Lazy, Crazy, Sea Days

 

Hanging out on the top deck

As excited as we were about cruising across the Atlantic, we both wondered if a full week at sea would eventually become boring. Well, we didn’t need to worry about that! We were constantly busy and really enjoyed life at sea.  Many days at sea were a bit scarier than 1st expected however, since we never saw another ship or any land for an entire week.  We imagined the mental state of some of the seafarers of days in the middle ages - Columbus, Magellan, et al.  It's not hard to understand the depressed, often mutinous thoughts of Columbus's men after months of spotting no land, or other ships.  You are quite "alone" and necessarily self-dependent out there in the middle of the Atlantic.



The ship's cooks show us how to do it

 Celebrity has a terrific Enrichment Series offering everything from art history to psychology to take your mind off the nothingness of the surrounding sea. Plus classical music sessions and cooking lessons! It was like taking several Adult Ed courses all in one week. It was so much fun, and we learned a lot too. Perhaps Columbus was a bit short on the diversionary entertainment aboard the Santa Maria?  What a long way we've come in sea travel.  

One day, we got a tour of the Galleys where we went behind the scenes to see how seafaring chefs prepare over 9000 meals a day. This is quite a feat involving over 1700 dozen eggs, 1400 pounds of chicken, and 45,000 pounds of fresh fruit!

On the less serious side, the Celebrity entertainment programs were much better than we expected. Performers included pianists, a violinist, and the ship’s own talented singers and dancers. It was a real pleasure to enjoy quality live entertainment on stage every night. Plus other entertainment was available all day (and night) long throughout the ship -- like a string quartet, a gambling casino, and various party bands. We even turned into party animals (LOL) dancing up a storm till after midnight at the 50’s and 60’s Dance Party. 



Maggie and John Grant (2 of our table mates)


We had assigned seating for dinner and were very lucky with our tablemates. John and Maggie were an older couple originally from Scotland, and the Baileys were a delightful family of four from the UK (with the most charming children: Bobbie 15 and Hannah 12). John was a real character, often leading us in sing-a-longs of Gilbert and Sullivan and other favorites -- our table was the loudest and happiest in the dining room.



John Grant and Anne celebrate
his 72nd birthday

John had been quite intrigued when Anne told him she had bought a flamenco apron. So, on the last night of the cruise, which was also John’s 72^nd birthday, Anne surprised him by wearing the apron along with a flower in her hair (provided by Hannah). John immediately jumped to his feet and danced her all around the table right there in the dining room, in front of about 400 onlookers.  Pretty spry for a 72 year-old!

The international crew provided outstanding customer service that was both professional and personal. Frank loved practicing his Indonesian with our delightful and conscientious room stewards "Bambang" and "Hamka".  And our dining room servers, Darko from Croatia and Miller from Jamaica, joined in the dinner time fun.

We had beautiful weather for most of the trip and loved walking the promenades. We especially liked watching for flying fish. These amazing creatures shoot straight upward, out of the water and zoom across the waves flapping their "minature wings" for long distances; we saw some of them go as far as half a football field (150 yards).

Jane and Hannah Bailey (2 more of our table mates)


The last two days of our cruise, the weather changed as we picked up some remnants of Hurricane Thomas. The seas were really rough with waves of 10 - 12 feet. We had to be careful just walking around the ship, and at night it was like sleeping on a roller coaster. One older woman was knocked to the floor as we stood nearby; she was unconscious for a while, but thankfully, the medical team brought her around, and she was OK. Days after we had left the boat, we were still getting that sinking stomach feeling as if the earth was moving under our feet.


For our engineering friends out there (and the curious), the final tally of miles traveled on this cruise was 4934 nautical miles (1 nautical mile equals 1.15 land miles).