DAY 4 - WELCOME TO GRAND CAYMAN

We wanted to share something that happened yesterday because it can serve as a reminder that this could happen to anyone reading our blog.  The lesson is to eat slow, and the other lesson is to know precisely how to utilize the heimlich maneuver.  Why?  Because you just never know.


Before we got ready for dinner last evening we did have a bit of some excitement in our room.  While Anne Marie was getting dressed, Keith was eating some fruit from a fruit plate that we have on most afternoons as a snack.  This is our routine on each and every cruise.  He had eaten strawberries, blue berries, some honeydew and on literally his last bite of cantaloupe that last bite became lodged and he started to cough and began gasping for breath.  Anne Marie assisted him and did the heimlich maneuver once which caused a portion of the fruit to come up, but not all of it.  Keith asked Anne Marie to get help.  In the meantime a short while later a little more came up.


To make a long story short, Anne Marie ran out to the hallway and one of the stewardesses promptly call the medical center and in very short order the doctor and two nurses arrived to our room.  After doing a few things including having Keith sip some water slowly three or four times (he couldn't swallow it but that was the point)  the final piece came out and Keith was 100% better.


As we said, there is a big lesson here.  The lesson is to never get distracted (Keith rushed on that last piece) and to cut everything in small bite size pieces and to chew each piece well and never take a short cut.  The other lesson is to review the  heimlich maneuver.  At home we actually keep a poster of the maneuver in our kitchen pantry and have done this in all the homes we have lived in.


We wanted to commend the Crystal Staff.  This includes the stewardess who not only made the call but who stayed here until Keith was OK and who checked up on us a couple of times afterwards.  We also want to thank the Medical Staff for their response to this situation.  Finally, we want to thank other members of the crew including our own stewardess, our butler another butler and a couple of other crew members who checked up on us afterwards to make sure that everything was fine.  On a related note, we did learn that all of the butlers are fully trained in this type of emergency and our butler showed both of us how to do the maneuver to ourselves in the event we were alone.


Well, enough said so let's move onto more fun and interesting items.


Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah from the Crystal Serenity.


Last evening marked the fourth night of Chanukah.

Since we didn't dine in the Crystal Dining Room we thought we would post two pages from the menu.

Last evening we dined at the Silk Road Japanese Specialty Restaurant with friends Ashley and Kelly.  

We met Ashley and Kelly for dinner at 7:30 PM.  Silk Road is one of the Specialty Restaurants on the ship and had always been a favorite of ours from the first time we dined there.  It was developed by Nobu Matsuhi who operates approximately twenty world-wide restaurants, including several in the USA.  The recipes are quite unique.  This is about the only place where Keith will have Sashimi and over the years has become more adventurous in his selections.  The entrees are very tasty with the nice blends of ingredients which go into their 
preparation.


We were served by Anthony who we have known for many years.  We all shared a platter of sashimi and sushi along with a few other special Nobu sashimi dishes.  We then each had soup (mushroom soup for Anne Marie and a spicy soup for Keith).  For the next course we had the mushroom salad and for the entree Anne Marie had the Nobu Box which comes with small portions of streak, miso cod, and shrimp.  Keith had the lobster.  Anne Marie also had rice and Keith had steamed vegetables.  Food was great as was the service.  We especially enjoyed the conversation and we dined for almost two and one-half hours.


We didn't take photos of some of the dishes but we will the next time we dine there.


When we got back to the room we moved the clocks forward one hour as we were sailing into a new time zone.  So, the night before back one hour and then last night forward one hour.  We are back on East Coast time.


Keith slept a little later since we went to sleep fairly late but still got his ninety minute workout in on the Elliptical Machine.  Surprisingly, about five other passengers were working out for a portion of the workout.  He stopped by the Lido Cafe for some coffee and spoke with Lido Stewards Benjamin and Alvin.  One thing we wanted to mention is that we have asked members of the staff who are from the Philippines if their homes were impacted by the terrible flooding and the good news is that most were not.  We did hear of one person whose home was impacted and they recently left the ship to return home.   


There was no one in the cafe while Keith was there and one of the stewards remarked that normally there are some "early birds" up there but no on this voyage.

Afterwards, Keith went back to the room and it was Anne Marie's turn to get in her one hour morning workout.  We then enjoyed our breakfast in the room.


At 10:00 AM we attended our first lecture of the cruise given by South African Ambassador who is an ambassador to three different South American Countries, Tony Leon.  He also was a member of Parliament in South Africa for over 20 years and he served as Leader of the Opposition.


We saw him lecture on the 2010 World Cruise which was his first time lecturing on Crystal Cruises and he won over the audience immediately.  He is not only a very charismatic speaker but he very knowledgeable.  He spoke about how South America has transformed into a strong engine for global recovery.  He set the stage nicely by providing a lot of useful background information.  


He will do two other lectures.


We sat nearby former Ambassador to Morocco from the United States Marc Ginsberg  who we have seen lecture several times. From time to time he will be interviewed on various networks  and most recently during the Spring uprising in many of the countries throughout the Middle East.  We made a date to have dinner with him in a few days.


We wanted to note that the schedule called for the ship to tender off Grand Cayman at 12:00 Noon and since we will be back at Grand Cayman on the next voyage and had been there earlier this year, we decided to stay on the ship today.

We had lunch in the Lido Cafe and then Keith ended up playing almost three hours of Paddle Tennis and Anne Marie walked for about an hour and thirty minutes on the Promenade Deck and then finished organizing the room.


This evening we will have dinner in the Crystal Dining Room and afterwards we plan to attend a Holiday Celebration show.  In between diner and the show we are invited to attend a cocktail reception being sponsored by our Travel Consortium who our travel agent is a member of.  They also sent each of their clients a nice flower arrangement for the room.


This evening marks both the fifth night of Chanukah as well as Christmas Eve.  On board the ship is a Rabbi, a Roman Catholic Priest and a Reverend and various services are being held to mark both Chanukah and Christmas Eve.


We wish all of you who celebrate these holidays a Happy Chanukah and a very Merry Christmas.


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

Kindness is the language, which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.  - Mark Twain

Keith and Anne Marie