February 2019 Cruise Post #4: Pure Gluttony

When it comes to customer service, it’s difficult to beat a cruise. And when it comes to cruising, it’s difficult to beat the customer service on Celebrity Edge.

For example, we ate breakfast at the buffet each morning. I would hang around the entrance, and, within seconds, some nice employee would offer to help me with my plate. It wasn’t only the worker bees, however, who were so attentive.

The first night we showed up at the main theater, a man in a suit offered to help me locate seating. He took Kim and me down a back alley to a special wheelchair lift, and then down another back alley to arrive near the front row. He introduced himself as Damien. Five minutes later, Damien stood on the stage and addressed the entire theater. He was the cruise director. On the second night we entered the theater, he said, “Mitch, do you need help?”

“Not if I can sit in the same area as last night. I’m all set.”

”Okay then. Let me know if you need anything.”

I whispered to Kim, “I wonder how many names he remembers each week.”

I wasn’t the only one to receive outstanding customer service. When Kim would go down to get her morning coffee each day, she couldn’t count the number of employees who offered a, “Good morning.” And they didn’t just go through the motions. They said it with convincing sincerity.

Customer service isn’t the only reason we cruise though. We also enjoy the routine of eat, drink, relax, gamble, listen to music, attend shows … rinse … repeat.

Eat

There is so much good food on a cruise that it’s difficult to maintain a reasonable level of consumption. Your body’s systems become accustomed to, and begin to insist upon, caloric intake about every two hours. This results in significant weight gain through the cruise. Kim mitigates this by the number of miles she walks in a day, including her voluntary decision to use stairs instead of the elevator whenever possible. But me? There’s no way to increase my calorie burning, and there’s no way to decrease my appetite, so, yada yada yada, I’m on a Nutrisystem diet now that I’m home.

Our friend, Mark, had not been on a cruise before. Near the end of the week I asked him for his overall impression. He replied, “Gluttony. Pure gluttony.” Mark put on nine pounds by the end of the cruise.

Drink

The other seven cruisers in our group each had an “all you can drink” alcohol package. I decided it would not be a good investment for me, as I’ve become an alcohol sipper of late. I charged the few drinks I had each day to my account.

Relax

There were so many ways to relax on board. Several in our crew enjoyed sitting in the sun by the pool. Others, like me, sought out the shade with a good book. Kim did her best to relax, but that’s not her gig, and she inevitably rose from her lounge chair and kept moving.

Gamble

I enjoy Blackjack, and Kim is all about video poker. Andy, Mark, and Carrie joined us once in a while. As usual, we lost money over the week, but I had an exciting comeback on the last evening of the cruise to mitigate my losses for the week.

Listen to Music

Ah, the music. Every cruise comes with three or four solo, duet, or group acts who show up at three or four venues each day. We always check the schedule and make our rounds. It’s my understanding that this is good experience and desirable resume material for the musicians, so the quality of their performances is high. On the Edge that week, we were not disappointed

Attend Shows

And finally, there are the medium and large production shows. Again, we find the quality of these performances to be strong. But it’s difficult to satisfy everyone, and we typically enjoy four or five of the seven nightly performances. That was the case on Edge. We didn’t care for one of the production shows, and we could’ve done without one of the comics, but the others were quite worth our time.

Sure, this blog post didn’t cover everything that we did while on the ship. There were lectures and wine tastings and people-watching, along with occasional people-meeting. I know this style of vacationing doesn’t scratch everyone’s itch, but given our interests, given my constraints, and given the outstanding accessibility on these modern cruise ships, this has become our favorite type of vacation.

And I’ll remind readers, we are paying for these cruises through Kim’s hobby/home business of buying shoes and handbags at thrift shops and selling them on eBay. How many hobbies pay off the way this one does? In fact, we’re going on another cruise in just a few weeks.