Stones and Stuff

We are not very good with paying attention to the detail involving the excursions. We know what time to arrive, and we duly arrive early so that we do not inconvenience other guests; but we rarely know exactly where we are going.

We also like surprises and certainly don't research an area before 'wisiting'. I mean, that's almost like knowing the punch line before its delivered by the Comedian!

With these points in mind the Celebrity Icelandic Reykjavik excursion was a lovely treat. The Viking museum was awesome, as of course was the Blue Lagoon. And that folks could have been that; except the tour then went on to the geothermic fields instead of back to the port as we expected. I mean, there is so much solidified lava about, me in my ignorance thought that they were part of the larger geo-thermic stuff.

So you can imagine our delight when the Celebrity tour bus guided by 'Ever' pulled into an area container several geysers. Wow, double wow, and chips. The steam was hot, as of course was the boiling liquid. Mrs B was well impressed as of course was I.

Ever had delivered the best 'wisit', partly due to the astonishing sights and experiences, and partly due to the unexpected nature of both the stop and its content.

As ever, Ever came up trumps. Indeed Ever has become a very warm memory of a slightly colder country.

Ever after

Of course the correct title for this Celebrity Eclipse Blog entry should be 'after ever'. As 'Ever' is the name of our excellent Icelandic guide who accompanied us on the Geothermal and Blue Lagoon Celebrity Excursion and I am writing this entry the day after the accompaniment. Hence the 'ever after' title.

The grammatically correct entry would of course have been lost in translation. A bit like Evers' "we will be wisiting the sheeps". Well all of the words weren't strung together, but that I suppose is the artistic licence of Blog writing. We explained to Ever that 'sheep' was both singular and plural, and giggled like school children when Ever we were "wisiting' anything. In fact we seemed to bond with Ever. The best line (as the coach moved over a precarious track road with significant drops) was, "the driver has not driven before' with an extremely long and worrying pause before the essential word 'here' was tagged on. Apparently the tractor track was a new arterial road. I felt better knowing that the loose ground was fresh, and the driver was indeed qualified to be sat in his independently sprung seat.

Ever is a wonderful tour guide who is a credit to Celebrity and was justly rewarded by a few of us at the front.

But what was not so wonderful is the continual tour problems. I'm not sure if Celebrity target Mrs B and I deliberately or more realistically we are just unlucky. But between The Med and Iceland we have managed to get bitten by ants, an air conditioning failure in warmer climates (air con is not needed in Iceland), several ear piece and transmitter failures AND now we have had the coach microphone failure. It is extremely frustrating that we have changed coaches twice and all in all the quality of the excursion arrangements do not equal the quality of the Celebrity Eclipse and it's almost hand picked crew that are a credit to the HR team.

The frustrating thing about this imbalance is that those providing the tour facilities know that the Eclipse is arriving and could check their stuff in advance and also prepare a Plan B. You don't check essential equipment when the last guest ambles on board - yet we experience the same ineptitude in country after country. I mean folks, it's all arranged and everyone knows when the Eclipse is due in port.

Especially in Iceland where the Eclipse is the largest Cruise ship to dock in our first port of call. But it's not an Icelandic thing, as (unfortunately) it seems to be a Celebrity thing. There is of course a simple answer; set a standard that matches the fleet and refuse to pay those that don't meet the standard.

Although I suspect that the excursion problems are in fact something that will last 'Ever after', and for that reason those in Stateroom 7233 have only booked 2 excursions on this Cruise. Instead today we look forward to the company of Irit and Roger from Israel as we wonder around the sights of Reykjavik.

Formal nights

Just had a brilliant formal night and the opportunity to wear my new 'dickie bow' that was bought by Mrs B

The food, service and company on the Celebrity Eclipse was wonderful. My salmon and caviar first course was matched by the astonishing quality of my duck le orange third course. We better not say too much about my fourth course just in case my trainer reads the blog. Needless to say; it was pretty special.

There are approximately 150 Americans on this cruise, but I am wondering where the Eclipse Captain is hiding them! This photo was taken by the lovely daughter of a charming couple from New Jersey. Mrs B was still getting ready and I was told to go to the Bar on Deck 3. Always being one to obey orders, I duly obliged. Good move as I met my first American cousins of this cruise!