How I Spent My Vacation, by me
Oct. 21st, 2010 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyspriteSo. There was a cruise. It was warm, and sunny, and full of mostly snorkeling, eating, and lounging around reading - a bit too much of the latter and not quite enough of the former, but all in all still good. But for the sake of my own memory, if nothing else, I figured I ought to preserve slightly more detail than that - and if y'all care, you're welcome to read along.
The only true downside to this entire trip was the departing flight, which was scheduled to leave Logan Airport around 7am. This meant waking up around 4 in order to get up, dressed, and out to the airport on time. Once we got to the airport, I was impressed by the honesty and self-awareness that they displayed, because the boarding time for our flight was listed as "6:35-ish."
It was more ish than not, and I finished the first novel I had packed before boarding started (not to sound to braggy; I was more than 3/4 of the way through it before we headed out). By the time the plane actually took off, I was two stories into an old favorite collection, Zenna Henderson's "Pilgrimage."
In general, this trip was full of comfort reading. I brought a couple of new books (I am incapable of going away for more than 24 hours without bringing at least two or three novels), but mostly wound up losing myself in literary comfort food.
We arrived in Fort Lauderdale just before noon and, after realizing that it'd be less expensive to take a cab than to ride the cruise line's shuttlebus to the port, decided to find lunch in the airport before moving on. Even with that, we were at the ship by 2pm, and spent an hour or two wandering around the public areas until our staterooms were ready.
Whatever else I can say, good or bad, about Celebrity cruise lines, I will give them this: their ships are utterly gorgeous. Beautiful tiled foyers, sweeping spiral staircases, libraries full of a bizarrely eclectic selection of books and wide, rich-looking comfy chairs, cases full of sculpture and blown glass, chandeliers, and a full-grown tree suspended in a hanging planter midair on Deck 7 in the middle of the elevator bay.
The ship was also full of completely pointless stores, more bars than was even vaguely reasonable, and more food venues than I could begin to fathom. Apparently, the main goal on a cruise ship is to eat your way to becoming ballast. But on Deck 12 - almost at the top - we discovered the true treasure of the ship.
Deck 12 was the pool level. The majority of the deck was taken up by an open-air patio, a giant pool, a crazy-busy bar, and several tiers of lounge chairs. It was crowded, and hot, and generally noisy - there was a stage at the end of the pool where there was almost always some kind of cover band playing party music.
And through a sliding glass door at the end of the pool area was the Solarium, which was everything the pool area was not. It still had a pool, and floor-to-ceiling windows, but it was cool and calm. Quiet instrumental music replaced the mediocre covers of the Macarena. No children were allowed. There were two small hot tubs, and, most amazing of all, a handful of giant Papasan chairs almost as big as queen-sized beds, with their own canopies, that could be turned to look out over the ocean. As soon as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
umbran and I had access to our stateroom we changed into more weather-appropriate clothing, grabbed our books, and headed back up to the Solarium to snuggle and read.
There was more - a tour of the spa and gym for me, the orientation and safety session, dinner at the main restaurant, and poking our heads into most of the stores, primarily to realize that we had neither the funds nor the interest to shop at any of them. There was an opening performance in the theater, but we ultimately skipped it in favor of crashing early, having been awake since 4am and having a long day of slacking off at sea waiting for us on Monday.....
The only true downside to this entire trip was the departing flight, which was scheduled to leave Logan Airport around 7am. This meant waking up around 4 in order to get up, dressed, and out to the airport on time. Once we got to the airport, I was impressed by the honesty and self-awareness that they displayed, because the boarding time for our flight was listed as "6:35-ish."
It was more ish than not, and I finished the first novel I had packed before boarding started (not to sound to braggy; I was more than 3/4 of the way through it before we headed out). By the time the plane actually took off, I was two stories into an old favorite collection, Zenna Henderson's "Pilgrimage."
In general, this trip was full of comfort reading. I brought a couple of new books (I am incapable of going away for more than 24 hours without bringing at least two or three novels), but mostly wound up losing myself in literary comfort food.
We arrived in Fort Lauderdale just before noon and, after realizing that it'd be less expensive to take a cab than to ride the cruise line's shuttlebus to the port, decided to find lunch in the airport before moving on. Even with that, we were at the ship by 2pm, and spent an hour or two wandering around the public areas until our staterooms were ready.
Whatever else I can say, good or bad, about Celebrity cruise lines, I will give them this: their ships are utterly gorgeous. Beautiful tiled foyers, sweeping spiral staircases, libraries full of a bizarrely eclectic selection of books and wide, rich-looking comfy chairs, cases full of sculpture and blown glass, chandeliers, and a full-grown tree suspended in a hanging planter midair on Deck 7 in the middle of the elevator bay.
The ship was also full of completely pointless stores, more bars than was even vaguely reasonable, and more food venues than I could begin to fathom. Apparently, the main goal on a cruise ship is to eat your way to becoming ballast. But on Deck 12 - almost at the top - we discovered the true treasure of the ship.
Deck 12 was the pool level. The majority of the deck was taken up by an open-air patio, a giant pool, a crazy-busy bar, and several tiers of lounge chairs. It was crowded, and hot, and generally noisy - there was a stage at the end of the pool where there was almost always some kind of cover band playing party music.
And through a sliding glass door at the end of the pool area was the Solarium, which was everything the pool area was not. It still had a pool, and floor-to-ceiling windows, but it was cool and calm. Quiet instrumental music replaced the mediocre covers of the Macarena. No children were allowed. There were two small hot tubs, and, most amazing of all, a handful of giant Papasan chairs almost as big as queen-sized beds, with their own canopies, that could be turned to look out over the ocean. As soon as
umbran and I had access to our stateroom we changed into more weather-appropriate clothing, grabbed our books, and headed back up to the Solarium to snuggle and read.There was more - a tour of the spa and gym for me, the orientation and safety session, dinner at the main restaurant, and poking our heads into most of the stores, primarily to realize that we had neither the funds nor the interest to shop at any of them. There was an opening performance in the theater, but we ultimately skipped it in favor of crashing early, having been awake since 4am and having a long day of slacking off at sea waiting for us on Monday.....
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-10-21 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-21 06:13 pm (UTC)...or to convert oneself from jetsam to flotsam :>
no subject
Date: 2010-10-21 07:18 pm (UTC)The Solarium sounds like it is a treasure (that's likely to tempt me).
Did you get a picture of the hanging tree?
no subject
Date: 2010-10-21 08:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-23 02:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-23 02:59 am (UTC)That's cool.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-21 08:23 pm (UTC)Or drink yourself into feeling like it's hurricane weather all the time...
On the Carnival cruise we took, there was something called the Serenity deck... sounds a lot like the Solarium. We loved it.
no subject
Date: 2010-10-22 04:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-22 08:03 pm (UTC)This sounds familiar. In our case, we decided to fly down on Friday, so that we could have a relaxing travel day, and not feel stressed or rushed to get to the boat on Saturday. Disney proceeded to assign us a 7am flight on Friday morning. Fortunately, when
"6:35-ish."
... that's delightful. Somewhere, there's an airline employee with a whimsical sense of humor.
And the Papasans sound downright delightful...