All at sea

Miami was hot and humid. The promised storms didn’t eventuate but we did get a little rain. Our hotel was in a perfect location directly opposite the Bayside Marketplace and just a short cab ride to the cruise terminals.

Bayside reminded us of the International Marketplace in Waikiki; very tropical, lots of bright colours, clothes and souvenirs, live music and wonderful cafés and bars. In fact we had one of the best Italian meals ever at Lombardi’s: ravioli filled with gorgonzola, pear and walnut in a broccoli and pine nut sauce, and Risotto de Mare which overflowed with prawns, mussels, calamari and scallops.

 

From our room at the hotel we could see a monorail station so we decided to investigate. The monorail services the inner and outer CBD and is absolutely free. We were amazed by this, and the fact that it is fully computerised, i.e. no driver! It took us right into the city centre where police had evacuated a building and were in the process of closing off a street with several police cars, all with flashing lights. No idea what it was all about but it certainly added to the adventure.

The Eclipse, our Celebrity ship has just been refurbished and is beautiful. After several days at sea we’ve once again mastered our navigation of the ship and enjoyed the numbers of activities on board.

Bermuda was our first port of call, a series of small islands with a fascinating history. We docked at King’s Wharf which is an historic dockyard and wandered about in the sun on Day 1, taking in the historic buildings and a very interesting maritime museum. Day 2 the weather deteriorated and we spent the morning on shore visiting the craft market and art gallery, glass blowing and pottery exhibitions. Unfortunately the fort itself is inaccessible due to ongoing improvements, but by lunchtime the wind was biting so we headed back to the sanctuary of the ship.

There are several specialty restaurants aboard and we have tried three already. The first, the magnificent Tuscan Grille, serves brilliant Italian fare like Jim’s calamari followed by a Caesar salad and fillet steak. I had an Italian chop-chop salad and mushroom ravioli. And we enjoyed a bottle of French Syrah from Languedoc.

Murano is French style and as on previous cruises Jim chose the lobster and I had the Dover Sole Veronique. In the normal dining room the menu changes daily and so far we’ve dined on Chicken Kiev, filet minion, vegetable Biryani, veal cordon bleu and Chateaubriand, just to name a few. Our newest discovery is Qsine, a fantastic tapas-style restaurant. There we dined on Japanese, Mediterranean, Italian and Chinese – all in one meal!

We should mention that to try to counteract all the food, each day Jim walks 4.5kms on the treadmill and I walk 3.5kms followed by weights and sit-ups.

The nightly shows have been fantastic: we heard the best comedian ever named Fred Klett. All good clean stuff and the entire audience was in stitches. Very funny man. We’ve seen Delisco, a black American entertainer who sings up a storm and also ‘does’ other artists like Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, complete with his famous moon dance.

Linda Gentile is a classically trained pianist who delighted us with music from around the world, including a medley of 10 pieces requested by the audience - impromptu. What an amazing entertainer. Doug Cameron (no, not the Australian politician) is a violinist who plays numbers from the musicals, classical, bluegrass and even a medley from Riverdance. Fantastic. And Peng Fei Su is a Chinese magician who had us enthralled with his sleight of hand. Then there are the all-singing all-dancing spectaculars with costumes and acrobatics.

Then there are the people we meet. Our dinner table of 10 includes couples from both the USA and Canada as well as a Celebrity employee who is keen to hear how we are enjoying the cruise. Whist enjoying a pre-dinner drink in the Ensemble Bar we have so far sat and chatted with three couples from Florida, two from Glasgow and one each from Tennessee and New York. There are very few Australians on board and in fact only about 20 people attended the ANZAC Day ceremony, which was short on time but long on sentiment.

Tomorrow we dock at Ponta Delgada in the Azores Islands and we are looking forward to being back on land again.