DAY 31 - DAY TWENTY-THREE ON THE CRYSTAL SERENITY

We wanted to mention that yesterday each of us received a nice letter from Hotel Director Josef Lumetsberger which included a comment card for those who wanted to provide feedback about the initial experience so far on World Cruise 14 which could range from accolades and/or suggestions.  This feedback mechanism began on the 2012 World Cruise and is just another good method to obtain guest feedback.  We think this is a terrific approach.

There are certainly many other ways to provide feedback and the senior officers of the ship have been very visible through this voyage including Captain Birger, Vice Captain Nenad, Hotel Director Josef, and Cruise Director Rick so it is really easy to provide feedback to any of them.  We run into each of them regularly around the ship.

Before dinner last evening, we sat in the Crystal Cove where we spoke with some guests such as friend John and Linda and with some of the members of the crew.  We also had photos taken at each of three different stations that we set up in the Crystal Cove. It was a little more challenging with some swaying of the ship and some of the poses but we successfully got through all of this and it actually made us smile more so it's all good.

The evening also included the Crystal Society Reception so Keith wore the new Crystal Society Platinum Pin that he received when we were honored on the January 5 voyage.

We had the pleasure of dining at Prego with World Cruise Hostess Stacey Huston who we had invited to join us.    Stacey was the World Cruise Hostess from 2009 thru 2011 and returned back to this role for World Cruise 2014.  Stacey has also been in many other roles with Crystal Cruises both on the ships and in the Corporate Office in Los Angeles.  We had a terrific time and we dined for close to two and one half hours as we had so much to catch up on.  We certainly enjoyed a lot of good laughs and it was a terrific dinner and evening.

Our waiter for the evening was Costa who as he always does takes good care of us.

Keith started off with his salad and Anne Marie had a Caesar Salad.  This photo is of Keith's salad.  Stacey had a Salad as well.

We each had a small portion of the pasta as an appetizer, while Stacey had the mushroom soup without a large roll that it normally comes in.  This is a photos of the pasta.

We each had the Blue Snapper as our entree while Stacey had the medium size Pasta entree.    The seafood was an additional entree that was prepared for this evening.  It is really blue but not after it has been skinned and cooked.  It was accompanied with grilled vegetables.  

We wanted to note that each evening two additional entrees are served and that was the pasta and the Blue Snapper.  These entrees are created on board by the head chef for Prego.  They often are very creative.  At the same time, with very few exceptions all food is cooked to order at Prego.

As if the vegetables that accompanied the fish were not enough, Keith also had a side order of Grilled Vegetables.  Yes, it could feed an army.

As we mentioned, we had an absolutely wonderful time at dinner.  

Afterwards, after freshening up at our room, we ended up staying up later than normal and had a drink at the Crystal Cove.  We sat with one of the officers and others ended up coming by and chatting including one of the women in Keith's Spin Class and her husband and a couple of other senior officers.  

The good news is that while we stayed up longer than normal, we set the clocks back one hour as we sailed into a new time zone. 

At the same time, we also set our watch calendars forward by one day as we crossed the International Dateline.  So, we moved from Sunday to Tuesday. We missed Monday, January 27 so we are now ahead of most of you.  If only, we could tell the future.

The are above average sea swells and winds so we all are reminded that we are at sea and the ship is swaying a bit from side to side.  The makeup desk draw that Anne Marie uses does open from time to time as a reminder that we are swaying a bit.  
  We managed to sleep well last evening and Keith woke up first as he does each day.  He began the day with a good workout at the Fitness Center.  He watched one of the lectures from yesterday that had been recorded and he also watched news.  He also managed to do the laundry.

After doing some reading and writing in the room, he stopped by the Lido Cafe for some coffee.  It was Keith and the Lido Cafe Stewards and a couple of chefs for most of the time.   

Keith took a photo of Jun as he was setting all of the tables that are outdoors for breakfast.  It was still dark outside.

While Keith was reading all of a sudden he smelled the aroma of freshly baked cinnamon rolls.  As part of the Lido Deck Makeover,    new ovens were added to the Cafe (not shown in this photo) and Cinnamon Rolls had just come out of the oven, and the Chef was adding a glaze to these freshly bakes rolls.  He asked if Keith wanted one, but Keith said just the aroma was enough for him.

As he does each day, he brought coffee back to the room for Anne Marie.  After having the coffee, she walked for one hour inside the ship with Elaine given that it was windy and somewhat rough which would make it too challenging to be walking outside.    This is all par for the course when doing a Pacific Crossing.  Keith ended up going back to the Fitness Center to workout a second time.

Shortly afterwards, Rao brought our breakfast to the room.  We enjoyed some good laughs with Rao and then afterwards we watched the Daily Morning Show as we enjoyed our breakfast.

Anne Marie went to the Hair Salon for her first cut of the voyage.  She had Danko cut and style her hair who is the same hair stylist that Keith used a couple of weeks ago.

There was no Spin Class today but at the end of yesterday’s class Keith and the other two women guests said they would meet up at 9:00 AM to Spin together.  Keith and one of the two ladies showed up so they spun side by side with Keith leading the two of them.  They worked harder and longer than the normal class and got a great workout.  They may do that again tomorrow as the next Spin Class is the day after tomorrow.

When we returned to the room there was a beautiful flower arrangement on the table along with a box of chocolate and a card from our son , Eric, and daughter-in-law, Kara.  We thank Eric and Kara so very much and we can't wait to see you both when you join us in late April on the Rome to Istanbul Voyage.  We love you both.

Keith saw the second half of the the presentation given by Don Farrell about the Capture and Occupation of the Philippine Islands During the Spanish-American War.  He watched the beginning later in the day on the TV. He was very informative.  Later, he also saw another presentation which was given by CNN's Senior UN Correspondent, Richard Roth, who spoke about 34 years of live inside the first 24-hour TV news channel.  There certainly was a lot of change during those years and he shared many examples of it, and the subject of his talk was appropriately titled, "From Chicken Noodle News to CNN.com/twitter."

This was Richard Roth’s first time on Crystal Cruises.  He is the second longest tenured employee of CNN.  He is witty with a great sense of humor and a very strong presence on the stage and his presentation was terrific and hopefully this will be the first of other times that he will speak on other Crystal Cruises Voyages.

We really enjoy the lectures whether we see them in person or view them after they have been recorded.  Many topics are covered some of which relate to where we are sailing and others about a diverse set of topics.

At Noon, Keith came out of "retirement" and attended Team Trivia for the first time this World Cruise instead of Anne Marie.  Our team came in second place today.

We both enjoyed our usual lunch of a nice salad entree.

Anne Marie walked for an hour in the afternoon and she also attended the afternoon Yoga Session.  Keith played Paddle Tennis and met up with friend Bob later in the afternoon.  We also did reading and writing.

This evening we will dine at Tastes for the second time since boarding the ship on January 5.  We have invited Joe and Maria Kita to join us.  We will post more about this tomorrow.

TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY.........…

"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies." - Mother Teresa

Keith & Anne Marie