DAY 64 - WELCOME TO SEMARANG, THAILAND

Fantastic Closing To The World Games ✔ Enjoyed A Fabulous Dinner At Prego Last Evening✔ 

Before dinner, we attended the closing ceremonies for the World Cruise Games.  The final awards were given out and then the games came to a conclusion.  There was singing, dancing along with confetti to commemorate the end of the games.  We have thoroughly enjoyed the games.  The routine performed by the dancers/singers plus the solo song which was sang by Karen Jeffries was very upbeat and inspirational and was by far the best closing we have ever seen for the World Games.


As part of the closing it was noted how many medals were won for each country as the guests noted on their sign up forms which country they were representing.  Some guests noted the country they are a citizen of while others would come up with another country on their own.  For example, one of our friends listed Norway since Captain Glenn is from Norway so Norway ended up with three medals.


The country with the most medals was the USA with around 85 medals.  The United Kingdom came in second followed by Japan and then Canada.


Olympian Peter Vidmar made a grand entrance.

Singer Karen Jeffries sang a song for us.

Captain Glenn announced that the World Games had come to a successful close.

A tradition on board the ship is for the youngest guest to be called upon to put out the  Olympic Torch which of course is not really lit but is made to look like it is.  When the boy pulled the rope some confetti came down and the "flame" of the Olympic Torch was put out commemorating the close of the Games.

The Crystal Dancers and Singers performed a magnificent dance for the finale. This was the ending of their dance.  As they always do for these one of a kind shows/performances they choreographed the entire routine on their own and we believe Shane did most or all of this.

The Confetti came down to mark the closing of the World Games

Just a few minutes after the performance ended, it was housekeeping to the rescue to make sure that the Crystal Cove was spotless as they always do after each and every event.

Afterwards, we chatted for quite awhile with World Cruise Hostess Elise Ivy

While we ate in Prego last evening we wanted to post the dining menus from the Crystal Dining Room.  The theme of the menus was dinner with Balinese Specials.

Last evening we had the pleasure of dining at Prego with Mimi Weisband, Vice President of Public Relations for Crystal Cruises and her husband Michael.  They have been on this entire segment of the World Cruise working with the film and production crew that is on board the Serenity from The Discovery Channel.  They are making a behind the scenes documentary about the Crystal Serenity.  It is part of the Mighty Ships Series.  Many of their programs have featured ships that are not passengers cruise ships such as the United States Nimitz.  To date, they have only shown three passenger cruise ships; NCL Epic, Royal Caribbean Allure Of The Seas and Cunard Queen Mary 2.  Coincidentally, we have seen three passenger cruise ship programs.

We had a wonderful time with Mimi and Michael.  We dined for close to three full hours and enjoyed wonderful cuisine, wine, service and conversation.  Everything was prefect.


Our waiter for the evening was Costa who we normally have.  

We began our meal with salad but did not get a photo of that.

Each of us then had eggplant as a second course which was wonderful.

There were two additions to the menu.  One was a Pasta addition and the other one was a Red Snapper addition.  Coincidentally we all ordered the Red Snapper.  It was delicious and we also enjoyed the items that accompanied it. The preparation that goes into these entrees along with the presentation is truly remarkable.  The chefs can be quite creative when it comes to the additions to the menu and that is one of the reasons why we often order the fish entree addition whenever it is available.

The Prego Head Chef, Christian, stopped by our table.   He often does this as he knows how much we enjoy the additional items which he creates throughout the cruise and always asks for our feedback.  Last evenings entree was another 6 star+ entree.

Michael had a dessert which was a chocolate mousse.

Anne Marie had a small portion of the Chocolate Gelato

Guess what.  Keith had the Fruit Plate.  Surprise.  Surprise. Surprise.

Once back to our room we had our own closing ceremony for the World Games.  Our little group has grown since the start of the World Cruise.

Before we post about today's activities we wanted to take a moment to Blog about two other items.  One relates to the crew party and the other one is about our visit the other day in Bali.

When we hosted the Crew Party on the night of Valentine's Day there were many touching moments for us.  As background there was a section in the room where photos could be taken by the ships photographers so that members of the crew could have some nice memories of the party.  One of the very touching moments for us came when the Lido Deck Stewards/Bar Stewards were getting together for a group photo and they came up to us to ask if we could pose with them.  This is the photo that was taken which we were presented with yesterday.

Standing From L-R Rey Jason, Alvin, Anne Marie, Keith, Edwin, Jun, Rosano, and Ed

Kneeling From L-R Carlo,  Jonathan, Bryan and Max

We also were asked additional questions about the jewelry shop which we visited in Bali and we had mentioned that the interior of the shop was quite unique.  These are additional photos of the interior.

We fell asleep fairly quickly last evening.   The seas remained calm and it was easy to fall asleep once our heads hit the pillow.  If we could only fall asleep this easy at home.  We still think someone needs to create a bed that will simulate sailing at sea.

Keith began the day as he does each day with a visit to the Fitness Center where he enjoyed a very long workout on the Elliptical Machine.  Afterwards, he stopped by the Lido Cafe for some coffee and also chatted with some of the Lido Deck Stewards.

Instead of working out before breakfast, Anne Marie worked out afterwards since we had breakfast delivered to our room thirty minutes earlier than normal as Keith was getting his haircut.

At 7:30 AM there was a knock at the door and it was Rao with our breakfast.  We enjoyed a very nice conversation with Rao as he set up our breakfast.  We have a few good running jokes going on with Rao so that continued and we all had some good laughs.

Keith then went to the salon for a haircut.  While Keith was at the salon, Anne Marie ran some errands on the ship.

We did not book a shore excursion for Semarang,  Some guests took full day excursions while other guest took other tours and several guest did what we did and passed on the tours. We do have lots of excursions coming up starting when we reach Singapore and then over the next two segments of the World Cruise so we decided it would be nice to just spend a relaxing day on the ship.  When you sail on the ship for along time, one does not always feel the need to take an excursion at each port of call or even run around on land as they might feel compelled to do on a shorter voyage.


We did go off the ship just to put our feet on land and to walk around the terminal area.  We made a couple of small purchases and one was a shirt for Keith and the other was a dress for Anne Marie.  These items will work well for Purim and also towards the end of the cruise there is normally a party where guests are asked to come dressed in something they picked up a long the way so these should work out well.  The prices were low and we did not negotiate with the people because they can use the money and in the scheme of things we'd rather help them out.  We found them to be very kind and not pushy.  We will be sure to post photos when we wear these outfits.

As they do on a regular basis the crew had a weekly drill today and today's drill involved evacuating all of the crew members.  As we headed back to the ship the crew was returning.  As they say practice makes perfect and we are always impressed about the focus that the crew places on good safety practices.

For lunch we went to the Crystal Dining Room and had lunch with Cruise Director Rick Spath.  What did we have for lunch you ask?  Yes, we each had a nice salad entree.  Keith had a really tasty salad which was Broiled Snapper Fillet on Lettuce Leaves which was tossed in a Saffron Herb Dressing and it was garnished with Oranges, Tomatoes, Shaved Fennel and Olives and Anne Marie had a Caesar Salad. We had a nice time talking with Rick. 

In the afternoon, Anne Marie walked for another hour and then she did some needlepoint and took care of a few other items.

Keith met friend Bob and also did reading and writing.

This evening we will dine at the Crystal Dining Room.  We will post more about that tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, we will cross the equator for the second time of this adventure.

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

“The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work.” – Richard Bach 

Keith and Anne Marie