DAY 29 - WELCOME TO LOS ANGELES

Wonderful Time At Last Evening's World Cruise Gala Dinner ✔  Enjoyed Final Day At Sea On This Voyage ✔ Enjoyed Seeing So Many Familiar Faces From Our Previous World Cruise Voyages And The Excitement Of Beginning This World Cruise Adventure ✔

Today marks the end of the Panama Canal Cruise and the beginning of the 2012 World Cruise.

As we mentioned, last evening there was a World Cruise Gala for all World Cruisers.  The vast majority of the World Cruisers were in Los Angeles.  As part of the World Cruise they were staying in Beverly Hills at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and last evening Crystal Cruises hosted a Black Tie World Cruise Gala for them.  Captain Glenn, Cruise Director Rick Spath, Hotel Director Josef Lumetsberger, President Of Crystal Cruises, Gregg Michel, Senior Vice President of Hotel and Fleet Operations Thomas Mazloum and many other members of the Crystal Cruises team were in attendance.

At the same time there are approximately 40+ World Cruise passengers such as ourselves who were already on the Crystal Serenity and we had our own Gala Celebration on-board the ship.

We began the evening with cocktails at the Captain's Quarters.

Anne Marie with good dear Glo and Bob

Keith and Anne Marie with Glo and Bob

After having cocktails, we all walked over to where the dinner was being held for us. 

Seats were assigned and we sat at a seven-person table with Bob and Glo along with two other World Cruise guests one of whom we knew from other voyages.  The Chief Engineer of the Crystal Serenity hosted our table.   Given the recent tragedy with the Costa Ship, we did ask a number of questions of the Chief Engineer about his perspective on what transpired and about the procedures that Crystal Cruises has in place.   One of the items that we did learn is that Crystal Cruises is immediately implementing a change in procedure to conduct the muster (life boat drills) on the first day of the cruise in which the ship sails from port.  Currently, the official rule that all passenger ships follow is to conduct the drill within 24 hours of departure.  It was a nice opportunity to learn a great deal not only related to the recent tragedy but to also learn about other technical areas of the ship. 

We had a several course dinner.

We began with a Green & White Asparagus Salad served with Parmesan Reggiano, Baby Lettuce and Truffle Vinaigrette.  

This was followed with a Parsnip and Black Truffle Soup.  The soup was very tasty but since it was quite rich in certain ingredients we had only a portion of it just to watch the calories.  

We had a choice of two entrees; Pan-Seared Striped Bass or Prime Filet Mignon.  Unlike most evenings when we go with the fish we decided to go with the Filet Mignon. As it turned out everyone at our table had the Filet Mignon, which also was accompanied by Onion Rings and Vegetables.  

The dessert was Rich Chocolate Mousse Timbale with Fudge Chocolate Cake, Seasonal Berries and Fruit Coulis.  We each had a portion of the dessert.

There was a choice of two wines and we had them both.  The white wine was a 2007 Chardonnay, Rosemount Estate, Show Reserve from Hunter Valley.  It was quite good and we had that before our entrée arrived.  We had a 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, Domaine George Rafael, from Napa Valley.  Keith prefers red wines and really enjoyed this Cabernet.

A total of 46 guests attended, along with the hosts so it was a very nice intimate gathering.

As we understand, there are approximately 290 full World Cruise guests on the 2012 World Cruise.

We slept well last evening between the gentle rocking of the ship and likely the wine we had consumed.

Keith was up early and worked out and then a couple of hours later it was Anne Marie’s turn.  Fellow guest Brian arrived about half way through Keith’s workout and it made the time go very fast.  When Keith stopped by the Lido Café it was busier than normal as many guests were up quite early since today is disembarkation day.  After Anne Marie worked out, we had breakfast in the room.

Juts like New Years Eve Day when we woke up and the Holiday Decorations were removed and the Crystal Cove was set up for New Years Eve the same was true for today.  As soon as Keith walked over to the Crystal Cove this morning, the Cove was decorated for this evenings festivities.

During the course of this cruise we sailed from Miami, Florida to Los Angeles, California and sailed 4,679 nautical miles or the equivalent of 5,381 miles.  We were fortunate to have very nice weather during most of this sailing and we met many nice guests who either joined this ship for this sailing or who were also on the preceding Holiday Cruise sailing.  We hope to sail with many of these guests again.

We enjoyed the Miami to Los Angeles Panama Canal sailing.  We were fortunate to have very nice weather and the highlights of this voyage included transiting the Panama Canal (we fine each transit quite interesting), visiting Panama City for the very first time, venturing out into Cartagena, Colombia and discovering what a delight this city is, and enjoying the many activities on board the ship.

The sailing had over 1,000 guests and was completely sold out which is an infrequent occurrence during the course of the year.  At the same time, there was a large wait list for the main (early) dining.  In spite of this other than the first day or two in the dining room where guests had to get used to finding the location of their table, there were never really any queues at any of the venues and the ship never felt crowded.  On top of this there were three or so groups on board the ship and lots of first time Crystal Cruises and there was a lot of enthusiasm on the ship.  We met many first time Crystal Cruises who booked another cruise and we met one couple who during this first Crystal Cruise decided to sign up for the full 2013 World Cruise.  There was an excellent turnout at the shows we attended and at other areas of enrichment including lectures.

We slept well last evening as we began to look forward to the next leg of this journey and the start of the World Cruise.

We kept to the same routine and after each of us woke up we each did our morning workout which was shortly followed by breakfast.

Later in the morning we arrived to the Hollywood Theatre at our appointed time so that along with the other guest remaining on the ship for the next leg we could be escorted off the ship to go through the customs and immigration process.  Once we were cleared, we then returned back to the ship to get ready for the start of the World Cruise.  It was nice that we are all well settled on the ship so we could enjoy the first day activities of the World Cruise.

For those guests who are continuing onto the next voyage, we met in the Hollywood Theater at 10:00 AM and we were taken off the ship at approximately 10:15 AM to go through customs and immigration.  When the ship was cleared, we were able to go back onto the ship.  This process was one of the easiest ones we have ever experienced and we were back on the ship at around 11:00 AM.  When we returned back to the ship, we were greeted by World Cruise Hostess Elise Ivy.

While today marks the end of the Panama Canal Cruise it also marks the start of the 2012 World Cruise and there was lots of excitement in the air.  The first day has the excitement of a family, high school and/or college reunion with so many familiar guests who we have known in some cases for many years.  At the same time, several crewmembers and senior officers joined the ship today that is all part of our Crystal Family.  You can just feel the excitement spread throughout the ship . 

This Map gives a high level view of the World Cruise but doesn't list all of the places we will be visiting.

Later on we met Thomas Mazloum, Crystal Cruises SVP responsible for fleet and hotel operations and several other departments for Crystal.  We have known Thomas for several years and we always look forward to seeing him in person as we did today.  It was nice to catch up with him.

Throughout the day we ran into many other Crystal guests as well as Members of the Crew and many Los Angeles based personnel.  As you will hear us say over and over this is all part of the Crystal Family.  We also wished crew members who were going home for well deserved Holidays all the best including Food & Beverage Manager Victor Conceicao and Cruise Director Gary Hunter.

We had lunch in the Crystal Dining Room and we began this cruise as we do all Crystal Cruises with a flute of Champagne and a Cobb Salad.   The salad was wonderful and it was fun to toast the start of this adventure.

All and all this has been a very exciting day as we mark the start of the World Cruise Adventure.

Later today we will attend the sail-away celebration, which will feature the USC Trojan Marching Band, and after dinner we will attend the 2012 World Cruise Welcome.

We will post more about that tomorrow.

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

“If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” -  Yogi Berra

Keith and Anne Marie