DAY 120 - CRUISING THE PACIFIC OCEAN

Wonderful Dinner In The Crystal Dining Room ✔ Enjoyed A Wonderful Day At Sea ✔


We wanted to give a shout-out to the rest of the Food and Beverage Team that we have not mentioned in our previous posts.  We have already covered the sommeliers, waiters, chefs and others who work in the Galley and along with other positions in the various dining rooms.  Today, we wanted to acknowledge the Food and Beverage Manager, Victor Conceicao and some areas of responsibility that we have not covered.  


We have known Victor for several years and we greatly appreciate all that he does day in and day out to make our experience in all of the dining rooms and lounges around the ship the best it can be.  We have learned so much from Victor over the years and we appreciate his focus, drive, enthusiasm, along with his passion, to make our experience the best it can be.


A key responsibility of Victor and some members of his team along with some of the folks in Los Angeles is the procurement of all of the food items that are served on this ship.  This is really no easy task and is more complicated on ships that do not sail regular itineraries and is even more complex on a World Cruise.  For those ships sailing regular itineraries such as a regular round trip Miami, Florida sailing each and every week or so in the year procuring food is made much simpler since it is far easier to get food that is key to the various recipes procured and delivered in the United States.  


In contrast, each of the voyages on this ship are of different lengths, have varying occupancy levels, may have many consecutive days at sea  and involve different ports of call on each and every voyage in a wide range of ports around the world,  Should a shipment not arrive to the ship in time or not be of the standards that Crystal requires or not have the right quantities of food in the shipment that in itself can present many challenges.  Should that happen then adjustments may need to be made in the actual items served on the menu.


Since joining the ship on December 21, there have only been a few items that were unavailable for a short amount of time but certainly there were many other alternatives for us to enjoy.  Solutions were found by getting deliveries in other ports of call along the way.  We know that all of this is very complex and requires precision in the ordering and the procurement of food and in finding solutions should things not go perfectly.


We are always amazed at how all of this works, including the delivery of Fresh Lobster, either from Maine, or sometimes depending on where we are sailing from say Australia or South Africa as just one example of all of the precision and coordination that goes into the provisioning of food and other related items.


Another area that we wanted to acknowledge is the Bar Manager, Florent, and his team that works around the ship in each and every lounge serving drinks.  We really appreciate Florent's professionalism and also his good nature and sense of humor.


Other than wine we rarely drink spirits but we have gotten to know many of the people who work in the lounges.  This is because at the Captain's Receptions we have mainly sat at the bar and for those receptions the team of people working there represents bartenders who work in the various lounges around the ship and from time to time when we go to lounges in the evening such as the Crystal Cove, Avenue Saloon or say the Palm Court while we may order just a Perrier it is the same people who serve this item who also serve wine and drinks.  


We have found all of the Bar Team to be very upbeat and very helpful to us.  When we sit at the bar during the Captain's Receptions we are amazed at what goes into preparing all of those drinks and the speed at which the bartenders work while at the same time doing this in a calm and thoughtful manner.  No matter how busy they are, they still take the time to check up on ourselves and anyone else sitting at the bar and they have taken the time to answer our questions about various drinks that they make, along with the wines they serve.


We have also enjoyed talking with the various staff who work in the lounges.  We find them to be very polite and also thoughtful and very focused on the guest.  They perform their jobs with a smile and are just a pleasure to know.


Given the length of time we have been on board the ship we also wanted to note that for a portion of this time the other Food and Beverage Manager is Walter Pierschnig and the  Bar Manager was Ross Martin two members of the Crystal Team that we have known for many years and we  appreciate all that they do as well.


We applaud these individuals and teams and they have our respect and admiration for all that they do.


Last evening we dined at the Crystal Dining Room.  These are the dinner menus.

The dining room was relatively quiet.  This is because there are less guests on board for this final leg of the World Cruise.  We also suspect that some of the guests were enjoying the three other dining venues (Silk Road, Prego and Tastes) since this evening is formal night and most guests like to go to the Crystal Dining Room on formal nights.

We began our meal with salads.  Anne Marie enjoyed the Chopped Vegetable Salad.

Keith enjoyed his standing order Salad.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Seafood Entree.  We are not sure whether we have had Ling Fillet (part of the cod family) before but this was a delicious fish.  Between the crusts which was a mushroom-tomato-herb-crust it was very tasty and we enjoyed it all.

We each had blueberries for dessert.


After dinner we attended the evening performance which was a Comedy Ventriloquist by Lynn Trefzger.  We have seen her perform one time on a prior cruise either in 2010 or 2011 and she is a hoot.  During the final part of her performance she had three cruisers on the stage and they became her "dummies".  It was very cute.


We departed Victoria at around 6:15 PM and we are now sailing to San Francisco.  


We had no trouble falling asleep and the seas were calm for the first couple of hours. Later on, the seas were rougher so we woke up from time to time.


Keith was up early and back to the Fitness Center for his early morning workout.  Afterwards, he enjoyed coffee at the Lido Cafe.


Anne Marie also got in her one hour at the Fitness Center.  Afterwards, we enjoyed breakfast in our room as we watched the Daily Morning Show with Rick Spath and Elise Ivy.


We are reminded that the end of this adventure is nearing.  The other day we received preprinted labels for luggage that we are sending home and early this morning we received information related to our disembarkation.  We will also be clearing United States customs once again since after our arrival to Alaska we had the two stops in Canada and this is our first time back to the United States since then.  Because of the Holiday Cruise and the Panama Canal Cruise along with the World Cruise this will represent the fourth time we have cleared United States customs since boarding the ship on December 21.  


During Captain Glenn's morning talk from the bridge he noted that we had heavy swells from a distant Low Pressure System.  he shared his thought for the day which goes as follows.


"Love is not finding someone to live with but finding someone you can't live without."


There was a lot on the program today.  This included three lectures.  The first was given by Dr. Charles iLiff and answered the question "What do Alaska, Canada and Russia have in common"?


Later in the morning Professor Louis Rene Beres spoke about the challenges ahead with respect to fighting terrorism.


In the afternoon, Ambassador Marc Ginsberg who was on our Holiday Cruise and who boarded the ship in Vancouver, spoke about Syria and his talk covered the potential end of the current regime and the looming civil war.


In the morning, Keith was also able to attend a Spin (indoor cycling) Class.  The Class was taught by Juli and Keith and Joe took the class.  Afterwards, Juli had them stretch on the mats for about 15 minutes just to change things up.

We also had our final team trivia game of the World Cruise.  Today, we answered 13 of 15 questions correctly and tied for first place.  For this leg of the World Cruise we ended up tying with two other teams for third place and this time around prizes were awards to the first, second and third place teams.  We ended up winning the tie breaker.  


Elise shared some statistics with us about the World Cruise Trivia Games.  There were a total of 42 quizzes or 630 questions.  John Mentis who is the Pianist asked 42 of them, nine were asked by the participants, two by Dave from the entertainment team, 2 by Cruise Director Rick Spath, 1 by Kinsey and the rest by Elise.  There were only four disputes.  


WIn or lose we always had fun and we did win the Gold for the Team Trivia World Games.


For lunch, we each enjoyed a nice salad entree.


Anne Marie also worked out in the afternoon and Keith read, wrote and met up with friend Bob.


This evening we will dine in the Crystal Dining Room, attend the Final Captain's Reception of the World Cruise and attend the Serenity Pops gala performance.


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

“Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. It is courage that counts.” – Winston Churchilll

Keith and Anne Marie