SEA DAY

Another Glorious Day At Sea

Let's begin with the Vintage Room.

The Vintage Rooms are on Symphony and Serenity. The only difference is that Serenity has a larger room and can seat two more people.

The vintage room offers dinners on selected nights as well as some luncheons.

Dinner’s pair a range of wines with a specific course selection.

Luncheons may include a range of offerings (more below) including wine, champagne or even saki pairings. 

The difference between lunch and dinner is that there are less courses at lunch. Therefore, the prices are less for lunch than dinner.

For dinner Crystal offers a group dinner which guests sign up for. They also offer a private vintage room just for you and those people you designate attending. On occasion they offer a celebrity chef vintage room. We have done all of these.

We have also attended one luncheon.
 
The variety of luncheon themes have expanded and how many luncheons offered will depend on interest and the itinerary. More sea days allow for a greater number of luncheons to be offered.  Luncheons on last voyage were Champagne Lunch, On The Banks of the Rhone, Land of the Rising Sun: Sake, Exclusive: Angelo Gaja, South American Wine Tour, Taste of Bordeaux. When we say offered, they were available for sign-up and if a minimum number of people signed up, they took place.

On occasion there is a Crystal Society milestone Vintage Room which was held in our honor in 2019 when we reached our 100th Crystal Cruise at the time. Al of them have been very memorable including the one we hosted for our two adult children and their spouses when we had three grandchildren on board as our other two grandchildren were not yet born.  We arranged for Crystal to have two crew members babysit the grandchildren.

Our introduction to the Vintage Room was on a 2010 Crystal Society cruise. We were sailing Crystal Symphony and on one of the Symphony cruises and one of the Serenity cruises they offered a special team trivia involving mainly Crystal trivia.  Our team won and we could each select someone to attend. Keith selected Anne Marie which was a smart move on my part. LOL.That cruise also featured Roger McGuinn formally of The Byrds along with his lovely wife and they were invited to attend as well by two other guests.

As they say the rest was history. We loved the entire experience including expanding our knowledge of wine. In the years that would follow we have hosted several of these dinners.

We are not aware of any other cruise line that offers something as special as Crystal when it comes to wine pairings like a Vintage Room. A few have pairings but the Vintage Room is quite unique. And when the evening includes it is great not to have to drive a car home but rather go one or a few flights of steps or floors via elevator to your room.  
 

In the afternoon, we have fruit for our afternoon snack. Each afternoon one of the Butlers comes by with the fruit so it is a great opportunity to get to know other Butlers under Senior Butler Rao. We had a surprise visit from Aiyan who for many years was a Senior Waiter in Waterside and the former Crystal Dining Room and a couple of years ago moved to Butler. The majority of Butlers started as Waiters and their knowledge of the dining venues is a very important in their roles as a Butler.

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We attended a cocktail party before dinner last evening in Pulse which is a nice setting for events such as that one. It is also used late at night when the DJ’s play music and on nights that Karaoke is offered.
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Dinner menus from Waterslide from last evening.

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​For dinner last evening we were back in Waterside for the first of a couple of consecutive nights.
 
Dining is a wonderful experience in each of the dining venues. Although not considered one of the specialty restaurants for us dining at Waterside is still very special. It’s the combination of the cuisine with a variety of items to select from two menus featuring traditional and modern cuisine, superb service and the beauty of the dining venue. 
 
The waitstaff team is the same as the first voyage except for the Sommelier. The Sommeliers rotate on each successive voyage. Think of it that they move clockwise from one station to the next one. Our Sommelier for this voyage is Rudolpho. The rest of the Waitstaff team is Senior Waiter Enver assisted by Waiters Sami and Craig. The Headwaiter continues to be Jacques and Paolo is the Restaurant Manager. As Restaurant Manager, Paolo oversees all of the dining venues.

​We had a great time at dinner as we always do. For those interested last evening the special butter was a seaweed butter.  

Today's Daily Reflections Program.

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Waterside is open for lunch on sea days.  This is the luncheon menu.

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Today is the first  and the only sea day of this cruise.  We do have a couple of overnights which we didn't have on the last cruise. 

Sea days are always special and this one is as well.

Lots on the program and we love to highlight the speakers.

Dr Michael Lee spoke about Amsterdam which is our next port of call. He was followed by Tom DeFrank who spoke about stories that never made it to print from 1968 to the present year.  The third and final speaker was Dr. Kevin Soden who spoke about Laughing your way to a happier life. Sound good.

And for those who enjoy football (we do) at 3:00 PM we will see a NCAA Football Live Game and it can be seen in the Hollywood theatre or in our rooms. Also, earlier in the morning at 1:30 you could watch the live the pre-game show for the  Auburn versus Baylor College Football Game and at 2:00 AM the game. 

Over the years we watched many a game such as Super Bowls at normal and odd times from early morning to late morning to afternoon to evening. 

For those who live in the USA we wish you a very Happy Labor Day weekend.

Cheers,

​Anne Marie & Keith