Thursday, 4 December 2014
At Sea — Atlantic Ocean
Temps: Hi 80F (27C) / Lo 72F (22C)
Distance to Cartagena, Colombia: 1,124 NM (1,293 miles / 2,082 km)
Twelve years. It’s been that long — almost to the day — since our first Panama Canal transit … on this very ship no less. Today we are embarking on another cruise that will take us through that great waterway. This time, however, the Panama Canal is a means to an end, and we are starting in Florida and not in California. As well, once we’re through the Canal, we won’t be heading north to another US port to disembark, but rather south to partially circumnavigate South America.
Since this is our third cruise aboard Celebrity Infinity, much of it is familiar to us. On last year’s TransAtlantic Crossing on sister-ship Constellation, we became familiar with the amenities that were added when Infinity was “solsticized;” and we received a refresher of the same when we cruised on Reflection, an S[olstice]-class ship, just a few short weeks ago. (The story of that cruise starts with this post.) What this familiarity means is that instead of wandering around amidst the crowds exploring the ship today, I can sit on the veranda to enjoy some quiet time and start writing this post. So here we go.
From our veranda — looking across the turning basin to the
Stranahan River and the 17th Street Bridge.
The threat of “a” rain shower was nowhere to be found in the skies over Fort Lauderdale (FLL) when we checked out of the Sonesta shortly before 11:00a. Perfect! Unlike when we boarded Celebrity Reflection 12 days ago, a beautiful blue-sky day was in store for embarking Celebrity Infinity.
Our first stop after leaving the hotel this morning was Port Everglades. Entering through the 17th Street Gate, we showed our IDs and cruise express pass. In return, we were given a permit that allowed us to proceed to Terminal 18 to drop off our bags. Port Everglades claims to have more homeported cruise ships than any other port, but we were lucky today — I’m guessing because we have a weekday-sailing. With only three other ships in port in addition to Infinity — Royal and Caribbean Princess, and Holland America’s Noordam — traffic was quite bearable. Ten minutes later, bags handed over to a longshoreman, we were leaving Port Everglades for our next stop — the airport … to return the rental car to Alamo.
I don’t think I mentioned before that after we picked up the car in Miami, we noticed there were ants crawling about the interior of the vehicle. We were already at our AirBNB accommodations in FLL by then, so we nixed the idea of driving to the local Alamo office to get another car. Instead, Mui picked up some Terro liquid ant bait from Home Depot and that quickly made a dent in the ant population crawling about inside the car. When we mentioned the problem to the Alamo guy at the drop-off point, he immediately gave us a $40 credit — equal to about one day’s rental. Pretty good deal. Alamo gets two thumbs up for the way they handled the situation.
Alamo is amongst the few car rental companies at the FLL airport with a free shuttle to Port Everglades. Car dropped off, we collected our carry-ons, took the elevator up to the third floor of the terminal, and found the shuttle waiting to whisk us to the ship.
A colorful shuttle to whisk us from the airport to Port Everglades.
Back at Port Everglades, we breezed through security and headed to the concierge check-in line, which had only two couples ahead of us. The Celebrity agent who checked us in was efficient, but she also presented us with a small challenge when she handed back our passports — more on that later. By 12:30p, we were at the gangway, getting our photos taken for our keycard passes.
The cabins were not quite ready yet, so with carry-on bags in tow, we headed off to have lunch at Bistro on Five — a new embarkation day tradition we started on Reflection in November. The quiet atmosphere of the crêperie certainly beats the hubbub of the buffet at the Oceanview Café on deck 10; worth the $7/person cover charge.
Lunch at Bistro on Five — a new embarkation day tradition.
Seated near the open kitchen, we watched as the chef efficiently made crêpes. I neglected to take photos of him at work, but we enjoyed the results of his handiwork. Even as we ate our lunch, I was at work to resolve the small challenge we were presented with at check-in — namely a change to the ship’s itinerary.
The original itinerary called for an overnight in Callao, the port for Lima, Perú, giving us two days to explore the area. We still had our overnight, but due to berthing issues, the ship was now scheduled to arrive at 7:00p instead of 7:00a on what would have been our first day in Lima. My challenge was to advise Aaron, the guide I had hired for a private tour in Lima, that the plans for the first day of touring were now a no-go.
Luckily, we hadn’t put our Verizon service on vacation hold yet. So, I fired up the iPhone and sent Aaron an email about the change in plans, asking that the deposit we had paid be applied to the rest of our plans instead. Aaron responded promptly and by the time lunch was over, I had my answer — he had already paid Hacienda Ficus on our behalf, and unfortunately, they had a no-refund policy. What remained of my deposit would be applied to our city tour, leaving us with a minor balance to make up the difference. I was satisfied; especially since the loss would be covered by our travel insurance. Before we set sail, though, Aaron came back to me with a revision, indicating he would cover the Hacienda Ficus deposit … thus making us whole entirely. That’s what I call professionalism.
To make up for the loss of time in Lima, Celebrity had made another change to the itinerary. Switching sea days around, they had added a port in northern Perú — Salaverry. As I understand it, this small town is the port for Trujillo, the capital of the La Libertad Region. The packet handed to us by the check-in agent included some information about Salaverry, as well as a couple of options for ship’s tours. Mui downloaded some additional information from the internet using our mi-fi device before we put it, and our other Verizon devices, on vacation hold. We’ll come up with a plan for this unexpected port call in the next couple of days and go from there.
In the midst of all this emailing and whatnot, the announcement was made that the cabins were ready. Once we were finished with our lunch, we headed to stateroom 7203, a C1 (concierge) cabin overlooking the stern of the ship. These aft C1 cabins are some of my favorite accommodations at sea — at least on Celebrity’s M[illenium] class ships. Why? Because they have oversized verandas — Mui walked off this one and it is equal in size to the cabin ;-) That it is almost entirely covered is a bonus that I particularly like. The sound of the wake tends to be loud, I admit; but I don’t mind what is more or less white noise to me. Nor do I mind the light sway that some might find bothersome — don’t even notice the motion half the time.
Our home sweet home for the next 30 days comes with …
… an oversized veranda to enjoy some quiet time.
Alas, I didn’t make as much headway on this post as I had hoped. The signal for the emergency drill just sounded, so I need to put a period here and return to my writing later … probably after we set sail.
Later …
We’re now sailing somewhere on the Atlantic. The TV’s navigation channel would tell me exactly where we are; but I’m too lazy to get up from the lounger on the veranda to go inside. Besides, it really doesn’t matter. The lights on shore are dim reminders of the coastline we are following. The ship is surrounded by an inky sky with an almost full moon, and an equally inky ocean, except where the ship’s propellers are churning the water into a frenzied froth of white. Sitting in my favorite place on the ship, it’s time to wrap up today’s story.
When the signal for the emergency drill was given, we headed to our muster station in the Rendezvous Lounge. The passengers were more attentive as compared to the drill on Reflection, and we easily heard all of the instructions, and saw the life vest demonstration.
After the drill, we headed up to the Sunset Bar, located aft of the Oceanview Café, for the Cruise Critic (CC) Sailaway Party. CC is a forum for people who enjoy cruising as a vacation style. Over the years, I’ve gleaned a bunch of information from the forums; and hopefully have returned the favor for those searching for answers. There is a roll call feature on the website that has gained considerable popularity over the years. Essentially, the RCs are threads on which people on a specific cruise can discuss the ship, the ports, and the shore excursions, and even arrange to share the latter in privately organized small groups. Although the RC for this sailing was quite active this past year, not many showed up for the gathering. In any event, we didn’t stay long; just chatted with a few people and when the ship started moving away from the dock, we headed down to our own veranda for a private champagne toast to what we think of as the ‘real’ beginning of our four-month travel adventure.
Cheers — may we have fair winds and following seas!
Of the ships sailing today, the two Princess ships left first; we followed in their wake around 5:00p. Once we were through the ship channel, which is lined with expensive villas and high-rise condos, we sat back to enjoy the veranda until it was dinner time.
There goes Caribbean Princess; we’re next.
Some of the many expensive homes along the ship channel at Port Everglades.
The pilot guiding Infinity out of port returns to his station. We’re on our own!
As the sun starts to set behind us, HAL’s Noordam follows us out of Port Everglades.
Shortly before 7:00p, we headed to the Trellis Restaurant, the main dining room, for our select dining reservation. When this mode of dining was first introduced, I didn’t like the idea at all — partly because no reservations were allowed. I felt that we did enough waiting around with a buzzer in hand at land-side restaurants, and didn’t want to do the same at sea. Our recent Caribbean cruise on Reflection was our first experience with select dining. With advance bookings now allowed, we had a standing 7:00p reservation on that sailing and it worked out quite nicely. We expect the experience will be just as satisfactory this time.
If you’re expecting descriptions or pictures of what we ate — or even menu slides like the ones I put in the posts for the previous cruise — I am afraid you are going to be disappointed. I don’t plan to keep track of any of that on this cruise.
We’ve already fallen into what I expect will be our evening routine here on out — up to the Constellation Lounge on deck 11 forward for pre-dinner cocktails, followed by dinner; Mui to the Celebrity Theater to check out the show … mostly so he can stay awake for a bit after the evening meal; Erin back to the cabin to read and write on the veranda. Boring — perhaps for some people; not for us.
Our last sunset in the US — for a while — is a colorful one.
May there be many more to enjoy during our travels in the next four months.
Two days at sea coming up next. You know I will be making the most of our wonderful veranda!
