The traveling Huntley's April 8, 2013

As we approach the ship terminal on Saturday we notice no less than 8 cruise ships in port waiting to receive approximately 2,500 tourists each, or a total of 20,000 vacationers. When one considers that 20,000 people is the entire population of many smaller towns and that all of these people will be trying to get on their respective ship around noon every Saturday, you can imagine how busy the port is. Well, it was busy!
However, once our cab was able to get beside our ship, we were through Celebrity’s embarkment process and having a glass of champagne on board the ship in about 30 minutes.
The cruise companies certainly have the process down pat, especially when you consider 5 hours earlier the ship had just arrived in port, disembarked 2,500 passengers, and was completely restocked with supplies, fuel, and ready to depart by 4:30 that day.
Our ship, the Celebrity Eclipse’s inaugural journey was April 29th, 2010. Her gross tonnage is 122,000, and she carries 2,850 passengers. There are 140 inside cabins, and 1,285 staterooms outside. It is one of the nicest ships that we have cruised on. In lieu of the traditional set time for dinner we normally elect to use the open seating plan which allows us to eat when we are hungry and at tables with other tourists each night.
Monday evening was the first formal evening and we dined at the Murano Restaurant, one of the three specialty restaurants on board the ship. Both of our meals were excellent and cooked at tableside. I selected the rack of lamb and Shirley had lobster murano, consisting of a whole lobster tail sautéed in olive oil, bacon, butter, with Cognac added and flambéd and finalized in a reduced mixture of cream with Dijon mustard. She still raves about the meal.
We left Ft. Lauderdale at 4:30 Saturday afternoon under broken clouds and headed east until we turned south and skirted south of The Turks and Caicos Islands, Bahama, and north of Cuba and Haiti towards St. Thomas, where we arrive on Tuesday morning. The average speed has been 15 Kts, with the temperature being 78 degrees and winds at 9 Kts.
On Monday, our second day at sea, we continued to just relax and wind down and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. The weather has been mild with white caps occasionally breaking on the sea.
Dinner on Monday evening was with our travel companions, the Sladowski’s
Tomorrow morning we arrive in St. Thomas and prepare to do some heavy shopping!!
73’s
The Traveling Huntley’s