DAY 139 ST THOMAS & 131 ON CRYSTAL SERENITY

We wanted to mentioned that the stop at Barbados was a lot of fun not only for us but many of our friends who we spoke with.  Like us, some walked to and from the city centre.  Others we know went to one of a couple of beaches that is within a short taxi drive from either the City Centre or the Pier and many enjoyed a relaxing day on the beach with some enjoying a beer or mixed drink.  Still others went snorkeling and other friends went golfing and some went on other tours including even a safari.  When you visit so many places around the world, sometimes it is that simple place such as Barbados which is a good change for many just to have a very simple day.  

The other good thing about stopping at Barbados is that the ship took on some much needed vegetables, salads and fruits so we are in good shape until we arrive to Miami.  

Before dinner last evening we enjoyed a pre-dinner drink at the Avenue Saloon with friends ohn and Linda and Rob and Jim.  Rob and Jim would be joining us for dinner a little while later.

We returned to the Crystal Dining Room with Rob and Jim.  Early on in the World Cruise we had dinner with them  at Tastes.  We also dined with them at Silk Road at the suggestion of dear friends Lynn and Buddy who had thought it would be nice for the six of us to have dinner together at Silk Road.  We also sat with Rob and Jim and a few other guests at the second shore side World Cruise event in Montevideo, Uruguay.  It is always fun getting together with them and we had an absolutely wonderful time at dinner.  

For those of you who know us or have been following our travels you know that the vast majority of our meals in the dining room are  usually three courses with salad, fish and fruit as those three courses.  We do try to do this often as part of eating healthy but once in a while we will have something different and this is one of those evenings.  This is where all of the workouts that we do come in very handy.  LOL, but so very true.

We had taken the liberty of ordering a few items for dinner and had run some of them by Jim and Rob to be sure they would be fine with the choices.  

As it turned out we didn't even need a menu.

They had asked if we could order Tuna Tartare, since they remembered that Keith would have it from time-to-time but they mentioned they had never had it before.  We started with this for our first course with Keith, Jim & Rob having the Tuna Tartare and Anne Marie having Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail.

Augusto prepared it table side for us.

For our next course we had Caesar Salad.  Like the Tuna Tartare, Head Waiter Augusto also made this for the four of us.

We had also pre-ordered Beef Wellington for our third and the main course.  While you can find this on the menu usually on Black Tie Optional nights, we usually have something else instead as we minimize the amount of beef we consume.  Knowing that there would be the four of us dining together we thought this would be a nice item to pre-order and yes it was.  The Beef Wellington was also accompanied with roasted potatoes and we also had our usual sides of vegetables.

There was plenty of leftover Beef Wellington for others to have as well.  It was cooked perfectly.

Augusto surprised us by ordering a dessert for us.  It was the first time we have ever had it.  It is called Milchyohmstrudel and is an Ausrian Recipe.

Unfortunately the photo did not come out very well but it was taken as Augusto was cutting the dessert.

This is a photo with Head Waiters Augusto and Franz.  Franz was also busy making dessert for some of his guests.

We had an absolutely wonderful time with Jim and Rob.  

We skipped the evening show as Anne Marie is still getting over a virus.

We slept very well last evening as we sailed to St. Thomas.  We were traveling at close to 21 knots per hour.

Our morning routine was the same as it always is;

Keith was up first and after his workout.  Unlike the day before when we had moved the clock back one hour there were only a couple of other guests that began their workout around the time Keith had finished his workout.  Afterwards,  he had coffee at the Lido Cafe and read and wrote.

Anne Marie was up next and walked for one hour before we had breakfast in our room thanks to Rao.

Anne Marie went to Yoga but left mid-way through as she was not feeling well.  She went to see the doctor and she has a sinus infection so she has been put on strong antibiotics and a nasal spray.  As such, she skipped Knitting today.

Keith took the indoor cycling class and it was taught by Leanne.  It was one of the most challenging classes of the voyage.  Some of the regulars were not there as they were doing other sports related activities including Paddle Tennis and Pilates.

After Keith's spin class he changed and played Paddle Tennis.

The original plan was to arrive to St. Thomas at 1:00 PM but during Captain Giske's morning talk from the bridge he noted that because we were being pushed by the wind we would dock by around 12:00 Noon and he was correct.  As Keith was playing Paddle Tennis he could see our arrival to the pier.  It was sunny, warm and humid, but nevertheless he had a great time playing.

The morning featured many activities including to lectures:

Robert Warne spoke about how a diplomat dealt with hot spots and crises in the Caribbean.

David Davenport spoke about the new deal and American Conservatism.

At noon we had lunch and had our usual Salad Entrees.


As mentioned,  we arrived to St. Thomas at 2:00 PM today.  St. Thomas was added to the schedule a few months ago and Grand Turk was removed.  This was done so that the guests could clear United States of America Immigration instead of waiting for Miami.  Evidently, with so many ships in port in Miami, Crystal was give a time for the immigrations officials to clear both the crew and the guests and it was a very sub-optimal time.  By clearing everyone in St. Thomas it will make disembarkation day in Miami go a lot smoother than it would have been should the original schedule have been kept in place.  Similarly, in 2012 we cleared United States customs in San Francisco, two days before arriving to our final port of call stop in Los Angeles (San Pedro) and likewise in 2013 we cleared immigration in Key West, Florida the day before arriving to our final stop in Miami.  Even last year with our final stop in Southampton, England a British Customs official was brought on board the ship a few days before our final stop and this facilitated getting everyone cleared before our arrival to Southampton.

The morning of embarkation is quite busy as so many guests will be departing the ship in Miami, and Crystal provides vehicles for all of the full World Cruisers to get from ship to one of the Florida Airports and these vehicles must be scheduled so that they take guests to the airport and then return to the ship to take the next set of guests to the airport as there are just not enough vehicles to take care of all guests in one single trip.  Getting the clearance out of the way, is very wise and allows for as orderly a disembarkation as possible.

We had received a letter in our room yesterday morning noting the time we should show up for customs and for us that was 2:15 PM.  As it turned out we had one of the earlier times.  With our earlier than scheduled arrival, they moved up the time for immigration and we were called at around 12:45 PM and even with around twenty people ahead of us it took only five minutes. There were two immigration personnel taking care of the area for USA citizens and they looked at each of our passports and looked at our face and that was it.  Then someone from Crystal punched a  hole in our keycard which would be an indication to Crystal Security at the Gangway that we had gone through immigration.

These are some photos we took after we arrived to St. Thomas.

Today is a holiday as they call it Carnival day so we didn't go to the downtown area which is about a 10 minute drive from the pier since most businesses were closed and many locals were there for what some described was some sort of festival. Like most guests, we walked around the area near the port.  Some of the stores were open since we were in port.  We were the only ship in port so it was not crowded.  Our last visit to St. Thomas was in the mid-1990's and much of what we saw did not exist back then.

After walking around for quite sometime, Anne Marie was feeling tired so she Keith walked her back to the ship and then Keith stayed out for a little while longer.

It is hard to believe this was the last port of call on World Cruise 2015.  We now have two sea days to enjoy before we arrive to Miami.

Anne Marie relaxed on the ship and then afterwards, Keith met up with dear friend Bob.

All in all we enjoyed another wonderful day.

This evening we originally were supposed to dine at Prego but decided to cancel that reservation and instead dine again at the Crystal Dining Room.

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

 “In the hopes of reaching the moon, men fail to see the flowers that blossom at their feet.” – Albert Schweizer

Keith & Anne Marie