Celebrity Mediterranean Cruise - Sea Day

The phone rang at 9 am – it was Wade calling to see if I had RSVP’d for the Captain’s table as the invitation asked for RSVP’s by 9:30 am. Thank goodness he called, we would have slept right through 9:30. Not 10 minutes after I called the concierge service to RSVP, there was a knock on the door. I answered the door to find a woman holding a vase of a ½ dozen peach colored roses – from Wade and Charlie saying happy “early” birthday. What a wonderful and thoughtful surprise from them.

We went to the Oasis Café for breakfast again and then went over to poolside for the Mediterranean market. I bought a bunch of Greek, hand painted ceramic containers with a variety of scented oils – one for each of my staff members. There was even a container with Anais scented oil – the perfume that I’ve been using forever. It took a while to open each box to find the ceramic containers with tight fitting lids and without chips in the paint. As I finished shopping, Seth bought a Greece cap and then took our receipt to the Stratosphere lounge to pick up our passports.

I returned to the cabin to drop off my goods and picked up my laptop to try and catch up on some of my journal entries. I went to the Stratosphere lounge and found a comfy place to sit and type. I worked for a bit then chatted briefly with Linda who will be on our Naples tour. Later, a gentleman from Fort Worth struck up a conversation with me when he found out that the passports were no longer being handed out. I chatted for a while with the inebriated gentleman who then moved on to Guest Services to get his passports. I caught up quite a bit and then at about 2:15, went back to the cabin to pick Seth up for our food/wine tasting in the restaurant.
Our sommelier last night mentioned the food/wine tasting at 2:30 in the restaurant and signed us up. It was $10 per person. We were seated at a table for 8 with 4 wine glasses set up in front of us. There was also a plate with small samples of chicken, basil pesto chicken, 2 types of chocolate, lemon, salt, parmesan cheese, olives, and sundried tomatoes.

The Cellar Master conducted the tasting and went through the usual wine tasting instruction: examining the wine’s color, legs, nose, and taste. We then tried each of the wines: a white meritage, a chardonnay, a syrah, and a red meritage. The mertiages were from Wente vineyards in San Francisco Bay and the other 2 wines were from Murrietta’s Well in Livermore valley. We then tried each food item with each of the wines appreciating the blending of tastes. The chardonnay was very good considering we don’t like chardonnay but my favorite was the syrah.
After the food and wine tasting, we went to the Cova Café for pastries and ran into Wade who invited us to his cabin at 5 for a pre-Captain’s table party. We talked briefly and I mentioned to him that we went to see David Fisher, the violinist, last night and I thought he was extremely talented. We then went to the grill and I had a hot dog and French fries for lunch.

As we were heading upstairs to Wade and Charlie’s cabin, one of our tablemates from the food and wine tasting event mentioned that the sommelier had picked up my camera that I had left on the table. I thanked him and went downstairs to guest services but they had not received my camera yet. I went back up to deck 12 and spoke with the man from the wine/food tasting who described which sommelier had picked up my camera. I was a little worried but went on ahead to Wade and Charlie’s cabin. When I got there, Peter and Joyce were already there as well as Shiyan and Jazzlin whom we had met the other day at brunch. They all wished me a happy birthday and admitted that our pre-dinner get together was actually a birthday celebration. Wade and Charlie had gotten me a wall hanging with a caduceus on it. I was so touched that they went to such troubles for my birthday. Seth had even ordered me a peach dacquiri that I had commented earlier to him that I would be ordering for cocktails that night. I sat out on their veranda talking with Charlie and Peter when Wade came back in to tell me that a special guest had arrived. When I went back in to their suite, there stood David Fisher – the awesome violinist that we had seen performing the night before. He played happy birthday for me on his violin – twice. I was so shocked, surprised, and blown away that I immediately teared up and missed the first time that he played happy birthday. He stuck around and chatted with us for a while and even gave me his address, phone number, email address, cell number, and websites after I wondered aloud how awesome it would be if he was a guest artist with the Enid symphony. Mr Fisher was very nice and friendly and I just loved listening to his British accent. Wade said that he was in the internet center sending an email when he saw Mr Fisher sitting behind him on the computer. He invited him to drop by which is exactly what he did. I was thrilled and shocked at how special my birthday had been made.

We returned to our cabin to get ready for dinner but I did stop by the dining room and spoke with the sommelier and then the Cellar Master who had turned my camera in to guest services. I went back down to guest services one more time and this time my camera was there. I was so relieved.

We got ready for our dinner at the Captain’s table and after stopping by guest services to change our departure time (0630 instead of 0700), met everyone at Michael’s piano bar running into Steven and Elaine and we let them know that we wouldn’t be having dinner with them this evening. Soon we were joined by Joyce and Peter who said that Wade was not feeling well having probable sun exhaustion. We were so disappointed that they would missing our special dinner together. We ordered drinks – this time I ordered a glass of Asti when Daniela – the Captain’s Club coordinator invited us back to the reserved section of Michael’s.

We were soon joined by Nad and his wife, Huda from Cruise Critic; another couple from England where the wife was a physician; Elaine and Nan from Cruise Critic as well (and who were the cousin and grandmother of the hotel manager, Damien, whom we would be having dinner with this evening);

and Ursula.

We sipped on our drinks which were all compliments of the Captain and were offered hors d’oeuvres. We soon moved into the dining room and had an absolutely wonderful evening. I had the shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, and the lobster tail.

The Cellar Master and sommeliers were especially generous with the Sauvignon Blanc and Merlot during dinner. I enjoyed chatting with the couple from England especially with the wife who was a GP with a special interest in pediatrics. We compared notes through the evening. The staff did their traditional Baked Alaska show and each lady was given a single rose – compliments of the captain. We saw Lucy and her husband from our dinner table waving to us from upstairs. What an unforgettable evening and we especially thanked Peter and Joyce for inviting us. We snapped some pictures then returned to the cabin and called it a wonderful night.