Barcelona Day 5 - Embark Crystal Serenity

6/15/2026

WELCOME HOME TO CRYSTAL CRUISES - CRYSTAL SERENITY

We have enjoyed a very nice stay in Barcelona.

One of the elements of cruising we enjoy is staying at certain locations pre/post cruise that we might not have visited if not for a cruise. Barcelona is an example of this. At the same time, cruising has given us the opportunity to see so many places that it would not have been possible for us to see if we visited by air.

While some people do not want to repeat itineraries there are certainly itineraries that we do not mind repeating because of our love of a town, city, country or even continent. This applies to our upcoming set of cruises.

Travel continually reminds us of the diversity of people in the world and its beauty. Everyplace we have visited we have learned something new.

Travel has also taught us in this fast paced world to take the time to smell the roses. In other words we have never felt the need to see it all at once and to see certain areas just to say we saw it. There are certainly places that we could have seen that did not either because we would be rushed or we wanted to do something else. This is not to say we've never had to rush around on a tour or on tour own, but we try to make this an exception.

Every time we embark for a new cruise it puts a smile on our faces as if it is the first time cruising. Today was no exception.

We’re thrilled being back on Crystal Serenity! We've practically lived a lifetime on this ship—totaling close to four years.

Our first cruse on Crystal Serenity was two twelve day back-to-back cruises totaling twenty-four nights which at the time was our longest cruise ever. It was on this cruise that we decided to waitlist for the Crystal 2007 World Cruise before the itinerary was announced and as they say the rest is history.

Photo taken shortly before we checked out of the hotel.

This is a photo from when we embarked Serenity for the very first time on September 8, 2005.

Some photos from that cruise including one with our son-in-laws brother Martin who at the time was studying abroad in Barcelona and visited us during a stop we had in Barcelona.

As we arrived to the port and saw Crystal Serenity, all we could do was smile.

We continued smiling while we waited to board Serenity. We saw some crew members and officers including the wonderful Clearance Officer and Front Office Manager and Crystal Society Host. The excitement continued as we walked up the gangway. We were greeted by some members of the security team and once they scanned our documents, we walked a few feet and we were standing inside Serenity. We chatted with Hotel Director Hubert.

Once on board, it felt like a family reunion with our beloved Crystal Serenity crew. We have known some of the crew as long as we have sailed with Crystal, starting 2002.

Butler Ayhan took care of everything. We first met Ayhan on-board Serenity when he was our Senior Waiter for a full World Cruise and we had him on other cruises as well. A couple of years ago Ayhan moved to the position of Butler. This will be the first time that Ayhan will be taking care of us in his current position.

Guess what we had for lunch? No tough decisions here! We enjoyed our classic/traditional embarkation meal—a delicious Cobb Salad paired with a flute of champagne—and raised a toast to our love for one another and for another amazing cruising adventure. Cheers!