Afterwards, we sat at the Crystal Plaza. Anne Marie even tried a Bellini which was the drink of the day. She only had a portion of it.
We enjoyed dinner last night as we were back at Silk Road. Our guest was Jamie Brown who is a Manager at Crystal Cruises headquarters responsible for Quality Assurance and also for being the prime person who interfaces with the on board vendors including the vendors who run the stores, spa/salon and photo departments and she is also involved with a few other areas on the ship including crew uniforms.
We first met Jamie in 2007 when she came on as the Crystal Society Hostess. After performing that function for a few years she became one of the on-board Sales Consultants and then a few years later she assumed her Manager responsibilities at the Crystal Headquarters. We have seen her the past few years often on embarkation day for the World Cruise and then later on in the World Cruise and when she comes on for a few days we have had dinner with her.
We enjoyed a lovely discussion with Jamie and of course we were treated to the outstanding cuisine and equally wonderful service and the fantastic ambience of Silk Road.
Anthony was our Waiter and took excellent care of all of us. We dined for close to two hours and just had an absolutely delightful evening being together with Jamie.
When we returned to our room there was a letter from World Cruise Hostess Stacey Huston about some upcoming events.
Talk about delivery. We also received a card from friends who are on the Symphony which was delivered by another couple who was on Symphony with them and then boarded Serenity. Now, that is excellent delivery service. LOL, but true.
The good news is that we moved the clock back by 30 minutes. In a few days we will move the clock back by 1.5 hours. The only time we remember ever doing something similar to this was when we traveled India.
Captain Giske had said that the winds would not be as bad as they were when we arrived to Melbourne but to play it safe we moved wine bottles to our couches and we also put plates and the fruit bowl in a lower location.
We slept very well last night as we are now sailing to our next port of call.
Keith was up first and back at the Fitness Center and from there for some coffee. As Captain Giske noted, the winds were not to bad so it made Keith's workout much easier than a few days ago when we were arriving to Melbourne with winds of 100 miles per hour.
By the time that Keith made it up to the Lido Cafe for coffee, the winds had picked up. To be on the safe side, this time around no dishes were left out and the tables were all set with place mats and flatware but coffee mugs and saucers and even dishes that hold sweetness and salt and pepper shakers were not on the tables. Keith read and wrote as he always does until it was time to bring some coffee back to the room for Anne Marie.
Shortly after Anne Marie woke up, she walked for an hour.
While Anne Marie was walking, Keith went up to the Fitness Center for a second workout. There were quite a few people in the Fitness Center by then.
We had breakfast in our room at 8:00 AM while we watched the daily morning show. Cruise Director, Gary, and World Cruise Hostess, Stacey, had a special guest none other than President & COO of Crystal Cruises Edie Rodriquez.
Gary asked Edie to speak about her background and then he asked about the acquisition of Crystal Cruises. Edie said that NYK made the decision to focus on their core business which is shipping with their container ships. She also said that it was a good time for NYK to divest given the strong performance of the company. She also said there were several suiters of Crystal and that one of the reasons that NYK went with Crystal was that GHK brought a lot to the business and that their approach would be best for keeping Crystal as it is in so many ways as well as the best for the employees of Crystal. It was not solely driven on price.
Around the time when the Morning Show was coming to a conclusion, Captain Giske made an announcement from the bridge that due to a Medical Emergency we would be heading towards land so that the person can be taken off the ship.
At 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM there were two different sessions featuring President and COO of Crystal Cruises Edie Rodriquez and Executive Vice President Thomas Mazloum who boarded Serenity yesterday in Melbourne.
Edie began the talk by continuing what she said earlier in the morning about why GHK was chosen and that NYK wanted to be sure that the company selected would continue with the high standards of Crystal Cruises. She assured everyone that Management team and all employees would be in place. She also said that with a third ship there will be a lot more opportunity for the crew.
She then spoke about the 2018 World Cruise. There will be two ships doing a total of four world cruises on both Symphony and Serenity.
World Cruise 1 Symphony Miami to Cape Town January 7 to April 30, 2018
World Cruise 2 Serenity Los Angeles to Rome January 23 to May 16, 2018
World Cruise 3 Symphony to Serenity Cape Town to Rome January 7 to May 16
World Cruise 4 Serenity to Symphony Los Angeles to Miami January 23 to April 30
With WC3 and WC4 you hop on from one ship to the other when both ships are in Sydney in mid-February 2018.
For the first set of World Cruises on Symphony and Serenity they will meet on the same date in Sydney and that there will be a shore side event for everyone and that it will also provide the opportunity for people to set up their booking to take say the first part of the Serenity cruise and get off in Sydney and then take the Symphony to finish up the first one of their two World Cruises or they could being the World Cruise on Symphony and then switch over to Serenity. When we got back to our room there was a catalog on our bed with all of the details including pricing.
We dined at the Crystal Dining Room and had lunch with Executive Vice President, Thomas Mazloum. We are very appreciative to Thomas for taking time out of his busy schedule and short time on the Serenity to have lunch with us.
In the afternoon, Keith met up with dear friend Bob and Anne Marie worked on her knitting.
This evening we will be back at the Crystal Dining Room.
TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY......
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust
Keith & Anne Marie
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