant, I also saw her and asked her to please clear out the mini-bar/fridge. We really didn’t want our daughter to decide to open a bottle or two of spirits when we were not looking. We were underway by the time we arrived at our table. It was a table for four by the window on the starboard side. We met our waiter for the week, Vernon and his assistant, Sumerta, both of whom were from the Philippines. During dinner we also met our Assistant Maitre’D, Aleks from Serbia. I have to say that Vernon and Aleks were wonderful throughout the week. Vernon was a father to a three year old named JJ that he calls every day off. You could see why Sumerta was an assistant. While he was not horrible by any stretch of the imagination, there were a few times when my water glass would not be refilled immediately or other items were slow in coming or we had to ask for them each night. However, he knew that our daughter loved breadsticks and arranged for us to have extras to take back to our cabin for snacks later in the evening and the next day. We went to meet Jennifer for a VIP tour of the ship’s public areas with two other couples. I had to chuckle because we had seen them earlier while on my picture taking tour. After the tour, I headed to the Cova Café to purchase a soda card for the week. I was given a sticker to place on my SeaPass card and a Coca-Cola tumbler. It had been a long day, we decided to retire relatively early for the night. Though we had arrived in Vancouver two days before, our body time was still two hours ahead. We slept with the balcony door open. Sometime between midnight and 1am, I heard the sound of another boat closely approaching the ship. At first I didn’t think anything of it, but then as the sound continued I stepped out to my balcony to investigate… [/font] [font=Comic Sans MS]What I discovered looking down from my balcony as well as the continuation of this review will be shared soon.[/font] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisersdm Posted September 23, 2004 #2 Share Posted September 23, 2004 What a teaser!!!!! Come on tell us all, you got my attention!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeggySand Posted September 23, 2004 #3 Share Posted September 23, 2004 Fun first installment of your review!! We will be sailing on the Mercury on the 12/6/04 cruise to the Mexican Riviera, but I enjoy reading all the reviews. My question is this: How and why were you a VIP guest of Jack Williams?? Since I am relatively new to the CC board, I was just wondering...... This will be our first cruise with Celebrity, but we have sailed on RCCL and Princess once each and Carnival three times, and we are anxious to see how Celebrity measures up. According to the Celebrity threads, this should be our best cruise yet!! Thanks for the information, Peggy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCruisers Posted September 24, 2004 #4 Share Posted September 24, 2004 [FONT=Comic Sans MS][B]flagger .... [/B] So very much enjoying your review!!!! Take your time ... BUT anxiously awaiting Chapter II! Happy Sailing! OCruisers :) [/FONT] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catmand Posted September 24, 2004 #5 Share Posted September 24, 2004 [font=Comic Sans MS]it sure seems like it has been a long long time in the making, great reading, looking forward to the next installment. thanks.................................................... [url="http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001"][img]http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/7/7_1_120.gif[/img][/url] [/font] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nannyny Posted September 24, 2004 #6 Share Posted September 24, 2004 Just great! looking forward to the rest...... N. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redjoan Posted September 24, 2004 #7 Share Posted September 24, 2004 Great start.............you have my interest! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElaineB2 Posted September 25, 2004 #8 Share Posted September 25, 2004 Great 1st day review flagger - I'm anxiously awaiting part 2! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trvlcarib Posted September 25, 2004 #9 Share Posted September 25, 2004 Flagger, the same thing happened to us at the specialty restuarant. We had confirmed reservations for Wednesday evening before we left, when we got on board they gave Wedneday night to that big group that was on board, thus bumping us. I told the ass't Maitre’d we had confirmed reservations and we elite captains club members. They couldn't do anything but to give us Tuesday night. No big deal I figured. When we sat down to dinner on the 1st night the Maitre'd from the SS United States came to our table and deeply apologized. He then offered us a free night to the SS United States. I think that was an excellent offer. As usual we had a terrific meal. I finally tried the Goat Cheese Souffle. It was excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selly Posted September 27, 2004 #10 Share Posted September 27, 2004 [quote name='PeggySand']Fun first installment of your review!! ... My question is this: How and why were you a VIP guest of Jack Williams?? Thanks for the information, Peggy[/QUOTE] Flagger is Jack's special friend because Flagger has taken almost as much flak on these boards as Jack ...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brigittetom Posted September 27, 2004 #11 Share Posted September 27, 2004 Great review. I'm looking forward to the next installment also. I was wondering about the special treatment from Jack Williams also. I don't think we will ever find out. :D Personnaly, I'm just happy being in that cow herd being boarded on that wonderful ship. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.