There was a shower just after daybreak this morning, but it quickly passed. The skies are hazy, the seas under 3 feet, and the wind is out of the east, nearly directly on our bow at 25 mph. Added to the 23 mph forward speed of the ship, the breeze on the open decks is substantial.
Our course takes us just north of Cuba as we head towards Nassau, our last port of call.
Restrictions for disembarking have varied at each port, Nassau being the most restrictive in that you can only disembark the ship if taking a Celebrity sponsored shore excursion. No doing anything on your own.
Because of this, Celebrity has given top tier customers the opportunity to purchase a 2 hour sightseeing boat trip at an alleged reduced rate. I don't bite, my plan all along has been to remain on the ship.
This ship is also a reflection of the technological times we are in. Everything incorporates a high level of technology with computers being used everywhere. I have no guess as to the correct answer, but I imagine if we were to count all the computers and micro processors in use on the ship it would total in the tens of thousands.
Just in each cabin the TV, lighting, door lock, refrigerator, AC, and safe are all controlled by processors of some type. Most of these items are also connected to wifi and can be controlled from your phone, and I am sure from other locations on the ship.
Lighting, safety systems, navigation, propulsion control, elevators, entertainment, the list of systems goes on and on. Even the drummers cymbals and drums are just electronic sensors that connect to a system that generates the proper sounds. The sounds don't come directly from the instruments, they are generated with a computer.
The internet has been respectable, actually great when I compare it to a trip on The MS Amsterdam about six years ago when I had to get up in the middle of the night to send an email. A couple days ago there was no facebook, but I subsequently learned that was not unique to us here on the ship.
The day I boarded I hit a wrong button and installed an app that totally messed up my phone. For most of a day I couldn't find anything. There was the real possibility of no blog for this trip. Uninstall wouldn't work. Finally after sleeping on it I figured out the right combination to undo my errant keystroke.
Last night I tried to connect to my trainclub monthly meeting with zoom, but the connection speed was just too slow. A few years ago even attempting that would have been foolish.
Overall this has been the second least busy ship I have ever been on. Least busy meaning the smallest number of passengers in relation to passenger capacity. The only cruise that had fewer passengers was on the Monarch of the Seas during hurrican Sandy about 9 years ago. On that cruise, just a cruise to nowhere beause the ship was kicked out of Port Canaveral to make room for other ships, passengers numbered about 300, or less than 15% of capacity. But we did have 100% of the crew to serve us. It was a fun experience.
Tonight we are going to a speciality restaurant, Fine Cut Steakhouse, not because we need a better meal, but because I have a non refundable on board credit from being a RCCL stockholder. Either use it or loose it.
Dinner is exactly as I anticipated. One reminder that Celebrity and Royal Caribbean are owned by the same parent corporation. On Royal ships, Chops is their speciality steak restaurant. The Fine Cut is a near duplicate in menu and presentation. Both are excellent.
The production show is lacking. At it's conclusion I head to cabin to call it a night.
Tomorrow we will be in Nassau.
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