Day 5 - 50th Birthdays at Sea - Celebrity Infinity - Lisbon to Bacelona - October 2023

I had had another rough night sleeping again due to the sounds of the creaking.  It took me a very long time to fall asleep so I did end up sleeping later than usual.  After wishing each other happy birthday, Chris went for coffees and almond croissants.  While he was gone, I hung a banner above the bed to decorate as a surprise.  We spent a lazy morning in the cabin until it was trivia time where we scored 12/15 for second place.

At noon, we had Blendtique event reserved.  This is a wine tasting where you get to opportunity to create your very own wine blend using Grenache, Merlot, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon.  If you wish, you can even purchase your own blend to be shipped home.  Although tables were set for more, it was just us and one other guest.  We had fun though tasting each others blends and the sommelier even tried some.  

After our wine, we knew lunch was necessary as we had another wine tasting reserved at 2pm.  We went to Luminae for a wonderful, relaxing birthday lunch.  I had the petit filet and Chris had the Luminae burger.  We both loved our lunches.  We skipped dessert since we had a food pairing tasting at two.

The food pairing tasting was hosted by the sommelier from Luminae, Donna.  She did a great job explaining the ways food can pair with wines.  We had four varietals with a plate of nine different flavored foods to experiment with.  I thought this was so much fun and very interesting.  Our group was fun, especially Bob who was wearing his “top cruiser” Celebrity name tag.  I talked to him quite a bit and really enjoyed his stories.  

We decided we needed to redeem ourselves in trivia and we also wanted a cocktail.  Chris ordered us two Scorpio cocktails since that is our sign.  We both really enjoyed them as they are not very sweet.  We scored a perfect 17/17 for first place!  Gigi chatted with us for a bit and I learned Delaware Punch is one of her favorite drinks.  Although I am from Delaware, I have never heard of it.  We returned to our cabin to dress up for chic night as well as our birthday dinner.

Tonight’s amuse bouche was crab with goat cheese and while it looked tasty, I chose not to partake as I just do not enjoy goat cheese.  We ordered a bottle of one of our favorite wines, Caymus since it was a special occasion.  The wine was superb.  Service was very slow this evening as it was fairly busy.  We both had the poached lobster starter that was very delicate and much more the size I’d expect from an appetizer.  We also both had the steak tartare that had a spicy kick.  I had the Jerusalem artichoke soup that was another solid soup.  Celebrity does a great job with soups.  Chris had the scallops from Blu and enjoyed them.  I ordered the gnocchi from Blu and was so excited as they were stunning in June.  Chris chose the ribeye for his main course.  I was so disappointed when my order arrived.  It looked nothing like my dish from June as it was very pale opposed to the browned, pan fried look.  The gnocchi were very gummy and bland.  Thankfully, I was pretty full from the apps so I did not go hungry.  They did offer to replace it but Chris was almost done and I truly did not want more food.  We both ordered the strawberry soup but I could’ve passed on dessert.  Afterwards, they did bring us a cake to share as well and we sang Happy Birthday to each other.  

We tried to find some music to dance to but they party band seemed very skewed toward Reggae, a bit odd in the Mediterranean.  The show didn’t interest us, as it was yet another singer.  We did not realize though that this “headliner” was actually the cruise director.  After a visit to the casino, we returned to see live band karaoke.  After two pretty bad performances and one truly awful rendition of My Way, I had to leave.  The funny thing is, Bob, who is a big Sinatra fan, told me he can’t stand when someone sings My Way during karaoke, and he wants to punch them.  I think I might have helped Bob with that!  I’m glad I did not see him in the lounge or things might have got ugly!

When we returned to the cabin, it was decorated with balloons and birthday signs.  There was also rose petals, a cake and a card from the Retreat team.  It was a nice surprise to end the day.

Before retiring for the night Chris went to work to try to fix the creaking, he isolated where the sounds were coming from and through brute force pressed on the metal ceiling in order to stop the friction contributing to the sounds.  Amazingly, his efforts paid off as the creaks went away and hopefully coupled with the calming seas, we will drift off to a restful night of sleep at sea.