DAY 86 - WELCOME TO XIAMEN, CHINA

Wonderful Evening On The Serenity Last Night ✔ Enjoyed Our Visit To Xiamen  ✔

These are the menus from last evening in the Crystal Dining Room.  The theme for the menus was the Gala  Welcome Dinner.

Before dinner we attended the Captain's Welcome Reception. It was formal night on the ship.  We enjoy the formal nights with everyone all decked out in formal attire.  We find that it adds a special touch to the evening.

During Captain Glenn's talk he noted that there are approximately 832 guests (it might be 822 but we couldn't remember 22 or 32) on the ship with a crew of well over 600 people.  Most rooms on the ship are taken even though the ship could accommodate over 1,000 guests since several guests travel solo.  This is yet another reason why the ship never feels crowded.

It seemed that last evening many more people than usual noticed the tie that Keith wore that comes close to matching Anne Marie's gown.  Some noticed that it comes close to Crystal Cruises colors.

We spoke with several fellow guests along with many members from the crew and others who are part of the enrichment/entertainment program.

Anne Marie with friend and Celebrity Entertainer Jim Brochu

Lynn and Buddy.  Lynn was wearing her dress from Vietnam and Buddy was wearing a new dinner jacket that he had just had made in Hong Kong.

Friends Ken (Destination Lecturer) and Lynne Rees.  We learned that Ken bought his Dinner Jacket in China around four years ago.

We enjoyed our meal in the Crystal Dining Room.

While Keith had his standing order salad, Anne Marie enjoyed the Captain's Salad.

We each had the Maine Fresh Lobster for our entree.  Fresh Lobster is served on the first formal night of each cruise.  It either arrives from Maine, South Africa or Australia depending on availability and where the ship is sailing.  

We also tried a side order of Broiled Fillet of Fresh Australian Barramudi.  This was not one of Anne Marie's favorites but Keith enjoyed it quite a bit.  In addition to steamed vegetables we also ordered Asian Mushrooms which were quite delicious.

Anne Marie had the Sugar Free Mascapone Panna Cotta for dessert and Keith had his usual bowl of fresh berries and also tried a small piece of Anne Marie's dessert.

After dinner, we went back up for the late seating Captain's Welcome Reception.  We didn't have anything to drink nor did we sit down.  We just walked around and it provided us a very nice opportunity to speak with several guests who we don't see as often around the ship as we tend to be on different schedules from some of them.  This included Celeste and Bill and Vincent and Pauline.  We also caught up with Bob and Glo and Christie and Terry and several other guests.

We slept very well last evening as we cruised towards Xiamen, China.  The seas were relatively calm.

Keith woke up early and worked out in the Fitness Center.

Keith enjoyed a nice workout and caught up with the news during his workout. Anne Marie woke up a little earlier than normal to get in her morning workout.

Likewise, we  had breakfast in our room a little earlier than usual as we got ready for our part day tour of Xiamen.

We it was around time for our tour we proceeded off the ship at the designated time.  We had to go through immigration and we were asked not to go up together to the same booth as you do when entering certain countries.  When Keith's passport was being examined along with the Chinese Visa the person was confused by the valid dates of the Visa which was September, 2011 thru September, 2012 as if the dates had passed or not yet arrived.  She called over a couple of other people for assistance and what was running through Keith's mind was whether these was a problem with the visa which would preclude us from visiting any of the ports.  The good news is that she was just confused so all was good.
She also stamped a copy of our passport which Crystal Cruises had given to us to carry with us the entire time we are in China.  Once we went through passport control a Crystal Cruises representative was waiting to collect our passports.

Our tour was a Panoramic Tour of Xiamen, China.

While it was overcast and not sunny we were fortunate that the temperature was moderate and that it was not raining.  Around the time we were returning from our last stop to the pier it did begin to drizzle.

Our tour guide did a fantastic job.  She spoke English very well and didn't over nor under talk and she kept us on schedule.  She also had an assistant and our Crystal Cruises representative was Mari who is the activities hostess on the ship and she also did a terrific job.  All of this adds to the enjoyment of a tour.  We also were fortunate that everyone was good at getting to the bus at the appointed times.

The tour included a stop at Huwei Hill which provided a nice view of the city.  We also stopped at two parks including Baliuzhou Parks.

We also drove around the city for about 45 minutes before stopping at a Marketplace for an additional 45 minutes when we could walk around our own.

This is known as the Ice Cream Cone.  It is actually used for weather forecasting.

These are known as Welcome Spring Blossoms.

These flowers are known as Firework Flowers.

No Smoking!

One of our fellow guests on the tour who goes by the name B.J.  We met B.J, and her husband Jim on the 2010 World Cruise.

The Egret Goddess Statue

Dragons Boat Statue.  The Chinese have Dragon Boat Races on the 5th Day Of the Chinese Calendar Month.

One fishing boat was in the water.

 Anne Marie with our Tour Guide

Some photos of the Market.  There was a wide range of stores from large stores in department stores to one of a kind small stores.  Many of the side alleyways had small stores and also places to buy prepared food.

This woman said we could take her photo and turned to cook the food so we could show her preparing the food.

Lots of fruit being sold out of a pickup truck.

Mickey D's (McDonald's)

Like any city there are the nicer areas and also poor areas.  We did pass by some areas with large apartment buildings that looked rundown but overall this was certainly a much nicer city than we expected.  Traffic flowed very well and we drove by many nice places.  While there is some very expensive real estate in the area most people could not afford it.  The average annual salary for those working in this area is $6,000 per year.

Speaking of money, we exchanged some money at the money exchange store as many people did so we have it readily available for all three cities we are visiting.  ATM's were not available.  It was the most thorough process we have been through ever before.  As is the case in a few places around the world they wanted to see our Passport or copy of our passport.  For each USA Bill we gave them they ran it through a machine.  One of mine they didn't like likely because a corner was bent so after she tried it a few times I pulled out another bill.  Then she counted the money she would be giving me several times and then she was able to run that through a machine.

All in all it was a very good visit to Xiamen and we are so glad we had the opportunity to visit this city.

Once back on the ship, we each had a nice salad entree.  Keith read and wrote and Anne Marie did the same thing and also Anne Marie worked out in the afternoon and Keith met with friend Bob.

This evening we will be dining at Prego with a Senior Officer. There is also a special event on the ship for all guests later in the evening.  We also have a reception to attend.

We will post all about this tomorrow.

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

"The only man who makes no mistake is the man who does nothing." - Theodore Roosevelt

Keith and Anne Marie