DAY 19 CURACAO AND DAY 11 ON CRYSTAL SERENITY

We would like to begin by wishing each of you a very safe, healthy and Happy New Year.  May 2015 be the best yet.

We began last evening by attending a special performance by Organist Hector Olivera which was held before dinner  This was in addition to two performances given later in the evening by the Dance Team of Ryno and Elena along with Comedy Ventriloquist Mark Merchant who just joined the ship two days ago.

Hector's performance was absolutely amazing.  He played a wide range of songs including those many from movies from The Gone With The Wind to Star Wars.

We then made our way to the Crystal Dining Room where we were taken excellent care of by the outstanding dining room wait-staff team.

Our Sommelier since the start of this cruise has been Javier who we had this past September, and also for most of World Cruise 2014.  Javier is from Spain and each night we let him select the wine that we will enjoy for dinner.  He always takes the time to explain each of the wines to us including an explanation of the vineyard and its region and the grapes that are used in the wine along with other interesting facts about the wine.

We each began our meal with salads.

Our next course was the entree.


Anne Marie's entree was scallops which were accompanied on a bed of Butternut Squash Risotto, Chili-Tomato Marmalade and Confit Leeks.

Keith's entree was Broiled Salmon Fillet was accompanied with Mashed Potatoes, Root Vegetables, Mushrooms, and Lime Beurre Blanc which Keith asked for on the side and the salmon was so tasty that Keith didn't use the sauce.

Our entree was also accompanied with a side order of vegetables that we requested.

For dessert we each had fruit with Anne Marie having blueberries and Keith having mixed berries.

Shorty after dinner, we attended a Captain's Quarters Reception hosted by Captain Birger along with several other guests.  We were welcomed by Captain Birger and by Crystal Society Hostess Jaque and then as we entered the quarters the one of the ship's photographers is on hand to take a photo, and some of the Lido Deck Stewards are present with wine and champagne on trays and will also take an order should you care for some other item.  Some of the ship's Officer's were  also present such as the Vice Captain, Hotel Director, Food & Beverage Manager, Chief Engineer, Shore Excursion Manager and Chief Financial Accountant and other senior crew members such as the Cruise Sales Consultant and the Activities Hostess.   We always look forward to these get-togethers as they provide yet another nice opportunity to speak with some of the Senior Officers as well as other members of team Crystal and to converse with fellow guests.

We slept well last evening and the seas continued to be relatively calm.  Keith was up first and walked up just a couple of flights to the Fitness Center for another of his morning workouts on the Elliptical Machine.  Afterwards, he read and wrote at the Lido Cafe and also enjoyed some coffee.  He brought some coffee back to the room for Anne Marie and after she got ready she went on her morning walk.

After enjoying breakfast in our room, we got ready to visit the town of Willemstad, Curacao. We stopped by the Crystal Plaza and it was already set-up for the New Years Eve Party.

Many colorful homes and buildings line the streets and are characteristic of Curacao.

Keith first visited Curacao at age 12 on his first cruise with his family.  It was on this cruise that he visited one of the oldest synagogues of North America and that is where he got his Bar Mitzvah Tallis.  This is the Mikve Israel Emanuel Synagogue & Jewish Museum.  The Synagogue was constructed in 1732.

This is a photo of Keith's Tallit and Tallit bag that his Parent's purchased for him.

This Synagogue is one of the oldest in North America.  The key about oldest is sometimes that refers to the actual building, or the land that the original building was on or the congregation.  This Synagogue is the oldest Synagogue still in use today in the Americas. There are older one but the key term is "in use".

Last year we had the opportunity for Keith to return to Curacao and for Anne Marie to visit there for the very first time.  We arranged a private tour with Crystal Cruises where we visited the synagogue, a Jewish cemetery, and drove to other sites around the island including the cave of Hato.  Given that we had toured the island fairly recently, this time we decided just to walk around the town of Willemstad since we didn't get that opportunity when we were here last year.  

These are some photos of the Jewish Synagogue.  The floor of the Synagogue is unique as it is sand.

We walked close to five miles.  We first walked towards and then over the floating bridge.  The bridge moves side to side rather than up in the air to let other boats/ships through the area.

Later on while in town we could see the bridge moving to let a tug boat pass.

We walked up and down various streets passing government buildings, various statues, a church, stores and a floating market.

St Anne Church

Floating Market

After a long walk we headed back towards the floating bridge.

We then walked back over the floating bridge which escaped the Queen Emma Bridge and also known as the Pantoon Bridge and The Swinging Lady.

We had lunch back on board Serenity and ate at the Lido Cafe.  We made our usual salad entrees.  Today they had whole Turkey's and we had them slice us one piece each and it was very tasty and tender.  The Captain and his lovely wife sat with us at lunch and we enjoyed a wonderful conversation with them.  

In the afternoon, Keith played a lot of Paddle Tennis for a very long time with a lot of different people.  

Something unusual started at around Noon and still continues for several hours as we are finishing today's Blog.  Fire Crackers are being lit in different places on shore it it sounds like thousands upon thousands of them.  At one point you could smell them in the Lido Cafe when the doors to the outside opened and while Keith was playing Tennis and Anne Marie was walking outside and then sitting out by the Pool the noise was unbelievable.  At times it sounds like a Hail Storm.  

All in all it has been an absolutely wonderful day.  Also, today the six spin bikes in the Fitness Center were retired and have been replaced with 10 new spin bikes.  Keith saw the first one being put together by the vendor and when he returned to the center five have been placed on the floor and the others should be out by this evening and tomorrow Keith will use one of them in the Spin Class scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.  Here's a peak at them.

This evening we will dine at Prego and then we will see a performance of a relatively new concert featuring songs of Bill Joel and we will attend several of the other New Year's Eve festivities as we get ready to say so long to 2014 and ring in 2015.

With the new year in mind we will end today with two thoughts for the day.

TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY....

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.” – Leon J. Suenes 

Keith & Anne Marie

DAY 18 SEA DAY DAY 10 ON CRYSTAL SERENITY

We had beautiful views of St. Barts from the Crystal Serenity while we were anchored.  These are some of the views from our Verandah.  We also enjoyed equally stunning views from other areas on board the ship including when Keith was playing Paddle Tennis.  There were many large yachts anchored off St. Barts.

Before dinner we had a drink with friends Dave and Gary at the Crystal Cove and then we made our way to Tastes for dinner.

The Tastes restaurant was redesigned as part of the last dry-dock of Serenity in late 2013.  It serves a late risers breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  In addition to receiving a face lift, a new dinner concept for Tastes was also introduced.  This new concept included a new menu offering small courses of a wide range of items served family style.  The size of each dish allows guests to order several different items and each plate will serve two people.  The cuisine represents items from around the world and every so often is revised removing a few items and replacing them with other items.  The venue was a wonderful ambience and has the look and the feel of dining at a luxury resort on land.  Since we first tried the new Tastes for dinner, we dine at Tastes once a cruise and on very long voyages we may return another time.  In other words, we will be on for 10 voyages on this journey so we expect to dine at Tastes at least once per voyage.

When presented with the menu, one will order all of their courses at once other than dessert but the courses are not all served at once.  Usually two or possibly three courses are served at the same time.  One can also order additional course at anytime.  

Our waiter for the evening was Deirdre who was fantastic.  We didn't take photos of the food but we will the next time we visit.  Keith ordered the items that the two of us would enjoy and then Dave and Gary added other items to the order as well.  In some cases if we all knew we would like a particular item even if say we didn't order it but Dave or Gary did, Deirdre would bring a larger quantity of it for all of us to taste.  Likewise, we let her know if one or more people didn't care for a particular items so she brought just enough for two people.

This was one of the items that we enjoyed last evening and which has been on the menu from the very first time we dined at Tastes in January of 2014.  When we return to Tastes on the next voyage, we will post lots of photos of what we order.

This is the Alsatian Tarte.  

Other items we had included:

Caesar Fondue Salad
Scottish Cured Salmon
Spanish Morcilla Sausage (one of the new items)
Caribbean Fish Curry in Banana Leaf (one of the new items)
Warm New England Crab Dip (one of the new items)
Spinach Quesadillas
Chimichurri Steak
Saffron-Marinated Lamb Kebabs

As most of you know we don't have dessert very often on board but from time to time we do and often we will have it at Tastes.  The desserts are indeed rich but the good news is you take a small tasting of each one.  We ordered all three for the table.

Classic Apple Cobbler (one of the new items)
Dark Chocolate Creme Brûlée
Bananas Foster Bread Pudding

This is the actual Tastes Menu.

We had a terrific time at dinner with Dave and Gary, and although we didn't close the place down we dined for over three hours.

We also wanted to say how wonderful the entire wait-staff team was.  Head Waiter Jeritt welcomed us to Tastes and even before we ordered our drinks he remember that Keith enjoys the beer La Fin Du Monde from Canada and he brought over a bottle for Keith along with a Brandy Glass which is used for this beer.  Both Dave and Gary tried it as well and like Keith enjoyed it.  Waiter Deirdre was wonderful explaining all of the new items to us and also walking Dave and Gary through the ordering process.  She was assisted by others on the wait staff team including Clark (who many refer to as Superman) and Michelle who along with another member of the team took the drink orders and then refilled drinks as needed.  

We slept very well last evening as we make our way to our next port of call.  The seas were relatively calm.

Keith woke up first and followed his usual routine of working out on the Elliptical Machine at the Fitness Center followed by reading and writing and enjoying coffee at the Lido Cafe.  In between all of this, he also managed to do one load of laundry.

After returning to the room with some coffee for Anne Marie, she got ready to go on her one hour morning walk.

We then enjoyed breakfast in our room.

Today is a sea day as we make our way to our next port of call in Curacao.

There were many programs on the schedule.  

Today's lectures included a talk by Special Interest Lectures Dr. Jay Wolff who spoke about "Gods, Gold, and Genocide" with emphasis about how new world gold in the caribbean made Spain rich and powerful.  This was followed by a talk given by Ambassador Marc Ginsberg who offered his own thoughts on the Islamic State and how to destroy it.   The final lecture of the day was given by Dr. Simon Spooner who spoke about the last french warship which was lost in the American Revolutionary War.  

On top of this we also sat out at the Crystal Plaza.  By the way, yesterday all of the Christmas Decorations were taken down to get ready for the New Year's Eve Celebration and the start of a new year.

We had lunch for the second time of this voyage at the Crystal Dining Room.  We dined with Cruise Director Rick and his lovely wife Patty.  As usual, we enjoyed lots of terrific conversation including many laughs.

In the afternoon, Keith took another Spin Class and Anne Marie walked and also attended a knitting class.  We had four guests taking the spin which was taught by Fitness Director Leanne.

As a result of his popularity and additional show featuring Hector Olivera was added to the program and he will be performing before dinner and we plan to be there.  We will then dine in the Crystal Dining Room and after dinner attend a Captain's Quarters Reception hosted by Captain Birger.

TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY....

“Every artist was first an amateur.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Keith & Anne Marie 

DAY 17 ST. MAARTEN/ST. BARTS AND DAY 9 ON CRYSTAL SERENITY

We thought we would begin with five more sayings about the benefits of getting older.

"Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off."

Your joints are more accurate than the National Weather Service."

You quit trying to hold your stomach in, no matter who walks into the room."

"No one expects you to run into a burning building."

"People no longer view you as a hypochondriac."

Back to the adventure.

Late yesterday afternoon Keith took another Spin Class.  There was only one other guest plus Fitness Director Leanne.  For those of you following the blog especially from Keith's Spin Class friends at home, he was able to go at around 90-95% of his capacity when Leanne had the class speed up as fast as they could.  That's the best he's been since he pulled a muscle so hopefully that is a good sign.

When Keith got back to the room he could hear music and Anne Marie said it started about an hour earlier.  There is an NCL Ship side to side with our ship Serenity and evidently they were playing very loud music while a combination of officers, other crew members and possibly some passengers were dancing non-stop with passengers from NCL and even some from Serenity looking on.  In all our years of cruising that was a first.  Good news is they seemed very happy.

Before dinner we were back in the Crystal Cove to listen to Pianist Scott Mitchel play a medley of tunes.  Lecturer Jay Wolff and his wife Carol joined us for a drink and for good conversation. We first met Jay and Carol on board World Cruise 2007, and since that time we have sailed with them many times, most recently on the September crossing from Southampton to Boston.  Jay is a retired Dentist and is on both Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity either as a destination lecturer or as someone providing stories about places that we will visit.  

In Our Crystal Colors

We then toasted to another wonderful evening on-board Serenity and to our love of each other.  

We were back in the Crystal Dining Room for dinner.

For a starter course, we had pre-ordered Tuna TarTare for Keith and Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail for Anne Marie.  Both of the appetizers were delicious.  

Each of the Head Waiters had their own approach to the Tuna TarTare and Keith thoroughly enjoyed the one that Giuseppe prepared for him.

Giuseppe At Work

Preparing The Tuna With  All Of The Key Ingredients

The taste was great as it was not overpowering with the way the ingredients were added to the tuna.

We each had salads for our next course.  Keith had his standing order salad.  Anne Marie had a salad from the menu which had similarities to the salad Keith has since it included Boston Lettuce.

For our third course we each had the Tuna entree from the modern cuisine menu.  We thought it was cooked perfectly (medium rare) and really enjoyed it.  It wasn't until after the entree arrived that we realized, what was Keith thinking since we realized that he had a lot of Tuna that day between tuna salad for lunch,  Tuna Tartare as a startler, and then the Tuna entree.  Next time he will think this one through a little more.

For dessert, we each had fruit with Anne Marie having a small bowl of blueberries and Keith having a bowl of mixed berries.  

Shortly after dinner we went to a performance given by Pianist, Singer and Entertainer Mark Farris.  He was accompanied by Greg Fair-Weatheron on the Bass and Gavin Holt on Percussion.  For a portion of the show it was only Mark on the Piano.  We arrived around 15 minutes before the show and we fortunate that two mid-row front row seats were unoccupied.  Ironically, we sat next to the couple who we had met at Miami before we boarded Serenity and have seen and spoken with them several times since this adventure began.  

We thoroughly enjoyed the show and we sang to many of the songs.  It as a nice mix of music and song and also included video of Mark leaving Symphony with a suitcase which is the ship he normally performs on, and when he entered from the back of the Galaxy Theatre and made his way onto the stage he had the suitcase with him.  There were also video with Mark having a conversation with his Father and his Father playing the Piano as his Father had played at one Piano Bar for so many years.  The video also included another conversation with both Mom and Dad.  We are so glad we had the opportunity to see this show.  

We also wanted to mention that both crew and fellow guests we spoke with had a great time in St. Maarten and many crew were planning to go off into St. Maarten after getting off from work last evening for maybe a bite to eat and/or something to drink.  Overnights are very nice for both guests and crew and much easier when the ship is not only docked but the town is relatively close by.

There was even a crew shore excursion yesterday afternoon with crew on two different America's Cup Boats competing with one another.  The shore excursion department with some help from a few other crew members from other areas won the race again another team comprised of crew from the engineering department and a few other areas of the ship.

Once again, we slept very well last night.  As we were docked in port, we didn't have the gentle rocking of the ship but we still managed to get a good nights sleep.

Keith was up and early and followed his daily routine of a workout, which was followed by reading and writing and enjoying some coffee at the Lido Cafe.  A few minutes after Keith arrived to the Lido Cafe Serenity departed St. Maarten on its relatively short route over to St. Barts.  With such as short distance, we arrived to St. Barts by 8:00 AM.

After she woke, Anne Marie had some coffee which Keith brought back to the room for her and then she walked an hour.

Ss we were making our way to St. Barts we saw the Seabourn Spirit heading in the direction we have been traveling from.  However, about one hour later we saw the Spirit anchored off St. Barts so it must have circled around back in our direction.

Our first and only previous visit was on board Serenity.

St. Bart's is known for being a pristine island with fourteen beautiful beaches that are never very crowded.  It is a destination that many from Hollywood will come for rest and relaxation.  

The language spoken is French.  

We went down to the tender landing at around ten minutes after the ship was cleared by local authorities to take the tender over to the island.  We were told that the tender was not ready to take guests as the sea swells were too strong.  We waited about fifteen minutes and decided that even if things cleared that since we will be returning to St. Barts on the next voyage that we would not go over there today.  Our concern was not only how choppy the ride over to the Island might be, but also should things get worse if or what the experience would like getting back.  So, we made today a sea day.

About 9:30 AM Captain Birger spoke from the bridge.  He announced that they had moved the tenders from the starboard over to the port side as the swells were calmer on that side.  He advised those who were taking the tender to use caution getting in and out of the tenders.  The Captain also noted that we would depart St. Barts at 6:00 PM rather than the original scheduled time of Midnight.  This was because of limited visibility at night for the tenders should there be large swells.

We ended up sitting in the Crystal Plaza for a couple of hours.  The Knitting Instructor passed by and saw Anne Marie knitting and sat with us for awhile and she provided Anne Marie with some very useful information while they both worked on knitting projects.  The Instructor's husband sat with Keith (they are both from Toronto) and they ended up talking sports for quite awhile.  Others stopped by including several senior officers and some fellow guests to hate with us and we also watched at several members of the crew began to take down the Christmas Decorations in preparation for New Year's Eve.  In addition, once back in Miami the decorations will be removed from the ship and then stored on land.

While Anne Marie knitted, Keith read and wrote including catching  up on the news of the day.

We enjoyed lunch at the Lido Cafe.

We had our usual lunch of a nice salad entree.

After lunch, Anne Marie walked for an hour and then sat outside and also worked on her knitting project.  Keith played Paddle Tennis and then he read and wrote.

This evening we will be dining with friends Dave and Gary at Tastes and we will post all about that tomorrow.

TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY....

“Start where you are.  Use what you have.  Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe

Keith & Anne Marie