As I write this, I'm comfortably docked in Charleston, South Carolina on a cruise ship called the Celebrity Summit. Don't bother trying to rob my house, you heathens. My adult children are still at home, including my 21-year-old son, who's built like Paul Bunyan, my daughter's boyfriend, the martial arts practitioner, and my daughter, the brains of the operation who will hopefully keep the other two from starving until Denise and I get home. (And probably also my son's sometimes sort-of girlfriend, who isn't really supposed to be staying there, but you know how those things go.)
So yeah, I'm on my second cruise of 2022, and I'm going to tell you about it (though hopefully in less detail than I told you about my 80's Cruise in March, which ran for eight or nine entries). As this is a music blog, I'm going to focus on the music and onboard entertainment, but you know me - there will doubtlessly be lots of other details that will find their way in.
I booked this cruise towards the end of last year, at a time where I needed something to look forward to, and I wasn't at all confident that the 80's Cruise in March was going to go off as planned (due to COVID). I deliberately chose to book this one on Celebrity Cruise Lines. In the past, we've always sailed on either Carnival or Royal Caribbean, which have a younger demographic and are more known for party cruises. Celebrity is a bit of an older-skewing cruise line (although it's owned by the same parent company as Royal Caribbean), and it's a bit more upscale. Not a ton, mind you - some of these lines are super expensive. But Celebrity, along with lines such as Holland-America, Princess and Virgin Voyages, are considered to be the next step up from lines like Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and MSC.
I chose this particular cruise because I wanted a more relaxing, traditional cruise (compared to the 80's Cruise, which I knew was going to be insanity). I also chose it because A. It was sailing out of Cape Liberty in New Jersey, which meant we didn't have to fly to it, and B. Two of the three ports it was scheduled to sail to, Newport, RI and Charleston, SC were U.S. ports, and the third, Bermuda, was a pretty wealthy island, so I figured if one of us did get sick or have to be hospitalized with COVID or anything else, we'd be able to get decent medical care.
I've also always wanted to check out Celebrity Cruises. And, I got a ridiculously good price for this particular sailing.
Now our original 9-Night itinerary was supposed to see us sail out of NJ on Day 1, reach Newport on Day 2, spend Day 3 at sea, spend Days 4 and 5 in Charleston, spend day Day 6 at sea, spend Days 7 and 8 in Bermuda, spend Day 9 at sea and reach New Jersey early in the morning of Day 10. We booked a couple of excursions for Charleston and Bermuda ahead of time, and booked a couple of specialty restaurants onboard the ship for a couple of our sea days. But of course, that would have been too easy.
A month or two ago, we started to hear rumblings that Bermuda had some special health regulations, and that you had to get a special COVID test within three or four days of reaching Bermuda whether you planned to get off the ship or not. This meant that everyone on the ship (who already had to be vaccinated and pass a COVID test within two days of embarkation) would have had to be retested onboard a day or so before reaching Bermuda. God knows what would have happened if you'd have tested positive. (It's the plank for you, matey!)
Celebrity didn't really address this issue until a few weeks before the cruise was scheduled. Their response was to completely reorder the schedule of the cruise, so that Bermuda would now be the first stop (on Day 3 of the cruise). This meant that the original COVID test you had to take to get on the ship in the first place would also be good for Bermuda. It also meant that all of the excursions, specialty restaurants, etc. you had previously booked were all shot to hell. (Denise and I, for example, had an excursion booked on Day 4 in Charleston to see an old plantation at 9AM. Unfortunately, our ship was now scheduled to arrive later that night at 6:30PM. Not owning a TARDIS, this presented a problem in logistics for us.)
Stuff happens, especially in the age of COVID. I get it. What I didn't love, though, was that when Celebrity did let us know about the itinerary change 3 weeks before the trip, instead of just apologizing for the change and explaining the reasons for it, their email framed it as something they did "to ensure a more enjoyable guest experience." I would have enjoyed the original cruise itinerary I booked. That's why I booked it.
Anyway, we're still having a great cruise. So I'll probably do two more posts about it, one comparing this cruise with the last one (and comparing the two ships, The Mariner of the Seas and the Celebrity Summit), and the other breaking down the music and entertainment acts on the ship, including the artists and bands playing daily (and nightly) in the various lounges and those playing the main show each night in the Celebrity Theater.
Be forewarned, though - there will be snark.
