A couple of weeks ago I attended CPU or Cruise Planners University. I spent a week in Ft. Lauderdale learning to better serve my clients and be a better travel consultant. Cruise Planners now has a brand new computer system so we spent many hours learning the new system so when we go “live” we’ll know our way around it. Cruise Planners has really put a lot of effort into this new system and it shows. It makes my job easier, but of course, there will be a few bugs to fix. All in all – I love it!
The highlights of our week were the ship tours. We boarded the Carnival Freedom and the Celebrity Solstice each for a day and were guided on a full ship tour and wined and dined in the dining rooms. I’m a big Carnival fan and the Freedom was a beautiful ship. I had no camera and took pictures with my iPhone but ended up with lots of pictures of my thumb. Maybe I should find a class on phone photography. Here is are some pictures from the website as a consolation prize. Outdoor movie screen, Posh specialty restaurant Sun King Steakhouse, and Serenity the Adult Only area. That’s where you’ll find me BTW.
The food in the dining room was spectacular! Our multi-course menu was Grilled Jumbo Shrimp & Pickled Norwegian Salmon, Spaghetti with Spicy Chives & Rosemary Tomato Fondue, Pan Seared Grouper with Creamy Olives and Potatoes and Grilled Eggplant with Lemon Drizzle, Slow Roasted Beef Fillets served with Cinnamon Pumpkin Pie and Garlic Green Beans and a 3 Mustard Reduction Sauce, and for dessert A Study in Chocolate. OMG!!!
The Celebrity Solstice was one of the most elegant ships I’ve ever seen yet it was still quite relaxed. I could spend days just looking at all the art work on this ship. It seems like everything was art. The fountains by the pools, the real grass on the top deck, the glass blowing demo, the ceiling in the main dining room, and even the Olive Bar at the casual buffet restaurant. A feast for the eyes this ship is. Later this year I’ll be sailing on her sister ship the brand new Celebrity Eclipse. I can’t wait. But of course, I have to tell you about the food…My mom always said that if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything. So I’ll shut up except to say that maybe it was an off day and I’m sure they can do better. The Glass Wine Tower gets two thumbs up but if you’ve been to Aureole in Las Vegas, you’ve seen a better one. Here are a few thumb free pictures from the net.
So I spent the week sitting in a cold conference room with mediocre coffee and was pumped so full of information that it’s taken me 2 weeks just to digest it all. Now to apply all I’ve learned to my everyday life…
