February 22, 2024 – At Sea – Tampa, FL – Warm – 70F

We are back in Tampa after a successful first cruise.

The schedule is a bit different this morning.  The Oceanview Café is open from 6:00 AM to 8:00 AM and we have to vacate our room (for cleaning) at 8:00 AM.  Of course, anticipating the early start, I didn’t get a lot of sleep and was up in the Café a little after 6:00 AM.  The place was not overly crowded and I was able to eat my nice breakfast before the Sun came up.  I brought Ellen her usual breakfast (no room service this morning).  We were out of our room a little after 8 AM and went to the Rendezvous Lounge where continuing passengers were asked to meet. 

At 9 AM, we all went as a group to the gangway, checked out (and gave up our old Sea Pass cards) and marched to the Terminal.  Instead of having to meet with an Immigration Agent, we all went through a Facial Recognition Scanner.  I still don’t know when the reference photo is taken for the FR comparison.  We then got our new cards and scanned back in. For some reason, I had to take a new picture (hat hair and scruffy). 

We spent the rest of the morning in the Solarium – the ship is nice and quiet until the new folks start filtering in.

Ongoing passengers were being treated to a special lunch in the Concierge Lounge in the San Marco Restaurant.  Salmon was on the menu and it was pretty much the same as the standard salmon meal.  The lunch took a long time.  

I received an email from Bradley and a phone message from Guest Relations to come see them about a room change. 

Guess Relations asked us to look Cabin 2027 and see if it would be acceptable. We did that and told them that to check for any other rooms.  They tapped their keyboards and came up Room 3118 which is Midships near Guest Relations. I was concerned that we would hear music from the Grand Foyer but the room is set back.  We told the nice woman at Guest Relations that the room would be fine.  She said someone would come right away to move our stuff from 2027.  It didn't go quite that smoothly but we eventually did relocate our stuff.  

On this cruise we are assigned to Celebrity Select Dining Table 502 – San Marco Dining Room – Deck 5 – 6 PM.  So no more waiting in line and explaining what kind of table we need. This table is the last table on the port side against the railing – a terrific table for two. 

We opted to pass on the dining room tonight as there was nothing on the menu for us.  Pasta and pizza in the Oceanview Café was our sail away dinner.  We ate on the back deck as it was still nice and warm in Tampa.  We watched the sail away from there.

We also passed on tonight’s Show – “David Klinkenberg” (yes, that David Klinkenberg – he joined the ship last cruise).  We came in the beginning to see what Sue might say about the Beyond the Podium lectures and she did mention me briefly.

Our new room is quiet and the layout makes it feel like it has a balcony.  

The bed is bigger than our previous one – “California Queen” maybe.