Assistant Cruise Director, Scott Mitchel, who led the tour that Anne Marie was on at the Officer's Bar.
Executive Chief Housekeeper Andrea
Hotel Director's Office.
Assistant Shore Excursion Manager Storm (on left) and Jelena (sp) on Right.
Shore Excursion Manager, Daniel.
Clearance Manager, Johan who also swings to the position of Front Office Manager.
Bart Dufor, Head Sommelier.
Bart's Office with some photos of the Butlers.
Food & Beverage Manager, Tayfun.
The Ship's Tailor.
Before dinner last evening we sat at the Crystal Cove. We have enjoyed speaking with several of the crew who work at the various lounges. They usually rotate where they are assigned from cruise to cruise so we get to know many of them during a lengthy time on board if we mainly go to the same lounge.
One of them is Michelle who is in this photo with Anne Marie. From time to time Michelle takes our photo so it was nice to have an opportunity to take her photo this time around.
It was fun to be back in the Crystal Dining Room after being gone for several days. We had to even remember where to find our table and the entire Wait Staff didn't remember our names. Just kidding! Everything last night is the way we remembered it, and better too. LOL.
We began our meal with appetizers. Augusto made Keith Tuna Tartare and Anne Marie had Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail.
Our next course was salads. Anne Marie had a Spinach Salad while Keith had his regular Salad.
We then had the entrees. We both had the Olive Poached Turbot. It came with Artichokes, Potato Gratin, Tomato & Tarragon. Anne Marie had the Lobster Cobb Salad Entree.
On the next cruise Crystal will be rolling out a whole new menu to complement the current offerings. The menu will feature on the left side Fusion Recipes which will change each night. The right side of the menu will feature traditional items which will change every two days. In preparation for this rollout, for the past several days two or three items on the menu have been the new fusion items. This evening it was the entree we ordered as one of the new fusion items. The presentation of the new entree was quite nice and it was very tasty and we really thought it was a wonderful addition to the menu.
It is not very noticeable but the sauce that came with the fish was two different sauces which complemented each other very well as well as the fish. Keith also tried some additional fish without the sauce and the sauce really added a lot of nice flavor to the entree.
For dessert, Keith went with the Mixed Berries and Anne Marie had the Sugar-Free Chocolate Cream Swan. The Swan was presently differently than in the past.
The night before we were up earlier than we normally were after we returned from Glo's Birthday Dinner so we were fairly tired this evening and got in some extra sleep. We both fell asleep easily as we are now sailing to our next port of call stop in Morocco.
Keith was up early and continued with his normal routine of reading and writing and a workout at the Fitness Center and then a stop to the Lido Cafe. After Anne Marie had coffee that Keith brought back to the room, we went on a one hour walk.
When we returned back to the room we enjoyed breakfast while we watched the Daily Morning Show.
Rick and Stacey had two guests on the morning show.
They had Harold the Executive Pastry Chef. Harold has been with Crystal Cruises since
1995 and this is his 19th year at the Company. He is married and has two children. They mentioned that he is a long distance
runner and we see this often as many times we have seen him run for a very long
time on the Promenade Deck.
They also had Franz the Executive Chef on the show. Franz has been with Crystal Cruises for
twenty-one years and is also married.
Rick asked him questions about preparing for the World Cruise and Franz
noted that by September or October at the latest he tries to get all of the
menus in place so that the items can be provisioned that have a long shelf
life. He noted that there are around
6,500 different food items that are required.
Many items come from the United States and Europe and that includes
items that arrive to select ports of call in large containers such as many
dairy products from Europe. They do try
to bring on board all of the beef items for the start of the World Cruise
either in Miami or Los Angeles depending on where the World Cruise originates.
It was appropriate that they were both guest on todays’ show
since today was also the Grand Gala Buffet which certainly showcases so many
items that are prepared in the Galley including so many desserts.
Keith took another Spin Class which Fitness Director Michael has offered on each and every sea day this segment. It was another challenging course.
Today was the second of five Team Trivia Games which will wrap up the 2014 World Cruise. We tied again for first place so for the two games we are still tied for first.
For lunch, we both enjoyed Salad Entrees.
In the afternoon, Keith played a lot of Paddle Tennis. It was very windy but nevertheless all had a nice time. Later, Keith met up with dear Friend Bob. Anne Marie did her one hour afternoon nap and then went to afternoon Yoga.
We wanted to note that as usual there were three presenters on the program today. One of them was Marc Ginsberg, who was a former Ambassador to Morocco. He was born in Jewish and eventually his family came to the United States. His undergraduate degree was at the same school as ours and he had the same degree as us. We find him a really great presenter and we like the fact that he tells it the way he believes. He does not hide his political party but that does not prevent him from criticizing how he believe an administration deals with foreign policy issues even if they are of the same political party as he is. He will also praise an administration of the other political party if he agrees with how they deal with an issue. His presentation the other day was on how the negotiations are going with Israel and he did a very nice job of walking through the challenges that have prevented an agreement from ever coming to fruition and what those challenges are today and as he outlined the challenges are not easy ones to resolve. Today his talk was on how Morocco missed the Arab Spring. He will also be on the Ocean Views Panel Discussion which will be held on this voyage.
The two other lectures covered tyrants from around the world and also a presentation on crocodiles.
This evening we will be dining with good friends Jim and Judy at Silk Road.
TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY……..
"Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light." - Helen Keller
Keith & Anne Marie
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