Winter Break. Day 4. Going Beyond. — The Kaplan Family Follies

I think last night people were up 12 times.

We got up and had an outdoor breakfast at Aroma. Madeleine wanted an oatmeal, of which she ate none. Tzvi had a power breakfast because he is very powerful (it was bread and salad and a bunch of small portions of things). We got an iced aroma which was delicious and for some reason way better than Thursday.

We went back to the room, packed up, and headed out in two Ubers to the cruise terminal in Fort Lauderdale. We sent Inbar in the car with my parents where she got a whole education about Israeli politics and some other Israeli history that my mom felt the need to impart.

We pulled up to the beautiful Celebrity Beyond, the newest ship in the Edge class. I must remind you that we call it a ship, because while you can fit a boat on a ship, you cannot fit a ship on a boat. This ship has lifeboats; there are no lifeships on a boat. That is from our very famous Captain Kate McCue, the first female captain to command a mega cruise ship. Her nametag says Captain and right under that it says “Don’t call it a boat.” She’s great and we’ve been following her on Instagram for a few years now, but more on her later.

Check in went smoothly and we walked right onto the ship. It’s beautiful, and similar to Edge, which we cruised on last January. We got our group photo and headed to our rooms.

Then we just had to run to the internet place before lunch. Hallie was whining that she was so hungry but God forbid my parents didn’t buy internet first thing.. For lunch we went to the Oceanview Café, better known as the buffet (or, as Sherry calls it, the “boo-fay”). Hallie was disappointed that there was no chocolate fountain (they had one on the first day last year), but they said it would be out on Saturday. Then we went to the kids club to sign Hallie up. Fortunately, we learned that this cruise Madeleine would be able to play there with an adult present, which is nice.

All afternoon we noticed a lot of people in red shirts that said “2nd Honeymoon Club.” Ends up there are 400 of them and they are all from The Villages, a retirement community in Florida. Lucky us. This cruise definitely feels older than others, but I guess we were spoiled because last year was COVID and maybe old people weren’t traveling as much.

I walked Madeleine to nap and Tzvi took Hallie to the hot tub. Eventually Madeleine woke up and we went for ice cream at the buffet. While we were sitting we noticed an older Israeli couple at the next table. After hearing the man’s voice, Tzvi was like, “I’m pretty sure that’s my middle school principal.” Of course Sherry had no problem going over and talking to them, and sure enough, it was Rabbi Gabbai, Tzvi’s principal at Shalhevet in 7th and 8th grade, who actually remembered Tzvi and Sherry.

After that we dressed for dinner and headed to Tuscan, the Italian themed dining room. We got a large table for 12, even though we were only 8. A server named Roberto came over and said he was the kids’ private waiter, so he only dealt with them the entire meal. We’re still not sure why. Hallie got salmon and loved it. I enjoyed it too. Dinner was long, as would the rest of the dinners be on the ship. I think we sat there for two hours.

We skipped the welcome comedy show to walk around. The girls had a great time running around and “dancing” to the live music in the Grand Plaza. After a while we went back to the room and put the girls to bed. Madeleine has a bed on this ship, so we’ll see how that goes.

Once the girls were asleep Tzvi and I headed out to Café Al Baccio for our nightly cappuccino, Kahlua and cream and dessert (which we did every night on last year’s cruise). While we were there we saw two women at the table next to us taking photos of themselves with this huge light. It wasn’t even a ring light – it was brighter and more offensive and they were shining it right in Tzvi’s eye. They were so oblivious to everyone around them it was amazing to watch.

Good Day.