Thursday,
May 9, 2013
Slept
late today because of the brunch in the dining room. Went to the
brunch and it was not as crowded or chaotic as it usually was, but
table service was terrible. We got one cup of coffee and one glass
of water and that was it. We both had fresh waffles because we
haven't had any yet this cruise, but there was no orange butter.
Haven't been to the buffet to see if it's missing in action there as
well. We were seated at a table with 4 French Canadians.
Carolyn
had to do a bit more shopping after that—she bought two new fleece
jackets. I couldn't possibly cram even one more fleece jacket into
my suitcase, so I'll have to make do with the one I brought.
Then
we went to see the officers dancing with the guests which was quite
hysterical. When they got it down to three couples, the audience got
to vote on the winners.
Came
back to the room and finished my book, The End of Life Book Club
by Will Schwalbe, which was scheduled to vanish into the ether
shortly. Excellent book and contains recommendations of many books
he and his mother, Mary Ann, discussed as she was dying of cancer.
Some I've read; others not. I was writing them all down, only to
discover that they're all listed in an appendix. Could have printed
that out at home. Not so here when we can't even get on the internet
most of the time.
We've
decided to try dining in Blu tonight. Marilyn and J announced
they're sick of dining in the main dining room. We're not too
excited about it either. No waiter who is happy to see us and
service is uneven.
Enjoyed
the dinner in Blu and being waited on by Domnik. It's much quieter
in Blu and easier to carry on a conversation. Food is about the
same.
Friday,
May 10, 2014
Gene
was 15 minutes late with the wakeup coffee this morning. All the
lost hours are taking a toll. Having two nights in a row where we
lost an hour seems to have affected everyone.
Went
to Blu for breakfast. Have to meet with British immigration and be
“personally inspected” today at 12:45. That's when we get our
passports back. Will be interesting to see how that goes.
We are
really rocking and rolling today. Started yesterday. I like being
rocked from side to side in bed at night. Walking is interesting.
We all look like we're drunk. Even the maitre d' was having trouble
this morning. Up to this point, we've had an unusually smooth
crossing according to the staff who have done it many times.
Well,
the British immigration person seemed to be happy with us. We asked
her about clearing customs when we get to Harwich. She said she had
just cleared us. So I went to the shore ex desk to find out why we
had to assemble an hour in advance of the tour to clear customs.
Totally clueless person said we had to collect our luggage. This
tour is only open to those who are on a b2b, so no luggage involved.
I asked her about our transit passes—she had no idea what I was
talking about. I explained to her what transit passes were, she
still had no clue. Went to guest relations. She said we'll get them
the night before disembarcation.
Gorgeous
afternoon. Sun is shining away. We went out and read/napped on our
lovely chaise lounges complete with blankets. I could grow to like
staying in this suite! Of course, we won't have many afternoons to
laze away on the next cruise, and the following cruise we again have
a huge balcony with loungers.
No
internet connection all day.
Still
no internet after dinner. Tonight was the second formal night. Had
the usual hoo ha in the main dining room with waving the napkins and
parading the waiters, etc. around. I'm hopeful we won't have to
experience this in Blu on the next leg.
Went
to hear both the guitarists after dinner. And Carolyn wanted to go
to the show to hear a singer. We had originally planned to go to the
show, but the production show was cancelled because we're still
rocking and rolling and it's too dangerous for the dancers.
Stopped
to talk to David to see if he'd solved our dining problem for the
next cruise. He was not available, but I was told he would call me
back within half an hour. So my guess is he hadn't done anything.
He did call back and told me we will be dining in Blu. He doesn't
seem to grasp how much we missed the use of the balcony the days we
suffered from the sewage smell. He said we couldn't have used it
today—I informed him that we spent the entire afternoon out there.
I'm
not in the least impressed with the attention to detail on this ship.
Lots of things are not being taken care of. We have to call every
afternoon for ice. It's interesting that they provide two bottles of
booze and mixers with our suite but no ice! We had to ask for extra
drink glasses after we had people in for drinks and discovered we
only had two glasses. Our table in the main dining room is always
missing something. Tonight it was the candle. We've not received
the end of the cruise guest comment card to fill out. They're
probably afraid of what we'll say. All small things, but added
together they say that things are very sloppy on this ship. That's
not keeping us from having a good time, but it's not the usual
excellent Celebrity experience.
Tomorrow
we call in Cherbourg, France. We have a very short port call, so
we're taking a ship's excursion to the D Day beaches so they have to
worry about getting us back to the ship on time instead of our
worrying about it.
Saturday,
May 11, 2013
Had
breakfast with a nice couple this morning. He's also an Army brat
and was stationed at some of the same places we were. They are
taking the same Celebrity shore excursion we are, so may see them
again. They're doing the crossing, doing a land tour of Britain, and
then returning on the Queen Mary.
Briefly
got on the internet and got to clear out the e-mail.
Went
on our Celebrity tour of the beaches. First stop was the American
Cemetery at Omaha Beach. Very moving to see all those crosses and
stars of David lined up row on row. All those lovely young men who
never got to live their lives.
We
then went to Omaha Beach and saw the remains of the temporary loading
docks the Allies built to land supplies. It was interesting in that
they could transport the steel parts, but they had to drag the
concrete piers behind the ships. They were too heavy to be
transported on the ships.
Our
final visit was to Sainte Mère
Église, which was the first
village to be liberated. It's famous for the paratrooper who got
hung up on the spire of the church. He was captured by the Germans,
but managed to escape later. The church has stained glass windows
showing Mary surrounded by paratroopers. It also has a stained glass
window depicting St. Michael, the patron saint of paratroopers.
We had
taken a ship excursion which was fortunate, because we did not get
back to the ship until after we were supposed to be on board. And
there were other buses arriving after ours.
We had
pre-arranged for Gene to serve us dinner in our suite with Marilyn
and J (who were also on the tour) because we knew we'd be tired and
we would miss our dinner seating time. It was a very nice way to end
the day.
Sunday,
May 12, 2013
Had
Gene serve us breakfast in the room because we were expected to stop
up in the sky lounge at 8:30 to get back to back instructions and
then we had arranged to meet those who were sharing our vans to
Bruges in Café al Bacio at
9:15. Well the thing in the sky lounge was the usual Celebrity
cluster, only two lines for LOTS of people. Turns out we could have
picked up our new sea passes the night before in guest relations.
Will know better next time.
Our
two vans showed up as promised, all the people who had reserved them
showed up as promised, and we took off for Bruges in an intermittent
drizzle. Carolyn and I were glad we had previously done the walking
tour and the canal boat tour since it didn't appear to be a
particularly nice day for either. It did stop raining by the time we
were dropped off in Bruges, and we set off to explore on foot. Kept
searching for places with internet service since it is very sporadic
on the ship, but no luck. Made my usual Leonidas purchase and we
found a restaurant for lunch which served absolutely the best Belgian
waffle I have ever tasted. After lunch, we got into the church now
that mass was over in order to see the Michelangelo. The church is
all torn up—they are doing major renovations, but the Michelangelo
is still there.
We
continued wandering around and ended up back in the Markt where the
vans were scheduled to pick us up again. Still had some time left,
so Carolyn continued shopping (what a surprise!) and I walked around
taking pictures and tried to get on the internet in a place that
allegedly offered it with no success. Our vans then showed up to
take us back to the ship.
Now we
are thinking about gathering up all our junk so Gene and Marta can
move us tomorrow while we're off on our excursion. Would be nice to
stay in this wonderful suite, but not so nice to get the bill for it!
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