Roll Call Celebrity Sumitt 01/20/2007

avie · December 30, 2006

Thanks. We'll probably aim for the same time frame. (Assuming the ship gets in on time and there are no norovirus concerns that will delay boarding.)On our previous X cruise, I believed the time on the docs. I found that it was a stupid thing to do!!! And just the thought of the bottle of chilled sparkling wine (Celebrity-type) waiting in the cabin gets the juices flowing!!!

cherole · December 31, 2006

Avie: You got sparking in you cabin before???? Did you order it?

I'm pretty nervous about weather. I'm glad now that our layover in Denver was switched to D.C., but we only have one buffer day. We fly on the 19th.

Our ticket says "do not arrive at the pier before 2PM". Yeah, right! Last time, we would have obeyed as it was our first cruise. But, our experienced friends told us to get there at noon. Sure enough, no problem. Cabin not ready, but we got to go to deck 10 the restaurant, found a seat in the outdoor part and had lunch and a glass of wine. It was just lovely. We'll do that again.

As I recall, there is no option in the cabins for music. At least hotel rooms have clock radios with music. I'm thinking about buying some of those compact travel speakers for my Ipod and filling it with good music for the cruise. Do you guys have any of those or any suggestions on good ones to purchase? I saw a couple that looked good on display at Circuit City, but they were actually wiped out of stock. I'll have to wait a week or 2 until they recoup from the Christmas sales.

Tomorrow I'm treating myself to a day in the city (SF) to shop for last minute formal wear. There is so much more selection there than in the run-of-the-mill shopping malls.

cherole · December 31, 2006

First line of that last post should read SPARKLING, not sparking!

JoeyandDavid · December 31, 2006

There are various music channels available via the Television

avie · December 31, 2006

Actually, the faux bubbly comes with the cabin -- stop in and share!

I would't be too concerned about the weather at IAD. So far, we've had spring and fall weather -- very little winter weather. And our worst storms are usually around President's Day. The experts should be coming out with the 30 day outlook soon. I'll keep you posted, And with the 3 hour time difference and the choice of many carriers, you have the opportunity to re-route. We're scheduled to leave IAD at 8:00 that morning.

Lucky you -- spending the day in SF. But I usually don't go shopping there -- just eating!

Finally, I'm declaring progress. Completed the on-line check-in today. That really makes the cruise real.

Avie

JoeyandDavid · December 31, 2006

Actually, the faux bubbly comes with the cabin -- stop in and share!

We always got the real champagne in our staterooms....(Celebrity label ) by far not the best but tolerable... we save it till our last night on board and do Mimosa's while we dress for dinner....

cherole · December 31, 2006

Why do you get champagne in you room, are they suites? I don't remember that from my last trip. Or is it a CC class thing? We are CC class this time and last time we were not.

Actually, my travel agent will be sending us a bottle, but I told her white when she asked because she didn't know what they would have and I am more afraid of cheap champagne than cheap wine. Wouldn't want to find a bottle of Korbel Freixenet or something sitting there. Horrors!

Are the music channels any good? I don't remember that.

Question: Are jeans permitted in the dining room on casual night? I seem to recall that there is a verboten list, such as shorts, but don't recall all of the details. Let me know if you know.

Thanks, Avie, for weather reports. Ole is a bit of a weather geek, so I'm sure he'll be keeping tabs on it all. Are you flying out at 8:00 on the 20th? Or 19th? Or sooner?

JoeyandDavid · December 31, 2006

Yes it is a suite/CC thing.... I don't know which vineyard is used to private label Celebrity .. but at least the stuff does NOT give me a head ache .. and i have been known to get happy after a glass or two...

Depends they have big band classical adult contemporary, rock , country and i think disco channels ..

As far as Jeans... according to Celebrity Jeans may never be warn in the dining room after 6 pm

(but by all means do what is in your heart)

avie · January 1, 2007

Sorry for the confusion on the Celebrity 'champagne." I referred to it as "faux" champagne only because I was being super technical in this super technical world in which we reside. From memory, I believed it was technically a sparkling wine as the grapes did not come exclusively from the extremely small Champagne region of France. It may be a true champagne, and again it may not. But that is irrelevant. Mea Culpa. Regardless of what its pedigree is, the wine is not bad. Indeed, I enjoyed it, and found having the bottle delivered to the room a very nice touch.

The dress code is published on the Celebrity website under the "before you cruise" category, and then under the Frequently Asked Questions. Notwithstanding the formality of the code, the passengers wear what they desire. Joey is correct. From our observations on our only other X cruise, some people followed the code, and some didn't. For example, I wore a tie and jacket on the dressier, non-formal evenings -- I was in the minority! On formal evenings, I wore a tux; Betty doesn't like formal dresses, and she wore her "Auntie Mame" outfits!!! Most importantly, I never saw anyone booted out of a venue because of dress!!!

Getting off the soapbox -- I've gotten to the mundane - but important - phase of cruise preparation -- I notified the newspaper of the stop and start dates. I was going to do this with the mail, but the USPS web site won't let me do it yet. Next comes preparation of a spreadsheet with our contact information as well as other info for our home and dog (who, regretfully, we are not permitted to bring with us!). And then copying the essential pages from our passports and the credit cards we are taking with us so we may have the facsimiles with us in case the orginals do a disappearing act. The copies do make life a little easier if replacements are needed.

Off to get dressed for dinner. We usually don't do the accepted "party" things for New Years Eve, but we do enjoy going out for a wonderful dinner. And that's where we will be this evening when the ball drops. Have a fantanstic New Year.

Avie