SEA DAY

Another Wonderful Sea Day

We wanted to begin with the Hollywood Theatre.
 
The Crystal Ships have several unique traits both indoors and outdoors.  One of them is the Hollywood Theatre. Each evening a new movie is shown and the following afternoon it is repeated so those guests who either missed the evening show or prefer seeing it in the afternoon can see the movie. Popcorn is available as well.  Very few ships have a real theatre like the one found on Crystal Symphony and Crystal Serenity.
 
The theatre serves other purposes including an afternoon lecture on sea days. In addition, Catholic Mass is held daily, on some afternoon a Protestant Service is held and on Friday evenings a Sabath Service is held followed by a Kiddush with Kosher Wine and Challah. It is also used for holidays such as Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, Easter, Christmas just to name a few.
 
We often say the ship is like a small village and this theatre to us is an example of this.
 
 
 

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Last nights Waterside Dinner Menu

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We enjoyed dinner at Waterside for the third consecutive evening. We were taken care of by Senior Waiter, Enver; and Waiters, Sami and Craig. Some of you might be asking Waiters and saying to yourselves what's up. At our Senior Waiters station Crystal Food & Beverage has started rolling out a new concept in Waterside. This involves increasing the number of tables that the Senior Waiter has and having two waiters rather than one assist the waiter.  Depending on how full Waterside is this means the Senior Waiter might not be as involved in serving part or all the meal while one or both waiters serve and then remove the plates and cutlery or the Senior Waiter, and one or two waiters will serve and remove the place settings.  For example, the past few nights all three Senior Waiters/Waiters have been involved with serving each course and clearing the tables.  We find the change to be a very good approach as we see the waiters come by the table more often while increasing efficiency. 

Senior Waiter Enver does a fantastic job explaining each of the items and the way he explains them you want to order them all. He seems to know every ingredient by heart, and offers recommendations and answers all of our questions about an item if we are less familiar with it.

At the same time, Head Waiter Jacques comes by a few times to check on us as does Restaurant Manager Paolo.

As we've mentioned, Sommelier Dusan must get a signal when the wine in the wine glass reaches a certain level as he is always on top of pouring the wine. We also appreciate Dusan's knowledge of each wine including attributes of the region and the vineyard and of course the wine. 
 
On most nights, Head Sommelier Jiri stops by as well. He has a terrific knowledge of wine and is enthusiasm is contagious. 
 
Crystal Sommeliers are highly trained and a wealth of information. We learn so much from them.
 
Let’s talk food.

​We each had the Wiener Schnitzel for our main course. We normally avoid fried food, but when we had the Chicken Kiev the night before we didn't realize Wiener schnitzel would be on the menu. Ironically, we hadn't had this entree until we went from World Cruise 2019 followed by a couple of cruises and flew to Vienna, Austria to sail on the former Crystal Mozart. We had the entree at a couple different restaurants and saw how the preparation could vary and enjoyed it. On board Mozart we had it one evening and since then have had it on the Crystal Ocean Vessels. One of the butlers suggested a few years ago having it with an egg on top. This is known as Schnitzel à la Holstein or Holstein Schnitzel. Keith had this one while Anne Marie had a half portion of the traditional one.
 
We also wanted to note that the special butter was mustard and tarragon.

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We had a visit by the pilot during dinner.

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Today's Daily Reflections.

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Today is the third sea day of this cruise. This has been a wonderful itinerary between visits to several interesting ports of call including many that we have never visited before and for that matter very few people have the opportunity and honor to see all of this through their/our own eyes.  
 
This is an example of the benefit of cruising which provides the opportunity to visit many places and to us is a real benefit of seeing them on a land vacation without investing an incredible amount of time and energy and pack and unpack and take flights by airplane or some other form of transportation.
 
The sea days not only provide time to enjoy the amenities of the ship and the amazing service but to also enrich oneself through a variety of programs including the amazing lectures that Crysal provides. It also provides the opportunity to share the journey and to converse with guests and members of the crew. We love to hear from others about their day in ports and what their own experiences whether they visited on their own or participated in excursions.  

This cruise has also been a reunion cruise of sorts because many guests on-board are Crystal Society members having sailed with Crystal on prior voyages of a few cruises to 100 or more cruises. Some of the guests on-board we have sailed with in the last year or two while there are some guests that we have not seen since the 2015, 2019 and 2020 World Cruises. Whenever we are on a Crystal sailing, we always know we will see some guests we know which is a benefit of a small fleet and of course we will see many members of the crew who we have known for year. At the same time, with each passing day we get to know guests who we have never sailed with before and new members of the crew and sea days provide even more time to get to know people better. 

Today is another great sea day with so much to do.  There were three lectures. First one was about our next port of call in Leknes, followed by a talk about The Race to the North Pole and in the afternoon, there was a talk about Bitcoin, Fintech and the future of Finance.  
 
There was a very popular themed lunch at Marketplace which features Asian specialties.
 
We also wanted to mention the shows, including showtimes.  Most nights are featuring a show at 8:30 and a different show at 9:30 pm allowing some guests to go to both show but mainly those who eat early to go to the first show and those dining later to get to the second show.  This is a great idea.

​We  look forward to enjoying the rest of the afternoon and evening on board Crystal Serenity
 
Cheers

​Anne Marie & Keith
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