CravingaCruise

Day 3 - Sea Day We forgot to set our time back an hour and then also forgot to reset our alarm so after a late night we were quite rudely awoken by our alarm. That could be some of the reason for our crankiness. After our coffee in the room we wandered around for a bit looking for good eats for breakfast and wound up at the cafe where the pasties were. Yum. After that we tried to explore places we hadn’t yet seen and found a quiet corner in Eden where we could watch the aft wake. I think I found my happy place. Beautiful, quiet, and relaxing music.

Oh! I forgot to tell you that someone at the martini bar was sprinkling something g into her drink across from us last night so Pop asked her if it was pixie dust. She came over and sprinkled glitter into our drinks and dropped a flashy bulb into both our drinks!!!! OMG! She is so nice! It was quite the entertainment for the rest of the night! At the end of the night they set up the silent disco where we were and we had so much fun!! OMG! Where are my eyes??? How can I possibly see?

Cabin pics! it’s a lovely room and we both really love the window from the bathroom looking out! We’re in the 2nd cabin from the magic carpet suites. Definitely an obstruction but not a deal breaker for us.

@SweetPea’s words of YOLO are now in my head. Ice cream!

Amen!!

Night 2 Activities After dinner at Luminae we went back to our room and quickly changed into casual wear. The restaurants on Celebrity all have signs posted requiring long pants in the dining rooms for dinner. Hubby lives in shorts - even in the dead of winter. His long pants for this trip will only be warm for dinner and pics - if I request them. We decided to spend our evening at the Martini Bar again. This has turned into our favorite place on the ship. @FirePantyPop is determined to get through the entire menu of martinis. I can tell you after last night that I will not be doing the same! Incidentally, this is one of the posts that I lost after contributing to it all night long! I was adding pics with the names of each martini as we ordered them so I wouldn’t have to try and figure them out later. Here’s take 2 with all the pics: Espresso martini Cosmopolitan martini Rose martini Mexicali martini Kale martini Bananas foster martini more caramel than banana

We did it! Pepperoni pizza did us both in! Very good!

I couldn’t have said that better!

Okay. I’ve been taking pics of the cruise planner each day and failing to post them so here are the first 3 days plus a few of the extra things that have welcomed us onboard. Note the priority disembarkation listed as one of our amenities. I think it would be good for the butler to read this. He’s practically non-existent. I think Star Class ruined us to regular butlers.

I’m so disappointed in the vegan options that I’m about to go back to being a carnivore for the rest of the cruise! @FirePantyPop and I have been unusually cranky this trip and I think it’s because of the lack of food choices. And everything tastes super bland. I don’t think they know how to season food properly! I’ve been so spoiled by Pop’s cooking!! He keeps saying he just needs a couple of hours in the kitchen with them and then we can eat. If only they would let him!!

I’m going to have to do that!

It knocks the wind out of you when you’re trying to keep a live blog going!

That’s what I’ve been using this entire time. I brought my computer but it’s been way more convenient to just blog from the phone.

Thank you! I just did that and will do that from now on. I figured I did something wrong but after so many times I knew it wasn’t me.

Dinner at Luminae Our server is Victor and our Sommelier is Alan. Writing this down so I don’t forget. The restaurant is beautiful and our service was really amazing! We kept forgetting to ask Victor for things so we were feeling super high maintenance for a bit but he rolled with it. If we decide to go back, we’ll continue to ask for his section even though at the end of the meal we waited for what seemed like an eternity for our final course. One of our preferred wines from a local (to us) vineyard (Montinore) is on board this ship and Alan brought it to me as a choice. I absolutely love it. I started with the wine and guess what Pop was drinking? Yep, water! How’d you guess?? Eventually I asked Alan for a glass for him and he gladly joined in. Our wine glasses, if ever they were empty, it was only for a moment. Alan kept the wine flowing the entire time! Loved that!! As for the food - the vegan options are terrible. For you carnivores, the table next to us was raving about how good their food was. I’m sure you all would be quite happy with it. They almost turned him with the braised short rib!! As for the rabbits in the house, the “vegan menu” was literally 1 salad, 1 soup, 1 main option, 1 dessert. That’s not a menu! That’s a fancy list of dinner items in a huge book! We ended up ordering the salad for our starter course and asked for a bowl of the soup as our main. They were both good, but it’s obvious that vegan was an afterthought here. The salad was supposed to have vegan parmesan cheese on it but it was missing, which tells me they weren’t prepared. We informed them when we made our reservations that we were vegan. Somebody wasn’t paying attention. Something you don’t know about us is that we both despise beets! Before our first course was served they brought out this cute little dish of some beet thing and I tried it to be a good sport…and then wanted to go throw up. Yuck!! At the end of the meal we were about to head out and Victor said he had a dessert special for us. We sat there for over 20 minutes when neither of us were really interested! I had tried a bite of the vegan carrot cake when we had walked through the buffet earlier in the day. It wasn’t great! I knew I wouldn’t like it so I didn’t want it. But we felt obligated because Victor made such a big deal about it. It shouldn’t have taken that long. Perhaps they were thawing it out from frozen or something. Who knows. In a world of good service, the server would have been watching the pace of our meal and would have requested it much earlier. Clearly this wasn’t the case. Overall, it’s quite lovely and if we were into long drawn out meals with only one option of food, we’d go back. We probably will attempt other venues for the remainder of the cruise. I’ve heard that if there is space available, as Retreat we can request Blu. Here are the pics from dinner last night: Regular menu Wine menu Vegan menu for yesterday Another vegan menu hiding under yesterday’s menu Beet thing Dinner rolls and butter - they don’t have a vegan butter option so I just used it - the rolls are yummy!! I have had a few Farro Salad Corn Chowder - not chowder at all! It was a puréed soup! Vegan carrot cake

I’ve written my blog for dinner last night 3 times and my page decides to reload and it wipes the entire thing out!!!

Nope. They’re coming! I may have forgotten. Shhh. Don’t tell.

Bite your tongue! Ice cream is one of the best ways!!

Nice!

Been there! As soon as we started doing suites Pop got too big for his (flaming) britches and decided he needs special treatment. He’s the most frugal person on the planet unless we’re talking about a cruise!

Hideaway Beach Review We got there first thing in the morning and we were able to beat most of the rush. It didn’t really start filling up until about 10:30 and it was super nice enjoying the pool and the swim bar without the crowds. We walked around to explore the space and found one place with just pizza at the far end and at the other end was burgers and chicken. They also had an ice cream machine with at least 3 people there to ensure you got your cone quickly. Since I was experiencing some sense of discipline this morning I didn’t partake but I did snap a photo of someone’s cone after he turned around just for @OCSC Mike. At the far end of the beach was a swing set over the water and Pop and I hung out there for a bit watching the birds all waiting for a school of fish to dare swim by. We got there early enough to grab one of the beds along the pool edge. It was lovely! We figured out quickly that the shade over us was adjustable so we could keep the sun off of Pop’s bald spot as it passed over us. Today was quite overcast so it wasn’t the blazing sun but it was certainly hot! We applied sunscreen constantly and I think we avoided burning…which is truly a hard thing for us Oregonians!! There is a live band that plays in the main hut and we sat there for a bit. They also have a pool table and shuffle board table there. The only bummer was they there was a smoking section down wind and that’s not a great thing for me. That’s one of the reasons we don’t ever go into the casino on Royal. BTW, the casino on Celeb is smoke free! Lunch was fine, and they had a decent number of choices, including a veggie burger for us plant eaters. It certainly doesn’t have the restaurant like the beach club does though. In my mind I kept comparing Hideaway Beach to the Beach Club. Here’s where the tally came out: Hideaway vs Beach Club: Pool: Hideaway - the infinite edge pool is wonderful! Food: Beach Club - you just can’t beat that restaurant! People: Hideaway was nice because it is adults only. We’re not fans of littles screaming and splashing nearby. At one point today the lifeguards started whistling at a group of gals who had started a big beach ball - which is a no no. They didn’t pay any attention to the lifeguards. It was quite funny. Size and space: Hideaway - much larger and definitely can accommodate large crowds. In our minds Hideaway wins!

Agreed. After I asked about priority debarkation he said he would come down but then the captain made an announcement and they let us off so we got off and let him know. When we got off with our genie, she had arranged a tram for us over to the beach club resort. Today we had to walk to the tram station at the end of the dock. I know, I know, first world problems. But still!!

OMG! PSA: Nobody wants to smell your nasty cologne / perfume! Especially if it smells like mold!!!!!

Oh ya! Here’s the pic of the goodies in the case!

Thank you! We’re at the beginning of a long journey! Ha! They give you the charm necklace so it will entice you into filling it up with charms. Apparently if you wear it to certain events they’ll give you some charms. They’re probably the size of a speck of sand though!