Boston, Mass. & A SEA DAY

We wanted to say a few things about Boston, Massachusetts.
 
Boston was founded in 1630. It went from a fishing village to a lively port. In addition to fishing, shipping was a major driver of activity.
In terms of history, several key events that were a catalyst to the Revolutionary War occurred here. This included the Boston Massacre of 1770, the Boston Tea Party of 1773, Paul Rever’s Midnight Ride (The British Are Coming) of 1775 and the Battle of Bunker Hill and Sige of Boston of 1775.
 
Boston has a long history of immigrants. While we often think of the Irish who settled in Boston, many people arrived from Russia and Italy including those of the Jewish Faith who were fleeing from persecution.  Others would come from Eastern and Southern Europe, and Chinese, Portuguese and people from the West Indian Communities. This continued in the 2000s with many arriving from Latin America. All of this has added to the diversity of this city.
 
On past trips we have walked the Freedom Trail a few times and, on this trail, you pass by the Paul Revere House. We have also visited Beacon Hill and Quincy Market. There is Boson Common which might be the oldest public park in the USA.
 
Similar to some cities around the USA Boston is known as a sports city between Baseball, Basketball, Football and Hockey.
 
As someone who grew up in New York Keith remembers many of the rivalries that existed. Although he enjoyed the Knicks of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s as far back as he can remember Keith loved the Boston Celtics.
 
On one of our visits to Boston on Crystal Symphony we toured the TD Garden and Fenway Park and, on another day, we visited the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library.
 
There is so much to this historic city.
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We wanted to digress about yesterday. I don’t think we’ve ever been on-board for either a US Coast-Guard visit to the ship nor for the US Public Health Services Inspection of the ship and both took place yesterday. It was expected that sometime soon this would take place with Serenity returning to the USA, but no advance warning is provided. Similar inspections take place in other countries such as Canada and Australia.
 
On top of this the morning also began with an immigration inspection of all guests as part of arriving to our first port-of-call in the USA with immigration officials arriving as soon as we docked.
 
Add to this that some guests were ending their cruise in Boston rather than New York City.
 
Add to this that like us some guests had visitors on-board.
 
 
The USA Coast Guard inspection is very thorough evaluating safety equipment, operational procedure, crew training for emergencies such as fires and evacuations along with hull and machinery integrity. As part of the Coast Guard review a drill was held and very extensive such as crew raft(s) opened. Questions are asked to crew members to test their knowledge of what to do in case of an emergency and this can include any crew member including those on first contracts.
 
At the same time the Health Services inspection was conducted and this is extremely thorough. Just like an inspection on land or a home inspection it is not unusual to find something not in compliance. Remember, it’s not like an inspection is taking place with the ship not in operation. They are inspecting when food operations are on-going such as guests having breakfast and/or lunch. 

All of this takes a team effort. You could see smiles on many faces when members of the crew learned later in the day that Serenity received a perfect score on the Public Health Inspection and that the Safety related inspections went very well.
 
Congratulations to team Serenity and to team Crystal.
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Waterside dinner menu

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Last evening we returned to Waterside and were joined with friends Dave and Gary who visited the ship. 

Food was great and in case you wanted to know the special butter was Sun Dried Butter. Many thanks to Senior Head Waiter Jacque for arranging for special orders of Veal Parmigiana and Kosher Chicken.
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Crystal is one of the cruise lines that allow visitors. It is capacity controlled in each port and Crystal has a visitor program where you can submit a visitor request to obtain approval.
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The evening entertainment was The Liar's Club.

Today's Daily Reflections

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After an early morning workout at the Fitness Center, for the first time since we boarded, Keith walked outside the entire time spending time on the pool deck and the promenade deck. Weather was nice, no wind, and we were docked as this was way before our 6:00 am departure.

As it turned out we departed around 5:45 am and Keith went back outside and walked the promenade deck. Like clockwork as we had made our way out of the port, Keith saw another cruise ship on the way into port. 
 
It reminded him of the flights at Logan Airport yesterday as he observed from the aft (back) of the ship. There was the constant landing of aircraft. Sometimes you would see one aircraft landing while other times two arriving at the same time landing on two different runways. 
 

Today we wanted to recognize the members of IT on the ship and on land. When Crystal restarted it required IT on land to build entirely new systems for so many areas including reservations, the Crystal website, billing, on board billing and so many other tools used on land and at sea to manage the operations of Crystal.  This is why enhancements continue to be made because it is all new.
 
IT systems on the ship require collaboration between IT on land, IT on the vessels and with outside vendors including Satellite.  
 
Crystal staffs the Computer University with members of the IT department. The Computer University is open 24 hours every day and staffed with technology concierges between 8:00 am and 9:00 pm. Some cruise lines including some luxury cruise lines do not staff similar facilities or if they do they provide less hours.
 
These are the go to people for guests to seek help with their devices including smart phones, tables and computer devices and even smart watches. They do their utmost best to educate the guests on how to utilize the internet for their communication needs and also how to access on line items such as daily reflections programs, folio and menus. 
 
Just like at home sometimes an issue comes up that is device specific that can’t be solved. I am reminded that as someone who used apple products sometimes if I can’t figure out a resolution at home and I contact Apple technical support that on occasion they can’t solve the problem even when speaking with a supervisor. Sometimes they have to refer it to their own systems people looking for trends of a similar problem.
 
Then there are the two IT officers on the ship who deal with an array of technical items and if there is a technical issue with the on board IT systems they would either resolve them, or refer the item and/or work with the land based IT group for its resolution. Aside from the on board systems that we might think of relating to the internet, there are the other communication systems that they are involved with and also other devices including restarting the various screens found around the ship that show the position of the ship or the daily reflections program or other items plus they are involved with other items such as addressing television issues in guest rooms including the remote control or router issues throughout the ship.
 
We all have become much more dependent on a variety of devices at home and when we travel. At home there can be challenges with one’s internet provider, cable provider, streaming provider but at sea the challenges can be far greater as the ship doesn’t stay in one position and sometimes the challenges can be with the satellite provider or even the weather and where the ship is sailing.
 
Many thanks to the professionals from IT and on land for all they do.
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Cheers,

​Anne Marie & Keith