In my last post my husband and I had arrived in Puerto Rico for a sailing on the Celebrity Summit the next day. After a much needed sleep we were up early and enjoyed in room coffee while watching the sunrise. That was when we realized it had rained overnight and that our room had a nice view of the beach and Atlantic ocean.
Around 7 am, we went down for the included continental breakfast. Hot food included sausage links and ham/cheese omelette (preformed) and pancakes. It was surprisingly tasty.
There was the usual pastries, muffins, bagels, cereals, etc. We enjoyed pineapple juice and of course, more coffee. It had started raining again but we waited it out before taking a walk.
During the hour long journey we visited the nearby beach.
We then walked to where we could see the Summit. Next to it was the Adventure of the Seas. Very Exciting!
On the way back I stopped at Starbucks and picked up a Puerto Rico mug for my brother who collects them. We spent the rest of the morning getting getting ready and repacking for the ship.
Our original plan was to leave the hotel at 11 am but we were ready at 10:30 so decided to get started early. There was no line to check out and taxis were waiting outside the door. After a short ride (that cost too much in my mind) we arrived at the port and dropped our bags with the porters.
There were about 100 people in front of us as the doors hadn’t opened yet. At 11 on the dot the doors opened. We first had to show our boarding pass and passports before going through the scanner and metal detector. Then we headed to the check-in line and was called to the counter after a couple of minutes.
Once we had our cards and filled out the health questionnaire, we went to a second passport check where our picture was taken for our sign and sail. This was our last stop as we went up the escalators and boarded the ship.
As we boarded the ship we were offered our choice of champagne, mimosas and orange juice and sat down in the martini bar to drink it before finding an elevator to take us up to 10 for the ocean view buffet.
The buffet was so much nicer than Carnival. They had three roasted meats in the carvery (pork, beef and lamb) plus fish and chips, beef stew and other main dishes. There is the salad bar, pizza bar, sandwich bar, pasta area, ice creams, desserts. It all looked gorgeous!
I broke in my beverage card with a pina colada and Steve ordered a Corona.
He was happy they served it with a lime automatically.
We ordered another round and I changed to Bahamas mama to eat with the delicious German chocolate cake I had for lunch.
We decided to then explore the ship and started walking the decks with public areas front to back. We weren’t quite done when they announced the cabins were available around 1 pm.
We were very pleased with our cabin’s layout and the amount of storage. Of course. Our favorite part was the extended balcony. 🙂
Our table assignment was waiting for us in the room — table 536 on the fifth floor. We had confirmed first seating a few months before.
We decided to go to the pool while it was nice outside and the ship was not full. While getting ready our bags were delivered. I went ahead and unpacked everything AND then we headed to the pool.
Our cabin steward, Francisco, introduced himself to us in the hall and asked if the room was fine and did we need anything . I mentioned that I needed the distilled water and extension cord (for my APAP that I had preordered) and he said he’d take of it.
We enjoyed the band playing by the pool while first soaking in the jacuzzi (not as hot as I’d like) and then lounging in the sun.
We had a pre-dinner drink the Rendevous bar (jack and coke and mojito).
When we got to the dining room we were surprised to be shown to a table for two. We have never had one before. As it turns out we had nothing to worry about as the two couples seated at two-tops on either side of us were friendly and in the same age ranges so we had many fun evenings of conversation.
I selected the chilled shrimp Louis to start and Steve had shrimp cocktail. Our next course was cream of mushroom soup for me and Caesar salad for Steve.
For main course, I went with the everyday New York sirloin steak and Steve selected end cut of the prime rib.
We topped it all off with Apple pie a la mode for Steve and dulce de leche for me. it was a very good meal!
I had a glass of Shiraz and Steve had a jack and coke with dinner and decaf coffee with dessert. We could get used to this beverage package perk!. We had decaf coffee with our dessert. The waiter offered 20% off the Tuscan grille or Qsine if booked the first night to dine any night of the cruise. We decided to go ahead and book for the night of the top chef menu which the waiter (Antonio) said is Wednesday.
The matre’d and sommelier also came by during the evening meal. The assistant waiter is Colorado.
It was time to go to the lounge for muster right after dinner so we headed that way. It was a long 30 minutes but at least we were comfortably seated. Afterwards we went to the Cafe al Bacio, otherwise known as the coffee bar, for bottles of water and Steve got a couple of cookies.
We headed to the room to watch sail away from our balcony.
It was a nice evening out and we got to see a great night view of one of the forts.
We received two daily programs today. Here’s the first “early edition”. (Click to open the PDF.)
Then we had a more detailed Celebrity today in our stateroom.
If you missed the other parts of the recap the links are below.
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