| The second voyage of Celebrity Equinox came to an end at the ridiculous time of 4am on the 18th August 2009 when we arrived in Civitavecchia. Celebrity Summit was due to arrive at 7am with AIDAbella an hour later. Summit I'd last seen in Southampton pre and post-refit in 2008 when they added the stupid Celebrity prefix which is one hell of a mouthful. The AIDA was a new one on me. AIDAbella was the second of the new ships, weighing in at 68,500grt and entered service in 2008. She briefly replaced her elder sister Diva on the Canaries run. I had Diva and Luna so just needed Bella for the newbuild set. I'd struck gold on my first call to the port because we docked right by the entrance. Both would have to pass us! I looked out from the balcony just before 5.40am and spotted two ship shapes in the distance. |
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| The Oceanview opened at 6.15am for the buffet breakfast so we went to that and sat outside. As the ships were so close together, I ended up leaving most of it since I had more important things to do. |
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| Juanita left me to it as I was going from one ship to another. At least they weren't keeping me waiting this chilly but lovely morning! Meanwhile our assistant waiter Marte, who was on waitering duty there, was watching Summit and told me she was his first ship so very pleased to see her. |
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| The pilot was off Summit while she was still docking. I've never known that to happen before. It certainly doesn't in Southampton as far as I know. I've even seen pilots in the lift after we berthed. |
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| I returned to the cabin after a successful stalking. Such a shame Oceanic had been chartered to be the latest Peaceboat. I'd looked forward to seeing her at least once before the 2010 regulations came in. Anyway, I had such a marvellous view from the balcony I couldn't grumble too much. |
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| We were off the ship not long after 8am and waited on the dockside for our transport. It was boiling hot, even at that time of the day. When the car arrived at 9.15am, I had a couple more chances for photos before I only got tantilising glimpses as we headed for Rome. |
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| That may have been the last of AIDAbella for me but not the Celebrity ships. To my surprise I saw them both in Naples the following day and photos of that can be found here. A review of my Equinox cruise is here. |
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