We both slept exceedingly well, but going to bed early meant we were awake at 5.45 am - not quite what we had planned for a holiday. We watched the early morning news on TV before rising to shower.
First use of the shower for me was able to stand as the sea has only the slightest swell, which is good as I need to stand and walk as much as possible, not an easy objective. So there was no flooding of the floor etc. Thank goodness.
We were ready for breakfast by 7am. The Buffet and Aqua Spa were open then and the main dining room wasn’t open until 7.30am. Am impressed with the Buffet as selection and serving is so easy. The Buffet was really quiet so we had a very peaceful meal.
I decide that as access to a Christmas Day service was possible, I would attend the Interdenominational Service in the Cinema. There were only a handful of people and it was a short but nice service. Pete went through to the Cova Café to read. After Church I joined Pete and of course the aroma of coffee was impossible to resist! So we had a cappuccino while Pete read and I wrote up my Blog. It was a nice place to sit and before long we saw a number of CCer’s pass by. In the end Jo and Graham joined us - they were recovering from a rather hard afternoon/night!!
Of course by 10am the atrium was becoming busy, and then Santa arrived followed by a long line of children and parents and accompanied by a band of elves! As we had the Connections Party at 11am in the Hemisphere Lounge we dropped the Netbook and book back to the cabin before heading to Deck 12.
The Connections Party went extremely well. There was coffee, tea and pastries provided by Celebrity and it was well attended by CCer’s and the Celebrity Staff. The Cruise Director spoke and the asked if the opener of the Roll Call was present. However Lauren and Harry had cancelled about 3 months out, so he asked for a spokesperson, and as the 'keeper of the records' everyone pointed in my direction so put my hand up, and then I had to give a little speech!! It all went down very well. Considering there was a lot on (it was Christmas Day after all) and many other interesting activities on we had a good attendance. I think I got to meet most who had been posting of the board.
I managed to talk to the Manager Guest Customer Relations Jeff about organising a Sea Day luncheon, and he agreed to take it in hand and sort something out especially as there are 60 odd who registered. Jeff indicated it would have to be held on a different day due to the famous Brunch being on the day we originally nominated. Jeff said he would send out to invites to all who were registered with Celebrity, which would make it all so easy for me! I didn't have to actually do anything.
The gathering dispersed about noon, and as we had risen so early we headed for the Buffet. Initially we wanted a gourmet sandwich but the queue was long so we ended up having self select pasta which was ‘stir fried’ individually. I had the shrimps - rather nice. Just as we were finishing lunch Patty appeared with a gift for us - an embarkation photo! A very nice thought. Patty was going to meet Colin and go to the Visual Trivia. As we hadn’t ever been to Trivia we decided to join them. The theme was ‘The Worlds Weirdest Words’. Our score was 6/15 - rather a poor effort.
Pete called by Guest Relations to see when his tux would be delivered to our cabin (we have booked via http://www.cruiselineformal.com/ . We were told half an hour so we headed to the cabin but after an hour there was no sign of the Tux so we went to the Cova for a coffee.
Today I decided to try something different - and espresso with a dollop of cream. The cup was a tiny espresso cup half full with cream. Not quite to my liking unfortunately.
The Tux was in our cabin at 4.15, so Pete tried it on, only to find that the trousers were far too long. We tried to call the Cabin Attendant, but the phone didn’t work, so I quickly wheeled to Guest Relations to report the phone and trouser problems. Within a few minutes we had a telephone technician, an Attendant, and then a Tailor running in and out of our cabin!!! Somehow in between Pete managed to shave.
Tonight was the first formal night and we had booked to dine in the main dining room at 7pm. (People seemed to be booking the night before as it was Christmas Night and we didn't want any delays) We met Colin and Patty in the Rendezvous Square for pre-dinner drinks just after 6pm. As is usual on formal nights there are photographers all over the place set up to do formal photos. At 6pm it was still pretty quiet so they decided photos were in order, and we had one with them and then one on our own. The photographer was not very good with her instructions and kept insisting I sit on the bar stool and she didn’t readily understand ‘No I don’t want to do that!’
Patty and Colin were booked into the Murano for dinner. When we were heading for the MDR we heard a voice saying ‘Slow down Margo’ and with that appeared Gwyneth and Reg, also off to dinner. We had no plan for dining so suggested they share our table, which they accepted, and we had a very pleasant meal with them. Gwyneth said their bag they left behind in the Sydney hotel was being couriered to Celebrity’s agent in Melbourne
We had planned on going to the Captains Welcome Gala Drinks at 8.30, but we chatted way past the start time with Reg and Gwyneth. Pete decided he wanted to waste some money in the Casino we ventured there after dinner. The casino was pretty quiet and once the allotted $20 was gone we waited for the raffle draw by Santa at 10.15pm (a whole lot of $10 gifts from the shops!!) and of course we didn’t win a thing. It gave us a chance to have a good chat to Merv and Pam from CC who lives in Noosa, who also had a couple of tickets. Merv won ‘another’ coffee mug much to Pam’s delight. Once the draws were over we headed for bed.
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