Winter Break. January 2022. Day 4. On the Edge.
Today we woke up and didn’t move quickly, even though it was the only day we actually had somewhere to be.
We didn’t get out of the room until maybe 9:20 when we went down to the Aroma for breakfast. I got shakshuka, which was very good. Tzvi had a “power breakfast,” which could’ve been called Israeli breakfast because it reminded him of that – a plate with salad, tuna, feta cheese and cream cheese, two hardboiled eggs and a stack of bread.
We wanted to get out of the hotel around 10, but I don’t think we left until 10:30. The Uber ride to Fort Lauderdale was about 40/45 minutes and we made it to Port Everglades in time for our 11 – 1130 check in window. Check in was extremely smooth. First, they checked the kids. Hallie got a green sticker that said VAX and Madeleine was upset she couldn’t have a sticker also. We all had to show our COVID results and vaccine cards and then went through security, check in, and another check in, walked over a long bridge, and finally, we were on the ship!
Our cruise is a seven night eastern Caribbean sailing on the Celebrity Edge. It’s our first Celebrity Cruise, and it’s definitely very different from the other ships we’ve been on. Celebrity is a higher level than Royal Carribean and Norwegian, and it definitely shows in the design of the ship.
As soon as you get on they send you straight to your room where your keys are waiting outside the door. The rooms is really great and really spacious. We have two connecting rooms that are “Infinity Veranda” rooms. It’s kind of a cross between a balcony room and an oceanview room. The infinity veranda is basically a floor to ceiling window that can be opened (it goes from the top down about half way). But unlike a regular non-balcony room, you actually get the balcony space (and technically could close off the balcony from the rest of the room). Especially for traveling with little kids, these rooms are great – you get the extra space of balcony but you can actually use it, and you’re still able to open up to the outside. We actually ended up putting Madeleine’s crib on the balcony area. It really made the room feel so much more spacious (and I think these rooms are already more spacious width wise).
After getting our keys, our first stop was our muster drill. Thankfully they’ve made these drills so much easier. You used to have to gather in a dining room at a specific time to be counted and sit through a half hour thing. Now you just go to your muster station, check in, and you’re done. After that, our first real stop was the Oceanview Café (the buffet) for lunch! It was a great looking buffet with pasta, Indian, sandwiches, fruit, cheeses, desserts, chocolate fondue and lots more. Also, I really like that the buffet is sort of centralized on this ship – there’s a bunch of different stations in one spot, as opposed to other ships where you need to walk one really long line that wraps around the back of the ship. The only problem was that I was still full from breakfast. The kids had pizza obviously. We finished lunch and it was time to explore.
We walked all over the ship – there’s one resort deck with outdoor pool and two hot tubs (though strangely the hot tubs are two decks up from the pool, so kind of annoying to get to if you’re sitting at the pool). There’s also an adults only solarium. We saw the fitness center with Peloton bikes. We found the Grand Plaza, which spans decks 3, 4 and 5 and is home to several restaurants, the café (Café al Baccio) and the Martini Bar. We also saw the Rooftop Garden on the top deck at the back of the ship. I’ll just say, it’s a really beautiful ship. All of the art is very modern and all of the spaces are just really nice. They clearly put a lot of thought into design on this ship. There’s one hallway that’s basically a dark corridor with mirrors on all sides and strange gold statues. Hallie got scared walking through it.
After that Robyn took Madeleine for a walk around the ship to try to get her to sleep, but it didn’t work out. She was too excited hanging out of the stroller looking at everything, and all of the staff were so excited to see her and kept saying hi to her. I spent some time unpacking, while Tzvi and Hallie went in the hot tub. It was kind of cold out, but nice enough for the hot tub.
Next we checked out the kids club, where they told us it was drop off only and that Madeleine was too young. They also said they used to have toddler time where you could stay with the too-young kids and play, but they got rid of that during COVID. They did say that you could borrow toys, so we got some balls and pool toys. They also said there are 11 kids on the ship. Well, we knew it wasn’t a kid friendly ship, so I guess 11 is pretty good?
At some point, Hallie and Madeleine were excitedly jumping around the room. Then the phone rang and it was our neighbor asking us to keep it down and that he and his wife were “trying to relax.” I said, “yeah, well my kids have been locked up for the last year and a half because of Covid and now they’re just trying to enjoy themselves and have fun in their room so buzz off.” Actually I just said sorry and then hung up. These people actually had their “Deep Sleep” sign on their door by 6pm.
Tzvi and I went to the bar at the very back of the ship, grabbed a cocktail, and watched the ship pull out of port. The cruise is officially underway! One thing to mention is that with Celebrity, basic drinks are included (you can get any cocktail up to $9, which is most drinks with non-premium alcohol).
We went back to the room and got ready for dinner quickly. Hallie showered with goggles on because we don’t have a bathtub and she doesn’t like showers, and the neighbors banged on the wall, I guess because she sang too loudly in the shower.
Tonight’s dinner was in the Tuscan dining room. There are four different main dining rooms, each with a different theme – each one serves the same daily menu as well as a menu that’s unique to that dining room. The dining room was pretty empty so we got a large table away from the few other people who were there. I had butternut squash soup, grilled tuna, and a cous cous thing. For dessert I had a strawberry angel food cake thing. Tzvi had a cheese soufflé thing with mushrooms, a wedge salad with blue cheese and grilled tuna. For dessert Tzvi had some kind of flambé cherry thing with ice cream and a tiramisu.
As we were packing ourselves up, the waiter kept making hats for Madeleine out of napkins. They stayed on her head for about five seconds and then she demanded he make more. It was cute.
As we finished dinner, another passenger randomly came over and handed us two smaller rubber duckies. Okay then.
We spent a few minutes walking around and saw the bartenders at the Martini Bar putting on their nightly show where they flipped bottles behind their back and caught them and then made a giant martini that they poured into a bunch of glasses at once. It was cool.
We went back to the room while Robyn took Hallie to the buffet to get more pizza. The pack n play they brought us was broken so our steward came to fix it. While he was fixing it, our lovely neighbors banged on the wall once again. I told the steward what was happening and he told his supervisor. I cant tip toe around the entire week. Anyway, he fixed it just as Hallie was getting back. We got the girls to bed and then went back out. Robyn said she was too tired to go out, so we got to party.
We walked around a bit and explored, and then saw the comedian at 9:30. He was okay. There weren’t too many people at the show, but Rich, the cruise director, came out at the end and said it was the biggest crowd he’d seen in some time. He said there were 982 passengers on board (out of a capacity of 2918) and 1083 crew members, and also said that on the last cruise there were only around 650 passengers.
After that we ended our night at Café Al Baccio where we had a latte, a kaluah and cream, and a slice of the tart of the day (apricot).
Great first day.