DAY 22 - CRUISING TO HUATULCO, MEXICO

Once again, we wanted to mention how much we enjoyed Panama City and the tour.  While there were a lot of people signed up for the tour, what was really nice is that the size of the buses was relatively small and we only had nineteen fellow guests on our tour bus.   It was a perfect size group for this tour.  We had a nice balance of being able to walk around as we made various stops as well as being able to see various areas from the tour bus.

As we mentioned this was our first visit to Panama City.  Others who have been there before ranging from Bob and Glo to some members of the crew described for us the many changes that have taken place there since some of them were last there around ten or more years ago.  Much of the new city buildings have been built since then.  Whereas years ago there were very few hotels, now there are many luxury hotels in the downtown area.

Our tour guide noted that similar to Costa Rica that Panama City is now attracting many retirees from the USA.  It appears that cost of living is relatively low.  He said you can get a one pound lobster in a restaurant for something like $4.99.  While good for those who have money, we need to keep in mind that  the average annual income for someone working is around $11,000.00 per year.

All of the guests that we have spoken with really enjoyed their visit to Panama City so hopefully this will  be the first of many visits in the future to this Port Of Call that Crystal Cruises will make.

These are some additional photos we took yesterday.

The Ruins from the old city

The ruins from the old city

Although we did not dine in the Crystal Dining Room last evening, this is the dinner menu.

Before dinner, we walked around the ship for a little while and spoke with some guests and crew members.

Right after these two photos were taken, we saw Hotel Director, Josef Lumetsberger, and he swiftly came down the steps that lead to the Crystal Cove on Deck 5 to greet Anne Marie.  Josef returned to the ship on Monday right before we began the transit of the Panama Canal and while Keith ran into him on Monday, Anne Marie had not seen him until last night.  Josef will be the Hotel Director for not only the remainder of this voyage but for the entire World Cruise.  Coincidentally, as we were getting ready to board the tender for our visit to Panama City yesterday morning, we ran into, Hotel Director, Herbert Jager who was getting ready to return home to Austria for a very well deserved holiday.  Normally, Herbert Jager performs his position of Hotel Director on board the Crystal Symphony but due to the unexpected passing of Hotel Director Herbert Doppler, he extended his contract to come onto the Serenity to allow Josef Lumetsberger to have a short vacation of a few weeks before the start of the World Cruise.  This is truly an example of teamwork and the dedication that these two professional exhibit day-in-and-day out.

One of the very nice aspects of cruising is the opportunity to develop good friendships, some of which develop during long voyages, while others develop on shorter voyages.  In our case,  we first met Bob and Glo on the 2008 World Cruise and then sailed with them the following year from Los Angeles to Hong Kong,  In 2010 we had the opportunity to share many wonderful memories with them throughout the full 2010 World Cruise and in 2011 we sailed together from Miami all the way to Singapore.  

We truly value our friendship with Bob and Glo and think the "world" of the two of them.

We had a wonderful time in Prego last evening as we celebrated Bob's birthday with Bob, Glo and fellow passengers Brian and his daughter Emma and Linda and David Perlmutter.   Linda is the founder of Odyssey Art and Odyssey Art at Sea which is a program that is found all year long on both Crystal ships.  On each voyage a different are class is offered which can range from painting to making masks, jewelry, purses or working with clay, or carving stones to other areas of art.  

It seems like only yesterday when we were celebrating Bob's Birthday last year in Prego with Bob, Glo and their granddaughter Becky.

Dinner was wonderful. We each had a Caesar Salad and for our entree we each had Black Cod which was one of the two entrees for the evening which were in addition to the regular menu.  This was the second time that we have had the Black Cod on this voyage and it was superb.   

Dessert was Birthday Cake and Vanilla Ice Cream both of which were also terrific.  We had a wonderful evening and greatly enjoyed celebrating Bob's birthday.

Seated From L-R Glo, Bob, Keith and Anne Marie
Standing From L-R  Linda, Emma, Brian and David

Black Cod Entree

Happy Birthday to Bob!  Now it's time to make a wish.

We hope the wish comes true.

Once again, we slept very well last evening.  The seas were very calm.

Today, we began the first of two sea days as we are sailing to our next port of call in Huatulco, Mexico

Keith enjoyed another nice workout in the morning.  His workout went even faster after fellow guest Brian arrived to the Fitness Center and the time went by relatively quickly as Brian and Keith spoke the entire time.  After Keith returned to the room he changed and had coffee at the Lido Cafe and more passengers were up there than usual.

A short while later Anne Marie got in her morning workout and then a short while later we had breakfast in the room.

While we  had breakfast in our room a highlight was that at around 8:00 AM we had a rendezvous with the Crystal Symphony; the sister ship of the Crystal Serenity.  The Symphony which began its voyage in Los Angeles is sailing toward Miami while we are sailing from Miami to Los Angeles.  We were able to view the Symphony from our stateroom.

This rendezvous will easily be one of the highlights of the cruise.

Anne Marie spotted the Symphony at around 7:00 AM and called Keith and he came down to take a photo a few minutes later and then stayed on the Promenade Deck until fairly close to 8:00 AM taking photos.  About that time he went back to our room to take photos.

After Keith took a few photos, he was walking around to another area of the Promenade Deck and Keith heard his name being called and it was Bob.  Bob snapped a photo of Keith and Keith snapped a photo of Bob.

Cruise Director Gary Hunter came onto the ships speaker around 7:15 AM to explain how the meeting between the two ships would work.  The Symphony would wait for us and would reverse her position so that we would be sailing in the same direction.

Assistant Cruise Director Scott Mitchel.

There she is.

 About 10 minutes away.

More and more of the Crystal Serenity Crew took their positions to see the Symphony.

As we got much closer we could hear Crystal Symphony Cruise Director Paul McFarland on the speaker while the people on the Symphony could hear our Cruise Director Gary Hunter.  As we got very close, the Captains of each ship played their foghorns in salute of each vessel.

Later on Gary Hunter came onto the speaker to say that we should all on the count of three say Hello Symphony and then we would play the song "We Are The Champions".  A few seconds later, the Symphony did the same.  Great teamwork by Cruise Directors Gary Hunter and Paul McFarland.

We also sang Happy New Year to each other.

A banner with CY and CS for the Crystal Serenity and the Crystal Symphony.

We had a couple of banners on our ship.  One of the banners that we had was birthday greetings to the Hotel Director of the Crystal Symphony for his 60th Birthday.

We sent our rescue boat with Photographer Neil to take photos of both the Symphony and the Serenity.

A tradition of Crystal is when each ship departs a port of call that they play the song by
Louis Armstrong, "What A Wonderful World".  It was only fitting that both ships did likewise as we said goodbye to each other.

As our rendezvous came to an end the Crystal Symphony began to turn around so that she could continue sailing from West to East.

One final note.  We have mentioned that there are around 1,050 passengers on board and that likely also includes entertainers, lecturers and others involved in the various enrichment programs.

On the speaker of the Symphony we could hear Cruise Director Paul McFarland saying that there were 999 and 888 guests (we're thinking revenue guests) on the Serenity and Symphony respectively.  Whether correct or not it sounds nice in terms of 999 and 888.

At 10:00 AM, Keith took a spin (indoor cycling) class and really enjoyed the workout.  The two fitness directors have been giving challenging workouts given the range of guests who take the cruise.  Today's fitness director mentioned to Keith that he'll give him a very intense workout sometime during the net couple of weeks.  Of course between ninety minutes plus of Elliptical this morning and spin Keith really worked hard this morning.  On his way to Spin, Keith saw fellow Guest Peggy and a few other people and chatted about the visits to Panama City and Cartagena.

Anne Marie took this photo at the end of the class.

There were many activities on the schedule for today including three nicely done lectures.  The first one was given by Richard Morgan on the Panama Canal which not only covered the existing canal but the doubling of the capacity of the canal which is on track for implementation in 2014. While the current canal can only support ships up to a width of 110 feet the new canal will be able to support ships with a width of up to 180 feet.  Next up was special interest lecturer David Davenport who spoke about the Supreme Court and two of the major cases they will be asked to address related to Healthcare and Immigration.  Robert Adams gave the last presentation of the day and spoke about the book titled Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress written by Dai Sijje.

In between all this there was a special Nuevo Latino Buffet set up around the inside pool on the Lido Deck.   We decided to have lunch in the Crystal Dining Room instead but there were lots of great items available from the buffet.

In the afternoon, Keith played Paddle Tennis and continues to enjoy this game.  Anne Marie got in another afternoon walk on the Promenade Deck and also sat by the pool area.

Before dinner this evening we will attend the Crystal Society Reception which is for all guest who have completed one or more sailings.  Dinner in the Dining Room will feature the French Dinner. We will post all about this tomorrow.

TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY....

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is God's gift, that's why we call it the present." - Joan Rivers

Keith and Anne Marie