Wednesday 6 September - Sea Day

As it’s a sea day today now that we’re leaving the St Lawrence seaway and heading towards Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island, I thought it might be time for some trivia, both about the ship and about life on board.

We awoke to a flat calm today

As we’ve hinted before this cruise is proving to be quite unique.  In one respect it is as we’ve never sailed these waters before whereas we have been to the Caribbean quite a few times now.  The other thing that’s unique is the group of fellow passengers on board.  Yes. It’s clearly a retirement community at sea but everyone is so relaxed and friendly and people are very happy to talk about anything and everything.

Trivia Story 1

For us, although we've never been on Celebrity Summit before, the reputation of the ship precedes it and Sarah and Chris might guess what’s coming next.  When we were in the Caribbean with them in 2012 we called in at Dominica which we had never been to before and which we haven’t visited since.  The guide for our tour told us that Celebrity Summit had docked there recently and that there had been an ‘incident’ involving two of the passengers.  It was a ‘gay’ cruise and, while docked at the pier a couple of male passengers just decided to provide some ‘entertainment’ on their cabin’s balcony.

I won’t say any more at this point except to refer you to the following stories in the press: see Dominica Story 1

and Dominica Story 2

and Dominica Story 3

We’re hoping that this incident didn’t take place on our balcony.  If the Summit was docked the same way round as our ship was when we stopped at Dominica, then it would have taken place on the other side of the ship.

Trivia Story 2

The next story involving Celebrity Summit is rather sad. In the summer of 2006 Summit arrived in Seward, Alaska with a humpback whale dead on her bow, I imagine on the bulbous nose which extends beyond the sharp front of most of the newer generation of ships to improve fuel economy.

Trivia Story 3

Yesterday after our evening meal I was looking for the gents’ toilets.  Elizabeth pointed them out when it suddenly struck us that it might actually be the ladies’ toilets.  I did check it all out by looking for the other set of toilets , only to realise that the signs for each were so similar – see what you think –

Trivia Story 4

This is a photo of the ship’s daily bulletin, telling passengers which activities are on where and when.  But there’s one activity they never list and which is always available and that is ‘The Art of Living Dangerously’.

Let me explain.  This is what the toilet paper supplied on board looks like – and which is similar to what is available in hotels in our experience.  If you look at the size of one sheet and the level of transparency of same, you may be able see what I mean.

I know what you’re thinking – bring my own.  Well, that’s all very well, but there’s a warning notice in our bathroom on board not to do that as it may block their delicate sanitation system.  So, there they have you – game, set and match or ‘check mate’ - you decide. 

Trivia Story 5

This one is called "When are "free drinks" not "free drinks"?  For some years now Celebrity Cruises have been offering what they call 'always included' in the basic cruise price and what's 'always included' are free Wi-Fi, free drinks and free tips.

From early on we wondered how sustainable this might be for them and we sense that they are slowly backtracking on this 'always included' offer.

Once on board and looking for our first drink in a bar it became clear that the "free drinks" actually meant any drinks priced at $10 or less.  A small rat was being smelled by G and it then became an interesting sport to see what was at or below the $10 limit and what was above it.  If we were to choose anything above it we would be charged the difference - oh and plus a 20% 'service charge' of course.

So you can have a 330ml bottle of Heineken for free, but not a 330ml bottle of Stella or Peroni as they cost $11 or more.  $11 for a small bottle of Stella?  That's £8.82 and I doubt I'd be charged that in London.

That has led us to play a sport which we're calling "to end our cruise with an on board account balance of $0" and so far we've made it.

As always it was time for a visit to Al Bacio for another hot chocolate and some cookies.

It was a lovely sunny day and glorious in the Sunset Bar on the back of deck 10 and we enjoyed a spell there before heading back to the cabin to prepare for another exciting evening ahead.

But before that we decided to take advantage of another free offer as Elite class members of Celebrity - a free laundry service for up to 30 items plus one item which can be dry cleaned and two items which can be ironed rather than just washed, dried and folded. We turned out what we would like to have done and found that we had 41 items.  A cull would be required and then we realised that we had only one laundry bag when we thought we would need a separate one for G's sports jacket to be dry cleaned.

E trotted down to Guest Relations to ask for an extra bag.  While she was there our cabin steward lady appeared with two bags and two blank laundry sheets for us to complete. I said that we had smiled at having to cut down from 41 items to 30 and she looked surprised and said that as we were both Elite members, that we could have a laundry bag each, so we filled one bag and decided to leave the second one to nearer the time of our departure.

Then it was time to get ready for yet another reception for Elite members up in the Sky lounge on Deck 11.  There we talked for a while to one of the senior officers who came from St. Vincent before a lady arrived and asked if she could sit with us.

I was subconsciously expecting her travelling companion to arrive but nobody came.  Yes, she was a solo traveller with 40+ cruises behind her.  She also said that when Covid hit she had 15 cruises booked so she had to reschedule.  She's either very wealthy to cruise that much as a solo traveller or she used to be until she cruised that much.  She kept stopping the waiters as they passed by to get another cocktail - mainly so that E could try all they had on offer.  So E had a Cosmopolitan (vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice and lime juice) followed by an Appletini (vodka and apple juice or similar) and finally a Manhattan (whisky, vermouth, angostura bitters) after which she told me quietly that she didn't think she'd be able to stand up!

The captain speaks

The Cruise Director speaks

So a good time was had by all!

Then it was time for a pre-dinner drink - another brandy Alexander and a virgin pina colada and in we went.  Not the most exciting menu and service was slow but we sat next to another lovely couple, this time Canadians from Alberta.

We left there with the ship rocking noticeably and we both felt tired after another day of doing not very much so it was off to bed again.