DAY 11 - WELCOME TO ANTIGUA

There was a sail-away party as we left St. Lucia late yesterday afternoon.  Complimentary rum punch was served.

Last evening, we were back in the the Crystal Main Dining Room.  This is last nights dinner menu.

Before dinner we posted in the Crystal Cove for a photo.

On this voyage we are dining more at the Crystal Dining Room than we normally do on a 14 day sailing.  As the adventure moves forward we will change things up as we dine a little more at some of the specialty restaurants.

We really enjoy our Senior Waiter, Jijo, who was our Senior Waiter from January thru Mid-March of this year and he will be going on a well deserved holiday on January 18 after we arrive to Los Angeles so that is another reason we will be dining at the Crystal Dining Room more often than usual. 

We also wanted to note how much we are enjoying, Pierre, our Sommelier. We had him on one of five legs earlier this year.  We find him to be not only very knowledgeable about wine but also his passion for wine comes out each and every day.  We also like how he pours the wine (not too much and not too little) and he is always observant and always seems to know when to check if we need more wine poured.  Sometimes the Sommeliers do not rotate from cruise to cruise (that was the case in 2010 when we had the same Sommelier the entire time) and sometimes they rotate each and every cruise.  The Head Sommelier makes that decision.  We learned that we will have a different Sommelier on the next leg of this adventure but that is good too because you get new perspectives.  Pierre is also going on Holiday starting January 18 in Los Angeles.

It's also been a special treat having Giuseppe as our Headwaiter.  We have had Giuseppe on many voyages along with many of the other outstanding Headwaiters.  Maybe one day we will shock Giuseppe by having some dessert that he makes for others and always offer to make for us such as Cherries Jubilee or Crepes Suzette.  That would make his day.

We began our dinner with salads.  Keith had a salad that he has on most evenings and Anne Marie had a Heart of Boston Lettuce sale with Marinated Apple-Celery Salad,Sliced Mango, and Caramelized Pecan Nuts.

For our entree we each had the Seared Fresh Ahi Tuna Steak.  We do eat a lot of fish on board the ship and we usually select one that is fresh. We both really enjoyed the Tuna Steak.  The sesame crust really added to the taste of the Tuna Steak.

Anne Marie had sherbet for dessert and Keith had mixed berries.

Afterwards, we spoke with several passengers including Dave.

We slept well last evening as we sailed to our next port of call in Antigua.  Keith was the first one up and there was a little more movement on the ship than usual but he was easily able to make his way up to the Fitness Center.  While he worked out, he watched a lecture that was given by Sports Physician, Dr. Jordan Metzl who spoke about a guide to recognizing and preventing knee pain for athletes of any age.  When he spoke the other day he was the fourth of four lectures that day and we couldn't attend it as it was at 4:30 PM that afternoon.  It's nice that the lectures are recorded and shown on the television.  

Keith enjoyed both the topic and his presentation style.  He is a very good speaker and he was able to succinctly present the information in a manner that was easy to understand without speaking over the head of the audience.

There were several takeaways from the talk.  Three major takeaways were as follows:

1)  The knee receives tremendous force that is many times one body weight.  One of the ways to minimize this impact is to be conscious of ones weight.

2)  If you sense knee pain be sure to see a physician so that they can determine the cause and then develop a joint game plan to address it.  Often, they can not only address the problem but also address what the underlining cause of the knee issue.  For example, it might relate to ones feet and how they walk.  There are times that they may send you for physical therapy and from the therapist you can learn exercises to do at home.

3) Strengthening the knee muscles either pro-actively to prevent problems or after the fact to address a knee problem are very effective.  About 8 years ago Keith had a knee problem where it was aching quite a bit and that is exactly what his physician recommended.  Keith would use various weight lifting machines which over a one year period strengthened his knee and the pain went away.

Doctor Metzl is coming out with a book so we will try to look for it.

Anne Marie walked for an hour on the Promenade Deck and around the time she got back we enjoyed breakfast in the room.

We arrived to Antigua at around 8:00 AM and we walked off the ship at 9:00 AM.  

There was a small local band playing Caribbean music.

We first visited St. John's Cathedral which was built in 1681.

Our next stop was to the Museum of Antigua and Barbuda.

We then walked up and down several other streets.  People were setting up little tables to sell a variety of goods and we walked in and out of some small shops. Unlike St. Lucia where it was difficult to walk around town because of limited sidewalks and lots of pedestrians and motor vehicles.

On our way back to the pier we stopped in a few shops, including one of the jewelry shops where we spoke with the Crystal on board shopper, Chris, who helped us with some questions.  Keith had actually spoken with him earlier in the morning to get some advice.  We have sailed with him on a couple of other voyages and have found his advice to be very sound.  Today, we just looked at the jewelry but it was good to know that should we have been interested in something that we could get some help from Chris.

We stopped to take a few photos of the beautiful Crystal Serenity as well as a local ice cream and chocolate parlor.  Here we thought we were in Antigua.  Australia comes later on the World Cruise!

The view from the front of the Crystal Serenity sporting her new exterior look from her dry-dock in May.

We enjoyed lunch at the Lido Cafe and in the afternoon Keith played paddle tennis. Afterwards, he spoke with some fellow passengers and also read and wrote and Anne Marie took a one hour walk on the Promenade Deck and then sat out by the pool.

Each day, Anne Marie is also working on needlepoint.  On each Crystal Cruise Voyage a complimentary needlepoint kit is given out (there is a selection of kits to choose from) so Anne Marie has been working on her first kit throughout this voyage.

Once again, the weather was in the low 80's.  It was a beautiful day other than around thirty minutes of a very slight drizzle.  

This evening we will be dining in the Crystal Main Dining Room.  Early seating dinner normally begins at 6:00 PM, and we normally arrive at that time.  However, since it is only the two of us dining and we want to stay up to welcome the New Year we let our Senior Waiter, Headwaiter, and the Maitre d' know last evening that we will arrive between 6:30 and 6:45 PM.  That will still provide plenty of time for dinner and allow the waitstaff to easily be able to get the table ready for the 8:30 PM late seating.

We wanted to take a moment to wish each of you a very safe, healthy and Happy New Year.  Let's bring on 2012.

Keith and Anne Marie

DAY 10 WELCOME TO ST. LUCIA

All we can say is wow!.  Last evening we went to The Vintage Room with friends Bob and Glo, their daughter and son-in-law and two friends from their home town.  We had an absolutely wonderful time. We were there for about three and one-half hours and not only enjoyed a wide range of wine paired with some very delicious foods but we learned a great deal about wine, including the wines that we were enjoying.

As background we had only been to The Vintage Room on one previous cruise, in November of 2011.  On that cruise Keith was on a trivia team that as part of Crystal Cruises 20 year anniversary celebration won and each of the team members got to bring one guest for a complimentary night at the Vintage Room.

The Vintage Room offers a very special dining experience where very special food items are paired with wines.  One can sign up for the room (there is a cost for this) and they will be placed in a group to share this experience on one of the evenings of the cruise.  The other option is to book an exclusive Vintage Room experience and to decide who will attend for one set price whether you have one person attend or up to fourteen people on this ship.  On the sister ship the Crystal Symphony up to twelve people can attend.   The fewer the people, the pricier the wines that are served as whether there is one or fourteen people the total cost for the exclusive Vintage Room is all the same.

Six of the eight of us met with the Head Sommelier, Bart Dufour ,  a few days ago to select the menu for the evening and to go over the wines that would be served.  Ironically, Bart is the Head Sommelier who oversaw The Vintage Room when we were on the Crystal Symphony and moved over to the Serenity earlier this year.  We actually chose food items from three recommended menus but we could have selected other items not on the list and we went with Bart's recommendations for wine.  We easily reached consensus on the food items and the wines.  Bart also coordinates all of this with the executive chef for the Crystal Serenity.

We are not wine snobs by any means.  While we have significantly increased our knowledge over the years and a lot of the credit goes to our cruising with Crystal Cruises as well as others who have given us  excellent advice (much thanks to Dick W. and to a few other selected individuals), along with our own experiences on land, we realize there is much to learn in this area.  We also realize that wine is about personal preference and that a low price wine can be much more pleasing that say an overrated high price wine.

We arrived a little before the start time of  7:00 PM and spoke with Bart for a few minutes.

We all began with a flute of wine to kickoff this special evening.  Knowing there would be much to taste we only had a portion of the flute but really enjoyed the champagne.   A group photo is also taken.    As a memory of the evening we each receive a copy of the group photograph and the menus which include explanations of each wine.

We do pace ourselves and we drank a portion of most of the wines and truly savor its smell and taste with each pairing.  That way we do not need to be escorted to our room.  With that said, it is a great opportunity to do this on the ship where there is no pressure to drive oneself home.

We will explain a lot more about what we experienced with the photos that follow.

What we believe says it all is that at the end of the evening, Chris, who does know a lot about wine, and who has attended many more wine dinners like this on land than any of us, said that the overall explanation of the wines, and the wines themselves along with the food pairings was the best wine dinner he had ever attended.

For us, it was an incredible evening.  We thoroughly enjoyed the group we were with and between the outstanding job done by Bart, along with the elegant service of those serving each course, along with the delicious food and wine and the way they were paired allowed us to make wonderful memories that will truly last a lifetime.

The evening began as we  took the elevator down to the Vintage Room as Anne Marie was wearing very high heel shoes.  Keith tried to take a photo of ourselves using the mirror of the elevator.

Welcome to The Vintage Room

We didn't drink all of the wine in this cabinet.

The table is set in preparation for The Vintage Room Experience.  On the table are menus and detailed descriptions of each wine.

We were the first to arrive to The Vintage Room.

Head Sommelier Bart Dufour with Anne Marie

We had a lot of fun with everyone.  This included Bob and Glo on our side of the table, and their

son in-law and daughter, Bill and Diane and their hometown friends Chris and Johnette who are directly on the opposite side of the table from us.  Yes, it was boy girl, boy girl.

Each wine was paired with a special food item.   After we had a welcome champagne the first pairing was Pan-Seared Sea Scallops paired with a Puligny-Montrachet, Etienne Sauzet, Montrachet, Burgundy 2008 wine.

Next pairing was Lobster Thermidor with Chardonnay, ACVS, Talley Vineyard, Arroyo Grande, Santa Rosa 2006.

Third pairing was Sun-Driet Tomato Crusted Black Cod with a Gevrey-Chambertin, Vielles Vignes, Serafin Pere & Fils, Cote de Nuits, Burgundy 2004

Next Pairing was Duo of Beef of Grilled Wagyu Filet Mignon & Short Rib which was paired with a Chateau Lascombes, Second Growth, Margaux, Bordeaux 2008 wine and also a Cabernet Sauvignon, Quella, Bond, Napa Valley 2006 wine.  You could cut the short rib with just your fork.  The Bond wine was truly amazing.

Next course was a Selection of Artisanal Cheeses served with various crackers and breads.

The dessert was a Lemon Martini which was Lemon Curd with Cookie Crust and Buttermilk Ice Cream which was paired with a Trockenbeerenauslese, Grand Cuvee No. 6 Kracher, Burgenland, Austria 2000

dessert wine.  The dessert wine was also amazing.

Also, Cognac Truffles were offered along with coffee, but are not shown in the photo.

This photo shows the champagne along with all of the wines we enjoyed last evening, with the exception of the dessert wine.

As we mentioned, this was the second time we have done The Vintage Room and both times were with Head Sommelier Bart Dufour.  He not only did an outstanding job with all of the selections and coordinating all of the details, but his explanation of the food and the wines were just fabulous.  He was able to cover a wide array of items including how to view the colors of each wine, what the colors mean, smelling each wine, and finally how to taste each wine.  He also covered a lot of interesting facts about each wine we were drinking.  He also gave us a lot of good advice from the selection of wines, to getting them ready to be poured to how to pour wine.

Our favorite of the wines was the last one which was the Cabernet Sauvignon by Bond.  We asked Bart how much this retails for on the ship.  We learned the price is $400.00 per bottle on the ship and actually because of Crystal's relationship with Bond over the year the price is actually less than what one would pay at a wine store where it would likely retail for around $450.00 per bottle.  After Keith smelled the wine he knew we would like this one and he loved it.  Knowing that we would like this one, whereas one bottle was opened for each tasting, Bart had decanted two bottles of this wine.

While we certainly would not purchase a bottle of this for ourselves on land and at sea (unless we won the lottery), this is part of what makes the experience so very interesting.

We learned that the winery that produces one of the white wines we had (Chardonnay) only produced 2,000 bottles each year and only 10% of them are available as the rest is mainly sold to very large hotels and special restaurants.

At the end of the evening we thanked Bart for coordinating a perfect Vintage Room experience for each of us and we also thanked the wait staff for also making this very special for us.

We thought we would also post the menus from last evenings dinner in the Main Dining Room.  The them was the Neptune Dinner.

We slept well last night.  We know you are asking was that due to the rocking of the ship that we often mention or was that due to the wine.  We will split the difference and attribute it to both but the rocking of the ship is likely the major reason as it normally is.

Keith was up early and we each worked out as we normally do before breakfast and then enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in our room.

We arrived to St. Lucia by around 6:30 AM.  This is our second time to St. Lucia so we didn't do a tour.

When we first arrived to St. Lucia it was drizzling but by the time we left the ship the rain had stopped and the sun eventually came out.

As we were making our way down the gangway of the ship we saw that the ship photographers were already on the pier taking photos of passengers.  We thought we would give them a chance to post so Keith asked them if the would like to pose for a photo and we said that copies for purchase would be available later in the day.  Of course we had to reciprocate by letting them take a photo of us as well.

The challenge when it comes to walking around this area is that often many of the sidewalks are either crowded with locals and/or visitors and in other cases taxis literally park on the sidewalk making it dangerous to walk b foot.

There were four ships in port so we walked over to the dock on the other side from where we were docked to look at the two cruise ships over there.  It also gave us a nice view of the Crystal Serenity.

We stopped at a nearby market and walked around for a little while. 

While we have seen signs at many places around the world asking people to refrain from smoking it is not often that the sign also includes a request to not to smoke.

We returned to the ship about an hour.

As we were heading back to the pier for a second time, we ran into Dave and had a nice conversation and then we all saw Gary and spoke for a little while.  We had dined with Dave and Gary in Prego on Christmas Day.

Since this is our second time here we didn’t go back in the afternoon. 

We enjoyed lunch at the Lido Café where we each had a salad entrée.

Anne Marie walked in the afternoon and Keith played Paddle Tennis.  Anne Marie also went to see the movie titled “the Help” which is about an aspiring author during the civil right movement of the 1960’s who decided to write a book detailing the African-American maid’s point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.  She loved the movie.  

At the same time Keith played a couple of hours of Paddle Tennis and then enjoyed a nice conversation with Bob and Chris.

There was a sail away party as we left St.Lucia.  This evening we will have dinner in the Crystal Dining Room.

Keith and Anne Marie

DAY 9 - EN ROUTE TO ST. LUCIA

Last evening we attended the Crystal Society Reception before dinner where complementary hors doeuvres and drinks were served.  Once you complete your first cruise with Crystal Cruises you become a member of the Crystal Society. As a Crystal Society member, you receive discounts when you book new cruises and as you complete a pre-determined number of cruises you also achieve milestones based on the number of completed cruises.   As you reach certain milestone levels, you receive various additional benefits from upgrades to on board credits to special dinners to a free cruise.

The Crystal Society Reception is for all of the past Crystal Cruisers.  At the reception those Crystal Society Members who are celebrating major milestones on the cruise are recognized by having their name(s) mentioned.  At the same time they recognize those on the cruise who have completed a very high number of cruises by talking about each of those people, what Crystal means to them, and presenting them with a large bouquet of flowers.  Either the Crystal Society Hostess or Crystal Society Host recognize the Crystal Society Members.

There are normally two receptions; one before those in Main (early) seating and one for those in late seating.

Last evening one couple who have cruised on 195 voyages were recognizes and one solo woman who has sailed on 125 voyages was recognized in the earlier session and two other people were recognized in the second session.

This was the first time we had heard Crystal Society Host, Eduardo Molina, do the honors of recognizing selected Crystal Society guests as he was promoted to this position around the time we disembarked this past March.  He did a great job as the host last evening and was eloquent in his delivery.

These are three photos from the Crystal Society Reception.

Anne Marie with Reverend Rod Broker and his lovely wife Doris.  We first met them almost five years ago.

Afterwards, we dined in the Crystal Main Dining Room.  The dinner theme was french night and the menu included many different french items.  Often, on French Night, we dine in one of the Specialty Restaurants since many times French Night is on a Formal Night and we find the specialty restaurants to be fairly quiet on those evenings.  However, with formal nights on other evenings of the cruise such as Christmas Day and New Years Eve and since we really enjoy our Senior Waiter we dined in the Main Dining Room.

These are the menus from last evening.

We had looked at the menu the night before and we try to avoid the very rich entrees given how long we are on the ship.  We spoke with our Headwaiter, Giuseppe, and pre-ordered with him Branzini which is considered a Mediterranean Fish and sometimes is known as Mediterranean Sea Bass. We also started with salad and we each had a starch and steamed vegetables.  Anne Marie had sherbet and Keith had mixed berries for dessert.

The only down-side to the evening was moving the clocks forward one hour after we got back to our stateroom as we sail into yet another new time zone.

We slept well last night and we began the morning as we do each and every morning.  Keith woke up first and worked out and a little while after getting back to the room it was Anne Marie's turn.

Today, is the second consecutive sea day as we sail to St.Lucia.

There were a couple of lectures in the morning and  Keith attended both of them and Anne Marie attended the second one.

The first one was given by lecturer Jamie Metzel whose topic was "Frenemies" Are China and India destined for war and conflict?  A portion of what was covered dove-tailed with what another frequent Crystal lecturer also presents and time will tell how this will all turn out.   In the end, both China and India are in need of a vast array of resources from oil to water so they can either compete for these or work collaboratively.

The second lecture was given by Ambassador Marc Ginsburg whose topic was "treacherous Triangle: Syria, Turkey and Israel."  He started by talking about the history of Turkey as it related to the early 20th century and where we are today with the relationship between these three countries along with the relationship of Turkey, Israel and the USA.  The Ambassador does provide some very interesting insights into these issues including what is taking place this very moment.  With the emphasis on the current USA politics, the last few months there has been a lot less coverage of the developments in places such as Syria so we found this talk to be very informative.

There was a special Neuvo Latino Luncheon Buffet on the Lido Deck featuring many delicacies from the Latino countries of Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Chile.  We decided to just have a salad entree in the Crystal Main Dining Room since we will be eating more than we normally do this evening.

We spoke for a little while with the Sommelier, Jiro, who we had for the entire 2010 World Cruise and who we also saw earlier this year.

Anne Marie walked in the afternoon and also sat out by the pool. Keith changed it up a bit and first went to the Fitness Center to run on the treadmill.  Although it was a bit windy he played Paddle Tennis later than normal so he ended up playing with a different crowd than he normally plays with.  It was a good way to get to know other passengers.

Yesterday, we had received an invitation to join some of our fellow guests at the Captain's Quarters this evening for cocktails at 5:15 PM.  Unfortunately, we had to decline as this evening we will be going to the Vintage Room with three other couples at 7:00 PM which features the pairing of an array of food items with specific wines.

We will post all about our Vintage Room experience tomorrow.

Keith and Anne Marie

DAY 8 - AT SEA EN ROUTE TO ST. LUCIA

Happy Chanukah from the Crystal Serenity.

Last evening was the final night of Chanukah.

We set sail from Cartagena, Colombia at 5:00 PM yesterday afternoon.

As we mentioned, Keith took a Spin Class (indoor cycling) late in the afternoon.  After not having done Spin for a couple of weeks, he was glad to be back on the cycle.  The instructor pushed the class more than others that Keith has taken previously on the Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony Cruise Ships while at the same time providing lots of encouragement.  To those following this blog from Keith's Spin Class at home he misses all of you including our wonderful instructor.

Thank goodness for the technology available to us so we can stay in touch with family and friends including exchanging photos.

This photo is of our Grand Baby Andre that our daughter Jennifer sent to us.

This is a photo of the newest addition to the family, Gand Puppy Kylie, a Golden Retriever puppy that joined our son and daughter in laws family (Eric and Kara) just the other day.

Last evening we enjoyed dinner in the Crystal Main Dining Room.  These are the dinner menus.

Before dinner we spoke with one of our fellow passengers and listened to pianist Bruce Johnson.

Anne Marie enjoyed a Red and Green Caesar Salad for the first course.

Keith had a regular salad that they normally make up with him of lettuce, mushrooms tomatoes and cucumber.

We both had the Broiled Fresh Canadian Salmon.  It was a very nice cut and was very moist.

We also shared a half a portion of the Broiled Filet of Fresh Lemon Soul.

Are you starting to get the impression that like fish?

We always have a very large portion of steamed vegetables.  Keith has most of them and Anne Marie has some.  This evening the large bowl was overflowing.  The chef  in the kitchen must think this is for a table of 12.

As we were leaving Cartogena, Captain Okland mentioned that a few hours after we left the port that we would be heading into very windy weather.  We each took Bonine just to be on the safe side.  The good news is that the seas were much smoother than we expected.  

We also wanted to note that when we returned to our room there was a Quality Assurance Program survey to be filled out towards the end of the cruise.  For those of you who have sailed with Crystal before about four months ago they moved from a paper copy survey which was filled out on the ship by the guests to an on line survey that the guests receive and fill out on line after they return home.  The on line survey takes less time to fill out than the longer paper one and by filling it in at home it provides time to reflect on the cruise and also allows Crystal to obtain feedback on the entire guest experience including the disembarkation process when passengers leave the ship on the last morning of the cruise and also about the cruise air and/or post hotel experience should passengers have used air and/or hotel via Crystal. For those, like ourselves, who are taking consecutive cruises, also known as back to back cruises, we will complete the on line survey one time after we are home at the end of this   four month voyage.  However, in order to solicit some immediate feedback from guest such as ourselves, we were asked to rate a total of nineteen items about the cruise, in addition to asking our written feedback in three additional areas.

Today is a day at sea as we sail to our next port of Call in St. Lucia.

Sea days can be quite busy on the ship with 50 or more activities offered during the daytime and afternoon hours.  At time you can literally go from one activity to the next which we did this morning.

Keith worked out first at the Fitness Center.  Afterwards, he enjoyed coffee in the Lido Cafe.  There are still no "early bird" passengers up there as there normally are even at that hour.  It is just Keith, some of the Lido Cafe Deck Stewards setting up the breakfast buffet and someone from the night crew keeping the cafe spotless.  We thought a couple of photos might show how quiet it is at that time of the day.

Keith enjoyed his coffee while he spoke with a couple of members of the crew.

Anne Marie worked out a little while later.

Today, we each had breakfast at different times as Keith had an 8:00 AM haircut.  So, Keith had breakfast at 7:00 AM and then Anne Marie had breakfast at 9:00 AM.

After Keith got his haircut, he attended another Spin Class.  There are four spin classes being offered on this voyage and they are offered mainly on Sea Days so that is why today's class was held the day after the class Keith took yesterday.  The class was taught by the other fitness instructor and today's class was mainly about speed with lots of sprints asking the cyclists to go at around 90% of their maximum capacity.  

After class Keith quickly changed and then we attended the second of the lectures given by South African Ambassador to three South American countries Tony Leon. He spoke about different kinds of leadership of many leaders.   As we had mentioned, Ambassador Leon is a fascinating lecturer as he is both a dynamic and charismatic speaker and also has vast depth in his subject matter and many interesting experiences to share.  This presentation really makes you think of our leaders and how people view them while they are in office and then years later when there is time to reflect on their accomplishments.

We had lunch at the Lido Cafe and we each enjoyed a salad entree.  We chatted with some of our fellow passengers and were taken care of by those wonderful Lido Deck Stewards.

In the afternoon Anne Marie walked on the Promenade Deck and then she sat out at the pool. Keith needed to take care of some items including following up on some shore excursions and then later on he enjoyed a nice get together with some fellow passengers.

There was also an open house that showed rooms of all categories except for the largest room on the ship.

Category C Deluxe Stateroom

Category C Deluxe Stateroom

Category B Deluxe Stateroom with Verandah 

Category B Deluxe Stateroom with Verandah 

Deluxe Stateroom On Penthouse Floor with Verandah

Deluxe Stateroom On Penthouse Floor with Verandah

PH Category

PH Category

PH Category

PH Category

PS Category

PS Category

PS Category

PS Category

This evening we dine in the Crystal Dining Room and we will attend a Crystal Society Reception for those who have completed one or more Crystal Cruises and we will post more about that tomorrow.

Keith and Anne Marie