Today we woke up to a broken air conditioner. That plus the broken bathroom light and lack of hot water made us happy to get out of the hotel. We took a cab over to the pier in Isla Grande, which is where Celebrity docks. We got there pretty early, and as a result we were one of the first few dozen people in line, so we breezed through registration and got right onboard!


Of course we had a really long walk to get to our cabin, #7010. We wanted to book a couple of shore excursions but the in-room system wasn't working yet, so we dropped off our carry-on bags and went down to the shore excursions desk to sign up for kayaking in Bonaire and tubing in Dominica. We got some food at the buffet - the only place that was open - and then I went to the internet cafe to sign up for a wifi account. Once that was done, I toted my laptop to the nearest comfortable hotspot - I had thought the whole ship was wireless, but apparently not; just as well because otherwise I would burn through my 250 minutes in a flash. (That cost $100, if you're wondering.) I got the wifi working, uploaded some homework, and came back to the room for a nap! (I hadn't slept well because of the broken air conditioner; I woke up at 4am but at the time I didn't know that was the reason.)


We found the quietest bar on the ship, or what seemed to be, and made friends with the bartending team. (One does this by tipping well, of course.) It turned out that the opening Pied Piper party - with its one-hour open bar - was in the same place, so we just stayed put! A bunch of people recognized me from Cruise Critic, and we made friends. Dinner was awfully late, 8:30 is much later than I am used to! Plus, by the time dessert arrived, they were minutes away from the lifeboat drill. On our way back to our cabin to get our vests, a cabin steward stopped us and said "you look like some guests I had before" - sure enough, it was Luzviminda, our steward from the Zenith in 2006! It was quite amusing to see her again. The lifeboat drill was a bore, of course, but now we are underway so I'm going to TRY to send this on my Sidekick before we go out of range!