20230424 Celebrity Silhouette cruise - Day 5/21 sea days have commenced

Celebrity Silhouette cruise day 5 - the first day of the six-day Atlantic crossing

Trip day: 5 / 21

Wow, we're tired.  Why?  We lost another hour last night.  Guess what?  We're losing another hour tonight, tomorrow night, and the next night!  That's right, we're setting the clocks ahead each day for four days in a row.  That will give us a couple of final sea days on Ireland time to adjust before actually arriving in Cork.  We'll make a couple of more changes, both forward and back between England, France, and England again.

This morning started a six-day progressive trivia match.  We partnered with our cabin neighbors and scored a whopping 12/20.  We missed a couple of easy ones but were stumped by many.  The goofs:

• How many tentacles (arms) does a squid have?
• In what seems to be a continuation of really badly worded questions from the entertainment team, what they really meant was tentacles and arms.  We answered 8 but they wanted 2 tentacles plus 8 arms for a total of 10.
• The liqueur Perry is made from what?
• Pears
• What is the name of Jupiter's largest moon?
• We guessed Titan, but it is Ganymede
• How many English Kings have been called William?
• 4
• How many feet are in a nautical mile?
• I mistakenly thought it was 1.2 miles to the nautical mile, but it is 1.15, so my math was incorrect - that comes out to 6,076 feet
• What type of animal is a Tasmanian Devil/
• We thought rodent, but it is a marsupial
• What is the largest sea in the world?
• We knew it but couldn't come up with the name - Caspian Sea - doh!
• If you ordered grissini in an Italian restaurant, what would they bring to you?
• Breadsticks

Another solid "D" performance.  There are five more days in this contest, so we'll have to up our game.

Next up, we stopped by the guest service desk. Since we've met a ton of other Villagers on this sailing, we thought it would be fun to try to get everyone together.  Celebrity is giving us a room on Wednesday from 3pm-4pm.  The Cruise Director, Mike, said he would help spread the word, so we'll see how many Villagers we can get to show up to meet and greet.  Viking was a lot more personal when we did this and actually sent invitations to folks' rooms. Since they have everyone's home address, it was easy to identify the passengers.  They also provided drinks and snacks.  Celebrity will just post it on a board and give us a room.  Different levels of service to be sure.

Since it is a slow day, I'll talk about something near and dear to many travelers - internet access.  This is our first sailing on a ship that is equipped with SpaceX Starlink satellite internet service.  We opted for the premium package and I have to say that overall, I am impressed.  Granted, we are in an area of the world that generally has better coverage versus the far southern hemisphere, but still, the service has been fast, generally reliable, and even can allow streaming.  We might attempt to stream something just to try it.  My only complaints are that it is a little pricey, and there seems to be an issue handing off a device from one node to another as you move about the ship.  Suddenly, I'll be connected to WiFi but have no internet.  Turning off the WiFi and turning it back on forces the phone to reconnect to the strongest access point and voila - I'm back online.  Still, even with that, this is the best internet service we've had on a cruise ship.  Talking with some of the guests, it sounds like choosing the basic plan is a lot more limiting, and they can't text or make VOIP calls.  So, if you're planning to sail on Celebrity and need good connectivity, be sure to choose the premium plan.

On a walk around the ship, a gentleman looked at us and called us by name.  We didn't recall meeting him so we were at a slight disadvantage.  Carl, as it turns out, is a regular reader of this blog.  We had a nice conversation with him.  It turns out that these writings are a great way to meet nice people.

With the weather getting decidedly cooler as we sail north, most activities have moved indoors.  This afternoon, performer Jayne Curry, who did the show last night, offered up a matinee.  

She is quite a vocalist and an absolute bunch of energy.  At one point, she made her way through all three floors of the theater, running and dancing, as the band played the longest version of Abba's Dancing Queen that we have ever heard.

Making her way through balcony level 1

Stopping to do the elbow/sprinkler with a guest

After running and dancing through all three floors of the theater, she collapsed for a well-deserved breather before continuing the show

This afternoon's trivia was as challenging as ever and we wound up with 13/21.  The close answers:

• Canada has hosted two Winter Olympics - where?
• We thought Vancouver and Montreal - it was Vancouver and Calgary
• What soft drink was invented during World War II?
• Fanta
• Which royal house does the royal family of Monaco belong to?
• Grimaldi - should have known that - was there and photographed the crest
• Which actress in All About Eve said, "Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night."?
• Brain fart on my part - I wrote Betty Grable - but meant Bette Davis - the right answer
• What country has the most active volcanoes?
• Indonesia
• The clock on the tower on the back of a $100 bill shows what time?
• 4:10 - but that's on the old $100 bill - the new one shows 10:30 - we guessed 12:00
• What was the only painting sold by Van Gogh during his lifetime?
• The Red Vineyard
• When was the Tomagachi toy invented?
• 1996

The Silhouette, like all the Solstice-class ships we've sailed on, takes a light-hearted approach to men's urination.  Over every urinal in every public men's room on the ship, you can find a metal sign with a pithy saying or a bit of trivia.  Here are a couple of examples.

It gives one something to think about while conducting business.

Dinner was better tonight in Blu so that was a good thing.  We chatted with a couple that used to live in The Villages but moved north to be near family. It made for a nice meal.

After dinner, we caught tonight's show - comedian Larry Omaha.  He was OK, but a little slow-paced for us.

We watched the officers vs guest competition that was a take on Minute to Win it.  Contests involved chopstick catching, tissue box emptying, cup stacking, and ping pong ball carrying (between the knees). It was all good fun as always.

After a nightcap at the martini bar, we returned to the room to set our clocks ahead to Cape Verde time - UTC-1.  Only two more hours to lose before reaching Cork.

Tomorrow is sea day 2 of 6 en route to Cork, Ireland.