Celebrity Cruise 2010

After the Oyster Festival and the celebration of our 50th Wedding Anniversary in October 2009, our next trip was a cruise on Celebrity Mercury from Baltimore to the Caribbean

Bob was basically packed a week beforehand. I mostly packed on Sunday, after we went over to get the rental car ($19.95/day). They gave us an Elantra which we weren't familiar with at all.

Monday 11 January 2010

we were up by 7, and I did the last quick and free internet before we left at 9.

Our house as we left the driveway

The drive up to the airport went well. We stopped at the Royal gas station and 'filled up' - gas was $2.65/gal and the car only took 2 (two) gallons. That meant 44 mpg which was GOOD.

Royal Farms

When we got to the car return place, they offered to drive us to the airport, so we didn't even have to get the bags out of the trunk. She dropped us right off where the taxi rank was. Bob tipped her $2.00.

We got an Indian (from Punjab) taxi driver.

Photo of Celebrity Mercury from the cab

I was able to get only one not so good photo of the ship as we approached (11:21) because I was on the wrong side of the taxi. There are no pictures allowed inside the terminal itself.

The driver took us to the boarding area without stopping to drop luggage off. My bag was heavy so I wanted to have it brought on board for me so I insisted on finding the luggage drop place. Bob waited with his bags. I couldn't easily get money so I didn't tip the baggage man although I wanted to. Bob usually does that.

Then they directed us to go to the security line. I had my wheeled computer bag but of course the place to put the computer was right at the bottom with everything else on top. They wanted me to pull the computer out and send it through the scanner separate, so I did. But I couldn't just slide it back in because everything on top of it had dropped down into the hole left by the computer, so this was a problem. As an example, the ball of my trackball dropped to the floor and rolled across the terminal to another area. So I got a lot of help, and they directed us to the handicapped check-in line.

Here we were checked in very quickly, and given an orange priority boarding pass. They asked if I wanted a wheelchair and I said yes and Bob said no I didn't need one. After we went over and sat in the priority section, I said I DID want a wheelchair so I got one pushed by a short slight woman. She said she was on the night cleaning staff for the public areas of Celebrity Mercury. The wheelchair was a Celebrity wheelchair.

When they let the orange priority people get on, it was about noon. I don't know what kind of picture they have for me because the lady pushing the chair didn't get me anywhere close to the picture taking place.

We went out onto the dock and both my attendant and I looked at the steep ramp up to the ship and thought "OMG we will never make it". But they brought us in down on dock level.

Then we got into an elevator to go up to the buffet. Here is where I noticed one significant fact about this ship. The elevators are small. They say that the limit is 13 people but we had a hard time fitting me the wheelchair pusher, Bob and his bags into it. For there to be 13, half of them would have to be small children. The most we've been able to fit has been about 8 or 9.

The other thing we noticed about the elevators - it is almost impossible to tell what floor you are on. Fortunately when the doors open there are big numbers on each floor to tell you where you are.There is a sign over the door inside the elevator, but the reflections from the lights in it make it hard or impossible to read, if the sign works at all which some of them don't.

Elevator floor sign - can you see it?

Or at least no matter how hard I squint, I can't see anything there. There is even one elevator where the up/down lights outside the elevator don't work so you have to ask the people inside (if any) "Which way are you going?".

I took a photo of the clock as she pushed me through the pool area on the way to the buffet and it said 12:15.

Clock by the pool

We settled ourselves in the buffet to have lunch because it was lunchtime,

Welcome cake

and they said our rooms wouldn't be ready until one. About 1315, we decided to go down to our room even though they were still announcing that the rooms weren't ready, and our room was ready.

We have an inside room and we usually check with the bow camera to see what the weather is outside. I find it relaxing to watch the TV showing the bow camera. But on the Mercury, the bow camera is not on all the time, and it is about a third of the screen on the TV. It alternates with the chart which sort of shows where the ship is.

Collage of the TV channel from St. Thomas - on the left the chart. On the right the bow camera

Unfortunately the scale of the chart and the size of the ship on it makes it difficult to tell exactly where the ship is. When she was in Baltimore, the symbol covered most of the Chesapeake Bay.

The room is very nice. There is no sofa or table which means that in the cabin we slept a lot because we were already on the bed. The corridor with the bathroom on one side and closets on the other is dead ended into a wall instead of the door to the corridor so there is plenty of room to walk around the bed.

Bed and bedside table

There is a safe which is easy to use (does not require a credit card)

Safe

and it is concealed behind the mirror over the desk.

Collage showing the Safe behind the desk mirror -- bottom mirror closed, top mirror open

There's a TV which has CNN, ESPN, and movies and stuff from the Travel/National Geographic channels,

TV with a shelf under it - my cane and the cabin door on the right

plus the usual ship information stuff. We have a mini fridge but it is stuffed with things we don't want.

Fridge under the TV

There is a permanent night light, and we have an ice bucket and a pitcher of ice water which the room steward keeps filled.

Ice water pitcher

They give us bathrobes and umbrellas to use if needed.

As I discovered when I got up to go to the bathroom at night, the bathroom light switch is right where I put my hand down to steady myself before I open the door so it's almost automatic - I don't have to look for or feel for the switch.

Side of the bathroom sink

The bathroom itself is nice with sink space and storage for items (like mouthwash).

Cabinets in the bathroom

Although I've taken to taking pills in the main cabin because I can't get the glasses in the bathroom back in their holders. The only plug for Bob's shaver is in the hair dryer.

Hair dryer in the bathroom with shaver plugged in to it

A big problem with this sailing is that almost everyone wants the early seating and no one wants the late seating. So our cabin steward said we had early seating (which really confused him since he had it in his head that we had early seating) and the website said we had early seating, but they gave us a slip of paper that said late seating. Bob - since he had his suitcases with him - unpacked.

I wanted to change our dining time so I went and stood (sat) in line at the dining room manager's place and pleaded my case - to no avail. There was no way that they could accommodate everyone that wanted to be on the early seating even though we booked this cruise a year in advance. We have a table which would look out over the stern of the ship, which would be good -- except that it is pitch black dark in the winter at 2030.

Dining room from upper level

The internet guy had me sign on to one of his computers, and then tried to get my laptop to recognize the wi-fi of Celebrity. Among other things he disabled my wi-fi card that I normally use. I was able to buy a package and log in once, but then it kicked me off again. I had to leave because it was time for the emergency lifeboat drill. They locked the doors of the internet cafe behind me. I found Bob already there sitting in the handicapped section of the theatre which was the place for our drill, so I went and sat with him. The theatre seems to be pretty well set up. A lot of us had the theatre as the place for our drill.

As far as I know, no one took roll. We didn't have our life jackets with us. The two crew members on stage demonstrated the putting on of the life jacket. The demo was done with exaggerated gestures,

Safety Drill

and I think the girl at least was one of the dancers on the ship as she did some soft shoe across the stage and back. She and the guy also spent some time twirling their whistles.

I wanted to take photos of the sail-away which was to be at 5. I had a warm coat and hood (knowing that it would be COLD) and I went out at 5 trying to figure out where the best vantage point would be. I went to the promenade deck,

Promenade deck the next day with people playing shuffleboard

but you can't walk all the way round that deck. The deck is blocked toward the stern. You have to go up to the 7th deck half way around and even then you don't get to the bow. So I went inside and went up to deck 12 and went out on deck.

Looking up at 5:18

I took a couple of pictures and then my camera battery was low so I put the alternate battery in and that was COMPLETELY dead

Sailaway

Baltimore - Almost dark

I gave up and went inside.

When I went inside, I was on deck 10 which is the one our room is on, and was confused for a moment by the fact that the room numbers were in the 1100's. But I quickly realized that there are no rooms on the 11th deck which is where the buffet and pools and gym are. Then as I was walking along, by room 1110, there was my suitcase which was clearly marked 1010. I had been afraid that because I didn't tip the guy at the dock that I wouldn't get my suitcase. I took it with me.

I unpacked, and plugged in the camera batteries to be charged. Bob went to the 1900 show which he said was dull. Because Bob was getting hungry, we went down to dinner before 8. We sat outside the dining room doors and listened to the guitarist that was there singing in the Manhattan Bar.

In the dining room, there was a "Classic" menu which is available all the time,

Classic Dinner menu

and the regular daily menu. We were at a table for 8 and two of the couples were childhood friends from British Honduras which is now Guyana. One now lives in Silver Spring, and the other couple were their friends from outside Toronto. Our other couple was a young couple (the man had a soul patch) also from Canada. All of us at the table had asked for early dining.

For dinner, Bob had the shrimp cocktail, the lobster bisque and the salmon (all off the classic menu).

Classic Menu Shrimp Cocktail and Salmon

I had the

Crab Louis

Belgium endive salad with apple and walnuts and Prime Rib - medium rare

For dessert, Bob wanted the apple pie on the Classic menu, but it wasn't on the dessert menu, so he settled for

Profiteroles

My banana blueberry crepes

I can log on from the cabin which is way more convenient than lugging the computer around. I looked and saw that there was no urgent email and logged off again and we went straight to bed.

Tuesday 12 January 2010

We ate breakfast in the dining room, but there was no cranberry juice on the menu. Bob had V-8 juice and eggs and bacon. I tried the

Fruit salad with yogurt

and didn't think much of it. Then I had the poached eggs on toast and bacon. The poached eggs look like tadpoles with a big round head/yolk part and a little tail.

Then we went up to trivia at 0900. We got there a little late and joined another couple (Diane and Bill), and I supplied most of the answers - we only got 10 right out of 21. One group had 19 right. We got the first four largest states (AK, TX, CA and MT) but missed NM. You couldn't see the bow from the Navigator Club

Can't see the bow from here

which is the place on deck 12 at the bow. There were a lot of antennas on the deck we could see - every step/stanchion seemed to have an antenna on it.

Celebrity Cruises

Pool deck

I went out on deck and took some pictures. Of course it is still cold (we are off NC near as I can tell from the puny chart on the TV). I saw the sign that said Deck 14 was reserved for topless sunbathing

Reserved for topless sunbathing

but I didn't think there'd be anyone up there (and I was right) so I went on up as far up as I could go and from there I could just barely see the bow sticking out.

Just barely see the bow from here

After that we went to the Cruise Critic's "Connections" Party,

which I found a bit disappointing - they didn't have people introduce themselves or anything. Four of the them got together and sang an a cappella barbershop quartet which was really good and enjoyable.

"I want to take you on a Sea Cruise."

Some of them also got together and sang "I want to take you on a Sea Cruise." The Cruise Director and the Activities Directors were there and they had both just gotten on the boat in Baltimore so they apologized for the lack of activities but said that the programs for the first two days were printed before they got on.

We went down to the dining room and looked at the menu but couldn't tell whether it was lunch or dinner and it didn't say. The lunch menus are distinguished from the dinner menus in that they are also somewhat confusing as it is NOT divided into Appetizers/ Soup-Salad/ Entrees as most of them are. This one has Starters-Soups-Salads, Heart Healthy, Vegetarian, Main Course, Barbecue & Panini Grill and Desserts.

Bob didn't like anything he saw on the menu so he went up to the buffet, and I stayed to eat in the dining room. There are signs on the table with the waiter and assistant waiter's name, and they introduce themselves each time.

I had

Two Fried Mozzarella sticks

something that was described as

"Crisp BBQ Pork Knuckle and Fontina Cheese Panini on Organic Baguette"

which turned out to be a sub roll with a crisp crust and BBQ sauce on ham and cheese. The BBQ sauce dripped out on my shirt. I've washed it, but can't get the stain out. I asked for vanilla ice cream with chocolate fudge sauce for dessert and got

What passes for fudge sauce here on Celebrity (it looks and has the texture of chocolate pudding) over butter pecan ice cream

Which I do like, but that's not what I asked for.

Centrum

I went down to the front desk and asked about a chart with the ship's position and there isn't one. A lady came by about the time I was there and said that she was feeling unwell and the concierge gave her a bottle of pills and said "Take one every 12 hours, and if you don't feel better taken another one". I went back to the room to download photos and had a nap. It is a bit rougher than before - there are whitecaps on the waves.

Tonight is Formal Night, but no lobster. The young couple did not come to dinner. I suspected that he wasn't well as he was already wearing a patch on the first night. But apparently they were upgraded to first sitting and so we will be a table for 6 from now on. We were the first ones there, and I told the waiter that I wanted cranberry juice for dinner as I have not been able to find it on any of the menus and I'm sure that they have some on board for the mixed drinks. After I reminded him again, he brought me some.

Bob ordered TWO shrimp cocktail tonight and then we both had the

Chilled tangerine and apple soup

which was very good. I had the baby spinach salad (no appetizer). Then they brought us

Tiny little red ice in a tiny cup

It was either cinnamon or ginger flavored or both. Bob again had the salmon off the Classic menu again, and I had

Rack of lamb

For dessert he had a sundae and I had "After Eight" ice cream which proved to be chocolate mint flavor. The feature dessert was Cherries Jubilee and I took pictures of the

Cherries Jubilee Prep Station

which they were preparing at the entrance to the dining room.

We didn't go to the Captain's reception afterwards - the waiter pointed out to us that the Captain was eating in the dining room at a big table in the next area to ours.
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Wednesday 13 January 2010

Bob's alarm clock isn't working very well, but we managed to get up and get to breakfast in the main dining room. This time he had figs, raisin bran and bacon, and I had

Oatmeal

cheese omelet and bacon. Service was slow. Then we hurried up to the 9:00 trivia in the Navigator Lounge and we were late for the first question. We stood there and said softly "Can we join someone?", and a couple nearby invited us to join. His name was Chuck

and her name is Bobbie and they live over on the northern neck of VA

The trivia is different from other cruise line trivias in that they make no attempt to limit the number of people on the team and they let us mark are own papers.

This trivia is only 15 questions, and we got 10 right which wasn't a lot. I was able to tell them that the thing Dunlop added to tires was air, and that the doll that was originally a foot tall and was withdrawn and reissued at 3.5" was G.I.Joe. Bobbie knew that the nursery rhyme character that the Brits used as a name for any short clumsy person was Humpty Dumpty, and Chuck knew that the name of the German invasion called Barbarossa was the invasion of Russia. But we absolutely could NOT think of Charro's name from her given name. We know who she was, just couldn't think of the name. But anyway we won!!! They gave us all Celebrity pens.

So we agreed to meet them for the other two trivias which were scheduled today. The second one was at noon, so we met for that one, and this time we got 12 right out of 15 (and would have had 13 if Chuck had written down Mt. Blanc as the tallest mountain in Europe instead of what he put which was the Matterhorn. Anyway, we won again and got some more Celebrity pens.

Then we went to lunch and happened to be at a table with an Army guy and an Marine both of whom had done several tours in Hawaii. (where I am going with my grandson in June) The wife of the Army guy suggested that I stay in the base temporary officer's quarters so I said I would look into that. I had

Beef and chicken satay skewers

and Bob had papaya bisque, and then I had

Poached orange roughy which came with buckwheat noodles

which were good but hard to eat. I think Bob had either another soup or a salad. For dessert he had his usual ice cream sundae and I had

Banana creme brulee

I liked the brulee part, but not the bananas in it.

There is no menu at the buffet so I can't look to see what I might want. Apparently there is a dinner place where you can reserve to eat and be waited on up near the buffet and that does have a menu posted but I haven't found it yet. It is apparently not extra price, but it asks that you tip $2/person. The people that told me about it said they tipped in cash, which seems odd

Band on deck

People are starting to "lay out" on the decks by the pool, and the band was playing there when we walked through.

After lunch, Bob went into the library to see if he could get a paper, which Celebrity apparently doesn't deliver to you, but he didn't find one. I went to look for him and the library was deserted.

I went down to the Excursion desk and signed up for the BOSS underwater tour - thinking that it would be a good chance to try out my new underwater digital camera. Bob wouldn't go on the tour with me so I gave him an assignment to do while I'm on the tour.

I asked the front desk about getting a taxi transfer when we got home, but it would be $36 each instead of $36 for one taxi, so I decided to rely on getting a regular taxi.

We went to the third Trivia in the afternoon, and did not win this time. I met Chuck and Bobbie's daughter Trish and her friend Laurie -they are also going on the BOSS tour.

Bob went to the show at 7, and I stayed in the cabin and got a shower and wrote some. The room steward wanted to get into the room to make it up and knocked while I was getting ready to get a shower, but he said he would come back later.

At dinner the waiter brought me my cranberry juice, which is good. This time they brought both of Bob's shrimp cocktail on one plate instead of surrounded by a big empty stainless holder. I got shrimp cocktail too as nothing else on the menu appealed to me. I asked the waiter for Vichyssoise, but he said he did NOT recommend that. He said he tried it himself after someone in the early seating had complained about it. So instead I got Cream of Sweet Corn Soup, which really was much better.

Bob got the salmon again for the entree, and I tried

Chicken "Ciao Bella"

which was prosciutto wrapped and was supposed to have asparagus and rice pilaf with it. I didn't really like the chicken, and there were only two tiny sprigs of asparagus and it came with noodles instead of rice.

When it came to dessert, the others at the table ordered the apple pie off the Classic menu, so we found that we COULD order that even though it wasn't on the actual dessert menu.

Apple pie

So Bob got it but he said it was pretty ordinary. The waiter comes around with

Sample dessert tray

a sample of the desserts to see - I got the

Biscuit Croustillant with chocolate mousse

The biscuit part was very tough and hard to cut, but I liked the mousse part.

Back in the room, Bob found that the alarm clock (an old wind up clock) had gone crazy so I told him to throw it away because there was no use having it if it didn't work. He said he would set the alarm on his watch. He was successful in setting his watch and after that it went off faithfully at 0700, but he never heard it (even when he was awake), although it waked me up.

Our dinner companions said we should be setting our watches ahead, but there was no mention of it in the daily program and we didn't get any notification when the room was turned down like we would have done on HAL. So we didn't. I did ask for a 7 am wake-up call using the button marked "Wake Up Call" on the phone.

Thursday, 14 January 2010

Bob's watch went off, and then a couple of minutes later we got our wake up call. Bob turned on the TV and then he said, "The ships time is 6 am. Or maybe it is 8 am - I can't read it." So I put on my glasses and sure enough it was 8 am. Not only did the ship turn the clocks ahead, but they did NOT put it in any of the programs except the first one we got on the pier, and they didn't turn the wake-up call ahead. Bummer.

The first trivia was at 9 and we were not dressed and it was 8 already. So we got up and went up to the Navigator Club (2 decks up). Every time I get off the elevator up there I see the reflection in the glass of the steps down to Deck 11 and I think I'm going to fall down the steps which I go around the corner

Reflection in the glass of the steps down to Deck 11

Then we went to breakfast at the buffet.

There was another trivia at 1100. This was Tribond Trivia which was really fun. They gave us three words or phrases and we had to think of the connection. For instance, the connection was that they were cartoonists for Walt Kelly, Walt Disney and Walt (can't remember his last name but he does Woody Woodpecker). The one I thought was most amusing was Dennis Rodman, Pamela Anderson and Fantasy Island (connection - Tattoo).

At lunch, I had

Gumbo

and Bob had Potato soup which he didn't think much of. Then I had Rigatoni Caprese and he had Key West Salad. We both had

Bread pudding

for dessert. We ate with an Italian couple and their little girl (just turned 3) and her mother. They live in DC - she a lawyer, he an architect, and her mother came over from Italy for the cruise. They were going to St. Thomas to buy a house there because they thought it would be a good time to do that.

Next we had Earth Trivia which was run from a computer with video images on the screen.

Earth Trivia

We got there late because service at lunch was slow, but Bobbie and Chuck had already started without us, so I joined them. We ended up with 10 right and won. Found out the Chuck had once lived in Pinehurst near Angel's Store where Bob's family lives. Believe it or not, there was another trivia later that afternoon (we didn't win although Bob got the answer to the question of which Empire did Jerry Seinfeld say was based on putting your feet up - i.e. Ottoman), after which I took the underwater camera with the floatie and checked whether it was floatation enough to make it really float. There is.

At dinner the waiter is concerned about my taking photos of the menu and he said he would give me copies and sign them. But I said that a digital copy takes less room in my luggage. Bob had his usual two shrimp cocktails, strawberry soup and his usual salmon. I had chicken liver pate which was good, the strawberry soup (very sweet) and

Beef rigatoni

Tonight I called the front desk for a wake-up call.

Tomorrow - St. Thomas

15 January 2010- St Thomas

I had the BOSS (Breathing Observation Submersible Scooter) tour today.

My head in the BOSS. I think it looks like a tiny face with Mickey Mouse ears

I want to see whether I can operate the camera to get good snorkeling photos. We were to meet on the pier at 9:15, so after breakfast I put on my bathing suit and gathered my stuff together. I asked about a beach towel and the front desk said they would be delivered to our rooms. I asked again the next day and got the same response. So when I got back to the room after breakfast and there was no towel I asked the room steward and he said they would be at the gangway. Got down to the gangway and they said they would be in my room.

So I used the phone there and called Bob and asked him to bring me one. Which he did. He said he had to go up to the pool to get one.

The people running the tour took my ticket and told me to walk to the stern of the ship and wait for the dive boat. But apparently the dive boat was not allowed to go in at the stern because there were divers down there, so we had to walk all the way back to the bow.

They made us take off our shoes and get on barefoot. There were about 30 of us. They gave us the safety lecture and then the boat went out to the St. Thomas Buck Island and picked up a mooring. There was a lighthouse on the island, and I took photos with my film camera,

Buck Island Light

but they can't develop it on the boat. Don't know where I will get it developed as Filmworks no longer does film.

They gave us wrist bands. I was in the green group. We were also organized by whether there were three of us, two or one. I was a solo person. Each group was to have half an hour on the scooter and then could snorkel or the rest of the time. They fed the fish cat food off the stern to make them come up to the boat.

Fish being fed catfood off the stern - St. Thomas

I put on my dive skin, got a pair of fins, put on my mask and jumped in with my new camera. I found that it was pretty easy to use and I got about 18 pretty good photos.

Snorkelers

Snorkeling in the rain

Snorkelers and fish

Just about the time for my scooter ride, the camera was out of memory, so I will have to buy a card for it. I erased a couple of pictures, handed in my fins and mask, and the guy on the boat gave me my glasses, and I went out and got onto the scooter.

One of the ladies in the first group was claustrophobic and spend all her time on the surface. It was strange to be submerged (to get your head into the bubble) and not have anything in your mouth to breathe with. They told us that it would be easy to operate the scooter, and that we should not have to press really hard on the accelerator button. I didn't find it easy to steer and I couldn't keep up with the others no matter how hard I pressed on the accelerator button with my thumb. I have a big purple bruise on my thumb (which they warned us about not pushing so hard)

Purple bruise on my thumb

One of the divers with us got behind me and pushed on my helmet so I could keep up with the others.

Then I gave the diver my camera and he took two photos,

Me on the BOSS scooter

and we went back to the boat. I said that I'd had trouble keeping up to Jim (the Captain) and he said it was because of my size. I said that I wasn't heavy in the water. He said it was weight but width. I said "Thanks".

He said he had the same problem and wait until I got to his age. I said I thought I was already past his age. He said he was 56. I said I was 72. He said "No Way". I guess that is a compliment.

It rained on the way out and on the way back and basically everything I had was wet.. Apparently the day was a bust for the people who did the St. Thomas tours especially the beach tours. I was really tired when we got back to the dock - they let us off on the pier. I couldn't find where I put my money to tip them, and I felt bad about that. I crawled back to the ship and when I put my cane through the magnetometer they grabbed it off the belt and put it through again. Why I don't know. They asked me if I wanted a wheelchair, and I said yes. So they wheeled me up to the room. I don't know if I was supposed to tip the lady or not.

I rinsed out my suit and skin and hung them up along with my skirt and T-shirt (which was wet), and rinsed off my mask. Then I put the camera in to soak in fresh water in the sink to get all the salt and sand off.

I had given Bob an assignment - to go out to Red Hook and look for the Independence - a boat made by CSY - the same company as ours. Bob took a taxi out to Red Hook and looked for Independence (which is a boat that does snorkeling tours), but she wasn't in her slip. He took a photo of a pilot house on a mooring but couldn't read the name. (Green stripe which I think a lot of the pilot houses have)

CSY Pilothouse at Red Hook

Can't quite read the name

We went up to lunch about 1300.

Looking out the window to the dock from the buffet - St. Thomas

My back hurt so I told Bob to go get lunch and I would rest at the table. He came back with a

Tuna salad sandwich

which he said he had trouble getting. I then went and got a little Shepard's pie (which the crust was tough and I don't understand that) and

BBQ meat loaf

plus some salad

From the salad bar

Then Bob got some ice cream, and I went to get my dessert and got blueberry (which was grainy), and pina colada which was good. They do not clear the tables in the buffet in a timely manner.

Then I downloaded photos and charged the underwater camera up. There was one photo that I deleted because it was out of focus, but I ended up with 17 pretty good ones. I saw brain coral, fire coral, some sponges and a lot of little fish (sergeant majors etc)

Snorkeling

Coral

Baracuda about 10 feet down

Two kinds of Sea urchins

Sea Cucumber and coral

Parrot fish on left

I went down to get the sale on computer minutes, and because I had logged off with four minutes left, I had to use them up. First I did a Google search on what flag Celebrity sails under and apparently it is a Greek company chartered out of Malta (according to wikipedia). I logged off after 4 minutes, but I had to log back on again because I still had 4 seconds left!! After that I could get the next package, and that includes 20 extra minutes.

The boat left St. T at 6 p.m. even though the trip to St X is only 42 miles. I don't know what they are going to be doing as they certainly didn't need that much time. We went and sat in the lounge and listened to the band (the guitar player appeared to be faking it) and watched couples dancing while we waited for the dining room to be open for dinner.

Sitting in the lounge and Dining room opened

I had

Chicken curry salad

cream of broccoli soup and

BBQ short ribs

Bob had his two shrimp cocktails, black cherry soup and his usual salmon. We both had ice cream for dessert.

Bob and me in the elevator after dinner

Floor

There were no mild activity tours for our next stop - St. Croix, and the tickets said that there would be a 10 minute walk to the tour buses. A 10 minute walk for most people is probably half an hour for me and I was not looking forward to it. Since we have to be out on the pier at 8:30 tomorrow, I tried the automatic wake-up call again for 0645.