I’m on the edge
Edge of Glory – Lady Gaga
The edge, the edge, the edge
The edge, the edge, the edge
I’m on the edge of glory
And I’m hangin’ on a moment with you
I’m on the edge with you.
As our transfer to the cruise terminal was not due to arrive until 11.30am, we could enjoy a lie-in this morning, so we didn’t get up until eight o’clock. After getting showered, shampooed and blow-drying my hair (which never looks good at the best of times) I decided to dress a little more smartly as we didn’t know when our luggage would be delivered to our stateroom, and our boarding time was not until half past three this afternoon.
We didn’t need to check out of our room until 11 o’clock, so we just enjoyed a good breakfast at the hotel and pottered around for a bit, and I did some of this blog while partaking of a cup of coffee. We had one of those Nespresso machines with the coffee capsules, so we could enjoy some proper ground coffee instead of the vapid instant stuff. 😊
Then we packed up our clothes, securely fastened and locked our suitcases and made our way down to the foyer to check out.
We had about half an hour to wait for our car, and we just spent the time people-watching. Taxis and minibuses were arriving and disgorging their luggage-laden passengers outside; other people were busily trundling their suitcases towards the large sliding doors that led to the pavement in front of the hotel.
At 11.18am a tall, dreadlocked black guy came into the foyer and called our names. We went outside and loaded our cases and rucksacks into the boot of the vehicle for the 20 minute ride through the busy, traffic bound streets towards the cruise terminal, the taxi driver chatting cheerfully away, telling us he was originally from Senegal but he’d lived in Sydney for seven years.
Soon we arrived at the same place where we’d seen the Ovation of the Seas yesterday, but this time we were able to have our first glimpse of the Celebrity Edge. She looked huge compared to the usual size of ships we cruise on; at 130,818 gross registered tons she was more than twice the size of the 62,000 ton Borealis, on which we’d done our last two cruises. We hoped we wouldn’t feel too overwhelmed.
As our allocated boarding time was 3.30pm, we had several hours to kill. However, we were able to drop off our suitcases straight away, leaving us with our rucksacks. As the weather was looking as if it was going to be a scorcher again, we didn’t really fancy walking around with our heavy rucksacks on our backs, so we decided to find a nice open-air bar overlooking the Bridge and the Celebrity Edge next to it, and enjoy a few freezing cold beers while we waited with eager anticipation until we could board. 😊
As it was now getting on for midday, we returned to the Whalebridge, the same place we had been to yesterday, and selected a table for two in the shade, but with unimpeded views across the harbour. Many boats and ferries were going to and fro and the whole place thronged with happy people; fashionable young girls with shorts and cropped tops, guys with large headphones clamped firmly to their ears, weaving their way in and out of the crowds on electric scooters.
We enjoyed our beer as we looked over towards the Edge with its distinctive “X” shaped funnels. Celebrity Cruises was founded in 1988 by the Greece-based Chandris Group, and merged with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line in 1997. Celebrity’s signature logo is a large “Χ” displayed on the funnel of all Celebrity ships, and is the Greek letter chi, for “Chandris”, which is written like this in Greek: Χανδρή.
Our cruise on the Edge would be our fifth Celebrity cruise, and we hoped it would live up to our expectations, despite our reservations about the size of the ship and its 2,900 passenger capacity.
We enjoyed a second cold beer as we kept an eye on the time. Once we’d finished, it was 2.30pm so we hefted our rucksacks onto our backs once again and slowly made our way around to the other side of the harbour. On the way, we saw a shop selling postcards and stamps, and we spotted a nearby post-box, so we bought three cards and I spent 10 minutes or so writing them out before we posted them and continued to the cruise terminal. Although we were earlier than our allocated boarding time, there were no queues so we hoped they’d let us on early. 😊
Once we arrived, we showed our boarding passes and were directed into the building. We submitted our New Zealand e-visas for examination by an official, and answered a few health questions, before they pointed out the way for us to go through security before boarding. It was all very simple and efficient, and soon we were stepping into the Celebrity Edge for the first time.
We had been allocated cabin 3142, a spacious ocean-view cabin on deck 3. No-one was around to escort us to our cabin, and it took some time to orient ourselves and work out where we were and where we had to go. After some twisting and turning and taking the wrong direction, we eventually found the corridor that led to 3142. Our suitcases awaited us outside the cabin.
The corridors with the access to the cabins were unusual, in that they ran parallel to a wider corridor, the walls of which were decorated with large panoramas of modern art. From the main corridor, gaps were situated at intervals to allow you to access the corridor with the cabins.
Our cabin was plainly but tastefully decorated with a massive king-sized bed, settee and desk/dressing table. Tiny bedside cabinets were placed either side of the bed. The wardrobe was small, and hanging up our clothes to last both of us for an 11-night cruise was quite a squeeze. Goodness knows how passengers on longer cruises managed!
Likewise with drawer and shelf space. Folded items of clothing had to be folded once again to fit into the drawers and/or on the shelves. The lack of space for clothing was not limited to the Edge, however; we have found it to be the case on all the Celebrity ships we’ve cruised on.
We did have a nice large bathroom, however. The sink was huge; you could have had two people getting washed side by side! There was also a large shower cubicle and a WC with plenty of space; it wasn’t like some cabins where your knees are pressed up against the shower stall when you’re sitting on the loo!
Once we’d finished our unpacking, we stowed the suitcases under the bed out of the way. Then it was time to go to our lifeboat muster station to be ticked off the list and listen to the safety briefing. It didn’t take long, and we returned to our cabin for a brief power nap. It had to be brief; first sitting for dinner was at the ridiculously-early time of 5.30pm, which meant that from boarding the vessel we only had two hours to get unpacked, sorted out and washed and changed for dinner!
We had been allocated table #213 in the Tuscan restaurant which was on the same deck as our cabin, deck 3. We looked forward to meeting our table companions for the first time. Celebrity Cruise always has many different nationalities on board, and we’d predicted there would be a lot of Australians and probably Americans too (there are always Americans on cruises!!). We didn’t expect there to be many Brits.
We arrived at the restaurant and showed our table reservation card. The waiter escorted us to #213 and it was with surprise and not a little disappointment that we discovered it was a table for two, despite our requesting a table for six. One of the joys of cruising is meeting lots of interesting people, and we have had some fun and memorable table-mates in the past. However, it was just Trevor and me, and we felt just a little anti-social sitting there isolated from the tables of four and six with their laughing, animated groups of diners.
I selected a prawn cocktail to start with, followed by sirloin steak with mashed potato, carrot and broccoli. It was washed down with cold water and house rosé wine.
We finished our dinner off with a very palatable crème brûlée. As we didn’t want to miss the sailaway at 6.45pm, we passed on the coffee and liqueur stage, and made our way to deck 15 so we could watch the Edge’s departure from Sydney.
Up on deck it was fairly crowded, but we managed to find a great vantage point and watched as the ship slowly manoeuvred herself from the dockside. We had a tremendous view of Sydney Harbour Bridge outlined against a pre-sunset sky as the Edge reversed out of her berth and, as she turned around, we had an equally amazing view of the Opera House against the backdrop of the Sydney skyline. Wow! This was brilliant.
As it had clouded over by now, we didn’t see the sunset, but we watched as the lights of Sydney receded into the distance. What an utterly fantastic sailaway! 😊
As the entertainment was due to start at 7.30pm, we went back inside and took the large lift to the theatre on deck 4. Tonight’s showtime featured an Australian comedian called Darren Sanders. We enjoyed his show and found his slightly risqué humour to be very funny. It seems that they are less PC in Australia which we found to be a refreshing change from the ridiculous over-the-top “wokeism” that is all too prevalent in Britain. 😊
Once Darren’s show was finished, we looked at the events programme on the Celebrity app on our phone, and saw that there was a game called “True or False” taking place in The Club on deck 4. We thought it sounded fun, and it was followed by the trivia quiz at nine o’clock, so we went along.
True or False? consisted of everyone standing in the middle of the large dance floor to start. Then a question was projected onto the large screen and you had to move to the right side of the room if you thought the answer was false, and the left if you thought it was true. Thus each group that selected the incorrect answer were eliminated, until there was only one person left, who was the winner. 😊
There followed the trivia quiz, which consisted of 20 questions in different categories. Two of the categories were based around movies, so if you weren’t a film buff (Trevor and I certainly are not) then you had no chance. We therefore scored an appalling 10/20.
After the quiz we thought we would go and see if we could get onto the Magic Carpet. The Magic Carpet is unique to Celebrity ships in the Edge class, and the best way to describe it is as a giant window-cleaner’s cradle. You know how you see window-cleaners on the outside of high-rise buildings in their cradles that move up and down? Well, the Magic Carpet is similar. There are a number of decks where you can ‘board’ the carpet and it is raised and lowered on the outside of the ship! It allows you to experience “the edge of the Edge”. 😊
When we eventually managed to find it (this is a big ship!!) we discovered it was closed as it was being washed. We’d have to wait until tomorrow.
We therefore returned to The Club where they were holding a Silent Disco. However, many people went to collect their radio head-phones to listen to whichever dance music channel they wanted, and promptly returned to their seats, rather than get up and dance. Defeated the object really – they could have just listened to music on an iPod through their ear-buds! 😊
We stayed and had one more drink in The Club. I ordered a prosecco but the table was wobbly, and when I got up to use the loo I accidentally caught the table and knocked over my almost-full glass, soaking my trousers and the sleeve of my top. We therefore decided to call it a night and returned to 3142 to turn in.
It was not yet eleven o’clock (very early indeed for us when we are on holiday) but the jetlag still hadn’t completely disappeared and we were quite tired. In addition, we had to put our clocks and watches forward one hour at 2.00am, so we would now be 12 hours ahead of UK time. We therefore got washed and changed into our jammies and settled down in our massive bed for our first night of living life on the Edge. 😊