DAY 4 - EMBARKATION DAY

After we posted we did more packing and organizing in preparation for tomorrow.  

We had our third and final dinner in our room.   We decided not to push our luck with anymore Sea Birds and ate inside.  The women who clean our room said this is typical.  

Dinner was great.  Salads, a Wagyu Burger for Anne Marie, Bronzino for Keith and an order of Grilled Asparagus for dessert.  LOL.  Well not dessert.  Maybe the wine was our dessert.

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A screenshot photo from a webcam which a friend sent to me and took on Friday evening.  Serenity lit up.

We finished organizing for today and caught up with news from the USA.  

After waking up and freshening up we enjoyed our final meal of breakfast in the room. 

We can't say enough about how much we enjoyed the hotel.  Our suite was amazing as was the service.  Like other hotels they have what they call butler service in the suites.  There are different butlers assigned to the suite with each working an 8 hour shift.  We've dealt with two of them.  They will make reservations for you at restaurants, followup on items, answer questions you might have and probably many other things that we didn't ask for help with.  ​

Shortly before we left the room for the final time of this trip.

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Embarkation Day is always a bit nerve-racking between waiting in the hotel, making it over to the pier, boarding the ship and getting settled.  Today we added more complexity to this with the Antigen COVID-19 test.

We had a private transfer from Crystal which was originally to take us from the hotel to the pier. However, when the process was changed for everyone to go to the Convention center at the Hyatt located on this property Crystal offered to have the driver take us the short distance from our hotel to the Convention Center, where he waited for us until we completed the requirements at the Center to take us to the ship.

At the center we turned in our paperwork, passports scanned as we the Bahama Travel Visa.  Then we did the Covid-19 test.  We waited about 15 minute and were notified we were negative.  Most of you know we are positive type people but when it comes to a test like this you want to be negative.  We then were escorted to another area to get our wrist band showing we tested negative.  The test is linked to the Bahama Visa System and we also received an e-mail from them with a happy face saying we were negative.  The waiting area had pastries, water, coffee and tea and many tables.  At around 12:30 we left for the ship and were on board in about 15 minutes. We were welcomed home by so many people we have known for years.  Head of Security Sanjiv helped us as did Head Waiter Augusto.  We checked in on board and received our key cards.  Our Butler Frederick escorted us to our room.  There is no lifeboat drill.  The only requirement is to go to the muster station and they sign you in and they demonstrate how to wear the lifejacket. Dimitri who we adore did the demonstration.

On our way back we were greeted on each stairwell landing by many of the stewardesses and the majority we know.  Our Stewardess spent time with us and we also know her.  Crystal has great records of what we prefer and that was all in place.   Waterside was not open for lunch so Frederick brought lunch to us from the room.  We ordered from the room service menu and a salad with Chicken was perfect.  

Our luggage has arrived and we will unpack and will post more tomorrow.

We are so happy to be back home.  We LOVE CRUISING.  We LOVE CRYSTAL. We are on cloud nine.

Cheers,

​Anne Marie & Keith