Celebrity Solstice

Yesterday, we checked out of the delightful Hotel Debrett in which we had stayed during our two nights in Auckland. After killing a bit of time over coffee at a nearby shop, we walked with our luggage down to the Princes Wharf to begin the boarding process for our cruise. The Celebrity Solstice was waiting for us. She came into service in November, 2008 and can handle up to 2,850 guests. Her tonnage is 122,000, length is 1,041 feet, beam is 121 feet, and she draughts 27 feet of water. I always marvel that such little draught compared to so much structure above the water line still allows these ships to stay upright. There must be lots of ballast down below.

The boarding process always takes awhile with waits in lines, but the anticipation of boarding makes that go well, and we always manage to strike up conversations with other passengers. We finally got to our cabin on the 10th deck, which is just below the portion of the ship that you see protruding outwards near the top. We are directly above the lifeboats.

Just after boarding, we had enjoyed a nice lunch in the ship's buffet area and visited with a number of additional guests. Our luggage was delivered to us just prior to the mandatory lifeboat drill, which occurs once before leaving port.

Here is a view of our cabin, which has a nice bed, seating area, TV and desk, and a veranda, where the pictures above were taken.

These lifeboats will serve to get us to shore at ports where docking is not possible.

Dinner last night was at a table for six, and the other two couples were both from England. We had an enjoyable meal and lots of fun exchanges. People always seem to enjoy conversation on these cruises, comparing notes about other trips and sharing backgrounds. As I write this, we are just now docked at Tauranga, our first port of call. I have been up since 5:30AM watching us approach the harbor as well as the docking process. Today we are off for a shore excursion to one of the areas where the Hobbit films were made.