It is Friday March 30 and today we start our cruise. This is my first ocean cruise and I'm not totally sure what to expect. My travel mate's agent said we were on a "smaller" boat, but looking at it, there is nothing small about it. Apparently it has a capacity of 2,295 passengers plus another 1,000 crew. Not my vision of small but I suppose in the cruising world it is "smaller".
Our ship is the Celebrity Solstice. We are on the 6th deck near the center of the ship. Our paper work said our group should load around 4 pm but we showed up at 11 and I'm glad we did. Lines weren't too bad. We dropped off our luggage, headed through several queues to finally reach where we checked in. For some reason they thought my Passport number was wrong, but at second glance apparently they changed their mind and checked me in. Off to another series of queues until we finally boarded the ship. We were greeted by the staff selling reservations to the special restaurants (only another $50 per person) and an upgrade for our drink package. I took the drink package only because it included the Bailey's I enjoy with my coffee and I would learn later it also covered my lattes and mochas I was to enjoy at the coffee shop.
We had a welcome aboard champagne and had just sat down when they announced that our room was ready. We made our way to the cabin, which was quite nice. We had a nice balcony with chair and table, two twin beds, storage above and below the beds, a nice sized couch (I noticed later in other cabins it was made into a third bed), chest of drawers, nice sized closet and a nice bathroom with an almost full sized shower. Since my only experience has been with river cruises, I didn't know what to expect. This room was half again as big as a river cruise room so it seem very roomy.
Off to explore, get a bite to eat and get the scoop for dinner.. We were scheduled for the 8:30 dinner but got that changed to the 6 pm seating for the rest of the cruise.
Our first dinner was nice. Escargot, prime rib and a dulce de leche creme brulee. Generally it was good. The escargot were very good but a little shy on garlic. Everything else was nice.
We went up to the 15th deck to watch as we left harbor and we are off!
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| Tug boats guiding ship out |
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| Tug boats guiding ship out |
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| Officer steering (?) the ship out |
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| View from our patio |
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| Pmmegranite |
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| Passing by the Sydney Opera House as we sail out of the bay |
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| First sunset at sea |
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| Trays are carried from galley to the front service area - amazing how many they can carry. |
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| Escargot |
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| Prime rib |
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