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Celebrity Summit ~ Part 7: Day 5 in Grenada

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December 2, 2010

Wednesday 11/17: St. George’s, Grenada, in port from 8am-5pm

After two action-packed excursion days, I made this day a little more low-key. I slept in a little later, and then headed to the MDR for breakfast. I was a little overwhelmed by the service, as I literally had 8 waiters serving me! One for the water, one for the juice, one for coffee/tea, one serving pastries/danishes… I couldn’t keep them all straight! The menu basically offered the same things you can get a the buffet, only in the MDR they serve it to you so you don’t have to wait on line.

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I got off the ship at around 10am and walked over to the water taxi pier (immediately left of where the ship is docked). $8 round trip gets you from the ship to Grand Anse Beach. This is the water taxi pier on the beach:

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Grand Anse Beach is a two-mile stretch of beach. It is pretty, with a few palm trees lining the shore, and you can rent chairs and umbrellas for a few dollars.

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A little ways down the beach is a big open stall spice market, where vendors sell little wicker baskets with samples of various spices, bottles of vanilla, scented soaps, jams/jellies, and lots of other souvenirs. Some of the vendors can be a little pushy, but if you are good at bargaining, you can get a few dollars off their asking prices.

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Unfortunately, it was pouring rain for most of the morning (as you can probably see in the photo above), and when it finally cleared up around noon, I was tired of being there and just wanted to go back to the ship. So I headed back to the ship around 1 and had a late lunch at the Aqua Spa Cafe. I wish I had discovered this place earlier in the week, as the food is great, and much lighter than the dishes they serve at the buffet. I had a grilled calamari salad with artichokes, and whole wheat penne pasta with marinara sauce and sauteed veggies:

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After lunch, I went back off the ship to do some shopping at the port. They have a big indoor shopping mall with duty free shops, jewelry stores, clothing stores, and places to buy any souvenir you might want. I had already done most of my shopping at the spice market, but it was good to see the prices. In general, it was cheaper at the market on the beach (especially since you can bargain with those vendors). The port mall also offers free wifi so I used my cell phone to check my email for a few minutes. Then back onto the ship for sushi and to get ready for the evening. 

Tonight’s show was an hour-long concert by Lindsay Hamilton. She has starred in London’s West End productions of Les Mis and Evita, and I thought she was an amazing singer! She sang mostly ballads from Broadway musicals, but she also spoke a bit between the songs, making jokes and talking to the audience. If you get the chance to see her perform, don’t miss it!

Then it was dinner time…

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Chicken Spring Rolls:

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Saffron Shellfish Broth (I am fairly certain they were STILL trying to get rid of the left overs from dinner two nights ago haha):

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Classic Seafood Fettucine:

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Passion Fruit Cheesecake:

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Celebrity Summit ~ Part 6: Day 4 in Dominica

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December 1, 2010

Tuesday 11/16: Roseau, Dominica, in port 8am-5pm

For today, I had arranged a tour with Levi Baron of Bumpiing Tours. It cost $47 for a full-day group tour in an air-conditioned 15-seat van, including water, juice, and local beers. I met Levi right outside the port, and he introduced me to the tour guide/driver Gary. Gary was terrific! He answered all of our questions and he was funny and engaging at each stop of the tour. Dominica was my favorite island of the 5 ports I visited, mostly because of how much fun I had on this excursion! Here’s the view of Roseau from atop deck 11:

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First we drove up a huge mountain and made a brief stop at Morne Bruce to see the view of all of Roseau (we could even see down to the cruise ship!) 

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Then we continued up to Titou Gorge. Levi asked us to meet him super early so we would be the first group to arrive at Titou Gorge, and it’s a good thing he did because we had the whole place to ourselves! I had read a few reviews that the water up there is freezing cold, but I honestly didn’t think it was so bad, and I got used to it after a minute or two. 

Here’s a photo of me standing in the cold water (notice the flotation belt… no one was allowed in the water unless they wore one!)

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We swam into the caves (where Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 were filmed!) and then had to swim against the current from a waterfall to reach a little alcove to stand on. Gary pulled people who weren’t strong swimmers through the current with a life preserver on a rope. Then Gary gave us the option of climbing up a 6 foot waterfall to another pool of water where we could stand under a second waterfall to take pictures:

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To get back down, we had to jump off that 6 foot waterfall. It was rather difficult to get my footing through the rushing current of the waterfall, but once I had my balance, the jump wasn’t too hard. Once we swam back out of the gorge, there were a ton of other people arriving and I could see how crowded it must get there later in the day! We went back to our van, enjoyed some cold beers, and then drove off to Trafalgar falls. 

To get to the falls, we had to walk through the rain forest for about 10 minutes along a dirt path, and climbed a bunch of steps too:

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Along the way, Gary explained about different types of leaves and trees. Once we got to the viewing platform, we could see the two twin falls (also called the Mama and Papa falls) for a beautiful view and photo op:

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Then Gary gave us the option to climb down a series of very slippery boulders into the hot springs. This was kind of dangerous but completely worth it as the water felt so nice and warm! We slid between some boulders, and continued climbing until we reached a calm pool of water, where Gary gave us time to swim and enjoy the sites. 

These are the rocks we had to climb on in front of the falls:

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Next, we climbed back up to the viewing platform and walked back down the stairs and trails to the van. We took a QUICK drive through the botanical gardens, took a quick photo with the bus squashed under a school bus:

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and continued on to Champagne Reef for some snorkeling. 

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The shore near champagne reef was very rocky, so definitely wear water shoes if you have them! Once again, my snorkeling experience was spoiled by the rough current. Gary said it is usually very calm here, but we were rather unlucky as the current was rough and the water was quite cloudy so we didn’t get the full effect of the bubbles. 

After a long, but fun-filled day, Gary drove us back to the port, and we were back on the ship by 3pm. I took a nap, got ready for the evening, and then went up to the deck to watch the sunset with my nightly sushi snack.

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Tonight was the only time I missed the evening show. I was killing time by wandering around the ship, and as I passed through the martini bar, I ran into two ladies from my table, so I joined them and we talked for like 3 hours straight- right through the show! So my appologies that I can’t review it, but I think it involved more singing and dancing haha After drinks, we headed into the MDR for dinner…

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Shellfish and Saffron Risotto (yes, this is the exact same dish as I had for an entree the night before… but it was so good the first time, I couldn’t resist ordering it again!):

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French Onion Soup:

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Rigatoni Bistecca:

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Caramel Crepes:

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Celebrity Summit: ~ Part 5: Day 3 in St. Kitts

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November 30, 2010

Monday 11/15: St. Kitts, in port 8am-5pm

I had pre-arranged a full island tour of St. Kitts through Pereria Tours ($30 for ~4 hours), so after an early breakfast, I got off the ship and headed into town. Liz Pereria was a delight to work with, and she was extremely helpful in setting up my perfect day in St. Kitts. She always responded to my emails promptly, and answered all of my questions. Liz was waiting for me right at the port, and introduced me to the other two ladies who were sharing the tour. Then we walked over to meet our tourguide/driver Seamoss, and we hopped in the air-conditioned van and set off on our excursion. It was really nice for us that only 3 people signed up for this tour, as there was plenty of space in the 15-seat van, and we could tweak the itinerary more to our liking. 

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First we drove through town a little bit, and then drove up to the Romey Manor Caribelle Batik. We watched a brief demonstration of how to make a batik:

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and then had some time to shop in the store, and explore the botanical gardens on site. 

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Then we drove through a rain forest and headed back out to the main road to head to Brimstone Fortress. Our original itinerary involved a stop at Brimstone and time to walk around the fort, but our driver offered us the option to simply drive up to the top of the mountain right outside the fort entrance, take some photos from the outside, and then drive back down without getting out of the car or paying the $8 entrance fee. We picked this option so we would have more time for an extra stop at the end of our tour, and as we were driving back down the mountain, I noticed a man with a video-recorder taping us. I asked Seamoss if this was for security, and he asked if we REALLY wanted to know what it was for. When we said yes, he turned on the radio and every single radio station was talking about the robbery that happened to the Celebrity Mercury passengers the day before! I won’t go into the details of the event, as there are plenty of posts about it already on cruise critic. Up until this moment, I had no idea what had happened, and I was very thankful that Summit docked that day, and not one day earlier! I did feel very safe on St. Kitts, possibly because they strongly stepped up security the day after the incident. I didn’t realize it at the time, but Seamoss said he had locked the van doors on the way up to the fort (just in case!) 

Anyway, the next stop Seamoss took us to is a place where you can see the Atlantic Ocean meet the Caribbean Ocean. This was not planned as part of our tour, but I was so happy he brought us here as I found it so interesting. I had always assumed the place where two oceans meet was as seamless as driving across state lines, where you might not even notice the change, but I was very wrong! The currents from the two oceans flow towards each other, and meet to form a small wave crest in the middle of the water. It was beautiful and mesmerizing to watch! Definitely something I would recommend seeing if you are ever in St. Kitts. 

The white crest of waves out in the middle of the water is where the two oceans meet:

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Next, we drove passed a black sand beach made from the volcanic ash:

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and then we headed over to the Black Rocks (also formed from the volcano)

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Our last stop was added into the tour by request. I had heard that the view from Timothy Hill was beautiful and worth seeing, so I asked Seamoss to take us there. In one direction, you can see the resort area in St. Kitts, including a 900-room Mariott and several golf clubs: 

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In the other direction, you can see all the way to Nevis, with the Atlantic Ocean on the left and Caribbean on the right. Notice how different the currents are between the two oceans!:

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The tour ended at around 1:30pm back at the pier, where I boarded the ship and ate lunch from the pasta bar. 

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Then I went back off the ship to do some shopping near the port. The port area is newly-developed (and growing more every day based on all the construction projects I saw), and there are tons of souvenir shops and jewelry stores. I went back on the ship around 4:30 and headed to the sushi buffet for a snack, before getting ready for the evening.

Tonight’s show was comedian Jim McDonald. While some of his jokes bordered on grotesque, I thought most of the show was funny. He used a slide show presentation at the end which was hysterical! It was also nice to have one night off from singing and dancing haha

Then off to dinner, which was delicious as always!

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Escargot off the every night menu. This was my first time trying escargot, and after one bite I was hooked! I literally ordered it every night for the rest of the cruise (but I only took a photo on the first night). The best part was dipping the fresh bread in the garlicy butter:

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Lobster Bisque, also off the every night menu:

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Mediterranean Seafood Risotto:

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Chocolate Praline Cake:

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Celebrity Summit: ~ Part 4: Day 2 in St. Croix

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November 29, 2010

Next, I went up to Revelations lounge for “The Taste of Summit”, where the sushi chef and a chef from Normandie did a brief demonstration and offered samples of the food. 

Darwin the Sushi Chef:

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This definitely put me in the mood for some more sushi, so I had a little snack at the sushi buffet:

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After my snack, I went back to the cabin to get ready for formal night. Here are the menus and food I ordered:

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Cold Smoked Atlantic Salmon:

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BBQ Glazed Chilean Sea Bass:

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Apple Tart:

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After dinner, I went to the show. Tonight was iBroadway- a 60 minute medley which I really enjoyed as I am a huge fan of Broadway musicals. Of course it was not quite up to the quality of the original productions I have seen in NYC, but it was still fun to watch and the singers and dancers did a great job. They sang one or two songs from each show, so it was fun to try and name the show as they sang each song 🙂 Lots of upbeat music, but they sang a few ballads too.

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Celebrity Summit ~ Part 3: Day 2 in St. Croix

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November 28, 2010

Sunday 11/14: St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, in port 8am-5:30pm
I woke up bright and early on Sunday, ready to experience my first port day. I had breakfast at the buffet:

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I liked my omlette and waffles so much that I had the same thing for breakfast nearly every day (so I’m not going to re-post the photo every day haha)

They made the announcement that we were allowed to get off the ship a few minutes after 8am, so I headed down to deck 1 and was off the ship in 5 minutes. When I got to the end of the pier, there was a shuttle bus waiting to take me to Sand Castle on the Beach ($6 round trip, for about a 5 minute drive. I found out later in the day that it IS possible to walk along the shore from Sand Castle Beach back to the ship if you don’t want to take the shuttle, but I took the lazy route) Sand Castle was a really nice resort, that offered $5 day passes to use their beach, lounge chair, bathrooms, showers, and pool. I attempted to snorkel at the beach, but unfortunately the current was uncharacteristically rough that day, and I was getting tossed around so much in the water that I gave up and relaxed on my lounge chair for the morning.

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Of note in that photo: 1) Very close proximity to the ship… this was just our first port so the novelty of seeing the ship from the beach was quite exciting!; 2) the waves crashing on shore… thanks to the remnants of Hurricane Tomas, the current was VERY strong; and 3) the rocks along the shore… locals said that you never usually see rocks along the shore, as it is always covered in sand. All of that sand was washed away the week before I visited because of heavy rains, so hopefully the beach will build back up again eventually! Despite that, it was a fairly long stretch of beach and I walked at least a mile down the shore and back:

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At around noon, I caught the shuttle back to the ship for lunch. I had a panini from the deli station, and some chinese food from the asian station:

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After lunch, my original plan was to walk down the pier and turn left towards Fort Fredrick Beach. Once again, the severe rains the week before completely washed away this beach, so when I got there, there was a rope across the entrance saying it was closed. Instead, I walked around some of the shops in port for a little while. 

Clocktower at the pier:

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Fort Fredrick (immediately to the left of the pier):

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At around 2pm, it started to rain (note the very dark clouds above the clocktower!!), so I went back on the ship and relaxed on a lounge chair near the Thalasotherapy pool. I liked the lounge chairs here a lot because they were teak, as opposed to the plastic lounge chairs by the pool.

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Celebrity Summit ~ Part 2: Day 1 Boarding the Ship

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November 27, 2010

By this time, my suitcase was delivered to my room, so I spent some time unpacking and getting settled. Then it was time for the 7pm show. I had the 8:30pm late seating for dinner, so our shows were always before dinner at 7pm (except on the two formal nights when the show was after dinner at 10:30ish). I went to the shows every night except for one, and I have to say that the first night show is the only one that disappointed me! It was an introductory show to give you a taste of what was in store for the rest of the shows. I thought the singer was horrible and the dancing was equally as bad! Fortunately, the aerialists were fantastic so that made the show a bit more tolerable! After the show, I went to the MDR for dinner. Since I had the 8:30pm dinner time, I had to miss the sail away party on the top deck. I think this could have been planned a little better because it wasn’t fair to have to pick between meeting my tablemates for the first time and experiencing the fun and excitement of the sail away party. But again, as a solo cruiser, I couldn’t pass up the chance to finally meet my tablemates and make my first friends! Dinner was great… I got along really well with my tablemates (and spent lots of time with them on the ship throughout the week) I really enjoyed my food every night in the MDR. I thought the choices on the menu offered something for everyone, and the food was always served hot and with nice presentation. Here is the menu and the dishes I ordered:

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Baked Farm Goat Cheese Tart:

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Wild Forest Mushroom Cappuccino:

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Lamb Shank Tagine Style:

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Raspberry Cheesecake:

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By this time, I was completely exhausted. I didn’t get any sleep on my red-eye so I was awake for around 40 hours straight… I went back to my room after dinner and went straight to sleep!

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Celebrity Summit ~ Part 1: Day 1 Boarding the Ship

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November 26, 2010

Here is my review of Celebrity Summit, sail dates November 13-20, 2010. I will go through what I did every day, my experiences on the ship, and I have included a few photos of the ship, the islands, and the menus/food. Feel free to ask any questions! 

First some background about me: I’m a 28 year old female from NYC. I have cruised once before with Carnival on the west coast, but it was only a 4 night cruise and I was 14 years old, so it wasn’t much of a basis for comparison! Although I have experience with both domestic and international travel, I have never been to the Caribbean, so I was very excited to experience this part of the world. One more big thing about me: I went on this cruise by myself! None of my friends or family were available to join me, and I didn’t want to waste my vacation week sitting around my apartment doing nothing, so I decided to take the leap and cruise alone. Or rather, cruise with 2000 of my closest friends 😉 As I will mention throughout this review, I found cruising by myself to be an excellent experience- I met so many wonderful people, and felt comfortable sitting with my new friends at the pool, in the theater, or while eating. Ok, now on to the review:

Saturday 11/13: Embarkation Day

I took a taxi to PanAm pier on Saturday morning ($19 flat rate, plus $1 per suitcase) and arrived at the pier at 11:30am. There were very few passengers waiting to board at this time, so I quickly handed over my luggage at the curb, went through security, checked in, got my sea pass card, and boarded the ship. I was on board with my complimentary glass of champagne in hand by 11:45am! It was a bit overwhelming and extremely surprising how fast I went through the boarding process!!! I was expecting a much longer wait, so this was a great way to kick off my cruise 🙂 As allowed by Celebrity policy, I brought two bottles of wine and a 2 liter bottle of soda on board- no questions or problems at all with security. I went straight up to the Waterfall Cafe for the Welcome Aboard lunch buffet. Being relatively new to cruising, I had very high expectations for the buffet. I love to eat, and I had heard wonderful things about the food on Celebrity, so I was really looking forward to eating at the buffet. Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed in what they had to offer. The pre-made foods didn’t change from day to day, and I don’t care for Indian food, so that left me to eat either at the pasta bar, deli sandwich station, or salad. These choices were all really good, but I got sick of it after the first few days. There was also the grill by the pool which served hamburgers, turkey burgers, hot dogs, wings, and nachos, but every time I went over there, the line was too long and I didn’t want to wait so I ended up back at the buffet again. Here is what I ate for lunch on the first day:

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After lunch, they made an announcement that we could go to our cabins. I was in an oceanview room on deck 2, and I was very happy with my room. Maybe because it was just me in the room, but I felt that there was more than enough space to walk around and store my clothes. The room had a big closet with plenty of hangars, a few drawers, 2 night stands, the beds were pushed together to make one king sized bed, and there was a love seat, coffee table, and vanity with a mirror next to the window. There were only 2 outlets in the room, and they were at the vanity. I brought a power strip (as recommended by cruise critic!), but never needed to use it because I never had to charge more than two things at once. I guess if there are more people sharing the room, then the power strip might be helpful. The room and bathroom were always clean, and my steward (John) was always available when I needed him. He refilled my ice bucket twice a day, and supplied me with wine glasses for my wine. Here are some photos of my room:

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After checking out my room, I went on a tour of the ship, and then I went down to the MDR to find out about my table arrangements. Being a solo cruiser, I was very anxious to get good tablemates! I found out I was assigned to sit with just me and one other couple… I honestly have no idea what Celebrity was thinking when they tagged me along as that couple’s third wheel. That’s a really easy way to ensure both me and that couple have an incredibly awkward dining experience! So needless to say, I requested to change my table. I decided to sit at a table with 3 other couples who were around my age.

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Introduction

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Welcome to my blog!  

November 9, 2010

I plan to use this blog as a way to chronicle my vacations.  I really love traveling, but unfortunately, I can only afford to take big vacations once every year or two.  Therefore, to fill the time between vacations, one of my favorite hobbies is researching and reading all about the places I want to visit next.  Then, when I return home from my travels, I enjoy documenting all about my experiences.  Not only does this allow me to re-live my amazing memories from my trips, but it is my hope that this information can help other people plan their own vacations.  Considering how much value I find in reading about the experiences that other people have, I hope I can pay it forward and help the people who read my blog to plan their own trips.

So with that said, I intend to post lots of details and photos from each of my vacations in a journal-style day-by-day format.  I hope you enjoy reading along! 🙂  Please feel free to ask questions and leave feedback if you are enjoying the blog!

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