DAY 23 CRUISING TO HUATULCO, MEXICO

We thought we would begin by posting a few additional photos from our rendezvous with the Crystal Symphony yesterday morning.

If you remember, yesterday Keith posted a photo that he took of Bob who was standing one of the higher decks to view the rendezvous with the Symphony.  This is a photo courtesy of Bob that he took of Keith who was standing on the Promenade Deck of the ship.  Keith looks like he has no legs, but we promise, he does.

Before dinner, we attended the Crystal Society Reception.  We ended up sitting at the bar again.  We were watching the various bartenders work their magic and we saw one of them, Sumey, making a colorful drink for another couple we know.  We decided that instead of our usual wine we would try something new and different and it was quite colorful and good.

It is called a Bacarazz Martini with Raspberries.  It was definitely tasty.

During the reception we spoke with the Food & Beverage Manager, Victor Conceicao and also the Head Housekeeper, Elena, who has just come on board from a well deserved Holiday.  Crystal Society Hostess Jaque Brown who is on this voyage to prepare for the World Cruise came by as well.  We spoke with a few fellow guests.

Two solo women were recognized with Milestones and received a large bouquet of flowers.  This included on woman who is on her 40th Crystal Cruise and another woman who has completed 100+ cruises with Crystal Cruises.

Captain Okland noted that there are now over 400,000 Crystal Society members which is quite amazing with a fleet of two ships and one other ship that was retired and moved over to Japan.

We had dinner in the Crystal Dining Room last evening.  As we mentioned, the theme of the dinner was French Night.  These are the menus.

Often, we dine in a specialty restaurant on most formal nights since the dining room tends to be quite busy on Formal Nights and the specialty restaurants are much quieter on those evenings.  However, since our Senior Waiter will be going on Holiday when this current voyages ends on January 17, we are trying to spend more time dining in the Crystal Dining Room as we greatly appreciate his service.  The dining room was indeed busy last night but it was still quite enjoyable.

We each began dinner with a salad.  We also both had Salmon as our entree but we decided to order a  half portion of the Striped Bass.  Although we are not big fans of Striped Bass we figured we'd take a small taste.  We ended up getting a full entree and shared just a portion of it.  We enjoyed the salmon much more than the bass as we thought we would but nevertheless we were glad we also tried the Striped Bass.

This was the salmon entree. It was accompanied by a starch which was a olive smashed potatoes.

Striped Bass Entree

We also had a nice large bowl of steamed vegetables to accompany the entrees.

For dessert, Anne Marie ordered the sugar-free Vanilla Profiteroles with Fudge Sauce.  It was good with a vanilla custard inside the puffs. Keith had a portion of this dessert and also he had a nice size bowl of blueberries and strawberries.

Many fellow guests ordered the Lutece which is a french souffle with sauce served with Grand Marnier.

We spoke for awhile with our Sommelier Maria and Keith asked her if she was able to find a camera in Panama City as she hoped to.  She had told us that her camera needed replacement and she was hoping to find it so that she could have it for the entire world cruise.  The good news is she did purchase a new camera at a very good price and she thanked Keith for remembering that she hoped to find a camera.

We also wanted to share one memorable moment for a member of the crew.

While not our sommelier for this cruise so far, one of the sommelier's Raphael came over to our table last evening. He told us that he was able to see his brother and sister over at the Symphony. Those of you who have sailed with Crystal may know his brother who is Maitre d' Remi and his sister is also on and his the Chief Housekeeper. He said it brought tears to his eyes to see them together. They are a very close family and it was really nice and it was touching when he told us all about it.

We also looked at the menu for the following night.  Salmon was on the menu and we decided to have something different since we had just had salmon.  We spoke with headwaiter Igor, and we special ordered Matzoh Ball Soup as well as Kosher Chicken.


Although there was a show last evening we decided to go back to the cabin early and also took advantage of sailing into a new time zone when we moved the clocks back one hour.  When the World Cruise begins we will begin to attend the evening entertainment shows.


We slept very well last evening and we each got in our morning workouts before breakfast.  The good news is that we are now on Central Standard Time having gotten an extra hour of sleep as we turned the clock back one hour.  We will do this again two times before we arrive to Los Angeles a few days from now.  When people ask us which is the best way to sail on a Panama Canal Cruise we always say from East to West so you get three nights with an extra hour of sleep.


Once again, fellow guest Brian was up there about mid-way through Keith's workout and it really helps to get through the workout.  Keith and Brian talked about some of the upcoming ports on the World Cruise with Keith talking about ports he's been to and Brian has not yet been to with Brian sharing experiences at ports that he has been to and we have not been to.


Keith also watched a lecture that he had missed yesterday which was given by David Davenport.  He spoke about some of the major cases that the Supreme Court is expected to rule on in 2012 including Healthcare and Immigration. He gave the kind of lecture that we happen to prefer knowing that people have their own personal views on this.  Rather than giving his own personal views, he focused on the cases themselves and what the issues are with respect to the points that will be made and some of the items that the judges will consider.  It was a very well done lecture.


After breakfast we got ready for another nice day at sea.


There were two morning lectures.  One was given by Steve Saint whose presentation was titled "It's a Jungle out there: An Amazon Warrior in New York City.  The second one was given by Destination Lecturer Dr. Anthony Avini who covered our next port of call; Huatulco, Mexico.


We ate lunch today at the Lido Cafe and sat outside.  The weather was quite nice.  After lunch Keith played Paddle Tennis with both guests and members of the crew.  He really is enjoying this game and that includes meeting many guests but also getting lots of fresh air.    Anne Marie walked an hour on the Promenade Deck as she continued to listen to one of her audio books.


Later in the afternoon, Keith met up with Bob and Anne Marie sat out for awhile and continued to enjoy her book.


This evening we will dine at the Crystal Dining Room.  We had looked at the menu last evening.   We will post more about this tomorrow.


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

“The life you led does not need to be the only life you have.”  -  Anna Quindlen

Keith and Anne Marie