DAY 95 - DAY EIGHTY SEVEN ON THE CRYSTAL SERENITY

We wanted to begin by noting that Silk Road Specialty Restaurant Head Waiter, Sigi, was selected as Crystal Serenity Employee of the Year.  In addition, recently Sigi was selected as one of the employees of the year for NYK which is the parent company of Crystal Cruises.  We have had the pleasure of knowing Sigi for many years including the time when he was a Waiter at Silk Road. Sigi began his career with Crystal Cruises in 1995 and started as a dish washer.  Congratulations Sigi on two very well deserved recognition awards.  

You can click on Sigi's name above to see a photo of him plus we provided on below.

These are some additional photos from the last segment of the World Cruise.

We enjoyed another wonderful time on the ship last evening.

Before dinner, we went to the Crystal Cove and we sat with friend Elaine.  Later on Levy who Keith plays tennis with, and her husband, Hector, who is an absolutely wonderful entertainer sat with us and then a little while later friend Peggy arrived.  Hector is a world renowned organist and we met him and his lovely wife on the January 5 cruise.  They are on this cruise for a few more days and we saw Hector perform the other evening.  We believe he will be performing one more time.  When you listen to his music you think you are listening to an entire Symphony Orchestra.  

We also took a couple of photos as the decorations from the mixer held earlier in the day was still in place.  

We dined at Tastes last evening for the first time this segment of the World Cruise.  Unlike in the past when we used to go to the old Tastes once during the entire World Cruise we have really been enjoying the menu at the new Tastes so we have tried to go once per segment and one of the segments we went twice.  For us the food is quite unique.  While it is different than we normally order in say the Crystal Dining Room since the items are little tastings will be more adventurous with what we order.

We went with Food & Beverage Manager Tayfun and Shore Excursion Manager Daniel.  Tayfun had worked for Crystal previously in various positions including Head Waiter and also Assistant Food & Beverage Manager and then worked on a smaller cruise ship as a Hotel Director before recently joining Crystal.    He is from Turkey.  Tayfun (pronounced Typhoon) joined the ship a few weeks ago and replaced Victor.  We feel as if we have known him for years.  He is highly visible and a great people person both with the crew and the guests.  He has a great sense of humor and tremendous knowledge of the industry and his areas of responsibility.  

We have known Daniel for several years and he is always very helpful in giving us advice on tours and just a very easy to talk with person.    For the past couple of years, Keith has reviewed all of the excursions offered on the World Cruise with Daniel to get his input on what tours would be best for us based on our interests.  We really appreciate that and he has guided us very well in making good choices for us.  Ironically, when we first boarded the ship we went to Tastes for the very first time following it makeover including the new menu with Food & Beverage Manager, Victor, and Shore Excursion Manager Daniel.  This was only Daniel's second time to Taste with his first time when he went with us in January.

We won't cover all that we ordered but will say we tasted a wide range of foods.  We had the same waiter, Fabio, who remembered the items we enjoy.  In fact, because we were not yet ready to order when he came by he suggested he bring the four of us an item we like and that would give us more time to order.  We ordered six more courses (remember they are small tastings) and then Fabio decided which two courses to bring each time he came with new courses for us to try.

We dined for close to two and one half hours and we not only had a wonderful meal but we enjoyed lots of great laughs, and we do mean "lots" of laughs.  We learned a lot about the various positions that Tayfun and Daniel held on land and at sea including their respective positions when the first began with Crystal Cruises.  We had an absolutely wonderful time.

From L-R, Daniel, Keith, Anne Marie and Tayfun.

When we arrived back to our room last night the good news is that we turned the clocks back one hour as we are sailing into a new time zone.  Also, there was an invitation for the second and the final World Cruise on-board dinner which will be coming up shortly.

The seas continued to be quite smooth and we slept very well.  We say this often but we do sleep very well on the ship as it gently rocks us to sleep.

Keith was up early again and he did his normal routine of activities, including reading and writing, a short workout in the Fitness Center and a stop at the Lido Cafe for coffee.  He brought one cup of coffee back to the room for Anne Marie and then we walked outside for one hour.

Since this was another sea day, we watched the Daily Morning Show with Cruise Director Rick and World Cruise Hostess Stacey as we ate our breakfast.  

Fitness Director Michael as he did last segment is offering Spin Classes on each and every sea day so Keith took another one of his Spin Classes.  Michael continued to push us which Keith enjoys.

The only difference between today's class and most of the other classes was the overall class size.  There were only two guests spinning.

Anne Marie stopped by briefly to take a couple of photos and then she sat at the Crystal Cove where she read and wrote and also did some knitting.  Keith came by after he changed following his class and we spoke with some fellow guests as well as several members of the crew.

All three lectures on the program were quite interesting.  Peter Hawthorne who is a veteran journalist, foreign correspondent and author spoke about his forty five years of covering Africa as a reporter and all the change that has taken place during that time frame.  Later in the morning, Tommy DeFrank who we have seen on several cruises spoke. He is a political journals who over the span of his career covered eight presidents, and twelve presidential campaigns.  The focus of his talk was on current day politics in Washington, DC which is preventing much from getting done.  Finally, Susan Middleton spoke about an area that most of us knows very little about and that is about Vodou.

We also enjoyed the activities that we typically participate in on sea days and that includes Team Trivia and Paddle Tennis for Keith and Kitting, Yoga and an afternoon walk for Anne Marie.  Paddle Tennis has been especially fun for Keith on this segment of the World Cruise similar to the January 5 voyage.  There are not only a lot of people playing but everyone is just having a fun time and there is a lot of banter and lots of laughing between teams.  Everyone just wants to have fun and in the end that really is what Keith enjoys bout he game.  He has met a lot of people since he started to play.  On this cruise there is a gent named Mike who was on for one segment last year and one two years ago whom Keith knows well.

In between this, we fit in lunch (you do have to eat and that is part of what makes cruising very special) and we each enjoyed a salad entree.

This evening we will be dining with friends Peggy and Elaine at their table in the Crystal Dining Room.

All in all it's been another great day on the Crystal Serenity.

TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY……

"If you can imagine it, you can create it.  If you dream it, you can become it."  - William Arthur Ward

Keith & Anne Marie