I woke up at about 5:10 a.m. and it didn't feel like we were moving so I went out on the deck to explore and discovered we were already tied up at the dock in Cozumel with no sign of the line handlers so I don't know how early we may have arrived. We were docked at the Punta Langosta (downtown) pier as I had expected.
The moon was beautiful
I turned around to go back to bed when I spotted a ship in the distance. Looking at my Cruisemapper app, I saw that this was just the beginning of the arrival of a lot of ships, some of which I hadn't been expected. I knew I couldn't go back to bed then.
Celebrity Edge - they sailed past us to go to the International Pier, the normal pier for Royal Caribbean and Celebrity ships. That pier can only hold two ships which is how we ended up downtown. The Edge was scheduled to be in Cozumel on this day.
The Scarlet Lady was next - at this point, we didn't know where she was going to park as the Celebrity Infinity was scheduled to park next to us at the remaining berth of the downtown dock.
The lights of Cozumel at night and Paul in our suite guest Celebrity robes
The Scarlet Lady did a full turn right in front of us before putting down its anchor. Their lifeboats were used as tenders although I can't imagine many got off since the ship was in port for so short. It left before lunch. It was originally scheduled to be in Cozumel the day before but visited Costa Maya instead. If it weren't for Hurricane Nicole, on this day, it would have been headed to Bimini, Bahamas.
The Disney Wish was the next to arrive. I love how she lights up, including the word Wish! She was originally scheduled to be at Disney's private island but had to make port changes because of Hurricane Nicole. Interestingly, she docked at Puerta Maya, which I thought was just used by Carnival Corporation brands.
Next up was the Oasis of the Seas. She was scheduled to be in Cozumel today and she passed by us to go park at the International Pier next to the Celebrity Edge.
The Disney Wish as the sun starts to come up.
The Disney Wish passing the Oasis of the Seas
I was so distracted with the ships off to the west side of our ship that I missed the beginning of this sunrise over Cozumel.
This small boat in the front is a lifeboat from the Scarlet Lady being used as a tender.
Finally, the ship I was waiting for - the Celebrity Infinity appears in the distance. The Infinity is a sister ship to the Constellation so from the outside looks essential the same. I was so excited to get some photos of the two of them right next to each other.
Pilot boat leading the Infinity in - It had already dropped off the pilot who was on the Infinity helping guide the ship into port.
Getting ready to throw the lead ropes
While the Infinity was pulling in, I noticed the Carnival Liberty in the distance. This was another ship that was not originally scheduled for Cozumel on this day. She parked at the Puerta Maya pier, the normal Carnival pier. Later in the day, the Carnival Conquest would join her.
Lifeboats being used as tenders from the Scarlet Lady
We had breakfast at Luminae. I don't take a lot of food photos but I love their smoked salmon and this is really pretty.
After breakfast, Paul and I went into port briefly to get some ship photos and maybe to look for a watch (or one similar) that I had admire the year before at this port - I know the chances of them still having it were probably about 0. They didn't have the kind I was looking for but a pretty red Bering watch caught my eye and the salesman was persuasive (and a little creepy the way he followed us down the escalator to the lower level of the store).
We then headed back on the ship and I took advantage of a mostly empty ship to do some filming for my ship tour video. I started on deck 3 with plans to work my way up but when I got to Michael's Club, the suite lounge on deck 4, I got distracted chatting with the concierge and then enjoying a glass of Pinot Grigio (and cookies).
Celebrity Edge, Oasis of the Seas, and Carnival Liberty in the distance (the Disney Wish is hiding behind the Carnival Liberty)
We were parked next to the Infinity all day!
I did eventually finish the lower public decks and then headed back to the room to get Paul and his Mom for lunch. We went to the buffet and enjoyed some pizza and pasta. And then I spent more time filming the upper decks.
My favorite art on the ship - a Dale Chihuly glass sculpture!
Reflections Lounge has great forward views
Twins in port - the Constellation and the Infinity
And here is my full ship tour video.
The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying our deck. Mid-afternoon we finally got more snacks than we could eat. Maybe it was to make up for missing snacks on day 1 and 2 completely (and day 5).
This shrimp ceviche really was amazing.
At one point the Infinity got some new rope! They threw out a lead rope (with a ball at the end) that was shot out of a rope thrower. That lead rope was then tied to the end of this new rope and they reeled it in.
As the afternoon came to a close, it was time to watch the last ferries come in and then the ships start to leave port.
Ferry (yellow boat) and a pilot boat getting ready for the Infinity to leave
Celebrity Edge in the distance leaving Cozumel
Celebrity Infinity leaving
Disney Wish
It was dark (around 7:00 p.m.) by the time we left dock so I didn't take any photos instead deciding to just enjoy the moment. After that, we headed to Luminae for a bit of a late dinner.
This evening, Comedian Phil Tag was doing a second show at 10:15 p.m. and Silent Disco was scheduled for 10:00 p.m. Paul had heard that Phil Tag was really good so he and his mom went to his show and really enjoyed it. I headed up to the Reflections Lounge to enjoy Silent Disco. I try to catch it at least once each Celebrity cruise and I had missed the first Silent Disco earlier in the week.
We then met back in the room in time to go to bed.
We started the morning with an early morning swim in the solarium when they opened. The ship was clearly rocking a little turning the pool into a wave pool.
After a swim we returned to our suite to get dressed and then head to another great breakfast in Luminae. We had an Inside Access tour booked for this morning so after breakfast we headed to the meeting place in Cellar Masters. We were each given an earpiece which made it much easier to hear our guides.
Our first stop was the San Marco main dining room for a presentation by an officer responsible for the dining rooms. Each waiter and assistant waiter pair are responsible for 24 to 25 passengers each seating. They generally work twelve hour days and are limited to fourteen hours per day by law. Laws require they are given an uninterrupted break of 6 hours which for waiters is their night break. They generally work seven month contracts followed by eight weeks of vacation.
Although this presentation didn't talk about sommeliers, I did have an interesting conversation with Milo, our sommelier, earlier in the week. Celebrity is one of the last main stream cruise lines that still have sommeliers in their dining rooms. We had first met Milo on this ship exactly a year earlier so I asked him if he had been able to get any time off. Fully staffed this ship would have fifteen sommeliers. During our cruise they only had eight and at times over the past year they only had two. So he was in his he very high demand. He had only had five weeks of vacation that year.
Back to the tour, we next headed down into the galley. This galley serves San Marco (the main dining room), Blu (the dining room for Aqua Class guests), and Luminae (the dining room for suite guests). San Marco uses an electronic ticket system but Luminae and Blu which each have their own kitchen within the galley, each use a paper ticket system.
There are 15 chefs for the main dining room and five each for Blu and Luminae. There are also four chefs who work in the galley on deck one that serves the crew of about 900. Luminae serves about ninety guests. Blu serves about 180 guests.
Executive chefs work four months on and two months off. Lower level chefs work six to seven month contracts. Each chef focuses on one part of the dish (i.e. potatoes, fish, etc.).
The escalators from the dining room to the galley. This is how waiters bring dishes up.
Bakery
The Luminae (suite dining room) kitchen and their paper ticket system
Where all the ice cream and gelato are made
If I recall correctly, I believe this is the pastry area.
Dishwashing
From the galley we continued on to the storage area. This is the seafood freezer which is 21*F.
We also walked past the storage for all the recycling and garbage. They hand select ports for disposing of recycling based on how they handle it. For US itineraries, they only off-load recycling in US ports. In Europe, it depends on the type of waste. For example, Portugal takes food waste and turns it into fertilizer.
Money earned from recycling goes back to crew satisfaction.
Food waste can also be discharged at sea as long as they are at least twelve nautical miles out, measured either from an archeological base line like surrounds the Bahamas or land. When out at sea they mix the food waste with water to create a smoothie. They need to be cruising at at least six knots speed before they can discharge.
Both black water and gray water go through an advanced water purification system until it is clean and clear enough to drink before it is discharged.
Before our next stop on the tour we all needed to be searched. They separated the men and women for this.
Our next stop was the engine control room. There is a set of controls in this room to maneuver the ship although while we were there the Bridge had the controls. The officers in the engine control room and those in the bridge communicate constantly as they can't make decisions (except in emergencies) without coordinating with the other.
I have to admit that a lot of what he told us went over my head but it was cool to see the screens of the engine room and the underwater cameras of the propellers plus so many charts, figures, and screens with data! If I understood the officer correctly, the ship goes through 75 liters of fuel a minute which is an improvement from the past when it was as much as 12 liters per minute.
The engine has 8 cylinders on each side. When engines are at 80 RPM, they can direct the ship in any direction, but when they turn at 108rpm, they cannot turn 35 degrees or more. Vibrations are felt (usually in the rear of the ship) when they make an aggressive start or stop and cannot be avoided. It was interesting to learn the propellers pull the ship along instead of pushing it. The right propeller turns clockwise and the left counter-clockwise!
They have two main switchboards, a port side one and a starboard side one plus several generators. That way if a fire or something happens to one, they have backups and don't lose power for the entire vessel.
This giant X marks either the forward or aft side (I can't remember which) of the I-95 - a long crew hallway that runs the entire length of the ship to make it easy to transport goods and crew to different parts of the ship. It's easy to get turned around when on the lower decks with no view outside and so this X helps crew confirm they are going the direction they need to go.
We stopped at the laundry. The washing machine is huge with the laundry moving through different compartments and can be set to different temperatures for different types of laundry. They have five huge dryers and then machines that will fold sheets and towels. They can handle 300 kg of laundry an hour. Laundry operates 24/7.
Sheet folding machine
Dryer
Towel folding machine
Watertight door - only authorized people are allowed to operate these doors as they can be very dangerous and slam shut unexpectedly if they are not operated correctly. We survived walking through it so it must have been locked open correctly.
Our last stop was a visit to the bridge. We were at sea and the ship was in autopilot but a female officer was at the helm monitoring everything. They had roped off the area around the controls so we couldn't get a very close look.
The ship uses electronic charts. They have azopods in the back to step the vessel while at sea. There are three bow thrusters with 8,000 horsepower to help push us away from or towards the dock. There is a stabilizer on each side, each 5-6 meters long that help stabilize the ship in rougher waters.
The ship was at that moment in very deep waters (10,400 meters deep). There is an AIS system that shows them the ships around them including information about them (name, length, and destination).
If they need to communicate with other ships, they can use channel 16 with their name. Channel 06 is for collision avoidance.
They also have signaling lights and sound codes they can use to communicate with smaller ships to tell them which side to go to. Smaller ships can maneuver much more quickly and easily and so are expected to make room for larger ships.
When they get close to a port (or are getting ready to leave a port), a local pilot boards the ship and comes up to the bridge to act as a guide. The ship officers will have already received current information about the port including any recent changes but the local pilot really is the expert. Usually, our own officers maintain control of the vessel while the local pilot advises but there can be times the local pilot takes over the controls.
View from the bridge
After our tour, it was already time for lunch so we headed to Luminae which was the menu I was so looking forward to on embarkation day.
Prawn Ceviche-my favorite lunch dish in Luminae! (Our waiter, Rex was happy to bring me a second one.)
That afternoon, the sky started clearing up (the morning had been quite cloudy and even rainy) and so we made good use of our deck.
Knowing there would be a piano in our suite, we each took the time to learn to play something.
We took a couple more group photos, this time by the baby grand piano in our suite, before heading to one last dinner in Luminae.
Thai Beef Spring Rolls - one of Paul's favorite dishes (he ordered this from the main dining restaurant)
A special chocolate dessert the chef made me that is dairy free
After dinner we walked through the Rendezvous Lounge and found some music to listen to in Cellar Masters.
The Strings Duo - a cellist and a violist. We really enjoyed them.
The promenade at night
We then had to get back to our room to finish packing and get our checked suitcases out in the hall by 10:00 p.m.
