"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.
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| 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.
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Giuseppe At Work
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| 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....
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