With the gentle rocking of the ship, we both slept like logs. We got up and realized that we hadn’t put out our request slip for coffee. So, we called Room Service and within minutes, we had a full pot of hot coffee delivered to our room. I decided that I could get used to this!
We decided to try the Waterfall Café for a more casual dining experience. They had a made to order omelet bar and we had a huge cheese, mushroom omelet and a huge bowl of fresh berries- blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. Mom added the cheese blintz. We were definitely not dieting on this cruise!
After breakfast, we got our seats for the 10:30 Culinary Demonstration.
We got there in time for the “Name That Tune” trivia contest. We opted not to play, but provide support for the team in front of us. With a crowd of mostly over 50 year olds, the host of the contest had picked songs that would test even a 30 year old’s knowledge. Amazingly, our team won- and we got our prize- “Celebrity” luggage tags.
The Culinary Demonstration showed us how to prepare “Filet Mignon Celebrity”. After making a brown veal stock (veal glace), which I would NEVER do, they prepared the filets with black olives, green peppercorns, cognac and shallots. Mmmmm – they even gave us samples. Following the Filet demo, they did a martini demo- making apple martinis and something called a “flirtini” (again, with a sample). Finally, the Pastry Chef prepared a cheesecake with marzipan. It was interesting to find that everything is made on the ship—even all the breads, pastries, sorbets, ice creams
At noon, we headed to the Celebrity Theater for the “Shopping Talk”. The theater was packed with women- and the host, the very Irish Mike, was taping the show for the in-room Celebrity TV. Throwing t-shirts and glow-in-the-dark plastic rings to rows of screaming women, we were entertained with a shop by shop description of tomorrow’s port, Juneau. It was like the Caribbean/St Thomas jewelry experience brought to Alaska. It turns out that these stores do come up from the Caribbean every summer for the season in Alaska! There was Diamonds International, Princess World Jewelers, Genoa Jewelers, Venetian Gemstone Showroom, Tanzanite International. Mike gave us the scoop on the bargains to be had in Tanzanite, Ammolite, Diamonds, Northern Lights Topaz, and Alexandrite. The “one time only” opportunity to buy a book filled with shopping freebies and discounts – for a mere $20 – was scooped up by the bargain frenzied women. Once again, we held back – but did manage to snag a t-shirt that turns color when exposed to the sun.
It was already 1:00 – and we decided to do a light lunch at the Aqua Spa Café. We had read about their salmon filets and cashew chicken salad. Once was enough—it was just a little too bland –but the blueberry tarte was quite tasty.
We decided to try the Waterfall Café for a more casual dining experience. They had a made to order omelet bar and we had a huge cheese, mushroom omelet and a huge bowl of fresh berries- blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. Mom added the cheese blintz. We were definitely not dieting on this cruise!
After breakfast, we got our seats for the 10:30 Culinary Demonstration.
We got there in time for the “Name That Tune” trivia contest. We opted not to play, but provide support for the team in front of us. With a crowd of mostly over 50 year olds, the host of the contest had picked songs that would test even a 30 year old’s knowledge. Amazingly, our team won- and we got our prize- “Celebrity” luggage tags.The Culinary Demonstration showed us how to prepare “Filet Mignon Celebrity”. After making a brown veal stock (veal glace), which I would NEVER do, they prepared the filets with black olives, green peppercorns, cognac and shallots. Mmmmm – they even gave us samples. Following the Filet demo, they did a martini demo- making apple martinis and something called a “flirtini” (again, with a sample). Finally, the Pastry Chef prepared a cheesecake with marzipan. It was interesting to find that everything is made on the ship—even all the breads, pastries, sorbets, ice creams
At noon, we headed to the Celebrity Theater for the “Shopping Talk”. The theater was packed with women- and the host, the very Irish Mike, was taping the show for the in-room Celebrity TV. Throwing t-shirts and glow-in-the-dark plastic rings to rows of screaming women, we were entertained with a shop by shop description of tomorrow’s port, Juneau. It was like the Caribbean/St Thomas jewelry experience brought to Alaska. It turns out that these stores do come up from the Caribbean every summer for the season in Alaska! There was Diamonds International, Princess World Jewelers, Genoa Jewelers, Venetian Gemstone Showroom, Tanzanite International. Mike gave us the scoop on the bargains to be had in Tanzanite, Ammolite, Diamonds, Northern Lights Topaz, and Alexandrite. The “one time only” opportunity to buy a book filled with shopping freebies and discounts – for a mere $20 – was scooped up by the bargain frenzied women. Once again, we held back – but did manage to snag a t-shirt that turns color when exposed to the sun.
It was already 1:00 – and we decided to do a light lunch at the Aqua Spa Café. We had read about their salmon filets and cashew chicken salad. Once was enough—it was just a little too bland –but the blueberry tarte was quite tasty.
We got to catch the end of the “Enrichment Series” on “Alaska, The Great Land”, presented by Howard Gray, the ships’ naturalist. We rounded out the afternoon with a quick email to John at the ship’s computer center and then off to our room to take in the views of the Inside Passage.
The Inside Passage, 1000 miles, is a maze of deep channels, quiet bays and forested islands. It stretches from the Puget Sound in Washington State, north up the west coast of British Columbia along the narrow Alaska Panhandle, ending in Glacier Bay. The southeast Alaska communities here are joined by water. Only a few- Hyder, Haines, and Skagway – are accessible by road. Towns like Sitka are on islands. The views from our balcony were gorgeous.
With our first formal evening approaching, we got dressed and decided to do a Martini Tasting before dinner. The waiter brought us 6 glasses EACH with different flavored martinis- original, limon (our favorite), espressotini, caribbean sunset, appletini, flirtini….Just the thing to do before dinner- start with a little buzz. We went from the Martini Bar to dinner and started with our wine from the night before.Dinner tonight started with Warm Montrachet Cheese and Potato Gratin, a Cream Caroline soup, a Sliced Tomato, Red Onion, Basil and Heart of Lettuce Salad, Tournedos Forestiere (tenderloin of beef in a juniper berry sauce) and a Warm Apple Tart with Calvados Sauce (Mom was convinced to try the Cherries Jubilee)
At 8:45, the Captain (Panagiotis Skylogiannis – the ships’ officers were all Greek)
did his toast in the Celebrity Theater (providing us with champagne/wine glasses for our room for the rest of the cruise). The theater was packed – ready for the show by the Celebrity Singers and Dancers, “Thoroughly Broadway”. We were amazed—the production quality and acting was Broadway quality. They did a medley of Broadway show tunes- with the most elaborate stage sets and costumes. They covered the years from “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “The Producers” to “Wicked” and “The Lion King” – each more spectacular then the last. 
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