Thank you Susan. Yes, we will try to get photos with and without masks. We will be smiling for sure. Joan, you are so right. a little less clutter. The pre-printed luggage tags were very nice and it was great not to have to fill them out.. Before we move to today, we were informed of a couple of changes to the itinerary. In short, due to concerns with tender operations in Cat Island and a distance requirement which might limit the number of guests who can get to the island, Cat Island has been dropped from the itinerary. An overnight has been added for Bimini with an early departure the following day making day three a sea day and departure from Long Island has been extended by two hours. The new itinerary follows. The is the itinerary which is two seven day cruises. ARRIVE DEPART June 30 Nassau PRE-CRUISE July 1 Nassau PRE-CRUISE July 2 Nassau PRE-CRUISE July 3 Embark NASSAU (EMBARK) July 4 8:00 AM SEA DAY July 5 6:00 AM SEA DAY July 6 7:00 AM 7:00 PM GREAT EXUMA July 7 7:00 AM 7:00 PM SAN SALVADOR July 8 7:00 AM 7:00 PM LONG ISLAND July 9 CRUISING July 10 6:00 AM 7:00 PM NASSAU July 11 8:00 AM SEA DAY July 12 6:00 AM SEA DAY July 13 7:00 AM 7:00 PM GREAT EXUMA July 14 7:00 AM 7:00 PM SAN SALVADOR July 15 7:00 AM 7:00 PM LONG ISLAND July 16 CRUISING July 17 6:00 AM NASSAU (DEPART) Today, we begin a new adventure. Travel day can be challenging as many things are out of our control. This time we add the challenges of COVID-19. We had a very early flight and in our recent past we would added a stay-over at the airport hotel, but not this time around. We didn't want to add in another hotel due to COVID-19. We have kept up with the news about the TSA being understaff impacting lines at the security check areas as well as long lines. We received an multiple e-mails from the airline recommending arriving to the airport earlier than normal which we planned to do anyway. With a very early pickup by the private vehicle service we were up early. Our pickup was on-time. We had a very nice driver. We spoke the entire time to be sure he stayed awake. A few years younger than our children and as he says he is just making it financially. The good news he is back in school at age 31. We made great time with so few people on the road. When we entered the airport it was very busy with some long lines but only two people ahead of us for priority check-in. With the second flight being International the airline encouraged us to use an app called Verifly which they said would speed up the check-in and it did. We had to provide information such as our Bahama Health Visa and the Vaccine cards for each of us and once all information was loaded and approved a green circle is places around our respective phases on the app. When the person doing the check-in started to ask about these items Keith said we had done Verifly and she said wonderful and all he had to do was open the app and show his face and then Anne Marie's face. The regular TSA line was fairly long but the Pre-TSA check had few few people and in no time we were through security. We took two flights. First one was to the Airport which is a major hub for our airline. Uneventful flight. Twenty five minutes into the flight the pilot says flight attendants please prepare for landing. Another twenty minutes and we landed.
A couple of observations. Very long lines at food venues offering takeout at both our airport and the hub airport. Our first aircraft originated at our airport and seats look like they were not cleaned. We had thought things were better with COVID-19 but as our son mentioned to us last weekend he thought airports and flights were like they had been pre-COVID-19 other than people wearing masks. Great flight attendants. Early afternoon we took a direct flight to Nassau. Before our first flight took off we saw that the incoming flight was delayed twice. Thankfully, they substituted a different aircraft. Even so, that flight was delayed by just twenty minutes. We boarded the plane about 30 minutes after the scheduled time. However, an unexpected delay was to occur. The pilot explained due to weather issues over Florida we would leave the gate 45 minutes later and then wait an additional 30 minutes for takeoff. The end result as we post we are scheduled to arrive to Nassau two hours later than scheduled. The challenges of flying but it sure beats walking. LOL. Will post more tomorrow about the first night, the hotel and the day. Cheers, Keith & Anne Marie
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We enjoy reading all your comments so keep them coming. Thank you Joan & Mac for your very thoughtful comments. It is hard to believe we first met 17 years ago on a Crystal Cruise and first the day of embarkation at Dover Cliffs. Gill...Many thanks for your thoughtful comments and for following along. Patricia...You are so right. Often, one of the challenges of travel is getting to and from the ship. We thank you for your kind words. Thank you Arlene for following along and for your kind words. This cruise will undoubtedly be an adventure and our restart of travel. It is amazing the impact which one virus has had on us individually and the world-wide population. Tomorrow our adventure begins. Part of the fun of cruising and travel is all of the planning which goes into each adventure. While it takes more time to prepare for a very long voyage such as a World Cruise, we still devote considerable attention to shorter cruises such as this one. We each do our parts. Anne Marie pulls together detailed listings for each and every item we take with us from clothing to toiletries. Keith books the cruise, hotel, flight(s), transfers, restaurants and shore excursions. We work individually and together on most of this, running by what we've come up with with one another before we finalize each item we are working on. There will be changes since we traveled last and part of this is due to COVID-19. There was even a change for final documents. In the past they arrived approximately 30 days prior to the cruise in a Crystal Document Holder. This time the documents were sent to us electronically. Approximately four weeks before the cruise we received to our home page one of the documents which provides a bar code which will be scanned at check-in as part of embarkation along with a new type of pre-printed luggage tags. The previous luggage tags provided spaces for each guest to write in their name, penthouse/stateroom number and date of voyage. These tags had the information all pre-printed. We removed our suite number and last name from the photo but it was on the tags. They are two sided with the same information on each side. Even though the document package is different we were excited to open the envelope and seeing the tags is another reminder our cruise is almost here.
Before we close, we have many people to thank. We wanted to begin by thanking our Travel Specialist Gerri. For over a year, Gerri followed up for us on several issues related to cancelled cruises and pushed for their resolution. At a time when some friends told us their Travel Agents pretty much abandoned them as their revenue collapsed, Gerri had our backs and was with us every step of the way. When the bookings for this cruise opened in the evening Gerri was on top of this. Gerri is truly a gem. We also are thankful to Gerri's assistant Gabby for all of her help. She has followed up on each and every item and continually provided us with updates. Thank you again Gerri and Gabby. Many thanks to Crystal Cruises personnel from many departments on land to those of you at sea. Every one was supportive and helpful and followed up on each item. Well, it's time to buckle our seatbelts as tomorrow is the start of a new adventure and we hope to make memories which will last a lifetime. Cheers, Anne Marie & Keith We appreciate all of the comments from Susan Maria, Jim, Emily& Dick, Patricia and Kathie& Timmy. Thank you so much.
Like many of you, COVID-19 changed many aspects of our lives, including travel. After returning home from Serenity in March of 2020 we looked forward to additional cruises including sailing Crystal Symphony for a British Isles Cruise in August, 2021 followed by taking the second Cruise of the new Crystal Endeavor Expedition vessel in September of 2020. We were supposed to end 2020 with a return to Disney World before getting back onto Crystal Serenity for the December Holiday Cruise followed by the first segment of World Cruise 2021. All cruises were cancelled due to COVID-19. We were already booked on a Crystal Serenity September 2021 London to New York City Cruise. After determining we could get to places which were part of the cancelled Crystal Symphony British Isles Cruise (including Liverpool) we added to R/T London Cruises to this booking to create three back-to-back cruises. Unfortunately, in March of 2021 we learned these and the other Serenity cruises thru mid-October 2021 would be cancelled. In lieu of these cruises they added 16 cruises between early July and mid-October and we decided to book the first of these two cruises. Often, we determine our travel plans two to three years in advance so for us this was a late decision as we only booked the July 3 and July 10 Bahama cruises in mid-March on the day sales opened. The appeal for us is returning to Serenity, traveling and doing it in a safe manner with respect to COVID-19. In spite of the impact Covid-19 had on our plans to travel, we have lots to be thankful for. We are fortunate to live at a time where technology has comforted us in so many ways including the ability to utilize audio and video calling to keep up with family and friends, platforms such as Zoom allowing for meetings and other virtual get-togethers to take place and also consultations and with physicians, streaming services to view movies and shows, the ability to shop on line and have it delivered such as groceries, social media platforms and other items. We are also fortunate for the work previously done allowing for an unprecedented rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine by not only one but several drug makers and the advancements in research and medicine allowing medical teams to keep as many people alive as possible. We are excited to shortly restart travel as Crystal restarts cruising. Cheers, Anne Marie & Keith
We concluded our last Travel Blog in March 2020 upon our return from Sydney, Australia. Like people around the world, all our travel plans were turned upside down and placed on-hold due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
We didn't expect to restart travel until the end of this year or early next year. However, Crystal Cruises announced the return to cruising starting with sixteen seven day sailings of the Bahama (they have added additional sailings) and we decided to take the plunge and book the first two cruises. In addition to starting/ending in Nassau the other option is to start/end in Bimini which is day two of the seven day itineraries. Ironically we haven't sailed the Bahamas since our first cruise together with our family (Keith had cruised one time before when he was 12 years young) on the Big Red Boat. We sailed four days in June 1991 (30 years ago) with stops in Nassau on June 18, followed by a stop the next day at a Private Island. The package included three days at Disney World following this cruise.
Admittedly, while sailing the Bahamas and cruising in July was not on our top ten list or even top hundred list, after careful thought we decided to sign up for the two sailings
We did so because we have taken the approach not to put off things until tomorrow which you can do today. COVID-19 was a reminder and reenforced our view. We felt these sailings while not ideal itineraries provided the best near-term opportunity for us to return to cruising with our favorite cruise line. Given Anne Marie's compromised immune system we did think hard about this decision. It was not an easy decision. It came down to should we sail now or wait several more months. We have gone back and forth on our decision more than once. Unknowns about waiting also factored into the decision to cruise now. Since we returned home last March we have followed the various COVID-19 protocol protocols and used more caution than the actual guidelines. Even fully vaccinated and two weeks beyond our second dosage by early March we continued to use lots of caution. We still wear masks in most situations because a lot is unknown about the affect Anne Marie's medication has on the antibodies created by the vaccine. Unfortunately, since the trial for each vaccine was fast-tracked this is one of the items which the science community is unsure of. Although we would have preferred to wait a few more months, we decided to move forward. The is the itinerary which is two seven day cruises followed by a map. ARRIVE DEPART June 30 Nassau PRE-CRUISE July 1 Nassau PRE-CRUISE July 2 Nassau PRE-CRUISE July 3 Embark 7:00 PM NASSAU (EMBARK) July 4 8:00 AM 6:00 PM BIMINI July 5 1:00 PM 7:00 PM CAT ISLAND July 6 7:00 AM 7:00 PM GREAT EXUMA July 7 7:00 AM 7:00 PM SAN SALVADOR July 8 7:00 AM 5:00 PM LONG ISLAND July 9 CRUISING July 10 6:00 AM 7:00 PM NASSAU July 11 8:00 AM 6:00 PM BIMINI July 12 1:00 PM 7:00 PM CAT ISLAND July 13 7:00 AM 7:00 PM GREAT EXUMA July 14 7:00 AM 7:00 PM SAN SALVADOR July 15 7:00 AM 5:00 PM LONG ISLAND July 16 CRUISING July 17 6:00 AM NASSAU (DISEMBARK)
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Words cannot describe how excited we are about returning to Serenity for this adventure. To get into the spirit of sailing, a short video by the Beach Boys.
Cheers,
Anne Marie & Keith |