SEA DAY

This is the Waterside Menu from last evening.

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Last evening we dined at the Umi Uma Japanese Specialty Restaurant.

Umi Uma is the Japanese Specialty Restaurant inspired by Chef Nobu. It incorporates Japanese cuisine with ingredients that is part of his background when he was a chef in Lima, Peru.
 
We loved the cuisine from the moment we tasted it on our first Crystal Serenity cruise in the Autumn of 2005. At that point it was called Silk Road and was only on the Crystal Serenity to later be rolled out to Crystal Symphony.
 
The experience for us is amazing between the wonderful waitstaff team, the chefs including the Sushi Chefs, the beautiful venue which was enhanced in 2023 when the interior was largely made over and of course the sushi, sashimi and the amazing appetizers, entrees and desserts not to mention the drink offerings.
 
Although we love the cuisine and the overall experience, we often go one time a cruise unless we were invited to go there. For us this keeps it special and we absolutely look forward to the dining experience at Nobu on each voyage.

We left our anchor position a couple of hours after the planned departure which Captain Vincent had communicated to the guests and crew. This was to avoid bad weather. When we left at around 7:00 pm the seas there was very little ship movement. Thank you Captain Vincent and to the navigation team for keeping us safe and to other members of the team for tying things down including outdoor furniture on the decks located on the stern.
 
We stayed up much later than we normally do as we attended a special function. Shortly after going to the function and on our way, there was quite a bit of ship movement, but we have gotten used to this over the years. Yes, it has a feeling of having a few drinks, but you just walk carefully as we did down several steps as we made it to the deck that we needed to get to. Both of us did take the elevator back to our room to be on the safe side. We also placed some wine on one of the couches just to be on the safe side. The good news was the time change. For one of the few times, we not only turned back the clock, but we turned it back ninety minutes rather than one hour. Yea. Yea. Yea.
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Below please find  today's daly Reflections.

Today is another sea day which is wonderful.  This cruise certainly has a nice mix of sea days and ports which many guests who have sailed Crystal often enjoy.

As usual lots of activities on today’s sea day.  This included three lectures: One on Canada including its culture, customs, lore and lifestyle. This was followed by a talk by journalist Kay Burley who spoke about her life in news.  The final talk was on the rapid rise of AI.
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​When you board the ship on embarkation day and walk up the gangway if you are returning to Crystal, you will hear the words welcome home. The next time you walk up the gangway whether this is your first or one of many cruises you will hear the words welcome home. When you arrive to the tender landing from ashore and have your room card swiped simultaneously you will hear the words welcome home. When you leave the ship whether docked, anchored, on a port stop or when you debark at the end of the cruise one of the phrases you will hear is have a nice day.

With all of this in mind today we wanted to give a shout out to the security team who keeps us safe. Some might think it is an enormous group. It is not. Yet, they have a presence around the ship. When in port they are at the area where you will leave the ship and return. If we have an overnight in port, at least one person is covering it throughout the night and until the early morning hours. When we are anchored a member of the security team will go on the first tender ashore with some other members from team Serenity or team Symphony and they will be there when you get off the tender and one or two personnel will be there when you arrive back to take the tender.
 
If security is not done by the local authorities when we are docked, then the security team will take care of this when arriving back from port as they do when one arrives back by tender when anchored.
 
On board the ship you can find one or more members walking the ship and they certainly do things behind the scenes whether that is dealing with a security issue.
 
This is a very professional small group of personnel who take their jobs seriously while being very friendly and attentive to Crystal guests doing their jobs exceptionally well.
 
We thank them for keeping all of us including guests, crew and the ship very safe at all times.

Cheers,

Anne Marie & Keith