Sunday, Monday, July 16-17, 2017
At Sea/Celebrity Summit
80s F and slightly humid/sunny, rain briefly
on Monday morning, smooth seas
Sunday
On
Sunday morning we reserved the shuttle for the port. At the Airport Ramada
everyone else was headed to airport, so we had an easy ride to the Port all by
ourselves! After easily going through security (TK did have to hand over the
extension cord for his CPAP machine with the promise of its return when we
leave the ship and that our stateroom steward would give us one) and checking
in, we were on board the Summit.
We
already knew that good friend Judy (from Florida, formerly of Nebraska) was
delayed at the Jacksonville airport-the plane’s battery was dead and either
another plane or a battery needed to be flown in. Communicating through texts,
we knew this could be a difficult situation!
The ship
is beautifully appointed, but not that much different than any other cruise
line that we use. Lunch was available in
the Cosmopolitan Dining Room so we went there after we found Cindy and Greg in
the lounge for those who have suites.
By 1
p.m. we were in our stateroom #8134 and by 3:15 we were experiencing the
required safety drills. After reading Dead Wake recently, a book about
Cunard Line’s Lusitania and its sinking in 1915, I knew there was a time when
safety drills were not done at all on ships. I think I paid more attention than
usual.
At 6:30
we all gathered for dinner—our group now numbers 14! Originally, the group was
Cindy, Greg, their daughter Jennifer and Dustin and their children Ben (9 years
old) and Sarah (a junior in HS), Judy, Camille (Cindy’s Maid of Honor), TK, and
I, BUT their other daughter Sue, her husband Richard, and their children Max (10)
and Ethan (12) surprised them by coming too! Cindy really wanted us to sit
together as one family, so the dining room servers accommodated us.
Lots of
conversation and remembrance mixed with prime rib, escargots, salmon, chocolate
cake, and apple pie. Let me mention, those three boys are very, very big eaters
with lots and lots of energy!
The
Comedy Show was nothing to write about and everyone was tired.
Monday
If only
we could get room service with croissants, Danish, coffee, juice, and an
omelette at home!! I love waking up to that!
At the
Cruise Critic Meet Up, we met the Captain, Alex Papadopoulos-Greece, and other
officers. Notably, Hotel Director Danuta Nosidlak (Poland), has four stripes,
equal with the Captain. One does not see such high ranking female officers on
cruise ships.
At 10:30
we took the galley tour, one of my favorite things to do. Things I learned,
things I saw on the Summit:
·
The executive chef is Singh Deoraj who was born
in Guyana. His signature dish is lobster.
·
There are 700 food and beverage crew aboard the
ship who either work in the bar, the restaurant, or in the 11 galleys. They
work every single day, ten hours a day, broken up into 7 hours and 3 hours or
six hours and four hours. A crew member has a contract for 4 months, with 2
months off. There are 53 different nationalities in the food and beverage crew!
·
Forty thousand meals a day are prepared on board.
One hundred fifty chefs work as a team in the galleys: areas include pastry
shop, bakery, main galley, crew galley, prep rooms for butchers and fish
preparers, pantry, and sushi cook.
·
Public health regulations are followed and every
morsel of food is accounted for. Leftover food and related items are ground up
for fertilizer (I believe the Chef said it is returned to the U.S. port of
call).
·
I always love the statistics-here are a few
consumption figures for a week: 6 tons of beef; 1 ton of pork; 1965 pounds of
turkey; ½ ton of sausage; 11 tons of fresh vegetables; 15 tons of fresh fruit;
3621 pounds of chicken; 3.5 tons of potatoes; two tons of rice; 3000 tea bags;
4 tons of fish; 1125 pounds of coffee; 3500 pounds of sugar; 9000 liters of
beer; 9225 bottles of wine.
After
the brief talk and a ride down the escalator, we toured the spotless galleys in
groups.
·
Juicy, sizzling burgers on a grille
·
Shiny stainless steel everywhere
·
Huge bin of large capped mushrooms
·
Cold galley: delicately slicing tomatoes; loads
of lettuce
·
Breadsticks were being rolled in the pastry
galley
·
Full, clear kitchen bags filled with flour; 8
quarts of butter in a tub
·
Slicing cantaloupes
·
Carefully icing cakes with a flourish
From the
galley we went through the Tuscan Restaurant galley with fresh pasta of all
lengths, and widths drying. The pasta machine was about 2 ½ by 3 feet in size.
There were tubs of ricotta. Everything smelled good! Now if only I could cook!
Judy,
Camille, and I had lunch in the dining room, then spent a good part of the day
reading at the Spa Pool area with Tim.
We fourteen mixed it up at dinner and I sat by Cindy and Greg’s
daughter, Susan, who sailed on a schooner out of Woods Hole for six weeks, not
only as a part of college, but as crew.
She was a biology major and now works for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. We compared notes about our experiences aboard the two masted U.S.
Brig Niagara and the schooner, _________________.
The
ship’s professional singers and dancers provided entertainment, but we were
late after dinner and there were no seats.
Please note: The
purpose of this blog is to help remember day to day, as well as to keep in
touch with friends and family. I try not to be mundane and describe every
little thing we do, believe it or not!
We need to get a U.S. National Parks pass—we lost the ones we purchased
at El Morro in Puerto Rico.
We ate dinner first and as usual, B1 and B2 finished quickly and went to check out the gifts. We could hear them giggling in the other rooms. This was a joyous day of enjoying family together. This time Denise's dad, who had just gotten out of the hospital, had to stay at home, but we packed food for him, too. My brother and Marge opted to stay home in Waterford this day, too.
