Day 12- October 22- At Sea

Finally! A sea day to rest and recuperate. This itinerary would have been so much better if there was one more sea day, either right before or right after Istanbul. But, there wasn’t so I savored this one day that we had.

I slept until 9:30, which isn’t real late, but just enough so I felt more rested. I did the bridge tour with Rick, which he got more out of than I did. The one thing that I realized is sometime during the trip we changed masters of the ship (captains), because this tall dark handsome guy was not the captain they introduced at the first night’s show. That night it was a short, fat, balding guy. I remember seeing the first captain getting into a car on Mykonos, so maybe that is when they switched, but I am not sure. Anyway, the funniest thing I saw was a sign with an arrow pointing in one direction that said “forward” and another arrow pointing in the opposite direction that said “aft” along with distance to the extreme ends of the ship. Since we were on the bridge, the forward was obvious. Rick told me that in an emergency, or if the ship were upside down in the water and it was dark, the forward and aft might not be as obvious, which is why the sign is there. Scary thought.

After the bridge tour I headed to the spa to use the T-pool, sauna and steam room while Rick went on to the engine control room tour. I was supposed to go to the wine tasting that morning, but my stomach was still queasy from the rocking the night before and I thought it was best not to go drinking wine at 11 in the morning.

After the spa I grabbed a quick lunch then went to the port talk about Naples with JoAnne. Typical talk that was more about shopping than the port and what there was to see. And, needless to say, I didn’t win the diamond ring they were giving away. I was going to go to a talk given by a real CSI woman about “predators in your own back yard” but decided to take my book out on deck to find a seat to read. It was so nice to do nothing but sit in the sun and relax with a book. We had learned earlier in the trip that they had a deal on 5 becks beers and you get a travel cooler. Rick and I already had accumulated two of the coolers, so this time JoAnne bought the beer so she could have one too. At $22 it was one of the few bargains to be found on board when it came to drinks. The other was at the cova café. If you had an adult coffee, such as an amore which was amaretto with coffee and cream, you got about two or three shots worth of alcohol with the coffee for about $6, but if you asked for amaretto on the rocks you get one shot and they charge the same $6.

Anyway, after a few hours in the sun I managed to get a sunburn, but I didn’t care. It was all about the relaxing. We decided to break down and get Euros on the ship so we could pay for our day in port and transportation home. So I went to the pursers desk only to find they don’t take credit cards for Euros. So I had to go to the ATM in the casino. OUCH! The fees there were high, I think it was $6 to take out money. And of course I could not get all the money I needed. We ended up having to use two different credit cards and pay twice in order to get the cash we needed. Then the exchange rate at the pursers desk seemed high, so we decided to chance it and take the $ off the ship and exchange them in Italy at a better rate.

Tonight was the final formal night. Dinner was prime rib or Cornish hen or lobster tail. I had eaten quite a bit of beef, so I went with the hen, but it tasted salty to me. Rick had the beef, which was excellent. I have to say, I usually stay away from beef in the main dining room on a cruise, but Celebrity does a good job with it. We all had lobster tails with our dinners. Not bad, but not the sweet Maine lobster that I prefer. I had corn chowder to start and it was really nice. They did the baked Alaska parade after dinner and served trays of petit fours along with the baked Alaska for dessert. In case the next night was too crazy, I had brought my journal to get everyone’s addresses and emails.

The show tonight was not bad, the ship’s troupe did a music and dance around the world tribute. I was impressed by how many dance styles the performers knew and thought they had gotten better each show. At the end of the show they brought the cast out to celebrate their first cruise together! Apparently they had just all come on board the same day as us and we saw their premier shows. I am sure after a few more weeks together they will really be good. The other thing they announced was that this was Stewart’s last cruise on the Galaxy. He was getting off with us and would have a couple of months off before starting his new job as CD on another ship. He had told me he was being transferred, since the ship was being sold in the spring, but he didn’t have an assignment yet.

One bad habit Rick had was to turn on CNN whenever he got back tot he cabin. The stock market was dropping like a rock and the world economy was in shambles. Not fun news to listen to when on vacation. Today the Dow had dropped for the first time in many years below 8500. We couldn’t help but wonder what next year would bring, depending on who got elected and what they could do to turn things around. Most of the non-US passengers we talked to directly or overheard were in favor of Obama being elected. They thought he would be a better world leader than McCain. In less than a month they would get their wish.

I filled out the guest survey saying how much I enjoyed our room attendant and our wait staff in the dining room. I also mentioned that I liked Stewart’s low key, but friendly style. He remembered everyone’s names, which really makes you feel like a valued guest. The negatives I listed were that there needed to be another sea day to relax on such a hectic itinerary and that I did not think the tendering in Istanbul was done well.

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