After they left to go to Dinner, we moved over to the Crystal Cove to say hello to Pianist John Mentis and then we happened to see one of two couples that we would be dining with a short while later.
We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Prego with friends Jim and Judy and with Arlene and John. We have known Jim and Judy since the 2007 World Cruise and this is the fourth full World Cruise we have sailed with them. Last evening we all spoke about how we met each other. Anne Marie met Jim and Judy in the Laundry Room in 2007 and then after that we would see each other often and we sat with them and one other couple for one segment of World Cruise 2007.
We met Arlene and John in 2007 at the Fitness Center when they sailed on one segment of the World Cruise and then again in 2008 when they sailed for about one month on that World Cruise. At that time, we both would workout on the Treadmill at the same time which we no longer do currently.
It is interesting how we all meet people whether that is at sea or on land.
We enjoyed getting together with everyone and catching up with one another. As they say, we covered a lot of ground during the meal.
Our waiter for the evening was Costa. The restaurant was quite busy.
We each had salads to begin our meal.
For our entree, Keith had the additional seafood entree which was Parrot Fish (no jokes please as we made quite a few at dinner) and Anne Marie had the Veal Scaloppine.
Veal Scaloppine
Parrot Fish. Can't you see the resemblance.
We dined for over two hours.
When we arrived back to the room there were two different forms for us to fill out for our arrival tomorrow to Okinawa, Japan. This included a customs and immigration form. We will also have to take our passports with us and also we will be finger printed and photographed as part of going through customs/immigration. We will get more information on this in the Reflection Program that we get later this evening.
The good news is we set the clocks back an additional hour last night. We really enjoy sailing East to West. For us and likely the vast number of guests and crew it is so much easier to set the clocks backward rather than forward.
We did sleep very well. There was a little more sway of the ship and we find that it makes for a restful sleep.
Our morning started as it always does and most of you know the routine by now.
Keith up early; Workout at the Fitness Center; Coffee at the Lido Cafe; Keith brings back Coffee for Anne Marie and she walks one hour; Breakfast arrives to our room; We watch the Daily Morning Show and we are now ready to begin another glorious day on the Crystal Serenity.
We wanted to mention that Keith watched for a second time the rebroadcast of Actor Bruce McGill who spoke yesterday. We have sailed with him three times and his talks are so very interesting. They are very easy to follow and well thought out. We are like most people who saw him in so many movies as he plays character roles and didn't know his name or even all the movies he was in. Then when we first saw him speak on a Crystal Cruise and he himself shows some photos and clips of his roles then the light bulb went off. Now when we are on land and we watch a current or an older movie many times we say, "there is Bruce McGill.". He has acted for 50 years and if we remember correctly he has been in 150 movies. He is also in a Television Series and, in fact, the day he leaves the ship in Yokohama which is on February 10 he had to arrive back for the Television series on February 10 and he can do so since he will be traveling across the International Dateline. We were thinking to ourselves but what about the jet lag but obviously he has that all worked out.
Keith arranged to meet others at 9:00 AM in the Fitness Center to Spin on their own. Fellow guest Mara attended as did Joe and Maria Kita who teach Yoga and also Memoir Writing (Joe). Keith led the class and they worked hard.
Anne Marie stopped by to take a few photos and then she worked on her knitting and also read and wrote. We met back up at the Crystal Plaza.
At 10:45 AM we attended Ocean Views which is done on the World Cruise. This is a panel discussion which is moderated by Ken Rees and the panel featured General Tony Zinni, Clint van Zandt and CNN's Richard Roth. Those guests attending are handed a hand held device so that we can participate in the program by responding to a series of questions that is asked of us.
They began by asking the audience some questions, which
provided an opportunity to make sure the electronics, were working and that the
audience members had practice using the device.
On top of this we learned a little about the views of the guests.
We learned that 53% of the audience was Female and 47% Male,
and that 81% of the audience was from the United States, 5% from Europe and 14%
from elsewhere. About 32% considered
their politics to be right of center, 21% left of center and 47% in the middle.
They covered around 10 topics. We were asked to vote and then the panelists
spoke and usually we were asked to vote again to see if the discussion changed
any minds.
First was were people willing to lose some civil liberties
to prevent terrorism versus those who say they should keep all their liberties
versus those who said some of what Snowden said was right. The breakout was 67%, 18% and 14%
respectively.
There was a question as to whether Marijuana should be
legalized with 60% saying no, 26% yes and 14% maybe.
There were questions about whether we can trust the media
with some stations being mentioned .
Another one on whether or not the United Nations and NATO were still
relevant. There was a question as to
whether we should embrace Iran and even a question about what is a
celebrity. The latter question brought
Clint Van Zandt to tears as he believed that so many people are heroes
including the parent who works outside the home and then after a long day at
works reads to their children at night.
We have seen many of these panels. This was actually the best one we saw because
there was a lot of good discussion between the panelists with some banter and
some humor. Unlike some panels although
they didn’t agree on many things they not only spoke but they listened and they
tried to see the other persons point of view.
We also found them to be very candid with Richard Roth and Clint Ban
Zandt offering candid assessments of the television networks they work
for. General Zinni as he did last year
and also in lectures made it very clear that just dropping some bombs on Iran
should resolution to the long standing issue of nuclear enrichment not be
resolved was not a walk in the park.
Rather he said it would be an all out war and that it could have world
wide/economic devastation throughout many parts of the world.
Here are a few photos. Unfortunately we were sitting towards the back and just used a point and shoot camera.
From L-R CNN's Richard Roth and Clint Van Zandt
Moderator and Destination Lecturer Ken Rees
Afterwards, we both had lunch together and once again we each had a Salad Entree.
In the afternoon, Special Interest Lecturer gave a talk about Frank Sinatra which was watched when it was rebroadcasted.
One of the featured films for today was Lincoln which was shown in the Hollywood Theatre and includes Actor Bruce McGill.
In the afternoon Keith played Paddle Tennis for a several hours, and Anne Marie walked,went to Yoga and sat out on our verandah to get some sun.
The weather today was much warmer than we expected which was a very pleasant surprise. We expect relatively cold weather during most of our stops in Japan.
Because of some restrictions that Japan requires as to the transmission medium which maybe used, internet service might be spotty over the next week or so or maybe even non existent at times so if you do not see us update the blog it is due to that reason only. In 2012, we could not use the internet and only emergency communications was allowed. We are hoping that it won't be so restrictive on this cruise. Again, this is a local regulation and is not a decision made by Crystal or for that matter any cruise line.
This evening we are back at the Crystal Dining Room.
TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY….
"True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost." - Charles Caleb Colton
Keith & Anne Marie
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