When we booked this trip, we did not know Rebecca would have to come home early for jury duty. We tried to add her on our reservation but being so close to sailing on a new ship, the prices were outrageous. So we left her "all by herself" as she said and drove down to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday for lunch at J. Alexander's and a night in a local hotel. We drove to the port in the morning, which was the usual madhouse, compounded by a security official who said we were "too early" for our ship and at first did not want to let us go to luggage drop-off. But the porters were waiting and we parked the car and waited in line where a sheriff gave Janie a ribbing because he was confirming we were at the right port for our ship and she looked up and read the name to him and he said she was cheating. We asked him where his K9 was and he said the dog was parking the car. He then showed us photos of the K9 unit in the driver's seat, including one where he was checking his mirrors.
Boarding was fairly quick altough there was confusion on priority access line and we encountered a group who had apparently never been through airport or port security ever. We were one of the first people in group 1 to board.
We dropped our backpacks off in our Infinite Verandah stateroom which was not very different from the ones we had on Apex, Beyond or Ascent although in this one the bed was closer to the window. This seemed nicer at first as you could look out the window from bed easily but the area between the bifold doors and the bed was tight and the stateroom host kept closing the door near the bed each night, giving Janie very little room. The power box on the desk was also a problem as the USB plug J. R. brought did not fit in the box and he didn't bring one with an extension cord. Luckily he had a smaller one still in his electronics bag from our Japan trip.
Our first stop was the Oceanview Cafe for lunch. Again, not much different in this space as opposed to the other Edge class ships although it was decorated for Christmas. The food was about the same as the other ships for embarkation day.
The theme of Celebrity Xcel appears to be primates with the large monkey statue on the pool deck, monkeys hanging from the railings and ape-related artwork in the halls.
We walked around the main areas of Grand Plaza and restaurant area after going to our muster station. The primary difference is the Flagship store area on deck 5 with a small museum space showing the evolution of Chandris/Celebrity Cruises and different artwork and color schemes in the public areas.
We were surprised to see the martini bar filling up so quickly as usually after we have lunch and muster, we are the first people there. We greeted our bartenders, Leila and Kadek, who were later joined by Ari, who we had met on a previous cruise. Janie tried the Raspberry Martini, which was selected as part of the Dream Makers promotion but found it too sweet. We also stopped at Cellar Masters for one of their specialty old fashioned cocktails before we learned the most disappointing part of the Xcel, which was they had changed the menu at World Class Bar. Gone were Janie's favorite, the Double Piquant, as well as J. R.'s American Pie and Highlander cocktails. Replacing them were several cocktails priced over the $19 limit of the drink package, including a $50 cocktail with Johnny Walker Blue and a $35 "1942 Fashioned" which was basically an old fashioned with Don Julio 1942 and Nixta. Why anyone would want to put a fine whiskey like Johnny Walker Blue in a cocktail is unimaginable. We usually spent a good bit of time in this bar and only visited in twice on this trip.
After drinks, we visited the new Bazaar space at the back of the ship, which replaces Eden on the other Edge class ships. The entranceway replaces the art hallways with bubble boy and mirror shards with video screens which change based on where the ship is sailing. There are a couple of small shops that will sell local-based wares based on the port. The Bazaar space itself is laid out essentially the same layout as Eden but with video screens instead of greenery and more tables and chairs for the Spice restaurant.
We skipped the evening show, a comedian named Monique Marvez, who we had seen before, and headed to dinner, which was not very good. The soup was salty and the pork was incredibly overcooked and turned into a group of hockey pucks. Not quite the anniversary dinnner we were hoping for.
We attended Pub Quiz night in the Club, where we did fairly well, as well as the Country trivia, where we excelled until it came to answering questions about Nashville. J. R. saw the green light for the photo booth so we went in to get our photos taken and, "if you know, you know", we enjoyed some specialty cocktails with Praveen, a bartender we had met at World Class Bar on Silhouette earlier in the year.
