Debarkation Fort Lauderdale

Leaving the ship and going back to reality is always sad for us. This cruise we did use the luggage valet service which was $20.00 a person and covered 2 pieces of luggage each. Using Valet means you usually depart the ship in one of the early groups and one's luggage is checked into the airline for you.

Since we were in an group that was suppose to depart at around 8:30am, we got up early and just had morning coffee. We went to the ship's movie theater as instructed but found we couldn't enter as there was a delay due to custom's clearing some of the employees. After that delay which was about 40 minutes we did get off the ship quickly and easily and our luggage was waiting for us very near the exit and all together. Usually it's scattered, but it looks like using the Valet service they keep it together for you. A porter went with us and our luggage through custom's and that went fast as we didn't have much to declare. The porter then took the luggage to the special truck for valet service and directed us to a taxi. Unlike the San Francisco port there were plenty of taxis and we didn't have to wait. Our non-stop flight back to California on Jet Blue was fine, our luggage made it home with us and it was great not to have to cart it around with us since we had an evening flight. I would certainly consider using the Valet luggage service again in the future when it's not convenient to handle it ourselves.

We didn't run into most of our friends as we were leaving the ship for one last goodbye, though we did get to see Gary, Stephanie and a few others later that evening because they were on the same flight home as us. Fortunately we are still able to stay in touch with most friends via our Cruise Critic roll call which is still active periodically. We're planning another cruise in 2008 on the inaugural voyage of Celebrity's Solstice which Merce, Bonnie and Rich will also be on so I have a year to improve my photography skills for that trip report.

I did add a few extra videos to this one, but a couple of the larger ones and that included the lecture on the Panama Canal didn't make it due to technical difficulties. If that sorts itself out at some point, I'll remove this last couple sentences and announce it, otherwise this is now the end of what is so far our favorite cruise!

A Grand Finale to a fantastic trip!

Saturday, October 13th, our last day at sea. Always a bittersweet day as one packs, says goodbye to the staff and gets ready to return to the real world.
This morning we went to the Celebrity theater with Joyce and Angus to hear cruise director Jeff Potts last minute debarkation instructions and see the parade of ship staff on stage to wave goodbye to us. Before Jeff's talk started we ran into Stephanie and Gary who were seated behind us. Those smiles tell the story of the great cruise they had enjoyed!

During his talk Jeff had a very funny top 10 list of passenger's questions during the cruise and the film clip below contains a few of them.



After the show we went to Cova Cafe and had a coffee with Joyce and Angus. This ended up being the last time we were together as we had dinner at the Penthouse scheduled for tonight. We did exchange addresses and such and hope to see them again on another cruise or perhaps when they next come to the States or we visit the UK. We ran into Thomas at the Photography shop and learned he had signed up for the passenger talent show that evening as he is a good singer. Unfortunately the talent show didn't last that long and by the time we ran to the show after dinner it was over, so we missed saying goodbye to Thomas and Annette and hearing him sing. Again we exchanged addresses and such with them and since they live within driving distance of us here in California we hope to see them again sometime.

As mentioned in a previous post, Angel and Sammy the Maitre'D and Assistant Maitre'D had offered to do something they had never done before and that was have the staff of the SS United States restaurant serve one of their fantastic dinners privately at the Penthouse. A big part of this offer was the fact the staff thoroughly enjoyed serving Bonnie, Rich and Merce and made mention that during a long cruise sometimes people become more difficult to serve at the end of the trip but their group was always so much fun. Having observed over the last 14 days the positive and appreciative attitude that the 3 of them always had with the staff I understood completely why they were willing to make this offer.

We of course were thrilled when Bonnie, Rich and Merce invited John, Len and us to share this wonderful dining experience and thus repeat our original dining group from our first SS United States experience earlier in the cruise.










The evening started out with wine and some appetizers, and as we were enjoying but lamenting our last evening in the Penthouse the staff arrived and started to set up the table.



Len, playing us a song on the Penthouse Grand Piano. If you stay in the Penthouse but don't play the piano never fear, there is a automatic player you can turn on for it.
Bonnie, surveys the table after the staff sets it up and is kidding around about stowing away for the next cruise and not leaving, well she was sort of kidding, I'm sure if Bonnie thought she could get away with it, Rich, Merce and her would still be on the Infinity in that Penthouse!
Our great Sommelier is decanting the wine for the main course to come.

Our amuse for the evening was delicious.

A short clip showing our server's style.

Next was a seafood pasta salad.

The centerpiece of the evening,the Beef Wellington.

This was such a tender flavorful Beef Wellington that Randy said it was the best he ever had. Since my Mom and I usually make a form of this dish for Christmas each year and everyone loves it, that was high praise.
The short clip below is of Angel and Sammy sharing a bit of humor as they divide the Wellingtons.

Dessert was a yummy Napoleon.


And the final touch served at all the SS United States dinners, the Petits Fours. Our evening tonight was just perfect, from the witty company, delicious food, luxurious surroundings, to the best service we have ever experienced anywhere which is saying a lot since we have had some exceptional service at some of the finer restaurants in San Francisco and other cities.

Kitchen tour and Last Formal Night

Friday, October 12th, found us at sea on our way to Fort Lauderdale where our wonderful Panama Cruise would end. While the rest of the ship had a Culinary Production show in the Celebrity Theater they could attend, this morning Angus, Joyce, Bonnie, Rich, Randy and I would meet at the SS United States restaurant to take the Captain's Club Select and Elite member's ship tour of the Infinity kitchens.

When we entered the specialty restaurant the harpist was practicing with an Clarinetist so there was lovely music playing while we waited for everyone to gather.


Tanushka, the Captain's Club hostess who had been nice enough to let Randy and I join this tour, split us into 3 groups and we were lucky enough to get one of the Sous Chef's as our guide.


We started out in the smaller kitchen of the SS United States were it was explained that everything for meals at that Restaurant and the Aqua Spa buffet was made only in that kitchen. We then made our way to the larger kitchen that serves most of the ship and even though it was only 11am they were busy preparing food for that night's formal dinner.
During our tour, they served us champagne and chocolate covered strawberries. If you look closely in the next photo you will notice Randy has a strawberry in hand, which he had taken for me since he doesn't like strawberries.
We walked through stations where they were stuffing potatoes, baking breads,making salads and of course creating those wonderful desserts we had been enjoying. All the kitchen areas were spotless and sparkling!


The chef explained that everything is made on the ship from the salad dressings to the bread crumbs that nothing is wasted, except of course for the food that we passenger's leave, though that's my editorializing, not his. During our walk we passed a wall that had menus for the various days and also photos of the food so that the kitchen staff could consult them and make sure they were consistent with the plating of the food.

We also went by the escalator's that the wait staff uses to ferry the food from the kitchen to the two levels of the main dining rooms.


After the tour we left our friends and went to the ship's photography department to pick up our copy of the Infinity DVD of our trip. I think this cost us about $29.95 and it was well worth it as it included detailed information on the Infinity, in addition to the lightning storm at sea we had gone through earlier in the cruise, a movie taken from shore by one of the ship's photographers of our transit through the canal, and there's a shot there of Randy and I on our balcony waving during the transit, though that's the only time you see us on the DVD. The only other person I recognize on the DVD was Len, though there were plenty of shots of events on ship and some of the shore excursions.

Before returning to our stateroom to rest before dinner, I watched the ice craving demonstration out by the pool. Here's a short clip of it.


That evening we met Joyce and Angus before dinner so that we could take some photos of us together. The photo above Angus took and I like it better then some we bought on ship.
We look pretty happy above because we always had a lovely time with Joyce and Angus. This cruise for them was to celebrate 40 years of marriage!

We were fortunate enough to find Annette and Thomas too and get a group shot of the 6 of us.

After photos it was time for our last visit to the Martini bar this trip! Here's Frank our favorite server shaking one of our martini's.
Randy was either looking very happy to see his apple martini or thrilled that we had scored 2 servings of those marvelous bread sticks. The rest of us had ordered my favorite, the blue cognac martini.
The last formal night of course meant it was lobster night! While I'm not a big fan of lobster I did order it and was very surprised that it was both juicy and flavorful as frequently when a kitchen is serving so many people at one time you can get it overcooked. Everyone at our table who had the lobster thought it was delicious, so we ended up having two tails each!

After enjoying those lobster tails, it was time for the production of the Baked Alaska parade. Randy joined into the spirit of the occasion and is waving his napkin.
Angus, getting into the spirit of the parade!


Our waiter Schubert presenting our Baked Alaska before he cuts into it. The Baked Alaska was very good, though of course for those passenger's who didn't want it, there were still several different desserts to select from.


After our wonderful dinner we joined Angus and Joyce at the Celebrity theater for the last production show by the Celebrity dancers and singers and like the last 2 big shows it was very good. It was then time for the Grand Midnight Buffet and though we were too full from dinner to indulge we did the walk through to see it.


The four of us then ended the evening at the Constellation lounge for a nightcap.

Cartagena Sailaway, Penthouse Style!

It's time to sail away from Cartagena, Penthouse style! Bonnie, Rich and Merce invited the Cruise Critic Roll Call, friends they had met during the cruise and a lot of the staff officer's to a sailaway party that evening.





The party was a great success, with delicious food, wine, great company, and the weather and view from the Penthouse deck was wonderful!



Here's John and Stephanie having a laugh together.



Len, relaxing on deck, does it get any better then this?


Angus, Joyce, Annette and moi!


Randy, Angus and Thomas, three engineer's having a chat. Gee, guys haven't you discussed everything by now over dinner?


Rich, Marilyn and Mike, talking over the morning tours perhaps?



Randy with Food and Beverage Manager, Donald Beard. Leonie, Wolfgang and Rick also from our Grand Cru dinner attended the sail away party. What a grand turnout and below is a short film of the party in action.




Outside on the Penthouse deck.

As the party was winding down we took Angus and Joyce to our stateroom to show them what the family view balcony and cabin was like and while we were doing that Bonnie called, but I didn't hear the phone ring or see the message light blinking. Later I learned that Angel and Sammy from the SS United States specialty restaurant, who we had passed as we were leaving the Penthouse, had put on a bit of a show for them we missed and offered to do something they hadn't previously done on the Infinity which was serve dinner from the specialty restaurant in the Penthouse on Saturday our final night aboard!



A couple hours later we joined Bonnie, Rich, Joyce and Angus for dinner in the wine cellar room of the States restaurant and were once again served a terrific dinner. This was the first time that Joyce and Angus had been to the specialty restaurant and they both seemed to enjoy it a lot. I believe I've neglected to mention before that Angel and his staff was always having something made for us that wasn't on the menu in addition to whatever we ordered. One evening it was a special starter, (pasta bolognese) that Merce had been craving along with a special liquor that was from Angel's homeland. This evening they made a special sardine appetizer which is a favorite fish of Angus's and also Angel served us his special homemade Sangria. One of my regrets is I neglected to take the movie or still camera to these dinners and didn't get any photographs of the wonderful food. The only reason I had them from the Grand Cru dinner we enjoyed was Rick Garced was nice enough to give me copies of the photos he had taken that evening.

It was while we were leaving after another 4 hour dinner, that I asked Angel about the kitchen tour scheduled for tomorrow that we had been invited to and if he was leading it since it started from the specialty restaurant. It turned out he wouldn't be there, but he did invite Angus and Joyce to join the tour which was great since they weren't Captain's Club Member's yet.

Cartagena, Columbia, Thursday Morning

Stephanie, our friend from Cruise Critic had arranged a private tour via Lee Miles for Cartagena. Our tour group of nine was us, Stephanie, Gary, Bonnie, Rich, Merce, Kelly and David. Lee arranged for a driver, tour guide and air-conditioned vehicle and while he didn't go on the tour with us he did meet us at the dock that morning to introduce himself and our tour guide. In addition to our tour, Lee also arranged one for eight other friends from our CC roll-call but unlike other tours, we never ran into their group.



Our first stop was La Popa Monastery which had a lovely view of the city as it sits on a 500-ft/150-m hill. The Monastery is 400 years old and built on the remains of an razed Indian temple. Inside there is a statue of the Virgin of Candelaria who is said to have delivered the city from disease and pirates.



We were then driven to San Felipe Fortress which is considered one of the most formidable defensive structures ever built by the Spanish military. Constructed around the perimeter of Cartagena, it stands on the Hill of San Lazaro, overlooking the Caribbean Sea.Unfortunately you have a long walk up to the Fortress and given the heat of the day and other factors we elected just to view it from below.



The statue I'm standing next to is of Blas de Lezo, the one-armed, one-legged, one eye hero of Cartagena's successful defense against British Admiral Vernon in 1741.



We then drove to Plaza Bolivar in old town. This colonial plaza is surrounded by the Cathedral, the Palace of the Inquisition and a gold museum.



The square was recently decorated with the sculpture Mujer Reclinada (Reclining Woman), a gift from Colombian artist Fernando Botero.


The Palace of the Inquisition was very interesting and had some interesting historical exhibits that were air-conditioned.





The Church of San Pedro Claver was also a stop and then it was on to the Gold Museum with its collection of Pre-Columbian gold work. The Gold Museum was small and actually inside a huge air-conditioned vault.



Our last stop of the day before returning to the ship around 12:30pm was Las Bovedas, the dungeons, which are now used as tourist shops. The photos below though were taken outside the Palace of the Inquisition as we didn't photograph the shops. During our 20 minute stop at the shops Randy bought a shot glass that said Cartagena and looked like stained glass and a hand tooled leather belt.