Celebrity Constellation Western Caribbean Day 2 – A day at sea in the Gulf of America
We generally book cabins that are above and below other cabins. It is a way to manage how loud your room is. Unfortunately, this cabin, 9061, was one of the few Aqua Class cabins left when we booked, and it is under the pool deck. Why is this important? The crew needs to perform work on the pool deck when it isn't in use. Like when we're sleeping. About 1:30 this morning, we heard banging above us. Around 6:00 this morning, there was banging that went on for more than 30 minutes. Oh well, it's only a week.
We met our friends at breakfast in the buffet. Breakfast was good and not too crowded.
One major difference between small ships (600-900 passengers) and larger ships with 2,000 or more passengers is the programming. Small ships have one to two activities per hour. This ship with up to 2,170 passengers has a ton of things happening all the time. Granted, many of them are sales gimmicks like poker tournaments in the casino, sales events at the shops, art auctions, and such. But beyond that, there is a lot to do, especially on a sea day. At 9:15, Arlona attended a dot painting seminar where you create art simply using dots of paint. This was her creation.
For example, elimination sales events, between 10 and 11 this morning were trivia, a veterans get together, aqua fit in the pool, and music trivia. There were a number of what Celebrity calls ship excursions, paid programs about sushi making, gravlax and avocado toast, steak tartare, and pizza making. Of course, those come at a cost of $50-$83 per person, but the point is that there is a lot to do.
We opted to participate in something a passenger set up, a slot pull in the casino. She collected $20 per person. With 16 of us, that amounted to $320. We then pumped that into one machine and all took turns pulling the handle. The plan was to split whatever we won. Every participant got 11 spins on the machine.
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| Getting ready to start |
This young lady won the most for our group. (It's Arlona)
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| Her fifth spin got her a mini game |
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| Her mini game plus her other 10 spins netted the group about $90 |
That put us up quite a bit, but in the end, we wound up with $253 after our $320 buy-in stake. After rounding for ease of cash delivery, we all walked out with $15. The organizer, because of the rounding, walked away with an extra $10 or so, with the thanks of the group. Plus, the $320 was run through her casino account, so she gets benefits from that as well. Spending a little more than 30 minutes, cheering and having a lot of fun for $5 was money well spent. The group agreed and will be doing it again on Friday, our next sea day.
Here's one for the "Traveling with Garry & Arlona files". Last night, at the show, there were a couple of ladies in front of us at the comedian's show. The one woman was signing the comedian's show for her partner, who was obviously hearing-impaired. I pointed it out to Arlona, but that's all that happened. Today, we turned a corner and ran right into them. "Brenda?" said Arlona. "Arlona?" said Benda. It turns out that they live in The Village, and Branda and Arlona regularly play ladies' water volleyball together. She and Marta also hail from Okemos, Michigan, about nine miles from our former home in Holt, Michigan. The more we travel, the smaller the world becomes.
While we were eating, a gentleman walked by in a Michigan Tech t-shirt. A quick, "Go Huskies", resulted in a short conversation about Michigan and Michigan Tech, our alma mater. We have also seen several Michigan State shirts/hats, a couple of University of Michigan items, and one Great Lakes t-shirt, so our old stimping groups are well-represented on this cruise. We enjoyed lunch in the buffet with our friends and then spent time wandering about the ship.
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| The sports court on deck #12 can be used for basketball, volleyball, soccer, or, as you see it set up here, pickleball |
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| Deck #12 aft has a large screen for showing movies, like today, or sports, like the football games yesterday |
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| The requisite shot off the back of the ship |
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| More interesting art - but...what's that between his feet? |
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| Yup, it's a cruising duck, hidden by Zach & Teresa from Santa Fe, NM |
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| Speaking of questionable art, this dandelion, made from who-knows-what, complete with browning leaves, adorns the forward stairwell |
Magician Shaun Jay performed a matinee show this afternoon at 2:30.
Interestingly enough, we met him yesterday at the Martini Bar when he asked us for directions to the buffet.
During his show, I was called up on stage to assist with an illusion.
He was entertaining, albeit a little drawn out. Some of his bits took too long to deliver the surprise, but we still had fun.
We spent some time in the room before dressing for dinner and heading to the Martini bar. While waiting for our friends, we spent time talking with other folks at the bar. I've said it before, but we like this part of cruising - meeting other people from all walks of life.
While at the bar, I received a Facebook message from a friend and former co-worker from my first post-college job at Burroughs back in 1983-1985. She said that they are boarding this ship the day we disembark. Unfortunately, their plane won't arrive in Tampa next Sunday until we are halfway home. That would have been a fun finish to the trip.
We headed to Blu for dinner, where we were greeted with a long line of other diners. It was only 6:00, so the backup surprised us. The operation could be run so much more efficiently, but they don't see it that way. We did get a table and ended up spending dinner and dessert chatting with a couple next to us, and then the couple who took over their table when they finished dinner. Both were lovely, and we enjoyed our time dining and chatting.
During dinner, I felt something on my shirt. A button popped off, leaving the shirt gaping. Lucky for me, when I reached to feel what was happening, the button fell right into my hand. After dinner, we returned to the room. Arlona had an emergency sewing kit, so I executed the repair, and my shirt was once again good to go.
Tonight's entertainment was a production show by the ship's cast. Those typically aren't our favorites, but we were going to go and check it out. By the time we finished dinner and the button repair, the early show was over, so we missed it. The late show wasn't until 9:00. We have to be ready to go for our excursion tomorrow at 7:00 am, so hanging out until late tonight wasn't in the plan. We made the decision to call it an early night and stay in the cabin.
Tomorrow's excursion is a nine-hour ordeal. Cozumel is an island, so we will take a ferry to Playa del Carmen and then a bus to the pyramids at Chichén Itzá. The trip will take 3.5 hours or more each way. The buffet opens at 6:00 am, so we will be rising between 5:30 and 6:00 am, grab a quick bite, get ready, and meet in the theater by 7:00 am. It will be a long day, but a productive one as we'll visit our sixth of the seven modern wonders of the world, leaving only Christ the Redeemer to visit in February 2027 on our first Silversea cruise.
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