DAY 120 - CRUISING THE PACIFIC OCEAN

Wonderful Dinner In The Crystal Dining Room ✔ Enjoyed A Wonderful Day At Sea ✔

We wanted to give a shout-out to the rest of the Food and Beverage Team that we have not mentioned in our previous posts.  We have already covered the sommeliers, waiters, chefs and others who work in the Galley and along with other positions in the various dining rooms.  Today, we wanted to acknowledge the Food and Beverage Manager, Victor Conceicao and some areas of responsibility that we have not covered.  

We have known Victor for several years and we greatly appreciate all that he does day in and day out to make our experience in all of the dining rooms and lounges around the ship the best it can be.  We have learned so much from Victor over the years and we appreciate his focus, drive, enthusiasm, along with his passion, to make our experience the best it can be.

A key responsibility of Victor and some members of his team along with some of the folks in Los Angeles is the procurement of all of the food items that are served on this ship.  This is really no easy task and is more complicated on ships that do not sail regular itineraries and is even more complex on a World Cruise.  For those ships sailing regular itineraries such as a regular round trip Miami, Florida sailing each and every week or so in the year procuring food is made much simpler since it is far easier to get food that is key to the various recipes procured and delivered in the United States.  

In contrast, each of the voyages on this ship are of different lengths, have varying occupancy levels, may have many consecutive days at sea  and involve different ports of call on each and every voyage in a wide range of ports around the world,  Should a shipment not arrive to the ship in time or not be of the standards that Crystal requires or not have the right quantities of food in the shipment that in itself can present many challenges.  Should that happen then adjustments may need to be made in the actual items served on the menu.

Since joining the ship on December 21, there have only been a few items that were unavailable for a short amount of time but certainly there were many other alternatives for us to enjoy.  Solutions were found by getting deliveries in other ports of call along the way.  We know that all of this is very complex and requires precision in the ordering and the procurement of food and in finding solutions should things not go perfectly.

We are always amazed at how all of this works, including the delivery of Fresh Lobster, either from Maine, or sometimes depending on where we are sailing from say Australia or South Africa as just one example of all of the precision and coordination that goes into the provisioning of food and other related items.

Another area that we wanted to acknowledge is the Bar Manager, Florent, and his team that works around the ship in each and every lounge serving drinks.  We really appreciate Florent's professionalism and also his good nature and sense of humor.

Other than wine we rarely drink spirits but we have gotten to know many of the people who work in the lounges.  This is because at the Captain's Receptions we have mainly sat at the bar and for those receptions the team of people working there represents bartenders who work in the various lounges around the ship and from time to time when we go to lounges in the evening such as the Crystal Cove, Avenue Saloon or say the Palm Court while we may order just a Perrier it is the same people who serve this item who also serve wine and drinks.  

We have found all of the Bar Team to be very upbeat and very helpful to us.  When we sit at the bar during the Captain's Receptions we are amazed at what goes into preparing all of those drinks and the speed at which the bartenders work while at the same time doing this in a calm and thoughtful manner.  No matter how busy they are, they still take the time to check up on ourselves and anyone else sitting at the bar and they have taken the time to answer our questions about various drinks that they make, along with the wines they serve.

We have also enjoyed talking with the various staff who work in the lounges.  We find them to be very polite and also thoughtful and very focused on the guest.  They perform their jobs with a smile and are just a pleasure to know.

Given the length of time we have been on board the ship we also wanted to note that for a portion of this time the other Food and Beverage Manager is Walter Pierschnig and the  Bar Manager was Ross Martin two members of the Crystal Team that we have known for many years and we  appreciate all that they do as well.

We applaud these individuals and teams and they have our respect and admiration for all that they do.

Last evening we dined at the Crystal Dining Room.  These are the dinner menus.

The dining room was relatively quiet.  This is because there are less guests on board for this final leg of the World Cruise.  We also suspect that some of the guests were enjoying the three other dining venues (Silk Road, Prego and Tastes) since this evening is formal night and most guests like to go to the Crystal Dining Room on formal nights.

We began our meal with salads.  Anne Marie enjoyed the Chopped Vegetable Salad.

Keith enjoyed his standing order Salad.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Seafood Entree.  We are not sure whether we have had Ling Fillet (part of the cod family) before but this was a delicious fish.  Between the crusts which was a mushroom-tomato-herb-crust it was very tasty and we enjoyed it all.

We each had blueberries for dessert.

After dinner we attended the evening performance which was a Comedy Ventriloquist by Lynn Trefzger.  We have seen her perform one time on a prior cruise either in 2010 or 2011 and she is a hoot.  During the final part of her performance she had three cruisers on the stage and they became her "dummies".  It was very cute.

We departed Victoria at around 6:15 PM and we are now sailing to San Francisco.  

We had no trouble falling asleep and the seas were calm for the first couple of hours. Later on, the seas were rougher so we woke up from time to time.

Keith was up early and back to the Fitness Center for his early morning workout.  Afterwards, he enjoyed coffee at the Lido Cafe.

Anne Marie also got in her one hour at the Fitness Center.  Afterwards, we enjoyed breakfast in our room as we watched the Daily Morning Show with Rick Spath and Elise Ivy.

We are reminded that the end of this adventure is nearing.  The other day we received preprinted labels for luggage that we are sending home and early this morning we received information related to our disembarkation.  We will also be clearing United States customs once again since after our arrival to Alaska we had the two stops in Canada and this is our first time back to the United States since then.  Because of the Holiday Cruise and the Panama Canal Cruise along with the World Cruise this will represent the fourth time we have cleared United States customs since boarding the ship on December 21.  

During Captain Glenn's morning talk from the bridge he noted that we had heavy swells from a distant Low Pressure System.  he shared his thought for the day which goes as follows.

"Love is not finding someone to live with but finding someone you can't live without."

There was a lot on the program today.  This included three lectures.  The first was given by Dr. Charles iLiff and answered the question "What do Alaska, Canada and Russia have in common"?

Later in the morning Professor Louis Rene Beres spoke about the challenges ahead with respect to fighting terrorism.

In the afternoon, Ambassador Marc Ginsberg who was on our Holiday Cruise and who boarded the ship in Vancouver, spoke about Syria and his talk covered the potential end of the current regime and the looming civil war.

In the morning, Keith was also able to attend a Spin (indoor cycling) Class.  The Class was taught by Juli and Keith and Joe took the class.  Afterwards, Juli had them stretch on the mats for about 15 minutes just to change things up.

We also had our final team trivia game of the World Cruise.  Today, we answered 13 of 15 questions correctly and tied for first place.  For this leg of the World Cruise we ended up tying with two other teams for third place and this time around prizes were awards to the first, second and third place teams.  We ended up winning the tie breaker.  

Elise shared some statistics with us about the World Cruise Trivia Games.  There were a total of 42 quizzes or 630 questions.  John Mentis who is the Pianist asked 42 of them, nine were asked by the participants, two by Dave from the entertainment team, 2 by Cruise Director Rick Spath, 1 by Kinsey and the rest by Elise.  There were only four disputes.  

WIn or lose we always had fun and we did win the Gold for the Team Trivia World Games.

For lunch, we each enjoyed a nice salad entree.

Anne Marie also worked out in the afternoon and Keith read, wrote and met up with friend Bob.

This evening we will dine in the Crystal Dining Room, attend the Final Captain's Reception of the World Cruise and attend the Serenity Pops gala performance.

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

Keith and Anne Marie

DAY 119 - WELCOME TO VICTORIA, BC, CANADA

Wonderful Dinner At Prego With Pianist John Mentis ✔ Enjoyed Our Time In Victoria ✔ 

We wanted to give a shout-out to the members of the Crystal Entertainment Team.

The Entertainment Team falls under the direction of Vice President for Entertainment and Programs Bret Bullock who works out of Crystal Cruises Corporate Office in Los Angeles.

On the ship, Cruise Director Rick Spath oversees the Entertainment Program working with this highly talented group of professionals to schedule a wide range of entertainment and enrichment programs for all of the guests to enjoy.  

Rick sets the tone on board the ship for all of those who are involved with entertainment and enrichment by being very focused on each guest.  He puts his heart into all of this.  On our final post we will post more about Rick and the wonderful team of Senior Officers on this World Cruise along with a few other key people such as World Cruise Hostess Elise Ivy.

Crystal Cruises staffs each ship with many of their own entertainers.  

This includes the Galaxy Orchestra who performs for all of the Production Shows, performs with many of the outside entertainers, and then performs at a variety of special events.  They are under the direction of Bandmaster Raphael Derkson.  Raphael is superb and if we close our eyes we can tell whether or not Raphael is playing with the Orchestra as he is one of those talents who has a magical presence when he is playing his instrument and leading the band.

In addition to his day to day responsibilities, on the World Cruise he writes music that is part of the special  events and he works tirelessly to do this.  Each member of the Orchestra are true professionals.  When an act comes onto the ship, the Orchestra will practice with them usually the afternoon of the performance and go through one dry run.  Yet to us it seems that they have been performing with the Celebrity Entertainer for years.  We can certainly see that each of them has a love and passion for music and they are superb musicians.

Likewise, the Crystal Ensemble of Singers and Dancers includes two lead vocalists and along with a team of singers and dancers, including a line captain.  They perform in all of the Production Shows on each voyage and then from time to time they perform in many of the special events on the ship and in some of the other variety shows.  They are an extraordinary team and amaze us all the time.

Their performances are demanding to begin with and even more challenging when you consider that often they are performing dance routines not only in calm seas but at other times where there is a fair amount of motion from the seas.  They are a truly amazing team.

There is also the Crystal Sextet which is composed of six musicians/singers who perform each sea day in the afternoon at the pool, in the evening for those who like to dance or listen to live music and at other times during the day/evening as well at the various captain receptions.  They play a nice range of music and we enjoy listening to them.

On-Board also the talented pianists John Mentis and Colin Salter.  John plays in the Crystal Cove a few times each evening including before each dinner, and later at night and also at Team Trivial.   Colin Salter plays the and sings in the Avenue Saloon and has participated in a wide range of special shows throughout the World Cruise.    They are both very talents.  Colin has performed a number of specials from an Elton John night to a Billy Joel night.  John seems to know every song ever written and also has other talents such as tuning all of the pianos on the ship to taking video for the World Cruise video.

There is the Creative Quartet who plays mainly classical music at different times during the day and early evening.  They too have performed from time to time in some shows such as the recent variety show.

There are many other individuals who comprise the Entertainment Staff.

This includes the Activities Hostess, the Librarian who just recently was named the Crystal Serenity Employee Of The Year for 2011, the Lounge Technician and the Production and the Assistant Production Managers, the Projectionist, the Television and the assistant Television Managers, Special Events Coordinator Fred Divel who pulled together the most beautiful and imaginative displays at all the various events, as well as singers David Speicker and Karen Jeffreys who are very versatile and perform in a wide range of shows and other events and also lead the evening Karaoke.  During the Holiday Voyage and during other times of the year when children will be on the ship, there are also Junior Activity Directors who come onto the ship for organized Children's Programs and they fall under the Cruise Director as well.

We also wanted to highlight Assistant Cruise Director Scott Mitchel.  One of his major responsibilities is to coordinate all of the daytime and evening scheduling of entertainment and enrichment.  This is no easy task given that on sea days there are 50+ activities offered in the daytime and afternoon hours and in the evening on both sea and port days there is a very extensive entertainment program.  Scott is also a very talented Pianist and plays the piano at different times for the guests.

In addition to the in-house entertainment,  on each and every voyage entertainers are brought onto the ship to perform for the guests and that includes vocalists, musicians, comedians, ventriloquists, and other entertainers.  Some have been performing on Crystal ships for a number of years while on this voyage some have entertained for Crystal for the very first time.

Then there is all of the people who comprise the very extensive enrichment program that is part of the Cruise Directors responsibility.  This includes the lecturers, computer university instructors, bridge instructors, art instructors, golf pro, special yoga and pilates instructors who are brought onto the World Cruise, language instructors, music instructors, memoir writing instructor along with the Clergy and several others who we have not mentioned that comprise the extraordinary enrichment program.

All of this comes under the direction of Cruise Director Rick Spath who works tirelessly from early morning to very late at night to make each and everyday the best it can be for each guest on the ship.  Rick fine tunes each days programming to maximize guest enjoyment and participation and works his magic each and every day.  He must also coordinate all of this with other areas of the ship, including Food and Beverage.  Rick has our admiration and respect for all that he does day-in-and-day-out to provide the guests with the best on-board experience on each and every voyage.

We are sorry if we have missed some of the people who comprise wonderful entertainment and enrichment program.

Often we are asked at home what we do on the ship for all of this time when not visiting ports of call and so much of our sea days are spent enjoying the entertainment and enrichment  each and every day.  We often say that cruising means discovery and we have learned so very much during our travels both on the ship because of all of the entertainment/enrichment and of course off the ship while in port.

We now want to move to last evening and to today.

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

Last evening, we dined at Prego and our guest was pianist John Mentis.  As we mentioned earlier, John plays the piano at the Crystal Cove several times each evening, before main and late seating and later in the evening.  He also plays the piano at Team Trivia.  We have known John for several years and it is always a pleasure to speak with him and to hear him play the piano.  On most days, we stop by the Crystal Cove before dinner to hear John perform.

Our waiter for the evening was Costa and as usual he took wonderful care of us.

Keith and Anne Marie with John Mentis.

We began our course by ordering one of the additional entrees which was the pasta entree as an appetizer.  It was a seafood pasta and it was delicious.

For our entree, we each had the additional seafood entree which was Halibut.  It was cooked very nicely and it was very tasty.

When we dine at Prego Keith always gets a nice side order of vegetables so we thought we would post a photo of them.

For dessert, Anne Marie had one scoop of Gelato while Keith enjoyed a fruit plate.

It was so very nice to catch up with John Mentis and we look forward to sailing with John again.

Later in the evening we sat in the Crystal Cove with one of the officers.  With the ship in port until Midnight the Cove was a nice quiet spot to enjoy good conversation while listening to John Mentis play songs on the piano.

We slept very well last evening.  The ship departed Vancouver after midnight and we were to sleep before then.    While it was probably a nice sail away we could not stay up that late.  So, we cannot say that the ship gently rocked us to sleep as we normally do.  

We arrived to Victoria at around 7:00 AM.  It is located not too far from Vancouver.

Once again, Keith managed to get up early to begin yet another wonderful day on board the Crystal Serenity.  He began with a nice long workout in the Fitness Center.  Afterwards, he stopped by the Lido Cafe for his daily coffee.  He chatted with some of the Lido Cafe Stewards and one of the members of the Night Crew. We had seen some of these crew members in port yesterday afternoon so Keith chatted with them about what they had done in port.

After Anne Marie's workout, we enjoyed breakfast in our room thanks to Rao and then got ready to visit Victoria.

This is our fifth time to Victoria and our fourth time by Cruise Ship. One time we took a ferry over to Victoria prior to a start of a cruise that didn't include Victoria on its itinerary.  A major attraction especially for first time visitors is Butchart Gardens which is located about 45 minutes from the port and is a 50 acre property with an amazing garden of displays of gardening styles throughout the world.  We have been there twice already so we spent our time today in the downtown area of Victoria.

The downtown area is very charming.  In addition to stores, restaurants and cafes, it also included the Royal British Columbia Museum, Parliament Buildings, Chinatown, the Maritime Museum and the Fairmont Empress Hotel with its beautiful exterior.

We were last to Victoria in August of last year and like last time rather than taking the shuttle from the pier to the downtown area we decided to walk instead.  

The walk does take about 30 minutes as the sign indicates.

It was quite chilly but it was refreshing to be able to walk to and from town.  Since we are the very first Cruise Ship to visit Victoria for the upcoming 2012 cruising season one of the local news stations sent their crew to the ship to interview some of the Crystal Crew Members.  We understand from someone who lives in Vancouver that the same thing happened yesterday in Vancouver and that our ship was on last nights news.

There are two ways to walk into town and we took the longer route that weaves by the inner harbour.

These are some of the house boats that we saw as we walked along the harbour path.

As we got closer to the downtown area we saw the Fairmont Empress Hotel which opened in 1908.

The next two photos are the Parliament Buildings constructed in 1893 in honor of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

This status is in honor of Emily Carr who is British Columbia's most famous artist.

Once in the downtown area we walked several streets.  This gives you an idea of the views along the street.

It was quite chilly when we were out and about as the temperature was in the low 40's.  Yet, it looked like spring with the beautiful flowers.

Upon our return to the ship we ran into Shore Excursion Manager James and Assistant Shore Excursion Managers Daniel with hat.

Once back to the ship we had lunch with Cruise Director Rick Spath in the Crystal Dining Room.  We were still cold from being outside so we began our meal with soup, followed by salad entree and then Anne Marie had a low-fat yogurt while Keith had berries for dessert.

While in the dining room we checked with Headwaiter Augusto about the fish for the evening as we were not familiar with what type of fish it is as it is called.  It is a Broiled, Fresh, British Columbia Ling Fillet.  Augusto said it is part of the Cod Family.

We ran a few errands on the ship and then Anne Marie did more packing and Keith read and wrote and later in the afternoon got together with friend Bob.

This evening we will dine in the Crystal Dining Room.

Keith and Anne Marie

DAY 118 - WELCOME TO VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA

Wonderful Dinner At The Crystal Dining Room Last Evening ✔ Enjoyed Our Time In Vancouver ✔ 

We wanted to give a shout-out to all of the crew who work in the various restaurant galleys of the ship.  This includes a wide range of people including chefs, and others from those who clean dishes to those who cut and prepare items.  

Throughout the cruise we have been posting menus, photographs, and posting about many of the food items we have enjoyed throughout the cruise.  We are always amazed when we think of all of the time and effort that goes into preparing each and every meal and the added complexities of doing this on a cruise ship rather than on land.

The Crystal DIning Room offers three meals a day; Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.  Each item is cooked to order.  While past history help in prepping the food because Crystal allows each guest to change up the meals there is added complexity to this.  For example, if the menu calls for the fish to be fried but we want it broiled the Crystal galley can easily accommodate this change.  Or we might ask for a salad that is on the menu to be changed such as eliminating some items in the salad and replacing it with other items and that is easily done.  There are other times that we may be able to order an item that is not on the menu on the spot and that can be done as well.  Of course, the latter item is more easily accomplished by providing 24 hours or more notice.  What truly amazes us is take dinner.  The galley might be preparing meals for as many as 900 or more people between the two seatings, yet each plate is truly prepared for each person for the reasons we mention.  The challenge is not only in its preparation but also in all items coming together so that if you sit at a large table the waiter and senior waiters are able to serve all entree or other course all at once.  Yes, the waiter is instrumental in this which we discussed the other day but the challenge begins with the cooks in the kitchen.

On top of all that the chefs do, there are other staff that are key and those are the people who prep various items including peeling, and the cutting of fruits and vegetables along with those who are responsible for the cleaning of all dishes and glassware.

At the same time the kitchen is preparing other items that are served in other venus such as many of the items on the Lido Deck such as food served in the Lido Cafe and Tastes.  There are others who cook food say at the grill and who also prepare some of the other foods.

The main dining room also prepares the food that is served in The VIntage Room which is a dining venue serving very few guests that pairs wines and each course.  

We have mentioned Silk Road and Prego and these are very special restaurants.  They serve a range of guests each evening.  Sometimes they serve 125 or so guests which can put additional stresses on the kitchen and the waitstaff but often they are serving less guests.  Each item is cooked to cooked to order.

In Prego, in addition to the items on the menu they offer two additional entrees; usually a fish and a pasta but sometimes if fish is not available they will offer a beef dish or sometimes something entirely different as such as the calzone that we had a few weeks ago.  In many of the ports, the head chef of Prego, goes out with one or two others or sometimes by himself to look for fish.  Sometimes he might go out with the Executive Chef to also look for fish for the Crystal Dining Room.  The Challenge for the Crystal Dining Room is to find a large fish or fish in a lot of quantity since they must have more than enough fish for anyone who orders it from the menu.  They can't say, "sorry we are out of this item."  For Prego the requirements are not so large but they must find a fish that will not only meet the standards of Crystal but one that will work well with an Italian meal in mind.  We have found that the items that are created as part of the additional items have truly been outstanding.  We usually order them because we do prefer the fish.  At the same time, there are many delicious items to choose from on the menu.  The food is not only tasty but the presentations are great with some being very unique.

Likewise, the chefs at Silk Road work their magic.  There are around four sushi chefs who prepare all of the Sushi and Sashimi.  Earlier in the day, they are prepping the fish but all of the sushi and sashimi is made only after the order is taken by the waiter.  It is prepared to order.  They not only are making these items for those sitting at the sushi but for everyone who orders these items at the table.

At the same time in the Galley they are preparing a wide range of foods as each order comes to the Galley.  The recipes come from Chef Nobu who also has several restaurants around the world and some of the ingredients that are used provided some very tasty and unique flavors.

The various dining rooms mainly the Crystal Dining Room kitchen but sometimes even Silk Road also are involved in the Grand Galla Buffet.  Often preparation of foods must begin the day before and what amazes us is not only the variety of items on the buffet but all of the care and preparation that goes into them including their presentation.  Just take the cakes for example and all of the detail that goes into them or those eggs that look say like Penguins.  Often we say it is a work of art and for us it is.  

At the same time, there is the afternoon tea each day. We used to go to some of the teas in the days we dined in the late seating but now that we dine early we no longer go there but we can say that the attention to detail and the items that are offered to eat are just amazing as we will walk by there from time to time.

On each World Cruise there is two special dinner events held up at the pool and that is another example of all of the work and the talent that goes into the creation of these meals.  At these events they are serving each person each course at once.  With 300 World Cruisers and hosts for each table they are serving around 175 people at once as there are two seatings.  This requires a lot of personnel to make this happen and that includes not only the chefs but also many people from the galleys of other areas and also the waitstaff.  It is truly amazing.

On top of all of this, Crystal offers many foods items that certain guests may require such as Kosher Meals or Low Sodium items or an array of other items including those with food allergies.  At dinner, they also offer items on the menu including Vegetarian Selections and LIghter Side Items.

We also want to mention that we also applaud the sizes of the portions.  For us they are the right size; not too large and not too small.  Certainly, if you want more you can order more of any item or more than one type of course.  However, we think the portion size is very appropriate.

While on this years cruise we have been a little more adventurous, in general we try to order mainly items that we consider to be healthy.  On a long voyage, we view the majority of items we eat as if we went to a spa for a weekend.  As they say you can eat as healthy as you want on the cruise or whatever else you want.  If one is going on a longer cruise that is likely more important than if you go on a shorter cruise where you can easily eat whatever you want.

We also don't want to forget the people who clean the galleys.  We have taken tours of the Crystal Dining Room Galley and you could eat off the floor.

On top of this there is also a crew galley that is preparing meals for a crew that is larger than 600 people.

There are so many people working in the respective galleys that we do not have the opportunity to meet and we want to thank them for all that they do which adds tremendously to our cruising experience.  Bravo, Bravo, Bravo.

Before dinner last evening, we attend the Matinee Production Show called Curtain Call.  This show features many memorable songs from blockbuster musicals.  It ends on a very high note  with Mama Mia.  We find this to be a very uplifting show.  The show was shown as a Matinee, because laster in the evening there were two performances given by entertainer Jimmy Travis.

Afterwards, we dined in the Crystal Dining Room.  These were the dinner menus.

We had already per-ordered an entree that was not on the menu a couple of nights ago.  Headwaiter, Augusto, noticed that one of our favorites which was a Broiled Fresh Ketchikan Halibut Fillet was on the menu.  He suggested that we order it as an appetizer which was a brilliant suggestion.  We did just that.  It was also accompanied with Saffron Risotto and we only had a small portion of that.  We really enjoyed the Halibut.

As those of you know who read our Blog daily, we rarely have beef and almost always have fish as an entree.  We decided to order beef for and we went with a sirloin steak.  The steak was on the larger side in order for it to be cooked properly and we each had about half of what we were served.  It was very tasty.  This photo does not do justice to the color of the beef.  We also shared a side order of steamed vegetables beyond what is pictured in this photo.

For those of you who know wine, we had saved a bottle of a Caymus Vineyards, Special Selection Cabernet wine for this entree and it was brilliant.  We are not wine snobby's and have enjoyed a wide range of wines on this trip and have found some wines that we really enjoyed at very moderate prices.

For dessert Keith had blueberries and strawberries, and Anne Marie had the sugar free Vanilla Raspberry Budino which was delicious.  Keith tried a little of it.

During our meal from our table we had a very nice view of the shoreline as we cruised the Inside Passage.  It was very beautiful.

We also found the dining room to be very quiet last night.  This was likely due to a combination of reasons.  Some guests were likely dining at Tastes which is the casual dining alternative (this was an informal night so some guests may not have wanted to get dressed up for the evening) and several guests were also dining in Silk Road and Prego.  

We enjoyed a very nice sleep last evening.  We needed it after going to sleep at around 12:30 AM. It was very easy to fall asleep and we really appreciated the extra hours of sleep and the fact that there are no more time changes on this cruise prior to our arrival in Los Angeles.

Keith woke up early in the morning and was back in the Fitness Center for his daily workout.  The center was very quiet and afterwards Keith had coffee in the Lido Cafe.  He spoke with some of the Lido Deck Stewards including Martin and Nat and also to the member of the Night Crew, Anthony.

Anne Marie also worked out in the morning and then we enjoyed breakfast in our room as we got ready for our visit to Vancouver.  The ship arrived to Vancouver at around 8:00 PM.  We last visited Vancouver last August on board the Crystal Symphony as part of our Alaskan Cruise.

Some fellow guests departed the ship today as they live in Canada while some guests we know will be leaving in San Francisco.  At the same time, others like us will depart in Los Angeles but some are staying for the next voyage which goes to New York City as they live on the East Coast while still others will take the crossing over to London.

We had to carry a Government Official ID while going ashore so we used our drivers licenses.  Canada has very strict regulations as we have learned on past visits.  

While it rained earlier, it did not rain while we walked for a few hours.  It was cloudy and overcast but that did not dampen our spirits.  Since this is not the height of the tourist season it was fun to walk around.  One of the places we did visit was Gastown.

Steam comes out every 15 minutes.

You can see Stanley Park and this is a sea plane that was getting ready to land.

While we walked around we continually ran into fellow passengers and crew members.  

We went back to the ship to have some lunch and we had a nice salad entree.  We enjoyed a nice seafood salad which included salmon, shrimp and scallops.  

We went back out and and walked over to Stanley Park which is about a 45 minute walk.  Spring was in the air and the sun even came out.  It was delightful and it was nice that there were not many tourists out and about.  We had a wonderful time.

A short while after we got back, Keith met up with friend Bob and Anne Marie read and wrote.

This evening we will dine in Prego.

Keith and Anne Marie