Zenith to Bermuda July 24 2004

THOUGHTS ON THE M/V ZENITH TO BERMUDA
CELEBRITY CRUISES
JULY 24-31, 2004

Sailing Particulars:
Derek Ott and Margaret Caldwell-Ott (Peg)
Reservation Identification Number 9598873
Travel Agent: Lori Cunningham, Skyscraper Tours
Folio Numbers 00004134 and 00006093
Captain's Club Status: Elite Members
Cabin Number 5063
Late Seating Dinner, Table 24

Basis for Comparison:
Celebrity Cruises (Sailing Number 13)
Previous Voyages:
Meridian to Bermuda August 1993
Horizon to Bermuda August 1994
Horizon to Bermuda June 1995
Zenith to the Eastern Caribbean August 1995
Century to the Eastern Caribbean March 1996
Zenith to Bermuda August 2001
Century to the Eastern Caribbean Dec/Jan 2001-02
Zenith to Bermuda June 2002
Summit Northbound Alaska August 2002
Summit Southbound Alaska August 2002
Millennium to the Eastern Caribbean Dec/Jan 2002-03
Galaxy to the Eastern Caribbean June 2003
Zenith to Bermuda-booked for July 2005
Premier Cruises (6)
Norwegian Cruise Lines (1)-Number 2 booked for Christmas 2004
Holland America (1)
Regal Cruises (1)
Peg also has 15 Voyages made with her parents between 1958 to 1978 on
various vessels (United States, Constitution, Independence, Atlantic,
Victoria, Europe, Asia, Gripsholm, Laos, Ak Deniz, Kara Deniz, Ilala
and Sunward)

In the past, we have written everything from lengthy reviews to short
notes about our voyages. This time we thought to opt for something in
between-just some thoughts about how Celebrity has changed over the
last several years (even better now) and impressions of what we
experienced (a marvelous cruise overall). We have divided our
"thoughts" into 6 sections and put them in the order in which we think
most might want to read them:
General Thoughts/Attention to Detail
The Ship and Her Officers
On Board Experience: Dining
On Board Experience: Bar/Lounge Service
Captain's Club Amenity Changes
Shore Excursions (Snorkeling)


GENERAL THOUGHTS/"ATTENTION TO DETAIL":

We thought we would put this section first since it details many of
the changes we noticed. It is also contains the least amount of
personal "thank-yous" to the Officers, Staff and Crew that we met on
this voyage.

Celebrity's "No non-essential announcements" policy continues to be a
major bonus for all. Aside from the obligatory LifeBoat Drill series,
we only heard two other announcements-both from Captain Margaritis (in
excellent English) giving a brief NoonDay report from the Bridge on
sea days both coming and going to/from Bermuda. They no longer use
the PA system to announce disembarkation either-a major plus to keep
the non-qualified from getting off the ship in the first rush of
passengers into the terminal! We only heard two announcements made
prior to disembarkation for the usual string of 10 or so cabins whose
occupants had somehow failed to pay their sign and sail card bills.

Our sign and sail cards were packaged into a neat folder that when
extended out provided a very nice fold up deck plan of the Zenith
glued in on one side. This is identical to the format of the little
deck plans that Cunard distributes to passengers on the QM2. A bit
hard to read for those with deteriorating eyesight, but a nice pocket
reference for those who need it.

For the first time in our experience (and one year since our last
Celebrity voyage), we noted that you can now charge your tips to your
on board account. They give you cards/vouchers for the crew which you
fill out with your name, cabin number/table number, amount, etc… so
that the specific crew member can both thank you and redeem the
voucher! Somehow we still think that cash in an envelope with our
calling card is nicer, but it's good to know we can do this if we ever
want to take advantage of it.

For past passengers and others who are used to having the privilege of
a Bridge Visit during a voyage, be warned: these are now strictly
forbidden under the new Security Procedures. We were allowed to visit
the Bridge of the Galaxy with Captain Peppas sailing out of Baltimore
in July 2003, but the presence of a Security Officer keeping a close
watch on us made the visit somewhat uncomfortable. We were also
forbidden to use our cameras while on the Bridge, although the Ship's
photographer magically appeared and captured a wonderful shot of us
with Captain Peppas and Mom. We had requested this based on an ad in
the Daily stating that you could arrange to have your picture taken
with any officer of your choice. We treasure it. This year on the
Zenith, there was no such ad and no such opportunity.

Four features of the ship's Daily are new (to us) and we loudly
applaud them. (1) The heading on each issue has been changed to
reflect the new Celebrity Cruises logo. It looks more polished than
the previous format and allows for more information on the front page.
(2) The daily schedule of activities is now printed on a very stiff
piece of paper that can be easily folded in half and carried around in
one's day bag without getting crumpled. Nice touch! (3) Each issue
of the Daily carried a short profile (with a badly re-printed
photograph) of one of the Senior Officers of the ship. The Master,
Staff Captain, Hotel Manager, Restaurant Manager and Chief Engineer
were all profiled during our voyage. (4) Only our last Daily
contained the "Where in the World are Celebrity Ships Sailing Today"
feature, which Premier Cruises used to include every day. It is a
nice way to promote future cruises/itineraries, and Celebrity might
want to consider including it in the ship's daily a bit more often,
perhaps the last three days of the voyage instead of just the last
day.

They have finally managed to vastly improve the weather forecast cards
that they put on your bed during turn down service each evening. It
used to be that you would open the Make a Wish folder and it had
either nothing inside or a little card with incorrect or incomplete
information that invariably fell on the floor when you open the card.
Now there is a pre-printed card with complete information giving you
the day, date, port (where applicable), and complete weather forecast
for sky conditions and temperatures in both Celcius and Fahrenheit.
Thank You Celebrity!

Now for the "Shame on You Celebrity" comment: There is STILL no proper
ship's postcard for the Zenith. After 12 years (and numerous
complaints from us, along with other passengers who happen to be
postcard collectors), you would think that they could give the Zenith
a proper card that actually shows a picture of her on the front! The
card that they gave us on this voyage is the same card that they gave
us 10 years ago, which shows a lovely picture of the HORIZON
approaching Bermuda in the glowing sunrise, although the card is
labeled "Zenith"! Any idiot can clearly see the Mast Bar on the image
of the ship on the card (present on Horizon but not a feature of
Zenith) and count the windows in Horizon's America's Cup Club (5-as
shown on the card) as opposed to the Fleet Bar which has 7 windows!
Celebrity has now (perhaps very cleverly) painted the back deck
ribbings of both ships dark blue (Horizon's used to be all white), but
you can fool some of the people for only so long……. Despite
scuttlebutt that the Zenith is now scheduled to either be stretched or
perhaps even replaced by a new version, the current Zenith deserves a
card of her own-NOW!! We will look for it on our July 16, 2005 sailing
(and undoubtedly have to grumble about it again!)

Bathrobes in our cabin were miraculously large enough for our
respective girths and used each morning of the voyage, especially when
Vanessa, our excellent pantry stewardess, appeared with our hot
breakfast tray. There is no longer any "hard sell" either with
announcements in the Ship's Daily or special cards in your cabin to
press you to purchase either Celebrity logo bathrobes or specially
embroidered ship's towels. Perhaps not surprising, the only "hard
sell" item that received more publicity than anything else (both in
the ship's Daily and in ads placed in cabins) was Future Cruises, with
particular emphasis on the new "X-peditions" program. While a cruise
to the Galapagos sounds most appealing to us (especially Peg, a
Science Teacher), we will wait for the time being for future verdicts
on the relative merits of the Kaptain Klebnikov, the vessel which
Celebrity has chartered for the "X-pedition" voyages.

Once again, Celebrity's Children's program came (mercifully) to our
rescue. As with most summer time sailings, there were myriads of
children on board for this cruise, but we saw very little evidence of
them. They took over the Fleet Bar for a "teen disco", but not until
midnight each evening. We only saw one instance of a child riding up
and down in the elevator unaccompanied and having fun touching all of
the pressure-sensitive buttons for a joy ride stop at each floor. He
was taken off by a Cruise Staff Member, and was being asked for his
cabin number as the doors closed on us!

We were most impressed with the Crew Life Boat Drill which we
witnessed shortly after our arrival in Hamilton. Normally we are not
on board for this event, but we slept in that morning (having seen our
arrival into Bermuda 5 times before) and were just coming out of our
cabin when the event was announced. Cabin 4070 was selected as the
site of the simulated "fire"-we hope the cabin was empty or that they
at least fore-warned the occupants!-as well the obligatory simulated
"fire in the Disco". We saw the Safety Officer explain to a crew
member that he was a "lost passenger" and the crew member not only
responded with the correct series of questions to assist the
"passenger" to find his muster station, but also (most appropriately)
reminded the "passenger" that he should be wearing his life jacket!
Good on the crewmember-wish we had gotten his name!

Once again, we lucked out with our tablemates in the Dining Room. Our
gratitude to Marie, Deb, Rocco and Rose, Ray and Marge for accepting
us into their group and providing such a fun time at dinner each
evening. We will remember you with our Zenith Christmas ornament each
year, as we sincerely hope you will remember us!

THE SHIP AND HER OFFICERS:

The Zenith is as beautiful as ever. At 12 years old, she still looks
like new. We saw virtually no evidence of wear and tear; in fact,
wear and tear that we noticed on our last Zenith voyages in 2002 and
2001 had all been repaired/re-upholstered. Company maintenance is
still exceptional! All of the public rooms looked exactly as we
remembered, right down to the color scheme and lay out of the
furniture, to the arrangement of the bottles and glasses in the bars.
We felt right at home from the moment we stepped on board! Our cabin
is now truly a second home-we have booked it again for July 16, 2005!
With any luck, we will also find Aida, our superb Cabin Stewardess, on
board again and also working in the same area of the ship. She looked
after us famously!

Captain Michail Margaritas remembered us instantly from our many
visits to the Zenith prior to 9/11/2001 and from our cruise with him
on the Zenith with Peg Mother in tow in August 2001. He did a superb
job of entertaining us, especially on the second formal night after
leaving Bermuda, when we had the pleasure of joining him and his
Safety Officer, Librarian, Social Hostess Tiffany and Captain's
Club/Future Cruises Coordinator Jill, for drinks in the Martini Bar.
It was great fun to be able to catch up with him and on Celebrity
happenings in general. One piece of news that we regret very
deeply-Captain Antonis Manaras has retired from the Line! We
sincerely wish Celebrity would announce these kinds of changes to past
passengers in a more timely way. There are many passengers who, like
us, admired Captain Manaras very much and would have wished to make a
special gesture to say goodbye upon his retirement. We hope they gave
him something more than the traditional gold watch-he is a one of a
kind ship's Master! We have written to him at his home in Greece.

Undoubtedly the greatest pleasure of this voyage was to run into
Yilmas (from Turkey) again, now as the Bar Manager. We have known
Yilmas since 1994 when he was a bartender in the Mast Bar on the
Horizon. This was shortly after his creation of "The Long River
Daisy", his award winning Celebrity signature drink. With little
"business" in the Mast Bar (very windy up there-which is why its
duplicate is not included on the Zenith), we enjoyed many chats with
him. Over the years, we have seen him repeatedly as Bartender,
Sommalier, Assistant Bar Manager and now Bar Manager. It's rather like
seeing a favorite child grow up! Yilmas entertained us magnificently
throughout the voyage with several rounds of free drinks and
conversations when he could about his wife and new son, and solid
career with Celebrity.

Food Manager Dimitris (from Cyprus) was our designated "Officer at the
Dining Room Table" for Captain's Club Elite members on the second
formal night. Having come from Seabourn Cruises just two years ago, I
think he was as much or more interested to chat with us as we were to
talk to him! He was a marvelous host for the table and entertained
our entire group with a delightful wine and splendid conversation that
lasted well beyond the Baked Alaska parade.

ON-BOARD EXPERIENCE: DINING

The food and service are even better than a year ago on the Galaxy.
Celebrity is now almost completely back up to the standard that we
enjoyed back in 1993-1996 (before the RCI take over). Extra sauces
still do not appear on little trays to be served up by the busboy, but
a request for "extra sauce on the plate" was honored each time we
asked for it. The infamous peppershakers were never in evidence at our
table (no one was a pepper fanatic), but we did see them being
skillfully wielded at other tables each evening.

Shrimp Cocktail is now available every night as an extra or
replacement appetizer. Celebrity's soups are still the major
Caldwell-Ott family favorite, and we would like to put in a request
for some soup recipes to be published in the Captain's Club News (now
known as Celebrity Departures).

Our excellent waiter, Mercin (pronounced "Marchin") from Poland, was
careful to have the Celebrity logo on the top of each plate and on the
side of each bowl and cup properly positioned whenever he set
any dish in front of a passenger. Alwi from Indonesia, our busboy,
(now more appropriately referred to as "Assistant Waiter") did a fine
job of smiling and trying his best to communicate and participate in
the jokes at what was a very rapid fire conversational table, but is
still obviously in training. His English still needs work, as does
the speed of his service. Mercin has obviously taken him under his
wing and is a terrific model for him to emulate.

Our superb sommalier, Christina, recognized us from last year's cruise
with Peg's Mother in tow on the Galaxy. Her first question was to ask
about "Mom"! Everyone at our table was a wine drinker, so Christina
had her hands full with our table alone, but did an excellent job of
keeping everyone's glass full. Remembering our tastes from Galaxy,
she also did a splendid job of making some fine recommendations to us
for new wines that she thought we might like to try. She steered us
right every single night, and we kept a list of her delectable
recommendations for reference on future cruises.

Our escort into the Dining Room on the first night was Dragon, now
most appropriately promoted to Waiter, who was our fabulous Assistant
Waiter for our back to back cruises on the Summit in August 2002. He
recognized us instantly and, since his service area was adjacent to
ours, popped over to our table to check on us each evening throughout
the voyage. Dining Room Manager Mario also recognized us and we had a
delightful chat with him in Cova/Harry's finally arriving at the
conclusion that he was also with us on the Summit. Seeing and being
recognized by Officers, Staff and Crew members from previous voyages
is still the single most important element that keeps us coming back
to Celebrity-and it never fails! There is ALWAYS someone who we
remember or (more than usually the case) who remembers us!

Buffet Dining in the Windsurf Café (which we used every day for lunch
with the exception of one lunch ashore) is now better than ever! The
hot food items, carving station, and short order grill are still
options. But they have now added stations for salad of the day
(make-your-own also available); soup and sandwich of the day (with
other sandwich fixings varieties available if you wish); pizza of the
day; and hot pasta of the day (with 3-4 sauce selections available).
Our cup runneth over! Of course, waiters still carry your tray to your
table (one was in such a hurry that he even over-shot our table and
had to be summoned back by our Sommalier Christina), and there are
plenty of Sommaliers and Bar Servers to bring your drink orders to
you.

ON-BOARD EXPERIENCE: BAR/LOUNGE SERVICE

Bar and Lounge service on the Zenith is as exceptional as it always
has been, but now with a new twist. We don't know where the directive
came from, but obviously someone has told everyone who serves in the
Bars, Lounges, Sommeliers and even Waiters to actually read the "sign
and sail" signature card. Not only do these servers remember your
favorite order now, but they also address you by correct title and
last name! A very nice personal touch! We felt as if everyone was
making it his or her personal responsibility to look after us! What
is even more amazing, the servers actually remember it from one day to
the next. So, it was "Mr. and Mrs. Ott" when our first order in any
given bar/lounge appeared, and then "Mr. Ott" or "Mrs.Ott" "would you
care for another round?" later in the same day or even the next
day-"Mrs Ott, would you prefer a White Zinfandel on ice today, a
Carlsberg? or would you prefer something else?"! At first we thought
that this was a privilege for Elite Captain's Club Members (since the
words ELITE MEMBER is clearly printed at the bottom of the card), but
we soon noticed that every crewmember was following the same procedure
with every passenger. Impressive! And a practice that we hope
Celebrity will continue to maintain! It must be very hard on the crew
to have to deal with some of the more complex "American of European
Origin" names, but they did a superb job!

Bar/Lounge servers who deserve special mention a
Saski-a new crewmember, but undoubtedly soon to become a Celebrity
legend along the lines of Granville or Newton-just an absolute stitch
and a very warm person! We ordered a set of new Martini Shakers and 4
glasses from him and then promptly forgot to pick them up. Knowing
Saski, they will probably still be behind the bar with our names on
them for our July 2005 voyage!
Jacob (variant spelling)-Saski's compatriot in the Martini Bar and a
total sweetheart!
Daniella from Romania-also a new crew member, but a treat! She treated
us like family in Cova/Harry's!
Daniella from Bulgaria-who looked after us in the Fleet Bar and did an
unusually fabulous job usually being the only server up there, even on
night's when other passengers (like us) discovered the delights of the
Phillippino trio and gathered en masse towards the end of the voyage!
Consuelos-an old friend whom we have seen on the Zenith or Horizon for
years and who recognized us before we spotted her! She was "on float"
to wherever she was needed on this voyage and looked after us
beautifully whenever we encountered her! We treasure a special
photograph that we requested with her and Yilmas during the Captain's
Club recognition party-and yes, we purchased and gave a copy to both
Yilmas and Consuelos!


CAPTAIN'S CLUB AMENITY CHANGES:

Priority Embarkation and Disembarkation for Elite Captain's Club
Members (in addition to Suites and Concierge Class) served us
extremely well on this trip. We arrived at the pier unusually late
(for us) at 1:30 pm with long lines still very much in evidence.
Thanks to Priority Embarkation we were able to jump the cue and were
in our cabin only 30 minutes after leaving home! Disembarkation
included a longer than normal time to vacate our cabin (we did not
have to report to the Fleet Bar until 9:15-more relaxing!), and very
nice rolls, juice and coffee available once we got to the
disembarkation station. Celebrity mercifully no longer uses the PA
system to announce disembarkation; a Cruise Staff member simply
appeared in the Fleet Bar and instructed us that we could get off.
Sure enough, we really were among the first passengers off the ship,
and were home in our apartment about 30 minutes later! Fabulous!

Elite and Select Captain's Club Members should be forewarned (as we
were NOT) that it is now the Future Cruises Sales Manager who gives
special attention to the members with more than the average number of
Celebrity voyages. We are used to being under the tender loving care
of the Social Hostess. We thought it would be the same on this
voyage, especially when Tiffany Etheridge, the Social Hostess, gave us
a special welcome at the pier upon embarkation. She also gave us very
careful instruction on the use of our sign and sail card, which we
thought was odd after 12 previous voyages on this Line alone! Yes,
after so many trips, we do know what to do with that card! However,
she totally ignored her for the next three days until we figured out
that is was Future Cruises Sales Manager Jill (from Canada) who was
really assigned to take care of us!

For some unknown reason, we received a very nice Certificate under our
cabin door signed by Captain Margaritis-with his initials-thanking us
for taking so many previous voyages and hoping to see us on a future
trip-on the third day of the cruise! We wondered if we were being
given the brush off and should leave the ship in Bermuda to fly home!
Social Hostess Tiffany did not know whom we were when we asked her
about it in Cova/Harry's-she gave us a blank stare and walked away.
But Future Cruise Sales Manager Jill was most apologetic (she
explained that there is a new Program Coordinator on board who has yet
to learn some of the basics) and had the certificate re-issued for the
Captain's Club Party on the second formal night where we were honored
for having 13 trips. We kept the first one anyway-it is now on the
cover of our scrapbook for this voyage! There were only 4 Elite
Captain's Club families on this trip-one couple with 15 voyages, us
with 13 and two other couples with 11 each. We had our picture with
Jill and Captain Margaritis framed and mounted in a Celebrity Album
(which we purchased) together with a nice photograph of the ship
sailing out of St. George.

In-Cabin amenities included a very nice small, but full and colorful,
floral arrangement delivered on the second day of the voyage, and a
small box of Cova Chocolates. No bottle of wine from the Master on
this trip, which is the first time we have missed out on this treat--?
Maybe we didn't show up with enough packages of Greek Coffee and
Dolmathas? Our local bodega did not have any Greek newspapers on the
morning of July 24, so perhaps that was the problem….?

Special tours and treats included the presence of Food Manager
Dimitris at our table (as described above), and a delightful "behind
the scenes" tour of the Show Lounge with Rachel, a dancer from London.
Rachel had a total of 10 passengers in tow (all Select or Elite
Captain's Club Members) and gave us a wonderful tour of the limited
facilities on the Zenith, especially in comparison to the spacious but
more crammed-full spaces on the similar tour we had on the Summit. We
are not "Show" people, but certainly appreciated the variation between
the space and the types of shows that can be produced given the
facilities on the various sized vessels.

As Elite members, we had the privilege of invites to 4 special
functions. (1) A "wine blending seminar" held at 10 am on our first
day at sea. 10 am seemed a bit early to start bending the elbow (even
for us!), so we declined only to learn that the event is really great
fun and involves more mixing than sipping (according to Jill). We
won't miss it next time. The general wine tasting for all passengers
is now so popular that it is held in the Dining Room. We could have
attended for free, but did not. (2) We had a special cocktail party
with the Senior Officers in the Fleet Bar on our first day in St.
George. The event was well attended by Select and Elite Captain's
Club members, and we had a chance to chat with the Hotel Manager,
Staff Captain and several Hotel Department Officers. The Chief
Engineer was also there. (3) There was a special Champagne Toast for
Select and Elite members as we sailed away from St. George. It was
nice to have guaranteed seating in the Fleet Bar for this (always very
special) sailing, and other drinks were available for those who do not
care for Celebrity Vintage champagne. (4) The main Captain's Club
Party was divided into two groups-one for Early Seating and one for
Late Seating-given that there were so many Captain's Club Members on
board. We were delighted to receive roses and a photograph with Jill
and Captain Margaritis for our 13 voyages during the Late seating
party. They also select an Officer to escort the lady to the dance
floor and Peg was thrilled to have Bar Manager Yilmas offer his arm!

Match play coupons for the Casino were provided in our welcome aboard
packet, together with Spa certificates and a new feature-a coupon for
10 free minutes for the Internet. One of these days, we really should
take advantage of such "extras".

SHORE EXCURSIONS (SNORKELING):

Nothing about this cruise was "disappointing" by any stretch of the
imagination, but our snorkeling experience comes close, albeit not
through any fault of Celebrity Cruises. Hurricane Fabian hit Bermuda
very hard last September, and like many other frequent Bermuda
visitors, we could only stare at our TV sets and hope/pray that our
friends made it through. They all did-thank God-with the exception of
a whole lot of fish! As we feared, Bermuda's beautiful and bountiful
fish population was decimated by the Hurricane. We inquired about
this on all four of our excursions, but no one would really tell us
about the extent of it until we went on our last excursion with
"Captain Jerry" (aka Jerry Correia of Ocean Breeze Sail Charters) for
the Sail and Swim out of St. George. He told us, with somber but
vivid frankness, about the three feet of water covering the
town-square in St. George and the airport, not to mention even deeper
water in other parts of the islands. When the waters receded,
literally tons of Bermuda's infamous parrot fish (the Gillenborg) and
many other reef varieties were stranded, having to be cleaned up,
taken out to sea on a variety of small vessels and dumped well beyond
the reef boundaries. Fortunately, the dearly departed left behind
their eggs which seem to have been protected enough to produce a new
generation of many species. We saw any number of smaller fish on all
four of our excursions, but only really large adults on the last one.
Fortunately, the North Shore beaches did not suffer as much as the
rest of the islands, and Whale Bone Bay (to which Captain Jerry took
us) offered the variety and quantity of fish that we are used to
seeing in Bermudian waters. A two-foot juvenile Barracuda eyed Peg
with suspicion before swimming off. An enormous Gillenborg (probably
about three-foot from front to back as well as up and down-definitely
the biggest we have ever seen!) gave us both one of the frights of our
lives as he maneuvered around his territory to check out the invaders!
And an entire family of gorgeous Queen Angelfish (Mom, Dad and three
kids) made for an entertaining 20 minutes of swimming around with them
trying to get a good shot! It gives us great hope that the snorkeling
around Bermuda's other familiar sites will only improve with time.
Murky waters were a problem on all four of our excursions, but most
likely due to the presence of so many snorkelers coupled with a week
of rainy weather the week prior to our trip. Additionally, we just
happened to be in Bermuda a few days before their annual Cup Match
national holiday, during which many islanders move their boats to
which ever end of the islands is hosting the event that year (the West
End this year).

Our snorkeling reports for this voyage have been filed separately and
are, as always, available on Tom Kanitra's excellent web site:
http://www.cruisereviews.com/info/snorkeling.htm
As a summary, our excursions this year we
(1) Snorkeling on our own in the Sea Gardens off Daniel's Island on
the West End. We rented a Boston Whaler from Robinson's Marina at
Somerset Bridge. The boating was tremendous fun; the snorkeling was
terrible, mostly due to extreme boat traffic in the area!
(2) West End Snorkeling Safari Adventu poor visibility due to a
huge crowd of inexperienced snorkelers and lots of boats in the area.
But, we did see a good variety of juvenile fish.
(3) East End Snorkeling out of St. George: the fourth time we have
done this trip, but the first time they took us to Castle Harbor due
to unusually heavy seas around Charles Island. Terrific corals and a
good variety and quantity of mostly immature fish. There were plenty
of inexperienced snorkelers on this trip too, but with a much larger
area over which to spread them, we got some shots in without having
people swim into us.
(4) Sail and Swim out of St. George with Captain Jerry on our last
day. This is always the snorkeling highlight of any voyage (our 5th
trip with Captain Jerry) and this year was no different!

All in all it was a fabulous voyage and one that we look forward to
repeating next July 16!!

Peg and Derek Caldwell-Ott

"Scientists' say intelligent life
sprang from the sea.
Really intelligent life returns
to the sea every now and then."


"Scientists' say intelligent life
sprang from the sea.
Really intelligent life returns to
the sea now and then."

terrific review -- thanks !

"PegNDerek" wrote in message
...
THOUGHTS ON THE M/V ZENITH TO BERMUDA
CELEBRITY CRUISES
JULY 24-31, 2004

Sailing Particulars:
Derek Ott and Margaret Caldwell-Ott (Peg)
Reservation Identification Number 9598873
Travel Agent: Lori Cunningham, Skyscraper Tours
Folio Numbers 00004134 and 00006093
Captain's Club Status: Elite Members
Cabin Number 5063
Late Seating Dinner, Table 24

Basis for Comparison:
Celebrity Cruises (Sailing Number 13)
Previous Voyages:
Meridian to Bermuda August 1993
Horizon to Bermuda August 1994
Horizon to Bermuda June 1995
Zenith to the Eastern Caribbean August 1995
Century to the Eastern Caribbean March 1996
Zenith to Bermuda August 2001
Century to the Eastern Caribbean Dec/Jan 2001-02
Zenith to Bermuda June 2002
Summit Northbound Alaska August 2002
Summit Southbound Alaska August 2002
Millennium to the Eastern Caribbean Dec/Jan 2002-03
Galaxy to the Eastern Caribbean June 2003
Zenith to Bermuda-booked for July 2005
Premier Cruises (6)
Norwegian Cruise Lines (1)-Number 2 booked for Christmas 2004
Holland America (1)
Regal Cruises (1)
Peg also has 15 Voyages made with her parents between 1958 to 1978 on
various vessels (United States, Constitution, Independence, Atlantic,
Victoria, Europe, Asia, Gripsholm, Laos, Ak Deniz, Kara Deniz, Ilala
and Sunward)

In the past, we have written everything from lengthy reviews to short
notes about our voyages. This time we thought to opt for something in
between-just some thoughts about how Celebrity has changed over the
last several years (even better now) and impressions of what we
experienced (a marvelous cruise overall). We have divided our
"thoughts" into 6 sections and put them in the order in which we think
most might want to read them:
General Thoughts/Attention to Detail
The Ship and Her Officers
On Board Experience: Dining
On Board Experience: Bar/Lounge Service
Captain's Club Amenity Changes
Shore Excursions (Snorkeling)


GENERAL THOUGHTS/"ATTENTION TO DETAIL":

We thought we would put this section first since it details many of
the changes we noticed. It is also contains the least amount of
personal "thank-yous" to the Officers, Staff and Crew that we met on
this voyage.

Celebrity's "No non-essential announcements" policy continues to be a
major bonus for all. Aside from the obligatory LifeBoat Drill series,
we only heard two other announcements-both from Captain Margaritis (in
excellent English) giving a brief NoonDay report from the Bridge on
sea days both coming and going to/from Bermuda. They no longer use
the PA system to announce disembarkation either-a major plus to keep
the non-qualified from getting off the ship in the first rush of
passengers into the terminal! We only heard two announcements made
prior to disembarkation for the usual string of 10 or so cabins whose
occupants had somehow failed to pay their sign and sail card bills.

Our sign and sail cards were packaged into a neat folder that when
extended out provided a very nice fold up deck plan of the Zenith
glued in on one side. This is identical to the format of the little
deck plans that Cunard distributes to passengers on the QM2. A bit
hard to read for those with deteriorating eyesight, but a nice pocket
reference for those who need it.

For the first time in our experience (and one year since our last
Celebrity voyage), we noted that you can now charge your tips to your
on board account. They give you cards/vouchers for the crew which you
fill out with your name, cabin number/table number, amount, etc. so
that the specific crew member can both thank you and redeem the
voucher! Somehow we still think that cash in an envelope with our
calling card is nicer, but it's good to know we can do this if we ever
want to take advantage of it.

For past passengers and others who are used to having the privilege of
a Bridge Visit during a voyage, be warned: these are now strictly
forbidden under the new Security Procedures. We were allowed to visit
the Bridge of the Galaxy with Captain Peppas sailing out of Baltimore
in July 2003, but the presence of a Security Officer keeping a close
watch on us made the visit somewhat uncomfortable. We were also
forbidden to use our cameras while on the Bridge, although the Ship's
photographer magically appeared and captured a wonderful shot of us
with Captain Peppas and Mom. We had requested this based on an ad in
the Daily stating that you could arrange to have your picture taken
with any officer of your choice. We treasure it. This year on the
Zenith, there was no such ad and no such opportunity.

Four features of the ship's Daily are new (to us) and we loudly
applaud them. (1) The heading on each issue has been changed to
reflect the new Celebrity Cruises logo. It looks more polished than
the previous format and allows for more information on the front page.
(2) The daily schedule of activities is now printed on a very stiff
piece of paper that can be easily folded in half and carried around in
one's day bag without getting crumpled. Nice touch! (3) Each issue
of the Daily carried a short profile (with a badly re-printed
photograph) of one of the Senior Officers of the ship. The Master,
Staff Captain, Hotel Manager, Restaurant Manager and Chief Engineer
were all profiled during our voyage. (4) Only our last Daily
contained the "Where in the World are Celebrity Ships Sailing Today"
feature, which Premier Cruises used to include every day. It is a
nice way to promote future cruises/itineraries, and Celebrity might
want to consider including it in the ship's daily a bit more often,
perhaps the last three days of the voyage instead of just the last
day.

They have finally managed to vastly improve the weather forecast cards
that they put on your bed during turn down service each evening. It
used to be that you would open the Make a Wish folder and it had
either nothing inside or a little card with incorrect or incomplete
information that invariably fell on the floor when you open the card.
Now there is a pre-printed card with complete information giving you
the day, date, port (where applicable), and complete weather forecast
for sky conditions and temperatures in both Celcius and Fahrenheit.
Thank You Celebrity!

Now for the "Shame on You Celebrity" comment: There is STILL no proper
ship's postcard for the Zenith. After 12 years (and numerous
complaints from us, along with other passengers who happen to be
postcard collectors), you would think that they could give the Zenith
a proper card that actually shows a picture of her on the front! The
card that they gave us on this voyage is the same card that they gave
us 10 years ago, which shows a lovely picture of the HORIZON
approaching Bermuda in the glowing sunrise, although the card is
labeled "Zenith"! Any idiot can clearly see the Mast Bar on the image
of the ship on the card (present on Horizon but not a feature of
Zenith) and count the windows in Horizon's America's Cup Club (5-as
shown on the card) as opposed to the Fleet Bar which has 7 windows!
Celebrity has now (perhaps very cleverly) painted the back deck
ribbings of both ships dark blue (Horizon's used to be all white), but
you can fool some of the people for only so long... Despite
scuttlebutt that the Zenith is now scheduled to either be stretched or
perhaps even replaced by a new version, the current Zenith deserves a
card of her own-NOW!! We will look for it on our July 16, 2005 sailing
(and undoubtedly have to grumble about it again!)

Bathrobes in our cabin were miraculously large enough for our
respective girths and used each morning of the voyage, especially when
Vanessa, our excellent pantry stewardess, appeared with our hot
breakfast tray. There is no longer any "hard sell" either with
announcements in the Ship's Daily or special cards in your cabin to
press you to purchase either Celebrity logo bathrobes or specially
embroidered ship's towels. Perhaps not surprising, the only "hard
sell" item that received more publicity than anything else (both in
the ship's Daily and in ads placed in cabins) was Future Cruises, with
particular emphasis on the new "X-peditions" program. While a cruise
to the Galapagos sounds most appealing to us (especially Peg, a
Science Teacher), we will wait for the time being for future verdicts
on the relative merits of the Kaptain Klebnikov, the vessel which
Celebrity has chartered for the "X-pedition" voyages.

Once again, Celebrity's Children's program came (mercifully) to our
rescue. As with most summer time sailings, there were myriads of
children on board for this cruise, but we saw very little evidence of
them. They took over the Fleet Bar for a "teen disco", but not until
midnight each evening. We only saw one instance of a child riding up
and down in the elevator unaccompanied and having fun touching all of
the pressure-sensitive buttons for a joy ride stop at each floor. He
was taken off by a Cruise Staff Member, and was being asked for his
cabin number as the doors closed on us!

We were most impressed with the Crew Life Boat Drill which we
witnessed shortly after our arrival in Hamilton. Normally we are not
on board for this event, but we slept in that morning (having seen our
arrival into Bermuda 5 times before) and were just coming out of our
cabin when the event was announced. Cabin 4070 was selected as the
site of the simulated "fire"-we hope the cabin was empty or that they
at least fore-warned the occupants!-as well the obligatory simulated
"fire in the Disco". We saw the Safety Officer explain to a crew
member that he was a "lost passenger" and the crew member not only
responded with the correct series of questions to assist the
"passenger" to find his muster station, but also (most appropriately)
reminded the "passenger" that he should be wearing his life jacket!
Good on the crewmember-wish we had gotten his name!

Once again, we lucked out with our tablemates in the Dining Room. Our
gratitude to Marie, Deb, Rocco and Rose, Ray and Marge for accepting
us into their group and providing such a fun time at dinner each
evening. We will remember you with our Zenith Christmas ornament each
year, as we sincerely hope you will remember us!

THE SHIP AND HER OFFICERS:

The Zenith is as beautiful as ever. At 12 years old, she still looks
like new. We saw virtually no evidence of wear and tear; in fact,
wear and tear that we noticed on our last Zenith voyages in 2002 and
2001 had all been repaired/re-upholstered. Company maintenance is
still exceptional! All of the public rooms looked exactly as we
remembered, right down to the color scheme and lay out of the
furniture, to the arrangement of the bottles and glasses in the bars.
We felt right at home from the moment we stepped on board! Our cabin
is now truly a second home-we have booked it again for July 16, 2005!
With any luck, we will also find Aida, our superb Cabin Stewardess, on
board again and also working in the same area of the ship. She looked
after us famously!

Captain Michail Margaritas remembered us instantly from our many
visits to the Zenith prior to 9/11/2001 and from our cruise with him
on the Zenith with Peg Mother in tow in August 2001. He did a superb
job of entertaining us, especially on the second formal night after
leaving Bermuda, when we had the pleasure of joining him and his
Safety Officer, Librarian, Social Hostess Tiffany and Captain's
Club/Future Cruises Coordinator Jill, for drinks in the Martini Bar.
It was great fun to be able to catch up with him and on Celebrity
happenings in general. One piece of news that we regret very
deeply-Captain Antonis Manaras has retired from the Line! We
sincerely wish Celebrity would announce these kinds of changes to past
passengers in a more timely way. There are many passengers who, like
us, admired Captain Manaras very much and would have wished to make a
special gesture to say goodbye upon his retirement. We hope they gave
him something more than the traditional gold watch-he is a one of a
kind ship's Master! We have written to him at his home in Greece.

Undoubtedly the greatest pleasure of this voyage was to run into
Yilmas (from Turkey) again, now as the Bar Manager. We have known
Yilmas since 1994 when he was a bartender in the Mast Bar on the
Horizon. This was shortly after his creation of "The Long River
Daisy", his award winning Celebrity signature drink. With little
"business" in the Mast Bar (very windy up there-which is why its
duplicate is not included on the Zenith), we enjoyed many chats with
him. Over the years, we have seen him repeatedly as Bartender,
Sommalier, Assistant Bar Manager and now Bar Manager. It's rather like
seeing a favorite child grow up! Yilmas entertained us magnificently
throughout the voyage with several rounds of free drinks and
conversations when he could about his wife and new son, and solid
career with Celebrity.

Food Manager Dimitris (from Cyprus) was our designated "Officer at the
Dining Room Table" for Captain's Club Elite members on the second
formal night. Having come from Seabourn Cruises just two years ago, I
think he was as much or more interested to chat with us as we were to
talk to him! He was a marvelous host for the table and entertained
our entire group with a delightful wine and splendid conversation that
lasted well beyond the Baked Alaska parade.

ON-BOARD EXPERIENCE: DINING

The food and service are even better than a year ago on the Galaxy.
Celebrity is now almost completely back up to the standard that we
enjoyed back in 1993-1996 (before the RCI take over). Extra sauces
still do not appear on little trays to be served up by the busboy, but
a request for "extra sauce on the plate" was honored each time we
asked for it. The infamous peppershakers were never in evidence at our
table (no one was a pepper fanatic), but we did see them being
skillfully wielded at other tables each evening.

Shrimp Cocktail is now available every night as an extra or
replacement appetizer. Celebrity's soups are still the major
Caldwell-Ott family favorite, and we would like to put in a request
for some soup recipes to be published in the Captain's Club News (now
known as Celebrity Departures).

Our excellent waiter, Mercin (pronounced "Marchin") from Poland, was
careful to have the Celebrity logo on the top of each plate and on the
side of each bowl and cup properly positioned whenever he set
any dish in front of a passenger. Alwi from Indonesia, our busboy,
(now more appropriately referred to as "Assistant Waiter") did a fine
job of smiling and trying his best to communicate and participate in
the jokes at what was a very rapid fire conversational table, but is
still obviously in training. His English still needs work, as does
the speed of his service. Mercin has obviously taken him under his
wing and is a terrific model for him to emulate.

Our superb sommalier, Christina, recognized us from last year's cruise
with Peg's Mother in tow on the Galaxy. Her first question was to ask
about "Mom"! Everyone at our table was a wine drinker, so Christina
had her hands full with our table alone, but did an excellent job of
keeping everyone's glass full. Remembering our tastes from Galaxy,
she also did a splendid job of making some fine recommendations to us
for new wines that she thought we might like to try. She steered us
right every single night, and we kept a list of her delectable
recommendations for reference on future cruises.

Our escort into the Dining Room on the first night was Dragon, now
most appropriately promoted to Waiter, who was our fabulous Assistant
Waiter for our back to back cruises on the Summit in August 2002. He
recognized us instantly and, since his service area was adjacent to
ours, popped over to our table to check on us each evening throughout
the voyage. Dining Room Manager Mario also recognized us and we had a
delightful chat with him in Cova/Harry's finally arriving at the
conclusion that he was also with us on the Summit. Seeing and being
recognized by Officers, Staff and Crew members from previous voyages
is still the single most important element that keeps us coming back
to Celebrity-and it never fails! There is ALWAYS someone who we
remember or (more than usually the case) who remembers us!

Buffet Dining in the Windsurf Café (which we used every day for lunch
with the exception of one lunch ashore) is now better than ever! The
hot food items, carving station, and short order grill are still
options. But they have now added stations for salad of the day
(make-your-own also available); soup and sandwich of the day (with
other sandwich fixings varieties available if you wish); pizza of the
day; and hot pasta of the day (with 3-4 sauce selections available).
Our cup runneth over! Of course, waiters still carry your tray to your
table (one was in such a hurry that he even over-shot our table and
had to be summoned back by our Sommalier Christina), and there are
plenty of Sommaliers and Bar Servers to bring your drink orders to
you.

ON-BOARD EXPERIENCE: BAR/LOUNGE SERVICE

Bar and Lounge service on the Zenith is as exceptional as it always
has been, but now with a new twist. We don't know where the directive
came from, but obviously someone has told everyone who serves in the
Bars, Lounges, Sommeliers and even Waiters to actually read the "sign
and sail" signature card. Not only do these servers remember your
favorite order now, but they also address you by correct title and
last name! A very nice personal touch! We felt as if everyone was
making it his or her personal responsibility to look after us! What
is even more amazing, the servers actually remember it from one day to
the next. So, it was "Mr. and Mrs. Ott" when our first order in any
given bar/lounge appeared, and then "Mr. Ott" or "Mrs.Ott" "would you
care for another round?" later in the same day or even the next
day-"Mrs Ott, would you prefer a White Zinfandel on ice today, a
Carlsberg? or would you prefer something else?"! At first we thought
that this was a privilege for Elite Captain's Club Members (since the
words ELITE MEMBER is clearly printed at the bottom of the card), but
we soon noticed that every crewmember was following the same procedure
with every passenger. Impressive! And a practice that we hope
Celebrity will continue to maintain! It must be very hard on the crew
to have to deal with some of the more complex "American of European
Origin" names, but they did a superb job!

Bar/Lounge servers who deserve special mention a
Saski-a new crewmember, but undoubtedly soon to become a Celebrity
legend along the lines of Granville or Newton-just an absolute stitch
and a very warm person! We ordered a set of new Martini Shakers and 4
glasses from him and then promptly forgot to pick them up. Knowing
Saski, they will probably still be behind the bar with our names on
them for our July 2005 voyage!
Jacob (variant spelling)-Saski's compatriot in the Martini Bar and a
total sweetheart!
Daniella from Romania-also a new crew member, but a treat! She treated
us like family in Cova/Harry's!
Daniella from Bulgaria-who looked after us in the Fleet Bar and did an
unusually fabulous job usually being the only server up there, even on
night's when other passengers (like us) discovered the delights of the
Phillippino trio and gathered en masse towards the end of the voyage!
Consuelos-an old friend whom we have seen on the Zenith or Horizon for
years and who recognized us before we spotted her! She was "on float"
to wherever she was needed on this voyage and looked after us
beautifully whenever we encountered her! We treasure a special
photograph that we requested with her and Yilmas during the Captain's
Club recognition party-and yes, we purchased and gave a copy to both
Yilmas and Consuelos!


CAPTAIN'S CLUB AMENITY CHANGES:

Priority Embarkation and Disembarkation for Elite Captain's Club
Members (in addition to Suites and Concierge Class) served us
extremely well on this trip. We arrived at the pier unusually late
(for us) at 1:30 pm with long lines still very much in evidence.
Thanks to Priority Embarkation we were able to jump the cue and were
in our cabin only 30 minutes after leaving home! Disembarkation
included a longer than normal time to vacate our cabin (we did not
have to report to the Fleet Bar until 9:15-more relaxing!), and very
nice rolls, juice and coffee available once we got to the
disembarkation station. Celebrity mercifully no longer uses the PA
system to announce disembarkation; a Cruise Staff member simply
appeared in the Fleet Bar and instructed us that we could get off.
Sure enough, we really were among the first passengers off the ship,
and were home in our apartment about 30 minutes later! Fabulous!

Elite and Select Captain's Club Members should be forewarned (as we
were NOT) that it is now the Future Cruises Sales Manager who gives
special attention to the members with more than the average number of
Celebrity voyages. We are used to being under the tender loving care
of the Social Hostess. We thought it would be the same on this
voyage, especially when Tiffany Etheridge, the Social Hostess, gave us
a special welcome at the pier upon embarkation. She also gave us very
careful instruction on the use of our sign and sail card, which we
thought was odd after 12 previous voyages on this Line alone! Yes,
after so many trips, we do know what to do with that card! However,
she totally ignored her for the next three days until we figured out
that is was Future Cruises Sales Manager Jill (from Canada) who was
really assigned to take care of us!

For some unknown reason, we received a very nice Certificate under our
cabin door signed by Captain Margaritis-with his initials-thanking us
for taking so many previous voyages and hoping to see us on a future
trip-on the third day of the cruise! We wondered if we were being
given the brush off and should leave the ship in Bermuda to fly home!
Social Hostess Tiffany did not know whom we were when we asked her
about it in Cova/Harry's-she gave us a blank stare and walked away.
But Future Cruise Sales Manager Jill was most apologetic (she
explained that there is a new Program Coordinator on board who has yet
to learn some of the basics) and had the certificate re-issued for the
Captain's Club Party on the second formal night where we were honored
for having 13 trips. We kept the first one anyway-it is now on the
cover of our scrapbook for this voyage! There were only 4 Elite
Captain's Club families on this trip-one couple with 15 voyages, us
with 13 and two other couples with 11 each. We had our picture with
Jill and Captain Margaritis framed and mounted in a Celebrity Album
(which we purchased) together with a nice photograph of the ship
sailing out of St. George.

In-Cabin amenities included a very nice small, but full and colorful,
floral arrangement delivered on the second day of the voyage, and a
small box of Cova Chocolates. No bottle of wine from the Master on
this trip, which is the first time we have missed out on this treat--?
Maybe we didn't show up with enough packages of Greek Coffee and
Dolmathas? Our local bodega did not have any Greek newspapers on the
morning of July 24, so perhaps that was the problem..?

Special tours and treats included the presence of Food Manager
Dimitris at our table (as described above), and a delightful "behind
the scenes" tour of the Show Lounge with Rachel, a dancer from London.
Rachel had a total of 10 passengers in tow (all Select or Elite
Captain's Club Members) and gave us a wonderful tour of the limited
facilities on the Zenith, especially in comparison to the spacious but
more crammed-full spaces on the similar tour we had on the Summit. We
are not "Show" people, but certainly appreciated the variation between
the space and the types of shows that can be produced given the
facilities on the various sized vessels.

As Elite members, we had the privilege of invites to 4 special
functions. (1) A "wine blending seminar" held at 10 am on our first
day at sea. 10 am seemed a bit early to start bending the elbow (even
for us!), so we declined only to learn that the event is really great
fun and involves more mixing than sipping (according to Jill). We
won't miss it next time. The general wine tasting for all passengers
is now so popular that it is held in the Dining Room. We could have
attended for free, but did not. (2) We had a special cocktail party
with the Senior Officers in the Fleet Bar on our first day in St.
George. The event was well attended by Select and Elite Captain's
Club members, and we had a chance to chat with the Hotel Manager,
Staff Captain and several Hotel Department Officers. The Chief
Engineer was also there. (3) There was a special Champagne Toast for
Select and Elite members as we sailed away from St. George. It was
nice to have guaranteed seating in the Fleet Bar for this (always very
special) sailing, and other drinks were available for those who do not
care for Celebrity Vintage champagne. (4) The main Captain's Club
Party was divided into two groups-one for Early Seating and one for
Late Seating-given that there were so many Captain's Club Members on
board. We were delighted to receive roses and a photograph with Jill
and Captain Margaritis for our 13 voyages during the Late seating
party. They also select an Officer to escort the lady to the dance
floor and Peg was thrilled to have Bar Manager Yilmas offer his arm!

Match play coupons for the Casino were provided in our welcome aboard
packet, together with Spa certificates and a new feature-a coupon for
10 free minutes for the Internet. One of these days, we really should
take advantage of such "extras".

SHORE EXCURSIONS (SNORKELING):

Nothing about this cruise was "disappointing" by any stretch of the
imagination, but our snorkeling experience comes close, albeit not
through any fault of Celebrity Cruises. Hurricane Fabian hit Bermuda
very hard last September, and like many other frequent Bermuda
visitors, we could only stare at our TV sets and hope/pray that our
friends made it through. They all did-thank God-with the exception of
a whole lot of fish! As we feared, Bermuda's beautiful and bountiful
fish population was decimated by the Hurricane. We inquired about
this on all four of our excursions, but no one would really tell us
about the extent of it until we went on our last excursion with
"Captain Jerry" (aka Jerry Correia of Ocean Breeze Sail Charters) for
the Sail and Swim out of St. George. He told us, with somber but
vivid frankness, about the three feet of water covering the
town-square in St. George and the airport, not to mention even deeper
water in other parts of the islands. When the waters receded,
literally tons of Bermuda's infamous parrot fish (the Gillenborg) and
many other reef varieties were stranded, having to be cleaned up,
taken out to sea on a variety of small vessels and dumped well beyond
the reef boundaries. Fortunately, the dearly departed left behind
their eggs which seem to have been protected enough to produce a new
generation of many species. We saw any number of smaller fish on all
four of our excursions, but only really large adults on the last one.
Fortunately, the North Shore beaches did not suffer as much as the
rest of the islands, and Whale Bone Bay (to which Captain Jerry took
us) offered the variety and quantity of fish that we are used to
seeing in Bermudian waters. A two-foot juvenile Barracuda eyed Peg
with suspicion before swimming off. An enormous Gillenborg (probably
about three-foot from front to back as well as up and down-definitely
the biggest we have ever seen!) gave us both one of the frights of our
lives as he maneuvered around his territory to check out the invaders!
And an entire family of gorgeous Queen Angelfish (Mom, Dad and three
kids) made for an entertaining 20 minutes of swimming around with them
trying to get a good shot! It gives us great hope that the snorkeling
around Bermuda's other familiar sites will only improve with time.
Murky waters were a problem on all four of our excursions, but most
likely due to the presence of so many snorkelers coupled with a week
of rainy weather the week prior to our trip. Additionally, we just
happened to be in Bermuda a few days before their annual Cup Match
national holiday, during which many islanders move their boats to
which ever end of the islands is hosting the event that year (the West
End this year).

Our snorkeling reports for this voyage have been filed separately and
are, as always, available on Tom Kanitra's excellent web site:
http://www.cruisereviews.com/info/snorkeling.htm
As a summary, our excursions this year we
(1) Snorkeling on our own in the Sea Gardens off Daniel's Island on
the West End. We rented a Boston Whaler from Robinson's Marina at
Somerset Bridge. The boating was tremendous fun; the snorkeling was
terrible, mostly due to extreme boat traffic in the area!
(2) West End Snorkeling Safari Adventu poor visibility due to a
huge crowd of inexperienced snorkelers and lots of boats in the area.
But, we did see a good variety of juvenile fish.
(3) East End Snorkeling out of St. George: the fourth time we have
done this trip, but the first time they took us to Castle Harbor due
to unusually heavy seas around Charles Island. Terrific corals and a
good variety and quantity of mostly immature fish. There were plenty
of inexperienced snorkelers on this trip too, but with a much larger
area over which to spread them, we got some shots in without having
people swim into us.
(4) Sail and Swim out of St. George with Captain Jerry on our last
day. This is always the snorkeling highlight of any voyage (our 5th
trip with Captain Jerry) and this year was no different!

All in all it was a fabulous voyage and one that we look forward to
repeating next July 16!!

Peg and Derek Caldwell-Ott

"Scientists' say intelligent life
sprang from the sea.
Really intelligent life returns
to the sea every now and then."


"Scientists' say intelligent life
sprang from the sea.
Really intelligent life returns to
the sea now and then."

terrific review -- thanks !

"PegNDerek" wrote in message
...
THOUGHTS ON THE M/V ZENITH TO BERMUDA
CELEBRITY CRUISES
JULY 24-31, 2004

Sailing Particulars:
Derek Ott and Margaret Caldwell-Ott (Peg)
Reservation Identification Number 9598873
Travel Agent: Lori Cunningham, Skyscraper Tours
Folio Numbers 00004134 and 00006093
Captain's Club Status: Elite Members
Cabin Number 5063
Late Seating Dinner, Table 24

Basis for Comparison:
Celebrity Cruises (Sailing Number 13)
Previous Voyages:
Meridian to Bermuda August 1993
Horizon to Bermuda August 1994
Horizon to Bermuda June 1995
Zenith to the Eastern Caribbean August 1995
Century to the Eastern Caribbean March 1996
Zenith to Bermuda August 2001
Century to the Eastern Caribbean Dec/Jan 2001-02
Zenith to Bermuda June 2002
Summit Northbound Alaska August 2002
Summit Southbound Alaska August 2002
Millennium to the Eastern Caribbean Dec/Jan 2002-03
Galaxy to the Eastern Caribbean June 2003
Zenith to Bermuda-booked for July 2005
Premier Cruises (6)
Norwegian Cruise Lines (1)-Number 2 booked for Christmas 2004
Holland America (1)
Regal Cruises (1)
Peg also has 15 Voyages made with her parents between 1958 to 1978 on
various vessels (United States, Constitution, Independence, Atlantic,
Victoria, Europe, Asia, Gripsholm, Laos, Ak Deniz, Kara Deniz, Ilala
and Sunward)

In the past, we have written everything from lengthy reviews to short
notes about our voyages. This time we thought to opt for something in
between-just some thoughts about how Celebrity has changed over the
last several years (even better now) and impressions of what we
experienced (a marvelous cruise overall). We have divided our
"thoughts" into 6 sections and put them in the order in which we think
most might want to read them:
General Thoughts/Attention to Detail
The Ship and Her Officers
On Board Experience: Dining
On Board Experience: Bar/Lounge Service
Captain's Club Amenity Changes
Shore Excursions (Snorkeling)


GENERAL THOUGHTS/"ATTENTION TO DETAIL":

We thought we would put this section first since it details many of
the changes we noticed. It is also contains the least amount of
personal "thank-yous" to the Officers, Staff and Crew that we met on
this voyage.

Celebrity's "No non-essential announcements" policy continues to be a
major bonus for all. Aside from the obligatory LifeBoat Drill series,
we only heard two other announcements-both from Captain Margaritis (in
excellent English) giving a brief NoonDay report from the Bridge on
sea days both coming and going to/from Bermuda. They no longer use
the PA system to announce disembarkation either-a major plus to keep
the non-qualified from getting off the ship in the first rush of
passengers into the terminal! We only heard two announcements made
prior to disembarkation for the usual string of 10 or so cabins whose
occupants had somehow failed to pay their sign and sail card bills.

Our sign and sail cards were packaged into a neat folder that when
extended out provided a very nice fold up deck plan of the Zenith
glued in on one side. This is identical to the format of the little
deck plans that Cunard distributes to passengers on the QM2. A bit
hard to read for those with deteriorating eyesight, but a nice pocket
reference for those who need it.

For the first time in our experience (and one year since our last
Celebrity voyage), we noted that you can now charge your tips to your
on board account. They give you cards/vouchers for the crew which you
fill out with your name, cabin number/table number, amount, etc. so
that the specific crew member can both thank you and redeem the
voucher! Somehow we still think that cash in an envelope with our
calling card is nicer, but it's good to know we can do this if we ever
want to take advantage of it.

For past passengers and others who are used to having the privilege of
a Bridge Visit during a voyage, be warned: these are now strictly
forbidden under the new Security Procedures. We were allowed to visit
the Bridge of the Galaxy with Captain Peppas sailing out of Baltimore
in July 2003, but the presence of a Security Officer keeping a close
watch on us made the visit somewhat uncomfortable. We were also
forbidden to use our cameras while on the Bridge, although the Ship's
photographer magically appeared and captured a wonderful shot of us
with Captain Peppas and Mom. We had requested this based on an ad in
the Daily stating that you could arrange to have your picture taken
with any officer of your choice. We treasure it. This year on the
Zenith, there was no such ad and no such opportunity.

Four features of the ship's Daily are new (to us) and we loudly
applaud them. (1) The heading on each issue has been changed to
reflect the new Celebrity Cruises logo. It looks more polished than
the previous format and allows for more information on the front page.
(2) The daily schedule of activities is now printed on a very stiff
piece of paper that can be easily folded in half and carried around in
one's day bag without getting crumpled. Nice touch! (3) Each issue
of the Daily carried a short profile (with a badly re-printed
photograph) of one of the Senior Officers of the ship. The Master,
Staff Captain, Hotel Manager, Restaurant Manager and Chief Engineer
were all profiled during our voyage. (4) Only our last Daily
contained the "Where in the World are Celebrity Ships Sailing Today"
feature, which Premier Cruises used to include every day. It is a
nice way to promote future cruises/itineraries, and Celebrity might
want to consider including it in the ship's daily a bit more often,
perhaps the last three days of the voyage instead of just the last
day.

They have finally managed to vastly improve the weather forecast cards
that they put on your bed during turn down service each evening. It
used to be that you would open the Make a Wish folder and it had
either nothing inside or a little card with incorrect or incomplete
information that invariably fell on the floor when you open the card.
Now there is a pre-printed card with complete information giving you
the day, date, port (where applicable), and complete weather forecast
for sky conditions and temperatures in both Celcius and Fahrenheit.
Thank You Celebrity!

Now for the "Shame on You Celebrity" comment: There is STILL no proper
ship's postcard for the Zenith. After 12 years (and numerous
complaints from us, along with other passengers who happen to be
postcard collectors), you would think that they could give the Zenith
a proper card that actually shows a picture of her on the front! The
card that they gave us on this voyage is the same card that they gave
us 10 years ago, which shows a lovely picture of the HORIZON
approaching Bermuda in the glowing sunrise, although the card is
labeled "Zenith"! Any idiot can clearly see the Mast Bar on the image
of the ship on the card (present on Horizon but not a feature of
Zenith) and count the windows in Horizon's America's Cup Club (5-as
shown on the card) as opposed to the Fleet Bar which has 7 windows!
Celebrity has now (perhaps very cleverly) painted the back deck
ribbings of both ships dark blue (Horizon's used to be all white), but
you can fool some of the people for only so long... Despite
scuttlebutt that the Zenith is now scheduled to either be stretched or
perhaps even replaced by a new version, the current Zenith deserves a
card of her own-NOW!! We will look for it on our July 16, 2005 sailing
(and undoubtedly have to grumble about it again!)

Bathrobes in our cabin were miraculously large enough for our
respective girths and used each morning of the voyage, especially when
Vanessa, our excellent pantry stewardess, appeared with our hot
breakfast tray. There is no longer any "hard sell" either with
announcements in the Ship's Daily or special cards in your cabin to
press you to purchase either Celebrity logo bathrobes or specially
embroidered ship's towels. Perhaps not surprising, the only "hard
sell" item that received more publicity than anything else (both in
the ship's Daily and in ads placed in cabins) was Future Cruises, with
particular emphasis on the new "X-peditions" program. While a cruise
to the Galapagos sounds most appealing to us (especially Peg, a
Science Teacher), we will wait for the time being for future verdicts
on the relative merits of the Kaptain Klebnikov, the vessel which
Celebrity has chartered for the "X-pedition" voyages.

Once again, Celebrity's Children's program came (mercifully) to our
rescue. As with most summer time sailings, there were myriads of
children on board for this cruise, but we saw very little evidence of
them. They took over the Fleet Bar for a "teen disco", but not until
midnight each evening. We only saw one instance of a child riding up
and down in the elevator unaccompanied and having fun touching all of
the pressure-sensitive buttons for a joy ride stop at each floor. He
was taken off by a Cruise Staff Member, and was being asked for his
cabin number as the doors closed on us!

We were most impressed with the Crew Life Boat Drill which we
witnessed shortly after our arrival in Hamilton. Normally we are not
on board for this event, but we slept in that morning (having seen our
arrival into Bermuda 5 times before) and were just coming out of our
cabin when the event was announced. Cabin 4070 was selected as the
site of the simulated "fire"-we hope the cabin was empty or that they
at least fore-warned the occupants!-as well the obligatory simulated
"fire in the Disco". We saw the Safety Officer explain to a crew
member that he was a "lost passenger" and the crew member not only
responded with the correct series of questions to assist the
"passenger" to find his muster station, but also (most appropriately)
reminded the "passenger" that he should be wearing his life jacket!
Good on the crewmember-wish we had gotten his name!

Once again, we lucked out with our tablemates in the Dining Room. Our
gratitude to Marie, Deb, Rocco and Rose, Ray and Marge for accepting
us into their group and providing such a fun time at dinner each
evening. We will remember you with our Zenith Christmas ornament each
year, as we sincerely hope you will remember us!

THE SHIP AND HER OFFICERS:

The Zenith is as beautiful as ever. At 12 years old, she still looks
like new. We saw virtually no evidence of wear and tear; in fact,
wear and tear that we noticed on our last Zenith voyages in 2002 and
2001 had all been repaired/re-upholstered. Company maintenance is
still exceptional! All of the public rooms looked exactly as we
remembered, right down to the color scheme and lay out of the
furniture, to the arrangement of the bottles and glasses in the bars.
We felt right at home from the moment we stepped on board! Our cabin
is now truly a second home-we have booked it again for July 16, 2005!
With any luck, we will also find Aida, our superb Cabin Stewardess, on
board again and also working in the same area of the ship. She looked
after us famously!

Captain Michail Margaritas remembered us instantly from our many
visits to the Zenith prior to 9/11/2001 and from our cruise with him
on the Zenith with Peg Mother in tow in August 2001. He did a superb
job of entertaining us, especially on the second formal night after
leaving Bermuda, when we had the pleasure of joining him and his
Safety Officer, Librarian, Social Hostess Tiffany and Captain's
Club/Future Cruises Coordinator Jill, for drinks in the Martini Bar.
It was great fun to be able to catch up with him and on Celebrity
happenings in general. One piece of news that we regret very
deeply-Captain Antonis Manaras has retired from the Line! We
sincerely wish Celebrity would announce these kinds of changes to past
passengers in a more timely way. There are many passengers who, like
us, admired Captain Manaras very much and would have wished to make a
special gesture to say goodbye upon his retirement. We hope they gave
him something more than the traditional gold watch-he is a one of a
kind ship's Master! We have written to him at his home in Greece.

Undoubtedly the greatest pleasure of this voyage was to run into
Yilmas (from Turkey) again, now as the Bar Manager. We have known
Yilmas since 1994 when he was a bartender in the Mast Bar on the
Horizon. This was shortly after his creation of "The Long River
Daisy", his award winning Celebrity signature drink. With little
"business" in the Mast Bar (very windy up there-which is why its
duplicate is not included on the Zenith), we enjoyed many chats with
him. Over the years, we have seen him repeatedly as Bartender,
Sommalier, Assistant Bar Manager and now Bar Manager. It's rather like
seeing a favorite child grow up! Yilmas entertained us magnificently
throughout the voyage with several rounds of free drinks and
conversations when he could about his wife and new son, and solid
career with Celebrity.

Food Manager Dimitris (from Cyprus) was our designated "Officer at the
Dining Room Table" for Captain's Club Elite members on the second
formal night. Having come from Seabourn Cruises just two years ago, I
think he was as much or more interested to chat with us as we were to
talk to him! He was a marvelous host for the table and entertained
our entire group with a delightful wine and splendid conversation that
lasted well beyond the Baked Alaska parade.

ON-BOARD EXPERIENCE: DINING

The food and service are even better than a year ago on the Galaxy.
Celebrity is now almost completely back up to the standard that we
enjoyed back in 1993-1996 (before the RCI take over). Extra sauces
still do not appear on little trays to be served up by the busboy, but
a request for "extra sauce on the plate" was honored each time we
asked for it. The infamous peppershakers were never in evidence at our
table (no one was a pepper fanatic), but we did see them being
skillfully wielded at other tables each evening.

Shrimp Cocktail is now available every night as an extra or
replacement appetizer. Celebrity's soups are still the major
Caldwell-Ott family favorite, and we would like to put in a request
for some soup recipes to be published in the Captain's Club News (now
known as Celebrity Departures).

Our excellent waiter, Mercin (pronounced "Marchin") from Poland, was
careful to have the Celebrity logo on the top of each plate and on the
side of each bowl and cup properly positioned whenever he set
any dish in front of a passenger. Alwi from Indonesia, our busboy,
(now more appropriately referred to as "Assistant Waiter") did a fine
job of smiling and trying his best to communicate and participate in
the jokes at what was a very rapid fire conversational table, but is
still obviously in training. His English still needs work, as does
the speed of his service. Mercin has obviously taken him under his
wing and is a terrific model for him to emulate.

Our superb sommalier, Christina, recognized us from last year's cruise
with Peg's Mother in tow on the Galaxy. Her first question was to ask
about "Mom"! Everyone at our table was a wine drinker, so Christina
had her hands full with our table alone, but did an excellent job of
keeping everyone's glass full. Remembering our tastes from Galaxy,
she also did a splendid job of making some fine recommendations to us
for new wines that she thought we might like to try. She steered us
right every single night, and we kept a list of her delectable
recommendations for reference on future cruises.

Our escort into the Dining Room on the first night was Dragon, now
most appropriately promoted to Waiter, who was our fabulous Assistant
Waiter for our back to back cruises on the Summit in August 2002. He
recognized us instantly and, since his service area was adjacent to
ours, popped over to our table to check on us each evening throughout
the voyage. Dining Room Manager Mario also recognized us and we had a
delightful chat with him in Cova/Harry's finally arriving at the
conclusion that he was also with us on the Summit. Seeing and being
recognized by Officers, Staff and Crew members from previous voyages
is still the single most important element that keeps us coming back
to Celebrity-and it never fails! There is ALWAYS someone who we
remember or (more than usually the case) who remembers us!

Buffet Dining in the Windsurf Café (which we used every day for lunch
with the exception of one lunch ashore) is now better than ever! The
hot food items, carving station, and short order grill are still
options. But they have now added stations for salad of the day
(make-your-own also available); soup and sandwich of the day (with
other sandwich fixings varieties available if you wish); pizza of the
day; and hot pasta of the day (with 3-4 sauce selections available).
Our cup runneth over! Of course, waiters still carry your tray to your
table (one was in such a hurry that he even over-shot our table and
had to be summoned back by our Sommalier Christina), and there are
plenty of Sommaliers and Bar Servers to bring your drink orders to
you.

ON-BOARD EXPERIENCE: BAR/LOUNGE SERVICE

Bar and Lounge service on the Zenith is as exceptional as it always
has been, but now with a new twist. We don't know where the directive
came from, but obviously someone has told everyone who serves in the
Bars, Lounges, Sommeliers and even Waiters to actually read the "sign
and sail" signature card. Not only do these servers remember your
favorite order now, but they also address you by correct title and
last name! A very nice personal touch! We felt as if everyone was
making it his or her personal responsibility to look after us! What
is even more amazing, the servers actually remember it from one day to
the next. So, it was "Mr. and Mrs. Ott" when our first order in any
given bar/lounge appeared, and then "Mr. Ott" or "Mrs.Ott" "would you
care for another round?" later in the same day or even the next
day-"Mrs Ott, would you prefer a White Zinfandel on ice today, a
Carlsberg? or would you prefer something else?"! At first we thought
that this was a privilege for Elite Captain's Club Members (since the
words ELITE MEMBER is clearly printed at the bottom of the card), but
we soon noticed that every crewmember was following the same procedure
with every passenger. Impressive! And a practice that we hope
Celebrity will continue to maintain! It must be very hard on the crew
to have to deal with some of the more complex "American of European
Origin" names, but they did a superb job!

Bar/Lounge servers who deserve special mention a
Saski-a new crewmember, but undoubtedly soon to become a Celebrity
legend along the lines of Granville or Newton-just an absolute stitch
and a very warm person! We ordered a set of new Martini Shakers and 4
glasses from him and then promptly forgot to pick them up. Knowing
Saski, they will probably still be behind the bar with our names on
them for our July 2005 voyage!
Jacob (variant spelling)-Saski's compatriot in the Martini Bar and a
total sweetheart!
Daniella from Romania-also a new crew member, but a treat! She treated
us like family in Cova/Harry's!
Daniella from Bulgaria-who looked after us in the Fleet Bar and did an
unusually fabulous job usually being the only server up there, even on
night's when other passengers (like us) discovered the delights of the
Phillippino trio and gathered en masse towards the end of the voyage!
Consuelos-an old friend whom we have seen on the Zenith or Horizon for
years and who recognized us before we spotted her! She was "on float"
to wherever she was needed on this voyage and looked after us
beautifully whenever we encountered her! We treasure a special
photograph that we requested with her and Yilmas during the Captain's
Club recognition party-and yes, we purchased and gave a copy to both
Yilmas and Consuelos!


CAPTAIN'S CLUB AMENITY CHANGES:

Priority Embarkation and Disembarkation for Elite Captain's Club
Members (in addition to Suites and Concierge Class) served us
extremely well on this trip. We arrived at the pier unusually late
(for us) at 1:30 pm with long lines still very much in evidence.
Thanks to Priority Embarkation we were able to jump the cue and were
in our cabin only 30 minutes after leaving home! Disembarkation
included a longer than normal time to vacate our cabin (we did not
have to report to the Fleet Bar until 9:15-more relaxing!), and very
nice rolls, juice and coffee available once we got to the
disembarkation station. Celebrity mercifully no longer uses the PA
system to announce disembarkation; a Cruise Staff member simply
appeared in the Fleet Bar and instructed us that we could get off.
Sure enough, we really were among the first passengers off the ship,
and were home in our apartment about 30 minutes later! Fabulous!

Elite and Select Captain's Club Members should be forewarned (as we
were NOT) that it is now the Future Cruises Sales Manager who gives
special attention to the members with more than the average number of
Celebrity voyages. We are used to being under the tender loving care
of the Social Hostess. We thought it would be the same on this
voyage, especially when Tiffany Etheridge, the Social Hostess, gave us
a special welcome at the pier upon embarkation. She also gave us very
careful instruction on the use of our sign and sail card, which we
thought was odd after 12 previous voyages on this Line alone! Yes,
after so many trips, we do know what to do with that card! However,
she totally ignored her for the next three days until we figured out
that is was Future Cruises Sales Manager Jill (from Canada) who was
really assigned to take care of us!

For some unknown reason, we received a very nice Certificate under our
cabin door signed by Captain Margaritis-with his initials-thanking us
for taking so many previous voyages and hoping to see us on a future
trip-on the third day of the cruise! We wondered if we were being
given the brush off and should leave the ship in Bermuda to fly home!
Social Hostess Tiffany did not know whom we were when we asked her
about it in Cova/Harry's-she gave us a blank stare and walked away.
But Future Cruise Sales Manager Jill was most apologetic (she
explained that there is a new Program Coordinator on board who has yet
to learn some of the basics) and had the certificate re-issued for the
Captain's Club Party on the second formal night where we were honored
for having 13 trips. We kept the first one anyway-it is now on the
cover of our scrapbook for this voyage! There were only 4 Elite
Captain's Club families on this trip-one couple with 15 voyages, us
with 13 and two other couples with 11 each. We had our picture with
Jill and Captain Margaritis framed and mounted in a Celebrity Album
(which we purchased) together with a nice photograph of the ship
sailing out of St. George.

In-Cabin amenities included a very nice small, but full and colorful,
floral arrangement delivered on the second day of the voyage, and a
small box of Cova Chocolates. No bottle of wine from the Master on
this trip, which is the first time we have missed out on this treat--?
Maybe we didn't show up with enough packages of Greek Coffee and
Dolmathas? Our local bodega did not have any Greek newspapers on the
morning of July 24, so perhaps that was the problem..?

Special tours and treats included the presence of Food Manager
Dimitris at our table (as described above), and a delightful "behind
the scenes" tour of the Show Lounge with Rachel, a dancer from London.
Rachel had a total of 10 passengers in tow (all Select or Elite
Captain's Club Members) and gave us a wonderful tour of the limited
facilities on the Zenith, especially in comparison to the spacious but
more crammed-full spaces on the similar tour we had on the Summit. We
are not "Show" people, but certainly appreciated the variation between
the space and the types of shows that can be produced given the
facilities on the various sized vessels.

As Elite members, we had the privilege of invites to 4 special
functions. (1) A "wine blending seminar" held at 10 am on our first
day at sea. 10 am seemed a bit early to start bending the elbow (even
for us!), so we declined only to learn that the event is really great
fun and involves more mixing than sipping (according to Jill). We
won't miss it next time. The general wine tasting for all passengers
is now so popular that it is held in the Dining Room. We could have
attended for free, but did not. (2) We had a special cocktail party
with the Senior Officers in the Fleet Bar on our first day in St.
George. The event was well attended by Select and Elite Captain's
Club members, and we had a chance to chat with the Hotel Manager,
Staff Captain and several Hotel Department Officers. The Chief
Engineer was also there. (3) There was a special Champagne Toast for
Select and Elite members as we sailed away from St. George. It was
nice to have guaranteed seating in the Fleet Bar for this (always very
special) sailing, and other drinks were available for those who do not
care for Celebrity Vintage champagne. (4) The main Captain's Club
Party was divided into two groups-one for Early Seating and one for
Late Seating-given that there were so many Captain's Club Members on
board. We were delighted to receive roses and a photograph with Jill
and Captain Margaritis for our 13 voyages during the Late seating
party. They also select an Officer to escort the lady to the dance
floor and Peg was thrilled to have Bar Manager Yilmas offer his arm!

Match play coupons for the Casino were provided in our welcome aboard
packet, together with Spa certificates and a new feature-a coupon for
10 free minutes for the Internet. One of these days, we really should
take advantage of such "extras".

SHORE EXCURSIONS (SNORKELING):

Nothing about this cruise was "disappointing" by any stretch of the
imagination, but our snorkeling experience comes close, albeit not
through any fault of Celebrity Cruises. Hurricane Fabian hit Bermuda
very hard last September, and like many other frequent Bermuda
visitors, we could only stare at our TV sets and hope/pray that our
friends made it through. They all did-thank God-with the exception of
a whole lot of fish! As we feared, Bermuda's beautiful and bountiful
fish population was decimated by the Hurricane. We inquired about
this on all four of our excursions, but no one would really tell us
about the extent of it until we went on our last excursion with
"Captain Jerry" (aka Jerry Correia of Ocean Breeze Sail Charters) for
the Sail and Swim out of St. George. He told us, with somber but
vivid frankness, about the three feet of water covering the
town-square in St. George and the airport, not to mention even deeper
water in other parts of the islands. When the waters receded,
literally tons of Bermuda's infamous parrot fish (the Gillenborg) and
many other reef varieties were stranded, having to be cleaned up,
taken out to sea on a variety of small vessels and dumped well beyond
the reef boundaries. Fortunately, the dearly departed left behind
their eggs which seem to have been protected enough to produce a new
generation of many species. We saw any number of smaller fish on all
four of our excursions, but only really large adults on the last one.
Fortunately, the North Shore beaches did not suffer as much as the
rest of the islands, and Whale Bone Bay (to which Captain Jerry took
us) offered the variety and quantity of fish that we are used to
seeing in Bermudian waters. A two-foot juvenile Barracuda eyed Peg
with suspicion before swimming off. An enormous Gillenborg (probably
about three-foot from front to back as well as up and down-definitely
the biggest we have ever seen!) gave us both one of the frights of our
lives as he maneuvered around his territory to check out the invaders!
And an entire family of gorgeous Queen Angelfish (Mom, Dad and three
kids) made for an entertaining 20 minutes of swimming around with them
trying to get a good shot! It gives us great hope that the snorkeling
around Bermuda's other familiar sites will only improve with time.
Murky waters were a problem on all four of our excursions, but most
likely due to the presence of so many snorkelers coupled with a week
of rainy weather the week prior to our trip. Additionally, we just
happened to be in Bermuda a few days before their annual Cup Match
national holiday, during which many islanders move their boats to
which ever end of the islands is hosting the event that year (the West
End this year).

Our snorkeling reports for this voyage have been filed separately and
are, as always, available on Tom Kanitra's excellent web site:
http://www.cruisereviews.com/info/snorkeling.htm
As a summary, our excursions this year we
(1) Snorkeling on our own in the Sea Gardens off Daniel's Island on
the West End. We rented a Boston Whaler from Robinson's Marina at
Somerset Bridge. The boating was tremendous fun; the snorkeling was
terrible, mostly due to extreme boat traffic in the area!
(2) West End Snorkeling Safari Adventu poor visibility due to a
huge crowd of inexperienced snorkelers and lots of boats in the area.
But, we did see a good variety of juvenile fish.
(3) East End Snorkeling out of St. George: the fourth time we have
done this trip, but the first time they took us to Castle Harbor due
to unusually heavy seas around Charles Island. Terrific corals and a
good variety and quantity of mostly immature fish. There were plenty
of inexperienced snorkelers on this trip too, but with a much larger
area over which to spread them, we got some shots in without having
people swim into us.
(4) Sail and Swim out of St. George with Captain Jerry on our last
day. This is always the snorkeling highlight of any voyage (our 5th
trip with Captain Jerry) and this year was no different!

All in all it was a fabulous voyage and one that we look forward to
repeating next July 16!!

Peg and Derek Caldwell-Ott

"Scientists' say intelligent life
sprang from the sea.
Really intelligent life returns
to the sea every now and then."


"Scientists' say intelligent life
sprang from the sea.
Really intelligent life returns to
the sea now and then."

PegNDerek wrote:

(snip FABULOUSLY wonderful and complete review...)

Our escort into the Dining Room on the first night was Dragon, now
most appropriately promoted to Waiter, who was our fabulous Assistant
Waiter for our back to back cruises on the Summit in August 2002.

Peg and Derek, we too were lucky enough to be seated with Dragon (who, as you
pointed out was then an assistant waiter) and his partner Mark during our Summit
cruise in August of 2002. What delightful young men! Dragon took extra special
care of my duaghter, who was then nine, but we were all charmed by his smile,
his good nature, and his willingness to help any way he could. The funny thing
is, he SWORE at that time that there was NO WAY he'd be a waiter (too much
responsibility, he said). He was having too much fun with less pressure as an
assistant.

The cream always rises, though, and I'm delighted to hear he seems to be doing
well and apparently enjoying his shipboard life.

Thank you for such a great look into your recent cruise. We're off on our fifth
RCCL cruise in a couple of weeks, and will be back to our fifth on Celebrity
come January. Still have a ways to go to catch up with you!

~ Peri

PegNDerek wrote:

(snip FABULOUSLY wonderful and complete review...)

Our escort into the Dining Room on the first night was Dragon, now
most appropriately promoted to Waiter, who was our fabulous Assistant
Waiter for our back to back cruises on the Summit in August 2002.

Peg and Derek, we too were lucky enough to be seated with Dragon (who, as you
pointed out was then an assistant waiter) and his partner Mark during our Summit
cruise in August of 2002. What delightful young men! Dragon took extra special
care of my duaghter, who was then nine, but we were all charmed by his smile,
his good nature, and his willingness to help any way he could. The funny thing
is, he SWORE at that time that there was NO WAY he'd be a waiter (too much
responsibility, he said). He was having too much fun with less pressure as an
assistant.

The cream always rises, though, and I'm delighted to hear he seems to be doing
well and apparently enjoying his shipboard life.

Thank you for such a great look into your recent cruise. We're off on our fifth
RCCL cruise in a couple of weeks, and will be back to our fifth on Celebrity
come January. Still have a ways to go to catch up with you!

~ Peri

PegNDerek wrote:

(snip FABULOUSLY wonderful and complete review...)

Our escort into the Dining Room on the first night was Dragon, now
most appropriately promoted to Waiter, who was our fabulous Assistant
Waiter for our back to back cruises on the Summit in August 2002.

Peg and Derek, we too were lucky enough to be seated with Dragon (who, as you
pointed out was then an assistant waiter) and his partner Mark during our Summit
cruise in August of 2002. What delightful young men! Dragon took extra special
care of my duaghter, who was then nine, but we were all charmed by his smile,
his good nature, and his willingness to help any way he could. The funny thing
is, he SWORE at that time that there was NO WAY he'd be a waiter (too much
responsibility, he said). He was having too much fun with less pressure as an
assistant.

The cream always rises, though, and I'm delighted to hear he seems to be doing
well and apparently enjoying his shipboard life.

Thank you for such a great look into your recent cruise. We're off on our fifth
RCCL cruise in a couple of weeks, and will be back to our fifth on Celebrity
come January. Still have a ways to go to catch up with you!

~ Peri

Dear Peg and Derek,

Thanks for a great review, Linda and I were waiting to hear how she, the
Zenith, was this year. We didn't sail her last year but we are very excited
to be sailing her once again ( number 7 or 8 I think ) this October. We have
that nice little cabin again and Tom and Laurie have the other one. Our
20th so we thought we would splurge. Now that we are assured by your review
that Zenith will continue as our favorite ship for all time all we have to
do now is cross our fingers and pray for good weather. A couple of other
couples are coming along too so should be great time. Personally I think you
and Derek should jump onboard too and go again with us this time!

I printed out your review and will have it sitting on tabel with Linda's
morning coffee. Between that and having made final pay yesterday the
excitement will there this morning. Can't think of anything better than
waking up to your review as we get closer to our sailing.

Our Best as Always,

George and Linda ( in NY)

"PegNDerek" wrote in message
...
THOUGHTS ON THE M/V ZENITH TO BERMUDA
CELEBRITY CRUISES
JULY 24-31, 2004

What a great review. The Zenith was our FIRST Celebrity cruise. Before
that we were Carnival fans (and still like them) but one time on
Celebrity spoiled us for anything less. We are looking forward to our
4th cruise on the Horizon in December out of Tampa. "Pamper" is the
first word that comes to mind when I think of Celebrity. Last time out
in March of this year was the most fun ever. Reason being we joined in
for as many activites as we could. Got to know other passengers and
crew better than just sitting on the sidelines and watching. Can't wait
for our turn. (BIG SMILE)

~Dory~

Dear Peg and Derek,

Thanks for the great review and good to see you had a good time!

It is also nice to see that Celebrity continues to strive for that high end
position that we missed for a while.
Cheers!
Happy Cruisin'
Mark
Home Port:
Monmouth County,NJ.

Dear Peg and Derek,

Thanks for the great review and good to see you had a good time!

It is also nice to see that Celebrity continues to strive for that high end
position that we missed for a while.
Cheers!
Happy Cruisin'
Mark
Home Port:
Monmouth County,NJ.