“How do you do it? I nearly went nuts knowing I couldn’t get off the ship??!!”
Unlike our buddy, our favorite cruises are those that involve crossing an ocean – the kind that have at least a half dozen ‘sea days’; those kind of days where you see no other signs of life – no land, no ships, no birds, just blue. Cruise blues. In this photo our ship was leaving Fort Lauderdale, Florida bound for Europe.
This strip of Florida beach was the last land we would see for nearly a week. The next land would be the Azores, 3,117 miles (5,016KM/2,706NM) away. The islands that make up the Azores are 1,118 miles (1,800 KM/900NM) west of Portugal.
We began many of our sea days with a trip to the gym (also hues of cruise blues) – a necessity when they ended with . . .
gourmet food. . .and sommelier served wine. (BTW, that was a piece of fish hidden under the veggies in that artistic display above.)
Sometimes we watched other guests play lawn croquet. (If you missed my earlier posts about this Celebrity Solstice ship – it, like others in its class, has a real live lawn.)
Other times we watched glass artists at work, thanks to a partnership between Celebrity and the Corning Museum of Glass. We’d attend those lectures on subjects that interested us, but skipped the multitudes of bingo sessions, dance classes, contests, games and other activities that drew contingents of fellow cruisers.
Generally on these types of sailings, when it comes to sea days – we prefer to soak up the ‘cruise blues’. The kind created when sea and sky merge.
A day dreamin’, book readin’ and sun tanning kind of cruise blues.
A where-did-the-day-go-so-fast kind of cruise blues. . .
The kind of cruise blues that gave way to blazing orange sunsets.
And then it seemed too soon we'd reached the Azores - our first in a series of ports of call en route to Barcelona, Spain.
Transatlantic cruises, like this one, offer some of the best cruise bargains to be found. We’ve taken several and have been able to book a balcony room for as little as $125 – $185 per night, not per person but per cabin!
Also called repositioning cruises, sailings take place generally in the spring and fall because that is when the ship’s are being ‘repositioned’ from one area of the world to the other.
As cruise enthusiasts, we want to spend as much time on board as possible and yet visit interesting ports of call. This type of cruise provides for both. Companies we use and recommend for cruise deals can be found on Joel’s Deal Finder page.
Today is Travel Photo Thursday so head on over to Nancie’s Budget Travelers Sandbox for more photos from around the world.
