She Sails Away

Happy cruising!

That Magic Carpet was so nice!

Sounds like you are off to a great start with that express boarding! Hoping you have a restful week with no man overboards, evacuations, or any of those things that happened last time. And Aqua 80!! Lucky you

I'm on Xcel in January. When id the maiden voyage?

Oh my goodness. Well at least you know that you weren't just abnormally unbearably tired after lunch. What a wrench to happen on your very last afternoon when you have so much to do!

Do you have a favorite hangout spot on the ship?

Gosh I'm so interested in your entertainment choices. You have a whole different set of shows that I had last week. They look amazing and ours were, too!

We visited on Oasis two weeks ago, I think the 19th? It was a Level 3 and no one seemed to care, including folks in our Facebook group. We seemed to have no problems other than one excursion returning late. I stayed on ship. This does raise plenty of questions. When DO they decide to cancel a port? Do they factor in warnings? Wait for an incident? Interesting discussion.

Jamaica was level 3 when I went on Oasis two weeks ago. We still went, and excursions went as scheduled. We were not warned by anyone (not that I expect to be), and when I mentioned the Level 3 warning in our Facebook group, people were dismissive. No one in the group reported any issues. The main complaint was the short day. (930-330). I stayed on the ship that day.

That beach looks amazing!

Congratulations on third! I'm sure the competition was huge. So sorry for all you're going through right now with your stepfather and the estate settling. I just need to say that I love the name "Moody Garden Hotel." How could anyone pass up such an intriguing place? I am a solo cruiser too, enjoying your blog!

That is beyond rude of them!

And! I just got notified that I made Diamond with my sailing on Oasis. Somehow I didn't know that was going to happen. Very excited! My next royal cruise is not until December on Utopia, but I plan to discover all of those diamond benefits to the max.

What is up with that? How depressing if you are a cabin steward who has to work in that hallway all day.

WOW that's a pretty cabin! Love your photos!

CRUISE DAY!

Boy, if you want to get off the ship the fastest, self assist is always the way to go. Also a great way to see who is under the age of 60 on board. I think every one of us youngsters were self-assisted this morning and it was quite a crowd. But it was honestly about a 15 minute process from the time I hit deck five to the time I was looking for a taxi. A few random thoughts about Ascent. -no need to go over again what a beautiful ship it is, I think I've covered that. -wonderful staff. Top-notch. -I like the infinite veranda. It does tend to be a warm space during the day and I found that closing the blinds if I'm leaving the room for a while really helps. -Love love love the touchless public restroom doors. Everybody in the world needs to have these everywhere. -Love the smokeless casino and the absence of a stink cloud on Deck 4. -that film crew was a nuisance, but I do look forward to seeing the ads that come out of it. I do think that the actors they used were much younger than average demographic on the particular sailing I was on. -Super entertainment. Nothing competes with the Aqua Show or the Ice show, these are very different forms of entertainment and what they offered on this ship was really terrific. -people are people wherever you go. Doesn't matter the cruise line, there's always going to be a small chunk of your fellow passengers who are rude, cut in line, are mean to the staff, and don't wash their hands before coming to the buffet, or talk through a whole live performance. -I got the sense that most of the people on board were seasoned Celebrity cruisers and were there to revel in what they know and are familiar with and expect and enjoy. Oasis felt like a larger mix of newbies. -The two ships I used were very different from each other and not even in the same space to compare. I enjoyed different things about both ships. Ascent was obviously a newer, flashy, more refined and elegant and clean-looking ship. Less to "do", (depending on what you like to do with your cruise ) but very very classy. looking forward to reading about others experiences on both of these ships in the future. and now home to family and my cat

I love those little ducks! I think it's great you're hiding them. It will bring lots of kids… And a few adults… Lots of excitement to find one.

J & J Cruises! Josh and Jordan

@Lovetocruise2002 those are amazing photos!

I did a morning stretch class on the rooftop garden with everybody, had a massage, and just noodled away the day. Packed up and ready to go home tomorrow. I heard somewhere a warning that Fort Lauderdale port area is going to be exceptionally crowded tomorrow because there are so many large ships coming in at the same time with disembarkation and new people and embarking. Shouldn't be an issue for me as I plan to be off the ship with self assist by 7:30 and my flight isn't until noon. When I began this blog, I thought I would probably wrap up by comparing Oasis to Ascent. I can see now that's pointless. They are not targeted for the same audience and it's comparing apples to oranges. It really comes down to which ship is right for me and which type of cruising experience is right for me, you can't go wrong with either ship. As I said, this ship is magnificent, brand new, has a much different more upscale and resort feel to it then I have experienced before. But it's not upscale to the point where it feels like I'm in a whole other world. It's just classy. There is a much different vibe on here than Oasis, of course, a much different demographic of age groups, a much different focus. The crowd aboard this ship wants to do different things with their time than the majority of people on Oasis want to do with their time. The people here have come for fine dining, cocktails, dressing up for dinner, dancing at night with a live band, and day-drinking the hours away by the pool. Nobody is here because they're dying to go to the Caribbean or ride a waterslide or stand in line for the aqua show. (Or spend time with kids or grandkids. So few kids on this ship!) Because so many folks are in the same age bracket here (over 75) there are a lot of friendships being struck up, lots of long conversations in hot tubs and by the pool. The crowd seems more social here than I am used to. I would estimate the entire cruise crowd to be 75% over the age of 50, with most of that group over the age of 75. Across-the-board, the staff has been wonderful. So engaged, so friendly, you can see they're working like crazy, but they are so bright eyed and cheerful and friendly and helpful. Anyway, I'm going to reflect on a few things before I offer any final thoughts on the subject, and I may or may not have much to add as far as anything helpful or insightful to people considering either ship. Thanks for hanging in there with me on my two week journey, it went off the rails a little bit healthwise this past week but nothing terrible. It's been a lot of fun and I am so glad I tried out this particular ship. I think I have a good feel for what Celebrity is like now and what to expect. And I would not hesitate to sail with them again. Of course the Ascent has set the bar very high and it would be hard to picture trying out one of their smaller ships now at this point. lots to love here.

Anyway, it was a day of high activity on the pool deck. This was the busiest I've seen the pool deck all week. Every single chair was taken on the pool deck, even in the shaded surrounding stretches, and also every chair up on the sundeck was taken as well. People really really spent the day outdoors today And even though I'm by myself I would've been hard-pressed to find a lounge chair if I wanted one. At one point they had a dance class on the pool deck and it was just an absolute mob. Shoulder to shoulder people bobbing and weaving. They moved the magic carpet down to deck five today so it was practically sitting on the water, they timed it so you could sit out there and watch the sunset and we just happened to have a glorious sunset. I went up to Sunset bar and True to its name, it was the perfect location to watch the sun sink into the ocean. It was packed of course and lots of people lining the rails to take pictures of themselves or selfies or couple shots with the sun in the background. Really nice.

Ok. I just went down to the coffee shop on deck four, Cafe Biaco, my most favorite place for grabbing endless bottles of water and cookies and coffees twice a day. I've been there many times for tea. They have a huge seating area and I'm often getting tea and sitting around. So I just went down there tonight and they just smiled and said, Hello Miss Kelly. Without even looking at my sea pass card. So now I feel a little choked up about that. They are most definitely some of the hardest working people on the ship, that place never stops. And I did not see much in the way of tipping all week over there. Well. Lots to tell for the last day. For one thing, lunch turned out to be a huge big grand surprise at the Oceanview buffet today. It was a gigantic seafood spread, I mean there was shrimp and boiled crayfish as far as the eye could see. Row after row after row of boiled shrimp and boiled bright red crayfish. Plenty of other things as well like salad and fruit and bread and grilled meats, but oh my goodness the seafood. Not in the least appealing for a vegetarian, but everybody else was excited. The other big surprise at lunch was the dessert bar. Naturally they always have a huge selection of colorful desserts. And then throughout the week at the coffee shop downstairs, they always have three cakes of the day. Each day they have three different cakes and you can go up to the coffee shop and get a complimentary slice. These are the most amazing looking cakes, super tall and super shiny and very well decorated. They don't look normal at all, they look like works of art. So every day it's interesting to go see which three cakes of the day are available. Well today at the lunch buffet along with all of that seafood, they had every single cake they make laid out in a long row along the dessert buffet. It was the most colorful and beautiful thing you can imagine. And of course I did not have my phone with me so I wasn't able to get a photo. I came back later and the whole thing was destroyed, so you'll just have to take my word for it. It was amazing. (I have one photo of one cake I took earlier in the week I will share here. ) And then while everybody was sitting around stuffing their face, all of the chefs from top chef to Assistant chef on down came marching through the dining room. And the officers came behind them clapping and encouraging us to clap as well, which we all did. There was a thunderous round of applause for these hard-working folks and it was so fun.

My favorite place up top by far is the rooftop garden. Just an amazing wonderful space. So relaxing and for some reason it never feels crowded. Part of the day the huge open space is used for pickle ball but they take the net down after a little while and it's mostly open. They have stretch class here in the morning, and they show movies outdoors. So fun.

Watching Miami port cam for departure!