DAYS 101 AND 102 - OSAKA, JAPAN

Wonderful Time In Japani✔  Special Evening On The Crystal Serenity ✔ 

The weather on our first full day in Osaka was rainy but it still didn’t dampen our spirits.  As Captain Glenn mentions from time to time it is always sunny inside the Crystal Serenity and for us that is very true.

Yesterday marked the beginning of the final segment of this journey and this has been an amazing adventure for us.  During the course of this last leg of the World Cruise we will sail from Osaska, Japan to Los Angeles, California.  This segment will feature a very nice mix of port and sea days with stops in one port of call in Russia, several stops in Alaska, along with stops in Victoria and Vancouver, Canada followed by San Francisco, California with our final stop in San Pedro, California.

There were many visitors on board the Crystal Serenity throughout the day yesterday.  This included travel agents, friends/relatives of guests on board the ship, and other visitors either visiting the Serenity for the very first time or visitors who have sailed on either the Crystal Serenity or the Crystal Symphony before.  The owner of Crystal Cruises also operated the Asuka II which was formally the Crystal Harmony which focuses on the Japanese Market so yesterday was also a nice opportunity for some people who have previously sailed on the Asuka II to visit the Crystal Serenity.  Some members of the Crystal Crew gave guided tours to some of the visitors.

We celebrated an anniversary milestone and some of the personnel who take good care of us surprised us later in the evening.

We had a very nice dinner in the Crystal Dining Room and our guest was Cruise Director Rick Spath.

We had pre-ordered a special meal with our Headwaiter, Augusto.  We began our meal with a seafood appetizer served family style on one plate, which included some cold seafood including lobster and prawns.  Our second course was clammed chowder soup.  For our third course, we had a spinach salad.  Our fourth course was the entrée, which Augusto prepared for us, which was a pasta with lobster and a very tasty red sauce.  It was superb.  Anne Marie had spoken ahead of time with Pasty Chef, Harald Neufang, and she ordered a St. Honoree Cake and Augusto added ice cream.  It was a wonderful meal made very enjoyable by having Rick Spath with us and by being taken care of by the wonderful Crystal Dining Room team.  Maitre d’ Leo Assmair stopped by and Augusto came by several times to check on us. 

After dinner we stopped by our room to freshen up and when we opened the door we were treated to a very nice surprise by our Butler Rao, Stewardess, Sneha, Trainee Stewardess Cindy and Stewardess Viktoria.  Streamers where hung from the ceiling, two dozen long stem roses in two vases (one dozen yellow and one dozen red) were on the coffee table, rose petals were neatly arranged on our bed along with some animals made from towels, along with a banner on the wall. 

A few minutes later Rao, Sneha, Cindy and Viktoria came by our room and we thanked them all so very much for their thoughtful gift for us.  They are truly remarkable.

A short while later we met up with Cruise Rick Spath and as time went along several fellow guests joined us including friends Bob and Glo.

It was also great to have wifi access at the cruise ship terminal.  The biggest surprise was the speed of the wifi connections, which was better than most locations on land such as Hotels.  We were able to use the FaceTime application (very similar to Skype) so that we could speak with and see our son, Eric, our daughter in-law Kara, and we saw their two dogs, Tobey (Australian Shepherd) and Kylie (almost five month old Golden Retriever). 

Headwaiter Augusto with Cruise Director Rick Spath.  Knowing how much that Rick Spath enjoys pasta, Augusto had given our Senior Waiter a small plate of the pasta to take over to Rick Spath to see his reaction.  Fortunately, he also sent over a regular size portion for Rick to enjoy.

The Cake tasted as great as it looked.  It was truly a work of art.

Surprises from Rao, Sneha, Cindy and Viktoria.

Anne Marie with Rao, Sneha, Cindy and Viktoria.

Keith and Anne Marie with  Sneha, Cindy and Viktoria.

 We often talk about making memories that will last a lifetime and between dinner organized for us by Headwaiter Augusto, the beautiful cake created by Pastry Chef Harald Neufang,

the wonderful surprised by Rao, Sneha, Cindy and Viktoria, spending time with great friends, we have beautiful memories that will indeed last a lifetime.

We posted today's blog from the cruise ship terminal and hopefully we will be able to post from the ship tomorrow once we are out of the water of Japan.

Just a few minutes ago we were able to utilize FaceTime to speak with our daughter, Jennifer,  with our son-in-law Gui also there and we also could see Jennifer giving a bottle to our Grand Baby Andre.  It was so wonderful to be able to catch up with Jennifer today and with Eric yesterday.  We are so very fortunate to live at a time where technology can help people keep up with family and friend no matter how far they travel from home.

Keith and Anne Marie

DAY 97 TO DAY100 - WELCOME TO OSAKA, JAPAN

We are glad to be back on line.  We arrived to Osaka last evening and while we will not have Internet Access on the ship until we leave Osaka we have wi-fi access at the cruise ship terminal.  It is raining right now so we thought we would take advantage of the wifi connectivity.

We have enjoyed our time in Japan.  We enjoyed much better weather than we expected in Nagasaki  On top of this, in contrast to say China and Vietnam, Japan is much more orderly and organized and just a lot more calmer.  Everything is quite clean and the people are very polite.  Many of the characteristics of the culture that Keith remembered from his business travel to Japan have essentially remained the same.

Our first stop in Japan was Nagasaki where we enjoyed spring-like weather.  We walked for several hours and visited some major points of interest.

One of the places we visited included taking a self-guided tour of the Glover Governor Garden and visiting the Peace Museum and even seeing the Picture-Book Museum.  It was very easy to get around this port of call and all in all we had a terrific day.

As we departed Nagasaki later in the day, a band played several songs for us and many locals came out to watch our sail away.  We watched all of this from the verandah of our stateroom as we were docked facing the port side.  Several guests who either do not have a verandah or were facing the starboard (right) side of the ship came out to the Promenade Deck to watch and listen to the band.  It was one of the nicest sail ways.  Even a few minutes later after departing the pier as we were making our way underneath a suspension bridge there were many people on that bridge waving to us.

A short time after departing Nagasaki we had dinner in the Crystal Dining Room.  In the spirit of Japan, the Salmon we had for dinner was prepared Japanese style and was very tasty. After dinner, we attended the variety show.  The performances were terrific.  The show began with a performance by Crystal Ensemble Dancers/Singers Oga and Shane along with two musicians and they were truly outstanding.  Next up was Violinist Seonaid Aitken who also wowed the crowd.. This was followed by the dancing of Curtis and Beverly who astounded us with their dancing.  Comic ventriloquist Mark Merchant performed the final act.  He was quite funny and incorporated some recent events such as the issue with the Jet Blue Pilot into his act.

On Friday, March 30 we continued to sail to Osaka with an arrival of around 8:00 PM.  As such, Friday was treated as a sea day with lots of activities for the guests.  This was the last full day of this segment of the World Cruise.  We kept busy throughout the day as we always do and attended lectures, team trivia , worked out , attended spin class (Keith) and participated in some other activities as well meeting up with fellow guests and seeing many members of the crew.   The weather was superb so in the afternoon Keith was able to play a couple of hours of paddle tennis and Anne Marie walked on the promenade deck.  The scenery was also absolutely stunning as we sailed by several beautiful islands.  Even the bridges we passed under were spectacular.  While Keith was playing Tennis, one of his tennis partners who is from Japan pointed out to Keith where he lives.

This morning, Saturday, March 31 marked the conclusion of the Hong Kong segment of the World Cruise and the beginning of the final segment from Osaka to Los Angeles.  During the course of this segment we wailed a total of 3,257 nautical miles or the equivalent of 3,746 land miles. 

Here are a few photos from the past few days.

Photos From Nagasaki

It was Spring in Nagasaki

This band played for us before and as we left Nagasaki

 Dinner from two nights ago.  We had salmon that was prepared Japanese Style

A sugar free dessert that Anne Marie enjoyed

 Photos from yesterdays Spin Class.  Keith with Fitness Instructor Rob

Keith with Maria (Yoga Instructor) and Joe (Yoga and Memoir Writer Insrtuctor)

Glo working out.

Bob working out

Keith and Anne Marie

DAY 98 - CRUISING THE EASH CHINA SEA

NOTE: We will be unable to access the Internet from March 29 thru April 2 ships date/time as we sail Japan waters.  This is a requirement of Japan which will preclude the ability of the ship to provide Internet connections.  

Wonderful Time At Prego Last Evening With Good Friends  ✔ Enjoyed Another Nice Day At Sea ✔   Excellent Presentation By President Of Crystal Cruises, Gregg Michel and Senior Vice President Operations, Thomas Mazloum  ✔

Although we dined at Prego last evening, these are the dinner menus from the Crystal Dining Room.

Before dinner, we had the pleasure of meeting the new Hotel Director who was recently hired due to the passing of Hotel Director Herbert Doppler last year.  The new Hotel Director is on board now so that he can essentially shadow Hotel Director Josef  Lumetsberger throughout the remainder of the World Cruise in preparation for him performing these functions on his own .  We wish him all the best.

We dined at Prego last evening with good friends Jim Brochu and Steve Schalchlin.  Jim is the Celebrity Entertainer on board the ship who performed Zero Hour the other evening and also has also given some lectures on this this segment about some famous Hollywood Legends.  We have sailed Jim and Steve on several cruises, starting in 2007.  We had an absolutely wonderful time with Jim and Steve. We could have talked for hours until the restaurant closed.

From L-R Anne Marie, Keith, Steven and Jim

Our waiter for the evening was, once again, Costa who took wonderful care of all four of us.

We let Christian, the head Sommelier, in Prego order the wine for us and he paired a very nice Italian Red Wine for our meal.  Almost every time we have dined at Prego over the last couple of segments we have let Christian pick out our wine.  We just give him our preference for white or red for that evening along with the entrees we plan to order and he works his magic.  We have been very pleased with his selection and it has allowed us to try a variety of wines that we likely would not have ordered on our own.

We each began our meals with a salad as we always do.  Keith had his standing order salad of lettuce, tomatoes and fresh mushrooms while Anne Marie had a Caesar Salad.

For our entree, we each had the Chicken Cacciatore  which was one of the two additional entrees on the menu.  We have never had this entree on the ship and it was absolutely wonderful.  We asked for just white meat and the breast was boneless and the sauce was just outstanding.  Since none of the additional entrees was a fish this was a great opportunity to try something different and we were very pleased with our choice.

For dessert, Anne Marie had a small scoop of Vanilla Gelato and Keith had a fruit plate.

We passed on the evening entertainment and decided to get a good nights sleep.  We fell asleep quickly and slept well.

As usual, Keith was up early and began his day at the Fitness Center with a very nice workout on the Elliptical Machine.  He was alone for about half his workout until Brian arrived.

Afterwards, he changed and went by the Lido Cafe and had coffee as he read e-mail.  He spoke with some of the Lido Deck Stewards including Glenn, Nat and Alvin.  Like many positions on the ship the retention rate for the Lido Deck Stewards is quite high so we have know these three stewards for quite sometime as we have many of the other stewards.  They really do a remarkable job.

We had mentioned that the very nice member of the Night Crew went on holiday in Hong Kong.  We wanted to note that his replacement, Anthony, took over where he left off.  When Keith arrived to the Cafe the cream was not yet out for the coffee, and without Keith saying anything, Anthony, noticed this and cleaned up and then brought Keith out some cream.  It's obvious that the other Night Crew Member had let Anthony know to be on the look-out for Keith.  This is just an example of how dedicated the staff is and even if it is "not their job" they don't approach it that way but rather stay very focused on the guest.

Before breakfast, Anne Marie worked out for an hour and then we enjoyed breakfast as we watched the Daily Morning Show hosted by Cruise Director Rick Spath and World Cruise Hostess Elise Ivy.  They had a special guest; Regis.  There was lots of jokes and great laughs.  During the show they announced that Librarian Liezl Tamondong was selected as the Crystal Serenity Employee Of The Year for 2011.  The announcement was made last evening to the members of the crew while the President of Crystal Cruises and Senior Vice President Of Operations were are on board.  Congratulations to Liezl who has been with Crystal Cruises for twelve years and is a terrific person.

It was nice to have a sea day given all of the ports on this and the previous segment.  On the fifth and final segment we will have a nice mix of sea days and port days.

There was a spin class offered at 10:00 AM today but Keith passed on it given some of the other daytime activities that we wanted to get to.

Instead, we attended the morning lecture given by Ken Rees about how Japan rose from the devastation of world war to create a world-beating economy.  He also spoke about our upcoming two ports of call along with the diversity of Japan.  It was a great talk.

Right afterwards, we attended a special presentation given by Crystal Cruises President, Gregg Michel and Senior Vice President of Operations, Thomas Mazloum.  This was followed by a question and answer session.  Gregg Michel covered a lot of ground in his talk including changes planned for this year from the refurbishment of several public areas on the Crystal Symphony to some new enrichment programs.  He also announced the itinerary for the 2015 World Cruise which marks Crystal Cruises 25th anniversary and the 20th year of World Cruises.  It will be their first circumnavigation of the globe and will be 108 days round trip Miami.  It was a great session and we enjoyed hearing about all of the future plans and changes planned for this year and beyond.

After that, we went to Team Trivia.  We came in second place today with several other teams.

Following Team Trivia it was lunch time.  As we do most days, we each enjoyed an ice Salad Entree.

In the afternoon, Celebrity Lecturer Neil Leifer presented his new 30 minute documentary on the fascinating world and world of blind photographers.

Anne Marie worked out for another hour in the afternoon and then did some writing and reading.

Keith also read and wrote and met with friend Bob and then took care of a couple of items on the ship.

Before dinner this evening we will attend the Captain's Farewell Reception as we are getting close to reaching the end of this segment of the World Cruise.  We will then dine at Silk Road by ourselves.  This evening is a Formal Night.

This will likely be our last post for a few days unless we can post early tomorrow before nearing Japan.

Keith and Anne Marie

DAY 97 - JEJU, SOUTH KOREA

NOTE: We will be unable to access the internet from March 29 thru April 2 ships date/time as we sail Japan waters.  This is a requirement of Japan which will preclude the ability of the ship to provide internet connections.  

Enjoyed Cocktails At The Captain Glenn's Quarter  ✔ Delicious Dinner Last Evening At The Crystal Dining Room ✔

These are a few additional photos from our visit to Busan.

  

Before dinner we had cocktails at Captain Glenn's Quarters.  Canapes were also offered but we didn't have any of those.  We spoke with several of our fellow guests as well as some officers including Captain Glenn, the Hotel Director Josef, the Chief Accountant, the Assistant Chief Engineer, the Crystal Society Hostess and the On Board Cruise Booking Consultant.  The Vice Captain was also there but we didn't get a chance to speak with him.  We had a wonderful time and we truly appreciate the opportunity to attend these types of receptions.

Afterwards, we dined at the Crystal Dining Room.  

These are the dinner menus from the Crystal Dining Room where we dined last evening.

For our first course Anne Marie had Shrimp Cocktail and Keith had Tuna Tartare.

Augusto made a delicious Tuna Tartare for Keith

For our entree we ordered Chateaubriand and some lobster.  Pictured is the Chateaubriand.  We didn't eat it all but what we ate was very tasty.

For dessert Anne Marie had Sugar-Free Coffee Mousse Cake and Keith had mixed berries.

Later in the evening there was a show in the Crystal Cove which was called Stomping at the Savoy which featured Singer Karen Jeffries along with the Galaxy Orchestra.

We departed the port at around 10:00 PM and we sailed towards Jeju, South Korea.  The seas continued to be relatively calm and we slept very well.

Keith was up first and back in the Fitness Center as he is each day.  A few other people were working out at the same time with him and that included one of the Fitness Instructors.  We wanted to mention that the Crystal Fitness Center is open 24 hours which we really appreciate as we can use it at anytime.  Keith enjoyed a nice long workout on the Elliptical Machine. After taking a few days off from workouts in Beijing he feels a lot stronger on the Elliptical Machine.  The break turned out to be great for him.

Afterwards, it was back to the Lido Cafe.  He spoke with all of the regulars such as Clark, Nat, Alvin and Glenn.  Keith and Clark talked about Paddle Tennis as Clark is one of the better players and Keith was telling him that yesterday was one of those days where he felt great on the court.  The weather made a big difference too.

Anne Marie worked out in the Fitness Center for one hour before we had breakfast in our room.  We spoke with Rao for a few minutes about yesterdays visit. Rao also went into port.  Today, there is a crew drill so there won't be time for him to visit Jeju.

During Captain Glenn's morning talk he shared another terrific thought for the day.  It went as follows.

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

We took the first shuttle into Jeju.  It was about a twenty-five minute drive from the pier.  Traffic was very orderly as was the case yesterday.  We didn't really plan anything since this was a port that was added to the schedule so we just enjoyed the town.

The shuttle dropped us off at the Shilla which has duty free stores

The good news is that the sun was bright, the skies were blue and the temperature was perfect.  It really felt like Spring.

At noon, we had lunch with Thomas Mazloum who is responsible for all operations for Crystal Cruises including both the Hotel and Navigational Operations of the Crystal Cruises Ships. Thomas and Crystal Cruises President, Gregg Michel joined the ship on the last day in Beijing and will be on board for a couple of more days.   It's always wonderful to see Thomas Mazloum and Gregg Michel and we really appreciate Thomas taking time out of his busy schedule to have lunch with us.

In the afternoon Keith read and wrote and spoke with some fellow guests and met up with friend Bob.  Anne Marie read, wrote and also did some laundry.  

This evening we will dine at Prego with two friends and we will post about that tomorrow.

Keith and Anne Marie

DAY 96 - WELCOME TO BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA

Enjoyed Dinner Last Evening At The Crystal Dining Room ✔  

Ilene asked us what type of gifts we win when we correctly answer a question when calling 

into the Morning Show.  Sometimes we are given a choice of gifts and other times they have selected a gift for us.  The items are usually Crystal Cruises Logo gifts such as straps that go around your luggage, tote bags, coffee mugs, wine stoppers, and a magnifying glass.  Once in awhile before a question is asked Rick might say that for the person who calls in there will be a special item.  For example, one time we won a book and another time a CD by pianist John Mentis who plays the piano each evening in the Crystal Cove.  

Before dinner we attended a 5:00 PM Production Show Matinee which featured one of the production shows called Standing Room Only.  We enjoyed the show which included many familiar songs from an array of Broadway Shows.   Before the show we spoke with some of the Lido Deck Stewards who also work the bar for the shows and took photos with some of them.

Anne Marie with Ross

Keith with Ross and Benjamin

We also had a photo taken of the two of us before the show.

After the show we dined at the Crystal Dining Room.  These are the dinner menus.

The theme of the dinner was Neptune's Dinner.

We began our meal with "Augusto's Caesar Salad" which we had pre-ordered with Headwaiter Augusto the night before.  As usual, it was delicious as it was not overpowering.  We love the way Augusto makes the salad.

For our second course, we each had the Broiled Fresh Ahi Tuna Steak for our entree.  The first piece that was served to us was cooked more than it should have been so they changed it out with another entree which was cooked perfectly.

For our third and final course we each had a piece of cake.

After dinner, we went to a cocktail reception where we saw several fellow guests who we know very well.  It was a lot of fun and we even danced to one song which was a song originally written by The Beatles.

The good news is that the seas continued to remain calm and, once again, we slept very well with the gentle rocking of the ship.

Keith woke up a little earlier than normal and enjoyed a very long workout in the Fitness Center.  The time went fast between him watching one of the news shows and also he watched a portion of the NCAA Basketball Tournament Game.

Afterwards, he got some coffee in the Lido Cafe and spoke with several of the Lido Deck Stewards who were setting up breakfast.

Anne Marie worked out in the Fitness Center and then we had breakfast in our room as we got ready for our first visit to South Korea.

As we had mentioned a few weeks ago, the itinerary for our visit to South Korea was revised due to the security alert associated with the National Security Session being held in Seoul, South Korea.  As a result, the overnight stay planned for the port of call that serves Seoul was removed from the itinerary, and replaced with stops in two other ports of call. As such, today we visited Busan, South Korea.

Crystal’s Shore and Land Programs Departments and the Shore Excursion Group worked diligently to offer shore excursions in  Busan as well as excursions for Jeju Island which is our stop for tomorrow.  They also were able to add a thirteen plus hour excursion by bullet train for today, which would allow a limited number of guests to visit Seoul. 

While we originally had excursions booked for both days for our original stop we decided to not book any excursions for today or tomorrow.

Crystal provided a complimentary shuttled between the pier and Busan.  The shuttle made two stops; one to a Park and the other was a drop off at a Hotel.    

We walked around for a little while and we stopped off at a couple of sites including the Fish Market.  

The route from the cruise ship terminal over to the park was actually fairly scenic.  As we drove into the downtown area many of the buildings looked very similar and the photos will give you a sense as to what most of them looked like.  Traffic was orderly and the people who we spoke with were very nice.

After we returned back to the ship we had lunch and we had our usual Salad Entrees.

We stayed on the ship in the afternoon and Keith did reading and writing while Anne Marie worked out and also worked on her needlepoint.

Keith also played Paddle Tennis with some members of the crew and fellow guests.  The sun was out and the sky was blue which was a big improvement from China.

This evening we will dine in the Crystal Dining Room.  Beforehand, we will go to the Captain Glenn's Quarters for cocktails with fellow guests.

Keith and Anne Marie