DAY 97 PORT LOUIS, MARIITOUS & DAY 89 CRYSTAL SERENITY

Before dinner last evening we went to the Avenue Saloon for a pre-dinner drink with dear friends John and Linda.  Another guest joined us as well.  As we were leaving the Saloon and making our way over to the Crystal Dining Room we ran into World Cruise Hostess Stacey Huston.

Afterwards, we had dinner at the Crystal Dining Room.  It had been four days since we had been at our table, so from the moment we entered the dining room, we were being teased about being away for so long.  We said, "do you remember us?"  Thankfully, they did.

We each began with salads and then we both had the Kosher Chicken Entree.  It comes with both white and dark meat and since Anne Marie prefers white only guess who had the rest of Anne Marie's Chicken.  LOL, but true.

We enjoyed a lot of good laughs with the waitstaff.  

Maitre d' Leo came by for a few minutes and Head Waiter Augusto checked up on us several times and as usual Senior Waiter Ayhan, Waiter Jan, and Sommelier Ivana took excellent care of us.

We did not go to the evening show and just caught up with reading and writing when we returned to the room.  

We slept very well as we sailed towards Mauritius.  The seas were relatively calm.

Keith was up first and enjoyed a terrific workout at the Fitness Center.  One of his friends from Spin was already working out when Keith arrived which is a rare occurrence that someone would already be woking out at the time of day.  

Afterwards, Keith went to the Lido Cafe for coffee and to read and to write.

Anne Marie got in her regular one hour walk before we had breakfast in our room.  We ate our breakfast as we watched the daily morning show with Gary and Stacey.

Since our arrival to Mauritius was not until Noon, there were various activities on the schedule.  Ken Rees who is the destination lecture spoke about Madagascar.  It was an excellent presentation and we learned a lot about this Island.  It is the fourth biggest Island of the World.  Keith remembers it was shown on the board game Risk that he played back in his youth.  It is also a major producer of  Vanilla and because of its remoteness it also has various animals and plants found only on this island.  We really enjoy Ken's talks.

Anne Marie also went to Yoga Class and also to her Knitting Class.  With some help from a fellow friend/guest yesterday she is knitting socks for the very first time.

Keith also managed to play some Paddle Tennis in the morning.  He played with lecturer Bill Toone who we have known for several years, his wife Sonny, and two guests; Bob and Vito.  This is Bob's first World Cruise and Keith knows Vito who usually comes on board for one or two segments.  During a portion of the games, they have nice views as Serenity arrived to Port Louis.  The good news is we arrived to port well ahead of the 12:00 Noon schedule.  

The irony is that we arrived to this same location on March 20, 2014 and we returned on the same date one year later.  The two differences is that last year we arrived in the morning and we did not have to go through any formal face to face with immigration personnel.  Consistent with a new trend that over the past couple of years we have seen more and more of, the local authorities required that each guest with Passport in hand along with an entry and exit document, be seen by the immigration officials on board Serenity before we could enter their country.  As each guest went through this process, they were handed a blue card to show at the gangway. We were given a set time to arrive and the other good news is that they were well ahead of schedule so we were able to do this face-to-face meeting well ahead of schedule.

We had our a salad entree for lunch in our room.  Butler Rao was on break, so one of the other Butler's Provin Brought us the lunch.  Provin is from Mauritius and will actually be going on Holiday today which works out great for him.  He will have no flights and after he walks off the ship his family will pick him up to drive him home.

As to Mauritius, tourism is very strong, although very few cruise ships sail to this location.  The vast majority of tourism comes from tourists who visit here by airplane.

Unemployment on the Island is relatively low at 5%.  If you want to work you can.  Much of the work centers around tourism.  Major exports do include sugar and textiles.  Labor is relatively cheap.

For some very scenic views of the Island some of the guests took tours of either the North Coast or the South Coast.  At the same time there are items of interest to see in and around the town.

The Tamil Temple, which is one of the oldest temples on the island of Mauritius.

There are several Markets around town which locals frequent to purchase spices, fruits and vegetables.  Plentiful fruits which are local include bananas, watermelon and dragon fruit (first time we ever had dragon fruit was on board Crystal Serenity in 2008) and many vegetables that are local can be found at the markets.  In addition, they import fruit and vegetables from South Africa, Italy and Pakistan.

This vegetable is called Pulkin.

Another site located around thirty minutes from town is the Eureka Colonial House, which is one of the most historic colonial houses found on this island.  It was built in 1830.

The temperature was in the 80's (fahrenheit) but it felt warmer because of the humidity.

After six and one-half days at sea it was nice to have a port stop, even if arrival was not in the early morning.

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

Crystal Serenity will set sail for our next port of call at 10:00 PM this evening.

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

"People rarely succeed unless they have fun n what they are doing."  - Dale Carnegie

Keith & Anne Marie