Solstice

In an earlier August post, I explained why I like cruises, so here are some pictures to go along with the reasons.

We had 10 days on this fantastic ship and one thing I realized when I started going through pictures is that I didn't take very many of the Celebrity Solstice. I actually had to borrow most of these from my brother, Chris and sister-in-law, Akiko.

The Solstice is a very large ship.

There were so many gorgeous sunsets to enjoy from our decks:

There were two formal nights although I only got to enjoy one of them. The pictures below were taken on our 3rd night on the ship and the 1st formal night--which also coincided with our day at sea sailing between Sicily and Athens.

The below picture is of the Sky Suite that Akiko, Chris, Joey and Sammy shared. Turn down service with chocolates. One thing they did not do on this ship that they have done on EVERY other ship we have been on is: NO TOWEL ANIMALS. What? Where were the towel monkeys, and elephants and dogs. I missed that.

Below is one of the pictures from my 'chocolate covered strawberries and baklava' photo shoot that I did on our deck after Mykonos. The strawberries were a regular perk of the suite and the baklava was purchased at a coffee shop in Mykonos town.

Two of our dinners on the ship were spent in the specialty dining restaurants. Below are a few pictures from our favorite: Murano.

Below is their famous Cheese Souffle appetizer.This picture of the flambe dessert at Murano is not one of my favorites, however, I included it because I just love Akiko's floral dress and scarf and I didn't get a better picture.
Another souffle specialty at Murano:
The rooms were spacious enough to be able to enjoy some relaxing down time just sitting on the deck, reading a book from the comfort of the bed or taking a nap.

This huge port hole window was a great aspect of the Sky Suite as this allowed a view from the room of the port side of the ship. The suite also had a great view of anything going on at the back of the ship from the large deck.

Grammy and Grampy's room was basically identical to ours however they had a view of the starboard side while we had a view of the back of the ship.

Below is a picture of me trying to document my crazy hair after a day at the beach. I wasn't very successful (probably should have taken it out of the pony tail), but you can see our room and my little desk where I am happily going through the pictures I took that day.
Chris and Akiko in one of the many lounges.

This is why I did not spend one minute in a swimming pool on "at sea days" on the Celebrity Solstice:

Below: Grampy and Chris on the 2nd "at sea" day enjoying a little poolside relaxation. It is very difficult to garner a deck chair on these days. You get there early and break the cardinal cruise ship rule by putting a towel and any reading material you can find on the chair as early as possible. Just come back whenever you like. It is written all over the ship that you are not supposed to do this, but EVERYONE does it. When I was quarantined to the ship, I went out to sit by the pool for a bit and guess what--even on a port day, at least 2/3 of the chairs were reserved for when people got back from their excursions.

A unique aspect of this particular line of Celebrity cruise ships is the lawn area. Chris, Akiko, Joey and Sammy took full advantage of the lawn bowling. I love these pictures Chris and Akiko took:

The below picture is my favorite. I think Chris should have blown it up and submitted it to the photo contest on the ship:

Another nice aspect of the suite: breakfast served by the butler on your balcony.

Below: The second formal night

Sammy, what a jokester....

Below: our dinner waiter and his assistant
(Alexandra and Sashko)

GRRRR.... when I see the below pictures it still makes me mad. Anyone that kept up with my Facebook updates knows that I got sick on our cruise. I started feeling bad the day we visited Santorini. Some stomach cramps, etc... by Saturday, a sea day, I was feeling worse with a fever and sore throat and the tell-tale signs of pneumonia. I have had pneumonia a few times before and it is debilitating, however, if I can get on an antibiotic right away, the symptoms are seriously diminished and it takes a lot less time to fight the thing. So, Michael talked me into going to the infirmary. BIG MISTAKE!!! Long story short, with this whole international swine flu thing going on, they have this "rule" that if you have "flu like symptoms" you have to be quarantined to the ship for 24 hours. Well, I did not have swine flu, but I did have pneumonia. They gave me the antibiotic. I thought the 24 hour quarantine was a "recommendation". Well, it isn't, its REQUIRED! I was feeling bad enough on Saturday that I stayed in all day and did not go to dinner even though it was formal night--or maybe because it was formal night. I went to sleep at about 6:00pm and slept for 12 hours straight. I got up refreshed on Sunday morning ready for our 9 hour tour of the Amalfi Coast. I was so excited. This was the last day of the cruise and a destination I was so looking forward to.

Unfortunately, when I tried to exit the cruise ship, alarms went off everywhere. I begged and pleaded with the infirmary staff to let me off--no luck. I held up the tour for way too long. People were getting angry. I was upset, but it was not fair for me to ruin the excursion for the rest of our family, so I went back to our room and cried tears of pure anger.

Below is a picture of my experience of Naples. A view from our deck. I never got off the ship that day. I missed a lot. I will be back.

I was so upset I went into frantic mode. It was our last day on the cruise ship, so this actually served me well. I packed everything. I was packed and ready to get off the ship by noon. Ha, we weren't leaving the ship until the next morning. As it turns out, and I do have to admit this, it was better that I stayed on the ship. My 15 minutes by the pool spiked my fever and sent me back to bed for a nap. The rest of the day I loaded pictures to my Facebook and drank plenty of liquids. I guess it was close to 100 degrees at Pompeii and even healthy people were feeling sick from the heat (or so they tell me, possibly to make me feel better?)

Well, when we left Naples, we had some great shots of Mt. Vesuvius

and even though I was still feeling very sick, we celebrated our 20th anniversary with a champagne toast.

I WILL return to the Amalfi Coast.
The pictures that I am about to load for my next post just make me want to do that even more. But hey, if Michael were with me right now he would be singing his favorite Stone's song that he has been singing to me for the past 25 years:

"You can't always get want you want... "

I have been proving that song wrong for 25 years.