Day 2, Sea Day

Welcome back everyone, I hope you all enjoyed my first post. Now that I have caught up with my tasks around the house, who knew you would have to mow the lawn at the end of march, time to continue.

So the next day on the cruise was a sea day. I really enjoy sea days as you get to relax and enjoy the day. Now a bit of a disclaimer for this day, I didn’t take a lot of photos. Luckily my sister did so I will be using hers mostly here.

Look at this beautiful view. I love the ocean especially when you get a calm view like this.

So as usual we went up to the buffet to get our breakfast. I love the buffet on this ship as you get a large selection of food. Some examples, you can have four different versions of eggs benedict, there was English breakfast with fried toast and blood sausage, and your usual staples like waffles, eggs, toast, hashbrowns and more.

Here is a quick picture of my breakfast this morning. Some of the best hollandaise sauce around.

So I decided that I would do Galley tour that was being held that morning. I always find it interesting seeing behind the scenes and meeting the staff that help keep the ship running. We met at the main dining room at 10:45. I got there a few minutes before and it was already pretty full. They gave you a number and showed you to an area to sit. I was in the last group so had to wait for everyone else go through.

As we waited they introduced all the head chiefs of all he the restaurants and explained how everything works. They then took questions from the audience as they took groups through the kitchen.

Had a laugh at one of the questions. The head chief of the ship was asked if they had ever run out of anything. He said that on Celebrity he has never run into that problem, but on another cruise he has. He said that most people wouldn’t understand unless you worked in the kitchens but did say to just imagine doing a thanksgiving dinner service and running out of turkey half way through. Not a situation I would want to be in.

Finally my group got called and we headed into the kitchen.

 Here is a shot of the head chief. The luck of being the last group we get the best tour guide.

Here is a quick look at the dishwashing area. They are setup so there are two sides so no chance of getting cross contaminated.

These two workers are working on the sushi selection for the buffet that evening.

This section is where they do all the fresh prep. You can see lettuce sitting on the counter getting read for salad.

After this we were led out to the foyer on deck 4 where each of the restaurants onboard had tables setup to show you what food is available. We had all bought the 3 dinner package so we could eat at all three of the restaurants. We had Silk Harvest this night but we will get there.

This is the only picture I have from the culinary showcase. This table is for silk harvest and in the background you can see the table for bistro on 5.

After this I headed back to the room to relax and watch a movie. I was the walk which I found very interesting though the rest of my family didn’t like it.

Meanwhile my sister and wife had the night before been invited to a wine tasting seminar that was by invite only. They were busy trying different wines and such. Here are a few pictures that she took.

These are a few wines that they tried. They had a sheet that they could mark which ones the liked and on my wife’s sheet she marked one as tasting like my old dirty feet. Isn’t she a great wife?

So as I was watching my movie I get a phone call from my wife. I guess my sister and her decided that since they were already buzzed from the wine that they should keep it going so made it down to the bar on the third floor. They wanted me to join them for some drinks.

Now I am not a big drinker. The odd run and diet coke or mudslide maybe. So I knew going down they would try to get me to drink but I went anyways.

So I show up and find them sitting on the couch drinking away. I could tell right away that my wife was drunk by just the way she was acting. Right away they got me to get a drink since I had to catch up. I believe I tried a rum runner. I like sweet drinks if I am going to drink at all.

So there we are drinking away as they tell me all about there wine and how much they liked it. Suddenly the phones come out and they begin taking selfies. Here are a few examples.

 My beautiful wife and sister.

The three of us drinking. Yes that was an alcoholic drink I was having.

After dealing with this for about an hour the women got the wonderful idea to call Jordan because my sister was going to need help getting back to the room. So off my wife went to call them. Sadly I have not pictures of her trying to keep herself steady while using the phone but it was a sight to see.

Jordan came down with Sabrina and unbeknownst to my wife and sister I had disappeared back to the room to finish my movie as I was done dealing with them. I guess when the kids got down they decided to get food. Jordan was in love with the burgers from the mast grill and it looks like that is where they went next as per this picture.

Then it looks like the selfies started again out on the deck.

After this it appears they went inside to get ice cream and more drinks.

And following this as the story I was told my sister was hand talking and knocked her drink on the floor. Of course she took a photo to prove it.

So that was the fun afternoon of wine tasting and more drinks. At this point I know my wife came back to the room to complain that I had disappeared on them. I was finishing up my movie which she complained about me watching till the end.

After this it was our usual ritual to have a nice nap for an hour or so and then we watched TV and got ready for our dinner at the specialty restaurant at Silk Harvest.

So on our way to the restaurant we took some nice pictures of the family. This was the first evening chic night so we had dressed up a bit. Here are a few of the pictures.

Aren’t we just a happy family all dressed up.

So off to Silk Harvest we went. We had been to this restaurant the last time we were on the Equinox and had gone back a second time due to an issue in Murano’s. We loved every minute of it that time but this time was a little different.

So above is the menu posted outside the door. There are different options to choose from. Small plates for individuals and large plates for sharing. We made our way into the restaurant and were seated at our table. We met our waiter (sorry don’t remember his name) and the young lady assisting him (again don’t remember the name). We looked through the menu and began to order.

Some wonderful wonton soup.

Pork pot stickers which my wife loves.

Orange chicken which was delicious.

Cream cheese wontons which are to die for. One of my favorite things at this restaurant.

And of course shrimp tempura. We ended with at least 4 orders of these and I was stuffed on them. We did order a lot more. If you want to see pictures of more let me know.

On another side note my brother Jordan was obsessed with trying caviar and when he realised that the sushi came with it the young lady was nice enough to bring him out a “small” bowl of it.

Lets just say he wasn’t a big fan of it. Took one bite and that was it.

At this point we were pretty full and had begun to notice that our waiter had not returned in some time. Next to us was a table of 9 and we watched as they had 5 waiters helping them at a time while none of them would acknowledge us. After about 20 minutes the young lady who had helped us with drinks had come over and tried to help us. My sister commented on what had happened and a few minutes later the maitre’d was over to listen to the issue.

My sister and wife explained what was going on and told him what we had seen at the other table and pretty much came out saying that we were lying and his staff wouldn’t do that. My wife, sister, and I all work in some form of customer service and we know when we are not getting good service. After our complaint the maitre’d went back to the kitchen to find out what happened.

Meanwhile the young lady took our dessert order and we had those brought our though we were extremely full.

This is the caramelized banana coconut. I really enjoyed it though my grandmother did say it tasted a little off to her.

This the cheesecake rainbow roll that my mother ordered. She didn’t like it so gave it to me. The middle one was fantastic but the other two I wasn’t sure what flavour they were but I did not like them at all.

This is a plate of assorted fruit and gelato that my mother got to replace the cheesecake. This isn’t on the menu but they were nice enough to get it for her.

After eating our dessert the maitre’d came back to apologise for what had happened and offered to make it up to us by having us back. We told him we were not impressed and that we would think about it.

After this we left the restaurant and decided to take a group photo. One of the crew members was nice enough to take it so I could actually be in it.

After this Jordan, Sabrina, Jacqueline, and I headed back to the room while the other three headed to the casino. I ended up getting changed and heading out for a walk on the top decks and to get my nightly sugar free jello and a drink from Happy.

After this I sat on our deck for while listening to music and watching the night go by. Its so relaxing out there listening to the waves it really does relax you.

Next day was Cozumel and my wife, Jordan, Sabrina, and I had a excursion lined up, but little did we know how sick we would be in the morning.

First Post

Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog. I am going to use it to talk about travel, photography, food, video games, and whatever else I find fun. For my first post I am going to start with our cruise we just came back from. This is going to take a little bit as it was a 11 days and I am still sorting out the pictures and such but I will try and post every day or two to keep it updated. So lets begin.

This cruise we went on was with Celebrity cruises on the Equinox. I was traveling with my wife Jacqueline, my older sister Jeniffer, my younger sister Sabrina, my younger brother Jordan, my mother Jan, and my grandmother May. We were on the 10th floor of the ship which is the library floor in rooms 1211,1209, and 1207. I do apologise now as I did not take a lot of pictures of the ship for some reason but here is a picture of the library.

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The cruise ran from March 14 to March 25. The ship was leaving from Fort Lauderdale and was traveling to: Cozumel Mexico, Puerto Limon Costa Rica, Colon Panama, Cartagena Columbia, and Grand Cayman. We flew in on the redeye the sunday night before. Living in Abbotsford B.C. we had to travel to Seattle airport to get our flight. Lucky for us there were four accidents and the bridge was closed to get into Seattle because of high winds. We left for our two hour drive at 2pm for our 7pm flight. We got to the airport by 5:30pm and lucky for us our flight was delayed due to the wind storm till 9pm. We decided to get a bite to eat while at the airport and I took a couple of pictures.

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 This is a picture of my brother Jordan, my sister Sabrina (pink hair) and my wife (Jacqueline). You will also notice that we have a Travelocity gnome on the table. He travels with us wherever we go and we do try and get as many pictures with him as we can. He will pop up in more pictures.

After finally getting on the plane and making it to San Francisco we had about a 20 minute layover before we had to hop on to the next flight to Fort Lauderdale.

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 Here is a picture of Jacqueline and Jordan with Gnomie in San Francisco right before we jumped on the next plane. If you look in the background the blonde in the wheelchair is my mother Jan. You wont see much of her as she doesn’t like her picture taken, kind of like me.

So we make it to Fort Lauderdale at 7:30am. This is the time we had to wait. We couldn’t go to the port until later in the morning so my wife and sister Jeniffer went and got coffee at starbucks and the rest of us found a little restaurant in the airport where we got some breakfast to waste time.

After wasting a bit of time we decided that at 10 am we would head to the port. So we grabbed a couple of cabs since they wont fit 7 people and 11 bags. Getting to the port was uneventful and by the time we unloaded and checked in our bags we had to wait again.

They opened the doors to the port around 10:30 and we headed in. We were some of the first people in and we checked in and got the family all setup with there sea passes and headed to the waiting area.

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 Here is Jordan, Jacqueline and I waiting to be let on the ship. My wife loves selfies so there will be a few in here.

At 11 or so they started letting us on the ship. At this point I do want to note that for Jordan and Sabrina this is there first cruise. Me this is my third, my wifes second and the rest of the family at least four or more. Jordan and Sabrina were both very excitied as you can see by Jordan in the picture.

Once onboard we headed to our favorite place on the ship which is Bistro on 5. This is a great little restaurant that serves crepes, entrees, soups, milkshakes, floats, and more. I know they have changed it to sushi on one of the other ships but that hasn’t happened full fleet yet so we were still happy. And yes you do have to pay $10 to eat here but it is worth it and you can eat as much as you want. Jordan later on in the cruise came back and ate a hamburger and 5 crepes. He is a bottomless pit.

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 Here is our family picture in Bistro on 5. I take this picture every cruise, just remember I am not in it.

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 Here is a picture of one of the crepes.

So while eating we hear the anoucement that our rooms are ready so we all headed up to our rooms to get ready for muster drill. We met our room steward at this point. His name was Baso and he was very attentive. He would always say hi to us when we saw him and would check in with us throughout the day. A little secret we have learned is to tip at the beginning of the cruise and a little at the end. We have always got outstanding service doing this.

We all ended up taking a nap since we were all exhausted from our flight until it was time for the muster drill. We proceeded to the photo studio to watch our video and then went back to our room.

We all had rooms with balconies so we could relax and watch as we sailed away from Fort Lauderdale. Here is a  picture of us leaving.

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So after this we pretty much just relaxed while we waited for dinner. I was tired along with my wife so I know we took a nap. Dinner was at 8:30 so we had plenty of time to rest up.

Here is the menu for the first night.

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 Looks like the above image got corrupted but you can still see what is on it.

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 French onion soup which is always good.

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 This was the Thai Coconut soup. It was very spicy and is a cold soup. I was not a big fan of it and ate only about half.

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 Prime rib for dinner, how could you go wrong.

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 Crème Brule for my grandmother.

 

Sabrina had chocolate cake.

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She also had apple pie.

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I believe Jordan had the crepe.

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I had cheesecake with mango topping. It was fantastic.

After dinner Sabrina and I went to watch the film for the night which was Vacation. I enjoyed the movie even for a third time. Sabrina really enjoyed it also for her first viewing.

After the movie we went to the buffet to get a snack before bed and get a drink. This is when we met our new bartender friend named Happy (that was his name on his badge). Every evening when I went up there he was working and we would talk about how they day had been, how the cruise was going, and how the family was. He was a very nice gentleman.

After this we went back to our rooms and headed to bed and that is the end of our first day.

I hope you enjoy my first post. I will try and update regularly. If you have any questions feel free to ask me.