We started off on a new airline for us- Jet Blue. We had an eight AM flight from Newark, non stop to San Juan Puerto Rico. Randi had the car pick us up at 430. I thought we got some pretty good airfare, $160 per person plus 1 bag free. Ooops, I almost forgot, we upgraded for $30, which got us additional leg room and security "easy on," which was pretty good. Jet blue was nice; no problems except for the TVs that didn't work but the people behind us were nice enough to switch with us.
Got to SJ on time. While we were getting our bags, Randi realized her phone wasn't working. After what seemed like hours on the phone with many Verizon reps, a girl got it going. "Girl power" I think was the phrase, Randi shouted when the girl at the other end got the phone going.. Turned out later that the phone had to be replaced when we got home due to the mouthpiece not working.
Headed to El Convento and dropped out bags off while we headed for lunch and cocktails at Marilyn's place, did some pocketbook shopping and started the beginning of a relaxation vacation.
We had dinner at the hotel's tappas bar and called it an early night. Little did we know what was going to happen next.
I woke up around 2am hearing the crackle of a plastic water bottle and the next thing I heard was a terrible thump. I called out to Randi but there was no answer. As I rushed to turn the light on to see what was going on, I found Randi on the tile floor, face down and unresponsive. As I grabbed her in my arms and shouted her name for what seemed to be an hour, it really was only about 10 or 15 seconds before she came around from a fainting spell. She thought she had made it back to the bed and didn't know why I was 'waking her up.' Soon thereafter, I realized she was bleeding from the mouth area. We surmise when she hit the floor with her face, she bit her lip, knocked her teeth, bruised a cheek and bumped her eye which turned colors. I cleaned her up and got her back to bed trying to keep her awake for a while to make sure she was OK. Very scary.
In the morning she realized that her teeth slightly shifted. I said that maybe we should go home but she said no, made an appointment with the dentist for when we got home, then proceeded to have some breakfast before leaving for the ship.
Once aboard, we met up with Roger and Cil, Gail, Jeff and Kevin. Had some lunch in the bistro on five and went to see our stateroom.
There is a separate bedroom and great bath with glass stall shower doors.
Our table in the Cosmopolitan Restaurant was 206, to the right of the Captains table. Each night we dined with Gail, Jeff and Kevin, Mike and Allison. It was a good cross mix to make lively dinner conversation. Gwen and Sophia turned out to be a good wait staff; Unfortunately, Celebrity removed the bar servers from the main restaurant so they have less time to interject with the passengers. There were other reductions in staff for a total I was told of about 50.
At our first port, St. Martin, Randi stopped in at Ultimate Jewelers and traded up a few old items and I got a thicker chain for my old one. We also ordered some liquor from Gulmohrs to take home with us.
In St. Thomas we walked around the shops in Havensight near the cruise ship and got back on board.
Wednesday, Randi and I hosted a small get together in the Royal Suite with our table mates and our cocktail friends. Everyone enjoyed a wonderful spread with champagne, wine, cheeses, shrimp cocktail and grilled shrimp. We enjoyed until about 8:20.
Our last day at sea was a packing day but we were able to do that fairly quickly and still have almost the whole day to enjoy the ship.
Some notes:
There is a new alliance of Celebrity and Sin City Comedy. The show has been getting a preview on this cruise. Some say that it is too much on the ‘wild’ side and they didn’t like it. I have also heard that it has packed out on the scheduled nights and they have added one extra night to accommodate more audiences.
We had an additional scheduled formal on this cruise and we are not sure why. We've done this cruise for about the last 4 or 5 years and it has always been 2 formal nights which is what it is scheduled to be on an eight night cruise.
One disappointment was that the brunch in the main dining room was discontinued. This was a favorite event which we enjoyed attending in the past. Hopefully it will be restarted.
As I mentioned before there have been some personnel cuts for the crew, which have been impacting the crew to pax relationship. More would be detrimental, so my plea is for no more.
Captain Leo did a great job meeting and greeting all his passengers on this cruise. We need more outgoing Masters like him.
Lastly, sorry for little pictures on this cruise but my picture taking motivation simply was not there this cruise as we have done it may times before.
The disembarkation in Bayonne went really smoothly as we were suite VIPs and moved right though. Back in the house at 10:30 that Sunday morning. Another nice cruise!
To see all the pictures, click here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/markdegennaro/Summit042614?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMHRvpXp3tmJPA&feat=directlink
