Dinner At Silk Road.
With World Cruise Hostess Stacey at the Captain's Reception.
With Jeremy who is Manager of the Photo Department, Courtesy of Stacey who took the Photo. Nice Going Stacey.
Photo with a band that we enjoyed so much. They will be here again following the World Cruise and we will get to see them perform again.
Before dinner last evening we were back at the Crystal Cove where we enjoyed the music of pianist John Mentis and spoke with some fellow guests and members of the Crew. Ilene joined us and we talked about what each of us did yesterday.
Afterwards, we enjoyed an absolutely wonderful time in the Crystal Dining Room. Our wait staff team has been an absolute delight. They are not only professional, but they just have a pleasant disposition and we enjoy a lot of laughs with each of them.
We began our meal as we always do with a toast with of our wine glasses. We toast our love for one another and another wonderful day on the Crystal Serenity.
We each began with a salad. Keith had his standing order salad and Anne Marie had the Butter Lettuce Salad with Tomatoes, Olives and Artichokes.
For our entree, Augusto had pre-ordered us the Halibut which was on the menu the night before and that was a wise selection. We also had the standing order of vegetables that we enjoy in the dining room. Sauce was added to Anne Marie's Halibut but Keith had his plain and the photo is of Keith's entree. The Halibut filets were of a nice portion size as they were thick and very tasty.
For dessert, you guessed it. It was mixed berries for Keith and Anne Marie had the Freshly Frozen, Nonfat Cappuccino Yogurt.
After dinner we attended the kickoff of the World Cruise Games which is a long tradition of Crystal Cruises World Cruises. The World Games are held sometime when there are a lot of sea days and ideally on a crossing.
Normally the kickoff is held at around 10:00 PM but Cruise Director Rick Spath scheduled it for 7:45 PM knowing that it would draw a larger turnout which it did.
Olympian Dain Blanton is now on board Serenity, having joined the ship in Jakarta. In 2000, Blanton and his volleyball partner Eric Fonoimona won a gold at the Sydney Olympics by upsetting the world's top seeded team from Brazil. Presently, he does a lot of Television Sports including not only covering volleyball but other sports such as NBA Basketball.
The ceremony included the march of the various flags and includes speeches and entertainment. Shortly after the ceremony began some guests and crew carried flags of the various countries and as each country was announced they entered the theatre with a flag in hand. We've participated in this before but we decided to sit and watch the entire ceremony instead.
Opening.
Some funny skits were performed including one performed by Sarah and Jonathan who are on just for the World Cruise. They are not only excellent singers but also their skits from last night including not only their live performance but one that was done around the ship were jut hilarious.
Four people were called up to the stage as representatives of the World Games. Yes, we know you only see three in the photo. The two on either side of Crew Officer Nina are the Fitness Directors who are representing the judges and Nina is representing the crew. The crew will not only have their own games but will play in one with the guests. The youngest World Cruiser who is about three years young represented the guests but she was too shy to come to the stage.
Sarah and Jonathan made it onto the stage with the Olympic Torch after a grueling time, and handed the torch over to Olympian Dain Blanton.
The lighting ceremony was now complete.
The Ceremony Closed with a performance by the Crystal Ensemble of Dancers and Singers.
During the course of the upcoming days the World Cruise Games will include the following games:
Backgammmon
Basketball Free Throw
Chess
Cribbage
Darts
Duplicate Bridge
Free Cell
Gin Rummy
Golf Putting
Lap Swimming
Paddle Tennis
Photo Competition
Scrabble
Shuffleboard
Social Bridge
Solitaire
Socku
Table Tennis
Walking Relay
For some events such as Paddle Tennis there is men's singles, men's doubles, mixed doubles, ladies singles and ladies doubles plus there is family tennis where a guest and a member of the crew are paired up against another guest and member of the crew.
It's all about having fun and it provides a wonderful opportunity to get to know your fellow guests and because all of this is in addition to the 50+ enrichment activities already offered on each and every sea day it just makes the crossings go a lot faster since there is so much to do each day. We are just tired thinking about it. LOL.
We slept well last evening as we now are sailing to our next port of call in Mauritius and we will now have six consecutive sea days.
Keith was up first and enjoyed a nice workout in the Fitness Center followed by coffee at the Lido Cafe. He brought coffee back for Anne Marie.
We then walked outside on the Promenade Deck, and met up with friend Elaine. After a part of the walk Anne Marie walked inside as one of the sides of the deck was quite sunny. Keith continued walking with Elaine and then when Elaine was about finished he walked with John Holly who creates many of the designs and helps with the production of many of the special events held during the World Cruise.
After our walk we had breakfast in our room thanks to Rao. We watched the Daily Morning Show.
Keith had another Spin Class. Fitness Director Michael pushed us hard and it was a lot of fun for Keith.
Keith is not standing for the photo. When you spin standing you should be as straight as possible and not lean over the handlebars so you let your legs do all your work and the stronger you get you can do it with one hand as Keith is doing.
We then attended a special briefing for those of us on our overland Safari tour that was conducted by the Shore Excursion Department. The briefing was conducted by Storme Brown who is Assistant Manager of the Shore Excursion group (she swings to Manager when the regular Manager is not on board). Storme was very organized and provided us with an information packet. The lodge we will be staying at has only six rooms and four will be occupied by four couples, one by one solo passenger, and one by Stan Leja who will be our Crystal Representative. Our trip will commence on March 24 and we will return back to the ship late Afternoon on March 26. This will be our first Safari. Storme lives very close to where we will be going so she had a lot of insight into the area.
At the same time as the briefing there was Men's Singles Shuffleboard so Keith skipped that competition.
Right after the briefing, Anne Marie attended a knitting get together and continues to enjoy the knitting and being with the women. Keith did some writing and reading.
Today was also another game of Team Trivia. The questions were hard and we got 8.5 right out of 15. Many teams did worse. We are now one half point out of first which is how we ended last segment.
For lunch we had what we normally have and you guessed it. We each had salad entrees.
In the afternoon, Anne Marie walked for an hour and she also took Yoga, Keith played Paddle Tennis. The operative word was hot and humid and both courts filled up with people playing.
Later in the day, Keith met up with dear friend Bob.
This evening we are going to Tastes for dinner and we will post all about our dining experience tomorrow.
TODAY'S THOUGHT OF THE DAY………….
"The Internet is a very powerful tool. Our wish is for people to use the Internet to speak positively about their fellow men and women rather than to put others down. It goes along with that saying to do unto others as you would want others to do unto you. We would be a better in a better place if we could remember that." - Keith & Anne Marie
Keith & Anne Marie
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