20230428 Celebrity Silhouette cruise - Day 9/21 - close enough to immigrate

Celebrity Silhouette cruise day 9 - two days to go before we reach land

Trip day: 9 / 21

Wow, it's amazing how refreshed you feel when you stop losing an hour every single day!  It was nice to not have to change the clock after four straight days of losing an hour.

We're two days out from Cork, Ireland, and that meant that it was time to get immigration out of the way.  After breakfast, we headed to the theater on deck 4 forward.  Plenty of crew were there.  They scanned our SeaPass card so that we registered as going through.  Then, we walked up to a table where an immigration member looked at and then stamped our passports.

It was quick and painless and we were in and out in less than five minutes.  That meant we had plenty of time to get to the fifth of six progressive trivia matches.

To say that today's was brutal is an understatement.  We set a new personal worst nailing only seven correct answers out of 20 questions.  We should have had between eight and ten, but answers escaped us this morning.  The long, long list of mistakes:

• What is the name we know Manya Sklodowska by?
• Marie Curie
• The king cobra is the only snake that does what?
• Builds nests
• What country had three presidents in one day?
• Mexico
• What is the capital of Mongolia?
• Ulaanbaatar - oh yeah, that was right on the top of our tongues (he's lying...)
• In 1907, who was the first English writer to win a Nobel Prize?
• Rudyard Kipling
• What was Elvis Presley’s father’s name?
• Vernon Presley (for what it's worth, mom was Gladys)
• Martina Navratilova won more doubles champions with what partner?
• Pam Shriver
• What star sign is Harry Potter?
• Leo - took a 1-in-12 change and blew it
• Where was Victor Hugo born?
• France - we should've known this one
• What was Oscar Wilde’s only complete novel?
• The Picture of Dorian Gray
• The Egyptian god, Horus, had the head of what creature?
• Falcon
• Brass is an alloy of copper and what element?
• We went back and forth between zinc and tin and incorrectly guessed tin, that's bronze - silly error
• Curry flowers are what color?
• Yellow - this seemed obvious so we guessed white

Next on the agenda was sorting laundry.  Because of our elite status (it sounds way more important than it really is...), we each get one bag of laundry (up to 30 items) done for free. We're going to send one out today and another tomorrow so we'll have most of our clothes clean for the remainder of the trip.

Elite status on Celebrity means you have amassed 300 club points.  You earn points each night on the ship.  The number of points is based on the class of cabin you are in.  It is interesting how Celebrity Cruise Line designed the club levels.  The Classic level is between 2-149 points.  You earn 2 points per night in a stateroom, 3 in a balcony room, 5 in an upgraded balcony room, and 8-24 per night in suites. At 3-5 points a night for balcony rooms (more for suites and above), it doesn't take a lot of cruises to zoom past Classic to Select. Select runs from 150-299 points.  Again, that's relatively quick to go through.  Once you hit Elite at 300 points, you are stuck there until 750 points when you hit Elite+.  But then...you have to go all the way to 3,000 points to make Zenith.  Of course, at that point, you get all the benefits.  One free cruise, free drinks, free WiFi, free laundry, and more.  At the cabin level that we typically book at 5 points per night, we'll never see Zenith on Celebrity, that's for sure.

The weather seems to have subsided with the rain moving away (or us moving away from the rain). The temperature has stabilized in the mid-50s and 57F as I type this portion of today's entry around 11:30AM UTC+1.

We attended another Behind the Podium talk from PGA professional, Steve Parry.  One little quibble - the printed daily planner said it would be held in Celebrity Central on deck 4.  The Celebrity app - supposedly the most up-to-date and regularly updated with last-minute changes said it was in the Sky Lounge on deck 14.  Of course, we went to the Sky Lounge.  Just before the start time, an activities team member came up there to tell everyone that it was in Celebrity Central.  It certainly isn't a huge deal, but it is the attention to the small details that differentiate a cruise line and throughout this journey, Celebrity has missed several of the small things.

Case in point – communication about the buffet.  There is absolutely no communication about special dining nights in the Oceanview Café.  One night, we discovered, after we had dinner, that they had a Mexican-themed dinner in the buffet.  Since we both enjoy that cuisine, we may have opted to dine there rather than in Blu.  But, since there is absolutely no communication – not in the app, not in the daily planner, and no signs, there is no way to know what the theme is unless you actually go there to eat.  On another cruise line (Viking), when there are theme nights in the World Café, they publish it everywhere so guests can make informed choices.  Again, it’s the small things.  

But, I digress.  Back to Steve Parry.  His talk today was more on the mental aspects of golf and zero about technique.

His whole strategy is to think - not about the shot and how to hit it, but more about the next shot

Planning for your next shot makes you think more about how to play this one - the longest or straightest shot isn't necessarily the best shot

It's all about having a plan to set yourself up for the easiest possible next shot

Steve is very down-to-Earth and relatable and that makes his talks easy to listen to.

We hit up the Oceanview for some chow – they had the makings of gyros and that’s what we opted for.  After lunch, we decided to take advantage of one of those life-changing Elite benefits – a free scoop of gelato at Gelateria on deck 5.  Arlona opted for strawberry and I had mint.  They both were good, but it is sure hard to beat the gelato we had in Rome last year.

We tried our hand at British Invasion music trivia - name the title and artist for 20 songs.  We got 20 points out of 40 - 50%.  We knew more songs than the artists.

We followed that up with regular trivia - another mediocre showing - the misses (and one interesting one):

• What is the most frequently purchased item at Walmart?
• Bananas
• The Sydney Olympic torch is fashioned after the Opera House and what?
• A boomerang
• Cynophobia is the fear of what?
• Dogs
• In the 1960’s what team won five Stanley Cups?
• Montreal Canadiens - we thought it might have been the Detroit Red Wings
• True or False – Nintendo was founded after 1900?
• False – 1889 to sell playing cards
• What country has the most natural lakes?
• We debated Canada or the US and guessed wrong – it’s Canada
• Who was named the sexiest man alive in 1995?
• We debated Brad Pitt vs George Clooney and again, picked wrong – it was Brad Pitt
• What actress was on a postage stamp in 1995 around her 69th birthday?
• Marilyn Monroe
• In England, the word “Pub” is actually short for something – what?
• We got this right thanks to friends, but found it interesting – “Public House”

We got an invitation to a "Mixology and Music" event for Captain's Club members at 5:15pm in the Sky Lounge.  We arrived to find a throng of people waiting to get in. That was enough to discourage us so we left and headed to dinner in Blu.  

To be clear, the service in Blu is fantastic.  Personal service, attentive waitstaff – perfection.  We have been very disappointed in the menu on this cruise.  In fact, based on this experience, I doubt that we will book an Aqua Class room again.  Aqua Class is what gives you access to Blu.  Several times, we have ordered off the main dining menu, bypassing Blu’s poor choices.  It’s too bad because the intimate dining experience in Blue is wonderful, but if the food doesn’t warrant it, it isn’t worth the extra money.

After dinner, we went to the theater to see saxophonist, Tommy Proulx.  

He was quite entertaining and aims to be the Kenny G of this generation.  Interestingly, he hails from the Grand Rapids, Michigan area, specifically, Grandville, about 40 minutes from where Arlona grew up.

We hit up the Martini Bar for a nightcap.  The bartender, Yopi, did a perfect double pour.

Tomorrow is our last sea day before arriving in Cork and starting the port portion of this journey.  Tomorrow, we'll attend our last trivia of the cruise - perhaps that's a good thing given our pitiful performance, that is unless we hit up the nighttime trivia.  No clock change again tonight so it should be a good night's sleep.