March 31, 2022 – At Sea – Near Cuba – Mostly Sunny – 82F

Today, Ellen and I went to the San Marco Restaurant for breakfast.  Ellen had the French Toast and I had pancakes and eggs plus oatmeal.  The meals were OK but again it took time to get them and the coffee was not exactly flowing.  I need multiples cups of hot coffee in the morning.

At 11:00 AM, we went to the Reflections Lounge to hear Gary Koverman, the other DNA speaker on board.  He’s an actual Forensic Scientist that has worked on real cases.  He drew pretty much the same number of folks that I did (I guess this is the lecture centric crowd).  However, he could not get his computer to work with the AV system despite the fact that a whole bunch of AV guys, activity staff, and the Cruise Director all tried to get things to work. In the end, he just gave us some information on his background.

I introduced myself to Gary and the Cruise Director and Gary, Ellen, and I chatted out in the hall outside the Lounge.

Ellen and I went to lunch in the Oceanview Café – I had a veggie burger from the Mast Grill along with some salad goodies.  While we were eating, Gary spotted us and we had lunch together – chatting about everything.  He's a very interesting and personable guy.

After lunch, Gary I went to my cabin to see if I had anything that might help – Gary has a VGA port and the ship uses HDMI – I had an adapter but it was the wrong type – Gary borrowed it anyway to see if it would be useful.

The outside decks were closed today due to high winds so we hung out in the Rendezvous Lounge at a window seat until around 2:00 PM

The View From the Rendezvous Lounge

when we went to see Bailamos perform a matinee show.  

We found out that the boys were Canadian but their Spanish is good that there much be more to their ethnic background.  Another great show.

We had dinner in the San Marco Dining Room.  Ellen has the mesclun greens and the pappardelle con Funghi; I had a veggie compata (off the veggie menu), a green salad and the Penne with spinach, sundried tomatoes, in creamy gorgonzola sauce.  Both pastas were excellent. We both had apple pie (no ice cream) and I tried the coffee custard.  The meal took a while but the food was very good.

We passed on Jakub, the violinist’s show, and instead went to listen to Dancing Town, the smooth listening Dance Band in the Rendezvous Lounge.  

They are good and not too noisy.  We watched their whole set.

From there we went to the Reflections Lounge to watch the Challenge Game Show.  It was fun and I knew most of the answers.

Then back to the Rendezvous lounge for another set from Dancing Town.

Seas are a little rocky but manageable.  Room is quiet.

March 30, 2022 – Nassau, Bahamas – Partly Sunny, Windy – 82 F

Still not sleeping all that well.  No reason, really.

We have an excursion today – “Blue Lagoon Beach Break with Lunch” and our meeting time is 10:15 AM on the pier.  This gave me enough time to get some breakfast up in the Oceanview Café.  Today, I had two blueberry pancakes and two fried eggs (overdone) and a little bit of oatmeal.

There are several ships here today – Carnival Liberty, MSC Meraviglia, RC Enchantment of the Seas.  I was up in the Cafe so early I was able to see the sunrise rise behind the early bird, the Enchantment OTS.

"Enchantment of the Seas" at Sunrise

Before we disembarked for our tour, I took the obligatory iconic picture of Ellen on the open deck.

I also took some pictures of Nassau from the ship.

We met our tour group on the pier and walked a short distance to the boat that would take us to Blue Lagoon Island.  We passed through the wind tunnel between the ships and also got a nice view of the Carnival Liberty.

We sat up on the top (covered) deck for a smooth ride that we were told would take about 35 minutes.  It was kind of neat to sail between the two big cruisers on our way to the port side of Constellation.

We passed some rundown homes as well as mini mansions with superyachts.  

We also passed by the world-famous Atlantis Resort complex.

The ride to Blue Lagoon Island did take about 30 minutes - we had to exit Nassau Bay and into the open Atlantic.  The ride was smooth.

On our way to the island, we were told that, because of the wind, the beach umbrellas were not available so there would be no shade (unless you found a tree to sit under and there were only a couple of those).  This would be a problem for us.

The walk from the pier to our designated beach area was a long one and a difficult one due to the very soft sand, which require balance and effort to slog through.  We had ongoing discussions with the tour personnel about getting some shade and while they were working things out, we went to our designated lunch area for the included meal.  We had requested vegetarian options and they did have salads and veggie burgers.  The veggie burger was just that – rice plus vegetable squished into a patty and grilled – I ate it because I was really hungry.  The salads were OK and the drink options were limited to water, lemonade, and fruit punch. 

When we got back to our beach, the staff had found us a cabana cover for some shade.  

Ellen wanted to dip her toes in the water, which by the way was cold.

We only stayed in the cabanas for a while (they were very difficult to get in and out of – again because of the softness of the sand) before we were told that we could watch the dolphin show.  We walked back to the pier and watched the show – this was about as close as we have gotten to a dolphin.  The show was amusing.

We did not return to our cabana but instead took shelter from the sun in the eating area until it was time to board the boat back to the ship.

Tonight’s showtime was “Broadway Cabaret” with the Constellation singers.  

Broadway Cabaret

We have seen iterations of this show on other Celebrity ships and they have all been excellent as was this one.  The singers were all pitch perfect and delightful.  The show opened with the entire cast joining in on "On Broadway".

"On Broadway"

They did “Bring Him Home” and “Let Me Be Your Star” from "Smash".  

"Let Me Be Your Star"

A great medley from the Carole King musical "Beautiful" was also in the program.

"Medley from Beautiful"

The finale was "Can't Help Falling In Love" - appropriate.  The entire show was simply wonderful.

"Can't Help Falling In Love" - Finale

"Can't Help Falling In Love" - Finale

The rest of the evening was spent reading in our cabin.  It has been a long day.

March 29, 2022 – At Sea – Off the Coast of Florida – Mostly Sunny – 82F

Slept OK – in two shifts – up about 3 AM and then back to sleep until 6:30 AM.  The seas were smooth and the room silent so no external facts were responsible.

I went to the Oceanview Café just as sit opened in anticipation of a great breakfast.  I had a waffle but was told that there was no cottage cheese on board. 

I wound up having that waffle with strawberry compote and whipped cream, scrambled eggs (really good), and mini buttermilk biscuits (over baked but good when dipped in my coffee).  One of the suits told me they might buy some cottage cheese in Nassau - not likely.  I did however, get treated to a lovely sunrise.

The Cafe has these view ports on the floor near the windows - I always sit by the windows and away from anyone else.  

I arrived at the Reflections Lounge at 10:30 AM -- they had trivia going.  Everything was all set up for the talk – “Mystery of the Romanovs” - all I had to do was plug in the HDMI cable and turn on the headset mic.  I expected the trivia crowd to leave (based on past experience) but, not only did they all stay, but there were joined by a large crowd of new folks.  By the time I started, the Reflections Lounge was bustling with passengers – based on a capacity of 416 people, I would estimate that there were about 200 people in attendance (or about 25% of the passengers – based on a new bit of intel that said there were only 800 people on board). I was both surprised and pleased at the turnout and even more pleased with the level of engagement of the crowd.  The talk went very well – good pacing and a few well-placed bits of humor. Good feedback from people after the talk, which ran about 50 minutes.

We spent the afternoon on the open deck and also did some exploring of the ship.  Constellation had undergone a refurbish since we last sailed on her and we were curious about the changes.  One of the pleasant surprises was the Rooftop Garden, a venue similar to the one on the Edge Class ships.  

This was a place for viewing movies and participating in an occasional special culinary event.  (As it turned out, high winds kept the open decks and the Rooftop Garden off limits for most of the cruise).

Dinner tonight was in the Oceanview Café.  I really like the Pasta Bar and tonight I had the chef prepare spaghetti with alfredo and marinara sauce plus tomatoes and onions.  Very good.  They also had a patriotic flag that I had to get a picture of.  I guess nobody wanted to cut into it.

Showtime tonight featured Sean Kent (Comedian) at 7 PM.  

He's from Texas and a little hard to understand but funny.  He had a very small crowd – maybe 40 people.  Audience cringed at some of the jokes – especially the Will Smith slap jokes – too soon, I guess.

Seas are still smooth – our neighbors are the Bailamos boys – they are quiet after they get into their room.

March 28, 2022 – Tampa, FL – Mostly Sunny – 82F

Embarkation Day

Because its location, our room turned out to be absolutely quiet.  That, combined with a pretty comfortable and large, bed resulted in a decent night’s sleep.  I was awakened around 6 AM by what must have been trash trucks.  I was up so early that I caught the sunrise from our room.  

Breakfast is served between 6 and 10 AM and I was down there a little after 6 AM.  I stopped off at the front desk and inquired about a shuttle to the cruise port and she said they did have one (contrary to what I had been told on the phone by the hotel weeks earlier) and that it was $10 per person (much cheaper than an Uber or certainly a taxi).  I signed us up for the last shuttle at 11:30 AM. 

Breakfast was in the lobby area with the food in the adjoining room.  I had a waffle, a premade cheese omelet, and some oatmeal.  It was all pretty good.  I was the only one wearing a mask (Florida, after all). 

I went down later with Ellen and this time, they also had buttermilk biscuits.  I had two of them and they were really good with butter.

At 11:15 AM, we dragged our bags down to the lobby to check out and wait for our ride.  The desk clerk had told me that I would be paying the driver in cash but she, instead, added the $20 to the hotel bill.  We didn’t have to wait long; in a few minutes, we got on our shuttle to the Port of Tampa.  The ride to Terminal 6 – Celebrity’s Terminal - took about 20 minutes and provided a mini tour of downtown Tampa.  Constellation was the only Celebrity Ship here today.  The next terminal over had a RCL cruiser docked.

Because I had checked in online, I knew our cabin assignment – Room 2073.  I filled out room tags and handed the bags off to the porter.  I assembled my documents:  Boarding Letter, vax cards, and PCR testing results and we made our way to the entrance to the terminal.  There was no line.  The woman really went over our papers and highlighted the key items.  We told her we needed to meet with the Pier Coordinator and, after going through security, we were escorted to a check in area at the end of check in area.  While showing the agent our documentation, she told us that our cabin had been changed to 3020.  Cabin 3020 was on the starboard side of the ship just past the Celebrity Theater but on the opposite side of Q-Sine (the source of noise on this ship).  We were told that we could board the ship (even though we were supposed to have a “wellness check” at 2:00PM.  We were also told that our Sea Pass cards would be on the cabin door and that the cabins were ready.

Cabin 3020 is an Oceanview cabin with a large window – it has a huge bathroom, compared to some of our ships.  It also has a desk and a mini couch.  

We put our valuables in the safe and went up to the Oceanview Café – Deck 10 – for lunch.  There were very few people up there and we had some salad and pizza.  Tampa does not have the spectacular views of Miami because the area adjacent to the port consists mainly of parking lots.  The skyline, however, was also visible and look at those blue skies.

I got my letter from the Activities Manager outlining my lecture schedule (only three lectures of the six I was asked to submit).  There was nothing in the letter about meeting with the Activity Manager or filming an advert video.  That was OK with me.

There was no in person Safety Drill on Constellation – the Cruise Director is Mike Gibbons (never sailed with him) assisted by RoXstar (stage name), Claudia, and Laura. There are others but I don’t deal with them.

We watched the sail away from open deck 4 – the port side was all commercial docks with ship building and boat repair being the main activity.  The starboard side consisted of nice homes and condos and an airfield for small planes (that's me and the airfield in the background).

We had a sheriff department gunboat escort (above) out of the Tampa area.  t would take an hour to get into the Gulf of Mexico and would involve going under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.  This bridge used to be scary to cross in a car but much less imposing going under it.

I had loaded the Celebrity App and it told me that we were signed up “Celebrity Select” Dining at 6 PM in the San Marco Dining Room.  I also checked out the menu for tonight and it included trout, Ellen’s favorite. 

We gave our room number to the hostess and were seated at a table for two away from people (window seats were already taken at 6:00 PM).  Kenneth, our waiter, took our order after a bit of a wait.  Ellen had a green salad and the trout and I had a Cesar Salad and the Salmon with Hollandaise Sauce.  The dinner took a long time to arrive but it was OK.  We are going to take going to San Marco a day at a time – depending on the offerings.

Ellen wanted to check out the ship and I went to the theater because I heard some music.  What I thought was a rehearsal was actually the 7:00 PM Showtime show.  The group was called “Bailamos” ("to dance" in Spanish) and it consisted of three guys with excellent voices doing Latin themed music.  There was essentially no one in the audience.  I was alone in the balcony.

They were sort of a Jersey Boys/Mariachi combo.  They sounded great and moved great but they were singing at lethal decibel levels.  Ellen came in at the end thinking that the show would be at 8:00 PM.  We decided to catch the first part of their show at the 9:00 PM show.  There were maybe 30 people at the show. 

We did just that (they were not as loud in the second show).  There were more people at this show but still not what would be expected.  We found out from one of the crew members that the ship was sailing with 900 passengers (Capacity about 2170).  That would explain the crowd size.

In reading the introduction letter, I hadn’t noticed that my first talk would be tomorrow at 11:00 AM.  I didn’t feel I needed to go over the talk.

After the show, we went to the room and wound down.  Not sure if we have any neighbors.  The room is very quiet.

Lights out at 10:45 PM.

Celebrity Constellation – Caribbean Cruise – ABC Islands – 3/28/2022 – April 8, 2022.

 March 27, 2022 – Travel Day

We have a rare afternoon flight today to Tampa, FL where we will join Celebrity Constellation tomorrow.

Before our travel day even started, we had unscheduled things to do. As I was having breakfast, I heard our hall smoke alarm chirp.  This meant changing the backup battery.  I got the ladder from our storage room and changed it – if it had happened tomorrow, it would have driven our neighbors crazy.

United Airlines 2158 departs at 2:20 PM so we called for a taxi at 12:20 PM.  The cab arrived 15 minutes early (as they tend to do) and we got underway at 12:30 PM.  It took less than 15 minutes to get to ORD. We checked our bags with an outside agent and headed to the TSA PreChek security gate.  That took very little time and we went to our gate – B10, which was on our side of the terminal (no walking under the tarmac).  Our plane, a B737-900, was already at the gate along with what will be a fully loaded aircraft.  

Seats were hard to find and the seats at this gate were different than those on Concourse C – they were individual bucket seats and padded sofa like seats.  There were plugs everywhere.  A very interesting lounge.

The boarding process went smoothly – United has info screens that tell you which group is boarding (they use animations, as well for the non readers).  As it turns out, the overheads could not take any more roller boards so they were gate checked for free (we had already paid $35 per bag to check them) – that always seems unfair to me.  They also made an announcement that even small personal bags might not have room in the overheads and I was ready to argue that I needed my bag with me.  No one said anything as we boarded and we found plenty of small overhead slots.  We were in 20C/20D in the first exit row.  The seats were comfortable and roomy enough.

Everybody boarded about 10 minutes before takeoff and the plane pushed a few minutes early and taxied quite a ways to the active runway.  We took off right on time and we reached 15,000 feet at 2:36 PM.  The climb out was smooth as was the entire flight.  All I could see from my aisle seat was a hazy sky for almost the entire flight.

Although we landed a few minutes early, our gate was free.  This was our first time flying into Tampa so everything was new to us. We took a train from the gate area to the main terminal and then downstairs to baggage claim.  Our bags were out on the first pass.  I called the hotel and requested a shuttle pickup.  We went to the pickup location – Blue 2 – just outside the baggage claim area but the shuttle did not show.  After some back and forth calls, we finally figured out that there were two “Blue 2” locations.  We found the one where the taxis pick up and the shuttle showed up a few minutes later (he said he had been here twice earlier).  The front desk needs to be more specific on pickup location instructions.

We are staying at the Hampton Inn Tampa International Airport/Westshore (on Laurel Street), which is a couple of miles from TPA.  The hotel got decent ratings from Hotels.com and offers a hot breakfast.  It took a long time to get checked in – there was only one person manning the desk and the phones.  We are in Room 301 the very last room in that wing of the hotel – there is no room to the right of ours.

The room is not new but looks clean – it is big enough with a full King Size bed.  If it’s quiet, that’s a bonus.  We had bagels and salmon spread for dinner (the hotel supplied bottle water and coffee was available near the front desk).  By the time, we were settled in, it was about 7:30 PM so we simply stayed in the room.

I should mention that the only people wearing masks were the desk agent and us.  One guest showed up later with a mask.  No pandemic in DeSantis Land.

Tired from our long day, lights were out at 11:00 PM EDT.