| And so to dinner and Leather Woman was in tight trousers - purlease! When women reach a certain age they dress smartly, not like they're touting for business. Carmel and Barbara were more convinced she used to be a man and facial similarities were noticed between her and her brother. Oooh er! Unusually, they left at 10.30pm instead of talking to their table companions, which made it a toss-up between us or them being last. They kept looking over at our table so we thought, if it's true, they'd sussed we knew. Now I'm all for live and let live but crikey, Leather Woman and Comb-over Man were the freakiest couple you could come across! Well we were last out as usual. Carmel wanted to see, "That funny man", aka Perry Grant, so we went to Michael's Club and got some seats at the back while Barbara and Cheryl went to bed. His set finished at midnight and Carmel was convinced he was a tiny man, which is why he was so low behind the piano, so wanted to see him stand up. When he did, he was far from small. We went to talk to him afterwards and Carmel was delighted to find he was from Chippenham like she was! He's ever so different when not being the showman and quite softly spoken. |
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| Carmel caused some hilarity by leaving her card in the cabin so had to go to Guest Relations to ask for a new one. I know she's a bit scatty but this was classic even for her. Turned out it was in her other bag and she'd changed them over before dinner. Once we'd found it, I returned to my own and went to bed. |
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St. Lucia was our next port and I got up around 9.30am, since there was no hurry. There was only Royal Clipper listed when I last looked (Le Levant was added later at another location) with no timings, only at anchor, so I couldn't be arsed. Gave me a chance to rest my back anyway. My tour was the afternoon again so I got some photos, went on the internet then had some lunch. |
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| Because I'd seen Americans grinning like the TUI logo with their fish and chips, I thought I'd give it a try - and wished I hadn't! It was now the 11th December, more than halfway through the cruise, and the WORST meal on there! Fish was who knows what? I was told it was cod but it wasn't like any cod I've had and I couldn't even manage two mouthfuls. Chips were nice but tasteless and the peas were clearly pureed garden ones. which looked like someone had puked over the plate. It's ironic Celebrity bring out a $50 culinary book (NOT cookbook, they insist!) yet don't know the difference between mushy peas and garden. They taste different for a start. It was vile and should be condemned, or the idiotic chef who came up with this crap should! Equinox got it right in 2009, but they probably brought in loads of cans! I had to leave it, finished my Coke then went to get ready for my 1pm tour. The gangway only being one deck below was really useful. Stairs, out. |
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| I was doing the Best Views of St. Lucia and also on the tour were Pilar and Novella as well as Shelley and Kathy. Our guide was Lucretia, driver Julian and Nelson helped with other things, such as Shelley's disability equipment. The craziest thing was we had to line up in twos like at school and Lucretia wasn't listening when you asked about being one person. In the end she put me with a couple, making a row of three until Heather from Melbourne, who Pilar and Novella knew, came along without her friend so we ended up being together. We were led to the buses and thankfully they had single seats. We also had the escort, a girl from shore excursions! Aircon was cranked up to freezing and we were told to keep the windows closed. Why when it's better for your health than going from a freezer to an over and vice versa???? We were allowed to open them now and again to take photos. But our guide and her team were very funny and good. The guide makes a trip boring or enjoyable and I've forgotten too many bad ones. We stopped at a viewpoint on the road overlooking the ship and there was an island I've forgotten the name of in the distance and made a couple of stops. I've included some pictures of a lamb who looked sooooooooooooo cute, then had a wee before refilling his/her bladder! Our final stop was for a snack, despite it being twenty minutes from the port. Unlike other tours, they never said it was complimentary so some of us stayed on the bus. Lucretia asked if she could bring us something and when I asked if it was free, she said yes so I agreed. Then it was back to the ship. |
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| Our tour was last back but no parping or cheering from the crew this time. As we were going through security, Sue Denning, the fabulously hilarious cruise director, reminded people of the helipad sailaway via the Celebrity Theatre, deck 5, so off I went. Despite using the same basic hull design as the Radiance class Royal Caribbean ships, you could tell these helipads weren't meant for us passengers. The layout was different with steep steps up to it. The rails also weren't that secure, though there was no way you'd fall off - hopefully! I didn't feel safe leaning against it anyway so left that to everyone else. It was great though and someone put a toy helicopter in the centre, which wasn't pinched! It was a fantastic sailaway, horn blasting three times as we were told Captain Peppas was watching from the bridge. |
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| The girl by the theatre door said not even the crew were allowed on the helipad, which I found odd considering I'd seen them do it, not only on Connie, but also the other Celebrity ships. Curry time! I bumped into Pilar so she grabbed some sushi and we sat out the back. She didn't fancy going to dinner because being late back from the tour, buggered up the eating pattern with her diabetes. |
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| Lovely dinner and Captain Peppas came around the restaurant talking to people, which was the only time I've seen a Captain do that. Bill was a bit of a hypocrite though. He'd been slagging him off all cruise, saying he was the most boring and worst Captain he'd ever sailed under yet was up his backside when he came to our table I was surprised he could speak. Loreto was pushing the speciality restaurants because they're not doing well. Leather Woman was dressed as a prostitute again. We hadn't realised Perry Grant was doing a quiz instead of his act, as he was resting it for the theatre show a couple of days later, so we popped into that briefly and Carmel was yelling out the answers before being shushed. She fell asleep, though denied it, so I said goodnight to Carmel and went to bed. |
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