SEA DAY

We Love Sea Days

Before we begin, we wanted to digress for a moment. WE had spoken about the night crew and on Keith's early walks he sees them whether it’s an early visit to the Fitness Center, or an indoor walk on Decks 6 and 7 or even walking up and down the stairways.  They are always busy cleaning every nook and cranny of the public areas. Likewise, during daytime hours there are members of housekeeping cleaning areas including handrails elevator button, trash receptacles and doing their magic to create the sea horses from sand as well as public bathrooms. Each member of the team we always enjoy saying hello to and they are warm and friendly.  Over the years it’s been wonderful to see members from  the night team and the day team and other members of housekeeping move into higher positions into housekeeping or to other areas of the ship. When we walked this morning after breakfast on Deck 6, we saw some of these team members.

Let's talk photos/photography.

​Crystal Images Photo Shop
 
As we have witnessed, there have been numerous changes over the years on land, at sea and around the world. Some of these changes have been driven by cultural changes and in attitudes while others have been driven mainly by technology.
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It wasn’t that long ago that we would take photos with a camera which utilized film during a vacation, get home and bring it to a place for developing and wait a few days for the prints to come back. There was excitement opening each envelope to see how the photos came out. We started with black and white film and then moved to color. We would place each photo in an album and sometimes we or our children would make a scrapbook about the trip.
 
From there we moved to digital cameras allowing us to take lots of photos knowing that we could simply delete the photos we didn’t like. We brought with us on a single cruise two to three cameras including a point and shoot camera and  a SLR or DSLR camera and a variety of lenses.

Then the smart phones came along with each succeeding phone coming with a more advanced camera. Those smart phones are definitely smart and in time who knows what they will be capable of doing. As they say the rest is history and you see far less standalone cameras.
 
While several luxury lines have eliminated a photo studios Crystal continues to provide this service. For many years on each cruise we would purchase photos such as the welcome on-board photo, photo of the guests at the table we were assigned to in what was the Crystal Dining Room, photo with the Captain, some photos when getting off the ship in port, formal night and semi-formal night and maybe a couple of others. We have photos of ourselves and photos of ourselves with the family or just photos of the children and/or grandchildren. 

When we renewed our 40th Wedding Anniversary wedding vows we have photos from that ceremony and photos with the family and this includes not only in print but on a thumb drive allowing us to get have a photo that we could hang on the wall of our home.
 
For those wishing to have some special photos done of themselves or their family or with friends on selected voyages a master photographer is on-board and many of their photos of superb.
 
While there are guests who no longer have photos taken or have no interested in this, it is nice that this is still offered by Crystal for those who would like to bring back professional photos from their cruise.

And we know a few guests are bothered by this when asked if you want a photo so just a simple "no thank you" works well.  We just think that choice is good knowing that a sufficient number of people still enjoy them.
 
Whether you take only your own photos or purchase some photos they allow you to relive those special memories each time you look at them.
 


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We enjoyed walks on the Promenade Deck yesterday afternoon; one together and one solo for Keith.  A fair number of people were walking.  A few times the sun popped out from the cloud cover and that provided some warmth while other times when the sun retreated behind the clouds it became cooler, and you could feel it as it was fairly windy.  A Norwegian summer day.

Following is the Waterside Menu from last evening.

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Beefbar is also serves lunch and this is their luncheon menu.

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Some photos of Beefbar from early in the morning before tables were set for lunch.

Let's begin with the space that Beefbar occupies. The first dining venue in the space which Beefbar occupies served casual dinners on some evenings. There was a limited menu of some appetizers, salads and entrees such as steak, chicken and salmon. It was manned by some of the Lido Deck Stewards. It was first come first serve with no reservations. Unlike Waterside (former Crystal Dining Room) you could not substitute items not on the menu nor change things up.

Years later the venue was completely changed both in terms of look, menu and overall dining experience when Tastes made its debut. A Headwaiter was assigned to this venue, and some waiters from Waterside were assigned to this venue and they were assisted by waiters and a couple of members served drinks. Reservations for dinner were recommended. The menus consisted of tapas which represented areas from around the world and periodically it was updated with new items replacing others.

Eventually it was transformed to Silk by the owner who bought Crystal from NYK and served Asian cuisine.

Fast forward to 2023 and when the ships were relaunched by new Crystal the dining venue became Tastes. For dinner the menu had items similar to the former tastes.

In late 2024, the venue became Beefbar. Beefbars roots are from Monte Carlo.  Beefbar is located in 39 locations around the world including United States, Caribbean, South America, Europe, The Middle East and Africa.

Don't let the name fool you. In addition to serving Beef, the menu includes vegetarian dishes, poultry and seafood

We were supposed to dine with friends but one had a mild cold and to be on the safe side we dined by ourselves but have plans to get together during the daytime in a few days.

The first change from when we dined on the Holiday Cruise is that the Waiters all have red jackets and they look great. Next change is white tablecloths on the tables. Both changes just add to the overall experience.The white tablecloths and the red sports jackets bring out one another and make a terrific combination. 
 
There are round and square tables, and the square tables can be put together to create tables for families, and for groups as several were last night.
 
There is now a sign outside the venue saying reservations required recognizing that this is a popular dining venue in the evening.  

We tried the Bao Buns which were not available when we last cruised (the appetizer was but not the actual Korean Bun) and the same for the Ribeye Ham since the Pantene Salto Bread was not available. The Bao Buns were chewy but quite tasty. The Ham combined with the Pantene Bread was very tasty and a wonderful appetizer to enjoy. Keith had the Taretare and Tartine for the first time. Lots of ingredients providing a unique taste. We also shared the Prawn Salad as the last appetizer. Think of this an away to clean the palate
 
This was followed by Filet Mignon, French Fries, and Veggies. 
 
On future visits if we order something like the Filet Mignon we will have less appetizers and on another visit, we are thinking of having the appetizers only or appetizers and possibly trying the Cauliflower Steak.
 
We were taken great care of by Waiters Sebastian who was assisted by Evan and Ed who took care of the wine.

Special thanks to Head Waiter Jerrit and to Head Sommelier Jiri.

A nice touch when the Bau Buns arrived to the table.

This video is what it looks like when theWaiter lifts the cover off. Yes, they were smoking.  

Today is another great sea day. This cruise has a great balance of ports and day at sea.
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There were lots of enrichment activities on the schedule including three lectures. First on was about Bergen which is our next port of call. Second wone was about who owns the North Pole and why it matters.  Final talk was about the show must go on and the focus was on the producer’s challenge.

Following is the daily Reflections Program for today.

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On sea days Waterside is open for lunch so we are including the lunch menu from today at Waterside.

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Cheers,

Anne Marie & Keith