Today is a milestone day. Halfway through our trip, and later today we cross the equator, but first.
We wake up, 29 degrees and humidity above 80%. Rolling clouds on the horizon and a storm front, which is quickly left behind us.
We head out, dressed for our tour, long pants and covered shoes. Janet from the Retreat sees us in the lift lobby and we take some photos.
We then start our day with some trivia, scoring 15 out of 20, not too bad this morning. Then an early visit to the Retreat lounge for some bingo. The lounge is packed, I think bingo is probably the most popular game on board. Whether it’s the lounge or the Club, the room is always packed, clearly a favourite pastime. Connell, the Retreat manager, is our host today. They move quick as the numbers are called, B33, O70, G55, and so on. The goal for game one is a straight line, across, down, or diagonal. All of a sudden Mardi yells bingo. 85-plus faces look up at her, we’re sitting quietly at the back, and yes, indeed, her card is verified. More life-changing prizes, another hat and coin purse.
We play two more games, and listen to others yell bingo, before heading to lunch. It’s a quick one today as we have a 12.30 tour booked. A quick burger and some prawn pasta is served quickly.
We then head to guest services, we’re going on a behind-the-scenes tour of the ship today. Allison signs us in and starts the tour, about 20 guests plus Victoria, a newly recruited destination host for Celebrity, doing some on-the-job training.
Our first stop is the dry store. The manager walks us into a massive room, jam-packed with dry food items. The room is a cool 12 degrees. Boxes are everywhere with tiny channels to allow people to walk and collect food. Interestingly, all the food for all Celebrity ships originates in Miami, then shipped to ports just in time to greet ships as they arrive and depart, a massive logistical exercise. The food we’re eating next week was planned and ordered three months ago. How did they know I like halibut?
The scale of it is hard to picture until you’re standing in it. A ship this size typically loads over 100 tonnes of food for a single week-long cruise, enough to turn out something like 15,000 to 20,000 meals a day across a dozen or more separate galleys and dining rooms, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, room service, and late-night pizza all running at once. A single week’s provisions can run to tens of thousands of pounds of beef, tens of thousands more of fresh vegetables, thousands of dozens of eggs, and enough dairy and seafood to make the dry store feel less like a pantry and more like a small warehouse. Menus are planned months ahead using data from previous sailings, since the chefs need to know roughly how many of us will want fish versus steak before we’ve even boarded.
We then visit the recycling, or environmental, plant room. Celebrity prides itself on going above and beyond the environmental standards set by authorities. The environmental manager explains the recycling process, how waste is treated, as well as exhaust fumes, which are cleaned before entering the atmosphere.
We then visit the engineering control room. In addition to the main engines, this area looks after all aspects of running the ship. There are multiple screens with camera feeds from around the ship, together with a few screens showing various dashboards and metrics.
Next is the bridge, a second visit for us, where navigational operations are explained, as well as docking procedures.
As we walk around the ship we use what is affectionately called I-95. It’s a long, straight corridor running along deck 2 for staff. In essence, staff can quickly get anywhere on the ship using this passageway. The thing I notice exploring the ship this way is it reminds me of a mini city, I experience the smells of a city as we walk, various aromas from the dry store and food area, rubbish from the recycling plant, and the smell of working machinery. The temperature also varies wildly, from the cool of the food stores to the heat of the laundry, our next stop.
The familiar smell of your local laundromat, plus the heat. We’re shown the incredible machines that keep us in sheets, towels, and napkins. A continuous washer, auto-folding machines, and a non-stop team of people pressing sheets and pillowcases. Just like I-95, there’s a 16-deck-high laundry chute, perhaps they should call this the Burj Khalifa.
As we walk back to the galley, various walkways and stairwells are named, we pass the Taj Mahal, the Tower of Pisa, the Eiffel Tower, and Big Ben. These represent the multinational workforce that keeps Edge going. There are noticeboards showing staff photos and events. Sadly though, we learn staff have to pay for internet access.
As we walk I-95 we pass a sign that says “explosive atmosphere”. It was opposite guest cabin. Glad we are seven decks away!
The galley is our final stop. The galley is a stainless steel fortress. Steel shelves, benches, racks, ovens, and fridges surround us as the chef describes how they orchestrate 15,000 meals a day. This is a passenger galley only, crew have a separate galley and dining area. The focus is on hygiene, and the chef explains how they ensure food is protected and served fresh and safe.
Overall, a great tour. Almost two hours learning how 3,000 passengers and 1,200 crew all combine to keep Edge a safe, fun, and enjoyable space.
We head to our room for a quick break, it’s almost time for progressive trivia.
We do well today. We start the day in equal 4th spot with five other teams, it’s tight, either way only 6 points separating the top 20 teams. So doing well was important, remember, we’re playing for life-changing prizes. 15 out of 20 is our score. We learned that a group of giraffes is called a tower, who knew, and that Indonesia has the most active volcanoes, we thought it was Japan.
We relax after trivia before dinner. And during that time we cross from the northern hemisphere to the southern. The ship sounds two bells at around 4.50pm. The compass on the ship shows 0 degrees north/south. Many see this as a milestone and it is for us. The sunset tonight is the most gorgeous we’ve seen as well. We both watch as we get ready for dinner an hour or so after crossing the equator.
Dinner is crab cake, artichoke veloute, escargot, and sea bass. Dessert was chocolate mousse and vacherin. We enjoy a couple of cocktails before heading to the casino. Rats and cats and bats isn’t being nice again, so we find a new machine, this time it’s wolves and pigs. It’s quite fun, you collect construction hats to build a house out of straw, wood, and brick, then the wolf tries to blow them down. The better the house, the more you win. We had a lot of fun, and our cash lasted a while before the wolf wins and blows our house away. Time for bed.
