Our day started early. Current COVID health protocols for Celebrity require a negative PCR or antigen test no more than two days before the day the cruise departs (along with requiring passengers to be vaccinated). COVID tests can be hard to find in my area and so we ordered the Abbot monitored home tests that many of the cruise companies (and even some airlines for certain international travel) are recommending. The test needs to be monitored by a telehealth provider and we figured wait times would be shortest first thing in the morning. So before we even started our half-day of work, we logged into eMed and started the process. Each of us were able to connect with a telehealth provider immediately and the process went very smoothly, only taking about 20-25 minutes each. Two Vloggers we follow made great videos that outlined the process really well for us: La Lido Loca and ParoDeeJay.
Then after four hours of meetings and trainings, Paul and I loaded up the car and were on the road by 11:15 a.m.
We made it to our hotel in Gainesville, FL about 7:40 p.m. We stayed at a Springhill Suites right off interstate that was quite nice (except the heating/cooling system that died in the middle of the night).
The next morning we had just about two hours left to drive. We arrived in Tampa a little after 10:00 a.m., parked near the river walk and headed towards where the ship was parked as I saw the Constellation had arrived the day before. This is the Constellation's first cruise since the re-start.
We then took a tour of the American Victory, which is a cargo vessel that was used during WW II, Korea, and Vietnam. It was built in 1945 in 55 days and cost $2.5 million to build. It traveled around the globe twice during its career and was brought to Tampa in 1999 to be renovated and turned into a museum.
We then found lunch at Sparkman Wharf, which is this really neat outdoor area with restaurants (including food truck like stands in containers), a biergarten, a stage for live entertainment, and activities.
After lunch, we took a walk down the river walk and came across a Blue Jay that didn't mind us getting as close as we wanted. He was amazing to watch. I didn't have my long lens on me at the time and so the photos below were taken with my 60mm lens.
At this point we either had to put more money into the (electronic) parking meter or drive over to the hotel to see if we could check in early, so we made our way to the Aloft downtown and a room was ready for us. Our room has nice views of downtown Tampa and a bench in front of the window which is a great spot to watch the cars go by.
The river walk we had walked near the cruise port and American Victory continues along the bay all the way to our hotel. So after settling in, we went for a little walk.
Great Egret
I believe this is a Mottled Duck
Laughing Gulls
I haven't been able to identify the one on the right. The left two are female Mallards.
We grabbed some subs to take back to the room and then relax the rest of the evening. Tomorrow's the big day - sail away day!
It's cruise day! We have been waiting for this day to come for so long. We were scheduled for the first check-in time (noon) but wanted to secure a good spot in the cruise port parking lot, so we arrived at the cruise terminal a few minutes before 11:00 a.m. After parking, we dropped our luggage off with the porter and made our way to the entrance to the terminal. Celebrity has their embarkation set up with two lines - (1) those with the current boarding time and (2) those with a different boarding time. If they are boarding your time, you get priority. Everyone else waits in a separate line outside until there is space in the terminal. They had already started boarding the noon group, so we walked right up. After showing our vaccination records, proof of a negative COVID test, passport, and Xpress pass to multiple different people, and going through security, we were directed to the gangway. By about 11:15 a.m., we were walking on the ship.
At the beginning of the gangway and in the atrium of the ship, there was a line of cruise staff applauding, welcoming us, and dancing to music. I have to admit the whole experience brought a few tears to my eyes it was so moving. Throughout the cruise, we would hear from crew for whom this was their return to work since before the pandemic.
Once on board we tried to check in at our muster station but no one was there yet. I remember the days when you would wait in your stateroom to hear the emergency horn, grab your life jacket, and head to your muster station which was somewhere outside on the promenade deck near your actual life boat. You would then be instructed to put your life jacket on and stand there for what seemed like forever as they went through safety announcements and did roll call, waiting for all those people who thought they could skip it to arrive. Then they moved the drills inside to theaters and lounges and didn't require you to actually bring or put on a life jacket but you still waiting through videos, roll call, and for all the guests to show up. Today's muster drill involves a video which we watched on the app in our hotel room before going to the port and then just scanning your card at your muster station to prove you know where to go in case of an emergency.
We made our way to our room where we met our room steward and our retreat host.
On the Promenade Deck
On our balcony already by 11:25 a.m.
A few weeks before the cruise, we had the opportunity to upgrade to a guarantee Sky Suite and were eventually assigned an accessible stateroom. This room comes with all the perks of suites including the suite restaurant, Luminae. So we stopped at our muster station to scan our card and then made our way to Luminae for lunch. We were greeted by name when we arrived. (They must have a database of photos of all the suite passengers as I know we had never met this host before.) The service in this restaurant has been absolutely amazing and I have really enjoyed the food (Paul has struggled a little more to find foods that suits his tastes).
Prawn Ceviche (citrus, avocado, roasted chili emulsion) - It was so good!
I ordered a Brut Champagne (Icone Cattier) which I understand is brand new to Celebrity and they opened the first bottle on this ship for me (or so the Sommelier said) and so the Sommelier made a chair and table out of the cork for me as a souvenir. It really was delicious and my sister would be glad to hear they used the correct Riedel glass for Champagne (she took a Riedel glass seminar on a Celebrity cruise once).
We then spent some time in our room and on the balcony. We had grabbed some strawberry gelato (Paul's favorite all week) and a Eurekatina (Martini with Bombay Sapphire gin, Cointreau liqueur, white cranberry juice, basil, and cucumber cubes).
Brown Pelican
Osprey
A plate of goodies and a bottle of sparkling wine was waiting for us in the room. We asked the Retreat Host to exchange the bottle of sparkling wine for something non-alcoholic that Paul might enjoy.
Our suitcases arrived at about 2:30 p.m. so we could get unpacked.
Here is a tour of our room.
As we got closer to sail away which was set for 5:00 p.m., we spent some time wandering the ship and then made our way to the Sunset Bar to watch sail away. Our plan was to find some food in the buffet this first evening (our first cruise dinner ever that we didn't eat in the dining room) so we wouldn't miss any of the sail away and the trip under the St. Petersburg Skyway Bridge. We both found some made to order pasta.
A large travel agent group had taken over the Sunset Bar so we made our way to a higher deck and found a quieter space.
At this point, it was getting quite cool so we decided to head back to the room and watch the trip under the Skyway Bridge from the comfort of our balcony. Waiting in our room were a few treats for us that were especially delicious.
The bridge came into sight about 7:20 p.m. and it was quite the sight to see. It doesn't look as if there is any way the ship could fit under the bridge but it does!
Shortly after we passed the Skyway Bridge, a pilot pulled up along side and perfectly matched the speed of our cruise ship for 15-20 minutes before picking up the pilot!
We had a little time before the show and wandered through the shops and then found a seat in the theater. Tonight's entertainment was a comedian, Scott Harris who we really enjoyed. He had a great joke about his first time as an entertainer on the cruise ship. He saw all the balconies when he arrived at the port and so when he got to the room he was assigned, he didn't see a balcony. He asked one of the other entertainers where the balcony was and the response he received was "they don't put them below sea level."
You may note the lack of anyone wearing masks and the lack of social distancing. I have to admit it was a bit of an odd experience for us after the last year and a half of the pandemic. Celebrity requires all passengers (with very few exceptions) to be vaccinated and all of their crew to be fully vaccinated. So ships are sailing at 98% or 99% fully vaccinated. Additionally, all passengers must take an antigen or PCR covid test (and test negative) within 2 days of the embarkation day. They have stepped up cleaning protocols (although in recent years cruise ships have already been extremely focused on cleaning protocols). Buffets are no longer self-serve. Hand sanitizer is available at the entrance to every venue with staff encouraging use. And ships are sailing at lower capacity.
Nothing is risk-free but after thinking about all these protocols, we felt Celebrity is doing enough to significantly lower the risk and it was freeing to ditch the masks for the week (except ports of call). Aside from all the staff wearing masks, it was so easy to forget covid existed.
Later in the cruise, we learned that this particular sailing had just over 1,600 guests and a crew of about 1,030. At about 75% of the passenger capacity, this was one of the first cruises with this high of capacity. Many of the previous sailings were at 30-50%.
We set sail on the start of falling back to standard time and so we thought we wouldn't have to deal with a time change until we got back but we were so wrong. We live in central time (daylight savings time), traveled to eastern time (daylight savings time) on Friday but left our watches on central time (which would become the standard eastern time on Sunday, the day we sailed). Sunday evening though, we were told that the ship would change to standard central time overnight and so we had to set our clocks back an hour. We would then return to standard eastern time after spending the day in Cozumel and then once again change our clocks back to standard central time once arriving back in our home state.
