DAY 45 MANTA, ECUADOR AND DAY 37 SERENITY

We have always believed that the sum of the team is far greater than the sum of  individuals not working together whether that is in your personal or business life.  In other words, take ten people working together on one team versus ten people working as individuals only, and almost always the team working together will come out on top.

On the back of shirts worn by many of the Crystal Cruises Deck Team is the motto Team Crystal and that is so very true.  Yesterday, was an example of that.  Crew members from a wide range of departments across the ship, including Food & Beverage, Entertainment, Carpenters, Housekeeping, Front Desk,  and crew members from other departments transformed Serenity to a day in Paris and France.  This included preparing not on,e but two themed meals, (An American in Paris Jazz Brunch and a French Dinner), building beautiful displays featuring iconic Paris Landmarks for display in the Crystal Plaza, as well as a set for outside the Galaxy Showroom, and putting together two special choreographed showings of a magnificent performance including singing and dancing to live music shown last night and never to be performed again.  Yesterday, was a day and night to remember.  Kudos to team Crystal.

We want to mention that we had one of the best seafood entrees we have ever had on sea or on land last evening in the Crystal Dining Room.  There were two menus.  A French Themed Menu and a Traditional Menu and you could mix and match.

We chose for our entree the Sea Bass Filet "Dueler" which was accompanied by Champagne-Parsley Sauce, Tomato Concise Wile Rice Melange, Glazed Carrots.  In addition to an amazing presentation, the sea bass was prepared perfectly as it was so very moist and the ingredients added a superb flavor to the entire entree.  For us it was a Wow+++++

Team Crystal.  We love you!

The Parisian Theme from yesterday's Jazz Brunch carried over to last evenings dinner and entertainment.

Head Waiter Bojan.

A couple of other views, with the Eiffel Tower all lit up.

Before dinner, we had a pre-dinner drink at the Crystal Cove.

Pianist John Mentis.

This was Keith's drink which was Vodka, Champagne and Lemon Juice.  It was the French Drink that was served.

Lido Deck Steward, Jun, is one of several soft-spoken people we have met over the years, who has a heart of gold.  

For those dining at the Crystal Dining Room as we did, there was a special French Dinner menu.  For those of you who have sailed Crystal in the past before the rollout of the Modern Cuisine Menu you will remember that usually once per cruise there was a French Menu so last night's dinner menu had some of the characteristics of that theme.  We are including the menus so you can view them and will also include them under the World Cruise Events Tabs Section found towards the top of the home page.

Anna who we know from previous cruises escorted Anne Marie into the Crystal Dining Room.

This was a French Bread with Olives.  This was something new.

We each began our meal with salads and for our Entree we each had the Sea Bass.  We have to say this was one of the tastiest and finest Entrees we have ever had. The presentation was magnificent and the Sea Bass was not only moist but the taste was unbelievable given the ingredients.  This was a wow, wow, wow.

Since it was French Night the charger plates that were part of the French Night dinners were on the tables.  

All in all we enjoyed a wonderful dinner.

In keeping with the French Night Theme, between 7:45 and 8:30 PM one could enjoy French Music in the Crystal Cove either before or after dinner.

At the same time, there were two shows appropriately titled La Cabaret Francaise in the Galaxy Showroom featuring the wonderful singing of vocalist Christine Andreas.

We went to the first show and we loved it from start to finish.  This is Christine Andreas.

The show was truly a team effort with a very amazing array of performers mainly from the Crystal Serenity Team including The Galaxy Orchestra, The Astoria Strings, The Crystal Ensemble of Singers & Dancers, along with Beverly & Curtis and Sarah Hayes and Jonathan Hawkins.  The show was produced by World Cruise Special Events Coordinator and former Line Captain Shane Morley.

All in all we enjoyed a wonderful evening on board Serenity including the French Theme for the evening.  We also wanted to mention that an incredible amount of planning and execution goes into all of these events and that included the decorations, yesterday's Jazz Brunch, last evening's French Dinner and last evening's entertainment and it includes personnel from a wide range of departments including Food & Beverage, Entertainment, and so many other areas such as the Carpenters and other crew who assist in making the displays to Housekeeping.  It's a team effort.  One of the key players this time around is Shane Morley who most recently up until May of 2014 had been Line Captain for the Crystal Ensemble of Singers and Entertainers, is now the 2015 World Cruise Events Coordinator and is working tirelessly to make this an outstanding World Cruise.

We slept very well as we were sailing to our next port of call in Manta, Ecuador.  The hours in port were adjusted from the original schedule so instead of departing at 5:00 PM the revised schedule was 1:00 PM.  We were informed about this change earlier on in the voyage.  The reason was that the tour operator cancelled an special land program which involved a trip to Galapagos which 100 or so people had signed up for and for many this was something on their bucket list.  Thankfully, Crystal was able to find an alliterative method to get everyone to Galapagos which involved an early arrival to tomorrows port of call in Quayaquil, Ecuador.

We had our regular morning routine as we do almost each and each day on board Serenity.  Keith was up first and enjoyed another nice workout at the Fitness Center.  Eventually, he went back and worked out two other time during the course of the day.  He did laundry as well and then afterwards he enjoyed coffee at the Lido Cafe.  Anne Marie woke up a little earlier than usual and before breakfast got in most of her daily morning walk.  She finished her workout later in the morning.

We arrived to Manta, Equator at 8:00 AM and had a relatively short say in port.  One of the highlights of the port is a visit to Montecristi which we visited in 2013.   This small town is known for its production of Panama Hats and like many items the prices will vary significantly based on how much detail goes into the production of a particular hat.

We enjoyed lunch at the Lido Cafe at Noon and right afterwards Anne Marie went on her one hour afternoon walk and Keith played Paddle Tennis.  Once we were at sea there was a nice breeze which cooled things off as Keith was playing Paddle Tennis.

Since we left port at 1:00 PM, several activities were added to the afternoon program as this was like having a partial day at sea. In fact, two lectures were given as well as several different classes from fitness, to bridge to art.

Later in the afternoon, Anne Marie went to the Bistro with dear Friend Glo.  A short while later, Keith met up with dear friend Bob and they sat outside at the aft on one of the decks.   The aft decks are very special as it is just a very quiet location with a feel as if you are on a private Yacht.  At one point they saw several porpoises.  

All in all it was another wonderful day on board Serenity.

This evening we will be back in the Crystal Dining Room for dinner.

TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY........

"Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson” – Willie Mays

Keith & Anne Marie