New York City, NY

Thank you Deborah. Good news is we are on until October 14.

​We remember back in those years after we booked a cruise(s) on-board stopping by to look at the map to find the cities and countries we would be visiting on each of the cruises booked. These days we can just look at a map on the Crystal website or in many cases visualize them based on our own travel experiences but there was something very special about this map. On our walks around the ship when it is too cold or rainy to walk outside, we think back to all the times we would stop by and stand looking at this map.
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Before dinner we chatted with two very nice couples who we speak with on most evenings who sit in an area of the Crystal Plaza we used to sit in on voyages through the first part of 2020. While waiting for the dining venue to open, we spoke with one lovely couple who we met on this cruise along with another Ida and one other lovely couple who we met on previous cruises. We will miss them since they debark today. One of the aspects of cruising we enjoy are the people who one meet while cruising. This is something very unique about traveling and cruising.
 

Waterside Dinner Menu from last evening.

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We normally don’t go to Waterside the last evening of the cruise, but we did last night. On the next cruise we won’t be there as often as usual, so we wanted to spend more time dining there.

Dinner was great. This included the delicious cuisine, professional and personal service, along with the beautiful dining venue. We thank the wonderful waitstaff for making last night another outstanding dining experience.
 
In case you wanted to know the special butter was Roasted Pepper.
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Once again, with milder weather Keith was able to enjoy an early morning walk after a visit to the Fitness Center. This included walking outdoors on the Promenade Deck, the Pool Deck, and the top outdoor deck. Some say New York City never sleeps and as Keith was walking he was thinking the same.

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We decided to walk over to the High Line a place we have not visited before. It is about one mile from the port and is a former elevated railway line on Manhattan’s west side that has been transformed into a popular public park and tourist destination. 
 
This railway was constructed in the 1930s. After it was decommissioned in the 1980s it fell into disrepair. In the early 2000s a plan was developed to convert this area to a park and by 2009 some sections of the High Line were opened.
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Today is the end of the Reykjavik to New York City Cruise and the start of the next cruise.
 
Since we are in a USA port this very quickly this is how the process works for those of us staying on-board and continuing to the next cruise. We are in-transit guests. Before new guests can embark the ship must get to a zero count. This means that in addition to those guests whose cruise ended today who must be off the ship by 10:00 AM, those guests staying on-board who do not have plans for the day must be off the ship by 10:00AM as well. After the zero count is achieved and local authorities clear the ship than in-transit guests may reboard. We are given a card per person which says in-transit so the port authorities know we are not newly embarking guests, and we were asked to bring our passports with us. 
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As we were leaving the ship we saw Front Office Managers Marco and Ariella.  Ariella has just been promoted and will swing between both ships providing relief to the two permanent Front Office Managers when they are on Holiday.

Today, we wanted to give a big shoutout to Captain Vincent and to those who are part of the deck department. This voyage included many stops and of special note is for five consecutive ports we anchored. One of those five was unplanned as a cargo ship was docked where we should have been. All of this adds complexity. This includes being able to put the ship in a position where it can stay in place which can be very tricky given weather conditions such as wind and the sea swells. This also involves running tender service to and from the ship and getting guests on and off the ship.  On a related note others are key to this as well including security who has a presence at the tender landing, shore excursions who has to be sure the get the group tours on the tenders at the appropriate time and Food & Beverage who has a couple of people at the tender landing with water for guests. All of this involves an operation that starts well before we are anchored, continues with the first tender taking some personnel over to the tender landing, and continues until the last tender is back and in its rightful place. In short, this is very different from being docked. We thank each and every member of the crew for all of this including keeping us all safe as we tendered to and from each tender landing.
 
 

Today we embark on the first of two back-to-back New York City round trips aboard the Crystal Serenity, wrapping up our journey on October 14.  These segments are like twins, so you might think we're stuck in a Groundhog Day loop. Fear not, dear friends! While the ports are identical, the experiences will keep us on our toes!  

This is our route for this sixth voyage of our adventure.

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Cheers,

​Anne Marie & Keith