Portland, UK

7/6/2026

Yesterday we enjoyed our final lunch with friends Andrea and David at Marketplace as they are on a tour today. One of the many things we have always enjoyed about cruising is getting to know others and the friendships that develop over one or more cruises. We look forward to sailing with them again.

The theme was the Asian Buffet, and we tried some items we didn’t have on the last cruise.

The weather was surprisingly great as we are sailing to England. The morning had fog, but this cleared later in the morning. Midway through lunch the sun came out, and the views were very nice.

We returned to Waterside for the final time of this cruise. Our tradition for many years is to enjoy our final dinner in our suite as we put the final touches on packing. Back in the days when we dined with others when there were two seatings for dinner we would usually go to the dining room for our final dinner. When it was just the two of us dining at one point we decided to dine in the suite.

We wanted to take a moment to give a shout out to the Food & Beverage team in all of the dining venues and lounges and throughout the ship including those who are visible and those who work behind the scenes for once again delivering an exceptional food and beverage experience.

Dining each night at Waterside has been wonderful. For us, we consider Waterside very special even though it is not considered a specialty restaurant. For us it is very special. It starts with the beautiful dining venue, the way each table is set up, the wonderful service performed by the waitstaff team and the delicious food presented as if they are serving a much small number of people instead of 400 to 450 guests on most evenings.

We thank Restaurant Manager Leo, Senior Head Waiter Jacques, Senior Waiter Enver, Waiters Arvin and Bryan, Sommelier Edar and on the last Voyage Sommelier Isabel and Head Sommelier Boris for their professionalism, attention to detail and the kindness they have shown us throughout these two voyages. We have also enjoyed lots of great laughs with each of them.

We had another enjoyable dinner last night thanks to this team and everyone working behind the scenes.

We began our final full day as we have starting the day after we boarded with an early fast walk for Keith and visit to the Fitness Center and another walk for the two of us after breakfast.

Went out a second time and this time fast walked outside and saw the Pilot Boat arrive to the Serenity. Some very nice views outside with the sun shining bright.

Today's Daily Reflections Program.

Today we arrived at Portland, England.

Portland dates to the Stone Age. The island is known for its stone taken from its seven quarries and has been used to build some historic structures including the Cenotaph memoria, Buckingham Palace and St Paul’s Cathedral. The Romans recognized this stone and quarried small amount of it. The trend of using stone accelerated in London after the great fire of 1666 and would be used extensively to rebuild the city.

While a good deal of stone has been exported abroad it has been used for the island’s castles.

Major attractions include:

Portland Castle constructed in the 1540s to guard against French and Spanish invaders.

Chesil Beach which stretches 18 miles.

Tout Quarry Sculpture Garden, which is a former quarry, transformed into a popular sculpture park.

Portland Museum which presents the island’s history.

Castletown D-Cay Centre which is a busy wartime dockyard and recreated to the year American troops embarked for the heavily defended beaches of Nazi occupied France in WWII.

Portland Bill Lighthouse which still functions today and was first used in 1906.

We had a mandatory UK Board Force Inspection in the morning. We had already turned in our passports the other day in preparation for the inspection. As part of the inspection, we received the passports as we entered Palm Court and presented them to the local official. It’s a very quick process and one that we have been doing since our first World Cruise which ended in England. Kudos to Crystal the Crystal Team including Front Office Manager Ariella and Clearance Officer Kristen and the rest of the staff involved with this process for making this process very easy for everyone involved. The immigration personnel from the UK were also very friendly and efficient.

We will enjoy the rest of our final full day cruising on-board Crystal Serenity.