Kidoctr's Progress Notes: Day 2 (Monday, May 15, 2023) - Rome to Civitavecchia, Celebrity Beyond 12 night Mediterranean Cruise

We met up with our group at the hotel restaurant for breakfast which was pretty good although over easy eggs at this particular restaurant was a completely cooked fried egg. After breakfast, Seth and I went for a walk and found the crowds near the Trevi Fountain were much better than they had been the day before when we couldn’t even see the front of the fountain because of the huge crowd. We wandered around a bit looking for a bank with an ATM and the first one we found didn’t take any of our credit cards. We did find another ATM that charged a very reasonable 3 Euro transaction fee with what worked out to be a 1% conversion fee on my American Express business platinum card. We got enough euros that, along with the 500+ Euros we saved from our Italy/Switzerland trip last year, was enough to cover all of the tour tips for the 5 of us.

We met our Kensington representative in the hotel lobby just before 10:30 am and our car (much bigger than the Merkava car we had the day before) came around front for us to load up. It was about 1.5 hours to get to the cruise terminal even though it was just about 40 miles. We took a traffic detour into Vatican City briefly and got to see St Peter’s Square which was neat.

When we arrived at the terminal, our driver unloaded all of our suitcases and I tipped him 20 Euros. There was a porter there that helped Lisa and Tim with their suitcases and carry-ons along with the folding wheelchair. I tipped him 20 Euros as well but, in retrospect, should not have tipped him that much because he literally just took their suitcases in about 20 yards and handed them off to the same folks we left our luggage with. It took a little bit to get through security where, for the first time, they made me go back through the scanner and take my watch off and put it through the X-ray machine. We took the escalator up and found the VIP pre-departure lounge for suite guests right at the top of the escalator.

There was a Celebrity staff person who asked us for our stateroom and names and told us to have a seat. We got some water bottles, snacks, and coffee, and used the bathroom. At least 3 Celebrity staff members asked us if we had “checked in” and we told them each time that we had been but there was some general confusion because although we checked in when we arrived, all the staff member did was check our name off on her paper list. We thought that was “check-in” and just waited around until someone finally figured out that we hadn’t been checked in yet and that we needed to have our boarding pass scanned. Once that was done, we had our boarding pass scanned once more and then walked right onto the ship.

By this time, it was past 1 pm and the lunch they were serving for suite guests in Luminae was only open until 1:30 pm so we tried to make a beeline to the elevators and the restaurant but Lisa and Tim got high-jacked and sent off to the muster station by a well-meaning crew member who told them they had to go to their muster station “right now” which was wrong. Fortunately, the staff at Luminae was very understanding and waited on us as Lisa and Tim finally found us. We really enjoyed our first lunch on the ship – had a cocktail that was delicious (bourbon and peaches) and the lobster roll which was different – lobster with finely chopped carrot. We were off to a good start.

We went to our muster station and then found our cabin, deck 7, #7327 at the aft port side of the ship. Something different about muster on this cruise - we got to watch videos on our Celebrity app and then all it took was for us to check in with our station and let the celebrity staff know we had viewed the videos. So much easier than the days we had to pick up our life jackets, put them on, and then wait out on the deck with all the other passengers for everyone to get to muster just to watch them demonstrate how to put on a life jacket.

Our suite was super nice with a king-sized bed, a veranda with both chairs/table and 2 lounge chairs facing the back of the ship, and a really good-sized bathroom with shower/tub combo. The only downside to our cabin is that all of the Retreat amenities (lounge, bar, sun deck) are just about the furthest away we could be at the very front of the ship on levels 14-17. Seth and I made a decision that we would avoid the elevators but ended up just using the stairs going up and the elevator going down. By the end of our trip, I had logged about 430 flights of stairs. 🤪

We met our butler, Teo, from the Philippines who was awesome. She oriented us to our cabin and made sure we understood how to use the included streaming wifi, made sure we were provided with canapes each afternoon, and answered our questions. After unpacking, we met up with our group at the Retreat Lounge where we adjusted some of our dinner reservations. The Celebrity Concierge service had made some reservations for us but I had booked the chef’s table at Le Voyage which Celebrity didn’t even let us know which evening it would be. As it turns out, it conflicted with another reservation we already had but the concierge at the Retreat lounge easily took care of everything for us. Our schedule ended up being:

Monday, 5/15/23 (boarding) – Le Petit Chef, 6 pm
Tuesday, 5/16/23 (Sea Day) – Eden, 6 pm
Wednesday, 5/17/23 (Katakolon) – Fine Cut Steak House, 6 pm
Thursday, 5/18/23 (Crete)– Chef’s Table, Le Voyage, 6 pm
Friday, 5/19/23 (Santorini) – Blu (no reservation necessary)
Saturday, 5/20/23 (Mykonos) – Le Voyage, 6 pm
Sunday, 5/21/23 (Istanbul) – Nicole, 6 pm
Monday, 5/22/23 (Sea Day) – one of the main dining restaurants
Tuesday, 5/23/23 (Kusadasi) – Luminae (no reservation necessary)
Wednesday, 5/24/23 (Athens) – Rood Top Garden Grill, 6 pm
Thursday, 5/25/23 (Sea Day) – Blu
Friday, 5/26/23 (Naples) – Luminae
Saturday, 5/17/23 (Rome) – il Pagliaccio

We made our way to Le Petit Cafe and enjoyed the “show” on our table, the food, and the couple that sat next to us. It’s a fixed menu but there is some flexibility – the main menu follows the “show” but any of the courses can be changed to something from the alternate menu so I opted for the first 2 courses off the alternate menu (cured salmon and roasted beet salad and the last 2 courses off the main menu ( (beef short rib and strawberry chantilly napoleon)). The food was outstanding and the show was cute. There’s an additional fee to eat at Le Petit Chef and the menu stays the same so once is plenty.