No doubt about it. To like a Transatlantic cruise, you gotta love sea days. You’ll have plenty of them between Miami and the Azores.
Of course, when the weather is as good as it usually is on a spring crossing you can kick back and enjoy the sea air and the views from the balcony. Here is a sequence of sea days on the cruise.
March 30
March 31
April 1
April 2
April 3
April 4
Pretty smooth, all in all. You might notice the changing lighting. Although each photo was taken about the same time of day, the sun came up later as we cranked the clock ahead 4 nights in a row. This got us on Ponta Delgada time, but it was a little hard on the body. The kids kept sleeping in later and later so that even Teddy was dragging himself out of bed at 9AM.
We soon settled into shipboard routine. Sleep, eat, read, drink, play (if you’re a kid.) Rinse and repeat.
Since we were Elite Plus cruisers on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean gave us Diamond status on their line – so we got a fair number of perks, including access to the Diamond Lounge – nice. However, due to the popularity of the Jewel and Transatlantic cruising in general, we had a lot of company on the ship who were also Diamond cruisers. This turned out to be a good thing, as RCI gave us extra vouchers for specialty coffees and drinks, plus opened up a portion of the dining room for a special Diamond breakfast each day. The Diamond “happy hour” was transferred from the Lounge to the larger Schooner bar at the stern of the ship – no crowding.
We got together in the Windjammer for lunch – or Maria and I went to the dining room a few times.
Pizza and french fries were always a big hit.
Maria helped Teddy with his school presentation on the holiday.
And if you were still hungry, well there was always ice cream on tap.
On formal night we got dressed up in our best.
We enjoyed the company of our neighbors in the dining room – Mario and Sandi from Fort Lauderdale. They were celebrating their 58th wedding anniversary – Wow!
Our wait staff Tiffone from Trinidad and Man from China – loved the kids and were always friendly and helpful.
And after dinner, we could hardly wait to see what Igusti had left in our stateroom after he set up the beds.
And so it went. Next stop – Ponta Delgada.
