Before dinner last evening we stopped by the Shore Excursion Desk to talk through our plans for Noumea, New Caledona and for New Castle, Australia. We do not have an excursion planned for Noumea, but we do have one for New Castle. We find the shore excursion staff to be not only quite knowledgeable but also very helpful and insightful. The two members of the team reaffirmed our decision to visit Noumea on our own and also that we made a nice choice in our shore excursion selection for New Castle. Since we have never been to these two ports of call before (New Castle is actually a Maiden Port Of Call Stop for Crystal Cruises) it was very helpful for us to talk all of this through with the Shore Excursion personnel.
Last evening we dined at the Crystal Dining Room. It was very quiet and we do mean very quiet. There were far fewer guests dining than normal. In fact, there were far fewer guests than what the dining room staff had expected given that the staff knows how many people have reservations at the other dining venues; Prego and Silk Road. We also know that Silk Road and Prego were not very busy.
So, the question is what happened to everyone? We suspect that some dined at Tastes where no reservations are required and where one can dine in very casual attire, including shorts. At the same time, we think that others may have skipped the meal (can you believe skipping a meal on board a cruise ship) since they might have eaten a large lunch while visiting Maui. Still others, may have ordered room service after having toured for much of the day and on the previous days in Honolulu.
Since the dining room was very quiet, this gave us more time to speak with the wait staff including our senior waiter, Salvatore, and our waiter, Marina, along with Sommelier Raphael, and Headwaiter, Augusto. It was nice to catch up with them. We also chatted with Maitre d', Leo Assmair.
This reminds us of one of the areas that we find fascinating when we sail for long periods of time.
The crew of the ship represents over fifty nationalities and that is one of the many aspects of cruising we enjoy as it provides us with an opportunity to learn about many different cultures. One of the items we discussed with the wait staff when we spoke about how so few guests were in the dining room was the size of meals and the time that each of them have lunch and dinner in their specific countries. For instance, whereas in the United States dinner tends to be the largest of the three meals, in other counties such as Italy lunch represents the largest meal of the day.
On this voyage, there is also lots of diversity in terms of guest nationalities as there are in other areas. On this voyage, there are guests on board who reside in thirteen different countries according to the guest list book that is published on each voyage. They are: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Philippines, Switzerland., China, Monaco, Germany, Japan, Singapore, Korea, and Spain.
This is one of the areas that we find fascinating on our cruises as we enjoy learning about customs, practices, and views from around the world. On longer voyages such as this one, we have the opportunity to get much more depth in our relationships/discussions with others which we find very rewarding. On top of this, we then have the opportunity to visit countries located in different areas of the world. All of this is part of “discovery”.
These are the menus from last nights dinner.
Before dinner we sat in the Crystal Cove with friends John and Linda. We enjoyed a nice conversation with them. We first met John and Linda in 2007. While we caught up with one another we also listened to pianist John Mentis. John has performed on every Crystal Cruises World Cruise.
We dined in the Crystal Dining Room. Earlier yesterday we had looked at the menus and the fish listed was an Pan Seared Fresh Hawaiian Nairagi. Our first thought was "what's that"? We asked the butler Rao if he happened to know what type of fish it was and while he didn't we all agreed it was probably a fish we are familiar with but since this was an Hawaiian Fish so it goes by another name. Sure enough about five to ten minutes after Rao left our room there was a knock at the door and it was Rao to the rescue. He had not only looked up the fish for us on the internet but also brought us a print out of what he read which identified the fish as a Striped Marlin. One of the nice things about stopping off at Hawaii are the nice opportunities for the chefs to purchase local fish for the ship for the guests to enjoy. If you are like us and enjoy trying different types of fish and other seafood, it's a great opportunity sailing in areas that are known for their seafood.
We each began our meal with a salad. Anne Marie had the assorted Mixed Green Tossed Salad and Keith had his standing order salad.
We each had the Marlin (Pan Seared Fresh Hawaiian Nairagi) for our entrée. It was delicious. The chefs really know how to prepare these fish entrees in both the Crystal Dining Room and at Prego in ways that we couldn't imagine. The items that accompanied the fish added to its overall taste. The fish was quite moist yet had a solid texture and also was a very nice thick cut.
We paired the entree with a Chardonnay for Anne Marie and Skag's Leap Artemis Cabernet for Keith.
While we know it doesn't look like a gourmet food item, we do have a standing order of steamed vegetables. Keith eats the majority of them while Anne Marie has some. As Keith's Mom used to say, eat your vegetables so that you grow up to be smart and strong.
For dessert, Anne Marie enjoyed a sugar free Vanilla Raspberry Budino. It looked magnificent and Keith had a little taste as well. It tasted as good as it looked and we would not have guessed in a million years that it was a sugar-free dessert.
Anne Marie slept well last evening. Keith didn't sleep as well as he normally does mainly because the ship was swaying a little more than usual so it seemed that he would sleep for an hour, wake up for a little while, then sleep again.
Keith still managed to begin the day with a nice early workout at the Fitness Center and he still had a lot of energy today. Maybe it's all of those vegetables and fish which are rich in vitamins. A little while after Keith got back to the room Anne Marie also enjoyed her workout.
We had breakfast in the room as we got ready for yet another wonderful sea day on the Crystal Serenity. This is the first of seven consecutive day until we reach our next port of call in Noumea, New Caledona. Each sea day aboard the ship is very special. For those of you who like sea days, this first leg of the World Cruise has lots of them with very few stops until we reach Sydney, Australia.
We couldn't make it to today's Rap With The Rabbi as we needed to meet with someone from the crew. We do try to attend as many of these sessions as possible. We ran into fellow guest Becky as we were leaving the Bistro who we know from Cruise Critic and from a sailing on the Crystal Symphony in November of 2010.
After our meeting, Keith took another spin (indoor cycling) class. Somehow, those legs which have been getting a lot of action from the elliptical machine to all the paddle tennis made it through another challenging workout. This was a great class as some of the guests were in really good shape so we each pushed each other.
Keith was the first to arrive and got all situation on the spin bike.
Anne Marie couldn't get all of the guests in the same photo as there was insufficient space behind her so between both photos you will see all guests.
Keith continues to miss his friends from his indoor cycling classes at home which are known as the Spin-Its. This photo is for Jan (Sharky), Jan (JK), Jamie and Shelly.
At the end of the Spin Class, Keith said hello to friends Glo and Bob who were working out in the Fitness Center. Glo was doing her regular workout on the Elliptical Machine while Bob was doing the same on the Treadmill. Bob told Keith all about the shore excursion that they went on yesterday in Maui which was a full day tour and they traveled 150 miles on the island. It sounded like lots of fun.
We wanted to mention that there were three lectures today. Bill Toone spoke about Madagascar: Africa's Ghost Island, Major General (Retired) Pat Brady who was the Crystal Cruises escort for our tour the other day of all of the military sites spoke about what it means to be an American, and Bill Bendel spoke about the Skies of the Southern Hemisphere. Bill Bendel covered items such as how to spot the Southern Cross.
We played Team Trivia and now have several consecutive games in a row to play since Team Trivia is held each and every sea day. Our team tied with two other teams with the highest score for the day getting thirteen of fifteen questions correct. To date, we are now in second place.
As we do most days we enjoyed a very nice salad entree for lunch.
Afterwards, Keith planned to play Paddle Tennis but the courts were wet from an earlier shower so he passed on that and instead spoke with several other guests. Anne Marie took a one hour walk on the Promenade Deck. Anne Marie also did her knitting today. Keith met up with friend Bob later in the day. Keith also caught one of the lectures on television that he missed.
This evening we will dine at the Crystal Dining Room and will post more about this tomorrow.
TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY.....
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” - Theodore Roosevelt
Keith and Anne Marie
The fish in Hawaii is wonderful. Last year you raved about a fish you had enjoyed so I put it in my notes & ate it several times when we were there.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for all the work you are doing for all of us.