Food.
Overall, we have found the food to be divine. This includes its overall tastiness, diversity offerings and its presentation. Following last year's world cruise when we remained on board Serenity, we enjoyed the introduction of the Modern Cuisine Menu in the Crystal Dining Room and find that between the Modern and Traditional menus that when it comes to the entrees there is more choices than ever before and often we like the uniqueness of the ingredients in many of the modern cuisine menu items. We also especially like the Tastes menu, and we do enjoy Silk Road and Prego.
This is not to imply that each and every meal or item we have is always stellar. Just like a favorite land based restaurant that we used to go to before we moved to our current residence, not every dining experience nor every meal was perfect. The same by the way is true for the meals we prepare at home.
We would say that 95%+ of the dinners have been excellent to outstanding, and that a handful of times they were not. On one occasion each of our entrees was not hot and a few other times we either just didn't care for the item as it might have been a fish that we had forgotten that we don't really like, or it might have been that we didn't care for the way it was prepared. In the case of the food not being hot, since that time the Crystal Dining Room waitstaff has gone the extra mile to ensure that it comes to our table at the temperature in which we enjoy it, and in the other cases we just avoid the seafood we didn't care for. Of course, if one doesn't care for something the waitstaff in any of the venues will be more than happy to offer something in its place.
Similarly, we have really enjoyed the majority of the lecturers, but clearly not all. We usually judge the lecturers based on their method of presentation, their slides and also whether or not we learned something that we didn't know and what the takeaways were. We would say that 80 to 90% of the lecturers were indeed ones that we liked. The other 10% were either first time lecturers who read word for word from their slides or prepared remarks, and/or lecturers that came across as professors in college who were teaching say a Freshman course with hundreds of student in the class where trying to stay awake is a challenge. At the same time we remind ourselves that some lectures that we like others might not and of course the reverse is true.
Finally, like food, lectures and most things in life, entertainment can be very subjective. What we like someone might not and what someone does likes we might not care for. We have thoroughly enjoyed the on board entertainment that was created for the World Cruise. These are those one time performances that are written and choreographed on the World Cruise. We would call these wows!
We like the production shows but don't go to see them often since we have seen them on previous cruises and we have enjoyed most of the entertainers that we have seen, but clearly not all.
The point we wanted to make which we did when we first welcomed you to the blog, is that we don't dwell on the few things we don't care for and there is no way that each and every item is going be perfect all of the time because that's really not possible. While we don't dwell on what we don't care for, we do provide constructive feedback whether that is in real time about say the entree that was too cold when it arrived at the table or in a survey when asked to rate the entertainers/enrichment personnel. In general, we focus on those items that we enjoy and don't spend time on those items that we either didn't care for or didn't go our way since by far those items that we do enjoy significantly outweigh those that we don't like as much.
Overall, we have been having an exceptional time and in the end that is what matters to us the most.
Now, let's start with where we left off from yesterday's Blog posting.
We enjoyed a nice time on Serenity last evening.
We had a pre-dinner drink at the Crystal Cove and at around 5:50 PM Captain Birger spoke from the bridge and noted that the anchor was being secured and that Crystal Serenity would shortly depart from Bermuda.
Some people came up to us and told us about their experiences in Bermuda. One woman was thrilled that through another tour she was on the first day that she met someone who she went with yesterday to have some very unique bird-watching experiences. Another woman told us of a tour that she arranged privately where she went horseback riding for two hours. Still another woman told us about how much she enjoyed a tour she had with Crystal involving going on a glass bottom boat to see the reefs. We ourselves have done the latter tour on a previous visit to Bermuda.
There are several people on this voyage who participate in a forum called Cruise Critic which is an internet based site where people post about items related to Cruising. Some of the items/questions are specific to a cruise line such as Crystal Cruises, while others are specific to ports of call around the world. Someone might post about their experience in a port of call including what they did or a tour they had while others might post with a range of questions.
Some people who participate on Cruise Critic who are on this cruise had asked about getting together one night for dinner so Keith took the lead to arrange a night for those interested to get together and that was last night. Including ourselves, fourteen of us dined at the Prego Italian Specialty Restaurant at two large tables; one a table of 8 and the other a table of 6.
Keith had gotten with Specialty Restaurant Maitre d' Antonio, and Prego Head Waiter, Slavko, a couple of weeks ago and they were nice enough to organize this for us including preparing table cards designating a table and a seat for each person who dined with us to sit at. Keith had also asked if they could prepare Eggplant Parmigiana and offer it to each person as either an appetizer or an entree and they also had roasted garlic for everyone who wanted it.
One of the waiters, Costa, took care of our table and one of the other waiters took care of the other table that was relatively closely to us. Sommelier, Jiri, took care of both tables.
Keith took the night off from photography so we don't have photos to share with you so we will just let you know in words what we had. We each had the eggplant as an appetizer. For our second course, Keith had his standing order salad while Anne Marie had the Caesar Salad. For our entree, Anne Marie had Veal and Keith had the Bronzino. Others at our table tried other items including some having mushroom soup for their appetizer, some having the steak for their entree as well as the lamb.
We had a wonderful time dining. We had met most of the people ahead of time, and we also knew a few people from previous sailings on board either Symphony or Serenity. Some people are sailing Crystal for the first time including some at our table.
It was nice to get to know those at our table. One couples lives in New Jersey, another couple used to live in New Jersey and now lives in Florida and the third couple is originally from Ohio and Illinois respectively, and lives in Utah. We talked about a whole range of subjects from technology, to grandchildren, to travel to our careers and of course about cruising.
The only downside about this itinerary is forwarding the clocks forward rather than moving the clocks back and last night was the second night that we forwarded the clocks forward one hour before going to sleep.
The good news is that we fell to sleep relatively quickly and we both slept well through the evening.
We don't set an alarm clock and Keith's body alarm clock usually gets him up in the morning at his desired time. The only difference today is that his body clock was in sync of the time before we moved the clocks forward. In other words, he woke up one hour later than normal but that was good since we really have nothing to rush too.
Keith made it to the Fitness Center and did a shorter workout knowing he would workout again after Anne Marie was up and about. As usual, he followed this up with coffee at the Lido Cafe.
He brought coffee back to the room for Anne Marie. A short while later Anne Marie walked for an hour inside the ship. Keith went back to the Fitness Center to finish up his workout. Shortly after she returned back to the room from her walk we had breakfast in the room.
The seas looked like glass this morning, and we enjoyed a nice sunrise. We also spotted a couple of whale from the ship.
Today is the first of five sea days as we make our way to our next port of call in Azores/Ponta Delgada which will be a first time visit to this port for us.
With today being a sea day there was lots on the program in the way of enrichment and other activities.
Keith took the indoor cycling class that was offered at 8:45 AM. It was taught by Fitness Instructor Leanne and all but one bike was in use.
Todays' Lectures included:
Ronald Marks who spoke about spying in America in the post 9/11 world. This included discussing how much we spy on ourselves which was a very timely discussion given the recent ruling by the court about NSA spying and the bill that is coming up in the congress.
Later in the morning was the 25th Anniversary Captain's Interview with Cruise Director Rick interviewing Captain Glenn Edvardsen.
We
enjoyed the talk/question and answer session with Cruise Director Rick and
Captain Glenn.
Rick
began by introducing Glenn and then as the discussion went along he would ask
Glenn various questions. Glenn
also brought several photos to share with all of us.
Glenn
began his career with Crystal in 1991 one year after Crystal started. He was the Captain on all three ships;
Harmony, Symphony and Serenity and he was the first captain on Serenity and
served on Serenity for ten years.
Glenn’s
Mother did not want him to go to sea as both his Mother and Father were at sea
nine months out of each year.
However, Glenn knew fro many years that he did want to go to sea and at
the young age of 15 he first went to sea.
Glenn
is Married and we met his wife several years ago and his daughters are both at
University in London and are 21 and 23.
Glenn and his wife live in Oslo, Norway.
Glenn
left Crystal Serenity in late 2012 (we last sailed with him on the 2012 World
Cruise) as he was offered a job as CEO of one of NYK’s (current owner of
Crystal) subsidiary’s. The company
he runs, ships cars using nine owned vessels and approximately 14 leased
facilities. They ship not only Toyota vehicles but
also vehicles for GM, BMW and Mercedes.
Glenn
mentioned that when he first was offered the position he had to think about it
but he realized that as they saying goes it is better to regret something you
did rather than something you didn’t do.
He
showed us a photo of a new carrier ship that is being constructed in China and
his company will be taking ownership of two of these vessels which will have
the capacity to carry 4,000 vehicles and will run on Natural Gas as opposed to
oil and will even be able to sail the Northwest Passage. He goes to China frequently for this
project.
He
was asked what he missed the most and he said it was the atmosphere but mainly
the people including both guests and crew and also he misses the
camaraderie. In the end, he says
what sets Crystal apart is the people and we could not agree more with
this.
He
was asked what was the most challenging port to sail to and he said it had been
Curacao between the strong current and the narrow passageway.
He
was asked if he ever had to give the order to abandon ship and he said
thankfully that was never the case.
He said the closest he had come to that was a fire in the Engine Room on
the way to St. Lucia and that the crew did precisely what they were supposed to
do and put out the fire. He said
that this is why they train and practice so much.
Many
of us remember that on each and every sea day of the World Cruise that Captain
Glenn would read a thought for the day and he was asked if he did that with his
new company. He said at when he posts information to a site for his team at work, that he concludes each positing with a short version of the thought of the day which his people do enjoy.
All
in all it was a very enjoyable talk and question and answer session and both
Rick and Glenn did a great job.
They have a great chemistry as the did when they were together for four
World Cruises and many other voyages.
The afternoon included another lecture which was given by Esther Kim Lee, about Rodgers and Hammerstein's work. Finally, later in the afternoon, Andrew Friedenberg presented the lost recordings of Frank Sinatra in the Hollywood theatre.
Keith played Paddle Tennis for a couple of hours in the afternoon and them met up with some other guests.
Anne Marie walked for an hour and then worked on her knitting projects.
Overall, the weather was quite nice and we are enjoying relatively calm seas.
This evening we will be back in the Crystal Dining Room for dinner.
We
will close today with two thoughts from Captain Glenn.
TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY......
It
is the job that never started that takes the longest to finish.
Don’t
cry because it is over, simply smile because it happened.
No comments:
Post a Comment