Breakfast in bed

The Celebrity Equinox arriving in Venice

Every morning on a cruise I wake before Ransom, go up to the breakfast buffet and have my tea -- green, because it's good for me, though I find it insipid. I then switch to coffee, pouring two cups and heading down to our stateroom. If he's awake I hand him one; if he's not, I head back out, repeating the drill 30 minutes later.

That's pretty much what happened this morning -- except that Ransom was the one up and about, and I was the one staying in bed. How luxurious!

Our stateroom is comfortable, much like every other Celebrity Cruises cabin we've had, though this one seems to be a tad skimpy on drawers for storage. I write this from our balcony, looking across the pier at a P&O ship, the Ventura. We sail shortly -- straight down the Grand Canal, believe it or not -- and thus will begin the heart of this vacation.

Last night's dinner was quite good; we had asked our booking agent, as we always do, for a table for two, but that request never made it to Celebrity. Sitting with seven strangers is just not in our playbook, so we opted instead for Select Dining, the come-when-you-want option, as opposed to the traditional second seating at 8:45. We got very lucky; our waiter, Eladio (from Guatemala) and his beautiful assistant, Mohanty (from Calcutta), were charming and efficient; the location, overlooking the captain's table from the balcony above, was excellent. We hope to return tonight, though there's no guaranteed seating with Select Dining.

It's funny how we shun strangers. Sometimes we get lucky, as with our dear friends Jon and Ann whom we met on a cruise, or Michael and Carol, whom we met on a subsequent cruise. Usually though we are uncomfortable with loud, badly-dressed ugly Americans, so we prefer not to take the chance. Snobs? Yes, tis true.

This cruise, from what I've heard in the elevators -- can you imagine? TALKING in elevators! -- includes folks from all over. Plenty of Yanks to be sure, but Scots and Germans and French as well as Italians and many others. Ship announcements are made in four languages: English, Spanish, German and French, and during the lifeboat drill eight different languages were used.

So far not too many pretty people, but it's early.