Coming on Board the Celebrity Solstice

October 23, 2011

We caught the blue bus for 2 Euros each, instead of paying 36 Euros for the two taxis it would have taken to transport us to the harbour.  Mary and I were going to do another day of the Hop-On, Hop-Off bus, but by the time we reached the terminal, we changed our mind.  Ten pieces of luggage went onto the bus and we piled it in the luggage section.  But there was a contingent of shipboard crew who also caught the bus, a group of tourists going to Dock A, and then us – at Doc B.  Mary looked out the back door, saw the big puddle that we would have to step through if the driver stopped there as it seemed he planned to do, and whispered to me, “Surely, he will drive a little further ahead so we miss the puddle.”  But no, we were just lucky that he stopped long enough for us at terminal B to get our luggage off.  We are a well trained team now – knowing how to keep out clothing we will need for the day, and packing everything else.  As well, we can unload luggage from a jam packed bus – Greg placing it at the back door, Mary picking it off, and Wyona and I running it around the puddle and to a back fence, all the while keeping an eye on it so that no one picks up a stray piece and gets off with it.  That is really part of the fun of cruise travel.  having a full load already to go back. 

We met back in our room tonight, watching a lightening storm from our baloney.  Here is how the conversation went.

Wyona: I can’t keep up with the meal schedule.  I am cutting back to 2 meals a day for the rest of the cruise.

Greg: I am the same.  Two meals is enough.  (This does not mean that he is giving up his cookie stash in the stateroom cupboard, which is always fresh and has perfect variety and is always topped up.)

Mary: There is nothing like a perfect meal with an ocean view.  I had two of them today.  I intend to continue having 3 meals a day and enjoying the view from a large ship, since it is nothing I ever dreamed would happen to me.

Arta: What is getting me down is not the three meals a day, but that each meal comes with five courses.  For example, dinner tonight was a cheese plate, shrimp and scallops with lime dressing, Hugarian beef goulash, Beef Wellington, apricot tart and a shared cheesecake. The waitress let us all know why there are three desserts they keep on the menu all of the time:  apple pie a la mode, New York cheese cake, and crème brulee.  At least I am saved on the later, creme brulee,  – never having developed a taste for any dessert you have to take a blow torch to.