DAY 70- WELCOME TO BANGKOK, THAILAND

Excellent Time At Prego Last Evening ✔ Greatly Enjoyed Our Visit To Bangkok  ✔


Although we dined at Prego last evening these are the dinner menus from the Crystal Dinging Room.

We enjoyed a fabulous meal at the Prego Italian Restaurant last evening.  


Our waiter for the evening was Costa who we usually have when we dine in Prego.  We first met Costa in 2008 and we had him as our waiter throughout the 2010 World Cruise.  While on board the Serenity for the 2011 Panama Canal Cruise and the first four legs of the 2011 World Cruise Costa was on a well deserved holiday so we didn't see him.  It's been nice to be with him again.  We not only enjoy his terrific restaurant skills but just enjoy talking with him about a wide range of items including his home town which is located in Portugal.


Last night was to be the busiest night in Prego in two months with around 130 guests with reservations.  Since this leg of the World Cruise is port intensive the specialty restaurants will have significantly guests dining over the rest of this segment.  We arrived at 6:00 PM and by around 7:00 PM it was fairly busy and many more guests were due to arrive at 8:00 and 8:30 PM respectively.


This was the first time we dined at Prego since Headwaiter Bruno came back from Holiday to relieve Mario who now is on Holiday so we chatted with Bruno from time to time during dinner.

We enjoyed a delicious meal at Prego last evening and truly enjoyed the ambience of this beautiful restaurant.


Before we mention the meal, as we have done the last couple of times, we have let Christian the Sommelier select our wine.  He is getting a good grasp as to the wine we enjoy.  He waited until we selected our entree, and then returned back to our table and we discussed the entree and then he said he would come back with a wine that would pair well for the dinner.  The Sommelier's on board the ship do not push high priced wine and often recommend wines that are moderately priced that are excellent values.  He selected a nice Pinot Noir for us that paired extremely well with our meal.  We will continue to let Christian select our wines going forward as it gives us a chance to try wines that we have never had before which in the end expands our overall experience.


We had a nice window table.  Once we were seated, Costa opened the drapes for us so that we could enjoy a nice view of the sea and we watched the sunset.  

We began the meal with salad.  Anne Marie had the Caesar Salad and Keith had a standing order salad.

We then had a second course, which was a small portion of one of the additional entree which was pasta and clams.  This one was good but not as tasty as the ravioli entree that we had as an appetizer the last time we dined at Prego.

For our entrée we ordered one the other additional entree item, which was sea bass that was accompanied by a risotto which was surrounded by a lemon foam.  This entrée was not just delicious but we would put it up there as one of the best seafood entrees we have ever eaten.  It was just superb. The cut of the sea bass was really nice and, in fact, Keith had some of Anne Marie's.  It was so very tasty between the taste of the fish and the risotto along with the lemon foam.  It was also cooked just perfectly so that it was moist.




 When we finished dinner, we spoke with the Prego Executive Chef, Christian, about how much we enjoyed the entrée.  He also told us about another fish that he will be serving this evening and tomorrow evening and we will plan to have it tomorrow evening. 




We truly enjoy these additional entrees as it provides the opportunity for Christian to create his own recipes and they have really been outstanding.

For dessert, Keith had fresh fruit and Anne Marie had a decaffeinated coppuchino.

There was a nice themed night show last evening and the entrance to the Galaxy Lounge was decorated beautifully for the show.  There were also members who looked like stuffed animals.

We slept very well last evening and we have continued to enjoy relatively calm seas.  In fact, it was hard to know that we were moving.

Keith was up very early and back to the Fitness Center and got in a nice workout before it was time for breakfast.  He stopped by the Lido Cafe for some coffee and with very early tours scheduled for this morning, there were some other guests already seated there for the continental breakfast.

Because of our early arrival and tour Anne Marie did not work out.

We had an earlier breakfast than we usually do as we had an early tour.  Rao set up a very nice breakfast as he does each and everyday for us.  As we do at home, we have oatmeal with a banana and on the ship Keith has stewed prunes. It's simple, but filling and healthy.

After breakfast we got ready for our visit to Bangkok.We visited the very unique city of Bangkok in 2008.  Since the port is located at least ninety minutes from Bangkok on our first visit we took one of the two Crystal Cruises tours that includes an overnight at a Hotel in Bangkok.  We stayed at the Manderin Oriental and visited many sites all around the city.  

This time around we selected Bangkok as one of five cities where utilized a private tour from our travel consortium. We were very happy we did.


After the ship was cleared, we made our way to the pier where we where met by our private tour guide/driver for our visit to Bangkok.  Our tour guide went with the name Audi and the driver's name was Manocs.


These photos will give you a sense to some of what makes Bangkok so unique and many of the places we visited.   There are lots of Temples to see to give you a sense of the city and its culture.

After touring around the city, we visited a store that we had first visited in Bangkok in 2008 called Jim Thompson.  They have several locations throughout Bangkok along with a few other cities in Thailand and are also located in Singapore, Malaysia along with one location in China.  They are known for their silk and for a wide range of clothing items for men, women and children that they sell.  We enjoyed the Bangkok store so much that we wanted to go back there again. Later, we visited the Jim Thompson Museum which includes a store and also includes his original house which was moved to its current location.  We will post more about this tomorrow including other sites we drove by on our way out of the city.


We brought some food items with us for lunch so we didn't waste time with eating off the ship. We will have lunch on the remaining three private tours.  Anne Marie made us cheese sandwiches with cheese, bread and tomatoes that she got from the Lido Cafe.  We also brought grapes with us along with ice that Rao had gotten for us.  While it is prohibited to take food off the ship in many ports of call around the world, there are some such as Thailand where it is permitted.  If it was not, then we would not have taken food with us.


Our drive back to the ship took about 90 minutes.  We had each brought iPads with us so we could read when the tour guide was not talking with us.  It helped make the time go faster with the iPads.


This evening we will dine in the Crystal Dining Room.


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

“Let us never negotiate out of fear.  But let us never fear to negotiate.” – John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Keith and Anne Marie