DAY 13 - DAY FIVE ON BOARD THE CRYSTAL SERENITY

A LOOK AT WHAT IS HAPPENING TODAY

CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA ✔ COCKTAILS AT CAPTAIN'S QUARTERS  ✔ DINNER AT TASTES ✔ 

Always working hard and always in the spirit of outstanding Teamwork.

Before dinner, we went to the Crystal Cove to listen to Scott Mitchel play the Piano.  Anne Marie had a Perrier and it was cute the way they shaped the paper from the straw into a heart for her.

Afterwards we dined at the Crystal Dining Room.

Anne Marie was escorted into the dining room by Anna, who is one of the waiters in the dining room who we first met a couple of years ago.  She always has a nice smile and is alway very chipper and friendly.

Christian, our Sommelier, selected a couple of wines for us to try and decanted the Red Wine for us.  One wine was from Chile, his home country and from the Casablanca Region where we visited last year.  The other wine was from Spain.  He took a lot of time to explain each wine to us and we really appreciate that. 

We each began dinner with salads.  Keith had his standing order salad.

Anne Marie had the Heart of Romaine salad and the presentation was very nice and she enjoyed the salad.

For our entrée, Keith had Sea Bass which was not on the menu but we pre-ordered that the night before.  It was prepared perfectly and was not only tasty but very moist.

Anne Marie had the Seared Sea Scallops.  The Scallops were very tasty and the flavor was enhanced as it was served over sweet corn and basil risotto, along with grilled oyster mushrooms.

As usual, we also enjoyed a nice side order of vegetables.

As to dessert, Keith had his usual which were the mixed berries, while

Anne Marie had a sugar free Cocoa Mousse, which she shared with Keith.  It was very tasty.  The presentation was quite nice with two eyes and a nose.

After dinner we attended a Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle Party in the Palm Court.  Cruise Critic is a site where people can express their opinions related to cruising and it is also a good site to do research and to ask questions about cruising and even ports of call.  If there are ten or more people on a cruise who sign up for the party then a party is hosted by Crystal Cruises.  We had a very nice turnout of around 25 Cruise Critic members and we had a tremendous turnout from the Crew.  This included the Hotel Director, Vice Captain, Food & Beverage Manager, Shore Excursion Manager and some of his staff, Crystal Society Hostess, Bar Manager, the Lead Male Vocalist and possibly a few other members that we have not mentioned.

The winds picked up in the evening so some people sat down while others held onto each other or a pole.  For us it was all-fine.  It was a pleasure to meet so many nice people.

We thought you might want to see how we decorate the entranceway wall to our room.  It includes photos of our family along with calendars of events during the cruise and also other items such as invitations.

We slept very well last evening as the movement of the ship can make it very easy to fall asleep.  There was more rocking than since we boarded the ship and that continued till around 5:30 AM.

Keith woke up early and began his day with a nice workout at the Fitness Center.  

As he does each morning, after his workout he had coffee at the Lido Cafe.  It was very quiet up there for most of the time Keith was at the Cafe.  The Lido Deck Stewards and other personnel were busily getting the cafe all set for the regular breakfast hour including setting the tables outside on the open deck in the back of the cafe and also getting all of the food in place.  Keith spoke with the Lido Deck Stewards whom we have known for many years including Benjamin, Liebert, Ray, Jun and Ross.  The Lido Deck Stewards work as teams during the daytime hours in different areas of the Lido Deck also including the pool area and Tastes and then usually every cruise or every other cruise they will rotate to one of these areas.

As Keith was getting ready to return to the room he ran into Reverend Ed and his lovely wife Ruth who boarded the ship for the Holiday cruise and will be on thru the cruise after the World Cruise ends for Easter.  Their first time with Crystal Cruises was for the 2009 World Cruise and we first met them in 2010 and Reverend Ed has been the Minister on several cruises that we have been on.  Anne Marie had seen them the other night.  It was great to catch up with them.  

Afterwards Keith brought coffee back to the room for Anne Marie and a short while later she went on the first of two long walks.

We arrived to the port of Cartagena, Colombia early this morning, we were in port till 3:00 PM.

Our first visit to Cartagena was in November, 2010 and including that trip this will represent our fifth visit to this port city.

The city has a population of close to one million people, making it the fifth largest city in all of Colombia.  It is the most popular tourist city in all of Colombia.

The city has its old town area but also a new very modern area on the other side of the city with close to 50 skyscrapers. 

Cartagena also has several beautiful beaches, many nice places to enjoy dining, music, dance and drink.

While some people do not care for this city, we do enjoy it.  Although we didn't do this today, the key is to get away from the port and to travel about 30 minutes into town where there is a lot to explore.  We also find it to be safe and with each succeeding year continues to improve.  They have significantly increased their tourism over the past few years with many ships calling on this port during the cruising season.

On our two last visits we toured this city extensively including a private excursion we booked with Crystal Cruises in 2013.  We have visited the walled city, the 400 year old monastery of Convento de la Popa, the Cathedral along with several other area attractions.  Because we have toured the major areas of the city, we decided not to book a tour.

Instead, we walked off the ship and just visited the nearby area at the port.  We thought about taking a taxi into town but with the ship in port until 3:00 PM today we decided not to go into town.

The Gangway was on Deck 4 today which is known as the Tender Landing.  The area also received a nice makeover in the most recent dry dock including a new floor, new walls and artwork and even the nice beautiful orange towels.  It looked stunning.

As we got off the ship we ran into Executive Chef Franz Weiss.  He was originally due to rejoin the ship from Holiday in Grand Cayman.  However, when we had to cancel the port step due to the weather situation he had to then fly from Grand Cayman over to Miami and then from Miami over to Cartagena to meet up with the ship.  It was great to see him and we look forward to seeing him throughout the World Cruise.

A view of the Crystal Serenity before we started to walk over to the main entrance.

We then walked from the ship over to where there is an outdoors area with a range of animals and often the types of animals change from time to time.  There are also some shops to browse.  

Bunny enjoying the breakfast buffet.

Interesting color of this squirrel.

 A view of the Crystal Serenity as we were making our way back to the ship.

When we returned we stopped by to see on board Cruise Consultant Nikki Andrew just to say hello and we chatted for a little while.  Nikki has been in her current position for many years and she assisted us when we booked our very first World Cruise while on board the Crystal Serenity in 2005 and since that time she has assisted us with several other on-board bookings. 

For the rest of the morning, Anne Marie sat out on our verandah to get some sun and also to read while Keith walked around the ship to take video using his iPad which he hopes to incorporate into new videos.

The operative word for today is "hot" but we prefer that over alternatives such as rain or cold.

For lunch we were back at the Lido Cafe where we each made a nice salad entree.

In the afternoon, we enjoyed the nice weather outside with Anne Marie walking on the wrap-around Promenade Deck and Keith playing Paddle Tennis.  It was very humid so Keith and the other players drank lots of water to stay hydrated.

Later in the afternoon, Keith met up with good friend Bob and Anne Marie continued to work on her needlepoint.  

This evening we have been invited to attend cocktails at the Captain's Quarters.  A few times during the course of each voyage, some guests are invited to the Captain's Quarters for drinks.  We will post more about this tomorrow.

Afterwards, we will be dining with two Senior Officers at Tastes for dinner.  Tastes serves a later risers breakfast, lunch and dinner and casual attire is fine in the evening no matter what the evening attire is.  Tastes used to be closed on black tie optional nights, and the night of embarkation and the night before disembarkation.  The venue was just received a makeover as part of the dry dock of the ship and as part of this makeover, it is now open each and every night, except on the night of embarkation, and it also has a brand new menu.  We will also post more about this tomorrow.

TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY............

“No one has very become poor by giving.” – Anne Frank

Keith & Anne Marie