Western Caribbean Cruise

Sunday 04/28, Levittown To Philadelphia To Jacksonville To The Zenith

We arose early so we had plenty of time before the limo was scheduled to pick us up. Wrong! A look out the front door to check the weather at 4:40 found the Limo waiting, 35 minutes early! We got ready without rushing, and left about 15 minutes early. There was little traffic early on a Sunday, and the ride to the airport was quick and uneventful. We had checked in on line the day before and printed our boarding passes on the computer, but the sidewalk attendants also printed them for us. So we headed straight for our departure gate. Security was a pain in the butt as expected! With Pat's broken wrists, she couldn't do much at the X-ray machines with two carry-ons, the laptop and camera. Clay had the full treatment with the wand beeping loudly at each hip and his chest. After a lengthy pat down, we assembled our stuff and were momentarily shocked to see the laptop case empty! They remove the computer from its case and send both through the X-ray machine separately, and it was sitting right next to the case. Duh!

We found our gate and went to a nearby cafe for breakfast. The plane took off on time and the two hour ride was uneventful except for one small thing. We both got a wine ($5.00 a pop for nondescript French Vin Du Pays and Vin de Table)! There was a lot of fuss by the flight attendants with us drinking wine at 8AM and Pat having broken wrists. The plane being less than a quarter full probably had something to do with that. As they were clearing away the trash, one of the servers asked if we were ready for some "good stuff" which we thought we declined. Our seats were right at the bulkhead (next to First Class), and just before landing, they came back with a bag containing a full bottle of wine and snacks served in First Class!

We made up a half hour and had our baggage in Jacksonville by 10AM. While it was a little early for lunch, we still decided to have something light as we can't get on the ship until 1PM. There were three "Breweries" on the restaurant map, but the two that looked interesting were down departure ramps and of course you needed a ticket to get there! So we had a soup and chili at the "Budweiser Brewery", although they had decent beer and wine. Good thing we weren't catching a plane as the service was terrible.

Although Pat thought she had made a fixed price taxi reservation for the 12 mile ride to the terminal in northeastern Jacksonville, the lady at the Gator City Taxi kiosk didn't have our name! So we just took their regular taxi and got there promptly. Unfortunately a bus arrived just as we were to be let off and we had to wait in the taxi for about 10 minutes- with the meter running!


The Jacksonville Cruise Terminal has had ships departing for only about 9 months and with just two ships docking there, it is bare bones. It may even be a temporary location as they are still evaluating other sites. Checking in took about 40 minutes with the queues, the security, submitting a credit card, getting a hidden security picture imbedded in our on-board charge (SeaPass) card, and having an embarkation picture taken that we didn't like or later buy. The security wanding and pat down procedure was similar to the one at the airport, but with much nicer people!

Celebrity has nine ships and the Zenith is fairly small compared to modern day cruise ships. It is registered in the Bahamas and carries 1354 passengers with a crew of 670. The "X" on the funnel is the Greek letter for “C” and stands for Chandris, the Greek family who founded Celebrity Cruises. The officers are mostly Greek. Celebrity's Horizon is similar in size but not necessarily in decor to the Zenith. After a trip up the two-story gangplank, we entered the ship and had a complimentary glass of Champagne. We found our cabin on the 6th deck (out of 12) and dumped our carry-ons. Even though it was only 1:30, we had been up for a long time and headed to our third meal of the day, a buffet with Joe & Lil and a couple of glasses of La Crema chardonnay. At all of the restaurant entrances, there are antiseptic dispensers for you to wash your hands. We guess that they are paranoid with recent instances of large numbers of cruise ship passengers getting sick. We did some unpacking and went to the muster drill with the life vests, identical to the few other cruises that we have been on. Later, we got a couple of drinks and headed out on deck for the disembarkation. After a few minutes, there was an announcement that we will be delayed leaving for twenty minutes while waiting for an ambulance to tend to a medical emergency. We later learned that it for was a crew member!


Finally, we were away moving east on the St. John's River and under the Route 9A bridge that we crossed over in our car while returning to Pennsylvania just three weeks previously. The 10 mile trip east along the St. John's was interesting with industry, military installations, and private homes along the way to the Ocean. Our dining seating is early, at a somewhat crowded table of 10, and we know two of the couples from our winter stays in Florida. All of them are from Flagler Beach- we are actually replacing Charlie (Pat's brother) and Jen as they were not able to go because of Charlie's leg problems. The first dinner was nice, but the server said they couldn't honor Pat's request for a rare Prime Rib, promising only medium, again probably due to the well publicized recent cruise ship gastrointestinal problems. However, it was rare enough.



There isn't much of a show on the first night, so we went to a lounge for some music and a drink. We still had unpacking to do and only two good arms between us. It was a long day and Pat was very tired because she didn't sleep very well as this was her first time out of the recliner at home, and she can't find a good position for her arms. We also must have encountered a storm in the middle of the night because the ship was really moving up and down, although it was just a mild annoyance.

Monday 03/29, Atlantic Ocean & Caribbean Sea

We woke up to an overcast day, went to the sitdown breakfast with six others. Service was real slow and Pat was just in time for Mass. We spent an uneventful morning in our cabin and walking around, although the weather turned to rain, but there was no significant unwelcome ship motion. We had lunch in our dinner dining room and Clay and his neighbor's rockfish was overcooked, a rare demerit for the kitchen. The highlight of the day was the sighting of some large buildings, right about where Miami should be!

There was a wine tasting in the afternoon, pretty well attended because of the lousy weather we guess. There were six very small pours and maybe a little too wordy sommelier, but it was not too bad- a typical shipboard event, appealing to a wide range of wine interests. We expected some listing of the wines tasted, usually with prices for sale, but there were no hand-outs at all. It is prohibited to bring alcoholic beverages on board, and we didn't bring any except we sneaked the bottle that the flight attendants gave us just before the airplane landing at Jacksonville. There is even a $12 per bottle corkage fee to purchase it retail on the ship and consume it at dinner!

We stopped at the Martini Bar for a pre-dinner drink. There were about 30 different martinis available and Pat had an "Appletini", although they didn't have the apple slice! Clay had a "Bloodytini", like a Bloody Mary, but much more alcoholic. We would have liked a champagne bar, but this is a small ship, and they don't have room for both. Dinner tonight was formal, a dark suit and tie, dinner jacket, or tux for men and cocktail dress or evening gown for the women. This meant a photographer milling around during dinner taking photos of each couple. The "Meet the Captain" event consisted of free champagne and wine in the theater while the captain introduced his crew on stage before the show. The show was also typical of a cruise with very young and talented singer/dancers performing show tunes. All were familiar except one and we learned later that it was from the "Rocky Horror Picture Show." That explained that! Joe & Lil joined us in the Fleet bar where there was the "Two For The Road", a charming Polish brother and sister from Gdansk, the brother playing the piano and the sister alternating between a violin and flute, and providing commentary. The night's smoother conditions made the sleeping much nicer.

Tuesday 03/30, Caribbean Sea

The entire day was bright and sunny- what else would you expect for the Caribbean! After a buffet breakfast, Pat went to Mass, had her nails done, and attended a culinary demonstration. We thought that we would do pretty well at the Seinfeld trivia contest, but finished well out of the money with 13 correct to the winner's 20 (out of 24).

They transform a small section of the Buffet Restaurant into the "Sushi Cafe" every evening, but the hours are from 6PM to 10PM and with us having the early (6:15) dinner seating, it makes it difficult. However, Clay managed to go there on about half of the evenings for an appetizer and a Sapporo, and then joined the rest for dinner.

Most cruises have formal dinners like last evening, but this ship had a few "informal" dinners, where the women were supposed to be somewhat dressy, and a sports jacket was requested for the men.

Larry and Judy were also at our table, but skipped this dinner! There are photos of them at a formal dinner on a later day!

We sat with Joe and Lil again for the show, a solo banjo player backed up by the Celebrity Band. He was very entertaining with a few self deprecating jokes (he did look a little geeky!) and playing music from different eras. He was very proud of his 1934 Banjo, older than us!

Wednesday 03/31, Costa Maya, Mexico

Thursday 04/01, Roatan, Honduras

Friday 04/02, Caribbean Sea

We are setting a new record every day, as our previous southernmost location was Cancun, Mexico (actually the Mayan Ruins at Tulum south of Cancun on a day trip) with the Gryns in 1996. The sea is very smooth and the sun is out. It is difficult to get a deck chair, especially on the days when we are not in port. Pat did get a chair, and she was alone asleep when she was tapped on the shoulder. Thinking it was Clay, she was surprised to find a couple asking her to move over one so they could be together! First, Pat was surprised that there were empty chairs on each side, and even more surprised to be awakened later! We took it easy for most of the day, except Pat went to Mass and the casino, and we had an afternoon drink (finally a Guinness, although it was of the non-widget bottle kind!) at the poolside bar. Clay again had his appetizer at the Sushi Cafe, but you get lazy with a day at sea, so we didn't go to the show this evening and turned in early.

Saturday 04/03, Puerto Limon, Costa Rica

Sunday 04/04, Colon, Panama

Monday 04/05, Caribbean Sea

Clay got up early and went up on deck to read and people were already staking out their chairs early as today is at sea and the chairs will be real busy. In fact, Pat went up on deck after breakfast to get a deck chair and there were none available! Breakfast seating was a little unusual in that we were being led into the dining room by a waiter and another tried to get us to go with him! We should have gone with the latter as we were seated with two (probably German) young couples that were very unfriendly, not responding to our greeting, not commenting on Pat's arms (a natural ice-breaker most of the time), but just talking among themselves. We're not sure if it was our age or our nationality/language, most casual dining shipmates have been wonderful. They sure didn't have any trouble ordering their breakfasts!

Tuesday 04/06, Georgetown, Cayman Islands

Wednesday 04/07, Caribbean Sea

It was another hot and sunny day, we only had clouds or rain on the first day of the trip. There are a lot of people that just seem to lie in the sun all day, on the top two decks, the second from the top by poolside. We go on deck sometimes to read, but we sit in the shade! We finally opened the bottle of wine that we got on the airplane ride down- hope we don't get caught, heh heh. There was an announcement that we are 70 miles from Cuba, so we calculated that we should be able to see it in 2 to 3 hours. But there was nothing and what we think they meant was that we were 70 miles west of Cuba and that was as close as we would get! We also sailed parallel to the Northern side of the island, and if it was visible, we missed it!

You can display your bill on the TV, and we were charged twice for Pat's Irish coffee. It was probably an honest mistake, so we talked to the cocktail waitress who was very nice and gave us the credit. Or so we thought, as another charge appeared shortly after. However, it was deducted shortly after that, this time without any effort on our part! The charges are ready for display when you get the slip with your drink, because it is in the computer when they print the slip at the restaurant or bar.

We again went to the Fleet bar for the "Two For The Road" duo instead of the bar by the restaurant before dinner and also after dinner since the show in the theater didn't appeal to us.

Thursday 04/08, Key West, Florida

Friday 04/09, CocoCay, Bahamas

Saturday 04/10, Atlantic Ocean

The final day is at sea and there are all the shipboard activities available, but we only attended the disembarkation meeting, packed, read, ate some more, and vegetated. The poolside was again filled with people getting that last dose of sun. It looked like many of them got the tan they wanted with some maybe getting too much, but we were happy to pretty much stay out of the sun! The show after dinner had three performers from the previous shows; the male singer from the productions, the banjo player, and the comedian. After the show, we went to the Fleet Bar to hear the "2 For The Road" Polish brother and sister duo again. They played more popular music than in our previous visits, and sang a little also, maybe because it was later in the evening or because it was the final night.

PORTS NAUTICAL MILES Jacksonville to Costa Maya 917 Costa Maya to Roatan 166 Roatan to Puerto Limon 599 Puerto Limon to Colon 188 Colon to Georgetown 602 Georgetown to Key West 504 Key West to Coco Cay 266 Coco Cay to Jacksonville 333 TOTAL 3575

(Easter) Sunday 04/11, The Zenith To Jacksonville To Philadelphia To Levittown

This disembarkation was very smooth. Everyone previously filled out a form with their travel plans from the ship and was assigned a time, a luggage color, and a gathering place. Ours was 9:15 and we waited by the pool so as not to crowd the area, as some others with earlier times used the same area. We were called almost on time and did immigration and customs relatively painlessly. We declared $1200 (the limit for duty free is $800 per person), mostly from Pat's Ebel watch. The custom agent asked what we bought, and we told him. He wanted to know if it was the watch on Pat's shoulder. We said "hardly, that is a $9 Wal Mart!"

We had made arrangements with the same Gator City Taxi Co. for a ride back to the Jacksonville airport, and Pat had called just before we got off the ship with the exact time. When we got outside the terminal building, we were told to see the Gator City representative that was coordinating the airport shuttles. We told her we had a taxi reserved, but she suggested we get on one of the shuttles. We had no problem with that, but wanted to know that we weren't messing anyone up with the taxi reservation. We were assured that we weren't and shouldn't have worried about the ride between the ship and the airport because there are so many customers that a shuttle in either direction is always available, and probably all the calls for the taxi ride were ignored anyway! Of course the shuttle was a little cheaper!

We were at the airport in less than a hour after were told to disembark the ship. Our flight time is 5PM and we tried to check in on the automated check-in machines. Tilt, the machines can only take you within 4 hours of the flight, so we had to get in another line to do it the old (human) way. It still didn't take too long and we hung around a while and then took a taxi from the airport back on the access road to a Longhorn Steakhouse. We asked for the slowest waitress they had, and ordered drinks before the food, but of course everything arrived promptly. We were there before noon and weren't sure if they would be open, but it sure filled up quickly being Easter.

The taxi back to the terminal cost $2 less than the trip to the restaurant because of the initial meter charge, perhaps some kind of airport tax when you get the taxi at the airport! Of course, there went the little we saved by using the shuttle from the ship to the airport! We looked up the location of the "breweries" that we couldn't get to on the way down, but they were down the other two departure ramps, and we were taking the third, and even though we had a boarding pass, we weren't allowed down those ramps! We still had about 3 hours to kill and the Masters Golf is on, so we hit the Budweiser Brewery again, found a TV and tried not to fall asleep for a couple of hours.

The airplane was a little more crowded than on the flight down and there was enough turbulence that the attendants suspended the beverage cart service! It lasted about 20 minutes and then we finally got our pretzels and wine! We landed only a little late but taxied forever, and then sat for a while to get a berth. We waited until almost everyone else was off the plane, our limo driver was waiting, and our baggage just arrived. When exiting the terminal, Clay forgot where he was and noticed that it was cold, at least not what we were used to for two weeks! There was heavy traffic on I95 near the Penn's Landing area, unusual for a Sunday evening, although it was Easter! Our last cruise was over three years ago and that was only for three days, so it is hard to compare, but we were completely satisfied. A great vacation!