Cruise day today !! Our transport was organised for 10am.
Allowing us time for breaky – all of us went in different directions for breaky. Nita and I walked around a bit and ended up at a nice cafe close by. Breaky was nice with much needed coffee, then it was back to the hotel for final packup, bringing bags down to foyer and attaching the cruise luggage tags.
The lobby area was packed with our group, 12 Suitcases and 12 carryons with everyone putting on cruise tags. Bag tagging done & soon after our transport arrived. It was a large Mini van, driver was great and did a TETRIS style bag stacking to fit em all in.

About a 30 min drive to the Cruise terminal. Celebrity cruise does passenger boarding so well. As our vehicle approached, Celebrity team members were there to meet us at our vehicle and providing guidance on which way to go. And they were taking our luggage directly from our vehicle to the ship. This was so good, no need to roll in the bags ourselves.
The boarding process was super super efficient, first we were led into an airconditioned tent with blocks for processing passengers. Our block was waiting whilst the earlier arrived passengers were processed. Whilst waiting we were offered cold drinks and cold towels , looked after nicely.
Soon enough it was our turn and we were processed and headed to the ship – whole process was super efficient .

On board, we got to our rooms where our ship cards were waiting. 4 of us were next to each other on level 2, whilst PCB and Kaushik were on the upper levels.
We had the ocean view room, not bad! The rooms were not the most modern however they were nice and spacious. Storage was great!

Grabbed our cards and we were all out and about exploring the ship, and to grab some lunch. Ofcourse grabbing cocktails along the way. Drinks package is so handy! Met the gang for lunch at the Buffet, where Celebrity team members were offering dinner packages and other packages at discounted rates. We had already booked dinners , however they did have a special limited seating Taj Indian night, we got a good deal for the group into that – Kaushik was our chief negotiator and even managed to get one of our other dinners at a reduced cost :).

Lunch done, then it was a bit more ship exploring and to the room to unpack and get settled in.
Later around 4pm, we got a special invite to the Helicopter pad area in the front of the ship to see it sail away. This was an exclusive event for Aqua Class passengers and their friends. Kaushik & Alyssa were staying in that and thanks to them, we got lucky – thanks K&A. It was windy up there but definitely worth it. Drinks kept flowing and we got to chat with the Captain and Key leadership team members.

Ship was sailing away and the winds were picking up, headed back to our room for a quick freshen up and to meet up at the Cellar Masters Bar – it was a nice whisky bar. Headed to the bar with Bhuja that Nita had brought along – so glad she organised this , the ship snacks at the bars were crap, but the Fiji Bhuja was super duper!

A few rounds of Old Fashion and cocktails done, next to head up to the shopping area where Nita was offered a Diamond necklace to wear for the night. The reasoning, they wanted Nita to model it at the restaurant , they hoping that I or someone from our group would buy it.
It was a 3 carat + diamond necklace! A few $$$$$
Ofcourse for this they did scan my card/room no – I was more worried about making sure Nita did not loose it and made sure everyone in the group kept checking on her and ensuring the necklace was there. Tina was so much fun at that moment, hearing about the necklace, she started re-inacting the scene from Shaan when Maharani Ji (Bindu) realises her necklace is stolen/lost after Pravin Babi tells her “Maharani-ji aapka haar”, to which Bindu replies “Mera Haar, Oh my goood” and then faints. Unintentionally this became the most repeated lines in the cruise, every night someone would bring these lines up again and again.

Met everyone for dinner at the buffet, it which was so much more better than our prior cruises. Lots of good food variety and even Indian was there.
Post dinner were returned the Diamond necklace back … phew and then onto the first show of the cruise. It was not the best & with all of us tired, we retired early for the night – time to get some rest before the next days first stop over.