DAY 82 - WELCOME TO HONG KONG

Thoroughly Enjoyed Last Evening's Dinner At Prego With Good Friends✔ Enjoyed Our First Day In Hong Kong ✔


Lily asked whether or given the travel times Brian thought it was worth visiting Hanoi.  We asked the same thing of Brian and some other people who visited Hanoi including Bob and Glo.  Everyone had the same response.  In spite of the travel time which was about three and one half hours in each direction, they were glad that they got to see Hanoi even for a few hours.  The consensus was that a visit once in their lifetime would be it and they would not go back there again even if they returned to the same port of call.  While Brian, his daughter and two other guests were on a private tour booked through Crystal and Bob and Glo were on the general Crystal Tour, they all said that their respective tour guides were outstanding and that they learned so very much on their drives to Hanoi so that the time was very worthwhile.  


We wanted to also mention that we had previously noted that approximately ten guests would be staying on the ship while we are on the Beijing two night/three day overland tour which is provided to all guest as part of the cruise fare.  We understand that this number now is at around the 45 passenger mark.

We had a wonderful night on the ship last evening.  Last night was the final formal night of this third segment of the World Cruise and as such we began the evening by attending the Captain's Farewell Reception.  We sat at the bar and we spoke with several fellow guests and members of the Crystal Crew.  

During his talk, Captain Glenn mentioned that approximately 240 guests will be leaving the ship and around 210 will be getting on the ship in Hong Kong.  This does not include any of the enrichment or entertainment personnel who might be leaving or joining the ship.  With a number of guest sailing solo, most of the cabins will also be occupied during this next segment of the World Cruise.


Anne Marie with fellow guest Elaine.

Several people remarked to us during the reception and afterwards that they noticed that we coordinated between Anne Marie's dress and Keith's bow tie.  A few mentioned it was close to the Crystal Cruises color.

Although we did not dine in Prego last evening these are the dinner menus from the Crystal Dining Room.  The dinner theme was the Captain's Gala Dinner and it included a wonderful array of items to choose from.

Later in the evening, we hosted a dinner with friends Bob and Glo, Sandy and Mike, and Lynn and Buddy at the Prego Italian Specialty restaurant.  We had arranged ahead with Waiter Costa, Headwaiter Bruno and Specialty Restaurant Maitre d' the table location and also a couple of additional courses we pre-ordered.


Seated  clockwise starting in the bottom left hand corner Bob, Glo, Keith, Anne Marie, Mike, Sandy, Buddy and Lynn.

We also spoke with Sommelier Christian about the white and red wines that would be served.

When it was time to order the food, Costa went over the additional entrees that were on the Prego menu for last evening and then Headwaiter Bruno explained the two additional items that we had ordered for everyone if they were interested in trying them.  The good news is that everyone had them.

Between the wonderful conversation and the delicious food we had an excellent time with our friends.  We don't want to sound like a broken record (to be current should we be saying a broken CD) but this was another wonderful and delicious meal with a couple of items that we don't normally have.

We began the meal with a seafood appetizer which was an additional item.  When we ordered it we thought it was going to be served on a smaller plate and would be a smaller size.  When the plates arrived it looked like it was the entree, particularly because of the size of the half lobster in its shell on the plates.  In addition to the  half lobster, this starter seafood plate also came with a large shrimp prawn, a scallop and king crab meat salad. To say it was wonderful was an understatement.  It was one of the best prepared items we have had in any dining venue at sea or on land.   This is a photo of the seafood but it does not do justice to how impressive this items was nor how well it looked when it was served to us.

For our second course, we  enjoyed another additional item which was an eggplant parmigiana which was just superb.  It was very tasty and overall was delicious.  It had the right mix of sauce and cheese and did not have any oily taste or aftertaste.

We could have ended the meal at that point but there was still more to come.

The two of us had salads for our third course while everyone else each had the item they ordered.  This might have been a first but we didn't eat the entire salad.  In fact, Keith only had a little portion of it knowing there was still more coming our way.

For our entree the two of us had the additional fish entree.  It was a white flakey fish similar to cod and came with a lemon foam mashed potato (we realize it looks like lime but it was lemon) and accompanied by some salad items and a cooked tomato and it was another unique entree.

We never were at a loss for words during the entire meal.  Early on we each had a conversation with the person next to us so Keith was conversing with Glo, Anne Marie with Mike, Sandy and Buddy and Bob and Lynn and then after a little while the entire table enjoyed one conversation amongst all of us.  We shared thoughts on a wide range of items including our visit and observations of Vietnam, our experiences on the World Cruise and our upcoming visit to Hong Kong.  Since all of us are on for the entire World Cruise we are experiencing so much together which really adds a good deal to the adventure.

We can't say enough about how special last evening was between the outstanding service, to the wonderful (and we do mean wonderful) cuisine, to sharing the evening with friends.  We thanked the executive chef of Prego Christian for these wonderful additional items and he could see from our faces how much we enjoyed these additional items along with the rest of the cuisine that is prepared by the Prego Chefs under his direction.

We slept very well last evening.  It seemed that the moment that we put our heads on the pillow that we fell asleep.

We woke early and Keith was up first for a nice workout at the Fitness Center.  He was alone for much of the workout and he watched two of the lectures that he had missed over the past few days.  He stopped by the Lido Cafe for some coffee where he chatted with several of the Lido Deck Stewards including Glen, Ray, Rozano along with one of the members of the Night Crew who he says almost every morning at the Cafe.

Afterwards, Anne Marie worked out on the treadmill. We then enjoyed breakfast in our room.

This is our fourth visit to Hong Kong with Crystal Cruises (three times on the Serenity and one time on the Symphony) excluding Keith's visit here on business in the 1990's.   Normally, we dock at the Ocean Terminal but that was not possible this time around as priority was given to some vessels associated with Star Ferry.  Crystal had worked very diligently for quite sometime to find alternatives to this to minimize impact for the guests.

On March 12 (today local ship date) and on March 14 the Serenity is anchored in Junk Bay and Crystal Cruises made arrangements to provide a complimentary tender ferry service to transport guests to a Public Pier located between the Star Ferry and Ocean Terminal.  The Ferry Service ran in each direction every 90 minutes and the actual trip took anywhere from around 25 to approximately 45 minutes each way.  Tomorrow, which is also turn around day for the ship when many guests are leaving the ship while new guests are boarding the ship the Serenity will be docked at a site known as Modern Terminals with shuttle service provided every 30 minutes to take guests to and from Ocean Terminal.

Since we had never taken a ferry in Hong Kong and always want to  we looked at this as an opportunity.

We will not be docking in the usual spot in Hong Kong.  Instead, on the first and third days we will be taken over to the port on a ferry that has been chartered exclusively for Crystal.

Our original plan was to take the second ferry that was scheduled to depart the ship at 9:30.  As it turned out the first ferry was delayed due to safety concerns setting up the floating platform.  We ended up getting the first ferry and because it left later than the original schedule they made up quite a bit of time as it moved rapidly over to the drop off point.

Walking down the gangway onto the floating pier and then onto the Ferry.

Thankfully it was not raining when we got over to land.  There was a very light mist in the air.  We made our way to an alley off Nathan  Road where there are is a street vendor on both side of the alley that sell various items that we have bought in the past such as jewelry pouches.  We found exactly what we needed and made our purchases.

This area was under construction when we were last in Hong Kong

 We also stopped by The Peninsula Hotel and looked at a few shops where we have also shopped before.

During our walk we ran into Jeff Walters who makes a number of in-house videos for Crystal Cruise and also edits the World Cruise Video.  Jeff boarded the ship this afternoon and will be on the ship until the end of the World Cruise and will pull together the World Cruise video.

A familiar landmark; Clock Tower.

We took the ferry back to the ship.

On our way back to the ship, we passed by several boats and this one had a few cement trucks on board.

A view of the Hong Kong Skyline

A partial view of the Crystal Serenity from the Ferry.

Once back on the ship we enjoyed lunch and we each had a salad entree.

During the afternoon Keith worked out again at the Fitness Center and Anne Marie walked outside on the Promenade Deck, and we also read, wrote and ran a couple of errands.

We wanted to close with this photo.  The shirt was a gift from our daughter, Jennifer, and son-in-law, Gui.

It is so very true.  Life Is Good and we should Enjoy The Ride.

This evening we will be back in the Crystal Dining Room and will post about that tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, we will take a fully day private tour all day tomorrow.

TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY....

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson


Keith and Anne Marie