I'm Anne Marie I'm Keith
And together, we will Blog throughout this adventure.
Although many of you have followed our Blogs for several years, some of you are first time visitors to this year's Blog so we want to take a moment to provide you with some background regarding our approach to Blogging.
We started to Blog in 2007, when we took our very first World Cruise. The Blog was written with family and friends in mind, so they could follow along as we traveled the world. The Blog also served another purpose, providing us with memories from that very first World Cruise that we can relive with each passing year.
Including that very first Blog, we have now Blogged a total of twelve times, and the number of people following our travels has grown significantly. In 2014, we had well over 115,000 visits to our blog compared to only a couple of thousand visits in 2007.
As we did last year, we want to share our approach to these Blogs, which is consistent to how we approach each of our travel adventures. We believe this is very important so that you understand our focus when it comes to writing this Blog.
SOME OF THE THINGS YOU WILL READ AND SEE ON THE BLOG INCLUDE:
1. Lots of photos of food, fellow guests, crew members, ourselves, shipboard events, along with buildings, statues, scenery, people and an array of other items whether at sea or on land.
2. Narratives from our experience at sea including some repetition of those items that we greatly enjoy, such as those daily morning workouts. Keep in mind when you are sailing for several months there will be much more repetition compared to a two week cruise. We consider these long voyages analogous to temporarily moving from your home on land, to a home at sea.
3. Live information and writings. While we do our very best to post our blogs daily, this means that we don't have time to reread, nor edit what we write. This also means that we post photos with less editing than we would do if we were back home with more time available.
4. Background information on ports of call, including some statistics related to population and local economy.
5. Thoughts and observations from those glorious sea days, as well as our time spent in each port of call.
6. Copies of selected menus, daily highlights from the enrichment programs, along with the evening entertainment program, providing an opportunity for you to get a sense of the many choices available for cuisine, enrichment and entertainment.
7. Details of the cuisine we order each day, with far greater emphasis with respect to dinner.
8. Some typos and grammatical mistakes because there is just not enough time in the day to reread what we have written or smooth out any rough edges prior to posting them on our Blog.
SOME OF THE THINGS YOU WILL NOT READ NOR SEE ON THE BLOG INCLUDE:
1. Gossip or criticism of others.
2. Emphasis on those few things that might go wrong.
As many of you know, we take the glass is half-full approach, which carries over to cruising and travel. We do this because in the scheme of things we know that life is relatively short, and we get more pleasure if we focus on all of the wonderful events and items that we will experience each and everyday on our journey. We realize that we may experience just a few hiccups along the way, but these are relatively few and minor. We also talk about making memories that will last a lifetime, and quite frankly we would like to remember all of the positive experiences from our adventures and not dwell on the few items that didn't go our way. We consider ourselves very fortunate (lucky too) to be able to take these journeys.
To illustrate this point, in 2013 Anne Marie faced some health issues that we dealt with and continue to deal with collectively. This has served as yet another reminder that we are far better off by focusing on all of the good that we experience each and every day and it reinforces what truly is important in our day-to-day lives.
3. Making fun or trashing any ports of call we visit.
While we we have some favorite ports, in the end we know that each place has its own identity as they do in our very own country, and we know there is beauty to be found in almost each and every area around the world. Sometimes, you just have to look a little closer but likely it is right in front of your nose if you care to take the time to find it. While some areas might not be our favorites, we can usually learn something from each and every place we visit. For those of you who cruise, we also have to remember that if you just stay close to the cruise ship terminal you may miss out on all of the beauty that a particular port-of-call stop has to offer. We do our best to be balanced in our observations of all ports of call. We also remind ourselves that this is part of discovery. If one doesn't want to see and experience places that are different from their very own home town, travel might not be for them.
CHANGES FROM PREVIOUS BLOGS:
With each passing year we have tried to incorporate new changes and enhancements to our Blog. We hope that you enjoy the changes we have incorporated this year.
1. Last year we introduced some iMovies to our Blog, and this year we have added a total of six new iMovies to the home page of the Blog and we will add one or two more along the way.
If you scroll down, the first video is right below this welcome post. Before you play the video, be sure to raise the volume on whatever device you are using so you can hear the sound that accompanies each video. We would recommend clicking on the icon to the right of HD, allowing the video to take up your full screen. To play the video just click on the arrow and it will start the video. Afterwards, click on your escape (esc) button to get back to the home page.
The first video is a trailer to introduce you to the excitement of our adventure.
Scroll down and you will come to the second trailer for this adventure.
After all, this will be our longest consecutive day venture at sea, so we went with two trailers rather than one.
Scroll down again and you will come to the third video.
This video recognizes the wonderful members of Team Crystal. There will be a moment when the music ends, but give it a few seconds because there is more to come. The same is true for the remaining videos.
Scroll down again and you will come to the fourth video.
This video is a compilation of mainly video from a special performance that is part of the World Cruise tradition called Crystal Serenity Pops. It features many musicians and singers from the on-board Crystal Entertainment team accompanies by a few entertainers/musicians whom are brought on board just for this concert and is performed a couple of days prior to the conclusion of the world cruise.
Scroll down and you will find the fifth video with some highlights from our first Safari Adventure from last year's World Cruise. We enjoyed it so much, we will be returning for our second safari on this adventure.
Scroll down to the sixth and final video marking our return to the Mediterranean on last year's adventure.
We will return to the Mediterranean, once again, following the conclusion of World Cruise 2015 in Miami when we crossover to Europe and then sail the Mediterranean.
We hope that you enjoy each of these iMovies.
2. We have made additional enhancements to the tabs section across the home page. It includes a new tab titled Cuisine with several photos of the cuisine served throughout the ship. We have also updated some of the other tabs including adding new photos to both the Crystal Family and Meet The Officers, Staff & Crew Tabs. In some instances, you just click on the tab and then scroll down to view the narrative and photos, and then to get back to the home page click the tab labeled home. In a few cases such as the tabs that take you to other sites, to get back to the home page you will need to click the left (back) arrow key of your web browser. We have also added maps showing the itinerary for each of the voyages we will sail.
3. We wil attempt to increase the amount of photos we post as we realize the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words applies to all sorts of written communication, including Blogs.
4. For ports that we have visited on prior cruises and land trips, we will try to contrast our experiences on this journey compared to prior visits.
2015 marks Crystal Cruises 20th World Cruise as well as the 25th year that Crystal Cruises has been in business. As such, World Cruiser 2015 is called Silver Celebration World Cruise.
This adventure also marks our seventh full World Cruise and our eighth World Cruise overall, all of them with Crystal Cruises and all on the beautiful Crystal Serenity.
By the end of this voyage we will have sailed almost 1,000 days at sea.
On this voyage we will visit thirteen new ports of call and two new countries bringing to, 258 and 83 respectively, the total number of ports and countries we will have visited by cruise ship.
We will post a few more times before this journey begins, and also during our pre-cruise stay so be sure to check back every couple of days to see additional posts. Some of these posts will include the planning that goes into these long voyages.
In the meantime, make yourself at home by exploring the home page of our Blog where you will see relevant information about our journey. This includes links to other sites including a link which takes you to live views from the bridge of the ship.
We encourage you to post comments and questions. Doing so is very simple. At the end of any given post you will see a comments area which you just click on. It will bring you to a screen where you can write a comment and then you will be asked to do a simple word verification. If you do not have a Google e-mail account just click on anonymous before posting your comments. If you would like at the end of your comment include your name, but that is not necessary We will read each and every comment and do our best to respond to any questions you may have on the subsequent post.
As we did last year, we will respond to all questions using the Question and Answers Tab located towards the top of the Blog. Just check this Question and Answers tab section a day or two after you post your question(s).
Coming next: "A World Cruise Is Both A Journey & An Adventure". We will share our thoughts and insights on what makes a World Cruise different from just about any other voyage at sea.
As we did last year, we will respond to all questions using the Question and Answers Tab located towards the top of the Blog. Just check this Question and Answers tab section a day or two after you post your question(s).
Coming next: "A World Cruise Is Both A Journey & An Adventure". We will share our thoughts and insights on what makes a World Cruise different from just about any other voyage at sea.
As we have done in the past, we will share a thought for the day for each and every post.
Today's thought comes directly from us.
Today's thought comes directly from us.
"Our journey never ends, as there are more places to visit, more adventures to enjoy, more special memories to make, that together, we will carry with us for the rest of our lives." - Keith and Anne Marie
Keith and Anne Marie
Welcome back!
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