Day 13 Crystal Serenity - San Francisco

We want to digress for a moment. We love overnights and there are some cities which make it even more special. San Francisco is one of these cities. Why? In addition to being a lovely city, it is very easy to visit nearby places by foot and for those who prefer a vehicle they can taxi or take uber or arrange for a private vehicle.  With two full days here, there is no need to rush back to the ship and there is time to do as much or as little as one wants. At the same time, it is great for the crew. It provides an opportunity for crew to go ashore, and this is very important for them, and this city makes it easy to do just that. There is no 45-minute shuttle or tender. We are right here. I am reminded that a happy crew makes for a happy cruise. Same goes for guests. Happy guests make for a happy cruise. LOL.  
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Dinner Menus from last evening at Waterside where we dined.

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Before dinner last evening we chatted with two couples who we have met on this cruise. They are very nice people.  Our friends Ashley and Kelly who live in San Francisco came on board and we visited with them for a little while. We last sailed together on the Decemb

​We had an amazing time at dinner. We enjoyed lots of great service, cuisine, the beautiful dining venue and lots of great laughs.  Marcin will be going home tomorrow for a well deserved holiday. We look forward to seeing him on our next Crystal Serenity cruise.

We will digress for a moment. We each had Wiener Schnitzel for our entrée.  For many years we never had this dish.  Growing up we had veal cutlets. On our visit to Vienna, Austria before boarding Crystal Mozart in 2019, we had Wiener Schnitzel at a local restaurant and enjoyed it and had it at a different Vienna Restaurant. On-board Mozart we had it again on one evening. In each case, its preparation was slightly different. In each case we enjoyed it.  In 2021, on one of the infamous Bahama Cruises, when we mentioned to the Butler, we had on one of those sailings he suggested an egg on top and Keith said he would try it and the Butler arranged it with the Head Waiter. Keith did enjoy the combination so on most sailings on one of the evenings when it is featured on the menu, Keith will order it as we did last evening and all you have to do is ask the Senior Waiter about this and just let them know what type of egg(s) you would like on top.  In Keith's case, one egg is great.  

Last evening featured the Crystal White Party.  For those of you who have not sailed Crystal or not sailed since the White Night was introduced in February of 2017 when both Symphony and Serenity were in Sydney think of it as a mixer with a theme. In this case the theme is white with white decorations and some of the drinks with a white theme along with dancing to the Crystal Showband accompanied with a violinist, a vocalist and a dance due hosted by Cruise Director Rick.  JD Emotion also follows this playing music that guests can listen or dance to.  

Some views of the bay from the stern of Serenity.

And a view on our verandah.
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Early morning view from today. Or some might say a very late night view. LOL.

Today's Daily Refections Program.

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We enjoyed a stroll of the city in the morning. It was a beautiful day with the sun out. Not too hot. Not too cold. Just right.  We stopped of at Pier 39. While we know it is a tourist site it brings back many memories of the times we would visit when our children were young and we would go to certain shops, they would ride the merry-go-round and we would look at the sea lions.  While here we took Keith's parents there for when they visited us.  As we walked other nearby areas we reminisced about our time living in the Bay Area.

We saw some crew and guests as we headed back to the ship.  Upon our arrival to the terminal we saw Svenja, once again and chatted for a while. She is a lovely person inside and out and we were so happy to see her each of the past two days.

Those sea lions. You can turn up the volume to hear them.

We lived in the Bay Area during the 1989 Earth Quake and that is a memory which we will carry with us for the rest of our lives.

And the good news. Keith got in a couple of hours of non-stop Paddle Tennis with picture perfect weather and lots of good exercise and a lot of laughs. Life is good.

​We will close now.

Have a great day.

Cheers,

​Anne Marie & Keith